Some of you may already know that Dan is pregnant!!  Well, it's actually his fiancée Alexa who is pregnant, and their baby is due in early March.  So it is exciting times for them, and the rest of us who will become Upstarts Uncles. 

With Dan being so busy changing nappies, breast-feeding and the like, we're going to be taking a break from the band for the foreseeable future.  We're definitely not splitting up because we've been playing together for 5 years, we're still all great friends, and love playing together so much.  We'll just not be gigging until Dan is happy to play again; until then you'll just have to listen to our EPs on repeat, and look out for a side-project or two.

So you have three more chances to see us before operation  'break for baby':

Saturday 27^th January @ Drummonds 

Saturday 3^rd February @ The Loft (near Kinloss) 

Thursday 8^th February @ Drummonds

More details of these gigs on our main page.

It'd be ace to see you guys down there!

Lots of Love,

The Upstarts

xxxx

YES, THIS MAN IS HAVING A BABY!!!

THE TRIALS AND ADVENTURES OF WIZPIG!!

So here is a brief run down of the tour from when Donnie (Faker baker) drove us (end of July), til Maltman returned us a couple of days ago..



THE CELL:

Where Wizpig used to keep her prisoners, but where we kept our gear (and Maltman when he misbehaved).

The name Wizpig came about after our first garage/breakdown experience (see below) when we were told "she's going like a rocket" and as an ex police van and my love for 'Diddy Kong Racing' combined (where the big boss you have to race is called wizpig) it stuck..Well it's better than 'Mr.Oinky' anyway..

So, we set off to Edinburgh, only to break down 30 miles short! The bonet catch was broken so we couldn't get in and had to phone out the AA..



And as we left it on the hard shoulder we had to stay outside, in the rain, Haha, check out the very wet Maltman..

The AA arrived finally and as Donnie had releigh mebership we got taken to Robert Brownley's Garage in Edinburgh where we had to grab our gear and get a taxi to Opium where we were playing that night and were now very late for..



We turned up in the middle of My Own Religion's set, which was awesome..Then a great performance by Taking Chase, we snuck in cheap cider and hit the stage. It was a lot of fun but we only had like 15 mintues so the whole thing seemed to pass ridiculously quick, but we made up for it by partying big style afterwards..

Cheers to Kenny (MOR) for letting us crash at his for the wkend!

So we got the phone call Monday morning to say "she was going like a rocket" just a choked air filter which they kindly discarded and told us we didn't even need one, picked her up and went on with the rest of the tour.



We were living on a couple of quid a day so had to sucumb to using supermarket's cheapness..All for the cause!

And we'd stop at the service stations to steal their water..As they charged a packet for anything..



And the combination of these effects were..



..porridge and orange juice??.MMMM



Faker baker on the other hand ate himself through many a take away..cos being a fake asda baker does actually pay y'know, but he had help from me when I scrounged off him almost every time



Oh Life, so we picked up a show in Newcastle which was ok, and played a great one the next night in Sunderland with Loudmouth and Schubomb..check em out if you get the chance..thanks to Davey Loudmouth and his girlfriend for putting us up in their new house!

Then we went on to have a great gig in Wigan with an ace band called Charlie Sez, check em out too if you get the time!

Back up to Aberdeen to say goodbye and thanks to Donnie for putting up with us and the wizpig over the week, check out his blog of it here, it includes more details and our football shenanigans against some Sunderland Chavs!

At night we were lucky enough to be part of one of the best nights we've ever had, with Mike Park, Tragical History Tour, 15 mintues, 5FD and Spaceman Lance, it really was amazing and so surreal to see Mike nodding along to us and great to see all the familiar faces we'd been missing on tour! Thanks to everyone who came down!

So now we have a few days off, so Dan and I decided to make a banner..



Buying the material we came across these..



Fukin' hell we got high.. DIY or DIE




And it was Maltmans 21st so we baked him a cake, not just a cake, a Bad Religion one!! Hell yeah!

HAPPY 21ST MALTY!

Onwards, now with Maltman being 21, he could get insured on the van!
It was his turn to get behind Wizpig's wheel, so we headed off to try and sneak in to the Wasted Festival..



..Until, just outside edinburgh, yep we broke down AGAIN! Jeeeez..



Wizpig was thirsty, the water pump had gone, so another night in damn Edinburgh was had whilst Ross, Beany et all were watchin Leftover Crack - goddam..but we were determined to have fun anyway



More cheap cider, and me and dan decided to go busk, well it was during the festival, we were pretty awful but hey, think we made around £9 in half n hr so can't complain!

Woke up the next morning after some drunken cycling (sorry Pippa) and we took wizpig to get fixed, we were playing a barn festival that night in Chester and didn't want to miss it so we hurried the mechanics to get it done in time, and were off, 'cept the exhaust really was gone, and spewing fumes into the van..but we had to go, poisining smoishining eh!?

 

A few dissapointing nights followed, with Cambridge being cancelled and a a couple of empty days..but we tried to beat our keepy up record..and bet some under 12s in a match in Rothwell, hahaha!






..but Birmingham with Eastfield, TV Smith (Tim of the Adverts) and Garden Gang from Germany was ace! Definately the most Punk Rock gig we played! Jessi made us all vegan munch and gave us a place to crash AND some ultra cool mix tapes for the van, cheers mate!!

The next night was Lincoln where we played a pretty fun show and had a great place to stay after with Ces and her mates who enlightened us to the fact you can buy cider and beer at any time you want!!!


(Dave in Tesco's at 2am)

Many tanks go out to her and her dog Molly, who Dan took a fond liking to..

So, then we had a couple more decent gigs and back up home where we stopped in Kinross and finally got 30 keepy up's between us!! Thank god for that..

A big thanks goes out to everyone who had a part in our tour from start to finish, it was great fun; Eric for letting us use his van and being so cool about it all, Marshall/Donnie for driving us, the AA/RAC and garages for gettin us back on the road, everyone who let us crash at theirs, the bands we played with and everyone who came out to the gigs!!

Roll on the next tour,
Steve & The Upstarts

P.s check out our shoes by the end of it:




Haha, godamn minks!!

Aberdeen's The Upstars look as though they've wrestled the tag of 'hardest working band' away from anyone else who wishes to lay claim to it. A quick shufty at their myspace page shows they're touring for the whole of June, July and August, which will surely see them become better known than they are now. Mixing a skate-punk vibe with a cornet, it's difficult to pin the band down to a particular sound and that's a good thing. The Upstarts are tight, the songs are well sructured and everything is above average. 'Conditioned Confused' actually reminds me of Guttermouth with brass, although that wouldn't be a fair reflection of the band on the whole. Plus they're better than Guttermouth. The short of it is, this band are worth your attention - with a few hooks and a tight sound, they may start making a name for themselves sooner rather than later...

www.myspace.com/theeupstarts

paul

Hey folks. Good news, we have a brand new CD coming out! It's our first release since 'No Direction' so it's been a while. We've been recording out at Mark Nicol's new place (formerly Exile Studios) on and off since January and we're really happy with how it's sounding. It's gonna be a 4-track EP with:

Off the Ground
Exploited or Die
Conditioned and Confused
No Salga Todavia

As you've probably seen on the site we've got 2 release nights to launch it:

April the 13th at the East Neuk (King Street), Aberdeen, with the Planeteers and A Gayboy Scene.
If you've not been to the East Neuk before it's worth checking out. It's your average 'old man' pub, but its got a big lounge upstairs, generally used for birthday parties, which is perfect for DIY punk shows. ( Log onto www.upstarts.t83.net to get directions)

April 14th at Ocean bar, Elgin, with The Planeteers and Julia's Shadow.
Didn't think we'd ever be playing a CD launch back in our hometown: there was never much of a scene when we were younger; but it seems to be really picking up now (I guess it had to happen some day seeing as all else Elgin has to offer is an uncomfortable cinema (showing crappy films), an ice-rink for all those who likeice-skating, and Downtown USA (need I say more?)) So hopefully Elgin can start to get a name for itself for reasons other than gang warfare...!

So ye, we'd love to see you down at one of the shows, or both if you really really cool of course that will officially make you a groupie and we can't take any responsibility for what Maltman might do to you then

One more thing: ..so the only shows we're playing this month are our release nights, but on the 1st of May we're supporting the RX Bandits at Moshulu..it's gonna be ace, we can't wait! Also look out for news on our upcoming summer tour, some split releases on 7"' and a new website with all our lyrics (as requested) and much more!

Hope to see you all for a few drinks and a skanking sing-along,

LOVE FROM US