2011 Update

Hello friends,

We thought that maybe you'd like an update on the new album, and also our plans for 2011. Here's the news...

As many of you know, we've been working on the follow-up to The Fallen Host on-and-off for the last 6 months or so. It's progressing well, and we have a lot of the album close to completion. We now hope to finish these songs, plus a few new additions, over the next 3-4 months. Which means that we'll likely have the record finished by late Spring and ready for release in late Summer. Thanks for being patient with us - we promise to try and make it worth your wait :) The next chunk of recording will be happening in February and we will definitely try and share some of the sounds/experiences/mental breakdowns we have along the way.

We're also planning a number of tours to promote the album. These are all currently at the early planning/scheduling stage, but we plan to play more shows this year than in any previously. We had a fantastic time on the road in 2010, we made many great new friends (hello to you all!), and we're certainly missing drinking white russian cocktails for breakfast ;) So you can expect an extensive tour of Europe and maybe (just maybe) a few shows much much further afield... Exciting stuff, but I can't say any more on that for the moment.

In the meantime, don't forget that you can talk to us directly on our Facebook page
www.facebook.com/blueneckuk

Rich x

Oops!

So this morning it was pointed out to me by an eagle eyed fan that i'd totally forgotten we are playing in Stoke on October 16th...hence I neglected to state this fact in the last update...we do infact have 9 gigs left...not 8...and we ARE playing alongside our labelmates Heirs at Harrys Bar in Stoke!...Hopefully thats cleared that one up then!

I also noticed that there seems to be a bit of confusion on the internet regarding us playing in Camden, London....we ARENT, (as suggested on a few places online) playing at the Dublin Castle...we ARE playing at The Unicorn, Camden on October 15the....which evidently is a FREE show....how nice.

i'll try and take more care with my updates in future....thanks for noticing Ben!

cheers
dunk

Tour/Album/Whatever

Hi
thought i'd write a quick update after returning back to life's 'normality' after our short expedition to Eastern Europe.
I think we all enjoyed the tour a lot...we got treated ridiculously well, made new friends and reaquainted ourselves with old ones too.

Far too much went on to write in detail about each show/city etc so i'll try and cram it all into as small a package as possible for you....

After a momentous drive we visited what I presume were the outskirts of Frankfurt for our first show. Great venue, lovely promoter, and a barman that doubled up as the soundguy! nice. Especially pretty funny when you want your vocals turned up and the sound guy is serving a pint of beer! We stayed in the red light district of Frankfurt that night, kindly refusing the advances from the local 'working girls of the night'...interesting place....i even witnessed a BMW driver smack a wobbly cyclist off of his bike...he seemed more concerned about his headlights than the cyclist that was bleeding from his mouth.
Hmmm...if i carry on like this, this 'brief' update is going to last a lifetime....lets try and fix this...
SO;
Freising - Very cool venue in an old army base. Met some lovely new friends here. Ironed out some technical problems from the previous night and aired a couple of new songs for the first time. Stayed in the army base on our own...i swear it was haunted..we have video footage to prove (kind of ) as much...then we locked ourselves out of said venue at 3am...apologies...again! 8(
Gdynia - Loooooong drive....grey skies. grey buildings....the venue wa cool though....huge.....no support band and we played ridiculously early...meaning we were finished up early....so had time to eat pizza and drink jack daniels (a good mix)..
Poznan - ANOTHER loooong drive - thanks Timo ;-) - Unfortuanlty we didnt have much time to explore the city...it looked like it may have been nice....can anyone confirm this? The cobbled street where the venue was - was nice at least? Think we had a LOT of sound issues at this show - this was a shame as a lot of people came along (some from quite a distance) - We slept in a childrens nursery taht night....pretty surreal.....and it was at the top of an 8 story building.....not nice.....espeically taking all the equipment up all those flights of stairs....grumpy blueneck the next morning!
Krakow - lovely city...shame the one way system makes it impossible to find anything! Klub Re was a great venue - we met some lovely people and I think we started to really gel as a band on this night...Baring in mind Oli had only had about 6 weeks to learn the entire setlist with us. Im awful with names...i apologise for this...but thanks to the guy that hitchiked 300km to get to this show...means a lot. We were then given a tour of Krakow...not the British stag party tour but a proper bona fide Polish tour of the local pubs....we were up until 5am drinking Polish vodka with cinnamon...beautiful...I needed to be up a couple of hours later to meet Emma at the airport. nice. Emma joined us halfway through....to do the merch properly for us or just to hang out and sit on a rickety tour bus for 8 hours at a time? not sure. But the merchandise help was indeed much appreciated! x
Final night in Poland was Katowice...i dont know where to begin....it should be in a blog by itself....probably the most interesting venue, promoter ...er ever....the venue was full of old vintage american muscle cars...we had smoke machines blasting out at us throughout the show...and weirdly , bublles falling down....apparently there was a snow machine that could have come into action at any time!...we were plied with polish vodka, metaxa, who knows what else!!...all i wanted was soe milkshake...i wasnt allowed 8(...i felt ill the next morning...not as bad as ben mind...
Off then, to Leipzig...I was a little worried that after such a great show and time here in February that it wouldnt be as good....but it was like going home..we love the people there very much and had a lovely evening...its always such a pleasure playing at the Paris Syndrom. I think we can safely say that they are now good friends...There IS a secret plan in progress regards to blueneck and the Paris Syndrom actually - ;-)
Dresden next...lovely venue...biggest yet...we were looked after like royalty...amazing food, amazing drink and totally professional sound and lighting guys...it was a pleasure playing here...and so many people came that made the whole night so great....We even had a couple that came along that had got married that day ....as i said...im awful with names...and ive forgotten their names...VERY rude...but one of the other guys will put me straight...congratulations to you both again.
Also apologies to the people that shouted out for epiphany to be played...we've actually only ever played it once....and that was at the launch party for scars of the midwest...we WILL play it again...i promise.
Oberhausen was last...unfortunatly there were sound issues which wasnt so great for us on stage and the people watching - i guess..always a little dissapointing...we did get to meet up with our friends from denovali though...our third date no less...We've bonded a strong relationship which is why we're very happy for Denovali to be releasing album 3 solely by themselves this time...the release will be capable hands..very much looking forward to date 4 in essen at the Swingfest (i beleive there are still tickets left!)

Well...thats it...i tried to keep it as brief as possible....those of you that know me well, know its hard for me to keep things brief....so im patting myself on the back ...
The tour was great...very enjoyable...we have 8 shows remaining before touring takes a MAJOR backseat and we complete the album..i'll miss playing live....but its something to look forward to getting back into next year sometime.
We're now going to phase out all of the fallen host merchandise...so no reprints on any of it...grab it whilst you can....hopefully see you at one of the last 8 shows...

dunk
x

Left Side Brain

Quick post here....another one to follow with an update following the recent trip to Eastern Europe.
But for now I thought some of you may be interested in a show that is coming up that will feature 2 members of blueneck in one of their other projects.
Oli and Rich are also in a band called Left Side Brain...quite different to blueneck, but both bands have strangely always worked really well together (we've done numerous shows in the past together) -
Its LSB's tenth anniversary this year and to celebrate they are putting on a special show in Bristol. All money made is going to Cancer Research and Motor Neurone Disease, as they are the illnesses that has affected the band really deeply of late.
You can find out more info about the band and the show at the facebook event page....
hopefully we'll see some of you guys at the show.

www.leftsidebrain.com

cheers
dunk

counting

4 days ..hang on...5 days , till we leave for folkestone, on our way to cross the channel for the long drive to frankfurt...thanks to timo at denovali for booking the first gig so far away...sometimes i think the guy really has something against me! ;-)
Apologies for the cancellation of the gig at Prague too...this would have given us an 11 and a half hour non stop drive to Poland the next day...it really wasnt viable....once again...blame timo for this...tsk.
I think we're just about ready to play a few shows. Just about...As previously mentioned , Oli has done a sterling job taking over from Ben G...he's fitted in so well theres no doubt he'll be a permanent fixture in blueneck now. A lot of equipment has gone wrong, needed repairing or replacing this last month or so...luckily we've had a lot of people help us out. Ben, Rich and Oli all have new guitars and i've had 2 of mine overhauled...i even found out the birthdate of my fender telecaster - 3rd March 1973...how anyone can find out such stuff is beyond me.
Our producer Mat, over at Bink Bonk studios has been looking into modifying my amp and also attempting to fix my piano module...we really could do without the piano going wrong again...as anyone that was at the gig in lille earlier will testify to!
I think though, that we've more or less sorted out equipment issues...thanks to everyone thats helped on that front.
We've ordered in some new merch...a VERY small amount of new fallen host 'bird' design merch...printed on dark grey...they'll be exclusive to this tour only and will be the last lot of fallen host merch that we have done. There are also some numbered prints from scars of the midwest and the fallen host. So hopefully some of you can pick these up on the tour next week.
You might have seen the video from rehearsals we took of le:465 on facebook recently...we've taken some more footage of rehearsals and will be uploading ub2 and a one of the new songs over the next day or so. Facebook seems to be the easiest place to share these so keep an eye out there...we'll also try and keep an update going whilst we're out on tour...bth rich and ben are pretty savvy with updating when we're mobile so we'll leave it to them.
Hopefully we'll meet some of you over the next couple of weeks...and if not...maybe in october or november.
dunk

epiphany

So we've had a lot of requests for lyrics over the last couple of years...ive always managed to dodge them 'ive forgotten them' 'nobody knows them' 'the dog was sick on them'...but recently we've had even more requests..one in particular had a really good guess at the lyrics to epiphany....so...maybe its about time i started putting them out there?..maybe....maybe im just in a good mood today or something? (i'll probably delete this post in a day or so)
....where was i?

oh yeah....

so one of the most requested lyrics is epiphany....

im strained and down
for kicks we're tossed and thrown against the ground
skins peeling to the bone
the scratches and the graise holding me down
feel me closer a face with small glass pieces pulls you in
im not sleeping over
a fist comes through the mirror and you think
im not stable, ungrown
waiting alone
my hands bleeding and numb
the cracks around the face is only half way done

stripped down
as far as i can tell theres nothing else
please me for another hour
placing all the bets onto myself
im unstable and dumb
waiting alone
im not pleading no
pieces stick together and we're half-way home

Busy week this week...we've stepped up a gear with rehearsals for the tour in August/September and now have a clear idea of what the setlist will be. A mix of material from the 1st and 2nd album along with a few introductions to what will be appearing on the 3rd record. Oli's been working really hard learningall the tracks and has so far done an amazing job.
We have a van sorted now...and a window is currently being ..er...made (??!) for it...rich insisted on being able to see out of a window for the trip...not sure what his next demand will be...

anyhow, you mightve seen uthat we're missing a couple of dates on the tour...september 1st...and...erm...september 6th....ideally we'd much rather be playing a show somewhere...so if you know of anyone that fancies putting on perhaps an intimate blueneck show in berlin (1st) or prague (6th) then give us a shout perhaps? I think the place to let us know of any ideas is our friends at denovali... booking@denovali.com.

back in the studio over the next few days too..rich is finishing off his guitars, ben will be going over all his bass and i'll be making a start on all of my guitars...along with putting down a couple more guide tracks which will mean we have the whole album recorded in some form or another...we'll finish the tour in september and then really get stuck into finsihing off the record.

Thanks for all the messages we've had lately from a lot of other bands enquiring about support slots...we've got to hear of a lot of really cool bands this way...hopefully we'll get to play with a few of you either this year or early next year when we'll arrange a few UK dates to coincide with the album release.

expect a slight change to the look of blueneck.com over the next few days...just a slight one...and we should have some more pics from the studio for you...we're hanging out with russ again....which is always good fun... www.russellhowphotography.com

cheers
d