Down Under

Greetings from Sydney, Australia. I still can't quite believe I'm in this country - this is the furthest away from home I've ever been. I met up with the Revival crew (Chuck and his wife Jill, John Gaunt, Todd Beene, Ben Nichols, and Tim Barry) at LAX on Monday night, and we flew through the night to Brisbane, arriving on Wednesday morning, which was weird. Initial impressions are that the cliche is true - it's kind of like a cross between Texas and Europe here. Austin and Nice, to be precise. Everyone is super friendly, the weather is blissful even at its worst (the rain on day 1 was strangely soothing). We've been to animal sanctuaries to feed kangaroos and hold koalas, been on boat trips in Sydney harbour, proper tourist stuff. The only drawback is the compound jetlag, combined with mad early morning flights to secure Chinese visas, means I have no idea if I'm coming or going most of the time. Small price to pay, I think.

Some show news. Firstly, we've added shows to this tour, in Sydney (tomorrow night, the 24th, at Hermann's Bar) and Melbourne (May 2nd at The Arthouse). If you're already coming to a show, I promise we'll play different songs. If you missed a ticket, here's your chance!

Secondly, European Festivals - I'm pleased to announce that me and the band will be appearing at Highfield Festival (August 20th) and Area 4 Festival (August 21st) in Germany, and the free Musikfestwoche Winterthur in Switzerland on August 22nd. A fun weekend on the continent, then.

Finally, I have big news coming soon about a competition and a new 7" vinyl. Also, my good friend Simon made an album recently, and one of the tracks is a weird electro mix of a song of mine, "Hold Your Tongue". You can download it for free from here. Enjoy.

To The East

News is coming thick and fast these days, it seems. I'm now in Vancouver. The show in San Francisco was a blast, though we were all indescribably jetlagged by the end of it all. I think I'm just about tuned into the timezone here now, which is fine for the next few days, but then heading to Australia resets the clock all over again. Dagnammit.

I'm pleased to say that I will indeed be appearing at this year's Glastonbury Festival. I'm playing on the Queen's Head stage on the Friday, and on the Leftfield with Billy Bragg on the Saturday (June 25th and 26th). Playing Glasto is always an event for the scrapbook, so I'm happy about that. To have been asked to make some music with Billy, a songwriter I absolutely love, is considerably more than icing on the cake - I'm really honoured and excited. It's going to be quite a summer.

Prior to that, I'm also now able to announce those Chinese tour dates I've been prattling on about in full. I've never been to the PRC, it's fresh territory and definitely a tour stop outside of my comfort zone. I'll be keeping a diary. Here are the dates:

Chinese Tour May 2010! - All solo shows

• 7th May @ Rockschool, Hong Kong, China
  
• 8th May @ 1 Du Tang, Shenzen, China
  
• 9th May @ Hooley's, Guangzhou, China
  
• 12th May @ Vox, Wuhan, China
  
• 13th May @ Old Time Jazz Bar, Wuxi, China
  
• 14th May @ Yuyintang, Shanghai, China
  
• 15th May @ D-22, Beijing, China
  

Time to practice my mandarin...

Big Sur

I'm back in the USA again. This is good news, although I feel like a fucking alien at the moment, which is not helped by having spent last night drinking whisky with my friend Vanessa and reminiscing about the Revival tour. We're on the coast mid-state; this is one of my favourite parts of the world, and I can see why Kerouac and pals settled here. The band are with me, which is also good news, and today we drive to San Francisco for a show, which is icing on the cake.

On Saturday we'll be back down in Southern California (after a brief stop in Vancouver for me tomorrow..!) for Coachella Festival. And I've finally got my stage and time. So (drum roll please), we're playing The Gobi Stage at 12 noon on Saturday. If you're coming along, or know people who are, please spread the word, it's an early slot and we want to get a crowd together.

Further on the subject of this great continent, I can happily confirm that this August I'll be playing at the great Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago. It'll be a full band show, and we're looking at a run of shows beforehand from the East Coast on over. More details to follow shortly.

Turning back (happily) to the parochial old United Kingdom... My old friend Gareth, from Peterborough, is putting out a benefit compilation CD to raise money to help disadvantaged local kids get involved in music. I contributed a track (a live version of "Sons Of Liberty") and the comp features a ton of awesome bands - Good Clean Fun, Red Lights Flash, Tim Vantol, Crazy Arm, and many more. I know Gareth from the days when he used to run Positive Outlook, a UKHC staple label back in the late 1990's. So, all in all, pretty old school. You can pre-order the CD and find out more by following this link.

Moving westwards across the midlands, I can confirm that I am playing a (solo) show at Club Kerrang at the Birmingham Academy on May 27th. Tickets are available from seetickets.com. See you there?

The Internationale

Back in Groningen again. This is a great town - beautiful European streets, made better by some especially clement weather, chilled out Dutch atmosphere, a cool venue that I've visited before... Tour is sweet. Germany was, as ever, a total blast. Brussels, Eindhoven and Utrecht were all too kind. This run is coming to a close pretty soon, but the road rolls ever onwards (towards the sunshine of the West Coast of the USA, so no complaints!). Incidentally, the San Francisco and Vancouver shows are selling tickets like crazy, so if you want to come along I'd advise getting them sooner rather than later.

Speaking of the USA, I am very pleased to confirm that I will be appearing (solo) at this year's Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, TN, on Thursday June 10th 2010. I'm new to US festivals, so this is exciting for me.

Finally, to round off an update replete with internationalism, I'm very excited to announce that I will be playing a show at Rock School in Hong Kong on May 7th. After that I have a string of shows in Mainland China. This is really virgin territory for me, and I'm simultaneously expectant, intrigued and a little nervous. I'll be keeping a full tour diary for the trip.

3 Shots Of Awesomeness

Hello all, I'm in Hamburg, the weather is terrible but I'm in a good mood. I'll be brief, and keep this down to three bullet-points of greatness!

1. I can confirm I'll be playing the NME / Radio 1 Stage at this year's Reading & Leeds Festivals!

2. I can confirm I'll be playing at this year's Hurricane & Southside Festivals, in Germany!

3. In It For The Tank, my side project with roadie Barbs, have finally got their shit together for a new song. Here, at last, it is!