Posts (page 2)

After a very, very long and exhaustive search, The Picture Show are delighted to announce that we have finally found a new drummer in Chris Rush. It really was not an easy process as so many of the candidates were of such a high quality but after two months and tens and tens of drummers later, Chris is definately the right man for the job. We had to take our time in making sure we didn't simply get the best person available, but actually found someone who suited our style, got on with us well outside of the rehersal room, was talented enough to play a variety of different musical styles and bought into our vision as a band.

Chris joins us having previously drummed for current scene darlings, The Enemy, and is currently studying at Drum Tech. We are absolutely certain that both his experience and positive, enthusiastic attitude will perfectly complement the chemistry already in the band and would like to welcome him in with open arms.

Now, of course, the real work begins. It's difficult to explain how frustrating it is as a gigging band to have to put things on hold for any reason at all and in that time you tend to build up a backlog of ideas and ambitions which we're now hoping to realise. We've started booking the tour in June and have a few gigs confirmed already. We also want to get into the studio to finally record a version of "Close" as soon as possible, as well as just getting our heads down and getting sharp again and playing regularly.

We're coming close to selecting a drummer and should hopefully have someone sorted by the end of the week assuming all goes well. We've all been itching to get back in the saddle and pick up from where we left at the end of last year. Booking for the June tour has begun and we've already got a few dates down with more expected soon so, fingers crossed, it should be a good one. There's going to be a lot of work to do before then but  we're looking forward to it and, hopefully, making our mark in 2008.

Busy week last week for meeting drummers. Had 7 scheduled in at our regular meeting place 'The North Star' in Ealing at the start of the week. Bit of a bizarre turn of events on Tuesday though with both drummers who we were supposed to be meeting pulling out but one who we weren't supposed to be meeting until next Tuesday randomly turning up on the wrong night! All in all the weeks work resulted in 4 people to audition next week all of whom seem really promising so we're looking forward to that. Also started to formulate some plans for a tour and digital release in the Summer so watch this space.........

Well we're finally back from our Christmas holidays and feeling energised and with a renewed purpose. We're interviewing a lot of potential drummers at the moment and hope to have someone in place fairly soon, though it's doubtful that it'll happen before the gig on the 1st of Febuary at the Water Rats (which has been moved from the 31st of January).

Obviously it's a decision we have got to get right and it's a critical process so something which we have to take our time over which has been a bit frustrating for us at times, but the morale in the camp is extremely high at the moment and we're really looking forward to getting back into gear.

We've been thinking a lot about our future as well and are hoping to record "Close", finally, at some point in the next few months and put it out as a digital release, hopefully with a short, but action-packed tour of the country. We're sounding out a lot of promoters at the moment, but we're hoping to cover most of the country which is something we'd absolutely love to do, ao keep your ears pricked and your eyes peeled over the next few months, especially those of you outside of London as we may be getting in touch to pick your brains about venues, promoters and all that!

Resolution is such a nasty word. The papers have been full of it and it's been on everyone's lips. After playing another excellent night for Vox's own Indieboy at Tommy Flynn's to an almost surprisingly receptive and enjoyable crowd (considering most of our own people couldn't make it) Nick and I made a break for the Anglian wilderness for a few days and emerged with a few resolutions of our own.

Amongst all the usual stuff that will be forgotten by March like getting fitter, drinking less and burning less orphanages to the ground, we decided, along with Dave, to really re-double our efforts with the band and aim to tour (roughly) in May in order to promote the digital release a new track we're hoping to record in the next couple of months. We've been working hard on all the smaller details of being in a band which often go unnoticed and we're hoping to get back to the meat and veg of making music i.e. recording, playing and playing and playing and sitting in each other's kitchens debating whether or not Frank Black looks like a paedophile these days (he does). Things have been happening quickly for us, almost too quickly, but we've got a good idea what we want to do and how we want to do it, so it's just a matter od getting it done really. It doesn't help that we don't yet have a drummer, but in some ways that's a bit of a detail. Until we get one anyway....

Just a final note for 2007 before everyone goes off to get drunk and eat turkey (or being a veggie like myself possibly a lentil burger)……… ahhh yes, the true spirit of Christmas! Been busy hammering the world wide web for drummers and coming up with quite a few who we'll endeavour to meet over the coming weeks (between turkeys and lentil burgers) so looking forward to a fresh new start and big things from 2008. We also enjoyed a band shopping day out to Brick Lane on Saturday and started considering the dirty word of 'image'!*!????.......... also perhaps discovering the slightly more effeminate side to certain band members! However, it was a fun day and I particularly enjoyed the baffled looks on shop keepers faces when presenting them with our two sheets of A4 drawings and images attempting to indicate the kind of thing we were looking for.

Anyway, enough about shopping…. Hope y'all have a fantastic Xmas and New Year and we'll see you in 2008!

Many thanks to those of you who came down to support us at Tommy Flynn's on Saturday night. I have to admit that I've never been there before and was greeted by a bit of a grim scene as we arrived early to find a pub packed full of hardened, leathery old men watching football, but at some point in the evening the venue seemed to magically transform into something rather special. The atmosphere was electric and very intimate at the same time and the line-up of bands were a cut above the rest.

In all it was a very eclectic night and there seemed to be quite a lot of support from the Vox crowd as well. I'm pretty sure we spotted Ashley Hicklin in amongst the crowd and, of course, we had a good chat with Indieboy inbetween filming and hobbling around, who gave us some sage advice and who put the whole night together in the first place. We also chatted to various parts of This Morning Call who're a great bunch of lads and very briefly with Susie Wilkins before she went on stage.

We're now looking to bed down, write some new stuff, sort out our drummer situation (for those of you that haven't glaced at the site, we're looking for a new drummer again) and start gigging again in january. We're already down to play the Water Rats at the end of next month, but may do a few lower key gigs before that. Hopefully we'll get the drummer situation sorted by the end of this month as well as we've got quite a lot of interest in the position. We're also going to postpone recording another EP for a few months at least until we've really worked hard on the new material and on the gig side of things to make sure we're absolutely firing on all cylinders come the tour to promote it all.

Alexei

They say it takes 20% of the time to get 80% of the result and the other 80% of the time to get the remaining 20% left. I think that's pretty true in a lot of ways and definately when it comes to music.

After a hectic start, things are steadying with the band. We're working on improving every aspect of what we do, writing new songs and gigging as much as possible. We're attracting a lot of industry interest at the moment which can be a bit unnerving at times, but it's something which we do think we're almost ready for. Between management companies and record labels of all sizes we're getting a lot of advice and guidance, some of which is absolutely worth it's weight in gold and some which directly contradicts itself, but either way we're getting used to the fact that we're being watched at a lot of the gigs we're playing.

There used to be a time when you just turned up and plugged in your guitar!

Speaking of which:

November

It was nice to see the culmination of 5 months hard work start to bear fruition at our industry showcase at the Water Rats on Thursday night with an electric gig and our biggest turn-out yet...... seems that word is slowly but surely getting around! The gig, which was the conclusion of our mini-tour and 3 months of booking gigs, planning promotion and publicity, and sending countless (close to 300!) press packs & EPs out to the industry, seemed to go down a storm despite some unusual technical issues i.e. myself managing to launch my mic stand into the audience during one of the songs and breaking a string, again! It was also nice to see a significant industry presence. I even got to chat to a few A&R people who seemed strangely human.

After a brief break however it's back to the drawing board and plans for recording our next EP and it's release hopefully early in the new year (pending talks with prospective management). We've also got two more great gigs lined up at the Water Rats before Xmas at their club night on Friday 9th November and showcase night on 20th December for which we hope to have a couple more new songs ready.

It's been a very, very busy few weeks. So busy that we've neglected most of our other duties, such as updating this here blog. We're almost done with our tour. It's been as up and down as you'd expect, but we've succeeded in generating a bit of interest and having a lot of fun along the way. We've played to the good, the bad and the almost empty in some places, but we've always had an excellent response wherever we've gone.

We're in Maidenhead tonight and then the Water Rats on the 4th for a show-case type thing, though it was never really intended to be. It's just the next London gig which people now seem to be coming along to. Should be a good one!