TOM PRICE -AWARD WINNING PHOTGRAPHER!

Those of you who bought my new album in its deluxe, limited edition, hand-numbered 40-page book form, will have seen about 125 incredible photos within its pages depicting the album recording process. All of the photos in the book were taken by my good friend, Tom Price, who is a total winner.

It’s not just me who thinks that Tom’s a winner. No sir. On Sunday, it was announced in The Independent that Tom won the student category in British Heart Foundation’s photography competition 2010 with his photo, ‘Pulse’. This is incredible. I don’t know how many people entered, and Tom would probably be too painfully modest to tell me, but I’m guessing it was LOADS.

To celebrate Tom’s mad photography skills, for one week only you can get my new album featuring 40 pages of Tom’s photography for £8 instead of £10 at the Got Got Need shop. A steal! You can also check out more of Tom’s work on his Flickr page, follow him on Twitter and see his winning photo in The Independent below. TOM! YOU’VE DONE SO WELL!

TOM ROBINSON – BBC 6 MUSIC

The lovely Tom Robinson of BBC 6 Music played my song, ‘By My Side’ on his show last night. Tom has always been extremely good to me, but he surpassed himself with the lovely things that he said last night.

“If there’s any justice in the world, that would be all over the radio playlists in the daytime like a rash. Luke Leighfield has completely upped his game on this new album. He’s got mainstream playlist appeal together with indie sensibility, which he still hasn’t abandoned. It was another tip from Tim and Sam keyboard player, Massimo Zeppetelli, who says; “His new album has just been released, and I caught him with an amazingly tight band. I love the album’s production, musicianship, honest lyrics and above all, that single, ‘By My Side.’ It’s incredibly catchy, I love it.” And so do we, Massimo! Thank you for an excuse to play it again.”

You can listen to the show online by clicking here. ‘By My Side’ is played at 24.00 and Tom says a few words after the track at 29.07. Enjoy!

Thank you, Tom!

THE KING BLUES

Last week, I was down at Peter Miles’ studio in Devon recording some piano for a band called Swim Team when Pete mentioned that The King Blues needed some piano and organ on some new songs that they’d been recording with him. I had a quick bash at it, they liked what I did, and over the next week I’ve been recording with them and doing fun things like arranging strings. Anyway, they’ve been kind enough to ask me to go out on tour with them in February playing keys. If you want to come to a gig then the dates are below. Some are with Enter Shikari. It’s going to be a great week.

February 6th – Empress Ballroom – Blackpool (w/Enter Shikari & Rolo Tomassi)
February 7th – Barrowlands – Glasgow (w/Enter Shikari & Rolo Tomassi)
February 8th – Central Station – Wrexham (headline show)
February 9th – Empire – Middlesbrough (w/Enter Shikari & Rolo Tomassi)
February 10th – Queens Hall – Leicester (headline show, early curfew)
February 11th – Opera House – Bournemouth (w/Enter Shikari & Rolo Tomassi)
February 12th – Hammersmith Apollo – London (w/Enter Shikari & Rolo Tomassi)

NEWS: 04/01/10

Hi everyone! I hope 2010 is going well for you. I have a feeling that this year is going to be full of victory for you. A few fun things have happened over the past week, so I thought I’d gather all those things into one manageable blog for your enjoyment.

MARCH CO-HEADLINE UK TOUR WITH JOSE VANDERS AND SAM LITTLE (EAT.SLEEP.ATTACK)

I’m very pleased to announce that I’m going to be heading out on tour with the wonderful Jose Vanders and Sam Little (Eat.Sleep.Attack) at the end of March for a week or so. More information about the tour, and the dates for interested promoters are available here. Get it booked up!

OTHER NEW GIGS

I’ve just booked new gigs in Lincoln, London, Leeds, Wakefield and Cheltenham in the UK. There are also dates TBC in China and Russia. Check all of those out on MySpace.

GOT GOT NEED NEW YEAR SALE

All of my CDs and other merchandise are now going to be sold through the Got Got Need Records online shop. This is clearly very exciting. The sale ends tomorrow night (January 5th) so move quick if you want to get my albums for £4, sweatshirts for £8 and bags for £3. Crazy cheap. Have a look here.

SUMMER FESTIVALS

The time is upon us when festivals start booking up for this summer. I don’t have a booking agent, which means that it’s quite difficult for me to get slots at big festivals like Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, etc. However, I would love to come and play your local festival, whatever that might be. If there is a good festival in your local area, please let me know the name of it and preferably the website too, in the form of an email to luke [at] lukeleighfield [dot] com. If you do so, then I can try to get on it and we can have all kinds of fun together this summer. Thanks in advance!

FAN-FUNDED ALBUMS

Some of you might know that a lot of bands nowadays are raising money to record albums through websites like Pledge Music, Feed The Muse, SellABand and Slice The Pie with the help of fan donations. I’m thinking of raising money for my next album through a medium like this, and therefore would like to know if; a) you like the idea, b) you like the look of any of those websites, and c) if you know of any similar websites that might be useful to me. And maybe also d) if you are stinking rich and want to give me some money. So if you have any thoughts on this topic, either leave a comment on this blog or send me an email to luke [at] lukeleighfield [dot] com. Many thanks!

PEOPLE WHO LIKE MY NEW ALBUM

I guess most of you know that you can download my new album ‘Have You Got Heart?’ for free here. Thanks if you have done so! Some people have said stuff about it below.

- Tom Robinson from BBC 6 Music played ‘By My Side’ on the radio last night. He also said, and I quote; “Now just listen to the quality of this songwriting on this final, epic track, ‘By My Side’, to see why he definitely qualifies as my one final one-to-watch in the coming months.” Thanks, Tom! You can hear my moment of glory at 1:56:43 here.

- A man called Dave wrote a blog about why ‘Have You Got Heart?’ was his favourite album of 2009. Thanks, Dave! You can read it here.

- Another man called Massimo wrote a blog about why ‘Lullaby’, the last track on the album, is great. You can read that here.

- A man called Liam interviewed me last night about my gig in Lincoln tomorrow night, and also about the album. You can read it here.

- A man called Makabi (what a great name) said my album was 8/10. Read about that here.

- My songs keep hitting the homepage of a great website called The Sixty One. You should check the site out because it’s well good.

CHARITY

I didn’t really do New Year’s resolutions this year, but I am trying to improve a few things in my life, one of which is giving more money to charity. Because you wonderful people are the source of what pittance income I have, I thought that it was only right to ask for some opinions on what charities are deserving of my pennies. So, what charities do you give to and why? Either leave a comment or email me on luke [at] lukeleighfield [dot] com. I would love to hear from you!

CURRENT LISTENING, READING AND WATCHING

This past week I re-discovered the wonderful Duke Special. When I first heard Duke a few years ago, I fell totally in love with his songs and bought his entire back catalogue. I have to say that I’m not overly keen on his most recent album, ‘I Never Thought This Day Would Come’ (2008) but I pulled out his first album ‘Songs from the Deep Forest’ (2007) for a late night drive and it was a magical experience. Duke has a lovely, smooth Irish voice and his songs are slices of epic, lush, experimental pop. It’s quite hard to describe but you should definitely give the album a listen on Spotify. Let me know what you think.

I’m currently reading lots of C.S. Lewis thanks to a kind gift of ‘The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics’ from a friend. If you have £12.50 to spare and you want 700 pages of articulate writing on the subject of Christianity then you should head to Amazon and get involved.

The past week has been filled with 24 Season 7. Some people said that this season wasn’t very good. They were lying. Watch it. I also watched ‘Doubt’ last night with my parents. Great film. Watch it.

UNTIL THE NEXT TIME…

Please take lots of care and have a brilliant start to 2010. As ever, my current gigs are on the dying-but-not-quite-dead MySpace. If you have a birthday party, wedding or other fun event coming up, then it’s probably not complete without my songs. If you want me to play then send me an email. I have a lot of free time, as you might know if you follow me on Twitter.

Regards,

Luke

2009 ROUND-UP AND 2010 PREVIEW

2009 was a good year. I started my 2009 in Russia playing some gigs in the snow. They were some of the best gigs I’ve ever played. You can check out a tour diary I made out there right here. When I got back, I took a few months out just to make sure I actually managed to graduate from university, which thankfully I did in the summer! I got a 2:1, proving that you can play a silly amount of gigs at university and still graduate. At the start of the summer I went on a little solo tour in Germany. It was ace. Germany is my favourite place to play.

In August I went to record ‘Have You Got Heart?’ with the wonderful Pete Miles. That album is the best thing I’ve ever made in my life and I’m so proud of it and excited that so many of you are into it. So many people worked so hard on it and it was a real labour of love so your kind words mean the world to me, and that is a stone cold fact. If you haven’t done so yet, you can download it for free here. If you like it, please tell your friends about it. It’s free. What’s not to like? After a couple of months of doing very little except for carrying the occasional coffin, I spent November and December touring Germany and the UK with my band on a 38-date tour. It was very long and gruelling, but very fun. I made some great new friends.

So that was my 2009 in a nutshell. As for 2010, there are all kinds of exciting things happening. The love of my life has decided that she no longer wants to be with me, so I’m mostly spending January and February writing my fourth album. It’s going to be a sad one. A break-up album but a bit different. You’ll see. In March I’m meant to be going on tour in China and Russia, and maybe Japan too with my band. That will be fun. When we get back we might be doing some UK dates with some other cool people. News on that soon. In April, I’m hopefully going to record the album that I’m hopefully going to write in the next couple of months. If all goes to plan then I’ll be in deepest, darkest Devon again with Peter Miles. Then in June I want to do a big tour of Europe again but maybe with a bigger band, like seven of us. In the summer I guess I’ll just work on my tan. In the next academic year, so September onwards, I might move back to Southampton to do something. Upton upon Severn is cool and everything but I literally know no-one here under the age of 55. I’m also going to be doing a lot more with my record label Got Got Need Records in 2010, so keep up with that by finding it on Facebook or on Twitter.

And now, on to my musical 2009 round-up! I’ve sort of done a top ten of 2009, only it’s a top twelve and it’s in alphabetical order because I couldn’t choose between all these great albums.

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– Kawaii

Imagine Funeral For A Friend if they played gameboys instead of guitars. That’s and you say it “colonopenbracket”. I first met these guys when I was playing for Get Cape Wear Cape Fly back in 2006 and they supported on some gigs. We’ve kept in touch and I’ve slept at their house when I’ve been up in Scotland, and now they’re finally releasing their debut album. It’s amazing. It’s like dancey, bleepy, rocky nonsense and I love it. They are also totally great guys. You can listen to tracks on their myspace or better still, just buy the album for a measly £6 from their bigcartel and support a great, innovative UK artist. Whenever I listen to the album I feel all warm and happy.

Favourite songs: Twin Chevron Action Flash / Don’t Talk Just Dance

Olafur Arnalds – Found Songs

Olafur Arnalds is a wonderful Icelandic man who makes neo-classical piano-based music, almost like a one man Sigur Ros but more sparse. Found Songs is a particularly interesting project. Basically, Olafur wrote and recorded one song per day for a week and released them for free on the internet. However, you can also get the physical version of the album if you’re not a dirty pikey. Beautiful music for listening to late at night when you’re getting all warm and snuggly in bed yeah? Check it out on spotify.

Favourite songs: Erla’s Waltz / Raein

Blakfish – Champions

Angry Brummies singing about the credit crunch, the lottery, tidying their rooms and other such mundane topics over stupid time signature changes, screaming, ridiculous riffs and general silliness? Yes please. Champions is just brilliant, and most likely very different to anything you’ve ever heard before. They stayed at my house once. I went to bed at about 2.00, they stayed up drinking until 7.00 and left at 8.30. They know how to party. Great guys. Have a listen on spotify.

Favourite songs: Economics / Your Hair’s Straight but Your Boyfriend Ain’t

William Fitzsimmons – The Sparrow and the Crow

I had the privilege of supporting William in Germany last Christmas. He played for an hour and a half and I thought it was just dreary, boring, lovelorn man with an acoustic guitar stuff. I rediscovered him thanks to a broken heart and have found that his delicate, beautiful songs hit the spot that I need hitting right now. It’s not a particularly happy listen, but in a way it’s oddly uplifting. And heartbreaking. William’s myspace.

Favourite songs: After Afterall / If You Would Come Back Home

Ben Folds – Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella!

Ben Folds is pretty much my favourite artist of all time. When I heard that Folds was going to release a CD of a cappella university choirs covering his songs I thought it would be a fun novelty thing, but nowhere near as brilliant as this CD actually is. Out of the sixteen tracks, there are very few duds, many exceptionally beautiful renditions of Folds classics, and a couple of a cappella numbers by Ben himself. Basically, hugely better than expected. Mind you, one should never underestimate Ben Folds. Anyway, you can have a listen on spotify and you should definitely listen to my recommended tracks below.

Favourite songs: Selfless, Cold and Composed / Magic

Fun. – Aim and Ignite

If anyone remembers an American band called The Format, this is basically frontman Nate’s new project. ‘Aim and Ignite’ is part Queen-esque rock pomposity, part musical theatre, and mostly a vehicle for Nate’s ridiculously good / high voice to be exercised. It’s quite hard to draw comparisons with other musical artists because this really is quite an original listen, so your best option is to give it a go on spotify starting with the exceptional ‘Be Calm’. Whilst not a brilliant album throughout, Fun. have certainly tapped into something that could become a beautiful thing on future recordings.

Favourite songs: Be Calm / At Least I’m Not as Sad (As I Used to Be)

Dave House – Intersections

Kingston-based Dave House has been chipping away in the UK underground for many years now, as well as playing in hardcore band The Steal and working at the amazing Banquet Records. He’s pretty much the nicest guy in rock, probably even nicer than Dave Grohl. Anyway, this is Dave’s third record. ‘Intersections’ takes a more band-driven approach to Dave’s previous records, drawing on influences Frank Turner and Billy Bragg for what is at times a riotous folk/punk odyssey and at other times a sombre reflection on the state of the UK scene and other stuff. Dave’s distinctive accent isn’t going to be to everyone’s tastes, but it is to mine and you should give him a listen on spotify.

Favourite songs: Lungs / I Was Born Steady

Sam Isaac – Bears

It took bloody ages to come out, but it’s finally here! After three years of playing hundreds of shows with Sam, even playing in his band for a couple of those and spending hours in my crappy car together, I’m so pleased to be able to finally hold his debut album in my hands. ‘Bears’ features reworked versions of some old songs from previously released EPs and singles, and also some brand new stellar hits like ‘Apple Tree’. The album is a dreamy collection of indie-pop hits, lyrically encompassing snow, Canada, scarves, ex-girlfriends, love and heartbreak, and musically referencing the twee loveliness of Stars and Death Cab, and also the outright pop of Boyzone. That’s right Sam, Boyzone. Every song on here is a hit. Sam churns them out like you churn out poop. Get involved on Sam’s bandcamp page.

Favourite songs: I Traded My Friends for You / Apple Tree

Paramore – Brand New Eyes

Seemingly everyone in the whole world, from all walks of life and musical tastes, is into this album. That’s because it’s bloody great. When I first listened I thought it was good, but not as good as previous effort ‘Riot!’ How wrong I was. From the Billy Talent-influenced ‘Ignorance’ to ‘The Only Exception’ which sounds like it was taken from Coldplay’s ‘Parachutes’ to the Avril Lavigne-but-better ‘All I Wanted’, this album is pure awesome from start to finish. Hayley’s voice sounds stronger (and sexier) than ever, Zac’s drumming is utter beeftown, and basically this album is better than you. Spotify.

Favourite songs: Careful / Brick by Boring Brick

Say Anything – Say Anything

For those new to Say Anything, you should probably know that singer/songwriter/frontman Max Bemis is a bit “out there” lyrically due to various disorders and whatnot. You can read about all that on wikipedia if you like. Anyway, that probably goes to explain why the album features songs about Max hating everyone, a kid feeding himself to death, and loads of other assorted dark and weird lyrical topics. All that is very interesting, but the best thing about this album is that it rocks. When the riff on ‘Fed to Death’ kicks in, it gives me chills every time and makes me want to punch things. The guitar work at the end of ‘She Won’t Follow You’ is just incredible. There are a few duds on here, or maybe you’ll just completely hate Say Anything’s “sound”, but I think the whole thing is oddly endearing, and at times just an earth-shattering level of rock brilliance. Stream the whole album on myspace.

Favourite songs: Fed to Death / She Won’t Follow You

The October Game – Wildblood

On my recent tour of the UK I was offered a gig in Hitchin by these wonderful men. TOG run their own monthly arts night in a lovely hotel called ‘Fuzzy Face’. Anyway, I had a listen on myspace and fell in love with a couple of tunes, but was unprepared for just how awesome they would be live. The words ‘epic’ and ‘enthralling’ spring to mind. I guess genre-wise they are folk tinged indie rock, but that sounds lame and they definitely aren’t lame. At times they sound like a poppier Viva La Vida era Coldplay. I can’t really do better than. Anyway, you should listen for yourself and fall in love with them. Myspace.

Favourite songs: Concrete (When We Were Invincible) / Cast These Waves

Weezer – Raditude

I have to confess that I don’t actually own this album yet (I’m expecting it for Christmas) but let’s remember that this is Weezer, and Weezer are basically the best band ever. I had a quick listen on spotify and it sounds as brilliant as ever. Weezer > you. Spotify.

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There are also a few albums that I’ve fallen in love with this year, but that were released in the last few years, so I’ve given them their own special section. They’re too good to miss out.

Foy Vance – Hope

Foy is an Irish singer songwriter from the same scene as Duke Special. Whereas Duke goes for the more overblown sound, Foy’s voice works best in an intimate, quiet setting. ‘First of July’ is the break up song to end all break up songs, ‘I Was Made’ and ‘It Doesn’t Take a Whole Day’ are stunningly beautiful love songs, whilst ‘Indiscriminate Act of Kindness’ is probably the most incredible song I’ve heard all year. Everyone got sick of me playing it to everyone we met on tour! There’s a version of Foy performing it with an orchestra on youtube which you simply MUST watch. I cannot sing high enough praise for this album. Spotify.

Favourite songs: First of July / Indiscriminate Act of Kindness

Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

I tend to shy away from any band that’s hyped up everywhere because they’re almost always a letdown. Bon Iver is not a letdown. For those who don’t know the story, Justin Vernon basically got dumped, went and wrote an album in a cabin in the middle of the forest, and it grew and grew and grew… and then it was everywhere. Aching, longing, anger, love, questioning, soul-searching, fragility. That’s basically it. Incredible lyrics, incredible voice, incredible everything. Spotify.

Favourite songs: Skinny Love / Blindsided

The Fray – How to Save a Life

I guess I’m pretty late on to The Fray, and everyone has already heard them, but it’s worth a few sentences anyway. Some of the sounds on this album heavily influenced the more ballady numbers on my new album. ‘How to Save a Life’ is a beautiful combination of gentle piano, epic guitars, one stunning voice, and some luxurious string arrangements. ‘Over My Head’ and ‘Look After You’ give me goosebumps every time. In fact, I think I’ve cried to this album in the car. In fact, I definitely have cried to this album in the car. You know when you listen to music that’s so good that you can’t do anything with your body to express it? That’s how I feel about some of the songs on this album. Admittedly there are some crap songs too, but you can’t have it all. Spotify.

Favourite songs: Over My Head / Look After You

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Other things like books and films and stuff.

I’m quite tired of typing now so I’ll keep this brief. Since leaving university I’ve finally had the time to read all the books that I’ve wanted to read over the past few years. Ironic considering I studied English (and Music) at university. Anyway. There are two books that I want to tell you about.

James Frey – A Million Little Pieces

An autobiographical account of a recovering drug addict. Harrowing, brutally honest, wonderfully written. I think I basically read it in one sitting because it was so incredible. Check out some more reviews on amazon and buy it because it’s great.

Donald Miller – Blue Like Jazz

Loads of my Christian friends were banging on at me to read this for ages. The cover looked awful so I didn’t really fancy it. Nevertheless I finally started it on tour and read the whole thing in a day because I just couldn’t put it down. It’s not so much a Christian book, more a Christian musing on what it means to be a Christian, his experiences of Christian life, and a refreshing look at loads of issues that people have with Christianity. If you’re at all interested in religion or any of the bigger questions about life, then you should dedicate a few hours to reading this. You might just enjoy it. Amazon.

There are also two films that I’ve particularly enjoyed this year, both featuring an old man who kicks ass in his neighbourhood. One is Gran Torino, and the other is Harry Brown which is basically the hardcore British version of Gran Torino. You should watch them both. They’ll make you want to clean up your neighbourhood.

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Thank you very much for reading this. I hope you’ve found something to listen to or read or watch and fall in love with. Please leave your recommendations in a comment on this blog because it seems rude for me to tell you about ace things and for you not to return the favour. I bet you’ve all got loads of ace things to tell me about.

Lastly, all of my CDs and other merchandise will now be stocked in the Got Got Need Records shop and not my Luke Leighfield shop. Just so you know. And to celebrate that fact, there is a sale on there right now where you can get loads of cheap stuff. So check that out pronto. If anyone is feeling particularly generous or rich, then feel free to send me money via paypal to luke [at] lukeleighfield [dot] com to help me to pay back my outstanding costs from the new album. It’s landed me in a little bit of debt and any help to get back in the black would be hugely, hugely appreciated, and will help to fund the recording of my new album.

Love and best wishes to you and your loved ones for Christmas and the New Year. Thanks for all your support.

Luke

SUNDAY 20TH DECEMBER | THE SHED | LEICESTER

Last day of tour. Emotional. Had to get up at silly o’clock to take Aaron to the coach station. He had to leave a day early to go to Brighton to drop off his bass, to then go to Portsmouth to catch a ferry, to then go to France to see his parents and drive to Geneva to see his granddad. Aaron is great and it was sad to see him go. We have been on an emotional journey together. We made the coach with one minute to spare and Aaron made it on to the coach with literally SO MANY bags. I waved goodbye and shed a little tear, then drove back to Burt’s to try to go back to sleep. I couldn’t sleep. Everyone eventually woke up, I finally met Burt’s girlfriend of one year, Ashley, and we all showered and stuff. Not together. As it was the last day of tour we went crazy and ate at a fairly nice pub for lunch. It was dead good and the staff were all lovely. I think we’re going to play a gig there next year. Amusingly, it was called Rampant Lion. Go there if you’re ever in Manchester.

Burt is from Malvern, which is near me, so he decided to come with us to Leicester and get a free ride home. We set off at four thinking it would be a quick drive to Leicester. However, the ice had other ideas. An hour and a half journey took three hours. Alas, we made it to Leicester crash-free. Our promoter tonight was a lovely guy called John Conyers. However, there was a minor disaster. The other bands, Kid Cosmic and Spycatcher had to pull out because of snow. But it was okay, we were going to play anyway. John had moved our show from downstairs to the upstairs bar where we would be playing as part of a competition to win a slot at a festival called Glastonbudget. So far, so good. We had pizza for tea. However, disaster struck when the idiot promoter at The Shed (who also had a crap mullet) said we could no longer play in the middle of the night because it would piss of these MCs and their gangster friends, and instead we had to play at the end. The only trouble is that this would mean playing at midnight, and we had two and a half hours of icy driving left to go. And we would play to an empty room. There was no other option. We had to cancel.

So, John the promoter and my friend Becs and Burt and Tom and I went to The Firebug for a drink. We chatted, it was nice. Then we had to leave to drive home. I drove Tom to his house in Redditch, then took Burt to Malvern, then arrived back in Upton upon Severn at 1.00 or so. Tour was over. We didn’t play Leicester. We played 38 gigs or something mental. We played pretty much every day for a month with only one day off. We were tired. It was good. Thank you for coming to watch us if you did come to watch us. If you didn’t, thanks for reading this blog anyway. Until the next time…

SATURDAY 19TH DECEMBER | CAFE SAKI | MANCHESTER

Got up early because it’s a big drive from Leslie to Manchester. How big? Five hours big. So I got up early. I didn’t have a hangover but I had that feeling you get when you drink slightly too much beer, not way too much, and also smoke two crappy cigars. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the too-hot-to-use shower was still too hot to use. Nothing like feeling a bit sweaty and grimy on a big drive. So we loaded out and felt sweaty and grimy. We hit Morrison’s for lunch and got some absolute steals. I had a peppered steak slice for 70p or something outrageous, and a cornish pasty. Essentially, pie central. Tom and Aaron had salad crap because they can’t take my ridiculous touring and eating bad food pace. Amateurs.

I drove for a long time.

We arrived in Manchester at 4.00 or so. It was icy, wet, cold, raining, snowing, etc. We loaded in our gear in horrible conditions. Nice. Found some free parking though. Good effort. Our lovely promoter Matthew paid for us to go and eat rad food. This of course meant kebabs and Rubicon. I love kebabs and Rubicon! http://tweetphoto.com/6755571 We ate and went back to the venue. The short version of events is that we watched loads of bands play from 7.00 until about midnight when we finally played. It was a LONG day. A LONG DAY. However, we got to see some friends. Run Toto Run and My First Tooth also played, and Tim and Becca from Tim and Sam’s Tim and the Sam Band with Tim and Sam turned up to surprise me. I also saw my favourite jew, Jez Myers, and Burt who played cello on my album. And Chris Selman who promoted our Liverpool show. And a friend from school called Jack White. So, like, LOADS of rad people came and made the night great. Then we went to sleep at Burt’s. Great night.

FRIDAY 18TH DECEMBER | THE GREENSIDE HOTEL | LESLIE

Woke up to the immense treat of Sheena McKinlay. That woman is ace. Fiona had gone to work so Sheena treated us to coffee and croissants, not to mention showing us her farm thing on Facebook. She’s pretty good at it. I think it’s called Farmland. We debated many issues for a few hours then it was time to go into Edinburgh to have lunch with Aaron’s friend, Justin. We parked really far outside Edinburgh so that we didn’t have to pay, then walked for about forty minutes into the city. Tom pussied out after about five minutes because it was cold and went to nap in the car for four hours. Each to their own. Meanwhile, Aaron and I got some reduced sandwiches in Tesco. Good effort.

We finally managed to meet Justin at the train station after some confusion regarding station exits, and we headed to a cafe to talk about important things. Justin is a great guy. He lives in deepest, darkest Ireland with his wife. He only owns one pair of trousers. People give him things for free because he is a great man. I really like him. Check his music out – http://www.myspace.com/justingrounds

Afterwards, we trekked back to the car and set off on an icy, boring, long, arduous drive to Leslie. It was meant to be an hour. It took two. There was so much snow. I played this hotel once before a year or so ago and it was weird then, and definitely still weird in 2009. There’s a gig venue in one room, then the next room has a karaoke bar. As was the case with my last gig, the gig venue was nearly empty and the karaoke bar was rammed with chavs. Never mind. We had fun, played nice and loud, then drank some beers and smoked some cigars that the barmaid gave us on the sly (shush). It was pretty rock ‘n’ roll. Aaron and I signed up to sing Crazy in Love on karaoke but our turn never came. I think they only allowed locals to sing. It was that kind of place. Eventually I got bored of waiting and went to bed. Whilst I was sleeping, Aaron and Tom piled packets of sugar and coffee, as well as various crockery on top of me. Tom also smashed an apple on a light, wiped houmous on a mirror and knocked over a plant pot. We’re so rock ‘n’ roll. We cleaned up in the morning and no-one knew a thing. The shower was too hot to shower in and Tom burnt his willy. He showed us. It was red.

THURSDAY 17TH DECEMBER | CABARET VOLTAIRE | EDINBURGH

We got up early at Grant’s so that we could get to Edinburgh for some Christmas shopping. Grant, being totally amazing, sorted Aaron and I out with a meaty roll to start the day. We bade him goodbye then set off on the mammoth trek to Edinburgh. We finally arrived at lunchtime, had an absolute nightmare parking, and then headed to Fopp, the place of dreams. We must have spent a good hour there and I managed to get a few Christmas presents. Good times. We had to be at Cab Vol for 4.00 though so our time was cut short. The venue was amazing and our soundcheck sounded ace. We went out for dinner and I took a little walk up The Royal Mile to the castle thing at the top. I say a little walk but I must have walked a fair few miles. I think my body deserved it after all the pizzas I’ve eaten on this tour.

When we got back to the venue it was basically empty except for two punters. Nevertheless, LightGuides rocked out and were ace for the second night in a row. Check them out – http://www.myspace.com/lightguides. Cast of the Capital played soon after, then we were ushered on. Early curfew tonight. There weren’t many people at the gig but we had a good time all the same and rocked it pretty hard. After the show we sank a few beers with the LightGuides boys. They are funny and ace and many other things. We are SO friends on facebook now. Love them. However, we had a bit of a drive to our host, Fiona McKinlay’s house in Linlithgow so we set off before it got too late.

I haven’t stayed at Fiona’s house since 2007 or something mad so it was ace to hang out there again. The drive was mental snowy and icy. Fiona has loads of computer games and consoles and all kinds of crazy crap. The boys got stuck into Rock Band and Wii and other assorted goodies whilst I made some phone calls. Aaron and I ate some cake that Fiona’s mum’s Polish friend made for her. Apparently Fiona’s mum teaches her English and she pays her in cake. Sounds like a sweet deal. The cake was dead good. I blew up an inflatable bed with Fiona’s super fast electronic inflater then went to bed. Fiona is ace.

WEDNESDAY 16TH DECEMBER | TUNNELS | ABERDEEN

Woke up and put some Perfume on straight away. Addicted to those fine sounds. Adam and I went to Sainsbury’s to get tattie scones for an authentic Scottish breakfast. You’d think tattie scone and fried egg sandwiches would be a little carb-heavy, but actually the combination made for the best breakfast ever. Great times. We eventually headed out just after one, after a mild problem in the sketchy car park where I left the car resulting in me doing some amazing off roading down some muddy tracks to get out. I can haz mad skillz. So we went to Aberdeen. Thank you Mart and Adam!

Aberdeen is a trek and a half and we eventually arrived at 4.30.Tunnels is this cool venue amongst some tunnels no less. Our promoter, Ross, had laid on a mega spread for our rider. Good stuff. Our soundman was called Badger. Not only was he called Badger but he was also great at sound, and leant Aaron a bass amp for the night. Lovely, lovely Badger. Thank you, Badger. Soundcheck was great and we sounded great despite my alcopop-ravaged voice. We parked the car somewhere where we wouldn’t get a ticket and headed to Somerfield to get a feast for tea. For all of tour, Tom has been banging on about getting a cooked chicken. Today, finally, we bought a cooked chicken for £2. We then ate it like cavemen.

Some great bands opened for us tonight. Lightguides were a three piece Xcerts / Biffy-esque proposition. They were pretty great. Marionettes sounded like Arctic Monkeys with a synth. Then Cast of the Capital played their Death Cab-but-Scottish sounds. They were very lovely. All in all, great times. We played one of the best sets of tour so far and Tom played extra loud. Afterwards it turned into a weird club night where people came wearing fluorescent things that covered all their bodies, like tights if they covered everything. I didn’t understand. Some kid cut his hand open and had first aid in our dressing room which meant that his blood was everywhere. We’d managed to explode a can of diet coke too so the dressing room was a mixture of coke and blood. Nice. Eventually we loaded out, said goodbye to some friends and headed to our main man Grant Travis flat to sleep. When we entered his living room there was a pair of knickers hanging on one wall, and a dildo propped up on the curtain rail. Nice.