HEADLINE SHOW AT THE 100 CLUB, LONDON, 22nd JULY 09

We're pleased to announce a special headline show at the infamous 100 Club, London on Wednesday 22nd July 09.

For some time now we've been thinking of running our own night in London where we get to play with bands we really like and (think you'll like too) at a rocking venue and where we can put on a proper rock gig for you rather than the standard 25 minute set and an overpriced door entry. We'll also be running out some new material which we've been working on recently with acclaimed German producer Udo Rinklin.

So we've chosen the 100 Club on Oxford Street, a venue steeped in rock history playing host over the years to the Sex Pistols, The White Stripes and Muse as well as being used by Metallica and the Rolling Stones for secret warm-up shows.

We've also tried to make it affordable for you with a very reasonable 6.50GBP advance ticket price / 8.00GBP on the door.
You can buy tickets now from www.wegottickets.co.uk.

Tickets are also available from the Verra Cruz Online Store.

Support will be from Norwich's finest rock three-piece The Dirty Tricks and one other soon TBA.

www.verracruz.com
www.myspace.com/verracruz

Greetings sons and daughters of rock! Jimmy drummer here...I thought we had better give you some kind of update as to our movements on the rock and roll spectrum (whatever that means) for 2009. In this day and age of constant blog updates, emails and video diaries we find ourselves once again lagging behind the crowd with updating our site, facebook and myspace. This is probably something we need to work on but in truth we'll probably always be not very good at communicating with y'all until we can afford to employ a web minion. Until then you'll have to make do with sporadic musings from behind the drum stool.

So it's been a good year so far - my wife gave birth to our beautiful baby girl on 24th Jan which as life events go is a hard one to beat! So we are now a band of three fathers (Henry first, Marc last year) which feels pretty cool.

Our main focus as a band right now is that we're thinking about new songs again. Even though Innocence still feels really fresh to us, the new stuff just keeps coming every time we get in the rehearsal room and new songs are always a shot in the arm. No plans are in place for a third album yet but just before Christmas we went back to Street Studios (where we tracked some of Innocence) and demoed two new songs with German producer Udo Rinklin. Despite a load of hippies demonstrating on the runway at Stansted making Udo's flight late and us forgetting where the 'on' button for the Neves was, it felt good to be in the hands of a producer again. The cafetiere took a beating and the red bull flowed down our throats and later on in the curry house we reflected that the results were indeed good and rock had been had this day.

So now we're planning to re-record the tracks properly in March and then work out what to do with them. Live dates are beginning to come in too so hopefully we'll see some of you again soon. There's also rumours of a new van which will mean more UK shows and less Mondeos on the roads of England. Ciaovidersehn, Jimmy.

VC were interviewd backstage at Download Festival earlier this year by Total Guitar magazine, who have run a full-page feature on the band in this month's inssue (out now). Frontman Marc talks about thier Download gig, the new album Innocence and his guitar setup.

5/5

It's hard being an upcoming band. Money is tight, crowds are unpredictable, venues can be foul, dreams are crushed, hopes soar every time a glimmer of hope is waved from miles above on a delicate ribbon of an A'n'R guy's arbitrary and careless thought. Yes, it's a tough place to crack. And many don't. But Verra Cruz are luckily talented enough to make all that worthwhile.

OK, the venue is less than empty, and with the sheer number of bands playing over the course of this live music weekend versus the single sound engineer, we can safely assume that our Brit three piece have a fair case against playing the f**k out of their instruments. But no. These guys take it seriously. As a handful of students slide on the floor and piggy-back each other around before falling into a heap (that's what happens when the bar serves £1.50 drinks!), Verra Cruz plunge their riff-heavy tunes into the venue. Occasionally reminiscent of Clutch's chunky guitar parts, VC's selection of songs is varied, ranging from pensive bluesy numers, to soaring rock anthems, to crushing melodicism. Frontman Marc James sometimes stands, but mostly sits with his slide guitar on his lap and his mouth round the microphone, whilst drummer Jimmy Cooke thrashes his kit with fervour. A 45-minute slot flies by, giving testament to the fact these guys truly absorb their audience. Ones to watch, indeed…

Rachel Dallimore www.redhotvelvet.co.uk