Evening News & DVD shoot

posted by Thilo

(In response to Karina's previous post:)Well, we ditched the idea of our virtual band meeting -the first in OS-history by the way- after a good productive 10min. These 10 minutes had been spent hurling abuse at each other, transferring emocons to each other and other childish behavior... (the kind of comments we leave each other on our MySpace-profiles.) Well, so we met up physically instead. Sensible idea, I have to say, we got a whole lot of stuff done. There you go, virtuality is not for everyone it seems.

Have to agree with Kaz on the EN-article by the way (read it here): the picture is rubbish (and pretty outdated), but the article pretty cool. Just don't know where they got the information from that we met in 1998 already? I mean, in '98 the chances of us ever meeting were about 1:100 000 004 (rough estimate): I was making my way around the globe at the time, Tony's future lay in chemistry, Dave was getting drunk up in Aberdeen (apparently studying architecture), Kaz was a club-nutter and Joe, hm, lemme think...'98... don't think the boy was even born, yet. So just for the records: we met in 2000, and Opal Sky were formed in 2003.

Anyway, rambling on. Karina asked me to put up some pictures from the DVD-shoot which she'd done with Tudor (our animator) the other day. For some reason she has trouble uploading it herself from her computer. "Nae worries", I say "just send the stuff over." So in my head I begin forming images of the two of them out there in the icy cold giving their very last to make this a professional video. Blue fingers and toes, a tight schedule, hectically running about, etc etc. The whole lot, basically.

This is the first picture I get:
















And this is the second one:
















Well, bloody looks like they've been working really bloody hard that day, no?
If that's a film shoot, I should be a bloody filmstar by now!!
(judging by the hours I spent in a pub)

Well, turns out they did actually do a little bit of work after all (but probably just posing for Jane, the photographer, I reckon), so here we go. Enjoy:












































Enough from me for today, hope to see a lot of you friendly faces tomorrow at the gig - can't wait!

Love from T

A great day!

Posted by Karina

Evening news article was a goody, picture was mince.

Found out that Joe's sister is getting married at 3 this afternoon, been boozing ever since. What a great day! Look forward to seeing you all tomorrow! Thilo, Tone and Dave are sweating away at an online band meeting just now, good on you lads, hope it's going well. Yee ha to you all! xxx

O.S in EVENING NEWS!

Posted by Karina

BIG NEWS! Opal Sky have just been interviewed for the Edinburgh Evening News and will be appearing in Thursday's edition. Yee ha! Make sure and buy a copy, me and Thilo had a good old bleather during the interview and hopefully it'll make for good reading!

Hello campers! Edinburgh is drookit! It's official! It's been chucking it down all day, which is a bummer because most of the locals had to walk to work/uni today cos of bus strikes. My walk was 3 miles long in the rain...it was strangely invigorating and I quite enjoyed it. Unfortunately it was followed by another 45 min walk during which I hurt my hip and so drowned my sorrows in a big bag of Edinburgh’s own chips and chippy sauce..Mmm saucy! Dunno how you Glaswegians live without it. I tried your hot peas and vinegar chat and it doesnae come close! Although I reckon our drummer would strongly disagree!

Tudor and I finally got through the necessary filming the other day and now have loads of cool footage for the animation and the rest of the DVD, it's time for me to start building it! Tricky stuff. Me and the lads are just chewing the fat in the O.S office, discussing many exciting plans for the future. It's all good. Just posted out the free CDs to the people who requested them from the mailing list, so if you asked for one, you should get it in the next few days. As usual it's all go, but our main focus is this Fridays gig. It's gonna be a good 'un! I really can't wait, so excited to play home again! Still got to decide what I'm wearing, something proper bo hopefully. Better nash and catch up with the meetings goings on. The boys are chatting away about Dave accidentally fecking his MySpace ulr by adding a bunch of numbers to it...what a spanner.

Catch yiz!

Love Kazza-K x

when (nearly) April showers should come our way...

posted by Karina

Why hello my lovelies! How do you do? Beautiful day today but unfortunately the wee showers have stopped me filming for our next DVD (boo!). I'm currently hanging oot at Tudor's (our animator) with Tony's sis Jane waiting for gaps in the rain to film me running around edinburgh, end result is gonna be well dope! Tude and Janey are off making me hot Potatoe and Spinach soup with crusty bread! Filthy bastards! I love it! Just wanted to drop you guys a note and let you know we're all still busy beavering away at all sorts of O.S projects. The boys are back in the studio a week today too to lay down some new tracks, I canna wait, I tell thee! It'll be great! I reckon Joe's post before has given you plenty to check out with all his snazzy hyper links and new photos (he's a techno god), so I'll keep this post short. Looking forward to the 31st sooo much, can't wait to see you all there. I'll check in again soon, love you's kazza-k xxxxx

More Photos!

posted by Joe.

Boka Boka one and all! As Karina's been saying, we've had a rather wonderful time on tour. We're always so sad when it all comes to a close and we face the reality of going back to our day jobs (even though I have a rather stupendously good day job working in a rather stupendously good drum shop!). I've shoved some new photos from our time on tour up on the "On The Road" section of our gallery on the main site so take a look.
Really looking forward to the last gig of the tour at the Left Bank in Edinburgh. Hope you can all make it. Free entry and everything, so you've nae excuses unless you've got stubbed yer toe really badly coz that's like, really sore.
After that we've also got a big gig coming up at Caberet Voltaire. It's the first showcase put on by a podcaster in Scotland so a massive big up goes to Grant from the Three from Leith Podcast for getting it together and also to the rather lovely Santa Dog who have been instrumental in helping the gig get off the ground. Santa Dog are a group group from Bristol who will be playing that night too and Rowena, who is the groups lead singer, designed the lovely posters you should see floating about if you're a resident in Edinburgh. Tickets are on sale now and you can buy them online at ticketweb.co.uk for the bargain price of 4 buckaroos! Another lovely sounding band called Chocyamo will also be playing. Check me out with all the html hyperlinks and stuff. I'm learning, slowly but surely! Remember that free CDs will be handed out to all those who sign up (or who are already on) the mailing list so get yer booties down to the gigs!
Anyhoo, hope to catch you at one of the gigs coming up. Love ya's! Peace.
P.S. What's going on? None of you nutters are using the messageboard! Get yo asses on there!

'Mon the dons!

Posted by Karina

Hurray for lovely people!

It was with a slight air of worry that we left for Aberdeen yesterday. Our support had pulled out and it was just going to be us. We were worried about the possibility of playing to an empty room and spending a crap load on petrol to do it. We arrived at around 5.30 and had a cracking (and really cheap) tea at the bar above Kef, £3.75 for a veggie burger salad and chips!! Mmmm! Bargainous! After that we made our way to Cafe Drummond, a cracking live music spot where folk just pop along to see what's on. On arrival we met the uber friendly sound man 'Steve'. He was wicked, really made us feel at home and got us a magic sound. The assistant manager also made a really fantastic impression on us. His name is 'Nathan' and he's such a top bloke, and a damn fine juggler, the two were a pleasure to meet!

With the company sorted out we got on with having a great time on stage. It wasn't as busy as we would have liked when we started but it slowly began to get busier as we went along and the crowd were really good fun. Dead responsive. We had a really fab night. I even dusted down my denim mini skirt for the occasion, me and my legs had a great time! It was lovely chatting to the crowd afterwards, they had a lot of nice things to say and Nathan promptly offered us a Saturday night slot in June as part of our next tour! Hurray! We love Cafe Drummonds, it rocks! Wish we had somewhere like that in Edinburgh.

Anyhoo, I'm wrapped up in a blanket on Tony's couch and my belly is a growlin' so i'm gonna go scran some food. I'll put some more pics up when I get home next week. Much love dudes! Can't wait for the home coming gig on the 31st! Roll on Edinburgh! We is having a knarly time! xxx

A flash back to reality...

Posted by Karina

Oh man, it's crazy being back for a couple of days. Short, sharp dose of reality to deal with. I was up at 6am to get to uni for 9. The lecturer turned up 40 mins late and then we couldn't get programs to run on our computers so the class was held up and we didn't get much done. I then went over to Craiglockhart to register for graduation (£50!!!!) and then promptly found out that I didn't have £50 in my account and the bank are going to shaft me BIG STYLES! Roll on Aberdeen! Take us away from this madness! I have officially completely run out of cash for the next week or two...no worries, where there's a will there's a way. I'm sure it'll be cool. Just trying to tuck into some uni work but it's no easy. My heads still on a stage somewhere having a feckin' ace time! Och well, not long till Thursday, another welcome wee break from reality...it bites. How are you sunshine filled folks getting on. I miss you all, K xxx

P.S Thanks to Thilo we now have pictures on the old posts so have a wee scroll through...

Tour so far...

Posted by Karina

Can't believe so much time has passed since we last spoke. It's really flown by! I guess should start off by telling you how Ullapool went...it was great! We had a fantastic time and went down really well with the locals shifting loads of CDs (thanks merchandise Jane!) and got some great feedback. We really owe the success of the evening to Hutch and Natasha who supplied us with a proper BO sound rigg that knocked our socks off. They're a couple of very talented and efficient individuals and they're bloody good company too! Much love to you both and thanks again!

Due to the fact that St. Paddy's day fell on our Ullapool extravaganza, there was copious guiness consumption too (which is always nice). The bar staff and locals were really friendly and we had a fab night. When I finally put some pics up, you can have a wee look at Ullapool yourself. It's really beautiful, well worth a visit!

Next on the agenda was one of our favourite venues...The Market bar in Inverness, ran by the wonderful Shirley! It was so good to get back up there again and see some old faces. They provide the warmest welcome of any other venue we've played, they're a really lovely bunch who go out of their way to make sure you're looked after. MARKET BAR, WE LOVE YOU!!!

The crowd were attentive and warm and we had a great time with them all. It was while I was arm wrestleing with one of the local fellows (and winning) that I noticed our Tony looked a wee bit rough. Turns out, Tony was coming down with a cold (or a bad case of man flu). Shirley suggested some lentil soup and a good sleep, so we took him back to the hostel and tucked him up for the night... Joe and Dave on the other hand didn't tuck themselves in till around 5.30am (total nut jobs) but made a valiant effort to keep perky for the drive to Glasgow the next day.

Then of course came Stereo! I nipped home for a quick shower and then we headed down there for sound check. After a pizza and a couple of bags of chips (shared between us all, not all for me!) we spruced ourselves up and had a rip roarer of a set that felt fan-bloody-tastic. The crowd were really great, it felt so nice to be back on home turf and seeing so many familiar faces from the stage. Glasgow, thank you once again for your support and warmth, we had a magic time!

Anyway, here we are the day after with no less than 3 days before the next gig! It's crazy! We're all back at work and uni, it's like a wee pocket of reality inbetween Glasgow and Aberdeen. Wish we could just keep playing, we're having such a great time. As I'm writing this I'm sipping on a hot cup of home made honey, lemon and ginger tea (mmm...) as I too have been struck down with Tony's man flu (or the common cold) so this wee break is probably a good thing. Give us time to recover. I've made a nice pot o' lentil soup as well, so I'm off to eat a big bowl of that now.

As promised, there will be photos up of the tour so far, still struggling to upload them on to blogger though (arg! damn you technology!).

Thank you to all the really wonderful people we've met, you really made this tour special, much love, Kazza xxx

Van surfing and other antics...

Posted by Karina

Well, hallo! How do you do folksters? Another fun evening had here by all members of the mobile 'Sky' team. Had a lovely wee gig last night at the Doghouse and met some other crackin' folks who enjoyed what we were doing. It was braw. We had our new merchandise helper for the Scottish leg of the tour, Miss Jane! She was great, collected huge amounts of e-mail addressess and handed out lots of free CDs in return. It was great. We had a really good time on stage last night too, it was a lot of fun. The other bands were great company and kept us well entertained with what ended up being quite an eclectic mix of musics!

Sadly, we stayed relatively sober last night so we have no crazy stories (apart from Tony van surfing, Dave and Thilo trolley racing and the usual climbing of lamp-posts). We've got some great photo's of the day and nights events but no way of putting them up till we get home sadly, so it looks like Monday. Can't wait to show you all!!

At the moment we're in a really magic wee cafe in the highlands with an awesomely cheap internet service, so couldn't resist updating you all. We're on our way to bonnie Ullapool for a St.Patricks day shindig. It should be fun, Guinness and Baileys all round. To be sure, to be sure!

Anyway you gorgeous bunch, we better hit the road again and be on our merry way. Speak soon,

Kazza xxx

HAPPY ST.PATRICKS DAY FRAE THE OPAL SKIES!!!!!!!

Howdy folks!

Posted by Karina

Howdy folks! Another fantastic night of tour craziness last night. It rocked! I'm going to bung some pictures from the last two nights up, but at the moment I can't get the files small enough! Aaaarg! Watch this space!

The evening began well when two incredible support acts took to the stage, Ben Blance and John Smith really blew us away. Uber-talented! Johns going to be supporting John Martyn on his next tour, he's well worth a look if you get the chance to go. We played a rather hung over set with a few really peachy mistakes but had a magic time and sound to die for (thanks Andy x). The crowd enjoyed themselves and so did we. We got a really lovely warm response and gave out lots of free C.D's. As with Newcastle the night had barley begun though. We went back to the home of the Flicks how very graciously put us up for the evening (thanks guys, you're legends), and what a home it was! A four story movie set of a home! It was incredible! No...really! These guys have one of the coolest pads I've EVER seen! The house is an old pub and still has some puby features like urinals and a catering sized kitchen. They've set up a practice room in the basement, they have somewhere in the region of ten bedrooms, they are visited by a crazy pirate dude from time to time, the place is full of crazy wonderful corridors and surprises and it even has a cracking purple piano! What more could you ask for eh!? love it, guys, when can we move in?

So, it was in this gigantic pandoras box of a dwelling that we got the party started RIGHT! The guitars were out the folks started singing and the fun times just kept rolling in. Sadly, last night was the last night till Edinburgh (31st) that we're playing with the lovable Flicks, they'll be missed in the meantime...however, the night sparked chat about a possible 'dance off' between our Tony and the Flicks David, Michael Jackson styles. Apparently there's been a previous contest in which David felt he was robbed of his dance floor crown unfairly by a more varied routine from our guitarist. The time has come to reclaim the crown Dave, you know it! Come along to the Leftbank in Edinburgh and join us in a good old laugh as the pair battle it out. Cannie wait!

Woke up this morning and found 'merchandise Matt' (his new title) curled up on the couch, bless him! Matt was only with us for the two dates in England but has become a brother to the O.S possee. Matt we love you! See you in Glasgow?

Due to unforeseen debauchery, Thilo wasn't going to make it to work so we set off around 12 and drove the five and a half hours back to Glasgow. We is proper knackered. Still got lots to do for Dundee tomorrow so better get my groove on. Keep it real, big shout out to the LIVERPOOL MASSIVE...RESPECT!!! xxx

We went to Newcastle...

Posted by Karina

Wow! What a night! Where do I start! NEWCASTLE ROCKS! We had an amazing time last night full of tasty random goodness!

The evening began pretty standardly (if that's a word!). Drive down was good, company was great, soundcheck went well, and then...

some guy stuck his head round the door and asked us if his band (he managed them) could play a wee 20 min. slot cos they'd had bother with the gig they were meant to be playing. They were from America and they were called Fizzgig. Well, well, turns out the boys were damn good and we had a rip roarer of a night. Fizzgig opened followed by us and skillfully rounded off by the Flicks. There was dancing, booze and loads of fun.

But the party didn't stop there... we then went over to Legends night club across the road where Fizzgig were playing (again) and totally took over the joint. It rocked...HARD!! Opal Sky, the Flicks and Fizzgig partyed the night away till we got slung oot at closing time. Opal Sky officially love the flicks and fizzgig..really. What a great night we had. Not quite sure how we did it but we managed to get a club full of rather upset looking goths to do the conga! Ole! They were great fun!

Tumbled in the door at a ridiculous hour and now we gotta nash to get to Liverpool on time so I'd better go. Don't know if we'll get the luxury of a computer tomorrow to update you, but we'll try.

Quickly need to give a warm thanks to Matt for his seemless merchandise sales technique! The night wouldn't have been half as much fun or near as profitable for us without you! We love you Matt! You're a party sensation!

A massive thanks to the Newcastle turn out. You guys were really, really magic fun!

Speak soon xxx

Dave's bum

Posted by Karina

Here we are, morning of the tour starting. Running pretty late already, actually, correction, Tony's running pretty late already, we're waiting for him to get his finger out! : ) Just thought I'd stand in here and stick up for Joe. It' hard not to become slightly friendly with Dave's arse, afterall, we probably see it a damn site more than his face. Can't wait for Dave's crazy blog come back!
Anyhoo, we're all dead excited and can't wait to hit the road. On that note, I'm off to noise Tony up! See you's soon, peace frae Kazza xxx

Revelations&Nonsense!

posted by Thilo

Ah, of course,... Mister Joe.
Didn't I tell you he would pick up on that?!
What's bloody wrong with "quintessential"? Surely not my fault that we learn stuff like that in school back home, no? - I mean, I had to read bloody "Macbeth" in class! (Well, I did enjoy it actually, but...) HOW MUCH USE is that for your survival in the Britain of today?!
page1(the only I remember): "When the hurley-burley's done (??), when the battles lost and won... Anon(???)."
Hurley-burley?? Anon?? What the...? All you gonna get as a foreigner using words like this is a kick in the teeth by some radge-boy!
"Excuse me, mister, could you stop doing such a hurley-burley? You are really hurting my teeth."
Right.
...
So back to Joe and his amusement over the "closeness-of-the-band-on-tour"-remark: Well, I'm telling you, the closest people on the last tour were Dave and Joe after a few drinks!
No kidding, really. No, ...really: we've actually got video evidence!
Did you also notice his obsession with Dave's back side in his e-mails and the blog? Not a single one without him mentioning it. Ha!
I think there's something in the, eh... pipeline. Surely.

Right, better go actually, just realized that this is the third day in a row that I've been up for almost 20 hours - which surely explains some of the nonsense I've been talking in this blog so far. Apologies! Better pack my bag/gear for tomorrow/later and have a good night's rest - instead of trying to disintegrate the band just before our nicely planned tour by spreading rumors.
But it's been a good day - and I can already see this whole blog thing going well out of hand. Magic. That's what this band's all about.
Love, T.

Bo!

posted by Joe.

Hey Hey, My My! How good is this, eh?! Our own blog and everything. Now you get to hear what a bunch of knobs we really are and how "close" we are as a band when we're playing music together! What's Thilo talking about and what is he doing using words like "quintessential!"
Just messing T! We are really looking forward to going our on tour again. We enjoyed it so much last time and it was such a shame we couldn't follow it up sooner coz Tony got sick. However, we're back firing on all cylinders now.
We picked up the new CDs that we'll be giving out for free to those who sign up to our mailing list. They look great. Really pleased with the way the websites looking too. Big thanks to Mouse at Bigwig Multimedia for getting the site up and running in time for the tour. Hopefully we'll be able to keep you up to date via this blog page with our goings on while we're away.
We had a good meeting today (even though Dave was stupidly hungover and got his bare ass out as usual) about the new DVD Karina's building. It's going to include some new music and a video for our song "Dead and Gone" that our friend Tudor is animating and directing! Its gonna be wicked! That should be finished for our next tour (scheduled for the summer) and some of it will hopefully be on a bonus DVD for our album. Its all go and we're well excited!
Anyway better get going, got so much stuff to get together before we leave tomorrow.
See you later,
Joe

Bloggy, bloggy, bloggy! Oi, oi, oi!

posted by Karina

Aaaaaahh!!! We've got a blog! Isn't this great! For months now I've contented myself by feeding on the blogs of others, but no more! We has got our own one! So chuffed.

Anyhoo, just thought I'd post a wee bit about what I've been up to pre tour. Last couple of days have been a bit nut-so trying to get everything done. It's been a while and I think we'd forgotten how much you have to get together. Yesterday, me and Tone got quite a bit done. We did an hours voice training, picked up the new promo CDs (yeay! They look great by the way, can't wait to distribute them to all you guys!), dropped posters off to be put up round Edinburgh for our April gig at Cabaret Voltaire, bought a trolley for lifting gear on the tour (we're one man down after Tony's op and there's a lot of stuff to move), dropped music off to a couple of folk at uni, plus various other odd and sods, oh and I went for a check up at the dentist (all is well, me teeths are looking proper groovy). Today was pretty much more of the same crazy running around. Managed to pop in to see some of my old work chums at Fifi and Ally. They looked really busy, (Saturday afternoon in Princes Square in Glasgow isn't the best time to pop in for a chat!) but were warm and welcoming as per usual. Can't wait to see them for drinks and chat at the Stereo gig on the 19th, it'll be braw.

Anyway, dinna want to bleather on for pure ages so I'll nash the now, but be warned, I'm going to be blogging it up to the max from now on! It's going to be great keeping you guys right up to the minute with everything. I'll try and make a few internet cafe stops along the way to keep you up to date with tour madness. Much, much ,much love from Kaz xxx

Welcome to the blog!

posted by Thilo

Hi everyone,
just wanted to say Hello to everyone and welcome you to our new blog. Hope you will come back often to see what's going on in the life and minds of OS.
Things are a bit busy at the moment with the tour starting on Monday and still much stuff needing sorting out - but don't want to bore you with details of that.
Absolutely CAN'T WAIT for the tour to kick off finally!! It always feels like this is when we are the closest as a band because we do what we enjoy best: playing music together. Sounds probably quite cheesy, I know, but it's so true. I don't know, with my former bands it was mainly that you were mates beforehand and decided at some point to make music together. But with OS it is different: we met in the practice room and became friends through playing music. So being on tour is somehow the quintessential thing to do for Opal Sky. Loving it!
Anyhow, better stop here, probably gonna get abuse from Joe already for opening the blog with some deep German philosophizing - when the main purpose for any Scottish person on tour is that you can get drunk every night...
So better go now, do some efficient organizing and dwell over how to get "Vorsprung durch Technik" :)
See ya on tour lovely people,
Tx