"The things I do to kill me only help me to relax"

It's good to be out on the road again. As much as I needed a break from constantly waking up in different places, I've missed it, and this stretch of dates has (thusfar) been totally sweet. The Automatic boys are a lovely bunch of lads, their crew likewise, and I've been making new friends. Last night in Bristol ended up sat on the roof of the bus talking shit till the early hours. It was romantic, haha... The Keele show was also aceness. Now in Cardiff waiting around for the start of the shennanigans. Cosmo is coming down tonight and bringing my old hat back, and I am thoroughly excited about this.

The first half of the video shoot went really well, apparently rough cuts are looking "French". Make of that what you will. Also got a piece on my favourite band up on rocklouder.co.uk - dribbling devotion can be found here. And the last little titbit for today... I've been rocking out to one of Ben from Million Dead's new projects recently, the loverly Armed Response Unit. It's good to hear the man playing to his full abilities again. The myspae has old demos on it, which are good, but the new stuff I've got is much much better. Thrash.

I Am Superman

Yesterday was without doubt the most hectic day of my life. As was the day before that. Basically, Wednesday started early with packing for tour, then 12 hours of mastering (interspersed with a photo shoot and doing a shotlist for a video), followed by a late bedtime. Thursday started superearly with a video shoot (me in a co-directing role), which ran hectically through the day before I played at the Astoria with The Automatic (lovely lads) and then hiked across town for the Xtra Mile party in Camden. I was dead on my feet after that and headed back to the hotel to catch up with the Automatic's tour bus, whereupon I was kissed by Paul Weller. Thereafter I slept like the dead, and now I'm in Sheffield. Life is strange.

The Sweet Smell Of Victory

This morning, after finally making our minds up about an edit in one song (two or four repeats of the breakdown? eh?) Ben (producer) and I finally called a halt to work on the album. It's done, finished. Now all that remains is the mastering (next week) and the artwork (in progress) and we'll be ready to manufacture. It's a big relief to be able to cross that one off my "to do" list at last. And I must say I'm damn proud of it too, I think it's going to pleasantly surprise people with it's aceness. Which might sound a little big-headed, but then if I didn't think that I'd still be working on it now, and Ben would be slowly garotting me with my own hair. So it's for the best really.

In other news, I'm geared up for the tour with the Automatic (and the extra solo headline shows that I've been booking on their days off). T-shirts, CDs, badges, guitar strings, clean pants, all either ready to go or on their way. It should be a good 'un. I can't wait to get back on the road actually, and it doesn't seem like a long enough stretch to me. There's a string of Scottish dates coming up too, if you hadn't noticed already. See you there.

Good vs Bad

Good: played with and met Chris Simpson last night, he was ace, it was an honour.
Bad: People complaining about ebay items I sold them. Yes, you twunt, "used" means not new.
Good: Finished moving house with my mum. New house is good.
Bad: My dog died a few days ago.

Pretty hectic of late, not so many shows, but a lot to do, finishing album mixes, toying with the tracklisting (predictably enough), sorting mastering, organizing artwork and so on. The other good news is that I've booked myself a holiday. It's been a good 5 years or so since I had a proper holiday, and I can't fucking wait. I will be ceasing all contact with the world for one week in December, in preparation for the onslaught that will begin in January.