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A memorable May so far... (May 25, 2008)
Well, we've had an exciting and busy couple of weeks, starting off with the One Night Only gig and finishing with another great night at the Arts Centre last night. The ONO support couldn't really have gone much better for us. Sometimes it can be tough playing support slots and trying to win the crowd over, but they seemed to be on our side from the start, plenty of dancing and cheering and generally getting into it, which made it a really fun night for us, so if you were there, thanks!
Last night at the Arts Centre was another really enjoyable night too and another 200+ crowd, so thanks to everyone who came along. We were really pleased with how the new songs went down too, so hopefully will get round to recording them soon. We've also had gigs in London and Sheffield in the last week so it's been a really busy time.
Another really exciting thing that's happening for us is on the slicethepie.com website. To quickly explain, it's a site where music fans can anonymously and randomly review your tracks. After a few hundred reviews, we scored highly enough to get into the 18 finalists out of 844 bands! It was so encouraging to read so much positive feedback to our songs on the site and has been a real confidence boost. Obviously, you get the odd reviewer who hates it, but that's always going to be the case, and if you can't take a bit of criticism you probably shouldn't be in a band! But the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, if a little confusing at times! (for instance, I can't really see the Darren Hayes or early Foreigner influences in our music myself, but a couple of reviewers obviously did!). Anyway, the final or 'showcase' is decided on a public vote and the winner gets £15,000 to record an album! We're currently in third place, so if you haven't voted yet please visit the site and vote for us in the All Genres 5 showcase - your vote could be crucial and make a massive difference for us!
Looking ahead, we've just booked our next big Norwich gig - at the Waterfront on August 7th. We're just sorting out the line-up at the moment, so will let you know more details as soon as possible, and we've also got a gig at the BBC bar in London coming up in June. This is the private members bar for Radio 2 and Radio 6 staff, so hopefully someone influential could pop in for a beer during our set! Well, here's hoping, but it's certainly an exciting time for the band, and hopefully there are more good things to come...
Thanks as ever for all your support, it really is appreciated. Daren x
An exciting month ahead... (April 30, 2008)
Things have been a bit quiet since the Waterfront gig - we've been taking a bit of break and working on new stuff - but now May's shaping up to be our most exciting month for a long time. We were so chuffed yesterday when we got the news that we'd won the competition to support One Night Only at the Waterfront on May 14th (thanks so much for all your votes!), even Will got excited, which trust me, is a pretty rare thing! It should be a great opportunity to reach some new fans, who wouldn't usually come to see us, and is perfect timing, coming just over a week before the Arts Centre headline gig on the 24th. We can't wait for the gig and we were all on a high last night, so had a really good practice. We're working on a couple of new tracks, one is an upbeat catchy tune that we might even play for the first time at the One Night Only gig, and the other is an epic-sounding slower number that needs a bit more work but could possibly be ready in time for the Arts Centre.
In between the Waterfront and Arts Centre gigs we're off to London again to play the Water Rats. It's another Saturday night (17th) and there are still places on the bus so let us know if you want to come along. Also on the bill are another Norwich band The Great Shakes, who I've yet to catch live but I've heard good things about, so I'm looking forward to seeing their set. We're also both playing for BBC Introducing at the New Buckenham Festival the day after the Arts Centre gig, so we'll be seeing a lot of them this month. Our other gig this month will see us visit Sheffield for the first time - it's a gig swap with The Chartists, who'll be supporting us at the Arts Centre. The Sheffield gig is the Friday night before the Arts Centre, so that's going to be a pretty busy weekend with three gigs in three days, but should be fun!
Anyway, hope to see you at one of the gigs. The One Night Only gig's already a sell out (if you've got tickets make sure you get there early to catch our set!), but hope you can catch us at the Arts Centre instead. Daren x
Another great Waterfront night (March 18, 2008)
Well, first of all a big thank you to everyone who turned up to The Waterfront for our headline gig last Thursday. Was another awesome turnout - around the 500 mark I'm told - and the feedback we've had since has been amazing, so thanks, your support is much appreciated as ever. It's quite humbling when you look around at a gig like that and realise that hundreds of people have paid a fiver each to watch your band! And then so many buy a CD too! Or when people you don't know want to wear a T-shirt with your band logo on! Sometimes you have to stop and take that in. That's one thing we've definitely noticed over the past year or so - the increasing number of people with no personal connection to anyone in the band who are turning up to gigs regularly. Although it's great to have the continued support of friends who've been coming since the start, it's also really encouraging to see so many new faces at our gigs.
It was also great that all the bands made a real effort to get people along (something that doesn't always happen!), resulting in a really sizeable crowd. So big thanks to The Kabeedies, The Fens and Rupert, and to Craig (aka The Tilting Sky) for putting the night on.
Anyway, it's been a hectic month or so but we've now got a bit of a break and it'll be nice to have some time to work on new material. We were really pleased with how well the as-yet-unnamed 'New One' went down at the Waterfront, and should hopefully have a couple more new ones ready for our next couple of gigs at the Water Rats in London and back at Norwich Arts Centre in May. We're practising tonight and will be working on a couple of ideas we started on last week. Some of you have been asking why there are no ballads in the set, so one of them might appease you, but the one I'm really excited about is another upbeat catchy tune that could well be our next single...watch this space! Daren x
A good end to the tour (March 2, 2008)
Well, we're back home now after our first little tour of the UK and it's been a really worthwhile experience. After the disappointment of the Lincoln gig being cancelled it was great to end the week with a couple of good ones, supporting Mesh-29 in Peterborough on Friday and then The Colours in Reading on Saturday. Both bands had supported us at the Arts Centre at the start of the year so was good to catch us with them. It was nice to see so many people from Norwich make the trip to Peterborough so thanks to all of you for making the effort. The Park was very much an old-school venue (the decor looked like it hadn't been changed since the 80s and everything, not just the floor, was sticky!). Was a good sound in there though and we really enjoyed the gig, if not the gale-force winds that nearly blew us off the road afterwards!
Plug N Play in Reading was a bit of a strange venue. When we arrived (it's in the middle of an industrial estate) we couldn't find it, despite the fact that we were parked right outside! It turned that two of the industrial units we were parked in front of were actually Plug N Play, but thankfully it turned out to be a bit Tardis-like, and a really cool little venue was hidden inside (In fact, One Night Only had played there only a couple of weeks before!). The gig itself was going brilliantly until my amp decided to pack up halfway through Shoulders. It was particularly gutting as we'd been playing really well - possibly the best we had on the whole tour - and our set seemed to be winning over the crowd. Still, these things happen and thanks to Tom from The Colours for the use of his amp for the rest of the set. A shame, but the overall response afterwards was still really encouraging.
So, all in all, a good week, sold quite a few singles along the way, we didn't end up killing each other and I think it's improved us as a band, which bodes well for the Waterfront a week on Thursday! Really glad we've got a couple of gigs this weekend in Bury and Lowestoft to keep us sharp for that Waterfront gig - can't wait for that now! Hopefully see you there! Daren x
Tour interrupted by earthquake! (Feb 27, 2008)
Well, this is a first! I can honestly say I never thought I'd be writing a blog about one of our gigs being cancelled because of an earthquake (well, not until the Japanese leg of our 2010 World tour anyway!), but that's why we find ourselves back in Norwich in the middle of our tour. The epicentre of last night's tremor wasn't far from Lincoln, where we were due to play tonight, and we received a message this morning to tell us the gig was off because of safety concerns. It's disappointing as we were expecting tonight to be one of the better gigs on the tour and were all really looking forward to playing, but should hopefully be rebooking for a later date. Despite the fact we were parked up for the night only about an hour's drive from Lincoln none of us felt a thing and only found about the earthquake through phone calls from home. As we've got a night off tomorrow and we were only a few hours' drive from home we decided to head back to Norwich until Friday when we're off to Peterborough. It's disappointing (but will be nice to sleep in our own beds for a couple of nights!), but we've still got a couple of dates left which, fingers crossed (and acts of God allowing!), we're expecting to be pretty good ones...Daren x
Encouraging start to the tour...(Feb 25, 2008)
Me, Keith and Kev are sat in an internet cafe in Edinburgh at the moment, while Will guards the van. Been a really encouraging start to the tour, two decent gigs and hope it continues to be as good for the rest of the week. Lack of sleep isn't an issue yet, despite only getting 4 hours in our Max & Paddy style mobile home in a motorway services last night! Leeds on Saturday night was a great way to start, a few familiar faces in the audience which was nice to see, so cheers for those who made the effort & the long trip north to see us. Bands and venues have been really friendly. We were a bit sceptical about Edinburgh last night, as we were due on at 1.45am in the early hours of Monday morning, but getting to work on a Monday morning obviously isn't much of an issue for the Scottish people as there was still a decent number of people there and the response was excellent - people really seemed to enjoy the set. So now we're going to have a quick look around Edinburgh - it's a lovely city - and then it's back on the road now and heading south towards Dudley. Probably stop at a campsite in the Lake District for the night so we can all have a wash and scrub up and a good night's sleep hopefully. Will blog again in the next couple of days hopefully. Daren x
all set for the tour (Feb 20, 2008)
Had our final practice before setting off on tour last night, and pleased to say it was a really good one! Ran through the set, which was sounding nice and tight and also totally nailed the new song we've been working on for the first time, so it might get an airing at some of the gigs. Looking forward to getting on the road now...first stop Leeds on Saturday night. A great city to start things off in and if you want to help us create a bit of a buzz for that gig please click here and say nice things about us!
Thanks to everyone who came down from Norwich and all the London people who came to our gig at the Water Rats on Saturday. Was easily the best London gig we've played so far - quality venue, really decent crowd, good sound, and we got loads of great feedback and hopefully plenty of new fans. The venue have already asked us back which is great news and looks like it's going to be another Saturday night, May 17th (tbc), so hope you'll come along and support us again!
So, we head off on Saturday morning in our mobile home! We should be posting blogs on here most days so keep checking to find out how we're getting on. Daren x
after the arts centre... (Jan 9, 2008)
Well, what can I say!?! Except for thank you. Saturday was another absolutely awesome night for us and we're still buzzing from it. So big thanks to everyone who came along - to sell out the Arts Centre again was just amazing, was a great atmosphere and we're extremely grateful for all your support as ever! When we decided to book the gig so soon after new year and with no other local support bands (as we really needed to secure some good 'gig swaps' with out-of-town bands) we thought we were taking a bit of a risk, so we were so really humbled that so many people - 270 of you! - turned out. Everything about the night was great, enjoyed both the other bands (looking forward to supporting Mesh-29 in Peterborough and The Colours in Reading), great sound from Gerry and the crowd was awesome (loved the moshpit!).
We're now taking a bit of a break from gigging as we prepare for our tour and single release next month. Our next Norwich gig is now the Waterfront one on March 13 and with The Kabeedies, who also recently sold out the Arts Centre, as main support it should be a huge one! Before that though we'll be off around the country. Sharing a camper van for a week with Will, Keith, Kev and a load of equipment might not be the most appealing prospect in the world, but I'm sure it will be a great laugh and the experience will really benefit us as a band.
As for the single, I've been listening to the mixes today and Dave's done a superb job, they're sounding awesome (in my humble opinion!) and they've still got to be mastered as yet. Pleased we've gone for 'My Time' as the single, but 'Big Slick' is sounding really cool too.
Finally, a quick word of explanation for anyone who was wondering why we didn't play 'Centrefold' on Saturday. We know a lot of people love that song, but we've been playing it since our first ever gig and when we watched the DVD of our previous Arts Centre gig, it showed! We've come a long way since that first gig and our style has changed a lot, and it just didn't seem to fit with the rest of the set anymore. So there you go, that song did us a lot of good, but it's time to move on! Daren x
our debut single is now recorded! (Dec 13, 2007)
We’ve been recording this week and we’re all really excited about how the rough mixes are sounding. As it’s for the single, we’ve taken a slightly different approach to it this time. Whereas on our previous CDs we’ve recorded a lot of it live and basically just copied what we play at gigs, this time we’ve spent a bit more time and effort on the production, taking a bit longer getting the sounds right and layering parts etc, and it’s sounding huge! We’ve recorded two new tracks – ‘My Time’ and ‘Big Slick’ which you might have heard if you’ve been to any of our recent gigs – yes, ‘New One’ and ‘New New One’ have names and lyrics at last! I think ‘My Time’ is the more obvious single, it’s a really catchy three-minute pop song, while ‘Big Slick’ has got a really cool, funky vibe about it and a massive sounding last chorus. Looking forward to releasing it on All Sorted!?! Records in February and hope lots of you buy it!!! The tour to back up the release is taking shape now with gigs already booked in London, Reading, Leeds, Edinburgh and Lincoln with more dates to be added, so really looking forward to getting on the road with the guys for the first time too! Can’t wait until the Arts Centre gig on January 5th now either. We’ve just got hold of footage of our last gig there in September, which has come out really well, and should hopefully be putting some clips on here soon to whet your appetites for the next one! Daren x
looking ahead to the new year... (Nov 7, 2007)
Had another great band practice last night and we've almost got another track completed (Working title 'New New New One', which suggests that Will really should get around to writing some lyrics for our two other new ones!). It's sounding really cool, which could cause us a bit of a dilemma when it comes to recording next month, although I think we're still likely to go with New One and New New One! (we were really pleased with the reaction to that when we played it for the first time at the Queen Charlotte the other week, so that's looking like it could well be our first single on All Sorted!?! Records!) We're really looking forward to working with the label in the new year and the first few months of 2008 are already looking like they're going to be the best yet for us. We start off with our headline gig at the Arts Centre on Jan 5th, which now we've got The Colours on board for, as well as Mesh-29, is looking like it's going to be an absolutely quality night. We'll be supporting The Colours in Reading in return, and that could well tie in with the tour we're planning for the end of February to support the release of our debut single. Then on March 13th we're back headlining the Waterfront! Not a bad start to the year then! Anyway, before all that we're back in London next Tuesday at the Bullet Bar in Camden, which looks like a cool venue - we really need to build up our following in London so anyone who lives that way, please come along and drag some mates along too if you can! Daren x
busy and exciting times (Oct 5, 2007)
It may not have seemed like we've been up to much since our Arts Centre gig, but we've been pretty busy lately trying to sort things out for the future so I thought I best fill you in on what we've been up to. We're always really humbled by the amazing support we get in Norwich and we'll keep trying to line up the big local gigs next year - already looking forward to the Arts Centre on Jan 5th! - but the aim for 2008 is to really work on raising our profile around the rest of the UK.
With that in mind, we've been doing a few things. Firstly, we're in discussions with Dudley at All Sorted Records!?! and, although we've still got to go through the details, the plan is to release a debut single in the new year, backed up by a short tour around the UK. Really hoping that all works out.
Another bit of good news which should help build our profile in other areas is that we've been speaking to Clint Boon this week (genuinely top bloke btw, we were really impressed with how much time he had for us when we supported the Inspiral Carpets last year) and he's going to feature us and play 'Come Monday' on his XFM Manchester show on Wednesday night (Oct 10th). From Monday, you'll be able to vote for us at XFM Uploaded and if we win (and there are only four bands in it, so there's a genuine chance!) it will put us through to a monthly final, and the chance to get our music listened to by top A&R people, so please spare a second and vote - we will really appreciate it! XFM is a massive station, so it's going to be great to have our music played on there.
A few other things...I mentioned the Arts Centre gig earlier and we're really pleased to confirm that mesh-29, a Peterborough band who actually made number 35 in the charts earlier this year (only the second unsigned band to ever make the top 40), have agreed to support us there. We'll be supporting them in Peterborough sometime in the new year in return. It's shaping up to be a top night and we should be able to confirm another quality support band before too long.
On the songwriting front, things are going great too. We all seem to be buzzing with ideas at the moment and we've got another new one almost finished. We were toying with the idea of playing it at the Hog on Sunday, but think we'll save it for All Sorted!?! on the 27th, which could well end up being a celebration of us teaming up with Dudley to work on that single and tour!
Anyway, well done if you've read this far but it's an exciting time for us! Can't wait for the Hog on Sunday, it's always a good night, and hope to see you there, Daren x
another great arts centre night (Sept 9, 2007)
Thanks to everyone who came to our charity gig at the Arts Centre last night and made it such a success. Was great to see such a big crowd in there (about 230 I think in the end), especially so soon after our Waterfront gig, and the atmosphere was amazing. Really, really enjoyed playing to you guys as always, and good to see so many new faces, and so many people dancing and singing along. Also a big thank you to the three other great bands - Fitzwilliam & The Spitfires, Sam & Daisy and Telegram Sam - and to Karl Minns, who did a brilliant job as compere. And best of all, around £1,000 was raised for Nelson's Journey, which will go towards their excellent work supporting bereaved children. Cheers, hope to see you at the next gig! Daren x
oh my god...will's doing a blog! (August 31, 2007)
Hi people. Well..... only a week to the arts centre gig, really looking forward to it now. I love the arts centre, the room seems to have a great vibe when it's busy, so fingers crossed. The new song is musically, now finished, I just need to finalise the lyrics and i think it's there. It's pretty cool by the way, (in my opinion) very different for us, but seems to fit well with our set. Otherwise, its just been holidays for Keith and Daren whilst Kev and I have been busy working hard! OK.... enough running on, hope to see you all at the arts centre, I don't do these kind of things very often, so thanks to everyone reading this for your continued support, it's much appreciated! Also, dont forget to leave us a message on our new forum! Will.
-->a new song takes shape... (July 25, 2007)
I'm still buzzing after a very productive practice last night. Was great to get the chance to start working on new material again and we're all pretty excited about the new song we're working on. It's a really satisfying feeling when a new song starts taking shape, especially when everyone in the band seems really into it and are all contributing ideas like we were last night. The riff we'd worked on a few weeks back has now developed into an almost completed song. It's got a bit of a different feel about it this one and I think it's going to be a really strong addition to our set. I'm really looking forward to gigging it - I reckon it's a dead cert for our Arts Centre gig and maybe even a sneak preview at the Hog in Armour in a couple of weeks. Daren x
a busy few weeks... (July 24, 2007)
It's nearly two weeks since our Waterfront gig, but it already seems like ages ago. We've had so many nice comments since, so thanks to everyone who's messaged us, it's been great to hear that people enjoyed the gig as much as we did! I'm really looking forward to practising tonight as it's the first chance we've had to since the Waterfront. In that time, we've played three more gigs and should have played five. Will got through the Waterfront gig despite a sore throat, but it put him out for our Mad Mag day gig the Saturday after, then this Sunday my car breaking down meant we couldn't make it to Eastern Haze, so apologies to anyone who planned to catch our sets at those events. I always hate it when gigs have to be cancelled for whatever reason, but sometimes it's unavoidable. Anyway, in between we've played three gigs - back at the Hope & Anchor in London, the Great Yarmouth Town Centre Festival and at the Orchard Gardens in North Walsham. We'd decided to play a few gigs at places we don't usually play and it was nice to see a good crowd at the Walsham gig on Saturday night. Reminded me a little of the Hog in Armour gigs we do (our next one of those is on August 12th btw), a bit more of a laid back set and a chance to play some older songs we haven't done for a while. Tonight we'll be working on some new material. We started working on a new song a few weeks ago, but have been so busy we haven't had a chance since, so looking forward to seeing how that turns out. Thanks again to everyone who's come to the gigs over the past couple of weeks, Daren x
the morning after... (July 12, 2007)
Wow, well what can I say?! Last night was awesome, easily our most enjoyable gig yet. Couldn't believe how many people were packed into the Waterfront and the atmosphere was amazing, so thanks to everyone for helping make it such a memorable night. There was one point in the encore during 'Shoulders' when the whole crowd was clapping along when I had to take a moment just to take it all in - was an incredible feeling! Hope you're all enjoying the new CDs too - we brought 250 along and they all went, which was great too. Big thanks to Tin Man, Deltaville (good to have you back boys!) and Welcome The Tourist, who were all excellent. It was the first time I'd seen Welcome The Tourist and I was really impressed. Anyway, can't wait for the Arts Centre on September 8th now - that should be another good one! Thanks again to everyone who came last night, we really appreciate your support, Daren x.
the night before... (July 10, 2007)
Well, by this time tomorrow we'll have come off stage after what, fingers crossed, should be a memorable gig for us. Can't wait to get on there and play now! I love the Waterfront as a venue, and topping the bill there is going to be a great experience. Just got back from Will's where we've had a final practice run through the set which went smoothly, so confident it's going to be a good night. Big thanks to everyone who's bought tickets - can't believe how many of you have already! - and to those that haven't yet, hope you'll come down and pay on the door. See you tomorrow night, Daren x
first blog entry
Well folks, today we launch our new-look website - only a week to go before our headline gig at the Waterfront and we're all very busy getting things ready. Please have a look around the new site and let us know what you think!