Full details on tickets and departure/arrival times below.

£10 return coach ticket available from City Link

£7  ferry ticket available from Argyll Ferries

OUTWARD JOURNEY

The coach will leave from Buchanan St. at 3pm arriving at Gourock pierhead approx 4pm

A ferry service will then depart Gourock pierhead at 4.20pm and arrive in Dunoon 4.45pm

RETURN JOURNEY

The ferry will depart Dunoon at 10.50pm and arrive back in Gourock approx 11.15pm

The coach from Gourock will leave at 11.30pm heading back to glasgow.

Happy travelling…

It’s the only Scottish festival they’ll be doing this summer, but keep your ears to the ground as they’ll be some English festival announcements in the coming weeks.

Tickets are on sale now so click below should you wish to purchase yours.

BUY TICKETS FOR BELLADRUM

There’s only 72 of them printed so snap them up while you can!

Buy Dig Agriculture T-Shirt

So we are really excited to announce that we’ve finally managed to piece together a tour of our fair country’s highlands, islands and wee towns. So come one and all, bring your dug, bring your cousin and your cousin’s cousin (you).

It’s going to be a right good knees up.

Slainte!
FR

Highlands Tour 2012

Box Office Details: 08444 999 990 / www.gigsinscotland.com

Acoustic Shows

Wed, 11th April | Cafe Continental, Gourock | Find Tickets
£10 ticket. Over 18’s.  Doors 8pm.

Thu, 12th April | Perth, Twa Tams | FREE ENTRY
FREE ENTRY. Over 18’s. Doors 8pm.

Fri, 13th April | The Loft, Forres | Find Tickets
£12. Over 18’s. Doors 8pm.

Sat, 14th April | The Arch Inn, Ullapool | Find Tickets
£12. Over 18’s. Doors 9pm.

Sun, 15th April | An Tobar, Tobermory, Mull | Find Tickets
£11. No age restriction. Doors 8pm.

Full Band Shows

Wed, 18th April | Aviemore, The Old Bridge Inn | Find Tickets
£14.  Over 18’s. Doors 8pm.

Thu, 19th April | Stornoway, An Lanntair | Find Tickets
£15  Over 14’s / U 18’s must be accompanied by adult. Doors 7.30pm.

Fri, 20th April | Portree, Community Centre | Find Tickets
£14.  Over 14’s. Doors 7.30pm.

Sat, 21st April | Strathpeffer, Spa Pavilion | Find Tickets
£14. Over 14’s / U16’s if accompanied by adult. Doors 7.30pm.

Sun, 22nd April | Dunoon, Queens Hall | Find Tickets
£14. Over 18’s. Doors 7.30pm.

Following last night’s incredibly frustrating and disappointing turn of events in (and outside of) Cabaret Voltaire Edinburgh, we thought it was only right that we explain fully what actually went wrong.  First of all we want to say we loved playing the show, and would like to thank everyone who was there for being a great, great audience.

Initially, we were under the impression that this would not be a ticketed event.  It would be £4 on the door not £6 which they charged some people and the capacity would be 250 – a reasonable number for a room the size of Cabaret Voltaire. Then, on Monday (16th Jan) I find out VIA A TWITTER FOLLOWER OF OURS that tickets have gone on sale on Ticketweb.  The venue made the valid point that it’s cold outside and big queues are an unnecessary evil, and we understood that but we could have been told about the online sales, having already informed our mailing list and FB & Twitter followers that tickets were on the door.

So, upon speaking to the booker at Cab Vol, they agreed to stop selling the advance tickets, so that those we had informed of the ‘door only’ deal would not be disappointed.  I was told at that point that we had done 200 sales in that first hour, and that it would stop at that, and we would stretch the room a bit and do another 200 on the door.  In hindsight, even that is way too many for the downstairs venue.  I should have said so at the time, but I didn’t and I feel bad about that. Sorry.

Then, having finished soundcheck (a little bit late – our fault entirely) we learned that the advance ticket sales had been 400, not 200, and that there were still plans afoot to sell the further 200 on the door.  Using all the maths skills at our disposal, we quickly realised that’s exactly ummmm… too many people for that fucking venue!  Their plan was to shove the extra bodies up into ‘The Speakeasy’ (the bar upstairs) where they would stream the show on a television, to which we replied, “WHIT???!!!!”.  They were actually going to make people pay money to go upstairs and watch it on the telly! After 30 mins of negotiations with the management, we decided finally that those people would not be charged if they decided they wanted to have that ‘unique’ experience. So we ended up with around 460 folk inside, still too many in our opinion.

There were those who gained admission and got downstairs only to find that they couldn’t see or really hear anything of the show. In the apparent absence of an apology from the venue, we’d like to apologise to all of those people, and we hope that in reading this, there is at least a valid explanation provided on our part as to why the show basically never happened for you.  I hope it doesn’t put you off coming to see the band again. We love what we do, and the reason for the slightly vitriolic posts last night was that we were just genuinely upset.  Angry as hell, but also truly upset and disappointed that we appeared to have let people down.

To those who complained that we arrived on stage 25 minutes late, I will apologise, but the reason for that was I was playing a few songs outside for those not even fortunate enough to be in from the cold.

It’s also important to add that we don’t wish to tar the ENTIRE staff at Cabaret Voltaire with this tarry, tarry brush.  The bouncers were polite enough to us personally, and the bar staff and the two people at the door were just doing their jobs.  No beef with them (and sorry for giving the lad on the door a bit of hassle – that was a particularly low point in the night).

Thanks for reading all the way down.

Thursday, 19th Jan | Edinburg, Cabaret Voltaire | Tickets on the door.

Friday, 20th Jan | Aberdeen, Tunnels | Tickets on the door.

Saturday, 21st Jan | Glasgow, Stero | SOLD OUT

It was finished merely hours ago in the wee hours of the morning, you can download it for free below.

I like to think this song captures the true meaning of Christmas…

DOWNLOAD CHEAP GOLD

And if that isn’t enough to get you in the festive spirit here we are back in 2009 covering that infamous melancholic Christmas song ‘Walking In the Air’

You can see the original blog post on the BBC Scotland Website

Aside from the comprehensive list of activities described above, the band played a few shows in the past twelve months, some of which were flaming good fun (I’m thinking of Pittsburgh, Peebles, Sleazy’s, 2000 Trees, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Seattle (solo) and Rock Ness).

We’d like to say thanks to anyone who came to clap and cheer as we rattled through our verses and choruses throughout 2011. There will be plenty more of that going on in 2012, so keep the ears peeled.

But for now, it is impossible to ignore that we are standing in the midst of ‘A Christmas Hell’.

Baubles, stockings, shiny things, ribbons, latex, masks, beards – it’s all pretty sordid and hedonistic, eh? To celebrate this special time of year, we’ve launched a ton of new merch in our Winter Shoppe. (EU Shoppe / US Shoppe)

To help further spread the Christmas cheer we’ve discounted some of the items in the stores so be sure to check them out.

We hope you like the items, as quite a few of you have (quite rightly) been complaining bitterly over the lack of FR apparel available to buy, and then wear around the town. So fill your boots & stockings, or other people’s boots and stockings for that matter.

There’s lots to choose from. And if nothing takes your fancy, then you are a miserable humbug and I’d like to take you out for a drink some time. You sound great.

Finally, we’d like to say thank you to everyone who has supported us in some way over the course of this year – this probably means you.

When a stranger tells us that the songs we create in musty studios, dining rooms and coal-sheds make some sort of difference – that’s the reason for all this. That and an overwhelming desire to be really, really, really famous (heh heh).

So, cheers to you. Raise a glass of something strong, down it, then get another one straight away. See you next year.

I’ll leave you with this thought, from the brilliant Muddy Waters.

Think on…

I got up one Christmas morning and we didn’t have nothing to eat. We didn’t have an apple, we didn’t have an orange, we didn’t have a cake, we didn’t have nothing.

The EP is also available to pre-order as a 10″ Limited Edition vinyl which comes out on the 31st October, below are the places you can pre-order it from:

Rough Trade | Avalanche | Norman Records | Piccadilly Records

Should you fancy a glimpse into the creative spark behind the songs on the EP, then feel free to peruse Scott’s  Track by Track…

Scottish Winds

Funnily enough, this was pretty much all written on a bus. The X95 to be precise. I was on my way back to our cottage in the Borders, the place we were using to write and record at the time. I think the initial nugget came from the fact that it was an extremely windy day.

It’s the first song I’ve formed entirely in my head, as I didn’t have an instrument to hand and would never start strumming one out on a bus, so to speak. So I wrote the lyrics out on my phone and when I got to the cottage I picked up a guitar and it was just sort of… there.

Fuck This Place

This is going to sound like total bullshit, but please don’t exhale a ‘pfft’ and stop reading when I say, this song started off as a dream. I honestly dreamt that i did a duet with a mystery female vocal on it and the ‘I don’t know these buildings’ line was definitely in that dream.

So when it came to the writing, I had two parts in my head all along. I have been a big Camera Obscura fan for a long time and when Tracyanne said she’d be up for this, I was incredibly chuffed and her vocal is just beautiful. It’s fairly obvious what it’s about, though I don’t think it’s necessarily a love story.

Sometimes you just need looking after, and everyone can feel like a lost wee boy/girl from time to time, especially when you spend your life on tour.

The Work

This was another one written on a bus, this time the number 62 to Peebles. Again, it was a duet from the start. I have been thinking a lot about ageing and death, especially on our new songs. So two distinct characters emerged fairly quickly.

There’s me being the belligerent young upstart asking ‘what’s the point in getting old?’, then there’s Archie as the counterpoint, convincing me that it ain’t all bad.

It was such an honour to work with Archie. He’s a real Scottish legend, and my mum and dad couldn’t believe I was singing with one of their heroes. When I listen to this one, I think of the great day I spent at his house, mulling over the tune and listening to all his hilarious stories. A real privilege.

“It was great!” I’ll say, often adding a footnote of “yeah, really good fun. Shows were great.”

Sometimes it’s all I can be bothered to say, glad as I am just to be home and out of the washer/dryer machine that is ‘The Tour’. Often, I’m saying it to hide the fact that it can be a pretty mundane experience most of the time.  No, really.  We ain’t Motley Crüe, and I find most tour stories can have a distinct ‘you had to be there’ flavour to them.  Like the time we bought 100oz. plastic Strats full of Pina Colada from a Cabo Wabo in Vegas. Fucking hilarious. You had to be there.

But there’s no denying that it has it’s highlights, and this summer’s jaunt across North America with Death Cab for Cutie was no exception to that rule.  You definitely had to be there, but because you weren’t, and because I can’t be bothered to elaborate in person, here are five of my favourite bits (to be read as ‘The Only Bits I Can Remember Right Now’).

1. Looking ‘round Johnny Cash’s tourbus at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame…

…and being amazed that it wasn’t that fancy.  Sure, the tables and units were made from specially imported wood and the seats looked darned comfy (sky blue velour, sir?), but other than that it was surprisingly familiar.  To me, it served as a reminder of what was most important to the great man. Simple comfort was quite enough as long as he was performing and could have his family around him.

Made me feel like a fucking brat for bemoaning the fact that our bus didn’t have ‘an extendy bit’ or a Foreman grill.  Other highlights of the Hall of Fame included the Everly Brothers’ old tap shoes (tiny!), drawings Jimi Hendrix had done as a child (speedboats and football players) and Britney’s ‘Sergeant Spears’ outfit (absolutely bangin’).

2. The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh (with a side of Batman)

We realised soon after we arrived that the day we visited was, in fact, Mr Warhol’s birthday.  I can only imagine that he didn’t really care much for celebrating his own birthday, but I enjoyed picturing him with a paper hat on as I wandered through the exhibits.

I really can’t recommend this museum highly enough.  I thought I knew about most of his output, but I was wrong.  I could have spent an entire day in the room that was screening episodes of his TV shows alone.  Check this out as a taster…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Oh yeah, about that Dark Knight salad… As I alighted the bus, I was aware that there were strange, deep rumbling sounds and occasional bangs and cracks emanating from the stadium overlooking the venue.   I took it to be another day at the office for some American sport, knowing how much they liked to put on a flashy spectacle to make up for the fact that the games themselves are pretty fucking slow.

I later learned that a scene from the latest Batman movie was being filmed there.  I’m happy to report that, going by the rumbles and bangs alone, the film is going to be at least as entertaining as a game of baseball.  Can’t wait.  Which brings us to #3…

3. Our first ball game.

I am now, by default, a Detroit Tigers fan.  I don’t know if they are a shit team or a great team, in fact, I kind of hope they are shit (Scots love a good underachiever).  No matter; due entirely to the fact that Ben kindly took a few of us out to watch Detroit square up to Anaheim from ‘The Tiger’s Den’ one afternoon, whichever way the Tigers swing, they are now my team.

The thing I have never really understood about baseball is how complex it is in it’s presentation on TV, in spite of my preconception of it being about throwing, hitting, running, catching and chewing tobacco.  Though it certainly is about all of the above, I’ve learned that there’s SO MUCH MORE!

Players have their own theme music, just like wrestlers, as Gordon observed.  The other thing I didn’t realise is how little the majority of the audience actually paid attention.  That’s not intended as a slight – I actually loved the ‘day out’ feeling of the game whereby folks come and go, tuning out of the game to chat, drink and picnic from inning to inning.

It can feel so passive at times that we concluded that the random interjections of zany organ music (a real hit with us) served as a timely ‘snooze button’ for anyone who has dozed off.   I will say this though; when we finally witnessed a home run, after 70 minutes of fairly dry, stat-heavy sport, it was fantastic.  Alas, Batman didn’t make an appearance…

4.  Shooting a gun at a piece of paper

In Scotland, guns belong to farmers.  They’re not for civilians, they’re not even really for policemen (isolated incidents aside) and they’re certainly not for sheet-white singers with weak wrists and a penchant for pencil crayons.  But, heck, we were in Nashville and everyone else was doing it.  So to Gun City we drove, and into the cracked fat war vet’s basement we did go, armed, for the first time in our lives, with fucking GUNS.

I wasn’t prepared for the sound.  When a gun fires in a room it’s a deadly, sharp, dark sound.  In close quarters, this seemed less like a lark and a bit too real.  Perhaps it was the ol’ ticky brain over thinking it, but when I held the gun I felt like I was holding 15 potential deaths.  This thought was aided capably by the paper silhouette of a human staring at me from the other end of the range.

I struggled to imagine him as a bastard, someone who deserved to be shot. Thus, I was initially too timid to shoot the thing. But then the brain rallied… Jim Davidson!  I thought, it’s Jim Davidson!  BANG! Shot the cunt in the cock.  Jim was now on the floor screaming, holding the place where his knob used to be, but right behind him was Darren from Hollyoaks… BANG! Missed.  Shit.  BANG! Took the prick’s arm off.  Fuckin YAAASSS.

That’ll do now.  Jim was almost dead and Darren would certainly die from the blood loss.  That was quite enough.  Though I can joke about it, and will admit to feeling a bit giddy for a minute or so afterwards, this was not a gateway drug for me. I will never feel compelled to go to a firing range or shoot a gun again. It may be wrong to mark this down as a ‘tour highlight’, but it was an afternoon I won’t forget.

5.  Buying 100oz. plastic Stratocasters filled with Pina Colada from a Cabo Wabo in Vegas.

It appears that I’ve neglected to mention anything at all about the reason for being in the US in the first place: the shows.  I think we were all agreed that it was pretty much up there as one of the best touring experiences of our lives.  Thanks to Death Cab for Cutie for that.  They and they’re crew are the tits, each and every one of them.

Thanks also to our brilliant fans that came out to support us, thanks to the new ears that got right on board from the first chords and to anyone who clapped/cheered, even in a half-arsed way, in-between and during our songs.  I won’t bore you with any more detailed accounts.  Instead, I’ll leave you with a few sub-headings of events from the summer tour. You can fill in the rest…

Magic Carpet Ride On Modified Electric Wheelchair Outside Bar In Los Angeles Almost Breaks Man’s Back

Gentlemen Add Sprite To Beer, Christen It ‘The Chazz’, Become Less Gentlemanly

Group Of Guys Watches Drunk Old Lady Throw-Up In Vegas Then Get Wheeled Out Of Shopping Mall By Paramedics

Scott Shoplifts Snow Globe From Wal-Mart By Mistake, Feels Proud

Pork Neck Causes A Stir

‘Yo Heart Folk Music’ Tee Causes Waves Of Jealousy Within DCFC

Billy Kicks Ass At Cornhole, Denies Speculation That He Is A Robot

Tour Manager Uses Billy To Win Games Of Cornhole Doubles And Gloats Up In Everyone’s Face

Band Invents Rod Stewart App In Moment Of Boredom And Vows To Contact A Guy They Know About Developing The App, For Real

Pleasant Sunrise Becomes Unsettling When Band Realises What Time It Is

Two Americans Attempt To Out-Dance One Another To Katy Perry’s Hit ‘Firework’, Both Lose

Singer Tells Story Which Is Only Funny If You Had Been There