Festivals and beers and one-night-onlys

Todays ever-tardy blog post is brought to you by craft beer, festivals, and one-offs. 

Hello folks, once again I’ve left a lamentably long gap between blog posts. I’d apologise but I know many of you subscribe via e-mail and have probably enjoyed not having me clog your inboxes with my rambles every other day. Leaving big gaps does make for a more jam-packed-with-news-and-brilliant-things sort of post, so with that in mind, lets look at what I’ve got coming up.

Festivals!

I’m really excited to announce that I’ll be playing at a couple of festivals this year! First up is Brew at the Bog which takes place at Bogbain Farm in Inverness on Saturday the 4th of May. I’ll be sharing a stage with some awesome bands, including Olympic Swimmers, Kitty the Lion, This Silent Forest, Michael Cassidy and many more. Check out the full lineup here. In case you haven’t heard of it before, this festival is brought to you by craft beer revolutionaries BrewDog! So if you want to support great beer and local talent, get yersel to Inverness for this festival. You can book tickets from this lovely link.

Just announced is the line-up for Doune the Rabbit Hole which I’m incredibly happy to be playing at this year. I’ll be playing on the Saturday (that’s the 24th of August) alongside the likes of Panda Su, Washington Irving, Beerjacket, The Pastels and headliners, Clinic. There are loads of great acts across the whole weekend and I’m really excited to be part of this festival so I hope to see lots of you there! Check out the festival website for more details and to book tickets.

A one-off open mic night!

You might remember that I used to host a peculiar little open mic in the basement of city centre bar Vespbar (formerly O’Henry’s). It had music, poetry, at one point a bearded hula girl, and a couple of times an artist friend of mine drew what was in your minds. Well, I’m reprising my role for one night only at Broadcast on Sauchiehall Street and I want it to be awesome. Lots of great musicians and artists came to play at Vespbar and I want to get all of them (and more) to Broadcast for this one night. It’s this Sunday, the 21st of April and I really hope you’ll come and join us. There’ll be beer for performers and a night of great free entertainment for all. Whether you’re a musician, singer, poet, comedian, bear-wrestler, lion-tamer, or artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince, I want to see you at Broadcast this Sunday. All are welcome.

As always, I’ve got other things in the pipeline which I’ll update you on quick sharp, but I think that’ll do for now. Hope to see you soon.

Til next time,

love Shambles

x

If 15-year old me could see me now

Hello folks, hope you’re well. It might seem like I’ve been lazy with my blogging of late but I’ve actually just been busy making some dreams come true for a fifteen year old. I’m talking about teenage Shambles of course! A few weeks ago I played my second show at King Tut’s, supporting Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun. It was a great gig with a brilliant audience and I enjoyed it like naebody’s business. I got my ageing flyer back despite the large crowd, with one naughty gig-goer even taking it downstairs to the bar. I met some lovely people and I even sold my first ever piece of Shambles Miller clothing merchandise!

All I had to do to keep my identity a secret was grow a beard and lose a significant amount of muscle mass.

There was an added bonus to my King Tut’s adventure however. A week or so after the gig I was alerted to the fact that the show had been reviewed in none other than the rock ‘n’ roll bible of my teenage years: Kerrang magazine! The punk-song-murdering, orange Ibanez-bashing mosher inside me was beside himself. I’m still really excited to see my name in print and absolutely delighted to read that my set went down so well. If you’d like to read the review for yourself, I’ve posted it below.

That I popped up in Kerrang only a few short weeks after my good friend and partner-in-crime Neil Slorance was the icing on a delicious cake of sugary brilliantness. I’d like to thank everyone who came to the show and that lovely chap Sam Law for reviewing my performance so kindly, and I hope, accurately. Thanks to you lot and Kerrang magazine for making a teenage dream come true.

If there’s one person I’d like to NOT thank, it’s Katy Perry, for completely ruining the phrase “teenage dream” in the collective consciousness for the forseeable future.

Til next time!

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

Did I Fight a Bear?

Hello folks! Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes. I’ve been a busy boy lately, a busy boy indeed. Between work, university, giggery and losing my second-last fiver in a game of poker, I’ve hardly had time to count my plaid shirts. Serious business. I slept in today for the first time in a while and after a day of internet jiggery-pokery, I find myself still awake, with just enough brainjuice to power a small blog post. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

As you might know, I played a bloody lovely gig with The Miss’s, Andrew Lindsay and the Coat Hooks and Julia and the Doogans. Read some nice words about it here. It was a smashing evening, with some great music and great friends. Canny whack it. Except, I did try to whack it a wee bit by performing at Words per Minute in the Arches just a couple of days later and it actually turned out to be one of my favourite performances. Everyone was absolutely lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Eagle-eyed friends might have spotted a video of my set already, which will OF COURSE make an appearance on the blog soon enough. Here’s a cheeky wee review of the event.

I was also recently invited to appear on Bolt FM with the swellagant Steph and Gill, hence the above becardiganed photie. I’ve just realised that in that picture it looks like I’ve fallen asleep whilst playing the guitar. I didn’t, honest. I had a lovely time on the show, and hopefully you’ll be able to listen back sometime soon. In the meantime, have a wee swatch at the girls’ facebook page.

Whit? More? Ok, I’ll do some succintly swish summing up for you suckas.*

• My song “Things That Make Me Angry” was featured in Kowalskiy’s Singles Club. It’s a good wee laugh with some great music for your earholes and brains and whatnot.
• Someone who sounds an awful lot like me recorded a podcast about all things geek, one which is now available on iTunes! Spiffy.
• I fought a bear.**

I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve been busy. More stuff soon folks. Please do check out the above links…oh and while I’m bombarding you with linkies, please do remember to ‘like’ my facebook page, check out my music at Amazing Tunes and if you REALLY have a lot of time on your hands, do THIS, or THAT or even THE NEXT THING.

Thanks folks, you’re beautiful and/or handsome. Some of you are both, you gorgeous freaks of nature.

Til next time,

love Shambles x

*You’re not suckas, you’re all braw.
** I may not have actually fought a bear.

Sailing by the Seat of my Pants

Hello folks! It’s been some fortnight so it has and it doesn’t look like slowing up for me just yet. Until the morning after the friday night before perhaps. As well as organising everything for the EP launch this friday (October the 22nd) and rehearsing with my wee band for the night, I managed to fit in a lovely wee gig at the Hidden Lane Tearoom. It was a thoroughly braw night and I’ll be telling you lots more about it soon. In the meantime though, I’ve had some lovely things written about the new EP and bits and bobs about the aforementioned Tea Party. I thought I’d collect them together here so you can peruse them at your leisure. Here are some of the nice things folk have been saying and links to the full articles:

“…by turns folksy, passionate and surprisingly witty.” – It’s Bloggerin’ Time!

“It is called Strike and it is all kinds of awesome and lovely.” – My Portis Wasp

I shouldn’t play favourites, but I can’t help it. What you’re about to read is a beautifully written article, by an exceedingly lovely lady, whom I finally had the pleasure of meeting this week at the Tea Party. My favourite part reads:

“...enough heart to power a small charity.” – Last Year’s Girl

I swooned a little, like a girl, when I read this.

I said I’d say more about the Tea Party and I did. And here’s a little more. Sean McCann, who organised said shindig, also performed as part of a duo: the Ballad of Alex K. I implore you to find them and hear their tunes. You won’t regret it.  Sean also filmed parts of the night and you can see some videos (including one of me performing Robots) over at his site, Light Up Glasgow’s Skyline.

By this point in the week, after the Tea Party, my body was starting to yearn for a wee sleep, as the weekend began to bleed into monday. However, I couldn’t say no to a special wee Kitty the Lion-related event, in aid of their new single. It’s called ‘Gutted’ and it’s out now to download from iTunes. I’d do that, if I were you. Gaun.

Now we’re at Tuesday. My body is attempting to succumb to the flu, my tonsils are involved in some sort of oral revolution and attempting to seize power, I’m imbibing more orange juice than is probably healthy, and rediscovering the taste sensation that is gargling with salt water. The EP launch is this friday folks. Needs must. Also, in case I haven’t mentioned, about the EP launch, please do come to it. It’ll be more fun the more of you there are to sneeze at sing to.

And the last bit of news I have for the moment: I’ve just heard that one of my tracks will be getting played on Jim Gellatly’s new music podcast tomorrow. Make sure to tune in or download when it goes live tomorrow! Rest assured I’ll be reminding you anyway.

That’s all for now folks. I’m off to give my throat a good talking-to, although that seems a little counter productive. Maybe I’ll just lie down instead…

love Shamble-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..