Started recording album.

So we started recording our first album. Begged, borrowed and hired the equipment we needed and got Aaron in to help us record. we set up a studio at Carls place and got Drums and Bass down for ten songs. Over the next couple of months, we're going to get the rest of the recording done and hopefully have it all mixed before christmas.

Busy Summer.

I haven't done this for a while, so thought I'd better get on with it. We've had a very busy summer since I last posted. After finding out about the Leeds/ Reading festival, and going to the press launch we recorded a session for BBC Radio Humberside, (that's what is happening in the Above picture). Seemed to bee at radio Humberside quite a lot over the summer doing promotion for the Leeds festival and writing a blog which may still be up on their website.
The first festival we did over the summer was The Big Chill. Held near the border of Wales, it's pretty laid back with a Champagne bar and other such unnecessary things. we had a good time though and played really well. Saw Spiritualised, Andrew Bird, Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics and others.
the Big Chill was also the start of Carls lost summer. We picked him up at 10 am on the saturday morning and he hadn't been to bed. he was wrecked on Whiskey and god knows what else and was in a foul mood. This carried on until the end of september come to think of it, I think it's still happening.
The Leeds/ reading festival was great. Leeds on the Friday, Reading on the Saturday. Got there fine and got wrecked pretty easily too. Got interviewed by the local news programme - BBC Look north. They wanted us to say how excited we were and how it was the greatest thing that had ever happened to us, but they just got our understated tones.
The show went well. I started the proceedings by saying to the Leeds audience " Didn't you used to have a football team?" That didn't go down too well!
Met up with Hull band 'the neat' after the show, they were playing the day after us. Ellen and the Escapades were also good people as well as Beardriver.
The next day we woke up with sore heads and rancid mouths. We got to the cars and the battery had run out due to leaving the lights on. Just another easy day! Finally got a jump off and set off on the journey to Reading which was longer than expected.
Chris who is originally from Oxford started to get ratty as soon as we got down south and spent the next two days telling us how much he hates the south. Gig was good and got filmed. Met some good people and got good feedback.
After getting back home we started to get ready to play the Hull freedom festival where we supported Florence and the Machine and Patrick Wolf. It was a great weekend where some how Hull City Council managed to pull it all together.
Other gigs we have done include loads of acoustic stuff. Supporting Howe Gelb of giant sand, Gravenhurst, and Jarvis Cocker!!
That was a great night. Packed house, and great audience. Jarvis was brilliant.
We also recorded two more live sessions. One for an internet radio station called www.gardenofearthlydelights.com which can be heard at that link, and a session for simon Mayo on BBC Radio 5 live to 1.2 million listeners!! We played 1 song and were interviewed. I'll put the recording on our myspace. John Prescott was on the same show, he was really funny and also very knowledgeable. so there you go. That was our summer. James

Just found this video about the Leeds festival which features us!

Here is the link:

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/video/18052/entertainment/Leeds-Festival-launch/

A good review in the lead up to the Leeds / Reading festival.
From this blog.
http://youhearditherefirst.wordpress.com

We're playing The Big Chill next Sunday about 6:30 on the crap stage! Great name, a joke apparently, but we're assured it will be good. David Byrne is also playing that night and then hopefully a wicker man will be burnt whilst us pagans stand around transfixed by the fire. I'll be sure to get some photos! We're going to head down on the Saturday and camp for a night. Was going to go a little earlier but decided damage limitation was the best bet. One night of getting wrecked before a gig is better than two or three.
We have also just put a couple of new songs on the myspace > www.myspace.com/horseguardsparade
One is called 'The Lies' and is one of the songs we recorded at Alan's nova studios. The other is a remix of a song called 'She Looked Like A Henry Moore'. It was done by our friend Mandrillus Sphinx of the band Fila Brazillia. It's great!
We went to the press launch for the Leeds festival the other day, had a good time. Met some nice people including the Couple who own Bramham Park where the festival was held. Turns out he was in the Royal Horse Guards! We also met a guy called Melvin who owns Festival republic who put on the Leeds/Reading festival and also Latitude festival. He is from Hull and went to the same school as me, albeit about 25 years before me! I'll put up some photos when they are developed.
James

Beyond: Woods // Rain On from Ray Concepcion on Vimeo.

Great song, great video, great band.

WE'RE PLAYING THE LEEDS/READING FESTIVAL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig0FZVnwec4

Loads of good music about, I've been getting into Bowerbirds, and also listening to albums by Lafayette afro rock band, Mulatu Astatke / the Heliocentrics loads of old blues, and the new Tinariwen album.

We did a gig in Chester a few weeks back.

Gideon Coe re played an old John Peel session I did with my old band Salako from 1998 last Tuesday. It was good to listen back to. We have a gig in Chester on Thursday no idea what that will be like. It's with a band called Silverclub who we played with in Manchester earlier this year.
Listening to Pocahaunted. Peace.

Sheik took these when we were recording at Nova studios last week.

It's funny how a little bit of sun makes Newland Avenue seem almost continental. Almost. The weather over the last few days has really made a difference though. It's miserable again now though. Getting through the Bob Dylan Chronicles when I get time to read it. Some good insights. The new video for his latest single is great, you can see it on the directors bureau. God help the girl by Stuart Murdoch is shaping up to be great too. The single Come Monday night is really good, there is a video blog about it in the Guardian online every Monday.
Trying to get the album recorded. 10 songs in 6 Months. Seems easy but i'm not sure we'll manage it. If we had loads of cash and time we could knock it out in 2 weeks, but there you go.
The band Silver club have asked us to play with them in Chester on June 18th, so that should be good. We played with them in Manchester earlier this year and they are a great bunch. Sorted of Electro/ baggy/ indie.
So long.

Here are some pictures which The Rt Hon. Anna Bean took of us after our triumphant gig at the Cottingham Springboard Festival last Sunday.

DEAD PRINCESS ON PARADE.

DEcided to check out the opening day of the Springboard festival. Started in Hallgate Tavern, Derek waudby kicked off with a great set of songs, Excellent guitar playing and a Neil Young cover. The James Dean Syndrome were next with some raw R&B. Black Lips meets Cream and a cover of Come Together. Next we wandered to The King Billy, were we're playing, great room, but the soundman from Hell! Back to Hallgate later to see Mamal Hum, it took ages to get a taxi back to Hull. And then we had the misfortune of Johnny Norris in Zest. Carnival.

Listening to Ethiopiques vol4 by Mulatu Astatqe. I keep coming back to this album it's amazing, Crazy jazz rock, thin fuzzed up guitar solo's and arabian sounding horns. Amazing. I also just got 'Nigeria Rock Special: Psychadelic Afro-Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970's Nigeria'. It is exactly what it says it is and amazing for it. Other than that i've been listening to The horrors, Sleepy sun, Woods, The Pink Mountaintops, Akron/Family, The Assemble head in Sunburst Sound, Karen Dalton, Wooden Shjips and Lee Hazlewood and Nancy sinatra. Not sure how I manage to fit anything else in really.
There is also a really good video for Two Weeks by Grizzly Bear out at the moment and also a track by Sharon Van Etton called For You which is really haunting and has an equally haunting video.
Finished the guitars and vocals of one track yesterday at Nova Studios, In again next saturday to record Bass and Keyboards. The songs we are recording are 'How can you take me dancing?' and 'The Lies". Going to Springboard festival tonight to see some bands and Playing on Sunday at 7:30 at the King Billy.

First time i've Played Ten Pin Bowling for about five years and I won. 150 points. I've never got that many points in my life!
We played at The Buffalo Bar in London last friday (22nd May). It went really well. Loads of people came and Dinger, a friend from Hull, said "it was like watching all your favorite bands at once but in a new way". That will do me! Got really wrecked and ended up in The Lexington pub listening to a d.j. in a Sunn O))) t shirt play Joy Division and Killing Joke records. It was a good night. Stayed over at John Mcarthers place in Stoke Newington. I fell to sleep around 3 luckily as Carl and John ended up playing internet Poker into the early hours. Woke up the next morning and me and Archie had breakfast at a sicilian place with really moody waitresses. Stoke Newington seems like a really nice place, the high street is like a village. Nice pubs too. on the way there we went past Highbury stadium which was very impressive. The drive home on Saturday was a nightmare though, loads of people leaving London for the bank holiday, took about 4 and a half hours to get home.
Hull City played on Sunday so went to watch that, City lost to Man U 1-0 but still stayed in the premiership due to Newcastle being useless. I left after the match but was told that the evening got messy with loads of fat heads singing football songs in overcrowded pubs. Hideous!
Gig on Sunday at the Springboard Festival in Cottingham, we're playing at the King Billy at 7:30. The festival starts on Friday other acts playing over the weekend are; Awash with Antler, Derek Waudby, The Notebook, Jeremy Warmsley, Mammal Hum.
Going to go on Friday to catch some bands, and then see whatever else I can on Sunday.
We seem to have loads more gigs coming up. Sheffield, Lancaster, Manchester, Hull, and the prospect of The Big Chill Festival and Carling Leeds Festival. Rory from The Notebook is also trying to put on a local festival at a farm in Long Riston.
We have also got a good review of our e.p. on thisisull.com it is above.
James

Pictures from the recording session at Nova Studios