01/07/08: just a puppet.

 

06/04/08: happy feet.

here's what we've been up to recently...

we went to france to do some mixing and recording. it took 15 hours to drive there. we thought we broke down an hour from the studio. we called for help. turned out we hadn't broken down. we had lots of fun working for few days & then drove the 15 hours back. without breaking down.

jack fixing my crackley tape delay.

utterly content.

 

we got back & did some really good gigs with Monade in brighton and london.

monade live on the tv.

 

we played a series of bbc introducing gigs around kent, most we're not very good at all. the second & fourth being really terrible.. we cheered ourselves up by buying a new organ.. a farfisa matador. its rather nice.

 

we recorded an xfm session in london. 4 songs live in 2 hours.. very professional. haven't heard it yet. hope it sounds o.k.

load in on charing cross rd.

paul & jack ready & waiting. w/ farfisa!

 

we then went on tour with lowgold. i really liked this band when their first & second album came out then they dissapeared, only to ask us to go on tour with them a few months back! they are still great. they have a new album out & i think its well worth a good listen.

 

mr merch & his two amigos. curse the loud camera shutter & the brightness of mr merch's godly halo.

 

our van has now broken down. fully. & our new single is out. i love it. the blue vinyl has come out great.

jack has all his hair shaved off by dimitri. it looks cold!

expertly captured by mr richard wright in london

 

we're now getting back to some recording.. lots of new songs are floating around again with the lack of time this month in the record room to work at playing them all together so it's going to be good..

today it's snowing. & our van looks cold. poor thing.

 

23/01/08: abbey rd.

written by matthew.

yesterday was a good day! we all went to abbey road to master our new single and remaster all the old singles with Sean Magee. Strangely, it was exactly two years to the day of our first ever gig and the day the band really started... Although sayng that, i think we would all say that the band felt it really got going once Jack could be about all the time! Anyway, Sean transformed all our recording and mixing efforts to sound deeper, rounder and sparkle-ly-er, transfering them to tape and then cutting the vinyl of the two new songs. driving home listening loudly to Ry Cooder & The Clash there was a very optomistic mood about everyone and it felt good... we even managed to stop off to buy yet another keyboard stand after leaving one behind in Sheffield. some bands have drug addictions eating away at there bank accounts, we are currently being cripplied by replacement keyboard stand fixes. the new singles out in march, i can't wait, it's nicely different from the other three!

this is the vinyl cutting machine!

 

 

11/01/08: lovely mugs.

written by matthew.

jack and me are currently enjoying drinking from our abbey road mugs that our label very kindly gave to us! we're going back there week after next to master our new single, i can't wait already. so much music in that building and so much equipment... Just finished a too long time spent loading and reloading some new software, we're off and running again so i'll stop here and get back to "work" (work!?!)

contentment!

 

07/01/08: meltdown

written by matthew.

my guitar playing must have been 'hot' today... :-(

 

 

31/12/07: the record room

written by matthew.

Hope you’ve been having a good Christmas time! I like this time of year. The week or so before Christmas we started recording some new songs at last… we’ve got our own nice little studio to work in now. It’s great. Although I already feel that while having all the time in the world, we still need to remember to stop drinking tea and finish something! Jack and me are recording some singing on the new songs this week and then we’re all in for the second week of recording next week… it's good. happy new year!

 

 

 

28/11/07: a long and rambing story of a short and sweet tour

written by matthew.

Saturday 17th November 2007
Today is first day although we have no playing to do, just driving. We head for the delights of Preston’s Travelodge via Greenwich to collect Mr. Michael. Packing the wagon was strangely, perhaps worryingly easy. Everything fits. Phew. Even with some view through out of the back window. We set off 40mins early, a band record for sure. The next 4 or 5 hours were pleasantly uneventful. We have only had the wagon for three days so my feelings towards it and its reliability are still being established, first impressions are good. After our first successful person smuggling experience into our one hotel room, we head to eat once Paul’s filled up on Saturday night quiz night tv. We have our first success. Two for One at ‘Poachers’. Counter balanced by missing out on the mega sundaes by ten minutes when orders stopped at 10pm. Smiles prevail in the end.

Sunday 18th November 2007
All is set for an early start and we make it, to my surprise. On the road again by 9.30. Its only 180 miles up to Glasgow for the first gig. I’m looking forward to making some noise and we get there in quick time. Dimitri takes the wagon for a spin for the last 40miles, its nice to have a break. It’s lunch time when we arrive in the city, two hours to spend before hotel check In and then load in at 4pm. Jack and Me headed to Avalanche records, it was pretty good, they were playing some very good music, Dimitri and Paul enjoyed the delights of a fine Italian restaurant! It made me realise how many bands come out of Scotland and Glasgow in particular. The journey from hotel to venue was easy but the wagon did show signs it was starting to feel under pressure. It sounds like a chorus of angry bats every time the steering wheel was turned. Oran Mor is a giant, Gothic looking church with a music venue snuck into the basement. The gig was o.k. Started pretty well but it wasn’t long untill I realised it was very hard to see my hands and my guitar as it was it too dark and this isn’t good. Afterwards, Paul got his fill of the greasiest battered hamburger I’ve yet to see. Glasgow was kind of how I imagined. We did sell our first t-shirt. we played a new song which went good. I even remembered the words.

Monday 18th November 2007
Out early again for the long drive down to Leeds. I’ve been looking forward to this one. News reports of snow in the Midlands and Lake District are intriguing, I’d love it, I don’t think the wagon would. So far, it’s not made any noises it shouldn’t, only 200 miles till Leeds.
Jack @ 12:50 – driving through the North Yorkshire moors and we can barely see in front of us, we’re so far up in the clouds. But at least the high amount of rain means that the rusty windscreen wipers don’t make quite so much noise. According to the road signs we should be cautious of Cows and Tanks, or perhaps they should be weary of us! Listening to homemade tapes of the New Pornographers, “In Utero” and MBV’s “Loveless” – how to make long journeys… almost enjoyable! 65 miles to go til Leeds!
Matt @ 13.07 – how big are those pizza’s in leeds again jack?
The Faversham was nice.. very friendly promoter. We dropped off our equipment and jack took us on a guided tour of the city.. Jumbo records was good, and they had our last single on the shelf which made me like it whatever. The gig was o.k again, I had fun but we didn’t play so well as a band and it was quite a subdued reaction... rehearsing in the Travelodge now seemed like a good idea for a while.

Tuesday 19th November 2007
We’re going to Manchester today, it’s great there! We’ve played there before and uncovered its record shops and I’m excited to get back, much to annoyance of everyone else. I’ve been told to get the train as I want to get going NOW!!
The gig in Manchester was best so far… big room, big stage and good sound. We played quite few different songs from last night which felt good. The new pornographers donated their gin to us which pleased jack immensely. We might not be making much money but we’re overflowing with bottles of beer. Room in the van is getting sparse from all these.. I think jack will get on the case later today.

Wednesday 20th November 2007
A delightful :-s Morrison’s breakfast for 1.99 helped us out of a grumpy & slow start, eventually. We got on the road by 12 and arrived in Bristol for 3.15, nice easy drive again. We still haven’t broken down or even hit a traffic jam yet. Little worried about how many people we’ll be about when we play tonight, as it’s a big England football match starting just as we go on…
Tonight’s gig was great! I really enjoyed it. Something’s good about Bristol. We played here in summer, earlier this year and had one of the best gigs ever and tonight’s was great too…people here seem to come with open ears and the venue was good too, another converted church, less picturesque inside then the Oran Mor but a bit bigger and better sound on stage and they even kept the lights on on stage. I’m looking forward to Tomorrow, Bristol has a planetarium! And we get to hear Scout Niblett play. The football didn’t seemed to effect things at all, although we did play a bit of commentary to everyone from Jacks radio attached to his synth…
The New Pornographers were great… they seemed tired of touring at first but did seem to get more optimistic as the week went on, It is sad that the tour is over so soon…

Thursday 21st November 2007
I’d been looking forward to playing this gig for a long time, perhaps too much because I didn’t enjoy it at all. Hearing Scout Niblett play was great. Paul made some of the best purchases of his life today.. a 3D nightmare before christmas poster, a tweeting cuddly duck, two plastic ducks that flashed and a giant cuddley dog from a service station on the way home… we missed the last planetarium show by 1 minute… to be honest, I still fully haven’t recovered from the disappointment. Perhaps, this was the real reason behin the gig not being so great.

Sunday 25th November 2007
We’ve played in Oxford quite a bit now and its been a real mix of bad and good.. tonight was in between. It wasn’t very full but I enjoyed it, the others didn’t… the venue was a little bit glossy and weird… Scout sounded fantastic tonight, she played a couple of songs I hadn’t heard. Our van now has a nice furry cow print steering wheel cover, it feels good when you go round corners. 1,500 miles in a 8 days & it its still going strong-ish