The man Ledlin does it again. My new favourite Crimea fan was at The Enterprise on May 8th to video the whole thing, and Davey’s just upped the majority to his Youtube page. Long gone are the days when you just got a shitty cassette recording using some old headphones as a mic, or even my poor attempts at minidisc recording with excess base levels. Hell this guy even makes my dad’s MP4 recording digital camera redundant. It’s like there’s no use for me in the world no more Oh well, quality vid time Check the rest out at youtube.com/user/daveymacmanus.

And don’t forget, if you wanna see them there’s no better place than at Sister Ray records in London on this coming Monday (30th June). Not only will you get a chance to buy a hard copy of the new single and a special instore apperance but you’ll also get access to the evening’s secret gig with non other than old skool Crimea guitar goddess Julz Parker featuring one way or another. Meanwhile I’ll be stuck here praying to god the J meister’s doing his thing again as it’s the only way I’m gonna get to see owt. O spare room where for art thou?

Davey just posted a live performance of ‘Jellyfish’ from The Crimea’s Enterprise gig on 06 May 08. Check it out at his YouTube Channel.

West Coasters, sync your iCals with these 2 new Crimea shows :

• July 18th - Epicenter in San Diego  (8pm) Advanced tix are $7/ $9 day of show
• July 19th - Venice Beach, Los Angeles (7pm) Free show, the West Coast version of the Official SOTWH release party. 

Also, you’ll want to check back here on a regular basis because there’s a LOT of press and other stuff in the pipeline.   In the meantime, check out this interview here,  see Davey’s little promo blurb for 7-Digital here, CultureDeluxe.com’s review of 48a Waiting Steps here, and by the way, did you people forget there’s a competition going on?  This guy didn’t - he’s the first entry in the “make your own video for the 48a Waiting Steps” thing.  (Maybe a winner will actually be declared, unlike the ‘remix Loop-A-Loop’ thing…)  

If you’re looking for something to do in London Thursday night (05 June), might I suggest popping down to the North London Tavern around 7:30-ish, which should give you enough time to gather a fine spirit from the bar before Davey and Joe take the stage at 8pm. Davey said this is a warm-up gig for the *free* Proud Gallery solo set on Sunday afternoon (08 June) and the full Crimea gig at the Enterprise on Monday (09 June). It’s only 5 quid to get in and there are two other acts on after Davey and Joe. (Burning Leaves at 9pm, Rodney Fisher & the rest).The Crimea are bringing their candle-lit shows to Cardiff and Glasgow next month. Catch them at The Gate in Cardiff on Wednesday, 02 July and at the Barfly upstairs in Glasgow on Monday, 07 July.Finally - one more new London gig - Bush Hall on Wednesday 09 July.  Crimea by candle light in an Edwardian- era music hall…if you haven’t been to this venue check out the website.  Chandeliers, fancy millwork…stunning.   All I can say is they better play there again when I move back to London!Watch this space - there are probably more shows in the pipeline!

A few posts ago I mentioned the Tripwire Podcost (#037) that featured the ‘Always on My Mind’ mash-up and Loop-A-Loop.  Well the blackbirds’ best friend (otherwise known as Davey to you and me) let me know that at 50-ish minutes into the podcast there’s an interview he did with the DJ. Granted, the DJ gets a tad few more words in than Davey did but bless him, at least he was enthusiastic about the band.  So follow this link,  scroll down the page until you find the embedded player, and just fast forward to the 50-ish minute point

And a quick update about the Playground at the Proud solo gig happening this Sunday — Davey goes on at 4pm.

Proving once again that I sadly reside in “fly-over country”, the Crimea have announced two shows on the west coast.

July 16th - Tangier (2138 Hilhurst Avenue ,between Los Feliz & Ambrose; Los Angeles 90027) Show starts at 8.30pm

July 17th - Silverlake (4019 Sunset Blvd & Parkman Avenue, Silverlake, CA ). Show starts at 9pm.

And omg — just learned that Silverlake is the home of infamous DJ Lance Rock who is recently of Yo Gabba Gabba fame…one of the absolute coolest shows ever to be on TV. Period. Get us an autograph, will ya boys?

“You gotta dig a gig that is not only FREE but also describes Davey as ‘a living legend’. Hey, they certainly get it.

The Playground is a series of shows at the Proud Gallery in Camden described as “an afternoon session with the cream of London’s Acoustic talent and rock burlesque show evolving into a full blown indie electro-riot as the sun sets and the horses go to sleep.”

Davey treats us to one of his famous Sunday solo performances in the ‘Acoustic Afternoon’ session. The event kicks off at 2pm , D goes on at 4pm…For more info, here is The Playground Press Release

Way out where the ocean meets oblivion…?
Note that by 26th they mean very late night Sunday (25th), or very early morning 26th.

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A bit of mandolin on a Sunday evening…seriously, how can you go wrong? The late great John Dowland will certainly be smiling (ok, so he was a lute player…whatever. I just like to give the old boy a plug whenever I can).

Davey and Joe will be joining The Big Sur Sunday Sessions this Sunday, 25 May. Catch it at Two Floors in Soho, London W1 (Kingly Street off Carnaby). It all kicks off at 3pm and goes all the way to…what! 1am?!!? Sorry - just reading the details for the first time myself. That’s a pretty big chunk of time…will see if I can find out what time Davey and Joe take the stage.

If you’re on Facebook, you can check out The Big Sur Sunday Sessions events page here and RSVP.

UPDATE - J&D go on at 9pm.   But if you’re one of the first 50 people at the venue when the whole shin-dig kicks off, you will get a **free drink.**

I wasn’t kidding when I mentioned a few posts back that a brilliant summer campaign was about to get underway. Check out The Crimea’s MySpace page for a list of new shows slated for the summer, including four dates in New York and one in Boston.

You can win tickets for the Enterprise show tonight (14 May) from Xfm…that’s all Davey said…you’re all on your own, best of luck…I’m sodding jealous of you if you get to go…

But this link may (or may not) be helpful.

   

Ok, it’s obvious a fair few of you are a bit gutted that you didn’t find out about Friday’s last minute gig until it was too late. Well Davey sent over a recap of the night –

Joe performed as Jose Blase
He played 2 of his own songs:
-half left (the last time I played this was in leicester at the charlotte and someone filmed it - see youtube)
-somewhere to live
and 1 cover:
-the bad touch by the bloodhound gang which went down pretty well and everyone sang along

davey played as davey macmanus
loop
the only living boy and girl
shredder
how to make you laugh
blue dog (ive stuck an old live version up on myspace/crocketts)
lottery

amazing night, great gig etc. good to be able to smoke in a pub.

Joe and Davey will be playing TONIGHT (as in Friday 09 May) at 71 Great Titchfield Street, London. (It’s a speakeasy kinda joint) Troubadour Joze Blaze will serenade you starting at 1:00am, Mr. Macmanus at 1:30am. OK, technically that’s Saturday morning. Bring your PJs, it’s an all nighter…

Get out your calendar and start requesting time off from work…new Crimea shows and events are being announced.

Davey will be doing - and I quote - “an acoustic type thing” on BBC Radio 1’s Rob da Bank & Friends show on 26 May. Sorry to all of you who live in the GMT zone because I just noticed that Davey’s time slot is somewhere between 2 am and 4 am. Meanwhile, those of us on this side of the Atlantic will be enjoying his acoustic handiwork at far more reasonable hour (9pm Eastern/ 8pm CST / 7pm Mtn / 6pm Pacific) Listen to it online here. This is part of Rob’s “Campfire Special” and will also include some live tunes by Adem, Johnny Flynn, Jose Vanders, and Noah (from Noah & the Whale).

Keeping on the acoustic note: Davey will be heading back to his old stomping grounds of Aberstwyth to perform at the ‘castle rock‘ on the seaside. This is a free show…what an incredible setting…if no one gets photos or audio of this event then there will be trouble. Hear me? Trouble! Show starts at 8pm.

Summer festivals are just around the corner - The Crimea will be performing a full band set on 27 July at The Square Festival in Borth. (I believe Borth is slightly north of Aberstwyth.) If rumors be true, you get a discount to something called an Animalarium when you buy festival tickets. Let your imagination run wild with trying to figure out exactly what an Animalarium is. It sounds like an evil zoo [ED: surprisingly accurate description]…like lions and birds and kangaroos are held in a giant tank together to let Darwin and the food chain work their magic. Sounds like a lovely day out! Take your kids!

Reminder reminder reminder - Enterprise residency shows continue..tix are only £6, come on, what can you get for that pittance these days? Mark your calendars if you haven’t already done so - remaining dates are 14 May, 28 May, 09 Jun…all shows start at 8pm. Buy your tickets at thecrimea.net. And for more info on all future shows and festival appearances just check out the gigs page above (yes, it works again) or the Last.fm events page from which the listings are taken.

Lastly - quick thank you to Christopher for letting me guest blog at this site. If you haven’t checked out the Archives section of this website then you should reserve an evening and treat yourself. I did such a thing last Friday evening and it made for a crackin’ bit of reading as I enjoyed several glasses of rum & diet coke.. Christopher, hopefully this post came out better than the last one, but the paragraph formating codes are not playing nice so I apologize if you need to come in and tidy up again.

Crimea show tonight and new single in the wings…
More residency news; may the force be with them! …wait… wrong star show…

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