4 Or 5 Magicians & Ace Bushy Striptease: Tour, Free MP3s

It's been a bit of a rollercoaster, featuring a little turbulence, and the usual slow drip of tedious email exchanges, but we have finally fully confirmed a Craig David style tour of seven dayyys with Ace Bushy Striptease in October. Here are the dates in full:

Thurs 14th : LONDON Big Chill House, Kings Cross (FREE ENTRY)
Fri 15th : BRIGHTON The Hobgoblin
Sat 16th : BOURNEMOUTH The Green Room @ The Portman Hotel
Sun 17th : BRISTOL Mother's Ruin
Mon 18th : BIRMINGHAM The Victoria
Tues 19th : MANCHESTER Tiger Lounge
Weds 20th : NOTTINGHAM Spanky Van Dykes

And click here to download an mp3 from each band - Oh Darwin from the 4 or 5 Magicians album and Bon Nuit, J'ai Changé Mon Esprit by ABS.

Quite excited about making our first trip to both Manchester and Nottingham, and a long awaited return to old haunts in the three Bs of Birmingham, Bristol and Bournemouth. Oh and Brighton and London too, of course.

Rob, who was gonna be playing the drums on tour, has had to withdraw due to an unexpected promotion at work, but instead it now looks highly likely that we'll be doing the tour with a special guest borrowed from a supercool band occupying the drum stool. More info on this in due course!

On tour we will be showcasing new material which will feature on the next album, hopefully out next spring. Just demoed two of them yesterday (with a lovely chap called Rob at a place called Ford Lane Studios in West Sussex) and even the dodgy rough mixes sound ace! The plan is to record the album in November and December, so this may well be the last time you get to see 4 or 5 Magicians until 2011!

I realise this has been a slow year for the band for various reasons, but by the time the year is out I'll almost certainly have an album recorded and be really focused heading into the new year. I have high hopes for the new stuff, come see us play some of it on tour!

Dan

x

4 Or 5 Magicians: Recreating Reading Festival 1992 & October Tour

OK finally some constructive news!

I'm booking a tour for the new look 4 or 5 Magicians and our friends from Birmingham, the wonderful Ace Bushy Striptease. We're heading out together for 8 days from Friday 15th to Saturday 23rd October.

If you are a promoter reading this and would like to put us on, or if you are a fan reading this who wants us to visit your town, and would like to suggest us contacting a promoter or venue who was likely to put us on, then please get in touch.

Sadly, this tour will take place without James, who had recently joined on drums, as he has decided to leave the band. Nothing sinister, it just wasn't working out for him logistically and he decided to back out before we got properly going again. In his own words he still loves the songs, and he is actually helping me out in finding a permanent replacement! Until this happens (probably until 2011), the drum stool at live shows will be occupied by the highly capable swinging arms of Brighton drumming master and all round top bloke Rob Ling, who plays in our Brighton contemporaries Grow Claws, and has also performed in a session capacity for bands such as The Joy Formidable, Wildbirds and Peacedrums, and Nick McCabe from The Verve. So he knows what he's doing!

Before the tour, we have the next in line of my wonderful cover nights, which will definitely be the most ambitious (if "ambitious cover night" isn't an oxymoron) yet, once again at The Windmill in Brixton.

It will be called 1992: The Year Reading Peaked, and take place on Saturday 28th August. I was thinking of themes for another cover night, and when I overheard my little sister excitedly talking to her friends about attending her first Reading festival, it struck me that it hadn't even occurred to me to attempt to blag a ticket, let alone buy one for £180+ for at least three years now. I figured there must be plenty of other people in my position too, kinda demoralised by the commercialism of the festival these days, and the hefty ticket price. So I decided I would attempt, on the same weekend, to put on my own tribute to the Reading festival, and recreate the best of the bill from the classic year of 1992, remembered chiefly for THAT Nirvana peformance, but also including early performances by bands that would go on to become major players and/or hugely influential in the 90s and beyond, such as PJ Harvey, Smashing Pumpkins, Pavement, Manic Street Preachers, Suede, Beastie Boys... oh and Bjorn Again played as well!

8 or 9 bands will come along and blast out some classics of yesteryear, and some classics of their own, and of course there is the famous free BBQ - we will not charge you £7.50 for a burger here!

Already confirmed are 4 or 5 Magicians as Manic Street Preachers (happy to fulfil NME's labelling of us as "the new Manic Street Preachers" by attempting to be the old Manic Street Preachers for one night only!), Amy Blue as Smashing Pumpkins, and Kannberg 1664 - a supergroup featuring Alexei from Johnny Foreigner, Craig from Internet Forever, Aaron from Eelectricity and Lust, and myself. We'll be performing a 10 song Pavement set of early hits. Other offers and exciting TBCs are out there and will shortly be confirmed!

As headliner I am attempting something which I very much hope will be the best thing ever. I'm wheeling out (literally, like Kurt at Reading '92) two Magicians alumni to create Bananirvana, the ultimate Nirvana tribute. Jon Wood, original Magicians bass player, is filling the huge boots of giant Krist Novoselic. Sam Clarke is growing some stubble, donning a blonde wig, and busting out some of Kurt's finest guitar, and I am straightening my hair, getting down the gym, and brushing up on my Dave Grohl drumming action. We will be performing an hour long, 20 song set made up of the choice selections from Nirvana's classic set.

And then YOU will be the singer. The chance you have always been waiting for of being Kurt Cobain! I am planning on each song having a different Kurt, and while I already have a few semi-famous indie singers confirmed for guest slots on the microphone, I also want to open it up to members of the record buying public too. So if you are interested in having a go at being Kurt, then please get in touch and we can get you involved! All I ask is, i) that you can actually sing a bit, ii) that you promise to learn the words to and the structure of your song properly, and iii) that you can bring a few mates along to witness your finest hour! Open to boys and girls. But if you're a girl you got to sing it hard. Or if you're a boy for that matter. Anyway yeah, get in touch!


TTFN dudez!

Dan x