avoiding the drought season: an idiot's perspective

Please, someone, let this be a joke.

Please.

No?

Well at least it's a letter from Australia.

the shows must go on..

After knocking away the cobwebs over St Patrick's weekend with a show for the Reading University Songwriters Society (though, as Steve Lewis pointed out that night, a night surprisingly full of covers for a songwriters event), it's time to confirm some more shows.

A return to 2000 Trees
Sure as eggs are eggs, I can confirm today that I'm back at 2000Trees this July 14th. I'm pretty damn excited to be involved in this festival for the fourth year in a row, and happy to be heading back to the headline spot on the Greenhouse stage. Those of you who found it too quiet last year will be overjoyed (i'm sure) to note that the PA for this year will be even bigger.

Also confirmed for the festival are the likes of Dry The River, Future of the Left, Pulled Apart By Horses and much much more. As ever, there are no day tickets, but weekend tickets are still available here.

Trees on Fire

As if one 2000Trees-themed event wasn't enough, I'm also pleased to be playing the Trees on Fire alldayer at Cheltenham's Frog and Fiddle three months earlier on Saturday, April 14th. Tickets are available here.

Glastonbury (fringe) Festival

Yep, since there's no Glastonbury festival to be had this year, my good friend Steve Henderson has taken it upon himself to help liven up their fringe festival with a couple of great nights in June, firstly with Jim Lockey and Gaz Brookfield on Friday, June 22nd, and then me, Oxygen Thief and Nick Parker on Saturday 23rd.

Tickets are available at £5 for either night or £8 for both. You can get more information by emailing Steve.

And of course, the JimBob show..

.. with me and Damien A Passmore in support, in Reading, on May 18th. Tickets are still available at £9 here.

Hopefully i'll see you at one of those. More show news to follow!

Thanks again to anyone and everyone who came down to the show over the weekend. I can't remember the last time I played for fifty minutes and have it only feel like ten..

.. oh, and a note from some friends of mine

Broken Tail Records are firing up their engines for their tenth official release this April, the debut single from my good friends Quiet Quiet Band.

More information right here: clickyclicky

Catch them supporting Emmy the Great this Friday at Sub89 in Reading.

a steak through the heart

hey everyone

some exciting developments at bM hQ this week, and when i say 'some exciting developments' i mean 'some developments'.

first of all, i'm hard at work recently sorting out the first ever run of ben marwood t-shirts. it's something which i've been looking into for a long time but haven't had the inclination to follow through with for various reasons. I've finally been convinced that there are a bunch of people out there who I can trust the quality of, so the wheels are in motion. these will be available at select shows and from the ben marwood store on benmarwood.com, when it eventually opens. i guess that there's a store on the way is announcement #2.

the reason this is all future-speak is because i'm currently in the back yard of my girlfriend's shared house in Tampa, meaning my brain couldn't give even half a fuck about websites and stores and such, but i'm back in the country on Sunday and everything will go crazy from then on.

whilst i'm on the subject of Tampa, i was lucky enough this week to enjoy the company of Mr Frank Turner and his band of merry men currently out on tour with the dropkicks. to a man they look exhausted, but in fine form, and if the recent show at Ritz Ybor is anything to go by they've torn this tour a new turban. Ttttt. i had the pleasure of harmonic'ing the shit out of a mouthy mouth-harp for 'I Still Believe' and caught up with (your friends and mine) The Ruckus, and then I started drinking on my antibiotics and I cannot remember how the funk I got home. But apparently I navigated. My autopilot is a reliable beast.

to cap it all, and apologies to the vegetarians in the audience, but my girlfriend sprung upon me a surprise anniversary visit to Bern's Steak House, an independently-owned, upmarket, how-the-fuck-can-you-afford-this steak house right here in Tampa. for the sake of all of us, i'm going to keep my memories to myself, but good god if you're a steak fan and you ever get the chance to go, just go.

http://www.bernssteakhouse.com/

anyway, the crickets have risen and the wind is up. adios.