Broken Records

SXSW Show List

2010-03-13T16:58:56Z

'A Promise' Featured in 'Skins' Episode 4

2010-02-19T10:23:00Z

So, it turns out that our song 'A Promise' is the ideal soundtrack to comedians/actors making up. The song was used at the climax of last night's Skins episode.

If you missed you can watch the full episode online at 4oD, and the song is here on iTunes (and many other places of course!)

News! Live, SXSW, Skins, New stuff....

2010-02-16T13:27:22Z

Sorry we've gone a bit quiet on you over the last few weeks. We thought we'd just take a bit of time now to have a ramble about what's been keeping us out of trouble/getting us into trouble recently.

LIVE SHOWS

It's probably been most noticeable that we haven't had many live shows this year and the calendar is still looking quite blank over the next few months, but we'll explain the reason for this later. We started the first show of the year at the Eurosonic festival in Groningen, Netherlands on the 15th of January, followed by a special Burns Night show at King Tut's in Glasgow. You can read Andy's much funnier account of these snowy escapades over on the myspace blog.

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But enough of these misty-eyed ramblings - both shows were a lot of fun to play, despite some slightly embarrassing moments (to the gentleman at Hidden Door who knew the words to Wolves, a thousand thank-yous!). Alongside the usual numbers we threw in a couple of new tracks and a very nice version of Nearly Home performed in the style of eagleowl! But most importantly a huge amount of credit needs to go to the organisers of both events. The effort that went into converting The Roxy into a maze of multimedia art installations and performance spaces was staggering, and the Sick Kids Sunday organisers put together a brilliant line-up of local acts including Meursault, Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers, Sparrow & The Workshop, Eagleowl, James Yorkston & Adrian Crowley, and a last-minute slot by Rob St John. On top of that a goodly amount of money was raised for charity! It was really great to see so much happening in Edinburgh with everyone donating so much of their own time and energy to put on two very successful events.

SXSW

The one exception to the lack of upcoming live dates is our trip out to Austin, Texas for the South by South West (SXSW) festival in March. This is another reason we've been a bit quiet - the bureaucratic nightmare of trying to arrange working visas as well as trying to sort out the logistics of flights, transport and kit hire for this many people and for the cheapest way possible has become something of a full-time job over the last couple of weeks! Seriously, if anyone has ever had to try and get a US Visa/Work Permit you'll know it's an enormous pain in the arse, but I think we're nearly there. We've got the final interviews at the US embassy shortly so the main task for this week is to get our (well, mainly my) thick winter growth of beards trimmed down to something slightly less "Taliban-esque"!
Thankfully we've had some help with all of this from the Scottish Arts Council who have very kindly provided some funding towards the trip as well as putting us on at one of their Scottish Showcase events while we're out there. Exact details of where and when we'll be playing while we're out there still need to be finalised, although we can confirm that we're playing a 4AD/Bella Union showcase at Buffalo Billiards on Thursday 18th March with Midlake, Efterklang, The Low Anthem and Peter Broderick. If you're going to be in Austin for SXSW we'll be putting up details of the other showcases on our website, myspace and facebook pages when we have them, or keep an eye on the SXSW website for more updates.

http://sxsw.com/

"LIES" SINGLE

To coincide with our trip to the US, 4AD will be giving our "Lies" single a digital release there on the 15th of March. It was originally released as a limited edition 7" back in 2008 and has apparently gone on to be our most successful single. It even made it to number one in the Indie charts in Qatar. Twice. Now it's America's turn so let's see if we can get it to the top of the Billboard charts there (just the once will be fine, twice is a bit greedy)! Full details on where you can download it will follow soon. In the meantime, here's the video for it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuDUiVwNpdc

SKINS

We've been led to understand that our track "A Promise" will be making an appearance on this week's episode of Skins (Series 4, Episode 4, Thursday 10pm on E4. All the fours.). Now we've got into the habit of never believing something's going to happen until we're on the plane/the money's in the bank/the lawyer's arrived to bail us out etc, so we'll see what happens. No matter what your opinion of Skins is, the music selection is always excellent and eclectic. Recently we've spotted them using tracks by Max Richter, James Yorkston, Electrelane, an entire episode of Debussy pieces, and the splendid opening sequence of an episode that had no dialogue for the first five minutes while Mogwai's "Cody" played in its entirety. So we're quite excited to see what they do with "A Promise", and for a fleeting moment we might just be "down with the kids"!

NEW MUSIC

So, the main reason we've been pretty quiet on the live front is that we're all holed up busily working on writing and demoing songs for the second record. We recorded a new single with Glasgow based producer Tony Doogan (Mogwai, Delgados, Belle & Sebastian) back in November and it's due for release later in the year, so we'll keep you posted about developments with that. As usual with us it doesn't have a title yet (and almost certainly won't do until someone actually forces us to put something down on a record sleeve!), but we've been dropping a working version of it into live sets since the summer so if you've seen us since then there's a good chance you've heard it!

We're currently putting Rory's burgeoning Garage Band skills and patience to the test, and he's been home-recording rough demos of some of the new tracks, although I think it's just a ruse to make sure his violin goes really high in the mix! We're planning to go back into the studio with Tony when we get back from SXSW so we're unlikely to be doing any more live shows until summertime comes around. As always, we'll keep you posted with more album details and live shows when we have them.

GENERAL STUFF

Apart from all of that we're all very well thank you, and this is what we've also been doing with our time:

Gill: Being driven slowly insane trying to code a 'new-look' version of our website.
Rory : As above, being driven insane by constant requests from everyone to change things in the demos.
Arne: Continuing his quest to make the perfect cup of coffee with his fancy espresso maker. It was great during the demoing - he just kept appearing with amazing coffees for everyone in these little glasses with expertly frothed milk. If the band goes tits up he's going to have a bright future as a Barista!
Ian: Pretending to be Neil from Meursault at every opportunity and bemoaning the imminent loss of his luxuriant beard in a bid to make getting through US Customs run a bit smoother.
Jamie: Writing, writing, writing, writing, writing, writing. And probably playing a bit of Championship Manager as well.
Dave: Catching up on a lot of our boring band admin work and doing whatever it is that Dave does.
Andy: Playing with his shiny new electric drum pads so he doesn't disturb the neighbours and contemplating his banjo-led Bluegrass/Techno fusion side-project.

Keep checking the website and sign up to the forum, plus facebook, myspace and twitter for updates and hopefully see you all soon!

ianbrokenrecord

Broken Records on 4AD 2009 Sampler

2009-12-17T18:21:58Z

To celebrate another succesful year, 4AD have put together a sampler containging tracks from all the acts with releases in the past 12 months. From our album, Until The Earth Begins To Part, they have include 'If Eilert Loveborg Wrote A Song, It Would Sound Like this', alongside tracks from the likes of Deerhunter, Future Of The Left, The National and St. Vincent.

You can preview the tracks below, and get the download by clicking the link at the bottom:

Edinburgh Christmas Show - 9th Dec

2009-11-24T16:26:21Z

*Update: Tickets are expected to sell out over the weekend, so try and book soon if you don't want to miss this!*

We're really excited to be able to announce that we will be playing a show back in Edinburgh on December 9th at Cabaret Voltaire. As we haven't played on home turf since August, we can't wait for this night. Thankfully Withered Hand isn't sick of spending time with us after joining us for the Scottish leg of the last tour, and will be supporting us once again along with potential 7-a-side football opponents, Jesus H.Foxx. It looks to us like it's going to be great, so come along and share in some good old christmas spirit. Tickets are £7 in advance and you can get them from TicketWeb.co.uk

'Out On The Water' Digital E.P. Out Today

2009-11-02T13:40:36Z

Just a quick note to say that the 'Out On The Water' E.P is released across the interweb today. Tracklistings and further info can be found in the post below. It can be downloaded from any of the following trustworthy retailers:

Also, as off tomorrow you can find us on tour around the UK, from down South, to far up North. Hope to see you along the way!

Thanks,
BR

New EP & Tour

2009-09-12T09:20:00Z

We're very pleased to announce that 4AD will be officially releasing our limited edition Out On The Water EP. The EP is a home recorded collection of previously unreleased tracks, demos and b-sides which we put together in November 2008, prior to the sessions for Until The Earth Begins To Part, with the help of our sound engineer Simon Kasprowicz.

Originally the EP was only available on CD for a limited period at gigs and at Avalanche Records in Edinburgh. 4AD will now be giving it a digital release on Monday 2nd November.

The tracklisting is:

1. Out On The Water
2. The Crumbling Wall
3. Lessons Never Learnt (original B-side to If The News... single)
4. A Warning
5. All So Tired

To coincide with the release we'll be off on a tour round England and Scotland. You can catch us at the following places:

Tuesday 3rd November: The Duchess, York
Wednesday 4th November: Masque Theatre, Liverpool
Thursday 5th November: Bush Hall, London
Friday 6th November: The Cooler, Bristol
Saturday 7th November: Tait Hall, Kelso
Sunday 8th November: Oran Mor, Glasgow
Tuesday 10th November: Perth Theatre, Perth
Wednesday 11th November: Cafe Drummond, Aberdeen
Thursday 12th November: Ironworks, Inverness
Friday 13th November: Skinandies, Thurso

Festival Diary - Part 3

2009-08-28T10:36:03Z

There are probably few feelings worse in life than standing in a confined, stinking plastic box, attempting to answer the call of nature whilst simultaneously trying to avoid dysentry, when the sound of an MC saying "Ladies and gentleman, please welcome to the stage...Broken Records!" floats from the stage, some hundred yards away, to your ears. You are then faced with a dilemma - to arrest mid-act and risk having to carry a pair of piss-stained jeans to Germany and back, or to take the extra minute to finish up, which will necessitate a sprint to the stage doing up your trousers, to the amusement of the backstage crew, as Ian and Rory play the loop at the start of Nearly Home over and over again on an otherwise empty stage. I opt for the latter.
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Festival Survival Tip #6 - You get more "bang for your buck" if you get down with the lentil brigade.

Sunday saw us heading south to The Big Chill, in glorious sunshine. We unloaded the van a few miles from the stage (that may be a slight exaggeration) and myself and Kas sat with the gear to wait for a trailer. Some hours later (that may be a slight exaggeration), a trailer arrived and we drove round to the stage, past the enormous abandoned tower of Vitamin Water(TM), and having only injured one or two suicidal pedestrians on the way. Once everything was in order I went off for a vegan burger (see Tip #6 above) and caught up with some friends while working on my "Scotsman's Tan" (deep red). This brings us neatly round to the opening paragraph, when a few of us got caught out by an enthuasiastic clock, but having arrived sheepishly on stage we went on to play an enjoyable set. It took quite a while afterwards to get all the kit back to the appropriate loading point so we hung around backstage looking forlorn until they gave us some more free beer, then set off for the delights of the Travelodge (I think - I really need to start keeping a diary. Maybe we slept in the van. Who knows? Who even cares?).

Monday saw us into London in the afternoon for a "courtyard session" for The Fly (video available in previous blog). As drums were deemed a bit much in this case I undertook some "very important" jobs such as going to buy batteries and smoking, leaving Jim, Rory, Arne and Dave to do some cool acoustic-ness. Then we went round to the Royal Festival Hall to load in ahead of the evening's support slot with The National. The venue was more than impressive in scale and the staff more than helpful in demeanour, indeed there appeared to be a lady assigned to our dressing room (actually, three dressing rooms, each with it's own piano...) solely to slice ham and follow me around wrapping things up in cling film as I casually made a sandwich. The stage was great, the layout of the seats was a little intimidating from my position on the riser but the half hour set was over so quickly I didn't really have time to think about it. We packed up sharpish and headed upstairs to one of the boxes to watch The National, the first time I'd seen them and they really were very good. A lot "harder" than I was expecting as well. Afterwards I managed to lose everyone whilst looking for an errant hi-hat stand and ended up six floors up trying to find the mysterious Artists Bar. When I did finally find it it seemed to be filled with very tall drummers (we were just missing Mick Fleetwood for the full set...), and Ian accosted me in a flap having just blurted out some "I want your babies"-style banter to the very tall drummer of the Bad Seeds concerning their Latitude set. I managed to avoid any similar incidents by not speaking to anyone at all until we were crushed in a tiny lift at the end of the night (which, according to the safety notice could have held another three people - a likely story). We had a look for a bar afterwards but it seems that getting a late drink in London is a trickier business than in Edinburgh at the moment (although the 5am licencing won't last forever...), so we went back to our long-suffering friend's flat in Brick Lane for a few tins and a kip.

We had the following day off, a few of us having to meet at the Festival Hall to pick up the gear at five but with the rest of the day to ourselves. As I was running perilously low on finances by this stage of the game, I had taken the liberty of memorising four pages of the A - Z the previous night, in the hope that I could avoid public transport and spend the day exploring the locality on foot. After spending some time in a park, I found my way to the British Museum, and spent most of the afternoon there before navigating my way south (I did actually use the position of the sun for this, as by this point I had completely forgotten what the map looked like). We loaded the van and sat by the river for a beer before heading back for some tasty dinner and drinks at Brick Lane, and a thoroughly refreshing sleep.

Wednesday saw us heading to Germany for the first time (as a band. Obviously Arne has been there lots...), to play the Haldern Festival. We stayed in Rees (I think), on the Rhine, arriving some time after a lot of the local eateries had already closed, but managed to find somewhere that would sell us pork and chips with a gallon of mayonnaise and some tasty beers before heading back to the hotel. It was a nice evening for walking and the town was quite sleepy, indeed the only things I saw stirring on the way back were rabbits, lots and lots of rabbits. Our room had a small balcony so I stood out and watched the lights of the boats heading up the Rhine for a bit before Kas returned from the pub and climbed up the balcony, taking some of the edge off of the peacefulness...

Festival Survival Tip #13 - Beware the Irish, beware drummers.

We took breakfast in the hotel dining room, which made the most of it's location by having full length windows all the way round the side facing the river. There were constant boats and coffee, the wheels of industry and the ham rolls were turning, and I left feeling ready for the day. We decided to stock up on cheap beers and pastries at Lidl (over the bridge, left hand side...), before heading to Kalkar for some extravagent ice creams and strong coffee in the market square and a walk down to a windmill. We then headed for the festival site, Arne charming passing cyclists with his witty chat, of which I understood nothing, arriving in the early afternoon. We were playing in a big speigeltent, all wood and mirrors, with big screens outside for the punters that couldn't fit in. It had all the humidity of a sauna and as one band had dropped from the bill our set had increased to an hour which was a royal workout and a chance to test some new material too. Afterwards we went for tea, a ludicrous feast of meat and tasty bits, washed down with copious amounts of beer, self-service taps of which seemed to be available all over the backstage area. We went back to watch a few bands and meet Arne's family before they set off, then headed backstage to our dressing room/caravan to grab a few more beers. Things start to go downhill a little around about this point, I recall talking to some ladies from Liverpool and then Kas going to bed at a shockingly early juncture, the meal having taken it's toll. A few people went to the lake for a swim, and I ended up doing the rounds of the campsite with an Irish fellow from one of the other bands, also a drummer. At some point we picked up some of the stage crew who we had met earlier that day, who also helped with some of the more difficult campfire translation (do you have any cigarettes? etc.), my last recollection being sneaking into the backstage area with some 2 litre water bottles to fill them from the free beer taps.

I awoke in Belgium (?) with my jacket over my head and a bottle of apple juice clutched in my hand, although I had had breakfast backstage with Dave earlier that very morning, apparently. If I did it wasn't at the forefront of my memory, but as we didn't have a gig that day I didn't worry too much about this state of affairs and tried to spend as much time sleeping as possible. It seems we missed the ferry but got on a later one ok, and after a restorative McDonalds (bleurgh) things started to look a little better. We made it to Toddington alright and set about monging in front of the telly and dozing. The next morning was a lot better, until we stopped the van to put some air in the tyres, and it wouldn't start again. After a while someone from the AA arrived, and did a remarkable job of fixing the engine, for a jakey (geddit?). Although his parting words were, if you stall it or stop the engine, it'll never start again. So no pressure for the drivers.

Festival Survival Tip #21 - It is the responsibilty of the driver to check oil, water, and tyres DAILY.

We made it to Summer Sundae in Liecester without stopping the engine and found our way to the stage, albeit a little on the late side. It seems that communications between the festival and ourselves had been minimal since it was booked and there was a good bit of trying-to-work-out-what-was-going-on going on, but we got on alright and played fine. As it was in the middle of Liecester the volume was reportedly set low enough to have a normal conversation pretty much right in front of the stage which meant that there was maybe a little impact lacking but all in all I think it went over ok. By some miracle of engineering the van started again afterwards and we were able to head back to Edinburgh in time for the Queens Hall show the following Monday.

Special Guests for Queens Hall, 17th August

2009-08-10T13:58:59Z

We're delighted to announce that the excellent My Latest Novel will be joining us for the Queen's Hall show in Edinburgh next Monday (17th August)

Tickets are still available online from ticketmaster.co.uk, priced £10 (plus booking)

Festival Diary - Part 2

2009-07-29T12:01:56Z

The last couple of weeks has seen us playing at Latitude Festival and Truck, playing two different ends of the spectrum in terms of stages, the first being the main stage at Latitude which was quite an experience. One of the few times where we have felt there was almost too much space on the stage! We arrived there later than we expected on Friday due to the storm that seemed to follow us all the way down the M1, but an advance party had set off the day before and when we got there at around nine in the evening they had already set up all the tents which saved a load of hassle, thanks guys!

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The next morning we arose around half ten and made our way over to the stage for about midday (again an advance party had already gone that way looking for showers and clean toilets, well they had been there a day longer than most of us). We unloaded all the bits and bobs, got our risers set up, of which we had three, one for Dave and one for Arne as well as the usual drum riser, then headed to the dressing room to drink coffee, read papers and generally timewaste until stage time. Once we had done our line check we were told to stay on the stage and just get started as they were trying to run the stage a little ahead of time, so we didn't have our usual minute or two to get proper nervous/worked up which was a bit weird. It took a few songs to get the sound sorted on stage as it was just kind of "floating away", but everything came together alright and the crowd grew steadily throughout (I think - to be honest I wasn't looking out front much, despite being in the rare position of actaully being able to see everyone). And it didn't rain!

Afterwards we packed up and headed round for tea, which, having only had liquids for breakfast, went down a treat. Although they didn't have the World's Best Chocolate Cake they had last year (the award for Best Cake 2009 loks to be going to Oxegen so far, but it could still be beaten...), they at least partially made up for it with a tooth-dissolving treacle tart. The advance party from Thursday were also staying for Thom Yorke and Nick Cave on the Sunday, but the rest of us who have less of a love of life under canvas made our way back home that evening.

We had a bit of a week off last week, before meeting up at nine on Saturday to drive down to Truck festival in Oxfordshire. This time we had good weather for the drive and we were there on time despite the van sporadically and mysteriously limiting itself to 45 miles an hour for long periods. The festival is on a farm and it it a nice compact site, plenty of local traders on so on, and normal food and beer prices which is always good. We got parked up near the stage and went to see a few bands, caught some of We Were Promised Jetpacks in the Barn Stage (located, unsurprisingly, in a barn) which had signs around the walls saying "Warning - These walls are made of asbestos, Do Not Touch", which was an interesting location for a loud, vibration-heavy rock concert. The sun stayed with us until stage time, this time we were playing on the Market Stage, a small "big top" style tent with an easily-undulating stage which gave the impression of playing on a boat when everyone started stomping away during Nearly Home (we even managed to bounce the trumpet clean out of Dave's mouth). It was a good set, pretty fast and energetic, good crowd, and had a bit of a "held together with sellotape" vibe. Afterwards we headed over The Field Of Money (I hadn't managed to walk past here once all day without finding cash lying around) to the Didcot Rotary Club Food Tent, where acquired a burger and some coffee before making the long drive back to Edinburgh, arriving at around 05:30 on Sunday morning. Just in time to fall asleep until mid-afternoon...

We don't have anything on this weekend so it's back to practicising until we head off to Belladrum the week after that. I don't really know what to do with myself to be honest. I need to take up some kind of (free) hobby, suggestions welcome. Anyways hope you all had good weekends, remember Monday is just another day and it will be over soon.

Festival Diary - Part 1

2009-07-15T12:08:46Z

The festival season well and truly kicked off for us two weeks ago with two sets at Glastonbury, followed by an appearance at the Metropolis Festival in Rotterdam last weekend. (I will cover all these festivals in a bit more detail later, this is just a brief one as the bed I was sitting on to type has just collapsed...)

This weekend just gone saw us at T in the Park, scene of our first festival appearance two years ago at the T Break Stage. It was good to be back, albeit for a flying visit, playing on the new BBC Introducing stage. There is a video of it on the BBC website or those of you who like that sort of thing.

There will also be a song on BBC Three (telly, not radio) on Wednesday night, they are doing an acoustic special from the BBC's "Intimate Stage" in the backstage area. It is quite an unusual stage set up and looked pretty cool from where I was standing at the bar (as drums were deemed, in this instance, a little too much!).

We didn't hang around too late, despite the free beer, as we had a five o'clock start on Sunday to head to Dublin for the Oxegen Festival. I had forgotten that it was the 12th of July and the ferry from Stranraer to Belfast was something of an experience to say the least... We had a great time at Punchestown Racecourse though, thanks to all who braved the (extreme!) elements, although we were in a tent so maybe it was the people who didn't want to brave the elements, hmmm...

Anyways, there should be bits and bobs of interviews etc. on Vic Galloways T in the Park specials over the next few nights so stay tuned, and again BBC Three tomorrow night at seven o'clock for some acoustic action.

'Until The Earth Begins To Part' US Release

2009-07-07T07:00:00Z

This week our debut album 'Until The Earth Begins To Part is officially released on 4AD in the US

It's something we're proud to have had the chance to do, and owe a big thanks to many people for making this happen.

The album is available on CD and 12" versions from most good record shops (and some bad ones, with downloads from iTunes with an exclusive bonus track. The tracklisting is as follows:

Nearly Home
If The News Makes You Sad, Don't Watch It
Until The Earth Begins To Part
A Promise
Thoughts On A Picture (In A Paper, January 2009)
If Eilert Løvborg Wrote A Song, It Would Sound Like This
Wolves
Ghosts
A Good Reason
Slow Parade
------------------------
Guilty Conscience/Restless Mind *iTunes bonus track *

'Song, By Toad' Bedlam Gig Footage

2009-07-06T15:56:00Z

Edinburgh blogger and gin-loving supporter of the local music scene, Matthew from songbytoad.com, recently filmed a gig we played in the unique setting of Edinburgh's Bedlam Theatre. He has posted the gig in it's entirety here on his blog.

To give you a taste, here's the footage of Broken Records live favourite 'A Good Reason':

Some More Festival Dates

2009-06-22T18:06:36Z

To keep us all out of trouble this summer, we've booked up a few more festival dates:

26th June - Glastonbury - Dirty Boots Stage - 15:00
27th June - Glastonbury - Queens Head Stage - 16:30
5th July - Metropolis, Rotterdam, NL - Thinkers Stage - 14:20
11th July - T in The Park - BBC Introducing stage - Time TBC
12th July - Oxegen, Ireland - Stage/Time TBC
18th July - Latitude Festival - Main Stage - 15:30
25th July - Truck Festival - Market Stage - Time TBC
7th Aug - Belladrum - Garden Stage - Time TBC
13th Aug - Haldern Festival, DE - Stage/Time TBC
15th Aug - Summer Sundae - Stage/Time TBC
21st Aug - Green Man - Stage/Time TBC

Tour Diary - Revolution & Mayhem

2009-06-08T22:13:09Z

Last night was the O2 Academy 2 in Newcastle, which is the wee diddy room upstairs at the O2 Academy. The sign above the door curiously read "BROKEN RECORDS THEN REVOLUTION AND MAYHEM", which actually referred to the club night which was on afterwards. Got everything up to the third floor via four trips in the wee lift, then sandwiches and coffee. ]]>
Doors open. Crowd non existent, so retire downstairs to dressing room. Confused by Times crossword. Try independent. Even more confused. Back upstairs for a bit of Sparrow and the Workshop, crowd picking up a touch. On stage at nine, forget to switch snares on but it's so fecking loud that it's not noticeable. Carlsberg Export. T's guitar so loud in Lover's Pacts my ears explode. Cut thumb on cymbal. Bottle of water, second beer. Sore arms and Slow Parade. Curfew pretty strict so rapid-fire load out, then off to pub with Sparrows for a few jars. Hour and a half drive to hotel in Leeds. Realise I have left my entire toiletries on bed in Edinburgh, sucks. Get spare toothbrush off T. 3am - sleep.

So that was a condensed version of yesterday, today I awoke at about ten to twelve leaving just enough time for a quick shower before we got booted out the hotel. The drive to the venue was only fifteen minutes and we didn't have to load in until three so we opted for hanging out in the hotel car park eating baguettes and drinking coffee from Gill's camping stove. Great bit of kit and it only takes about three hours to boil one cup of water.

We played Leeds to a reasonable crowd on Saturday night, before heading off to nearby Wakefield for a good nights kip. On Sunday morning we drove down to London for an instore gig at Rough Trade (east), where we played for half an hour on a stage not that much bigger than your average drum riser. It was all a bit weird playing in a shop, particularly soundchecking as people were browsing round the records. Kas was conveniently hidden behind a pillar half way up the shop (which was really quite large with a warehouse-y vibe - this is also the same store I got locked in the toilet last time I was there...)

Despite the initial awkwardness it seemed to go across fairly well. The stage was in danger of collapse during Good Reason but it held up alright. Afterwards we went round for a Brick Lane curry which was the best thing ever, then off to Bristol where we were staying in the centre of town.

We got up around mid morning today and wandered around Bristol for a little while which was nice with the sun out. Load in at Thekla was around 2pm, and it transpires that the venue is indeed a boat. We re actually playing underwater. Which must be good for the soundproofing at least. Soundcheck was fine and dandy, and I'm currently trying to digest the whale-sized fish that I've just consumed, sitting upstairs on the diddy computer again.

I really struggled to remember anything of note over the past few days which is why this is pretty brief - there's nothing to give away the fact that today is Monday, yesterday was Sunday, Saturday was Leeds etc. Over the next few days I will try to update on a more regular basis while it's fresh in the mind.

BR xxx