a-LITTLE-comet

July:

Lots of festivals punctuated July including a trip to lovely Wickerman in Scotland. Despite being accosted by policeman on the hunt for bands-on-drugs we had a relaxing day in the mild sunshine, and wound our way home happily eating muffins and dreaming of picnics. However, our month was to be defined by one event only – involving a forest, a passport and a potent mixture of delight and disgust depending on whether you were a Mark, a Matt, a Robert or a Michael….

One balmy morning we had decided to try to take some photographs in the countryside between Middlesbrough and Scarborough, setting off apace. As we were due to travel to St Tropez the next day I had my passport with me – we were due to pick up the hire car at tea time and so I had to take some identification to prove I wasn’t just going to sell it in Shields market…

Whilst packing my bag that evening I noticed that my passport had vanished and, employing ruthless logic, Mickey realised it could only be in one place: the middle of a forest we had trekked into earlier that day. Without the passport we wouldn’t be able to go to St Tropez!!! As it was approaching midnight we suggested to the lads that we could get up early in the morning and travel to the woods to search for the missing document. Confident of success our Michael had predicted it was 90% likely that we’d find it and would therefore be able to continue our trip onwards unbashed…. However, met with unwillingness to help us find the passport (“my beauty sleep, your problem”) we were forced to grab some torches from tesco, read a quick article on police search techniques and speed to North Yorkshire to search the woods ourselves – now fuelled by a burning desire to prove the two non-believers wrong.  At 4:30am, with Raoul Moat still at large, and tiredness invading our veins we FOUND THAT PASSPORT! ABSOLUTE UNBELIEVABLE EUPHORIA! The stony atmosphere in the car later that morning spoke absolute volumes….

August:

Largely a month off, writing new songs and playing a couple of slightly bizarre festivals. We had a day in Blackpool to play a tiny part in the Isles video (Matt performed wonders in a turning-off-the-telly-cameo and we ate the worst ever fish and chips) but the highlight of the month was when Zane Lowe played the song! Without a major label behind us we felt really proud, especially coming from such an esteemed source….

September:

We spent September in quite a few different places, from Cheshire to Souter Lighthouse – playing the coldest ever pre-Great North Run gig. With the winding biting like a mastiff we needed a voluminous flask of tea to keep us going until the early morning. Mark’s stag do took place in a cave later that month, and with another van based problem (a jammed steering lock in a Manchester car park), an AA man’s cackle proved to be our last tangible memory of a largely forgettable 30 days.

October:

A wedding, a house move, two tours, illness and a derby match hammering proved too much for the four of us in our October of total flux. We began with total frenzy: rising at 4am in a Liverpool Travelodge to the strains of the previous night’s exertions dripping through the waifish walls. After a 5 hour journey me and Matt spent the morning being airbrushed into Soccer AM and, after having being dwarfed by cricketers and blinded by cheerleaders ambushed our way back up the M6 for a gig in Manchester. This motorway pinball continue unabated for the next two weeks, before Mark married Laura in the west-end of Newcastle, much to everyone’s collective relief.

Having avowed to finish our tour with Darwin Deez (what a lovely bloke, and Greg and Cole and Andrew and Ben), Mark returned after seven days away looking noticeably lighter and totally REFRESHED.

Wow, clearly there isn’t enough time to talk about playing in a tax-scam pool bar in Dundee, roulette in Aberdeen, 1-5, 5-1 or our favourite ever radio DJ.

November:

Starting the month off on a high, some of us managed to ruin ourselves seeing Kid British (absolute legends) at the City Hall, before quick gigs in London, Southampton and Sheffield.   The following Friday we played at Northumbria University in what is probably our favourite gig of the year: with a friendly crowd in a clean venue on a proper stage, we even went for a drink in the Head of Steam afterwards, with Adam Cameron’s twin, strawberry beer and a very tight quiz machine for company.

After another house move and a trip to France for Paris-lecture-theatres-metro-and-the-maroquinerie-show, we started planning our advent calendar with tired determination.

December:

That’s it really. Hopefully you’ll pretty much know the story of a December as it has largely been documented over the last few weeks of hectic ramblings and recreational plunder. However, we really should say thanks a lot to a few people for their help or creative hindrance:

Peter w/ Christine (endurance, accounts, faith and more), Steve (Booootler); Jamie, Chuck, Amber and Steve Z; Josephine, Eleanor, Susan and Laura; families and friends too many to mention; and everyone who listens to and watches our music – because it really does mean a lot J.

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