news archive (2007)
wednesday 15th august 2007 two nice gigs this week... tomorrow we are supporting Spoon at Cargo in London but its already sold out, on saturday we're playing in Bristol at the Louisianna, which isn't sold out so come to that one if your about. here's the flyer with all the information...
thursday 1st august 2007 new information the 'Fear Of Theydon' 12" Remix E.P featuring a fantastic extended mix of our song, Soft Spot, has been put up on the music page.. it will be released on September 24th on Sunday Best. There's been a couple of new summer festival dates confirmed.. we'll be at Bestival and End Of The Road in September.. exciting times! hope you're well, matt
friday 27th july 2007 here's the video for next single, 'carefully' released in september. sadly jack was away when this was filmed but he lives on in post it note form...
monday 23rd july 2007 the weekend ahead looks good again... on saturday we're playing one of my favourte places in london, the borderline, just off charing cross road, by foyles book shop and near tin pan alley.
Go here for more information: http://www.meanfiddler.com/displayPage.asp?ArticleID=3465&URLID=23
Email us, ithugsback@ithugsback.co.uk, for a place on our reduced entry guestlist to save a few pounds a ticket (£4 entry instead of £7)
Then on sunday we head back to the brixton windmill for a gig part of the Total Loss Farm Festival. the line up for this looks good, across all three days, put together by the nice people at Sadder Days. See here for more information: www.myspace.com/uksadderdays
friday 20th july 2007 busy weekend ahead, here's all the information...
friday 20th july - LUTON - st george 2nd inn, free entry, opens 8pm, we're on at 10pm playing for your pleasure for a whole hour!
saturday 21st july - LONDON - rota afternoon at the nottinghill arts club. open 4pm till 8pm. we're onstage at 7pm. all for free.
sunday 22nd july - LONDON - proud galleries in camden, in the stables market. onstage at 7.30. headlining are the bravery. not the thrills, like first thought. very sad the truth sometimes! all free again.
friday 6th july 2007 hello! hope you're well and not finding the lack of any summertime too dissapointing.. we've lots to tell you about, too much to say in one go maybe, buti'll write you a list, i like making lists...
- we're most excited to say that lots of new records are coming out from us over the second half of this year.. they'll be our 2nd single, out in August, the A side is going to be 'Carefully', B Side is a new song called 'Sometimes the Sun' that dimitri and me wrote together a while back. also in August, Sunday Best is releasing a 12" E.P featuring remixes by Fear Of Theydon Productions, including his very nice take on our song 'Soft Spot'. As if this wasn't enough excitment, Too Pure Records have asked us to release a record in the newly formed Monthly Singles Club.. the songs on the record are yet to be decided but it'll be out in perfect time for christmas at the start of December. Dotted about all this will be songs are various compilations here and there, i'll write more on them as they happen...
- couple nice new press things to have a look about, there is an interview up on the playlouder website >>> right here <<< took place before last nights fun gig at the old blue last. The Guardian newspaper also decided our take on the Sparklehorse song 'Heart Of Darkness' to be there 'Song Of The Day' last week and wrote a few nice words about it...
"As the name suggests, It Hugs Back are at once sweet and a little bit sinister. Heart of Darkness has six of one and half a dozen of the other. Think a less lo-fi and more folksy Gomez or Eels.”
this song was released in April this year on the Slight Records compilation, 'That Horse Yonder: The Songs of Mark Linkous'
i think there are a few live reviews about too, i can't remember where they all are but one i can is this nice one from Kid Vinyl...
"It’s the start of the post-Glasto week, but the atmosphere is friendly and up-beat. Such is the reputation that goes before an End of the Road show. First up, are the brilliantly-named It Hugs Back. It Hugs Back are an endearing combo, who are most comfortable letting their songs do the talking. Singer and Guitarist, Matthew sings sweetly and hides behind a Dando esque haircut saying few words between songs. They deliver melodic, leftfield indie. There are touches of Pavement and Sparklehorse and even some of the fuzzy, key-wizardry of Grandaddy. The sweetness in their set brings some much needed rays of sunshine to the distinctly un-summery, mid summers day. Their influences are worn on their (checked) sleeves; but I am a sucker for pretty melody with bursts of guitar freak out. Embrace It Hugs Back, say I, you’ll be glad that you did."
- thank you to all have came out and listened to us play over last month. there have been many really great gigs.. we've lots of good new gigs coming up too, including our first festival this weekend, fingers crossed for sunshine! we are now officially a full time quartet since jack's move back down to kent and dimitri's lung is thankfully staying inflated! lifes good!! :-)
paul, dimitri, jack & matt - relaxing backstage in wolverhampton!
monday 11th june 2007 this wednesday we'll be making our first trip to wolverhampton to play at the quadrant lounge. supporting us is a band called the jake flowers scandal, they'll be on at 8.30 and we'll be on at 9.30 and we'll playing a full set, none of that 30minutes and we're gone for this night! and its all totally free! so, come out to the quadrant lounge if you're about, we can watch the final of the apprentice on thursday on TV on demand :-) this will be dimitri's first gig for six months, going to b a good one.. we're also excited to have jack back with us from his studies up north, its going to be a good summer. hope you're doing good, matt
tuesday 5th june 2007 they'll be no gig this week afterall i'm sad to say. on a happier note, there are two gigs next week to look forward to...
wednesday 13th june at the quandrant lounge, wolverhampton
saturday 16th june at the spitz, london
tuesday 22nd may 2007 hope you're all well. lots of exciting news to tell you.. but first! Dimitri, my longest standing musician friend, outside of my family, is back at last! and his first gig for six months will be on thursday June 7th at a new venue in east london called Industry! (the gig on same night at the old blue last was cancelled by the promoters) come down and we'll work hard to make sure its the best we've ever sounded, i promise! matt x
friday 11th may 2007 the radio one live session can be heard and downloaded right >>> here <<< ... in return for downloading, you could always send rob da bank an email telling him how nice it hearing us on his show...! if you'd like to do this, his email address is.. robdabank@bbc.co.uk
thank you for those who came and listened to us play this week... i've an got ear ache at the moment. hope you dont! matt x
tuesday 1st may 2007 we have three very nice sounding gigs this week...
saturday 5th may 2007 at the fox, lewisham / doors at 3pm / onstage 7.30pm / £3
sunday 6th may 2007 at the barfly, camden / doors at 6.30pm / onstage 9.15pm / £5
thursday 10th may 2007 at port mahon, oxford / doors at 8pm / onstage at 9.30pm / £5
all three will be full band shows with our deputy drummer, lorraine, on the drums... Speaking of drummers, mr Dimitri has been through an operation on his lungs to correct the problem that made them collapse and is doing great. All is set for the big come back gig on june 7th at the old blue last. get your tickets now i say. he'll be back, better than ever. its been a tough six months but more reason for next six months to be all the more better...
hope the sun is shining with you. i'll put up some of the radio one session mp3's this week... we've also just heard a remix of our first single by the fantastic musician and film-maker, Riley. I recommend you have a listen to the new, noisey version here.. www.myspace.com/rileysounds
monday 16th 2007 you can hear our first radio one live session this week on rob da banks show on the bbc radio eplay machine... its about 1hr 20minutes into his show. songs played are.. 1. afterall, 2. early evening, 3. carefully, 4. crosswords & 5. saving. If you could tell rob that its good in an email, we'll be thankfull forever! his email is robdabank@bbc.co.uk Hope you enjoy listening.
thursday 11th 2007 we're very very pleased to say huw stephens played our new song 'carefully' last night on his radio 1 show.. this is the first time he has played us and it'd be very very kind if you could say how great it is that he included us! if you can spare a minute, his email address is... huwstephens@bbc.co.uk
we have also put the song up our myspace page to listen too...hope you like it. thank you!
Details of gig on monday april 16th 2007:
Venue: The Enterprise, Chalk Farm Road, Camden, London
Time: doors 7pm, onstage 8pm
Tickets: £5 from livenation.co.uk
Also Playing: Paris Motel & Six Toes
Tube: Chalk Farm (Northern Line)
Directions: see a map
sunday 8th 2007 next sunday (15th april) rob da bank will be playing our live session on his radio one show... you can listen mindnight till 2am on 98.9fm & online, and it's kept for for the next week on the bbc website if you miss it or you'd like to listen again!
The next night (16th april) we're playing a gig at the enterprise in camden, london. we're on nice and early (8.15pm) but it'll be fun to celebrate the previous evenings excitement!! Let me know if you'd like to come as i might be able to sort some guestlist places out for this one.. x
30th march 2007 new york based webzine junk media have just run a nice review of two of our gigs at the end of february.. can read it here & here.
25th march 2007 just discovered this new live recording from first night of our first tour, with jack theedom on organ recorded at the tunbridge wells forum...
>>> it's true - live mp3 <<<
23nd march 2007 first few pictures from our session on wednesday are here!
22nd march 2007 after fives days of frantic rehearsals we went into maide vale studio's yesterday to record our first radio one session for rob da bank... it'll be on his show mid april, i'll let you know when we have a definite date. the whole day was completely amazing.. with dimitri's very sadly continuing lung problems we've had a get a deputy drummerwhile he's having to stay out and rest.. so for this day our ever revolving, increasing and decreasing line up was:
jack theedom playing organ, rhodes & radio, paul playing double bass & electrc bass,
lorraine baker on drums, john eacott playing trumpet and me on guitar.
I hope you'll like it! I dont think i've ever been more nervous in my entire life but i'm proud of what came out.. lorraine did amazing considering the week and a half she had to get to know the songs!! i'll put some photo's up very soon, hope you're keeping well, i'm still too excited to concentrate on anything!!!
18th march 2007 we just been asked to play tomorrow night at the fly bar on new oxford st, central london tomorrow night, monday 19th march.
VENUE: The Fly, 36-38 New Oxford St, London, WC1A
TIME: onstage 8.30pm
LINE UP: matt - guitar, jack - organ & paul - bass
ALSO PLAYING: new world record & alberta cross
we will be playing songs will play for the radio session on wednesday and a few other new ones.. will be fun. plus this is a very rare chance to see us with our secret weapon, jack theedom and man is he good!
13th march 2007 what a day! firstly, dimitri is out of hospital!!! secondly, we've been asked to record a radio 1 session for rob da bank!!!!!!!!!!! and thirdly, it was like summer today and i got to wear my flip flops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what a good day today has been! x
12th march 2007 Just thought i'd write a little up date on dimitri.. i'm sad to say he's been back in hospital over the last week unfortunately but is making really good progress and looks like he'll be back home in next couple of days which is great. however it does mean that there'll be little of dimitri around these parts for another few months we are very sad to say.. although i feel in his time away from the drums he might just be able to start taking over this here website.. he's much better at this stuff than me!! Anyway, he WILL be back and i'm sure he'll be better than ever.. as ever, we'll keep moving on, while looking forward to his return!
Thank you lots to those who came out to see us on our gigs these past few days, and listened and bought record and spoke to us.. we had a lot of fun, espeically up in lancaster... a really really nice place.
5th march 2007 Dimitri has taken a turn for the worse and wont be able to play any gigs this month..
On a happier note, here are two new live songs.. one from december at the spitz & one from last week at the spitz (just me and paul)
Hope you like them and hope to have some happier news soon!
Here's what's happening with the gigs this month...
Thursday 8th march at the fox in lewisham. MATTHEW & PAUL acoustic.
Friday 9th march at the yorkshire house, lancaster. MATTHEW & PAUL acoustic.
Monday 12th march at the social, london. MATTHEW & PAUL acoustic.
Wednesday 15th march at bar monsta, london. CANCELLED
Satuday 17th march at the hog in armour, norwhich. CANCELLED.
Thursday 22nd march at the qubar in margate. CANCELLED.
Monday 26th march at the greyhorse in Kingstone. CANCELLED.
28th february 2007 we've had some great gigs over the past week. Thank you to everyone who came out and who listened. First was Cambridge last thursday supporting Steve Adams of the broken family band playing on his own.. he sounded great. Then on saturday we were at the windmill in brixton, a very very busy one, with lots of really good other bands, including the tailors, who sound a bit like a very good english version of early wilco and have there album out on monday on trash asethetics.
Then monday was the big one at the Spitz! Dimitri made it out to this one and played with us for the first time in ages.. it was fun night, also playing were yupa and the left outsides who were both good too! It definitely has been a week of good gigs and good bands to play with! We've just been working on finnishing the b-side for single number 2 yesterday and today. and it looks good that Dimitri will be back with us from now on..
23rd february 2007 it looks as if dimitri is going to be well enough to play some of tomorrow and monday night! good news indeed! there's still some tickets available for monday... http://www.wegottickets.com/event/15699
it hugs back - 10pm
yupa - 9pm
left outsides - 8pm
doors - 7.30pm
17th february 2007 It's been a production couple of days, although we still can't play all together yet, we've been making a video for the next single.. lots of fun. i'll put some photos up if i can find them later. The video is looking good and has no flashing lights this time, we're hoping mtv wont ban this one and will play it lots instead. There are lots of gigs coming up at the end of next week.. dimitri still isn't good enough sadly, but they'll all still be going ahead:
Thursday 22nd February at the Loft in Cambridge (matt & paul only)
Saturday 24th February at the Windmill in Brixton (matt & paul only)
Monday 26th February at the Spitz in East London (??!)
Fingers crossed and dimitri might just be able to make it for the Spitz gig!
13th february 2007 Dimitri is making good progress.. looks hopeful he'll be about for the gigs next week, althought we might still be a little more quiet than usual. Last night was a bit odd with him! Some new recordings are just being mixed, should be about really soon... And here's a flyer for our gig at the spitz, to buy tickets head here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/15699
7th february 2007 Some sad news in the it hugs back camp.. dimitri has been taken ill and will very sadly be out of action for at least the next couple of weeks.. However, the band are going to barrel on and the gig on monday 12th at the heavenly social will still go ahead. Fingers crossed, all will be back to normal by the end of the month, if not then, definitely in march. For monday 12th february, it'll be matthew on guitar, paul on bass and fran on saxophone and stage time is 8.45pm.
5th february 2007 the first remix has been remixed... you can listen to a nice new version of soft spot here...
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/FEAROFTHEYDONPRODUCTIONS
we think its great..please send julian your words of appriciation for his hard work and remixmaster abilities!
1st february 2007 wow, its already the second month of the year... it all moves so fast. anyway, we have an amazing second night of our social residency coming up! here's the flyer:
we're on early, about 8.15 i think, but the other two bands are definetly worth checking out. the little ones have a stereolab remix on the bside of there single which was released this week! i'm very envious!
We've also just been asked to play at the Spitz on February 26th. We played here at the end of last year and it was really nice, the sound is very good. Also playing are our good friends Yupa, so it's going to be another good one. Its nice how we get to play with lots of bands we like now, compared to when we started this time last year.. thats progress!
We have a few young men currently working on remixes of first single, both a and b side.. i hear there work is nearly complete, i very much look forward to hearing them myself! i'll put them up here when they come through. maybe there is a it hugs back remix 12" on the cards one day! Finally, i didn't manage to catch paul recording his double bass, but i did get a nice picture of the bass taking a well earnt lie down.. recordings are coming along.. we have done carefully, with brass band, what shall we play, also with horns, comfortably, friends and an instrumental which is yet to be names (any thoughts?!) and we're going to finnish of early evening from the demo thats up on the myspace site. we're also going to be recording a song with kat flint for her first album too next week, its a great song, hope we do it justice.
28th January 2007 rob da bank has played us in his show again. he is the best d.j. it'd be really great if you could tell him how much you like hearing us on his show! his email is: robdabank@bbc.co.uk . saw our good friends Yupa play last night, it was an acoustic gig and jonnie had a banjo. it was great, they are great. here's ther website if you'd like to listen >>myspace<< we're recording some double bass today... i can't wait! hope you're having good weekend.
27th January 2007 it seems like the site hasn't been updating as it should.i hope it hasn't caused too many problems or confusion. hopefully all will be o.k from now on...
26th January 2007 thank you to those who came out last night and to those who didn't know we were playing but listened.. the enterprise have blocked up all there windows with cemement, making it the most smokey place! plus there is a bigmirror on the back wall, oppositte the stage, which was very off putting! I think i mentioned the gig was a launch party for eddie halliday's album called run for the woods on naked tree records. the packaging is really really lovely. have a listen, he's myspace pae is >>here<<
here's a picture of eddie playing last night from my phone:
and here is a picture of dimitri clapping from my phone:
dimitri is just about to arrive for another day of work so i better dissapear, but as promised, here is paul.
24th January 2007 short notice, sorry.. tomorrow night we are playing at the enterprise in camden town. we're on at 9.15 and we'll be playing some of the new songs we're working on. it is eddie halliday's album launch party, he is playing and is definitely worth a listen. its £3 to get in. the venue s right outside chalk farm station on the northern line. hope it's snowing where you are too. it looks nice.
23rd January 2007 we're working hard on the new recordings! i'll try put some music up soon. and maybe a picture of paul playing sax. :-)
18th January 2007 There is a very nice review of the gig last monday night here.
17th January 2007 Thank you to all those who came out on monday night, i hope you had as much fun as we did. Steve Beresford and Mark Sanders were incredible, it was the first time i had seem them play together, it was strange just how well it worked with the projections behind them that they couldn't see. Don's Mobile Barbers were equally fantastic, they have two great albums out on cordelia records that i would really recommend hearing. We had the horns with us too and they were great. and, to top it all off, i played my jazzmaster at a gig for the first time!!!
We're spending the next two and a bit weeks recording and can't wait. then its new releases time! i'll try and keep it updated on here with new sounds and pictures.
There has just been a big increase of gigs over the next few months.. we're travelling about a bit in march, if you'd like to see us near you then let us know and we might be able to organise something. They're all listed ove the the gigs page here. They are plans for a show in Paris in april, more on this soon, fingers crossed.
Hope the new year is being very good to you. thank you, matthew.