More Bands For Truck 13

Some great bands join the line-up for STA's favourite farm-based festival:

Attention, TRUCKERS! we are ready to tell you about the first 13 Artists announced to play TRUCK 13. So, in register order (all favourites here), this bakers' dirty dozen - joining the already-announced MEW - consists of:

BATS + ESBEN AND THE WITCH + EGYPTIAN HIP HOP + FONDA 500 + FUTURE OF THE LEFT + GOOD SHOES + ISLET + LAU + LITTLE FISH + LOS CAMPESINOS! + STORNOWAY + THIS TOWN NEEDS GUNS + DJ ZINC with MS DYNAMITE

Having outgrown the village pub tent, recent 4AD signings Stornoway will be playing a triumphant homecomeing set on the main stage (still on the back of a Truck, of course).

The rest are spread across our five stages – The Beat Hive, the new Last.fm stage (taking over our beloved village pub - the leg test still applies), the Market stage (hosted on the Sunday by Steventon local Whispering Bob Harris), and the Barn, where YMD! Presents take the reigns on Saturday followed by the Cowshed Rave, taking us through to the wee hours in the company of DJ Zinc and Ms Dynamite! That's without mentioning the fabulous Boxford Tune-iversity and our new spoken word/comedy stage...

You already know that The 13th TRUCK FESTIVAL takes place at Hill Farm, Steventon on July 24th & 25th 2010. To celebrate TRUCK becoming a teenager we have actually REDUCED the price for actual human teenagers; a TEEN TRUCKER ticket for those aged 13-17 is now £60. TRUCK is still free for those 12 and under (14-and-unders must be accompanied by a parent or guardian) so it's also great value for families. We are also introducing a £15 Friday ticket for those who want to camp a night early - there will be some bands and DJs as well as food and drink on the Friday evening. All tickets can be found HERE or in local shops- see our website.

Now might also be the time to bite the bullet and buy a ticket for WOOD: it's headlined by that Frank Turner fella, Tunng, Fionn Regan, Martin Simpson, The Unthanks, oh and (breathe) Peggy Sue and Cate Le Bon. Wow! Britain's greenest festival – it even has its own pub, the Hippy Arms.

Secure your place now at both TRUCK and WOOD Festivals in 2010 by purchasing a Supertrucker ticket, saving £30 in the process. You can get your Supertrucker, TRUCK 13 and WOOD tickets online from Gigantic.com, or visit the ticket page of our website to find your local shop outlet.

We have new shops in Reading (Hexagon theatre), Didcot (Cornerstone arts centre) and, for you London types, Rough Trade Shops (East and West) are selling tickets. If you reside in The People's Republic of East Oxford, head to Reign or Music Box on the Cowley Road.

TRUCK 13 is dedicated to Alex Chilton (the singer of Big Star and composer of '13', who died last week); if you'd like to join us in appreciating his music, and live in Oxford, come and join Dusty & the Dreaming Spires tonight at the Rusty Bicycle pub on Magdalen Road where will be playing a selection of Big Star numbers (if I finish this mailout in time to learn them...)
so on that note, see you at the bar!

love from Robin, Joe & all the family TRUCK

Sunday Papers Vs ASIWYFA

Flicking through the supplements had STA spitting croissant all over the duvet: ASIWFYA - awful name, brilliant music - so say the Observer in their glowing Truck review.

Truck 2009

Last weekend was an STA-heavy one for the lucky 5,000 Truckers on lovely Hill Farm in Steventon on the outskirts of Oxford. Much doffing of caps go to Darren, Tim and the rest of the team at Rock Sound for curating the immense barn of rock on the Sunday which saw shred from Calories and also - one of only a couple of bands who aren't called Sky Larkin or who included members of Supergrass in the line-up that still had folks queuing up outside to get in the oversubscribed barn - ASIWYFA, both of whom played new material that went down predictably well, alongside powerhouse sets from Pulled Apart By Horses (at last new songs! one of 'em sounds like Nirvana!) and The Joy Formidable.

Swerving off roster for a moment, anyone who hasn't seen Glasweigan post-electro glitchgroovers Errors on Mogwai's Rock Action imprint are strongly advised to check them out; incredible!

And let's not forget a too-brief Backlash Cop heavy laprock set from Andrew Ferris. Check out the video if it's on YouTube yet to see why a few hundred people left the Village Pub stage wondering if they'd really just witnessed what they thought they had.

A bit late I know but here's the pre-Truck feature that ran in the August issue of Rock Sound.

STA Newsletter - July 2009

Hi STA Friends,

I hope you are all well. Lots of news to report - let's crack on with a roster roundup!

And So I Watch You From Afar

Instrumental juggernauts - And So I Watch You From Afar - are headlining Belfast’s Ulster Hall on December 18th 2009; we will be releasing an EP of brand new material at the show.

Tickets for the Ulster Hall gig are available now, priced at £8 advance, they can be purchased from the Waterfront Hall Box Office on 028 9033 4455 and from The Ulster Hall. Full supporting line up to be announced soon, so keep an eye on the website for more details.

Since the album release, ASI've toured relentlessly around the UK, hit up Germany in support of stoner behemoths Clutch and levelled festivals across Europe (inc. the Oxegen Festival, the largest in Ireland). Next weekend will see the four piece headline Northern Ireland's very own and much loved Glasgowbury Festival in Co. Derry, topping a bill of the best of the Irish rock fraternity including In Case Of Fire, LaFaro and General Fiasco. Tickets are available now, priced at a bargain-like £30 (including camping pass).

Fighting With Wire

Fighting With Wire take a break from writing their future-hits-packed second album to play the Bohemia stage at the Metallica-headlined UK Sonisphere festival in Knebworth, Stevenage over the weekend August 1st and 2nd. Also playing Bohemia are STA faves Rolo Tomassi, Hundred Reasons, Fucked Up and Cancer Bats. It's sure to be a monstrously memorable weekend some tickets are still available.

Let Our Enemies Beware

An album that's sure to be making waves this autumn is 'Against Karate' from our newest signings math/noise/metal experimentalists Let Our Enemies Beware however quick-fingered readers of the STA blog will already have assembled fragments of the album via LOEB's Fibonacci Download Series - head to the blog to grab some of the few remaining free mp3 album tracks and to see if you can understand the un-necessarily complicated maths.

Debut single and of course the album itself will be available for pre-order soon on the store.

Calories

Fresh from the recording of their 2nd album 'Habitations' (yes, already!) Calories take a trip to Belfast and partner up with LaFaro in a sonic smackdown against the best fighters from rival label the Richter Collective's roster - Not Squares and The Vinny Club - Thursday 30th July at The Dockers Club. The smart money's on Team STA - we're gonna crush those Dubliners!

The weekend before Calories join ASIWYFA... and an acoustic Andrew Ferris on the bill for Truck 12 on Hill Farm in Steventon near Oxford; an absolute essential in both the festival and agricultural calendars; it's the strongest Truck line-up in years with Supergrass and Ash headlining.

STA Live
If the above hasn't sated your STA gig appetite, we heartily recommend the 4th Club STA event at Masons in Derry headlined by Bats! and in London you'd do a lot worse than checking out the 4 Or 5 Magicians curated 'Our Band Could BBQ Your Life' weekend at the Brixton Windmill featuring loads of bands covering The Replacements, Black Flag and the other legends profiled in Michael Azzerad's equally-legendary book on 80's American underground music. Watch out for a special blogcast on the event.

23 July - Let Our Enemies Beware - Lewisham - Fox N Firkin
23 July - Ice, Sea, Dead People - London - El Paso
23 July - Bats!, Black Bear Saloon, Comply Or Die & Andrew Ferris - Derry - Mason's Bar
24 July - Calories - London - The Lexington
24 July - 4 Or 5 Magicians - London - The Lexington
25 July - And So I Watch You From Afar - Draperstown - Glasgowbury Festival '09
26 July - And So I Watch You From Afar - Steventon - Truck Festival
26 July - Calories - Steventon - Truck Festival
28 July - And So I Watch You From Afar - London - Fair Play Gigs @ Bull and Gate
30 July - Calories - Belfast - Trans Festival @ The Waterfront
30 July - Ice, Sea, Dead People - Bristol - Thekla
31 July - And So I Watch You From Afar - Dublin - Richter Collective Singles Club @ Twisted Pepper
31 July - Calories & LaFaro - Derry - Mason's Bar

The Young Playthings
The soundtrack to your summer is not complete without such guitar pop gems as 'Y Don't U Like Me?', 'Going Out Staying Out' and 'Some Badness Goes On' which can all be found on the new album from The Young Playthings available now from the STA store, all good retailers and digitally on the iTunes store.

STA Blog
The STA Blog continues to be a hive of news and time-wasting - recent highlights include first word on the STA-curated singer-songwriter line-up for September's City Of Song Festival in Derry and episode 40(!) of Public Service Blogcast with tracks aired from the best new bands around including Youth In Colour, Bola Pear and Illness to name but three. New bands note - the blogcast series ends in the autumn so if you want your music played get in touch quick-like - blogcast@smalltownamerica.co.uk

STA Twitter
Follow as Ferris tweets breaking STA news, puts the world to rights and models the latest merch.

Mailout Soundtrack: Elk / Marnie Stern / Future Of The Left / William / Dinosaur Jr / Fuck Dress / Three Trapped Tigers

Thanks for reading,
Andrew, Ash, Daniel, Brian & Charlene

Calories and 4 Or 5 Magicians support Sky Larkin

Calories warm up to play at and 4 Or 5 Magicians warm up for my driving to Truck festival next weekend with a Friday night show supporting the fantastic Sky Larkin at the Lexington in London.

Calories in Rock Sound's Play This At My Funeral

Hiding in the reviews section of the new Rock Sound is Pete Calories contributing to magazine's regular Play This At My Funeral mini-feature -

It's a really tough decision. Hopefully I should have an extensive back catalogue by the time of my demise, so I'd have that played in its entirety, it'll be like I'm talking from the grave...or maybe something from A Bull's album 'Valentine Vyse'. We recorded it in my bedroom, it's a really nice collection of songs. I could copy my Dad and have 'Save The Last Dance For Me' [the Drifters], that or the first side of 'Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven' by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, that'd probably be more of a student choice though.

The generous people at RS are also giving away Truck tickets where they are sponsoring a stage that Calories will be playing on!

Get Free Beer When Your Friends Buy Truck Tickets

As if the promise of Andrew Ferris' acoustic set was tempting enough, the Truck organisers have announced a beery promotion...

"We're guessing you love Truck, as you've bought a ticket, so you'd probably like your friends to come with you - why not keep your bar bill as low as possible by recommending us to your friends and earning yourself FREE BEER?

Here's how it works - for every person you recommend we'll buy you and your friend a cold pint of Truck lager at the festival. Just forward the link (http://www.wegottickets.com/af/60/truck) to all your friends and, provided they buy a ticket and enter your name, we'll buy both of you a pint. There is a maximum of 10 pints per person, for health reasons! So, ten friends buying tickets = ten pints for you, and a pint for each of your friends.

When your friend is buying their ticket they'll be asked 'How did you hear about this year's Truck festival?' - simply instruct them to select 'A friend told me about it' when answering and to enter your name in the box below that option. Bingo - free pint for you both!

As an added bonus, if you get 5 friends to come, we'll throw in a free Truck T-shirt, and if you can persuade 10 to come, we'll let you in to next year's TRUCK for free!

* All beer is provided by Cotswold Brewery Co. and is brewed just a few miles from the TRUCK site.

* Beer can lead to having fun so please drink responsibly.

See you there,
The TRUCKERS"

Calories, ASIWYFA & Ferris @ Truck 12 - Steventon 25th and 26th July

Lineup just announced (are we looking forward to Yacht in the Barn on Sunday? - oh yes!):

TRUCK STAGE: SATURDAY
ASH
Damo Suzuki
Red Light Company
Vieux Farka Touré
Wintersleep
Fanfarlo
Hjaltalin
Detroit Social Club
Panama Kings

TRUCK STAGE SUNDAY: 'OXFORD DAY'
SUPERGRASS
The Candyskins
Dive Dive
The Long Insiders
The Epstein
Jali Fily Cissokho
Alphabet Backwards
The Relationships

BARN SATURDAY: Y!M!D! PRESENTS
Wild Beasts
A Place To Bury Strangers
Grammatics
We Were Promised Jet Packs
Data Select Party
White Belt Yellow Tag
Dear Reader
Colour

BARN SUNDAY: ROCK SOUND PRESENTS
Yacht
The Ghost Of A Thousand
Pulled Apart By Horses
The Joy Formidable
Skylarkin
The Xcerts
And So I Watch You From Afar
Calories
Telegraphs

NONCLASSICAL PRESENTS:

Gabriel Prokofiev (DJ)
The Elysian Quartet
John Matthias & Nick Ryan
Joby Burgess
John Kameel Farah

BARN SATURDAY NIGHT: FRESH OUT THE BOX PRESENTS the Cowshed Rave

DJ FOOD & DK (Ninja Tune) 4 Deck DJ/AV set
Lee Mortimer & Foamo (Wearhouse/Dubsided) Back to Back DJ set
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
Total Science (C.I.A) 15 Years Of Drum n Bass DJ Set


MARKET STAGE: SATURDAY
Sad Day For Puppets
Broken Records
Little Sister
Luke Smith
Co Pilgrim
Cat Martino
House Of Brothers
Holton's Opulent Oog
Rachael Dadd
Linda Rose Moody
KTB
Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou

MARKET STAGE: SUNDAY - BOB HARRIS PRESENTS…
Gary Louris & Mark Olson (The Jayhawks)
Pete Molinari
Mike Heron & Georgia Seddon
Neil Halstead
Angie Palmer
Danny the champ
Eliza Gilkyson & Band
Oxygen Ponies

THE BEATHIVE:
Errors
The XX
Mr Shaodow
Two Door Cinema Club
Thomas Truax
Heloise & the Savoir Faire
Nervous Testpilot
Chew Lips
Detachments
We Are Enfant Terrible
Sportsday Megaphone

BBC INTRODUCING with BETHAN ELFYN:
Euros Childs
Truckers of Husk
Fredrick Stanley Starr
+more TBC

VILLAGE PUB:
The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band
Treetop Flyers
This Town Needs Guns
Andrew Ferris
Jason Sebastian Russo
Ute

Tickets are priced £70, available from local shops, Rough Trade East,
www.wegottickets.com / www.gigantic.com / www.seetickets.com

Truck twitter
Truck website

Pre-Truck Wood Festival

Next weekend sees Truck Festival's younger sibling Wood, turn two year's old and to celebrate they are holding a special show in Braziers Park, Oxfordshire.

Unfamiliar with Wood? Just ask the The Telegraph...

The line up for the 3 days, in no particular order, shapes up a little something like this...

Spiers & Boden, Po' girl, Karine Polwart, Little Sister, Meic Stevens, Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou, Tandara Mandara, Blind Pilot, Stornoway, Co Pilgrim, Dodgy, Gabriel Minnikin, Jim Moray, Jali Fily Cisshoko, Sam Isaac, Nick Holton, Neil Halstead, Brakes, Jonquil, The Week that was, Will Phipps, Nick Davis, Rachael Dadd, Gokart Mozart, John Herguth, Josh Bray, Band of Hope, Theo Altieri

Calories Play For Truck This Bank Holiday Weekend

From the latest This Is Truck missive. Calories on stage at 8.45pm in Oxford on Sunday night!

Braker!Braker! This is You!Me!Dancing! come in please TRUCK...What's your twenty? Oxford's own small-but-perfectly-formed summer festival (that's us) have joined forces with You! Me! Dancing! Oxford's own small- but- perfectly- formed promoters to present an amazing series of gigs over the May bank holiday weekend, giving you all the taste for Truck, so when July comes round you'll all be begging for another hit.

We will be taking over the venues, and as Sarah Beaney would say 'bringing the outdoors indoors' so expect hay bales, bunting and plenty more surprises, and TRUCKING treats for anyone that comes wearing wellies.
The weekend shapes up a little bit likes this:

THE XCERTS + TIRED IRIE + DUSTY & THE DREAMING SPIRES + UTE
Saturday 2 May 2009, The Jericho Tavern – 18+ £6 adv

THE TRUCK STOP BBQ
Sunday 3 May 2009 from 1pm, The Jericho Tavern Garden
feat. Burgers + Beers + Sunshine & Acoustic Loveliness till 7pm. Artists TBC.

THE JOY FORMIDABLE + DARTZ!+ CALORIES
Sunday 3 May 2009, The Jericho Tavern – 18+ £6 adv

ROLO TOMASSI + GRAMMATICS + PULLED APART BY HORSES
Monday 4 May 2009, O2 Academy Oxford, All Ages £7 adv

We'll be starting the weekend early tomorrow night at our local pub, The Rusty Bicycle on Magdalen Road, with a night of free music from Dusty & the Dreaming Spires, Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou, and more special guests, from 8pm til late, so come on and join our Convoy for 5 days!

Summer loving from Y!M!D! & Truck

Tickets are available now from youmedancing
Limited vintage Truck 'Weekender' wristbands priced at £15 are available.

Truck Headliners Confirmed (For Real This Time)

Dear Truckers,

We thought it was time for the first delivery of bands that are all confirmed to play at TRUCK 12 on 25/26th July. Sorry, no Megadeth! but we are pleased to announce some of our all-time favourite bands will be appearing at Hill Farm, Steventon:

Local heroes SUPERGRASS will headline on the Sunday night, while ASH shine a light and bring the hits to the Truck Stage on the Saturday.

Joined by the best new bands on the back of a truck, including RED LIGHT COMPANY and DETROIT SOCIAL CLUB.

Last year's favourites YACHT will play the Barn Stage in their only UK festival appearance. Sunday is Rock-day in the barn, with AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR, PULLED APART BY HORSES and CALORIES already confirmed; DATA SELECT PARTY and many more will appear on the Saturday. Over in the Beat Hive ERRORS, HELOISE AND THE SAVOIR FAIRE, CHEW LIPS, SPORTSDAY MEGAPHONE and NERVOUS TESTPILOT are all confirmed.

Inspired by our succesful experiment at WOOD last year, The Market stage will be run on solar power this year. It will feature new 4AD signings BROKEN RECORDS on the Saturday, and on Sunday will be curated by Steventon’s own Bob Harris, presenting GARY LOURIS & MARK OLSON (The Jayhawks), PETE MOLINARI and MIKE HERON and GEORGIA SEDDON (Incredible String Band songwriter performing with his daughter) with more great names to come.

Tickets costing £70 for the whole weekend are on sale now

Andrew Ferris Acoustic Set @ Truck 12

Andrew Ferris (Jetplane Landing) will be breaking out the acoustic guitar / knitwear* combo to play a Sunday afternoon set of Jetplane classics and ill-advised covers at Truck festival in Steventon near Oxford over the weekend of 25th & 26th July. ASIWYFA and Calories will also be playing so it's going to be a bit of an STA farm-based love-in. Tickets?

*Likley to be draped over the shoulders if the weather is nice

Mustaine Not Officially Having An Awesome Time

Perhaps the most amusing music April Fool's Joke was the fake news that Megadeth were to follow in the footsteps of Jetplane Landing, Biffy Clyro and Evan Dando by headlining this summer's Truck festival in Oxfordshire. Not sure anyone actually fell for this but imagine how funny it would have been for Dave Mustaine to co-opt Colin Hundred Reasons's classic Truck onstage outburst "I am officially having an awesome time" which thrives to this day as the adopted STA @ Truck mantra. Maybe you had to be there.

We are proud to announce that the headliners at this year's Truck festival will be iconic American band Megadeth, one of the most commercially successful of all heavy metal bands, led by the enigmatic genius Dave Mustaine. How have we secured this legendary act, you ask? Well, Dave has recently moved to the Oxford area to study for a doctorate in physics at the University, inspired by Brian May's recent intellectual exploits and his interest in heavy metals.

Some tickets for Truck still remain ONLINE and from our local shop outlets, but obviously you'll have to act fast to get your hands one after this astonishing coup for Truck becomes widely known.

For those that don't know, Megadeth rose to international fame in the 1980s, but experienced numerous line-up changes, due partly to the band's notorious substance abuse problems. Megadeth disbanded in 2002 after Mustaine suffered a severe nerve injury to his left arm. However, following extensive physical therapy, Mustaine reformed the band in 2004.

Megadeth is known for a distinctive guitar style, often involving complex, intricate musical passages, and trade off guitar solos. Mustaine is also known for his original "snarling" vocal style, as well as his recurring lyrical themes, often involving politics, war, addiction, and personal relationships.

We are truly honoured that this visionary poet and shredding virtuoso will be gracing the truck at Hill Farm.

In actual real news And So I Watch You From Afar and Calories will be playing Truck 12 and if the former play the Barn stage it promises to be epic whereas the latter will look something like this.

Tickets still onsale.