Euro Tour 3

DAY 2

Jun phones me awake. I'm not sure why he doesn't just knock on my door, but he wants to tell me we're getting breakfast in a half hour. Head down to a little cafe up the street. Cue ultimate full English breakfast madness.

And the laundry experience.

And Dan driving us to the city of Stoke...

...where we went to the Tesco Extravaganza.

Backstage I worked on visuals...

...and Amy and Lex did Merch things...

...and Jun and Kel made "You thought you saw a shooting star, but yr eyes were blurred with tears and that lighthouse can be pretty deceiving with the sky so blue and sea so calm" record sleeves.

The venue took pretty great care of us with drink and foods and chips and choco choco choco.

Then some support acts played.

And then we got Stoked.

And drove home to Birmingham and ate curry and watched telly and got sleepy.

Euro tour 2

Manchester last night was great!

Support acts Ghost Outfit and With That Knife both thrilled us with their fresh guitarey goodness.

The show drew a really nice collection of kids and had a totally awesome time playing for them. Played a whole bunch of the new songs the band have been recording for their upcoming third album.Playing visuals to them while hearing these songs for the first time most definately weren't my finest VJ moment, but the kids of Manchester really didn't seem to mind.

Take down the screen. New shirt. Pack up. Head out.

After the gig we drove to Liverpool. The band needed to get a hundred shirts from a guy called Matt. Along with a friend he runs a merch company. He also happens to play in this band i'm quite madly in love with.

As we walked into Matt's home there was a sudden high pitched screetch. And then another. The place is full of smoke. I ask him what's burning. He runs into the kitchen, grabs a chair, turns off the smoke alarm and then his oven. "There weren't even anythin in the oven like!" Matt gives the band their shirts and introduces me to a pair of charming hamsters called Rodger Murtagh and Sgt. Derrick Riggs.We get in the van and head home to Birmingham.

Sssh!.. it's Charlie Higgins & My Skip-Rope Team

RSVP here!

EURO TOUR 01

MANCHESTER!

WE ARE IN YOU!

We've had a super nice day in this city.

And now it's almost time for this show to start...

Hooray for humans! Win free tickets to Jingle Jizz!

Tomorrow night SMAC and DIY BFFs Turn Your Lights are teaming up to launch Us Kids Know's new EP "Jingle Jizz". I, for one, can't wait for this!

Some nice news is that Mahala are running a constetion where you can win a pair of tickets to the event, plus a free sixpack of Savana!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE COMPETITION ON MAHALA!

In some far less awesome news, due to previously-blogged-about banjo-related catastrophe, guitar-terror Vampire 9000 will sadly no longer able to play this event.

Yesterday Christian Vampire was discharged from hospital after undergoing surgery. This surgery was performed to fix trauma sustained while playing the banjo at band practice with Fulka last week. The fact that V9K inflicted such a serious injury while playing the banjo is testament to the unparalleled level of explosive rock roll power that flows through his vamperic veins. He will be very sorely missed on the night, we wish him a speedy recovery and hope to be able to play other shows with him soon.

In his honour, at 9PM we will be having the very first public playing of his fantastic, forthcoming release "Fur Echoes 3P" and the bands will be firing an honorary 24 guitar salute.

Days like Television: Ben Reel 2010

Hey, look! It's my showreel!

Jingle Jizz Art!

This Friday night will be celebrating the Johannesburg launch of Jingle Jizz, the new EP from instramental annomolies, Us Kids Know. In anticipation of this special evening I thought I'd share one half of the artwork created for the EP. While the other half of the photos shot for the EP were done by Mr. Patrick Dinneen, the half shown here were taken by Miss. Lindi Goosen with art direction by Miss. Angela Hancock!