Nigel's travels...

OUR ALBUM IS OUT!

2011-12-04T18:11:00.001Z

We're very proud and excited that our début album, "Last of Many" is now available!

"Last of Many has the crucial edge needed for an indie band to stand out....The Foxes keep the album interesting with surprisingly complex tracks that provide fluidity while still seeming effortless."

Click here to read it all.

"Last of Many is a perfect example of a group giving birth to their ultimate sound...this album is filled with upbeat yet grungy tracks that resemble a sort of roller-coaster made specifically for the ears."

Click here to read it all.

You can download the album from:

iTunes
Amazon (UK)

CD artwork

Amazon (US)

You can buy the album in CD format (complete with the beautifully hand illustrated artwork and lyrics) from:

Rough Trade (£10.99)

Cargo Records (£9.49)
Norman Records (independent store - £8.79)
Tesco (£8.47)
Play.com (£7.99)

Zavvi (£7.95)

Amazon (£7.88)

Please don't forget to leave a review if you can, wherever you choose to buy the album from and tell your friends about it!

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL RECORD SHOP!

Independent record stores stocking "Last of Many" in the UK.

A & A discs, Cheshire - 01260 280 778

Acorn, Yeovil - 01935 425 503 - Website

Action Records, Preston - 0177 2258809 - Website

Andy's, Aberystwyth - 01970 624581 - Website

Badlands, Huddersfield - 01484 454054

Barnstorm, Dumfries - 01387 267894

Beatdown, Newcastle - 0191 261 8894 - Website

Casbah, London - 0208 858 1964

Crash, Leeds - 0113 2436743 - Website

Dada Records, London - 0208 747 9790

Derricks, Swansea - 01792 654226 - Website

Diverse, Newport - 01633 259661 - Website

Fives, Leigh-On-Sea - 01702 711 629

Gatefield Sounds, Whitstable - 01227 263 337

Head, Bristol - 01179 297798

Head Records, Leamington Spa - 01926 887 870

Jam, Cornwall - 01326 211 722 - Website

Jumbo Records, Leeds - 0113 2455570 - Website

Love Music, Glasgow - 0141 332 2099

Music Mania, Hanley - 01782 206 000

One Up, Aberdeen - 01224 642662 - Website

Paradiso, Liverpool - 0151 5123 699

Phoenix Sounds, Devon - 01626 334 942 - Website

Piccadilly Records, Manchester - 0161 839 8008 - Website

Probe, Liverpool - 0151 7088815 - Website

Rapture, Oxford - 01993 700 567

Raves From The Grave, Somerset - 01373 464 666 - Website

Record Collector, Sheffield - 0114 266 8493

Record Corner, Surrey - 01483 422 006 - Website

Record Village, Scunthorpe - 01724 851048

Reflex, Newcastle - 0191 2603246 - Website

Resident, Brighton - 01273 606312 - Website

Rise, Bristol - 01179297511

Rise, Swindon - Website

Rise, Cheltenham - 01242 228493 - Website

Rough Trade East, London - 0207 392 7788 - Website

Rough Trade Talbot Rd, London - 020 7229 8541 - Website

Rounder, Brighton - 01273 325440 - Website

Sister Ray, London - 020 7734 3297 - Website

Sound It Out, Stockton on Tees - 01642 860068 - Website

Sound Knowledge, Marlborough - 01675 511 106

Soundclash, Norwich - 01603 761004 - Website

Spillers, Cardiff - 02920 224905 - Website

Square Records, Wimbourne - 01202 883203

The Drift Record Shop, Totnes - 01803 866828 - Website

Wall of Sound, Huddersfield - 0845 6522822 - Website

With more videos in the works, here's the latest home-made video from the album - "Send Me Nothing"

On behalf of all the band, I just want to say a huge THANK YOU for buying our album and supporting us!

Much love,

Nigel.

The Foxes Twitter
The Foxes Facebook.

My acoustic Facebook.
My acoustic Twitter.

First of Many....

2011-10-25T16:12:00.005+01:00

....great album reviews for "Last of Many"!

"From the early Beatles on speed wig out of Suzy all the way through to the album’s climax, the brooding meltdown of Sorry To Leave You the album’s jammed full of one classic sounding track after another......all human emotion’s on offer here folks, often wrapped up with a dash of wry wit. Musically it’s pure British pop gold."

Read the full review from "The Hearing Aid" here.

"The début album hands over to you almost always a rock/pop song that you've come to know so well, but can hear over and over again!! "

Read the full review from "Tigers, Lions & Bears" here.

Fancy getting your hands on an advance copy of the album? Fancy writing a review even if you've never written one before?! Email nigel@thefoxesband.com and tell me why you'd like to review it! Best reviews published here.

MUSIC VIDEO NEWS.

The newest music video for our album is for "The Sad Thing" and is up now:

This was filmed at Survival Studios in North Acton, without telling them about the incredible fire hazard we were going to undertake, using my little hand held digital camera (Panasonic HM-TA1 the geeks!) and I then edited the footage together using Windows Movie Maker - which isn't the most ideal program for this sort of thing, but hey ho....

Award winning...

I'm thrilled to tell you that the video to 'No Reply' has won a top award at the Digital Arts Festival in Somerset - with judges including part of the team who made the famous "Wallace and Gromit" animated shows, Terry Thomas came first place with the video to 'No Reply'...which was...

..."for his older brother's band, The Foxes, and was a technical achievement, lip synching a claymation puppet's lips and guitar strumming to the soundtrack. Terry painstakingly captured every frame with a webcam and used various other software to scrub each image to look its best."

Read the full award details here.

The next music video...

I'm working on is for 'Send Me Nothing' - a great up-beat track written by our guitarist Jon which you're going to LOVE. It'll be ready in a week or so because without wishing to spoil anything, I'm making it by sifting through over 1,700 photographs taken at the same session we filmed 'The Sad Thing' - but here's a sneak photographic preview...(click on the pictures for the big versions)

U.S. podcast first!

Fancy hearing the unreleased first track, 'Suzy' off our début album? It's ready to hear on this "Best of British" podcast from North America about 15 mins in. Click here to listen now.

I've just seen that 'Run' is also featured on their latest podcast! It's at 13 mins 29 seconds in. Click here to listen now.

And finally....

* I'm playing an acoustic set this Saturday (29th October) at The Vesbar in Shepherd's Bush for the Shepherd's Bush Oxjam Takeover. I'm on stage at about 8.30pm and will be in full zombie gear - so come down, it's all for a great cause with over 40 live acts across six local venues.

* I can't believe the Steps album go to number 1 in the UK album charts!! Nor can I believe that I actually quite like Noel Gallagher's latest single (let's keep this between you and I, ok?)

* I did a little photo shoot with Rich Newman just down the road from where I live in Wandsworth. Check it out here.

* We'll be featuring the amazing artist Owain Thomas (no relation!) on the next blog - as well as doing the artwork for our last EP and forthcoming album, he painted the piece or the right for the album booklet, based on this photo by Tina Sheikh from Magic Photography.

* Our big album launch party plans will be announced soon!

Much love,

Nigel. X

Twitter
The Foxes Facebook.
My acoustic Facebook.

P.S. My solo album 'Third Movement' had this rather lovely review.
P.P.S. There'll be a music video to 'Third Movement' very soon, made by Fry Films - the same lovely people who made the 'Bill Hicks' and 'Lover, Killer' videos.

P.P.P.S. I want to make a new Facebook account and the name will be 'Nobody' so when I see stupid rubbish people post, I can Like it. And it will say 'Nobody Likes This'.

“Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality . Wake up and live!” - Bob Marley.

"I'd like to know what all the strange ones know."- Supergrass.

"Last of Many" - our debut album!

2011-09-05T13:59:00.001+01:00

The Foxes are very proud and excited to announce that our début album, "Last of Many" will be released on December 5th 2011 on our own record label, Room 10 and distributed by Cargo Records. It was produced and mixed by John Cornfield and recorded at Sawmills Studios, Cornwall.

A lot of people have asked about the track-listing for the album, so here it is:

1. Suzy.

2. Something About You.

3. Run.

4. Out of Service.

5. Sweet Little Wonder.

6. Send Me Nothing.

7. No Reply.

8. Get Me.

9. Too Little, Too Late.

10. Country Low (album version).

11. The Sad Thing.

12. Meet and Wine.

13. Waiting for the Storm.

14. Sorry to Leave You.

Thank you to everyone who has helped us get this far on our own - we really appreciate it. If you're wondering about how we did it and what we've gone through, have a read of our official biography.

Any press/bloggers who would like to review the album and receive our press pack, please email nigel@thefoxesband.com

I'll leave you with our latest home-made video to "Country Low":

Much love,

Nigel.

The Foxes.

P.S. Click for The Foxes Twitter and Facebook pages.

P.P.S. Tour details will follow over the coming weeks.

P.P.P.S. Ask me anything.

Videos, festivals and being drawn by strangers...

2011-08-17T16:50:00.007+01:00

I'm going to start with the official video to "Country Low" - made in my very amateur but wistfully creative capacity using my HD camera and a 1987 adventure game called "Space Quest II" (which I played on my Atari St when I was a wee nipper) - if you've not seen it already I'd say it's well worth your time and the song's a cracker to boot ;-)

Please support us by buying a copy of the song from iTunes, play.com, amazon - but if you just want to listen, all our music is on Spotify.

We had a great time on the Isle of Wight playing with The Fun Lovin' Criminals at 'Legends in the Park' - I would have also seen Chesney Hawkes play earlier in the day, but I was eating at the time, and in music you have to have priorities ;-)

You can view several live videos of the show, including songs from our forthcoming brand new album by clicking here.

STOP THIEF!!

Sadly this was the last time Jon and Alex played with their respective instruments (seen left) because a couple of days after this gig we had our van broken in to and about half of our
gear (thousands and thousands of pounds worth) was stolen.

Of course that doesn't cover the sentimental value of an instrument which has been with you throughout your entire career, covering all your gigs and tours, recordings etc :-(

The only reason my own electric guitar wasn't taken was because it was at Chandlers Guitars being re-fretted - suddenly that £240 repair cost doesn't seem as bad.

Watch these beautiful instruments (and band members) in action one last time in the video below of 'Send Me Nothing' - which will feature on the new album.

There are also rather ace live recordings of 'The Sad Thing' and 'No Reply'.

RANDOM FINDING MYSELF....

While randomly googling Knightsbridge (as you do), I came across a drawing that someone had made of me while I was busking at Knightsbridge Tube Station. A good likeness, would you say?!

THE FOXES DÉBUT ALBUM.

One thing I've learned being in the music industry is that EVERYTHING takes at least three times as long to do as you first thought...especially when you're doing it yourself. I can, however, tell you this:

1. We've got a name for the album.
2. We've got the front cover artwork through. It's awesome.
3. The next blog WILL be an album release date announcement - or I'll get someone to video me running naked round and round the flats where I live. Promise.

IN OTHER NEWS:

* Did I mention we played a gig with Newtown Faulkner? What a nice guy!

* I might be singing in an advert for the Olympics.

* Did you read our fabulous new biography?! CLICK HERE IMMEDIATELY IF NOT.

* Jon and I played an acoustic show at The Bedford in Balham for 'The Busking Project' - there's a version of 'Third Movement' on my new youtube page here.

* You can download my entire acoustic album for free by clicking here. It contains several versions of songs later recorded on the new Foxes album. Did I mention you could get it for free?!

* One of the songs from that album, 'Stepping Up' is featured on the brand new 'Sourmash Mixtape Vol. 1: The Walls are Not Listening' which you can also download for free - well worth it, there are some great tracks on there.

That's all for now!

Much love,

Nigel.
The Foxes.

P.S. I update both The Foxes twitter and my own twitter page. I am fairly amusing.
P.P.S. For goodness sake, download my album for free!
P.P.P.S. Thanks for your blog comments - they make me warm inside and I always read and reply.
P.PP.S. This blog was written to the sound of CD 1 of the new deluxe version of "The Sophtware Slump" by Granddaddy. It's a great album.

'Start living now. Stop saving the good china for that special occasion. Stop withholding your love until that special person materializes. Every day you are alive is a special occasion. Every minute, every breath, is a gift from God.' Mary Manin Morrissey.

'The receptionist at the second interview was way hotter than the first one, but the pay on offer isn't as good. Life is full of tough choices.' Hereward Swallow. *

* This is an exciting new feature of the blog where I take, without their permission, a Facebook status update from one of my friends and post it here as a traditional quote. The first to feature is Hereward, a talented musician and a great bloke. He asks an important question here - so which job would YOU go for? (I think the answer is basically gender dependent...)

The Foxes - Biography

2011-07-25T16:45:00.000+01:00

With our début album announcement tantalisingly close I can think of no better way to precede this than by releasing our brand new band biography written by none other than Stephen Brolan, a very well respected and experienced writer.

Stephen also happens to be a long-standing fan of The Foxes so we were thrilled when he agreed to write our new biography. You can read more of his work here.

Enjoy! Some of it may just surprise you.

Nigel. X

P.S. I've added some pictures which you can click on for large versions.

THE FOXES

BIOGRAPHY

Written by Stephen Brolan

"While Nigel Thomas is not a super proponent of the notion of destiny – he’s pretty keen on being in charge of his own life, thanks very much – The Foxes frontman retains a firmness of belief that insists, in the context of all things, this is where he was always meant to be. From a very early age, it seems, there has been a niggling certainty about the path his eventual life would lead him. While most of us were still deciding whether we were going to grow up to be Superman or a dalek, Thomas was already tuning in to some future broadcast and humming along to its inaudible yet somehow irresistible tune.

“There was never any question about what I wanted to do – I’ve been singing since I was teeny-weeny,” Thomas says, the now twenty-something’s blue eyes still betraying a mischievous, childlike glimmer. “My father was a singer-songwriter and actually released a couple of singles that were recorded at Abbey Road. His career was kind of halted by meeting my mother and having two kids…” He grins rather sheepishly. “I suppose I see it as my job to not only follow in his footsteps but also make up for, well, ruining his life.”

With such adjacent family-oriented musical heritage (his brother, “the really talented one”, is also an accomplished composer), it would be easy to interpret a certain genetic obligation was a compelling factor, but for Thomas, whose calling had always mined deeper sources than mere duty, the only constant in terms of impetus always came from within.

“I don’t feel any pressure from any other source outside of myself, and even then, it’s not as if there was any question about self-motivation that way either.” He pauses for a lifetime, which actually punctuates his addendum: “Writing and performing music is just something I’ve always passionately wanted to do.” Another thought occurs, and the calmest storm passes through his bright eyes – the merest, human flicker. “I mean, sometimes there are days – dark days – when I think I never want to pick up a guitar again, but that’s really like a blasphemy.” Thomas’s obvious earnestness almost cringes on that last notion, the very thought abhorrent. “I know I could never do that – I could never not sing.”

An amalgamation of insouciant, wide-eyed exuberance tempered by a steely determination, Nigel Thomas is perhaps something of an emblematic musician for the 21^st century – a poster child for artistic self-government in an increasingly non-committal industry suffused equally by hyperbole and cynicism. His band, comprising lead guitarist Jonathan Bretman, bassist Alex Douglas, and drummer Stephen Wilde, are forged from an autonomous working ethic that typifies an indie spirit – in the truest, etymological sense – that seeks to cocoon itself from the barrage of broken promises laid on by the industry at large and focus its collective powers internally, beyond external influence.

Having come together through various chance (fated?) encounters around the capital, The Foxes’ early years largely reflected that of any London-based band hussling the circuit: hold down the odious 9 to 5; gather funds for gear and maybe a clapped-out disaster on wheels; land a gig supporting the latest Camden-bound naval-gazers (“Some of them fucking need support – literally,” Thomas says: “They look half-asleep on stage”) and hope some A&Rs holes happen to share your vision and hand you the golden key to stardom. However, after a series of attempts to win the attentions of industry pedallers and pen-weilders, it soon became apparent they were banging their heads against a wall of indifference.

“We got so sick of the fact all the people we’ve approached nobody wanted to help us,” he says, the words entangled in a sigh probably echoing a billion other bands’ sentiments. “And when that happens to you long enough, either you sit back and feel sorry for yourself or you get out there yourself and say ‘fuck it’ and start helping yourself.”

And help themselves and sayeth the words ‘fuck it’ they did, pooling all their resources – financially, practically, artistically – into an egalitarian unit that worked indefatigably of and for itself, from designing the artwork and heading up their own publicity campaigns to booking their own tours and putting out their songs independently – a process of grit and determination Thomas believes has stood them in good stead and provided a valuable learning curve. “Between the four of us we’d probably all make pretty decent band managers,” he laughs. “We’ve learnt so much from having had to do everything ourselves…”

Having gathered enough resources to get some recording time, the band then self-released a couple of tracks on their own Room 10 label, and soon saw the fruits of their labour reap some serious kudos dividends (if not exactly financial avalanches), with singles ‘Trauma Town’ and ‘Bill Hicks’ (Thomas’s tribute to his comedy hero) reaching numbers 9 and 6 respectively in the UK indie chart. And following on the heels of this, attention from outside sources began to spring forth – a feature on myspace reaching the ears of a festival organiser, who invited the band out to the States as part of a cancer-awareness charity gig, which would in turn thrust an ultimatum in the faces of the then office-bound nine-to-fivers…

“We’d been thinking about quitting our day jobs for some time to focus on our music,” Thomas insists. “And when this opportunity came along, we knew we had a chance to do something about it.”

And so, in true fatalistic fashion and in sight of higher auspices, the four Foxmen fled the Apocalypse of their respective jobs and, using the springboard of the charity festival as a starting point, hurled themselves at the States with a series of tour dates that took in New York, LA and New Orleans, all fuelled by benevolent omens, a healthy ‘fuck it’ attitude, and a cashpot of golden handshakes. A month later, a return home with broader horizons would provide greater perspective and the ultimate catalyst that would shape their immediate destinies.

“When we got back, we thought, ‘well we could go back into our jobs’…” The uttering of these words, and the accompanying grimace, suggests this was never a real consideration. “Or,” he emphasises, “we could quit and get tighter as a band, and the best way to do that – earn money while honing our playing – was to do covers gigs.”

A poisonous word for much of the indier-than-thou purist Camden clergy, covers have nevertheless provided The Foxes with a niche that, while not their ideal situation, has allowed them to eschew the soul-sapping day jobs and self-sustain themselves on the way to their ultimate goal. After all, nothing worth striving for comes without its costs.

“It hasn’t been easy – it’s one of those things where you think it’s a bit like selling out and a bit soul destroying to be playing other people’s songs,” he says regretfully but without apology. “But it’s also enabled us to do everything we’ve done so far – and we’re a better band because of it. And however you look at it, we’re doing music for a living, and that’s what we’re totally absorbed in…” He trails off, grappling for the crux. “The main thing that frustrates me – when you see people get excited about songs you haven’t written – you just think it’s a shame people don’t go to many gigs of unknown bands and try to seek out new music for themselves instead of having everything force-fed to them in such a commercial, passive way. People want to be spoon-fed familiar things they know rather than seek things out for themselves, which I guess is just the way of the world, and you sometimes have to accept that.”

On this last point, Thomas is visibly choking on the words, as if the very notion of accepting anything other than what’s right and good would be tantamount to surrendering of the will – something for which The Foxes are clearly not accustomed. For a band still unsigned, who have given up their jobs and sacrificed the trappings of complacency to mine the chasm of their ambition, to achieve what they already have is testament to the strength of their collective will and character. Having gained the attentions of John Cornfield, after the mega-producer saw the band’s incendiary live show at – of all places – The Orange Box in Yeovil, The Foxes blagged, busked and covered-versioned their arses off for over a year to pool together the money to record their debut album with Cornfield at his famed Sawmills Studios – the results of which speak for themselves.

“Whatever happens, we’ve made the best album we could and we’ve done everything we can to make that happen,” he reasons, a distant look seeming to recall an abundance of chased rainbows. “After all we’ve been through, there’s not really much more we could’ve done…”

An entity unto themselves, The Foxes, as their moniker entails, is a sleek, nightstalking creature determinedly and surreptitiously surviving on its own terms, making familiar territory of blind alleys and, while retaining a true sense of kismet, charting their own course. For Thomas himself, fiercely proud as he is of he and his band’s achievements, the endeavour is far from over. Having come this far on a wing, a prayer, and sheer self-belief – via a wilderness of industry indifference – the crumbs of comfort are not commodities he is about to hang around for.

“Sometimes I might not have enough money to get something to eat, so I’ll have to go out and play music to people who throw coins at me, and I’ve got enough for lunch that day. But because all time and money is invested in creating something I love, it makes everything worth it. It would have been so easy just to go for a job in the city – but I wasn’t being who I think I should be, and you’re never going to be happy doing something that’s not you…” He stops, head cocked, as if hearing the distant hum of destiny’s broadcast to which he remains devoutly attuned. “Even if nothing comes of what I’m doing, I can at least look back and say I gave it my best shot…”

Armed with such unerring conviction and focus, aligned with the truest sense of purpose, Thomas’s aim could hardly be more keenly focused on its target. For some, things are meant to be. Others mean it so much, it’s destiny that has to fall into line…"

Spring is here!

2011-03-11T16:07:00.004Z

I've finally come out of winter hibernation! I would have slept longer but there are just too many exciting things going on. For example:

* We've been confirmed to support 'The Fun Lovin' Criminals' this summer - more details on their way.

* The Foxes début album is ready to go and will have a name and a release date by the next blog. Boy, it's good....

* We'll be playing the Isle of Wight Festival again this year. Oh, and the brand new V-Dub Island Festival.

* Want to hear one of our new album tracks? Listen again to Shell Zenner's show by clicking here!

NEW ACOUSTIC TRACK

Though it's been quite a while since I put my last track up "The Last Sunset" I've not stopped writing and have finally had time to record. This song is called "Stepping Up" and the lyrics are here. Do let me know what you think! Another new song, "Destiny" will be up soon.

Stepping Up by nigelthomas

RADIO KILLED THE ACOUSTIC STAR

I've got several acoustic radio shows and interviews coming up:

Sunday 13th March - 'The Danny Steele Show' on JNET Radio 1pm UK time. This is also being filmed for a documentary and you can listen in wherever you are in the world.

Monday 21st March - OnFM 101.4 with James Burtt. 7.30pm UK time. You can listen live on 101.4 FM in London, or anywhere by downloading the podcast.

If you fancy hearing a particular Foxes song live, let me know below and I may just do it for you :-)

SCOTLAND

Best audience ever?! Could well be! We made a special trip up to Aberdeen last month firstly for an acoustic gig and DJ set with 'Kill It Kid', followed by a sold out show with 'The Dykeenies'' and 'The Winter Tradition'...video below of a brand new track "Sweet Little Wonder" which will feature on the forthcoming album (thanks to the very lovely Gemma for filming this!)

I was sent the photo below from after the gig and am including it because they were all a) Lovely. b). helped us with our gear and c) bought lots of merch....or in some cases, got it for free! ;-)

A big hello to Marteen Nicoll, Laura McIntosh, Katherine Lindsay, Thomas Michie and Heather McCaw (sorry if I've missed you - feel free to complain below!)

Oh, AND Ambrosia Linton who sent this one in:

By the way, who finally got my battered tambourine in the end? It's been all over the world with us!

NEXT ACOUSTIC GIG: Wednesday 30th March, Notting Hill Arts Club, 10pm, free entry.

NEXT FULL BAND GIG: Wednesday 13th March, Notting Hill Arts Club, 11pm, free entry (Facebook invite here)

That's all for now - all our thoughts are with everyone in Japan.

Much love,

Nigel.

Twitter
The Foxes Facebook.
My acoustic Facebook.

P.S. Do you speak Portuguese? You do?! Then check out this "Music on Strike" blog all about us.

P.P.S. I'm not really convinced by the new Arctic Monkey's song. Sounds too much like Kasabian...still looking forward to the album.
P.P.P.S. I'm also struggling to understand the popularity of The Vaccines. Maybe it's the reverb...need to hear the whole album perhaps.
P.P.P.P.S. I do however really like the new song from The Strokes.
P.P.P.P.P.S. Ask me anything by clicking here.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S I'll leave you with this rather cracking live video of "Get Me" from Aberdeen:

It's coming on....

2010-11-22T16:29:00.009Z

Hello all,

Firstly, check out this fantastic new video to "No Reply" which was made entirely by hand by my 16 year old brother, Terry. Do leave your comments to this below, I'll make sure he sees them!

UPDATE.

I realise I've not posted in a while - after all the flurry of activity earlier this year you may think things have gone quiet in The Foxes camp. On the contrary, it's just all going on behind big shiny closed musical doors!

With the album now complete, we've been working hard to arrange a release for next year. There's a LOT to sort out and these things are never quick, especially when we're looking at releasing in other countries as well.

Rest assured, the music is there, it's sounding great, and it'll be in your hands and ears early next year.

We're also deep in thought about a name for the album - what do you think? I'd actually really appreciate some suggestions - you don't need to sign in to leave a comment below.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Artist Owain Thomas (no relation) who painted the fantastic artwork for our "Depression, Joy and a Moment of Fame" EP did a few other designs for us to choose from. Check out the alternative covers below (click on each for a large version)

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What else?

Photographer Jane Hoskyn made this slideshow of snaps taken at the Great Escape Festival last May. I look a total mess for....various reasons...

A friend suggested I sign up to a music site called "Bobcom" and they kindly featured me in their first newsletter -

‎"Nigel Thomas makes really rather beautiful acoustic folk, tinged with the sadness of Bon Iver and the warmth of Fleet Foxes."

Click here to check it out.

So, that's all for now! We're playing a special free entry headline show at "Death 2 Disco" at Notting Hill Arts Club this Wednesday (24th November) - details here. If you're in the area do come down and say hello. One or two very special guests have already confirmed....

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. I tweet all the time!
P.P.S. You can ask me anything here. Anything at all.
P.P.P.S. We've loads of videos you've probably never seen before - click here.

"When I die, I want people to play my music, go wild and freak out and do anything they want to do." Jimi Hendrix

"I'm really not in the mood to be distracted and confused by your carefully placed illusion to mask your intrusion in to my good day." Jon Bretman

"If you don't know it now, then you will do." Damon Albarn.

ALBUM RECORDING: FINISHED

2010-08-25T16:10:00.004+01:00


View from the control room at Sawmills - this is what we call 'high tide'!

This is just a quick update to let you know we've now finished recording our début album! I'm not going to go into laborious detail on the recording process this time, just suffice to say we're all VERY happy with how it went, and we're working with John on mixing the tracks at the moment.

The tracks we recorded on the final session were:

* 'Run' - one of our older songs, but not like any version anyone has ever heard!
* 'The Sad Thing' - a bluesy, melancholy song with a massive punch...
* 'Out Of Service' - we all love this song, the rhythm is rather unusual too.
* 'Too Little, Too Late' - another of Jonno's with some great lyrics.
* ' Sweet Little Wonder' - my favourite love song of all time, as I wrote it about no-one just because I could.

A lot of people ask us about what it's like to record at the 'legendary' Sawmills Studios, where they recorded 'Definitely Maybe' (Oasis), and albums from Razorlight, Muse, Cast, Supergrass, The Stone Roses, The Verve, etc....I think this video from the TV series 'Three Men and a Boat' sum it up nicely (thanks to Alex for finding this)

The other question....

....which everyone keeps asking is 'When will the album be released?!'

The answer to this is, we don't know.


Recording 'The Sad Thing'

Basically, there are three very big and exciting things which may or may not happen for us, and if even one of them does happen, it'll change EVERYTHING for us. We'll know by November.

Just to be annoying, I'll give you some clues - some of which are 100% true, some of which are complete fabrication - NASA, Hollywood, The Hoosiers, Paul McCartney, Owen Wilson, The Inbetweeners, Sony, EMI, Universal, REM, Warner Bros. Care to have a guess which are true?!

In other news:

* EP Review - Leeds Music Scene. A good review, but apparently 'No Reply' feels 'too much like hard work' - pah! :-)

* EP Review - Vanguard Online. '...out of all the artists and bands I have reviewed so far this year – this is the one that has left me wanting more the most.'

* Our first single, 'Trauma Town' is featured on a new independent horror film from New York, 'Night of the Living Heads' - it's on DVD or you can watch online - http://www.notlh.com/

* There are some photos from our performance on the main stage at the 'Basingstoke Live Festival' here.

* I did a new photo shoot with my friend Heather at a deserted asylum we had to...er...break in to...click here to see the pictures!

* A new interview about The Foxes on this blog from Gia.

* Remember that day when I played guitar in the sea and got SOAKED at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton?! Watch the video below...I'm on from 5mins 15secs.

Red Stripe - The Great Escape 2010

Oh, I almost forgot to say that I'm confirmed as playing at Clarence House for Prince Charles at a charity Garden Party on 8th September - there's a BBC News article here.

Exciting?!

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. Follow me on Twitter, where Danny Wallace told me yesterday how much he likes 'Get Me' and is looking forward to the album. Yes, I'm showing off.
P.P.S. You can ask me anything here.
P.P.P.S. Thanks for your comments on my last blog - I've replied!
P.P.P.P.S. The soundtrack to this blog was 'Woodface' by Crowded House, and 'Marquee Moon' by Television.

'The moment we cry in a film is not when things are sad but when they turn out to be more beautiful than we expected them to be.' Alain de Botton.

'It seems that whenever I learned something about people or life in general, I was merely changing the form of my immutable ignorance' Stephen Vizinczey.

'The trouble with burning bridges is that often I can still stumble back across their charred remains.' Me.

Click for a big readable version!

First album recording session update

2010-07-27T00:01:00.011+01:00

What an amazing time we've had! Let me explain....

Sunday 18th July.

Played at The Electric Sound Cafe which was an all day music and comedy event at The Bedford in Balham, organised by Alex. We did a totally different stripped down set which went down really well - and Suzy felt especially good to play (no, it's a song). Saw a lot of other great acts, including our friends The Roads who were superb. Big shout out to Ayumi Suzuki who travelled all the way from Japan to see us!

Monday 19th July.


"Songs and speeds"	"

After a few hours sleep we left London at 3.30am to catch the 9.30am tide at Golant to get the boat to Sawmills. Amazed by how much gear we seem to have seeing it all loaded on the quay. The first day was spent initially dealing with an infestation of gremlins...there was a big buzz on the bass track (dealt with by spraying Alex's guitar in gloop) Jonno's amp developed a strange harmonic sound so we took it apart and had to fiddle with valves which were too micro-phonic...apparently....and then had to sort out the intonation on mine and Jonno's guitar. Still, we'd got a great take of 'Sorry to Leave You' by 10pm. All exhausted. It's lucky we loaded in in the morning as it poured with rain most of the day.

Tuesday 20th July.

Today we finished guitar overdubs to 'Sorry to Leave You' and started and finished 'Suzy' - spent ages doing the vocal overdubs at the end of 'Sorry to Leave You' in the evening as they're really complex. Then we got a good take of 'Waiting for the Storm' and vocals (Jonno and I swapped on this one - he sung lead vocals and I did the guitar solo!)

Poured with rain most of the day.

Wednesday 21st July.

Finished guitar overdubs to 'Waiting for the Storm' and started and finished 'Out of Service' - then did the backing vocals to 'Waiting for the Storm' After dinner we got a great take of 'Send Me Nothing' and got the lead vocals sorted.

Poured with rain most of the day.

Thursday 22nd July.

Although I can't give details, we've been approached by people from a major tv show who asked for instrumental versions of 'Get Me', 'Something About You', 'Bill Hicks' and 'Lover, Killer'. As we couldn't get hold of Sam Williams (who mixed the last two), we brought the raw recording of the songs to John Cornfield to mix. Watch this space!

Anyway, as we had a bit of time, Steve and I decided to do some filming on the train tracks (it's a single non-electric freight train line) across from the studio, and genuinely did nearly get killed by a train - I've never laughed so much.

Did this little video for you:

You can hear the original recording of this song on my Facebook page. It really was the first time it had stopped raining, and of course, it proceeded to POUR down in the evening. Speaking of which, we later recorded a great take of 'Sweet Little Wonder' (a happy, summery love song song written for no-one)

Friday 23rd July.

Jonno got up early today and was in full smug mode when I entered the studio in the morning as he'd already done all the guitar over-dubs on 'Sweet Little Wonder'! Somehow I managed to kick start my voice into doing the lead vocals on the track (normally it doesn't start to function before late afternoon) and then we finished off with a few little tweaks on all the tracks and a big listen through.

""I'm on a mother f*cking boat!"

I really can't express how happy we all are at how the songs are sounding. Without wishing to sound too arrogant, they're going to fucking blow you away (there, I think this balances the fairly dry diary account of what went on!)

We played a celebratory gig at John Cornfield's local 'The New Inn' in Tywardreath (close to where we get the boat to the studio, built in 1775 apparently) which was packed and we had a great evening, which included a very entertaining house party 'till 4am with John and Alex. I would show you some video, but really can't! HUGE thanks to the lovely owners of the pub for letting us stay, and feeding us so sumptuously (amazing food including home made Cornish Pasties with "Fox" written into the crust!)

In other news....

* We'll be back to the studio in two weeks to finish the album.

* Check out this new review of "Depression, Joy and a Moment of Fame" - it's really rather good.

* I had a great time playing at the Whitecross Street Party on Sunday, and met lots of genuinely lovely people, especially the girl in the blue dress :-)

* A new music video to "No Reply" is coming soon.

* I might be playing at an event for Prince Charles. Will let you know...

A question for you.

What tracks from our last EP should go on the album? All of them? None? What about the singles? I'd love your thoughts, and you can comment below without having to sign in to anything.

I'll leave you with this clip of Steve and I being silly on the tracks trying to record a song....

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. New songs coming soon!

P.P.S. the quote below the boating picture is from this video.

P.P.P.S. I am happy.

"I believe its no good to talk about your songs; its wrong. You should leave your songs alone and let them say what they say; let people take what they want from them."
Paul Simon

"Actually I don't know if honesty is a strength or some kind of weakness." Ani DeFranco

“Watching you walk out of my life does not make me bitter or cynical about love. But rather makes me realize that if I wanted so much to be with the wrong person how beautiful it will be when the right one comes along.” Anon.

Here comes the album...

2010-07-12T20:51:00.003+01:00

Head in My Hands by nigelthomas

Dear reader,

The little player above will play a new acoustic song, "Head in My Hands" which I wrote at Heathrow Airport. It's based on a true story too.

Well, the big tour is now well and truly finished, and we've just been doing the odd festival gig to keep us going. Coming up we have....

18th July - The Electric Sound Cafe

(all day event with music and comedians at The Bedford in Balham. Buy seated tickets here, and standing only tickets here)

1st August - Frimchett Festival

4th September - Lodestar Festival

25th September - BFest

DÉBUT ALBUM RECORDING.

Straight after The Electric Sound Cafe this Sunday, we're driving through the night down to Cornwall to catch the morning tide to get to Sawmills Studio (see this blog entry if you don't know why we have to put everything in a boat to get to the studio) to start recording our yet untitled début album with John Cornfield. Since the end of the tour we've been rehearsing furiously, and we're very excited to record songs we hope you'll love as much as we do.

Courtesy of Google Maps, you can see above just how isolated the studio is - the big red arrow points to the studio itself, and you can see the trainline (and a train!) which runs alongside and under which we go in our little boat to get to the studio.

The Foxes Diary.

Since 2006, I've been writing an intimate diary about life in The Foxes, and it now stands at nearly 70,000 words. Having never show it to anyone, I've been thinking now might be the time to let someone have a read through and let me know what they think. I'm not Willy Wonka, so just email me or leave a comment on this blog if you'd like to be the one to read it, and tell me why you'd like to. It's got quite of lot of very personal things and events in it, and I'd rather not say the kind of person I'm looking for - so please don't take it personally if you're not selected. I'm sure most of you can think of nothing worse than trawling through thousands of words of my random thoughts and stories anyway!

New guitar:

Martin DX1RAE. She is beautiful and I love her.

Silly mood video with new guitar....

Better than Hollywood.

I'm going to be an extra in a film in London tomorrow - I've got two scenes, one of which is at a strip joint in Shoreditch (no, it's NOT one of those films!) so I'll give you a full report on the next blog...

Finally....

I'm going to leave you with the interview we did at BBC Tees for the fantastic Bob Fischer during the last tour - we really enjoyed speaking to him, can you tell? Anyway, I think it's well worth a listen!!

BBC Tees- The Foxes interview with Bob Fisher by nigelthomas

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. Wednesday always sees me DJ'ing at Death2Disco with Sir Danny Watson at Notting Hill Arts Club from around 7pmish. It's free entry, on 'till 2am and there's live music too. Come down (I won't be there on 21st though as we'll be recording then).

P.P.S. At last, someone actually asks me something about a song!!

P.P.P.S. If anyone can sort me out with a new phone, a laptop and perhaps a Topic bar, get in touch.

"Modern music is people who can't think, signing artists who can't write songs, to make records for people who can't hear." Frank Zappa

"Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely." 'David Copperfield' Charles Dickens.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....

2010-06-15T13:41:00.000+01:00

...and it really is. I've been reading the cheery little book by Dickens, "A Tale of Two Cities" and it's made me think about how close two worlds can be, and how one can be so good and positive and the other quite the opposite. I've got "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk lined up though, so that should be....diverting...any other book recommendations, let be know below.

In brief.....

* An interesting live review from "Ark Magazine" from a tiny gig we did in Cambridge: "I saw a band more confident in their image and a lead singer who has developed his confidence to the level of Heather Mills in a Hop-scotch race."

* A review from our last minute Brighton gig by XYZ Magazine. They're right that we deserved a bigger crowd, but didn't do too badly for two days promotion! Thanks to everyone who came down at the last minute :-)

* Interestingly, we've been getting increasing amounts of play on U.S. Radio stations...and we're not sure how because we've sent nothing off! "Something About You" was played on WRIR 97.3 FM Richmond, Virginia last Saturday, and "Get Me" has also been getting played on the Los Angeles station KCRW 89.9FM. Do feel free to email these stations (or your local one!) to request us!

* London station XFM also played us while we were up in Scotland - and they're a station which pretty much sticks to mainstream stuff.

THE TOUR.

We had an amazing series of gigs in North England, especially the two IPO Festival gigs at The Cavern in Liverpool. Leeds and Middlesbrough also deserve a special mention...the latter of which was so good I thought I'd video the people who came to see us:

Our mini Scottish tour with our friends The Trade was a blast, except I'm NEVER drinking whisky again (I'm serious) after the end of show party left me practically disabled for most of the next day. Thanks to everyone at BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Radio Tees and MFR Radio for the sessions. Just a few shows left of the tour now -

Wednesday 16th June - The Portland Arms, Cambridge.
Thursday 17th June - The Solstice, Peterborough.
Thursday 24th June - Puzzle Hall, Halifax.
Saturday 26th June - The Orange Box, Yeovil.

Our next London gig is Saturday 3rd July headlining at The Garage in Islington, with special guest Maini from Primal Scream DJ'ing straight after our set .

Isle of Wight Festival.

Jonno and I did a couple of intimate acoustic gigs at the Kashmir Cafe stage at the Isle of Wight Festival, and had, quite frankly, an amazing time. Both gigs were to a packed out tent, and we were then free to see a host of other great performers...not least The Strokes, Paul McCartney, Blondie, Vampire Weekend, Friendly Fires, Orbital, The Hold Steady, Ocean Colour Scene (what was up with their sound?!!) and The Blunt Instruments! Thanks to Doug for everything.

I'm off to New York in a couple of weeks - still working on confirming the acoustic gigs, but I plan on sorting it soon. Looking forward to going a lot - I plan on having a good time!

I'll leave you with a video to "Drift" which was recorded for BBC Radio Tees. You can hear the original recording (and see the lyrics) on my Facebook page.

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. New set of tour photos on The Foxes Facebook page.
P.P.S. You can now leave a comment below without signing in to anything! So let me know your thoughts!
P.P.P.S. Ask me something. (there's been some good ones recently!)

"'I love the succession of glittering images which distract and amuse yet ultimately do little to quell the boundless sadness at my core." Charlie Brooker.

On the road.

2010-05-27T11:32:00.004+01:00

I've a few precious hours free, so thought I'd write a quick update blog as we've now got twelve gigs over the next eleven days and so this is the last chance I'll have to use a real computer!

Let's have a quick look at some of the recent reviews first:

* We're featured on "The Best of Myspace" from the lovely Gill Mills. Click here to listen.

* Remember the pictures of me in the sea in the last blog? It was at The Great Escape in Brighton and Stephen Brolan (as seen right) explains it all here. It's well worth a read!

* There's another review of our new EP, "Depression, Joy and a Moment of Fame" on the Beat Surrender website. We're also doing a last minute gig for them in Leeds on Sunday straight after the England vs. Mexico game.

* A few dark snaps from our EP launch, courtesy of Adam Roberts.

Recently, we played a gig at Trafalgar House, which is the mansion in Wiltshire given to Nelson's family after the Battle of Trafalgar. (I've included links in case you're not clued up on one of the most important person and battle in British history!) More recently, it was used in films such as "28 Days Later", "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma". Being uncouth musicians, we were most excited about it's connection to the famous zombie film, as you can see:

Last night's gig at the Oakford Social Club in Reading was good, until we had to stop because water started pouring through the ceiling which the organisers seemed to be concerned might have led to us being electrically fried - not a bad way to go.

Coming up we've got:

27th May - Music Cafe, Leicester.

28th May - Cafe de Paris London.

29th May - Blyth and Tyne, Blyth (this is going to be mental)

30th May - Northern Monkey, Leeds - plus BBC Merseyside Session.

31st May - Liverpool IPO Festival (Cavern Club then the Cavern Pub!)

1st June - The Keys, Middlesbrough - plus BBC Tees session.

2nd June - Cafe Drummonds, Aberdeen.

3rd June - The Voodoo Lounge, Edinburgh.

4th June - Maggie Mays, Glasgow.

5th June - The Doghouse, Dundee.

6th June - Hootananny's - Inverness.

That's all for now! I'm off to audition to get a busking licence on the underground. Should be fun.

Do keep up to date on the tour by following The Foxes Twitter page. Oh, and I've changed the comment form so you can leave a comment without going through the stupid hassle of signing in to something. So say hello!

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. I'm going to put up the full set of sea photos from Brighton on my acoustic Facebook page shortly.

P.P.S. I handed my petition to the General Medical Council earlier this week. Do take a moment to read, and please sign if you agree.

P.P.P.S. Ask me something.

'Excessive grief, like excessive joy, is a violent thing which is of short duration. The human heart cannot long remain in either extremity. The gypsy had suffered so much that surprise was now the only emotion of which she was capable' La Esmeralda, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

So, how goes the big tour?!

2010-05-18T12:26:00.000+01:00

Well bless my soul, thank you for asking, it's going incredibly well! Since my last blog we've played 16 gigs including The Camden Crawl, the Great Escape, Taunton, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Dundee, Aberdeen, Stirling, Newcastle and London. We've had national airplay on BBC Radio Two, countless playlists on commercial and BBC local stations - even KCRW 89.9FM in Los Angeles played us!

We've had some incredible gigs confirmed including.....the Isle of Wight Festival! We're playing on both Saturday and Sunday, and I'm rather looking forward to seeing Paul McCartney, The Strokes, Crowded House (I don't care that they're not trendy, 'Woodface' is a classic album!) even Biffy Clyro should be a laugh. Click here for the rest of the main line-up.

Our new EP, "Depression, Joy and a Moment of Fame" is also out now! As you may or may not know, we finance and release everything ourselves, so please do support The Foxes and buy a copy!

Download from iTunes.
Download from play.com.
Physical CD from Norman Records.
Physical CD from play.com
Download from Amazon (U.K.)
Download from Amazon (U.S.)
Physical CD from Amazon (U.S.)

It's available from loads of other places, but that's quite enough links for now. The EP is a taster for the full album which we're recording at Sawmills with John Cornfield. We won't be making any more copies of the EP once this run is sold out, so get it while you can!

I've put up a selection TOUR PHOTOS (carefully edited of course) which you can view on The Foxes Facebook page by clicking here.

There's a competition on my acoustic Facebook page - you just need to work out where the title of my latest song comes from - it's called "Third Movement" The winner wins a whole host of goods which I'll post anywhere in the world. There have been several entries so far as you can see on the page...all very far from the mark, but some good guesses!

Within the next two weeks, The Foxes tour will take us to Bedford, Leeds, Brighton, Reading, Leicester, London, Blyth, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Inverness and Basingstoke! Hope to see some of you there.

I'll also be playing some acoustic shows in New York in July while visiting friends - more details to come.

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. Check out the new BILL HICKS film!
P.P.S. There's a good chance I'll be on "The Wright Stuff" on Channel 5 on Monday (24th).
P.P.P.S. Ask away. It can't get any weirder.
P.P.P.P.S. Heather's photoshoot.

"I admit I've got a shit taste in music. I've no qualms about it" - Random punter at one of our gigs. Worryingly, he really liked us.

"Where's the nearest website?" - Random guy who took one of our flyers, after I explained that to listen to our music he'd need to go to our website.

Some people have STILL not seen the video to "Get Me" -

Start of UK tour - crazy busy!

2010-04-18T16:07:00.000+01:00

It's spring! I'm writing in glorious sunshine looking out across the English Channel, with nothing but plumes volcanic ash between myself and the sun! Since coming back from America I've been insanely busy with a whole host of exciting things. One of which includes making the above trailer for the documentary I'm putting together for our U.S.A. tour back in 2007 - I've just gone through all the hours of video footage, and it's going to be hilarious! Thanks to my adorable friend Lucy (who's only fault is her love of Oasis, and her insane cat), I had lunch with the drummer from Blur, Dave Rowntree at the famous Groucho Club in Soho. He is a vegetarian who drunk water while I had steak and gin, but he was a thoughtful, interesting and generous man, who dabbles in politics, computer programming and animation directing as well as being a drummer in one of the biggest bands of the last 20 years! Blur's new single "Fools Day" is available for free download via their website now.

Our UK tour is now under way after a brilliant first gig in Epsom, and here's what we're doing (click on this or any other photo for the full whack size) :

This coming week, we're playing up in Dundee, Aberdeen, Stirling and Newcastle. Really excited about being on the road again, and only slightly worried about Aberdeen because of what ALWAYS happens after a gig there. Good days. Here's a little after gig report from "Native Tongue" in Epsom:

We've finished sending demos to John Cornfield at Sawmills, and will be setting dates this coming week for recording our first full length album - hopefully in July. It's going to be a belter, the hardest part is deciding what songs we can't fit on it! I'm afraid "Trauma Town", "Lover, Killer" and "Bill Hicks" are all to be left off it.

I've answered 340 questions so far on http://www.formspring.me/nigeljthomas - do keep 'em coming, your questions have been very amusing lately! And remember, you can ask me anything.

Finally finished reading "Walden; or Life in the Woods" by Henry David Thoreau. A tough book. I don't agree with everything he says about how to live your life, and what you should do (while I agree with him that you should be able to enjoy your life whatever you do, and find joy in just sitting watching the sun rise for example, I don't think it's something that you should spend ALL your time doing, and lacks any ambition and drive to use your skills and to grow) - but this is still very relevant -

"...if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagine, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind him, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favour* in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the licence of a higher order of beings."

Having had a little time to myself, I've been writing (and recording) new songs almost non-stop, so do drop by my Facebook Music Page for a listen. I'm now giving away mp3's of my songs for free, so email me nigel@thefoxesband.com telling me which you'd like and I'll send them over when I've a free minute!

I'll leave you to check out the Spring shoot (click here) I did on a beautiful sunny day in Cambridge with the highly talented Heather. We had the best ice-cream in the world too.

Much love,

Nigel.

"Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you - all of the expectations, all of the beliefs - and becoming who you are."

P.S. I'm really looking forward to seeing the new Chris Morris film, "Four Lions."
P.P.S. George Washington was naughty.
P.P.P.S Links to Twitter and all The Foxes and my other pages in the convenient "links" box on the right hand side.

* I've upgraded the spelling to British English.

Somewhere in America...the U.S. Mini-Tour

2010-03-15T15:13:00.000Z

First off, have a look at the video above to "Get Me" which is the first track from our new EP, "Depression, Joy and a Moment of Fame." It was made entirely by piecing together clips taken on my N82 phone from the recording session, and I'll be making a full documentary type affair when I have a moment of time.

Incidentally, we're still looking for someone to make a video to the last track on the EP, "Country Low" - please get in touch if you can help, or if you know anyone who can (cartoon style or animated especially welcome!) nigel@thefoxesband.com

And so....to America.....(former British colonies, couldn't afford the tea, now prefer coffee so could have just left the tea anyway...)

THE FLIGHT THERE.

It ALWAYS rains on the day I leave for America, whether to New York, LA or in this case, Salt Lake City in Utah, via Detroit. We flew Delta, and thanks to my friend Amber, we had first class seats on plane. It was quite an incredible experience - as soon as you sit down in your giant chair, they offer you orange juice or chilled champagne, which you drink while looking through the well stocked toiletries bag they provide you, resting on your full size plump pillow. After take off, I mulled over my good fortune with another drink while casually nibbling some of the warm mixed
nuts while watching "Curb Your Enthusiasm" - really very funny.

Because I stole a menu, I can tell you that for my first course that evening, I had the Caprese Salad with mozzarella, tomato and basil (with a warm wheat roll of course) and for main, the roast chicken breast garnished with olives and tomatoes, accompanied by sweet couscous and sugar snap peas. For dessert, I merely went for a natural vanilla ice-cream sundae, with strawberry sauce and chopped nuts, garnished with a pirouline cookie.

Before this turns in to a food blog, I'll just tell you that I was GUTTED that they ran out of my first choice of pre-arrival light meal (the roast chicken breast sandwich) so I was forced to somehow shovel down a cold salad plate featuring smoked salmon slices, potato cucumber salad and tomato, accompanied by bread sticks and fresh fruit. How I managed, I'll never know as I lay back flat to sleep...

LANDED.

Amazed to see snow in Detroit, thought about cars, then flew off to Salt Lake where we were picked up by my lovely "American sister" Karen Ashman who took us to Karma Banks beautiful house and where I met up with some wonderful people I'd not seen in SO many years! Karma made me a sandwich with enough meat for a large family (it was delicious though) and we enjoyed the most amazing spread before playing some songs to a packed out room and having a great evening generally. We stayed at Zach's house (Amber's friend) and got to sleep at around 7am UK time.

Monday 1st March.

After Amber made us a form of "French Toast" with butter and maple syrup which was the nicest thing I've ever eaten, we headed out to look round the centre of Salt Lake round Temple Square - it was great to see how well everything was looked after, and it really is a pretty place. Everywhere you turn, you can see the most incredible mountain range in the distance. I STRONGLY recommend you try a "Jimmy John's" the next time you're in the States. Their bins, aka "trash cans" have an interesting suggestion too, as you can see from the photo....

The afternoon show was at a coffee shop called "NoBrow" - and we played "au natural" without a pa or amps, with glorious sunshine coming through the window (see photo above). I'm grateful that so many of my Utah friends came along to see us play, and I think they enjoyed it almost as much as we did.

That night, my friend Rob Turner who is a master of the local music scene (he also works for Disney films, and kindly took us to lunch on set) took us out and we had a rather jolly evening. I won't go into details, but the guy at the Carl's Junior with the gun DID like us apparently, and it was nice to meet some more people from Zach's apartment!

Tuesday 2nd March.

Today we experienced "Taco Soup" for the first time in our lives, courtesy of the Draschil family (it was delicious), whom we then performed for them in their living room. There were about a thousand children there, but it didn't feel like it as they were all so well behaved and danced around to our songs - it was a real pleasure to play for them. I also found a new friend in the form of "Grace" - who wouldn't let go of my hand! We played at Club Velour later that evening, and watched some other very talented people play too - it was still very hard to get used to how friendly every was to us...even strangers were chatting and buying the our CD's. It was a refreshing attitude. We had a delicious "In 'n' Out" burger on the way, back, and I drunk more Dr.Pepper than is really healthy for a human.

Wednesday 3rd March.

This was the day we went for a quick drive in the mountains and got a bit lost, going a mere 80 miles out of the way! It was very pretty though, so that made up for it, though we arrived rather late at the Ashman's for a lovely dinner (with tasty cool whip...like Angel Delight, but you have it with the main meal!). We almost didn't make the gig at The Vertical Diner after that, because Amber's car was so exhausted from its mountain drive, it gave up about a mile from the venue. Karen saved the day, and we made it to the gig just in time to leap on stage, and have a great evening.

Thursday 4th March....trying to get home.

This was the day we were meant to be going on Fox 13's "Good Morning Utah", but they pulled out at the last minute because of some big news story, and they couldn't fit us in! Very annoying, as I've been told Channel 2 also wanted to have us on that day. Next time!

After very many fond farewells, we flew out of Salt Lake and arrived in the afternoon in Atlanta JUST IN TIME to miss our flight home. Running across terminals with your bag and a guitar at high altitudes after days of being stuffed on American food is NOT RECOMMENDED. Fortunately, there was a flight back at 10.50pm that night which we waited for and, as good fortune wouldn't have it, was full so we couldn't get on. Our friend Richard Ryea who runs a label in Atlanta (and whom we stayed with when The Foxes toured the U.S. in 2007) came to our rescue, and kindly put us up that night. The next day we caught a flight to Minneapolis (therefore going AWAY from home) but from there finally managed to get flights back to London, dealing as best we could again with the limitations of first class seats.

Thank you to Amber, Karen, Zach, Rob and everyone who made our mini-tour so amazing. We'll be back soon! I'll be putting up the full photo collection soon, and a little video. I think everyone agreed that my American accent REALLY was making progress by the time I left. A few more days, and I think I'd have passed for a local....er...maybe....

I've written FAR too much, so will leave you here with a song from our fantastic gig at The Barfly on Saturday. Looking forward to the big tour!

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. Have a look at our latest photo shoot here.
P.P.S. Why not join my music page by clicking here?
P.P.P.S. Thank you for all your comments while I was away - I really enjoyed reading them, even if I couldn't reply!

"You're very annoying, stop taking photos" - What Jonno's expression said for most of the trip!

New EP, tour and American adventures!

2010-02-14T23:54:00.000Z

The picture of beauty above is the front cover to our new EP, "Depression, Joy and a Moment of Fame." It's an original piece of artwork by a very talented artist called Owain Thomas (no relation...that I'm aware of). Do check out the rest of his work. It's not finalised, but we're looking at a release date of around 12th April, with a big UK tour (and maybe Europe if we have time!) in April/May. The new tracks should be up soon too. Exciting times...I love touring, despite the long drives, sleeping in random places and the dodgy petrol station diet! Lots of gigs already booked across the country. Check out our gig listing on our Facebook or Myspace page.

Mastering, the final touch to the tracks, went very well with John Davis at Metropolis, and he dealt with our usual pestering to meet Damon Albarn, etc very well. Also need to thank John for having us at his birthday party, which is responsible for my very sore head this morning! Our producer John Cornfield also drove all the way up from Cornwall to be at the session to. What a guy! Here's a little video clip of the mastering - check out his three GIANT speakers (that John later climbed on...)

In other news, Jonno and I are heading off to Salt Lake City in Utah for a week to play some acoustic gigs, and hopefully do a few TV and radio spots. We've got one gig booked already at the Vertical Diner on 3rd March, and should have shows every night if all goes well, thanks to my good friend Rob Turner, a local music scene legend! We're also going to be flying first class, thanks to the lovely Amber who works for an airline and is getting us a rather amazing flight deal! Having never flown anything above cattle class, I'm going to be an excited little child on the flight - sorry Jonno, but I WILL be taking stupid photos and video, and making a fool of myself.

Speaking of the U.S. it's looking very likely that we'll be doing a week of shows in Los Angeles in June for various industry folk...but I guess we'll let the public in too! Anyway, more details to come. Mmm....In 'n' Out burgers.....

Big thanks to Laura at Exposure PR for giving us a host of clothes and shoes from Ben Sherman, Levi's, Original Penguin and Farrah. We've several photo shoots coming up, so look out for them then...and at gigs of course.

I'll leave you with this video clip in the van after John Davis birthday party, where the following can be ascertained:

1. Steve is the drummer.

2. It's dark at night.

3. Alex loves "penis."

I've probably left out loads of exciting things, but am too tired to think at the moment! Oh yes, we've just been confirmed for the main stage at a major UK festival. Can't tell you which one yet though.

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. Part two of the Yeti Tour video is now up - check it out now, if you please!
P.P.S. A new song on my Facebook page.
P.P.P.S. CHECK OUT MY BAKING SKILLS!!

P.P.P.P.S. You can ask me silly questions, safely veiled behind anonymity by clicking here. 221 questions answered to date!

"Happy Birthday to me!" - John Davis, yesterday.

"He didn't really say that, but it WAS his birthday yesterday" - Me, right now, to you.

Sawmills - Day Four & Five

2010-01-21T23:56:00.000Z

Day Four.

The final day has been perfection - we had a lot to do...overdubs on all the tracks, guitar parts, vocals, percussion, claps...."chuka chuka's" (you'll understand when you hear them!)...but we got it all done, and the tracks sound amazing. Really...we worked together in a way we never have before...John Cornfield was fantastic to work with (yes, I'm full of it tonight, but it's all true)...let me tell you about the tracks, in the order they'll appear on the EP:

1. Get Me. A track unlike any we've done before, and one I wrote quite recently...it starts with just guitar and drums, and is a short, tight, exciting track with a huge middle eight. I'm making a video to this track from footage from this week....lots of people seem to love the lyrics to this track too.

2. Something About You. We got this nailed in just a couple of takes because we were so full of excitement and energy! The big climax at the end of the solo is breathtaking! It's full of joy, which I can remember when writing it.

3. No Reply. I'm not sure what to say about this one. The first part of the track is just vocals and two guitars, and has a very melodic Sinatra feel to it (you'll probably disagree with that entirely....I just want to sing swing and jazz!). It was written a few years while ago about how someone I cared about drifted away from me.

4. Country Low. This song had the most tracks by far - 69 individual tracks at last count! My brother Ian came down to put piano at the end, and it has a huge crescendo to the end. Though we were uncertain whether to do this track or "Run" I'm VERY happy with the end result. I wrote this song in the garden as it started to rain at my parents house in Somerset.

We've got to be up early and leave by 11am at the latest, or the tide will be out and our boat will be stuck in the mud. The only low point of the day was when I smashed my head on an open cupboard door. The agonising pain was really quite diverting from the coffee I was trying to make.

We're having a bit of a party now, which started in the studio with a bit of tipsy playing and has moved into the main house where we've found a big megaphone and...well....that's enough for now!

Day Five.

We all managed to get up and load the boat before the tide went out! Here we are about to board ship with John outside the studio (click on any of the photos in this blog for the whacking great full size versions, or just leave them for nothing to happen).

The drive back took hours and hours and hours. We're all a little sad to leave our little forest studio home, but it's likely we'll be back for a much longer session in the summer. We're also all totally thrilled at how well the recordings have turned out...it'll take a good couple of weeks for John to complete the mixing and then the mastering by our main man, Mr John Davis, who did all the previous singles.

Anyway, here's a little snippet of video from the studio when Jonno was doing some guitar overdubs to "Get Me" - full documentary to come in a couple of weeks! I'll also be putting up video tasters of all the songs in forthcoming blogs.

Much love,

Nigel.

I'm going to be working on the second part of the 2008 tour video now, so it should be up this week...it's far naughtier. First part here, well worth watching!

P.S. I've had no phone signal (apart from the few moments I've had a walk in the woods) so that's the reason I've ignored any texts etc)
P.P.S. I've had hardly any time free (apart from the time I've spent doing these blogs) so that's why I've not replied to emails and Facebook messages.
P.P.P.S. There are no spelling mistakes in this blog Alexandra!

"Thumping great dynamic, I love it" - John Cornfield, yesterday.

"Goodbye" - John Cornfield, today.

"Goodbye John" - Us, today.

The Foxes Facebook.
My Facebook.
The Foxes Twitter.
Do ask me something interesting too by clicking here.

Loading the boat. It's amazing how much stuff you can fit in it:

Sawmills - Day Three

2010-01-19T23:46:00.000Z

Today was a long hard day - but incredibly worth it. I woke up late, which was fine as Jonno was busy early doing some guitar overdubs. After a stern dose of medically necessary and industrial strength coffee, we then spent around four hours working on "No Reply" It has several tricky time changes, and despite exhaustive attempts, we weren't happy with any of the takes. So we left it and started on "Something About You" which we perfected in just a couple of runs - it has a really great vibe to it, and sounds just how I'd envisaged the "band version" when I first wrote it. It really is special.

It was quite late by the time we'd finished the vocals, but we launched straight in to "No Reply" again and nailed it in the first take. As John said, "It sounds like you're enjoying yourselves now!"

It's been pouring with rain for most of the day. Whoever decided that having a roof on the studio was a good idea, I commend you. We would have been both soaked and electrocuted otherwise.

Tomorrow we're doing overdubs of certain backing vocals, guitar parts, hand claps and various other bizarre noises. My brother Ian is also bravely leaving his cat for the day to come and add some piano to the end of "Country Low" (there's a baby grand in the studio).

I know you'd kill me if I left you without a...erm...food update, so for lunch we had real Cornish pasties, and dinner was a sumptuous spicy Spanish pork casserole. Lemon cheesecake dessert was as doubly enjoyable as it was listening back to the four tracks in the control room. There MIGHT have been a little bit of childish dancing around at how good they sound! Not me though.

I'm sorry there's not more to report tonight - it has just been a very long day of solid studio work, without time to explore the forest or drown one of the guys in the river for a joke.

We're relaxing and watching "Carlito's Way" now. Oh, Alex has just passed me a cinnamon biscuit. What a nice guy.

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. I do love reading your blog comments (it'll be quite embarrasing if there are none to this one now...)
P.P.S. I've tried to decide which track sounds best, but I can't! They're even better than I thought they'd be.
P.P.P.S. The same links as yesterday: The Foxes Facebook. My Music Facebook. The Foxes Twitter. Do ask me something interesting too!
P.P.P.P.S. We're all exhausted, but happy.
P.P.P.P.P.S. That's enough!
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Is it?
P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Yes.

"There's no law against cheescake in the control room" - John Cornfield, today.

"Can I have Nigel on his own? Twice? " - Alex Douglas, today.

Sawmills - Day Two

2010-01-18T23:55:00.000Z

We've just finished fourteen hours solid work, and despite my having only managed to get to sleep at 6am, it's gone extraordinarily well!

So far, we've pretty much completed the basic tracking for "Get Me" and "Country Low" and I don't mean to hyperbolize, but they really are truly sounding quite fantastic. Spending the first evening getting the right mics in place (two for each guitar amp, and about a thousand for the drums) and checking the levels really paid off. The sound is actually quite different from our previous singles - still the same energy and excitement, but far more rounded and full. As you can see from the quote at the bottom of this blog, John seemed fairly impressed!

So far the trickiest part has been getting the tempo right as we're not playing to a click track, as this is far better for getting something with a bit of feeling and soul, not some regimented piece of manufactured pop.

The studio is incredibly secluded, and there's ZERO phone signal, so there are few distractions from making the best music we've ever done (in the studio at least...there's such distractions as a pool table, internet, digital satellite TV, loads of DVD's, computer consoles and beer up in the main house...) Dinner tonight was steak and stilton pie, with potatoes, salad, vegetables and hot buttered rolls courtesy of the lovely Ruth!

I've been doing plenty of filming, so will be putting together a recording documentary at some point. You would have seen some footage tonight, but Geve's computer is just not playing ball. It's not even changed for the game.

I genuinely can't wait to start again tomorrow!

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. I've just heard on QI that people who sleep just 4 to 7 hours a night live LONGER than those who sleep 8 or more. RESULT! ;-)
P.P.S. Did I mention how fantastic the tracks are sounding?!
P.P.P.S. Some links: The Foxes Facebook. My Music Facebook. The Foxes Twitter. Do ask me something interesting too!

"To be honest, I'm fucking amazed" - John Cornfield, today.

Sawmills - Day One (arrival)

2010-01-17T22:51:00.000Z

I write to you from a former 17th Century water mill in deepst darkest Cornwall and will be doing daily recording blogs. But before I say anything else, I hope you've all seen the first part of the mini documentary video I made recently from our 2008 UK tour with Yeti?

Part two will be up soon, and will have to have an adult viewing rating. Be excited!

Speaking of which...

....the drive took about four and a half hours. Alex drove, Jonno was dying of a cold in the back, and Geve kept him company....they had a little nap, bless them! This was the only photo where they weren't cuddling.

The only way to reach the studio is by boat, and we really didn't think we'd fit all our equipment on, but did it in one trip. It really is beautiful down here - there's a vibe and atmosphere in the studio too which we've not felt before, and I truly feel these recordings are going to be something special.

So, what are we doing here?!

We're recording an EP called "Depression, Joy and a Moment of Fame" and it will be a four track taster of the full length album we're planning on releasing later this year. The track listing is:

1. Get Me.
2. Something About You.
3. No Reply.
4. Country Low.

(You can hear the acoustic demos and read the lyrics to all these songs on my Facebook page by clicking here, except "No Reply" which you can hear here).

We debated for WEEKS on whether to record "Country Low" or "Run" - but decided that while Run is a great song, we wanted something a bit different for this EP than the bluesy rock feel of "Run" and something to showcase the vocal harmonies etc. Don't worry though..."Run" will feature on the album, and I think you're going to love what we're going to do with "Country Low!"

So far tonight, we've just set everything up and had a quick run through "Get Me" to make sure we have the right sounds and levels...tomorrow we start recording first thing...well, 10.30am. For musicians, that's the middle of the night.

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. Ask me anything by clicking here.
P.P.S. We've all brought "lucky charms" - care to guess what they all are?!
P.P.P.S Click on any of the photos above for the full size images.

"Ok guys, time to make history" - John Cornfield, today.

It's a new dawn, it's a new day...

2010-01-01T20:46:00.000Z

I've been way too busy to post anything since October...so what's been going on?!

Well, you won't be surprised to hear a lot of gigging has happened and we played with The Buzzcocks on the Isle of Wight a few weeks ago, from which the live video above to "Get Me" is taken. There's loads more live videos on our Youtube page, and photos from the gig are here. It really was a brilliant night, and thanks to Doug Alldred and Airon Baker from Blunt Promotions for putting on the show. Special thanks to Doug for the quite incredible aftershow party, of which we're not going to say too much (stronger Honey next time Doug?!) apart from it went on past 7am and Doug makes the BEST cocktails...oh, and his Guinness "surge" device is amazing, as is his vinyl collection.

The Buzzcocks were really nice chaps, and we had quite a time with them after the show. Must remember to include four bottles of Champagne on my next rider too....

Well, the big news is that from 17th to 21st January, we'll be recording a brand new 4 track EP at Sawmills Studios with producer John Cornfield. John produced and mixed several of my favourite albums, including "Origin of Symmetry" by Muse, and "In it for the Money" by Supergrass, though he's also worked with Razorlight, Oasis, Robert Plans, The Verve, The Stone Roses etc. The studio is in the most beautiful areas of Cornwall, and can only be accessed by boat...yes, we'll be transporting all the equipment from our van to the studio by the river, as you can see from this photo:

We've firmly decided on three of the four tracks we'll be recording...which are:

1. Get Me.
2. Something About You.
3. No Reply.

We're still pondering as to the fourth track....which will either be "Country Low" (which you can hear on my Facebook page here) or a new version of an old song "Run" (which you can hear here).

We also need to decide upon a NAME for the EP...which might be based on some of my lyrics - suggestions welcome on all counts, though don't feel bad if they're ignored...it just means they're rubbish.

Oh, and "Lover, Killer" has been used by a New Zealand company in a Skiing video which you can see here. It's also now up on Air New Zealand, if you happen to fly with them....

ANYWAY, all of this is all piffle, compared to the GIGANTIC NEWS that the FANS IN OUR VAN HAVE NOW BEEN FIXED. No, we don't carry repaired girls around in it, I mean the HEATING is fixed. What better time to have done that too, than after months of FREEZING COLD?! Honestly, this will improve my life immensely, and I might finally start to feel better. We'll be announcing a big UK tour shortly, and I think we all would have frozen to death without this. The wheel that nearly came off the van when we were driving (which would have killed us), has also been fixed. So that's good.

Those of you who have had the time and strength of mind to have read my previous blog entries will know that I had....er...ALL my stuff stolen on my wild European Road Trip with Jonno in September. Luckily I was insured, and you'll all be as delighted as I was to hear that out of about £2,000 worth of stuff stolen, I've received the princely sum of £164.74. Isn't life so very fair?!

However, on the bright side, I DID manage to get another Mickey Mouse top after months of searching Ebay.

The photo above and right is HMS Warrior in Portsmouth Harbour, which I took just before getting the ferry to the Isle of Wight. Pretty pretty!

IN THE NEXT BLOG: There'll be news (and maybe even a snippet) of the World Cup song I've been asked to write, as well as video compilation I'm putting together from the filming I did on the YETI tour way back in 2008....PLUS more random photos and weird videos.

I'll leave you with photos from our Death Disco Christmas Party, and just for a laugh, a video (which someone uploaded just six months ago and I found by chance) of our playing a song we never play anymore nearly two years ago.....ah, the memories!

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. I ramble on Twitter sometimes.
P.P.S. I've got a new girlfriend.

"Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape." William S. Burroughs.

Good and Bad

2009-10-12T20:28:00.001+01:00

Here's a tired and annoyed Nigel playing "Headlock" in Oslo, after a heroic battle with it's one way traffic system and nightmare parking. N.B. I wish you could have seen the strange collection of faces staring at me from behind where Jonno was filming. The Doors were right...people ARE strange when you're a stranger (you can see all the music videos I've uploaded so far here: http://www.youtube.com/user/thefoxes)

Since getting back from my epic travels with Jonno, good things and bad things have happened.

Bad Things.
1. I've still not been able to get a replacement for my much loved Mickey Mouse t-shirt. As you can see, it appears to be sold out. I'm going to write a real, physical letter. Honestly. If you can help me find a replacement (size small) you will be richly rewarded.
2. We lost in the football against Ukraine. It's ok though, we still qualify.
3. I am out of coco-pops.
4. I have spent WAY too much money. Care to have a guess on how much the trip cost Jonno and I....NOT including replacing all my stolen stuff?! Go on....
5. My smashed phone is beyond repair according to Professor Technician Brother with a Beard.

Good things.
1. I've finally organised and put up the full set of photos from the European road trip. Click here to see them! There are some really great photos here! I wish I still had the night ones from Paris. Ho hum.
2. I had a fantastic time playing at "The Haymakers Sunday Joint" for Doug on the Isle of Wight. Met some lovely people, and watched some great music.
3. I've finally managed to put "Get Me" up on my Facebook page, and a new version of "5476 Miles" both on there and my Myspace. Feedback welcome, as long as it's good.
4. Speaking of which, I will be travelling 5476 miles next month. I will need to buy a new suitcase for this (see blog on "Disaster" for more details). The duck will NOT be coming with me, he's hibernating like...er... magic ducks do.
5. There are a LOT of exciting things happening with my music and the band. I can't really talk about any of it yet for various reasons, especially because of how dreadful it'll be if it then doesn't happen! (which is possible...this is the music business, most people are [insert suitably dreadful word here] Read "Kill Your Friends" by John Niven or "Powder" by Kevin Sampson for more details.

Oh, I've still not decided on a new name for this blog. Might just leave it as it is to confuse the stupid.

I'll leave you with a short video of Jonno and I talking about how expensive it is in Copenhagen, and the billions of bikes in the city. My stuff was probably being stolen just as this video was taken. Ha!

Much love,

Nigel. X

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create."

Albert Einstein.

Amsterdam and Brugge

2009-10-03T12:08:00.000+01:00

Firstly, if you want to drive in to Amsterdam - don't! The streets are flooded with bicycles, and it doesn't welcome cars. Due to being hungover from our Hamburg gig, photo above, we left Germany late after a very nice lunch with Christina (I hope your door is ok!) and it was already dark by the time we entered Amsterdam. We must have spent around two hours hunting for a space, ALL of which you have to pay for, even in the suburbs. Not only that, but the road signs are either non-existant or tiny tiny tiny...by the time we found our space (it cost 45 Euro to park there for the day) it was about 10pm, and a long walk to the station to meet my old school mate Rich, who owns a lovely flat in the heart of Amsterdam, and the red light district.

Rich's flat, which he's renovating, is awesome and has lovely original wooden beams (see, I pay attention!) and a more awesome view of "The Sex Palace" across the street (as you can see from the photo). I'd never been to Amsterdam before, but of course had heard about the women in the windows...it was still a bit of a shock to see it in reality though. The thought of paying for sex (other than emotionally) has never entered my head, and this only flickered for the briefest of moments when looking at some truly beautiful girls trying to get our attention from their windows. It seems like ALL tastes are catered for however, and some of the ladies on other streets had...um...a bit more to love, and on one street, more penises. It's a good place to people watch, especially seeing the sheepish look on guys faces as they leave the brothels, and sneaky, slightly shadly look of those selecting their lady pick 'n' mix...

You really don't need to smoke in Amsterdam to get high, as a huge number of streets have "coffee shops" with chilled, happy people in, and the sweet smell is unavoidable when you're outside. Thought of Bill Hicks, and how he wanted to make pot not only legal, but mandatory ("Shut up and smoke this.." "Woah, cheers dude. For a moment there I was taking life seriously!")

There is another side to Amsterdam however, which is one of incredibly beautiful and well preserved old buidings, quiant little art shops, elegant boats on the canal and a generally friendly, welcoming atmosphere. By total chance, we parked our car on Prinsengracht street, which, at number 267, also happens to be the street where Anne Frank went in to hiding in 1942. I'd only read her diary for the first time last year, and it had a big effect on me - so Jonno and I went to her house, and it was an incredibly moving experience. On one hand, it made me thoughtful and sad about how many millions of innocent people suffered and died during the war, but also filled me with a kind of happiness in seeing so many people queuing to visit her hiding place, and the thought that her greatest wish was to become a famous writer and how happy and amazed she'd be at how big an impact her diaries have had, and how positive their influence has been. If you've never read her diary, I'd really strongly recommend it. There are few other books of any kind which will make you want to sieze the day and follow your dreams, in a way Anne sadly was never able to.

Long ago, my Dad wrote a song called "Call Girl" which I always knew I'd have to play in Amsterdam, the video for which is below. I don't get stage fright, but it was a little unnerving playing this song in the heart of the red light district not only because of the lyrics, but because I'd no idea if an attack from a brothel house bouncer was on the way...I guess the girls aren't really used to being entertained themselves....

The drive out of Amserdam and along to Brugge in Belgium was the worst we'd encountered on the trip - lots of traffic and big delays. It was worth it though for Brugge, perhaps the most beautiful city we'd visited on the trip and on par with Stockholm in that if I had someone special, I'd want to take them there! It's a town entirely surrounded by a moat, and you have to go through a castle gate to enter it, a theme which continues throughout as it's like a medieval town, with virtually no modern buildings, and the most wonderful cobbled squares where you can relax by the fountains and watch horse drawn carriages clip clop by.

We only had a few hours there sadly, but I'm definitely going back one day. The little photo I've uploaded on the right really doesn't do it justice - I'm going to upload a whole feast of photos from the trip over the next few days, but for now I suggest you google Brugge, and you'll see exactly what I mean. Disney can only dream of making somewhere this fairytale, special and real.

Due to picking the wrong lane in Calais at customs we missed our ferry by 3 minutes, and had to wait an hour for the 11.15pm one. Jonno's war cry of "I HATE YOU....YOU C**T" a few seconds after a polite "thank you" to the ticket man will remain in my memory for a long time.

We're back in England now, and I'm having to slowly buy all the things which were stolen when our car was broken in to. I used to live out of a suitcase, now I'm just living out of a plastic bag - pretty cool, eh?! We really did have quite an adventure, and I'm sure I've missed loads out in these little blogs, but you get a general idea, and will have more when I upload the pictures and videos.

Total distance driven over the last ten days: 4,040 miles (to put that in perspective, if there was a bridge across the atlantic, we could have easily reached Austin in America).

Countries visited: England, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands.

I'm thinking of keeping this blog going to talk about all the things going on with The Foxes, our new manager, recording the debut album, touring etc....what do you think? Oh, and I think it'll need a new name too - can you suggest one? (be nice now...)

Thank you for reading, and for all your kind messages, either here or on Facebook, which really meant a lot when we were on the road. Thanks to Jonno too, for being a great travel companion.

They say travel changes you, and I think this is true. I feel good....better. In the words of Anne Frank, "I know what I want, I have a goal. I have opinons, religion and love."

I'll leave you with video of "Get Me" recorded next to a huge and beautiful lake in Sweden. The acoustic recording is here on my myspace.

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. If you're close to the Isle of Wight, I'm playing a solo acoustic gig there on Sunday - details here. Blog will follow...

Hamburg

2009-10-01T11:07:00.000+01:00

Sadly, we could only stay a few hours in Stockholm due to the need to drive an epic distance to Hamburg, so we left the same night and drove for a few hours before stopping off. Cleverly saving money, we decided to sleep in the car that night. When I woke up at 4am, the temperature had fallen to 1 degree above freezing...the inside of our car was literally colder than a fridge!

Hitting the road early it didn´t take us too long to defrost, and we were in the car for a mere nine and a half hours to reach Hamburg. There was only a brief period of road madness, with us both screaming, but a quick stop off for ice-cream restored sanity. By the way, the bridge to cross over from Sweden to Denmark, and and another in Denmark (there's no other option!) are REALLY expensive...around thirty of your earth pounds....each. We've now driven over three thousand four hundred miles since last Monday.

Anyway, the last time we were in Hamburg was last year when The Foxes played at the Indra Club, so it felt surprisingly familiar. Once again, we stayed with our friend Christina who also suggested a venue we could play at called "Freundlich & Kompetent" (Friendly and Competent), which is run by students, and is really quite a funky and relaxed place. It's about time we had a bit of luck, and we walked in JUST as another band from the U.S. who were due to play there pulled out. So we did a quick soundcheck and after that were asked to headline! Not bad for a totally random gig quest. It went really well, and after a couple of encores (the German audience were lovely) it was time to sample some items from the bar. Thanks to the staff there for taking a chance on us and letting us play, to "Autumn Fall" and especially Christina who suggested we ask there and let us stay in her new flat.

We're just off to have some lunch before heading off to Amsterdam, we'll be staying with my old school friend Rich who lives in the centre of "the red light district", whatever that is :-) Expect an interesting blog tomorrow....

Oslo and Stockholm

2009-09-29T20:28:00.000+01:00

Last night in Oslo was great. We managed to get a random gig at an Irish bar called The Dubliner, and were glad to be in from the cold as it was FREEZING last night...memories of the sunny German countryside seemed incredibly distant! We spoke to Gemma at the bar (who was from Birmingham!) and she kindly agreed to let us play. There was a stage, but no microphones, so we just got up and played - it went very well and we had quite a laugh, me especially as Jonno wasn't drinking, so I had his share of the free drinks. As always, we mixed covers with The Foxes songs, and "Something About You" and "Trauma Town" went down especially well. Of the covers, we're enjoying doing "One After 909" - will do a video of that one day.

Huge thanks to Gemma for letting us crash at hers after the gig, and for all the wine! I've been quite delicate all day!

A big hello (are there really different sizes?!) to the guys we talked to from Leeds and Scotland who stayed for the whole set, and to Olga from Germany who came to see us play (I'll email you!).

The last thing I'll say about Oslo is that it's INCREDIBLY expensive...and that's from someone who spends much of his time in London. To put it in a global perspective, a Big Mac meal cost somewhere in the region of eight pounds.

Some of the lakes and forests we drove past were fairytale pretty, and though it was cold, the sun has been shining down upon us all day.

The drive to Stockholm took about seven and a half hours, but was worth it - this city is beautiful. You can really tell it wasn't ever bombed...there are some beautiful buildings, and the most amazing cobbled streets. Everyone seems happy here too, and there's a very pleasant and relaxed atmosphere in the tidy little streets...it's the kind of place I'll take someone special one day.

Tomorrow, we've decided to go to Hamburg and so far we've driven over 2,500 miles...and walked something that feels like that far.

Well, we're off to play in those cobbled streets, and do a video of "Sweet Little Wonder" for obvious reasons.....

Sweden to Oslo

2009-09-28T16:52:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the lack of blog yesterday, due to a lack of both laptop and internet. I've seen something of the awful flooding in the Phillipines which really puts what I've lost in perspective. Thank you to everyone who left a comment or sent me an email, message or text (I can't reply to texts due to smashed screen)about having all my stuff stolen - it's nice to know you care!

Yesterday was a long driving day, and we explored the most incredible countryside in Sweden, with lakes bigger than Wales, and VERY windy islands which we reached by boat (the west coast of Sweden) which had huge rocky outcrops and breathaking views (literally...it was very windy). Most places were closed as it's out of season here, but it was a nice change to be out of any urban area and really explore 'local' areas. There are some lovely photos and videos on the way when we get back to England.

Speaking of videos, we stayed in a little hotel in Sweden last night - watched Hitch and Walk Hard (the first was actually pretty good, and the second VERY funny) on the TV...but were then pretty surprised to find that two of our normal, Swedish terrestial tv channels (out of about 8) then without warning started showing hardcore pornography...I mean, proper hardcore. The next day on the same channels, there were childrens programmes. How bizzare is that?! I know what you're all thinking, and no, Jonno and I didn't sit there watching it together. For long.

Oh, I've just remembered I uploaded another song from the German countryside in the happy happy days when I had clothes....(my Mickey Mouse t-shirt will be sorely missed)

Today we've been exploring Oslo...well, much of the day we were exploring the incredibly frustrating road system in the city, with one way roads, hardly and road markings and impatient drivers, as well as pedestrians who just walk randomly in to the road (which reminds me of Exeter...) We were also stopped and questioned at the border, but managed to avoid the full body search.

We did a song in front of the Royal Palace, and were approched by a friendly local who asked us if we knew any gospel songs....anyway, we've got a couple of gigs in the town tonight, so hope to earn some dinner and petrol money, so we'll see how it goes!

DISASTER

2009-09-26T17:17:00.000+01:00

We had a lovely day exploring Copehagen, spoiled only to return to the car at 4pm to discover a window had been smashed, in broad daylight just outside the hostel, and my suitcase with all my clothes had been stolen, along with my rucksack and laptop. So I've lost all my photos and video of the trip, all the Foxes photos, music, personal photos - everything. This on top of waking up this morning to find that someone had accidentally smashed the screen of my phone. Copenhagen has not been good to me. For some reason, they didn't take Jonno's suitcase, so I guess that makes me more fashionable in the eyes of the thief, which is some consolation.

Initally annoyed, and a touch upset by these events, it could have all been far worse - people get killed every day by accident or design, and I have my health and a head full of memories of the trip, and it's just....STUFF, isn't it?! I refuse to let this ruin the trip, and we're going to carry on and head off to Oslo. Not sure what I'm going to wear, but....

Sadly this means there'll be no more photos and no more video until I get back, but we'll still be taking pictures with Jonno's phone and my broken phone, so there'll be plenty on the way. The car might be a little chilly with the broken window but it's only small, and we'll get it repaired somewhere on Monday.

You'll be glad to hear that both my pillow and William the Duck were not taken, and are safe.

From Berlin to Copenhagen

2009-09-26T00:42:00.000+01:00

It's been a LONG day. Waking up this morning was not a pleasant experience, and we left Berlin a mere four hours later than planned...but hey, we made the plans so we can change them. Just before we left, Marie (pictured right) took us round a Turkish market close to where we were staying, one of the highlights of which was a woman serving freshly squeezed orange juice inside a big plastic orange. Thank you for being such a good host Marie - see you in London in a couple of weeks with Tina.

The drive to Copenhagen took about 8 hours, but was through some beautiful countryside, and we crossed one of the longest suspension bridges in the world to get from one island to the other in Denmark (which cost the equivalent of £30!)

The Danish language seems impossibly difficult to pronounce or understand - here is a photo of the kind of thing we're dealing with (yes, whatever this says, apparently I needed to know at a urinal!)

We've just spent the last three hours walking round Copenhagen. There are bicycles EVERYWHERE. I've never seen so many, even in Cambridge. There are cycle lanes on every single street, and hardly anyone wears a helmet. It's also an exceptionally expensive city - I never thought I'd think London prices such a bargain. Two bottles of water? Five pounds please. It's like one big festival! They use Krone here, and there are about 8 to a pound. The high prices might explain why almost everyone was drinking cans of Carlsberg in the streets! More exploring tomorrow, as we arrived at 10pm, which didn't leave us much time and we're both pretty exhausted.

I'm going to leave you with a video of Jonno and I attempting "Something About You" at around 3am last night in Berlin - big thank you to my German friend Katja for coming to watch us play for so long and for filming! It was a random choice of song, so apologies for repeating it so soon after Paris :-)

I haven't actually watched it back, so I hope it's vaguely watchable!

You can hear the original acoustic version on my myspace: http://www.myspace.com/iamnigel

Berlin....

2009-09-25T03:43:00.000+01:00

Ok, this will have to be a very short post tonight, as Jonno has passed out, and I am absolutely off my face on weiss bier...drrrrrunk......

....well, the reason is, Maria showed us round Berlin today and showed us some amazing sights. We saw the Berlin Wall (a piece of which you can see on the right), the Reichstag, and across the river.

Berlin is very different from the other German cities we've been to...you can really see where the new buildings have been built (and they're huge, slick and pretty impressive new buildings too) but it seems to lack the charm and substance of Dresden, or somewhere like Graz (a place in Austria I love)...

Anyway, we played for over four hours tonight in the Tacheles in the heart of Berlin, and met some wonderful people...my fingers are bleeding from playing, but it was worth it tonight because of the people we played for...

More videos up soon...we met some really nice Canadians, Americans and Germans tonight...here's a video of "Let it Go" in front of Reichstag, which was built before the first World War, and you could see the bullet holes from WWII from the other side of it...

Tomorrow is Copenhagen...it's Jonno's turn to drive, hence I'm ok having had my head smashed through with a slice of lemon..wrapped round a large gold brick (if you know what I'm talking about, I probably love you with one exception...if not, bad luck....)

Anyway, here's a song I did in front of the German parliament...a stupidly long drive ahead of us tomorrow...good night....

Dresden, beautuful countryside and Berlin.

2009-09-23T21:19:00.000+01:00

Today has been...brilliant.

First of all, here's the video from last night which was filmed deep inside Nuremberg castle:

We woke up to glorious sunshine in Nuremberg which followed us for the rest of the day, and headed out for a daytime explore of the city. There was a busy market, and lost of bustle, every kind of food you could imagine...but mainly sausage. We breakfasted on a rather tasty Nurnberger Rostbratwurst mit Sauerkraut, and headed out towards Dresden via a few forests....

I can honestly say, the German countryside we saw today was breathtaking...we diverted off the autobahn and drove through a couple of tiny villages which seemed to have not changed in the last hundred years! Stopped off by a rocky out croft and randomly found a load of caves to explore - bonus. Speeding off to Dresden, I realised that I'm still not used to the fact that you can cruise along the autobahn at 85mph, and EVERYONE except trucks will overtake you. We actually saw a pretty massive crash - but considering everyone is driving about 130 mph, I was surprised we didn't see more.

We were keen to visit Dresden, not least because despite it's fame in having been so heavily damaged during World War Two, we'd heard it was very pretty and the reconstructed buildings were worth seeing...and it really is. You can see big gaps in the town where clearly buildings would have been, and there were still sections where the destroyed buildings had not been replaced - but the rebuilt buildings were well made and beautiful, as were the undamaged sections like the Fürstenzug, though my favourite building of all was The Dresden Frauenkirch, which was almost totally destroyed during the war, and was been completely reconstructed in 2005...here it is:

The car's doing well! It's an Astra, and we've not named it yet...any suggestions? A girls name please. I've also brought a mascot, William the Duck...I know.... :-)

It only took a few hours to get to Berlin from Dresden, and we're staying with the mother of Tina, from Magic Photography, who has photographed us live more times than I can remember! Tomorrow, we'll be exploring Berlin and trying to find a gig to play....failing that we're just going to play on the streets and see what happens.

I'll leave you with the video of one of my Dad's songs, "One of these Days" which we filmed at the rocky outcrop in the countryside...it's actually gained a lot of special meaning for me over the last few months - enjoy!

Nigel. X

P.S. thanks to everyone who's got in touch from the mail out we sent before we left - you're all lovely.

Belguim, Luxembourg,Nuremberg

2009-09-23T00:14:00.000+01:00

Hello!

Since leaving England yesterday, we've driven over 840 miles and have just got in after a night out in Nuremberg. Exhausted, but we've been having a wonderful time. Just a quick update...

Paris was amazing...far better than I'd imagined and full of beautiful people. Despite Jonno being there, it really seemed like a romantic place...something happened to me on the metro which really showed me that side of it! The Eiffel Tower really was impressive - I'm sorry there are no photos today (UPDATE - fixed!), but the wi-fi isn't working here, so I'm just on the hotel computer. I've also seen the video from yesterday isn't working - thanks YouTube, I'll see if I can fix it soon (UPDATE - fixed, see below) I did a song in Nuremberg Castle tonight (amazing acoustics), so will stick that up as soon as I can too.

We drove through Belgium, and had lunch in Luxembourg and on to Nuremberg tonight. Inside the city centre is a huge castle, and there are some beautiful buildings inside the city walls. Parked next to the Cathedral, was a red Routemaster London bus...a number 12 to Notting Hill Gate, where we DJ at Death Disco. A bit odd to see it there! The German food and beer are great, as are the costumed serving wenches.

Tomorrow, we head to Berlin...keep an eye on my text updates on http://www.twitter.com/thefoxes

I apologise for the fact that this is such a dreadfully messy and haphazard blog entry...I've hardly slept and have just walked across the city! :-) Bed time...

Much love,

Nigel.

P.S. driving on the German autobahns is a LOT of fun.

Paris!

2009-09-21T19:10:00.000+01:00

After getting a good 3 hours sleep (due to watching a fantastic film with called "Zombie Strippers") and driving over 300 miles, we've arrived in Paris which is, according to Alan Partridge is "a city of French people..." and he's right but they're all rather good looking and surprisingly friendly!

The photos here are of the white cliffs of Dover (obviously) and the Eiffel Tower which we're just about to go up. Apparently, it was only meant to be temporary, and many Parisians thought it was an eyesore when it was first built. At the moment, Jonno and I are sitting drinking £7 beers in a French wine bar on Rue De Grenelle....tried speaking French, but was spoken back to in English - didn't complain.

The drive here was not bad at all - I'm very impressed with how the French don't sit in the middle lane of the motorway, and how speed limits here are basically 80mph. Just trying not to think of the fact that the toll road cost £20 to get to Paris from Calais....

Well, we're off to go up a big climbing frame, and enjoy some of the Parisian night life. Tomorrow: Nuremberg, Germany.

I'll leave you with a video Jonno filmed of my doing the most romantic song I've ever written, in the most romantic city in the world.....

In the beginning....

2009-09-11T14:09:00.000+01:00

...there was the word. Several in fact, and they make up the start of this blog.

My main reason for doing this is because Jonno and I are hiring a car and will be driving across Europe for two weeks this month. It's so rare that we have any time off that we decided to do something interesting, and as all other plans have fallen by the wayside recently, and as Alex and Geve are off doing their thing, taking our guitars and going places we've never been and meeting strange new people seems like the thing to do!

We'll be driving through France, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway...if you live in one of those countries and can put us up or show us round, email me - nigel@thefoxesband.com :-)

Leaving England date: 20th September. Returning 2nd October unless we get arrested earlier.

I'll be blogging whenever I can - no promises of what really happened or the full story, but there'll be photos and I'll be putting together a video at the very, bitter end.

I'll leave you with Winston.

"This is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Nigel.