Dave Hughes Music

No time to talk, we leave in two weeks.

2012-01-31T14:06:00.000-08:00

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).

Rebellion Festival Songs

2012-01-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

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.

And we're back

2012-01-19T01:32:00.000-08:00

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.

Just a little folksinger from Glasgow. (2011 in Pictures)

2011-12-28T03:21:00.000-08:00

I can't really be arsed writing screeds and screeds about how 2011 panned out. Instead, by the wonders of my previous gig list and Facebook pictures, this will be like a slide show. 2011 was a very good year for the band and I, and for once there are some photos from the interesting parts.

2011 started with my most northerly gig ever, up in Thurso with Carnivores and No Exit Wound. Many thanks to Kenny from Carnivores for asking me to come along for that ride. There was an awesome wall to be seen and night out to be had.

Things really got started in February though, with an 8 date tour with Adam Boucher and Adam Bennett. You can watch the documentary we filmed of it here, and read an indepth interview I did with Last Years Girl on the run up to it here.

Writing our setlist in Greenock

On stage at The Horatia in Holloway when I could have been playing in Brighton.

The tour finale for me was at Lexapalooza at the Old Queens Head alongside some pretty awesome acts. My favourite part was having Chris T-T on stage with us to play The Ghost of Tom Joad. We also managed to score an ace review of our set.

Lexapalooza with Frank Turner

Lexapalooza with Chris T-T

This year I went out on tour more often than previous years. Shortly after the Boucher-Bennett tour, I did three dates with Beans on Toast, followed by two dates with Jim Lockey & The Solumn Sun.

Photographic proof I played this show even though other folk may have forgotten.

Final date of the Jim Lockey & Solumn Sun tour at PJ Molloys. I didn't get to play, but since this isn't an end of year Top 10 of disorganised, useless, crap promoters, I won't get in to that.

Before we knew it we were in to May, and the band played an ace support slot with Miles Hunt and Erica Knockalls at the Classic Grand in Glasgow. Woody got to meet his hero and we all had a great night out.

On stage at Classic Grand supporting Miles Hunt

June started with a couple dates with Anna Madeleine. Tour dates I mean. The first also had The Indelicates on the bill, who were promoting their David Koresh Superstar album. Perhaps one of my favourite gigs of the year, you can read a brilliant review of it here.

In to July and the band and I played our biggest show ever, in front of 600 people at The Tall Ships Festival in Greenock. This was a home show for our drummer Woody, and I got really bad sun burn. Proper good fun though.

Greenock tall ships, July 2011

Holy shit.

And, in a strange turn of events that we hope to be repeated, we ended up driving through the night to Cheltenham to play the absolutely fantastic 2000 Trees Festival.

Myself and our wonderful driver, guitar-tech, roadie, all round good bloke Gareth and a sign. We may have had a couple to drink by and during then.

Greenhouse Stage, 2000 Trees festival

Late night set after Scroobius Pip had finished playing. My drummer was floating around the field somewhere high on life, and my bassist was comatose in a tent by this point.

The week after 2000 Trees, I released my first album through the Corporate Records label. Despite The Blackout was its name, and some people seemed to like it.

In the first week it sold more copies than most of my others in the same time frame. Later on in the year it was given a proper release through iTunes, Spotify and Amazon, and received what might be the best album review in the history of album reviews (for albums that I released). My brother also wrote a thing about it, which is also perhaps the closest anyones got to writing my manifesto.

I then headed out for two weeks with Mr Ciaran Lenehan from Ireland. We played all around Great Britain, from Edinburgh to London via Cardiff and Tipton (and other places). Ended with a show at The Flowerpot where someone asked my bassist, during my set, "is he someone famous", and when the reply of "No" came, she walked off. Camden, innit.

Our Town (by Iris Dement, later Kate Rusby), in Beeston at The Greyhound.

Nice wee house show in Birmingham, I love this photo.

After getting home from that tour, the band and I played Roscoe Vacant's record release show in Glasgow at Nice'n'Sleazys. This would be the last time that Judith Harron would play with the band, and to give her a send off, we plugged in and played an electric punk rock set.

Thanks Jud.

The face I normally pull during gigs.

I didn't really do a release show for my own album, so instead, I booked to play MacSorleys in Glasgow as a wee solo show. The solo nature of the show came about since Woody had taken on a job with Uriah Heep as drum tech, but as fate would have it, he had a day off from travelling around Siberia and Veneuzula and came along anyways.

Without a doubt my favourite solo gig in Glasgow for a long, long time.

Then, in October, we played our biggest Glasgow support slot ever. We supporting The Fucking Wonder Stuff at Apollo 23. Unfortunately, Woody was away in Russia, so I drafted my brother in on Mandolin to make up for it. This was a magical show, we had a backstage room to ourselves with two showers, beer, wine, sandwiches and a bowl of fruit.

Dan writing a setlist back stage

Tuning up and asking myself how the hell we ended up being able to do this.

With Woody being away, we didn't do much as a band for the next few months. I played a couple shows here and there, including a couple shows with Franz Nicolay and Chris T-T. There should be a documentary film coming soon about the Glasgow show (hosted by Last Years Girl) we did, but until then, I've only got a couple photographs.

Last year's Girl singing with Last Year's Band.

Dancing Two-step from Dundee's Book Yer Ane Fest.

We finished the year with a full band show at MacSorleys which was a fitting end to a great year. Hopefully 2012 will be even better, but it has got a lot of work to do.

Have a great Hogmanay, and I really hope I'll see some of you next year. Perhaps February when I'm out on UK tour with Emma Hallows?

The Surrogates

2011-12-07T13:18:00.001-08:00

It's quite hard to describe how good the last weekend was, good gigs, good people, good drinks, good goods. All good. It was ace hanging out with Chris T-T and Franz Nicolay for the time: a lot of the time when you play gigs with people travelling, the down time is limited, but when you have a weekend you start to get to know each other. Many thanks to Lisa Marie Ferla and the Make that a take boys for having me at their events, truly made me happy.

We can now announce that we'll be closing out the year with a Renegade Folk Punk Christmas Concert at MacSorleys on Sunday 18th of December. Woody is back from his stint with Uriah Heap, so we're going to rock it. Support comes from the excellent Algernon Doll (who was brilliant at Book yer ane fest) and The Giddy Things.

Here's a video of an old song, filmed at Book yer ane fest. There will be footage from the Speakeasy on Friday, alongside a documentary/interview, but that's still having its finishing touches added.

The time has come to Galvanise (the troops)

2011-12-01T01:05:00.001-08:00

This is going to be a bit lengthy, so pull up a chair.

I don't know about you, but I plan on having a fantastic weekend. On Friday I'm playing at the inaugural Last Year's Girl Friday Night Speakeasy alongside Chris T-T and Franz Nicolay. I could push you to buy tickets, but you know, with the very sparse amount that are left it would be cruel to turn people away at the doors. Although, it would mostly be their own fault for not buying in advance. Their call I guess.

Then on Sunday I am playing in Dundee at the Book Yer Ane Fest extravaganza. This is a yearly punk rock festival that the boys at Make-it-a-take records have been running to raise funds for the Safe-Tay Charity. It kicks off on Friday and runs through till late on Sunday night. Full details can be found here.

I'm really hoping that there are no clashes at Book Yer Ane Fest since all the stops have been pulled out to bring an amazing bill. I mean, seriously, ONSIND, Algernon Doll, Esperi and 15 Minutes (also Chris T-T and Franz Nicolay) are all playing on the Sunday. Saturday has Bangers, Leatherface, The Living Daylights and Beauty School Dropout. I've no idea why I am writing this in reverse order, but if you are in Dundee on the Friday, you'll find Joey Terrifying opening proceedings, with Mikey Erg and The Arteries also making an appearance. Well worth what ever it costs I'd say.

In other news, Despite the Blackout received perhaps the best review I've ever received over at the influential blog The 405. You can read it here.

And to drop the dead donkey, I'll be touring in February with Emma Hallows. Check out her current EP Anchors Up here and get excited as I am. Dates are coming in Fast, so I'll hopefully announce them all before the end of the year.

And finally, Woody is back from his international stint with Uriah Heap in a couple weeks. We'll have some Renegade Folk Punk Band news regarding this to announce on Monday.

Re-Release Me!

2011-11-14T14:50:00.001-08:00

Back in July I released my first album through a label. It was called Despite the Blackout and people seemed to like it. Today the album was given a re-release through the more established stores such as iTunes, Amazon, and eMusic. It'll be on Spotify in a couple of weeks once they get their arses in gear.

If you haven't got your copy, you can get it through these links (I've never used iTunes, but can recommend Amazon highly):
iTunes : http://bit.ly/v0GPjX (£4.74)
Amazon : http://amzn.to/vnFJOl (£4.14)
eMusic : http://bit.ly/uRclZX (£2.52)
Corporate Records site: http://corpor.at/A211 (pay what you want from £3)

The gig I'm doing in Glasgow with Chris T-T and Franz Nicolay (of The Hold Steady fame) is almost sold out. A couple of days ago there were less than 10 advance tickets left, so I'm sure that stockpile is diminishing. Head over to BrownPaperTickets to get yours now.

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/205970

And, Book Yer Ane Fest (the Sunday after that gig) is also selling fast, so if you are Dundee orientated, head over to make-that-a-take's online shop to grab your tickets. The line-up is astounding.
http://makethatatake.bigcartel.com/

A spark to set the world on fire

2011-11-06T07:29:00.000-08:00

You would have thought that playing one of our biggest gigs ever would have produced a blog post, but for some reason I completely forgot to update here!

So, anyway, last Thursday we supported the truly wonderful and amazing band The Wonder Stuff. Our line-up was slightly different (Woody was stuck in Vladivostok with Uriah Heap, and my brother Dan stepped in on mandolin) and the song choices might have been a little off, but I think we pulled it off.

RFPB live at Apollo 23, October 2011

Last night I went to Cowdenbeath to play a benefit gig. It was pretty good fun, if a little different to other gigs I do these days. I love playing completely new towns as it is dead easy to get stuck in playing towns and cities on the main transport links. Took me almost two hours to get to Cowdenbeath, including two trains. Sometimes you forget that the UK still has local rail circles. Damn you Dr Beechings, Damn you.

During my rehearsal/preparation for last nights gig (and slightly incensed by Billy Bragg's current 'political songwriting doesn't exist these days' article), I re-discovered a song that I had written around 10 years ago. Not quite sure of how I used to play it, I blasted out a version, recorded it (with a couple overdubs of harmonica and backing vocals), and uploaded it to sound cloud.

Really hope you find time to listen to it. Even though I wrote it ages ago, it kind of describes my feelings on this whole Occupy protest thing. After The Wonder Stuff gig, my brother and I camped with the Glasgow Occupiers to try and find out more about it, but to be honest, my jury is still out.

My next gig is 2nd of December with Chris T-T and Franz Nicolay. Half the tickets are already sold, so you'd better hurry. Also, a couple days later is Book yer Ane Fest in Dundee, which I hear is also selling fast. This is my 200th gig. Wow.

Tattooed lines beneath our skin

2011-10-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is my biggest gig in Dundee to date, at The Doghouse supporting The Travelling Band. Somewhat nervous about it, but also quiet excited at the prospect. First time I've played on a raised stage in the city since I played at The Cotton Club with my old band back in 2003. That was with Turtlehead, Bovine and possibly PMX (or another Dundee/perth band that were close to them).

Anyways, I have some tickets left for this gig going cheap if you want some.

In other news, I did a wee interview with The Music Ink about music and tattoos and stuff. You can read it here. And, over at the Make That A Take records' bandcamp page there's an awesome compilation of bands that are playing Book yer Ane Fest in December. Check it out, I for one really recommend the Algernon Doll track, but with the selection on offer (Franz Nicolay, Arteries, UNIFORMS, and others), your £1 is well spent (and given to the Safe-Tay Charity) so you can't lose.

No Surrender my Bobby Jean

2011-10-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

You know when your friend says "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" and you pick the bad news first so that the good news lessens the hit of the bad news? Well, that's what I'm going to do here.

So, as of yesterday, Jud Harron is no longer with the Renegade Folk Punk Band. We wish her all the best with her studies and impending solo stardom. On a side note, Jud was the first person to offer to collaborate with me on my music and has been part of this since our first gig at Slanj in February of 2008. Since then she's featured on many recordings (my favourite being Paradise from Connections) and came with me around the UK a couple times. I'm going to miss her as part of this.

Wednesbury, February 2010

For upcoming gigs and any recordings, we will have our sometime singer Rach coming to the front for duties. Rach isn't a stranger to the band, having played many a festival (Rebellion 2009, Full Throttle 2010) and gig with us. In fact, for fact fans, the first gig under the Renegade Folk Punk Band was myself, Dan and Rach playing. That was at Bloc+ in Glasgow in early 2009.

Today I'm finally allowed to mention that I'm playing in Glasgow on the 2nd of December with Chris T-T and Franz Nicolay! Many, uber thanks to Lisa-Marie at Last Year's Girl for putting this together. I'm utterly 'stoked'. You all know how much I adore and worship Chris T-T, but to be on a bill with him AND Franz Nicolay of Against Me!, Hold Steady and Mischief Brew-colab fame is mind blowing!

Our upcoming gig calendar looks thus (full details for tickets on gigs page):

19th October - Doghouse, Dundee supporting The Travelling Band
27th October - Apollo 23, Glasgow, Supporting The Wonder Stuff
5th November - Wee Jimmies, Cowdenbeath, fundraiser for Gemma Reilly
2nd December - The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, supporting Franz Nicolay and Chris T-T (Limited Tickets)
4th December - Dexters, Dundee, BOOK YER ANE FEST MY 200th GIG! (Feat. Nicolay, T-T, ONSIND and more!)

We'll be debuting our new RFPB line-up in some fashion at The Wonder Stuff show. Except for an absent Woody who will be on tour with Uriah Heap. Although, you can be assured though that his place on the RFPB drum stool is secure.

The shape of renegade folk punk to come,

Full Throttle Festival, July 2010

Lackadaisical Walrus

2011-09-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

It seems like I'm posting on here in fewer and far between measures. Somewhere in between a crisis of confidence, lack of interest from the inside and outside, and general interruptions from the real-life-adult-world, something got lost along the way.

This month, September, has been the first month since sometime in 2008 that I've not played a single gig (or indeed written or recorded a song). I've got a few things ticking over that I can't announce just yet, but hopefully October will be the month for that.

So, October, what do you have for us that I can talk about? Well, it kicks off with a couple gigs with Canada's Rob Moir. He plays folk-indie pop stuff (a bit like Ciaran Lenehan's stuff, but Canadian). He used to play in a band called Dead Letter Dept who were pretty good.

1st October - Thomsons Bar, Dundee, free entry 8pm
2nd October - MacSorleys, Glasgow, free entry 8pm

Then I have a wee break until the 27th of October when it's finally time for The Wonder Stuff gig at Apollo 23 in Glasgow. Really excited and scared at this in equal measure. That's a good sign, right?

There is one bit of awesome news that I can announce for the tail end of the year, and that's that I am playing the absolutely amazing Book Yer Ane Fest 5 in Dundee in December. Other acts include Chris T-T, Franz Nicolay (The Hold Steady, Against Me!, World Inferno/Friendship Society), ONSIND, and many many more. Check out the facebook event for full details. Or, indeed, this poster for the full line-up.

And finally, I wrote a wee top five of Independent Scottish acts for The Ruckus since we spoke last. Check it out here.

The big Two Zero Zero?

2011-09-07T05:32:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the radio silence here, I've been trying to sort out things in my life that aren't musical. Not too much avail, but hopefully in the next couple of days something will happen.

Anyways, seems like there's big changes happening around RFPB Towers. We played at the end of August in Nice'n'Sleazys for Roscoe Vacant's album launch (cheers for putting us on), and it has kind of struck me that that gig would be the last of the 'original' line-up for a wee while. Jud has buggered off to college in Carlisle and Woody has taken on a job as drum tech for Uriah Heep. He's currently on the bus to Manchester to go fly out and meet the band. Kenny's obviously busy with the meteoric rise of Carnivores, which leaves Dan and I twiddling thumbs.

So, the next few gigs I've got listed are going to be solo efforts for me. It's still up in the air what's happening with the Wonder Stuff gig line-up wise, but I've a feeling things will come together in some fashion.

While looking at the gig listings, I noticed that I'm around 10 gigs away from hitting my 200th gig. I was thinking it would be pretty cool to get this landmark out of the way before the end of the year. So, what I'm asking is for some kind of 'crowd-sourcing' of gigs between now and end of December. They don't need to be big or 'proper', just a place to play a wee set for some people. House shows, pub gigs, backgardens, car-parks, that kind of thing. Anywhere around the country is fine by me, so please email me and we'll see what we can set up. Oh, charity gigs are also good.

I've a couple more gigs that are lined-up to be announced on the page, including an end of November spectacular that's currently sitting in my head as a cross between KISS and Phil Ochs.

"Will we ever see the likes of you again" (Taken by Ross Morris)

Shut the door and cover me

2011-08-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

Almost back in to the swing of being back home and at work. Played a nice wee show last night at Tonic in Dundee. Just a last minute set to help out Sarah who runs it, mainly covers with a couple of new songs from the album. Got a free dinner out of it, so can't complain.

I've added a couple new sections to the website since we spoke last. I guess they are related to each other. Firstly, you can now stream the new album from the music page before deciding to buy it (hint hint hint hint etc). Then you can head over to the brand new 'chords' page to learn how to play the songs. And finally, you can send me an MP3 of you covering one of my songs and I'll add it to the, aptly named, covers page.

There's already a few covers that I've found and uploaded, including Ross from Bandito Fleeto who gets the prize for being the first to cover a Despite the Blackout track. Cheques in the post.

Again, I have undying gratitude to everyone who's picked up a copy of the album. It has been selling pretty well through the Corporate Records site which is a good thing. If you know how the music industry works, not much money is made through selling DIY independent music, however, CDs that do manage to be sold make a good impression to the label for the artist. The label is, being a capitlist institution, more inclined to nurture those who sell well, if you get what I'm trying to say.

Basically, everyone on an independent label has a coat on a shoogly peg, and if the CDs don't sell, the coat falls on the floor.

My coat thanks you.

Emotional battlefield

2011-08-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

While watching people's homes and livelihoods being destroyed in London, I can't help but hope that everyone I know (or met) down there is keeping safe.

The tour is over now and I'm back home in Dundee licking my wounds but also smiling at the good times we had. Cheers to Ciaran Lenehan for coming out on the road with me. Of course, much gratitude and thanks are sent out to everyone who put on a show for us. Manchester, Beeston and London in particular are high-points for me. Many thanks as well to everyone who showed face at various dates around the country. Travelling hundreds of miles by buses, trains and cars is somewhat easier when you see familiar faces at the other end.

The album is still available to buy from the Corporate Records website (currently sitting at number two in their charts). People who have got their copy seem to be enjoying it and so I'd love it if more people could hear it.

Next gig: 25th of August, Roscoe Vacant Album launch at Nice'n'Sleazys in Glasgow. We'll be a three-piece electric punk rock band for it.

Right, I'm away to work out what I've learnt or got from all this.

Despite the Blackout out!

2011-07-25T02:42:00.000-07:00

Just a very quick post to say that the album is now released and you can get your copy from the Coporate Records website. I'm dead excited that it's finally out (and I can stop fiddling with the mix etc). And plus, Woody did the artwork which is ace.

It's a sliding payscale, so you have a bit of control over what you pay for it. It's six tracks, and I hope you find some enjoyment in it!

I say Spandau, you say...

2011-07-21T05:58:00.000-07:00

Right, my head is almost back together after a wonderful weekend at 2000Trees festival. Rather than giving you my own recap, I'll instead give you a link to my wife's blog. It's a nice photo-diary of the trip. Absolute major kudos to Gareth for stepping in as driver (and harmonica tech) for the show.

On to more pressing business. It would appear that the UK tour starts tomorrow in Edinburgh. All the gigs are listed on the gigs page (with facebook events, maps, tickets), so check that out if you fancy coming to see me and Ciaran Lenehan play some songs. From memory, we are hitting Edinburgh, Full Throttle Festival (nr Newcastle), Manchester, Bristol, Tipton, Brighton, Cardiff, Great Barr (nr. Birmingham), Nottingham and Camden.

And finally, the album is finished. I'm dead pleased with it and really can't wait for you to hear it. You may have noticed that there are more menu items up there on that menu bar. Under the 'lyrics' section you can find all the lyrics that are on the new album, along with a couple tracks you can listen to. Once the album is out on the label website (on Monday!), I'll place a player to the full thing there too.

Thus it'll become the Despite the Blackout page.

Right, I'm away to pack. And obviously, the answer is that you say Ballet.

Late night busking at 2000Trees (taken by Lisa)

Too many wonderful trees

2011-07-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

Seems like an age since I last posted here, but it has only really been 10 days or so. Since then though, two major things have been put in front of the band and I.

First up, on Friday we are ecstatic to announce that we are playing the wonderful 2000 Trees Festival.Just look at the line-up and you'll see why we are over the moon. We'll be on the Greenhouse Stage at 13.20 on the Friday.

Secondly, in a strange turn of events last night, we can announce that we are supporting the awesome band The Wonder Stuff at their Glasgow show in October. This takes place on the 27th of October at the newly opened Apollo 23 (on the site of the original Apollo venue). Full details and ticket links on the gigs page.

Looking back now, this weekend was a hell of a lot of fun. Started on Friday evening at the Captains Rest with Billy Liar and Louise Distras for a night of acoustic punk rock. A nice wee audience made up of friends and punk rockers all having fun, that's what it's all about.

The next day was off the scale though. I mean, just look at this photo:

The renegade folk punk band at the Tall Ships Festival, taken by This Girl is

That's us playing in front of around 500 people in the Sugar Sheds down in Greenock for the Tall Ships Festival. I had some amount of panic when Dan and I went to meet Woody in the venue before our set. How would such a large audience, made up of people who had never heard us, feel about hearing 30 minutes of renegade folk punk. Especially since we were missing Jud who usually brings the more mainstream pleasing sound to the band.

In the end, it went very well. Dancing, singing along, smiles, and some well deserved beer in the summer sun. We even played a brand new song called Mirrors, which you can hear here.

This feels good.

The renegade folk punk band at the Tall Ships Festival, taken by Alan Hughes

On the tracks

2011-06-27T03:20:00.000-07:00

I've been spending much of my spare time over the weekend sequencing the new mini-album (and tweaking mixes, receiving guest slot's parts and general tidying up). I'm dead excited about letting people hear it in full. It's dead hard not to just upload it now and say GO GO GO!

Anyways, on Friday while the nation was gripped on Bono and Co's leather trousers, I uploaded a track from the album called "When You're Old" to the Facebook page. It's the album closer, but unfortunately, if you weren't one of the many who had a wee listen, it's now gone.

In it's place I have uploaded the album opener entitled Mirrors, and you can hear it again at the Facebook page. I think that if I was in a position to release a single from the album, this would be it as it sets the theme and style of it all. Let me know what you think of it, either comments here or on Facebook.

Finally, the tracklisting for the full album, entitled "Despite the Blackout" is thus:

Mirrors
Discovery Itch
The Bells
How to craft a life
Despite the Blackout
When you're old

Out July 25th through Corporate Records (digital) and on CD during the tour.

Revisionist History

2011-06-22T04:04:00.000-07:00

I had a wee bit of a change of heart over the weekend. The masters came back for the Seven Songs project, and while an improvement over the source tape, weren't what I was really looking for.

So, instead, I've been busy in the evenings recording a brand new EP of songs for the release on 25th of July through Corporate Records. It'll have 5 songs on it, including one re-recording from the Seven Songs EP, and a whole bunch of guest vocal slots at the end.

I think it'll be called Despite the Blackout, and I'll post the tracklisting on Monday once I know for sure.

Trust me, this is much better!

Angel of the castle, the castle on the hill

2011-06-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

Someone once said that if you have to spend the week at work, you might as well have as much fun as possible at the weekends and suffer for it on Monday morning. With this in mind, I can say that this weekend was exactly what I needed. On Friday I took the train from Dundee to Glasgow to meet up with Anna Madeleine at the 13th Note to begin our little Scottish Weekender.

Friday nights gig was with the utterly gloriously amazingly brilliant Indelicates. As pointed out by a few folk, many had chosen to spend the hottest day of the year in an almost full basement venue. Sweat was running down the walls, in the good way.

We had local spokenword act lirazelf compering the night, which is always a pleasure to watch. After introductions, Anna played first and was mesmerising. It was great to finally hear these songs live after listening to her EP on Spotify numerous times over the past year.

Then the band and I got up and did our usual thing. Except, due to a wee PA fault at the start of the set, we opened with a completely unplugged cover of ONSIND's Gardez La France. That was the first weird thing, the second was the call for an 'encore'. Or 'Wan More Song' as was the case on Friday. It felt pretty good, yeah it was pretty alright.

It was then time to watch The Indelicates in all their glory, and I don't think I've had as big a grin over my face for a long time as I did when they were on stage. The night ended at Maggie Mays for a few drinks before a riverside walk to find a taxi.

The next day Anna and I took the train down to Ayr to play at the lovely Bar Libertine. Kudos to the opening acts in the form of Christie Connor-Vernal and Ross Gilchrist, and the small amount of people who came along. Anna played a more expansive set, complete with blow-job jokes, and I did what will probably form the tour set for August. It was a fun night.

Major thanks to Roscoe Vacant for helping Anna and I get back to Paisley, and introducing us to the sexiest sat-nav known to man.

That's about it for the moment. Only gig on the gig listing is down in Greenock for the Tall Ships in July. I'll be announcing all my tour dates next week hopefully, and perhaps I'll be playing near you so we can say hi and have a beer together.

God knows I need it.

What does it all mean?

2011-05-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

I'm currently waiting on the arrival of Chris T-T for soup and bread before heading out to play a gig together in Dundee. The soup smells ace (spicy carrot fact fans). Gig will then kick off around 8pm, and is Free entry at Thomsons Bar.

Last night I finally recorded the third episode of "Something Old, Something New". Mr Roscoe Vacant asked if I could do "The sinner and the saints" for it, and so I obliged. There's also a wee snippet of an Evan Greer song, which will all make sense when you hear the EP. The new track is called Despite the Blackout. It's about why I do this, or rather, why I hate answering that question since it removes the point in doing this. Yeah.

<p>&amp;lt;a href="http://davehughes.bandcamp.com/album/something-old-something-new-3"&amp;gt;Something Old, Something New 3 by Dave Hughes&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;</p>

The band and I are playing our next Glasgow gig on Friday at the 13th Note. It's with the superb Indelicates, and the equally magnificent Anna Madeleine. Both from down south, and all three of us don't sound the same so there's something for everyone. What I will say though is that tickets are selling fast, so head here to get yours.

And finally, tour dates are almost complete. Expect an announcement thing somewhere on the more famous parts of the internet soon. Currently sitting at around 2000 miles in a round trip. Ace.

A classic night out

2011-05-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

Another tour diary-esque entry for the blog (are people ok with this?)

Really happy with how Thursday turned out for the band. We were supporting Miles Hunt and Erica Knockalls of The Wonder Stuff in Glasgow. A slightly cut-down band from us due to our most famous rock-star member, Kenny Leckie of Carnivores, playing with his band in Paisley instead. It's not often we get our own dressing room, let alone a dressing room with a case of beer, and even let alone a dressing room that's bigger than the venue itself (and the headline act's room!).

Anyways, we loaded in, sound-checked and went for dinner together. This is the part of being in a band I like, being in it as a group/mob/team and going through what is going to happen. We rehearsed a while before show time (including a ditched Springsteen cover and new arrangement of The Sinner and Saints, with some transitions between some songs).

Watched as the room filled up nicely, it wasn't uber-busy, but enough people to give that lovely applaud sound that bands love to hear.

Decided to play a different set to the one we've been doing recently. Added a couple old songs in the form of Paradise (This City) and My Mothers House, and the relatively new (but perhaps never played?) High Fidelity. People seemed to like the set and we all had fun playing it.

After the gig, we hung out with Miles and Erica, drank a lot, were convinced to go with them the next day to act as support again (but due to a few things in the cruel light of morning, this couldn't happen), and then danced the night away. Brilliant times.

Hopefully the next couple of gigs will continue in this vein, they are:

Sunday 29th May, 2011 Thomsons Bar Dundee

Info: Free, With Chris T-T, Map,

Friday 3rd June, 2011 13th Note Glasgow

Info: £6, With The Indelicates, Anna Madeline, Map, Tickets, Facebook

Saturday 4th June, 2011 Libertine Ayr

Info: £3, With Anna Madeline, Map,

Baskets and Bibles

2011-05-09T02:37:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me that I hadn't written a few words about the weekend before last. I played two dates with Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun, then had a night out in Dunfermline where I didn't play, and then played a fun gig in Glasgow.

The Lockey tour dates got off to a quiet start in Ayr, save for Ross's mate and four random guys showing up. IT's a nice wee venue, Bar Libertine, but something needs to happen to make people in Ayr a) aware of it, b) come out to it on a Friday night. They missed a trick on Friday as the Solemn Sun boys played brilliantly.

Then it was a short 3 hour drive to Aberdeen the next day for Tunnels. I really like playing at Tunnels (this would be my third time), but I don't think we could have picked a worse day to play in Aberdeen. Not only were we competing with Twin Atlantic at The Lemon Tree, but also the Torcher Parade on the main street. Bums. Still, we had about 4 times as many folk as in Ayr through the door, didn't lose money on the hall higher and the Lockey boys got a small amount for their petrol. I also sold more CD's that night than any Scottish gig recently. Win.

The night in Aberdeen drew to a close with a trip to Moorings bar for drinks with some of the guys who came along, followed by a Gay Club called Cheers where the night took a sharp left turn in to the WTF category. Finished up by waking in Katie's flat wondering where one of our party was, and should we leave him in Aberdeen as we make our way to Dunfermline. He showed up an hour later and we were on our way.

Dunfermline was a charity all dayer ran by a singer in local pub-rock band, horrifically named, Honk. We showed up around 6pm and were shown times of 8pm for Lockey and Band, and 8.45-9 for myself. As the evening went on it was apparent that this paper wasn't scripture, and finally Lockey and his band got to play (after the guitarist from Big Country who played with his new band, and they were dire), but still no sign of my set. In the end I didn't get to play, which pissed me off no-end, but had an ok night with new friend Gwen who was celebrating her **th birthday. Hospitality was top, so it wasn't all a bust.

Back at work on Monday, and then down to Glasgow on the Tuesday for a Charity Gig for Tsunami Appeal. All the other bands playing were very technical, and with loop machines/synths providing sounds. While playing it felt abit like we were on the SS Lead Balloon, afterwards I had a couple folk coming up to say they enjoyed it, which made me smile and almost £200 was raised for the charity. Esperi was fucking amazing, so if nothing else I'm sorry that more of my friends missed him. Jaw dropping, seriously.

Damnit, this turned out to be a bit long. So suffice to say, our next gigs are:

Thursday 19th May, 2011 Classic Grand Glasgow **CHEAP TICKETS**

Info: £8, With Miles Hunt & Erica Nockalls, Map, Tickets, Facebook

Sunday 29th May, 2011 Thomsons Bar Dundee

Info: Free, With Chris T-T, Map,

Friday 3rd June, 2011 13th Note Glasgow ** SELLING FAST!**

Info: £6, With The Indelicates, Anna Madeline, Map, Tickets, Facebook

Solemnly spluttering away

2011-04-25T04:14:00.000-07:00

I'm heading out on a wee Three Date Mini-Tour of Scotland this weekend with Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun, followed by a Tuesday gig (full Renegade Folk Punk Band) at our old haunt, the 13th Note. The dates are:

Friday 29th April - Bar Libertine, Ayr, also with Roscoe Vacant, Map, Facebook
Saturday 30th April - Tunnels, Aberdeen, 7pm, Map, Tickets, Facebook
Sunday 1st May - PJ Molloys, Dunfermline, 1pm all dayer, Map, Facebook
Tuesday 3rd May - 13th Note, Glasgow, with Mitchell Museum, Lady North and Esperi, Map, Facebook

And of course, full detail's of all my upcoming gigs with map, ticket, and Facebook links are on the gigs page.

Yesterday I recorded a quick second part to the Something Old, Something New series. The two songs this time is the MEGA SUPER INTERNATIONAL HIT "Daddy fought the law" and a brand new one called "She dreams of Toronto". Hope you enjoy.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://davehughes.bandcamp.com/album/something-old-something-new-2"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Something Old, Something New 2 by Dave Hughes&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Explaning Something Old, Something New

2011-04-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

I'm currently on a train towards a bed and breakfast in Inverkeithing, before getting a plane to Zurich, where a train will take me to Konstanz in Germany for the week. So, while this silver bullet of british railway pioneering crawls through every backwater town on the east coast of Scotland, I thought I'd write a wee blog post.

On Tuesday I released a wee EP entitled "Something Old, Something New". It's the first of a regular series of EPs where I'll sit down and record two songs (one old, and one new), with a bit of explanation about where the songs came from. It's all recorded in one sitting through the same tape deck I used for Seven Songs (which, if you have that EP, will give you an idea of the sound quality)

The first one contains the song Outnumbered (from the Sinners and Saints EP), and a brand new one called "How to craft a life".

I've decided that these will be brought out every 2nd Friday. This means you have until this Friday to listen to the first one, before losing it forever! I've already chosen the two songs for the next one, and can tell you now that it's going to be much better (I've more to say about the older song, and the newer ones a bit more 'finished' than How to craft a life).

So, if you haven't already, here's Something Old, Something New part one for your listening pleasure.

Something Old, Something New 1 by Dave Hughes

Hunting Sparticus

2011-04-11T03:54:00.000-07:00

I thought that last Monday's uber blog post would suffice for the moment, but alas, here I am again. I have two great gigs to announce for May.

First up is a support slot to the wonderful Miles Hunt and Erica Nockalls. This will be the 19th of May at the Classic Grand in Glasgow. Miles is best known as the front man of The Wonderstuff (last seen in Glasgow supporting the Levellers last month). Their 90's classic Size of a Cow is one of my favourite songs, so I'm dead excited about playing this gig. It's going to be a full Renegade Folk Punk Band gig aswell. I'll have cheap tickets to sell, so please email me.

Technically I've played with him before since he went on after me on the Unison stage at Guilfest at 2007. This will be 1000 times better because that was 2007 and this is now.

And secondly, I've got and booked a wee show for myself and Chris T-T in Dundee on the 29th of May at Thomsons Bar. Chris is out promoting a single called Words Fail Me, taken from his last album 'Love is not Rescue'. He's a good friend of mine, so I'm looking forwards to this low-key boozer gig. Free entry as well.

Full details on tickets, locations, dates, restrictions etc are all on the gigs page.

PS, something special coming to the Facebook page tomorrow.

All we have are memories, we can't remember

2011-04-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

I am utterly exhausted. This weekend has been worth it though, it was a pleasure to watch Beans on Toast play every night and also get to play my songs in front of people. If I were to choose a favourite gig, Glasgow would get the prize. Thanks to Tragical History Tour, Daniel Versus the World and Shambles Miller for providing extra support during the weekend.

Last night was a whole pile of fun with the band being on top-form. I know that we pulled it off since after getting off stage we were offered a support slot at a gig for Japan Tsunami Appeal with Mitchell Museum. This will be Tuesday 3rd of May at the 13th Note, and is a fiver entry.

The weekend before hand, I'm heading out around Scotland with the truly awesome Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun. They are just fresh from a tour supporting some guy called Frank Turner and we'll be hitting Ayr, Aberdeen and Dunfermline. Full details (maps, supports etc) are on the gigs page.

Moving on to June, I can now announce that I'm going to be once again supporting The Indelicates on Friday the 3rd of June. We'll also be joined with the lovely Anna Madeleine on the night (and I'll be playing with her the next night in Ayr). Again, full details are on the gigs page. This is pretty weird for me as the tickets are selling ferociously fast, so if you plan on coming along please buy in advance.

Finally, the band and I are heading down to Greenock to play at the Tall Ships Festival. We'll be appearing on Saturday the 9th of July. I'm still waiting to hear where the stage will be located, but from what we hear it'll be an outdoor stage on the Harbour side. I'm dead excited about this!.

St Admiral of Fallow

2011-03-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

I've got a wee last minute gig on Saturday in Aberdeen. It's at MUSA, so if you fancy some lovely food and some Brewdog Beer, feel free to pop along. It's free entry, and a much more acousticy folky gig from me.I was hoping to play another gig up that end of the country, but so far it seems like as promising as a last minute gig in Hereford. If anyone's got any contacts/leads let me know, it would help with the travel.

Then, two weeks later it's the illustrious Beans on Toast tour. I'm dead excited for this and have been planning my set for ages. I need to start playing a couple of the new songs since we're about to go in to a studio to do the new album and so it would be a good idea to know them inside out.
Beans on Toast tour dates:

Friday 1st April – Tunnels 2, Aberdeen, £4
Saturday 2nd April – Thomsons Bar, Dundee (just behind The HighSchool of Dundee, near Abertay Union), Free entry
Sunday 3rd April - 13th Note, Glasgow, £5

As I mentioned, we're starting to record the album at the end of May, and so we're trying to get as much interest drummed up as possible in the run up to release. If you like what we (as in me + Renegade Folk Punk Band) do, please consider 'sharing' us with your friends. It would mean the world to me, and help me feel like less of a Elephant in the Room (tm). If we hit 200 'likes' on Facebook, we'll show you what the album (and by default the title) cover looks like.

In the light of petrol stations and cheap corner shops

2011-02-15T13:48:00.000-08:00

Where to start with describing how awesome the last week and a half has been? From the quiet start in Aberdeen, to an utterly awesome Glasgow gig, and ending playing a show at The Old Queen's Head in Islington with Frank Turner, Beans on Toast, Mark McCabe, and many, many more at Lexapalooza, it's been a hell of a ride.

This is even without mentioning playing a gig with one of my favourite bands ever, ONSIND, in Lancaster, and hearing Boucher and Bennett play every night. We had a good batting average of 7 out of 8 gigs being good, and the other being a bit meh. Although, that said, the people who came to see us said they had a ball at that one too.

There are many people to thank for helping us out on the road. If you put us on, put us up, came out to see us, bought CD's and merch, or just helped us organise it, consider us very grateful. I'd personally like to thank my band for making the trip all the way to London with me for the Lexapalooza gig. From looking at the pictures, and hopefully the videos when they appear, I'd say we finally looked like a real band.

Some photographs taken by Adam Boucher:

Some photographs from Lexpalooza by Alison Garrett.

It's all quiet now till the Beans on Toast Scottish dates I'm doing, details on the gigs page now!

Six hundred miles from home.

2011-01-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

It was all going so well, the route was planned, gigs were booked, Facebook events were created. And then a gig got pulled. The Brighton gig to be exact, and so I'm on here putting a call out for anyone south of Birmingham who might be able to help us with a gig. We're needing something for the 11th of February, it's Friday night (so, just to clarify, not a Monday!)

Day's off are expensive, especially when you're 600 miles from home and on a completely grass-root tour with no major record label backing. Hell, even with major-record label backing, day's off can be expensive. I would assume.

We're not looking for anything massive, could be a living room show with some of your mates round, or a gig down your local pub. Just anything that can give us a wee bit of petrol money (it's last minute, so we'll take what we can get) and a bed/floor for the night. Leave a comment here, or email me if you can help.

In other news, I've released a free to download single over at Bandcamp. It's called The Replacement, and has a B-side called Midnight Walks. Have a wee listen, and perhaps download it to your portable music playing device.

Road Ode.

2011-01-06T03:01:00.000-08:00

Last night I uploaded a demo of the track The Replacement. Doesn't feature quite the full Renegade Folk Punk Band (only me, Dan and Woody), but it sounds much like what we sound like live when playing that song. You can listen to it at the facebook page. I quite like how it came out. Hopefully the album will be much the same.

As promised, here is where the tour is going to be taking us. Feel free to mark your attendance at the Facebook event page.

Friday 4th February - MUSA, Aberdeen, Free Entry, 8pm
Saturday 5th February - Bar Libertine, Ayr, £3, 8pm
Sunday 6th February -Dakota Rock Bar, Greenock, Free Entry
Tuesday 8th FEbruary - 13th Note, Glasgow, 8pm, £3
Wednesday 9th February - Yorkshire House, Lancaster
Thursday 10th February - The Swan Bar, Kiddiminster, Free Entry
Friday 11th February - Still looking for a Dann Saff gig (Brighton? Southampton?)
Saturday 12th February - Lexapalooza Lite @ The Old Queens Head, London

A few notes on what's happening where. The Aberdeen show will be me solo, doing two sets of 45 Minutes, much like the last time at MUSA. Watered down with Brewdog Ale, which is always a winner with me! All other dates except London will be with Adam Boucher and Adam Bennett. And, then the 13th Note show and Lexapalooza Lite will be full band shows from me, but with a slightly longer set at Glasgow.

And, the week before I head out on this tour, I'll be going up to mother-fucking-Thurso to open for Carnivores. That is Saturday 29th January at The Newmarket Bar. It's the most Northern gig I've ever done.

Better late than never!

2010-12-21T07:41:00.000-08:00

Just realised I hadn't mentioned on here that the Christmas Eve gig has been moved from Slanj to The George in Greenock. Kicks off around 8pm, and as far as I know there are only around 10 tickets remaining or so. I'm dead excited about it as it has all the ingredients of a good night (friends, music, Christmas, and drinks). Full details here.

Also, I mentioned on the Facebook page that the Christmas EP has been delayed. Lots of people are releasing EP's around this time (I'm particularly looking forward to #iamsantaclaus by Chris T-T, and currently enjoying Roscoe Vacant's effort). So, instead, I'll be releasing a wee Hogmanay Single on the 31st of December along with (hopefully) the full tour dates.

The tour is shaping up very nicely, more miles than I've ever done before and heading to a couple new towns and venues I've never been before.

Slangevar

2010-11-23T01:48:00.000-08:00

Not much to report at the moment. We started recording the new album last week, including a track for a secret compilation that ended up sounding great. Looking at the track-listing of which, I felt like an utter imposter being included on!

Some of the band and I will be spending Christmas Eve at Slanj in Greenock as part of a very special Reprobates Xmas Party Night. Due to the rail system shutting down early, it'll be a very cut down band consisting of only those with ties to Inverclyde, but we'll make sure it's a hell of a lot of fun. A few surprises planned already. Free entry, will kick off at 9pm.

Also, as you will know from reading previous updates, the band and I are heading to London in February to play Lexpalooza. On the run up to this, I'm going to be going out on tour with the new album. A rough itinery looks like this:

Fri 4th - Dundee
Sat 5th - Edinburgh
Sunday 6th - Glasgow
Mon 7th - Ireland
Tues 8th - Ireland
Wed 9th - Ireland
Thurs 10th - North West England (or Wales)
Fri 11th - SouthWest England (or Wales)
Sat 12th - Lexpalooza

Just cities at the moment as venues are still to be confirmed. If you want to help with organising a show, please get in touch. I'll be travelling with Adam Boucher and Adam Bennet, who are pretty good. I'll be pestering some people I know in the next few days, so go on, pre-empt me.

Something Corporate

2010-11-13T12:16:00.000-08:00

If it's ok with you, I'd rather think that my performance last night didn't happen. Good. Moving on. Did anyone catch Robert Blake, Jinx Lennon and newportSound last night? They were all very good and made for an entertaining evening.

A few bits of news to get through since I haven't updated in a while. The Indelicates gig went well, and I'm eagerly awaiting the Live album with all the comedic banter. After the night ended, I was chatting with the awesome Julia and Simon Indelicate about music and stuff, with the outcome of this being that the next DH&RFPB album is going to be released through their own Corporate Records label, I can't fucking wait!

I started recording the guitars today for it, and so far it's sounding pretty cool. More like my Connections album in the mix of material than stuff that's came afterwards. It's sitting at around 12 tracks, most of them never recorded before, some never even been played live (and a couple that have never been played to the band!). I won't jinx it with posting a track-listing, but I'm sure people will be happy with what's going to be on it.

I'm hoping for it all to be done and dusted for an end of January release, so keep a bit of your Christmas money ready for that!

In terms of gigs, I've got a couple things coming up. Look ahead to next year, on the 12th of February 2011, the band and I are heading to London to play Lexapalooza Lite. This is going to be off the scale with the currently announced acts (and the promise of Special Guests is always exciting with previous events history!). Aye, so 12th February, Renegade Folk Punk Band, Mark McCabe, Ciaren Lenehan, and many, many more at the Old Queen's Head in Islington, for Breast Cancer Charity. See www.lexapalooza.co.uk for full details of tickets going on sale 9am Monday.

Working backwards, I'm heading up to Aberdeen on the 11th of December to play at MUSA. The promise of some Brewdog Beer tempted me for this. And on the 5th of December I am playing at Thomsons in Dundee with the fantastic Don't Let Paris Fool You and Just Another Warning. it's free entry, and going to be dead good.

And finally, please take some time to have a read of this petition and add your name.

Indelicate disposition

2010-10-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

Monday nights gig was fun, all acts played great sets and I think everyone who showed up had a good time. Hopefully Evan and Al will be back here soon someday, so that the rest of people can see them play.

Next gig coming up is in Edinburgh on Tuesday at The Southern Bar. It's for Oxjam and is free entry, starting at 7.30pm. Should be good fun.

My next Glasgow gig is my support slot at The Indelicate's Super Special Acoustic Live Album Recording Party. It feels really ace to be asked to do this especially when it comes out of the blue.

It is all happening on Wednesday the 3rd of November at the 13th Note in Glasgow. There aren't tickets per say, but rather a paid guestlist which you can get on for £3 by emailing bitbloodyspecial@gmail.com

There are also full details of the gig at the customary facebook event page.

Another thing that makes this gig really fucking awesome is that Lou Hickey is also playing. I've listened to her music for a few years now, and to be honest, never thought I'd get a chance to play a show with her. People may know her better as the female vocalist in Codeine Velvet Club, but you should really check out her solo stuff.

And, finally, hypothetically, if there was to be a Renegade Folk Punk Christmas party to sign off the year, with cakes and prizes and stuff, who should we get as support acts? Leave a link in comments below.

How to craft a life

2010-09-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

I've just updated the gig calendar on here with three gigs that I'm excited to be playing. First up is the 18th of October in Glasgow at Gambetta with the legendary Evan Greer, the illustrious Roscoe Vacant and the heroic Al Baker. Kicks off at 8pm and is a fiver entry. Very small venue, so you are advised to get down very early and not bring much luggage.

Next up is in Dundee with Robert Sarazin Blake at Drouthy Neebors on Friday the 12th of November. I'm looking forward to seeing Robert again, it's been a good number of years since we last met. Also on this bill is Jinx Lennon (from Ireland) and newPortsound (from Newport). Robert is a fantastic performer with great songs sung with passion.

And then, I've been invited down to Cardiff to play an Oxjam all day festival on Sunday 14th of November at Koko Gorillaz This will be off the hook as the wonderful Ben Marwood (who some of you may have seen at 2000 Trees or supporting Frank Turner in Derby and Kendel) and Oxygen Thief (he who brought the rock via acoustic guitar at the Jim Lockey shows earlier in the year).

If I'm not playing near you (these gigs do span most of the country!), please email and we can sort something out.

In another note, I've had a couple people, and a fair number of Google searches reaching this site, asking about if the band and I are playing at the Glasgow Oxjam festival this year. Truth is, I don' t know yet. Since that busking thing at the Barras market, I've not heard anything either way but if I do, I'll let folk know.

Finally the new EP is still available for you to listen to over at bandcamp. I've also made it possible to buy a copy on CD from that site. It's a lovely package. In the last couple days I've finished a couple new songs that were in an embryonic phase when I recorded the EP, perhaps I'll put them out later on. Or hold them back for the band CD. Two of the songs, "How to craft a life" and "White elephant versus the dragon" are sounding pretty good at the moment.

Do you hear the bells?

2010-08-23T00:46:00.000-07:00

It's Monday 23rd of August, and that means that Seven Songs is out now for your listening enjoyment. When I listen to it, I realise that it isn't perfect (it was never recorded to be perfet), but as a set of songs, I think they are my strongest. Hell, when I play a gig these days, the setlist follows a similar sequence as the new CD, albeit with a couple older songs thrown in at the end.

<a href="http://davehughes.bandcamp.com/album/seven-songs">As You Are by Dave Hughes</a>

It is for sale with a sliding scale of £2 upwards (CD will be a fiver), and for that you get the Seven Songs plus a ten page liner booklet (comes as a pdf in the download package). The liner book has full lyrics and notes about the songs and many, many photographs. I'd say it looks quite nice.

And of course, feel free to pass this around if you think your friends may like it.

Start all over again

2010-08-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

The gig in Tonic the other night was pretty good fun, a small audience was left by the time I got up to play. This was good because of the insanely loud backchatter in the pub during all the previous acts - normally I'd try and not play last at an acoustic night in a pub and just get it over with, but this time I reasoned that it would be a more direct audience by the end. This paid off I felt. I played most of the new EP and then a couple of older songs to finish the night, and generally had a good laugh.

The new EP is coming out on Monday through BandCamp, with a shifting price of £2 upwards. For your cash, you will get a digital copy of the EP and a 10 page liner notes and lyrics booklet. Not bad I think. Oh, and the front cover looks like this:

To further entice you in to getting a copy of this EP (some folk I really respect have said it's the best thing I've done, which is strange as I thought they prefered stuff with the band), I've put the track called "The Replacement" up for download. If you like the track, please can you send it around to people as well, or put a link to the download on twitter/facebook etc? I'd be forever grateful :D

<a href="http://davehughes.bandcamp.com/track/the-replacement-2">The Replacement by Dave Hughes</a>

And finally, I will be playing a solo gig in Glasgow on the 8th of September at MacSorelys, and using this as a kind of 'launch gig' for the EP. I'll have copies on CD for sale, more than likely for a fiver so I can pay for my bus down. I haven't done a truly solo gig in Glasgow for absolutely ages, so I've got a bit of fear about it. Hopefully some familiar faces come along and we can have a wee drink, some chat, and a good old time.

Lo-fi tonic.

2010-08-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

It's all very quiet here at the moment, waiting on a few confirmations of things coming through for the end of the year. The band and I were going to be going in to a studio in September to record a new CD, but due to work, I'll be spending most of that month in Germany. I'm not sure when we'll get the record out, perhaps February?

Until then, I'm putting together a wee EP of the lo-fi demo's I have done for the album. Again, I don't know when I'll be putting this out, but it'll be before the end of September I'm sure. I'll also try and do a solo launch gig for it in Glasgow around the time. It's sounding very nice, but not in a quality, pristine type way. I'll say more about it next time.

On the gig front, the only confirmed gig I have at the moment is Sunday 15th August at Tonic on the Perth Road in Dundee. It's a free entry gig that kicks off at 9pm. If you are in Dundee, please come along.

Triumphant

2010-07-25T08:37:00.001-07:00

Jesus christ i don't think Full Throttle could have gone better. Throughout what we saw on the Friday and Saturday before we played we were starting to get anxious as to how well it would go. In the hour before we got up to play, people started appearing and telling me they'd caught me last year on the acoustic stage, and were looking forward to it. During our quick line test before playing, a group formed in the tent to listen. We did a verse and chorus of The Replacement, and then retreated to wait for our set time to start. People didn't leave.

Finally we got up, played what might have been our best constructed set for a new audience. More people arrived during our opening sinners, and by the time we got to Daddy fought the law in 3rd place, we had smiles, sing a longs and some dancing. I think our audience peaked around 80 to 100 folk, which might not have been the highest of the weekend, but it was the best kind of audience. Attentive, appreciated and made us feel like a million pounds.

There are so many folk to thank for helping us get to Full Throttle, not least of all Glen from The Steady Boys for booking us (and being very patient with us). However, the biggest thanks from me goes to Tim who stepped up at the last minute to drive us down. Its a very special type of person who will chose to spend a weekend with a bunch of strangers when they are in need. Friends for life i'd say. Also, cheers to Roscoe Vacant who drove the other half of the band down and who did a jaw dropping set through the saturday, with Woody on drums. It was something special. And, of course, thanks to my band for coming along with me.

Indeed, memories are made of things like this.

Cut up to ribbons and taught how to drive

2010-07-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to work out how it went yesterday. I'm pretty sure I had a bit of fun, and that I enjoyed chatting with friends who came along. And the bus ride was alright too. I just think that I'm not cut up to being a busker, and the Barras market is perhaps not the place to learn this. Ah well, Oxjam raised a bit of money which is what it was all about.

Trying to form some kind of action plan for the next few months. I've had a couple emails through from some fantastic acts who are coming to Scotland to tour. The only date I have confirmed at the moment is the 19th of October with Evan Greer. Yup, he who wrote I Want Something. This has been a hell of a long time coming, so if you do anything while reading this blog, please put it in your diary. I haven't got a venue booked just yet, but hopefully by the end of the week. I'm not sure what form the gig will take, but I do know that it will be utterly amazing even if only Evan Greer plays.

As for the present, the band and I are playing with Gecko on Wednesday at the 13th Note. I think this will be a vastly reduced renegade folk punk band show, and even be another one of the 'me-on-electric-guitar' themed ones.

From looking at the diary, it's the last Glasgow show till the Evan Greer one (if we even play that one), so if you want to hear our songs, come along and give it a good send-off. We'll be main support and on around 10pm and it's £4 on the door. Then it's Full Throttle Festival on Saturday, we're on the main stage at 5.30pm.

Doon the Barras, for real!

2010-07-12T14:44:00.001-07:00

I played last night at Tonic in Dundee, it was pretty good fun. Your typical pub-does-acoustic-night affair. Went on stage around 10pm after watching Spain with the world cup (which was good) and played a mix of songs. For the first time in ages I tried Midnight Walks, it felt good, so perhaps I'll start playing it more. I've also been booked to play at Tonic again on the 15th of August, I'll maybe speak with my band about perhaps bringing them along.

I posted on twitter and Facebook last night that I am playing The Barras on Saturday. Well, I am not lying. As part of Oxjam's fundraising activities for the Takeover in October (as yet, I don't know if I'm playing as part of this) I'll be spending some time playing some songs at The Barras market. The historic, and number one of my goals before I die to play, gig venue is The Barrowland Ballroom.

Pedantics aside, if you want to come along and make this more of a gig, please feel free. I'll keep people up to date through twitter and facebook as to where and when my spot will be, in my head I'd love it if it was a wee group of us all having fun in between bemused bargain hunters buying sports socks (two for a pound). Would make a good video.Does anyone have a camcorder?

Other than that, the next gig that I will be playing with the band is Wednesday 21st of July at 13th Note supporting the sublime Gecko from Bristol. Then we're off to Full Throttle Festival in Durham where we'll be on the main stage on Saturday 25th July at 5.30pm, I've heard this is almost sold out, so check the website if you are still wanting tickets.

Maggies Music Festival!

2010-07-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

We're playing a special show tomorrow (Friday 2nd July) in Dundee! It's at Deacon Brodies and part of the Maggie's Fest fundraiser for the Maggie Centre at Ninewells Hospital. The line-up for the band is slightly reduced since Kenny is unable to attend due to prior commitments laying down some noise on tape for his band Carnivores. So, I'll be ditching the acoustic guitar in favour of my old blue electric and we will be on stage at 9pm. It's also free entry (buckets to collect your spare change for charity).

In other news, I've came up with a wee mobile version of this site for people who attend gigs. You can access it by going to m.davehughesmusic.co.uk, or, and this is cool in my eyes, by scanning the 2D barcode next to this blog post with your phone's barcode scanning app. I also plan on getting wee stickers made up with just the barcode on it in order to see how many folk end up at the site through curiosity. Let me know what you think of it.

Awesome, I'm in a good mood. It's quite nice.

Dedicated follower of fashion

2010-06-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

I'm having a really relaxing weekend after quite a fun and eventful week. I've been hard rehearsing for the upcoming gigs, all are going to be different due to their different setups. The next one is 26th June at Manna Cafe in Newport, and this is going to be completely unplugged. I'll only be playing a couple of songs as is the form of the night. The next day (Sunday 27th June) I'm at the Failford Inn in Mauchline, which is a wee town outside Kilmarnock. I'll have Rachael with me to provide extra vocals, and we've got a very special cover lined up for it, can't wait.

I've also been looking at merchandise ideas, and thanks to Gill from Yer Maw, I came across MySoti. I don't know if anyone would actually buy this T-Shirt, but I thought it would be nice to give folk the option if they felt so inclined.

I think it looks pretty nice and at somepoint in the future I'll get a batch made up for selling at gigs. If you can't wait till that happens, or live miles and miles away from anywhere I'm playing, feel free to get it from here. I guarantee that you'll be the first in your circle of friends!

Ammendments

2010-06-16T13:44:00.001-07:00

I received an email yesterday to say that the Kilmarnock Council has decided to scrap the music portion of the Cultural Diversity ralley. No real explanation was given so we're not entirely sure what happened.

This means my next gig is 26th of June at the Manna Cafe in Newport, just across the Tay from Dundee. It's an all acoustic affair, and sounds like it will be like the old TransEurope Cafe shows I used to do. If you are free, come along!

I can also announce that the band and I have been booked to support Gecko at the 13th Note on the 21st of July. This is going to be a hell of a lot of fun, and also our only Glasgow show for a good wee while. Four quid entry, which you can't complain about.

Not a bad start to my life as Dr. Dave :)

Sneaking up

2010-06-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

I'm currently taking a wee break from revision for my Phd examination on Tuesday. To try and take my mind off the impending doom, stress and commiseration, I've picked up the guitar a wee bit, answered some emails and received one phone call. All in all, this means that June and July have suddenly gotten quite a bit busier.

I moved to Dundee from Glasgow in September of last year, and since then I haven't played in Dundee. The band and I were supposed to have a gig up there back in March, but for a few reasons it fell apart at the very last minute. Hopefully these dates below will make up for this.

Saturday 19th June - Cultural Diversity Rally against the Racist SDL, Kilmarnock Howard Park, on stage 1.15pm.
Saturday 26th June - New Portsound, Manna Cafe, Newport (Dundee, not Wales), very limited tickets, leave a comment to get some.
Sunday 27th June - Failside Inn, Mauchline, with Junkmans Choir for Scottish Cancer Support
Friday 2nd July - Maggies Cancer Charity festival, full band slot, venue TBC, Dundee
Saturday 3rd July - Maggies Cancer Charity, solo slot venue TBC, Dundee
Sunday 4th July - Maggies Cancer Charity, solo slot venue TBC, Dundee
Sunday 11th July - Tonic Cafe, Dundee (free entry)
Saturday 24th July - Full THrottle Festival (Full band main stage), County Durham

The gig I'm playing on the 19th of June is also my first appearance at a rally as a musical act. I'm equally excited and terrified at the prospect, I'm usually the first to agree that my music isn't really for a general audience. If the weathers nice, then I could possibly be playing to a huge number of new ears, which makes me very nervous. What songs to play? original stuff?, covers?, a raucous set?, a quiet set? So many questions.

It's a very important event in order to show a united front against the racist SDL who are planning a demo in Kilmarnock on the same day. If you can get down to Kilmarnock on the 19th, please do, and come along to the march and rally. It kicks off at 11am, and I'll be onstage at 1.15pm.

And of course, if you want to add to my gig calendar, feel free to drop me an email and we can work something out. I'm really interested in playing in different towns and villages that I haven't been to before.

A choir of Junkmen

2010-05-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

The gigs with Jim Lockey were a lot of fun; although apologies to Ayr based folk as that gig had to be cancelled. Really hope that Jim Lockey and his band, and Barry Oxygen Thief get back up this way again soon.

The main reason for this post though is to announce a couple of great shows I've got coming up. The closest one is Sunday 27th of June for Scottish Cancer Support. On the bill are the wonderful Junkmans Choir (featuring ex members of Ayrshire legends Nyah Fearties), Jamie Wilson and the superb Shambles Miller. There is a facebook event that has all the details. I'll be playing this gig more or less solo.

The second gig to announce, although, I may have mentioned it before, is the fucking awesome Full Throttle Festival. This is a weekend festival of independent bands that takes place every year in County Durham. Last year, Roscoe Vacant and I travelled down to play at the acoustic stage. It was a hell of a lot of fun, camping, drinking, dancing, hanging out, everything that the cool kids do.

This year I shall be playing with the band on the main stage, on the Saturday (24th July) evening. Roscoe is also playing the festival, but I'm not sure yet which day he is playing. The band and I have tickets to sell, so if you would like a weekend to remember, we're got them! They are £25 for the full weekend, including camping, or £20 for the Saturday only. Please email me if you want to be a part of this. My wife will also be running a craft stall!

There's a full line-up at www.fullthrottlefestival.co.uk

Get In The Peugeot 207 (van surely - ed)

2010-04-26T10:32:00.000-07:00

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.

Storm the Charts

2010-04-13T01:03:00.000-07:00

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!

Full throttle ahead

2010-04-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

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.

So it's Fairwell, FAIRWELL!

2010-03-28T05:48:00.000-07:00

I think I've finally managed to get over my post-tour hangover. Took it's bloody time to get going, settle and leave! Apparently there's quite a longish tour diary video thing coming soon, Adam is currently editing down the many hours of footage he recorded. I don't envy him at all.

I've not really got much booked for the moment, which feels a bit strange, but also quite nice.We've started talking about the new album that we hope to get recorded by the end of July, with a whole bunch of new material. It'll be a much more folky affair than previously, but hopefully you'll still like it.

The only live dates that I've got booked at the moment is Friday 9th of April at The Classic Grand, supporting the wonderful Ricky Warwick, and then July 15th at St Andrews in The Square. This is a fundraiser for the Britannia Panopticon on Argylle Street, and also the first time I've been booked to play a set for the world famous Star Folk Club.

As there seems to be a big absence in live shows between April and July (a short tour is planned in May), I'm thinking of having a big blow out after the Classic Grand. They do drinks for a pound at the Club night. If you fancy coming along, I've got cheap tickets (face value is a tenner, so it's cheaper than that!) that I can sell you. Just email me, and we'll work it out. It's going to be my biggest Glasgow show up until this point! Jud and I have a killer setlist planned for this, so it won't be one to be missed!

Fairwell, FAIRWELL!

Edit: My old drummer Puggs sent me an email on Sunday night asking if I was still supporting The Lawrence Arms. I had no idea what he was on about until he produced a photo of a flyer for their Cathouse date with me listed as support. Suffice to say, I am not on the bill. As far as I know it is Taking Chase who are providing local support.
The only dealings I've had with TripleG, who are putting on the show, was when we were booked to open for Fake Problems, so I'm thinking that this is a glitch left over from then. I've had no email contact with them to get the full story though. Had I been booked for that gig you would have heard about it a hell of a lot!

Post Tour Blues

2010-03-15T02:00:00.000-07:00

I'm currently about to leave my flat to go to work after a week off. In this week I had the most amazing time on the road with Adam Boucher and the Dead Set (with the wonderful Jud Harron along to help me out!). We played some truly brilliant gigs, got fucked over in Hereford, became strong friends, and spotted a dubious car number plate.
I'll write up a fuller account of what happened soon, I should have really been taking notes as I'm sure I will have forgotten stuff. Also, I expect there to be a lot of videos to come out of it courtesy of Mr. Boucher. We watched the Newcastle show video in the van, and I'm thinking it could be a new bit of merch at future shows.
The next gigs we're doing are:

19th March - Club Kage, Dundee (NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE)
21st March - 13th Note, Glasgow, with Chris T-T and Le Reno Amps

On fire at the moment, so best go.

Tour dates!

2010-02-22T12:29:00.000-08:00

Listed below are the tour dates we've booked for March. I'll be playing these with accompaniment from Judith Harron, and Adam Boucher will be playing wiht his new band The Dead Set. If you are in the area, please come out and say hi!

9th March - The Library Bar, Islington, London
10th March - The Mothers Ruin, Bristol
11th March - The Blue Rooms, Hereford!
12th March - House Show, Newcastle, benefit for Radical Bookshop.
13th March - All Day Addistock, Wednesbury, Birmingham

Fuck yeah!

You never write, you never call

2010-01-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

Realised it had been ages since I have updated here, so here goes. I've had a relaxing January with not much on at all, which should all hopefully change with February. The following gigs are lined up:

30th January - Fanny By Gaslight, Kilmarnock, 4pm acoustic solo show
19th February - Nice'n'Sleazys, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £4, with Renegade Folk Punk Band
27th February - Libertines, Ayr, £3, cut down folk band show
19th March - Balcony Bar, Dundee, £3, with Renegade Folk Punk band
21st March - 13th Note with Chris T-T, £6, solo show

Not to mention a UK tour with Adam Boucher in early March, a new split release with Don't Let Paris Fool You, and perhaps even more shows!

On that note, I am looking to do quite a number of solo acoustic shows, so if you want to put one on (perhaps a house gig), please get in touch. I live in Dundee now, so travelling to anywhere in Scotland is absolutely fine, at any point through the week!

The decade in review

2010-01-04T06:36:00.000-08:00

When I was 16 I picked up a guitar for the first time, as we move in to the early days of 2010, I'm now 26. That means ten years of pretending to play guitar, and bending the notion of what qualifies as a 'vocalist'. All that said, it has been a pretty fun ride.

It would be hard to pick the best gigs I've played over this time, although I'm sure Northwich and Barrow-in-Furness with DNR in 2002, Trans-Europe Cafe in 2008 with Robert Blake and 13th Note in 2009 with Mischief Brew would all feature. As would numerous times at Hornby, and both Lexapaloozas of course! Even harder would be to pick the worst gigs as up until around the time of the aforementioned Trans-Europe, they outnumbered the better ones! However, Fury Murries in early 2007 for a Greyhound Charity sticks out in my head!

Anyways, the final year of the decade was pretty good too. Perhaps a bit more muted than 2008, but still fun. I had a great wee tour with Roscoe Vacant in March, played a fun Oxjam Music Festival and also managed to play at Blackpool's Rebellion Festival. In fact, this year had a good number of fun festivals to play, including Full Throttle in Durham, and No Sweat in London.

My favourite thing to happen this year was definitely the formation of the Renegade Folk Punk band. Originally this was supposed to be a one off thing for the Mischief Brew show in June, but folk seemed to enjoy it and we stuck it out. Had a few line-up changes where we ballooned up to a total of 8 members before settling on the 7 member juggernaught. We recorded a wee CD and played some great shows, including perhaps the weirdest show I've ever done at Cafe Gandolfi's 30th Birthday celebrations. No footage has yet emerged of that!

So yeah, big thanks to Puggs, Sye, and my brother Dan for being part of the formation of the band, and to Jud Harron, Dan Irving, Dave Burns, Kenny Leckie, Rachael Leitch, and Woody for sticking with me! Hopefully in 2010 we'll record a new CD and play some gigs together.

I'm not entirely sure what the new year will hold though. On Saturday night I played a gig at The Captains Rest in Glasgow, supporting the Tragic City Theives. Originally booked as a DH&RFPB slot, some members couldn't make it so we played it in a cut-down line-up. As Kenny couldn't make it, I switched to electric guitar (for the first time since 2003) and it felt good. I think that there will be a few more shows like that very soon, perhaps even a CD. The other thing on the horizon is a busy March with a tour with Adam Boucher.

Hope you all had a great Hogmanay and all the best for the coming days, months, years, etc.

Hits on the radio?

2009-12-05T10:06:00.000-08:00

The recording of the Vale gig last weekend went quite well, I've been listening to the rough mix quite a lot and have sequenced it in to quite a nice sounding LP. Hopefully we'll have something before the end of the year for you to download.

Our next, and final gig of the year, is the 18th of December (Black Friday) at Slanj in Greenock. The last time I played Greenock was March of 2008, and so this gig holds quite a special place for us. It's also the first time I'll be playing with a band down there for around 6 or 7 years.

I've confirmed a few gigs and plans for early next year, and I'll announce them soonish, along with a proper end of year review in some form.

Recognising Chester Bennington

2009-11-23T12:26:00.000-08:00

I'm back home now after an amazing weekend of driving down then up the country playing gigs to people who were actually listening and enjoying the night, and then getting some cash for my efforts. In other words, a perfect weekend for an unsigned troubadour much like myself.

Major thanks to Alt Track in Bradford who stepped in at the last moment to get me on the bill for their show at Bar Zuu in Bradford. It was a really great night, with amazing bands playing. Captain Hotknives was playing, and after listening to his music for around 2 years, it was amazing to actually see him live. I still wouldn't let him marry our Denise though, what would the kids be like?

The third band of the night was a side-project, but it was utterly fantastic. They were called Foxes Faux, and contained a bazookie, 12 string guitar, an astonishing violinist, djembe, bassist and mandolin player. The songs were impressively written and the musicianship second to none. Finally, Alt-Track played to close the night with their punk rock electronica style of music. Really well done with great lyrics, including a show stopping accapella rap to end it.

The night ended with a wee drive from Bradford to Huddersfield where my good friend James 'Bar' Bowen gave me a bed for the night, and an awesome breakfast to get me going the next day for my drive to Cardiff.

I arrived at Cardiff around 6pm and found the flat I was playing at in the evening. It was a friend of mine named Chris's 21st Birthday, and he had invited me to play as part of a house gig alongside Ben Marwood. The night was horrendously fun, and perhaps one of the best house parties I've played. Daddy fought the law finally felt fun again.

Finally it was an 11 hour drive back to Dundee, but oh so fucking worth it.

On the road again, paying my back taxes

2009-11-19T06:12:00.000-08:00

If only I could pay my taxes with playing shows! Anyways, this weekend has a couple of gigs which will both be awesome:

Friday 20th November - Bar Zuu, Bradford with Sounds of Swami and Alt-Track, 7.30pm, Free
Saturday 21st November - Chip's Flat, Treforrest, with Ben Marwood

The next gig after these two is The Vale bar where we'll be recording our live EP thing. Full details over at the facebook page.

To cap it all off

2009-11-05T03:28:00.000-08:00

Small update to say I'll be playing a solo show at Capitol in Glasgow on Sunday night. Roscoe Vacant is also playing, which is always a pleasure!

Perhaps come along? It's only £3 entry and it's a birthday celebration for John from Firestorm who turns 21. I'll also be playing a new song.

Onwards, punk rock soldiers.

2009-11-02T02:07:00.000-08:00

I don't know if there needed to be an announcement or anything, but I felt like checking out the new backend of the blog again.

Yesterday I asked Woody to join the band permanently as the drummer. I've spoke in length with Puggs about it, and we both agreed that this was for the best. Puggs's only reservation was that this was getting all a bit to "Behind the music", with amicable splits etc followed by a "HE KICKED ME OUT THE FUCKING BAND" statement.

So yeah, now you know. Have a video of the band and Woody in action:

Hackers

2009-11-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

Sadly, not the film from the early nineties with a supple Angelina Jolie. More that due to some cretins from behind the curtain of the internet, my website was a full scale spam server. I won't go in to full details, but suffice to say I've lost all my previous blog posts going back to March 2006, including a couple of tour diaries and many more memories.
Therefore, I am currently trying to salvage what ever posts were syndicated to other places. If you have a blog that unexpectantly gets a ping back for a post that's already received one, well, I'm sorry :)

Catching my breath

2009-10-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

Finally had a few days of downtime after an exhausting and hectic weekend. Oxjam was all over the weekend, with myself and the band playing on Saturday at the 13th Note, and then myself running the Mono stage on the Sunday (featuring United Fruit and The Meatmen who you should check out).

Our set at the 13th note went well as far as I could see, everyone seemed to have a great time. By the end of the day we (and all the other bands playing that stage) had raised over £200. Massive thanks to Wudee for standing in for Puggs at such short notice!

Tuesday night continued the mayhem with our support slot for Chris T-T, who was totally and utterly brilliant. We played a slightly shifted around set to normal, and are still trying to find our stride with the new full band arrangements of a few songs.

The new song we’ve been playing called Backwards We Play is sounding immense, and hopefully there will be some footage of it on Youtube soon. The audiences seem to like it as well, which is always a bonus!

It’s a bit of downtime at the moment for the band, no gigs booked until the 28th of November at The Vale Bar. This is a headline show, so expect a longish set, and whats more we’re gonna be recording, possibly for some kind of release. So, if you want to be a part of it, mark it in your calendars now!

Tonight we take Glasgow

2009-10-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

Last night’s gig in Edinburgh was surprisingly good. Surprising in that with four Edinburgh gigs under my belt, three have been pretty crap. It was in a venue called Henry’s Cellar Bar which was very much like the 13th Note in Glasgow. I had to drive up to Dundee afterwards, so could only see one other act on the bill. They were called A Lost Generation and were pretty damn good. Hardcore punk with political messages and really fucking tight. Also, they donate 50p from their £1.50 EP’s to the Glasgow Street Kids charity which is an amazing idea.

However, the main reason for this blog is to try and convince you that you should buy your early bird tickets for the Glasgow Oxjam Takeover. Basically, on the 24th and 25th of October 150 bands will be playing across Glasgow’s Merchant City in order to raise awareness (and cash) for Oxfam. Myself and the band are headlining the 13th Note Stage on the 24th, with a whole slew of acts that I fucking love including Roscoe Vacant and El Bastardos. Judith Harron from my band is also doing her first ever Glasgow show, which makes this extra special!

The early bird tickets are £6, after the last 29 have been sold the price will rise to £8. You can get them from We Got Tickets, and then trade the e-ticket for the wrist band at Oxjam Music on Byres Road, or in Mono (King St, Glasgow). This wrist band then gets you in to all the festivites across the weekend, where bands such as The Xcerts, The Attic Lights, Sons and Daughters and Many more (including one that I almost wrote there but had to delete it since its extra secret and special).

Dave Hughes sounds like Bob Dylan

2009-10-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

In fairness, I’ve always thought that if you are going to publicist what you do, the good should always come with the bad. Therefore, here’s a link to my first ever Bad review. Well, it’s not totally awful, we still got two out of five - that’s 20% for effort! Also, people who are turned on by “harmonica abuse” and poor vocal capability will still have to listen to the CD to find out about its content, themes, style, instruments and political viewpoints (my own, not Evan Greer’s).

I’ve got some solo gigs coming up in the next two weeks, leading up to the headline slot at Oxjam on the 24th. These dates are:

6th October - Nice’n'Sleazys, Glasgow
11th October - Henrys Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, 7pm with A Lost Generation, Sick Sinus and Sad Society
17th October - Fanny By Gaslight, Kilmarnock, 3pm afternoon show

With the Oxjam show, the team released 100 early bird tickets at the start of last week. There are currently around 29 left, so if you are looking to get entry to the full thing, and want to do so for cheap, follow this link now!

Backwards we play

2009-09-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Saturdays gig was an experience, some of it went to plan, some of it didn’t. Live, learn and move on. Perhaps there will be some photos of it soon so people can see the surroundings in which we played. We had my brother Dan playing mandolin for us, and I enjoyed that. He’s definitely one of the best musicians to give me the time of day.

As some folk who watch what I do will have seen, the last few gigs I’ve been playing in Glasgow have featured the full band. I’ve really enjoyed playing with them, and am looking forward to the future shows with them. However, I’ve got a bunch of new songs I want to try out on my own before bringing them to the band, and so I’m looking for some small shows that I can jump on to.

House shows preferably, but I’m not picky. And for the sake of playing new places, I’m trying to concentrate on Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Aberdeen or Stirling. I’m now living in Dundee, so these places are dead easy for me to get to!

If you want to help out, and by default have a good time, please get in touch,

Gandolfi the white

2009-09-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

After an awesome gig tonight with Mr. Roscoe Vacant, I thought I should put up details about the special gig we’re playing next weekend. It’s at a listed building known as Hutchesons Hall (its the same buildings as the city chambers off George Sq), and is for the Merchant City’s Cafe Gandolfi’s 30th Birthday celebrations.
We’ll be on around 8pm, its free entry and should be an awesome night. We’ve been personally offered this gig, and it sounded too good to turn down. Aparently you can expect antiques, champagne, candles and women walking about selling our CD as if they were ice-creams at the theatre. Awesome!
See you there!