July 7, 2007

Hi there! How are you all doing? Hope you’re all having a great summer!!! The weather here in Scotland is, as usual, a mix of great sunshine and rain, all in the same day. Over the past months, I’ve been a busy bee. I’ve been to Germany and Ireland on tour and played at the legendary Download Festival in Donington Park, England, and the Isle of Wight Festival. At the moment, I’ve got a week off to recharge my batteries before heading off to the USA for a small tour of North America. In April, we spent a week touring in Germany, playing in Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne. We took the ferry from Newcastle in England and arrived 16 hours later in Amsterdam, with a very bad hangover. The ferry trip was mad. The only way we could have got to sleep was by drinking lots of beer. The cabins were so claustrophobic it was freaking us out!! We ended up annoying the poor man who was the evening’s entertainment. We even ended up performing a few songs… I think we pushed him off stage to do so… oh dear, that’s what happens when you drink too many beers and are on a boat for too long!! Germany is a wonderful country. It is very like Scotland, as it has some amazing scenery and the people are all very friendly. I really do hope we get the chance to go back!!! We were on tour with two other bands, The Others, The Pigeon Detectives (www.thepigeondetectives.com) and The Wombats (www.thewombats.co.uk). They were all great bands and we made some great new friends, so much so that when The Pigeon Detectives came to Glasgow a few weeks later, they invited us to play a set at their gig!! Straight after Germany, we went on tour to Ireland for a week. We all love Ireland as it’s very like Scotland, the people are lovely, and they like a good night out. We played in Galway, Dublin, Cork and Belfast. In Glasgow, the West End Festival (www.westendfestival.co.uk) has just ended. We had two weeks of music, theatre and festival events right here in the West End of Glasgow, where I live. I was away on tour and missed quite a lot of it, but I did manage to see a great Scottish band called Hue & Cry (www.hueandcry.co.uk). They’ve been together for many years, and are an amazing live band. They played a very special piano and vocal gig in the intimate venue of Oranmor, right in the heart of the west end. The tickets were like gold dust, but I managed to wangle my way in! They were really stunning, and performed amazingly! It was a beautiful summers evening too, which just put the icing on the cake for me. I then headed off to the Monsters of Rock festival that is Download, with my band, The Hedrons (www.thehedrons.com). We performed in the Tubrig tent and it was amazing. Before I knew it, I was crowd surfing!! I could just about see the horror on the bands faces, as they kept thinking I was being dropped!! It was such a buzz!!! Band members Rosie and Soup managed to meet Slash and give him a copy of our album… fantastic!! Next day, we headed to Portsmouth to catch the ferry to the Isle of Wight Festival. The sun was out in its full glory, and the ferry car park was mobbed with happy faces of all the punters who were going to the festival. So because of this, we thought we should get into the festival mood (again), and crack open the beer. It was a glorious ferry ride over to the isle and we even managed to join the captain of the ship for most of the sail – I think we annoyed the life out of him. Our gig was amazing. If it all goes horribly wrong tomorrow at least we’ve played at the legendary Isle of Wight Festival. The Rolling Stones were headlining the festival the day we played, and they had a special walkway built for their gig. It was a catwalk that reached from centre stage right down the middle of the audience. No one else was suppose to use it… but The Hedrons, being The Hedrons……see for your self - www.myspace.com/thehedrons So I’m just getting ready to head over to the USA for a small tour in July. We start off in Canada then make our way down the East Coast. It would be great to meet you all, so if you are near any of the gigs, try and come along and please say hello. All our dates can be found here - www.thehedrons.com - or at our myspace. Please feel free to send us a message to our myspace or our website if you need more details of the gigs – and we’ll get straight back to you. Hopefully see you there!!!! Before America we’re playing at Scotland’s largest music festival, T in the Park (www.tinthepark.com). We’re really excited about this, mainly because the festival is in our home country. We will be sharing the stage with one of my favourite bands, Queens of the Stoneage, I’m soooooooo excited!!! Thanks for listening, see ya soon, Tippi xx

April 28, 2007

Hi there. It seems like it’s been ages since I last wrote anything, but it’s only been a few months, as I have been on tour in the USA and am just about to go to Germany with my band The Hedrons (thehedrons.com). Our North American jaunt started in Canada, where we performed at Canadian Music Week festival in Toronto at the Bovine Sex Club. Before we got there, we were all wondering what the venue would be like. It turned out not to be a pole dancing club, but actually a really cool venue. The gig was great and the audience were well up for it. Toronto was a great place, but so very, very cold! After this, we headed to New York to play at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan, and then at Galapagos in Williamsburg. These gigs were amazing. New York is one of my favourite places in the world. I feel at home here and also love the energy I feel when I walk down the street. We’ve just signed a record deal with 4 West Records (myspace.com/4westrecords) in the USA, so it was great to be able to perform in the label’s home city for them. We’re really excited that our album will be released in the USA on 1st May 2007. We then flew to Austin, Texas, to take part in the wonderful SXSW Festival. We played four shows over two days, and had an absolute ball. The gigs were packed out and the buzz was immense!!!! Austin is such a cool, vibrant place. Just walking down the street inspired me. The weather was fabulous too, so we managed to catch some rays when we weren’t busy working. We got to see some other bands including Joan Jett, who was super cool. We met her afterwards and chatted about what it’s like to be in an all girl punk / rock band. She looked amazing. I hope I look as good as her when I’m that age. After SXSW, we flew to Los Angeles to embark on a ten-day tour of California, starting at the Key Club on Sunset Boulevard!!! This was an amazing venue, as were all the venues we played at on this leg of the tour. We performed in San Diego, Orange Country, LA, ending this part of the tour with an outstanding gig at the Roxy!!!!! During our time in LA, we got invited to Warner Studios and ended up meeting Matthew Perry!! We were all just hanging about on the set of his new show, Studio 60, watching it being filmed, and there he was, saying hi to us – it’s bizarre where music takes you!!! We also got to walk around the set of ER!!! Before heading back to Scotland, we went to New York to play two more shows at Pianos in Soho, and take part in New York Tartan Week. We were part of a fashion show called Dressed to Kilt, were we had to walk down a catwalk alongside other Scottish musicians / actors. It was such a laugh!!!! This is something that we have never done before, and never thought we would. We’re a punk rock band who love performing on a stage and rocking out, so walking down the catwalk made us nervous. Never the less, we got on that catwalk and strutted our stuff, with the help of course, of a few whiskies!!!! This was a great end to our first American tour. We’re hoping to get back over in the summer, so watch this space…… Our album has also been released in Japan on Star Mole Records, I really do hope we get to go there to perform, fingers crossed!!!!! I’m having some time off just now before embarking on our first tour of Germany. The tour is part of the British Music Week in Germany (britishmusicweek.de) and we’re playing alongside some really hot new bands from Britain. So I better go and practise my German. Until next time… Oh… if you’ve got time to kill, check out our Scottish Lessons on youtube, they’re so funny!!!! (youtube.com/watch?v=_b9nH61acrU) Take care, Tippi xxxxx

January 27, 2007

Hello there, Can you believe its 2007? I don’t know where 2006 went. I hope you all had a great rest over the holidays. I managed to get away on holiday for Christmas. Ended up in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, and it was fantastic. I’ve not had a holiday for three years, so it was just what the doctor ordered. It took a while for me to unwind and chill out after being on the road so much last year, but after reading three books, and doing absolutely nothing for eleven days, I am refreshed and ready to take on all the challenges that 2007 throws at me. So far it’s been a great year… my band, The Hedrons, released a single called Heatseeker’ in the UK on 8th January. It went straight into no. 5 in the UK Indie charts and 31 in the HMV UK singles charts!!!! We’re absolutely delighted. Thank you to everyone who bought a copy, it’s because of you that we made such great chart entries!!! We’re getting ready to go on our first tour of 2007. We leave Glasgow on Saturday 20th January and head down to Aldershot, England, where we’ll be playing with Neville Staple!!!! I’m really excited about this gig. The Specials and Fun Boy Three were such important bands, and influenced so many people. From Aldershot we head to Cardiff on 21st, Southampton 22nd, London 24th…(thehedrons.com for all tour dates). I don’t think we’ll be back home until mid Feb, then we head off to Austin, Texas to perform at the legendary music festival SXSW (2007.sxsw.com). This festival is amazing, and to top it off, Rickie Lee Jones and Pete Townsend are two of the main speakers opening the festival!!!! Before going to SXSW, we’re playing at the Canadian Music Festival (cmw.net/cmw2007/festival). I’ve never been to Canada, so I’m really looking forward to it. Should I take a winter jacket with me? Our debut album, ‘One More Won’t Kill Us,’ will be released on Measured Records (measuredrecords.com) in the UK on 5th February 2007. I can’t wait!! It will also be released in Japan on 21st February, so we’re hoping to go over there and play some gigs too. I hope my passport is still valid. We’re starting to get in some album reviews and they’re all pretty good – so fingers crossed. We’ve got our forum up and running at our website (thehedrons.com). It would be great to see some good music discussions going on there, so go on…add to it. Let’s have some heated music debates. I watched an amazing movie over the Christmas hols, ’Some Kind of Monster’ by Metallica. I wasn’t a fan of this band, but after watching the movie, I have been turned into one. If you’re in a band or are a real hardcore music fan, you should try and see it, as you’ll appreciate everything that’s going on in it. Here is a link to the gig we did in Second Life - pvgconcerts.com - check it out; it’s The Hedrons performing as avatars ... bizarre I know? We performed live in a studio in Glasgow; this was then beamed to PVG Concerts server in Holland, then to the US server of Second Life. Glasgow has been cold and wet for what feels like months. Thankfully I’ve been away on tour for most of the winter and not had to live with it, but as I’m writing this, it’s snowing! So what’s been happening in Glasgow? Well, all our New Year celebrations were cancelled due to horrific bad weather, basically drum kits were being blown off the stage with the wind, so all planned musical celebrations were a no no, including the world renowned Edinburgh New Year Festival. Hopefully next year mother nature will be more apologetic and The Hedrons will be rockin’ in the new year……who knows? If you want to experience Scottish journalism, check out Bob Shields’ new book. He has just released his first book called, ‘How Far is the Nearest Pint?’ If you want to read some great showbiz stories by one of Scotland’s most popular journalists, this book is a must!!!(tartanarmy.co.uk). I’ve met Bob many a times at various Scottish events and his stories are legendary!!! Right now I’m reading ‘Last Exit to Brooklyn’ ... mmmmm ... I’m sticking with it. See you soon, Tippi x