Morning all.
A post-tour, Xmas-based update is the order of the day. Get a cup of tea. Or, if you've got flu like I have, a Lemsip.
Anyway, talking of 'tour'. Here it is in a brief visual-cake:
NOTTINGHAM:
RIFF-SATISFACTION
DRINKING PROBLEM
GLASGOW:
CANNONBALL RUN
NEWCASTLE:
ELTON JOHN
THE HORSE LOOM
JASE AND FRANCESCA
VAN MAINTENANCE
LEICESTER
LUKE YOUNGER
LONDON
OXES
RUPERT THE SKY
CAMBRIDGE
LONDON
DAVE CROFTS
LONDON AGAIN
BRIGHTON
SLOATH
LEEDS
ROB KITO
DERBY (LIVE SESSION RECORDING)
LONDON - HOKABEN FESTIVAL
SUN RA ARKESTRA
HOMETIME
ELVIS' FOOD INTAKE:
Photo-diary type affair is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumlin/sets/72157608767254447/
So there you go. It was fun. Thanks to Team Damn You!, Jay, Souvaris, Fists, Nuts & Seeds, Plates, Vom, Jase and family, Long Lonesome Go, The Horse Loom, Pete Dale, Bob Cluley, Spin Spin The Dogs, Diet Pills, Upset The Rhythm, Oxes, Bilge, Luke Younger, Andy Raine, Rupert The Sky, Doig, Crushing Death, Ollie and housemates, Blaklava, C.Joynes, The Old Blue Last, PW Long, Hi-Fi Killers, Daaaave and Piers, Rachel and Andy, Claire Lim, Simon and Pure Groove, the EA team, Lightning Bolt, Dan Pike, the dude in the Lord shirt at Release The Bats, the chef at the restaurant in Leytonstone, Colin & Barney, Sloath, Epideme, Joe Mask, Two Minute Noodles, Ryan Judas, Jim Explorer, Dan & Hokaben team, Aldo and the Tracks TV crew, I'm Being Good and everyone we've forgotten.
Man love to Rob Kito and Gringoboss.
After all that upliftingness lets get dragged back down to Earth with some reviews. Excellent.
VICE
Cheers!
Q
Don't know who that sleeve belongs to but thanks anyway.
PLAN B
Harvey Milk and The Fall. The cheque's in the post Daniel.
CLASSIC ROCK
What did we tell you? The defection is complete. Your loss Kerrang, today we are all Classic Rockers.
DROWNED IN SOUND
Etc
METAL HAMMER
Like that one. Thanks John. Note John has the same surname as Elvis' missus. Merely a coincidence. First Classic Rock and now Metal Hammer. What next?
ROCK-A-ROLLA
Cheers Mr Shields!
THE SKINNY
CLASH
DREADED PRESS (pretty much sums it up)
Might get this chap to write the press release next time around...
HIGH VOLTAGE
If there's anyone out there who doesn't aspire to be Jimi Hendrix then we're fine with them not digging us. Who doesn't want to be Jimi Hendrix?
LINE OF BEST FIT
Erm... we're not angry. Sorry!
So there we go. Yet more mere words that yet convey nuggets of uplifting joy laced with inevitable feelings of 'really, why do we bother?'.
NEWS
We did a live session - 13 songs - which will see the light of day in either radio or download form in the coming months. We even did a version of 'Back Up! Back Up!' off the split with Hey Colossus that came out in 1926. Sorry to anyone present for that session as 'red light fever' got us, meaning we had to re-do some songs due to severe Barretting.
A small interview and footage from our gig at Hokaben Festival will be shown on French and German TV soon on the show Tracks. Many thanks to Aldo and team for dealing with us at the absolute maximum point of mentalness on our tour. Our driving hero Paul Crick had just been twatted in the face by some loud mouth rude boy on Brick Lane, we then arrived 2 hrs late for soundcheck and were then interviewed whilst still literally shaking. I dread to think of the outcome.
Plans are afoot to play some shows between February 13th and the 20th 2009, or thereabouts. We'd like them to be good ones. Will keep you posted.
We can't play often. We really appreciate everyone offering us gigs but it's really unlikely we can do stuff that's a one-off or last minute. It's possible, but unlikely. Sorry about that.
For that reason, why not vote for us for ATP vs The Fans? As the music we love slowly becomes a revolving tribute act to days gone by and everyone in the UK forgets that we actually have some bands here too, perhaps think of us as an international band (we are) and put pen to paper. The Top 20 so far has a load of bedwetting rubbish so please don't make us put up with only that until we get to see The Jesus Lizard.
New musics have been 'demoed' as they say in the industry and we will be working on them soon.
A split single of a Transatlantic nature is in the pipeline for new label We Be Records - http://weberecords.com/
Just working that one out...
Elvis is back in Ireland with the missus growing vegetables and hovering perilously on the edge of scaffolding somewhere. You'll have to ask him about that. He nearly joined Shit & Shine but couldn't squeeze it in. A future plan perhaps?
Phil is in sunny Bradford discussing mower engines with his neighbour Alan Partridge. Yes, that's his real name. He assures us that he has written 107 new Lords songs, all of which are fucking rock-top. To quote Joe from Hoover.
I'm ill. I have snot in all my holes. In a week and a bit I will be playing my first show as 1/4 of Glasgow-based rock act Stage Blood. This is a 30-and-over rock band that promises no pissing about. Early indications point in the direction of long-lost San Diego band Tanner and their way with a riff and a change. The other dudes are from Eska and Mogwai. Dec 12th, Stereo in Glasgow - if you're about.
I've got to go and have a flu-poo.
sumlin
x