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Hit the Road
its been awhile again, sorry
Tune in to RESONANCE FM 104.4 London this Weds 11th May. Hopefully it will be proof that we are still alive, but we'll see! Last time was a lot of fun and again we've got quite a lot we want to get through .
Its the 10th anniversary of the Optimist LP this year and we're trying to put something together to celebrate before the years done and its too late. There is still a bit of time left . We're not entirely asleep all the time , honest !
TB
Philip Bloom and Olly Knights discuss the making of the video for Ascension Day - includes photos of the shoot and a very lengthy explanation.
Happy Xmas Y'all
Hello , It has been awhile since we told you what we are up to . So sorry about that . We are still living and breathing. We are all living in an explosion of cosmic proportions what with the universe expanding constantly and everything. (thats my excuse anyway)
Whilst we were plugging cables in to our newly refurb'd studio we discovered most of it still doesnt line up . And the soundproofing isnt as good as we hoped as we could still hear the tinkling of Santa's sleigh bells...
So we decided to put an Xmas ditty onto the audio player (on the home page) so you could place it amongst your playlists as you stuff Turkey and bits into the few remaining gaps in your bellys. It should be available for download .
Its not a reflection of our new direction , just a bit of seasonal fun to break the silence.
Next year we plan much activity including a new album and other studio fun.
We'll try and be a bit better on the updates, but keep an eye on the audio player and twitter and facebook and all the other stuff you kids do .
Till then we wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy Festive season .
TB
x
Sea Change reviewed and featured as song of the day
Turin in Turin
Well it finally happened - we managed to play in Torino Italia after 10 years .And we didnt disappear into a crazy scientific wormhole - quite the opposite in fact !
A few or the good people of Milan had told us Torino wasnt really up to much but the wool was finally pulled away from our eyes. A beautiful city set against the Alps with loads of cultural activity . Its gotta be a number one holiday destination - everyone needs a Turin Break !
But really we had a great weekend - starting by lying on warm rocks of ancient Bologna watching live orchestration to a Buster Keaton movie and ending a couple if days later sitting in a small field in Torino under a glowing moon listening to brilliant ambience of The Field . I have to mention an australian band called A Place To Bury Strangers who played before us at Spaziale Festival - total intense smash up echo rock . It may not be a TB fans wet dream but some of you will get off on it - especially live . We plan on featuring a bit in the next podcast .
In case you were wondering about the food - it was just yummy with a peak in excitement coming as Ed decided he'd blend in with the locals and eat a pile of cake for breakfast . Theres no photo , sorry - lets all just imagine , picture - Ed ... and cakes ... Ed ... and Cakes ... ed and ..
Glastonbury.....
We woke up early in order to get to Glastonbury with enough time to relax before our show in the 5,000 capacity acoustic stage, we decided to take the word "acoustic" a little more to heart and did the show as a trio, we hoped we'd get a crowd that knew many of the classics and would enjoy the stripped down sing along....
We spent many hours of the day in crawling traffic, 180,000 people all burning to get there, one highlight was driving past stonehenge at a snails pace remembering running through the rocks as kids before they roped it all off, we wondered if those rocks were tougher than English Heritage thought, what with surviving a few thousand years or so.
We arrived at the site and were greeted by an amazingly friendly team of diligent worker's buzzing like happy bees in the blazing sunshine. What a change from the immense stress we felt arriving in 2003 for our main stage performance!
We noticed most of the other acts on our stage were full bands but these days we relish the chance to stand out a bit so figured we'd go the other way and I'm glad we did. As we line checked the instruments a large crowd began to gather and we could feel some serious electricity as they built up their static. We got ready to dish out a stripped down essential festive set....
Once we walked out for the show the tent was packed to the back and we all smiled to each other, having walked around the site earlier in the blazing sun we knew it was no mean feat for all those people to come to see us. We decided to play a set of what we consider stand out songs from the last ten years and this included one or two from the latest album, we played for an hour and built up towards a big spaced out finish with 72, to hear all those people singing along was really special and I think this moment meant as much to us as all those "moments" from our past, maybe more.... Lots of banter, lots of eye contact, lots of magic.
After the show we basked in the buzz for a little while with Edd and then headed over to see if the rumors at the Park stage were true..... Around ten thousand other people had the same info and we were all rewarded with a Thom Yorke secret solo show, punctuated by the inclusion of Johnny Greenwood, a setting sun and some Radiohead classics. Even Michael Evis was enjoying himself in the crowd celebrating the 40th anniversary of his baby!
A special night was had, many thanks to all the people who came to our tent, more please ;)
If you have any pics, videos and Glasto stories share them in our community are right here on the site....