Germany! yippikayee!

posted by Thilo

Hi guys,
just thought I let you know more details about the whole Europe thing that's been posted on our webpage for a while now. Me being German, I obviously can't wait for the whole thing to kick off!! Soo exciting!
Anyway so far confirmed are two dates, on the 5th and 6th of August. We will be playing on two different stages near the town of Kappeln in Northern Germany. But, the best is yet to come: the stages are actually on the beach(!), overlooking the see(!) and we'll probably be playing right around the time when the sun sets... opal sky or what?! Cannae wait!
Now, as this trip turns out to be everyone's summer holidays as well, we're currently trying to get some more gigs further south and visit friends on the way. My home region near Stuttgart, plus Berlin (I've got a few friends there), Chambery (France, where my godchild lives) and Switzerland (Kazza's dad lives there) are all possibilities. As this involves a rather huge amount of organization and luck (getting venues for a certain day is a bloody pain, as Tony - our unofficial "tour agent" can confirm) not all of this is probably gonna materialize. But we'll give it our best shot nonetheless. It's gonna be great, no matter what!
Anyway, that's all I can say so far. Keep in touch guys, I know it's not the most exciting month just now with us not playing live 'til June, but we're working behind the scenes as usual and things are gonna pick up again, promised!
Speak soon,
Txx

A life changed for the better...

Posted by Karina

Last night, Joe, Dave and myself were lucky enough to witness the wonder that is The Flaming Lips LIVE! It was the best gig I've ever been to in my life. A truly fantastical and beautiful experience that I doubt I'll ever see the likes of again (that is unless I'm lucky enough to catch another one of their shows).

Are any of you guys fans? O.S have been for a while now, but although I'd heard amazing things about their live show, I was still totally unprepared for the beauty that unfolded!

A few of the highlights were as follows:

The Go! Team supporting (these guys rock, big time, we love them!)
Wayne surfing the crowd in a giant inflatable orb.
50 giant yellow balloons being thrown into (and bounced around) the audience.
A pack of folk dressed as santas and a pack of folk dressed as aliens dancing for the ENTIRE show!
Confetti bombs, the likes of which I didn't know existed!
Stage crew dressed as super heroes.
Breath takingly beautiful music!

It was honestly a live changing experience. I feel like a better person after last night : )
Me and the lads were talking about creating an O.S experience, so watch this space!

On this glorious Flaming Lips cloud that I'm upon, I shall float back down (grudgingly) towards uni work, but if anyone has tickets to see them on this tour, or gets offered tickets to see them...PLEASE GO! You'll fecking love it!

I love you lot! Frae Kaz xxx

P.S: Stay happy xxx : )

Wotcha!

Posted by Karina

Hey homies,

How do you do? What a marvellous easter weekend! Such fun! The gig was great guys, as Joe said in his post, thank you all who continue to support us, we had a magic night. Loved the post gig boozing with Santa Dog and Grant too...messy, messy!

Anyway, I thought I'd take a mo' to fill you in on the rest of the weekend cos that was great too. I had a wee holiday from uni work (which let's face it, I can't afford to do at all, but did anyway!). On Saturday, we awoke (with hangovers) to a bright sunshiney day and decided it was our duty to go kite flying, so off we went to the pentlands and promptly spent the glorious afternoon kite flying and strolling about. It was a really fab way to spend the day (especially since we were quite rubbish at flying the kite, so there was real comedy value involved).

When the weather began to change for the worst we headed back to the town (leaving Dave and his girlfriend Jane behind to eat Dave's maw out of house and home with the hang over munchies). Tony and I picked up some scran and cooked a proper tasty dinner for Joe getting in from work, it was like being members of the Waltons. Family tastic, I loved it. After a few hours of mince telly, we gradually began to fail and all headed to bed to crash out for the evening.

The next morning was gorgeous and we jumped up and headed down to me maws for easter shennanigans. After consuming rather a lot of chocolate, Tony bailed out and headed home with a sore gut (woosy!). Joe and I struggled on through a veritable HEAP o' chocolate (aided by my nephew, Dominic) until rolling ourselves to the dinner table for a roast (or in my case, a veggie lasagne as made by mum).

It was so nice to see my family for more than five minutes. That's one of the only probs with living in Glasgow, I miss those guys! ANyway, we watched the borrowers, I went trampolining for 40 mins to burn of some of the crap I'd scranned and we all slept like logs that night.

The weekend was rounded off with a crackin' morning walk with Joe, Dominic and Chris (my wee sisters bloke). We took a packed lunch and went for a nice long walk round a park near my mums and then we jumped on a bus back to Glasgow.

I've been pinned to this computer ever since (boo, hoo!) in a vain attempt to catch up on missed work. Well worth it though! HAPPY EASTER GUYS! Hope yours was as much fun as mine...xxx

P.S I've got some photo's that will go up hopefully later today, I can't put them up from here, for some reason my computer doesn't like doing it. In fact it point blank refuses so I'll shrink 'em and send them to the lads, who'll put them up when they get a chance...hope you like them xxx

AH YEH!

posted by Joe.

We had a wicked gig last night in Cabaret Voltaire. We were a bit worried at the start that it wasn't going to be all that busy, considering the huge crowd that turned up for our last gig only two weeks ago, but we have to thank all those who managed to make it along. You really made our night and created a really nice gig atmosphere. Thanks also to Chocyamo and Santa Dog for playing a couple of ace sets before us and we have to give a massive shout out to the magnificent sound engineer, Tom, who knew exactly what he was up to and gave us one of the best onstage sounds that we've had. If we sounded as good out front as the two bands before us (which everyone said we did) I'll be well pleased. I think we played pretty well and the crowd seemed to lap it up.
One last thank you goes to my mate Keir who was up from London for the weekend and came through from Glasgow on his own to cheer us on! Cheers bro'.
Anyway, 'nuff said for the moment. Catch up with you all later. Not sure when our next gig will be actually. We've nothing booked until June, but I'm sure we'll have something before then. Watch this space for details.
Much love from Joe.

GIG DAY! Hurray!

Posted by Karina

Hi Homeboys and homegirls! How's tricks? Had my head stuck in my uni books for the past week solid...BORING! Started to write my book the other day, it's gonna be a best seller...BO! Just sitting having a band meeting with the boys, Dave and Thilo are arguing some mystery tenner that fandy owes Dave. It's all constructive stuff. Just saying hi today, can't wait to forget all this work stuff and rock out this evening at Caberet Voltaire, should be great. Better go write some set lists. Peace to you radical free thinkers of the future, be safe in the knowledge you are loved! Sleazery, frae Kazz-o-rama-fest! xxx

Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of...vino.

Posted by Karina

Howdy rock gods and godessess! How's it goin'? I'm on the verge of a mentalist crack up fae all this pish uni work! Not being funny but after a tour like that, I just can't seem to get my head back into voice journal entries and project forcasts...BORING!!! So, I'm currently listening to our mates D.O.P.E on the stereo while procrastinating by writing blog entries. Lovin' that chat! Looking really forward to the Cabaret Voltaire gig now, can't wait! Hope you is all purchasing yer tickets via the power of TICKETWEB. It's a barganous price of 4 squids. Can't say fairer than that!

The lads did a great job in the studio at the weekend, the tracks are sounding mega! Can't wait to lay all the vocals down...sweeeeeet! As I'm typing, Joe is being filmed upstairs playing the drums to Dead and Gone by our animator. It's all very exciting! Wait till you see the finished product later this year, it's going to be magic. I've only seen a few seconds and I'm well impressed.

ALSO!!!! I'll post a reminder nearer the time, but we will be in this Saturdays Scotsman!!! Yeah! Great news eh! Santa Dog (who are playing with us on the 14th) managed to secure a wee bit about the gig, good on yiz guys (and lady!).

Anyway, I just though I'd post a wee bit and let you know what I've been up to, apart from uni stress alomst pushing me to the bottle (hence the blog title!), all is very well, and very good!

Other news to be looking out for...OPAL SKY IN EUROPE THIS SUMMER!!!! So feckin' excited about this, but don't want to say too much yet...watch this space...

Remember guys, I fuckin' love the lotto yiz! Frae Kazza, queen o' the Opals xxxx

I'm so tired...My mind is on the blink.

posted by Joe.

Goddamnit I'm tired! I've been dying for a decent sleep for the past few weeks, but somehow I keep going out and getting wrecked! I've really gotta stop it. I was out last night at my local, where my maw and paw's mate puts on a really good open mic night. Karina and Tony came along too and we ended up performing a nice wee version of one of our new tunes (Emily's Waltz, hear the band version on myspace). It all got a bit out of hand at the end when we went to another one of my folk's mate's house at closing time, who was telling everybody he had an endless supply of whisky.... he wasn't lying! If we weren't drunk by the time we got there, we sure were after half an hour there! The guitars came out again and we had a massive sing-song. It must have been about 1.30 when my dad suggested we got the mantlepiece diving on the go. This is kind of a tradition round my way and there have been a number of parties, where after a couple of shandies have been consumed, everyone takes it in turns to climb on to the mantlepiece and, well, dive off! Probably not the most responsible of games but, hey, it's pretty funny.
I was first up and my da gave me a punt up to the mantlepiece. Once up there, I tried to get my balance, but promptly slipped of the marble surface and came crashing to the ground, smashing some kind of ornament below me (I'm really sorry about that Doug and Shiela!). Amazingly, I emerged completely unscathed! Next up was Tone! He got up, did a little dance and threw himself off the mantlepiece where he was caught by those below him! Nutter!
So, that was last night. Had to get up early for work this morning as well so am mentally tired.
I want to say thanks to everyone who came along to the gig at the Left Bank the other night and made it such a big success. The nice chap who was doing sound that night (forgotten his name temporarily) told me it was the busiest night they've ever had which I was well chuffed with. It was such a good night with a really nice atmosphere and one of the reasons was that we were playing with some really good friends. I love doing that. It's always so horrible playing with a band who think they should be competing with you or something. What the hell is the point in that I ask you? On this Day we Met Gambas Pil Pil were absolutely marvellous (I love their sound) and The Flicks put on a really great show.
After the gig, we went out to Medina, where we partyed hard into the night and got in at about five in the morning. Sadly, I had work in Glasgow at 9.30 so me and my friend Tommy got the bus back to Glasgow.
That's why I'm so tired and why these sentences are all really badly structured, so I'll say farewell, get in a bath then get to bed!
Love ya's frae Jose.

pictures

posted by Thilo

Hi everyone!
Here are some pictures from the Leftbank gig. Bit in a rush, so can't comment on them just now. But maybe the other guys will do this?!

Speak soon,
Tx

PS: I also added a link to the Evening News article in my previous post (see below), so you all know what we were talking about

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! So much fun, I almost can't take it!

Posted by Karina

Well pop pickers! What can I say! Last night was phenomenal! We had an amazing time. It was truly a home coming gig to remember! The night began much as any other does with a few folk gradually coming in as the first act (Ben Blance) was about to start. Within a blink of an eye the place was so rammed we had to move tables out and you couldn't move for folk! AWESOME!! Ben gave a great performance and was followed by the truly tremendous 'on this day we met Gambas Pil Pil'. They were fab, and by the time we took the stage we were lucky enough to see a venue that was truly packed to the rafters, you couldn't have squeezed anyone else in and what a response! It felt incredible playing to such a loving lot! There was a chorus singing along to all the songs and it was all so nice it near brought a tear to my eye. It felt like one big party and I only wish I'd had time to chat to more people afterwards! What a truly supportive bunch you are. Our fans have to be the greatest ever! Yer a feckin' fab bunch o' beauties! The night was rounded of in true style by the wonderful tour buddies of our, 'The Flicks'. The dancing was infectious and Dave even surprised the onlookers with a perfectly timed stage dive. Gnarly dude! We love ya's!

Our merchandise sales were fantastic thanks to the incredible salesmanship skills of Matt and Stuart. We love you guys and we owe you BIG TIME! It was magic seeing so many people leave wearing O.S t-shirts. And we collected a staggering amount of names for the mailing list. Last night really couldn't have been any better and the boys and me are so thankful to you all!

I'll put a couple of photos up later on today (we didn't get many unfortunately) and we should be getting some more soon cos a few folk were snapping away and will be sending the pictures over to us.

Really guys we couldn't have asked for more last night. It's been a great tour and I'm so glad we ended it on such a high note. Don't forget to get your tickets for the gig at Cabaret Voltaire on the 14th of April from Ticketweb soon; we'd love to see you all there again. A big thanks to everyone who's helped make this tour so much fun and so much of a success. I tell you guys, it's fecking good to be back!

Keep rockin'
So much love it's unreal, from Kaz xxxxxxxx