Too many wonderful trees

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

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On the tracks

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:

1. Mirrors
2. Discovery Itch
3. The Bells
4. How to craft a life
5. Despite the Blackout
6. When you're old

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


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Revisionist History

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!


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Angel of the castle, the castle on the hill

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.


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What does it all mean?

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.



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.


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A classic night out

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,

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Baskets and Bibles

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

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