Booze, Reviews and Interviews

Hello folks! How are you today? You look fairly chipper to me, which is no mean feat right now. In between the new Con-Lib government, ash cloud malarkey and the fact that in Scotland it can’t be Summer for one whole day, never mind two days in a row, a good mood is to be treasured.

I’m feeling pretty braw myself today as I’ve finally finished my summer exams! Fair enough, I’ll need to write a big ol’ dissertation over summer, but I’ll also be able to get gigging regularly again. Hopefully I’ll fit in a wee Scottish tour, so if you have any suggestions of where I should play and when, do let me know. It also means I can melt my brain with comic books, video games and of course, the odd pint of beer/whiskey/pakora sauce. I’ve done a wee bit of that already, including last night when I went to see Andrew Maxwell. The highlight for me was when he turned out to be related to a drunk Irish girl in the front row. That and when he told me if I wasn’t stoned, my hair certainly was. Fair enough really. As for the missus, her favourite part was undoubtedly Scottish Jesus, as summed up in this picture. Nae danger.

In other exciting news, I’ve done a wee interview for Elba Sessions, as well as being featured on Ride The Tempo!

You can read the Elba interview in full by clicking this handsome link. I’ve only done a few interviews so far, but this has been one of my favourites. It even clears up this issue of my tiny guitar :) The feature at Ride The Tempo features one of my songs and you can take a look it by click this strangely alluring link.

Oh and, just so ye’s know the tiny guitar is real, here’s a photo of it in action:

Am I singing or laughing? You decide.

No, those aren’t pyjamas.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any thoughts on the interview/feature/possible tour venues/which enemy I should be battling in my new E.P/my ridiculous haircut/etc

love, Shambles x

Shambles and Podcarts and Fullmooners, Oh My.

Hullo folks! How are you both all today? It’s Mother’s Day today, so I hope all you folks are being good to your mums! Cups of tea and putting up with watching the Antiques Roadshow and such. Thats what it’s all about.

So, I’ve had an exciting week so I have, and some of the biggest highlights for me were distinctly Podcart-shaped. Not only did the lovely folks over at Glasgow Podcart include one of my songs in their podcast this week (a Podcast which, incidentally, featured Jim Gellatly!) but they also had me in to do a live acoustic session for them. As you can see from the photo above, I also found time to talk some pish with Sean o’the’podcart during and afterwards. The session should be up within the week, as far as I know.

Now, I should point out one or two things about the podcast before you have a wee listen, as there were one or two factual inaccuracies:

1. I don’t have a band at the moment, just lovely friends who help me out when I’m recording.
2. I’ve never played in Sleazy’s before, not even on a thursday (which ironically, was the night Sean had me up to the live session!)
3. The gigs I play at the Vale (one coming up this Tuesday, 16th) are for the Glasgow Songwriters Club, which, as lovely as it sounds, does not feature me playing solo then playing with a band later on. It will feature a dodgy Beatles cover on my part though, so feel free to come along and see me attempt Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.
4. Oh yes and, its a common mistake to make with my stuff, but believe it or not, there is NO cello on my E.P. whatsoever. My multi-talented friend Neil Slorance is just a very skilled double-bass player who managed to rise to my challenge of playing the bass very high up the neck. He’s fair braw, and aye, he’s the same lovely man who does all my artwork and such.

Sorted! I imagine that stuff will also be made clear when the live session goes up though. If you’d like to listen to the Podcast, you can hear it at the Glasgow Podcart website, download it from iTunes or hear it over at Radio Magnetic. It’s a world of choices, friends.

Last night I also attended the now-legendary “Maxwell’s Fullmooners” at the Old Fruitmarkets in Glasgow with my missus. It was a night of comedy and magic and breakdancing and best of all, Ireland’s 7th best rap crew rapping about my beautiful lady. Unfortunately however, I don’t know how to spell their name, so if any of you know who Ireland’s 7th best rap crew is, do let me know!

As per usual, I have some gigs coming up, check out the ol’ myspace for details and other bits of brawness and banter.

SO, a big thanks again to Glasgow Podcart for including me in their Podcast, to Sean for getting me in for the live session, to Jim Gellatly for saying my name out loud and making me feel famous for 10 seconds and AS PER BLOODY USUAL, you IRRESPONSIBLY ATTRACTIVE and LOVELY readers of my blog, thank you guys for reading and listening. Please do let me know what you think of the podcast and I hope you’ll tune in soon for the live session.

Hope to see you guys soon! Oh and before you go, I had two pictures to choose from as the main image for this article. When I show the other one, you’ll see it was pretty clear that there was only one choice to make….

I really have NO idea. None.

Stop laughing, you bastards.

Ok fair enough.

Til next time folks,

love Shambles x