Ladies and gentleman,

The revolving door of the Kid iD line-up is swinging once again. This news may have trickled out to some of you from within in the confines of Kid iD HQ but for those without access to such classified information, here's the score.

It is with a heavy heart that I announce that Will More, our drumming heartbeat since the beginning is having to leave the band. He will be replaced by John Willoughby, an exceptional drummer himself, and will play his last gig with us at the Camden Barfly on Saturday 14th October. After five years, hundreds of fantastic gigs and tens of thousands miles Will's pursuit of the rock 'n' roll dream is finally drawing to close. I'd thought I'd leave it to the man himself to explain more and to bid you farewell, so here he is...

'Hello everyone,

Yes the time has come for me to make a departure from the true love of my life for the last five years. I am off to exciting pastures new (non music related) and hold great hope for the future, though as with Josh, my heart feels heavy also. I have enjoyed Kid iD beyond compare and I would just like to say thank you with all my heart to Josh, Ralph, Joe, Ian, Pete, Robbie, Neil and Johnny, all the members of the band over the years. Plus, all the others with whom I have shared the stage and all the experiences and bonds that have come with the band, amazing gigs, amazing friends, amazing nights out and most importantly, some truly awesome music. Kid iD will go from strength to strength, I am so sure. I feel so proud to have been part of something so special and I now feel I may have just become a number one fan. 

My last gig with the band is on the 14th November at the Barly in Camden for those of you who can make it. I shall now bid you all adieu and hand back to Josh to wrap up o x o'  


Thanks for that Will, and thank you also for being a brilliant musician and a true gent, a rare commodity these days. We'll miss you terribly but will enjoy your last hurrah with us in the shape of the recording and the aforementioned gig.

So there you have it.

We'll be unveiling John in a blog soon but until then we'll join you in wishing Will well.

All the best mate.

Josh x 

Hello folks.

On the Friday that's just passed we played our first gig with our new line up at the Luminaire in Kilburn. It was, if I may say so myself, a fantastic turn to form with a packed and attentive crowd giving us as good as we gave them. Ian and Joe's new guitar and synth roles blended seamlessly with the existing, despite Ian's stage moves being labelled 'Dad-like' by on of his oldest school mates. Thankfully our brand new songs Home and Cold Skin went down as well as or perhaps better than Mr Didier Drogba ( I was planning on a ruder analogy but I'll leave you all to concoct your own). We'll gladly play there again!

A big thanks to everyone who came down to see us. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. We're playing in Leeds this Friday and begin our recording a day later so we'll keep you posted on those events.

Until next time my friends, keep well.

Josh x.

Hello again!

The most avid fans amongst you will doubtless be aghast at my second blog of the night. For the more casual visitor to this site who's perhaps not been here or to a gig of ours in ages, this post is a general update of what's in store this autumn.

First up there's a cracking video up of us playing Bones au naturelle in a Durham alleyway. The results are highly enjoyable except for my weak, pensioner-sounding falsetto. It's also a reminder of what the recently-departed Jonny looks like for those of you that miss him as much as we do. I believe Ian has an accompanying interview with Joe and Jonny that's a good laugh which we'll try to upload soon.

In the wake of our streamlining and rearranging since the end of the summer Ian's been practising the electric guitar bloody hard and still can't play it. The same goes for Joe with his synth. I've currently got RSI and can't play my bass either, so the next time you see us on FRIDAY 9th OCTOBER AT THE LUMINAIRE ON KILBURN HIGH ROAD we may well be a duo of just Ralph and Will. However, Ian's limitless optimism has somehow managed to infiltrate my pessimistic facade and we are in fact primed to rock your socks off next Friday at the above gig. We'll have three new songs and Joe's joyous synth sounds to entertain you with so don't miss it! 

What's more, we're so excited about the months ahead that we're off to Leeds in late October to record a brand new EP of more recent material. We're going up on a whim that Leeds will bring the best out of us again, being the site of so many of our former glories. It's also far cheaper to record there than in London so we'll be getting more for our money with a maximum of six songs in the offing. I'll try and blog from there as it happens and will attempt to include some pictures along with the text as a visual treat for you all!

We're also all getting older. Over the summer Joe and Ian turned 23. I'm 24 tomorrow, Will's 25 on Tuesday and Ralph follows suite on Halloween. As a band we're now five years old. Wow.

So there you have it. We're busy and excited and looking forward to seeing YOU next Friday.  If you don't come we'll know about it (Facebook never lies) and whilst we won't be angry we will be very, very disappointed. If emotional blackmail doesn't work then nothing will.

Bye for now.

Josh x

Dear Kid iD fans,

I hope you are all well. At this very moment i should be rehearsing with the rest of the band. Unfortunately I have been struck down by RSI to such a degree that I am typing this using the flat ends of two pens so as not to further injure my fragile and frankly useless tendons or colour in my sparkly white keyboard. However, as my life revolves around nothing but Kid iD I find myself asking you the fans, on behalf of us, the band, for a simple favour.

The time has come ladies and gentleman for us to re-name our band. We feel it is time that our newer music had an identity that is truly independent from our previous incarnation of the ska-inclined party band that you all knew and loved. On a more personal level, I'm looking forward to having a band name that won't be constantly mispronounced ('Kid Eye Deeeeee', in your finest Mancunian drawl), so here's where you lot come in.

Since our last fans-naming-things venture proved so successful (Mr Michael Crompton arrived at Beat Folk as a way for us to describe our music) we would like you to repeat the trick. Ian's mate at the Fly, a kookie free music rag, reckons a name change is a great idea. Lets see if she's right. Get cracking and please come up with something better than Joe's latest offering (Book Shop) and if we get signed with your name then you shall receive a chunk of any signing on fee (i've yet to okay this with the others but they're fairly liberal sorts.)!


What greater incentive could you possibly need? Your name could fire your mate's band toward rock 'n' roll superstardom and make you a few bob in the process! Plus it's cheaper than that elusive lottery win and the odds are probably better!

This really is up to you so here's a thank you in advance.


Love from Josh and the band currently known as Kid iD...x

Hello everyone!

Welcome back to the world of my Kid iD blog. After a long absence I have returned to keep you updated with the latest on our latest festival exploits, in this instance last weekend at the Moor Music Festival 2009.

Unusually for a Kid iD gig we all arrived in separate dribbles. The desolate north reclaimed Ralph back earlier in the week like a hungry carp that's just spied a maggot on a line. Tom Clark was south on Friday so ferried the young ones (Ian and Joe for those who don't know), which left Will and I to make separate journeys up alone on Saturday morning. Thankfully the sun was out which made the four and a half solitary hours a little more bearable. I arrived in plenty of time for our set and was elated when the sat nav directed me though the eighth wonder of the world that is Bradford. Chernobyl probably looked less desolate then some of the inner city, but the Bingley side of town is a prettier place and then makes way for some lush rolling hills in which Moor Fest was located.

To my delight I was able to park right next tot the gate with the aid of my 'Artists Parking' sign. This made me feel both smug and important, a combination which could lead to disastrous long-term consequences for the size of my ego were it to happen more regularly. Once I'd signed the register and been banded up I was taken backstage where I met Emma, our stage manager in the Earl Hickey Tribute Lounge. Emma was a classic husky Yorkshire lass who was a vocal double for Mel B.

From there I set fourth and found Pete (yes, the very same!) and Charlie practising with Ralph. Jonny could not attend Moor Fest as he's on an orchestral course and as trumpeter-guitarists are a rare commodity we enlisted two of the finest musicians we know to fill the void. Following the demolition of a pie and a pint of 6X, I marched over to our stage at 2.30pm and we prepared ourselves for our upcoming set.

Being Kid iD this was not without complication, this time in the form of a missing drummer. Will had left west London later than me and had hit some traffic near Skipton. As our set time ticked ever nearer we became increasingly anxious; two 'new' members was one thing but Joe playing all the drum parts under all this uncertainty filled me with dread. Thankfully Will arrived in with more time to spare than our Nottingham Trent gig of 2007 (see a very old bog for details) and after a velveteen introduction from Emma we were off. Considering Pete and Charlie had not rehearsed with the full band and had little or no music to read, our set was a great success as around 100 people nodded along through a slightly scratchy but energetic offering.  

Unfortunately I was left musically underwhelmed for much of the rest of Moorfest in terms of the larger bands and what they had to offer. The much-vaunted Wild Beasts, whose second album has  been given a wholehearted critical seal of approval lately, intrigued me so I squeezed into the packed tent that we'd played in earlier to see what all the fuss was about. I needn't have bothered. After the interesting bass and bongo introduction I began feeling nothing whatsoever, which is probably worse then when a band repulses me. There was no ineptitude to revel in. The songs were well put together but I found them derivative and not one melody (out of the three songs I stayed for) stuck with me. The influence of the 1980's (my least favourite musical decade) was everywhere, right down to the denim jacket mullet haired frontman. I felt that time would be better spent elsewhere so I left and caught the end of a set by Vessels, Leeds' answer to Battles. They left me feeling re-energised, such was the potency of their progressive rock assault. Bilge Pump, on Pete and Charlie's very own Shed stage were also spectacular, a Shellac-inspired burst of hardcore scuzz pop. For an explanation of that unusual description do check them out!

Thankfully the bitterness I have shown towards being underwhelmed by Wild Beasts, which is probably rooted in jealousy at their success with music which I find undesirable, was offset by my free ticket and the quality time I spent with Leeds-based mates who I've not seen for an age. My night culminated in drunkenly covering '90's pop and R'n'B classics around a fire which I thoroughly enjoyed, even if no one else did.

The next day involved driving home with a tired Ian and a cracked windscreen, whilst attempting to legitimise the torture that is listening to daytime Radio 1 by claiming I was trying to keep up with the kids I teach. It was a mistake of epic proportions, not helped by having to endure the moronic Fearne Cotton.

We all learn from our mistakes. I've learnt a few things from my weekend trip. One, don't listen to Radio 1 in the daytime (unless they're playing you of course!). Two, treat critical acclaim with a heavy dose of scepticism (case in point, Wild Beasts, see also U2, the Twang, Reverend and the Makers et al). And three, don't mix Ale and Rum in large quantities.

Next week sees Jonny's last Kid iD gig before he sadly departs to throw himself zealously into the world of trumpet perfectionism. A Leefest blog and corresponding Jonny tribute will follow soon after.

Thanks guys, it's great to be back once more!

Josh x.        

Dear reader,

Our fantastic trumpet and guitar wizard Jonny Abraham is leaving the Kid iD juggernaut to concentrate on his studies come September. He has become an integral cog in the Kid iD machine and will be sadly missed. We now require a replacement for him and would love you to contact us if the answer to the following question are YES...

1. Do you play the electric guitar, trumpet and can you sing? (guitar most important here, trumpet would be a spectacular bonus).

2. Are you based in London?

3. Are you free to practise twice a week on a Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon? We rehearse at Fortress Studios in Old Street.

4. Could you commit to two gigs a week or more? We're trying our utmost to make it, whatever that means, and would need you to be dedicated to the cause.


If the answer to these is YES then please get in contact with BY THE END OF JUNE here on the myspace or on facebook via our group. Tell us about yourself and if you can provide any examples of your playing that would be great.

If we thin you fit the bill then we'll contact you and organise for you to come to a practise to jam with us and have a pint.

Thanks very much!



Kid iD.

Hey folks,

Good things keep coming up! Got played on radio 2 last night by Steve Lamacq, our friend Laura kindly informed us.

If any of you's have got a spare second could you email him at

lamacq.6music@bbc.co.uk

and ask him to play us again on his radio 2 show or even on his 6 music show or even on radio 1, or maybe in his bedroom, or maybe when he's djing or making love or perhaps shaving, perhaps shaving someone else, then that would be really appreciated. I would be eternally grateful. Truthfully.

Whack Kid iD in the title, he played Black Comedy.

Thanks so much,

Iano x