Do what you like, but like what you do.

I've spent the weekend working on my overdub parts for the album. Mainly electric guitars, harmonicas backing vocals and other whoops and whistles. I'm doing my best to not let anyone hear these works in progress, and with every raw mix our producer Gareth sends, it gets much harder. I've organised a couple of really amazing guest spots for the album, but memory of doing that with Despite the Blackout means that I'm not announcing it till I have their audio files with me. These are immense if it happens though, and I'm sure you'll agree.

I'm still booking the tour with Mark McCabe and we're still looking for dates, so please get in touch if you want to put us on. We're needing shows on the first week of August.

On tuesday night I'm playing with onelinedrawing (Jonah Matranga) and Dave McPherson (of INME). Really hope to see some of you there. I'll be playing a couple new tracks from the album, plus some of my quieter stuff  to suit the evening. It's at the ABC2, and starts at 7pm.

Oh, and have you signed up for the mailing list? I only tend to post out once a month, and I notice that I get much more response from that 'medium' than others. Maybe the stuff I put there is rarer and more thought out, and thus more interesting to people who chose to opt-in? Who knows.

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Pick it up, Pick it up, Pick... Stop that.

It's starting to get quite busy around here for the second half of the year. I've started booking gigs for a tour I'm doing with Mark McCabe in August. We're both playing the same date of Rebellion Festival, so it made sense to see some of England together in the week before hand. I've added the confirmed ones to the gigs page already.

There's also a few solo Glasgow gigs coming up in June and July. I see solo gigs as a different beast to the full band gigs, so when I said that the gig last month with the band would be the last till the album is out that's what I meant. The album is coming along nicely, I've had confirmation of a couple really awesome guest slots and the rough mixes I've listened to on repeat sound massive.

I don't want to give too much away about the album (more to save me from jinxing it rather than some psuedo-display of professionalism), but I can say that we've got a working title, it's almost a concept album, and we'll put out a single a couple months before the album. Then we'll do a massive launch gig and have a party.

Next gig is Tuesday 5th June with JONAH MATRANGA and DAVE McPHERSON (of INME) at the ABC in Glasgow. Fuck yes.


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Not quite Brazzers

On Saturday, being the scientist that I am, I carried out an experiment in to broadcasting a live gig from my bedroom. Expecting to be playing songs by myself to no-one, I was pleasantly surprised when I got 25 people tuning in at it's peak.

I had planned a 30 minute slot or so, but before I knew it an hour was up. People who were watching joined in using the #davesonlinegig hash-tag and also on the facebook page, where requests for covers and my own songs were left. I think people enjoyed themselves.

It was all very last minute, so a lot of people missed out. To fix this (and a few of the issues people had joining in), I've decided to repeat it all again a week on Wednesday (25th April) at 20:00GMT. I'll be broadcasting through the same page on the website, and people can use the hashtag, facebook again. I've also added a chat widget below the video window to make it much easier and instant. I really hope you can make it, bring your own booze etc.

In other news, I finally finished the video diary from my tour with Emma Hallows and Woody, which you can watch below. The headline show in Glasgow is just two weeks away and tickets are selling well, if you plan on coming, please get your tickets soon.

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Headline Show Update!

Tomorrow marks one month to go until my show at the 13th Note in Glasgow with Emma Hallows and Algernon Doll. I'm pretty happy to be able to tell you now though, that due to a number of circumstances, I'll have the full Renegade Folk Punk Band backing me up.

Looking back at our previous gig lists, I don't think we've done a proper headline set in Glasgow since like sometime before the Enlightenment, and after the Reformation. We'll make it worth the wait anyways, with old songs, new songs (we start recording a proper CD on Saturday with a producer and everything), and some little tricks we've learnt recently.

Tickets are selling pretty well, so I suggest you don't wait till the last minute. Remember, we're selling 'Buddy Tickets' for £8 which means you can bring a pal for cheap.
Single Tickets available here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/158474
Buddy Tickets here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/158480




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Renegade Folk Punk Wedding Band

Realised I should post something here about a few things that have happened recently. Over the weekend that has just passed, the band and I had a massive amount of fun. Saturday brought my mother's Wedding where we acted as Band, which went stressful but very well.

I used to have a thing against playing covers solely so that people would recognise the song you're playing and dance etc. However, after doing this (and the Legends gig we did a few weeks ago), I understand it a bit more. In the evening we then ran over to the Classic Grand for another gig with Miles Hunt and Erica Knockalls (of The Wonder Stuff). As usual, that was amazingly good fun.

So, what's next for us? Well, on Thursday I'm heading through to Edinburgh to play a gig with Beans on Toast, Billy Liar and Roscoe Vacant at Opium Nightclub. Then a month later it's time for the Headline Show (TM) at the 13th Note in Glasgow. And that's about it. Maybe some thing will come up, but that's all I've got booked at the moment until Rebellion in August.

In recorded music news, I've heard that there's been a problem with buying the album through Amazon UK. This is due to, and I feel completely mystified by being included in such problems, a falling out between our distributor and Amazon over unpaid royalties. Hopefully it will be sorted soon as Amazon was one of the cheapest places to get the album. Until then, though, you can still get the album through Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes, eMusic and in our own shop.

I'm also digging through my collection of songs that I've recorded but not released over the last few years to chose a track for an acoustic punk compilation that's coming out in May. Other acts that will be on it include TV Smith, Billy Liar, Emma Hallows and many more.


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Headline Show, Headline Show, Headline Show

Ok, so I've been mentioning this over the last week and now I can give you full details. I'll be doing a headline show at the 13th Note in Glasgow on Thursday 3rd of May, with support from Emma Hallows (Manchester) and Algernon Doll (Glasgow). You can buy tickets, priced at a fiver over through WeGotTickets. There's also a Buddy Ticket thing that I'm trying in that you can buy an £8 ticket and that gets you and a friend in to the gig (meaning each of your tickets are cheaper). And if there's still tickets left, they wil be £6 on the night.

Obligatory Facebook event to share with your pals: https://www.facebook.com/events/222585127840884/

So, reasons you should come to this gig. Well, I haven't played in Glasgow since the start of December, and my last solo Glasgow gig (at MacSorelys) was even longer ago (and it was a bloody good night). There's Emma Hallows (who I was on tour with at the start of February) and Algernon Doll (who is utterly brilliant) on the bill. It's the 13th Note, which is still one of the best DIY venues in Glasgow and it's a Thursday straight after pay-day. And finally, recently I've been writing quite a lot and I've got a whole bunch of new and fresh songs to play.

I'd really appreciate it if people could commit and buy tickets in advance for this as it helps me, the other acts and the venue know what to expect on the night. Plus, with Emma Hallows and Algernon Doll on the bill, I'm sure we're going to make this very busy and I don't want folk to miss out.

The reasons for this being a solo show are many, but most prominently is Woody disappearing off with Uriah Heap again. I never really thought that I'd ever have to fit my music in around a prog-rock bohemeth such as Uriah Heap, but those are the (dem?) breaks. Before he disappears though, the full RFPB and myself will be opening for Miles Hunt and Erica Knockalls (Wonder Stuff) at The Classic Grand in Glasgow on the 24th of March.

Bloggess-Style round up of other stuff that's happened:

• A couple people who came to my London tour date made a "hilarious" documentary on me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McYnJwzDrh4
• American music blog The Ruckus had nice things to say about that time Chris T-T joined us on stage: http://www.whatstheruckus.com/2012/03/30-days-of-covers-ghost-of-tom-joad/
• I chose a few tracks for the Slide in to my  hand podcast: http://www.slideintomyhand.com/?p=151
• I posted a brand new song as a video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POG-pv-qco4

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Home truths.

Just finished a run of five gigs with Emma Hallows which were all lots of fun, with particular mention to London and Manchester for being ace. Emma is a fantastic person to play shows with, and gets better each night. Please check her out and give her support.

Woody and I are working on putting all the snippets of footage together in to some kind of tour video, so we'll post that when it's done. In the mean time, there's a video of Malaga Airport from Dundee at the bottom of this post.

In other news, due to a number of issues and home truths coming home to roost (is that a phrase?), I have decided to take a little break from music. As a result, the band and I won't be playing in Glasgow on Friday night with Louis Barabbas. I apologise if you were looking forward to hear us play, but at the moment I'm not in the right place to play it. The gig is still going ahead, and will be a good night.

See you later.

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