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Strummer Of Love

frank — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:29:30 +0000

One festival that I’ve announced myself as playing but which I feel I haven’t given enough love to yet is Strummer Of Love. It’s 17th-19th August, down in Somerset. It’s organized by the Strummerville people, who are friends and co-conspirators of mine, in memory of the late great Joe Strummer. It’s the same weekend as Beautiful Days and V, but I was so keen to play that I’ve worked out a way to do a set on the Friday. The rest of the lineup is also amazing, and well worth checking out. You can buy tickets here, or indeed enter a competition to win some right here. See you there.

Silver Linings

frank — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:40:12 +0000

It occurred to me, as I was about to go onstage in Toronto the other night, that I was at the end of the touring cycle for England Keep My Bones. In some ways that doesn’t really mean all that much – it’s not like the breaks between schedules are particularly long or significant for me. But it was a cool moment of reflection. A quick bit of calculation gave me the following numbers: 13 months, 245 shows, 20 different countries. Not bad. It’s time now to get into the rehearsal studio with the Sleeping Souls, in preparation for hitting the studio in the summer to make another album. I feel primed and ready. And then I can do all the touring all over again, huzzah!

I got some amazing news this morning, which, given all that, feels very appropriate in its timing. Both Love Ire & Song and England Keep My Bones have just been certified silver in the UK. That means that they’ve each sold over 60,000 copies in the UK alone. Again, on a lot of levels, it’s not that important – I’m not in this game to shift piles of CDs or collect industry accolades or whatever. Having said that, if I put myself back in the shoes was in in 2008, when Love Ire & Song came out, the idea of getting a silver disc for it would have been faintly ridiculous. Given that I’ve remained on the same (small, independent, awesome) label, working with the same team, ever since, I think that I’m allowed a small moment of pride about this one. As of course is everyone at Xtra Mile and all the people I’ve been working with these last years. I can’t say we’re going to have a crazy rock’n'roll party, but I might treat myself to a whisky tonight to celebrate. And of course, the main point is to say thanks to everyone who picked up a copy. I couldn’t do any of this without you. Big love.

Woke Up Feeling Like Sigourney Weaver

frank — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:09:29 +0000

It’s that joyous time of year again, time to announce another full band headline run of shows in the USA in September! The dates are listed on the upcoming dates page, check it out. Some more information:

Tickets go on sale on Friday (tomorrow)
The incredible Larry & His Flask will be joining us for the tour
There’s another support to be announced soon
There are some more solo shows to be added in October around the USA
I’m really excited to be coming back again!

So yeah, enjoy. In other news, I am absolutely obsessed with recent Australian touring buddies, The Smith Street Band. I mean, if this song doesn’t blow your mind, I give up. Check them out if you have a spare moment.

Right, hello Toronto, what time is it here exactly?

How You Going?

frank — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:33:48 +0000

The solo section of the Australia tour has come to an end here in Townsville. It’s been fantastic to be over here and hitting new places. Darwin was a blast. In Alice Springs I played a festival out in the outback that was full of friendly hippies, and climbed a small hill in an unsuccessful attempt to spot a wild kangaroo for Casey, who had eaten one but not seen one (still hasn’t). Cairns was great, though we were there for a grand total of 11 hours and didn’t actually see the sun. The show in Townsville was cool (very early set for me) but it’s been blissful having a proper day off here in a hotel with a pool and a bar. Tomorrow we head for Perth to meet the Sleeping Souls and the return to more familiar Australian towns. I’m excited, almost enough to forget about my sunburn (ouch).

An update about the November UK tour. Bath, Leamington Spa, Norwich, Oxford and Liverpool are now sold out, with many others soon to follow suite. The shows are listed on the “upcoming gigs” tab up there; if you’re planning on coming, it’d be a good idea to get your tickets sooner rather than later.

Next up, my good German friends The Donots recently asked me to sing on a song for their new album. The song is called “So Long” and is featured on their new record, “Wake The Dogs”, which is out now. You can find out everything you need to know right here. Enjoy.

Right, some food, an early night and some after-sun on my poor scorched skin. Adios for now.

Croc-Jumping

frank — Wed, 02 May 2012 08:27:24 +0000

Today, Casey and I went croc-jumping. We are in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia, fighting the valiant fight against jetlag after getting here from Toronto. With my mind in Canada, my heart in England and my body in Australia, I’m pretty confused about what time it is. Croc-jumping, incidentally, involved being sat in a very small flimsy boat while a manic couple dangled hacked up bits of pig trout over the side of the boat on fishing lines. This encouraged the (fucking massive) local crocodiles rearing up out of the water and jumping for the food, snapping their evolutionarily perfect killing jaws about a meter away from my face. All lots of hearty fun.

The merch that was left over from the Wembley show is now available to order from the Xtra Mile Recordings site – it includes scarves, official shirts and posters, and also Matt Nasir’s lovely book of photos. Go check it out.

I also wanted to put in a mention for the fact that my favourite new (ish) band, Jim Lockey & The Solemn Sun, have a UK tour coming later this month. The dates and information are here. I can thoroughly recommend brushing up on their album and then heading down and dancing your socks off.

Right, time to try and stay awake past 10pm. Wish me luck folks!

Farida Signature Guitars

frank — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:10:45 +0000

As some people already know, the good people at Farida guitars have been working on a very limited signature guitar for me for a little while. Well, now I have the full details before me I thought I’d share them with all of you.

The guitar was built to my specifications, and they gave me the prototype (pictured). It’s a fantastic instrument. To get technical for a moment: it has a solid Engelmann spruce top and solid rosewood back and sides to give it a very loud, clear but also warm and resonant tone, with a matt finish, in a jumbo cutaway body. It has a Fishman rare earth humbucker pickup fitted (my pickup of choice). There will only ever be 25 of these made (apart from my one), individually numbered on the headstock. They come with a fitted case and a certificate of authenticity (signed by yours truly). They’ll be arriving for shipment in late May.

There are only 11 still available to buy (the rest have been reserved). You can get more information and order one right here. If you’re shopping for a new guitar, check it out – I’m genuinely impressed with the one I have, and these are all the exact same instrument, not cheaper imitations. Definitely worth investigating.

Tickets For Everyone

frank — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:15:09 +0000

Good morning, good morning. Well, it’s morning where I am (Edmonton). I guess I missed the 9am rush back in the old country today, but hey, better late that never, right? Tickets for the November UK tour are now on general sale, get yours here!

A couple of notes for you all. As previously noted, the Norwich show has moved to the UEA – this is so we could make the show all ages, rather than 18+. We’ve done our best with age restrictions (most shows are 14+ or all ages) but check before you buy. We are working on tour supports, very nearly got the deal worked out, and it’s going to be awesome.

The shows in Edinburgh and Truro are not yet onsale, as I have festivals in those areas who have requested we hold off until they’re done. Don’t worry, I’ll be posting ticket links as soon as they go live.

We are still working on adding a later leg of the tour for Ireland and some other parts of Wales and Scotland, keep your eyes for that. And yes, I’m aware that there are no show sin Manchester or London on this run. Apologies to those who are disappointed about that, but I’m trying to make sure I hit places I haven’t been to in years; I’ve been to Manchester on every UK tour for a long while, and I just played a big show in London, as you may recall. Also, I’ll be back in both cities soon enough, never fear.

OK, I think that’s everything for now. I’m going to drive to Saskatoon!

Onwards, Upwards

frank — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:52:48 +0000

And so it’s happened, the big show, it’s done and dusted. I’m slightly at a loss as to what to say about it really. It was everything I wanted it to be. Seeing that many people in one space was, well, mental really. I guess it’s still sinking in for me. Thank you so much to everyone who made it out and made it a special evening.

Anyway. As promised, I’m here to announce the next UK tour. The dates are below. It’s all shows with The Sleeping Souls, and we have a killer support bill coming together (more news on that in a little while). As ever with these things, there are a lot of people to try and please with limited time and resources. We tried to consider where we’ve played recently, and where we haven’t, tried to get out to the regions as much as possible. Yes, there’s no London show – I just did a big one! – so some people have to travel around there. In fairness, everyone from Reading / Brighton / Margate travels to London for shows, so I think the favour can be returned! Ditto with Manchester and Liverpool. We are working on a separate trip to Ireland. Anyways. Tickets are onsale at 9am on Wednesday morning. Enjoy.

11th November – Nottingham Rock City
12th November – Leeds O2 Academy
13th November – Liverpool O2 Academy
14th November – Brangwyn Hall, Swansea
15th November – Reading Hexagon
17th November – Newcastle O2 Academy
18th November – HMV Picture House, Edinburgh
19th November – Sheffield O2 Academy
20th November – Norwich Open
22nd November – Margate Winter Gardens
23rd November – Wolverhampton Civic Hall
24th November – Leamington Spa Assembly
25th November – Lincoln Engine Shed
26th November – Oxford O2 Academy
28th November – Brighton Corn Exchange
29th November – Southampton Guildhall
30th November – Hall for Cornwall, Truro
1st December – Bath Pavillion

Right, I’m off to the airport and heading for Canada!

Final Pre-Wembley Update

frank — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:56:13 +0000

I’ve been blogging pretty heavy (by my standards) these last few days. This here is the last one – I have a ton of stuff to do over the next 36 hours or so, not least focusing my mind on doing a good show! The good news is that the production rehearsals went perfectly, and my band and crew and I are about as ready as we can be for the show.

One small thing I wanted to write about here. As most people know, I almost always head out into the crowd after shows to meet people, sign stuff, whatever people want really. It’s actually kind of important to me that I do this – I feel an obligation to be accessible to the people who enable me to do what I do.

That said, Wembley poses something of a dilemma. There are an awful lot of people coming to the show, and if I head out in my usual fashion I’m likely to be there for something like 3 straight days, haha. Many suggestions were made to me for schemes to ration access to me – VIP tickets, competitions and so on – but I feel really uncomfortable with the idea of trying to sell my company to people. I’m a normal person. The whole phrase “meet and greet” slightly makes my skin crawl.

On top of that, I have an absolute shed load of friends and family coming to the show. Given my habitual schedule, I don’t get to hang out with people I love very often, and I have a lot of catching up to do on the one evening.

With that in mind, and a slightly heavy heart, I’ve decided I’m not going to come out to hang after the show tomorrow. I know some people will be a little disappointed about that, but hopefully you’ll understand my reasoning as laid out above.

Finally, there are still a lot of people trying to exchange, buy or sell tickets for the show. As I’ve mentioned before, probably the best place for that is on the forum.

Right, see you all tomorrow night!!

Wembley Merchandise

frank — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:03:01 +0000

Two days to go! Madness. Here’s a quick update on the subject of merch for Wembley.

We’ve got a couple of special items for the day. First of all, there’s the shirt (front and back pictured above), and the poster (middle). We also have football scarves and a new photo book (of behind the scenes shots by Matt Nasir).

Aside from that stuff, I’ve decided that we’re going to have a fire sale of sorts on old designs. Partly that’s to help me clear out the warehouse and make room for new stuff in the future. But more importantly, it’s all part of my plan to make sure Wembley doesn’t feel like an impersonal or corporate show. Old shirts will be £5 and old hoodies will be £10. I want everyone to be able to afford to go home with a memento from the show. Hell, the new shirts are only going to be £15, but yeah, this way there’s something for everyone..

Right, day two of rehearsals starts in a moment, time to get practicing!