Friday 27th April 2007 -------- SPECIAL BULLETIN-------

Hello There,

This News Page will no longer be updated on a regular basis and it forms part of our archived website material. You can still visit this page as a nostalgic artefact, but we are happy to tell you that the NEW and EXCITING My Latest Novel website is underway and will materialise before your very eyes literally within days at a time...So keep your eyes peeled and keep checking www.mylatestnovel.com ....until we can give you everything you need at My Latest Novel's website there will be a direct link to Myspace from our main page for all up to date gigs, news, and blogs, and other content.....choose wisely.......and keep your eyes on www.mylatestnovel.com for updates regularly....

Prepare..............My Latest Novel :)

 

Tuesday 27th February 2007

We have been working overtime in rehearsals with a five hour slot booked for tonight in "Tommy's Place" as we have come to call it. We will probably end up parking in between the usual two cars which have the nicknames " The Graduate" and "The Vibe", and at some point we will probably brave some belter neds to try and get to the BP Garage for a packet of McCoys and a bottle of some sort of flavoured water or in my case a bottle of limeade. All for a good cause though. We might try and play a new tune tomorrow at the Spitz, as we have been trying to get ourselves happy with some ideas we've had for a long time, and we think that finally we have reached the point where we are happy.So if you want to hear it , go to the gig.

I'm going to buy a Back To The Future t-shirt tomorrow.If you want to see it, go to the gig.

ryan

 

Monday 8th January 2007

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!
2007 promises to be another year of exciting stuff for us so far.
Recently We have been invited to play at both Canada Music Week in Toronto (Drake Underground) , and SXSW. We also hope to play some shows in New York, and maybe some other places on our journey.

Look out.

We are also taking part in Versacoustic (See Gigs Page)

This will be a busy start of a busy year for us. The second album has begun.
Look here for an entire new website in the coming months, and keep your eyes on
www.myspace.com/mylatestnovel for all other things that happen.

For Now
R x

Thursday 23rd November

Wow. We have been silent since 9th October. Wow. You really want to know what has stopped us posting on here?

.........Mr R Murdoch!

well, not personally, he didn't like threaten us in anyway. We have just been updating a lot of info on our myspace page (www.myspace.com/mylatestnovel). You see we update our own website and for reasons that must be kept secret we didn't have the software to do so (ask any member for a false answer), and it was easier to update our myspace page. Anyway........ sorry everyone if you feel slightly neglected or unloved.

In under a weeks time we will be off to Vancouver for the first time to play a few shows (check gigs page) and then going to Australia for some suntans. Well not really we are doing some shows there as well (check gigs page once more). Excitement in Novel land is pretty high and preparations begun almost 2 weeks ago. Chris and Fieldys mum got them eye masks for the flight. Ive been updating my Ipod with various episodes of CSI, Family Guy and the best Christmas film ever A Christmas Story. Laura's been teaching herself to sleep in an upright position and Ryan has been watching Lost season 1 and 2. Looking forward to meeting many of you well the ones who come to the gigs anyway.

So......whats the deal with the weather in Scotland?

Ive drove myself finally insane today listening to a doo wop compilation i promised a friend over a month ago. How many Bop-sh-bop-sh-bops, ram-a-dam-a-ding dongs, dip-de-dip-sh-dips and Boog-i-de-boog-i-de's can one human sing over and over and over in their heads. HELP!!!!!! HELP!!!!!! no seriously HELP!!!!!!

loads o love

Paul The Bop-de-bop-sh-bop Bop Bop Bop

 

Monday 9th October

Smash,

The new Double A Side Single from My Latest Novel is no less than a double extravaganza of WHEN WE WERE WOLVES and PRETTY IN A PANIC!!!!

OUT TODAY !!!!

Rush to buy it for it's unique artwork, and a cover of no other than THE BEACH BOYS magnificent aural spectacle - I KNOW THERE'S AN ANSWER recorded LIVE at MAIDA VALE.

How Dare You Resist Under These Circumstances!!

Lots Of Love - The Band - My Latest Novel - Not The Beach Boys - Although We Understand The Confusion : )

Friday 22nd September 2006

We apologise. We have somewhat neglected the diary page of our website over the last few weeks. A lot of our attention has been turned to the phenomenon which is myspace and we plan to have a bit of an overhaul of our website at the moment. Since we last updated here Steve Irwin has died, Scotland have won 2 football matches, Ross Francis has moved into a new house, Pete won Big Brother, Gary, Ryan and Paul have worked their way through just about every series of 24, our manager Tam has moaned at us 763 times about updating our website, Ryan has had 9 haircuts, and we've been lucky enought to play in festivals in Berlin, Brussels and some very nice UK festivals like Indian Summer and End of the Road. To be honest I'm not even going to attempt to fill you in with all the things we've been up to over the last couple of months... it would take too long. Some pretty strange things have happened however. Like in Belgium, we did the Pukkelpop festival. On the way back to the Hotel, we all fell asleep in our car, only to wake up and realise that our chaffeur for the day had picked up a hitch-hiker!! 100% confusion was my only emotion at that moment. We drove home form Belgium.... we dont talk about that drive!! In fact we drove home from Munich earlier in the Summer, which is about twice the distance, however it seemed significantly shorter compared to the horror show which was Brussels to Glasgow in a van which cant go about 32 miles per hour.

Last weekend we played the End of the Road Festival, which was very nice. The Saturday night ended with us on stage with British Sea Power playing different forms of percussion... well, I looked at Ryan during it and he was wearing a plastic hat hitting a fork off a plate. I think that

We have been asked to support The Hidden Cameras on a short UK tour next week. Check the gigs page for full details of these shows. We will also be playing the Arts Guild in Greenock on the 28th of October.

Lots Of Kisses

Chris "The Mighty Joe" Harper x

Wednesday 26th July 2006

So it's 06.55 Hours, and i'm waiting on Davy Dial Up to come and pick me up in the splitter van to take us to London.

We are playing at Sonic Cathedral in The Legion in Old Street tonight.

I would like to take the final 10 mins of my waiting time to let everyone know that the Wickerman festival was a great success, and despite some complications on the way there, we had an excellent time. We would also like to thank everyone who came to support us from Greenock. Including Chris Davidson, who stole the show as he tried to sit down during our last song....hahaha...Too much "Tent Wine" perhaps.

If you'd like to find out some more of the recent happenings, our MySpace Blog has alternative entries by the lovable characters in My Latest Novel.

Beep Beep.....

Bye - Ry.................07:04.....Out x

Jueves 20th Julio 2006- Barcelona/Madrid - SUMMERCASE FESTIVAL

Buenas Dias,

We have arrived home in liquid format. The heat in Barcelona and Madrid reduced us to nothing more than a My Latest Puddle.

On the day we left the sun was shining on Glasgow International Airport. Tam " The Undelivered Notification" Coyle was standing in anticipation to greet us from our trusty cramped carriage.As we spilled out of the veloci-tin we recieved five "rhyming slang" hellos from him (his speciality). He seemed rather organised, and was accompanying us on this trip in place of Stevie " As In Big Feet" Broadfoot.Who some may know has organisational systems for brushing his teeth. However, Tam had it all, except for the utility belt.

Zoooom - Welcome To Barcelona Airport!!!

We entered the tube bridge and felt an unstoppable rebel force of heat. We met the Festival Rep Dudes, and we entered the Vehicular Oven which took us all the way to the Princess Hotel.We managed to find a Tapas Bar before we did our interviews and oh what a tapas bar, complete with comedy menu.On the menu we have Sausages of the Country, Loin To The Plate, Followed by an array of tortillas by literal description Tortilla Italiano.....Tortilla Francais...ok..fine......and Tortilla To The Taste .....what? What in the name of Odins Raven, and Caesars Ghost is a Tortilla To The Taste.......In all fairness, these were english translations, and i have no right to mock them as my Spanish is equal to or less than ZERO.

The gig we played on this evening was cut short unfortunately and helped make us feel sad.However, because we are optimists we looked forward to the day of Saturday, which would be Madrid.We sauntered of to bed in our Princess Hotel Robes, and towels wrapped around our heads, and waited for Saturday, and Madrid. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Followed by : MADRID !!!!!!!!!!!

We touched down in Madrid with our new buddy Fatboy Slim AKA Corman Nook. Actually, i'll rephrase that. We didn't speak to him at all, Chris stared at him, Paul pointed at him, I shouted his name quite loud, Tam jumped up and down like a kangaroo, and we all lived happily ever after on the ground, in Madrid, on a separate bus from Slim Yo !

We then headed for our soundcheck, and a Siesta.The sweltering heat had merited one.

Afterwards, we headed to the festival, and played a full set to a crowd of Happy-Dancing, Solar-Trancing, Spanish Faniards. A most enjoyable sight, and experience. I continued my evening with Martini....hmmm.....yes.....Martini. Paul, Gary and I then went to watch Super Furry Animals, Sigur Ros, and Paul ventured with Laura to see Daft Punk, which Paul claims was " The Best Ever" with a full stop. Laura was " Too Drunk For Daft Punk", and wanted to go home to chill out.

All of us then had a fun evening Listening to Gary's Tales Of Sealand, including the charming Chaps from Midlake, and Paul Trueman and Jo Horton, of the Bella Union DJ fame.

The very next day was upon us rather quickly and time was of the essence, as we had Latitude Festival in Suffolk.

No matter what you may hear. There was absolutely no problem getting to Latitude. I did not leave my passport at the hotel, and there were absolutely no angry spanish people shouting at us for rushing through and jumping the cue, and no-one ever raised their voices , not even once.

Thank You to The Most Wonderful Excellent and Hard Working Rep from Summercase who Helped Us.

We Love You.

The End

A Post from The Undisputable Agent Ryan James King x

 

Wednesday 12th July 2006

A big thank you to everyone who came to see us at T In The Park at the weekend.

We left early on Saturday morning to beat the traffic and arrived onsite for about quarter to ten. At which point, Ryan cracked open the first beer. Anyone who knows him well, will know the second beer is likely to throw him and anyone within a fifteen-mile radius, over the edge, and he did not disappoint. Laura was the only one of us prepared enough to bring a tent, but I'll come back to that later!

First up was Maximo Park, and Paul was off, jumping relentlessly into the air like, well...the guy from Maximo Park, before a horrendously overpriced and exceptionally dry veggie burger for lunch. After that, we hardly left the Pet Sounds stage for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Giant Drag, and finally Sigur Ros, who were easily my highlight of the weekend.

Saturday night, torrential rain and the sleeping arrangements were becoming more important. Chris, Laura and I decided to venture into the regular camping area, which was fairly wild all night, but with our solitary tent soaked through, Ryan and Paul had to sleep in the car. With all those tour buses taunting them, and Glenn's four-bedroom tent towering in the distance, they snuggled up till morning.

The gig went well, and afterwards we had various interviews and stuff to do, before going to catch some more bands and then home first thing on Monday morning. Absolutely nothing eventful happened involving a certain drummer, Bobby G and Roger Taylor from Queen. Nope. Nothing at all.

Finally, a reminder that we're playing Summercase in Madrid and Barcelona and also Latitude in Suffolk this weekend.

Ga Ga x

19th June 2006

A huge thanks to everyone for coming to the QMU gig on Saturday night.  We played The Valour Still for the very first time live, which was a nervous experience for the five of us, but seemed to go without a hitch.

The next single will be a double A side of When We Were Wolves and Pretty In A Panic, and when we know the release date, you'll be the first to know!  There will also be an exclusive B-side of a cover which we played not too long ago, as well as another little surprise!!

Our next gig will be at T In The Park, which we are all extremely excited about.  Really looking forward to seeing Animal Collective and Sigur Ros who are on the same stage as ourselves.  Make sure you check the listings for the Sunday so as not to miss us!!!

See you soon
Gary x

18th June 2006

A lesson in cool.

I am a firm fan of the portable music fashion that is the "I-Pod". But...... I just want to know. Is it cool to wear your headphone wire outside your jacket or should it be tucked in? I wear mine on the outside with the remote device clipped onto my bag. I find this comfortable and functional. I used to be down with the kids but now im questioning myself. I just want to dance down Buchannan Street in the knowledge that the kids think im cool.

Peace out homies.

Paul x

Tuesday 13th June 11:47 pm

Is this line secure?

I have finished season three of 24. I don't think i've ever enjoyed T.V as much, ever in my life.I found myself watching the next episode just to make sure Jack Bauer was ok........I have realised my calling..... I might have to stand down as drummer in My Latest Novel and pursue a career in MI6, that is, until i get my American citizenship and can join the F.B.I CTU division. Season 3 has my vote as the best in the series so far. The only word i can conjure to sum it up is : WOW!

Agent King MLN Division x

Tuesday 13th June 11:00am

I'm halfway through Season 3 ..........Can't talk.....Must get back for the final 12 hours.......

Ryan x

Tuesday 13th June 2:00am

Gary gave me the first series of 24 on DVD....... my life has ended long live Jack Bauer.

paul x

Monday 12th June 11:47pm

We've been an exceptionally busy bunch the last six weeks or so!  A tour of Germany, Ireland, a festival in Den Haag, and various UK dates (including a rainy night in Ayr!!).  Thanks to everyone who made it along!

Ireland and Germany were both fantastic.  We played Koln and Heidelberg with Architecture In Helsinki.  Heidelberg is possibly the most beautiful place on earth!  Now I don't say that often (well...possibly about Barcelona, Paris, Reykjavik, Munich and Stockholm), but this time I really mean it.  It sits on the Neckar river, on which we hired peddle boats and...well...mainly crashed into one another.  The buildings on the riverside are incredible, and the view from the bridge has to be one of the best in the world!

I have to mention the venue we played in Dundalk!  The Spirit Store is a pub in the middle of nowhere, but is a brilliant place to play a gig.  The crowd were amazing (where they all came from we have no idea), and we had a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, I cannot drink Guiness fast enough, and had a queue of pints piled up by the end of the night.  Thanks again to everyone who came along.  We'll definitely be back soon.  Oh...and thanks to the local policeman who put us up for the night (!?).  You couldn't make it up!

Since being home, it's been constant rehearsing for our homecoming gig at the QMU on Saturday (17th) with the fabulous Camera Obscura!  Should be a brilliant night, and tickets are available online or from Ticket Scotland.

We're currently finishing a brand new song, with the working title 'Lacklustre'.  It's a tough one to get together, but we're excited about playing it soon.  I hope a few of you are suitably surprised!

Finally, Ryan has gone missing!  None of us have heard from him since the night he borrowed the first three series' of 24.  Probably unrelated.

G x

Sunday 14th May

Yu had me at Hello,

We would like to thank Low for having us on thier UK tour, and would like to let everyone know that the tour was a great success.

We are heading off on a short headline tour of UK and Ireland tomorrow - Dates can be found on our Gig Page.

In the meantime for any updates of how the tour is going or any general current froth from the band's mouth please go to www.myspace.com/mylatestnovel , as it shall be updated as we tour, and news unfolds.

Damn Straight

R x

 

Monday 10th April

IMPORTANT NEWS JUST IN............

We have been confirmed as support for LOW on their forthcoming UK & Ireland Dates.

Also DON'T MISS our LIVE MAIDA VALE SESSION which goes out tomorrow 11th April

On HUW STEVENS' SHOW for Radio One's ONE MUSIC.

Saturday 8th April

This tour diary is not for the light hearted. Includes detailed scenes of 80's disco's, mindless theft, inexcusable haircuts and Carl Barat!

Following our gigs in Edinburgh and Aberdeen (which were lovely), we headed south in search of Manchester. Excitement was all over our faces. Especially mine as I gently broke the spine of The Count Of Monte Cristo. Nothing could dampen our spirits!

Or so we thought. We turned our backs for a nanosecond, and in popped a hardened criminal. My bag was pinched, including all my earthly possessions. All I had remaining were the clothes I had on. Paul's consistent chorus of "what happens when you lose evereeething" in the Maximo Park song, was no consolation (although Paul doees have a good voice, bless him)

We played the gig, and moved on to Liverpool. I would not be stopped!

We were joined by Stevie Broadfoot. A man I could draw strength from in my moment of desperation. A man so resolute and determined, not even placing the key for our room behind the TV
could stop him! Liverpool was great, and our new friends Howling Bells were there which was nice.

Following Coventry and Birmingham, we went into Maida Vale studio in London to record our BBC session for Huw Stevens. We recorded two tracks from the album (The Reputation Of Ross Francis and When We Were Wolves), and also a brand new song (The Valour Still). We also recorded a cover which might surprise a few people. The session goes out on the 11th April (Tuesday night). The room we were in had been host to sessions by Nirvana, Franz Ferdinand, David Bowie, PJ Harvey and The Pixies. Grafiti scaled all four walls, and now above the main exit it reads "The Reputation Of Ross Francis". The Valour Still will be in our live set in the very near future.

The overnight drive to Paris was as traumatic as it sounds. We arrived at our hotel for about 11, and a couple of hours later were due for soundcheck. The night was sponsored by Jack Daniels, and so it was free all night. You can imagine the rest!

The next day, we took the Stevie tour round all the Paris hotspots. I managed to pick up a few new items of clothing, and also a copy of Ulysses from Shakespeare and Co., which is the publisher who finally published Joyce's masterpiece. This was my highlight of the tour, as when you scale the tiny stairs in this bookshop, you realise that the top flight is lived in. There are beds between books, ontop of books, and made of books. Lights are low, and there are people working hard at their bedside. Reminds me a lot of The Hope Edition. The sign atop the stair reads "Be Not Inhospitable To Strangers, Lest They Be Angels In Disguise'. Alas, Henry Miller restores my faith in the human race.

Garjuana Devenjho x

Tuesday 7th March

It's a sad day today, as i learned that Ivor Cutler died on 3rd March.

I thought he was a great ,whatever he was, because he was so many things:Poet, Teacher,Writer, Artist, Song Writer........and the only artists to feature on BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and he has certainly been an influence on us and our music.

Rubber Toy is a song regularly featuring on our Tour Bus, and usually lifts the spirits of five tiring travellers.

Any one or two minute silence tributes that may take place would probably have been greatly appreciated by him, particularly due to his disgust with noise.

"What you just enjoyed there was a free silence." Ivor Cutler

RIP

Ryan Novel x

 

Monday 6th March

Firstly thanks to everyone who came to last night's album launch at Mono. We were absolutely thrilled by the whole night, and it was a great send-off for the tour.

On Saturday, we had been in the studio for a gruelling 16 hours where we finished our new B-side for the third single. It is a completely new track which will make its way into the live shows I'm sure. Although it's a bit of an epic. It's called The Valour Still, and we'll be playing it for the first time at our Hue Stevens Session for Radio One which goes out later this year. We'll remind you about that nearer the time.

The thing about recording a song in a day is that cabin fever sets in, and generally different people get it at different time. Andy (our producer) generally sends us in to record our parts at that specific moment, shouting "Blood! Blood!" to get the best out of us. I think you can hear it on this track!

We're off on tour now for a month (see the gigs page), and it's great that the album is finally available. I'm just about to start reading The Count Of Monte Cristo as soon as I get on that tour bus. I've had it for over a year, but have waited for the perfect moment to start! I can't wait!!!!

Anyway. Looking forward to the feedback on the album, and we'll see you all on tour!

G x

Tuesday 28th February

We hope you all managed to go out and buy our single "The Reputation of Ross Francis". We were away all last week. First up was a single launch at The Luminaire in London, which is such an amazing venue. Thats the second time we've been down to play there and it really is a great place... Ryan even mentioned that he thought it was his favourite venue we've ever played. The gig went pretty well down there and it was good to know that we had two days 'off' in London after the show. Well, the next day we had a 6music session, but that wasn't until 4pm. We did manage to get up early the next day as we had to practice a punk cover for the session. We decided to go for 'Rudie Can't Fail' by The Clash, which was something we've been wanting to cover for ages. Anyway, our next day 'off' involved getting up at 8am to drive to a Whitechapel recording studio to record a few versions of album tracks. It was a really productive day and was a good laugh, until the very end. The studio was in a massive warehouse in what could not possibly be described as a nice area of London. My fear of lifts meant that I had to walk alone through the warehouse in pitch black to arrive at the opposite end of the warehouse in a sort of enclosed courtyard bit and walk round to the van. Anyway, before I left Laura mentioned that there was a 'shady looking gang' hanging around and I would be better just getting the lift. I decided to take my chances with the gang, but when I started walking along the corrider the lights in the warehouse blew completely so I was left in complete darkness. I couldnt turn back now because I had locked a door behind me and couldnt get in contact with anyone. I started to walk down the stairs slowly and started to hear some voices. By this point I was in a bit of a panic, but had to keep going forward anyway. When I got to the locked gate at the bottom of the stairs I was confronted by the 'shady looking gang' and now realised that forward was my only option. However, with them at one side of the gate and me at the other I still had a decision to make... really couldnt face going back up the eternal darkness of the warehouse so thought I'd just open the gate and take my chances with the young chaps. In a bit of a panic I kinda struggled to open the gate and wasnt to keen on pulling it open since some of them were leaning against it. When they noticed my distress they offered me advice as to how to get it open (I wasn't sure at this point if they wanted to savagely beat me and steal my guitar, or simply attain access to the warehouse and a refuge for law breaking activity).. at this stage it was too late to care, I had to open the gate and in some way manage to appear unfazed by their threatening actions. I finally managed to get it open and kinda closed my eyes awaiting their first blow and ready to swing my guitar at them. However, it never arrived and the only contact which came was the rush of them squeezing past me and heading inot the factory. When curiosity got the better of me and i had a look back, I noticed some of them were glaring at me from the entrance to the warrehouse...but by this time I was just about in the van and heading to safety. I apologise to anyone who has a work space in that warehouse and had things stolen, burned or smoked... I was the person who let them in, selfishly protecting my own safety.

Anyway, the next morning we were heading to Berlin for our first show in Germany. Gary and I had been over in January to do promo for the album (which we found out this time was the coldest day in Berlin for 64 years). Prior to the gig we had a bit of promo to do... the first thing being Gary, Laura and I appearing live on German TV to play a few songs acoustically and an interview. It was a bit surreal to be honest but lots of funa dn the people who ran the TV station were really nice. By the time the gig came around we were all pretty tired, since we had been awake for the best part of 20 hours, but the gig was great as were Field Music and Tilly and the Wall. Afterwards we managed to resist Curt's temptations to 'party all night long' and we retreated early to our hotel, knowing we were up early in the morning to catch our plane. We flew into London and faced a drive home from there. We were reunited with our van at Standsted and decided to watch Bily Connely, followed by Fargo, which just about took us to Manchester... we still had a long way to go (especially when Ryan was hyper and any opportunity of sleep was scuppered)

This week we are recording a live session for Vic Galloway and we are playing in Dundee University on Thursday. Our album Launch is at MONO on Sunday night, and our debut album WOLVES is out on Monday 6th March!!!!!

Oh, can someone PLEASE make us up some compilation CD's for our van.. we will pay you money. It got drastic on that trip!"

B.A.D (Bad Ass Deveney) AKA Chrissy-Poo x

Wednesday 15th February

I hope everyone got a Valentines Card and weren't left dissapointed!!!

It's my birthday tomorrow, so anyone who wants my address to send present to then please send us an e-mail and I will give you my address.

Aside from that... we have details on our gig page of our tour!

Here is a link for tour information.....

http://www.drownedinsound.com/content/view/624911

Chris (about to turn 23) x

Monday 13th February

I think it was last weeks Sunday Times that said " this past month has been a hectic time for Ryan King; the coolest dude , and lead percussionist in My Latest Novel", and they did not strike one inaccurate chord with such a statement. Ryan ( The only King in the band, Deveney's!), has been up to his chin in pure effort and strain.Making precision sandwiches, diluting cups of tea with such delicate accuracy that the creamy milk never overshadows the tea flavour. I have made endless trips to the buroo, answering many questions for the interviewers there,and making sure that my employment status remains such that i can recieve some sort of benefit in these dark days, and difficult times of hardship, and misfortune.

Anyway,enough about my hectic personal schedule.We played a special gig last night in Greenock's Mighty Lava Lounge for the benefit of Mr Chris Davidsons 50th Birthday Party(His birthday is actually on Christmas Day, and this late celebration; a pleasant surprise). A jovial evening was had by all, and we had a few brandies and shandies beforehand, making for an utterly unique performance.The congregation celebrating Chris' Birthday seemed to enjoy it , and we also had an excellent night.Chris has helped the band on a whole number of levels since we started, and we were extremely happy to be asked to play his 50th Birthday Party!!

On other news, we will be kicking off a tour of the UK in March covering a whole host of magnificent ports(soon to appear on our Gig Page).Beginning with our GRAND UNVEILING of our DEBUT ALBUM "WOLVES, on Sunday 5th March in MONO . Be there, or forever hang your head in shame!!!!!

And lets not forget the new single "THE REPUTATION OF ROSS FRANCIS" is out in exactly one week, that's right children : 20th FEBRUARY 2006. You can not miss this.....or you may recieve Ross Francis' wrath, and you don't want that, trust me!

String Up The Pig, and Strike It With A Twig, And Good Fortune shall Meet Thy Palm - Bye - Ryan x

(If only the above statement were true, some people believe in these sorts of things you know!)

 

Wednesday 8th February

Excited as we were about playing in the Northern cities of Stockholm and Oslo, noone could possibly have predicted the temperatures we were about to have to deal with. Soaring towards the Baltic Sea in Glenn’s private jet, we were lightly dressed for this time of year in Scandinavia.

Stockholm is a beautiful city, and I would advise anyone to go and spend a few days there. Having been on trains, buses and the aforementioned plane, we arrived to discover that we would be sleeping on a boat. The lake, upon which, being completely frozen over.

After breakfast, and the hour long conversation never developing any further than “I dare you to walk on the ice”, we embarked upon a barrage of questioning and answering from the Swedish press.

The gig in Stockholm was great, but it is important to mention that having played our full repertoire, the audiences’ pleas for an encore were in vain. Until it seemed, Chris took to the stage single handedly and attempted to explain the situation, and why they should stop clapping. “Eh...well...we need another amp to do that song...and em...well...I’m sorry but...”. It would have been an awkward moment, but the crowd enjoyed it Christian!

The next day, we headed to Oslo. The flight was delayed, but we were kept entertained by Paul’s gymnastics in the airport. The gig was great, but my biggest memory of Oslo is the walk to the bus station in the morning. Pitch black, and honestly, so, so cold.

We arrived in Stansted for a 6 hour wait. A truly traumatic experience!

Upon returning, we awoke fresh on Sunday for the football tournament we entered confidently 6 months ago. Our squad was Chris, Paul McLean, Laura, Kato (our latest tour manager), Glenn, Gerry (a late and very useful stand in) and I. Paul had to pull out at the last minute due to a fractured eyelash (see previous gymnastics). It’s not too serious, and he will be back to full fitness soon.

We’re proud to anounce we won the football handsomely. Having scraped through the group stages, we beat the QMU 4-1 in the semi’s and then Dundee in the final. It was a close game, but Glenn’s winning goal late in the match sealed a fun afternoon. We will be parading the trophy in George Square before our next gig.

G x

Monday 30th January 2006

"I think it was last weeks Sunday Times which said 'it has been a hectic time for Chris Deveney, the lead singer of My Latest Novel'... they weren't wrong. Gary and I (the only two Deveney's in MLN, Ryan) had barely touched back down in Scotland from a three day promo trip in Berlin, when we were faced with two days in the studio before playing at the Garage in Glasgow for Celtic Connections. The time we had in Berlin was great and at least we had time on the plane to defrost. I don't think I've ever been as cold as that in my entire life,. and being quite under-prepared I never even had a jumper. Anyway, anyone who says its an easy life in a band should go on a promo trip.... we did ten interviews with german magazines and newspapers and then a radio session. Although it did have its perks.... being in Berlin for a start and also being treated by the record label to numerous meals and drinks. I'm going alone next time to Brussels, Amsterdam and Milan which should be fun. Anyone who knows me or who has read here in the past will be aware that I'm not a great flyer, but I handled the flights really well and at one point almost enjoyed it. We were flying above the clouds during sunset and Gary said i should look out the window... when I did he asked what i thought, I think my response was "yeah, its really nice.... terrifying, but nice". We're playing Stockholm and Oslo next week, so I'll have to do it all over again!! I'd imagine Scandinavia will be ever colder than Germany so I better remember a jumper. When we returned we played the Garage, and we were delighted that it sold out and we played a good gig. It was a good night, although none of us could get the TV or DVD player to work in the dressing room, which almost caused arguments and I nearly locked myself in the toilet which almost caused complete and utter hysteria for about a nano-second.
WToday we are preparing ourselves for our gigs in Scandanavia this week... Ryan has already discussed a pair of long-johns!!!!

chris

Tuesday 10th January 2006

"I hope that everyone had a good Christmas and New Year!!! I would go into mine, but it may be funnier to let Ryan tell you about Christmas Eve... and I noticed the last post was written by me just before Ryan and I went on a night out, I will let him fill you in!

Those of you who are observant will have noticed that we have a song, "When We Were Wolves" available to download from various sites... I havent yet done it since I know absolutely whack about computers, but Ryan assures me it works. Here are some dates for your new 2006 diaries...

20th Jan - Glasgow Garage (+King Creosote)
20th Feb - Single Release "The Reputation of Ross Francis"
6th March - Album Release "Wolves"

Prior to all this, Gary and I are off to Berlin on Monday for three days promo stuff.. should be good fun (although I won't again go into my fear of flying). Following this Ryan and I go to Paris for a days promo.... but sad sad sad for Paul, Bella Union decided only to send one to Amsterdam, Brussels and Milan so he has been cancelled and I will face it alone!!
We supported Belle and Sebastian on Sunday night for XFM competition winners and invited guests. It was our first gig for a few weeks and although we were a bit rusty, it turned out to be a decent enough gig. Finally, I must state however, that the dressing room toilet incident between myself and Ryan has not been forgotten and he will be made to repent.... in a big big way! Although, I must take some of the blame myself, I was the one who ended up covered in beer. Ryan posts these up so he'll probably put a funny name beside my name below "

Chris (It's funny enough on its own, so i think i'll leave it today!!!! R x)

 

Wednesday 21st December 2005

Well, I'm sitting waiting on Ryan coming out of a shower... he always takes ages to get ready. God... that sounds as though we're some sort of couple. If there was a prize for the longest to get ready it would have to go to Laura.... hours spent waiting outside Hotels whilst on tour. Anyway, Ryan and I are going out tonight to watch 'Howdy!', which is a kinda open mic thing in Gourock every year. Gary is doing a couple of covers with our friend Jim... should be a good night as long as Ryan doesn't get wasted and I'll have to get into babysitting mode. I don't feel Christmassy yet... even though I watched the 100 Greatest Christmas moments the other night. Should have guessed Band Aid would have won... my vote would have went to The Pogues (who I went to see the other night and were great), or the Bottom Christmas special.

At the start of 2006 we have all these press thinigs which we're going to in Europe. Basically just a full day sitting around doing interviews and radio sessions. 2 people are to go to each one and I have managed to secure a place at them all... with everyone else rotating. I don't know how good this is since I'm weary of flying... but spending time in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels etc etc for the first part of the year was too good to turn down. The flight home from Barcelona was a bit ropey. We were barely in the air whenthe turbulence started... I looked at Paul and the fear had kicked in for him aswell. The only advice he could give me was to put on my I-Pod and listen to the Hidden Cameras.... it worked!!!

Anyway, Ryan has emerged from his shower, so I better go. We are hopeful that you can make it to the Garage gig on the 20th... we're offering a prize to the person who travels the furthest distance to it. So if you think it is you then contact us.

Chris x

 

Wednesday 14th December 2005

Buenas Dias Dudes! We have arrived back in the country of Scotland after brief jaunt to Espania, and three fast paced , action packed days with Stars in the UK.We are all tanned up and whilst we were in Barcelona, the heat was unbearable.......due to the fact that there was none. It was f f f f f f ff f f f f f freeeeeezing in Spain.Not even the whiff of a warm breeze.

Firstly we headed for Reading's South Street Arts Centre, where we met Stars for the first time, and at last we have met another band who use as may channels on a desk as us, and resulted in us and them bonding through the need to share equipment with each other.They were a lively bunch of excellent people, who made us feel very welcome. They played a great set that night, and i especialy loved "Your Ex-Lover is Dead".There were striking similarities in our ethos' and Torq from Stars made it quite clear to us that he loved our music, and we would like to thank him for making that clear on stage every night, cos we loved Stars too, sniff sniff.

The next night we played Leeds, and souncheck times were tight,especially since we did a short interview and session for Leeds Student Radio (Due to go out in Feb), then we sped backto the Cockpit in Leeds, to recieve but a short line check before playing. It was probably my least favourite night due to the onstage sound, but hey ho.The next night we played London ULU. Spirits were high and we got a few short rounds of " Bare Bum Baddies" on the go(Don't Ask- It's not quite what it sounds like), As well as going through a repertoire of power ballads in the van on the way there including such hits as: All For One(All For Love), I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight, and a drunken version of Ladysmith Black Mambazo(Feat Glenn "The Funky" Gibbons). ahem......well anyway......more about the show....Yes, it was great, we had an excellent time, the sound was great on stage, and the crowd there were completely beautiful.We also played our future single " The Reputation Of Ross Francis" Live for the 3rd time this night(1st and 2nd at Reading and Leeds).

We stayed to watch Stars for the last time this year, and had a beer, a beer, a beer, a beer, a beer, a beer, a beer, a beer, a beer, a tequila, a beer, a beer, a beerssssssssssssssssssssssssssssh!Next thing we are back in the van singing more power ballads, and i need to get out for the convenience of being comfortable. So as i leap over a bush to do so, i land in the cruellest bitch of a thorn bush you could ever meet. I was surrounded. i had to push myself back up off the ground, but to do so i have to push the weight of my hands into the thorns.ouch.Needless to say i was covered in painful thorny bits, and had a flight to Madrid in 3 hours.Comfortable? No.

On the plane! Chris deals with his fear of flying in tuly commendable fashion, and reads a few newspapers casually, as if he is on the train to Gourock.Well done my brother!We land and meet David , who is from Sinnamon Records, and he is there to take us to our hotel.We find out that he is incredibly nice, and notice that he looks a bit like Joel from The Brian Jonestown Massacre.He shows us round and up to our hotel rooms, and then guides the rest of the dudes into the city for a stunning meal. However, Gary Paul, and I decide to take a seperate path and wander around in Madrid a bit on our own.What a mistake.We were ultimately starving and could speak literally a few words of Spanish.So after a fewhours of trying to find a restaurant wediscover one with a menu written in English in the window, and it was a Tapas bar, so we go in and take a seat, but the dudes there couldn't speak English, and we we couldn't speak Spanish.The ensuing awkwardness and hilarity was indescribable, but i'll give it a shot. We pointed at menu items, not knowing whether they were small tapas dishes or Main meal dishes(as there were main meals in there too). So paul orders some sort of soup, which was basically just oil, he hates it, i got a weird potato thing, and gary's soup was similar.....Paul panics and asks if he can pour some into my empty bowl . The waiter looks disgusted at us as he takes away the full bowl of untouched soup, and then comes the main meals we thought we ordered, mainly due to their price tag- 12 Euros. So , i think i'm getting a shrimp stew type thing,and Gary Spaghetti with salmon and broccolli. Gary's spaghetti comes, and sure enough it's a main meal. I rub my hands together in anticipation and............it arrives..........a bowl of slimy garlic mushrooms......I .....H-A-T-E slimy little garlic mushrooms, but as the guy speaks no English, and i speak no Spanish, to query this would be too much effort.We just wanted to get out of there, it was rubbish.So we began to come up with way to hide the fact i didn't eat any mushrooms. So i hid them under my plate, under gary's unfinished spaghetti, and on a side plate under the table. We pay for the bill at the bar, and run away.Awkward, and starving, we go to Dunkin Donuts.Bad.

Sinammon treated us amazingly and looked after us really well.We played a great show in the Moby Dick in Madrid that night, and the Spanish crowd seemed to love it.Afterwards there was a DJ who played some great indie music, and even played the Delgados to our pleasant surprise.I started on the tequila with Laura " Mad Dog" McFarlane (I'm afraid you have adopted this nickname now Laura, it has been passed down .), Funky Gibbon, and Greedo Breef.I had a great night, and ended up getting completely random cocktails of drinks made for me at the bar....until........Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Next morning, i wake up feeling great, maybe still slightly cocktailed in the mind, but nevertheless great.I had a few suspect chorizos with my breakfast, and felt completely psychadelic for the rest of the day.Weird van movements, and " Motown Meets the Beatles" playing on the stereo, send me into weirdness beyond your imagination....i was beginning to feel slightly freaked, and was getting really uncomfortable in the van.As soon as i arrive at the hotel in Barcelona after the7 hour drive from Psychedelia, i opt not to see any of Barca that day, and go straight to bed.After a 3 hour sleep i feel much better. We were playing Razzmatazz that night, and it was an outstanding venue.We played our set through some sound problems, but found our feet, and again it was another success.The Sinnamon dudes enjoyed it a lot, and were all really nice.We stayed to watch Her Space Holiday, who we were supporting on the two Spanish shows, and although they had similar sound problems, their set was quite different, and for the most part really enjoyable.We made the decision to take things easy that night, and we all went home to bed early. Madrid had did what it did, and we needed a good sleep before we did some seeing of the sights early the next day.Oh......and i nearly forgot.....Chris did a great interview before the show that night...so good in fact that he gave the guy that interviewed him a wee cuddle for being all nice and interesting.Chris is a nice boy.We love him.

We went to see some of the Gaudi buildings the next day, and some other local sights before heading for our turbulent plane home. The turbulence was farly bad, and Laura "Mad Dog" McFarlane decided to sit beside me for some support in the "Drinking Of Alcohol On the Plane To Block Out the Fear Department". So we got drunk, landed, and went to Happy Mondays in Funk!

The End - By El Ringo Kingo x

 

 

Wednesday 30th November 2005

Well...well...since returning from our tour with Arab Strap, all of us have struggled to deal with a sharp, harsh dose of reality. I think for a first tour, we managed fairly well (although Tam would have a thing or ten to say about that).

Anyone who managed to see Arab Strap will realise how well their new album works live. My favourites were definitely Chat In Amsterdam and There Is No Ending, but Kate Moss and Soaps were great too.

Contrary to our previous posts, our next single will be 'The Reputation Of Ross Francis'. This is a brand new song, which we've never played live before, but is on the album. Prior to last night, I think we'd all had our doubts over whether we'd be able to play it live at all, but we spent a few hours on it, and the chorus is sounding as close to the recording as we can get it. Another 6 hours tomorrow, and it'll be ready for its first live airing at the Stars dates. I suppose the problem with attaching such a cult figure to a song, is you'll always feel you fail to honour his name. Just in case he hears it or something.

The single will be released sometime early in the new year, and we have started work on the video. The B-side is another new song called 'Gunpowder, Treason and Plot', which we hope to play live at our next Glasgow show early in the New Year. It's a difficult one to pigeon hole. It's played in three distinct parts, and probably the most unusual MLN song to date. It's pretty ambitious as one piece, and we have spoken about splitting it into three for the live show.

Finally...we're all fairly fed up with our own on-tour compilations. Has anyone made a good one recently that we could take to Spain? Even if you email us your playlist, we can make the tape. Remember...usual rules apply...only one track per artist per tape, and you have to judge it so the tape doesn't stop mid-song. Maybe we could even do a swap?

Monday 28th November 2005

'Sister Sneaker Sister Soul' video is now at www.bellaunion.com

x

Tuesday 22nd November 2005

Tour Diary

"I woke up on the Friday feeling more than a bit tired. I had been DJ-ing the previos night and all my good intentions not to over-indulge had been cast aside. Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to sit in the front, get some fresh air and I'd be fine. We were all pretty excited until.... "Oh, God..!! I've left my drum stands in my house" came from Ryans mouth. Not to be disheartened we turned around and drove the thirty miles back and got them. We understand that our managers Tam and Glenn had a bet on that something like this would happen (Glenn now owes Tam money!!!). However, we arrived in Manchester with time to spare and we played a pretty good gig. Stuart and Dougie from Viva Stereo and PAul from OBC were there so it was nice to see them. Stuart later told me that he thought When We Were Wolves sounded like how Nick Cave would if he was from Greenock.... I quite liked that comparison. Anyway, we all had a pretty early night and got ready for Sheffield the next day.

Paul had, for no particular reason, been looking forward to Sheffield more than most gigs. Maybe its because of the bands from there like Pulp, Cabaret Voltaire and erm The Arctic Monkeys.... although we listened to their single on the way in and I think the B-Side is better. Anyway, we got there around 6 hours early (which must be a MLN record) and after dumping our stuff we went and got some food. Since it was a Saturday we allowed oursleves to have a couple of pints in the afternoon before stumbling upon a multi-cultural market which was set up in town. Paul and Gary bought bonzai trees, which brightened up the tour van (or at least the floor for most of it, since we never found out about Josh Pearsons velcro trick for tables in vans until the last day). The gig in Sheffield was good, but it took us ages to find our travel lodge.

The next day we headed off to Nottingham accompanied by one of our managers, Tam. I was particularly looking forward to this gig, since we had played here before and thought it was a nice place.. even though we've never been to Sherwood Forrest or anything like that. Nottingham was one of our best gigs of the tour... it was a venue called The Social, which I thought was gonna be crap when we went in but it turned out to be a really nice atmoshphere. During the day, I went with Tam and our tour manager Paul McLean for a rubbish burger at some chain pub, while getting text messages form the rest telling me how they had found the greatest burger in England and that I was really missing myself (you know the kind, when you know you've made a bad decision and someone tries to rub your face in it.) Anyway, Laura decided against going ice-skating and we just did the gig instead.

Norwich was one of the gigs I was a bit worried about. Mainly because I didnt know too much about it apart from Delia Smith and Alan Partridge. But, it turned out to be one of my favourite gigs of the tour. It was in a really nice Arts Centre, which I think used to be a church or something and we sounded good that night. We got really nice food in the venue aswell and met lots of nice people... someone even offered to buy my bass guitar. The next day we were able to look around some shops and for some reason all they sell in Norwich is Guitars and Star Wars figures. I'm basing this purely on the shops we visited, which were right beside the venue, but all they had was Star Wars and stuff like that. Anyway, we were able to spend some time going in almost every shop they had before heading to Northampton.

Northampton, I was told by Alan Barr from Arab Strap, was the biggest town in Europe. When I asked the crowd this they told me it was only the biggest town in England... thats not a great acheivement in comparison, but its ok I guess. Gary, Paul and I managed to find a pizza shop called Mama Mia's which gave us three pizza's for the price of one since they had run out of a certain size of box. We also arrived at the venue to a delivery of a case of our singles... which we managed to sell in three nights, but for a short period, we felt really organised. We all had an early night that night since we were heading to Edinburgh the next day.

When we were asked to play at the Scottish Parliament building I dont think any of us knew what to think. We were pretty excited about it since Idlewild and Mull Historical Society were doing it, but we were daunted about playing in front of politicians and music industry... I think we kinda hoped that was behind us when we signed to Bella Union. In the end we did three songs acoustic and the politicians stayed true to form and spoke over us and interrupted us etc etc etc. But it was a good night and we did go down well.... even Jack McConnell liked us!! We had to drive to Cambridge the next day so we went back to our own beds pretty early.

Cambridge was a bit of a nightmare... we were really late and only managed to walk straight on stage and do an acoustic set. We seemed to go down pretty well, surprisingly, but I think we defintely owe the people of Cambridge a proper gig after that one. We all ended up going to a club with Arab Strap and absolutely nothing eventful happened... nothing at all... we had an early night and nothing worth talking about happened... promise!!

The following day we had a fairly short drive to Bristol... but after a blow out on the motorway we got there in time for a limited soundcheck before going on stage. We played pretty well that night and I remember meeting some pretty nice people there. We decided to have an early night... even though it was a Friday, and we ordered Chinese food to our hotel and watched Pheonix nights and Jools holland. Paul introduced me to some other comedy program, but it was rubbish.... after that True Romance was on so we watched that and fell asleep.

The following morning we spent about an hour in Marks and Spencer buying food... I think we were getting fed up with service station stuff, so we bought enough to get us to Cardiff. I've always been a bit sceptical about Barfly's but the one in Cardiff is really nice and is positioned right beside a castle... which we never went in since they made you pay. Ryan dared me to run past the security guard, but Gary made me realsie i had nowhere to run to and since I couldnt be bothered scaling any walls I gave it a miss. Instead, Paul and I went to a pub to try and watch the Scotland football game, all they had was Welsh rugby so we went back to the venue and did our soundcheck. The gig was good that night and it was nice to see some people we met at the Green Man Festival earlier in the year. We got ourselves ready for Exeter the next day.

Exeter was another place I hadn't been to and was kinda looking forward to for no reason. When we left Cardiff we stopped in at the worlds worst service station. ALthough most of them are pretty bad and really over-priced... this one took things too far. I think it was made worse by the fact it was a Sunday morning and most of us wanted a decent breakfast. Instead I spent most of my money on a couple of wet bits of bread and a slice of meat, which they had the cheek to call a sandwhich... while I watched Paul McLean eat his full breakfast (I didnt feel bad because it cost him about £10). Anyway, I brushed this aside and looked forward to getting to Exeter. When we arrived there (again about four hours early), we decided to split up... well, a couple of us decided to go back to the hotel and sleep for a few hours. Later on we met and did our soundcheck and stuff and had dinner together. Exeter was probably our strangest gig of the tour, because on stage it sounded absolutely awful.. really couldnt hear a thing, one of the worst it has ever been... but we were assured by Paul McLean and members of Arab Strap that it sounded really good "out front". This was a slight consolation to me, although I think by that time I had definitely taken the huff... whilst being reminded by others that I hadnt argued with a sound engineer for over a year and it was best to keep it that way. Anyway, we ended up having a really good night and the venue was pretty cool... even though the posters advertised the gig for the 31st of November rather than the 13th of November (bearing in mind the 31st of November doesnt even exist!!!). Not to worry, we had a day away form Arab Strap then next day... we were going to play in Brighton while they had a day off.

Brighton was nice to visit! We got there early and myself, Gary, Laura and Ryan went to the fair and went on the waltzers. I definitely thought I was gonna be sick though...!! Laura was trying to get us on the Mouse thing, and although it sounds timid, it is worse than any rollercaoster you can go on... they dangle you over the edge. I managed to bodyswerve it with a "we should get back for our soundcheck..." Brighton also brought some fresh faces in Tam and lucy from 13 Artists so there was a slight conversation change... and of course we were playing with a different band. We had kinda invaded The Pipettes single launch, and I kinda think we were a wee bit out of place. THe band before us were a proper girl group like Girls Aloud or something like that (I'm not even exagerating), the Pipettes are more of a kinda 60's girl group. It was nice that they allowed us to play and we had a really good night... and in a way it was nice to see the contrast between Malcolm and Aidans miserabilism and witness pure girl pop.

The next day was Colchester and was to be our last night with Arab Strap. We were all feeling pretty down about this, we kinda wished now we were doing the full tour with them. Colchester was very similar to Norwich in that it was an Arts Centre and they treated us to a lengthy soundcheck and a nice meal. We played our gig and it went well.... it seemed as though we were just getting in to the tour when we had to go to France. We stayed and watched Arab Strap and then said our goodbyes and heading off to get the ferry to France.

I was pretty nervous about the ferry for some reason... but also a bit excited about going to Paris. My French is non-exsistent, but thought I could battle through the language barrier. To be honest the only problem I had was on stage... I think I talk quite quick at the best of times. We never got to see as much of Paris as we would have liked, we spent some time during the day with the guys from V2 in Europe who were all very nice and bought us our lunch and dinner. Laura, myself and Tam did have time to visit Jim Morrissons grave which was just up the road... not sure if that was kinda morbid, but the cymetry itself was really impressive. Anyway, we played a really good gig in Paris and it was a really nice way to end our tour.... even if the 16 hour drive the next day wasnt. On the way home the following day I volunteered to keep Paul McLean company... 16 hours later I still hadn't slept (but the main thing was Paul hadnt either so we got home safely). We brought Josh Pearson home aswell, and met up with him again for the gig in Glasgow with Dirty Three on Saturday... he told us about the velcro trick for tables in vans and also that he'd met Anton Newcombe from Brian Jonestown Massacre (and threatened to slit his throat)... it all passes time in the back of a van!!!"

Here is a list of the DVD's we watched in the van if anyone is interested....

Rude Boy - The Clash, Bob Dylan Chronicles, Dig!, Harry Potter 2 & 3, Girl Interrupted, Uncle Buck, Field of Dreams, The Simpsons, Lost, 24 Hour Party People... I cant remember the rest, but my Shaun of the Dead got left somewhere. If anyone has it please contact us."

Chris

Friday 28th October

How do you do? We are in preparation for our tour with Arab Strap next week... before that however, we will be back in Chem 19 this weekend to record the B-Side to our second single which will be "When We Were Wolves"... although don't get too excited, it's not due out until the start of next year. We've been working on our album artwork this week and as Laura said below it is looking rather dashing!!! I've been trying to think of things that I've been doing lately, which may be of some interest to people.... I have watched the entire 1st series of Lost!! I'd find it so funny if I just wrote here exactly what happens, but I won't since I know that so many people are addicted to it..... anyway, I couldn't believe that the Sawyer died in the first series....... just kidding!!! (or am I????)

I've just downloaded stuff by a band called Bricolage.... its people who I used to be in a band with a couple of years ago and its great...!!!! Anyway, I have to go and continuemy day... hope to see some of you on the tour...

Chris

 

Thursday 27th October

First off, I don't mean to offend anyone and I apologise for this being the first ever post that I’ve done. My reason is purely that I of don't really like the internet all that much. Infact I find it seedy and disgusting. I think it's great that we get e-mails from people all over the world appreciating what we do and sometimes not.......but to be honest I'd much prefer a letter. I live in the dark ages and I quite like it that way. Mind you I'm having lots of fun writing this so I think I'll do it again. Anyway that's my rant over with now on to the exciting stuff. Well, we've finished the art work for the album and in my opinion it could not be better. I'm in love with it. We are gearing ourselves up for our forth coming gigs with the almighty Arab Strap and The stars. I have to admit that I'm slightly over excited. Not about the fact that I'm probably going to get evicted from my flat for not paying rent but that we're playing with some topper bands (and yes I did use the word "topper.")

We recently played in Kirkcaldy and Glasgow which were both amazing. We played the gig in Kirkcaldy with a band called Findo Gask, who might just be my new favourite band, although that's a huge pressure for the band to carry on their shoulders I'll stick with it.

Tonight presents the DJ-ing skills of Gaz D. I shall be there as he woes the crowd with his effervescent tracks at the old Swine Bar Extraordinaire. It'll be two large gins, two pints of cider, ice in the cider for me!!!

Love

Laura

Friday 14th October

Last night was John Peel night pretty much everywhere. So many gigs and nights to chose from in the name of the good man, so i ended up in Lava Lounge in Greenock where Chris and our friend Chris Davidson were Dee-Jaying! Was a great night with the best music iv ever heard being played in a nightclub. Anynight where you can mince around to the Hidden Cameras and disco pogo-a-go-go to the Fall is a winner. Gary, Ryan and myself also worked on the Artwork for the album (not long to go now ), creating a masterful work of art to die for. There was chat that we may auction it off when the album come out so save your Christmas money and start your bidding.

Well Tonight we play at Strathclyde Union away up on the top floor. Boy are Gary's arms going to hurt carrying those amps up the stairs. Hope to see some of yall!

Take care

Pablo x

P.s Ryan that Cindy(Cindi, Sindy,Cindie???)Lauper video in the goonies is well good. I have that song on the cassette Walkman.

Thursday 29th September

We received a couple of good live reviews from our recent gig at the Luminaire in London (see... we told you it was good). Anyway, we'll try and put these up on the website soon. ciao x

http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/050928/33/1yd5u.html

http://www.aaamusic.co.uk/reviews.asp?id=483

..... check the Competition Time button on the Hompegae for a MLN QUIZ

 

Wednesday 28th September

"So we've been scurrying and hurrying for album titles... we have some ideas and a clear motif for title and artwork. The debate still rages on about our second single (especially after our producer Andy Miller suggested the same as our management), it should be finalised soon. We have a meeting today to discuss tours etc (which may see MLN make our first voyage overseas), although I'm pretty scared of flying!! But, I hated undergrounds and I got on three the other day... I think flying is a completely different thing. I never used to be scared, our parents used to take Gary and I abroad all the time and I remember being scared at first but then enjoying it. Anyway, the good news is, if we crash we'll probbly just die and despite a few moments panic, it'll be a quick death. God thats Morbid!! I dont really think like that, I'm just trying to stay "positive". My mate Harry moved to Cork last week. Hi Harry! We've been thinking about new stuff for our website, as you will have noticed various pages have reinvented themselves, and we're gonna have a new homepage soon. We've been asked to get a messageboard and while we do trust everyone, we also like to keep things personal and people who e-mail us will testify that we do write back ecery time.... well almost everytime. So, any suggestions will be welcomed as to how we should develop our MLN community. We think we should post up peoples comments after they have been e-mailed to us (is that ok or boring?) Anyway I'm gonna hitch a ride and catch up for MLN reunion tour in 2015 - "The Last of the Novelans".... anything to stay off a plane."

Chris

Monday 26th September (13:26)

"Well, it has been a fairly hectic few days to say the least. On Wednesday night I was DJ-ing at the Babyshambles aftershow party in Greenock... Laura and Ryan came along and all plans to take it easy in advance of our London trip seemed to be dispelled pretty quickly. Nevermind..... we got up in good(ish) time and just about made it to London in time for a decent soundcheck. The Luminaire turned out to be a great venue (especially since they treated us to Thai food before we went on). Apologies in advance to anyone who wasn't there.... but in my opinion it was our best gig this year. So I guess if you were there and never liked it, you may never like us. We were all a bit surprised how many people were there and everyone seemed to like it so thats always good. Afterwards we hung around longer than we expected and had a few drinks before going to Paul's brothers to stay. The best part of the night was probably the look on Paul McLean's (our driver) face when he walked out of the ladies toilets.... who knows what he witnessed in there. The next morning Gary headed off to Norway and the rest of us had to handle a radio session for 6 Music without him. Acoustic duties arrived at my door and despite Fieldy not being there we did ok. (NOTE. Gary and Fieldy are the same person). We then drove home...well, everyone else went home to bed... I had to DJ again in Greenock as soon as we arrived back. Tired does not describe it. I was again DJ-ing on Saturday night, so my weekend was somewhat polluted with "work". The London trip had a system of my tunes for one hour and then Laura's tunes for one hour on the I-Pod thingy you put in the tape player. I think my tunes were the best.... you can't beat things like Daniel Johnson or any song from Smog's Supper which I hadn't listened to for ages.. although Laura's Northern Soul at 8am just about woke us all up.

We seem to be getting lots of e-mails about when our album is coming out. At the moment we dont have a release date, but it will be some time at the start of the new year. Sorry if thats a long wait, but we think it'll be worth it. We will have a second single out beforehand anyways. We have some gigs coming up in a couple of weeks and hopefully some more in England. For people abroad who are struggling to get hold of our single you can get it on Karma Download...... I think. Anyway, tthis is getting long and boring... ccongratulations if you have made it this far.

Chrissy Chrissy Kissy Kissy x

Monday 19th September - The Grey(or Gray) Day

Woke up to my blinds cracking off my window in the wind, and the playful spray of the rain pissing in, and onto my face.Outside on this day, it is grey, and i forgot to close my window before i fell asleep last night.

It wasn't as much of a decision, as it was a problem with my damp disposition, that led me to get up earlier than usual.Especially after our gig in Aberdeen last night, and arriving back in Greenock at 3am.So, feeling like a retarded chimp, i put on my trackies, went downstairs, burnt my sausages, and eventually settled for a gammon sandwich for breakfast.What a rubbish day!

I made the decision not to go out today.It's not safe out there.So instead i opt to play Abe's Exoddus on the PS2. I get really far, and i am so happy with myself , i feel i deserve a lunch break....BUT.....as i try to save my game and put on the T.V, i realise that i need a Playstation One memory card to save my mighty efforts.

I punched the wall .

The day has only been saved by the one thing that couldn't possibly go wrong.... "The Goonies".....Watched it, and felt all nostalgic, followed by messing about with all the special features, which includes a dreadful Cindy(Cindi, Sindy,Cindie???)Lauper video that she did especially for the film.

It was crazy.

Just had some soup, and now i feel ready to tackle the rest of the evening....Think i might go see "Wolf Creek".....Is it any good?......email me at chattychatty@mylatestnovel.com ...

God I'm Bored!!!!!!

Ryan x

 

Monday 19th September

"I don't think we knew what to expect from Freshers gig's, but we have certainly been educated somewhat by the ongoings from the last week. Perhaps the most educational part was the performance of both Tam and Glenn (which I will defintely come back to). The first gig was on Thursday at the QMU, which was always going to turn into a party even if we didn't expect it. We played. It was good. Not great. But good. Data Panic were good, and then Gary and Tom from Snow Patrol were DJ-ing...... followed (and interrupted) by Tam on the decks. Afterwards we stayed at the QMU for drinks until around 4am - Ryan and I lost everyone and then went downstairs to pack away the gear and realised everyone else had already done it. JACKPOT!! But, in fairness, Ryan and I brought it up in the van ourselves with Paul McLean. Expect to see pictures of Tam under a table at this gig and Glenn in a state which only the picture we have can describe. W epromise to post these on the 'Other' page soon. We also played Aberdeen last night, which was again good. Despite the fact it was quiet and obviously hadn't been promoted too well, we feel we played a rather unique gig. We were definitely different from how we usually are, don't quite know what it was, but something was different. It may be Lauras constant feaky thoughts when we're sitting together that someone is always missing. She thinks we're missing a band member... not that she's psychic or anythign, but she has a feeling we're gonna get someone new in soon. I personally don't think so, I think she's just mad! I don't really think this is what made us different last night - I think we were all in a kinda funny mood and various things happened like Gary's guitar strap coming off (although that happened at the QMU aswell). Anyway, thanks to everyone who came along to the two gigs and clapped. We are back in London on Thursday night, for our headline gig at the Luminaire. Hopefully, it will be a good night, we'll be back in practicing this week in preparation more for the journey than the gig. 1001 ways to amuse yourself on the M6 for eight hours by My Latest Novel."

Jesus Chris Superstar ! x

Wednesday 14th September

"OUR ALBUM IS COMPLETELY FINISHED!!! Well, apart from it being mastered, but that will happen soon. We are delighted with it and can't wait for you all to tie your ears round it. We've being doing some practicing lately for the freshers week gigs we have coming up this weekend, and also working on some new ideas for songs (I guess we better be starting our second album now!!!). The gig on Thursday at the QMU in Glasgow is with Data Panik (former members of Bis) and Snow Patrol DJ's, so it should be a good night. Our last gig was in the Camden Barfly in London where we played with two bands called Good Shoes and We Are Scientists, that gig will go out tonight on XFM Radio in London.Thanks to Mr. Robert McGeachy Jnr for setting us up with a quality place to stay on our visit there. which he has done on so many occasions and it has gone unmentioned.Well done that man!!!

One main talking point for us right now is that we have been asked to play in a band five a sides competition. We're not entirely sure what other bands have entered but I think we're gonna go for it. Glenn and Tam (our managers) are both football men so they should be decent, and I'm sure between the five of us we'll be alright. Anyway, this has to be short because my computer at mone is broken and I have to use the library right now, and on a Wednesday it closes at 1pm. Don't blame me... blame Greenock council!!"

Chrissy-Poo x

Sunday 4th September

"Well, as usual, our excuse for not updating you is our busy busyness (this time it's true). As most of you know we played with the Pixies last Sunday (I'll come back to that) and then our single 'Sister Sneaker Sister Soul' came out on Monday and we had gigs at King Tut's, The Tunnels in Aberdeen and Cabaret Voltaire in Edinburgh (thats not even to mention playing in Dunfermline the Friday before with Malcolm Middleton). The gig at Meadowbank with the Pixies was great, we battled the windy conditions pretty well I think and played a set which made us happy and able to enjoy Teenage Fanclub, Idlewild and the Pixies without pointing blame at each other and moody Novellers galore. So then we played King Tut's, which we think was one of our best gig's for a while. It was nice to play most of the songs from our album (which we can assure you will be out some time early in 2006). Aberdeen and Edinburgh were also really good and it was nice to see Saint Judes Infirmary again. I never used to like our capital city, but having been twice in the last week I think I might be starting to like it... although it is horrible to drive in (thats me speaking as a non-driver, but infuriated passenger), especially when we had to leave on Friday straight after the gig as I was in a hurry to get back to Greenock to DJ.

Today we are in Chem 19 for one final day to put together the tracklisting for our album so that its perfectly ready for your awaiting ears. We really cannot wait for you to hear it... we hope you like it as much as we do. We haven't argued yet today about what goes where, it all seems pretty obvious to us anyway. As you may/may not have noticed we are constantly updating the 'Other' page on the photos part with pictures of oursleves and our management and friends etc. If you have anything from one of our gigs or just of yourself then please send it to us and we'll put it up. If your shy then this may be the time to conquer those fears and tell us a bit about yourself. So, I better get back to this album tracklisting (we've got the first three songs chosen and are gonna have it finished today). Bye."

Chris

 

Tuesday 23rd August 2005

THE GREEN MAN FESTIVAL

Wasn't it a great weekend? For some reason we all had hangovers on Friday morning (except Gary and Paul who stayed in, I think mine was worse as I remembered I let my friend Gordon shave my head on Thursday). We arrive at Laura's brothers house on the coast in Gourock and he answers the door to me wearing nothing but his boxer shorts..... "I don't think I'm gonna go!" he says to me!! We stare at each other for 5 seconds deliberating who should say something.. I didn't want to talk too loud with his hangover / stilldrunkhorribbleness in such a bad way. After some deliberation he joined us in the mini-bus. We went and picked up Laura and the BBC dudes before heading down to Wales. The BBC were coming down to do some filming with us (we didn't know what this would entail, fly on the wall stuff is something new to us - everywhere we looked they were there!! But they were all very nice people, and it was nice to have some new faces in our van). Paul McLean was again our driver and he made (as usual) an excellent compilation tape for the drive down - and he also brought some old Factory Records tapes like New Order and the Railway Children (although I don't think we listened much to them since four of the five of us have I-Pods and Ryan has that thing you put in the tape player). Paul and Gary sat up front and put on some great tunes from Gary's I-Pod... ones I can remember are "Rudie Can Fail" by the Clash, "Monkey" by Low and "The Lovecats" by the Cure.... then we got Ryans I-Pod and we had Guns 'N Roses and Madonna - at which point Paul turns round and says to me "thats not even the worst... he's got MC Hammer on here". We Arrive in Wales!
By the time we got to the Festival it was pitch black and we still had to put up the tents. We checked in and found a large space to pitch our tent... it almost seemed too convenient. We spent and hour and a half putting up the 8 man tent which the majority would sleep in (and it turns out after much arguing that the poles are NOT all the same length!!!!!!!!)
We finally settle when some go to bed.... me (Chris), Paul, Paul MCL, Laura and our friends Dave, Gordy (The Defroster from previous news piece) and Marc settle for a "quiet" beer. Suddenly we are under siege.... families everywhere telling us to be quiet as "this is the family area"..... OH GOD! We'll sort it out in the morning, and we went to bed!!

SATURDAY - THE DAY OF THE GIG
Any danger of us sleeping in was never really a danger at all as the family area is seriously active in the morning! Some went in for breakfast while myself and Gary took a walk around waiting for the rest to come back with beers. The arrive back in time for us to get our guitars in tune and get ready for our set... which was (1) Pretty in a Panic (2) Learning Lego (3) The Job Mr Kurtz Done (4) The Hope Edition (5) Wrongfully, I Rested (6) Sister Sneaker Sister Soul.
We played a pretty good gig, and it was our first outdoor experience (preparation for Meadowbank next weekend ). The two little girls at the fornt clapping during The Hope Edition were really very good and deserve credit for their performance, although they could be heard at the end of the set saying to eachother "I like the girl the best", which made Lauras weekend!!
After our gig we sat around and watched Aberfeldy, Lone Pigeon, It's jo and Danny, Malcolm Middleton and Bonnie Prince Billie who were all very good. After all the performances myslef and Laura went up to the controversial 'Artists only' party and it was good to meet up with Gordon Anderson aka The Lone Pigeon.. although he told me I'd lost the sparkle in my eye!! And also with Paul, Alan and Stuart from the Delgados since it was the first time we'd seen them since we finished our album.
On Sunday we drove home - everyone slept and not a great deal happened. I selfishly managed to keep my window seat with all the leg room which I also had on the way down!
And that was that until next year hopefully.

Chris (shoe-Fi) x

Sunday 7th August

"Fruits of Passion reign on???? Well maybe not, but in our desperate search for a bass guitar (we're now on to our fourth) Glenn has offered his, "its a wee bit 80's mate" bass guitar. We will make do and see how it sounds, but we apologise in advance for any cheesy 80's automatic bass lines!!
We would like to congratulate Stuart and Lynette on their marriage on Sunday. Gary, Laura and I (Chris) were there and it was a great day, in which many memorable things happened (besides the actual wedding). Gordon was rechristened "The Defroster", Gary managed to stay awake beyond midnight and Ross Francis delivered a scathing attack on both me and Gary during his best man speech... nah it wasn't that bad, but it certainly makes us feel a bit better for the lyrics to "The Reputation of Ross Francis". Meanwhile, somewhat ironically, Ryan and Paul had their first date together and went to see "The Wedding Crashers". While we're on cinema, Laura has barred us all from going to see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" since it is her favourite film ever and the remake "will never be as good". Anyone who knows any secret cinemas where we can sneak in and go then please let us know. Alternatively, anyone who wants to entertain Laura while we go then please let us know also (applicants must be female however).
Our August gigs are almost upon us. We're very much looking forward to playing the Green Man in a couple of weeks, we played last year and all fell in love with it. After that we have the gig with Malcolm Middleton and then The Pixies gig, which should be amazing, although I think we're all pretty scared!!!
Oh.... the vinyl for our 7" were pressed the other day and we have elected to go for Toffee colour (and thats not even a joke), we wait in anticipation to see what they look like. As you will have gathered the recording for our album is now finished and our first single is out on the 29th of August (we're doing a single launch in King Tut's that night).
I would have responded to Ryan's review of T in the Park, but it wouldn't have matched his.... who would have thought it possible that someone could drink 3 cans of lager on the van on the way there and be asleep three hours later with a stamp on his forehead. He really is a walking miracle - he always drinks the "dodgy" cans though!!
Drummers ehh....!!!"
x

Tuesday 26th July 2005 - The B-Side Of July

What a site for soar eyes!!! We are redecorating the house, as Paul has so kindly alluded to in thon previous post.I'm enjoying the fresh surroundings and no doubt we will have reinvented our pad in no time!!!

I am not going to mention a certain festival called T-In- The-Park...Ssssssh......because i don't really think i can seperate fact from imagination nor theoblivion i was encompassed in, during my short stay there.Therein, i think it's safe to say i enjoyed it A LOT .

On our way to "T" (as it shall be referred to from now on), we got stuck in miles of traffic to the point of deathly standstill, and decided to embark on a journey of flyering the unsuspecting drivers and passengers alike who had no escape from our unstoppable force feeding of My Latest Novel Advertising Paraphenelia.After a successful jaunt down the traffic line, having flyered the likes of "The Duke Spirit", i take a rest to polish off another fine beverage, and begin to conjure another urinary outcry from the hard shoulder.They are all at it, the sly old souls that they are...after all there are no portaloos lining the motorway i can assure you.The rest of my Saturday disappears....................................................................

I wake up in the early evening on the grass in front of the Main stage...The Killers are on....i buy a crappy disposable camera and begin to take drunken pictures of strangers until i meet Laura, and her pal The Hodgemeister (Kirsty Hodge) , who is hitching a lift on Laura's back.I shake off my stupor, and try to come to terms with losing my day.I make up by catching New Order on the NME Stage, who made me cry when they played "Atmosphere".I bought some donuts and a chocolate milkshake from a sub standard snack stand and wearily slouch off to the camping area.........This is Ryan's Version Of Events....To Be Continued....X

 

Tuesday 26th July 2005

Some of you may have gathered that the website is going under a few minor adjustments, I havent seen the light of day for perhaps the last three days, fuelled by Brandy and a constant fear of drifting into the unwell. The website should be back up to scratch in no time.

Chris and I have scanned through all our photos we have collectively and will be putting up some priceless ones as well as live images. If anyone has any good photos of us or our managers :) then please drop us an email and we will do a good swap with you! I have some vintage top trump cards that are worth considerable value.

We have been busy deciding on artwork and making a video with Blair Young for the release of Sister Sneaker Sister Soul on 29th August. We heard some good news today that it will be on NMEs stereo next week.

well its back to work for me tomorrow, i may need some time to let my eyes adjust to the sun again.

kind regards to all

paul x

Saturday 23rd July 2005

Ooops...it's been five of the busiest weeks ever for the five of us. So much so that we haven't been in touch, and Tam has hit a few bronzers looking for updates!!

Firstly, T in the Park was incredible. Nerves were high on the Saturday, and we just about took in The Magic Numbers and New Order before Paul and I entered the King Tuts tent for an idea of just how big it was for the following afternoon. Gulp!

Sunday, Chris and I were interviewed by the BBC, which we think goes out on the 19th August highlights programme, and then had a Stevie Broadfoot pep talk. Ready to go, he put us all in his black stetson hat and carried us back stage. Armed with his utility belt he was set for some serious guitar tuning. Thanks to him, and Paul McLean for helping us all weekend.

The gig went well, and it was overwhelming to see so many people there. After our show, we watched Sons and Daughters, who were incredible, and then Bright Eyes, before heading to the artists village where Paul tashed Snoop Dogg at basketball, Ryan introduced the singer from the Bravery to Michael Jackson and offered fashion tips to Johnny Borrell.

Since TITP, we have finally finished recording our album. We had one day (which will now be known as The Day of Francis), where we basically wrote, recorded and mixed a new song The Reputation Of Ross Francis in about 18 hours. It should be ready for release early next year.

We are reviewed on NME.com for the T in the Park gig, and there is an interview with Chris, Paul and Ryan in this month's Beard magazine.

Take care

Fieldy x

Tuesday 21st June 2005 - The Summer Solstice

"Tickety Tock Tock... WE ARE ALIVE..... oh yes we are... we have been busy as busy busy busy busies lately with gigs and recording but we are now back. The album is going perfectly at the moment and once Andy dedicates some Miller Time to mixing we will pop it in an envelope and then a boat to the Isle of Skye to be mastered for your delight. We have just about finished the B-side to our first single "Sister Sneaker Sister Soul", but as yet the poor B-side still remaiins untitled. We have some ideas here and there and some lovely sontributions from yourselves, so we shall have a vote for fun and then all decide that my suggestion is best. Yesterday we hired a Vibraphone for recording on a few tracks, and it sounds like everything we imagined. We do not yet have a release date for the single or the album, but my educated guess would be that the single will be coming out some time fairly soon after our date with the Pixies and the album out some time in the New Year.

Thank you thank you to all the people who attended our recent gigs in the Oran Mor, Cafe Drummonds, and the two Smog gigs. Oran Mor was fun because its the longest set we've done - although our managers didn't think the long musical introduction was a good idea - all who agree say "Aye"............................. silence..................we were right!! Didn't expect to see so many of you there to be honest, but it was real nice and hopefully you enjoyed it.

The Smog gigs in Glasgow and Edinburgh were great, we're all massive fans so to play with him / them was really something sweet!

For many who may not know we have been moved up the bill at T in the Park to the King Tut's stage... meaning we will be sharing the stage that day with Interpol, Echo and The Bunnymen and Chris' favourite... Bright Eyes.
In smaller news... Paul has got a new job in Beanscene.... isn't he a fine chap........
Tickety Tock Tock"

 

Sunday 29th May 2005

Let There Be Light!!! I'm here to shine light upon the dark underground rumblings of My Latest Novel in the studio, and to fortell the future.We are confirmed to play T On The Fringe with The Pixies, Idlewild, and Teenage Fanclub, which has caused much excitement and anticipation within our very hearts.Apart from this we feel similarly about the progress of our album, which we are recording at Chem19 studios with Andy Miller twirling the knobs and stamping his creative thumbprints, like a mucky pup, all over it,(we could not have prayed for a better person to be part of our first album)With such instruments as filing cabinets, gas canisters,a monkey wrench, a fire, and children's choirs, we believe you should feel the same about it when you get the chance to buy it ...just a bit later on. As we always do, we have constructed a plan. A plan for the future. If all goes accordingly....The Oran Mor on the 11th of June should be very "sweet" indeed.

"Our Plans I Guess Will Make You Sweet"

Lots Of Love - My Latest Novel xx

 

Tuesday9th May 2005

Hitherto Young Chums of Thy Novel.I wish to communicate a diary of our times on the festival of Tennent's Triptych.

Day One - Glesga!

You can only imagine the excitement. We waited on our driver Paul Mclean, elusive, yet intrigueingly beautiful at the same time.The rain made dents in the road the size of Stevie Broadfoot's(The Largest and Most Excellent Guy Alive's)footprints.

Paul McLean (Driver, Friend, and Technician)arrived having retrieved his credentials from Arnold Clark, and was more wet than a moist lip.He battled through the gales and puddles to carry us to the Grand Ole Opry aboard what can only be describes as the most dangerous, and pleasurable vessels in our lifetime. In other words the van seemed to be rickety and undesirable, but we had a T.V and PS2 at our disposal. After kissing a few pavements and shuddering through the temperamental gears, we arrived and played to a crowd where we were well recieved.King Creosote followed us to much applause, and the ultimate Scottish pop of Aberfeldy made for the perfect opener to the festival.After leaving the stage we realise that in a fit of Super-organisationalness, Stevie Broadfoot( stage manager), and Paul McLean (aforementioned) have labelled and set our equipment out into rows, and packed everything super neatly.We can't give you thanks enough for that.I got drunk and tried to annoy Gary for the whole trip home by saying "Gaary.....Gaaaaary!....Gary!....Garry" the whole way home.Elissa, you will understand the accent i use during this process(Ryan)and to this day i can't think of anything funnier.

I wake up hung over in the day of Friday.

Friday- The Day "Off"

A day "Off"....i ask myself......a day off from what???? By 12:00pm i have had my first pint, and a sloppy mincy, unbonded, burger from hell. I eat it reluctantly as does Chris, and we (in denial) agree as to how good it is having paid a fiver for it.It was rubbish.

Having put the burger behind us we headed for Glasgow to meet Simon Raymonde of the Cocteau Twins, and Bella Union Records, to finalise and sign our record deal.We chatted, signed the deal, and at 7:42 pm we are well on our way to celebratory bliss having been joined by Tam, Glenn, anf The Human Moy.Got drunk.....went to Pineapple Club in Greenock, went home.....Out....like......a light!!!!!.

Day Two - Edinburger (St Brides Theatrical Explosion)

"The Day Of Broadfoot"

Suitably hung over i got dressed and smoked a cigar.My head ached like an oafish brute. I reckon i am perverted , and carry on to eat breakfast in the shower.Reckoning again, the day before me was afoot.....a Broadfoot.

I moaned down the road at snails pace with each step sending a bolt of sharp pain through the back of my alcoholic eyes.I meet Stevie Broadfoot our Stage Manager at Greenock West Station, and all of a sudden the sun shone and smacked my hangover down to size.Stevie picked up the van, and on our trip through Greenock, he even managed to find the finer points of Greenock which i had long forgotten, and until today failed to recognise anymore.

We arrive in Edinburgh.

Stevie came down from Glasgow to pick us up to take us to Edinburgh. He immediately has to jump on a train back to Glasgow from Edinburgh to pick up his car to drive to Aberdeen as he was working on the Sons and Daughter's gig in Aberdeen the next day. Phew.....Stevie is da man.We all stand in a row and salute Stevie with a fanfare as his awesome figure fades into the distance....at which point he is already 15 miles away.

Oh...yes....and it was a fantastic gig yet again....probably my favourite of the three due to an excellent sound technician and rig...and we played not too shabbily too. To top it off we met a Jersey/Guernsey Cow : ) and her boyfriend, who were rather lovely, yet sarcastic, and also nice, in a sarcastic sort of lovely way.I will say a few more words and you can imagine the rest. Here goes........"Best House Kebab"...."Two Pints Of Vinegar"....and ...."Weird"....that pretty much sums up the rest of the night....as well as a bunch of high fives from Edinburgh's finest.

Day Three - Aberdeen McGhee

I bought three bottles of wine....hence my inability to continue the rest of the story......watch this space....i imagine someone else shall fill in the gaps.....Out!

x

 

Sunday 8th May 2005

WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE WE ARE NOW SIGNED TO BELLA UNION RECORDS www.bellaunion.com

This has made us very happy. We are ecstatic, overwhelmed, and now very busy indeed.We are currently spending this month in Chem19 Studios in Hamilton, recording our first album.We would like to thank every single person who has supported us, and are extremely grateful to all those who have attended our gigs,promoted our gigs,and who in one way or another have helped us,and a special thanks to our managers Mr. Glenn(The Man Of Passion)Gibbons, and Mr. Thomas(Exploding Hamster)Coyle who have agreed to be blessed in marriage as a symbolic gesture of their unified efforts.It's a pretty thing . There will be more exciting posts in the coming weeks, as there are little whispers of things happening here and there, that we look forward to telling you.

THANK YOU ALL - MY LATEST NOVEL XxXxX

 

Thursday 21st April 2005

Good Day, just an update....no less.

Since our last rendezvous, we have supported British Sea Power at a sold out Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh, which was most lovely, and BSP were a charming bunch of chaps, playing a smashing set, and topping it off by making people meltdown in a bass swarm from deepest hell with their closing tune of the evening.

The Triptych dates are selling like Potatas Bravas brothers and sisters, and there are only 30 left for the Grand Ole Opry-Please heed this information children or Tam "The Wolf Man" Coyle will be down or your ass.In other words, to avoid disappointment of missing out on a lovely three band bill, which includes Aberfeldy, and King Creosote. Be fast, or be lasty last, viva last vegas,

Say No To CRIME - Ivor Novel 1991 - 1991and three quarters

 

Wednesday 16th March 2005

"Where have we been? Seems like a long time since we last wrote here, been mega busy with gigs and recordings. Gigs wise, this last month or so we've played the Barrowlands with The Bees which was amazing. I guess its one of the boxes everyone in a Scottish band wants to cross off at some stage. Besides that we've just been recording solidly over the last month. We STILL can't give too much away but things are getting closer by the second.. we're all really excited about the coming few months! In the Summer we're gonna be playing the Green Man Festival again. We played last year and it was probably a Novel highlight of 2004, anyone who can be bothered going to Wales should definitely make the effort. If not for us then for Bonnie Prince Billie, Aberfeldy or James Yorkston. We'll also be playing a few Tryptich gigs this year with Aberfeldy and King Creosote. Our gigs page has info on this stuff, aswell as our own night in Barfly on Easter Sunday...
Gary (who has been rechristened Fieldy) and Laura are gonna be talking on our friend Susie's radio station on Wednesday. I think its Edinburgh Uni radio so anyone who meets that criteria can tune in. We'll also be playing a couple of live tracks on BBC Radio on Monday. We'll try and keep you up to date with this.
And finally.... Chris has lost his first Bright Eyes album "Lifted, Or the Story is in the Soil" so anyone who has it please please return it. x"

Saturday 13th February 2005

ONE.....TWO......TWEE.Good day to you. My Latest Novel have been whizzing their brains out doing gigs all over the shop for around 3 months now. The time has arrived i believe, to record more and more material. During the next two months we are preparing something special, along with some songs we haven't recorded yet, which we are currently in the process of setting fire to studio equipment with a great mass of zeal.Played a really enjoyable gig at the Polish Club in Glasgow, on 29th Jan where Glenn " Meesta Gibbons, Meesta. Gibbons" Gibbons was tearing out his roots, and knotting his little socks off due to many technicalities, and logical hitches, and our other manager Thomas " Tamgotchi" Coyle was mourning his mobile telephone due to a frivoulous and playful little NED(Non-Educated Delinquent)knocking the piece of equipment from under his very nose.However the night went as scheduled with St. Judes Infirmary playing and was a lovely lovely thing. We also enjoyed a small collection of London Gigs (see gig history on gigs page), all of which we bathed in like a basket of warm honey.We hope to be smacking your cheeky little faces in with a rag bag of delicious treats from our current , and new musical development in the near future.

Posted by Remember Me? I'm King.One Two Twee - Off.

Sunday 2nd January

OK! HAPPY NEW YEAR! I'm going to tell you about a certain party at the new year, and you can treat it as ...let's say....a competition to see who can seperate hard fact from rediculous fiction.There were three cheers at the party in My Latest Novel's flat. The final countdown for the bells began. 10....9....A roaring cheer sounded as a balloon burst on a candle....8....7....A violent yet joyous applause bounded out as a firework went off outside.....6...5...4.....one final cheer for the remains of the burst balloon on the carpet.....3...2...1...Silence.It was now the year 2005, and the revellers at Novel Manor were hushed. After everyone got their little heads round the fact that the balloon was now gone forever and a new year was ahead we cheered followed by absolute surreal commotion. I will list a number of events and you can e-mail us with your thoughts on whether true or false applies. A Naked Lap Of Clouston St followed by as many blue and red flashing lights as you can shake a stick at. A Confrontation Between A Tin Foil Clad Mob, the Oran Mor, and the Law. A Tea Bag Bra Wearing Trojan, and a relentless search for the Queen. A Mystic Guest with Psychic Powers, and a Cigarette Smoking Camel. See you all for our next party at the Polish Club on the 29th January....bleep bleep....DETAILS TO FOLLOW.........Out!

 

Wednesday 29th December

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas and got what they wanted! Christmas was relatively quiet for us, well, in that we practiced the last two nights and couldn't go out. We still managed to sing Band Aid down the phone to Glenn (one of our managers). I also receievd a really strange text message from Stuart form Viva Stereo, so I hope everything worked out ok for him. All festivities aside, we're playing Tut's tonight.... think its gonna be a good one! As mentioned below its gonna be ourselves, Uncle John and Whitelock and Odeon Beatclub, and Stephen Pastel is DJ-ing between bands. We are all pretty excited about the New Year, we've got some new songs and ideas to try out on you all, so we'll see you then.

x

 

Monday 20th December

Ok, so we had a practice yesterday and it organised our set for the Tut's gig, looks like we're gonna be playing our new song "The Reputation of Ross Francis". It should be a great night, Odeon Beatclub and Uncle John and Whitelock are both brilliant bands. We're also been asked to play the ICA in London as part of the Chateau night down there, thats on the 13th of January, and we'll be playing the Garage with Aereogramme and Mother and the Addicts on the 23rd of January. Also think we're gonna be featured in the Big Issue in the New Year. Not really looking forward to Christmas yet, don't really feel festive... think i might have to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" soon... think I might go and do that now actually.

posted by C- Novel

 

Wednesday 8th December

Eight days in and I've still not bought an advent calendar... oh wel! Thanks to those who came to our gig in G2 on Monday with Dogs Die in Hot Cars and Easten Lane, it seemed to go well. When we find out the date this will be broadcast on XFM we shall let you know. The edition of "TANK" magazine with our feature is now available for a measly £10 (hmm), weird to be featured in a London fashion magazine!!! We have one moer gig this year, at King Tuts on the 29th of Decemeber with Odeon Beatclub and Uncle John and Whitelock and hopefully some guest DJ's. We have been working on some new songs lately, we've resurrected an old song "Below the Banks of Crime", which now sounds entirely different, and another song with the working title "The Reputation of Ross Francis". the rest have yet to be named... I think, but hopefully we'll be playing at least one of them at Tuts and then a few more in the new year.

 

Friday 26th November

Everything looks set for our Christmas gig in Tut's, its gonna be ourselves, Uncle John and Whitelock and Odeon Beatclub who are playing. Before that we're doing the XFM gig in G2 with Dogs Die in Hot Cars and Eastern Lane, we're giving tickets for this away for free to people who buy Tuts tickets. We only have a limited amount so contact us or Glenn and Tam to get some. We will also be playing Club Fandango in London in January aswell as our own night in the Polish Club. Sorry, not really in a funny mood today!x

Monday 22nd November

Well, we're back. We left Glasgow at six o'clock on Friday to play Dr Drakes in Aberdeen, we never got a soundcheck but we played a pretty good gig and had a good night. After the gig we were staying at Roz's flat and we intended to have an early one since we were going to Nottingham the next day. Things nearly got carried away when Ryan produced a three litre bottle of White Lightning and pitched a tent in Roz's flat, but after sleeping in slightly we got up and headed for Nottingham via Glasgow. Thanks to Neil for putting us on, Roz for letting us stay and Chris Davidson for driving us up - and again Mr Tierney for letting us use his bass. We picked up our new driver, Gregor, in Glasgow and headed for Nottingham. We were really excited about these two gigs supporting Joanna Newsom, but this still didnt mean we arrived in time for a soundcheck. We were an hour late and the doors had to be put back, but this meant we played to a packed venue. Thanks to the bar staff at the Rescue Rooms for helping us in with our gear and also to Neil and Campbell for letting us stay at their house and making us breakfast. We felt pretty fresh when we headed for Leeds and arrived at the venue around three hours early. Brudennel Social Club is a 300 capacity social club with a balcony type thing and a big authentic looking stage, so we were impressed by it and the fact the gig was sold out. First of all we headed into Leeds city centre, and got some lunch. Laura decided to abandon us all and go shopping for most of the day. We played a good gig in Leeds and afterwards we headed home for Glasgow. Our set list for the gigs was "Sister Sneaker Sister Soul", "Pretty in a Panic", "Learning Lego", "The Job Mr Kurtz Done", "Wrongfully, I Rested" , "The Hope Edition"

Our next gig will be in G2 with Dogs Die in Hot Cars and Eastern Lane, this will be broadcast live on XFM.

 

Thursday 18th November

Whenever you need cheering up. Its not often I need cheering up but, getting home late from work to discover Gary and Ryan were out having a pint, Paul went down the road and Laura was out to listen to Tam's DJ-ing at the QMU meant tonight I did. This may seem irrelevant form band stuff, but if you read our biog you'll realise it carries more significance. I began to read my e-mails and openned one from my friend Ross Francis, who I've not spoken to in ages, his e-mail cheered me up considerably and reinstated in my head what "The Reputation of Ross Francis" really means. Anyway, probably thinking out loud... better sleep got three gigs in three night coming up. Good night. x

posted by C-Novel

 

Wednesday 17th November

Well... guess its been a while since we've written anything up here. We played Sleazies last night with Odeon Beatclub and Viva Stereo, it was again a great night and was really busy so thanks to everyone who came down. Recently we've been writting new songs (mainly in Gary's bedroom), and hopefully these will be ready for the start of December. We're playing Dr Drakes in Aberdeen on Friday and then we're supporting Joanna Newsom in Nottingham on Saturday and Leeds on Sunday. Other gigs news is that we're playing G2 on the 6th of December with Dogs Die in Hot Cars and Eastern Lane for an XFM broadcast and then Tuts on the 29th with Uncle John and Whitelock for our Christmas party. Our feature in TANK magazine is likely to be out in the beginning of December. In other news the five of us have managed to hold down jobs for a record breaking 6 weeks... this is a new record and has been celebrated today by phoning in sick. x

 

Sunday 31st October

HAPPY HALLOWEEN..... Seems as though so much has been happening lately, we better keep you up to date. We recorded our session for Vic Galloway's Air program last week and we thought it went very well. We played Pretty in a Panic, The Hope Edition and Wrongfully, I Rested. We also played the CCA in Glasgow and the School of Economics in London where we heard the unfortunate news about John Peel. I guess My Latest Novel would probably not sound the way we do had it not been for John Peel exposing us to so much music... and thats likely to be the case for a lot of bands.

We will be playing Stereo on Tuesday night with Joanna Newsome and then playing in Gourock on Friday. Please visit our gigs page for more gig info.

 

Friday 15th October

The time between these news posts is getting shorter and shorter every time. We will be in session on Vic Galloway's Air show on Radio Scotland on Monday night. We will perform three live tracks and there will be a bit of conversation aswell. We have also added a couple of dates for between now and the end of the year, including our Christmas party at King Tuts, so please visit our gigs page.

 

Wednesday 13th October

Arriva. Well now, it hasn't been all that long since our last communication with our friendly visitors of this village, but the news is coming. We are playing with the lovely Joanna Newsom at Stereo on the 2nd November. Have a peek at her work at www.walnutwhales.com . We Have Plans. Plans For The Future.Paul feels sorry for himself today, so i put a little bit about him in the news, he's a lovely boy.

Out!! - R-Novel

 

 

Monday 11th October

Sorry its been so long, we've been busy the last couple of weeks writing songs. We have finished one song entitled "Wrongfully, I Rested" and one other which is nearly complete and nearly titled. We will be playing these songs at our next gig, which is in London at the School of Economics on the 25th of October and then on Wednesday the 27th at the CCA in Glasgow as part of Music Works. We will also be featured in London based magazine 'TANK', we are not sure when this will be released but will keep you up to date. We also have other ideas for between now and Christmas, so we shall keep you up to date.

"Our plans I guess will make you sweat !"

 

Thursday 23rd September

We've just returned from In The City in Manchester. We thought it went really well and we had a pretty good laugh and Jim managed to get us home even after a pretty serious detour through Bolton. We played the Art School on Tuesday night, it was a pretty bad gig, a really weird night and a fruity experience. On a more positive note, we are the Beatbreakers on Jim Gellatly's Beatscene every night this week (or whats left of it).

 

Thursday 9th September

We have started recording 'Ghost in the Gutter', this should be finished soon... although I would not be expecting to hear it on the radio, it's around 8 minutes long. We should have some copies of it available soon either on our website or real life disc. We were featured in this months edition of Is This Music?, you can read this on our Press Page. We play King Tut's on Friday the 17th of September and have also been invited to play at the Art School during Freshers week. For tickets to our gig at King Tuts please email us at chattychatty@mylatestnovel.com or my_latest_novel@hotmail.com .

 

Thursday 2nd September

We will be playing the 13th Note tomorrow night with Viva Stereo and White Label... doors are at 9pm.

Many of you may have gathered that we willl be playing In The City later this month. Our gig is on Sunday the 19th at 9:15 in Tmesis. Prior to that we will be playing King Tut's on the 17th (for full gig listings please visit our gigs page). We are still surviving together... one day soon we may reveal the address but we're enjoying it being quiet(ish) at the moment. We are, however, running short of money, food and patience.... but we'll be ok. As a kind of aside, thinking about the Arnold Schwarzenegger speech the other day it reminded me of a debate Chris and Ryan were having. Chris claimed that Last Action Hero was the WORST film of the last fifteen years!!!! Ryan obviously thought differently, but Arnie's speech the other day was reminiscent of his action days! I'll be back.....

 

Monday 23rd August

Green Man Festival diary

We left Glasgow on Friday at around midnight and headed for Wales. With us packed into the bus with a few friends we didn't really prepare ourselves with stuff to do or plan how long it would take. After a few navigation arguments and disputes over swapping seats and whos pillow belonged to who we eventually got there at around 7am. First thing to do was to pitch our tents, between eight of us we had four and Laura had brought down her 7 man tent. This of course was perfect until we had to put them all up. After the tents were up the weekend went a few different ways. some went for a bit of a sleep following the drive, others started the barbeque and others started downing shots of whiskey (these people shall remain nameless), but a few hours later we were all sitting around with some beers playing the guitars. Saturday afternoon brought the funniest moment of the trip. A couple of us went in to the local town (aptly called The Town of Books) and bought a frisby. We threw this around for a while until the wind picked up and it started blowing towards the group of guys beside us and their tents. At this point Chris stated that we should maybe move away from them, but no-one listened. Until someone threw one quite high in the air and Jim (our driver) chased after it and ran and fell on top of one of their tents. The snap was pretty loud and the guys tents was held together by masking tape for the rest of the weekend. After all this we went to see some bands on the Saturday including James Yorkston, It's Jo and Danny, Joanna Newsom, The Fence Collective and Four Tet. We also met some pretty nice people over the course of the day and rallied up some support for our gig in the morning. the Sunday morning was again roasting and we headed of to our stage to play our gig. It ended up really busy for us and we were really happy with how we played and our sound (for a change). We got a really good reception and lots of nice people had lots of nice things to say about us. After this we packed our van up, did an interview for a website and got ready to go home. We stayed and wayched Ella Guru and Lone Pigeon and then headed home - taking all the right roads this time. one final note... Ryan couldn't down a can of warm lager in one and lost his bet! It was a good effort though, just not good enough. And we arrived home............. end of transmission!

 

 

Tuesday 17th August

Hello There- Today we got the news that we are a confirmed act for In The City Unsigned 2004, in Manchester.The news is good. Hope you are good.Be good. Not Rude. More Of These details will be arriving soon. Post Complete.

Saturday 14th August

Well, where do we start? Thanks to everyone who came to our gig in the 13th Note last month with Odeon Beatclub and Viva Stereo... its was a brilliant night (if you can ignore how sweaty it was!). Another night with the same line up is planned in the next couple of months. We've all moved in to the flat together now and although the