3 NEW SONGS RECORDED FOR BBC SESSION NOW ONLINE

If you're curious to hear the new stuff we're working on then you may want to have a listen to a radio session we did for the BBC in Glasgow earlier this year. While on tour with excellent Breton punk band Les Ramoneurs de Menhirs we recorded a session for the BBC radio programme Rapal and you can now hear the three new tracks we did on the programme's website at:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba/radio/rapal/sessions/oi_polloi.shtml

The tracks are (at the time of writing) slightly mis-labelled on the Rapal site. The titles should read:-

Tha Sinn Air Ais
Òigridh Air Na Sràidean
Na Gèill 's Tu Beò

They're a bit rough and ready as we recorded live and had to be at the studio at 8 in the morning after a hard night's partying but that's punk rock - enjoy - or should we say ENJOI!

The Les Ramoneurs de Menhirs session is also very much worth a listen by the way and you can check it out on the same site. Both Les Ramoneurs and ourselves were also featured in the last programme of the last series of Rapal TBh which goes out at 6.45pm on Thursday evenings on BBC2. Our gig with Na Gathan in Glasgow was filmed for the programme and the feature can also still be seen on the BBC Alba Rapal website. Once again, don't worry if you can't understand Gaelic - the programme is subtitled in English.


NEWS AT 25/9/07:-
If the stuff from our gig we did earlier this year in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis didn't end up on the cutting room floor then you should be able to see us in Thursday's edition of Gaelic arts programme "Ealtainn" that viewers in Scotland can catch on BBC2 on Thursday at 7.30pm - more info below in the old news section - and don't worry, if you don't speak Gaelic, the programme is subtitled in English.


OLDER NEWS
Well, we've had plenty going on since the last time we posted any blog stuff on here. The major thing being that, after 6 years of sterling service in the band, bassist Calum finally decided to leave the UK and move to live and work in Vietnam - strangely enough he doesn't seem to be missing the wind and rain and the 4 million plus surveillance cameras here in "Great" Britain but he IS looking to rock so if anyone in Nam reading this needs a bassist you know where to look!

Just before Calum left at the end of our Celtic tour of Scotland and Eire in March with La Luain and Gra Granna we're pleased to report that we finally got the "Ar Ceol, Ar Canan..." CD out on vinyl at long last. It's a collaboration between two French labels and comes as a picture disc with proper cover and lyric insert with English translations on one side - look out for it from all good distros and from us at gigs. Special thanks to Sonia (who did the cover artwork for Fuaim Catha) for the amazing Celtic knotwork piece that she did for one side of the disc - respect!

Although we only got the LPs for Calum's last gig which was in Edinburgh at the end of the tour, in a rare piece of good timing we actually got our new 7" EP "Mind the Bollocks" out in time for the beginning of the tour - amazing eh?! Recorded at the same time as the Gaelic LP, this is a four-tracker (in English) on the theme of male sexual health issues. We've found for a long time that wimmin seem to be a lot more open and knowledgeable on wimmin's health issues and are producing a lot more material, certainly within the punk scene, on stuff about their own bodies and sex issues whereas we guys tend to be often pretty clueless. This is an attempt to cover some new (but very important in our opinion) issues that don't often seem to get raised by punk bands. The record is released by Finnish label Kamaset Levyt.

So, after all that, we're writing new material again with new bassist Tom. For those of you who don't know Tom from his other band Moniack, you may have already seen him play with us as he's been filling in for Calum on odd occasions for a couple of years now since the German tour with Israeli band Nikmat Olalim when Calum has had too many work committments to do all the gigs on a particular tour. As the Gaelic LP, the Campary Records split with Nikmat Olalim and the "Mind the Bollocks" 7" were all recorded at the studio where Tom was working as engineer he also has had our new stuff coming out of his ears for ages now so he's been part of the band for a while now really.

We wish his predecessor Calum all the best though and those of you in Scotland should be able to see him rocking on BBC2 Alba/Scotland in the autumn as we got filmed at our recent Stornoway gig for a BBC Gaelic documentary about a punk compilation LP from the Isle of Lewis released 25 years ago which should be screened as part of the Ealtainn series. Typically of course this was the worst gig we have played in years - a combination of illness, fatigue, inebriation and no audience (there was a grand total of ONE genuine punter!!) didn't exactly add up to a stunning performance - kind of funny in a way though - you've got to laugh.....

The Eire gigs on the tour were great though as were most of the other Scottish ones so thanks again to everyone who came, organised gigs, fed and put us up - and put up with us - respect!

We've also just got back from our quick Bealtainn tour playing in Berlin on Mayday Eve which was great - thanks to Gunnar and co from the anti-NATO, anti-capitalist crew - although the cops did attack the festival area just after we finished playing leading to 70 odd arrests. The London gig the next night was great too although once again the cops stuck their oar in with Active Slaughter unable to play as JJ was nicked in a dawn animal rights raid that morning. Thankfully he is now at liberty again and the gig raised over 500 quid for prisoner support.

The next day we were off to Vigo in Spain which was fun and then we had four gigs in Portugal with Violencia Violeta. The band were great and really cool folk, both them and their road crew - nice to see anarcho-feminist vegan cooks and anti-fascist skinhead bevvy-merchants all mixing together - respect! The gigs were brilliant too and we met so many cool people - especially in Coimbra - thanks again to everyone involved in the tour.

That's about it for just now except to apologise again to anyone who didn't get accepted as friends on here or hasn't had a reply to letters or e-mails - we're trying to get there but sometimes we get a bit snowed under - especially when we're on tour. For those who are interested we're also all involved in other musical projects which keep us busy - Ricky has been off touring playing country music with Austin from Prague-based crust outfit Guided Cradle, Cam has his fingers in numerous different pies from dance music to stuff too weird to describe, Ruairidh has been recording with Kansalaistottelemattomuus in Helsinki for the long awaited follow-up to their widely acclaimed "Fuck Their Fucking System" EP of a couple of years ago - and Tom has been working on the Moniack LP - so it's all system's go as usual - can't stop rocking, can't stop fighting the fucking system!