Solemnly spluttering away

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.




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Explaning Something Old, Something New

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.





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Hunting Sparticus

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.


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All we have are memories, we can't remember

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!.


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St Admiral of Fallow

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. 


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In the light of petrol stations and cheap corner shops

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!


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Six hundred miles from home.

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.





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