Rather excitingly we will be heading out on the road again in November. Hooray!! Hopefully we will be coming to a town near you (provided you live in the U.K.). Please join us!

:)

Just wanted to thank everyone who came down to the Sonic Cathedral show tonight at the social. It was so good to play in front of such a nice crowd, and you made us feel glad to be playing live again! I was also relieved to play a set of new songs and to have them go down so well, so THANK YOU! Also, thanks to Rumskib who were great to play the night with and who were such very lovely people too.

Next stop Latitude! Yay! Pack the suncream/wellingtons!

So, basically, we have spent this week rehearsing the songs from the new album. It is the first time we have properly played together in about 8 months as we have otherwise been studio bound. I have to say, I haven't been this excited since I saw Blue Tulip Rose Read on Britains got talent (admittedly that was only a few weeks ago, but I was very excited by that!) The new songs are sounding A W E S O M E and we are getting seriously pumped at the prospect of playing them live.

So....in essence.....be there....it will be great.

Thankyou

Yes it is true. After what seems like an age since we last played live we are about to dust down our guitars, drums and synths and get back up on stage. The venue will be the ridiculously hip Proud Gallery in smouldering old camden town, and the date will be the 28th of June. It would be a pleasure to see you down there, where we shall be playing tracks from our forthcoming album! Blimey...off to the rehearsal room then!

So, in a guest appearance Jamie has contributed a couple of reviews for the hamblogger to tide us over until we get back out on the road.  Here they are…enjoy...:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

 

The Drake Hotel Restaurant, ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Toronto – The Geometric Burger 

 

 

A textbook case of postmodern meaty genius. If this burger was a musical genre, it'd be New Wave. Just look at the 'bun' – all angles and attitude. Some might say it looks more like a slice of toast, but they'd be wrong. Yup, this is one bovine hipster. Now check out the burger itself. It just kept on giving. Plump, dense, juicy steak with an unexpected blast of garlicky greatness, casually hanging out on a pyschedelic couch of salad items. If there was one drawback, it was a practicality thing – how do you pick a burger like that up without turning your jeans into an action painting?

 

7 out of 10

 

(I am also wondering what those fries are all about too!  Is one of them really green at the end or is it just catching the light?)

 

 

Captain America's, Norwich – BBQ Burger

 

 

 

You might not see it from the photo, but this burger is loaded with nostalgic reverie. Captain A's was set up by my godfather in the early 70's before he was tragically killed in a sports car accident and my folks used to take me and my friends here on my birthday. The burgers taste just the same as they did then. Acidic, smokey BBQ sauce and no-nonsense chargrilled beef on a perfectly toasted sesame bun buckling under an onslaught of relishes. Magically simple and simply magical. Easy on the fries next time though.

 

7 out of 10

As I have documented in previous blogs, one of the joys of getting to travel about with the band is the chance to sample the food of different places. Over time we have come to find that a good way to determine how good somewhere is, is by having a benchmark dish.  A classic through which the subtle nuances of a nation may reveal itself.  Thus the idea of the hamblogger came about.  A study of the simple hamburger, and an opportunity to revel in its beefy glory.

So, over the course of the last year or so, on many occasion we photographed an outstanding burger (outstandingly good and bad) with the intention of posting a regular hamblogger update.  Well, we never quite found the time to get it together so I thought now was the time to bring it up to speed.  With an introduction to some of our former high and low points and to set the stall for future updates.

Without further introduction may I present….the hamblogger.

Burger 1 – Coachella Festival. Fillet Steak Burger.

  

Now this is a burger, talk about setting the standard.  This juicy gem was part of the festival catering at Coachella, and delivers all the essential elements of the classic burger, deep beefyness, sharp saucyness, and creamy cheesiness.  Maybe it was the heat of the day and the excitement of having played a killer set but this burger has become the talk of legend around these parts, and may even be the burger by which all other burgers may be judged.  It looked slightly too fancy for it’s own good but tasted like the burger of your dreams.  In a word….AWESOME.

9 out of 10

Burger 2 – 50’s Diner somewhere between Boston and Niagara Falls

Have you ever seen such a vibrant cheese?  Seriously, this stuff was aggressive.  And talk about a beef takedown.  This was one hefty number.  Perhaps too dense for it own good.  What you don’t see here is that Jamie also ordered onion rings to go on his.  This was like a burger shaped sleeping pill.  Ow! 

6.5 out of 10

Burger 3 – Johnny’s Charcoal Broiled Burgers. Toronto.

Seriously old school.  This burger was as much about the ordering experience as it was the eating.  You had to battle with the cussing and put-downs of the hardcore staff to get the burger.  However, if you passed the test you were treated to a pretty classic standard late night burger.  The onion rings were a highlight, although we were probably too drunk to make a fair assessment.  I recall that it was almost a fortnight later that I scraped the last remains of ketchup from the windscreen of our van from where the discarded burger had ended up.  Messy.

5 out of 10

Burger 4 - Toronto

 

Coming pretty close to the heady heights of the Coachella burger this delivered and then some.  You certainly got a serious amount of burger for your money, and it was of the highest quality.  Just look at that fresh, happy salad.  There was no messing here, they meant business, and business was burgers.  You can see the whiff of fear in Jamie’s eyes at the prospect of taking this beast on.  But I can tell you; he left his plate clean, and then slept for a week in a beefy haze.

8.5 out of 10

Burger 5 – Burger Joint NYC

 

 

Having seen this place on the burger related episode of "in search of perfection" (starring Heston Blumenthal), the Hamblogger had to take a visit to the Burger Joint in the lobby of Le Parker Meridien hotel NY.  Now this is a pretty hip, hidden gem.  A sleazy old school burger bar hidden in the corner of the lobby of a super swish hotel.  There was a queue to get in which set expectations high.  The burger was pretty nicely grilled on a light, chirpy bun.  However, I had to make adjustments to the sauce level, as it didn’t provide the expected saucy twang that the hamblogger has come to expect.  Also, it was a somewhat slight experience compared to some of the other burger paths we have crossed.
Despite this, it still had most of the essential elements, and delivered them with reasonable skill.  I like the ketchup ’action shot’ too "squirt it Hen!"

7 out of 10.

Here are some pictures I took in our studio.

And here is an awesome cat puppet…

 

 

 

 

I just did some artwork for my lovely girlfriends band Citadels. They are totally awesome and hopefully everyone will know and love them by the end of the not so long. Here is the artwork. I quite like it….legs.

 

 

Nick

I am reminded of that moment each year on Blue Peter when the cautious presenters would open the box of George the Tortoise, after a winter of hibernation, in the hope that he was still alive and they wouldn't have to prematurely explain about the harshness of death to a nation of unsuspecting children. Well, fields, in a George the Tortoise like manner are on the verge of re-emerging from a period of prolonged work behind closed doors. To many (including Liz Kershaw, who made 'Everything Last Winter' her album of 2007 (many thanks Liz!), and then said we had split up!) it may have seemed like we had indeed thrown in the towel. Not so!

In a matter of days Hen and myself are off to New York to put the finishing touches and final mix together for what will be our second album. Rather wonderfully, we decided this time around to be in total control of the recording process and as such built a studio in my bedroom in east London. Affectionately named 'the woods', this studio space was where we have lived for the last few months, crafting songs and drinking lots of tea and having a nervous breakdown.

We are really excited about where we have gone with this new record, it being quite a different animal to 'Everything..'. Less dense and more optimistic. It is a record about finding beauty and hope in bad situations, as well as being hinged together with a tale about two fractured lovers leaving earth to find other life. The songs were inspired in part by a fantastic book called 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy that tells the tale of a father son relationship in a post apocalyptic America, which I can highly recommend. There is a great quote inside the slip cover that kind of sums it up 'Beauty and goodness are here aplenty and we should think about them. While we can'. Yeah….anyway….I decided I might write the odd blog now and again so there, forgive me for the waffle.

So, anyway, I think I will put up some of the demo versions for you to listen to. Hopefully you will enjoy them.

On slightly more crappy news, our beloved Hightower and right hand guitar man Jamie is no longer part of Fields. We unceremoniously fell out over whether or not to go poodle rock on the new album…..no of course not. I love him dearly for he is like a brother. Instead he decided he could no longer spend so much time away from home and so has become a permanent resident of the Soho underbelly, leaving us to carry on his good work around the globe. This means that when we hit the trusty road again later this year we will do so in a slightly new line up. More on that another time but suffice to say I am VERY EXCITED about it all (and also sad to not have my gastronomic side-kick with me).

Anyway, this is my first blog in ages. I am listening to Lightspeed Champion. Isn't it good! The new Mystery Jets album is also an absolute stormer. A good year for music I think.



Don't I look tired? I am….and unwell.
xx

Poor old myspace indeed. I expect it feels pretty neglected, what with Facebook seeming to be the latest way to communicate online. So, I thought I'd give it a bit of love with a new blog. Just a little update on stuff really.

We are all gearing up for starting the proper recording session for the next album, which will happen in the next few weeks. Most of the songs are written now and really I am just keen to get on with it. I think it will be a definite step forward from the first album and am really excited about the songs we have written.

On a bad note Thorunn has been admitted to hospital this week, so some lovely words of support and love for her would be nice. She should be alright in a week or so and it is nothing life threatening but still she needs a bit of love.....ahem...I also have a nasty case of man flu (which everyone knows is VERY SERIOUS), so, you know....some 'get well' cards for me would be nice too. haha.

Also, today is my birthday so that is cause for some personal celebration. I am having a nice party and dinner with friends tonight, but thought I ought to do a bit of work today so I have just put the finishing touches to a new song with Henry. It sounds very good and stands a good chance of making it onto the album.

Other than that I have been wasting some time watching T.V. I have to admit to having been watching X Factor. A good friend of mine met Rhidian the other day at a station in town so he has become the house favourite. hahahahaha. Briliiant.

Anyhow, hope you are all well and really cannot wait to get the album done and start playing some shows again!

Lots of love.

Nick

:)

Hey hey! Just got back from Bestival where we had an awesome time. Much thanks must go to Rob and also to everyone who made it there despite the nightmare traffic to catch us play. Hope you enjoyed the dressing up as much as we did.

We are now back in London to continue work on the new album. It is all sounding peachy!

xx