Our request from you - No Love Lost EP

Our No Love Lost EP was released 2 years ago this April as a free download via our bandcamp store. A few of the songs might be rerecorded to feature on our next album but, as it's nearly its anniversary we thought we'd celebrate a little. We're asking people to go and listen and download it (still free) and then tell a friend to do the same. Our aim is by the deadline of April 21st (Michael's birthday, put it in the diary) we'd love 100 new downloads. Free music saturates the net so we thought we'd give you a few things (apart from No Love Lost EP) in return. When we hit 100 downloads, we'll post a brand new song!

Finally, each person that downloads the EP will be placed in a hat/Asda bag. Once we hit 100 downloads we'll draw 5 out and these 5 will win an exclusive handmade CD.

You can get your download from ...

NO LOVE LOST EP

If you could be so kind as to share this via Facebook, Twitter and the old fashioned word of mouth we will be forever greatful.

To share this blog direct, click on the little icons at the bottom. If tweeting about this then please tag @barricadesrise

Thank you very much you lovely people!

Michael and Jonathan

Barricades Rise working with SGR Productions

We are delighted to announce that Barricades Rise have struck up a deal with SGR Productions

Over the last few weeks we've been trading emails regarding what the label could do for us and what we could bring to the label. On Saturday we drove to meet the owner Christian, in Bakewell, Derbyshire to discuss details face to face. Over a 3 hour discussion we came away feeling very positive. We're happy to say that we'll be working with SGR productions. http://www.sgrproductions.co.uk/

SGR are a new venture for Christian, but having worked in the industry in Australia for over 8 years, we have the upmost faith in his and SGR's ability. We have laid a plan of action for the next 3-6 months of behind the scenes bits and bobs, as both Jonathan and I will be juggling new born babies and the band . With SGR growing we are hopeful of Barricades Rise growing too.

No actual musical releases have been planned through SGR as yet due to the aformentioned baby situation. We are still planning on releasing our remix EP in May through Bandcamp and also when we group together, an exclusive fan CD will be available through those on our mail list (sign up on the left) through the post, featuring new material, most probably demos.

We are very excited at the future and hope BR and SGR have a successful partnership.

Michael and Jonathan

2012 so far

I’m conscious that we havn’t been blogging as much as previous years and feel a little guilty about it. The fact is, whilst Michael is occupied with baby Oscar and my own Baby is due for release (physical copy only, not available on download) in a matter of days, there isn’t too much to report on a week by week basis. That being said, when you look at what has been achieved since the new year, we have actually done a lot despite being “part time” at the moment. Here is list

1) Review From Rekwired
A great little piece about our latest release of covers (see below) – Take a read here

2) New Album FREE Download
We've just released our second collection of Covers, Live tunes and Demos. Repertiore II is a FREE download and can be found here.

3) Barricades Rise's second Radio show
We have just uploaded our second radio show. It consists of general BR banter, a couple of our tunes and loads of music from bands we are currently loving. Listen whilst you surf the web here

4) New Video
Due to the snow fall at the start of Feb, I took the opportunity to get out and film a little video of some of our tunes played on the Ukulele. The result is the aptly titled 'Ukulele Snow Sessions.

5) Album review by Independent Music News
The good people over at IMN saw fit to review our album 'All I Have Is Here'. The review was fantastic and a little different then most album reviews we have received. Take a look here
These guys also gave us the honor of unsigned act of the day earlier this month.

6) BR Featured on a compilation album
The IMN team also found time to include 'Nod & Smile' on their 'Folk Artists 2012' FREE download compilation album along with 15 other artists. I have listened to the album and it is great. Grab your download here

7) BR Featured on another compilation album
Our track Brakes, which is taken from our FREE download EP 'No Love Lost' was chosen by SoundsThatMatter.com to feature on their Valentine's themed download album. Again, it's a great listen and you can find yours here

8) Twinterview
Michael took some time out from changing nappies to do a little interview on Twitter. You can read the full interview here

9) Q&A Session
We had the pleasure of answering some great questions that the team at 'Some Of It Is True' asked us. Some interesting questions and hopefully some interesting answers. Read the full interview here

10) Twitter 2 – Attack of the Twit
I, Jonathan, have joined Michael on Twitter and haven't looked back since. It is a great way to keep up to date with people and make new contacts. Over half of the stuff listed above was down to Twitter. Find Michael at @barricadesrise and find Jonathan at @jc_barricades

11) Gigs Booked
We are starting to book gigs for June and onwards. Check the gig guide to see what is going one

12) A Third Compilation Album
The IMN team also included our track 'Run' on the Album for Charlie which is £7 and all money goes to help a child called Charlie beat a rare form of cancer. This form of cancer is very close to the BR boys heart and would ask all of you to at least go and take a listen. You can find the album here

13) Guest Blogs from some Talented peeps
We have asked some of the local musicians we really like to do some guest Blogging on our site. The first two are up now so take a look at post 1 from Wes Finch and post 2 from Milly
………………………………………………

Our next band meet up is this Saturday and some possible news worthy info may come after that. I will blog next week about what the current plans are for the rest of the year. Stay tuned

Jonathan

Guest blog - Milly Winter

We've asked a few musicians on Twitter if they would write a guest blog for us. Loads of great acts have returned with a YES! A few weeks ago we posted our first by Wes Finch, now here's the newest by the super duper talented Milly Winter

When I was little I wanted to be an inventor - that or a Blue Peter
presenter. I was prolific with my inventions too. When I was six, my
dad moved to Australia and I told him over the phone about an
invention of mine - the 'television-telephone'. Sir Allan Sugar must
have tapped the line, because less than a year later, Amstrad started
advertising them on TV. I was utterly outraged, but determined to
invent something else.

Next, around the age of ten came the 'house on wheels' - my mum told
me that I was talking about a caravan, but no, let me finish. You have
an ordinary house, except, in the lounge, you can turn one of the
armchairs round to face the window, press a button on the windowsill
and a steering wheel will pop up, your wheels will descend from each
of the side walls and away you go. Obviously, the houses would have to
be quite narrow, so they can fit onto roads. You would also have to
have gas and water outlets to plug into, but you could probably get
away with some solar panels on your roof for electricity. This solves
a lot of problems that modern people have.

1. You can go on holiday without having to pack, in fact, only one of
you has to do anything at all. You rent a piece of land in the lake
district and drive your house there for a week, enjoy the landscapes
and hiking and still get to sleep in your own bed at night. Plus you
could let your own land while you were away, thus slashing the price
of the holiday.

2. You can move away from troublesome neighbours without having to
compromise your home. This might be why I invented the 'house on
wheels', we moved house 13 times before I was 8...

3. Ummm...

Next came the 'Communication Body Suits'. Each person has a full body
suit and a mannequin, instead of a phone. the body suit has electrode
and sensors all over it, so when you dial the next person, their
mannequin and mimic everything you do. No, bare in mind I was an
innocent child when I invented this and I was thinking more about
being able to go and see my friends when I wasn't really there. Now I
think about this invention as an adult, I think it would probably be
sold under a different name in shops like Ann Summers.

Despairing that my 'Communication Body Suits' were a bit silly and
that my 'House on wheels' might not be commercial enough (It would be
quite an expensive product to build, so I would have to charge quite a
lot for them...plus the nature of the product [and considering it is a
quality product, designed to last forever] means, at most people would
only ever buy one each in their lifetime.) I started work on a more
widely useful travel/communication solution. My Eureka moment came at
the age of twelve, at my grandparents' house.

The 'Teleportation Button'. So, everyone had a button surgically
implanted in their palm (you can choose any design you like, they
don't have to be skin colour). Then you program your button, using
your account (which could now be an online account). You can put the
keycodes to all the places that you have them for (home, work, your
parents house etc.) and then you have access to these places. It is
voice activated, so you press your button and at the same time, say
where you want to go. If you have previously programmed in the
keycode, you will teleport there straight away, but otherwise, the
doorbell will ring there and whoever is home/front of house, will have
to authorise your teleportation. You have to pay tolls to cross
country borders, buy visas where applicable and have your passport
checked still, obviously. Otherwise, it would be ridiculous, we'd all
be lying on the beach in Barbados every weekend. But this invention
has got the most going for it.

1. There will be no more pollution from using cars, trains, planes
except for transporting goods.
2. There is no risk of walking home on your own after dark. It can
also be used to get out of dangerous situation, so it would mean
that...
3. There would be no more life lost in battle/fires/hold ups...etc
4. You could go to Australia for a weekend and still be home for your
weeks commitments on Monday morning.

The only problem is that I don't know how to actually make the
'Teleportation Button'. Perhaps I am not an inventor, maybe I'm just a
'Conceptualiser'.

I guess I will have to make do with 'inventing' songs instead, at
least I know how to make them.

Find out more on Milly at www.MillyWinter.com

Beating Cancer - One Song at a time

We are extremely honored to have our song 'Run' on a compilation download album that has been put together by our friends over at IMN. The album is called Charlie's album and consists of 32 tracks by some cracking unsigned artists. This album has been made to raise funds for Charlie Hook (Five years old) who was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma last year. A cancer close to us BR boys hearts. 32 tracks for just £7 is a pretty sweet price.

You can listen and download the album here

All quiet on the Barricades front

Seeing as there has not been a blog posted for nearly a week, I'm updating you on what has been going on.

Nothing.

That's what happens when a baby arrives. However, I must stress that when I say 'Nothing' I do not mean 'Absolutely Nothing'. We discussed what our plan of action will be when we return in the summer, plus we both had good ideas about the next recordings we'll be doing. All very sketchy at the moment but it was nice to group our thoughts together for the first time since November.

I guess the biggest thing we decided to do was to issue a 'FAN ONLY' release. Rather than a download or selling at gigs, we'll have a 3/4/5 track CD that we'll be posting to all of our mail listers we have addresses for. The CD will probably contain new songs (in demo form probably) and cased in individually created cases. We already have the cases so we've made a start somewhat. I can't see us doing this til the summer as we have not started demoing anything together yet, but if you'd like one just send us you address - band@barricadesrise.co.uk

So even though we are doing nothing, we're working away in our own little way.

Jonathan has also started a photography course so expect some beautiful shots from him posted on here from now on. He has a Flickr account too with the link to that on the right hand side of this page. I've been keeping busy with baby OJ and reading books, watching telly.

Tomorrow or Sunday we'll have another wonderful and creative blog from a great local talent.

M x
@barricadesrise