SPRING OFFENSIVE

April touring

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:32:10 +0100

Whyhellothere.

We’ve just last week got back from a fun-fuelled month of touring the UK with some brilliant bands, To Kill A King and Gaz Coombes. You can now enjoy some of our tourist snaps. Re-live a month in the life of Spring Offensive in just a few minutes!

Birmingham, day one at the Institute and round the corner from here

Leeds, at the awesome Brudenell Social Club

Leeds again, and a Daniel Johnston original behind the bar

Manchester metal graff

Glasgow - end of the To Kill A King tour

Team photo

Day one with Gaz Coombes, inside the stunning St Mary’s Church in Ashford

Portsmouth seaside scene

Gaz from stage-side

Couple of photos from a fantastic gig in Gloucester, taken by the wonderful Andrew Ogilvy: http://andrewogilvy.com/

Sound It Out records in Stockton-on-Tees, closed on a Sunday night, naturally.

Detour through Yorkshire

Street art outside York Minster

For the last few dates, we did invaded Gaz’s stage for the final number with a multi-drummer percussion odyssey, which was crazy amounts of fun

Liverpool outside the Kazimier - inside our collective brain, all squiggles and seagulls.

And we’re back in Liverpool later this week for the Sound City! Very excited about this one. We’re playing on Thursday, at 10:15pm at the Epstein Theatre, just before the wonderful Stealing Sheep. If you’re at the festival, come join us. It’ll be a total blast.

Check out the line-up by the way. Wow

See you there then.

Oh, also, we’ve got some news about a new track coming your way very soon. Stay tuned

SO x

Gaz Coombes Tour

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:57:23 +0100

Today we start our tour of the UK with the impossibly handsome Gaz Coombes, formerly of Supergrass. Massive week ahead. These are the shows:

16.04 - Ashford, St Mary’s Church
17.04 - Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms
18.04 - Cardiff, The Gate
19.04 - Gloucester, Guildhall
21.04 - Stockton-on-Tees, Georgian Theatre
22.04 - York, Duchess
23.04 - Liverpool, Kazimier

Tickets are here: http://www.gazcoombes.com/live/

Speaking of handsome men, that Matt Stokoe out of our video is currently stealing hearts all over the country in the BBC’s show The Village. He’s going to tour with us in his very own travelling Not Drowning but Waving bathtub.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4b0HYxOSvI

How we made No Assets

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 12:00:35 +0100

By now you might have already watched out video for No Assets. It’s been online for a few weeks now. You might have enjoyed it. You might have found it confusing, especially if you didn’t know what the concept behind it was. You might, of course, not have seen it yet. If so, you might want to read this first…

Back in January, we started talking about how to make a video for No Assets, without spending any money. We’ve made all kinds of videos before: a single shot video, a performance video using sign language, a narrative-driven video… What we wanted out of this one was a little different.

Matt and I wanted to make something that was part installation, part music video. We wanted to experiment, and do something that was challenging, both to pull off and to watch, but which didn’t require expensive hires, gear or cameras.

A few ideas were mooted and scrapped, until we eventually came across one that stuck. Why not film 12 things at once, all from a different point of view, and play them back simultaneously? The logic seemed flawless. And the best thing about it; it hadn’t been done before.

What, then, to film? A bunch of people making a nuisance of themselves in the centre of London? Too messy. The systematic destruction of the interior of a house? Too complicated. A dance? Now you’re getting somewhere. Building on the core concept of a dancing couple, we spent a week dreaming up loads of ideas that would work or look interesting in this format. The theory was all good. Now onto the practicalities.

One of the first problems we encountered was how to film. We approached a major extreme-sports camera manufacturer, but they couldn’t have been less interested in the project. We needed to be resourceful. We needed something that almost everybody has. Smartphones. After that, it was a simple matter of attaching the phone to the performer’s body. Except it wasn’t quite so simple.

The North End Road in West London, which runs between Hammersmith and Fulham Broadway, is a spectacular emporium of junk and bric-a-brac. Pound shops compete for the best bargains, cobblers and mobile phone specialists share shop space, and market traders compete with high street brands for the attention of the casual shopper. It is, in effect, the perfect place to shop on a budget. We spent full days chasing deals on the street’s main activity hub, as everyone was keen to secure our services for a bizarrely bulk order of predominantly unwanted goods.

After observing the professional methods for creating chest mounts, and investigating a few tutorials hidden deep and unwatched somewhere in YouTube, Matt developed an ingenious method for building the harnesses DIY. Among the frankly ridiculous shopping lists that this video compelled us to write, were the 36 luggage straps, and around 12 leather iPhone holsters with belt straps. It took days to track down holsters that worked as the holster sizes were some way short of being uniform, and we needed them to fit every IPhone model, and had to cut a hole into them to line up with each phone’s camera. The luggage straps only came in a lurid and deeply unattractive rainbow design that had apparently rendered the plain black version obsolete.

Eventually, we managed to track down all the ingredients.

As we spent full days trawling discount stores, the worst thing about the project, the thing that really kept us up at night, was that we knew all along that we weren’t going to get to see if the idea worked until it was all done, that is, until it was too late. We almost didn’t want to tell anybody we were making a video, just in case it was a total disaster. The closest we came was during the only rehearsal we had, two weeks before the shoot with a group of very talented friends, all of who are hugely adept at devising and performance. We would go through a sequence, sync up our phones, lay them down in a grid and watch them all back at once. They were almost always out of sync, often wrongly aligned and invariably demonstrating gaping holes in the project. Hardly optimum viewing conditions. Realising that we were probably in too deep, we carried on.

One thing the rehearsal process and the feedback from participants did demonstrate was that we needed to keep it simple. The more complicated the routine, the harder it was to watch, let alone execute. We knew we wanted dancing, so we decided to keep that element as the main feature. We trusted our dancers to devise and choreograph their own sections, and concerned ourselves with how to make the rest of it work. The hands were an idea that came very easily. It was a simple way of getting the lyrical content across and experimenting with the form of having 12 different performances all filming at once.

The really fun bit was the section in the dark. It took us a long time to work out what we wanted, but eventually, Matt created a sequence which made absolute perfect sense. I think what I love about it is the fact that it takes the rules of the video, which have been established over the previous few minutes, and it flips them, so that the grid becomes a vehicle for the visuals to use, rather than a way of displaying them. The form no longer experiments with perspective. It’s a really exciting moment. We talk a lot about videos needing to deliver, to have that moment when the fireworks go off. This is that moment, and it was the last thing we came up with.

Finding a venue for a shoot on a budget was always going to be a big challenge. In theory, London is full to bursting with warehouses and white-box installation spaces. In practice, these are all managed by film location companies, who are catering for the very top of the budget range. We wanted venues in London, that were visually empty so as not to distract from the already challenging to watch video, and didn’t cost the earth. After days of searching, we found three. After we went around them, it was clear to us that only one of them was appropriate.

The Doodle Bar in Battersea is set in a large industrial unit on the river, just neighbouring all of London’s major architectural firms. It is a few years old, and one of its major features is that most of the walls are blackboards, on which the patrons are encouraged to express themselves-hence the venue name. It’s an artsy space, and one that works as a natural home for creative projects like this. The Sunday of our shoot was the day after an art installation’s closing, and the artist had already allocated full week to disassemble his work which included the engine of an old Beetle. We called him up and asked how he felt about taking whole thing down in two hours.

First thing on a freezing Sunday morning, the band and artist Jabulani Maseko were hoisting something that weighed at least a ton and chucking it out onto a skip, clearing paper artworks and sweeping away shards of broken glass. A space that had been full when we arrived was, a couple of hours later exactly what we needed; a blank canvas. And then our team arrived.

We had this vague sense of unease. Had we gathered a group of people together for something that we genuinely didn’t know would work? Would we waste everyone’s time? It felt like we might. We also only had only around eight hours to teach the routine to everybody, drill it, and feel comfortable enough to film. Oh, and a single mistake on a single camera would render the entire take redundant. It was an afternoon of high stress. But we approached it methodically.

The day was essentially split in two. The first half would be learning, and the second half would be doing. We rattled through the routine at a frankly terrifying pace, pretty much without any breaks. With zero-margin for error in this ambitious schedule, it felt like walking on a tight-rope. For instance, on the opening shot, which we created by holding balloons up to our camera lens and then bursting them with safety pins on the first hit, we had to keep going back over and over again as people’s balloons burst unbidden (presumably due to the palpable tension in the air…)

Once that was out of the way, we had to stand in two lines, and film each other. This was tricky to work out, as height differences meant that there was no set distance that would function universally. Trial and agonizing error was the sole method at our disposal, and we did manage to find our distances and stick to them.

The idea was then to get the two dances filmed as interestingly as possible. The great thing about the first dance is that it works in several ways. We see something that is only visible to Josh (the first dancer), from his point of view top left. We then see the same dance from 11 other perspectives, meaning you can choose which angle you view it from.

Likewise with Sara and Tom’s contact dance. As this was almost the first idea we came up with, and that’s why their cameras are in the middle of the grid. They have to be the focal point. Watching the dance from one of their points of view is a dizzying experience. The dancers not only choreographed their whole sections themselves, they also put themselves through a physical battering every time we ran a take.

Whilst it would have been amazing to film the entire 12-camera video in one go, we ran out of time on the shoot day. So Matt and I crammed into our editor’s toilet to film the light sequences that finish the video in individual takes. A fitting end to a constantly adapting process.

Once we had the footage in hand, we realised that one challenge we hadn’t anticipated, amidst all the other elements, was just how time-consuming the edit would be. Running 12 HD videos simultaneously was asking far too much of our editor’s processor. Every time we tried to render the video and run an export, the whole project was blighted by green flashes. After two full days of putting it together, another 36-hour session was required to fix the problem in time for the deadline. When it was finished, late, late at night, our editor, the very talented and accommodating Jack Plummer, fell to his knees with relief.

All that was left was the crucial bit: how did it look. When we watched it back, the answer was mostly just inconclusive. We had no idea whether it was a total mess, or something that worked. We still don’t to be honest. Please watch it yourself and let us know what you think. It’s certainly not perfect and we can see a lot of flaws. But it’s never been done before, so hopefully it’s quite interesting. And maybe, just maybe, it’s turned out pretty well.

All photos by Gabriella Hood

Home please

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 18:44:00 +0000

Our UK tour finished yesterday, prematurely, as it turned out. Our plans to drive from Oxford to Norwich for the final show of a week-long run around the UK were thwarted by the catastrophic failure of the driver’s windscreen wiper to remain attached to the vehicle.

Given that rain, snow and god knows what else were falling in great quantities from the sky, it seemed unwise to attempt to drive blind. Norwich at the Arts Centre would have been great, especially as it was being put on by our buddies Olympians. But it wouldn’t have been good enough to risk death. No offense, Norwich.

It was annoying, because up until that point the tour had been brilliant. We were treated brilliantly pretty much wherever we went. We’re hugely grateful to all the people who put us on and put us up. You make the wheels turn.

There were so many highlights, including two great acoustic hometown shows and a big sold out London gig at the Lexington. Liverpool was a massive party, Newcastle was a super-cool gallery gig, Cardiff was intimate and warming in the miserable weather, and Bristol was full of good people and a triumph despite some odd issues at the venue. It was a swell week.

We’re off to Basel, Switzerland on Wednesday, for a one-off show at Kaserne (tickets here), before a month of touring the UK in support of To Kill A King and Gaz Coombes. With To Kill A King we’re playing every show except London, and with Gaz we’re doing the first seven. We can’t wait to tour with these guys, gentlemen all.

There’s a lot more coming your way from us over the next few months. Don’t mind the weather. The year’s got off to a great start.

See you soon

SO x

No Assets video is now online!

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:00:38 +0000

VIDEO FOR NO ASSETS NOW ONLINE!

It was filmed using 12 chest-mounted iPhone cameras, and unless we’re much mistaken, no video has ever been put together in this way before.

If you dig it, please like it here and over on Facebook, comment to tell us why, and most importantly share it wherever you can.

We want everybody to see it. We need your help on this. Enjoy.

No Assets: noon tomorrow

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:01:00 +0000

We strapped 12 iPhones to 12 performers, choreographed a dance, and put the whole thing together on one screen. Tomorrow at noon, you’ll get to see what it looks like.

To get it first, subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/SpringTube

Or sign up to our mailing list: http://bit.ly/SpringFan

No Assets.

Also, see us on tour from Friday. All dates are here: http://bit.ly/SpringGigs

Photo by David Drake

http://www.daviddrake.co.uk/

We've got a new song and video coming this week

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:35:44 +0000

Be the first to see this by subscribing to our YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/SpringTube

Or by signing up to our mailing list here: http://bit.ly/SpringFan

Image by Parkin http://parkinparkin.tumblr.com/

No Assets video shoot - behind the scenes

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 16:45:31 +0000

Here’s a sneak peek for you. This one will be pretty interesting…

All photos by Gabriella Hood: gabriellahood.com

New song. New video. Next week x

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 12:21:00 +0000

#noassets

Gaz Coombes/London/Touring/Switzerland/NA

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 10:37:45 +0000

Hello there.

We have some very exciting news for you. We’ll be touring with the charming Gaz Coombes and his well-dressed outfit in April, all over the UK. Here he is, shouting:

This is obviously hugely exciting for us, and we’d love as many of our fans as possible to come and join us. If you’re near one of these places on one of these dates, get on that:

16.04 - Ashford, St Mary’s Church

17.04 - Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms

18.04 - Cardiff, The Gate

19.04 - Gloucester, Guildhall

21.04 - Stockton-on-Tees, Georgian Theatre

22.04 - York, Duchess

23.04 - Liverpool, Kazimier

Tickets? They’re here.

Speaking of tickets, there aren’t many left for our big London headline at The Lexington on March 19th.

It’s less than a fortnight to go, and we are champing at the bit. Grab your tickets here now, before it’s too late!

It’s all part of a larger UK headline tour, the rest of which is made up of intimate and unusual venues. Come and find us here (click on the date for ticket links):

15.03 - Liverpool, Leaf

16.03 - Newcastle, NewBridge Project Space

17.03 - Oxford, Turl Street Kitchen SOLD OUT

18.03 - Oxford, Turl Street Kitchen EXTRA DATE ADDED

19.03 - London, The Lexington

21.03 - Cardiff, Undertone

22.03 - Bristol, Rise Records (w/ screening of Being John Malkovich)

23.03 - Norwich, Arts Centre

So that’s all very very exciting. Yes yes.

Last week we were in Switzerland by the way. Thank you so much to everyone who came to see us play in Bern, Aarau and Luzern. The Swiss are amazing, you made it an incredibly fun weekend for us, and the first cluster of shows for 2013 were a massive success.

Here are some snaps from our time out there.

This is a statue of a man in Bern, eating children. Which is undeniably unsettling. He is not representative of his town’s people. They are all lovely.

This is us in Aarau, where we played downstairs from the uniquely terrible “rapper” Asher Roth. You know, the guy who loves college. Like, really loves it. Because of all the women and the beer pong. Anyway, I’m getting off the point. We had a lovely time. As this pink photo shows.

And here we are in Luzern, for our final show of the bunch. This photo is taken by Sophie Ganzmann, and it’s pretty awesome. It’s a really wonderful venue, and we loved played there.

Enough already. Thanks for your time.

Oh, there’s new music and a video coming very very very soon. Keep watching.

SO x

UK SPRING TOUR

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:30:39 +0000

Here it is. In March we’ll be doing a short tour of great, unique venues all over the country. We’re massively excited about these; they’re going to be a really special bunch of shows. Ticket links/events to follow soon.

Shows!

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 13:31:11 +0000

Hello friends.

We’re going to be announcing a Spring UK tour tomorrow. It’s a short one, but they’re all very cool, interesting venues, so it’ll be a special bunch of shows. Check back here tomorrow.

On Thursday we played with the mighty Stornoway in the Oxford Town Hall. It was an amazing night, and a great way for us to start the year. Thank you so much; to them for having us, and to you for getting down early and showing your support.

Here’s a photo of the epic stage just before doors opened:

You should watch this, by the way, from the balcony of the Town Hall. The song is called The Ones We Hurt The Most, and it is, simply, perfect.

Let’s catch up tomorrow

Ahoy! Grab your tickets...

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:41:02 +0000

Ahoy! Grab your tickets here! http://www.kililive.com/gigs/spring-offensive-london-the-lexington-19th-march/

More Shows (CH and UK)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:18:09 +0000

Guten tag one and all.

Wir haben more gigs to announce! We ist going on a tour in support of das awesome To Kill a King, in April around the UK (excluding das London show). So we will be playing at the following venues……

9th April - The Temple, HMV Institute Birmingham

11th April - Brudenell Social Clubl Club, Leeds

12th April - The Ruby Lounge, Manchester

13th April - NICE N SLEAZY, Glasgow

Have ein watch of their new video for de track ‘Cold Skin’. Das ist amazing, I am sure you will agree! They are off on ein tour in support of das mighty Bastille in March too. Two fantastiche bands.

BUT FIRST (I am dropping the German)

We are going to be supporting the equally brilliant Stornoway at The Oxford Town Hall on the 14th of February. A good one for all you Valentine’s day lovers. The gig is now SOLD OUT, but have a listen of their new single here. It’s good, but not as good as seeing them live. Like Diet Gig, or something.

Also in February, we are off to SWITZERLAND again for a handful of new shows! Visit our gig page here to see all the dates. It is part of a mad mad race that is being put on, so please come come and see us.

Here we are chilling with lions. (photo by Mikka Stampa)

Finally, we have a headline show at The Lexington, London on March 19th. It’s our biggest gig in the capital so far. Please book early and get your tickets from this wonderful site. Spread the word godddddamit! Support acts to be announced soon.

Love SO x

These last few days you've seen me at my best

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:05:00 +0000

Hey everyone. It’s a little late, we know, but a very happy new year to you nonetheless. It’s good to be back.

Here’s a new year photo, by Alexa Gibbens:

So this is a little update about what’s going on with us during the early stages of 2013.

It’s cold outside, so we’re holed up in the studio in Wiltshire recording a bunch of new songs. We venture out from time to time to walk along the canal and across the waterlogged fields. Yesterday we came across a couple of pylons that were crackling violently in the mist. And some kids standing in silence around a couple of parked cars with their hazards flashing. Plus a woman on a barge, who thought she’d lost her cat, but in fact she hadn’t. Reminded us of this brilliant video.

Here are a couple of pics from the studio:

This one features Theo with studio wizard David Pye:

And this is Mrs Jones, Chris’ hamster. She is not directly involved in the recording:

The new songs are taken from our sessions following our two month tour of Europe and the UK last year. The truth is that we’re incredibly excited about playing them, about recording them, and about you hearing them. More news on all that very soon… For now, just trust us when we say they’re sounding pretty special.

Next week, we’ll be announcing news of our first few dates of the year, starting in February. They’re going to be some amazing shows, and we can’t wait to be on stage again. After so many gigs last year, two months is a long to be away.

There are many other exciting developments to tell you about as they happen. For now we invite you to enjoy one of the last things we filmed last year, a session for the awesome Cardinal Sessions, which took place on a street corner in Cologne, where someone had discarded the entire contents of their living room. It’s a form of recycling in action. There are acoustic versions of two songs - Worry Fill My Heart and firstly new tune Red Oak. Watch them right here. Then check out the rest of their channel, because all of it is great.

Filmed by Sam King

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 09:53:45 +0000

Filmed by Sam King

Suspended animation

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:23:41 +0000

Good afternoon.

It’s getting dark. Already. And cold. Time to retreat from the world and head somewhere warm and safe.

Like so many members of our mammalian brotherhood, we’re going to hibernate over the winter, in various houses, basements and studios, as we get to grips with the early stages of a collection of songs that may or may not (but we hope will) form the basis of an eventual album. It’s vague. But it’s full of promise.

Already, there’s progress. And the excitement of our new material we have is keeping us up at night.

Plus, we’ve been honoured with the title of BBC Introducing in Oxford’s Band of the Year, previously given to some of our favourite bands. We spent an hour in the studio talking and choosing some awesome local music, as well as taking part in and excelling at an impromptu WW1 quiz. Listen to the whole thing here.

We’ve had a little string of dates in the UK after our epic two months on the continent, firstly up in Newcastle, then twice in our hometown of Oxford (one a headline show in bizarre surroundings, the other an intimate unannounced living room show), and finally over in Liverpool. They’ve all been amazing.

Here’s a couple of photos from our Oxford gig, which took place at a Secret Location that some found slightly uncomfortable, but that’s (almost) always the best way:

(Photo by Greg Lacey)

(Photo by Paul Hayday - Hayz Photos)

Now we’re down to our last two what has been a very busy year for us. Tomorrow night (Wednesday), we have our biggest London headline show to date, a sold out gig at the gorgeous St Pancras Old Church. If you’re coming down to that, we promise it’ll be something special.

But we’ve also got a last minute London show to announce today. It’s a free gig on Thursday supporting Among Brothers for their single launch at Electricity Showrooms in Hoxton. Though it’s going to be a short set, it’ll be our final performance of the year, and therefore you should come down and join the fun, especially if you didn’t manage to get a ticket to St Pancras. The Facebook event has all the necessary information.

So yeah, that’ll be it from us for 2012. There’ll be plenty of updates, but we won’t be venturing out from our various hiding places. We’ll be back early next year though, and already we can’t wait to show you what we’ll have with us then.

See you in London over the next two nights.

Love

|SO

Oh and PS listen to this - new music from Oxford, including an amazing TEED cover. Out.

Schluss

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 21:20:00 +0000

It’s already Monday, two days after we left Germany and returned home after a tour that has seen us play 32 shows in six countries over the course of more than 6000 miles, all during a seven-week period. There were times when it felt like it would never end.

But on Tuesday morning, waking up after a wonderful show in Hannover, packed wall to wall for what was probably our biggest crowd of the whole tour, we had that sense that it was winding down.

Or rather, working up to a big finish. Only three shows remained, and all of them in places we’d previously been: Cologne, Heidelberg and Mainz.

In Cologne, we started our evening by catching the last of the autumn sun for an acoustic session outside. We set up around someone’s discarded living room, complete with sofa, TV, cupboard and other artefacts of everyday life. We then made for the venue.

We were playing in a genuinely tiny bar, with around 80 people squeezed in, which was run by some very unpleasant character and staffed by a soundman who didn’t have any work ethic at all (he spent the whole gig texting, and we had to shout at him throughout the gig in order to get his attention). That being said, the gig was still a success in spite of these people.

As we soundchecked, yet again a massive queue had formed outside, just as it had in Hamburg. The general incompetence had led to a delay, so they were waiting in the cold, some of them without a chance of actually making it in when doors opened. We decided to go out and play a few songs for them as a warm up to our full-band show.

It was hot, airless, and with shoddy sound, but it was more than made up with by one of the best atmospheres of the whole tour. A cracking night.

First thing the next day, we went to the airport to pick up a passenger for our final two shows. It was a guy named Joe Charlett, erstwhile bassist of Spring Offensive, now playing for Gaz Coombes, and on a drinking holiday under the cover of “helping you guys out with merch and roadying and all that”. We drove to Heidelberg with him in tow.

We saw nothing of the beautiful university town, only skirting the high-walled US military Patton barracks as we shuttled between hotel and venue, as sickness yet again began to take its toll on the band. This far in to tour though, there was no need to hold back, and we had a great show in the charming but slightly odd themed bar, Haell, where murals of skulls and an entire inferno landscape provide the backdrop and wallpaper.

The night rolled on, with our now-useless roadie showing himself more at ease with the roll of party guru, lining up the shots and leading the charge.

The next day we all woke up deep down under the weather, with voices creaking and cracking all over the shop. But with a short drive and a last show in Mainz, where we’ve always had the best time, none of it mattered. Our first appointment was to play for the students at the Johannes Gutenberg University, named after the inventor of the world’s first printing press. We had a sizeable crowd of people, some of whom were already planning on coming to the show, and others who hadn’t heard of us before. Most of them made their way to Schon Schoen that night, for a big last show of tour.

It was around 11:30 by the time we went on stage, and everyone was more than ready for a gig by that time. Ourselves included. We played to a fantastic, responsive crowd, and found it hard to leave the stage by the time it was over, our path to the exit obscured and blocked. But we did make it off and backstage, where we had a massive party that went on, for some but not all, all the way until 8am. Joined by a few friendly faces from Oxford who happened to be in town, it was a great evening. A fitting ending to an amazing tour.

When morning eventually came round, we had kebabs for brunch before piling into the van for the long, long drive home: 6 hours to Calais, then the crossing, then 2 hours to London. Rigorous border checks almost delayed us further, as the customs officers grilled us on why exactly the van has been in Europe and in so many different countries, over such a long period.

“We’re a band.” “Any good?” “Hope so!”

A couple of days off now, then on Wednesday we’re back in the studio and off on the road again on Friday, when we play in Newcastle. Thank god. Tour is something you need to ween yourself off. You can’t just go cold turkey.

Yet again, we’ve met so many incredible people, seen countless breathtaking sights, been humbled by so much generous hospitality, been lucky enough to play to amazing crowds and fans almost everywhere we’ve been (we have the best fans in the world, we’re sure of it), and got to know each other so much better. We feel so grateful to have this job, to have had this opportunity. It’ll stay with us forever.

Now we’re looking to the future. There’s so much to look forward to.

See you then

|SOx

Wahlkabine

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:37:22 +0000

A big day for everybody then. By tomorrow morning, we’ll know who will be running the US for the next four years, and we all either breathe a massive sigh of relief, or run screaming to the hills. We won’t reveal our allegiances. That’d be unprofessional.

In rather more parochial but nonetheless equally important news, this morning we sold out of tickets to our London show at St Pancras Old Church on November 28th. This is amazing, a full three weeks before the gig. Thanks to everyone who got a ticket, and sorry to anyone who couldn’t. We’ll be playing a few other shows in the UK this month, so if you want to see us, you should be able to:

16/11, Newcastle, The Head of Steam. Tickets here

18/11, Oxford, Secret Location. Tickets here

23/11, Liverpool, The Shipping Forecast. Free entry

28/11, London, St Pancras Old Church. Sold out

We’re currently in Germany. Still. We have four shows left here, starting tonight in Hannover, then Cologne, Heidelberg and Mainz. We can’t quite believe the end of the tour we started in September is just around the corner. We aren’t ready for it to finish. It has flown by.

On Friday we played our fourth show in a week in Berlin, at the amazing Magnet Club. Beforehand, we had a session at the supercool Flux FM. We were expecting to do a live session, but were told that unfortunately it had to be pre-recorded, as another band was due to come in. A little disappointed, we turned up at the station to learn that the band in question was Biffy Clyro. Which is fair enough, really. Some of us had to struggle to contain our teenage fanboy instincts. We were eye to eye from the neighbouring studio as they did their session and we did ours. It was a little surreal, to say the least.

We hit the stage just after midnight, and it was heaving. It was probably one of our favourite ever shows - the crowd were in the mood and so were we. By the time we finished it was well past 1am, and the party started. We’ve made so many great friends in Berlin, and hopefully we can catch up again soon.

Here are a couple of snaps from the show:

Matt, in the excitement of it all, chipped a front tooth on the driver’s window while parking the van. It’ll serve as a constant reminder of an excellent night.

The next day we were off to Hamburg, returning to scene of an awesome Reeperbahn Festival at the start of the tour. It was raining hard all day, and the streets that had then been so full of revellers were now virtually deserted. We soundchecked late, and already a queue had started to form outside. By the time we finished, they were streaming through the door, barely giving us enough time to leave. Within minutes, the venue had sold to capacity, and a crowd had gathered to watch the gig through the front window. It was hot, sweaty and just plain brilliant. Another special show.

In the morning, we’d been booked in for an acoustic show at the best breakfast joint in town, Gesellschaft. This place serves up brilliant build-your-own omelettes and scrambled egg, and a mean cup of coffee. Just what our fragile heads needed. Except there was one problem.

The unique, complicated locking system on our van means that each door has to be locked individually, which can be done without a key. So there’s always a chance that, if you aren’t concentrating, the key can be locked in and leave you stranded. This is what happened in Hamburg. We’d stopped in a no-stopping zone for the purposes of unloading, and we needed to move the van on to park up for the show. Suddenly we were totally screwed. Unable to move, yet not allowed to stay. We called a few people, but they were all giving us astronomical Sunday morning call-out quotes. Then the owner of Gesellschaft stepped in. Luckily he had a breakdown cover, and the company were willing to do this one for free. Thank the hollow sky. The guy turned up, wedged open the door, built a wire arm and reached in and opened the door. We were saved, and able to play the show (a little late) to the lovely group of people gathered crammed into the cafe. We then went off to film an acoustic version of a new song, No Assets. More when that comes to light.

Sunday was otherwise a day off, and we just needed to get to Munster to stay with Niklas, our booker. The whole way, a Biblical storm pelted the vehicle, and bad traffic meant a short hop became an epic journey. Exhausted, we collapsed into sleep. Some of us had come down with a serious cold and weren’t much able to do anything else anyway.

This became a bit of a problem when it came round to our show the next day. We started with a session for student station Radio Q, and struggled through an interview and acoustic session with a few strained voices. Some of us then went straight to bed for the rest of the day, watching Breaking Bad, Derren Brown and Down Terrace in an attempt to stave off the fatigue and nausea. By the time the gig came round, it hadn’t subsided, and the prospect of a full show became intimidating. We opted to do a semi-acoustic deal, and it turned out to fit the vibe of the place perfectly. Pension Schmidt is a new venue, which feels like an enormous living room; the best living room in the world, because it has a working bar. The comfy chairs and sofas fitted what we were doing perfectly. A chilled Monday evening gig, then. Perfect way to unwind after a hectic weekend.

Here we are after the show, distracted by something:

We’re now in Hannover, and soundchecking for tonight’s show, having mostly recovered. It’s a really cool space, and Efterklang are due to play here in a few weeks, so we’re in good company. Home soon. We’re into the last few nights of this run. It’ll be hard to tear ourselves away.

See you soon

|SOx

Tageskarte

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:38:00 +0000

It’s turned, the weather. For the last few days, we’ve been in Berlin, and an icy wind has chilled us everywhere we’ve been. The kind of cold that gets in your bones. It’s now starting to feel like winter. Just a week ago, we were in a heatwave. It feels as though time has been condensed.

We had spent what might be the last warm day of the year filming this session for Bedroom Disco, in the woods in Darmstadt. It’s a new song called Red Oak.

We’ve already reached the second and final checkpoint of our tour, having returned to the UK for a short break before the last couple of weeks and the long drive home. It’s been long, but it feels like it has gone by too quickly.

Dresden, in the amazing GDR venue Ostpol, was a fantastic show. The wooden, smokey room was packed full of cool people, and antiquated artefacts, making a unique gig-cocktail the like of which you just can’t get outside of Germany. We slept in a mezzanine bed that was around two feet from our band apartment ceiling, huddling for warmth.

The next day we we went to the Old Town. We’d been playing in the New Town, which is now technically and confusingly older than the Old Town, due to fires and Allied bombing affecting the later. Most people we spoke to in Ostpol has told us that we should cross the river and see the Baroque architecture of the Old Town, but that it wasn’t much to their tastes. It is a surreal experience. It boasts stunning buildings, such as the Frauenkirche, which, over the last 50 years, have been completely rebuilt according to original plans, alongside building sites and new cobblestones. It feels perfect, yet anachronistic and eerie. It is triumphant, but it is also a reminder of a horrific past.

We then went to nearby city of Leipzig, which is again a place where you get a sense of recent history. After soundcheck, we went for the museums, particularly the Stasi museum, in the old headquarters building that in 1989 was the sight of the vigil that marked the start of the Peaceful Revolution that ultimately brought down the Berlin Wall. The museum displays things like the machine used to open and re-seal envelopes, and pinhole cameras. Without much German, it was quite hard to fully grasp, but it’s an incredibly interesting place nonetheless.

The show was a quiet one, unsurprisingly as it was a Tuesday, and freezing cold, rainy, misty one at that, but we the people who made it out ensured that it was brilliant anyway. The other thing that made it a great night was the discovery of vegan doner kebabs. It’s hard not to love Germany’s vegetarian cuisine and it’s desire and ability to replicate meat products exactly.

So the next day we hit Berlin, where we stayed until our flights home on Sunday. The first night saw us play a show for our good friends Sofar Sounds, and it was unbelievable. The Sofar form is that a handful of bands go to someone’s home somewhere in the world, and a whole bunch of strangers turn up, not knowing who’s playing, sit on the floor and join the fun. It’s a brilliant concept, and it has created a genuine international community, which we’re very glad to be a part of. Having done a couple in London before, this felt strangely familiar, even so far from home. It was a triumphant evening, and it ended with us joining our hosts and the Sofar peeps out drinking in Berlin.

We had another living room gig in Berlin before we played a full band show, and the next one was just as magical as the first. It was in a friend’s flat in the north of the city, and a small group of her close friends had gathered to sit cross-legged on the floor as we played a full set of acoustic versions of our songs. With broken strings and straining voices bringing the performance to a close, the gig became a party, which ended with us all heading out to a micro-brewery bar in the centre of town. The next day we played in Lido, an enormous former cinema in Kreuzberg that has become one of the top indie venues in town, where we were supporting the Finnish band Zebra and Snake. It was by far the biggest place we’ve played on this tour, and after two living room shows it was a shock to find ourselves there, complete with a tailor-made light show. We stayed and abused the venue’s hospitality long into the night, before returning the next day to gather our gear on the way to the airport.

Berlin is such a great city. It’s like nowhere else in the world. Despite being one of the poorest places in Germany, culturally and creatively it is pretty much a world-beater. It’s a town that for so long was the focal point for everyone’s attention, and since the end of the Cold War, it’s been the place that everyone has wanted to be. Constantly changing, adapting, and redefining what it is, it’s just so damn exciting. With girlfriends and family who had come out to visit us, we spent four days learning about Berlin’s history, arts and culture, and came out with our heads spinning. We love it, and can’t wait to go back on Thursday.

We’re playing a big headline show at Magnet on Friday. Hope to see you there.

|SOx