05/11/08

Autumns’ misty fingers seem to be inevitably turning to winter in this part of the world, so our thoughts are turning back , probably temporarily, toward the summer months.  As a consequence of this, we’ve got round to putting up some pictures that Iona took while we were in Germany a couple of months ago which you can in our gallery

We’ve also found a bit of video that someone took at one of the gigs, so we’ve added it to our myspace page.  We don’t know who took it, but he or she goes under the monicker steffosi, so thanks to that mysterious person for taking that</br></br>

A bit of really good news today is that we’ll play at the Celtic Connections in January on the 17th.  This will be Doghouse Roses’ first time at the festival, but given a bit of luck, not our last

After all that reminiscing and positive events its time to have a quick word about 2 institutions on the UK high street that have recently excelled themselves in the field of customer service and are a credit to their profession.  Which really isn’t saying much.  Anybody not familiar with UK high street banks may not get who exactly I’m talking about here, but the 2 institutions have names that sound a bit like the “Grabby National” and the Handipak Bank of Schottland.  They have both distinguished themselves by losing confidential documents, failing to care in any way whatsoever, not returning phone calls, and, when someone manages to stay awake long enough to answer a phone or look up when you approach the counter, their sole purpose for being there seems to be to try and sell you a loan or credit card.  Fine stuff guys, keep it up, but if your not careful that sort of attitude may get you into trouble.  Hmmm, seems it already has

11/9/08

We just got back from Germany, yeterday where we had a great time, and would like to ay thanks to everybody that came to see us or said hello.  Were already looking forward to returning in October to play at the Popkomm festival in Berlin..more detail as they come.

In the meantime, theres a slightly surreal video of our TV appearance in Norderstedt, just north of Hamburg where Wolfgang of the musicstar took us just before the gig.

13/8/08

Were very proud to have a track included on a series of CDs by the webzine Fatea. The idea behind the series is that the Fatea team put together 3 CDs of featuring a track each of music that they've reviewed and enjoyed. Cd1 was concerned with solo singer-songwriters, and were now onto CD2 which is concerned with duos. <br><br>There are 18 tracks on this CD and its Free, i'll say it again, FREE, to download for a 3 month period which started on the 1st of August (sorry this is late, Neil!)You can download the CD by visiting:

Fatea Records

About half the bands, or i should more correctly say, duos, featured on the idsc i'd heard of and the tracks are excellent, but there was also some nice suprises from people we werent so familiar with. Our track on the disc is called "On the River", and its on the new album, so you can hear it there first.

As almost anyone who has ever played any sort of music in anger (or not in anger) will testify, you go to some weird and wonderful places to play your music and (try!) to earn a few bob.

That's why were really looking forward to next week when we get to travel around the Scottish Highlands for a series of shows kind of centered around the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival Fring. We will play on the Grass Roots stage in hootenanny, in Inverness,which is a bona fide fringe events before popping across the road to the Market Bar for a set or two, which has a tiny stage and diverse clientele and is always great fun. The 7th takes us to the George Hotel in Inverary, the 8th to the Poolewe hotel in Achnasheen and then onto the Broom Bar in Ullapool, none of which we've been to before, so its all a bit of an adventure.<br><br>Before all that though, we get to play a totally acoustic set at the Royal Oak as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Not that we are normally equipped with them electric guitar things played through Marshall Stacks mind, but the Royal Oak gig is an unamplified gig to a small room which is our favourite way to play. There's something about playing just as nature intended that's kind of different when you plug in, not something that I can put my finger on, but something I like. So there. The Royal Oak is located on Infirmary street in Edinburgh and is Fringe Venue number 309.

Just about a month ago now, we were privelidged to be asked to take part in the Danny Kyle Memorial festival in Paisley. Danny Kyle was from Paisley and as well as being a well respected musician and songwriter he organised some of Scotland's best festivals. The week long event was the hard work of Silvasonic Productions in conjunction with Danny's son Richard, and the event was a great success culminating in cracking concert at Paisley town Hall. We hope all the organisers have had time for a bit of a sit down and a relax after all the hard work put in, and here hoping for the festivals continued success. Silvasonic also organise the Paisley unplugged sessions in Redss Café Bar in Paisley every week and we always have a good time making the short journey along the road.Here's a picture of a slightly lubricated Doghouse Roses after a recent Redss Café session:

Theres also a slightly dark video taken of us in the same venue by the always on duty <a href="http://www.myspace.com/paddyboy">Hitman Silvonian</a><br><br>Of course, no Doghouse Roses blog of the current era would be complete without a quick mention of the new album, which should see the light of day on October the 6th