So we're just home from an amazing tour around the UK, we were blown away by the turn out too our shows, its by far the best response we've had, so to everyone who came down to make that possible we owe a massive debt of gratitude, thankyou. The tour was also made that little bit more fantastic as we were in our lovely new red van, thanks to everyone who got in touch with a name for it, loving "Jean Claude Band Van", could be a winner....we'll see.

 

Check out our tour diaries on our myspace

 

and heres a short video

 

 

 

- THIS WILL DESTROY YOU

We head off on Thursday to hook up with Texas noisies This Will Destroy You, prepare for carnage, these guys got 11 out of 10 in their last Rock Sound review, so we're gonna be uping our game on this one. Plus if their recent interview in the same mag is anything to go by, theres gonna be blood on the dance floor (friendly blood of course)

 

- EUROPE

We head off for Europe round 2 in November, please bring yourself and a friend down to your nearest show. Check the dates on the myspace.

 

 - OCEANSIZE

After driving the 2000 miles between St. Petersburg and Glasgow we join Oceansize for their UK tour, again we love the band and if the van makes it back we'll be having an awesome tour with the guys.

 

 

 

The biggest show of our lives, this is the show you dream of playing as a kid, please please come down and support us, we cant tell you what it means for us to be playing this venue, and in true ASIWYFA fashion we want to sell this beast out. more info coming soon.

 

We're gonna be releasing a limited edition EP at this show called "The Letters EP", we've just finished it off and we're really proud of it, it will contain 3 to 4 tracks including "S is for Salamander" which we've been thumping out at recent shows.

 

TICKETS HERE

 

 

Not much we want to say about this as yet, only that we're in the process of writing between touring and its looking like we may be in the studio in January, we'll keep you all posted.

 

Greetings and Salutations one and all. Here we are again, on the road, kinda like Jack Kerouac but without the beatniks. Well, most of the time...

We're just over two weeks in and although THIS particular tour is drawing to a close, this is merely a preface, or an introduction if I may, to what is essentially a 3 month stint. If everything goes according to plan we'll be going as far as Moscow and St Petersburg with everywhere in between. Speaking personally, I've never left Western Europe so I can't fucking wait. The excitement is a strange mixture of trepidation through fear and uncertainty and exhilaration through fear and uncertainty. I'm sure you'll hear all about it either here or chatting to us at shows (we always love a chat!).

This tour, so far, has been great. A real step up from previous tours in terms of attendance and a whole host of other boring shit, but mainly the people we've met along the way and the enthusiasm thats came coupled along with those people, all of YOU out there, you know who I'm talking about! Internally within the band we've had our little quarrels, never anything serious I hope you understand, and the great thing about when we argue, it only serves to bring us closer together again, for the time being anyway! 

The new Van really helps too. We'd never been a band who stayed in hotels or anything like that, for the sole reason we're a tight fisted bunch of losers who put every penny made back into the band so we can finance the next tour/EP/album/whatever, so having a van that we can properly sleep in has made life that little bit easier. In some ways its made certain aspects of touring a little less interesting but on the other hand its opened up a whole new set of circumstances that we never had to face before. I'm pretty sure everywhere we have parked up to sleep, the people in the neighbourhood have been thinking we're Irish travellers and we've settled there for the foreseeable future, and in a few ways, they're totally correct.

Anyway I gotta go and see if my trousers still smell of wheaten bread. Don't ask me how but after several gigs that's what they start to reek of. That, and awesomeness. Naturally.

See you down the front. I'll be the one in the stinkin' trousers.

Over and Out

Tony

x

**STOP PRESS** COMPETITION TIME!

We've just been informed that you guys have the chance to win an opportunity to interview us for a music magazine and win guest list for two people at an ASIWYFA show of your choice and win two T-Shirts AND (drumroll please) a beer from the rider (if Johnny doesn't get to it first!).

Question - Where do ASIWYFA decamp to write and demo new material?

Answers to asiwyfablog@hotmail.com

Good luck people!

Early on Wednesday 16th September the band, myself (Graham) and Brian met up in Belfast, fresh faced, bags full of crisp clean clothes, and a sparkling new tour bus. A rather sexy red bus with bunks to comfortably sleep 7 people (or 11 people in cramped conditions), two tvs, xbox, dvd player and, the ultimate, mirrors on the roof. We are incredibly proud of our new investment.

We have a problem though. The van does not yet have a name. I think you will agree a band van without a name is almost as horrific as never giving your child a name. In fact some may say it is worse. This is where you, our lovely lovely friends, can help us out. 

Name our van for us please. We will go through all your suggestions and whichever name we choose will get guestlist to any gig you choose, a free t-shirt and maybe even a beer from our rider (depending on how many beers we have on the night / how many Johnny decides to drink).

You can suggest names by leaving a comment, private message or email asiwyfablog@hotmail.com

So, after making a short detour to pick up a huge order of new shirts we drove to the Ferry and headed over to England. We then should have an uneventful journey to Exeter but our Sat Nav decided that it would be a good idea to take us through the middle of the Snowdonia Mountains. In the pitch black. In a new and quite large van. I am sure the scenery is stunning during daylight, but at night it just made for a rather horrible trip with several cases of travel sickness (no puking in the new bus, fear not). Eventually we arrived at our destination and bedded down into our fresh smelling bunks for the night.

Our first date of the tour was The Cavern in Exeter. The first show of a tour is often riddled with problems but this did not seem evident at all and the band and crowd seemed to enjoy the show.

The day after the Exeter show was a day off. That's right people, we did one show and then decided we needed a little holiday. This consisted of a short drive to sunny Bournemouth where we went to the house of the Uncle and Aunt of Chris the powerhouse of a drummer in ASIWYFA. To say we were well looked after would be a gross understatement. Steaks, BBQ, wine, Jack Daniels, beers, cigars, comfortable beds…followed by a fine breakfast in their beautiful back garden. We could get used to this. But we are on tour for a reason and that reason is not to be pampered. On no no no. That reason is to ROCK / RAWK.

So, we left our lovely hosts behind and headed to Portsmouth for the Southsea Festival. As we were headlining one of the stages it meant a long day of waiting around but luckily the sun was out and their were plenty of good bands to see. Showtime arrived and we entered what is possibly the warmest venue this side of hell. It was a great show but the heat did leave us all feeling incredibly drained.

And then, we had another day off. Because we are lazy.

Monday was the Barfly in London and boy it was a good one! A large appreciative crowd left laden with new t-shirts and CDs. Tuesday was Norwich where we played to a smaller crowd but we all enjoyed the show a lot... most importantly we resisted the urge to quote Alan Partridge. It was incredibly difficult to resist this, due to the fact Partridge DVDs have been playing in the bus constantly since we left Belfast

Touring is a series of ups and downs, swings and roundabouts. A few good shows, a few not so good shows - not necessarily terrible but not the best either. This was the case for our gig the following night in Oxford. The band played an average show. Not terrible but not great either and for a band like ASIWYFA, perfectionists, average is just not good enough. Their were various small reasons behind this (guitar problems being one of them) but the main reason was that we have discovered a fault in our otherwise perfect new van; the damn petrol gauge is hugely inaccurate. 

We ran out of fuel in the middle of a motorway. What followed was an almost 4 hour break, the details of which are incredibly dull so I will not bore you too much. The point is we arrived too late to soundcheck. 

A soundcheck is just as the name suggests - it is a period of time several hours before the doors open to the public where the sound is checked to see that all instruments can be heard clearly by audience and band members alike. Even the best soundman and most professional band will struggle to play a good show without a soundcheck. This was the case in Oxford. So, what followed was an average show.

The Barfly in Cardiff on Thursday was where we really picked up again. It was agreed that it was up there with one of the finest ASIWYFA shows ever. The band and the crowd were firing on full cylinders and after a lengthy encore the band spent a long time at the merch table meeting the fans, old and new.

At the beginning of next week we will be putting up a short video from the tour so far and by the middle of next week their will be the first of the band blog entries, written by Mr Tony Wright. We will also post a blog soon with answers to your many questions to the band - email us with any other questions you may have.

Keep any youtube clips, photos, questions for the band or blog suggestions coming to asiwyfablog@hotmail.com

Graham

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* Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/andsoiwatchyoufromafar

* Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/And-So-I-Watch-You-From-Afar/25571011322

* Twitter - http://twitter.com/ASIWYFA_band

* YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/asiwyfa

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Hi all,

A written blog will be coming in the next 2 days and a new video blog will be online by the end of the weekend, but until then here are a few images from the past few days taken by Graham Smith...

Hello everyone, my name is Graham Smith and I work with ASIWYFA, you may remember me from posts from their European tour earlier this Summer.

Tomorrow we all re-group again, pile everything into our sexy new red bus and hit the road for what should be a very interesting few months of touring.

Throughout the coming months their will be blog entries 2 or 3 times a week and a short video once a week. Everyone will be helping to write these entires and compile the videos.

The first proper blog entry will come later this week and will include information about the music and clothing which will be available on the upcoming tour.

Don't forget you can follow us on twitter for more up to date news and nonsense - http://twitter.com/ASIWYFA_band

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We are very keen for fans of ASIWYFA to get more involved with blogging. If you have any questions for the band, get in touch and we will do our best to answer them through these blogs. It could be questions about their equipment, upcoming releases, plans for the future or anything else you would like to know. 

If you photograph or film the band on the upcoming dates and are ok with your material being used on these blogs then please send youtube links or photos to the below address.

We also welcome any ideas you may have regarding the written or video blogs, please feel free to get in contact at anytime.

The email address for the above material is asiwyfablog@hotmail.com

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* Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/andsoiwatchyoufromafar

* Blog - http://asiwyfa.blogspot.com/

* Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/And-So-I-Watch-You-From-Afar/25571011322

* Twitter - http://twitter.com/ASIWYFA_band

* YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/asiwyfa

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The first leg of the tour will consist of UK / Irish dates :

17th September : Cavern, Exeter

19th : Southsea Festival, Portsmouth

21st : Barfly, London

22nd : Marquee, Norwich

23rd : The Cellar, Oxford

24th : Barfly, Cardiff

25th : The Masque, Liverpool

26th : The Flaper, Birmingham

27th : The Corporation, Sheffield

28th : Fibbers, York

29th : Moho Live, Manchester

30th : Fat Sams, Dundee

1st October : Tunnels, Aberdeen

2nd : The Twisted Wheel, Glasgow

3rd : GRV w/ Sabrepulse, Edinburgh

4th : TBC

7th : The Mad Ferrit, Preston

8th : WHQ, Newcastle

11th : Whelans, Dublin

See ya on the road!