Here’s a couple of site plugs for you. First is Jonte’s Web Garage, a web design and hosting site by the same guy who made The Crimea’s official website so you know the man’s got good taste.

And the other one is Inky Design, a graphic design company that aren’t so Crimea related but it’s run by some friends and they need a bit of promotion so… If you need a logo or other design work by experienced artists and also the nicest people I know then check em out. If they’re good enough for Transport for London they’re good enough for you Between them and the above you could get your own online presence in no time. Now if only I could stop this site looking such a mess…

Now that the Witching Hour news assault is over, here’s a few things that have been around a while but never had the privilege of a mention on inaudible.co.uk…

Way back in 2005 The Crimea played a live acoustic session for the WOXY radio station in America. Strange then that it’s taken me until now to find this page on the woxy.com website with a 24 MB MP3 download of the whole session. Check it out for some old Crimea classics, then check out the Flickr page with pics of the band recording the session.

Featuring a number of reviews and photos from different Crimea gigs is the eFestivals Crimea page, including a link to this review from last year on the eGigs site. If you fancy a more personal experience, there’s also a partial upcoming gig listing with links to online ticket outlets.

There’s also a review of the Pleasance Courtyard gig last year up on the Skinny Mag site, which says of Davey “part Rain Man, part Bright Eyes, but good enough to rival the very best”.

And finally there’s an old single review of Baby Boom up on Caught In The Crossfire, and a White Russian Galaxy single microsite at Video-C.

One more, Iain points you towards Plus One Magazine who have a review of a 2005 gig up. Go to Review Archive then search for “crimea”, or just hit more to read it.

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As you all eagerly await the arrival of your SOTWH hard copies (I’m sure they won’t be much longer…), here’s a review and some more release news to keep you happy.

The CD was album of the week at Today FM last week, so check out the Google cache or read more to see what they said. What did they think? Here’s a clue: “a well-produced and assured effort”.

There’s a small mention of the release on Gigwise, and also on the Instep Magazine site during an interview with a seperate artist, and finally there’s a slightly bigger article on the Dutch site Kidsweek.

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MP3s from The Crimea’s session on XFM’s Music Response last Wednesday are now up on the downloads page. All but the most dedicated fans will want to forgo the intro and possibly the interviews too where Davey talks about the band’s first album, record deal, US tour and the new album’s recording and release. But you should all get the three songs recorded at the XFM studios just before the session was broadcast, if only because they’ll probably be removed from the site pretty soon.

Normally don’t mention Crox stuff here but as you’re unlikely to notice if I dont, and as it has a small effect on this site…

The Crocketts Unofficial Website at inaudible.co.uk/crocketts has just had it’s news page updated with a kinda merged version of the blog on this here Crimea site. It’s been adapted for the Crox site so you can clearly see the difference, though any news posts there will still appear on the archives page of this site so if you spot any weird posts that aren’t on the this front page and have a totally different look, then that’s why.

Other than that, you shouldn’t notice any difference here at all, though obviously if you do then lemme know. Anyway, head over to inaudible.co.uk/crocketts for more info, and if you’re wondering “who the hell?!?!”, The Crocketts are just Crimea members Davey & Owen’s old band.

The Crimea will be performing live in session on XFM’s Music: Response show with Steve Harris later today. They’ll be on any time between 7pm and 10pm, and you can tune in thorugh DAB Digital Radio, NTL Virgin or Sky TV, 104.9 FM in London and online at www.xfm.co.uk (or just open this link in any media player). Hopefully I’ll get it recorded and possibly stick MP3s up somewhere so long as my internet connection can handle the stream.

The Crimea: Urgent Rescheduled Shows, Neither Modest nor Mice…
Gig news, album news, useless facts, it’s all there in the latest Crimea mailout.

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news… two more of the tour gigs have just been cancelled, here’s the damage:

Saturday 26th May - Queens Hall, Narbeth, Wales. CANCELLED
Tuesday 29th May - BoileRoom, Guildford. CANCELLED

Appologies anyone planning on attending, I guess refunds will be available from source or whatever… And Halflight are gonna be gutted. But, there’s a very good reason why they were cancelled. The Crimea have just scored support slots for the one and only Modest Mouse. They ain’t no Halflight, but they’ll do. Here’s where they will be playing:

26 May: Glasgow ABC, 27 May: Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall, 28 May: Nottingham Rock City, 29 May: Manchester Ritz

Check the gigs page for any further updates.

As hundreds of music fans make their way home from The Crimea’s Secrets Of The Witching Hour tour gigs, Inaudible.co.uk welcomes you to the band’s biggest fansite on the web with the biggest Crimea competition to ever grace the internets.

I’ve dug deep into the back of my closet and pulled out an almost complete collection of the band’s entire back catalogue. Read more for the full list, though unfortunately the original, ultra rare red covered Tragedy Rocks is missing, and currently there’s no pirate style Tragey Rocks either (though I hope to change that soon). Other than that, it’s all there. I’ll make sure to include a CD of ripped MP3s from any missing CDs, and also every demo and live recording I have.

I’ll also try to throw in whatever Crimea related gubbins I find lying around and I’m already pestering band members to donate anything they can come up with. If you have any Crimea related stuff you’d like to add to the prize fund (especially any of the missing CDs from above) then get in touch ( christopher@inaudible.co.uk ).

Update: Prize fund now includes a fully signed gray Weird t-shirt and a fully signed Secrets Of The Witching Hour CD album.

Alright, here’s the good stuff:

Question:

What is the title of the second track from The Crimea’s first official CD release?

Hint: track = song, official = no promos so either a single or album. You’ll know it when you find it .

Send your answer to competition@inaudible.co.uk along with your name and e-mail address before the closing date of midnight GMT, Thursday 5th July 2007 (that’s two days after the last SOTWH tour gig), also note it was previously 27th June though some tour gigs were rescheduled, so you have even longer to win!

One entry per person please. A winner will be picked at random from all correct entries after the closing date and the winner notified by email around 7th July. The winner should provide a postal address for delivery of the prize within three weeks of notification, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.

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One of the biggest Crimea fans I know (other than myself, obviously ) is the lead singer of Midasuno, Scott Andrews. No surprises then when he roped in Crimea lead singer Davey MacManus to provide some lyrics and backing vocals on Midasuno’s new album.
Released 6th June 2007 on Sugar Shack Records, the album Songs In The Key Of Fuck features Davey reciting a small 30 second verse in the religiously inspired lead single Don’t Drive (Faster Than Your Angel Can Fly). Here’s what Scott had to say about the duet…

”I’d played guitar on a track at a Crocketts gig a few years back, and being one of my favourite bands, I tried to stalk and keep in touch with them. Davey joined us onstage during our cover of “Lucifer” at Cardiff’s Compass Point Festival in 2003, and since then the seed was planted with the idea that he might join us on a recording in the future. Being a massive fan of Davey’s songwriting and especially his lyrics – I heard the “Someone’s Crying” (Taken from The Crimea’s “Tragedy Rocks” Album) and realised that the sentiment was lyrically very similar to that of “Don’t Drive….”. That cemented my idea and having approached him, he kindly accepted and helped contribute to one of the proudest moments I have had since the band started – not a lot of people get to work with their heroes…”

For previews of Midasuno’s previous ‘Til Death Do Us Party EP, check out their MySpace page.

Regular Crimea reviewer Jim Carroll gives the album 4 / 5 on Ireland.com, the Manchester Evening News give it 3 / 5 but with little bad to say about it, and ICWales say some good but don’t give a rating.

Other than that, Noise Pollution and Whats On Winnipeg give the release story a mention, Monofiopia get a little nostalgic over the MacManus effect.

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Fancy doing a bit of Crimea promotion yourself? The band would be extremely humbled if each and every one of you printed out the below flyers and poster for the upcoming tour and handed them out / stuck em up around your local area. There’s even a special prize available for those who get the most posters up. Although there’s jpegs available, please download the .doc files and print out from there if at all possible (they open fine in the free OpenOffice.org as well as MS Word). The poster has space on it to write your local gig date / time / price in. Please be enviromentaly friendly though and go take them all down again / recycle once the gig is over.

Time for some long overdue thankyous from me to all those helping to make this site as great as it is…

First up, thanks to Lee at Velocity PR for providing content over the SOTWH release. If you want some decent PR yourself, they’re your guys .
Paul Duffy from the official site has also provided a few things and is keeping the street team in order.
Cheers to Inaudible authors Denyer and Iain for helping me find all those album release articles on the web.
Obvious thanks to Owen & the rest of the band for doing what they do best and giving me something to do with my life.
And finally, thanks to everyone reading this site, especially those of you who’ve sent in news / photos / various other random stuff or just left a comment or two.

As Colin Murray continues his Crimea support by playing a Crimea track on every. single. show. of his on Radio 1 this week. Seriously, check out the tracklistings or listen again, it’s quite a sight. I’m starting to wonder if he’s a bigger fan that I am. Anyway, here’s a few of the radio DJs that The Crimea want you to bug and request Crimea tracks from. The more the merrier, but start with long time fan Zane Lowe (seen right all buddy buddy with Davey & Owen at a radio awards do).

Zane Lowe (Radio 1)- BBC Contact Page (select Contact DJ then DJ’s name).
Bethan & Huw (Radio 1 Wales) - BBC Contact Page (as above).
Gideon Coe (6 Music) - gideon.6music@bbc.co.uk
Jonathan Ross (Radio 2) - jonathan.ross@bbc.co.uk

Today’s articles come from Losing Today and Crimea regulars Room Thirteen who both have the usual news + gig dates.

The blog of author Warren Ellis contains the news, a hint of a review, and a preview MP3 for your listening pleasure.

And today’s foreign articles are slightly larger than usual. The Danish Urban site features a long article on what looks like the album release story, with a White Stripes twist. And German magazine Neon’s website contains what appears to be a fan’s explanation of each album track, though Google’s translation was less than helpful.

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