Yes, I Am Going To San Francisco

Greetings earthlings. I write from a hippy hotel in San Francisco. Much as it pains me to admit in public, I've never been the biggest fan of this city. That said I haven't exactly spent masses of time here. It just grates with me when everyone treats somewhere as such a fucking meccah. It immediately makes me start picking holes in it. Maybe that's just me being an arsehole.

The shows with Steve Soto and the Twisted Hearts have been fantastic, and it's a shame that they're coming to an end. Still, I get to spend more quality time with Look Mexico after today, and that's no bad thing. Northern California is breathtakingly beautiful, I'm definitely planning on ending my days somewhere around Big Sur. Los Angeles was beautiful, unhinged and trashy as it ever is, and I think we've made big headway with my plans over here - more on that in the coming months.

A surprise party for y'all: my good friend Jonny Awsum has a new show, called (wow) The Jonny Awsum show. It takes place at the Met Bar in London, and it generally insane. I'll be playing there on the 21st April, but it's invite only. So, this is how it'll work: the first 30 people who send an email to info@jonnyawsum.com with the subject line "I must touch Mr Frank" will get an invite and be able to come down to the show. It's 18+ (sorry) and it'll be running late. More info goes to the people who win the places. Good luck!

To finish with, here's some lovely footage of my recent Nottingham show with Gaslight.

Frank Turner Live at Nottingham Rock City taster video. (Please help me by filling out the survey) from jack lilley on Vimeo.

Texas Is The Reason

I'm currently in bed in a hotel room in Phoenix, Arizona. The last few days have been pretty extreme. The SXSW festival was great but predictably unhinged, given the personnel combination of local friends and an international selection of reprobate drinkers. The journey here was a total fuck-up thanks to the breath-taking incompetence of www.edreams.com (avoid at all costs), and I arrived on Wednesday night feeling shattered. After meeting up with my (excellent) new American band mates on Thursday morning for two hours' rehearsal, we hammered out three shows, and one more on Friday. I also got to see The Hold Steady, The Van Pelt and Adam from Two Gallants - a pretty awesome haul, in my opinion.

Saturday was a day off for me, and so the party got started in earnest. In the end I really want to blame it all on Fake Problems, but that'd be duplicitous of me - I have only myself to blame. Safe to say after a full day's drinking, Sunday morning dawned like this:



Yup, I got a tattoo of the state of Texas done on my arm. The work was done by the talented Mr Derek Martinez. All I can say is, don't go drinking in tattoo shops...! Also I think I came off better than John Berna, FP's guitar tech, who got some of my lyrics on his chest, including a few letters actually done (not very well) by me.

So, that's the story of my sojourn in Texas. Actually I'm not overly repentant, this trip has been consistent with my other times in that state: chaotic but tons of fun. I can think of many worse states to have immortalized in this way. New Mexico, for example, haha.

Moral Collapse

Argh, I went and did it, I got me a Twitter account. In fact, my original motivation (or so I tell myself) was to make sure no one bagged my name on there and started sending out fake shit, but I then discovered that someone already has - though he seems to legitimately share my name. Anyways, since I'd crossed the Rubicon already, I went and signed up. Voila. Sorry.

In other news, we just restocked the online shop. I've not been particularly snappy at advertising its existence, so, here we go, my online shop. You can order stuff worldwide, and we should have most sizes in stock. Happy shopping.

Finally, as inspired by the good people of Polar Bear Club, I want to set up a gallery on my myspace for FT tattoos. If you have one, or know someone who does, send me a photo and I'll upload it there (if you're OK with that, obviously).

Today, I am all about the internet.

Ireland / America / Studio

Sad as I am not to be living it up in Moscow right now, it must be said that having some time off is not to be sniffed at. It's lovely to be back in Winchester with a little spring sunshine and not too much work on. Last night I got to catch up with the Polar Bears one last time, and tonight Emily Barker is playing down the road. I also plan to have a bath.

Some points of order.. Firstly, touring. We've added and announced two more Irish shows for the October tour - Dublin and Belfast on the 13th and 14th respectively. Details and ticket links are on the gigs page. Beans On Toast will be with me, but alas no Fake Problems.

Speaking of trans-Atlantic cousins, the dates for my US run of shows are now finalized. They can also be found on said gigs page, but for those at the back:

• 22nd March @ The Warhol, San Antonio, TX, USA
  
• 24th March @ Chyro Arts, Phoenix, AZ, USA
  
• 25th March @ Hensley's Flying Elephant, San Diego, CA, USA
  
• 26th March @ The Viper Room, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  
• 27th March @ The Blank Club, San Jose, CA, USA
  
• 28th March @ Thee Parkside, San Francisco, CA, USA
  
• 30th March @ Backspace, Portland, OR, USA
  
• 31st March @ Flying M Coffee Garage, Nampa, ID, USA
  
• 1st April @ SHO, Salt Lake City, UT, USA (early show)
  
• 1st April @ Bar Deluxe, Salt Lake City, UT, USA (late show)
  
• 2nd April @ Marquis Theatre, Denver, CO, USA
  

Next up... I have a split vinyl coming out on Suburban Home Records in the USA, as part of their "under the influence" series. My side is a cover of Springsteen's "Thunder Road", while on the other you have the amazing Austin Lucas covering Dolly Parton. To top it all, Mitch Clem did the artwork (swoon). So yeah, it's a steal, and you can pre-order it here. How many links can one man fit in a paragraph? Welcome, friends, to the 21st Century.

Finally, Tarrant, Ben and Nigel have been working on a rehearsal space for the band to use in preparing the new album. I want to keep a pretty thorough diary of the process, so this here is the start of it all:

God Doesn't Want Me In Finland

God fucking dammit. The shows scheduled in Russia, Finland, Estonia and Latvia with Anti-Flag have been cancelled, due to Justin breaking his collar bone at a show in Norwich last night. Obviously, this totally sucks for them and I hope he's OK. I'm gutted, and that makes two Finnish shows cancelled in a month. Not happy. We're taking about rescheduling for the summer, so watch this space, but yeah, apologies to those who were looking forward to the shows - I was too.

The tour with Gaslight is over, and it was sad to see it end - all those guys, Polar Bears, the crew, were awesome, and it's the least I can do to say thanks to everyone on my internet brainsplurge. Can't wait to see them all on the road again.

Motherblog Part II

So, here it is, the news we've all been waiting for, the October album tour!

Poetry Of The Deed UK Headline Tour (all dates full band, with Fake Problems and Beans On Toast)

• 15th October @ QMU, Glasgow
  
• 16th October @ Academy 2, Manchester
  
• 17th October @ University Basement, Newcastle
  
• 18th October @ Rock City, Nottingham
  
• 19th October @ The Wulfrun, Wolverhampton
  
• 20th October @ The Academy, Oxford
  
• 22nd October @ Met Uni, Leeds
  
• 23rd October @ The Junction, Cambridge
  
• 24th October @ University, Plymouth
  
• 25th October @ The Lemon Grove, Exeter
  
• 26th October @ Anson Rooms, Bristol
  
• 27th October @ Solus, Cardiff
  
• 28th October @ The Guildhall, Winchester
  
• 29th October @ Shepherds Bush Empire, London
  

This is by far the biggest headline tour I've ever done, so it's kinda daunting, but exciting at the same time, and it's great to have friends along for the ride as well. Tickets go on sale from 9am tomorrow morning from here.

Motherblog Part I

Today I'm going to do something so radical it makes my teeth hurt: I'm going to post two blogs in one day. This is because there really is loads of crap to get through, so splitting it up makes me cry less.

I'm in the UK again, which is great, though I'm only here for a couple of days before I continue my galavanting. Plug sockets and small change are currently confusing me. The tour with Gaslight is nearly done, which is a small sadness, as these things always are; the tour has been immeasurably awesome, and I'll miss them and PBC like I've been missing Salt & Vinegar crisps in Europe.

The Oxford album shows are all sold out now, which is gratifying in the extreme. More show news later today, in part 2 of this amazing blogfest. Speaking of blogs, you should (if you need time to kill) head over to Tracker's blog. Tracker is the tour manager for Polar Bear Club, and a funny mofo to boot. Gory details of our European adventures can be found here. In yet more blog-related madness, I'm of the opinion that this is very important. NO2ID are coming with me for the October tour (TBA later yada yada). And finally, lightening the mood again, here's a cool piece about the good people of Banquet Records.

That was quite the link-fest. I sit here on a stranger's floor in Norwich convinced there was something else I was going to say, but then I remember it's OK because I'll be posting again later on. Three cheers for the internet.