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

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

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

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

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

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.