Hitler Spider, Fieldview and Giants

Too much time on ones hands.

It’s sunny today. Really sunny. This is good.

Fieldview was immense…saw a few great bands and we had a great little crowd – so thanks everyone for supporting, we bloody loved it. It was especially great when the crowd pressured Dan into eating a spider before our final song. I don’t know what the poor spider ever did to deserve to have met such a horrendous fate, Dans mouth being its final memories of life and all that.

Maybe in a previous life, the spider was Hitler?

We managed to catch some awesome bands. Late Friday night, we made it to the festival just in time to see Lucy Rose on the main stage. Arguably, much of the crowd were craving some dirty Friday DubStep and she could not have been more opposite. Even still, she had everyone captivated and her epic stage dive was a highlight for me. I can’t believe she dived face down! Brave girl. All I can say is that there were a few guys thanking their lucky stars that they’d got near enough to the front to provide hands for Lucy’s jump.

Early on the Saturday, we caught a band from Newcastle called ‘Vinyl Jacket’, they were amazing and so full of energy that by the end of the set, I was exhausted. The guy playing that triangle must also be applauded. Never have I realised that there’s such an art to it. When he’s on the pull, I wonder if he tells girls that he plays the triangle? I wonder if it works?

Weatherstorms – a world away from OST, but James Cameron is so talented he does any genre justice.

One of the performances of the festival were our good friends and fellow ‘drinking tinnys in a field companions’, ‘Young Blood’. I’ve said it time and time again, but they are so good! Dan got up on stage during their set and like the bellend that he is, sang along with their tune ‘Get Some’ whilst smoking a rolly. Smooth.

So that’s fieldview for you. In other news, we have released our new song; ‘Giants’ – available for free download from here.

It’s a song that emerged during the day of recording. Writing music as you go really is the best way and I always find lyrics come out better if they’re written off the cuff too. We recorded a second track also, which we are going to release at the end of summer. There’s no set date yet, but we’re thinking early September. Thats all I can be bothered to write for now. I’m sorry I have slacked off with the blog recently. Basically, they have been playing a lot of ‘Ren and Stimpy’ re-runs on Nickelodeon, I I just haven’t been able to tear myself away. I will be better though. PS. In case, like me, you never found out what Ren and Stimpy actually were back in the day. Ren is a cat and Stimpy is dog (chiwawa to be specific) – makes sense doesn’t it? Riveting stuff in this blog. Peace. x

Old Colours at the OLYMPICS

My arm.

Today the cast came off!

Now that my arm no longer resembles a giant piece of lego, I can attempt to get back behind my guitar.

As a result, me and Dan are heading to Swindon this weekend for a much needed 48-hour song writing sesh. We’ve each been developing a series of ideas for several brand new tracks and hopefully this weekend, the ideas will come out of our small, over-capacitated brains and into something tangible. We are also attending an important meeting about a new creative project we have on the go – hopefully when I next report back to you, I will be able to tell you exactly what it is.

Our gig last weekend was amazing. Will and the People were both incredible and incredibly off their faces on something. We also had the pleasure of playing with fellow Swindon based band; ‘Wet William’, who showcased their brand of tuneful, indie rock for the first time. We had a bit of a giraffe in the CD making, whereby we made all of the CD covers and attempted to record the actual CD’s on the way down to the gig. Whilst the CD’s were supposed to be writing, Dan’s laptop made a noise that resembled a lawn mower, so we ended up with 20 ruined CD-RW’s rather than 20 recorded CD’s. Nice.

So, we now have  a good stock of them to give away at our next gig…

Summer is upon us and we have a few more gigs to announce. We re-locate to London at the beginning of Sept, so in the spirit of this, we are getting a few London gigs under our belts.

We are playing at the Roundhouse in Camden as part of their ‘Roundhouse Rising event’ on 26^th August. We are also playing ‘Queen of Hoxton’ at the end of July (Date TBC).

Also, most notably, we are playing at the OLYMPICS!

On the 30^th July and then the 2nd Sept (for the Para-Olympics), we will be playing 3 separate sets on  the ‘Unsigned band review stage’ throughout the day/evening – we are so excited about this. Also, what’s even more exciting is that we get FREE FOOD throughout the day.

Next week we have two gigs in Swindon. The Wednesday night we are playing with our good friends; ‘Young Blood’ and Bristol based  ‘Archimedes’  (anyone who references MBV as a main influence is worth getting excited about) – and then Saturday, we play with the stunning ‘Matilda’ and ‘Atari Pilot’.  It’s going to be a fun packed week for us – we hope you can make it to one of our gigs!

I miss my cast slightly. I actually quite enjoyed being lazy and just singing at gigs. Also, people tended to let me have their seat on public transport, which was quite handy. Just an FYI too, the rumours are true, you DO  get a hairy forearm after 5 weeks in a cast (see above image). At least I’ve learnt something from this whole ordeal.

I miss my cast

Onefest, lots of friends, mud and dodgy shoes

Another fun-packed weekend at the Old Colours Camp…

We were lucky enough to be one of the few bands selected by BBC Introducing to play at Onefest and the experience was awesome!

The biggest school boy error of the weekend was the fact not one of us thought to wear wellies. Stupid move. Every festival attendee should really know Festival + Rain = muddy shoes and we’d realised this a little too late as we drove into the artist parking area. Dan had a little moan about his lack of warm clothing – a denim jacket and a brand pair of new loafer shoes was probably not the wisest of choices for attire. Ethan didn’t even have souls on his shoes which wasn’t really ideal.

However, the festival was brilliantly organised and as soon as we pulled up, we were greeted by a friendly artist liaison officer named Matt, who helped us carry our kit through the mud and showed us to our warm, and dry dressing room.

Yes you did read correctly. WE had a dressing room. It was all a little bit too exciting. Fully stocked with beer, crisps and double lollies, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.

Our line up was again slightly different from the last gig, with Sam joining us once again on keys and Robert on Cello.

It’s always quite exciting to see how each gig will pan out – with the ability of playing as a 2-piece (at minimum) or at maximum, a 7-piece – every gig is a little different. Obviously, the more people in the band, the louder I get to sing – and I enjoy singing loud (I think my folks would second that).

The gig itself went very well. There were a few heckley crowd members shouting  ‘I love you Zoe Mead’ – which never really gets old. Nothing boosts self esteem more than drunken, sarcastic friends. We really need to work on our stage banter. Ethan had to repeatedly remind the crowd that ‘We were actually a real band’ as mine and Dan’s chatting was getting a bit too stupid. I’ve accepted now though that I quite possibly have the stage presence of a sweetcorn – so I just try to get by on the music.

In all though, a very successful gig, with a large, enthusiastic crowd – so thanks to everyone who watched.

We were very impressed by the band who graced the stage before us; ‘A Genuine Freakshow’. Their sound was epic. The large collection of musicians had obviously been playing together for some time as the music was just so full and tight.  After the set, we watched our fellow Swindon-based friends ‘Young blood’ – who rocked the stage to oblivion – such an awesome band! Next, another favorite  – lyrical, story-telling genius from Bristol; ‘Gaz Brookfield’ who sold about a million CD’s to a mob of crazed fans. Michele Stodart completed the lineup with a chilled, melancholy set, with her lovely acoustic offerings enhanced by a collection of great musicians at her side.

It was such a fun day, rounded up by some other musical gems; ‘Dry the River’ and ‘Damon Albarn’, whom we had met earlier sitting on a log at the festival entrance. Turns out Damon’s a pretty normal guy, we didn’t feel star-struck at all – it was almost like he had never been the front man of one of our favorite bands of all time!

After a few too many beers, we reluctantly left the festival and returned home to find my folks watching ‘The Cube’ on catch up TV – back to normality.

Sunday morning was pretty horrendous. We were all hanging and we had a last minute audition for our chance to play in front of thousands of people at this year’s; ‘Big Arts Day’.  Unfortunately the hangover was joined by a shoe cleaning session as we’d forgotten that our shoes had been utterly destroyed from the day before. After all, who is going to let us play their festival if we have muddy shoes? I guess.

Ethan’s shoes were so badly destroyed, that he was forced to wear his aunts daps. They had the word ‘Fly’ imprinted on the back. Nuff said.