The Script have announced a string of UK tour dates next February as they embark on their journey to world domination of the dodgy-pop-rock market.

Tickets are on sale now, priced at £17.50 for all dates except for London, which is £18.50 a ticket.

Catch the Irish lads at:

Friday 6th February 2009 - Sheffield Academy (See Tickets, Ticketweb)
Saturday 7th February 2009 - Glasgow Academy (See Tickets, Ticketweb)
Sunday 8th February 2009 - Manchester Apollo (See Tickets)
Monday 9th February 2009 - Bristol Academy (Tickets)
Wednesday 11th February 2009 - Wolverhampton Civic Hall (See Tickets)
Thursday 12th February 2009 - London Roundhouse (See Tickets, Ticketweb)
Friday 13th February 2009 - London Roundhouse (See Tickets)

This past week I’ve spent in Cornwall, in Deerpark in a holiday park owned by some lovely people at Forest Holidays.

We arrived on the Monday teatime, a bit apprehensive as it was our first group holiday away (and, quite frankly, many places won’t let a group of 18 and 19 year olds anywhere near their place, understandably). After check in we had a quick nose around our cabin number 11, and whilst basic, it was just what we wanted for our base for the week. Working out at costing each of us less than £120 for the weeks holiday once food and travel has been taken into account, it was value for money and a great time.

In the end we didn’t end up doing very little over our week other than lounging around, playing games and taking the occasional walk. Our first year of uni over, we could all relax together, the exact reason we went on holiday.

Same time next year? Quite possibly.

What was good:

• Electricity meters - initially we were worried it was another way to get money off of us. However it just made us aware of how much power we were using - great for the environment.
• Quiet area - you’re aware of your neighbours (so no all night raves for us (joking!)), but they’re far enough away to not be in your back pocket
• Stunning scenery
• Friendly staff - give you suggestions of things to do, places to go, but leave you alone without making you feel bad for not doing anything.
• Lovely cabins. Basic, but all the essentials. Much like Canadian cabins, they’re warm and cosy, yet efficiently made.

What was bad:

• NO mobile reception. I ended up taking everyones phones to Liskeard to get signal everyday to send + receive messages. The walls are as thin as anything
• The shower. Whilst warm enough, quite frankly I can pee harder than what was coming out of that shower.
• The roads in the surrounding area. Single track roads (with both sides scraping the hedges) downhill at 18% and round a bend tighter than the toilet U Bend.
• Geese. They wake you up. They tap on the windows.

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Last night I finished reading one of this year’s summer bestsellers, “This book will save your life”. It’s one of Richard and Judy’s reads for the summer, and is definitely a book to polarise opinions.

It follows reclusive Richard Novak through a break-down of sorts and then watches as he re-discovers the dysfunctional Los Angeles area, making friends with Anhil, the local donut shop owner and getting to grips with getting his life back on track. During this time Richard goes through a series of pretty unbelievable events one after another, making for an interesting read.

There were quite a few parallels to the film “Garden State” here for me, as Homes manages to take Richard on a voyage of discovery about himself and the people around him that both captivates and intrigues.

However, it does have its slower moments when I was tempted to put it down and not continue. Little things like the switches from first to third person (often mid paragraph) and the lack of chapters made it difficult to get on with, however it was quite a rewarding read come the end of it, even if most of it was pretty unbelievable and a bit slow to develop.

Quite a few medium-profile releases this week, including Queens of the Stone Age’s new effort, “Era Vulgaris”, “Tally Of The Yes Men” by Goldspot (I can’t stand it, but has some big record company backing, so could be one to watch), Calvin Harris’ “I Created A Disco”, Tiny Dancers’ “Free School Milk” and finally Bon Jovi’s “Lost Highway”. However, the one I’m going to focus on for this week’s “Band of the week” feature is Ghosts, another sort of middle of the road indie pop band from London who have their debut album out on Monday, “The World is Outside”.

Normally I’d just write them off as being another bunch of Keane wannabes, and they may always be destined to have that label. However, they have one song that is simply sublime. Its “Stay The night”, which you may have heard recently on Virgin radio.

Their lyrics are typical teenage simplicity that’s not gonna win them an Ivor Novello, with ‘original’ lyrics such as:

Oh why don’t we take a taxi back to mine,
I’m sure that we’ll find a way to pass the time,

As much as I want to hate this band I just can’t bring myself to, with their catchy songs and simple tunes that just beg to be hummed along to all summer long. Definitely a band to divide opinions, they will have you loving them or hating them pretty quickly! Hardly a band that will earn you a lot of street cred, they could well be one of the slow burners of the year, doing a Snow Patrol on us and slowly wowing festival crowds.

This month’s Wired magazine carried a fascinating short article about Hasan Elahi, a Bangladeshi-born American who claims that the US government mistakenly listed him on its terrorist watch list.

To try and prove his innocence and lack of terrorist inclanations, the assistant visula arts professor at Rutgers took the decision to put his entire life online. From that day forward he posts everything he does and sees, every waking hour of the day online at Tracking Transience.

It’s a great idea and one I’m keen to explore more. I’m all for identity cards and everything like that as I think that if you have nothing to hide, then why worry? It can provide better means of IDing people, be it 15 year olds at a gig, or if your knocked over and they need to ID you on the way to hospital. I know that I’m very much in a minority with that opinion, but I’m quite willing to show that I have nothing to hide.

Photo from Poptech 2006’s flickr stream.

“It’s in his nature, his behaviour, his misdemeanour” Phil Etheridge sings in “Two Lovers”. For the Twang it seems it really is about their behaviour, with their whole album a testament to their laddish nature. And it’s all the better for it.

Cheeky, distinctly Northern, and full of language that would make your Gran blush, “Love it When I Feel Like This” is looking set to be one of the strongest debut albums released so far this year.

The two singles to date from the album, “Wide Awake” and “Either Way” are each standout singles in their own right, and are perfect examples of the standard of tracks on the album. “The Neighbour” is surely single material, showing off their humour and storytelling skills simultaneously: “so I was just settling into the party, when there was a knock at the door, it was that fuckin neighbour going ‘turn down your tunes or you’ll end up on the floor’”

Reminiscent of early Oasis with the swagger, with elements of The Coral and Arctic Monkeys added for good measure, they get the perfect mix of sensitive songs (“Two Lovers”, “Reap What You Sow”) and plain and simple football ground anthems (“Wide Awake” and “Push The Ghosts”), The Twang are one of this year’s brightest new bands.

Last night I watched Garden State again, one of my favourite films that I’ve neglected for the best part of 6 months. Its one of those films that restores your faith in humanity - even though shit happens and you come across undesirable people and practices, there are still things at the end of the road that make the journey desirable.

Incredibly introspective, the film depicts Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff from Scrubs) returning home for his mother’s funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade. He goes on a journey through his home town, quickly falling for Sam (Natalie Portman).

It was Zach Braff’s first film that he both wrote and directed, and was a huge hit with the critics, containing some amusing dialogue and also quite introspective:

Andrew Largeman: You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn’t really your home anymore? All of the sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone.
Sam: I still feel at home in my house.
Andrew Largeman: You’ll see when you move out it just sort of happens one day one day and it’s just gone. And you can never get it back. It’s like you get homesick for a place that doesn’t exist. I mean it’s like this rite of passage, you know. You won’t have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it’s like a cycle or something. I miss the idea of it. Maybe that’s all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place.

For me, its the little things that make this my favourite film. When Zach goes to the restroom, he walks out past a row of sinks, and they all turn on and off in quick sequence as he walks past. Little things that just pass by in the blink of the eye but reward closer watching.

The soundtrack is also sublime, giving bands their (relatively) “big” breaks - bands like The Shins now cannot get through an interview without a mention of Garden State. For me, there is a scene where Sam is “tap dancing” in front of the fire with Remy Zero’s “Fair” in the background which is just magical.

If you haven’t already, go and get Garden State out from your local independent video store, or your library, or Blockbuster if you must.

This week there’s a distinct lack of albums I’m interested in coming out, and I have a depressing amount of work to do for uni exams etc, so I’m playing Video DJ (ahh, the joys of youtube!)

I’m aware that there are new albums by the likes of Pigeon Detectives and Mumm-Ra out this week, but I haven’t had a chance to listen to them yet, so I’ve got a range of new bands that I like at the moment and put up their singles…

So, after the jump, find a selection of the best indie pop videos I like at the moment… it saves time and yet still looks like I’ve done a full post… classy Phil! We’ve got The Hoosiers, Ghosts, The Holloways, The Twang and Klaxons all with videos, and represent my 5 favourite songs of this week.

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As some of you more dilligent readers may have noticed, I have a small fetish for Innocent fruit drinks. However, as I previously reported, they’ve gone through a patch of, well, pissing their customers off. This was initially due to them selling their products in McDonalds on a trial basis, which I have no problem with whatsoever.

However, on Monday Mum pointed out to me an article in the Daily Telegraph which mentions that:

The company has re-branded its Innocent Juicy Water product and launched This Water, a range of flavoured waters. The new business may be spun off if successful but for now Innocent is heavily involved.

And though six teaspoons of sugar go into every 420ml bottle, one wouldn’t know it from reading the label, where the list of ingredients reads simply, “some sugar”. Douglas Lamont, heading up the new range, insists that witholding the fact that sugar represents up to 10 per cent of each bottle is “not misleading”.

Now, I’d love to be able to know what is happening with this, but at the moment they’ve not posted anything on their blog about it, so I’m sort of fearing the worst unfortunately. I’m sure theres a reason for it (if it is true), but I’m slightly worried… They’ve said that This Water may be spun off, however I see it as being an “Innocent” brand at the moment, and so there should be “nothing but nothing but fruit”, and no added nasties. Granted, sugar is nowhere near as bad for you as some additives, but more simply, why didn’t they tell us about it?

I always thought Innocent was such a transparent company, particuarly after the MaccyD scenario, however I am starting to get a bit worried that they’re going back on promises they’ve made to their consumers. Watch this space is all I can say really.

I found this on Flickr a few weeks ago… and it mildly amused me. What was Anna Marie doing? Why do they have her clothes? Another big question in the circle of life…

I don’t have the link to the profile because I only bookmarked the jpg file and not the picture page. Happy to remove / provide link if anyone can find it.

Right… back to the revision!