No time to talk, we leave in two weeks.

First things first. I found out via Reddit, that not everyone shares my love of Spotify. And so, to make things better for whoever shares that view, I have uploaded Despite the Blackout to bandcamp. It seems to be doing strangely well there, I'm guessing people were holding off on getting a copy?

Time has really flew by, and it is now two weeks before the second Despite the Blackout tour kicks off in York. So much to do and so little time. I've been trying to do some promo in the town's were hitting, but so far have been hit with a great wall of silence which isn't great. Fingers crossed that the promoters are having more luck getting the word out about the shows than I am. I'm always a bit anxious before leaving for a tour like this as there's a lot of 'putting yourself in other peoples hands' for gigs that doesn't happen at local shows. Most of the time it pays off though, which is nice.

The full dates are:

• Monday 13th - Stereo in York
• Tuesday 14th - The Garratt in Manchester
• Wednesday 15th - Royal Park Cellars in Leeds
• Thursday 16th - The Greyhound in Beeston (nr Nottingham)
• Friday 17th - London (stil waiting on Venue name, but am assured its going ahead)
• Saturday 18th  - Doghouse in Dundee (just me at this one)

If you are coming to the York show, please consider buying tickets in advance from here, helps make us look good to the promoter and puts his mind at rest too! I've also got some advance (cheap) tickets for the Dundee show for similar reasons.

Now, to think about a set-list (plural, different each night for multiple gig attendees).


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Rebellion Festival Songs

I've had a fantastic weekend. Three gigs, and a wee recording session with the band (which I might add sounds absolutely fantastic). Our Greenock folk-session gigs went pretty damn well, enough that we have been asked to return to the pub in two weeks time. We're just working out the details and then we'll fill you in.

Anyways, the main news for today is that I have been booked to return to the UK's largest punk rock festival Rebellion. I last played it about three years ago and had an amazing time. There's a whole bunch of ace people playing including Mark McCabe, Emma Hallows, and some band called Rancid.

This has been a good last few days.


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And we're back

What do you mean you didn't know that we were away? Well, yesterday was a day of Internet action to protest the U.S Congress bill known as SOPA and PIPA. While I'm not American, the SOPA and PIPA bills are a threat to freedom of speech and the internet as a whole. Therefore, to show my disapproval I had a blackout on the website yesterday. The dangerous part of the bills is the heavy handedness with  which they could be enforced, which, when it comes to copyright could be very harmful for folk, and public domain, music as a whole.

Back on track, the band and I are playing our first gigs of 2012 this weekend. We're hitting Dundee once and Greenock twice:

• Friday - Dundee Doghouse, with Mark McCabe and otherr
• Saturday - Legends, Greenock,
• Sunday - Legends, Greenock

Both the Greenock gigs are going to be slightly different in that we're going to be playing two long'ish sets each night. With out a doubt we'll be able to play every single one of our band-catalogue songs, and have a few sing-along covers planned too. All gigs this weekend are free entry.

And yes, I like the new Springsteen single. That's Kool-aid for you.

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