We're really sad to have lost Trev, our cheeky bass wielding Dubliner. He had to move back to Ireland and although it was a tough decision, we know it's for the best, as Trev can now get on with life being a top notch animator. Life goes on and the seasons change - no doubt about that. But we'll sure as hell miss you Trev!
Rob, meanwhile, has been a great friend of the band for a long time and he's a very cool chap, so the changeover was a breeze. He's been working hard to learn our set - when he first joined us he learnt 7 songs in a week (that's one song a day - impressive or what!) and then we went and played the Hinterland festival over in Glasgow.
Hinterland was loads of fun. We rocked the art school and then caught a load of other great bands, like We Have Band (just as good as they were at SXSW) and Jesus H. Foxx, who just keep getting better. Running up and down the steep streets of Glasgow carrying most of our equipment and a little too much beer to fuel us along.
After Hinterland was over, we played Sick Kids Sunday at the GRV in the burg. What a great day - the creme de la creme of the Edinburgh music scene all having a laugh and playing some tunes - it really was a good day to be part of. there's some new faces in town - the Stormy Seas are great lads - and every act I saw reminded me of the variety and quality of the music that people are making in this city.
No rest for the wicked, though - after that I had to focus on my degree show - the hand in day was 15th May. I won't go into the details of the energy-sapping, panic-inducing, creativity squeezing black hole where my life went for the best part of a week, but the joyous result is a degree show I am pretty chuffed with! The Edinburgh College of Art degree show is open from the 13th June, and it's well worth a visit if you're in the city. There's so much great work on show, seeing it all going up is really exciting. My work is in the Illustration studio along with my talented fellow fourth years, and (not being biased or anything) our illustration show is a must see. Here's a sneak peak of one of my screenprint linocuts, illustrating a poem by Rudyard Kipling:
The very night of the hand-in I was supposed to catch a flight to Brighton to play the Great Escape.. but I missed it cos I was so exhausted that I passed out on the airport bus! But one much needed sleep later I joined Rob and Mikey down in my home town.
hooray! They'd been staying with my folks for a couple of days already and they were well rested, good friends with the family cat, and had seen plenty of gigs. I was pretty jealous, in fact I didn't end up seeing any other bands cos by the time we'd played our gig, the whole caboodle was over. A shame, but still, we managed to get some rest hanging out on the beach, overzealously ruffled by the sea breeze, and coated with a little salty drizzle, filled with fish and chips, and all the other things that make Brighton so great. Mikey and Rob actually saw the Clash's Mick Jones - playing with a new band. What a treat. And then we returned to auld reekie.
Once we'd settled back up north after our short break in brighton, we had to carry on practising and rehearsing and then we got an offer to support White Lies at the Picturehouse. This was great news, Mikey and I had watched the band in Texas and we'd never played the Picturehouse (a venue of stunning proportions and a fabulous, vintage cinema vibe.) It's always so rewarding to play to an energetic and up-for-it crowd and this lot certainly were - they clapped along, smiled a lot, and generally looked like they were having a good time, which is what it's all about really isn't it? And once we'd played, along with the Trailer Trash Tracys (who'd come all the way from London) the main event really put on an amazing show - all dramatic bursts of light and high-drama crashes into choruses - no doubt about it, they're very good at what they do. Well worth checking out if you can.
That more or less brings us up to the present. It's been a busy few weeks, and all of it's been great fun - knackering, but fun. Now the view is rosy for the coming summer months of gigs and ice lollies. And Rockness, which we'll be playing.. but more about that later.
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