Good things come to those who...

...do two blog posts in one day, ha! I feel a little bit metrosexual now. Anyways, some excellent news: I'll be supporting Mr Evan Dando on a bunch of UK dates in August! Hoooooooray! Dates:

• 1st August @ Arts Centre, Norwich
  
• 4th August @ Sin City, Swansea
  
• 6th August @ The Duchess, York
  
• 7th August @ Central Station, Wrexham
  
• 8th August @ The Leadmill, Sheffield
  

Obviously I'm still doing Y-Not Festival on the 1st, and Sensible Sunday on the 3rd. Alas, the bad news is that I'm not going to be able to do the show in Oxford on the 8th. Massive apologies to all concerned, and if you have a ticket, you should go anyway as it's for a good cause and has a great line-up.

(Happy) Frank Out.

Hubris / Ireland / America

As most probably now know, the Lemonheads warmup got cancelled, which was gutting for me personally. Oh well, next time. Truck on Sunday was immense, reminded me of why it's one of the best festivals in the UK. Good weather, good people, good bands (especially Fighting with Wire, Danny & The Champions Of The World and Getcape), good times. Roll on next year.

The Irish leg of the October UK tour has now been announced, the gigs are on the gigs page (duh). Four shows, not full band but duo shows with Chris T-T, who will also be supporting. In other gig news, PEOPLE OF AMERICA CALM DOWN. The four east coast shows confirmed and announced are only the tip of the iceberg, there's a whole bunch more shows about to be announced that run from Vancouver to San Diego and then across to the East. So yes, I will probably be playing nearer you, heh.

Finally, a short pre-announcement, we'll be releasing "Long Live The Queen" as a single in October, all proceeds going to Breast Cancer Research. More info later.

I Have Shat Myself

That's right folks, it's true. This friday (18th) I am playing a solo show supporting THE FUCKING LEMONHEADS at The Bullingdon Arms in Oxford, as a warm-up for Truck Festival. Very limited tickets are available from here for the princely sum of £10. I am seriously over the moon about this.

In other news, 2000 Trees (four sets in total!) was ace, thanks to everyone there. And here's some footage from my Pure Groove instore last week.

Up The Irons / Emily Barker

Much to my chagrin, I missed Iron Maiden at Twickenham on Saturday last. I had been supposed to be at ZOO8 Festival and so had written off the idea of going or getting a ticket. However, as most people know, that festival didn't exactly go to plan and so I ended up not only being free, but actually being in Twickenham, where I could hear the strains of "Two Minutes To Midnight" ("Sing it!") over the early evening breeze.

It's well documented that Maiden are one of my favourite bands, certainly my first love musically. They inspire a special kind of devotion (they're either your favourite band or you're not really a fan.. seriously). Walking through Twickenham both before and after the gig (I met up with some friends from the gig afterwards, who tortured me by reeling off the killer setlist) I felt pretty immersed in Maiden culture, despite not actually making it into the stadium. And it made me feel better about the world, for once. The great thing about Maiden is that they've never been hip; wearing their T-shirts can't be retro, because there was never an era when that look was cool. They've always been outsiders, underdogs, not justout of fashion but consciously against it. So when 55,000 desperately uncool people (mostly men, sure) gather in a stadium wearing T-shirts painted with zombies to shout along to songs about the Crimean War and a prog-rock reworking of poems by Coleridge, I look at NME features on some dreadful bunch of teenagers playing thinly-disguised Jam covers to a few hundred even-younger teenagers somewhere in Shoreditch, and I relax a little.

News: Festival season T-shirts are still available here. The amazing Emily Barker is now confirmed as opening act for the October tour dates. The world is at peace.

ZOO8 vs T-Shirts

Hi all. Quick update at the end of the European jaunt. Firstly, thanks to Jedethan and to Romain Boule, and all the promoters and so on for a great tour. I'll be back soon enough, I'm sure. C'est gratuit.

Secondly, I won't be playing ZOO8 festival tomorrow. Sorry for anyone expecting to see me down there. Basically the deal is this: I'm a working musician, I earn little money and my budgets are shoestring. I can't afford to take risks with running a whole paid-up band and crew and fuel down to Kent for a risk of not getting paid. No blame for anyone, I just can't afford those risks. Apologies.

Finally, with regard to the Pure Groove instore on Wednesday 9th July, we've done up an extremely limited run of 50 shirts, unique design, for this show, and this show only. It's also free in, so, no excuses. See you there.

Gratuit ou Interdit

Hello from Toulouse. I am back on the second leg of this European jaunt, at the home of our driver, the indescribably Romain Boule, a Frenchman who has divided the world into two camps: Gratuit and Interdit. He's awesome. Anyways. Glastonbury weekend was great, although tiring, being, as it was for me, a round trip from Belgium to Glasto to Weymouth to Valences. But much fun was had and new friends were made, so no complaints there.

A video snippet for you. A session I did for NVTV in Belfast is now viewable through the magic of the interweb here. It features a song called 'Hold Your Tongue', which didn't make the new album but which I like muchly. Enjoy.


Next up, a quick flag about the Pure Groove instore coming up on Wednesday 9th July @ 6pm. Apart from Lexapalooza (which is sold out) it's my last London show before the tour in October. It's also with full band, and it's free. So, no reasons not to come along then. More information here.

And finally, I have a new favourite band, and I think they should be your new favourite too. Check out the Dawn Chorus. TTFN.