Taken by your’s truely, here’s some stuff to start you off with…

Photos:
http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/582817722vdyuDc
After 5 years, another Webshots album Featuring larger versions of all the stuff and more from the live blog yesterday.


Video:
Here’s my own YouTube playlist, currently with four of my own vids in, more to come as others upload various shakey-phone vids.


Audio:

Following the official setlist, here’s a to-be-constantly-updated list of tracks, along with additional vids etc. Sorry the audio’s crap, only so much one can do with an iPhone.. Oh for a Line-Out (hint, rae… ).

Listening tip: Tracks are fully ID3d for iTunes, if it sounds crap try putting the equalizer on to Rock, enable any speaker’s bass boost, and try to ignore the clipping….

Soundcheck ( M3U Playlist )
Witches Broom
Mid-Air Collisions
Judas Loves You
Beehive Mind
Shredder
Intro

Gig ( M3U Playlist )
Intro
Loop A Loop
Last Plane Out Of Saigon (Sorry for the fade out/in, seems an iPhone quits audio recording if switching apps ).
Baby Boom
Mid-Air Collisions
Bad Vibrations
Beehive Mind
Witches Broom
Shredder
Judas Loves You - Video
Requiem Aeternum
Who Knows
How To Make You Laugh
The Only Living Boy And Girl
===
Famous Blue Raincoat (Acoustic) - Video
Opposite Ends (Acoustic) - Video
Everywhere
Lottery Winners On Acid


Bonus:
Background listening Extra fun for the completist.

Bonus 1:
http://www.facebook.com/daveymacmanus/posts/10150798203822414
“10 years of the Crimea tonight , live at union chapel for one night alone . Accident Emergency just talk to me , Smile if you still can , theres more to life than tequila killers, visions of your name in flowers, Don’t let the bastards get you down, happy fucking birthday soldiers xxxxxx”
Davey’s Facebook advertisement included lyrics from Raining Planets, which I promptly confused with Oliver Twisted due to the re-use of riffs / lyrics. Here’s MP3s to both:
The Crimea - Raining Planets (2nd Album Demo)
Full, mastered, album version (with above lyrics) is available free on the Secrets Of The Witching Hour album at http://www.thecrimea.net/download.
The Crimea - Oliver Twisted (Original Demo)

Bonus 2:
Former Crimea guitar lead Julz Parker totally killing it in this Tragedy Rocks riff, a composition later to be used in Judas Loves You. The rest of the recording is so-so, but for 30 seconds you have probably the finest, most beautifully haunting piece of recorded Crimea guitar wizardry in existence. But I’m biased.
The Crimea - Tragedy Rocks (MS1 Club 2003) - Performed live at the MS1 Club, Cardiff in 2003 for Radio Wales.

Bonus 3:
The original, the fuzziest, the finest - Opposite Ends accoustic demo performed by Dan Harris and Davey Macmanus, sometime around 2000. Thank you V2 Records and the early naughties for crappy DRM, not so much for bitrates.

Ohhh… so they didn’t win the *whoole* of Xfm, just one little song… Ok gotcha.

As detailed on the Xfm website, The Kicks are competition winners Philip McHugh and Jordan Heggie (no wonder they looked as lost as I felt hanging round this massive venue backstage) - who came together to create a single song for said Xfm competition. Their prize, amongst many other things, resulted in a prime slot supporting The Crimea, everyone’s favourite drummer-boy Owen “Which riff is it anyway” Hopkin filling in on drums, plus someone else who’s existence is somewhat unexplainable from myself but anyways…

The full song featuring OH was available on the Xfm site, but has since dissapeared somewhere, so for now you can have the low quality video clip from the gig last night up on YouTube.

Before I start uploading my own stuff, here’s what everyone else has added so far to Davey’s facebook page at facebook.com/daveymacmanus :

Davey’s own photo album - featuring some nice distance shots, and him with a blokes arm which was promptly dragged halfway across london (something like that) for everyone and their boss to photograph. Oh the lulz… seriously though. D1939’s arm looks even better in real life.
Speaking of which, here’s Dom Murphy’s very own video of Loop a Loop.
Long time fan Rodger Button has plenty of gig shots in his album, including support acts The Kicks and Morton Valence.
And there’s plenty more individual shots showing up on both Davey’s page and Owen’s Facebook page, including quite a few by the wonderful and ever-loyal Dan Aitch.

8.05pm

And heres the kicks, clearly popular with the paps… Some guy from radiostation they now own is introduing them. Something about kebabs. I dunno… Maybe you should just hit xfm.co.uk to figure out what the hell ths is about. Owen should be up too…

Astonishingly the press are now leaving… Crimea, still band of the forgotten. Long may it reighn
8.20pm

Soo pretty

10.35pm

Gigs over but plenty of vids n audio to come. Here prolly the only pic though.

23.50pm

Soo…. The young crox fans that mophed in to the old crimea fans have turned in to the young crimea fans who are now also old-ish crimea fans. Where the hell are thr 16 yr olds sneaking in to gigs these days? No one even went for the setlists , damn your enthusiasm :p Still, decent set after, as davey recalls, 15 months of nothing. A great acoustic of opposite ends (vid coming soon). First time bad vibrations has been heard in forever. Next gig due september. Sorry for making you all sign stuff again. But geez if you must go producing fuck off huge card vinyl covers… davey stole my pen. Again. Crazy matt was scarily sane. Oh and the press did re appear. Im sure something decentll show up on daveys facebook soon enough. Proper photos, like, not this shit.

And finally, congrats nim, and mininim omg thats like nim backwards twice. Quite fitting. And another two fans wholl never read this. Why we bother eh? Did anyone read this? At all? Ho hum itll look good on the cv etc.

Davey needs better heroes

The following day…

Some great audio n vids coming, just listening through it all now. Loads of stuff by others already appearing on davey’s facebook. Will add some bonus background listing too. Who else cant wait til september eh?

Testing 1 2…

Y’all there? Hopefully this works better than the last time i tried this live blog shinanigans. Wordpress app sure seems easier to use anyway.

Currently on the way down to london town on ye olde eastcoast, postings curtosey gprs. Weather still looks gloomy in the midlands. Listing to old crimea live radio session recordings; forgot how grea Julz was Now cant post shit cos the signals gone…. Lots of yellow flowers n pylons though. Pretty.

Aand signals past gogopostygo

2.40pm
I think i see some sun. might not get soaked walking around london afterall. And thx joe for the SC headsup. We can all play guess-that-sandwich-filling again.

2.45pm
Wordpress needs a time stamp tag. Diy liveblog sucks :p. why did the greatness of little blue crunchy thing pass everyone by? Bonus points for guess-that-bagel-filling.

2.50pm

“heads i win…tails you loose”… Too many good crimea songs forgotten too. Speaking of which, forgotten just shuffled onto ipod. Humanity’s loss. This yellow oilseed-rudestuff seems popular. Fields still plastered in it. Gotta get me some - must be in wrong business selling games. Towns looking less characteristic by the mile. Hello generiland.

3pm
Parrado / rosevelt amazing too. Norweigian indie somethingorother. Will upload some tracks later cos i know noone ever got them off mp3.com / napster in the day. Oh and yeah, you are getting like 4 years of blog posts in a day here. Slap that blog back into shape.

3.15pm

Almost in kings x. Gotta go soon. Davy postin old song lyrics over @ his facebook. Back later with more. Remember, sandwich filling guesses in the comments. Winner gets one, if we ever meet…

3.20pm

London looks.. Suprisingly alright. Theres sun too !!! Crimea stalking iminent. Oh gawd i must scare these people sometimes…

3.26pm

Bang on time. Thats it for an hour folls. Off to trot round n get mugged n shanked. Like all the cool kids.

4.50pm

Back doors ftw. Its actually a feckin church too. Erm… Yeah… Time to find a power socket…

Big place. Big and cold. Super gig tip - bring a jumper.

5.20pm

Supposedly 500 people turning up to fill the place. Bagsy back row top floor. Always the best view better than back stage anyway…

5.45pm

Plenty of soundcheck tracks recorded fun for all the family. Just about finished though. Biiig big place…

6.00pm

Heating is go. Not so much need for coats anymore. Maybe a light summer jacket…

Now for The Kicks to soundcheck. Crimea disappear who knows where, maybe to pray or something. Is it even legal to have a bar in a church? Meh. Maybe some sneaky pics from the stage in a bit. This would probably be pretty cool if anyone were on this blog to see them. Alas, even my mother has deserted the place. Ho hum. Kicks sounding decent. Apparently they won Xfm or something, so joe keeps telling everyone. What theyre gonna do with their own entire radio station, i dunno, silly prize if u ask me whats wrong with a nice cake and sticky bun?

6.05pm

Owen drumming with the kicks. Have i missed something here, or is their regular awol?

6.10pm

I do believe im almost alone in the venue. Oh the fun to be had… unless im getting locked in… Erm.. Guys… Guys??!?

6.15pm

Teehee…

Andy’s fancy sparkly stool. Im saying nothing.

Respectively, view from andy’s, owens and daveys places.

And err.. Spoiler.. The all important setlist…

6.30pm

Now that everyones fecked off but the cable tech and tea lady, it’s time for the ever popular guess-that-sandwich-filling game. Again, bonus points for the bagel type.

And found my old crimea stickers n plectrums

Now i really must go an charge this phone thingy.

6.50pm

Still nowt but sttaff n band here. As the ozies would say - where the bloody hell are yall?

Will be going silent for much of gig to record the damn thing. Will update once its over though, never fear non-existent blog readers, you hall never be deserted
7.08pm

Past seven, guys, doors are open already, where are these 500 already?!? Why am i the only loser to ever turn up on time :/

7.35pm

Ahaaa pobol now, mr jon, whythe slackin? Here’s some stage, from the proper angle this time.

We’ll all know the secret to eternal life, or whatever it was that davey promised.

The Crimea’s first gig in whatever it is, 2 years or something stupid, and as always they still have fans, mostly famous ones.

gary lightbody @garysnowpatrol:

The Crimea are doing a show in the Union Chapel on thurs 17th of may if you can make it good people. Great band!

Kelly Jones off of Sterophonics:

Hi folks, if you wanna see one of my all time favourite bands and incredibly gifted lyricists, go to this gig for a total one off show this Thursday 17th May at the Union Chapel in London. The Crimea will paint images in your head you’ll never erase. Kelly

Maybe one or both may even put in an appearance, you know how Kelly likes to show up at gigs. That said, why he’d publicise his presence for all his stalkers elodies fans, I dunno. So anyway, if you’re going, here’s the full line up:

The Kicks
Morton Valence
The Crimea

Also,

Well, not quite. 1000 maybe. Yup, this is published post 1000 (technically 1004 if including a few private / deleted test post, and 1247 if you go by URL, I don’t even figure how that works) but, you know, who cares these days… Maybe we’ll hit 9000 in a few centuries
And thanks to Joe who’s endless tips on Crimea realated events would have been immensly useful 6 years ago No really, at least there’s one person to come back here for Now I’m off to figure out where the hell this chapel place is. Oh for multimap, whatever do the kids use these days? And, in hindsight, 1000 fixed width page may have been useful. Stupid widescreen 2000000 width nonsense. Note to self: make things smaller.

Oh and, Joe, whilst you’re in tip-off mode, what the hell time is everyone due there for soundchecks? Billy the boy-scout bunt here gets in about 6 hours early as ever (never can trust these trains…) and obviously has no friends to hang out with anywhere else. Seriously mr jon, 7pm? wtf? have you got like, a job, or something? Meh… Yeah anyway… Here’s some traditional post-Crimea-gig goodness. Cos it’s always over waaayy too soon.

In more Crimea related news - yeah, we’re on a roll this month year even, 5 posts already, go me! - The Crimea just got some radio play. God bless Adam Walton. I’m sure I had a photo of him looking 10 years younger somewhere, but I’ll be fecked if I can find it, so here’s an inapropriately outdated Radio Wales logo instead. And the iPlayer link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01h8qq5 - skip to 48 mins in. I forget how you download and record these things now, but I’m sure Adam’ll pass on a recording if tis ever required. Though I am still waiting on the “official” recording of the MS1 gig, Adam…

UPDATE: Meh. Had to re-install GoldWave, re-configure my audio recording setup and re-learn my ftp file directory structure but, here you go: Adam Walton on Saigon (050511).mp3

And in less Crimea related news, here’s a running camel. Bwahahahaha… (yeah sorry addicted to youtube tonight )

Something randomly made me search iTunes for the first time in forever. What do I find but a distinct lack of crox material (jesus is it too much to ask for anything pre-2000?), and then, this:

Yeeaaaahhhh k. On the other hand, still loving Betty Curse

And here’s the original, again, if you missed it last time, whenever the hell that was. http://www.immortalsoon.co.uk/mp3s/The%20Crimea%20-%20Understand%20(Lily%20Demos).mp3

Mmm… too many blue smarties last month. That’s another girl scared off then. Sorry crox lady person. Meh.

So anyway, did I ever spam anyone with a copy of an old forgotten demo (I obsessed over the first verse back in 2008: http://immortalsoon.co.uk/archive/994 )? If so, can I have it back please, I think my only copy was on the iPod I just formatted, and it’s like the best version ever. I swear someone e-mailed it me around dec that year but for the life of me I can find no trace at all. UPDATE: Sorted. It wasn’t a Forgotten demo, twas Baby Boom, damn them and their “let’s borrow this lyric and this riff from this song and put it in this other song” how’s a kid meant to find anything? The Crimea - Baby Boom (Lily Demos).mp3

In other news - and jesus there actually is some - Square Moon’s getting another pre-order-limited-release-until-the-next-one-pressing :d Order it here: http://thecrimea.limitedrun.com/products/11541-square-moon-double-12-vinyl-digital-pre-order

And then there’s the free EP available too. you know, in my day an EP had at least 5 tracks, boys. though to be fair add it to the album freebies and you got plenty already:

http://thecrimea.limitedrun.com/products/500676-the-crimea-last-plane-out-of-saigon-free-ep

Another actual gig which I might have mentioned before - supposedly the 10th Anniversary gig, albeit a few months early (was it really that long ago?) - tickets here. That said, it is in a church this time, which could be interesting, though on the plus side for once I won’t get chucked out for sneaking round in the dark trying to take photos of a group of boys, sneaking in the back door whilst no one’s looking. Oh the lulz to be had…

Video too. I stand by Oliver Twisted as the best track ever, but this is close enough.

Holy. Motherfrigin. Shitbiscuits.

I rarely swear. No really, I make an exception for few things. Stuff Your Cherry Pie being re-released. Owen sitting on the same bench. Hannah Fowler actually existing.

The latter, well… Whilst wading through the surprisingly-little spam since my last visit, one name stands out between Mr Viagra and Drugs-R-Us: Hannah Duncan (ne Fowler).

No seriously, see for yourself: http://immortalsoon.co.uk/archive/1177/comment-page-1#comment-130195

Apparently there’s photos and stuff to look forward to, so I best get e-mailing, but for now, here’s what the other lot have been up to for the last 15 years:

More @ http://soundcloud.com/hanjan. And if you’re reading this on the Crocketts site you can here some of her (much) older stuff in the player to the right, just hit “Mrs Donnelly (Live Session 1996). Will always get my vote for second best Davey backing vox after Annie (sorry ).

And the day job’s going to hell for an evening.

Davey & Co. are back together for one, two, three, maybe more evenings. Deffinately one though. Upper Hall, London, Thursday 17th May 2012. Here’s the full details from The Crimea (we know it’s just you Owen, who else is a Garath Gates fan?):

We’re delighted to announce that we’ll be playing the rather fabulous

Upper Hall at Union Chapel, London
Thursday 17th May 2012

As a pre-orderer of Square Moon your free tickets will, of course, be valid. If you fancy coming along to the gig hit reply to this email with ‘Confirm London’ in the subject line and in the body of the message please say who’ll be coming. e.g. Gareth Gates + 1 - we’ll then add you to our list.

Can we please ask that you reply by Friday 30th March so that we can plan accordingly - We need to know how many dancers to hire, trapezes to set up, pyrotechnics etc.

We are planning on doing a couple of other shows later in the year, in Manchester, Birmingham and/or Cardiff - so if you fancy holding out until we play nearer to your neck of the woods, your tickets will still be valid.

We hope you’re enjoying the record as much as we enjoyed making it, and we’re looking forward to giving the new songs the old live treatment.

The Crimea

Be there or be a square… moon. see what I did there? Oh anyway, I got much more interesting news coming up…

Foster The People’s Helena Beat, @0.43 & @ 4:10.

If that ain’t sampling Richard Reynolds / Vanden Plas, I’ll eat my Crimea branded t-shirt. Background here (he once remixed Baby Boom, and is a damn nice guy). Amazed I remembered this… Of course, VP prolly sampled it from someone else, surely? Hmm, where’s that demo I had….

Well, waste not want not; while I still remember how to log in…

A long long time ago, in a news post far far away, I once mentioned Chart Log UK, who compile peak chart positions for various bands. They only had a couple up back then, but there’s plenty more stats on your favourite band now, so hit more to check em out. Who knew WRG made it so high, as did Host back in the day. Stupid download crap confuses the hell out of me these days though, is there even still a chart left?

Read more »

Silent? Heartless? Dead? No chance.

While this here site is still alive enough to pick up Crimea haters (you’ll never beat mr “Crock o Shite“), El Crimeo have been putting together another Nevermind. Again. Again…. nevermind.

The Crimea - Square Moon

22 track double vinyl, 150 limited releases, pre-order to receive that, the digital download bollocks, and loads of other much nicer physical treats. Like Duke Nukem Forever, the new albums here baby, and promises to suck only half as much! Ok, probably quite a lot less, but inevitably we’ll all be “oh, the demos were better…”, such is the life of Davey Mac.

Actually, most of the tracks are straight off Listen To Seashells, so not too much new, but I promise you Goldmine rocks, as does Stand Alone, tough Jellyfish was better in the demo. Erm… err… yeah…

Gotta go, pre-orders are already down to 147 left. Hit more for the press release while I buy the fucking lot up figure out how to do that mailing list/press release logomabob thingytrip… Wait how do I do more?

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No no, Vest-ival! Somehow. Anyway…

The Crimea play their first festival in lord knows how long, next Saturday 21st May 2011.

More details at http://footballaction.org.uk/vestival (it’s at that bloke off of tele’s farm thingy). Plus them ones who had that dancy moonlight early 2000’s hit thing. And some no name lady someone who just got in off the popularity of her much more talented brother whatever dj thing. Yeah. Hope they don’t read this any more. Hell, who does?

And apparently, the man in the know Crazy Matt, says Davey will be “supporting The Damn Jammage on May 19th at the 100 Club, Oxford St”. Sounds about right. Christ, can the world take this much Crimea all in one go? Guess we’ll find out.

And if you can’t wait for the musical madness to begin, seems like half of Australia’s upped and moved over to London for the month, so keep an eye out for any gigs by Lecia or the Hussy Hicks, featuring one time Crimea guitar lead extrodinaire Julz Parker - say from me if you go - she won’t have the faintest but who gives a shit .