The Old Romantic Killer Blog

Leeds and Reading festival

2009-09-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

We played on the BBC introducing stage at both festivals and absolutely smashed it, with a crowd demanded encore at Reading. FUCKING MIND BLOWWING.

The words "about fucking time" spring to mind!!

Scotish Tour

2009-09-01T07:45:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to go back out on tour with the LADS from The Sunshine Underground last week. We playing in Aberdeen at an absolute piss-fest and then went out afterwards to show Aberdeen how to drink, dance and eat cheesy chips before blagging our way into someones hotel room for a a kip on the floor. We spent a hungover afternoon on the sea front checking out what little Aberdeen had to offer.

We then drove to Dumfermline to do it all again. Another mega gig for a bunch of pissed up Scotch Lads. Then we drove to Glasgow to take in Scotlands finest city.

Unfortunately, one unlucky retard had elected himself as a promoter for the QMU gig in Glasgee and did a royal job of completely fucking it up. So The Sunshine Underground pulled the gig and we drove back to Leeds. It was no ones fault other than the promoter, its was a monumental fuck up, literally the biggest I have ever seen.

Widows

2009-06-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

Check out these fucking lads - WIDOWS. They know how to make metal, party, drink, accomodate fellow musicians and get people blind stoned. Dudes in every sence of the word.

Driving back from Brighton

2009-06-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

We just couldnt keep away from Dinosaur Pile up, after having a lovely few days with them and saying good bye, we saw them all the way up the M1 and along with BBC radio 1 and 2 banging out some pop belters, it made the 5 hour traffic jam from hell very entertaining. I also managed the task of taking a piss whilst driving, props to Harry for steering!!

We have been away playing shows again.

2009-06-21T06:14:00.000-07:00

Yo, we have just come back from playing Nottingham, Brighton and Southampton. We played with some amazing bands, namely Freezing Fog, Gentlemans Pistols, Widows and last but not least, DINOSAUR PILE UP.
We took our friend Ben with us who is a card carrying legend. We did all sorts of shit on this little tour. Brighton was our favourite place as we got to go to the sea, play crazy golf, found a really good skate park, Harry and Ben got pissed and swam in the sea and tried to dry their sodden boxers on the hot counter in a fish and chip shop.

Two amazing posters coming right up!!!

2009-06-03T16:18:00.001-07:00

Posters by Martin Peel and availabel very soon as limited screensilk print.

March Tour Dundee

2009-04-21T16:07:00.000-07:00

Fact - Dundee is a fucking shithole.
The only thing in Dundee worth a shit about is this huge pirate ship. If anybody in Dundee had any sense they would launch that fucker and get out of there. Dundee seems so far removed from the modern world its almost as if time has stood still and will be forever stood still, its like an abyss. We played with this band (of fools) called Shotgun Libido, a glam rock band from the middle of nowhere, where aberdeen angus just roam around, looking like Motley Crew just wiped their cocks all over them. The drummer, in his eternal wisdom, took it upon himself to use my snare drum and then ruin the skin (i've been quite bitter about the whole thing ever since). Anyway, it was a pretty turd night and a well bum way to end the tour, so we robbed refreshments from ever other service station from Dundee to Manchester to make ourselves feel better.

March Tour Glasgow

2009-04-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

On the way to Glasgow we came across a huge lake, a huge snow topped mountain and a huge forest, so we drove into the middle of the forest and walked around pretending we were in Sunn O)))) and took this picture to prove to you that we walk in forests when we can.

We then drove to Glasgow and played a show to about zero people. But we got to stay with these really cool people and we stayed up all night playing Articulate until everyone got bored of me winning and generally being mint.

The next day our lovely host took us round Glasgow to the Kevingrove Art Gallery which was nothing short of amazing and I got tricked into thinking that a haggis is a real life animal, damn those Scots and there practical jokes. We also found an Oxfam music shop which saw the purchase of Bon Jovi - Always VHS, tits out!!!

Glasgow was brilliant and i didn't want to leave.

March Tour Newcastle

2009-04-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

e
Newcastle surprised us both. It was a gorgeous day and we found a really sweet art gallery. We had a walk all the way round the city and down to the bridge before we tried to find the venue. It was a Sunday night and we weren't expecting much, but I was soon to be proven wrong. We found the venue and we were greeted by my new best friend, Jack, what a fucking guy. We loaded in and he said "Do you want to see upstairs" I thought he was into some freaky shit for second then he said it was where we were staying. A huge flat, loads of whisky, booze, food, beds, guitars, ukuleles and bongs. Shite dogs. We set up, watched some bands, got a little pissed, played a really great show, Harry played a slide solo stood on top of the bar while the crowd held his guitar. We stayed in the venue and partied to Bon Jovi for a bit before going upstairs for a really mint party with the promoter and everyone from the bar and some guy who wouldn't shut up about how he had worked with Sean Connery once.

The venue is called The End and Get Involved are the wonderful lads who put us on.

The next day we ate sausage and mash for £1.99 and then found the best record shop i have ever been in, ALT VINYL. Funniest shop assistant and best collection of records ever. We bought some Kid 606, Wooden Shjips, Dinosaur Jr, Aphex Twin and Dr Doom. Best collection of black metal and Detroit Techno I've ever seen. Word.

March Tour Middlesbrough

2009-04-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

We got to Middlesbrough and Henry from Dartz! was putting the show on, hes a super nice guy and we played at Unlce Alberts. The venue was amazing and almost brand new and the we were the only band that played because the promoter had his head screwed on and his idea was "why put on 2 or 3 shitty local supports when no one wants to see them" pretty logical. So we played to a pretty packed out crowd and then headed over to Sunderland to get crunked with our boys who run Dirty Otter. We partied pretty hard and I got myself lost walking round Sunderland for an hour. We went back to a house party and Harry and I fell asleep in someones front room, cos we were so tired from rocking out and shit, but this girl sat in the corner of the room and watched us sleep all night, I kept waking up and she was just staring at us. We woke up in the morning and she just got up and siad have a good gig tonite, bye! WTF!!!!!!!!!!

Outside of Uncle Alberts

Inside Uncle Alberts

March Tour Whitehaven

2009-04-21T13:00:00.001-07:00

Even been to Whitehaven, course you haven't because its on the edge of nowhere, thats right not in the "middle" of nowhere, which is quite a popular expression, but on the "edge." Only the grimness of the Irish Sea in one direction and a world of shit in the other direction. This place was where they were supposed to film "The League Of Gentlemen" but the crew flat out refused because it was just too wierd. Thats a lie, but its wierd, truthfully. We played with Antarctic Monkeys, yep, you read it right, they were a covers band and there manager looked like Mickey from The League Of Gentlemen, he was a real life gypsy I think. The band were full of shame and self loathing for what they were doing and found it more so perculiar to be on a bill with a real life band who played their own songs, they even exlaimed "So you don't have ANY covers in your set?" yeah true story shit for brains.

One interesting fact about Whitehaven is that the "founder" of the good old US of A, George Washington, had a grandma and when she finally croaked she was burried in a church in Whitehaven that has palm trees. Harry and I walked round Whitehaven at night to try and get a real sense for the place. We saw a church upon a hill and the bells were ringing so we decided to walk up and have a look. All the way up this hill the church bells were ringing through the streets of Whitehaven, when we got up to the top of the hill I took one step into the grounds of the church, through the gates and the bells stopped. All we could hear was the sea. We walked into the church and no one was there, it seemed a little creepy so we decided to leave, we walked down the path from the church doors and I took one step out of the church grounds and the bells started ringing again. NO SHIT, really wierd stuff, sincerely.

March Tour Sheffield - Fuzz CLub

2009-04-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

First date on our 6 date tour. Sheffield has always been good to us and this was no exception, we got our very own dressing room complete with a shower and a toilet which someone had taken the liberty of pissing in for us. We got a free hot meal, which never happens, and the lovely cretin in the kitchen went out of his way to put mustard all over my gourmet burger under the assumption that mustard is compulsary, cheers dick features, I hate mustard and now you and your shitty little face. We also got a crate of the shittiest beverage known to man, Carlsburg. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Harry and I went for a wander to find out what Sheffield Uni had to offer, we stumbled upon what I can only believe to be the Sheffield University's Bed Wetters Society. They were all sat about in this cafe playing on guitars and singing songs of hardship and shame of having the inabilty to keep the bed dry. It nearly brought a tear to my eye, but I told my self I wouldnt cry for these unichs. Needless to say we got the fuck out of there before we were asked to share stories of our adventures into the world of wet beds and played a rock and roll show.

We played with Baddies who I've been told are really good but we didnt stick around to find out.

Liam Henry Photoshoot

2009-03-04T04:45:00.000-08:00

A Leeds based photgrapher called Liam Henry was luck enough the other day to spend the afternoon taking photos of us at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds.

Wakefield and London

2009-03-04T04:20:00.000-08:00

Yo, we played in Wakefield the other night at our mate Morseys night Louder Than Bombs at the Escobar. It was a really huge turnout and we got to play with Ryan Spendlove who used to be in the seminal Leeds garage blues band called The Blueskins. The Wakefield crowd, as always, were a strange bunch but lovely all the same.

After Wakefield we drove down to London to play at the Notting Hill Arts Centre for Clash Magazine (who gave us album of the month) where we played with Macachu and The Shapes who i thought were absolutely brilliant and are produced by the ever restless genuis, Matthew Herbert. The band seems to be a bit of a "marmite" kind of love/hate thing, but I was well into it. The gig was sweet, Harry managed to puke everywhere and we hung out with some really good friends before driving back to the north the next day.

Leeds Cockpit, 26th Feb 09

2009-03-01T15:33:00.000-08:00

I think we pretty much defined the term "amazing night" tonight. We played in the Cockpit 2 room upstairs with Sketches, Little Death and the mighty Titus Andronicus.

Our mate Camron at Two Ducks Disco made this pretty sweet poster for the gig.

However, in the main room of the Cockpit just happened to be two of our most favourite bands EVER playing; The Bronx and Fucked Up, both of whom absolutely kill things to death on a daily basis.
We were told the gig was sold out with a huge guestlist and there was no way we could watch them, despite playing in the next room to them.

So Harry and I, just walked on stage with Fucked Up and watched the whole thing from 4ft away at the side of the stage. They were fast as hell and Pink eyes got his moobs out as expected and spent most of the time in the crowd teaching everyone how to beg for
forgiveness.

After we were done watching Fucked Up, we went straight upstairs and played our gig, to a pretty packed crowd. If you havent been to Cockpit 2, its in a railway arch but it looks like a bomb shelter and makes things sound loud as hell. We were even lounder than usual, which i was starting to think was impossible, but apparently not. Harry puked everywhere on the last song which was pretty foul, but hey, rock and roll!!

This was Sketches who played before us, the room is crazy, but these guys had a pretty epic sound and are from Leeds so you should check them out.

We finished our set and I ran back round the main stage and watched The Bronx from 4ft away again. It was the coolest thing ever to stand next to my favourite band in the world and watch them play to a room full of people going ape shit for them. This is the 6th time I have seen them and they get constantly more and more intense eveytime. I remember the first time I saw them support The Distillers years ago at Manchester Academy and Matt was just reading passages out of the Bible between songs and the dumb fucking audience were just shouting for Brody Armstrong to come on! Dicks.

You should check out their Mariarche band, its like traditional Mexican music, El Bronx be the name of that project.

After taking a few photos, none of which were any good as it was so sweaty on stage my lenses kept on steaming, I got involved in some jump-off-a-speaker-and-kick-some-new-era-wearing-scene-kid-in-the-head action. I watched the set come to an end from within the pit of melted faces and ran upstairs to catch the last three songs of Titus Andronicus' set, who just signed to XL Recordings. They were really rad and were really cool guys, they will come back around again for sure!

All in all the night kick started a awesome weekend for us and was topped off by a girl handing
me this fucking nugget of gold!!!

Limited Screen Print Posters

2009-02-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

Hey yalll,

The crazy sonovabith who we have the misfortune to know made us this poster, which we are gonna get prined up on some real nice, thick card for whoever wants one. Savage Wolf be the name of the designer and at no extra cost we can print it up using our own shit instead of paint if you do so wish. Oh and dont rub your eyes at this poster, you aint trippin son, its just two offset colours, cos we're fucking with your head yeh?

Manchester Roadhouse 11th Feb 2009

2009-02-17T17:37:00.000-08:00

We played our first show in Manchester in ages and our friend Luke from Loveless put us on at the Roadhouse in Mancland with Sycamore who made sick, heavy, heady phsych, swamp music and it was a toatal stoner-fest. Serpentine Pad opened up with a frantic, three guitar, wall of sound post punk slab of wierdness. Both bands are well worth checking out. Stop Making Sense Djs played some banging tunes and fun was had by all. Loads of really nice people were there and we got to hang out and play table football and shi'ite.

Also, this guy from City Life reviewed our show and i think he pretty much sucked us dry with this one, in a very obscene manner.

its starts like this...
"I DON'T care who you are or what you were doing. If you weren’t at The Roadhouse last night for The Old Romantic Killer Band then you’ve missed out big-time – yet again."

It gets so much better.
Enjoy.

BBC Radio Humber

2009-02-17T15:41:00.000-08:00

So we were asked a couple of weeks ago to go on down to Hull to the BBC radio studios on a sunday night, set up our gear in their studio and bash out some tunes, so we did. We performed two yet to be recorded songs called "December Snapshots" and "My father the Ghost" along with our yet to be released new single "Things To Come."

We drove down with our main man Ash and we had to set up in the reception at the BBC studios so we wouldn't literally melt all their studio equipment with our heaviness. We blasted through the songs and got the fuck out of there, cos its Hull. We had a little interview on the air, which i can imagine was borderline rediculous, but we should have the recodings should be with us asap so I will stick em up here for yous!

Manchester Big Hands - 7th November '08

2008-11-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

Word!!

This was the best show ever!! We basically set this up ourselves to celebrate our single being available - PARTY TIME. We got Wonderswan and Piskie Sits to come down too and all our manchester friends and it was a rad time! Its a tiny venue so it was sweaty and ace and packed!

Wonderswan were ace, their new songs are really cool - albeit noisy as fuck. Piskie Sits were the best i've ever seen them - its probably getting really boring us championing them all the time but i don't care because they have such good songs and are champs. Tour is going to be fun as hell.

I think we played ok, we played December Snapshots again and also an even new one that hasn't got a name yet, it's about time we played some new songs and we're gonna try and book some studio time and get them recorded asap.

It was rad to go to 'bring on the dancing horses' after too - a bit electro for me but it was good to have everyone around hanging out and drinking. How ace is The Deaf Institute?!

Had a bratwurst (?) for breakfast with Wonderswan too - beat that shit.

Sheffield Harley - 2nd November 2008

2008-11-03T05:58:00.000-08:00

Considering how fucking tired and disgusting we felt, Sheffield was made instantly friendly by meeting up with my old schoolmate Tom and a couple of beers. Greg slept at the venue for a couple of hours and after I waved goodbye to Tom went and discovered about twenty-eight 40p reduced sandwiches and sushi from Tesco - result!
OK, so its Sunday, its pissing it down, we're in Sheffield - I'm not sure exactly what we werer expecting but it was 300% better than what was in our heads. Cooper is a rad promoter and a good friend, we played with a cool band called The Hipshakes who kind-of sounded like Black Lips, it was nice to hang with Dan DeathByShoes too aswell as a bunch of other really nice people. The show was fun, a little restrained considering our physical state, and we played a brand-new song (I think it will be called 'December Snapshots' after by brothers old band that I got the ideo of Old Romantics off) and it went down really well.
Good friendly vibes all round again before we sold all our cds and went home!! We meandered through the Penines through dense fog and blackness with Liars on really loud before getting back, cup of tea then sleep for seven million hours - ace weekend.

hx

London Metro - 1st November 2008

2008-11-03T05:47:00.000-08:00

Greg and I turned this show into a little prolonged trip to London becasue my brother and his sister live there so we got some quality sibling-time in. What normally seems like forever to get to London was in-fact fine - the drive down went really quick and a shit load of Fucked Up and Wild Beasts made the journey almost enjoyable! We chilled round Gregs sisters and went to the Mark Rothko exhibition at thw Tate Modern and ate an actual chilli-dog in some American diner which was awesome. Next day was filled with more hanging out and beers with old friends before we played The Metro on Saturday night.
The show was fun, made more fun by our friends coming along on a rainy saturday night to see us, it was a horrible night outside on busy Oxford Street. The crowd was good, lots of new faces, plus Ed (bad sneakers) and Ben (our lawyers) came down and it was a really friendly vibe.
We decided to completely un-consider we had to drive back to Sheffield for a show the next afternoon and went to a party and did all manner of wrong things until 8 am...
We must have had about two hours sleep before saying goodbye to our friends and injecting our eyeballs with bright blue energy drinks. We got to Sheffield with the aid of:
1. Windows wide open.
2. Earth records of full blast.
3. Popcorn Chicken.
4. Talking for the sake of talking (really loudly).
5. Regular changing of the voice on the TomTom (there was even an Australian one!).

Finally we got to Sheffield...

hx

Manchester MoHo Live - 25th October

2008-10-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

Word up.

We were worying about this show because 'MoHo Live' (the night) is basically a pay to play night and we didn't know this until 3 days before the show.

PAY TO PLAY SUCKS SHIT. IT DEMORALISES ARTISTS AND THE LISTENER/FAN.

Just putting it out there.

So instead we didn't submit any names, got as many friends/fans in for free and just had a rad night anyways. We, obviously, didn't make any money but fuck it.

Emily from Barrow and Connor from Lincoln and Coxy from Manchester and a whole host of other awesome people we don't get to see enough came down, I think we played to about 150 people which was intense (although my slide playing was shocking).

Made some awesome new friends too, all JP's lot were ace, Marko and Matt from Jack Afro, some awesome girls I can't remember their names, I think a few people actually wanted their pictures taken with us too - crazy...

Anyway, ace night, Manchester is always good to us, got real drunk and all the Burnley lot were there too being amazing so we went back to Gregs for a little shindig and had some of the best fun ever. DRUNKEN CLIVE RULES O.K.

h-bomb x

Burnley Ale House Fundraiser - 19th Oct

2008-10-21T03:40:00.001-07:00

Right - so Greg calls me up about two weeks ago and says we're playing his hometown, Burnley, for charity do. In Burnley.
I'm apprehensive to say the least, but it can't be worse that Bradford the night before so fuck it.
We arrive at Gregs mum and dads house and she makes us delicious fish pie and apple crumble, good start to the day.
Then we go to the venue (a cross between the pub at the beginning of American Werewolf... and The Rovers Return) and the rest of the night is, well... FUCKING AWESOME.
Appparantly all the BNP nonces and racisct thugs astay away from this oasis of tranquility. Everyone is so nice, free beer and drugs all over the place, Gregs mates are brilliant, everyone is having a greattime, it's for charity, we play really well (and LOUD) and it's the best night ever. Random.
If you find yourself in Burnley, scared and alone - go to the Bridge Beer House - easily one of the best pubs in the country full of brilliant folk.
Just shows you can play a shit gig in 'big deal' London and play your best in a little pub in Lancashire - the main ingredient is :
1. a good promoter
2. decent, good natured people

Top 5 best times we've had as a band, easily.

hx

Bradford - Good Form Club - 18th Oct

2008-10-21T03:36:00.000-07:00

Best not saying much about this. Bradford is usually amazing, but like any city - if the promoter doesn't do the best he can in promoting his show then it's never going to be amazing, right?
Some really good people came down and we played with Four Dead in Ohio who are really really good (kind-of BRMC meets Jesus and Mary Chain NME darlings) and Greg and I ate a nice curry.
Apart from that, not a great deal to report.
We took our beers and cider and drove the fuck out of there back to Manchester and watched The Thick Of It, which if you don't know is the best BBC comedy sitcom ever made - FACT.

hx

BrainwashFest - Leeds 18th October

2008-10-21T03:28:00.000-07:00

OK, so we're not exactly a LeedsMusicForum band so we were a bit apprehensive about the reaction we would get here. We were, though, completely stoked that Hayden asked us to play and there was am array of amazing bands and friends playing too that we just tried to smash it nonetheless.
Yeah, we got the greveyeard shift (4.30pm), kind-of, but we had to run off to Bradford and play a clubnight there afterwards but it seemed pretty busy when we played and got a mixed reaction. I don't know, Leeds is a funny place to us - we're not exactly a 'Leeds' band - but I live there and all my friends are here and I go to loads of shows here but we never get made to feel part of 'the leeds community' but I think thats a good thing in the long term. It was rad to see Paul Marshall again.
BRAINWASH IS AN ACE IDEA AND HAYDEN IS A TROOPER FOR GETTING HIS SHIT TOGETHER AND DOING SOMETHING LIKE THIS EVERY YEAR BECASUE MOST PEOPLE DON'T GIVE AS MUCH OF A FUCK AS HE DOES. HE IS A DUDE.

hx

WORD

2008-10-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

Here is our tour blog, we have to go play some shows first though so keep checking back or whatever. No, go listen to These Monsters and then Eskimo Twins. Do that, then keep checking back.