Battle are sorry to announce that they are unable to participate in the forthcoming Firetrap Sessions with Hot Club De Paris, due to the ill-health of someone close to the band. Please accept our apologies for the short notice.

Battle

x

Angels :)
Monday the 3rd of September. Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. Everything's the same except... my band has an album that's out in 'all good record shops'! It's under our belt and NOBODY can take that away. Love it or loathe it, it exists and my shoulders feel all the better for it.

Devils:(
We're in Manchester tonight so I went to HMV, bought it and now don't know what to do with myself. My God, I did occasionally believe that this day might never come. So we're a band with a record in the shops? I feel relieved we've made it thus far. Now what? I mean, after the promotional shows and the obligatory back-patting and the tea-drenched conversations about how we could have made it 10% better, now what?

I'll tell you what happens now: The Second Record. I can't wait. I can't fucking wait. It will grasp at better sounds, the shapes will be clearer and the songs will be more exact. Danger. Confidence. Curious George. Just what is Timbaland doing?! (Lend us a hand Paul). Cheeky
{}.

In this precise moment, I don't know whether I'm coming or going. Well, nevermind the bollocks, give me a stick so I can draw a line in the sand, a line that lets the brain say, "Here's tomorrow... you bastards of doom.

Jason

x

The tour is here, we're playing with Kubichek! And I think I'm losing my voice! Man alive, I can be very unfortunate sometimes – warring with friends and family is one thing, but constantly being at war with your own throat strikes me as carelessness. I'm in peace talks at the moment //// appeasing it with honey and lemon and if nothing improves then I'll teach it a bloody good lesson and just sing through it. See how the bastard likes that. Like running through a stitch >>> Don't know if that's good or bad…?

Ian Miller's left us after a few days of on-the-road documenting and snapping. The van door doesn't close properly so periodically Tim does the 'door-shutting' routine which never stops being funny. JT's  FutureSex/LoveSounds is playing on the stereo and I wonder if pop talent of this sort will ever be born in this country. Them Americans sure do rhythms well. Incidentally, did they ever find that boy born who could swim faster than a shark? I hope so.

The album is out this Monday so we've received some ritual bashings from the usual suspects. I think certain people get us SO so wrong by assuming we're out to save the world or something. Nah, I'm just trying to save myself. Surely relationships and human contact make the world revolve? Well, they keep my world turning and stop insanity creeping in through the bathroom window.

Coasting, coasting, forever most things are just coasting, waiting to get to that indeterminate stage where everything crystallises, snaps into focus. I don't think the future is written so we'll have to find a way to break out of these presently limiting circles. It's all out there to be had, isn't it? Jokes to be had; food to be had; songs to be had. Boy, there's not enough hours in the day.

Jason

x

As we prepare to head off around the country, some points of interest… 

Both our new single, 'Paper Street' and 'Break The Banks' are now available for pre-order on the World Wide Web. There are several links dotted throughout the MySpace, though some of them don't appear to work yet. Sorry about that! 

Hope you're all enjoying the two new songs on the player- the feedback has been really great. Keep it coming. As you know, 'Paper Street' is properly out next Monday, and I've neglected to tell you the formats. So I'm going to now: 

CD- Paper Street/ North Sea (Russell Bloc Party Remix)

Vinyl- Paper Street/ Stop 

The BP mix of 'North Sea' is really, really cool. It's one of Russell's favourite Battle songs and, though we've got no plans to release it as a single, we thought you'd all love to hear it. 'Stop' is one of the tracks recorded at last year's Jacobs sessions. We think it's got a lovely, swoonful feel, but just couldn't make space for it on the album. Ho hum… 

Anyway, to continue my sales-patter; I've looked at a few pre-order links and my personal recommendation would probably be Townsend Records, where you can buy both formats of the single for £2.99 and pick up the album at the same time. Remember that the album is out a week later though. Anyway, here's the link: Townsend Records. Please add any better deals you find to this blog though!

Hope to see you at Leeds and/or Reading and on the Kubichek! tour. They're going to be a lot of fun. We're on at around 9.00pm at the Festivals… 

Ta, 

Tim

Battle

A little late, maybe, but I want to tell you about last week's Janice Long Session for BBC Radio Two. It was really fun, amusing and eventful. The media world revolves around jiggery-pokery. The so-called 'Magic of Show-business'. 'Live' interviews are phoned-in days or weeks in advance; full-band recordings made in isolation as a band-member is rushed to rehab; messages of thanks left on automated voicemail systems. I'm always surprised by it, but I kinda love it too. Janice however, is really, really real.

Plus it's in Birmingham. Late at night.

We'd been promised a meal by our radio-man, Ned before the session. As you may have realised, I like me grub, so insisted on giving ourselves four-and-a-half hours to make the two hour trip from London to Brum. This involved sitting through rush hour, but we couldn't run the risk of missing out on free tucker. Treating it like a road-trip, we hired a car, with Jamie at the wheel. Just the four members of Battle and the open road (or the M1 roadworks around Luton). Our soundtrack was a classic mix of Blur and The Smiths. Songs were sung, stories regaled, smoothies purchased at Toddington services. Good times.

Arriving in Birmingham, we parked up and met Ned. He's a lovely man with a great history in the music biz. Having worked on both sides of the Atlantic, he knows a thing or two and we did our best to keep up. All the while, he insisted that we ate. Olives to appetise, some sort of garlic bread thing to share for starter, salmon risotto for main, then coffee (bit full, so no pud). Anyway, we all had a wicked time and felt fantastic as we prepared to hit the Beeb.

BBC Birmingham is situated in the same shopping/ eating/ living block as our restaurant and, as you know, we'd already parked up. Though we hardly had any gear, to make things 'easy' we decided that Jamie should pull the car round to the lift to unload.

Bang! I turn to see our beautiful, shiny hire-car pranged. Something had happened: call it 'a blind-spot', call it 'another car speeding round the corner', call it 'God's way'; but somehow a pillar had gotten in the way as Jamie reversed. Who put that there? We inspect the damage. Mildly spectacular yes, but the windscreen is fine, as are the lights. Thankfully the gear-filled boot still opens and shuts, albeit with a groan. Jamie, trooper that he is, soon recovers his legendary cool and we take a picture to commemorate his achievement.

Thus:

Shock over, we head into Radio Two. There, we are greeted by Adam, Janice's producer. Oli sources his box and we set up quickly. We're in 'The Archers Studio'. Yes, that's right, where they record the show. Brilliant. There's a kitchen for authentic noises, and a row of door bells for all the different houses. See: Magic! Running through some tunes, Adam brings us tea and sandwiches (which it would been rude to dismiss) and Janice comes in for a chat before the show. She's lovely: very warm and makes us all feel at home. She seems genuinely happy to have us there.

00.30 and we're on. Properly live. Janice is in the room, loads of mikes are up to capture our 'witty' banter between songs, we get going. 'Negotiation' is despatched well, then some discussion on the album. It turns out that Oli's odd accent when counting in 'Vun! Twoo! Threeeee! Vore!' is, in fact, a subconscious impression of Sesame Street's 'The Count'. He had no idea. Amazing. Next up is 'Paper St.'. A delicate triumph. I fill air-time with sheer waffle as Jamie and Jason retune. Highly embarrassing. We close with a change to the scheduled programming, ditching one of our own tunes for 'Dancing In The Dark' to make Janice happy. Hopefully that's a smile and not a grimace! Whatever, she's singing along, so I guess it's worked out fine. Group hug!

We say our goodbyes to Ned, Janice, Adam, the engineers and the nice security man and get back in the car. It's a night drive: time for Radiohead.

I awake in London: Jamie has done sterling work. What a good, filling, fun and slightly tumultuous day!

Tim

x

Hello,

Just a quick one.

Hope you're all enjoying 'The Longest Time' and its b-side, 'Takuya'. Thanks to all those who have sent us nice messages about it. It seems to have gone done really well.

The next 'Advertising Breaks' is on its way. It will feature us at the XFM studios in London recording the Steve Harris session that went out last week. The songs are 'The Longest Time' and our spectacular version of The Boss's 'Dancing In The Dark'. There have been a few logistical matters to overcome, so sorry for the delay. Obviously, we'll let you know when it's up (though I'm sure you'll see for yourselves).

We're now getting ready for Latitude on Sunday, and looking forward to it; it was fantastic last year. We had to cancel a few gigs this week, but should be back to our best by Sunday. We're on at about quarter to four on the second stage. Hope to see you there.

In terms of competitions, congratulations to Hell Bells and MitchUK. They win a "season ticket" for entry to Battle headline shows this year, and our back catalogue from the Transgressive vaults. Thanks to everyone who entered, we really appreciate your support. Hope to see you at (another) gig soon!

Cheers,

Tim

Hello, 

Sorry I haven't written properly in a while.  Throughout last week's Instour I was hampered in thought and deed by a dreadful illness.  Some dubbed it 'Man-Flu' but I can assure you that it was a far, far more serious a cold than that.  Anyway, last week… 

Last week saw us shoot a new video (more news soon), do our first proper TV thingy, do a bunch of interviews and play a series of acoustic shows. The TV spot was for 'City Centre Sessions' show for Channel M a Sky channel based in Manchester ('M') .  The intention had been to record a short, fifteen-minute set, but the producers were really happy with what we were doing, so extended the session to cover the programme's whole half-hour running time.  We did six songs- 'The Longest Time', 'Tendency', 'Negotiation', 'Takuya', 'Paper Street' and Bruce Springsteen's  'Dancing In The Dark'.  We did everything in the stripped-down fashion of the Instour; two acoustics, bass and a basic drum kit with a 'locally-sourced' box (or in this case stool) for a kick-drum.  It was a good experience and everyone there was cool.  As previously bulletined, the show went out on Friday and was repeated over the weekend.  Hopefully we'll find a way to make it more widely available.  

In terms of press, the most exciting/interesting/weird one was with Clint Boon for XFM Manchester. This involved us ordering music-related fast-food while cruising in a seventies super-car. Clint was a very nice man, lot's a fun and generous with his time.

The Instour: we like pushing ourselves and seeing what we can do; sometimes to detrimental effect. In this case, we did it super stripped-down. There was no mike for Jason, so he was right in the audience's face.  We want to get better at engaging with the crowd.  Our music means so much to us and we're working on ways to get a feeling of inclusiveness across to whoever might be watching.  Hopefully, this approach worked more often than not (Just a quick note to anyone who might have missed us in Preston- sorry we were late; this was due to a  'clerical error' which had nothing to do with the shop or ourselves). People seemed mightily impressed by the fantastic sleeves for 'The Longest Time' (out today!), many of them are now besmirched not only by a paw-print, but also four slightly unsightly signatures. Get out there and buy it! 

Today we're off to XFM London for a session for Music: Response. It's on from 7pm til 10pm. Really looking forward to it, tune in to hear some of our new stuff. 

Ta, 

Tim

x