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champ of the day



Last Updated: 11/22/2009

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Status: Single
State: London and South East
Country: UK
Signup Date: 3/4/2007

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Monday, July 06, 2009 

Current mood:  working
Category: Life
dear friends

for our standards we've had somewhat of a busy month. firstly got back to an old haunt of mine and played with incredible weapons in winchester with whom we discussed the finer moments of early 90s powerpop, did a show with wise children for sarah and all at HKGC in Southsea which was a really humblingly nice and well organised affair. played our first gig in the capital with perhaps the friendliest londoners ever in green is for go at the lumiere. after a proper disco with folks at the lumiere our taxi driver on our way back from the kilburn high road was listening to capital gold and delighted in turning up the radio to educate us in the delights of georgie fame, i suggest you do to the next time he comes on your radio.

a massive thanks to all of you who have picked up the record or helped us out with a show, fair to say the instance we can afford a return to the studio we will begin work on the next one. we're still up for visiting a few more towns so look out for us on the road.

andrew x


Currently watching:
Starrcade: The Essential Collection [DVD]
Release date: 2009-02-16
9:02 PM 
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Tuesday, June 02, 2009 

Current mood:  restless
Category: Travel and Places
friends

thanks to everyone who made our release party a grand night out, tim for the posters, el for booking and general all round aceness and the superb bands. saturday also marked our first gig as a six piece with alana playing her first gig with us!

we'll be doing one more local show tomorrow night at the eastney cellars with the alfonz who are apparently into their beach boys and rock out some 'high octane power-pop' so get down to that. also playing are local acts dirty sky jones and at last.

meanwhile i'm on a mission to get some tickets for the isle of wight to watch, amongst others, the view, maximo park and ... neil young! ... wish me luck!

enjoy the summer feeling

andrew x
Currently reading:
This Wheel's on Fire (First Edition)
4:22 PM 
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Thursday, April 30, 2009 

Current mood:  pirate
Category: School, College, Greek
friends! the cds are finally here, no party poppers no balloons yet, instead a heavy package from southampton via taiwan which i wasn't even home to collect. steve and i opened them during our carefully synchronised lunchbreaks and three years of noise condensed into shrinkwrap became life. so listeners is this where our story ends? hell no! we have to sell these things. we have done a limited pressing of 300 digipaks for you to enjoy playing with, so please drop a line or you can wait and come down to the fawcett in a months time for our release party.

meantime i'm getting set to savour some classics of love (ex-common rider/operation ivy) and doves next week so i can steal ideas for the next cd, or maybe just relax with a glass, we'll see...

two scottish bands i'm enjoying lately have been the hazey janes who have made an long player of songs reminicant of teenage fanclub/elliott smith and mixed by john agnello. secondly the view's new 'which bitch' cd for which i'm getting stick for blasting the stereo with from my work colleagues, still the owen morris (ash, oasis) more is more production totally suits their charming hecticness. the free dvd looks like a training video for those tackling anti-social behaviour but the intent is always rock and more rock, gotta love em.

be cool all
andrew x
Currently reading:
Alan Clarke (Television)
By Dave Rolinson
7:48 PM 
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Friday, April 24, 2009 

Current mood:  angsty
Category: Parties and Nightlife
friends,

i need to get gigs... yep, so what? who doesn't right?
anyway part of the way i attempt to go about this, considering i don't roll with the hipster/gig/circles that much these days, is to see whose putting on who and where and how champ might fit in. during a little myspace cruise i came across a site putting on lots of gigs, some local to me, 'cool!' i thought, let me see more. anyhow i came by a disclaimer asking for 'shitty' pop punk bands not to apply. hmmm. i left it alone. later on whilst sweeping my floors (yay!) this struck me as a bit pithy. partly as i, along with some of my friends (some of which are in bands that you've actually heard of) cut our teeth in 'shitty' punk pop bands and because the scene wasn't loaded with tony and guy haircuts and pretentious cd covers some promos would actually take a punt on your band, allowing you a chance to become (slightly) less shitty, this, i think, is how good bands are, or perhaps were formed. of course it's every promoters right and privilege to put on the bands that he or she think worthy of playing their gig, but to put a disclaimer asking bands not to 'apply' - is getting a gig a fucking job interview these days? sucks in a lot of ways to me and just further goes to narrow gig goers and new bands already fucked up chances of seeing anything remotely worthwhile or interesting... rant fin

something that was good was propagandhi and crazy arm in brighton on monday, needless to say during the headliners there was much air punching/finger pointing and some very mid 90s antics from a crowd who knew how to get down some.

other immediate aceness is that, according to dhl, the champ cds have been shipped! the official release party to be a half dayer at the fawcett inn for southsea diy (see dates for details) in the meantime i shall set some way of ordering from this site.

be well all
andrew x


Currently listening:
Silver Sun
By Silver Sun
Release date: 1997-01-01
4:59 PM 
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Friday, April 03, 2009 

Current mood:  recumbent
Category: Dreams and the Supernatural
friends,
spring is in the air and i'm having a week to take stock. it started saturday with a southsea diy punk rock mega show featuring livers and lungs, wooden bullets, bangers and the mighty plymouth country twang wreaking ball that is crazy arm. several croud surfs later we're into sunday with a trip up to london to watch chad rex, jon snodgrass (drag the river/armchair martian) and joey cape (lagwagon/bad astronaut). first up was chad rex whose songs you get drawn into from the off, well worth a look. jon snodgrass is a country rocking punk dude who can make a washburn acoutic tear wallpaper off and a voice that both yells and soothes in equal measures. joey cape is as many of you'll know a tiny dude with some seriously caustic lyrics and about a zillion songs which defy genre and stand up incredibly well in a acoustic setting as well as when delivered 100mph with lagwagon blazing. we had to leave as is often the case to get the last train south, waited for 'violins' and left as 'may 16' was being given the stripped down treatment. monday saw some studio/garden shed action with the guys from hometown show. i played and sang on two new songs for their upcoming cd which was fun. tuesday we went for curry. wednesday was a trip to brighton after which i listened to the new album from pop wunderkind james cooper, which amazingly he wrote/recorded/mixed in his bedroom in record time. thursday drinks with dave and steve and now i'm on a hazily sunny isle of wight in my old bedroom, nice.
andrew x
Currently listening:
The Kiss of Morning
By Graham Coxon
Release date: 2002-10-14
1:17 PM 
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Friday, March 06, 2009 

Current mood:  groggy
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

friends,

yes i missed the wedding present in my hometown. driving back after spending the evening scouring the streets for runaway kids (in a good way) I noticed the 'boy' gedge and band were playing at the wedgewood rooms but was too cream crackered to get myself in through the door (times have changed) this = working too hard, as joey dio put it the other night attack vipers get crushingly heavier as life does, it's a fair point

missing gigs is something i'm sure i swore i'd never do and yet i've missed a ton of ace bands recently. i literally dragged my feet along to go and watch southport and chillerton the other evening which was really cool, but i know there's a quality gig i'm probably missing right now as i write this, infact everytime i log on to the facebook i seem to be invited to another gig i havn't got time to go and see * so while it's probably crass to bitch about working too hard in this current economic climate, i'm on hiatus 'til i get some time off

andrew x

* p.s a plea to serial facebook spammers, stop reminding me how many of my peers bands i'm constantly missing (it actually appears that if certain indie bands crack out a fart i get an email inviting me to smell the fucken thing on facebook)

p.p.s i love the inbox action really, keep the shitstorm coming


Currently watching:
Director's Series, Vol. 1 - The Work of Director Spike Jonze
Release date: 2003-10-28
10:58 PM 
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Monday, February 16, 2009 

Current mood:  optimistic
Category: Art and Photography
dear friends

it's about this time of year i start realising what year i'm in and start using the correct date on stuff, you have that issue too? anyway we played our first gig a week back at the edge of the wedge for the devils acoustic roadshow which was really fun to do, thanks ben and spikey for having us and matt for doing the legwork. we're also looking ahead to self-release the cd in april/may and would like to make a video for one of the tracks. we have a few ideas for the track we'd like to choose, but if you think you have a better idea, let's hear it!  we are therefore asking for anyone with a passion for film/video-making to get in touch with an idea or concept for a champ of the day video and let's talk! as an unsigned band we would only be able to pay your expenses and a modest fee but you get to hang out with us so aint that payment enough? we might even take you drinking (if that's your thing!)  the tracks to choose from would be 'boat trip', 'three chords and cans of beer', 'drink! drink!', 'swan song' , 'keep it together' or 'requiem for a heavyweight'. if you think you may be able to help us make something cool, get in touch at champoftheday@hotmail.co.uk or leave us a message here.

thanks for reading
andrew x




Currently watching:
Sonic Youth - Corporate Ghost: Videos, 1990-2002
Release date: 2004-06-08
7:50 PM 
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Monday, January 19, 2009 

Current mood:  awake
Category: Life
dear friends, casual listeners and insomniacs

happy january

i spent last saturday afternoon in the comfort of studio 1999 with ahmed latif. we were finishing mixing and mastering two tracks we recorded at the close of last year. the process was lots of fun... we did cool stuff like doused the backing vocals in lashings of the bee gees very own plate reverb, a vast EMT 240 goldfoil which now lives in ahmed's place and also mixed through a telefunken console which was novel since we could use the old EQs and whatnot. anyhow we came out with the first and closing tracks of the CD which was a nice feeling.

a big cheer for dan and all at liberation frequency for putting me on with Gregory and the Hawk, it's always nice to play for those kids and i also got to see my old friend Freddy Furber play his dusky blues for the first time, aceness! not to mention badly roll cigarettes with the indiest new yorkers you could ever hope to meet

sadly due to a number of reasons we had to pull out of the Graz Folk Festival, I know a few people were going to make the journey from Vienna so I can only apologise for that and hope that we can make it in the not too distant future.

some excellent news items in the indie pop realm, firstly chewy have a new myspace with news of a reformation! pretty exciting for a stuck in 1997, fiece panda loving, dinasaur jr worshipping, midget fan i suppose. also the sellout label in norway are re-issuing beezewax's debut LP 'a dozen summits' so you can hear it if you, like me missed it first time around.

i have also started writing new songs for the next record which i hope to work with ahmed on in the late spring.

may good stuff come through your door
andrew x

PS if you're a first time listener and have not said 'hi...' yet, please do, it's a nice thing...
Currently watching:
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart - A Film about Wilco (Single Disc Edition)
Release date: 2006-04-18
10:27 PM 
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Saturday, November 08, 2008 

Current mood:  blissful
Category: Religion and Philosophy

dear friends, it's with much cheer that i announce i am to be joining the ranks of sir cliff, slade and the spice girls and presenting to you my christmas single.

recorded in two hours at the buckland youth activity centre with all first takes and clocking in at a collosal one minute forty three seconds it's called 'choose to love'. don't let the title fool you, there's the word christmas in the first line, sleigh bells and ahhh ahhh harmonies in this stocking filler for you all. please feel free to download it and share in the spirit of christmas with all your friends, get it on your mix tapes this yuletide!

love andrew x

Currently listening:
Jackson Browne (Saturate Before Using)
By Jackson Browne
Release date: 1990-10-25
4:39 PM 
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 

Current mood:  working
Category: Life

dear friends, it's been a while so i thought i'd give you all an update on what's been shaking with our band. well a few weeks ago we went into studio 1999 and recorded two songs with ahmed latif. we put down versions of swan song and drink! drink! in two days and aside from a guitar or two and some vocals we're all wrapped up there. these tracks will be put with the other sessions and we'll have a cd out for christmas (i promise!) ahmed recorded us to a 3M 2" tape machine (i'll put up some vids soon!) and also has some ace old neumann mics and a sweet ludwig 60's drumkit, so the sound reflects these. in other news we're playing with wooden bullets at the RMA tavern in november. wooden bullets features ex members of the much missed ones and zeroes and punk band lying in state so that's going to be a complete blast! in the new year we're off to graz in austria to be a part of the graz folk festival so we're bracing ourselves for the snow!


all for now


andrew x






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThSsOCieM1I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DbfesJx9vY
Currently watching:
Dennis Wilson Forever
Release date: 2008-08-05
5:47 PM 
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