King Blues / Skints: £5 Hatfield show
Posted by jamie on Nov 18, 2011
The Skints and the King Blues are two out of five bands you can see FOR A FIVER at Jagermeister’s comically named “Ice Cold in Hatfield”.
It’s on Tuesday 29th November, with doors at 18:30.
Get tickets here.

Billy Bragg / King Blues on tour
Posted by jamie on Oct 12, 2011
The King Blues support Billy Bragg on (most) of his Left Field in Motion tour. We’re huge fans of both, and it promises to be well worth a look.
You can get tickets here.
13/11/2011 Edinburgh - Scotland, EH8 9JG
15/11/2011 Sheffield - Sheffield, S1 4SE
16/11/2011 Teesside - Middlesbrough, TS1 3BA
17/11/2011 Leeds - Leeds, LS2 9JT
19/11/2011 Cambridge - Cambridge, CB1 7GX
20/11/2011 Keele - Stoke-on-Trent, ST5 5BG
21/11/2011 Oxford - Oxford, OX4 1UE
22/11/2011 London - London, NW5 1JY
24/11/2011 Leicester - Leicester, LE1 7RH
25/11/2011 Liverpool - Liverpool, L1 0BW
26/11/2011 Liverpool - Liverpool, L1 0BW
28/11/2011 Bristol - Bristol, BS8 1LN

King Blues: UK tour w/ Cerebral Ballzy
Posted by jamie on Sep 9, 2011
The King Blues have announced that Cerebral Ballzy will support them on their UK tour this november. You can get tickets here.

King Blues: full UK tour dates
Posted by jamie on Jun 22, 2011
The King Blues have announced a clutch of extra UK dates, turning November’s Roundhouse date in to the start of a full-blown nation-wide tour. Fair play, lads.
Those dates in full:
November
2 London Roundhouse
3 Birmingham Academy
4 Manchester Academy 2
5 Glasgow Arches
7 Norwich Waterfront
8 Exeter Lemon Grove
You can get tickets here.

RUMBLE DOWN SOUTH 2011
Posted by jamie on May 3, 2011
We’ve been waiting on this for a while. Now that their website’s up and the line-up is confirmed, we can officially show you the Rumble Down South Festival 2011.
You can see the full line-up here, but highlights (in our point of view) include Lower Than Atlantis, Doctor 8Ball (fka Too Late Lucy), Funeral for a Friend and the Sonic Boom Six. I also love Jett Black.
I’ve heard rumours (rumours, people), that we’ll also see the King Blues, but can’t confirm that for you yet.

King Blues / SB6 / Random Hand: killer live photos
Posted by jamie on Apr 28, 2011
We’ve just been shown this photo album of the King Blues/SB6/Random Hand show at KoKo.
If you missed it, we reviewed the gig here. Thanks to Joe Duncan for the pics.
King Blues, SB6, Random Hand: Koko show
Posted by jamie on Apr 15, 2011
King Blues, Sonic Boom Six, Random Hand
KoKo, Camden
8th April 2011
Jamie
Not so long go, gigs like this would not certainly have been at the Astoria (RIP). This is only the 4th time I’ve been to KoKo, despite the fact that it’s actually at the bottom of our street. It’s lush on the inside, done up like an old-fashioned theatre and painted deep red. It’s also pretty tall, with two balconies, one above the other, from which you can see the bands if you’re too late to cram yourself in front of the stage. Seeing as doors were 18:30, that came in handy. Predictably, the Rebel Alliance massif here out early and in numbers, so I saw Random Hand from above, behind the sound desk.
The Keighley boys definitely know how to bring the ruckus. It’s a shame they’re given just half an hour, and that from 18:45, but they make a real go of it, opening the show with aplomb. Their dirty, rough-and-ready take on skacore comes as a shock to a few KoKo regulars who have come in heels and posh dresses to stand still in the indie club which happens later, but it’s a treat for all those familiar with the lads, and will doubtless have won over a few of the relative newcomers who wouldn’t have been here had the King Blues not conquered their own little slice of the (relative) mainstream.
Thanks to the queue snaking most of the way down Crowndale Road, we made it in just after their first song, so got the sight of a pit full of raised fists and a rousing rendition of Devil’s Little Guineau Pig. The circumstances have probably played their part in preventing Random Hand from pulling off their usual giant, dirty, scary beast of a live show: it’s a relatively large venue and still filling up, and it’s daytime outside. Nonetheless, the songs sound great and there’s plenty of energy both on and in front of the stage.
In their thirty minutes, Random Hand romp through the standards of their live set, drawn mainly from Inhale, Exhale and with a couple of tracks from new record Seething is Believing. Those are new on pretty much everyone, but are generally well received. They do sound mint, by the way. Keep your eye peeled on Bananatown to see us review the album in full any day now.
Sonic Boom Six get a little bit longer. I’ve seen them support the King Blues before, just over the road at the Purple Turtle, but this is a different kettle of fish altogether. Having both opened for the likes of Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake in recent years, Random Hand and SB6 are almost a dream support act: perfectly honed live sets and more than enough quality in their back-catalogues to entertain the early crowd. The real bonus, though, is that they get everyone down early. Before we even got tickets (two days before), facebook was packed with “get own early” and “doors at 6.30”. Such is the loyalty of this particular fanbase that everyone is in on time and ready to party.
Not for the first time, SB6 have coordinated their outfits, in part, at least, and tonight it’s yellow. The Road to hell and Sound of a Revolution kick off a short, sharp support set. They’re practiced at this and know to get as many tunes in as possible. It’s a pain for them, then, when something goes wrong with the laptop, but at least Barney gets an opportunity to get his cheeky-chappy talk out. An affectionate reference to Random Hand as their “brothers” gets turned around and becomes “like brothers from Yorkshire who don’t wash very much” and then joins in to a few more Yorkshire jokes. Affectionately meant, of course.
It’s quickly time to get on with the show, and new single New Stlye Rocka gets a live outing. It’s really good live actually. For the record, it’s Barney who takes on Tonn Piper’s verse. Meanwhile, back in the Real World comes after it, and then there’s another huge cheer when Kids of the Multiculture is dedicated to the fact that without multicultural Britain we wouldn’t have any of the bands that are here tonight. Without the sampler, they can’t play Ya Basta! so, after deliberating with their new(ish) guitarist Jimmy T Boom, acting as the emergency engineer, Laila and Barney decide to “just sack it off and play some tunes”. It’s here that Sunny Side of the Street becomes the third new song in a shortened set of only seven. Deliberately or not, it’s performed as a semi-acoustic, breezy, almost reggae tune. Amongst all the technical problems that have hampered their usually super-slick live show, this improvisation is actually the stand-out moment of the set: it’s an incredibly beautiful song, just perfect for the occasion, and it’s really satisfying to see them just “sack it off” and get on with it. No doubt it’s liberating, if perhaps a little stressful, for the band, but it’s actually a joy for all of us watching as well. The song will doubtless become a favourite, praise indeed given the competition it faces, but the performance here, even without the circumstances, stood out as one of the most memorable moments of the whole evening, and a collector’s item to boot. Not bad for an emergency improvisation by a support band.
As regular service is resumed, it’s then time for Laila to big up Random Hand for “kicking the shit out of every ingle night” of this tour and their hombres the King Blues before a larger, and louder, than life Piggy n the Middle brings the set to a close.
The changes to their line up and the set have inevitably changed Sonic Boom Six’s live set, and the technical problems can’t have helped either, but there’s another excellent new band emerging here, and enough of that was evident to set the night in full swing and ready for its headliners.
And headliners they are. One of the things about the rest of the world discovering the King Blues is the arrival of newer, more mainstream punters in the crowd. Predictably, then, there’s the bigger venue and the bigger drinks prices. There’s the second-song surge of (presumably) first- year students who’ve waited this long at the bar and now need to be front centre. Despite all this, though, and despite the mini-scandal when Fruitbag left, it’s reassuring, having watched them in concert for the first time since they were catapulted in to the public consciousness, to see that, while the spotlight has brought with it so many new and different things, it’s just like watching the same band that some of us in here saw play across the road and, afterwards, play outside in the road. Alright, then, on the big traffic island just by KoKo, Costa, and Mornington Crescent.
That night two boys were ejected from the Purple Turtle for being under age. Word got around to Itch and instantly touched a nerve: “I’ve been a punk rocker since I was twelve years old”, I remember him bawling, “trying to sneak in to CapDown shows. And those boys have been thrown out, so, if they can’t come to the show then after the gig we’re going to take the show to them – we’re going to go and play another set outside just for those two boys”. And they did: two nervous looking lads were ushered to the front to see the King Blues play three acoustic songs just for them right outside KoKo. They’ve returned here as big name stars but, and this is a relief more than anything, evidently unchanged. You can’t play impromptu gigs on traffic islands when you’re a major rock star, at least not in Central London, but the spirit remains the same among those of us who were there before. Just here there are more of us: it’s bigger and more bombastic.
Jamie jazz and then Itch arrive separately from the others, to bigger and bigger cheers, and the band race through We Are Fucking Angry and then Let’s Hang the Landlord, when big gangs of lads gatecrash the front. There’s an irony that, while the band are singing about peace and love, in fact those exact words, the biggest circle pit of the night opens up. I guess that’s the sort of thing you see from two floors up.
Mr Music Man appears in amongst newies Set the World on Fire and I Want You. By now the place is a giant, rowdy, boozy singalong, with sweaty bodies wrapped around each other, and rolling across the top of each other, far below us. I’ve got a football injury that’s classed as “delicate”, bless, so were up in one of those boxes that the old men used to shout abuse from in the Muppet movies. I actually saw Hassan from Chapter Eleven almost swimming, as he dragged himself forward over the top of the crowd. Respect. Then there’s a full stage invasion, as the Sonic Boom Six and Random Hand join the King Blues on stage for My Boulder. It’s a proper celebrity moment, yet with a lovely sense of family – that sense of really belonging has survive the move to the bigger venues, and it’s really touching to see and to feel a part of. Streets Are Ours gets a rapturous response, and another new track, Sex Education, gets an even bigger cheer: it’s mainly down to the introductions they’re getting, because this one was funnier: “Sex Education”, says Itch, is “about how, by the time you get your first sex education lesson, you’ve already seen 2 Girls 1 Cup about 5 times”.
The best audience participation comes during Headbutt, though: all three floors gleefully chanting along in unison. Breathless, and drenched in sweat and adulation, we’ve got time for just two more: Punk and Poetry’s The Future’s Not What It Used to Be, again dedicated to “our excuse for a government”, and a gloriously anthemic rendition of I Got Love.
One of the downsides to KoKo is that it actually is time now, and with one short encore, we’re actually outside before ten. The SB6’s Dangers of Rock and Roll sums this problem up nicely, so there’s no need for me to rant about it.
The King Blues do return, though, with Five Bottles of Shampoo, one of the poems off the new record, and an ode to respecting and valuing women, and delivered on his own by Itch. It practically brings the house down, and, remember, we’re on the second floor. The Scroungers is out next, before we’re finally done with Save the World, Get the Girl. It’s been a stunning show from start to finish, and despite the fact that it isn’t bedtime yet, I think everyone in here is exhausted. When I drifted back to proper consciousness I could just see disoriented bodies, blinking like baby mice, hunting each other out in the smush of so many plastic cups. It’s not 10 o’clock yet. Good night.
King Blues: album release / instores
Posted by jamie on Apr 5, 2011
Pre-order here.
The King blues will support the release of their new album a few in-stores as follows:
Mon 18th - Rise, Cheltenham - 5pm
Tues 19th - HMV, Cardiff - 5pm
Weds 20th - HMV, Southampton - 5pm
Thurs 21st - Fopp, Covent Garden, London - 6pm
There will alsobe a special album launch night at The Hippodrome in Kingston on 14th April in conjunction with Banquet Records.
You might also want to nosey on this cool piece form thie Independent.
King Blues at Camden Crawl
Posted by jamie on Mar 31, 2011
The King Blues will headline for Red Bull Bedroom Jam on Sunday of this year’s Camden Crawl (Sunday 1st May). Metallers Rise to Remain will lead the other day.
This year the Red Bull Bedroom Jam Arena, located on Hawley Crescent, will be the only area open to those under 18 and will be completely free for all those aged 14-18.
Wristbands will be distributed on a first come first served basis and will be available exclusively through the Red Bull Bedroom Jam site, so those who want to get involved need to head to the Bedroom Jam site to register.

King Blues: review at Blue Bloc
Posted by jamie on Feb 13, 2011
The Blue Bloc have published this cool review of last night’s King Blues show at the Garage in Highbury, London.
How else do you explain a punk/ska band that built its sound around a ukulele – an instrument normally associated with Hawaiian holidays and 1940 British music hall – and a melodica, available at all good Argos branches and just one step up the evolutionary scale from a recorder?
Read the full piece here.
