Out of date now…but thought I’d post it anyway!

Hi all. Long time no speak!

Writing this at about 4:00am and 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, about four hours away from London Gatwick. Supposed to be sleeping right now but, as always, whenever I know that I really MUST sleep, the absolute opposite will happen.

Why should I be sleeping? Well…to make a vague effort to try and avoid the inevitable jetlag, and also because I am playing a show with Dogstand in Dartford on the same evening I arrive back. Not only have I not rehearsed for two weeks (save for a modest amount of “plink-plonking” on my iPad Korg emulator), but I will also no doubt be falling asleep on my keyboards. Perhaps I should wear sunglasses for this gig to hide my bloodshot eyes? Could complete the look with a cigar held in my mouth as an homage to Jools Holland…? Would that be cool…??

Anyway…I ramble…

Lots ‘n’ lots happening right now. Well…”lots” compared to what life is normally like. As I already mentioned I am playing with Dogstand this weekend, and we also have some dates coming up at The Windmill in Brixton (tickets at http://www.windmillbrixton.co.uk) and also another London venue which I can’t really announce just yet, as I am waiting for the tedious formality of official confirmation…but one of my favourite venues in London which I am very excited at the prospect of playing at!

According to our bassist, producer and general all-round creative and technological genius Si Keefe, the album “Wonky Love Songs” is now FINISHED. How long have we been saying that for? Hmm…probably about two or three years now. But it seems that this time he means it. Test CDs are being made and we should be heading towards a release soon!

But if you are just itching to part with your cash in return for some Dogstand related music right now, pop along to iTunes and search for “The Valerie Brown EP” by Bum! , which has just been reissued and made available to buy again for the first time in nearly twenty years. Apart from being a really great little record, it’s at the bargain price of £1.79 for all five tracks. Or…if that’s really still too steep for you(!)…it’s also available to stream for nada on Spotify.

That’s all for now. Going to close my eyes again and see if writing this blog has helped to tire me out at all.

Don’t forget to check out http://www.reverbnation.com/dogstand and http://www.facebook.com/dogstand to keep up with the latest news and hear the latest tunes etc…

Take care.
Lx

13 May Permalink

Dogstand - Live @ Hard Rock Cafe London on Tuesday 28th February

We did it!!

Thanks to all of your voting, and putting up with our (what felt like an endless) campaign, we have been given the opportunity to compete live at the Hard Rock Cafe in London against the other leading bands for a place at the Hard Rock Calling festival in Hyde Park!

Needless to say, we are all extremely excited about this!

There are three dates on the 27th, 28th and 29th February. We are playing on Tuesday 28th. Each night, a winner will be picked to go through to ANOTHER Hard Rock gig on Tuesday 13th March and compete once again.

Even just to get this far is a great achievement and we are so thankful to all of you who took the time to vote and tell your friends.

Now we have another task for you…get yourselves down to the Hard Rock Cafe in London on the evening of the 28th February, have a drink, a dance and support Dogstand!! Tickets are only £3.00 and proceeds go to charity. Pretty nice!

It’ll be quite a short set…just a handful of our carefully chosen, best songs…but there will be plenty of other bands playing as well.

Will be a great night and would be nice to say hello to some of you!

Fingers crossed we make it onto the NEXT stage as well!!

See you there.

Love Dogstand x
(Leo, Graeme, Carli, Paul, Si, Jimmy and Rob)

14 February 2 Permalink

Dogstand competing in Hard Rock Rising 2012! We need your votes!!

Hi all!

We are currently doing pretty well in this competition, but it could quickly change as voting doesn’t end until 6th February. The prize is a chance to play at Hard Rock London and compete for a place at the Hard Rock Calling festival in Hyde Park!

But we need your help!!

All you need to do is follow these simple steps…

STEP 1 - Go to this site - http://www.facebook.com/hardrockcafelondon?sk=app_205164529573076

STEP 2 - ”Like” the page by clicking the button at the top.

STEP 3 - Scroll down to the Hard Rock Rising app and “Sort by Downloads”

STEP 4 - Download the song “Here Comes Devil Dog” by Dogstand.

We are currently quite near the top of the download list but, if we don’t get enough, we will start to drop down the list (which is bad!!). You are rewarded with a free MP3 of the song for your good deed!

This little task would mean a great deal to us! :)

Leo & Dogstand. x

27 January 1 Permalink

I’m still here!

Hi all!

Thought it was about time that I made a new post. It’s been too long. Last time was when I put out my song “No Fun Without You”…which currently has over 1,600 views on YouTube…by far the most people who have ever listened to one of my songs I’m sure. Most of those views are thanks to my ol’ pal Jim Sterling of Destructoid.com pulling a few strings to get the video put up on his website’s main page for a few hours, which helped no end! Slightly embarrassing really that so many people have watched a video of me in front of a wall, prancing about and pretending to sing!

Anyway, since then I have been keeping up with my “day job” and rehearsing lots with my band Dogstand. We now think that we have practised enough songs to confidently play a full set so, hopefully within the next couple of months, we will be playing our first gigs since about 2006/7ish! Blimey!

When our amazing comeback spectacular is announced you will all be the first to know and I’ll make sure it is all over my Facebook page and Twitter. Hopefully some of you will be able to get down to see us and would be nice to say hello to some of you as well. I’ll be the guy behind the tower of keyboards, peeping out at the audience from behind a stylophone. More than likely that 9 out of 10 of our gigs will be in the London(ish) area.

Also, the gigs will probably coincide with the release of our album “Wonky Love Songs” which has been in the making for a long time now. I currently have the full mastered album (sans one song) in my possession and am desperate to share it with you all. We are very pleased with it and hope that you will enjoy listening to it just as much. The tracklisting will be (subject to change)…

1. My Best Friend
2. Down To Nothing
3. Yal Fsnar Hevendnya Heem
4. The Assistant
5. Over You
6. I Feel Like Shit
7. Hunter And The Hunted
8. Lamentable In The Eighties
9. Between The Eyes
10. So You Made A Mistake
11. Bleed

…plus a little bonus or two if there is room on the disc, so I’ve been told. Some of those song titles may mean something to some of you already. In fact, some of the songs (albeit in unfinished mix form) are already available to hear at Dogstand’s ReverbNation page.

That’s about all for the time being I think. So nearly there now that we can taste it, and hopefully on the verge of a very exciting new year!

Hope you are all well! Stay in touch…Twitter and the like.

Lx

2 November Permalink

New single “No Fun Without You” out TODAY!

My new single is now available to download from the iTunes Store worldwide!

Click the “No Fun Without You - Single” link above to find out more info, download exclusive artwork for the single by Ani Saunders of The Pipettes and watch the music video!

Lx

4 July 8 Permalink

“No Fun Without You” : Release Date - Monday 4th July 2011

“No Fun Without You” will be available as a digital download from iTunes Worldwide, AmazonMP3 and many, many other digital download stores!

27 June 2 Permalink