Website & Ticket Links here

MAY 2008: EAMON HAMILTON SHOW

16: The Great Escape, Brighton (Duke Of Yorks)

THOMAS WHITE ON TOUR

Most dates are with Chris T-T and they are still on the lookout for floors on which to crash. So far, they are sorted for Glasgow, Hull, York and a couple of others. Anyone providing a floor/bed will get as many guestlist places as they need at whichever shows they wish. Get in touch at the Thomas White or ESP Myspace

MAY 2008: THOMAS WHITE SHOWS

16: The Great Escape, Brighton (Komedia Studio Bar & Po No Na)
19: The Amersham Arms, London (New Cross)
20: Joogleberry Playhouse, Brighton
21: Fibbers, York
23: Brel, Ashton Lane, Glasgow
24: Festival Without Fields, Hull
25: Barfly, Cambridge
27: The Enterprise, London (Chalk Farm)
28: Jericho Tavern, Oxford
29: Bodega, Nottingham

JUNE 2008: THOMAS WHITE SHOWS

1: The Boiler Room, Guildford
2: The Louisiana, Bristol
3: Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
4: The Glee Club (Studio) Birmingham
5: Little Civic, Wolverhampton
6: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
8: The Musician, Leicester
10: The Cellars, Portsmouth

BRAKES SHOW

6 July: Doctor Loft 05:00, Castello d’Empuries - Empuriabrava (Girona) Spain

MORE EAMON HAMILTON SHOWS

11 July: 2000 Trees Festival, Cheltenham
3 Aug: Kendal Calling, Kendal

Thomas White News

Visit his Myspace for a homemade video for The Runaround, taken from his upcoming I Dream Of Black LP. You can also play new song Devil In A Trojan Horse, live on Marc Riley’s Brain Surgery back in April: Thomas White Myspace

His first solo outing, I Dream Of Black, is a home crafted dream-scape of whirring synths, psych-guitar, and the instantly recognisable vocal. With the self-imposed remit of “making a cohesive record without going anywhere near a studio”, he set himself up with a Tascam 4-Track tape recorder and began brainstorming. Inspiration is derived from a myriad of different sources including The Dandy Warhols, RTX, Broadcast, Money Mark, Clearlake and The Wicker Man. Amid ambient electro-acoustica and playful surf ‘wig-outs’, the single The Runaround sees Thomas “channeling Courtney Taylor-Taylor circa 1998″, while the albums’ “only love song” Starry Nite 2 conjures up The Beach Boys at their beatific best. Starry Nite 3 splices Robert Wyatt’s early seventies recordings with the dusty beats of Money Mark, and closer Wartime Love/Solar Collapse imagines the sound of a solar implosion as heard from earth.

More Brakes Festival appearances to be announced shortly…

Marc & I have been going through a bunch of home demos on my mac book thing, and picked out quite a few to continue working on. I’m going to polish them up, then all of us are going to get together sometime in May/June to record them as a band. First of all, though, I’m going to visit some select cities and try these new songs out live, to see how they go down. I’ll have Little Lost David (Myspace) as support, which I am very pleased about, he sounds like he’ll be massive.

This one-man-and-a-guitar touring thing is pretty lonely though, and I usually end up saying ‘I’m never touring without Tom, Marc and Alex again.’ But I have to try out these songs, so please come along and make me feel like it’s worthwhile. There will be more Brakes tunes up at Myspace soon, I promise.

Good Times, Eamon

May Tour Dates - Ticket info here

2: Glee Club, Birmingham
4: The Roadhouse, Manchester
5: Brel Bar, Glasgow
6: Cool As Folk at The Fox & Duck, Sheffield
7: Power’s Acoustic, Kilburn

Venue Websites & Tickets on the Gigs page

Myspaces: Brakes - Electric Soft Parade - Thomas White

MAY 2008: EAMON HAMILTON SHOWS

2: Glee Club, Birmingham
4: The Roadhouse, Manchester
5: Brel Bar, Glasgow
6: Cool As Folk at The Fox & Duck, Sheffield
7: Power’s Acoustic, Kilburn
16: The Great Escape, Brighton (Duke Of Yorks)

MAY 2008: THOMAS WHITE SHOWS

16: The Great Escape, Brighton (Komedia Studio Bar & Po Na Na)
19: The Amersham Arms, London (New Cross)
20: Joogleberry Playhouse, Brighton
21: Fibbers, York
23: Brel, Ashton Lane, Glasgow
24: Festival Without Fields, Hull
25: Barfly, Cambridge
27: The Enterprise, London (Chalk Farm)
28: Jericho Tavern, Oxford
29: Bodega, Nottingham

JUNE 2008: THOMAS WHITE SHOWS

1: The Boiler Room, Guildford
2: The Louisiana, Bristol
3: Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
4: The Glee Club (Studio) Birmingham
5: Little Civic, Wolverhampton
6: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
8: The Musician, Leicester
10: The Cellars, Portsmouth

MORE EAMON HAMILTON SHOWS

11 July: 2000 Trees Festival, Cheltenham
3 Aug: Kendal Calling, Kendal

THOMAS WHITE NEWS

He played a recent session on 6 Music including new song As Yet Untitled and a cover - End Of The Show (on the piano) from the album Pacific Ocean Blue by Dennis Wilson (Beach Boys drummer) After playing The Runaround (a future single) Marc Riley said: File under meaty beaty big and bouncy…

There’s a transcript of his interview at Brothers Electric and you can hear the new song, now titled Devil In A Trojan Horse, at his Myspace Some quotes:

TW: Every so often I’d do a show on my own back in the day, 5, 6, 7 years ago, and then I stopped doing it when Electric Soft Parade and Brakes started touring so much. And then recently I recorded this album over Christmas and New Year which is coming out the beginning of June. I did a gig at The Luminaire and I only had 5 or 6 tunes that I could play and this new song materialised.

Marc Riley: We had Eamon in playing live for us a while ago infact he came in with Rob Jones, Voluntary Butler Scheme, he came in and did an acoustic set, and he did the acoustic tour and he was going round and writing material for Brakes wasn’t he.

TW: I think he had a good time, he’s actually living in New York now and I think he’s planning on moving to Paris next… Yeah he’s writing at the moment. He’s taken a bit of a break and he’s living over in New York with his girlfriend who’s a very successful writer, so he’s living over there for a bit and from what I’ve heard he’s having a great time and doing some writing and doing some little solo gigs himself.

For the latest Thomas White news, sign up for the Drift Records Mailing List through the form on their website.

Gig reviews, photo links etc will be posted on the Brakes and ESP Myspaces. So keep checking for updates once the shows are underway…

Upcoming solo shows

Eamon Hamilton plays at Lit Lounge, New York, 1 April. More info

Thomas White plays at Night And Day, Manchester, 3 April. More info Also a Marc Riley Session on BBC 6 Music the same night.

And The Komedia Theatre, Brighton, 8 April. More info & tickets

Eamon appears at the 2000 Trees Festival, which takes place July 11-12. Click on Tickets at their Website Also see the Myspace

Thomas White solo LP and live footage

Drift records writes: We are very excited to be working on a full release with Thomas White. Thomas is of course critically praised for his work in Electric Soft Parade, Brakes and Restlesslist, and we are very proud to be the home for his forthcoming “I Dream Of Black” record. It is a more intimate affair to his previous records, and well and truly at home with the Drift Bird. He recently gave a preview of it at the Luminaire (that was shit hot)

See videos from The Luminaire show, including album track The Runaround, at his Myspace

Marc Beatty to play in Glasgow

Matt Eaton has got a wonderful new record coming out - “Finish Your Chips” - he’s heading out on tour to promote it and has invited Darren Moon along at some shows - Marc will also be playing lap-steel and maybe a bit of bass at the Glasgow show on 13th April.

For more info see the latest Tenderfoot Blog/gigs Also the Matt Eaton Myspace

The Matt Eaton album will also be out on Drift records.

Another review from Eamon’s solo tour

gigcam.blogspot.com - Slaughtered Lamb, London, 18 Feb: Eamon proudly joked about how professional he was with his set list taped to the back of his guitar, and then half way through said to hell with it and played what he wanted or people requested… This was the third and final performance of a three night residency for Eamon at the Slaughtered Lamb, where he had played on a Monday night for three consecutive weeks. Towards the end he annnounced he was leaving the UK - fortunately this only meant that he was going to America (New York I think he said) for a few months to record the next Brakes album. Highlights were All Night Disco Party, a caustic Heard About Your Band, a heartbreaking No Return, and a lively Spring Chicken.

… Look out for a new Blog from Eamon at the Brakes Myspace very soon.

Lastly, the Brothers Electric Fan Blog has put up some Brakes radio sessions, interviews and more - if you missed them first time round or want to listen again…

Hey hey, it’s a beautiful day. Thanks to everyone who came out to see me play some new songs on my recent UK acoustic tour. It was grand, especially as I got to watch the one man sensation The Voluntary Butler Scheme every night. I should’ve been blogging the tour I know, but, oddly, I’m quite shy about such things. I know we all live in a transparent yellow submarine now - appearing on cctv all day and night, easily followed on the web, “online now” etc, but I’m still not the greatest fan of giving myself away to the blogsville or the blogesphere or the blogiverse. But, here I am, tap tapping on my tip-tap-tapper and revealing, already, somethings of myself.

Back to the tour - this was excellent, and part of me wishes I was still on it. I had a few random guests - Jarvis Cocker in London, Le Reno Amps in Glasgow, Cloud Sounds, All FM, and 6 Music’s Marc Riley in Manchester, and Joe Lean in Leeds, who helped slog Rob VBS’ and my stuff to the car. Hurrah.

Since finishing the tour, Virgin Atlantic flew my ass here to write, busk and play gigs - the next one being on Saturday - here

I turned on the Oscars the other night, and kept on hearing the Aberfeldy track Summer’s Gone over top of the Diet Coke advert bridger. Go on Aberfeldy!! In these days of free downloading, adverts and TV are about the only thing that pays musicians any real money, so, personally, I applaud them for flogging their music, especially as it must’ve been heard by about 50 million people. The next day, I heard this song by an old C86 band The Flatmates on a shoe advert. Indie-rockin’ in the USA!

I’m trying to give up smoking at the moment, and finding that I’m drinking more. I think they call this ‘displacement’. I call it ‘hell’. Let me know if anyone has any tips.

Until the next report, Eamon

NEON LIGHTS have just posted a Blog all about Eamon before his show at The Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn on 1st March - read it here

Eamon’s solo acoustic dates will see him play old favourites and new material written for the third Brakes album. He also supports British Sea Power in London (Jan 31) and Brighton (Feb 1) Click below for more info…

For Ticket & Venue links please see the Gigs page

Opening for British Sea Power…

Jan 28: Academy, Oxford
Jan 29: Komedia, Brighton
Jan 31: Koko, London
Feb 1: Digital, Brighton

FEBRUARY
4: Slaughtered Lamb, London
6: Moles, Bath
7: Social, Nottingham
8: Brel Bar, Glasgow
10: Faversham, Leeds
11: Slaughtered Lamb, London
12: Ruby Lounge, Manchester
13: Fibbers, York
18: Slaughtered Lamb, London

UK support acts: 03/01/2008 by Noble.

On BSP’s January UK dates, the following support acts have been confirmed: These New Puritans are supporting at all dates from Glasgow on 26 Jan to London on 31 Jan. Make Model are supporting in Norwich, Portsmouth, Nottingham and Leeds.

Eamon Hamilton is opening with a short acoustic set from Oxford 28 Jan onwards.

BE AWARE! Many of these UK dates are now close to selling out.

For the Tour dates please see the BSP Website or BSP Myspace

Bath Moles postponed until 15th November

More info on the rescheduled night

Click on Buy Tickets (unused tickets from October 13th still valid)

Competition Winners gig - Chris Tappenden writes…

I just wanted to say thanks Brakes for playing the competition show at the Talbot, Bewdley, it was amazing. Don’t want to get too hyperbolic on you but Brakes tore up the place with a blazing, punky, funny, bitter-sweet set. Fantastic! It was great seeing you in the small, old, intimate confines of the Talbot. I think you have a truckload of new converts over here and Brakes in Bewdley will go down in local folklore as an absolute stormer. It was great meeting Eamon, Tom, Marc, Alex and the tour manager Chris too. A great bunch of people with no airs and graces, very refreshing.

Really appreciated you playing at the Talbot, good luck for the future – in my opinion you are one of the most original bands out there at the moment, more please! The X-certs were really good too, a really tight punchy sound. Thanks X-certs!

The latest Brakes news and more besides…

This year’s Truck saw the many incarnations of the brothers White as they appeared with Electric Soft Parade - Restlesslist - Actress Hands

Life Is Easy Records Download free song The Reducer by Actress Hands: click on “sign up for exclusives”. This is taken from their new album Boys Need Jazz, which came out this week (order at amazon.co.uk)

Actress Hands play as part of Brighton Live at the Hanbury Ballroom on Weds 26th Sept alongside Marc Beatty’s band The Tenderfoot Onstage: 20:30: The Tenderfoot - 22:00: Actress Hands

From The Tenderfoot’s Blog: It is with great pleasure that we announce The Tenderfoot’s ONLY SHOW of 2007. On Wednesday 26th September these giants of obscurity will be re-animated for one night only in support of Brighton power-popsters Actress Hands. This monumentally minor occasion will take place at The Hanbury Ballroom, Kemptown as part of Brighton Live Week. To celebrate, The Tenderfoot have also posted a recently recorded demo of the song “People Are The Problem” (debuted in support of British Sea Power at The Zap in May ‘06)

Restlesslist (Tom White’s other band) have a new video for upcoming single Dirty Pint (released early October) Watch it at their Myspace

Taken from their debut album The Rise and Fall Of The Curtain Club out January 2008. They create blurry yet crunchy dance-scopes that round up a world full of genres. Dirty Pint and its b-side Mint Sauce involve chat show theme tune muzak, with twisting horror fun fair structures sequencing into hand clapping sound track instrumentals.

COMPETITION WINNER

Brakes found that they had a day off in their tour, and, rather than spend it playing cards and shove ha-penny, they offered anyone who could provide four cans of cider and 20 Benson, a gig at the venue of their choice. The lucky winner has been chosen. Brakes will be appearing in a village pub somewhere in the Midlands sometime in October…

END OF THE ROAD VIDEO

Watch Porcupine Or Pineapple live!!

We need your photos from recent and upcoming gigs for the Brakes Gallery - email webmaster@brakesbrakesbrakes.com

Ever fancied being part of the crew at a Brakes gig? Well now’s your chance. You plus 1 can represent the band at upcoming shows by handing out flyers, putting up posters and signing the next generation of Brakes fans up onto the mailing list.

But… we recognise there’s no such thing as a free lunch so in return you’ll both get in free and, if things go really well at the show you’ll more than likely get a free tee shirt as a reward.

Occasionally we may ask you to lend a hand on the merch desk too. There’ll be other minor jobs too, but more about them when you join up, but the first job is to get the October tour covered.

Interested? Well all you need to do for now is email the newly appointed Brakes Street Team Manager, Paul Duffy on the following: brakesstreetteam@fsmail.net

Paul will keep you fully informed with our plans. To be on board for the October tour we need your email by 15 September, and you need to be available for your local show.

Please put Brakes Street Team in the subject of your email, and state your full name, age, the town/city you are living and your email address.

Looking forward to seeing you (and thanking you in person) at a show very soon.

Thanks, Brakes

Available on iTunes with new track Witchin Hour. Watch the video

23rd August: Gideon Coe 6 Music: 2 tracks & interview.
Live broadcast around 11.30am-12.

23rd August: XFM Music Response 3 tracks (7-10pm)

Record Of The Week on Edith Bowman’s show. Listen in and tell her how great it sounds!! Click link to vote for the single (scroll down) Brakes play live into her show this Friday from Reading Festival (starts at 1pm)

The Mirror says: Ahh, pop music like Mama used to make or just like the doctor ordered, straight from a sonic nirvana. Take it once in the morning and the world will seem a lighter and brighter place to be… with its beautifully sweetened honey vocals, West Coast groove and sharp, slamming but caressable guitar, it’s a special treat.

Gigwise Competition to see Brakes at Ginglik on August 20th.

Latest Blog (click to read) “We’ve got a couple of small London club shows- in a revamped old public toilet in Shepherd’s Bush on 20th August (tickets) and at The Water Rats the next night (tickets) before we pile in the van for the Reading and Leeds festivals. Yours, Eamon”

August 20 Ginglik - East London Is A Vampire Night, Shepherds Bush, London - tickets - website - myspace

Doll and The Kicks (myspace) around 8pm, Brakes around 9pm.

August 21 Water Rats, London - Reading/Leeds warm-up show - tickets

AOL Video Exclusive - Brakes release their new single Beatific Visions from their album of the same name and you can see it first and exclusively at AOL.

If you have problems with the AOL stream, you can also see the video - and cast and crew information here: Beatific Visions at preroll.com

Brakes, though from the UK, make idiosyncratic, Americana-infused rock, their second album Beatific Visions described by Pitchfork as: “the shimmy at the end of the world, wide-eyed and wild as it should be.”

Having gone down a storm over the pond after the recent tour of the States, garnering favourable comparisons with Arctic Monkeys, Brakes returned to the UK to play a storming set at Glastonbury and lining up appearances at Reading/Leeds and End Of The Road festivals amongst many.

Previous Brakes’ singles concerned the loss of liberty (Hold Me In The River) and the death of God (Cease And Desist), so Beatific Visions, a celebration of ‘le petit mort’ is a welcome ray of light.

Director’s Biography (with a big thanks to Michaelle and her team)

Michaelle Stikich has over 8 years of filmmaking experience as an editor and director. By day, she helps develop film editing software. By night, she is connected with the California Bay Area film community, working with local filmmakers as a post production consultant and creating her own films. Most recently she has been focusing on music videos. Her last piece, “Gotta Go,” for Victor Scott on SVC Records, was accepted to the South by Southwest Film Festival 2007 and the Noise Pop FREEDM Films Festival.

The latest Truck Compilation CD includes Brakes (as Hamilton Vs Hamilton) with their song about Truck ‘Up On Hill Farm’. Available now with a free copy of the festival programme (before 8th August) BUY HERE

Truck Festival is postponed due to bad weather. They are rescheduling the event at the same location on the weekend of the 22nd September with all tickets remaining valid. Brakes and ESP are still playing.

We have a Summer merch sale - click the link!!

All T’s £9.00 including the designs: Spiky Spiky, Porcupine Or Pineapple, Hi How Are You (front) with Won’t You Shut The Fuck Up (on the back)

And new in: the Brakes Hacky Sack perfect for those summer daze out!

Eamon and Marc have an interview on ManiaTV’s Artist Of The Day

The new video is being shot in San Francisco. See some stills from the video and production HERE

Having released singles about the loss of liberty (Hold Me In The River) and the death of God (Cease and Desist), Brakes have decided to release a song about the good things in life. Beatific Visions (”The sight of God or of the blessed in heaven, especially that granted to the soul at the instant of death” - Brewers Dictionary of Phrases and Fables) is a celebration of le petit mort, the momentary loss of conciousness during a climax, set in Brakes’ home town Brighton.

Eamon is making a plea to all Glastonbury attendees after losing his guitar at the festival on Sunday morning. The Gewa Tennesee Bluesbird was misplaced in the mud outside the Leftfield Tent between 3am and 7am. It had just been used for a performance and was in a black case and had a ‘Bronze Ace’ wooden mic pick up, with the ‘Bronze’ wording rubbed off. Although it is only worth around £120 it is of great sentimental value and was used to write most of Brakes two albums. If you know of its whereabouts please contact Rough Trade Records on 020 8960 9888 or email the band at brakes@brakesbrakesbrakes.com - if you return it Eamon is promising to collect it himself and play a gig in your front room. Links: thelineofbestfit.com - gigwise.com