i'm tough.

(Being tough wasn't required after all..the teeth came out fine and i felt totally normal all day although i did try and ham it up just a little bit with the others to get out of humping amps up fire escapes and things. It didn't work).

escape great.

We played our first gig of the year in a downstairs club in the middle of friday afternoon..strange concept but it felt so good to be playing again, it kind of took me by surprise just how loud we are onstage compared to our practice room when we first came in after 4 clicks...!! I wore a jumper and a coat which were hastily removed..schoolboy. Much fun and good response to the new stuff although we are by no means gig tight yet, much work is in order but the plan is to spend most of the next 6 weeks doing some random gigs and rehearsing ready for the summer onwards so we will definately be up to speed pretty quick. We forgot to write out enough of the set lists so we ended up scrabbling around in the dark a bit trying to figure out what was coming next. I have really missed gigs. We spent the rest of friday afternoon squinting on brighton pier. Jonathan from our publishers gave us an education in the delights of dolphin derby an absolutely great £1 game where you have to throw various balls into different scoring holes to get your dolphin to move forwards ( a bit like horse racing) they had a polish matey commentating but he didn't have much of a patter- his excitement had obviously dwindled in recent times..we managed to persuade him into a frenzy of 'go, go, go's' but it didn't seem to help my performance at all.

Brighton was band central..we had a game of spot who isn't in a band, which was quite fun but didn't last long....we were about to start another game of (shouting out) 'oh look its the pidgeon detectives!' at every band that walked past us but then bottled it as dave eringa rocked up to say hello which was nice..he got in on some derby action before we left to start our commute home. Home to my local rude boys drinking cut price lager on the bench, wonderful contrast to identikit bands.

PLAYING again

tomorrow we play the great escape festival at an afternoon party thing for artrocker and our press lot starling (its free and anyone can come)..should be good, will also be nice to meet up with mr eringa afterwards when he finishes some panel type thing..i think we are ready to play again, i've been learning some new glock and keyboard parts and mr del rio has been warbling his voice into shape. We've also just confirmed a last minute gig at the jericho tavern in oxford on tuesday as main support to a norwegian lady called ida maria? apparently she is good..I will have had two wisdom teeth taken out that day so it should be more entertaining than usual, tough tough tough guy. Must dash to a final practice now,, album should be mastered in a couple of weeks and then we can finally get moving. Hooray

BACK ---> WOrk.

Today is the first day of rehearsing before we get back into touring again..got a gig next week at great escape so need to try and remember what it is to play live, i think this is the longest we have ever gone without a gig (5months!!!!) am itching to get back on it,, not even sure what songs we shall play, think i'll let the others figure it out, debates tire me out and no doubt today will be hot and sweaty in our room..will have to try and fashion some kind of vocal p.a together as our speakers were nicked the other week in the burglary. Had a lovely bbq on Reading beach last night, managed to get a baseball pitched straight into my noise early on, think its broken again but it seems to have flattened the bend from the first time..i'm looking good if a little purple... see some of you next week in brighton x

birds.

word up..last night we got in as many last games of table tennis as we could muster before the sun went down on the final day of the making of this album. It was a sad moment but will shortly be replaced by the sun rise of day21, the birds of brixton are getting rowdy (04.47am) poor gra needs to be ready to blow up balloons for his sister-in-laws wedding back in Reading 5 hours time (10am) he shall look fresh indeed. james and jess are sleeping in various studios and here i am yet again representing..stepping up to the plate..putting it all on the line..being the real deal, peace off-safety in numbers. x