Monday, 26 April 2010

Get In The Peugeot 207 (van surely - ed)

I'm dead excited about May. Why you may ask? Well, I'm spending three nights in the company of Jim Lockey & The Solemn Sun, Oxygen Thief and Judith Harron. That's why.
The dates (and links to buy tickets) are:
  • 12th May - The Blue Lamp Aberdeen (with Davey Shanks), tickets
  • 13th May - The 13th Note, Glasgow, Tickets
  • 14th May - Bar Libertine, Ayr
We all look forward to seeing some new faces at the gigs, and in a wee plea from me to those who have came to any of my recent shows and had a good time (or, you know, didn't hate it). If you could please consider coming out to the closest gig to you and perhaps bring a friend who you think would enjoy it? That would really help alot, and we'd all very much appreciate it. 
This is all the more crucial because we're playing in towns that are still uncharted territories for us and with the distance that Jim Lockey and Oxygen Thief are travelling, it would be nice to make it worthwhile. If you could even just help out by passing a link to this blog around your friends, twitters, facebooks etc, that would also be a massive help.
In other, less desperate sounding news, Jud and I played a fun gig on Saturday night at Bar Libertine in Ayr, I'd perhaps put it down as one of my top 10 gigs of all time. However, that list of ten gigs is changing all the time at the moment, so it's a bit useless to say that.

Also head over to Peenko's blog for a wee interview that I did a few weeks ago, and check out the old, old photo that was chosen. If anyone can tell me what make of guitar I'm using, that would be ace.


Tuesday, 13 April 2010

Storm the Charts

I posted a wee link a few days ago through facebook and twitter to the Storm The Chart's voting pages. Basically, the idea of this campaign is to follow on the footsteps of getting Rage Against The Machine to number one, by trying to fill the Top 40 with as many unsigned and independently released music as possible. The actual goal is to get 40 in to the top 40.

I found out about this idea when I received a random message on twitter from an Irish stranger saying I should submit. So, I thought nothing ventured nothing gained and decided to add the full band version of The Sinner and The Saints to the campaign. I'll record a couple B-sides this weekend for the actual single release to make it worth your while as well.

However, in order to get the chance of the single release being part of the campaign (it will get released regardless) and thus have maximum publicity, the song needs to be voted for. There are currently around 500 bands in the campaign, which need to be whittled down to the 40 that are to be backed.

I would love you to bits (and I'm sure my band would dish out favours) if you were to go to the voting page and give us a wee vote. Also, any 'viral' help you can give us (pre-favours) would be excellent, such as reposting this blog on your blog, posting a link to it through twitter/facebook/myspace/bebo/friendsreunited/friendster/livewhatsitsname etc.

Voting for this round closes at midnight tonight: Go vote here!


Saturday, 10 April 2010

Full throttle ahead

Thanks to everyone who came along to the gig last night, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Ricky Warwick was fantastic, and he played a Springsteen cover! It was quite a different gig than to what I am used to. There was an extra layer of bureaucracy in the form of filling out PRS forms, a nice backstage area with a fridge of beer and a shower! It was a nice sort of different, and I really hope to experience it again.

In other news, I can announce that myself and the band (the full 7 piece machine) are booked to play Full Throttle Festival in July. We'll be playing the main stage on Saturday 24th of July. We will have some tickets to sell for the weekend, and I heartily recommend it! I played it last year on the acoustic stage and it was a hell of a lot of fun!

The next gig I'm playing is the 24th of April, with a return to Bar Libertine in Ayr. It's another Scottish Cancer Support gig, and I'll be playing it solo with Jud. Jud is also finally doing another set of her own music too. The Hostiles and Marshal Chipped (Dave, mandolin player of the RFPB's other band) are also playing. It's going to be a great night.