Hey peeps, my album turns 1 month old today so have put it up to stream online to celebrate:
http://soundcloud.com/oxygenthief/sets/teamdiy
It's only going to be up there in full for today, so if you could pass the link around Facebook/Twitter/etc then that'd be awesome.
I've a couple more favours to ask if that's ok? I'm not too fond of the concept of "street teams" and all that, but the odd call to arms every now and then is alright isn't it?
If so, I might get a few #teamDIY badges made & send them out with stickers to say thanks for helping out. Then we'll work out some sort of secret handshake and go on adventures and solve crimes and drink lashings of ginger beer........
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Favour #2 - free download single Terry Nutkins Salute has been played a couple of times by Tom Robinson on 6music, which is awesome but...it'd be nice to get a bit more airplay wouldn't it?
If you have a minute to email your favourite alternative music dj (Huw Stephens, Steve Lamacq, Zane Lowe, the Rock Show/Punk Show, Bruce Dickenson, XFM, etc) and point them in my direction then that'd be a huge help.
If you've not already downloaded it, then head to http://www.oxygenthief.bandcamp.com for a slice of noise.
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Favour #3 - Sites like Amazon, iTunes, Banquet Records etc all have "customer reviews" sections where you can rate things and leave comments - entries for the album are looking a bit sparse at the moment...so if you've already got it and would be up for popping your opinion down then go ahead:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004UR2AAC
Banquet: http://www.banquetrecords.com/btr9
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/modesty-is-dead/id429133101?i=429133104
If you haven't already got it, then grab it from one of those links :)
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Think that's about it for now - thanks to everyone who came out to gigs on the tour, it was a fun month. Things are a little on the quiet side gig-wise for a while, going to start working on some new stuff for a bit, but my 200th ever gig will coincide with my set at 2000 Trees Festival so I'm looking forward to that, and I'll be opening for the rock-tastic Hymns in Bristol on Saturday 23rd July
Cheers
Barry OT
--------------
Upcoming gigs:
Thursday 16th June - The Arts Centre, Winterbourne
Friday 15th July - 2000 Trees Festival (200th gig - bring beers)
Saturday 23rd July - The Croft, Bristol (w/Hymns)
Like on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/oxygenthief666
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
DIY May tour diary - leg 2
Just a quick jaunt this one, v.London-centric with a gig at The Cricketers in Kingston, and one for a friend’s brother’s 18th birthday party. Let’s forget the fact that I went to the dayjob for a bit inbetween and call this:
Day 9: Kingston
Another thoroughly hardcore Radio 4 soundtracked journey, with a justifiable sense of déjà-vu from last Friday’s identical jaunt. Arriving at The Cricketer’s to meet Del and Zoe I immediately have suggestions of getting a curry implanted into my not-actually-that-hungry brain…..yumcurrytimeyum. Erstwhile tour buddy Kev from [edit] Radio arrived to keep me company for this jaunt, then it was rock o’(massive)clock.
Another thoroughly hardcore Radio 4 soundtracked journey, with a justifiable sense of déjà-vu from last Friday’s identical jaunt. Arriving at The Cricketer’s to meet Del and Zoe I immediately have suggestions of getting a curry implanted into my not-actually-that-hungry brain…..yumcurrytimeyum. Erstwhile tour buddy Kev from [edit] Radio arrived to keep me company for this jaunt, then it was rock o’(massive)clock.
Gig itself was fun, if a little sparse crowd-wise (about 3 other events happening in K-Town tonight +The Great Escape Festival just down the road in Brighton – excellent timing!) and the venue had some quite serious quirks with its enormous non-running clock, furry carpeted stage, and shonky monitor platforms that barely took my weight…but that I stood (and probably stamped) on anyway. Tonight was my first Luke Leighfield experience, a highlight of which was a fairly lengthy improvised song on the subject of cake – which I’m pretty sure I filmed so will upload soon enough. Hopefully he’ll take on my suggestion of an entirely cake themed concept album; Luke Cakefield, yum.
Afterwards we piled back to Del’s famous shed where I drank a bottle of rosé wine like it was beer (i.e. far too fast), ate crisps, and played Guitar Hero until the early hours of the morning. Watching Del attempt Hotel California on Expert made me realise how insane that game can be sometimes – if you turned the sound off you’d swear he was attempting some ridiculous Dragonforce track, rather than the relatively-easy-to-play-on-an-actual-guitar country-rock classic. It’s for that reason that I refuse to play on a greater difficulty level than “medium”, and not because I suck and am bitter about it, oh no.
Day 10: London
An early-ish start to pop back into Banquet Records and vandalise a few more copies of my album with silver and gold pens – thanks for buying from them, if you did…and if head to: www.banquetrecords.com/btr9 - and then off into East London to drop off some baggage and find a way to kill a few hours. Kev and I decided to spend the day in Shoreditch playing “Spot The Dickhead” – we lost count – and went for a meaty combo feast at the Hoxton Bar & Grill: YUM. Later we strolled around, ending up at the Big Chill Bar just off Brick Lane to meet up with a couple more pals before heading to gigland.
An early-ish start to pop back into Banquet Records and vandalise a few more copies of my album with silver and gold pens – thanks for buying from them, if you did…and if head to: www.banquetrecords.com/btr9 - and then off into East London to drop off some baggage and find a way to kill a few hours. Kev and I decided to spend the day in Shoreditch playing “Spot The Dickhead” – we lost count – and went for a meaty combo feast at the Hoxton Bar & Grill: YUM. Later we strolled around, ending up at the Big Chill Bar just off Brick Lane to meet up with a couple more pals before heading to gigland.
Tonight’s gig was part of Josaka head honcho Jim Bowes’ little brother’s 18th birthday party. Now, birthday party gigs can go one of two ways; either they’re relentless blasts of fun packed with people intent on having an awesome time, or they’re soul destroying evenings where you play to a crowd more intent on getting trashed and chatting to their mates than paying any attention whatsoever to the bands onstage. So it was with a little trepidation that I set up in the quirky Jamboree venue in the middle of the Cable Street Studios complex, the slight hangover and lack of sleep creating a bit of a negative mood.
Thankfully I needn’t have worried at all – Josh and his friends were up for it from the moment they arrived, and were an absolutely lovely bunch; singing along, headbanging, dancing, doing absolutely everything you could possibly ask of an audience and making for one of the most fun 30 minutes I have ever spent on a stage. Highlights for me were asking Josh if he was looking forward to his first ever alcoholic drink (as obviously he’d not have had one before the legal drinking age of 18, right?) and changing the words of “Gold” to “Josh” in the last chorus so everyone could shout his name over and over. Fun fun fun fun FUN.
Headliners Six Nation State got, if anything, an even more enthusiastic reaction, and the party was still going strong as I reluctantly ran for what I thought was my last train (it wasn’t – the TFL website lied/I was too drunk to read it properly). An awesome evening, thanks for having me along.
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
DIY May tour diary - leg 1
What happened to the weather? It was bakingly hot and beautiful, like all the summers that your parents tell you they experienced every year of their lives at your age* when it's pissing down through July and August........and then suddenly I walked out the front door this morning to find I needed a jumper and an umbrella. Bastard.
Such meterological phenomena aside, I'm back from the first week of my tour with...oh, I'm on my own this time aren't I, so it's a tour with Spotify Premium, a week's restful bank holiday boozing already playing havok with my liver, and my album waiting in the wings for its chance to wrestle its way into people's homes.
This leg of the tour had some interesting clashes with Real Life, a variety of attendence levels, and a serious amount of mileage - sorry carbon footprint.
DAY 1: Birmingham
Started with an activity even more rock & roll than installing a washing machine** - going to my gran's 83rd birthday lunch. I love my gran, she's ace.
Some familial catching up, a tiny glass of champers, and far too much food later we're heading back to Bristol & then I'm Birmingham-bound on the M5 for tonight's first gig at The Adam & Eve. Arriving far too early, I settle in for the evening as the pub slowly starts to populate itself with punters weary from the prolonged bank holiday festivities, yet still keen to witness this evening's lineup of acoustic music.
I've been to the A&E a few times - once for some cable-tv showcase thing which I never ended up seeing (probably a good thing really) - and they've always been a hospitable and fun bunch to play for. I greet a few familiar faces, make a weird piece of modern art broach type thing out of a Pringles can (see below) and get myself ready.
Annoyingly the opening 3 acts all over run, leading to a bit of a rush for me to get my full set in before the curfew...but luckily the bar staff urge me to play on, so probably end up going over my set time in the end but wtf. A fun opening night & then back to an old pal's place for Easter egg, G&T, toffee vodka and sleep.
Day 2: Oxford
Despite having a week off, my bodyclock is still firmly set to "dayjob" mode, so I wake up far too early & set off for Oxford - my first visit in January was a bit of a rushed affair so I was determined to make the most of a day out in this historic city, sitting in posh places scribbling in my awesome Dr Who notebook...and so I do; strolling around the grounds of the Bodleian while groups of Japanese and American tourists do battle to see who can fulfil the greatest quota of national stereotypes, not to be outdone by the outstandingly posh English tour guides; I also get myself some picnic material and sit in the grounds of Christ Church marvelling at just how much like living in a postcard this feels, I mean just look at this:
I also stumbled upon The Oxford Museum, which for a suggested £1 donation (I gave 5 x 20p coins) you could witness such delights as; a map showing where some Roman settlements were found near, but not in, Oxford; some marmalade; and a 15 minute video narrated by Tony Robinson in which culminated in rejoicing in the city's vibrant music scene "spearheaded by Supergrass and Radiohead". I'll type that again, "Supergrass and Radiohead". The only reason I can think of for their being ordered that way is that the museum is curated by Gaz Coombes' dad. Supergrass and Radiohead, honestly. And that wasn't the only tragedy - I scoured the whole museum and didn't find even one reference to Lewis, or his sidekick Hathaway. Hell, they didn't even mention the seminal detective series' little known pilot outing "Morse". Mental.
Reeling from this shock omission I made my wa y back to Café Tarifa via a quick pint and a phone charge in the Rusty Bicycle wherein I overheard the most overbearing self-important cuntversation of all time between a group of guys that wanted everyone in the pub to know that they were musicians, and how brilliant that made them, and how they knew people who were signed and everything. I honestly wanted to punch my balls off just for the association of having something in common with these pricks - I would have left earlier, but my phone hadn't charged enough & I wouldn't be able to get into the venue for another hour so endured it as my blood pressure rose.
Now the venue was lovely and the staff were all uber friendly, but unfortunately it just didn't quite happen tonight - there was a reasonable crowd for the first act on, but they were more of a "let's have a chat while some music happens" group of people, so pretty much all got up and went to the other end of the bar as soon as I started playing, leaving me with an audience of about 4. That combined with the fact that I drank one of their enormous bottles of beer before going onstage meant that it was a bit of a self conscious set which I didn't fully enjoy.........still, made a few friends, met up with a couple of old ones, and had a fun day so can't complain.
AND I GOT GIVEN GIANT BEER:
Day 3: Bristol
Another relatively early morning tour-wise, stupid bodyclock, so made it back to Bristol in time to have a spot of lunch with @mrsthief and spend the afternoon generally lazing around, getting to The Mother's Ruin in plenty of time to soundcheck, pop out for supplies, and greet the twin loveliness of Jim Lockey and Benny J. Hayes.
Both organising and playing a gig can be a bit of a weird experience as you end up sitting on the door instead of watching the other acts properly (though snatched a couple of looks). Couple that with the fact that you're playing your album in its entirety for the first time ever and there's the potential for a massive nervebomb funfail. Thankfully lots of people came along, were very generous with the pay-what-you-want arrangement (extra bonus points to Stan The Man for putting an entire tenner in) and my voice coped fine with the utter live unfriendliness of the running order (Terry Nutkins Salute third on the tracklist? Ouch) so I had a lot of fun, chatted a lot between songs, and ended up with a rousing outing for Gold (with my first ever self-centred "when I say X, you reply Y") and !@*# track There Can Be Only One for good measure.
Day 4: Brighton
With Jodie Live-Music-Scene on board as co-driver we set off down the scenic route to Brighton, arriving in time to spend £6 on a parking meter and explore the Laines a bit - managing to find a whole new row of shops, including what I can only describe as a vintage clothing and bric-a-brac hypermarket that I'm going to visit again sometime after winning the lottery to stock up on the humungous amount of kitsch brilliance contained therin.
Resisting the call of seaside fish & chips, thinking we'd probably find something healthier***, but Jodie being unable to
I've only played Brighton twice; the first time on a bill with Oasis wannabees in a Wetherspoons-esque venue playing to disinterested friends of the other bands, the second time in a sweaty room above an awesome rock bar, so was looking forward to my 3rd visit to the area. The venue is more a section of the pub, and it seemed to be a focus point for the unusual; a beer garden crammed with people smoking...but weirdly not seeming to visit the bar. Ever. A small dog (Adam Boucher christened her "Wakima") stage invading. And most brilliantly, a small ginger girl placing a helium "I'm Sorry" balloon at the merch table...then SCREAMING at her brother when he tried to retrieve it, insisting it was left in its new position.
I mean, people call all sorts of situations surreal ("Oh my god I went to buy some cheese and they'd run out; it was so surreal") when they actually mean "unusual", "strange", or in most cases..."slightly outside their normal parameters of experience" but I feel this was a turn of events worthy of the label for once - just consider the facts:
a) why did this child have the balloon in the first place?
b) why did the child decide to leave it at the merch table?****
c) what possible offence could you commit that would be serious enough to require some kind of action beyond a verbal apology, to which the purchase of an inflatable "I'm Sorry" balloon would be an adequate, and acceptable gesture?
The mind boggles.
Oh yeah, it also had this amended sign next to the Dyson Airblade
Still, it was a fun gig and we managed to incorporate the balloon, and the dog, into proceedings pretty well. Honorable mentions to the fantastic Hollywood Assassins for rock & rolling pretty hard, Adam Boucher for road testing his new backing band, and Adam Bennett for making it all happen.
There was only the small matter of having to drive back to Bristol post-gig as I had to attend a new dayjob interview at 9.50am the next morning - luckily Jodie LMS was up to the task and admirably got me home in time for about 5 hours pre-interview sleep. Hardcore or what?
Day 5: Banquet Records Instore. aka "The Day I Did Everything"
Bed at 3am, awake just after 7am, with a not insignificant amount of disturbance from our cat Monty to contend with during the night. Feeling weirdly awake and not at all mentally deranged I went through the usual interview routines, drank an enormous cup of tea, and went off to wow all and sundry. Feeling pretty positive***** I returned home to have a couple of hours kip before heading back on the road for my Banquet Records instore....well, that was the plan - in reality I led down for about 2 minutes, couldn't get to sleep, so watched Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle and then went to bash 7 shades of shite out of my drums instead. Revitalising.
One intensely rock & roll journey later (listening mainly to Radio 4) I arrive at the majestic Banquet Records, starting point for one hell of a lot of cds/records I've bought in the last few years, and get down to some serious browsing. It's been said many times before, but this place is just brilliant; a well stocked, well informed, well intentioned shop that truly seems concerned with the love of music above all else. After a bracing cup of tea courtesy of JT, I get my gig on - initially feeling a little bit starstruck by the building itself, and feeling a little bit self conscious about playing fully unplugged and shouting directly into the faces of the amassed dozen-strong audience, but I thoroughly enjoy the whole thing and stunned to see so many of the attendees buying copies of the album & asking me to sign them. Buy my album from them now, hell - buy all your music from them in future: www.banquetrecords.com/btr9.
After a quick catch up with the soon to be Dr Pendrey, I set off for Reading to meet up with Broken Tail Records overlord Ben Marwood and [edit] Radio's Kev Lawson to celebrate the former's milestone 30th year of being alive. First stop is at a fellow celebrant's festival-themed party, where I almost fall straight asleep as the day's activities catch up with me. But after some cake, inappropriate gaffa tape artwork, and a few pints of life giving water, I'm back in a party mood and it's off to the After Dark for double Jack Daniels + Red Bulls and a lengthy conversation about the heavy-metal-covers-of-advert-jingles band that I dearly want to start one day.
Happy Birthday Mr Marwood!
All together now *double bass drum battery* AUTOGLASS REPAIRRRRR, AUTOGLASS RE-PLACE! *chugga chugga widdle-widdle-woooooooo*
Day 6: Day off
And after two nights in a row of staying up till 3 or 4am it's going to be a good lie-in right? WRONG. Firstly I have to wake up at 8am to move my car as it's parked on a single yellow. So back to sleep right? WRONG. The only other spaces in walking distance are 2 hours only, so it's back to sleep for a bit; move the car again.Fun. After a hearty birthday sausage and egg breakfast celebration I head off to pick Mrs Thief up from the station and power towards Stevenage for an old buddy's wedding and a well needed massive amount of drinking ;)
Day 7: CheltenhamAnother night of inadequate sleep and it's time to drive to Cheltenham, via Bristol, for the inaugural Trees On Fire all dayer - a collaboration between the 2000 Trees Festival organisers, and the lovely folk at Istartedthefire Records featuring a stunning lineup. And Caves ;) I think it's safe to say that I might not have been firing on all cylinders for my set, but I had a decent stab at it & managed to enjoy all the other bands, particularly &u&i who provided me with enough of an energy boost to get back in the car and drive home to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Day 8: Album release day.
No gig to play today, but I had the whole day off to recover - so spent it catching up with Sky+, playing drums, and generally chilling out. Before drinking a bottle of champagne with Mrs Thief to celebrate the album being out, and then going to watch Fight Like Apes at The Academy and drinking a few more beers, stumbling home with ears ringing and liver throbbing. I will never learn.
Debut album Destroy It Yourself available now from:
*they lie.
**callbacks ftw.
***Papajohn's Pizza is healthy right?
****unless she was sorry not to be sticking around for the gig
*****I'm certain I wore all my clothes to the interview, and didn't answer all of their questions with the word "wibble"
Such meterological phenomena aside, I'm back from the first week of my tour with...oh, I'm on my own this time aren't I, so it's a tour with Spotify Premium, a week's restful bank holiday boozing already playing havok with my liver, and my album waiting in the wings for its chance to wrestle its way into people's homes.
This leg of the tour had some interesting clashes with Real Life, a variety of attendence levels, and a serious amount of mileage - sorry carbon footprint.
DAY 1: Birmingham
Started with an activity even more rock & roll than installing a washing machine** - going to my gran's 83rd birthday lunch. I love my gran, she's ace.
My Gran, and my sister; see if you can guess which is which.
Some familial catching up, a tiny glass of champers, and far too much food later we're heading back to Bristol & then I'm Birmingham-bound on the M5 for tonight's first gig at The Adam & Eve. Arriving far too early, I settle in for the evening as the pub slowly starts to populate itself with punters weary from the prolonged bank holiday festivities, yet still keen to witness this evening's lineup of acoustic music.
I've been to the A&E a few times - once for some cable-tv showcase thing which I never ended up seeing (probably a good thing really) - and they've always been a hospitable and fun bunch to play for. I greet a few familiar faces, make a weird piece of modern art broach type thing out of a Pringles can (see below) and get myself ready.
Yours for just £2,999,995, and a tube of Pringles.
Annoyingly the opening 3 acts all over run, leading to a bit of a rush for me to get my full set in before the curfew...but luckily the bar staff urge me to play on, so probably end up going over my set time in the end but wtf. A fun opening night & then back to an old pal's place for Easter egg, G&T, toffee vodka and sleep.
Day 2: Oxford
Despite having a week off, my bodyclock is still firmly set to "dayjob" mode, so I wake up far too early & set off for Oxford - my first visit in January was a bit of a rushed affair so I was determined to make the most of a day out in this historic city, sitting in posh places scribbling in my awesome Dr Who notebook...and so I do; strolling around the grounds of the Bodleian while groups of Japanese and American tourists do battle to see who can fulfil the greatest quota of national stereotypes, not to be outdone by the outstandingly posh English tour guides; I also get myself some picnic material and sit in the grounds of Christ Church marvelling at just how much like living in a postcard this feels, I mean just look at this:
Nowhere should look this awesome on a photo taken by a fucking telephone...
amazing advances in technology or not.
amazing advances in technology or not.
I also stumbled upon The Oxford Museum, which for a suggested £1 donation (I gave 5 x 20p coins) you could witness such delights as; a map showing where some Roman settlements were found near, but not in, Oxford; some marmalade; and a 15 minute video narrated by Tony Robinson in which culminated in rejoicing in the city's vibrant music scene "spearheaded by Supergrass and Radiohead". I'll type that again, "Supergrass and Radiohead". The only reason I can think of for their being ordered that way is that the museum is curated by Gaz Coombes' dad. Supergrass and Radiohead, honestly. And that wasn't the only tragedy - I scoured the whole museum and didn't find even one reference to Lewis, or his sidekick Hathaway. Hell, they didn't even mention the seminal detective series' little known pilot outing "Morse". Mental.
Reeling from this shock omission I made my wa y back to Café Tarifa via a quick pint and a phone charge in the Rusty Bicycle wherein I overheard the most overbearing self-important cuntversation of all time between a group of guys that wanted everyone in the pub to know that they were musicians, and how brilliant that made them, and how they knew people who were signed and everything. I honestly wanted to punch my balls off just for the association of having something in common with these pricks - I would have left earlier, but my phone hadn't charged enough & I wouldn't be able to get into the venue for another hour so endured it as my blood pressure rose.
Now the venue was lovely and the staff were all uber friendly, but unfortunately it just didn't quite happen tonight - there was a reasonable crowd for the first act on, but they were more of a "let's have a chat while some music happens" group of people, so pretty much all got up and went to the other end of the bar as soon as I started playing, leaving me with an audience of about 4. That combined with the fact that I drank one of their enormous bottles of beer before going onstage meant that it was a bit of a self conscious set which I didn't fully enjoy.........still, made a few friends, met up with a couple of old ones, and had a fun day so can't complain.
AND I GOT GIVEN GIANT BEER:
I <3 my giant beer.
Day 3: Bristol
Another relatively early morning tour-wise, stupid bodyclock, so made it back to Bristol in time to have a spot of lunch with @mrsthief and spend the afternoon generally lazing around, getting to The Mother's Ruin in plenty of time to soundcheck, pop out for supplies, and greet the twin loveliness of Jim Lockey and Benny J. Hayes.
Both organising and playing a gig can be a bit of a weird experience as you end up sitting on the door instead of watching the other acts properly (though snatched a couple of looks). Couple that with the fact that you're playing your album in its entirety for the first time ever and there's the potential for a massive nervebomb funfail. Thankfully lots of people came along, were very generous with the pay-what-you-want arrangement (extra bonus points to Stan The Man for putting an entire tenner in) and my voice coped fine with the utter live unfriendliness of the running order (Terry Nutkins Salute third on the tracklist? Ouch) so I had a lot of fun, chatted a lot between songs, and ended up with a rousing outing for Gold (with my first ever self-centred "when I say X, you reply Y") and !@*# track There Can Be Only One for good measure.
Day 4: Brighton
With Jodie Live-Music-Scene on board as co-driver we set off down the scenic route to Brighton, arriving in time to spend £6 on a parking meter and explore the Laines a bit - managing to find a whole new row of shops, including what I can only describe as a vintage clothing and bric-a-brac hypermarket that I'm going to visit again sometime after winning the lottery to stock up on the humungous amount of kitsch brilliance contained therin.
Resisting the call of seaside fish & chips, thinking we'd probably find something healthier***, but Jodie being unable to
I've only played Brighton twice; the first time on a bill with Oasis wannabees in a Wetherspoons-esque venue playing to disinterested friends of the other bands, the second time in a sweaty room above an awesome rock bar, so was looking forward to my 3rd visit to the area. The venue is more a section of the pub, and it seemed to be a focus point for the unusual; a beer garden crammed with people smoking...but weirdly not seeming to visit the bar. Ever. A small dog (Adam Boucher christened her "Wakima") stage invading. And most brilliantly, a small ginger girl placing a helium "I'm Sorry" balloon at the merch table...then SCREAMING at her brother when he tried to retrieve it, insisting it was left in its new position.
I mean, people call all sorts of situations surreal ("Oh my god I went to buy some cheese and they'd run out; it was so surreal") when they actually mean "unusual", "strange", or in most cases..."slightly outside their normal parameters of experience" but I feel this was a turn of events worthy of the label for once - just consider the facts:
a) why did this child have the balloon in the first place?
b) why did the child decide to leave it at the merch table?****
c) what possible offence could you commit that would be serious enough to require some kind of action beyond a verbal apology, to which the purchase of an inflatable "I'm Sorry" balloon would be an adequate, and acceptable gesture?
The mind boggles.
Oh yeah, it also had this amended sign next to the Dyson Airblade
I <3 Dyson Airblades, want one in my downstairs loo sooooooo bad.
Still, it was a fun gig and we managed to incorporate the balloon, and the dog, into proceedings pretty well. Honorable mentions to the fantastic Hollywood Assassins for rock & rolling pretty hard, Adam Boucher for road testing his new backing band, and Adam Bennett for making it all happen.
There was only the small matter of having to drive back to Bristol post-gig as I had to attend a new dayjob interview at 9.50am the next morning - luckily Jodie LMS was up to the task and admirably got me home in time for about 5 hours pre-interview sleep. Hardcore or what?
Day 5: Banquet Records Instore. aka "The Day I Did Everything"
Bed at 3am, awake just after 7am, with a not insignificant amount of disturbance from our cat Monty to contend with during the night. Feeling weirdly awake and not at all mentally deranged I went through the usual interview routines, drank an enormous cup of tea, and went off to wow all and sundry. Feeling pretty positive***** I returned home to have a couple of hours kip before heading back on the road for my Banquet Records instore....well, that was the plan - in reality I led down for about 2 minutes, couldn't get to sleep, so watched Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle and then went to bash 7 shades of shite out of my drums instead. Revitalising.
One intensely rock & roll journey later (listening mainly to Radio 4) I arrive at the majestic Banquet Records, starting point for one hell of a lot of cds/records I've bought in the last few years, and get down to some serious browsing. It's been said many times before, but this place is just brilliant; a well stocked, well informed, well intentioned shop that truly seems concerned with the love of music above all else. After a bracing cup of tea courtesy of JT, I get my gig on - initially feeling a little bit starstruck by the building itself, and feeling a little bit self conscious about playing fully unplugged and shouting directly into the faces of the amassed dozen-strong audience, but I thoroughly enjoy the whole thing and stunned to see so many of the attendees buying copies of the album & asking me to sign them. Buy my album from them now, hell - buy all your music from them in future: www.banquetrecords.com/btr9.
This = Ace.
After a quick catch up with the soon to be Dr Pendrey, I set off for Reading to meet up with Broken Tail Records overlord Ben Marwood and [edit] Radio's Kev Lawson to celebrate the former's milestone 30th year of being alive. First stop is at a fellow celebrant's festival-themed party, where I almost fall straight asleep as the day's activities catch up with me. But after some cake, inappropriate gaffa tape artwork, and a few pints of life giving water, I'm back in a party mood and it's off to the After Dark for double Jack Daniels + Red Bulls and a lengthy conversation about the heavy-metal-covers-of-advert-jingles band that I dearly want to start one day.
Happy Birthday Mr Marwood!
All together now *double bass drum battery* AUTOGLASS REPAIRRRRR, AUTOGLASS RE-PLACE! *chugga chugga widdle-widdle-woooooooo*
Day 6: Day off
And after two nights in a row of staying up till 3 or 4am it's going to be a good lie-in right? WRONG. Firstly I have to wake up at 8am to move my car as it's parked on a single yellow. So back to sleep right? WRONG. The only other spaces in walking distance are 2 hours only, so it's back to sleep for a bit; move the car again.Fun. After a hearty birthday sausage and egg breakfast celebration I head off to pick Mrs Thief up from the station and power towards Stevenage for an old buddy's wedding and a well needed massive amount of drinking ;)
Day 7: CheltenhamAnother night of inadequate sleep and it's time to drive to Cheltenham, via Bristol, for the inaugural Trees On Fire all dayer - a collaboration between the 2000 Trees Festival organisers, and the lovely folk at Istartedthefire Records featuring a stunning lineup. And Caves ;) I think it's safe to say that I might not have been firing on all cylinders for my set, but I had a decent stab at it & managed to enjoy all the other bands, particularly &u&i who provided me with enough of an energy boost to get back in the car and drive home to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Day 8: Album release day.
No gig to play today, but I had the whole day off to recover - so spent it catching up with Sky+, playing drums, and generally chilling out. Before drinking a bottle of champagne with Mrs Thief to celebrate the album being out, and then going to watch Fight Like Apes at The Academy and drinking a few more beers, stumbling home with ears ringing and liver throbbing. I will never learn.
Jeff & I <3 Fight Like Apes.
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Debut album Destroy It Yourself available now from:
www.banquetrecords.com/btr9 - £9.99, limited signed copies available.
www.amazon.co.uk - £6.99
Play.com Mp3 - £5.99
iTunes - £7.99
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*they lie.
**callbacks ftw.
***Papajohn's Pizza is healthy right?
****unless she was sorry not to be sticking around for the gig
*****I'm certain I wore all my clothes to the interview, and didn't answer all of their questions with the word "wibble"
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Destroy It Yourself review round up
Reviews have started coming in for the album, thought I'd put them all in one place:
Live-Music-Scene
Moon And Back Music
Blagsound (7/10)
Whisperin And Hollerin (7/10)
Neon Filler (4/10)
Live-Music-Scene
Moon And Back Music
Blagsound (7/10)
Whisperin And Hollerin (7/10)
Neon Filler (4/10)
Monday, 9 May 2011
Album is out, SHAZAM!
Morning all - I’ve just got back from the first leg of this tour and to say I am a bit tired would be a statement massive enough to collapse in on itself, creating a black hole and destroying the entire known universe, so I’ll refrain for the sake of all of humanity, and err…animality (or is that something from Mortal Kombat?).
Have had a great time though, so thanks to everyone who came out - tour diary/pics to follow & there are still lots more gigs to go over the coming weekends, which will rock and roll in equal measure.
In the meantime though, my album has only just gone and got released - if you’ve already preordered it, then massive great big piles of thanks. If not then you can get physical copies (with an 8 page booklet containing complete lyrics and a photo of my shouting face) from the following places;
Banquet Records (signed copies)
Townsend Records
Zavvi
HMV
Amazon
Or digitally from:
iTunes
Juno Download
Will update with a few more as they pop up.
Also, in case you might need a bit of convincing…the first couple of reviews have come in:
Whisperin And Hollerin
Live-Music-Scene.co.uk
Exciting, exhausting times - I’m off to eat breakfast and catch up on the week’s Sky+ backlog.
OT
Have had a great time though, so thanks to everyone who came out - tour diary/pics to follow & there are still lots more gigs to go over the coming weekends, which will rock and roll in equal measure.
In the meantime though, my album has only just gone and got released - if you’ve already preordered it, then massive great big piles of thanks. If not then you can get physical copies (with an 8 page booklet containing complete lyrics and a photo of my shouting face) from the following places;
Banquet Records (signed copies)
Townsend Records
Zavvi
HMV
Amazon
Or digitally from:
iTunes
Juno Download
Will update with a few more as they pop up.
Also, in case you might need a bit of convincing…the first couple of reviews have come in:
Whisperin And Hollerin
Live-Music-Scene.co.uk
Exciting, exhausting times - I’m off to eat breakfast and catch up on the week’s Sky+ backlog.
OT
Monday, 21 March 2011
New website: www.oxygenthiefmusic.com
Oxygen Thief has a new home: www.oxygenthiefmusic.com
Ok it's the same url, but it's a new website that works better than Myspace so everyone's a winner right?
OT
-------------------------
Upcoming gigs:
25th March - The Hobgoblin, Bath
31st March - Slak, Cheltenham
7th April - The Greyhound, Nottingham
8th April - Stereo, York
9th April - The Garrett, Manchester (early gig: 19.30 - 21.00)
10th April - The Cellar Bar, Worcester (TBC)
Now booking;
30th April - available
1st May - available
2nd May - Adam & Eve, Birmingham
3rd May - available
4th May - The Mother's Ruin, Bristol
5th May - The Cobbler's Thumb, Brighton
6th May - available
7th May - Frog & Fiddle, Birmingham
13th May - available
14th May - private party, London
15th May - available
19th May - available (Eire/NI)
20th May - available (Eire/NI)
21st May - available (Eire/NI)
22nd May - available (Eire/NI)
27th May - The Croft, Bristol (w/Chris T-T)
28th May - available
29th May - available
2nd June - The Swan, Kidderminster
3rd June - available
4th June - available
5th June - available
Ok it's the same url, but it's a new website that works better than Myspace so everyone's a winner right?
OT
-------------------------
Upcoming gigs:
25th March - The Hobgoblin, Bath
31st March - Slak, Cheltenham
7th April - The Greyhound, Nottingham
8th April - Stereo, York
9th April - The Garrett, Manchester (early gig: 19.30 - 21.00)
10th April - The Cellar Bar, Worcester (TBC)
Now booking;
30th April - available
1st May - available
2nd May - Adam & Eve, Birmingham
3rd May - available
4th May - The Mother's Ruin, Bristol
5th May - The Cobbler's Thumb, Brighton
6th May - available
7th May - Frog & Fiddle, Birmingham
13th May - available
14th May - private party, London
15th May - available
19th May - available (Eire/NI)
20th May - available (Eire/NI)
21st May - available (Eire/NI)
22nd May - available (Eire/NI)
27th May - The Croft, Bristol (w/Chris T-T)
28th May - available
29th May - available
2nd June - The Swan, Kidderminster
3rd June - available
4th June - available
5th June - available
Monday, 7 March 2011
Census thoughts...
Census form has arrived - aside from concerns about Lockheed's involvement there's also The Census Campaign to think carefully about.
Writing "Jedi" in the religion box is fun and all, but http://census-campaign.org.uk/ has good reasons why the non-religious should tick the "no religion" box rather than being flippant, or ticking a box that represents your cultural heritage rather than practicing affiliation.
This isn't an attack on the religious, but an important way for those without a belief to be counted and considered when it comes to the justification of future policy makers*.
That's surprisingly coherent considering the amount of Lemsip I've had today.....
*assuming that government policy has anything in mind at the moment other than "CUT IT - CUT ALL THE MONEY! ALL OF IT!"
Writing "Jedi" in the religion box is fun and all, but http://census-campaign.org.uk/ has good reasons why the non-religious should tick the "no religion" box rather than being flippant, or ticking a box that represents your cultural heritage rather than practicing affiliation.
This isn't an attack on the religious, but an important way for those without a belief to be counted and considered when it comes to the justification of future policy makers*.
That's surprisingly coherent considering the amount of Lemsip I've had today.....
*assuming that government policy has anything in mind at the moment other than "CUT IT - CUT ALL THE MONEY! ALL OF IT!"
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