Campfires In Winter - Takeover Day 6

What way to wrap up our tour than a good old fashioned hoose perty?  Well that is exactly what we done at our good friend, Paul's flat in Edinburgh.  We couldn't resist playing some last few tunes before calling an official end to the tour.  We started off with some of our own songs, stripped back and acoustic - before hitting out with some crowd pleasers.

I don't think any of us ever expected to see girls twerking to See Us There, Both...but that's a thing that happened:

Much love,

Denny X

Campfires In Winter - Takeover Day 5

First of all we'd like to apologise for the lateness of this post, we were really busy with a gig yesterday.

So far we've covered the recording process and some of the shows we played on tour.  We haven't, however, covered anything to do with our launch show in Glasgow's Bar Bloc.  I'd firstly like to thank everybody that made it possible, from the people in Bloc down to everybody that came down and made the night a great success.  We all agreed it was one of the best nights of the tour!  We'd also like to thank Carnivores who stepped in last minute and helped us out with support, they were incredible as usual and got everybody pumped up for the night.  After the gig had finished we got the absolutely beautiful Glasgow Milk girls to play some tunes for everybody that hung around till the end of the night.  We eventually fell in our door at half 5 in the morning knowing that it was a pretty special night. 

Anyway, here are some photos from that night taken by the wonderful Neil Jarvie.  I'm sure you'll agree they are rather smashing!

 

     

Hope you enjoyed them. 

Campfires In Winter

xxx

Campfires In Winter Takeover Day 4 (slightly late...)

Scott has already given you some background about the 'Picture of Health' tour we embarked on last week.  Here is a short video diary he made of our first day, in Dundee.  Aww, look at his big happy face in the thumbnail.

See you later on!
Boab xxx

Campfires in Winter Takeover Day 3 - Recording Picture of Health.

We recorded our new EP Picture of Health up north in the beautiful surroundings of Balneden Steading in Tomintoul.  Being away from any and all distraction and focusing entirely on the EP was a truly amazing experience.  At home, we would need to struggle and negotiate around hectic work and college commitments in order to get one track down for one song.

Before we left for the awe inspiring, quiet seclusion of the Scottish Highlands, we decided to take this seriously.  We agreed to work hard and for as long into the wee hours as needed, we planned out what to do each day, left time for experimenting and accounted for any problems or errors that may arise. we even had a schedule for breakfast and tea breaks.  Indeed, before we left, we were determined and ready...

But then we did arrive and Denny and Scott got bored and bolted outside to play.

This was from our slot on MTV Cribs, we were caught a bit off guard.

Scott actually presented the Man vs Wild series well before that Bear radge became involved.  Sadly this was just before popularity picked up.  Shortly after this episode was filmed, Scott was sacked for his pine cone addiction. 

Campfires In Winter's Scottish Fiction Blog Takeover Day 2

                                   Campfires In Winter Wee Scottish Tour 

(Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness)

We began our wee Scottish tour on Tuesday and our first destination was Dundee’s Beat Generator.  This was our first trip up to Dundee so we were looking forward to it, especially because the tour was kicking off there.  As always, we went for a nice meal, opting for the wonderful Duke’s Corner where we all managed to stuff our faces with beautiful food before heading back to the venue.  We caught the sets of Two Thieves and Sierra Madre with the Sierra guys really surprising us as they have only been together 6 months but were already churning out some great tunes and showing some good potential.  The gig for us went well and we were all pretty happy with how it went.

Not long before the tunes started blaring.

On Thursday afternoon we all got together as it was time to head for Aberdeen with myself (Scott) behind the wheel.  With Boab's best "dance tunes" playlist blaring in the van it only seemed like we were on the road for about an hour before we'd arrived in Aberdeen.  We got to Tunnels just in time and it wasn't too long before we were on stage.  The venue started to fill up as ourselves took to the stage and the set went down very well indeed.  When we arrived at our digs for the night I quickly realised I'd left my bag of everything I needed in Wullie's house, two and a half hours back down the road.  Gutted wasn't a strong enough word to describe how I felt.  That's when I realised it was going to be a long few days...

A late night munch courtesy of McDonalds

Friday meant it was time to head further north to Inverness!  Denny volunteered to drive as the rest of us were dying from illness (not booze related).  After a couple of hours on the road we arrived safely.  There was a very quick turnaround between getting there, getting changed, and then heading to Mad Hatters for an early sound check.  We were due in HMV Inverness at 4:30pm for an unplugged acoustic set which went very well and we got a great reaction from shoppers and the store staff.  Before we played our own set we managed to catch the amazing RM Hubbert who was also playing upstairs from Mad Hatters in a very cosy room.  Every one of us absolutely loved it!!  After our own set we hung around in Mad Hatters, drank plenty of beer and danced into the early hours with Hubby himself and our good pals Duncan Overmeer and Jamie MacDonald.  It was a top class night and a real highlight of our tour!  The next morning we were due to play at an STV Appeal and we were all feeling the affects from the night before, but like the true professionals we are we soldiered on and done our wee bit for charity.  After saying goodbye to all our good pals from the north we headed south for Edinburgh...

Early morning gig in Inverness

STV Appeal gig.

Our good pals RM Hubbert, Duncan Overmeer and Jamie MacDonald

GET BOAB BURST!!

Catch up with us tomorrow to find out some more about the tour and some shenanigans. 

Night night :) 

Scott xxx

Campfires In Winter invade Scottish Fiction (only for a few days though. Like going on holiday or something)

We are proud today to release our new EP, Picture of Health, and are very grateful to Neil for handing his blog over to us so we can talk nonsense about it for the next few days.  We'll have plenty of stuff for you to read, look at and watch but first I'm just going to give you a wee introduction to the EP itself and tell you a little about how it came about.

We've always been a pretty DIY, self-sufficient band.  Over the last few years we've pretty much always recorded our own material and, as a result, have accrued some decent quality recording equipment.  We had long been toying with the idea of going away for a few days to record an EP somewhere remote in the north of Scotland.  The idea was we'd just hire a house for a few days, set up our stuff, record a few songs and enjoy ourselves in the process.  We eventually settled on a place called Balndeden Steading near Tomintoul and, with the blessing of its wonderful owners, Anita and Richard (who the EP is dedicated to), made our way up north. 

Here we are standing outside The Mill at Balneden. 

We wanted to try and capture the 'essence', if you will, of our grand surroundings.  When I listen back to the EP I like to think we managed to do that.  Whenever I hear the soundscapes on With A Ragged Diamond and title track Picture of Health I'm transported back.  One thing I regret is not sticking a few microphones outside to capture the sounds of nature all around.  Although on second thoughts, that might not have been a good idea in case one of the locals came and ate our equipment. 

Here is a picture of the locals being rounded up by a dog.  (This is also the view from the front of the house, by the way. Pretty stunning, eh?)

Anyway, there'll be more pictures and stuff from the Picture of Health recording sessions over the next week.  Now it's finished and is out for you all to hear.  We really hope you enjoy it. 

You can buy it on limited edition CD, as part of a T-shirt bundle or as a digital download from www.campfiresinwinter.com as from all the usual digital outlets.

If you'd like to stay at Balneden, have a look on here.

Until tomorrow,

Boab xxx