Argos Barks (but ma dug can write)

Hello folks! You’re looking positively refulgent, you classy devils. I’ve been busy writing (the good kind, not the other kind) and doing plots and plans and schemes and things. I’ve also taken to wearing a very small hat. It’s a crazy time. I also took some time recently to make a wee playlist for Argos Barks, featuring some of the braw folk who make braw folk and can regularly be found making my ears happier. Some are more obvious than others, given that my usual partners-in-crime are featured, but so are some heroes and people I’m resigned to admiring from afar. The playlist is as follows:

• Andrew Lindsay – The Boat Outside
• Reverieme – Weans
• Beans on Toast – Coke
• Where We Lay Our Heads – Wondering About the Fall
• Daniel Versus the World – One Night Hug
• Kitty the Lion – Split Ends
• Laura Marling – My Manic and I
• Loch Awe – The Ocean in Me
• Second Hand Marching Band – A Dance to Half Death
• Shambles Miller – Things That Make Me Angry
• Loudon Wainwright III – Motel Blues
• Emily Barker – Fields of June
• Julia and the Doogans – Borderline
• Billy Bragg – Waiting for the Great Leap Forward
• Bruce Springsteen – Thunder Road

A mighty bag’o'tracks to be sure. Mr. Barks (as he will always be known in my mind) also says some lovely words about me, which I’m very flattered by. He must be wise and handsome. To hear the playlist in full, head over to Argos Barks right this very minute! Your ears would thank you, if they could speak, but they can’t. They’re ears. They have neither the agency nor ability to do so.

In other news, I have gigs soon! I’m playing a couple of shows with Dave Arcari and it’d be great if you could make it along, the dates and times are below, along with the facebook event pages where you can also find links to buy tickets online! Hope to see you there!

• Wednesday, 22nd June, Sneaky Pete’s
• Thursday, 23rd June, Captains Rest

Oh and I recently updated my bandcamp with physical STUFF, so take a gander. And yes, the picture of my dog, Dusty, is only really up at the top of this post because of a rather tenuous “barks” link. It’s my blog, I’ll do what I want. Put the kettle on since you’re up, would you?

Til next time folks,

love Shambles x

Stories from out the writing cave.

Hello folks! Michty me are YOU a sight for sore eyes! It’s been a long month, but I’ve finally emerged from my cave again, ready to embrace the summer. And YOU if you’re lucky. Oh stop it. Whit ye like.

I haven’t written anything here in a while, as I’ve been confined to the aforementioned studycave, venturing out only occasionally to hunt for food and play tricks on the local wildlife. So, I thought I’d do a quick wee update to let you know about some of the all-too-brief adventures I’ve had during these brief sojourns for sanity. So here’s what I’ve been doing when I’ve not been learning lots of FACTS:

Playing songs for the occupiers of the Free Hetherington, getting a haircut, treating my beard with the sort of care and precision usually only reserved for Bonsai trees, beatboxing (sort of (again)) with Beans on Toast, discovering some awesome new music and then some more, getting good news, getting bad news, going stir crazy, eating a lot of meat, drinking a lot of beer, trying to prevent a friend’s kitchen from floating away, singing drunken songs around a campfire, booking some gigs, updating my music page, surviving a robot attack, impersonating T-Pain, missing bothering you all with my ramblings and looking forward to playing my songs at those folk who are kind enough to listen. Oh and I drew a rough schematic of something which MIGHT allow me to travel through time. Either that or it’s a new type of hairdryer.

Mostly mini-adventures, but expect a lot (well, some) more now that I’m out of the cave! It’s been a while since I hassled you lovely folks, so don’t forget:

• This free thing.
• This OTHER free thing!
• If you like this, could you ‘like’ this, cause I’d like that.
• I have songs here, mind?
• I have these things for sale.

That about covers it! Feel free to get in touch via twitter or facebook or drop me a wee e-mail (at campbell(at)stereokill(dot)com) if you want to book me for gigs or house shows; if you want to tell me your plans for a working lightsaber, or if you just want to finally admit to that little crush. Oh don’t be coy, I’VE KNOWN ALL ALONG.

It’s nice to be in the world again (to some extent).

Til next time folks!

love Shambles x

Beans on Glasgow

Hello folks! You’re looking lovely today, as are your mums! You might wonder why I’m complimenting your mothers; it’s not mother’s day yet, after all. It IS on Sunday though. Which is also the day I’m playing a gig with Beans on Toast!

You might have seen/heard me talk about this chap before. There’s a story I tell all too often, so I’m going to break with tradition and, well, not tell it again.

What I AM going to tell you is that you should bloody well come to this gig on Sunday. It’s at the 13th Note and also supporting will be Dave Hughes and Daniel versus the World. It starts at 8pm and it’s £5 on the door. That’s not too steep for a night of braw music now, is it? Mr. on Toast is an excellent singer-songwriter and his songs are immediately likeable, so I’m banking on this being more than enough to convince you to come along:

The sweetest-sounding song about cocaine I’VE ever heard. Come along on Sunday to hear more of the same great songwriting. And if you DO come, I might even stop telling that story. I mean, it was funny at first but COME ON MAN, get a GRIP, how many times? Seriously.

So I hope you’ll come along and see us play songs at you. Bring a mum!* All are welcome.

Til next time,

love Shambles x

*preferably your own mum

Quick! Go! Stuff! Now!

(Note: This post will work a lot better if you read it in the slightly frantic, hurried tone I’m writing it in. In my head. Enjoy!!)

Hi folks! You look great, I look like a fancy hobo, you know the drill. This is going to be kind of a “remember those things I mentioned?” post, by the way. LET’S GO!

Remember that review in Pornography for Cowards that I mentioned? Here it is!

Braw. I was right pleased with that. Even quoted the lyric I’m simulateously most proud/ashamed of. One more than the other. I’ll let you guess. Sorry for the image quality by the way, my scanner hates me, but I’m still on good terms with my phone camera.

Remember those gigs I mentioned? Here’s what I’ve got on the horizon in Glasgow at the moment:

• Wednesday 23rd Feb – The Shape of Folk to Come at Slouch with Shooting Stansfield and Wull Swales. Free!
• Thursday 10th March – Get Folked with the Free Candy Sessions at the Liquid Ship, with The Ballad of Alex K and The Miss’s. Free!
• Sunday 3rd April – Supporting Beans on Toast at the 13th Note, with Dave Hughes and Daniel Versus the World. £4/5

I’m also going to be playing a couple of shows with Dave Arcari in June, along with Jim Byrne. Exciting!  They are:

• Wednesday 22nd June – Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh. £5.
• Thursday 23rd June – Captain’s Rest, Glasgow. Not sure about price yet.

Aces!

Remember I mentioned something about a podcast? Well, on twitter anyway. And, y’know, in life? It exists now! Dude on it sounds like me and has a name that sounds like mine. Weird. Check it out here!

Lastly, remember that FUCKING HUGE CUPCAKE I never mentioned before? The one a certain lovely lady made for me? Remember I mentioned it in my head? Here it is!

Wow.

That’s all for now folks, gotta go, take care!

love Shambles

x!

http://www.13thnote.co.uk/

Where’s the harm spending an evening, in manning the old barricades?

Hullo folks! I do hope you’re wrapped up warm, I can see some snow falling outside of my cave.

The other night, Glasgow was lucky enough to enjoy a brief respite from the increasingly unreasonable weather and in turn, a visit from Frank Turner. As for me, I was lucky enough to attend his gig at the ABC, albeit as a bit of a lone ranger, as the only person I knew there, Last Year’s Girl was stationed firmly at the barrier, even forsaking Gin, of all things, whilst I lingered at the back. All writers, be they blog or newspaper, should get hats with a little card in that say “press”. Then instead of other nearby gig-goers looking on and wondering “who is that creepy loner?“, they could wonder “who does that creepy loner write for?” Much better.

Uh-huh, ok...and you insist that you're NOT a creepy weirdo, is that right?

Pint by pint however, I moved a little further forward, until my movements through the crowd caused some chagrin in a fellow reveller. What can only be described as young blonde bint tapped me on the shoulder and informed me that “there’s moving to the front so that you can see and there’s moving so that you stop other people from seeing, which is what you’re doing!” I immediately bemoaned my rarely superior genetics for making me so tall. It can be a real curse being able to see at gigs, reach things on high shelves and be treated like an adult, thanks to my appropriate height. I can only assume her poor choice of winter attire was making her grumpy. That tiny headband might have held her ridiculous fringe in place, but it clearly didn’t do much to stop the cold reaching her brain.

I pointed out that I didn’t deliberately be so tall, nor endeavour to hinder her viewing pleasure. She huffed and puffed until I gestured in front of me, to the open space, which she immediately filled, half-muttering something about not meaning to be rude, in the same way that oxygen thieves some people state things like, “I’m not being rude, but you look a bit fat in that“, or “not to be rude, but why are you even at this gig, you creepy loner?“
The statement “i’m not being rude” doesn’t ACTUALLY serve to nullify your blatant rudeness. You do understand what rudeness IS, don’t you?

Mild bintitude aside, the gig was fantastic. (Expect a proper review shortly) I felt inspired and invigorated; hopeful and just plain joyous. When Frank mentioned that since his last visit to Glasgow, he’d been made an honourary lifetime member of the Queen Margaret Union, I was reminded of his excellent gig there last year. I wrote about it at the time and still tell the Beans on Toast beatboxing story all too often, because nights like that don’t come along too regularly. If you weren’t reading my blog around that time, Frank ended up coming upstairs with us to join in the open mic night, along with various members of his band and fellow English folkie Beans on Toast. The atmosphere was something really special and a few folk captured some of his performances, which I thought I’d share with you now. Here’s Frank and co. performing “Dancing Queen”:

Eagle-eyed viewers might spot me and my compatriot Andrew Lindsay, drunkenly gesticulating and swaying at the side, and my missus taking some photies, I believe. Equally atmospheric, perhaps more so for its ramshacklosity, was one of my all-time favourites, Love, Ire and Song:

It really was a braw night and of course, a story about it wouldn’t be complete without the inclusion of my incredible lack of beatboxing skills. Beatboxing-drunk is a special level of drunkenness, I believe. That one where you’re convinced that you can do something despite having no knowledge of it whatsoever, at least no further than “boots and cats”. So if you fancy seeing the video, here’s a link that’s had one too many lemonades. Enjoy! Or laugh. Same thing, really.

Well, there you go folks. I hope I’ve helped waste a few minutes of your otherwise currently snow-filled days. Back to the cave I go. Til next time folks!

love Shambles

x