Hi there – Hope the January blues didn’t get you – we’ve been too busy to think too much about the lack of daylight and rain.cold.rain.snow etc… the second album sessions are nearly finished and we’re at the mixing stage now.  I spent much of christmas locked away in my cupboard singing my heart out – (and when i say cupboard i do mean cupboard) and we have about 13 tracks recorded that will comprise our second album in some form.  We are hoping to put the album out digitally first so it shouldn’t be too long till you can hear it… I’m now pleased to be back in the virtual mix after a six month break from broadband and on a downloading spree so please comment some ideas of what i should be listening to to improve and enrich my mind and body…  bye then RICk

ps: a working title for the album has breifly been “desire” but i just realised that having both “Bob” in our name AND calling an album the same thing as Dylan once did is probably too much so back to the drawing board on that one .

On 20th September, we will be setting off on tour round the UK, playing at 12 venues from Brighton to Inverness. It’s been a LONG time since we got in our little white van and slept in Travelodges every night so we’re all looking forward to it.

We shall be playing at the following venues:

20 Sept London, Bush Hall
22 Sept Manchester, Dry Bar
29 Sept Brighton, Sactuary Cellar
30 Sept Bristol, The Prom
2 Oct Head of Steam, Newcastle
3 Oct Glasgow, Oran Mor
4 Oct Leeds, Fathersham
7 Oct Edinburgh, Voodoo Rooms
8 Oct Inverness, Mad Hatters
9 Oct Forres, The Loft
11 Oct Aberdeen, The Tunnels
18 Oct Oxford, Jericho Tavern

We will be joined on the English dates of the tour by the Vagabond Trills, four delightful young ladies who have been touring the country quietly for the last year. More information can be found here:

www.myspace.com/thetrillsmusic

In preparation for the tour, Rick has moved into a warehouse where we are able to set the band gear up in and rehearse. We are going over old tunes (e.g. the hit parade, put a record on), practicing the latest ones (satellite, bad dream) and writing new songs – which you will be able to hear when you come to a show! Here is what the space looks like:

We’re very happy to be inviting along Chloe Treacher, who will be playing double-bass and singing backing vocals for the whole tour. We mainly chose her because she is small and won’t take up too much room in the van:

We’ll have information about tickets soon. But for now, tell us which shows you can come to and what songs you’d like to hear us play…..?

Hi there,

I write you now from my garden sitting listening to radio 2 and the birds. Apparently Dermot O’Leary is gonna play our song Satellite today whoop (just listening to bat for lashes doing a cover!) We did a session for Dermot back in 2006 when we first released our debut album Sugar and Spite and i guess he remembered us… the record has also been played loads on Radio Scotland by Tom Morton, Iain Anderson, and Jim Gellatly- which is also great news for us- a big thankyou to all of those guys. As for the band, we’re busy writing new songs and recording demos / finshed masters (we can never tell which( i’ve uploaded a bunch of demos today – some new, some from the vault. Any feedback you wanna throw us might just be the difference between a track making the album or not! so please do.. We’re looking at getting the Unkle Bob circus back on the road this Sept for a Uk so look out for live dates soon.

Here is a YouTube video of the band (and saul) in the studio gettin a song together (we never did finish it) -

Unkle Bob join JAMES onstage for their encore. Thanks to dkbunny for posting this!

I got a call yesterday from the extras agency I work for, to see if I wanted to do a sketch on Harry Hill’s TV burp. I don’t mind doing films and background stuff but I had horrible visions of being humiliated on national tv. I need the money so I said yes.

I arrive at the studios at around 2pm. It quickly becomes clear (as it has many times before) that I’m on the lowest rung of the ladder they call “talent”. Met by a work experience girl who gets lost at every turn I’m ushered into the green room to await my impending doom.

Maybe I’ve reached an all-time low, this is really scraping the barrel. I’m basically a prostitute. Selling my own likeness – not even myself – I’m a human prop. I climb into a royal footman’s uniform, still unsure of what I will have to do- then through wardrobe, then make-up. I wonder if its possible to “sell out” when you don’t receive much money.

What if Iggy Pop only gets $200 for those insurance adds? Or Ringo Starr only got £16.50 to help rebrand Aviva. If Duffy is cycling her way to the bank with a diet coke stuck to her mouth, why am I even considering the notion? Selling Out has always been a strange idea to me. When we played gigs and they “sold out” we were over the moon. Likewise, when we pressed 1000 singles we wanted rid of the lot- and we weren’t giving them away. Maybe, you can only sell out if you make money that is unreasonably large or that you don’t need. Or maybe it’s about compromise.

I prefer to subscribe to Bukowski’s idea that- the moment you take your eye off the page and onto your audience, that’s when you’re fucked. Anyway, I am but a spec of algae in the metaphorical sea of famous fishes. I have no fame to trade- just self-respect.

Through my wig and hat you’d hardly know it was me anyway. I’m sat in the studio now with a fake Jeremy Paxman and a pretend Lion tamer- the relief is tangible when I’m told all I have to do is blow a fanfare after Harry Hill makes some joke about Freaky Eaters. Its all over in about 30seconds and it’s a blink and you’d miss it moment. Thankyou god.

Rick

I looked a bit like this:

I saw a TV programme last night about super skinny people exchanging diets with super fat people- tv gone mad.

Getting a thin girl to eat a fat mans food for a week is just bizarre. She felt really sick and he felt really hungry- what a revelation. I then saw a dinner party of anorexics asked to prepare there own brie sandwich and eat lunch together.

It sounds like a cruel comedy sketch – and it was. – “no, put a bit more brie on their girl” as she spread the thinnest line of cheese ever. It made me think that everyone is fucked up by there own desires- they’re out of control- the thin person wants to eat but can’t – the fat person wants to by thin but can’t stop eating – the poor person wants to be rich but the rich person isn’t happy anyway. People want to be famous – but the famous are messed up by it and either suck it up like a drug or want to curl up in a ball of anonymity.

The average Joe wants to be more eccentric. The eccentric feels misunderstood…. Blah blah blah – ok I’m generalizing and of course its not always the case– the point is, you can make money out of desire- so it’s encouraged all the time – its an endless dangling carrot, a mirage. It sells products, shifts units, builds brands. But we’re the ones that are shortchanged because you can’t buy happiness and desire is a mysterious moving set of goal posts that rarely brings you any satisfaction.

Rick

I found these quotes on desire:

“There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.”
George Bernard Shaw

“when will you accept yourself”
Morrissey

Socrates: Desire Quotes
“Be as you wish to seem.”

“We pursue that which retreats from us.”
Martin Hiedegger

“The desire of the moth for the star, Of the night for the morrow, The devotion to something afar From the sphere of our sorrow.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley

“We do not succeed in changing things according to our desire, but gradually our desire changes.”
Marcel Proust

Well I’ve never attempted one of these written blogs before. My previous offerings have been in video format. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So my videos, at 30 frames per second, must be worth 30,000 words every second. I am quite concerned about the length of this blog if I wish to live up to the worthiness of my tour videos.

Anyway, I decided to take a picture of my room in London and describe what is going on. And it will give you a little insight to some of the cogs driving Unkle Bob in the background that most people don’t see. Here is my room on Warwick Road:

Sunflower seeds
Kindly left by my friend Owain from the great band Spokes. He usually sits eating them and leaving the shells all over the floor like a squirrel but he was good this last time. However, he shared a bed with me and kept me awake all night snoring like…

Homer
My advent calendar sent to me by my mother. She lives at Hill Top Cottage where we have often stayed over while touring the UK. On one occasion staying there, in the middle of the night, the house set on…

Fire
I have a fireplace that doesn’t work so it is filled with musical instruments from all over the world that sound really crap but they are thoughtful gifts. However it’s much more beneficial to use my…

Practice Pad
For practicing the drums at night when the neighbours are home. I don’t do enough. And in the day when the neighbours are out, I practice on my…

Drums
Also for practicing at night when the neighbours are home Rick actually got this drum kit 15 years ago and we’re still using it now! But it does the job so I’m not rushing to spend thousands on a brand new shiny kit. We’ve had it since we first introduced the drum kit to the band when we all lived in…

Glasgow
A wee reminder of our birth town, a towel with the Art of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The Mackintosh is what us English people call a raincoat. It can also be shortened to…

Mac
Lifeline to the internet. Many hours are spent adding our myspace friend requests. We send a personal message to every new friend who joins us so it takes a bit of time. We also message as many fans from the towns we are going to play in too. And when we’re there, we sometimes interview them with my…

Camera
My essential bit of equipment. It’s just a digital still camera but we’ve made our most successful music videos on it including “Put a Record On” with the puppets, “Swans – from Warwick Road” where Rick is sitting crossed legged and our lastest offering “Bad Dream” which you will be able to see very soon. I use it for all our tour diaries too. Once we have all the footage, I’ll edit it on my…

Laptop
This is used for video editing. Many hours, days, weeks and months are spent trying to match live footage of mouths, plectrums and drum sticks to the live audio recording. And erasing a lot of poor footage…or footage that is not fit for public consumption. I also have music software installed for recording. The laptop is also used for triggering the original live recordings of the string quartet on “Swans” when we play live. I play these on stage using my….

Keyboard
Which sits next to my drum kit and literally encloses me in an inescapable corner at the back of the stage. Why can’t I be at the front of the stage and all the others can sit down in my little corner at the back? I finally get released at the end of the show when we take it in turns going into the crowd with the….

Mailing lists
More hours are spent typing up the names we have collected at gigs all over the world. The task becomes very difficult when you consider that the names are collected in dark venues, written by people who have often had one too many. Most of the time is spent putting the list as close to my face as possible and thinking, “What on earth does that say?” So I’ll just have another drink of…

Bitter
I am from North England and bitter is what we drink up there. I’ll drink a few and then go to…

Bed
Where all the magic happens.

I was writing a song in my room, getting nostalgic about people I’ve never met caught up in the melancholy of it all… and it snowed – when I poked my head out of the window to smoke a roley – it looked all serene – and it fitted and was euphoric. Like the weather was in tune….it was about the only thing in tune recently as I fight the singing demons stuck in my abdomen ….

Anyway the song that came was called Black Cadillac and I’ve posted it for you to hear. Its live and still a demo really –ron added some BVs and strings afterwards –. I don’t really know why but I keep listening to it expecting something to be different each time….bye then,

rick

Rick and Pete are currently in LA at Huntingdon beach!

We plan on driving back accross the US for our show in NYC on 23rd Oct.

If anyone can offer us a place to park the RV – some shelter from the storm – and maybe some food –

we’ll come play a gig for you!!!!- anywhere!!!

who knows what route we’ll take but message us back if you want us to come via you!!! or even if you just wanna hang out and show us your town!!!

lots of love,

Rick + Pete

PART 1 If you wanna follow our journey we have our little hand held video camera and are gonna try to film as much as we can and add videos along the way. Here’s our latest webisode…

On the way…

PART 2 The other bobs join us in new york….

PART 3 More goings on…

PART 4 Ron’s Tour Diary special…

PART 5

PART 6 The long drive from Denver to San Fransisco…

PART 7 Our first day off…