Yay!, we’ve got a shiny new site.

We’ll be adding some more things to it as soon as time allows.

Quick! click on things and scroll the page up and down… or whatever it is you crazy people do on websites

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we’ve not got many gigs planned for the foreseeable future as we’ve got to dedicate some time to recording some of the many songs that have been developing over the last few months.

The festival season this year has so far been great, especially Glastonbury.

We’ll still be doing the odd gig here and there so keep checking this website or our myspace for any updates.

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I’ve just uploaded a video of Are We There Yet? recorded at the wupadupa String Thing on 22nd Sep 2007.

a review

We’ve had a review of both of our EP’s by those lovely people at losing today magazine.

’Absence of friends’ the title track is without doubt the jewel in the crown, flighty pastoral florets, vocals a la Tim Buckley and a stately fragile persona make this a touching gem in the making, the shy eyed undulating craftsmanship giving way to the sumptuous moments of flowering vibrancy of the beautifully conceived bouquets of Nick Drake like thoughtfulness.

golly…

To read the rest of the review follow the link below, then scroll down about half way down the page.

http://www.losingtoday.com/tales.php?id=201

Oops! just realised I haven’t updated my blog in 7 and a half months! You turn your back to do some washing up and make a sandwich and next you know over half a year has passed, there’s a new mayor and winter is just a distant snowy memory.

It seems like only yesterday that I was babbling on about the Amnesty Festival, cheese, house gigs and the future of the bic biro in modern society.

During that time many things have happened in the world of sugardrum – new band members, new songs, a new band that I’ve joined, new homes, new jobs etc…

but you don’t want to know about any of that do you?

You’d much rather see a list of silly band names that came up during the selection of said band that I’ve joined wouldn’t you?

Good, well here’s some of the more sillier ones that never even made it close to the selection table.

- Move like a Mercedes
- Staring at Raymond
- Asparagus Monkey
- Painting the Hoff
- 40ft Biro
- Seven rolls of film
- Gay Tourettes
- Coming at you like Rayban vision

Mmmm, glad we settled on Little Ray

sugardrum are going to be hopefully doing some new recordings soon. The current lineup for gigs is myself, nigel on vocals and guitar, the beautiful Danielle on backing vocals and the amazing Matt on violin and electric guitar.

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So, the Amnesty Festival is over for another year, over £3000 was raised for Amnesty International and it was a huge success due to the combined effort of everyone involved.

One of my most favourite moments was the wupadupa house gig. This wasn’t really advertised at all as it wasn’t raising any money for Amnesty International and there was a limit as to how many people we could cram into our living room. Betty and I did a set, followed by the lovely ladies from My Electric Cardigan, then Jono McCleery and his mate who turned up to our house with a Double Bass which Jono jammed on on a couple of my tunes, then finally Ted Humphries rounded off the evening.

It was a fitting end to a day of festival preparation as earlier in the day there had been rehearsals for the sing thing and a craft workshop where various artistic people were producing numerous posters highlighting some of the causes that Amnesty International raises awareness of.

We hope to put on some more wupadupa house gigs soon. If the idea appeals to you and you’d like to hold one at your house then please get in touch. It’s such a great and natural way to go about the whole gig thing, no PA, no scary promoters banging on about how many people you have or haven’t brought to the gig they’ve supposedly promoted for you and no money, just amazing music in an intimate setting with about 30 or so people eagerly listening to the whole thing. And we also got to eat a lot of smelly cheese…. fantastic!

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Solidsilence have a recording of “no more said” from a solo gig I did at the Small World Festival way back in May.

It was recorded using a pair of magical in ear microphones / headphones… er let’s call them “headiclymirophonical sound wotsits”, that allow the wearer to capture the whole atmosphere of the venue whilst still enjoying the performance going on.

Pop along to www.solidsilence.com to have a listen and while you’re there be sure to check out some of the other great recordings Georgina has on her site.

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http://www.solidsilence.com

I’m taking part in the Londodn to Brighton Bike ride tomorrow. If you feel the urge to sponsor me, however small that urge might be then don’t fight that urge as it’s probably a nice friendly urge but instead, go along with it, following it’s happy glow to the following website where your urge and you can site down together and donate some money. You and your urge can them site down and relax with a nice cup of tea and a jam scone.

It’s all in aid of the British Heart Foundation.

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http://www.bhf.org.uk/sponsor/bunner2007

Went to one of the Teenage Cancer trust gigs at the Albert Hall last week. It was the one with Noel Fielding from the mighty Boosh and Russell Brand hosting an evening of comedians doing their thang. People say that musicians are brave getting up on stage performing in front of an audience but I reckon Comedians are far braver.

Russell Brand did a funny skit about the options available to drug addicts when going on holiday as to where they can hide their drugs. Maybe he should have done one on how to smuggle a drink one has just purchased at the Royal Albert Hall bar in the interval after queuing throughout all of said interval and finally getting a drink minutes before the announcement that the second half is about to start only to find that one is then not allowed to take said drink back to ones seat in the rather splendid looking Albert Hall. Ok, I’ll admit I didn’t spend all of the interval queuing, rather my mate Andy did and I went out to see how he was getting on towards the end of the interval.

Faced with the option of downing our drinks in one, which I did consider, or somehow hiding said drinks upon our person and not wanting to see how far the drinks would go up our arses as recommended by Russell in his drugs skit I soon discovered that my flared jeans made the perfect hiding place and my socks the perfect reciprocal to tuck both cans into. I can envision a whole new beautiful trend about to begin with hippies everywhere smuggling all sorts of bizarre items beneath their oversized trouser bottoms.

and for me… well, no more embarrassing moments next time I’m at the pub and need to carry a round of 5 drinks back from the bar.

t’s funny how we sometimes find ourselves unable for whatever reason of telling someone that what they are doing is affecting us in some way, for better or worse.

There’s a man in my street who delivers newspapers every morning in his estate car, driving from house to house, leaving the engine running as he gets out and carries a single newspaper to a house, before getting back in the car and driving a few yards to the next house. I want to say something, ask him has he considered the craziness of what he’s doing. But something always stops me.. usually because I’m late for work… but I also wonder that maybe there’s some logical reason, apart from sheer laziness and disregard for the environment, for what he’s doing. Some logic behind this madness… and by the time I’ve finished wondering this I’ve already walked past him and beyond the point of being able to say something without missing my train.

Talking of trains, every day on my commute to work I usually find myself being bombarded by various walls of sounds emitting through the headphones that are simultaneously ensuring their wearers will have severely impaired hearing in 20 years or so.

I usually don’t let other people’s music on trains bother me. Providing it is decent enough music I just save some battery power on my own ipod while I listen to theirs. When the music is bad however or it’s noticeably affecting others around me for the worse then I feel the need to do something about it.

There was a man the on the train the other day standing next to me struggling to read his book above the noisy distractions going on around him. One very well built man had his ipod on rather too loud. The book reading man kept glancing over at him, then back to his book, at the man, back to the book… After a while I think the music man finally realised that his ipod was too loud and turned it down. All was well for a while, until the bloke standing behind the book man put his walkman on, possibly acting out of a comradely effort for Music Man One. Music Man Two’s music was far worse and even louder and annoying. The book man started to shake his head, sighed lots (which of course Music Man Two couldn’t hear) and then, whilst still holding his book in his right hand he attempted to mould his left arm into a makeshift ear plug. I would have gladly given him some of the ear wax currently blocking my right ear if I could, but after about 30 secs of listening to Music Man Two’s shitty music I simple lent over, and politely asked him to turn it down… which he did and pretty soon peace and order was restored. The book man by then had got himself so wound up by the whole thing that I’m not sure if the relative silence that followed allowed him to enjoy his book any more. I hope it did, or perhaps he won’t feel so bad about saying something himself next time… or he’ll have a polite word with the newspaper man for me
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