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Howdy all, It's getting near the end of the year, so... what's happening with us? Well... bit and pieces actually.
We've just finished two songs. We had a third song but we're going to re-work it. I have to admit, the two new songs are brilliant. I really like them. We're titled them "Keep Your Dreams" and the other is called "One Man". One Man is my favourite Astronot song... ever! I know I'm hyping it up, but I really enjoy it.
We're playing on the 16th Of December. It's our last gig of the year... a busy year, which saw us play pretty much every city in Scotland, at least once. Ok, we played Inverness three times, but we played every other city at least once :) After that, it'll be back to the rehearsal room to practise, practise, write, write and then practise.
We're going to be recording again in March. Yeah, it seems like ages away, but I'm sure it will fly by. The plan is to get another three songs recorded at The Byre(to add to the three we already recorded there last July) and release a mini album in Spring. I'm pretty sure it will be six tracks... six good tracks. I know what's going to be on it... I think. Maybe we'll write something better before then though, you never know.
A tour is planned for after that... a world tour... of Scotland! Ok, we don't actually know where. Anywhere is possible. If the Jyrojets can go to Moscow, and lets face it, they're pish... then why can't we?
Hopefully we'll get this album up for sale on the internet through some retailers, so even if you don't make a show... you'll be able to pick it up online. Possibly even track by track. We're good like that...
Anyway, to all you millions of people who read this, have a good Santmas when it comes and a "sensible" New Year... pah, as if that's going to happen.
Jamie
Another one. We've got more news which I thought we'd keep seperate.
So, As you can see by our website and our myspace, we've got no further gigs this year... well, ok, that's a lie. We've been invited to do a Youth Forum gig. It's gonna be really intimate. Small. It'll be in the local Youth Club. A good place for people to get up close and personal. More about that when we know. Should be December sometime though...
But anyway, we've got fuck all else planned gig wise.
The rest of the year, we're going to be concentrating on writing. We've got 3 songs musically complete. We're really happy with the arrangements so far. All we need to do is put down a melody and some lyrics. Hopefully we'll complete that task in the next couple of weeks and get them done in a decent demo format shortly after.
We're writing in a different way than before I think. Usually I'd go away and work on riffs and come back with what would be an almost complete song. Stevie and Darren have got involved in this process now and I'm a lot happier with this. Takes some of the pressure off and really involves them. It's great to be working as a band.
The lyrics are the next step and I think we're all going to get stuck in about that very soon. I'm looking forward to what we can do together lyrically. Usually this is left to Stevie, but I think we all have stuff we'd like to say.
We'll be back in the new year, with these new songs, a better show and hopefully, a new release of some sort.
Jamie
Ok, so... where did I leave you? Oh yes, middle of September.
Right, well, we went down to Edinburgh and Glasgow. We played. We were told it would be shite before we went, it was. Edinburgh was ok I suppose. The sound was fine. The stage was perfect. Nice and small. The venue was pretty ace actually.. a little dingy intimate place. There was a few people we recognised there. In fact, I'd go as far to say that we had as much of a crowd as any of the local bands. Go you Thurso folk. Muchos appreciated. We'll perhaps get back later in the year.
We had our first bit in a major paper... The Herald, we were the only band registered to play in Edinburgh that night... nice!
We made a video documenting our little trip which you can find on our youtube site. There should be a link on the right.
We went to the Zoo on Friday morning... they tried keeping us in, but we had a gig to play.
Glasgow on the Friday night. We played in the Classic Grand. The venue(once a porn cinema) was indeed, grand, but the gig itself was shit. The people looked at us like dicks. The venue was like a fucking wine bar(nice if you like that kind of thing, too nice for loud rock music). The other bands were dirt. Jesus to fuck... where are all the Glasgow rock bands? No, not you... the real fucking rock bands. You know, the ones with loud guitars and drummers who can smash cymbals?
Oh, there are none? Right... well, one of those bands rolled into town and rolled out again. We played good, you missed out.
I'm fairly certain that bands from Glasgow(I'm pigeon-holing, so shoot me) are up their own fucking arse. No cunt really spoke, they looked at us like a bag of shite and most of them seemed pretty rude.
Mental note: play in a shithole next time, we're more suited to that sort of place.
Another blog to follow....
Jamie
Well today we went and took some new promotional pictures with Megan Coghill. We went to this little place just out of town with some old ruined buildings. We got some pretty cool shots and for once, we didn't act like a bunch of kids and fight.. haha... we did that between pictures.
I stuck a couple up on our Myspace and Bebo pages (which you can access from the right hand side of this here page).
Megan, if you don't know who she is, is a very talented local photographer who has been building up a portfolio of her own over the past year and a half. She'll have a website of her very own in the not to distant future. I'll be sure to add a link to her page when that's up and running. For now, you can make do with the pictures that she's taken of us.
We're away to Edinburgh this Thursday and then to Glasgow on Friday. We've got a special guest coming away with us though... yep, we're taking... ASTROCAM! We spent some money and bought a Video Camera last week. So not only can you read about us, you're gonna be able to watch us as well. A video blog so to speak... this could get messy...
More soon, promise...
Right, since I last updated the website with random ramblings, we've been busy... again!
We played the Big Gig up here in Thurso, had a fuckin great time! I think we covered everyone in that field in Astronot stickers. I've seen loads of them around Thurso since then. Good stuff. Despite the crappy weather, people turned out in force which was amazing. I'm pretty sure there was around 250-300 people there when we hit the stage.
We rattled through our set quite quickly. Stevie B must have harassed everyone in that field... even the people who I'd consider non-targets for abuse. "Stevie T is playing tomorrow... don't give him a fuckin wireless kit though" Well done Mr Bruce... we couldn't get you to shut up for almost an hour!
A week or so later, we played with bluegrass kings, Hayseed Dixie, over two nights. A bit of a bizarre support slot for us, but I think it worked. We played rock music to a rock crowd who were out to see an amazing band. They spoke some clever shit.. all above our mediocre public school educated heads, meeting them was like living in an episode of Dukes Of Hazzard. The mandolin player was the first member of Hayseed Dixie we met... "How y'all doing?"... anyone in Texas would've been proud of that... hell, I think even Fred Durst would've been so excited by the Y'all... he'd consider re-issuing the first Limp Bizkit album!! "What y'all eating? Chinese Food? Lord have mercy!!"
Darren was straight on the phone to his brother "he sounds like Dukes Of Hazzard!!!"
We didn't get to steal their moonshine however, which, as you can imagine, was slightly upsetting.
The quote of the weekend goes to the bass player(excuse my ignorance, but I forget his name)... Darren was speaking to him the day after the Thurso gig.
Bass player "we played in a town called Thurso last night..."
Darren "Yeah we were there..."
Bass player "you were there???"
Bass players... seriously...
All for now... I'll get some more stuff up soon. We've got Glasgow and Edinburgh on the 13th and 14th of September and then our first real festival appearance to prepare for...
Cheers
Jamie
How's it going? Good? Grand? Awesome! Well, this is the first of many posts that I plan to write about the goings on of my band Astronot.
Hopefully I'll keep this up-to-date with what we are up to when we're out and about playing, writing, recording... I think you get the point...
Anyway, if you don't know who the hell we are, and you've just stumbled upon this little blog, come on in, stick around, add this to your favourites. I'm sure there will be some interesting stories on here in the next few months.
Take a look at the bottom of the page for get a bit of info about the band and check out the links on your right for our website, myspace and bebo.
Cheers for looking...
Jamie
