If anyone missed it last week, The Crimea were on BBC6 radio talking about their Big Swap charity project.
Chris’ll probably rehost this, but here’s the interview portion of the segment up on Rapidshare.
Also running late, here’s my review of Baby Boom with lyrics.

Prior to their T-on-The-Fringe gig in Edinburgh, Davey and Owen gave this interview to The Skinny magazine. Written by a guy called Finbarr Birmingham…. cool….

Christopher - another single review, 4/5 from This Is Fake DIY. Say hi to Iain everyone :o)

…. and live reviews don’t get much better than this one for the Jabez Clegg gig in Manchester. Which should be accompanied by this equally fantastic photo of Davey Mac at the same gig.

…. and if you’re still wondering what all the fuss is about - get yourself along to Carmarthen this weekend for the Macs Festival and see for yourself!

Read more »

Iain (who I think will be getting his own login shortly, and a good thing too, because I’ve been bloody useless) has found a range of Crimea gig and festival stuff: the Independent and MusicOMH liked the band at V, and the Beeb at Vital 06. There’s also a set list and some photos of a London gig from the 21st up on Flickr, and for another day or two you can listen to a BBC 6 session wherein the band talk about their War Child charity work. More on that at The Big Swap.

Thankyou messageboard Iain for keeping all informed while I was away. Even so, Drowned In Sound’s Latitude fest. review makes sore reading, and so will Gigwise’s for some though if you like pop-Crimea then it’s all good.
A little newer, I Shot The Deputy’s Bloomsbury Bowling reviewer loved the gig, bowled over if you will, and Charlotte Davies kicks Gigwise back into check with her much more positive Bristol Academy 2 gig review.

Guess I’m bored… Here’s some more articles: Lancashire Evening Post plug the band’s gig in a real proper library on August 17th. If I knew where lancashire was I’d go. Here’s what happened the last time Davey played a place full of books.
And to prove how lazy I really am, here’s a review from February by Repeat Fanzine on the Soul Tree gig in Cambridge. Probably the only time you’ll read “there is nothing obviously clever about them” being used as a complement.

A shorter review of the more recent Belfast Waterfront Hall festival gig can be found on the BBC Northern Ireland site. It’s not the best but judging by the four minute live vid of Baby Boom they have up, I can see why. It’s deffinately sounded better…
Staying with the Baby Boom theme, I’m gonna give yet another shoutout to The Vanden Plas, still the only artist ever to remix a Crimea tune. The remix of Baby Boom is available for download here if you’ve not yet heard it. The guy behind the music also has an online store at Goodatmagic.com where you can stock up on some pretty fancy t-shirts incase your old ones have melted in the heat. No I haven’t been payed for the plug, I just like the t’s :o).
Another update, just found out the single was Record Of The Day’s record of the day on July 26th. There’s a little review on their page, and press contacts for the stalker in you.

One one one.

New songs! It’s like, rare in crimea land eh? Loop-a-loops a bit dodgy like, but hopefully the other two are better, lord knows they’ve got a few decent new ones around, finally you get to here some :o). ‘Course, you could just go to a gig already (it’s the 14th already?!?) Otherwise, hit America’s favourite website for the loop-a-tunes.

And some guy said he might posibly send me live recordings thanks to some other guy who asked him and some guy who told me about the guy asking the guy sending… I’ve gotta figure out who all you new guys are… Rest asured, if I get anything, I’ll make available what I can.

Other new things: intereviews. (That’s like, interview *and* reviews. I’m sad.) This one has what looks suspiciously like Davey artwork though. I say that cos it’s a bit crap. Davey style. Oh, warning for Denyer though, don’t read it. Girl Just Died dissage. Not pretty.

Oh bloody hell. Just listening to “Who’s Laughing Now”. They’ve stopped quoting the cro..err.. mmm… And they’re quoting everyone else now. Julz: monkey see monkey do. GAF: Who’s the daddy now? That one was to cheer you up after the GJD insults, mr denyer.

Um, yeah, anyway… reviews… Newcastle Uni one from Flotation Suite. Oh, look, my favourite guitarist…

And some guy on the board, Iain (i hope that’s celtic otherwise I’m pissed again), points you and the rest of me towards a official forum and photo blog have more activity for once.

Didn’t spot this on the main page, so here’s Liam O Sullivan offering a glowing report of the band playing at the Liverpool Academy 3 on the 8th of Feb, over at Glasswerk. And if I’ve remembered how Greymatter mangles entry text, the More entry might even work. Meanwhile, Chris posted profiles of the band over at the Crimea Livejournal Community a short while back, and scholars of Davey’s music career may be interested in this collection of clippings being eBayed.
Read more »

Another review of the 100 Club gig comes in from Gig Wise, who rate it pretty favourably.
I just got sent a printed copy of this in last Friday’s “The Guide”, but the text version of The Guardian’s tour preview article is already up on their website.
A big review of the US album version from Stylus Magazine, I think the “B”’s meant to be a rating. And another two LWOA reviews from Quasimodo Bell and Music OMH who both like it.
Some guy called Iggy has obviously noticed my abismal slowness at getting pics online and done it himself. Check out his snaps of the Liverpool gig right here.
Weird news of the day involves this website referencing a website referencing itself. Indie Surfer Blog have a post on Inaudible.co.uk having posts on The Crimea. At least somewhere inbetween they manage to get a full bio and photo in, and also give the wondeful Sleeper a decent mention too.
It’s been confirmed most places now - White Russian Galaxy will be the next single. The video involves some strange psycadilic car ride of sorts, includes *all* the band this time, and the single should be out on March 13th acording to New UK Single Releases. I’ve been around too long to believe any release dates this early.
Finally - following the slightly recursive theme of this post - a shout out to a guy who gave a shout out to myself but a few minutes ago. Long time Crimea fan Jon Birch has got his own radio show on Bristol Uni’s BURST radio, he’s on right now so have a listen online via their website.
Read more »

Here’s part three of yesterday’s news downpour, and hopefully the floodgates will now shut for a while so I can get some rest. I’ve got some real special treats in store but first up, some info some more Crimea radio sessions. That would be live sessions, on the radio in Glasgow, Manchester and on Liverpool’s Radio City. Unfortunately, they were on Wednesday. Sorry for not having any info up before, but I only found out via Davey’s MySpace blog on Thursday. Apparently they played a cover of Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” in Glasgow, and interviews elsewhere. If you happen to have a recording (likely) then I’ve stuck all my e-mail addresses on the bar to the left.
Another public service announcement; Wild UK are organising The Crimea’s official street team, including some mini-raffles at each gig, and they need some help. If you’re available to assist at the Harlow show in London tomorrow then please get in touch with Sam at streetteam@wild-uk.com and he’ll most likely make it worth your while.
Right, good stuff. Channel 4. As well as broadcasting a live performance of Lottery Winners On Acid on the Digital Music Awards on Channel 4 last Tuesday, S4C this Sunday and 4Music err.. sometime… They’ve also behind The Crimea’s first popular kiddie interview! Yes, the kind where they ask what flavour ice cream you like. Not only that, but they’ve stuck the link to it on their main Music Features page! Ohh yes, everything you’ve wanted to know about their looks vs. McFly’s, and their attraction to Rachel Stevens. Next up, a Saturday morning MOM appearance. If it’s good enough for Sleeper, it’s good enough for The Crimea.
If you’re lucky enough to live in the States, you can order a copy of October’s issue 11 of State Of Mind magazine for only $4.00. Ahh, I hear you ask, why would you want to? Their interview with Davey and Andy Stafford from The Crimea of course!
Now for the icing on the cake, and I hope you’ve kept reading this far. They may have been on Channel 4, the official site may have exclusive live videos on the way, but you can watch the band right now on the South By Southwest site who have a near 4 minute video of them playing SXSW 2005, including clips from their performance of Baby Boom, Girl Just Died and Someone’s Crying. And it’s the fourth item on their videos page, no less (with a lower quality version if needed). I do have copies saved incase it’s ever removed, so lemme know if it dissapears and I’ll stick it up here.
Some old news mentioned elsewhere before comes in from the CMU Music Network with their Out Of Africa and live dates post.
Also old, but a little more detailed; Loose Record’s news on the band’s WOXY radio show session.
On the sales front, Picadilly Records have what at first glance seems to be a simple sales listing, but a quick read will revel links to two sample mp3s from the album.
Going even further is the twmsiy* blog who have a news-article-come-review of the album and links to three whole MP3s: the WRG album version, original LWOA version and great remix of Baby Boom by The Vaden Plas.
And if that ain’t enough media for you, check out the other images and Bowery Ballroom photo pages for new Crimea flyers, setlists and live photos thanks to Awreye.
Read more »

First up, the Austin Chronicle’s site has a preview of The Crimea’s South By Southwest festival show at Exodus on March 18th, and then a great full review of the gig including a wee picture.
BBC Radio 1 have been camped out at the festival in Texas for the past week, and John Peel replacement Huw Stephens went along to The Crimea’s gig resulting in an entry on the band in his weblog (see day three), pics of Owen, Davey, an LWOA poster and err… things… And he also played the new album version of Someone’s Crying during his Tuesday show. If you wanna have a listen to it, click this and skip to 40 minutes in. If you like it then the older, home recorded version can be purchased for 99p from the War Child Music charity website.
The Star Telegram previewed the support gig for Ash at Trees in Dallas on March 20th.
For those of you wondering what the upcoming Tragedy Rocks album will be like, have a read of the following reviews of the old UK version. Krioma.net give it a short one as part of another “top albums of 2004″ article, with The Crimea gaining 3rd place. And issue 5 of the Blank Stares & Cricket Claps magazine gives the album 3.5 / 5 in their album review section.
Read more »

Disclaimer: The Crocketts are not The Crimea (and if you believe your mates you’ll be bloody pleased about it). A decent Crimea biography is here, come back in about 4.5 days for a proper one.
Spin Magazine Online have posted a little about their thoughts on the SXSW festival, and include a short bit about The Crimea. Click here or on More to hear it.
If you’re like me and wondering if that e-mail link on the CD Baby.com page really is to the band then - it sure is. Go send Owen some fan mail :o) And um.. mystery solved. They sent some albums over to the US for sale, seeing how there’s a few fans over there. If you see anywhere else selling it in the states, let me know.
To finish with, I’ve seen posts on this message board about The Crimea for over a year on cashed Google pages. Seems to be for loads of A&R type people but the posts had always been deleted before I viewed them. Not anymore. I’ve gone through them all and written out the best bits in the extended More section. It’s mainly good, but what the hell is it with The Crocketts? Gives me even more of a reason to keep plugging the band, really. The music industry sucks.
And because some idiot in those messages said all the bripop bands were crap, and cos i’m on the subjects of non-crimea bands, and cos Sleeper just kickass, go find Bedside Manners and Blazer Sleeves by them on some illegal download site. They’re britpopowego :oD
Read more »

The Crimea’s SXSW gig was previewed (better late than never?) on AustinChornicle.com’s website on March 19th. Click [More] for their info.
Read more »

A small update tonight before something bigger in a couple of days. White Russian Galaxy was played on Radio 1’s Session In Ireland for the first time last night, and there’s a tiny review of the Crimea at the March DiS Vs DSP gig on Linenoise. To save you the trouble of clicking the link, it says “I sat through The Crimea’s set grinning like a mad thing”. A bit like I do every gig then.

The website for Welsh magazine Honk has been updated. The article on The Crimea’s publishing deal has gone and been replaced by a review of the White Russian Galaxy single. Click [More] or visit the Honk website for it.
The single has been added to BBC Radio 6’s playlist B. Click [More] or here for the current playlist and listen to the station online here.
Two days ago I mentioned The Hot Puppies. Well tonight they’re in session on Adam Walton’s Radio Wales show between 9pm and 12pm. You can listen online, on Welsh radio or through various Digital TV and radio channels.
Another different band, The Keys have had their upcoming single Strength Of Strigs reviewed by Crimea fan Stuart Denyer, along with comments on their previous single Gurl Next Door. You can read the review on his website here.
Read more »

Kerrang! has a small review of The Crimea playing The Borderline on 17/4/03 on page 46 of the latest May 10th issue. A scan of the review will be up on the press clippings page shortly.
Now I’m sure that March wasn’t the last time someone took a camera to a Crimea gig. If you’ve seen them play and took pics, send them in to photos@inaudible.co.uk and they shall be up on the site soon afterwards.
The Hot Puppies. If you’ve been reading this news section long enough, you’ll know who they are. The next big band out of Aber have their debut single reviewed on the Radio 1 Session In Wales website. It’s out on June 2nd too, along with the single from another Aber originating band you may know about. They played both singles on the show aswell, mentioning the joys of female guitarists in the form of Julia Parker inwetween the two. Click [More] for the tracklisting.
Read more »

Another day, another bunch of Crimea news for you all. Playlouder have a review of the Kerrang! Weekender festival in Sussex in April. The Crimea were there, they saw them play, and my oh my did they ever love them. Click here for the full review or on [More] for the Crimea bit.
I did some updates on the links pages at last. There’s now new site links and review links for you to look at.
One day I’ll get bored of posting news about a Davey MacManus fronted band being played on the biggest radio station in the UK. That day is not today. Surprise surprise, Mr Peel, also known as Uncle John to the band, gave the new single a spin last night. Hear the show recording here (WRG’s at 1:10 in), see the tracklisting here.
Read more »