Sunday 12 October 2008

moving to nottingham

after months of it being on the cards i have finally completed my move to nottingham.
so far, so amazing.

its been incredible to be so close to a city, be able to walk home and have some much so close to me. just about sorted my room out. theres a few things missing but its started to feel like home.

a big thanks to matt for driving me here. lauren for helping me move in and everyone thats made me feel welcome so far.

x

Saturday 13 September 2008

catch-up

yeah, i haven't written for a while. mainly because ive been left with the responsibility of taking care of the tomassi blog (because im in a band with lazy bastards) and i guess i would write about similar things in both so this has been neglected. to catch up with whats been happening, go to www.partywounds.blogspot.com. leeds fest sort of review, paris weekend etc.

so, im home, jobless and itching to go on tour. this is the least money ive had since taking the gap year and im just about to move house for the first time. im very excited but at the same time a little worried. i know that i need a change for sure though and nottingham is totally sweet. a big thankyou to my soon to be housemates for sorting everything out in my absence. hugely appreciated!

playlist:
grammatics - various singles/tracks/comp stuff
interpol - our love to admire
late of the pier - fantasy black channel
food for animals - belly

Saturday 16 August 2008

start of the new season

so arsenal beat west brom 1-0. the game started really interestingly and it looked like we were going to absolutely kill it but in true arsenal fashion we faded and looked less and less like scoring, making for a pretty nailbiting last 10 minutes. nasri looked good, denilson was solid and so was djourou. good start i guess but must improve to challenge the big teams.

this week has been pretty average. we had a good show in nottingham on tuesday. not so much good in performance but it was nice to catch up with the grantham/collingham crew and other familiar faces. thanks go to kos for putting the show on and wander phantom for lending us their drumkit.

i was supposed to have a trial shift at the forum which i was totally pumped for but someone hadn't passed on a message to someone else which meant i couldnt do it and probably haven't got a job now. its really frustrating that someone elses incompetence has cost me a possible good 6 weeks worth of work but nevermind i suppose. went round to hugh.f.b.escotts and made apple crumble to compensate for being let down.

since then ive done little to nothing all week. we have a show on monday and have just confirmed the date for a videoshoot we'll be doing to promote the single from hysterics. it doubles up as a warm-up show for tour which should be a lot of fun. more details when im allowed to say!

playlist:
  • owen - no good for no-one now
  • owen - the ep
  • rainer maria - long knives drawn
  • radiohead - amnesiac

Wednesday 30 July 2008

BSM 5-a-side

we played in the BSM 5-a-side on sunday and returned runners up! rolo tomassi/mirror!mirror! joint team. i managed to get injured in the first game and consequently went in goal for the rest of the day but cant have done too badly cos we got to the final. that said i did let in 3 goals in that game... nevermind! all good fun.

our results:

group stages
RT/M!M! 1-0 Gold Artist Agency
RT/M!M! 2-2 Alcopop Records
RT/M!M! 9-1 Banquet Records

semi-final
RT/M!M! 3-1 This Town Needs Guns/Pennines

final
RT/M!M! 1-3 Punktastic

squad photo

(L-R) Bean, Jordan, Ed (c), Broadze, Joseph, Alex and Me

Monday 21 July 2008

truckfest/july 08

truckfest is one of, if not my favourite festival that we've played.

im going to have to check through my other entries to check that the profound statement above has not been used in another entry but thats not the point. its secluded, small and the line-up has been pretty sweet both times we've been. its just a massive shame we only stayed for the day AGAIN. money money money....

regardless of that, we arrived just after lovvers had finished (gutted), found out it was them that pranked us (i spent a good 15 minutes trying to find tent b in search of food!) and then got stuck in. we bumped into some familiar faces, caught up and then got behind our stage to begin setting up. a week before the festival we agreed to do a 'secret collaboration' with youthmovies to link up our sets. we thought it would be a good idea to discuss this in the week leading up to the festival. of course, that absolutely didn't happen. 10 minutes before we went on we made some vague plans; 'keep it nice', 'cliched keyboard stuff', 'not just loads of feedback'. we jammed a little, i played jump by van halen underneath some noodly guitar stuff. that was it. OH WELL. it was fun and it was amazing to see the YM guys again (including randall and jim). our set was good i think. it was awesome to be asked back and to do the stage up this year. progress or something or other.

so when the collab ended and youthmovies started, i started drinking. and carried on. and on. by the time youthmovies had finished i couldnt really stand up. i then made myself vomit and fell asleep outside our van for about a hour and a half (thanks for carrying me back guys...). i woke later, put some warmer clothes on and rejoined the party. we watched a bit of munch munch and all of so so modern (who were awesome!). we did a lot of dancing and generally had a very good time. it was the last festival of the summer for us and a really nice end to what has been a great experience. THANKS TRUCK!

this month i have:
  • extensively looked for work and failed.
  • played a LOT of football - BSM 5-a-side next sunday.
  • eaten BBQ food
  • watched 2 seasons of dawsons creek - well into series 6 at the moment...
  • started reading again.
  • been to see converge and why?

oh what small achievements. i look forward greatly to being on tour again.

currently listening to:

  • converge - you fail me
  • health - s/t
  • brian eno - music for airports
  • poison the well - tear from the red
  • mix from simon
  • yo la tengo - various stuff

Friday 27 June 2008

what up june?

its been a pretty intense month.
after finishing the cub scout tour i joined up with the other tomassi's and we hit the road ourselves for 2 weeks. in that time we did our first major festival, our first european show and a run of sold out dates with melt banana. fun times.

im home now and have no money, no job and little plans. searching for a job in the city today was very difficult. i was met mainly with unfriendly, unhelpful people and no vacancies anywhere. my scheduled move to nottingham is dependant on ca$h!

this months top 10 things:
  • health - disco
  • ox.eagle.lion.man - the lay of the land, the turn of the tide
  • finding the maps/M83 split then getting in for £2 cheaper than it was priced!
  • loads of football on TV
  • 'liberating' things...
  • awesome vegetarian food at the alley cafe
  • the company of data select party
  • half price meals at wagamamas
  • comadre, live in paris
  • rival schools at download

we were made to love, but we are not the best at it

i first met todd marriot about 3 years ago at the old angel in nottingham. he had a mullet.
having a small knowledge of each others solo projects from the realms of myspace i believe we exchanged numbers in the hope to do some shows together. this first happened at the black dog in grantham. it was the first of many, many shows together.

i think william joined the band in the summer of 2006. we played summerslam together and decided to do a tour together in september. this was literally just before they'd been signed and it was a total DIY, play anywhere kind of tour. i remember that my house was free and as most of the shows were northern, we'd drive back home after each show and just hang out. having only toured once before it was all amazing fun. cubscout were our age and awesome to spend time with.

over the course of time, their profile had been raised tremendously and they did everything they could to help us out; putting on shows, dropping our name in interviews and even wearing our shirts in their videos! it wasnt because they'd been told to or because it was in their interests; they did it because they were our best friends. earlier this year we toured the country for 30 days solid and it was a pleasure to be on the road, sharing a stage with two fantastic musicians who together were an amazing band.

over the past few months things have been really difficult for them. a run of bad luck coupled with issues that ive never fully understood made them decide to call it a day earlier this month. i just wanted to put something in writing about a band that has played a really big part in my life over the last few years; initially as a fan, then a friend and eventually a session musician!

i have a lot of good memories that directly relate to i was a cub scout so may that project rest in peace and good luck to both of the boys in sorting out something new.

Monday 26 May 2008

dot to dot

this weekend saw us visiting nottingham and bristol for dot to dot festival. its one of several inner city festivals that we've been fortunate enough to play this year. my favourite thing about these types of events is getting to see and hang out with our friends bands, especially when its been an absolute age since we last saw them. mirror!mirror! filled that criteria this weekend. i think they're the only band who cares as much about football as we do. probably more so. ANYWAY, they put on one of the best shows i think ive seen all year and having done endless shitty gigs together it was great to see them play to a packed out room of people who were really into it. they've just put out (or are just about to put out) a new 7" on holy roar and tough love. you can get it on iTunes too and you totally should.

Monday 19 May 2008

the great escape 2008

...was again a pretty ridiculous weekend of very indulgent fun.


DAY ONE
we arrived on friday to do our show with AIDS wolf. soundchecked then everyone split up for a few hours to meet various friends, eat and scope out brighton. i was pretty worried before our set as ed and mate cut it fine by arriving 10 minutes before we were due to go on and the changeovers at these festival type things are incredibly short. nevetheless we played, some people came and it was enjoyable. i think. stuff got broken (my microkorg is fucked), the stage fell apart but we all got pretty into it. AIDS wolf were pretty decent. having had their record for a few years it was nice to finally catch them live. they seemed like cool people too and were happy to trade merch. bonus.
again, we all split up and ventured seperate ways. i headed down to the drownedinsound stage to meet a few different people and plan out what was next. after getting to the barfly to try see black lips and finding a stupid queue with a one in one out system, we went to the pav tav. for about 10 minutes. i had one drink, got seperated/left from half the group i was with and went back to the barfly with some girls called chole and rosa, jumped the que and blagged in with some DiS types through the smoking area. win. it was pretty busy inside and i didnt particularly think much to black lips (or the price of snakebite) but we stayed til it finished. i think. what happened next is hazy but we sat in a park then went to a club that had been an italian restaurant earlier on. i was fortunate enough to be invited to stay at chateau burgess which was very comfortable compared to some of the houses ive stayed in over the last week, including my own.


DAY TWO
i wasn't half as hungover as expected. got clean and wandered back into brighton with james and sam. they went to see cancer bats and i went back to the flat that the others had stayed in. spent a lot of the day just sat around and had food made for me by the lovely chris cayford and his lady, anya. it was good. in terms of bands i saw; times new viking were ok. ive heard a lot about them recently and didnt really know what to expect so i wasnt disappointed. i went and saw the twilight sad in a theatre which was very pleasant. i havent been at a seated gig since weezer, about 5 years ago. i had to leave their show early to get back to catch these new puritans. missed the first 2 songs and they played a pretty short set but it was spot on. of the few bands i managed to catch this weekend, they were an easy favourite.
left digital pretty much straight away and headed towards the house of maths class. having taken our equiptment up earlier it was just a case of waiting for people to show up. they all seemed a bit on edge about the turnout which, considering how quickly word of mouth can spread at events like great escape, was totally fair enough. it had gone from secret house show to the 'official artrocker great escape aftershow party' in a matter of hours. having absolutely no money, i managed to blag some alcohol and was then repeatedly offered various swigs from various bottles. needless to say, when it came to our set i was 'in the mood'. this meant underwear, not really playing my keyboards at all, falling over, repeating myself a lot and then falling downstairs later on and splitting my lip massively. intense. needless to say, loads of people did come, the house didnt get that messy and the police did sort of break it up later on. some pictoral evidence below. thanks to maths class for having us and being really nice guys.


both pictures by james burgess

Friday 16 May 2008

be right on

yesterday we finished a weeks worth of touring with horse the band. it was way too short but fun regardless. it was strange being on the road with a band that had been away from their homes for 3 months and still had ridiculous amounts of energy and we're more than great to be around. my only slight disappointment was that we didnt get to 'party' as such. myself, alex and ed got drunk at chateaux throats which was fun but other than that, a very sober week.

we have brighton this weekend; two shows including a house show. it feels like forever since we last did one so everyone is keen. swag.

Friday 9 May 2008

are you sure?

having just returned from tour i decided to begin chronicling things. im poor at keeping a diary and they're too embarrasing to read back. ive read other peoples blogs and they're relatively entertaining so why not...