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.
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Monday, 8 August 2011
Monday, 25 July 2011
Despite the Blackout out!
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!
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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!
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Thursday, 21 July 2011
I say Spandau, you say...
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.
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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)
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Tuesday, 12 July 2011
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:
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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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Monday, 27 June 2011
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:
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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
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Wednesday, 22 June 2011
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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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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Wednesday, 8 June 2011
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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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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