Good evening from the Electric Factory in Philadelphia, USA. Frank is out front selling merch and has made the mistake of leaving his laptop open in our backstage room. Naturally I have taken the opportunity to seize control of his online world. Think of the possibilities… And yet I can’t quite bring myself to indulge the orgy of comedic defamation that such an occasion seems to require. I must be getting old.

We’re 18 shows into our US tour with Flogging Molly and The Architects, and having had only one day off and average drives of 6 hours between shows, we’re starting to feel the burn. The last week has seen some great gigs though. We’ve played to over 10,000 people, did a crazy gig in a bowling alley (thank you Asbury Lanes), driven through 2 snow storms, played next to an alligator farm in South Carolina, visited Baltimore (we’re all big fans of The Wire), and got ill and then well again.

The big news this week is that we’ve announced a UK headline show at the Brixton Academy in London on 12th December, 2010 (you can get tickets here). It will be Frank’s biggest headline show to date and feels like it will mark real milestone – kind of nuts huh!

The London and Bristol shows on the UK tour starting next month have now sold out. Most of the other shows aren’t too far behind, so if you want to come along and witness my excellent bass playing and you haven’t got a ticket yet then go here. Frank and the rest of the band are OK too. I only have to carry them on a handful of the songs these days…

Tarrant (Frank’s bass player, naturally…)