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Two little things for you.. First up, more info on the show on Thursday. It’s part of London Calling Festival, it’s taking place at SIN Club (it’s on Charing Cross Road). Doors are at 7.30pm, the bill includes Jedethan, Gravenhurst, Moriarty, Babel and me.

The special for me is.. I’m doing a (probably) one-off gig with Chris T-T on piano, playing as a duo. And it’s going to rock face. Tickets are available from www.wegottickets.com and are \’a310 in advance. Come on down, it should be a special night, and it’s my last London show for a little while as well.

In other news, for those of you lame enough not to have bought Love Ire & Song yet, it’s currently availble for \’a35 from iTunes. This is a limited offer for one month only, and I think you’ll agree that’s pretty darn cheap. So, have fun..

In the last weekend I have discovered that both Darlington and Castleford give rise to ace gigs, and that Durham is still as lovely as it was last time I was there. I have also been accused of being Alex Turner’s uncle. While that made me laugh, it did also make me wonder how old people think I am (or how young he is?). Anyways, hello again to all at the shows, good times.

Coming up soon I have a few gigs in and around London that I wanted to flag up. Firstly, on Thursday 12th June I’m playing a benefit show at 93 Feet East, in Shoreditch. Doors at 7.30pm, it’s a solo show, it’s for Yoof charities and generally seems hgely worthwhile. If that doesn’t float your boat, I’m playing London Calling on June 19th at Sin Club. This set is going to be a special duo set with Mr Chris T-T, and you can get tickets here. The next night will see me DJing at Nambucca and playing a secret show somewhere in town. And if you’re in Brighton, you can always hit Komedia on Friday 13th (oooh) for a Glastonbury warm-up show.

Other news.. Festival T-Shirts are still available from the shop. And ‘Reasons Not To Be An Idiot‘ has just been made Single Of The Week by Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music (thanks Steve).

In the latest installment of what will go down in history as ‘Blogorama Week’, here’s yet another, er, blog. I could get used to this internet thing. I’ve done up a festival T-Shirt for this summer. It’s a limited run, and it’s only available through my online shop, so get over there and get ordering sharpish, capisce? You’ll find it here. Enjoy.

As promised. The single will be out June 23rd. More details soon!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5NUB1vyu4]

Hello all. I’ve been saving up my news pennies for a big update, and then a whole truckload of stuff happens all at once and now I’m probably going to have to break this into two updates. I mean, really, what’s a working boy to do? We’ll start with some news about shows:

• Uxbridge – Sorry everyone in Uxbridge, events on Sunday conspired to make it hugely impossible for me to make the show. I got stranded in Cornwall, I bust my hand, my band had family members in hospital, it was never meant to be. My bad.
• Plymouth – The show on 4th June at the White Rabbit is now 100% DEFINITELY HAPPENING. Ignore everything else that’s been said, including by me. It’s on, on, on. A solo show. I have bought a train ticket and everything.
• London (1) – Right, to start with, my gig for the London Calling festival is going to be at Club Sin in Soho on 19th June. I’m playing a special duo set with Mr Chris T-T, not to be missed. Tickets? Tickets.
• London (2) – I’m going to be very busy on 20th June. I’ll be playing a secret warmup show for Glastonbury in London, more details on that soon, and then rushing over to Nambucca for a special DJ set.
• London (3) – Oh you’re lucky in the capital. I’ll be playing a free instore at the new and improved Pure Groove Record Shop on 9th July at 6.30pm. See you there?
• Belfast – I’ll be playing the Trans Festival in Belfast on 24th July. This is a good thing. I’ll be talking on some kind of panel. This is mildly confusing.
• Perfect Day Festival – has been cancelled. So no show for me there then.
• Oxford – I’ll be playing a solo benefit show at the Academy on 8th August to raise money for Cancer charities. The show is with the Candyskins and Dodgy. I have officially made it.

Phew. Also worth mentioning in this update: Latvia diary part 3 has finally popped up online, and part 4 should finish it off nicely very soon. Check it.

To look forward to in the next update: a new video and details for the ‘Reasons Not To Be An Idiot‘ single, and details about exclusive festival T-shirts. Check back soon.

I find myself in Norwich as I type this, city of dreams. Actually, the weather is totally fab at the moment, I seem to have brought the sun back from California, and life is generally sweet. The Holloways tour is in full swing, and it’s a real pleasure to be on the road again with my old friends, and to be making new ones.

One incident that has moved me to another blog rant occurred last night after the show in Reading. I had an altercation with someone who attempted to nick my hat off my head while I was outside the show chatting to some people at the end. To be honest it really, really pissed me off. The principle behind it, which I feel needs restating here (hence the rant), is this: I am a normal fucking person, and the rules of social engagement do not change simply because I stand on a stage every now and again. If he had attempted to steal something from a stranger in a bar, he could reasonably expect to get his head kicked in. There was no head-kicking last night, which is for the best, but it depresses me when people think they can treat me like a mug with impunity.

End rant #2.

In other news, there’s some live recordings from the tour up here, and the next part of the Latvia diary is on the way, as are loads more festival dates and the October tour. Phew.

Hello again from Los Angeles. It’s disgustingly hot out here, and I’m in the middle of a music industry conference, but the stifling atmosphere is being relieved by much sleep and an almost endless supply of free cocktails. So no complaints then. Today’s update contains not just one but TWO videos. I know, you can hardly contain yourselves.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLJfB1NMsPg]

The first is a little tour diary from the recently completed UK tour. There’s not much more to add, other than to repeat that it was shot using my digital camera, hence it being a bit budget. It is, however, totally rock and roll.

For something shot on a slightly better camera, there’s this little mini-documentary thing that was made at Bath Moles Club. Enjoy:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wp-dzT4AlE]

Next up, the utterly awesome people in my live band are, of course, usually better known as Dive Dive. They continue to rule, and they just posted a bunch of new acoustic songs on a separate myspace page, which you can find here.

And finally, my friend Dan Parsons recently asked me to guest on a song for his electronica project, Amongst The Pigeons. The track is up on his myspace, and it’s called ‘Larkin About’ (the lyrics are a Philip Larkin poem). He’s also up for a vote on BBC6, and if you have the time, go vote. Thanks everyone.

I think I did a blog post of pretty much exactly the same title about a year ago, and I’m sure you will have worked out what I’m about to say already, but for the record: FUCKING YES! I’ll be on the Lock Up stage on Friday (Reading) and Saturday (Leeds). Among many other things, this means I’m probably the only person this year (ever?) to be on the Lock Up stage and the Cambridge Folk Festival. I’m pretty proud of that. And I’d like to say thanks to Mike Davies for continuing to fight my corner in ways I can only dream of repaying.

I write this from the Railway Inn, Winchester. Tonight is the last night of the tour. It’s been a long slog – 19 shows on the trot was, in retrospect, a little much. But it’s been amazing – the crowds have been strong in number and voice all across the country, and it really feels like something exciting is happening here. For the record, I want to thank the crew, without whom none of this would be possible – Nigel, Ben, Tarrant, Graham, Ciara, Rege and Chris. And thanks to everyone who came down.

Also, the support situation on this tour has been a mixed bag – good in the sense that everyone who has played has been awesome: Andy Yorke, Ciara Haidar, Chris T-T, Short Term Effect and Oppenheimer (though they didn’t play). The bad is simply that not all of them could play to every crowd – it was a shame about Oppenheimer having to pull out, and a shame that Ciara missed the last few shows. But I urge everyone to check them all out, they all make superb music.

I’m flying to Los Angeles tomorrow, which is pretty insane – tired doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel right now. And then back for the Holloways tour. No rest for me.. But like I said, I feel like I’m on the cusp of something at the moment.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJBIrxW04To]

For real, apparently.

Also, a big rant now: Pizza Express pisses on Wagamama’s. This much is obvious.

The tour is going well, the shows have all been ace so far. Last night in Sheffield I had a heated discussion (shall we say) after the show with a punter, and it raised a couple of points that I feel the need to sound off about. I should point out that this isn’t me having a go at the guy in question, we parted on friendly terms, it’s just things I need to get out into the public sphere.

Two separate issues were raised. The first was about signing stuff, poaing for photographs with people after the show and so on. It was suggested that this was an uncool thing to do, fostering the cult of the “star” and all that kinda thing. This is the smaller point, but to restate: one of my least favourite things in the entire universe is the cultural assumption that the people that make music (or films or whatever) are removed from and above the people who consume their art. That’s total fucking bullshit; if you take off the rose-tinted specs, the word “rockstar” is synonymous with “arrogant prick”. It’s not something I ever want to be, and I do my best to be open, approachable and on a level at my shows. Of course, some people want me to sign some stuff, and if it makes them happy then who am I to say no? From past experience, refusing to do so on egalitarian grounds just makes people think you’re up youself, the exact opposite of the desired effect. So yes, I’ll sign stuff after shows if people ask me to, but in return I want people to think of me as a normal human being.

Anyways, at the end of the day that’s a pretty minor, esoteric gripe about my otherwise awesome job. There’s another issue I’m more bothered about, and that’s this: there seems to be a school of thought about me which involves people disliking me because I’m not what they want me to be. Basically, on the back of one song (“Thatcher”) a group of people decided in their minds to put me into a little box marked “protest singer” (or “politico” or whatever; more to the point, marked as the property of the left). I’ve never been in that narrow little fuckfest of a scene, I never wanted to be, and I never will be. I like the song “Thatcher Fucked The Kids”, but it’s a pretty small deal for me, a song about an issue that doesn’t bother me so much any more written a long time ago. But because these people are crying out for someone to come and confirm their opinions (in song) they latched onto me. Then when I produce an album that isn’t “Talking to the Taxman about Poetry Mk II” they get pissed off, and often vitriolicly so.

So let’s state this for the record. I’m not a protest singer. I’m not a politician. I’m a songwriter. But most of all, I’m answerable for my opinions and my lyrics and my thoughts and my actions only to myself. I’m sick of people getting pissed off with me for not being their little pet protest singer, ready to parrot idiotic platitudes about leftism at a moment’s notice. Fuck off.

And there it is. Rant over. Thankfully many many more people are into what I do for the right reasons, i.e. for my music. And to these people, I’m grateful.