Two Weeks In London!

“Hey! We’re gonna play a gig! Please, bring your chili to the front of the stage and mosh!”

The Social Club starting their set, following their chili cook-off to pay the bands

We survived 2 weeks in London!

First of all, we would just like to say thank you to everyone who had part in bringing us to the United Kingdom, to the fine folks at Alcopop Records and Fierce Panda Records for believing in us enough to release our albums in their country, to all members of the press who we had the pleasure of working with while in London for taking such interest in our music and stories, and of course, to all of our wonderful fans in the UK for coming out to our handful of shows and the brilliant bands and artists we were able to share a stage with. A very special thanks to our dear friend, a one Dr. Kevan Edinborough for putting us up in his flat for almost two weeks in his face. You are a serious gentleman and we truly hope the smell comes out!

Not only did we see some great parts of London this time around, our gear in tow on the tube anywhere and everywhere we went proving NOT to be as nightmarish as first perceived, but we also got to tour around the country a little more than we did last March and perform at some classic venues and awesome events. From the first show on the first night at Barfly in Camden, we caught a bus down to Bristol to play The Croft as part of the Fear Of Fiction (Magazine) Festival. We were brought there by our new fantastic friends at Alcopop Records and had the chance to play with some incredible bands, including Tellison, Crash Of Rhinos, Stagecoach, Freeze The Atlantic and Talons, among what seemed to be hundreds more artists. It was a great night of music and local ales and an even better time getting lost in this beautiful city.

In the week following we shared a Monday night stage at Power’s Bar in Kilburn with Venice Trip and Scarlett Parade, two excellent acts, and as far the theme of gear-sharing, borrowing and abusing was present throughout our trip, we gotta throw a big thanks out now to all the bands for their hospitality show to show! We spent the rest of the week sightseeing between 7 hour days at Enterprise Studios in Central London rehearsing, writing and working hard on our brand new tunes. We all agree that it was an insanely productive and inspiring week… how could it not be? There were also a few rock and blues bar nights in Tottenham Court that are a little hazy, but hey, you gotta unwind, right? Especially with new found British friends!

Saturday night we played The Old Blue Last with Dexy, Joanna Gruesome and celebrated the single release party with far out rock band, Novella. It was a pretty incredible gig with good people and old friends, true fans of Dan Ball’s beard, a race to catch the last tube to Walthamstow, and prior to the show, Tyson and Dan had the chance to draw their answers during an interview with Whiteboard TV:

The next night we took a train up to Watford to play a classic gig with a truly amazing band called The Social Club. The show was held at a neighbourhood pub called The White Lion, and every Sunday every month, The Social Club holds gigs with other great bands, paying them with proceeds that come from the chili cook-off they hold in between sets. A truly brilliant idea, that also fed us and confirmed, what we hope will be a long lasting friendship, filled with competition and loud arguing over poker (Thanks again, buds!) Our final gig was at the classic Buffalo Bar in Highbury. We ate at the Famous Cock, naturally, before we shared a small but great sounding stage with a few great acts by the names of The Sans Pariel, Silver Arm and a truly incredible dynamic duo, Buffalo Ink. All of these bands blew us away and it was great night of music to send us off back to Canada!

It was a great two weeks in London. On the plane back to Toronto, we were a little sad to go. Every reality tv show and exciting new release provided by Air Canada could not fill the void. Thanks again, friends! We hope we can return early next year!

Check out our UK Facebook Photo Album to follow the adventure!