The Hoosiers have announced a brand new tour for October, playing their biggest dates ever.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, 2nd May, at 9am, and will probably go quite quickly, so get there soon!

Saturday 11th October - Grimsby Auditorium
Sunday 12th October - Sheffield Academy
Monday 13th October - Newcastle Academy
Wednesday 15th October - Glasgow Academy
Friday 17th October - Edinburgh Corn Exchange
Sunday 19th October - Manchester Apollo
Tuesday 21st October - Wolverhampton Civic
Wednesday 22nd October - Cardiff Arena
Friday 24th October - Plymouth Pavilions
Saturday 25th October - Brighton Centre
Monday 27th October - London Brixton Academy

The Hoosiers have announced details of another lengthy jaunt around the UK next spring. The month and a half series of dates see them playing just about every major town or city in the UK.

Expect more dates to be announced soon to fill the gaps that there are at times on the tour. Tickets go on sale on Friday morning (2nd November) at 9am.

Monday 11th February 2008 - Bristol Carling Academy
Tuesday 12th February - Cardiff University
Wednesday 13th February - Leeds University Union
Sunday 17th February - Preston 53 Degrees
Thursday 21st February - Sheffield Octagon
Friday 22nd February - Hull University
Thursday 28th February - Manchester University
Friday 29th February - Birmingham Carling Academy
Sunday 2nd March - Norwich UEA
Tuesday 4th March - London Shepherds Bush Empire
Saturday 8th March - Bournemouth International Centre
Monday 10th March - Cambridge Corn Exchange
Thursday 13th March - Brighton Dome

Looking for the 2008 Mencap Gigs? Click here. This page is about 2007’s Mencap Gigs!

Updates: I’ve just added the 20th November gig and the 26th November gigs, thanks to a comment from Kathryn below. This was originally posted on 4th October.

The brilliant Mencap have announced this year’s “Little Noise Sessions”, a series of intimate, acoustic gigs, which will take place from Tuesday 20th November to Wednesday 28 November 2007, at Islington’s Union Chapel in London. They’ll be hosted by Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley.

To get tickets you’ll have to register here to get tickets when they go on sale. Ticket registration opens on Tuesday 2 October and closes at 12.00 Friday 19 October. Those who have registered can then buy tickets online on a first-come-first-served basis from 9am on Monday 22 October. Tickets are £35 each.

The gigs will raise money for Mencap’s Arts Awards scheme which enables children and young people with a learning disability to take part in local arts projects.

Tuesday 20th November - Secret Headliner, Jack Penate, Laura Marling, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong
Wednesday 21st November - Athlete and The Hoosiers
Thursday 22nd November - Will Young, Newton Faulkner and Adele
Friday 23rd November - Biffy Clyro, We Are Scientists and Young Knives
Saturday 24th November - The Pigeon Detectives and The Metros
Sunday 25th November - Snow Patrol and Cajun Dance Party
Monday 26th November - Kate Nash, Robyn, The Ting Tings
Tuesday 27th November - The Enemy + Special Guests
Wednesday 28th November - Keane, Rilo Kiley + Scouting For Girls

Quite possibly one of pop’s busiest bands this year, The Hoosiers have announced in todays NME a massive three month tour of the UK, stopping at most of our major university towns twice. Kicking off with a university Student Union tour throughout September they then start on the “normal” venues in October through to middle of Novemeber, when they deserve a pretty big break!

Tickets go on sale at varying points between now and this Friday (3rd August).

Catch the lads at:

Monday 10th September - Edinburgh Uni Students Union (students only)
Tuesday 11th September - Dundee Students Union (students only)
Thursday 13th September - London ICA
Thursday 20th September - Oxford Brookes (students only)
Friday 21st September - Paisely Uni SU (students only)
Saturday 22nd September - Glasgow QMU (students only)
Sunday 23rd September - Glasgow Strathclyde (students only)
Tuesday 25th September - Staffordshire Uni
Wednesday 26th September - Bristol UWE (students only)
Thursday 27th September - Liverpool Uni (students only)
Friday 28th September - Sheffield Uni (students only)
Sunday 30th September - Chester Uni (Warrington campus (students only))

Monday 1st October - Stoke Sugarmill
Tuesday 2nd October - Manchester Met Uni
Thursday 4th October - Preston Uni
Friday 5th October - Nottingham Trent Uni (students only)
Saturday 6th October - Plymouth Uni (students only)
Monday 8th October - Hull University SU
Tuesday 9th October - Bournemouth Uni SU
Thursday 11th October - Leeds Uni SU
Friday 12th October - Huddersfield Uni SU
Saturday 13th October - Loughborough Uni SU
Monday 15th October - Swindon Bar 12
Tuesday 16th October - Hitchin Club 85
Wednesday 17th October - London Kings College
Friday 19th October - Cambridge Soul Tree
Saturday 20th October - Northampton Soundhaus
Sunday 21st October - Exeter Cavern
Monday 22nd October - Oxford Zodiac
Wednesday 24th October - Southampton Joiners
Thursday 25th October - York Fibbers
Friday 26th October - Sheffield Plug
Saturday 27th October - Middlesborough Arena
Monday 29th October - Bristol Thekla Social
Tuesday 30th October - Liverpool Barfly
Wednesday 31st October - Hull The Lamp

Thursday 1st November - Edinburgh Heriot-Watt Uni
Saturday 3rd November - Inverness The Raigmore
Sunday 4th November - Aberdeen Cafe Drummond
Monday 5th November - Dundee Fat Sams
Wednesday 7th November - Glasgow King Tuts
Thursday 8th November - Birmingham Barfly
Friday 9th November - Manchester Night & Day (Club Fandango)
Saturday 10th November - Newcastle Academy
Sunday 11th November - Norwich Arts Centre
Tuesday 13th November - Southend Chinnerys
Wednesday 14th November - Brighton Barfly

Those lovely people at iTunes have set up their own “festival” in the centre of London to take place at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) throughout July, with a raft of the best in current bands playing each night.

iTunes will be recording each of the shows and are planning to make songs from the shows available via their music shop. The ICA holds about 350 people, making the shows exceptionally intimate.

The bands include, in date order:

Mika supported by Leon Jean-Marie (1)
Crowded House supported by Justin Nozuka (2)
Travis supported by The Hoosiers (3)
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club supported by Nine Black Alps (4)
Groove Armada supported by Mutya Buena and Beardyman (7)
Ash supported by Ben’s Brother (8)
The View (9)
Imogen Heap supported by James Wolff (10)
Editors supported by GoodBooks (11)
Scott Matthews (12)
Athlete supported by Tiny Dancers (13)
Paolo Nutini (14)
Gianna Nannini (15)
Ludovico Einaudi supported by Dhafer Youssef (16)
The Bad Plus supported by Rebekka Bakken (17)
The Pigeon Detectives supported by The Rakes (18)
Beverley Knight supported by Raul Midón (19)
Stereophonics supported by Little Man Tate (20)
Jamie Scott & The Town (21)
Wir Sind Helden (23)
Amy Winehouse supported by The Rumble Strips and Remi Nicole (25)
Just Jack supported by Mr Hudson & The Library (26)
Jack Penate (27)
The Maccabees supported by Goldspot (28)
Duke Special supported by Tom McRae (29)
The Coral supported by Candie Payne (30)

Tickets will be given away free via radio, TV stations and band and fan websites. The specific details of which will be announced soon. Some tickets are already available from the itunes festival website.

Photo taken from Mteson’s flickr stream.

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago I got a random CD in the post. Turns out I’d been put on a mailing list for record companies, and had been sent “The Hoosiers” single “Worst Case Scenario”. After getting over the excitment of getting a free CD, I got round to having a listen. And found I quite liked it.

Granted, they’re not going to set the world on fire with their innovation and new sounds. Yes, they’re quite corporate and unlikely to say the wrong thing. However… they are very catchy. And do have a guy who looks like he’s right out of the 118 adverts. And another guy who looks like he’s from the Feeling. But apart from that they’re great.

Funky, catchy, and oh-so radio friendly they sound like the Kooks and Franz Ferdinand having a montage moment in an 80s film of their night out.

Read the rest of this entry »