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.

Click here: http://rawaudio.net/, wait for the player to load, click the magnifying glass, enter a chat name and come watch Julz play from a new york rooftop…

Aww… look what you missed… lottery winner? Three hours of fun. I think the full recording will be up somewhere soon. Update: Below. Thanks to Julz and RawAudio.net for the music. I’m off to record some T now, wish for some crimea for me…

Skip to 7 mins in on the 2nd vid to hear a wee Criema cover, though I deny all involvement in any other childish requests…

…and this place could’ve turned back into a personal blog again. God help you all. ‘Ave a listen to this, then - Murry The Hump - Vodka & Wine. I think I’m meant to get arrested for that or something. If I post nothing for a few weeks… err.. you’ll never notice I ’spose…

Julz Parker, second favourite only to ice cream in the musical stakes, appears on slightly more credits than I previously assumed humanly possible. Here’s another one of her bands. I believe she played with these lot a while ago. Anyway… ahem*obsessed*… hey my link’s on the hussy hicks site :o)… I didn’t even ask… Check Julz out when she plays rawaudio.net on Sunday around 11am GMT. Just visit the site between 11 and 12 and you should see it; if you join the chat you can abuse myself and say hi to everyone else (personally I nearly died when my three current favourite artists all tuned up in the chat at the same time last week. almost as good as the old crox.net crocketts chats :o) as if i was ever at one…).

There’s more rubbish up on YouTube. If you hate the crimea stuff you’ll love the charlie & lola clips :o)

Crimea are gigging somewhere soon. Scotland I think. Ohh, this place is going downhill fast…

The Crimea @ Bestival last year —>

More to come though unfortunately most of it’s old Crocketts vids, but there’s some old Crimea stuff too. Check out the user page for pepsimax2k on YouTube for the latest, I’m uploading them pretty much as soon as I’ve got them on my PC and encoded properly. There’s most of the Crocketts stuff there already, though I’ll be adding them to Vimeo when it lets me and you can download the proper quality versions from there. I’ll mention on inaudible.co.uk/crocketts when they’re done.

Getting even more off topic; heads up for Lecia and ex-Crimea guitarist Julz Parker who’ll both be playing live on www.rawaudio.net on July 2nd and 9th respectively. I’m reliably informed the UK time will be 11am, but the sessions stay online for a week after just incase.

Sleeper - What Do I Do Now?

And here’s a mirror of something on The Vanden Plas’s website:

Monday, January 30, 2006
As The Crimea grow gradually in stature (they had their first Top 40 hit a couple of weeks ago) and their album TRAGEDY ROCKS comes out today, so does hope that The Vanden Plas remix of Baby Boom might one day get a proper release. It’s the only remix they’ve ever had done, and for now it sits in the deep freezer. Raise the subject in their forum here

If you’ve not heard it, you can download the remix on the downloads page of this site, or just hit this. And when you do, be kind enough to mail me and tell me what id3v2 compatible music genre The Vaden Plas are. Damn mp3 players… been tagging for the past 4 days… 1000s of mp3s… stupid no pop-punk, glam-rock, garage, anti-folk… mmm…

Things have calmed down a little after the single lauch so I recon it’s a decent time for this.

Back history: Early 2003, The Crimea have finially resigned to the fact that Davey isn’t the best lead guitarist in the world. Que the search for a replacement culminating in the presence of one New Zealander Julz Parker accompaning the band for the next eight months. If you saw her play, with/without The Crimea, just heard her from the bar, or generally believe the crap I was writing about her before she even had anything to do with The Crimea you’ll know why I’m still writing it.
Anyway, she moved back to Austrailia to continue work with her own band Project Winterhaven ages ago, and they’ve just released yet another album. I got a copy of In The Valley in the post a few days ago and it’s a nice collection of re-recorded stuff from earlier albums and some new things as well. If you’ve not heard anything by the band before then you could do worse than starting with this album. Previews of songs can be heard at myspace.com/projectwinterhaven.

Julz also provides lead guitar on the new album Going With The Flow from The Love Bus. I can’t get over how great the lead singer’s voice is. The music’s a bit more up tempo than the Project Winterhaven album, and a decent buy purely for track three “To Be” and the following “Life Is What You Make It”. If you wanna hear Julz playing a little more electric stuff then it’s perfect. Listen over at myspace.com/thelovebus.

Although she e-mailed me but 30 minutes ago personally thanking me for buying the EP, I swear I was planning on writing this anyway. I plugged Fly by Lecia on here a while ago, but I can now safely say the whole of her “Heaven Or Hell” EP is the greatest thing I’ve heard since I downloaded the live version of “Evil” by The Crimea about a year ago. It starts off great, and by the time Fly ends at track three you’re left wondering how the hell you’ve never heard of her before. Have a listen over at leciamusic.co.au. And apparently she’s touring the United Arab Emirates at the moment, in a band with - you guessed it - Julz Parker. They get around these Ozzies.

You can pick up all three albums online at CDBaby.com for just over ?20 shipped to the UK (and don’t worry about the tax man, they handle him just nicely). And that concludes your monthly band pimpage on Inaudible.co.uk. Well, there is that stuff Davey sent…

‘Course you ain’t, but here’s some news on other bands you should deffinately check out.
As well as The Crimea, I’m also a huge Sleeper fan, and as such often get the urge to force their music upon others. Which would be why I’ve stuck all of these lot online for download. If you’ve not heard Alice In Vain yet it’s a must.
Project Winterhaven. Who the hell? Frontwoman Julz Parker was The Crimea’s lead guitarist for over half a year, and brought the band to the attention of many who’d have otherwise ignored them. She left to continue work with PJW in Australia, and they now have a new album coming up, aswell as some new MP3s up for download on their official site.
The Vanden Plas. Now we’re really getting obscure. Founder Richard Reynolds made a dance remix of Baby Boom (which I’m hoping to stick up for download shortly) and anyways, he recently had a load of vinyls nicked by some no good sarf london lot. So if you see any of his Santa Margherita records, a 1969 MGB GT (reg OCK 143H) or a victorian chest of drawers being sold (likely) then get in contact with him via his website.
Davey’s brother Rod MacManus has gained a new fan, featuring on the Hairy Tales blog (look for the big green shamrock). Gaelic speakers enjoy Cealtra An Tra while it confuses the rest of us.

Mclusky Split! A sad day for some of us, more over at Mclusky.net.
In happier news, if you read the crimea site, you’ll be pleased to know I got everything backed up. Infact, the whole hard drive seems to be working fine again now. It only cost me £100 to find that out :o\

Having been nominated for the Pop Factory Award’s Best New Act award (which The Crimea won last year), Halflight are playing a gig at the Pop Factory in Wales on December 3rd to launch the event. They’re currently giving away tickets to the gig on their website www.halflight.info but first you’ll have to answer a very Crocketts related question about Owen Hopkin. And for any Halflight fans visiting this site, here’s a few more pics of their gig at The Bay in Aberystwyth a short while ago.

Peel tribute night on Radio 1, Thursday 16th December, more details @ drownedinsound.com.

So he’s only on the first track “Where The Pins Drop” but it’s good all the same :o) and I want a new camera cos mine keeps breaking everything. or at least, it does when its battery works and it can be bothered to take the pic. then again, half the time it still doesn’t bother…

CDs you should listen to if you haven’t already…
El Toppo by the Llama Farmers, a lovely autumny album, listen and watch the leaves fall down.
The It Girl by Sleeper, unless it’s just me who’s stuck thinking “what do I do now?”…
That’s all, it’s not like I have a wide ranging taste in music or anything. Why not try the NME for that? hahahaha mmmm :o\

I’m sat here listening to numerous different versions of Opposite Ends, and thinking I should probably update stuff. Sounds about right…
Klutzville Promo EP review. And they bloody love it. Cept for some reason they think there’s a group called The Crimea and a guy called Andy Norton playing on it. Lord knows what that’s all about. Read it here.
Halflight, for whom Owen Hopkin played drums on their recent Subside EP, just played the CMJ festival in New York (much like a certain other band) and will return to the UK tommorow (Monday 18th) to play The Cavern Club in Liverpool. The would be The Cavern Club then. Still, I don’t see them on US morning radio, eh? :o) Oh, and they’re playing Aber in November. Nice. Check their site for more.
Project Winterhaven (well actually, just Julz) have been around the world and back again. Again. And after playing such renowned locations as ‘a back street in asmall town near calais’ and ‘the back of a van in a bordeaux winery carpark’, she and the other members are now off to the US (isn’t everyone?) to play some proper gigs. Well actually, with seemingly little planning, lead singer/ex-Crimea guitarist Julz managed to get herself and friends onto numerous gig bills and even onto a radio show. Oh and they got some stuff nicked from their van too, so if you can spare the odd mic or two, and a guitar tuner… video camera… some “wicked earings”?!?… i’m sure they’d appreciate it. Err.. yeah so, if you’re around, and frankly it seems like there’s no point staying here if you wanna hear some good bands, they’ll be at Baltimore 22 October, Norfolk 23 October,Baldwin City 25 October with Tommy Emmanuel, 29th October - AJ´s Bar and Grill - Jacksonville Florida, October 30th - Eddies Attic - Atlanta Georgia Supporting Halcyon.
And if you’d like to buy some old S Club 7 CDs… As if… they’re way too good to sell, but I do have some of my old CDs / video games currently for sale up on eBay. Maybe avoid the Steps (sadly, that’s not a joke), but I highly recommend the set of seven Sleeper singles, if I didn’t have em already there’s no way I’d be selling them at all.

The Hot Puppies (from Aber) have a new single out, called Green Eyeliner. You can get it from… somewhere… Track Records York’ll prolly have it… They’re playing London, Bristol, Bath and Aber this month too.
Mindasuno are also touring this month, and should be in session for Radio Wales’ Adam Walton by the end of the year. You will want to listen to it…