Hi again, quick public service announcement this…
If you’re the former webmaster of http://crocketts.webjump.com who goes under the name of J, please get in contact with me cos you have cool live recording of the crox and i want them. Thankyou.
Sader news: I dunno who it was who first pointed me in the direction of this band, but i’m sure it was someone crox related. Easyworld have just announced on their website that they’ve split up. They played the recent V Festival just after The Crimea on the same stage, and their fans were even nice enough to post their approval of the Crimea on the easyworld messageboard. Are there any decent bands left?

Andy Norton, Crimea lead guitarist, was on BBC 6 Music this morning playing with Charlotte Hatherley. Andy’s mentioned before the first acoustic track, Summer, then at the end of the interview (when The Crimea are also mentioned), and plays guitar and provides backing vocals for both the first and second acoustic track, Bastardo. Downloads are just underneathe…

Summer (4 MB) -=- Interview (3 MB) -=- Bastardo (4.5 MB)

Davey MacManus has been lifted to the hights of international stardom, hanging out with the likes of Jack White and co, or at least in a sentance of this article he has. In a review of My Red Cell’s new album by Crud Music Magazine, they say of MRC’s lead singer: “He has a brimming, psychotic delivery that is impossible to ignore, reminiscent of a speeding Jack White smothered by Davey MacManus of past Welsh cult heroes The Crocketts in some rowdy bar after closing”.
I might stick the new crox site up sometime soon. It’ll only be the stuff I’ve finished, around 50%, but it’s better than nothing.
Oooh it hurts. Here’s a couple of reviews you won’t be seeing on The Crimea site. Both of the Ambient Picnic festival on the 1st of this month, and both for Underdogzine.co.uk.
AMBIENT PICNIC - BY JON
In 2004, you’d think we would have moved on a bit from the shoegazing FX-rock of the early nineties, but it’s obvious that headliners The Crimea still hold their Ride records close to their hearts. If you think of X Is Loaded, but without any of the tunes that make that band vaguely tolerable, then you still won’t manage to plumb the depths of dullness that The Crimea do – and with appalling lines like “we’ll walk through the streets like lottery winners on acid” they don’t help themselves either. It was at this point I decided to head off to the Dance Tent – that’s just how bad they were…
AMBIENT PICNIC - BY GARETH
From bad to worse as The Crimea take the main stage, some crappy Indie band that nobody had heard of and indeed few people stayed to see. The shocking thing was these guys were the headliners… but how??? Nobody had heard of them. Still at least I am justified in bitching about the Ambient Picnic when they put on this level of a show for a headliner.
Enough. Andy Norton’s currently on the road with Charlotte Hatherley from Ash as rythm guitarist and backing vocalist for any current radio sessions she’s doing. I’m currently trying to find out details of future sessions, but here’s a couple of acoustic MP3s he did a couple weeks ago. They’re the last two, titled “Acoustic (Low Quality)”, and were recorded for a Virgin radio session.
And the girl Andy replaced, Julz Parker is playing her final UK gig this year with Project Winerhaven at the Late Bar on Kilburn High Road, Thursday August 26th. Please go, she’s good and stuff.

The new Halflight E.P, entitled Subside, is out now and I do believe our very own Owen Hopkin provides drums for some of the tracks. You can read reviews and purchase a copy over at their website, www.halflight.info.

” Ih-bee-thar “. And with that word you know it’s deffinately a MacManus who’s taken over Radio 1’s Thursday evenings. Listen again and view her full Radio 1 webpage here. This week Annie’ll be in ground-zero itself presenting a live show from the island’s Cafe Mambo as part of Radio 1’s Ibiza weekend. And before you ask, I have put in a request to her to play some Crocketts stuff, but so far heard nothing back. Maybe it was the whole “Nuke Ibiza” thing. Whatever…
Julz / Project Winterhaven are playing the Mau Mau on Portobello road on Aug 8th. They’ll be on around 7 but doors open at 3 for some singy-types to do their stuff. Apparently they’re alright.
There’s something else but I forget. Maybe it’ll come back… … maybe not…

Aliright kids. I think I’m about to get sacked from a job I never had. At least it’s something for the resume. So incase you don’t see me round here too much anymore (North Korea really don’t look that bad) I better remind you about the ANNIE MAC SHOW, tonight at 9pm. While you’re waiting for that to start, click this, skip to 1hr 10mins and hang around a bit to hear Regina Spektor’s “Your Honor”. It’s kinda cool.
PS. I knew bloody craig should’ve kept his site going :o\

Julz Parker (ex crimea star guitar girl why am i still explaining this) and her band Project Winterhaven are playing the Kilburn in London on Thursday 15th with Club Church Crew. Get down there to witness the best guitarist in the whole damn world. Possibly. Now where’s my monkey?

Halflight, who Owen played drums on some studio recordings for, have just won themselves.. well.. something to do with Wales’ Pop Factory show, and have got themselves nominated for the Best New Talent category in the Pop Factory Music Awards 2004, the same category The Crimea won last year. Check out their website at www.halflight.info.

I’ve not actually listened to it all yet but the tracklisting speaks for itself. If you weren’t around in 96, or more importantly, if you were, go out and buy the Live Forever britpop compilation. £7 down W.H.Smith, almost as cheap as a blowjob eh Davey? And I’ve almost forgoten everything the jack-in-a-box-on-a-stage said to me on tuesday…. Fuckit, i forget everything :o\
Oo yeh, the site might dissapear for a couple days next weekend. Gotta move hosts and stuff and apparently it fooks things up. Send me your old crocks pics n things so I can be bothered to finish this site. I’m too lazy.

EVERYONE get over to AudioLunchbox.com NOW! All albums are $7.99 till Tuesday, you can pay via PayPal and you get 192kbps MP3s, Q6 Ogg Vorbis’s, album art, song lyrics etc, unlimited downloads, no digital rights restrictions on files etc etc all for just over FOUR QUID! Singles round here cost more than that :oD I’m off to get the Distillers album :o) EDIT: The place has been checked out by the most technically knowledgeable man I know, Mr Denyer, and he’s given it the thumbs up. Can’t be too bad then.

The Crimea have finially signed a record deal! *woohoo* More money for davey n owen :oD. I think it’s with EastWest Records, warners spinoff, but i’m not sure…
Another plug for The Vanden Plas who remixed The Crimea’s Baby Boom, and very kindly send me a copy :o). No commercial release seems planned but maybe I’ll be able to stick a copy up here :oD Meanwhile, you can grap some Vanden Plas t-shirts here along with some other nice looking, albeit pricey, t’s.
And Listen to Deerhoof!

You may remember Maupa as the cheeky little scamps who not only knocked out, but buried and pissed on the grave of everyone else in the English leg of the Wanadoo Discoveries online cometition to find the next “big thing” in music. Contestants from all around Europe including The Crimea took part, and the final was helt this evening in Montpellier, France. The finalists, including Maupa, played during the show, which was streamed ove the net this evening. It’s actually still going on and I’m getting a horibly slowed down strem through what should be a 1mbps connection, but anyway, I missed the bit where Maupa were on and winners were anounced, but fuck me if they hadn’t got half of England to help em out in the vote cos Maupa won the whole damn thing. And I still dunno what they get. Visit their site and lavish your love upon the band who’s fans could do what the Crimean army never could.

Just got some great news from Owen. The Crocketts’ debut album We May Be Skinny And Wirey and the excellent follow up album The Great Brain Robbery are back in stock. They’re both £8.00 inc. p+p, check the little shop bit below for the rest.
And while I’m on the subject of albums, Project Winterhaven (julz ex crimea lead blah blah…) have just released their latest one. It comes with one of the best album titles I’ve ever heard, Don’t Look At The Monkey, and judging by the track you can download from their site, it’s pretty darn good. Copies are £7 and you can even use PayPal if you so wish.
Weird E-mails If anyone gets a weird looking e-mail claiming to be from either christopher@inaudible.co.uk, tav@outthere.co.uk or any other Crimea related address, please don’t open any attachments with them without scanning for viruses first. I’ve recently recieved numerous e-mails with spoofed addresses, including some claiming to be from myself, and there’s not much I can do about it so just get a decent virus scanner and spam filter and you should be fine.
There’s some new MP3s on the Crimea Official Website of an interview with Davey and another Crimea member for Radio Wales a couple of weeks ago. The Crocketts are mentioned a few times, though Davey doesn’t seem to happy about them :o\.
And I’ve found and interview with Owen for Radio One’s Session In Wales about Mary Hopkin working with the band. Click here to listen to it in RealPlayer, and if anyone can get the source file downloaded then send it this way and I’ll turn it into an MP3.
Almost forgot about this, I’ve uploaded some more live MP3s by another NME ridiculed band, Sleeper. They were produced from the live stream on Sleeper Online of a gig at Oxford Brooke’s University in 1997,and features none other than fatboy-girl Zoe Ball as guest guitarist on the first track. You can find all the MP3s and playlist file here.

Now either Owen or Dan are a fan of the Eels, cos they played them during their XFM Hijack years ago, so this one’s for them everyone who happens to like crazy Flash animations.