Kingston tonight: postponed

I know I have recently craved some time off to actually get some sleep, but I didn't tell the weather it was okay to ruin my gig schedule.

Due to the sudden (if expected) snow showers experienced pretty much countrywide overnight, the decision was made early this morning to pull tonight's christmas show with Tubelord, Hold Your Horses et al due to the bad weather in central London.

The decision was made by the promoter earlier today, though for my money it's the right decision due to the travel time involved for some of the band and the treacherous conditions all round. Of course it does mean that my final show of 2010 turned out to be the sadly horrific gig last weekend in Devizes. To banish the end-of-year bad vibes, I'll be recording a 2010 Year In Review podcast for [edit] radio, one of five to be broadcast in the last week of this year (monday 27th - friday 31st), which will include a look back at all the great music that came out this year, and that we expect to be good in 2011. You know, standard fare.

In the meantime, those of you in the UK should stay warm and stay safe (and pray, as I do, that your christmas orders from Amazon actually arrive in time), whilst the rest of the world sits and laughs.

b. x

(ps. I'm sat watching Pixie Lott run down 'her' top 50 christmas songs on TV. someone buy that girl some charisma..)

UK tour: dates confirmed!

Part of me can't believe it's nearly Christmas, but I'm assured it is. This means two things:

1. the album is out in roughly a month

and

b. it's time i left my house and did a UK tour.

Once again me and my favourite Bristolian, Oxygen Thief, are hitting the road with ten dates across two weeks. I'm led to believe a brand of thanks known as 'Mad Props' should be assigned to OT for booking most of these shows, and I'm pleased to announced the album launch is at the Rising Sun Arts Centre in Reading on Friday, January 28th.

Also on the tour, returns to York, Leeds, Swindon and Cheltenham, a special sit-down show in the tiny village of Farnsfield, my first gig in Oxford in what seems like forever, and the last Addistock for the forseeable future in Birmingham. Exciting times.

Outside There's A Curse UK Tour

all dates with Oxygen Thief

(except *)

JANUARY

15 Leeds Cardigan Arms

16 Cheltenham Slak (w/Jim Lockey)

18 Bristol Louisiana (w/Gaz Brookfield)

19 Oxford G&D's Ice Cream Cafe

20 York City Screen Basement Bar

22 Farnsfield (nr Notts) Farnsfield Acoustic*

23 Swindon The Vic

28 Reading Rising Sun Arts Centre (w/Quiet Quiet Band)

29 Birmingham The Bright House (w/Quiet Quiet Band & more TBC!)

30 London The Wilmington Arms (w/mistakes.in.animation & James Ewers)

Tickets are available for Reading via WeGotTickets, and the London one will also be up shortly. Tickets for the Swindon show are available from The Vic website, and we're currently hunting around for shows around the Notts area on the 21st.

See you on tour.

b. x

photoshop handsome

Eugh.

You join me today post-Christmas party, pre-tonight's Devizes show. I have to get on a train in less than two hours but I just would quite like to sleep off the whiskey, wine and vodka headache. I refuse to call it a hangover because I can stand.

Indeed already today I sat down with Mr Ben Morse for some press shots. It's the first time I've ever let anyone do a proper photoshoot, and he was full of helpful feedback:

You look angry. Don't.

That's fine but try to look less like you've smelled a fart

That's good but it's still got your face in it

and so on.

Ben Morse is a hero, and one of the lucky few who managed to traverse his twenties without losing vision or being held hostage by other halves.

To Ben.

And so to tonight, where I'll be playing at boisterous front bar at The Lamb in Devizes. I'm assured it will work, but it does rule out the quiet stuff. I've been advised to be 'chunky' so i've eaten nothing but saturated fats for a month. See you there.

pitter patter twitter twatter

i've finally done it. i've finally bitten the bullet and joined Twitter. come follow me at benmarwoodmusic.

album and tour news next week!

x

'Outside There's A Curse' out on Xtra Mile this January

Hi all,

Cut to the chase. It gives me great pleasure to announce that my debut album 'Outside There's A Curse' will be released this January via Xtra Mile Recordings, home to friends and peers Chris T-T, Frank Turner, Dive Dive and others.

The reaction to this news (which arrived at the same time as Midi Midi's BMG publishing deal) has been so overwhelmingly positive, I'm genuinely touched. At the same time, I'm scared, excited, honoured and apprehensive in equal measure. Understand, Xtra Mile are a label who know what they're doing, with a wealth of experience and fantastic drive.. trying to market my album recorded largely on my bedroom floor full of pop culture references and particularly shoddy production values.

Not that I don't think OTAC is a bad album - far from it, it's turned out better than I could have ever anticipated, and I'd happily go to war for eight of its ten offerings (and the other two are bound to be the popular ones, right?) - but if you'd have told me before I started recording that it would be picked up by XMR, I might have taken a different approach. Still, if they're willing to take the risk it just goes to show how much faith some people have in me, and by that I'm talking not just about Xtra Mile, but also Frank Turner and Evan & Dani Cotter who more than had a hand in getting this together. I'm not saying there was any chinese water torture, but there must have been at least a nipple gripple involved.

The album will mix old stuff ('Oh My Days' and 'The District Sleeps Alone Tonight' cover) with newer stuff (those of you attending shows recently might have heard 'Toil' and 'Tell Avril Lavigne I Never Wanted To Be Her Stupid Boyfriend Anyway') and some stuff which is neither old nor new ('JJ Abrams'; 'Singalong'), and I'm aided along the way by everyone's favourite pedalsteel-er-ist Kurt Hamilton, Richard Goodspeed on piano and introducing Reading's (nay, the world's) premier drummer James Mead Esq and a collection of others (Adrian Pearson and Chris Sartin of Dolly & The Clothespegs, Tom Crook of Band of Hope). It's the most ambitious project to date, I almost had some kind of crazy breakdown making it, and there have been times where I've thought if I ever see or hear this album again for as long as I live, that still would not be long enough, but hearing it for the first time when it was mixed made up for it.

But really.. Xtra Mile? I still don't quite believe it. When I think of how many superb records I've owned with that logo on (the first being Reuben's 'Racecar Is Racecar Backwards', the most recent Chris T-T's incredible 'Love Is Not Rescue'), that mine can be counted amongst them is just bonkers.

There are too many thanks to be handed out, so I'll save it for the CD sleeve.

Pre-order links, tracklist, tour dates and artwork nonsense to follow.

b. x

the flowerpot men need new homes

hi all

has it really been a month since i last got my shit together to write to you all? thats just crazy. i guess in times like these you can say things like "no news is good news" but actually no news is.. well.. no news. the album as far as i can tell is still due for late December 2010/early January 2011, I have about six songs written for a follow-up something (i haven't decided what yet, and frankly the album isn't even out yet so i don't need to, thankyouverymuch) and i'm currently booking shows for January to back up the album.

SHOWS

NOVEMBER

13 Brighton The Caroline of Brunswick

14 Cardiff Koko Gorilaz (free matinee show)

17 Reading Oakford Social Club

19 Goring The Village Hall

DECEMBER

11 Devizes The Lamb

JANUARY

22 Nottingham Farnsfield Acoustic

28 Reading Rising Sun Arts Centre **ALBUM LAUNCH**

29 Birmingham The Brighthouse

In other news, word reaches me (all the way out in Florida) that The Flowerpot is being sold from under the owner's feet. This is a gutting development for what is a neat, friendly venue - something which London (and most places for that matter) sorely lacks. Good luck to all in their quest to get the Flowerpot rehoused. You can count me amongst those who'll be back when it's ready.

In OTHER other news, they've finally repossessed the studios where I worked for five years before an exit in 2008. I loved that place dearly at the time, and have met a lot of good people there. Also, it was where the drums for This Is Not What You Had Planned and Outside, There's A Curse were recorded.

In FINAL other news, hero UK weatherman Tomasz Schafernaker has been axed by the BBC. Shame on you, BBC. I hear he's on his way to 5Live. Perhaps on the radio he won't get caught goofing off so much..

Catch you soon,

b. x

so did you hear the one about..

.. the 29 year old who awoke one morning with his Dad towering over him telling him to get to work?

no? ok, ok, it was me last Friday. exhausted, i'd left my phone on silent and my alarms off. my dear parents had tried calling me that morning and, getting no answer, dispatched the troops to find me blissfully asleep at 9.20. cue a rude awakening normally reserved for layabout 15-year-olds and much office embarrassment.

my point is, my memory has been decidedly shoddy lately. i've been getting in from Tesco and leaving frozen food out on the side, and then having to eat it all after it defrosts. similarly, my washing machine has forgotten how to wash and spin though, sadly, not how to rinse. everything is falling apart.

BUT all is not lost, dear friends. i have, for example, remembered to book a train ticket to next week's gig in Cheltenham and i've remembered to confirm a slot at the launch party for the debut album of A Genuine Freakshow (it's in Reading, 29th sept, check MySpace for details over the weekend).

i've also remembered to post the links to the following highlights of the Marwood/Turner Reading warm-up shows:

Sinaglong at Derby - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7bwNzYvPzU

Photosynthesis from Kendal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9AXUAC_86Q