the second hand marching band's Blog
Year three
We started off 2010 by not posting out our EP that we made called Grit and Determination, preferring instead to be lazy and send them out pure ages later. Sorry guys. We were happy to sell lots of the CDs though and so thank you if you bought one.
We promised ourselves not to do gigs and to practice and record this year. It kind of worked and it also kind of didn't. We haven't finished any recordings but we have started about 30 songs. So there will be something soon.
We started the year with a gig in March with Burnt Island and Aiden Moffat - no bad no bad. We played a combo set with Benni Hemm Hemm, playing songs we wrote together. It was cool. It also featured a spectacular public shouting match between two members of a Glasgow band which added to the entertainment. Shweet.
We also found out that we were top of the pops on jockrock for 2009, which made us very pleased indeed. And we didn't even make an effort to rig the vote.
We also started recording for our new CDs (sigh) in January, which led to the infamous HURRICANE THUNDERSTORM DEATH INCIDENT in which Sophie played the buildy up drums to Hurricane Thunderstorm so loud that there was:
a) a terrifying banging on the front door
b) a period of silence)
c) a large pile of the belongings of an elderly woman piled in the hall haphazardly the next morning
The good news is that Sophie did not kill the person. They had died earlier in the day. We were simply compounding a daughter's grief by playing really really fucking loud drums over the sound of their tears. G O T E A M S H M B YEAH!
We contributed a track to excellent Maggie's Centre compilation at the start of the year too. Thanks to Murray Easton for asking us, and well done to him for all the great work he has done supporting the centres.
Find out more at http://musicformaggies.bandcamp.com/
We met the amazing Austrians THEY SHOOT MUSIC DON'T THEY at the start of the year, and outside in a temperature of about -5C, we filmed two songs (hurricane thunderstorm and don't) at the gallery of modern art! Armed with our trusty knitwear and a variety of alcoholic bevarages from the Ingram bar, we stood aboot in the cold getting filmed. The lovely results are here:
http://theyshootmusic.at/posts/The_Second_Hand_Marching_Band
We also played a cracking gig in Govanhill as part of a community event. It was the very first time we had a police escort, which was pretty nice.
We also got involved with the Detour malarky. You've probably heard of Detour, but in case you haven't they are a wee posse that put on interesting gigs and also "hijack" things where they take the audience about a town, a venue or the whole country for interesting performances. We did a wee march aboot for Detour in Glasgow, and subsequently a balcony-based assault on the crown in the Buff Club. Ross's brother Ally was one of the organisers of it, and you'll be able to hear him on Radio 1 very shortly being the voice of new scottish music. Excite!
We had some festival fun at the West End Festival and then the Big Tent Festival - an amazing folk festival in Falkland where we played one of our favourite sets ever and sold more CDs than we could believe we'd ever get rid of. Thanks to all that were there - we had a great time. Big Tent was also the scene of Annie Accidental's infamous incident with King Creosote and a rock bun. And Pete's shocking attempts to tell KC that Cumbernauld was more of a cultural hub than Anstruther. hmm.
We got round to starting our Marching Orders cooperative this year too. It is an open group dedicated to helping others put on gigs and releasing records. We've released a record by Big Hog - a band featuring SHMB members fronted by Justin Lumsden. We learned a bit about getting CDs made and we're still learning more about how to do stuff with them! We also released a compilation of SHMB stuff called Compendium! which you can get here:
http://thesecondhandmarchingband.bandcamp.com/
We had our first MEGATRIP - all of us went up and played in Aberdeen, in the Tunnels, in September. We also played outside and busked and actually made some money, can you believe it. It was a terrifyingly great time and thanks to all those in Aberdeen for coming along cos we loved it so we did. Mad propz to the lovely and complimentary Todd and the IMP folks.
We finished off the year with a lovely gig at Edinburgh popfest, and a Stereo gig with Benni and a new Marching Orders project which aims to record new versions of Robert Tannahill songs.
We also had the first SHMB WEDDING with Pete getting married to Donna (not inbreeding as she is not in SHMB) and the first SHMBaby - Andy and Lori's bundle o Joy that came in July!
Next year we plough on and get out our promised album, EP, and split album with Benni Hemm Hemm. We hope you're not sick of hanging around waiting for it, or listening to us prattle on, and thank you so very much for listening to us and buying stuff and telling your friends about us in the last three years.
Thank you
P x
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