The Printed Press

Everyone living in Berkshire who reads this blog, buy your local paper this week – cos we’re in it!

Yes, the first stage of ATC world domination has been secured with a countywide write up on us and a major plug for our album launch. Although they made the fatal error of printing the box office number for Jagz when it's us who are selling the tickets direct from the website – but we’ll give them that slight faux pas...

It is the biggest single bit of promotion we have had as a band, and while maybe not making waves on a national scale – you have to start at home and as Berkshire is the home county of at least 3 of us, it's not a bad start. With a couple of radio slots confirmed and to be confirmed, and also hopefully a number of album reviews in the coming months, anything we can get that is positive from any media outlet needs to be seen as a good thing, and like anything, the more you get your name out there, the more people pay attention to you – or at least I hope that'll apply to us.

With only 2 weeks left until the album launch – anyone who hasn't yet got their tickets, get them today! As we’ve said, you can get them online at www.allthingsconsidered.org.uk, and I know for a fact there are some people reading this who haven't yet made the all important purchase who've already made it clear they are coming...do the right thing!

There – I feel better now. We’ve just named a brilliant young singer/songwriter by the name of Matt Wellard to open for us on the 12th. He, along with the gloriously impressive Naama Hillman will entertain you before we try and at least match them...we're going to have to be good that night...

Summer is here

What a lovely weekend it was! We don't quite know how, as the combination of Emma planning a birthday camping trip to the south coast and it being a bank holiday would seem to guarantee huge amounts of rain, but somehow it stayed dry! Until last night anyhow, but as we're mostly back in our offices (Gethin/Phil), pubs (Adrian), and study/living room/toilet (or wherever else Ben finds inspiration today) we couldn't really care less about a bit of rain...

Anyway, the weather had be looking forward to some of the outdoor gigs that we have coming up, and I thought that would be a good excuse to remind all of you lovely people of a few of the dates coming up in the next few months.

We kick off the festival season with an afternoon of music at Gostrey Meadow Charity Fair on the 6th June. This is pretty much bang in the middle of Farnham town centre, and is free to everyone, so there's pretty much no excuse not to come along.

We then, of course, have our album launch on June 12th, but I'm sure you all know more than enough about that, so I'll say no more about that...

June 14th brings us to our home(ish) town of Bracknell, to support the wonderful Lisa Knapp at The Wilde Theatre in South Hill Park. This should be a great gig, and is a brilliant opportunity for us to support a top-notch alternative-folk artist.

Some other highlights of the summer include:

• Big Day Out at South Hill Park, Bracknell, another free-entry event on 27th June


• A trio of London gigs on the 9th, 10th and 20th July at The Station Hotel, Lewisham, The Spice of Live, Soho, and The Half Moon, Putney


• Our first Birmingham gig at The Dog, West Bearwood on the 9th August


• Weyfest on 5th September.

There are, of course, plenty of others, and our debut album will be available to buy at all of them, so check out our schedule at www.allthingsconsidered.org.uk to find one near you!

We hope to see all of you very soon, will as much sunshine as possible!
ATC

Well, it has started...

As you all know, as we tell you at every available opportunity, the album launch is up coming on the 12th June and we have just started the build up. It started last night actually, when we supported the outstanding Rory Ellis. I know artists always say people they played with are the best thing since sliced bread, but in this case it may actually be true. He is a supremely talented man, and if you see his name pop up on a local gig listing then get down there. Tell them we sent you. It may get you a present.

Aside from an awkward string snap in the middle of the set (we suspected it may occur, and the collective groan\cringe was highly audible) we played well. We were tight, Gethin made a strong debut multi tasking by playing the violin and singing and aside from the string snapping fiasco, there were no major mistakes. It's going to be a good summer, and we put a great foot forward last night.

What is mildly hilarious, however, is the state of some of us at the moment. Adrian could get an extras role on Day of the Dead without needing to go through make up. Phil is living in fear of his wife, who if she reads this he loves very much and every day with her makes him grateful for life itself, and I'm (that is to say, Ben is) working for some Americans meaning my standard operating hours at the moment are about 1pm till 6am. Which just isn't fun. You should be a fly on the wall at rehearsal, all we have done is eat cake.

But its gigs like the one last night that make you redouble your efforts. Silly as it sounds, the fact that the string broke and even though we had to stand there while Emma and Gethin valiantly filled the gap where music was supposed to be, we coped well and it gives you that little buzz. It makes it stand out. Silly as it sounds, sometimes a gig is just another gig. I think that it was a good thing Adrian broke a string, as it may show us that we have to work harder and make each gig stand out like that., although more for positive performance than disaster overcoming We won't tell him that, of course, we will continue the company line of calling him a bleeding idiot, but you fair reader will know the truth.

London here we come!

This Thursday sees us play what is probably our biggest gig to date. We’re playing main support to the staggering Australian singer/songwriter Rory Ellis at the famous Half Moon in Putney.

Rory is a guy I (Phil) have known for a while through my folk connections, and met up with him on his first ever tour over here about 6 years ago – where he played a 30 minute set in-between two acts from a local acoustic guy at the back of a tiny pub in Newbury. Suffice to say the local talent got absolutely blown off the stage by Rory’s sheer power and emotive songwriting – I can’t imagine he was invited back!

He’s since gone on to gain quite a reputation for himself in this country, generally heading over here for the summer months and playing all over the place. He’s a guy who needs to be heard. Without a doubt the finest talent I’ve ever had the pleasure of ‘discovering’ through a CD sent to my house for review. Not only that, an absolutely brilliant bloke, full of stories.

This gig then is big for us in two ways. It is the first of a couple of main artist support slots we’ve got in the next few weeks (the other being nu-folk songstress Lisa Knapp on June 14th), which is a position we were looking to get in to around the time of the album coming out – which is great. The second reason is because of the venue. The Half Moon marks a step up in class for us. A venue synonymous with top quality intimate acoustic performances from the very best artists on the scene, both from the UK and from across the world. Acts like Billy Bragg, Eddi Reader, Show of Hands, Nick Cave, Paul Brady and KT Tunstall have all played there in the last few years – so it’s a bit special to be joining that calibre of act to play on that stage.

These are the sort of venues where we absolutely have to make a good impression on both the promoter (for re-bookings and recommendations) and also the paying punters who will visit here expecting the standard of act to be very high. This is the sort of venue where a band like us, who have been playing everywhere we possibly can over the last year or so need to aspire to headlining one day and its up to us on Thursday to put in a performance worthy of the venue. Hopefully a good reception to that and the album might go some way in making a headline appearance happen somewhere down the line!

So – for anyone wishing to see this momentous occasion, tickets are available by visiting the Half Moon website.

A month to go...

With the launch growing nearer and ticket sales growing larger we're all getting quite excited about getting out tonight to start gigging again. We've had a bit of a quiet few weeks, largely due to my holidaying obsession visiting Cyprus, Dublin and Greece all in the space of 6 weeks – but we're now all in the country and here to stay for a good couple of months at least!

We had our 1st get together as a 5-piece for the first time in aaaages on Tuesday night, which was thoroughly enjoyable! We all got together, had a good old chin wag and ate rum cake before knuckling down to rehearse the set, reminding ourselves of our own material! We also had a bit of a mini jam, hoping to get something new together for you guys to enjoy listening to this Summer.

So – business as usual seems to be the way forward for the foreseeable future. Thanks to all of you who have purchased tickets already, and for those of you who haven't – get booking! It's going to be a cracking night for all included, so make yourself a part of it!

And... for those of you joining us in Godalming this eve – we look forward to seeing you.

The point of no return

On friday we finally took the plunge and, in the first step towards making the album available to all of you lovely people, we uploaded it to ReverbNation so that they can submit it to a number of digital download sites, including iTunes and Amazon mp3.

Yup, that's right - the album is all mixed, mastered and ready to go, and now there's no turning back - what will be the final version is currently working its way around cyberspace in anticipation of the release on the 15th June!

To celebrate, we have decided to make three of the tracks available for you to listen to on Myspace, ReverbNation and last.fm. These are just a taster to whet your appetite, and will only be available until the album is launched, so make the most of it while you can!

A bit of a news update

A quick one to keep you up to date with what we're doing in the near future - we've just been confirmed as playing at the Halfmoon Putney's Unplugged night on 20th July, and in the next few weeks we're playing Susie Clarke's "Living Room Players" night at The Star, Godalming on 14th May, supporting Rory Ellis, again at the Halfmoon Putney on 21st May, Gostrey Meadow Charity Fair in Farnham on the 6th June and supporting Lisa Knapp at The Wilde Theatre, Bracknell on 14th June.

Not forgetting, of course, our Album Launch on the 12th June at Jagz, Ascot, tickets are on sale now, and are flying off the shelves (as it were), so be sure to get yours soon - either from any of us or through our website or Myspace. Tickets are £6, or you can grab yourself a bargain by pre-ordering an album at the same time for just £10 for the two.

Read All About It

Well, everyone has gone on holiday…...again. Emma is in Greece for her bi-monthly sun and alcohol excursion, Ben is in the Caribbean making sure he stays far enough away from the beach so Greenpeace don’t come running and Adrian is camping – at work. He’s just taken over as manager of The Bull in Bracknell but doesn’t have any staff. So it’s 12 hour shifts and then a retreat back to his 2 man pop up situated between the Guinness Extra Cold and the Speciality Ales which I believe this week include Skinners – a nice pint.

So, it’s left to me (Phil) and Gethin to keep things ticking over and it’s album mastering and press blurb this week. Writing a press release about your own band is tougher than you might think. Yeah, it’s easy to write about the band and whole album process but a much harder task to actually make it interesting. It’s one of those things where its interesting to the people involved, but pretty dull to those who aren’t, and are just reading it on a page (similar to this blog at times!). The problem when you write a press release is, if it isn’t full of quotes and a mountain of information you get journalists on the blower asking you questions every 10 minutes – but if it is a well written document with lots of info and quotes, they basically just do a bit of cut and paste and suddenly you’ve just done their job for them!

I’m confident though that the one we’ve put together will mean a bit of ‘creative freedom’ for anyone wishing to do a feature on us, which brings up a whole new problem! Who wants to do a feature on a local band?

Sure, we are getting a few good slots further afield these days and people are legitimately interested in what we are doing and the music we are making, which is great – however, until someone tells us otherwise or we have enough money and supportive bosses (not likely) to actually tour the country, we are still a local band. And who wants to write about them? So far we’ve lined up a further radio slot which is great, but isn’t until August and also a feature in the local rag The Bracknell News, which again we are very happy about – but we’re kind of looking for a bit more……and it isn’t through lack of trying either. You can kind of see their point, but it’s extremely frustrating as these are the people we need to help spread the word.

So this week its all hands on deck with regards getting a few more people to actually write about us, feature us and generally get the name out there. It’ll be a slow process and I don’t think any of us will actually expect to see the album reviewed in the June edition of Mojo or anything – but you have to try and start somewhere….