From both of us, we very much hope that you have a peaceful and joyous time during the holidays, whether you're religious or not, and that the New Year brings with it prosperity and success in all your endeavours.

The setlist at both shows will be different.

Tickets are either available from the links below or you can get discount price tickets at the merch stall at the Islington Academy show.

We've added a 2nd London show as the show at the Academy is a few tickets from being sold out. See our other blog post with information.

So far, all the shows have had huge audiences, particularly in Germany and Austria where we've seen the largest audiences we've ever had. Most of the shows were sold out; Erfurt, Krefeld, both Frankfurt shows, Berlin, Dresden, Magedburg and Dortmund, and Vienna.

Tonight is our German Finale show in Hamburg. We can't wait.

Holland, Belgium, England, Scotland and Greece - see you soon!

At the Croatian border, the Customs officials refused us entry, when coming in from Slovenia. In their opinion, our musical equipment was not our personal equipment (yes it is, who else should it belong to?) and thus we would need special export documentation or pay a large amount of money. Staff at the border were being very tough with cars coming through, that morning, and we suspect it was a question of being there at the wrong time. We have been told by all the promoters we know in both countries that, something like this happens very rarely with bands coming into Croatia or Serbia. The only suggestion from Croatian Customs was that we drive around Croatia and enter Serbia through Hungary, a distance of 800km. This would not have guaranteed entry nor would it have solved the problem of getting back through Croatia. Had we driven around, we wouldn't have made it in time for the Belgrade show anyway and there was a risk that it would affect all the following days. We waited in Slovenia while the promoter in Zagreb and our Tour Manager worked all day trying to find a solution to get us through. Unfortunately, this didn't work out, though the Zagreb promoter deserves a medal for the long hours he spent at the border, as well as on the phone, trying to make it happen.

We have spoken with both promoters about rescheduling the shows and are working on suitable dates.

Again, our sincerest apologies to anyone affected.

regards,

Ronan and Mark

You'll find all the lyrics from the new album, and all our other albums, HERE

"Art of Conflict" is not listed as the lyrics are excerpts from Sun Tzu's "Art of War" which we would prefer to recommend as one of the great many books that you might enjoy reading.

After you're done with that, you might like to check out Haruki Murakami, a modern alternative fiction writer from Japan. Having been a fan for years, I never stop recommending his work.

And you may wonder why this post became the "VNV Nation book of the month club" but I suspect some of you do enjoy reading books so why not, eh? It's that or I just write "ciao, Ronan" and be done with it. This seemed a bit more informative.

ciao,

Ronan

Thanks for all your kind wishes, concerned messages about my leg.

It seems I turned too fast, when I was on stage in Portland, and damaged my calf muscle. I hobbled through the show, which was still one of the funniest, most emotional and best shows ever. I saw a doctor and physiotherapist in Seattle. The prognosis is that the calf muscle was damaged but not too seriously. I have a rubber knee brace and some instructions to look after it (massage, regular beatings and waterboarding). I am being careful but I barely noticed it at the show in Seattle, where I still got to move all over the place, with a mild limp (which makes me look like some evil villain in a bond movie, so that's a bonus) and it's even better today. It's healing very fast. Still, I want to be careful so I won't be doing the "ring of fire" section of the show and my usual breakdancing/riverdance dance routines have to be cut from the VNV performance *lol* I've never broken a bone and am in general good health, so things like this almost never happen to me. Had it been bad, which it's not, I still would have managed to hang on to a mic stand to do shows.

Thanks again for all your concern. All is well.

best regards,

Ronan

p.s. I do wish to add, under pressure I might add, that Gabe Shaw is awesome.

p.p.s Krischan, Jokke, Nick, Clem, Scott, Luke, Mike and Jurassic Mark are all pretty f'n damn awesome too.