Taking Leicester With No Guitars

Tommorrow i hit the grand age of 28. To celebrate we, along with loved ones and friends, went over to the Fan Club in Leicester last night to dance the night away to 90's classics. It was our first time back since Michaels Stag night and it didn't disappoint. Here are a few pictures

Happy-Go-Lucky

Tonight we are putting the finishing touches to the Christmas present we are sending out. It has been mixed and mastered and just needs the flair adding. We are looking to send it out next week. In the midst of the present we have not forgot about our next album. For the first time we both played through a few of the demos together and most sound great already with little practice.
We have swapped a few demos and I have been listening to them in various stages and am excited. I am 100% certain this was the right decision instead of making another EP, and the 6-8 songs we have in demo form, played back to back, has given the album a different sound straight away. I don't really want to spill too much on the album but I've realised already that lyrically, it has a more idyllic resonance than You and Your Adored.
You and Your Adored had songs written over the span of 5 years so overall should not have really worked together, but I think did and by the reviews and everyone's opinion, so do most people. This new album is really where we both are at now, rather than spanning over several years, so is more focused lyrically and also musically. Two of the songs written for it are pretty much ready for gigging so if you manage to get to a gig before Christmas the chances of hearing new material is high.
The New Year will bring recording and demoing to the front of our minds and hopefully we will get a demo of sorts on our Myspace site in January (www.myspace.com/barricadesrise) but until then, go and stick You and Your Adored on.

Seriously, do it.

M x

43 Days

It’s strange, every so often I look back a year on this blog and see what we were doing at this point last year. What I found weird is that around the end of November/ start of December last year we were telling you that although things seemed quite we were in fact doing some work. I kind of feel the same now as there is not much exciting band stuff to talk about at the moment. I thought I would try and round up what we will be doing before the year is out.

• Christmas Gift – If you read the posts below you will see we are busy creating a free gift for you, our fans. Send us your postal address and we will send you a pressie in December

• Writing – We are both writing and demoing new material for our 2011 sophomore effort (get me all Americanized). It is going great and the privileged few (mainly family and loved ones) are loving the new tunes

• Gigs – Although we purposely slowed down our gig schedule until the new year, we do still have three pub gigs and a two hour set house gig left before Christmas. Check the gig guide and come and see us.

• Planning – I want to find new ways to get this album out to people and new ways to get the band in general out to new people. Also, I want to do things for our existing fans that have been amazing and we appreciate all their support. Essentially I have my thinking cap firmly on and jotting idea down for 2011

On the personal front I have my Birthday coming up at the end of this month and a trip to the Fan Club in Leicester will be in order. I started my Christmas shopping last weekend and saw my first house with Christmas decorations up last night on my road. I’m starting to get that Christmassy feeling but then come crashing back down when I think I still have 5 weeks (to the day) left at work and soon realise that it’s way too early to be excited.

Jonathan

Win a T-shirt and get some Christmas loving

We nailed our Christmas cover last night. Excellent session. We're just trying to work out possibly 1 more song to have a go at. It's shaping up to be a lovely little package. I'm not going into detail about the present but just hope you enjoy it as much as we have doing it. There have been several stressful moments and a few aborted attempts but the finished (99%) product makes me smile.
We're starting to do a monthly prize draw for all those who have kindly given us their address. Not only will every single address receive our Christmas present, but each one will go into a hat each month and the first pulled out will win something wonderful. This month, if we have your address you can win a Barricades Rise T-shirt. Awesomness to the Nth degree. Send your address to us (anywhere in the world) at band@barricadesrise.co.uk

Nothing much else to report, new songs taking shape slowly.

Happy Christmas shopping

M x

I Can nearly see the Coca-Cola Lorry coming

Halloween – Check, Bonfire Night – Check. That leaves one last big event left this year. . . . Yep, my Birthday at the end of November. OK so I obviously mean Christmas as I’m sure most of you have not got my Birthday penciled in on your calendars. I thought I saw the first house with Xmas decorations up on Saturday and even did a little rant about how early it still was for decorations until someone pointed out it was Diwali and I felt stupid. Despite it being too early for decorations (I stand by that) it does feel like we have turned a corner in the year and Christmas is very close. I have made a list for Santa, I have made a list for what I would like to buy my wife and we even bought a few pressies for people over the weekend. If it were up to me I would break up for Christmas right now however, it turns out my boss thinks it is too early and will have me working up to the 23rd December.

We are hooking up tonight to break the back of the FREE Christmas gift we are making for anyone of our fans that would like one this December. Just email us with your postal address and we will send a gift your way this Christmas. I also wrote a new tune last week and finished it on Friday. It’s a simple 2 minute number and very catchy. The album really is shaping up and I can’t wait to pool our ideas and start forming a picture of how it will all sound. If you do request the FREE Christmas pressie you may find yourself hearing some brand new music before anyone else.

Jonathan

The Litten Tree, Coventry - 03/11/10 Review

I must admit we were both not feeling the love for gigging last night. Personally I felt a little ill and Michael was feeling rough also. I would love to tell you that we been up all night recording masterpieces whilst tripping the light fantastic, however, I think we were both just tired from work and needed an extra hours sleep :(

Upon entering the venue we were greeted by a very minimal audience that only grew by a couple before we hit the stage as the last act on. We played a decent set and tried to have the usual banter with what audience was there.

Despite the lack of numbers we sold an album and went on our merry way. With only 3 more official gigs left before Christmas it feels like a countdown is now officially on.

Jonathan