Anyhow, been fairly busy as per. Took Megan to Offset Festival at the weekend, and it was as awesome as I expected it to be. Best thing being that because Megan wasn't drinking, I only had a few pints over the course of our time there and it felt pretty good being able to get up on Monday morning to go to work.
After rocking up at
a leisurely time of 3pm on the Saturday, we managed to catch bits of (or full sets by) in chronological order (links where I deem worthy)... Encyclopedia, Die! Die! Die!, Johnny Foreigner, Young Knives, Wire and Fightstar. Sunday consisted of Who Owns Death TV, Fight Like Apes, X-Certs, Merz, Future Of The Left, Hot Club de Paris, Blood Red Shoes, Mercury Tilt Switch, Brigade and My Vitriol. The picture on the right is of me onstage with Johnny Foreigner, which seems to be a recurring theme recently...We left with our friend Paddy at about half 10 to get the tube/train home and were tucked up by half midnight. Having spent a fairly intense period of time with Megan, I felt a little alone on Monday night but I guess that's a good sign more than anything else. I'm seeing her at New Slang tonight, which is going to be fun as Slow Club (who I acquainted myself with further at Offset) are playing and they are good. Also playing are The Momeraths, who I'm undecided over. I might listen to them on myspace a little more.
Speaking of New Slang, I chuckled a little when I saw someone on Facebook excitedly invite Alistair (the old 'friend' of mine / law graduate who's now seeing Gee) to see Frank Turner at New Slang a few weeks ago. The last time he came to New Slang (before I knew anything was going on) he couldn't even look me in the eye so it's good to know he has all the deceitful traits needed to become a successful lawyer.
Speaking of success, there's a few things slowly moving into place which will inevitably set greater things in motion in terms of the "bigger picture" I've been aiming at for some time.
Firstly, and probably closest to home, is the state of my band, mistakes.in.animation. It's been a while since we played a gig (I can't even remember when that was, actually, the day before Ben's birthday, perhaps?) and there are good reasons for this. Firstly, I had become bored with playing the same six songs to the same (six) people whenever we gigged. I had written some new acoustic songs but I had to be completely honest with myself and admit that in fact, the whole acoustic thing has never really been what I set out to do.
After a few years doing that 'circuit' it's become really obvious to me that for the most part, I hate acoustic music. Really really hate. Even artists I look up to like Frank Turner or Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly have increasingly trodden the line of playing live with a full band (GC's second album being far more band-orientated, too) and the only acoustic artists I have recently been taken with are Paul Marshall, Klaus Says Buy The Record, and Tobias Hellkvist. Seriously, check them all out. Everything I ever tried to be as an acoustic artist will always be dwarfed by those three, among others.
So then, along with myself and Scarlett, I have been trying to piece together a band. To (almost) completely change our sound. Into something fun, into something angry, into something that might be a little more interesting than getting on a megabus to Inverkeithing to play to one man and his chip buttie. We've got about 3 or 4 new songs on the go, and last night during practice, Scarlett effectively squealed just because she was so excited at how the new stuff sounded. I don't think I've ever made a girl squeal without having to touch her first.
Secondly, This Is Not Revolution Rock, my promotions outfit, is, as they say, "going places". Aside from slowly getting bigger and better bands to play in Kingston and London, we're stepping into the murky world of releasing records - hopefully I'll have some big news as to our first signing, if things go to plan.
Thirdly, there's something REALLY big, which I'm keeping a secret for now. My closest friends will have heard me talking about it, and then said things like, "You've got a lot of bottle to take on something like that," or even just, "You're a fucking idiot and you're going to bankrupt yourself." However, I am nothing if not determined and when I get an idea that I think can work, I will chip away at it's metaphorical cliff face until it collapses into place.
Just as a little heads-up of what I'm doing over the next few months, gig-wise:
Saturday 13th September 2008 - Tubelord, Blakfish , Secondsmile, Exoskeletor - The Metro Club, London - Buy tickets here!
Saturday 20th September 2008 - Dartz! , Tubelord, Pennines - The Luminaire, Kilburn, London (14+ show!) - Buy tickets here!
Sunday 5th October 2008 - Arms And Sleepers, Jacob's Stories, + 1 band TBC - The Fighting Cocks, Kingston-upon-Thames - Buy tickets here!
Friday 10th October 2008 - This Town Needs Guns, Rotary Ten + 2 bands TBC - The Fighting Cocks, Kingston-upon-Thames
Friday 17th October 2008 - Cats And Cats And Cats, Adebisi Shank, Our Own Devices, Blakfish, Down I Go - The Fighting Cocks, Kingston-upon-Thames
Friday 7th November 2008 - Outcry Collective, Blakfish, Cut The Blue Wire, Scholars - The Fighting Cocks, Kingston-upon-Thames
Saturday 8th November 2008 - Youthmovies, Adam Gnade + Colour - The Fighting Cocks, Kingston-upon-Thames - Buy tickets here!
Saturday 15th November 2008 - Dananananaykroyd (TBC), Truckers Of Husk (ex-Jarcrew, TBC), Omes (ex-I Was A Cub Scout), mistakes.in.animation - The Fighting Cocks, Kingston-upon-Thames
Saturday 27th December 2008 - Tubelord, Colour, Blakfish - The Fighting Cocks, Kingston (INVITE-ONLY)
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At one of these gigs, there's a possibility that the amazing Jose Vanders might be playing, she's currently got a 30% off discount on her online shop which I have just COMPLETELY abused. You should too, because she is good.
I don't really have too much else to say, apart from that I'm going on tour with my hockey team this weekend again. So enjoy Surrey without me. x
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