Lexapalooza on Saturday was a great success. Everyone was cool (with one notable exception, who were utter cunts, but I won’t name names), I got to play some songs with Adam Killip, which was nice, and a good time was had by all. I was pretty out of it by time I left, I have vague memories of being in a taxi with Adam with some random guy, playing him songs together. Who knows. Even got my haircut, quite drastically, whilst wasted, which was a nice surprise. It doesn’t look to bad actually – there’s a photo floating around the forum for those who are interested.

More shows coming up around the UK, and my next Eastern European jaunt is getting firmed up too, which’ll be fun. The big news to talk about right now is the show at the Camden Barfly on 8th August. It’s going to be quite an important show for me, so gather your friends and head down. As an exra incentive, I’m going to be recording an album version of “The Ballad Of Me And My Friends” that night, so everyone needs to go to my Myspasm, learn the song (or at least the bit where people sing along) and then we’ll commit it to tape that night. Fun.

Just back from Ireland, and it was fun. Hi to everyone I met, thanks to everyone at the shows, and apologies to anyone I encountered the morning after hitting the town with Fighting With Wire, I can’t really account for my actions. I did, however, amply prove my suggestion in that Alternative Ulster interview that FWW were “pussy fucking wimps”, with the exception of Jamie, who wins international prizes for (a) staggering around like a wino fucked out of his brains at about 1pm on Saturday, (b) not stopping until he was naked on stage at Sandino’s that night, and (c) constantly vomiting all through Sunday, before playing a show! Well done that man. Big thanks to Gogs too for sorting the minitour. Happy days.

I have a comparitively empty couple of weeks right now, which I feel is a well-deserved break. Two inportant gigs coming up tho. Firstly, I’m playing with Jonah at the Kingston Peel on June 14th (as well as doing an afternoon instore…). It’ll be cool to share a stage with the man again, and there are copies of our split to be bought there, so get your arse down to the gig and rock out (in a suitably relaxed, folky kind of way).

Secondly, my friend Lexy is organizing a show – Lexapaloooza – which is taking place this Saturday (June 17th) in Colliers Wood. Aside from me playing a set and compering the evening (Christ) there’s also action from such luminaries as PRE, 5000 Killer Diseases, Adam Killip (the Tailors) and so forth. And to top it all, it’s a benefit for Breast Cancer. So no excuses. More info here.

Hey people, well, I’m back from France / Belgium, and I had an ace time. There’s going to be this full diary-style update as soon as I get the photos and get round to writing it up, but in the meantime, just a brief note to say thanks a million to Chamoule for everything. Thanks, “mec”. I also had a great time at Coleford Music Festival, thanks everyone there too.

A few days off for me now, catching up on sleep and food and all that kind of thing. Coming up soon we have more shows, and the split with Jonah, which is now scheduled for a late June release. I’m also hitting Ireland for the first time solo next week. Cahir from Fighting With Wire (who are doing some of the shows) called me at 5am the other day, from a trampoline in Manchester, to tell me he was going to fuck me up when I get over there. How I’m looking forward to it. There’s also more festivals getting confirmed here and there, and an big ol’ Eastern European trip between July 20th and August 5th, which currently looks set to take in Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Estonia and Finland, if not more.

Finally, some musings… The ‘folk’ genre is, much like punk rock, very diasporic these days. In the same way that the initial canon of Ramones, Pistols and Clash was superceded by a massive explosion of different punk rock scenes in the 80’s and beyond (making it hard for anyone to be on the money with every single ‘punk’ band), there’s a shitload of folk music out there, beyond the original greats, and it’s not easy to be completely familiar with it all (and have a life). This is made harder for me by the fact that, while I’m something of punk nerd, folk is still relatively new pastures for me. So what I’m really trying to say here is that it’s only recently, on the recommendation of a few talented friends, that I’ve discovered the pure, unadulterated joy of Townes Van Zandt. If you already knew all about him, bully for you. If you don’t, check him out.

Apologies about that last post. It was actually for real (at least to the extent that it wasn’t me posting when drunk, it actually was Chamoule, who’s the promoter for this tour). Anyways, waking up in the Alps right now and forgive me for gloating, my English chums, but it’s fucking gorgeous. Not so many French dates left now, but I’ll be doing a full diary Latvia-stylee at the end of it all which is going to be hosted on roomthirteen.com, so look out for that.

The other things to mention today: my friend Johno is raising some sponsorship money for his Cross-Mongolia Charity effort. Information and donation here. Also been checking out some killer French bands of late – particularly The Pookies, who I played with the other day. Check it.

Hey, you bastards! I am Chamoule, the french organizer of your little beloved singer.
I have kidnapped him and he is now in a room, naked, with James Blunt and Johnny Halliday coming out of a real loud speaker!!! If you want to have back this Gandalf-like english guy, you’ll have to do some things in the UK…

First, give a call to your girl/boyfriend to tell him/her “YOU ARE A STUPID JERK, AND THAT’S WHY I HAD SEX WITH FRANK TURNER”!
Second, learn one song of the EP and scream it in a police station dressed like a lamantin!
And Third, send a love letter to Frank’s adress and the best one (or the worst…) will be sang by Frank in a special surprise show day!!!

You better begin now because a i have spies everywhere in the UK, watching and reporting me the facts. If not, i will put Frank in a room with naked one-bra girls with a moustache, a baguette, a stripped pull, a beret and a garlic collar; and they will all begin to sing “My Humps” of Black Eyed Peas!!!

Now stop playing to World of Warcraft and go do all i wrote you bunch of little brats.

Le Chamoule

It’s true. I have to use shift to get a fucking full stop, and the “w” and the “a” are the wrong way around (it took me about 5 minutes to type that sentence). So I’ll be brief. The EP is finally out! People seem to be enjoying it for the most part, which is gratifying. Thanks for bearing with me people… After all, it’s pretty much exactly a year since the last MD album was released, and I’ve headed off down a pretty strange route, but I think it’s the right one for me. So thanks. Au revoir.

Well, finally back home after the end of the tour on Friday and a weekend of fun which has left me with a monster cold and stiff arm muscles from playing tennis (no seriously). Time to chill out in bed for a few days. A big thanks to Gabby Young and the collective – Spam, Al, Rob, David – for a cool tour, and thanks to everyone who made it down to a show. I’ve got a few radio sessions later this week (more on that soon) and then I’m off to Europe next weekend. But there’s also…

Campfire Punkrock, as most people reading this site will probably know, is due for release on May 15th, i.e. a week today. This is ace news. However, I may require some of your assistance. The problem is that the way record stores run their ordering is somewhat prejudicial against smaller artists. Basically it’s a chicken-and-egg thing – the stores won’t preorder any copies of smaller artists’ releases in for the release date unless they think that they will sell. So usually they don’t bother, the CD doesn’t sell (because it’s not in the fucking shops!) and everyone goes home empty-handed. The way that you good people can help out is to drop into your local record store and ask them to order the release in (it’s on Xtra Mile, which is distributed by Vital, which means everyone should be able to get it) for the 15th. That’s the best way of circumventing this little problem. As ever, your help will be much appreciated.

And in other news I finally got my hands on the Mcluskyism B-sides comp, and it’s fucking excellent. “Hippies, hippies everywhere and never a drop to drink”.

Three little things I wanted to mention today in the haze of an appalling hangover…

1. My sister got married yesterday. I doubt any of you really care, but I do, and I wanted to share the love a bit and say “congrats” one more time. So, congratulations guys. Also, I am dying hungover. Seriously doubting my ability to carry on right now. Wearing sunglasses as I type this, and as some of you will know, I hate people who wear sunglasses. It’s that bad.

2. I finally played a show in cardiff – woohoo! And it was a stormer as well. I’d like to extend my thanks to Cosmo, who sorted the show (and is now looking after my hat…). I’d also like to point you lot in his direction – his website – as he was thoroughly excellent himself.

3. I played a show a while back in Hertford, and shared the stage with a guy going under the name of Everything I Do Is Perfect. He rocked the house, and he’s finally got himself a myspace with some songs on it. Awesome lyrics – check it out.

That’s all for now. I’m going to lie down and die quietly somewhere.

I currently find myself in Oxford, chez Dive Dive. It’s Easter Day (cue many jokes about me looking like jesus…). Every year for the past four years I’ve forgotten to figure out when Easter weekend is in advance, and so have found myself on tour somewhere, much to the disdain of my family. It’s something that reminds me that I’ve been doing this touring thing for quite a while now. It also means I haven’t had an Easter Egg for years now. Thankfully, I’ve been invited to a family meal with Tarrant’s folks, which is great news. Nut roasts all round.

The tour is going well, long and tiring, and there’s more dates popping up here and there (many more French and Belgian dates on the site now, and confirming lots more UK and European dates at the moment). The EP is all ready to rock, and there is something you lot can do at this stage to help out. Take the time to go to your local record shop and ask them to pre-order in the EP. It’s called ‘Campfire Punkrock’, it’s on Xtra Mile Recordings (distributed by Vital) and it’s out May 15th. One of the problems for releases at this level is the whole chicken-and-egg thing about shops stocking the release – people won’t buy it unless it’s there, but shops won’t put it there unless they think people will buy it. So if you have the time to pop into as many stores in your area as you can and mention it to them, that helps an awful lot. Thanks people, much appreciated as ever.

Today is my last day of tour preparation. Thusfar I have folded T-shirst, burned CDs, booked Travelodges, talked to promoters, printed mailing lists, packed pants and socks, and even oiled my beard-trimmer (no really). Ready to go, and it’s going to be ace. In some ways it feels like the old days (with MD) but this time it’s just me – something that both makes me a little sad and confident.

As with every tour, my on-line-ness will be a little subdued for the next month or so. But safe to say I’ll be seeing you all at a show (right?). There’s now a Cardiff date on April 27th (at last). I’ve also just confirmed some Irish dates in June – check the gigs section. I finished recording my side of the forthcoming split with Jonah Matrangah and it sounds ace – we’ll be doing some shows together in the summer to promote it, and then, all being well, I’ll be heading stateside for a while too. Busy busy busy.

And finally, a link to a guy I shared a stage with recently and am still in total awe of – check this out.