THE SIGNAL

Some excellent news on the Long Blondes front – the album is ready and will be released on November 6th! It’s called “Someone To Drive You Home” – no word on tracklisting yet, but I expect there’ll be some familiar favourites on there from the 4 pre-Rough Trade singles.
The preceding single “Once And Never Again” is out on October 23rd. I haven’t seen the video for it yet, but I expect it’ll be on MTV2 pretty soon. If the B-Sides are up to the standard of “Weekend Without Make-Up” it’ll be a terrific package.
Plus plus plus the band are going on their first headline tour in October! Can’t wait to see them play in Belfast.
To celebrate here’s a couple of shots we took of The Long Blondes back in June. One was taken at the in-store they did at Camden’s Fopp on the day of release of “Weekend..”, and then there’s a candid shot of Kate Jackson enjoying herself at a Love Is All gig!

Hey kids, just a quick update on how things are going with the The Signal radio show.  Currently I’m working on two shows simultaneously.  The first will be our regular show with an interview with the Russian Futurists.  Hopefully this will be ready for the Live Circuit presentation of the band’s gig in Glasgow recently which is due to go up on the Radio Magnetic site very soon.

The second show should be something pretty unique – it’s going to be a Swedish Indie Pop special.  I can’t say too much at present as we are working on some cool features for it, but it will feature our interviews with Peter, Bjorn & John and I’m From Barcelona.  Plus I’ll be playing a full two hours of entirely Swedish music – most of it pretty current such as Love Is All and El Perro Del Mar, plus there’ll be classics from the likes of Idha and The Cardigans, as well as a few brand new friends we’ve made via our myspace page.

All pretty exciting stuff (for me anyway!!) and if all goes well, both shows should be finished in the next week or so.

In the meantime I’m going to upload some of the pics I took at the B&S, Camera Obscura and Teenage Fanclub gigs from earlier in the summer.  Plus tonight I’m gonna kick off a new feature at the blog which should hopefully add to your entire Signal experience.  A kinda Signal Video Jukebox.

And if that’s not too much excitement for one blog here’s a few links to 3 Radio Magnetic shows I highly recommend:

SYMMETRY – Matthew Hallam’s show is packed with laid back indie grooves and he regulary features terrific interviews with the likes of Joan As Policewoman and M. Craft.  The latest show showcases the new record from The Album Leaf (on the supercool City Slang Records).  Matthew’s voice is kinda like a warm bath and will help sooth your weary bones at the end of a long day.

REFLECTIONS ON NORTHERN SOUL – Radio Magnetic’s resident Soul Man Frank Murphy cranks up the drums and bass and dips deep into his box of Northern Soul grooves.  This show is pretty much essential listening if you like good music, that sweet soul music…  What I love about Frank’s playlists is that’s he’s not afraid to embrace the poppier side of soul and the Tamla Motown classics – none of snobbishness that has sometime been associated with the NS scene.  Great for listening to before you go out on a Friday night.

VOLCANIC - The Volcanic boys Jamie and Joe never fail to come up with some of the most diverse and ecelectic mixes in radioland.  Where else would you hear the Theme from Bullitt next to Aretha Franklin next to Dinosaur Jr?  Great stuff that is bound to give you loads of new ideas when you’re next updating your Amazon wishlist.

Plenty to be getting along there, and don’t forget Radio Magnetic now has a lovely RSS feed so you find out about new shows as soon as they arrive!

Keep the faith! (in a Northern Soul way, not a Jon Bon Jovi way….)