Shapes blog

Manchester and Birmingham monstering

2010-10-21T00:08:00.000-07:00

We're a couple more shows into the dates with these monsters, having battled through shitting traffic yet again for our jaunt to Manchester. We arrived fashionably/unfashionably late, just about turning up 10minutes before our set time! Whoops! The gig was part of In The City and we were lucky enough to be invited to be on the Brew Records showcase.

The gig was alright, nothing special, nothing poor, but alright. We played some new songs, some went well some didn't! The highlight of the night seemed to be rich and steve spotting Bez!!

Last night we played birmingham. Luckily a few faithfuls showed up and just about managed enough people to warrant calling it an audience. What's up Birmingham!? Why don't people bother going to shows unless it's a Friday and they can get drunk? This city needs to fucking wake up and appreciate what is here before it's gone and everyone gets the joy of moaning about there being no gigs!!

Nottingham tonight at The Bodega, I have high hopes....

And you and I EP release show

2010-10-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

We had the pleasure of joining our good friends in &U&I for the Birmingham date of their first tour, and also the release show for their awesome debut EP 'Kill the man that shot the man'. Many of you will surely heard of, if not enjoyed, blakfish, so it should be no surprise to you to find that &U&I are pretty tasty, as they spawn from the same members, minus one.

The show was busy, hot, fun, and drunk. We had the pleasure of playing alongside birminghams IO as well as Maybe She Will. I'll spare the breakdown and words about every band, it was all good throughout.

Our remix eps have been late delivered bit should be here today, so apologies to you lovely people who pre-ordered and are waiting patiently. Don't forget to enjoy the free weekly downloads at www.weareshapes.bandcamp.com

Next show is gonna be sick. The Brew Records showcase at In The City in Manchester. The venue is Gullivers. We're joining These Monsters, Castrovalva, Chickenhawk and more. We go on stage at 8pm so get down early!!

October shows begin

2010-10-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

We began our October stint of shows last night at The Old Blue Last in Shoreditch, London. Despite a rocky start and quite a few hitches along the way, it was a pretty enjoyable affair.

The night began with massive traffic issues for all bands playing, and by 8.15 the doors had been open since eight and no bands were there. As can be expected the in house promoter wasn't best impressed. Luckily things turned out okay and after a slight delay it got on track.

Munroe effect opened up following a selection of hits by Thrash Hits DJs, which seemed to include numerous plays of Andrew WK! Unfortunately they were jinxed with technical gremlins and watched by a rather static crowd, but fought through and powered on honourably.

These monsters took their chance to wake the crowd up and were steaming along, all until the moment when the guitar amp head they borrowed of us went flying to the floor and taking a couple of scars on the way. We missed the rest of their set fixing the amp, which fortunately got going again.

Our set seemed to alright, a little rusty being the first of the tour, but not too shabby. We opened with some old faithfuls then chucked in a few new songs, which I think we'll be doing more of this tour.

The drive home was a killer and this bus journey isn't too inspiring after 4 hours sleep. Oh well. Next up is Friday 8th at The Flapper for &U&I Ep release show

xxx

Remix Release and October Tour

2010-09-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

We're going on tour in October with the awesome These Monsters to back the release of our new Remix EP. Dates at www.myspace.com/weareshapes

The Pasture, The Oil features all 6 tracks off The Pasture, The Oil but remixed by various old and new friends.

We'll be releasing 100 limited edition physical copies from www.shapes.bigcartel.com and will be available from iTunes too.

We will also be giving a track a week beginning on Monday at www.weareshapes.bandcamp.com

Love
SHAPES

One Day Left...

2010-04-13T01:07:00.000-07:00

...of the mighty tour known as Le Boeuf Douche Tour with our lovely lux friends in Mutiny On The Bounty.

We played Royal Park Cellars last night for Dirty Otter, joined by a third band Lost From Atlas, who were bloody spanking good! MOTB were on top form, smiling and dancing their way through a rompus of a set.

We're playing The Purple Turtle in Camden tonight, which is sadly the last date of the tour. We'll be glad for some sleep however, we must have invested a small fortune into Costa coffees over the last week or so. The Hazelnut Latte is a winner, but we are spending FAR too much money on them now!!!

motb tour continues

2010-04-12T04:33:00.000-07:00

So the tour hads been quite a struggle for Mutiny On The Bounty, with a new guitarist and temporary bassist being trained up to get tour ready. The shit hit the fan and fired poo all over the place the other day though when new recruit Steve left the band unexpectedly mid-tour. Luckily the Lux chaps have a very handy and talented merch guy in the form of Claude, who has stepped in on guitar and done a grand job too.

We played a rather poorly attended show in Newcastle on Friday, but had a great night afterwards drinking as many beers as we possibly could with new found friend Aaron from opening support Knuckle Dragger, cheers dude x

Manchester on Sunday was top notch, especially with the Shisha bar attached to the venue, we enjoyed a fine selection of smokes before playing! Mutiny powered through even though Sacha was real ill, man those guys can overcome any boundary!!

There's only Leeds and London left with the lovely motb crew :(

Le Boeuf Douche

2010-04-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

We're all achey and tired after only two days on the road with Mutiny On The Bounty - what a surprise!! It's been awesome so far.

GUILDFORD
We were happy to share the bill with Mutiny, Pneu and Shield Your Eyes (along with a lovcal band who I can't remember the name of sorry). It was a corker of a night. We were a bit lame but it was daylight when we went on!! Big up to Mazz for putting on such a great line up and letting a fat load of us stuff at his after too.

NOTTINGHAM
Another corker! We were joined by Young Wolves and Solomon Grundy, who were both very good. We took third slot and had a cheeky addition to the line up in the form of Pete Reisner who id this drum cover of Trampled By A Horse. So yeah we dragged him on to play Trampled with us - what legend!
Massive thanks to everyone involved in last nights show, it was great.

Unfortunately we aren't doing Glasgow, Brighton or Southampton but will be back with the lovely Luxembourg lot on Friday in Newcastle.

Sorry!!

2010-03-23T06:35:00.000-07:00

So it's obviouis we are lame at keeping this blog updated. We're sorry, we apologise, just don't expect much and you won't be disappointed!

We had ana amzing time on tour with Glassjaw. The shows were epic, and we are very grateful to everyone for their support and enthusiasm.

Lately, we've done a few gigs here and there, we've spent a lot of timewriting new songs and that's about it really. We're really excited about the new stuff, it's coming along swimmingly. We have played one of the tracks live a couple of times and you can catch a sneaky peak of it here

We played what was probably the greatest gig of all time last week, as the sad demise of our best mates in Blakfish came. May Blakfish Rest In Peace, and best of luck to them for their future projects, which will no doubt be awesome.

We've got some lovely new tees on our merch page. We think you should buy one.

Right, we'll try and keep this more active. We promise.

Touring with Glassjaw!!!!

2010-01-12T10:35:00.000-08:00

We're absolutely over the moon to announce that we have been asked to join GlassJaw on their UK tour.

GlassJaw are easily one of the most influential and inspiring bands to us, and we're still pinching ourselves.

But yeah, we'll be happily joining Glassjaw and Pulled Apart By Horses on the following dates:

Jan 24th	Academy w/ GlassJaw	Manchester	buy tickets
Jan25th	Rock City w/ GlassJaw	Nottingham	buy tickets
Jan26th	QMU w/ GlassJaw	Glasgow	buy tickets

Hopefully see some familiar faces there!

Gavin, Richard, Steve

SHAPES

x

You Butcher Tabbed

2009-11-26T05:13:00.001-08:00

Some crazy ass mofo has tabbed You Butcher.

You Butcher Tab

I don't know if it i right, but we'll be having a go at it at some point, let us know if it sounds good.

Ups and Downs

2009-11-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

So we played the Topman CTRL gig curated by Gallows on Thursday, with our good friends Soni Quella. And this week we're gonna go bag us some Topman clothes as a reward, so don't be surprised when you next see us and we actually look decent!!

We were meant to be doing a kick-ass tour with Youves starting the day after, but the Friday was cancelled. Bad Start. Then we headed to Middlesborough for a gig on the Saturday, but didn't really consider it being Halloween and everyone being more interested in Zombies than music, so we played to a drunken swarm of frankensteins and ill looking nurses (or something like that). Youves were awesome and we were treated to a load of toast back at the house we were stopping at (See - good blog!! *read on everyone else that wasn't there..).

We hit the road at 9.30am and finally arrived at the next destination, Bournemouth, yes the other end of the country, at about 6pm. Unfortunately the audience consisted of as many people as the drive consisted of hours. Not the greatest reception considering the drive!

Cambridge was fun, and Youves totally owned it. Liverppol was cancelled too, and now we just wait til next weeks London show.

It's a real shame cos Youves have been bloody awesome and it's been dick-tastic hanging out with them, but I'm sure we'll get to do it again sometime soon.

Danish Pigmeat Industry.

2009-10-21T06:53:00.000-07:00

Update//Oct 09...

so, we're sat back along side reality, wishing that we weren't, work and play, work and play, I’m forever wondering if this shiny shapes carousel will ever stop spinning as it making me sick and I want to get off. It'll be nice to stay straight for a while, I guess it's not without a few perquisites tied along for the ride and I suppose why we go round and round is because we haven't found somewhere to get off yet. Any artistic outlet will understand that it will never pay for itself so we're convinced by ourselves that a little hard work goes a long way and with good friends you can never really go wrong! Due to a more recent magical happening we are able to see just that, Mimas! these lovely Danish wonders unlike shapes enjoy more delicate quirkier sounds filtering out through their beautiful minds.

We're been as busy as ever since our return home, back swimming the streams of the river of shit that I like to call the British motorway systems, doing what we do best, jump, strike note, shout, jump some more, vomit! Anyone for a Danish?
The pleasure has been all ours, although unfortunately having a couple of dates cancelled on such short notice due to ferry cancellations (as Mimas would say, Fuckers!), this put a slight damper on the tour as we were excited to be spending the whole week together but i guess its only left us wanting more. We still managed to make the most of this one though, ok so we still had to venture home most nights, believe me we did not want to but anyone that knows us, knows that’s how we're obligated to function.

So we managed the following . . .

9th Oct - Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich
10th Oct - Royal Park Cellars, Leeds
12th Oct - City Screen Basement Bar, York
13th Oct - The Red House, Sheffield
14th Oct - The Flapper, Birmingham - cancelled
15th Oct - Chameleon Arts Cafe, Nottingham - cancelled

Four dates, not as many as we liked but something’s you just can't help. We absolutely love those Danish prince's Mimas, I strongly recommend that you jump to the opportunity to see them live, unfortunately it will have to be next time they are in the UK as if your reading this now then you've gone and missed it. These 'death-indie' wonders will have you singing along in no time and if you want to sing along you can and not feel ridicules because chances are most people there will be singing too.
we've known Mimas for quite a while now and have had the pleasure of playing with them several times before across the British underground, I think its time we worm our way over to demark and start a super group with these boys, imagine the chaos.
http://www.myspace.com/mimas

More on our agenda are these two events thats will see us through to the end of October,

25th Oct - Hockley Hustle @ Bodega Social, Nottingham

29th Oct - Topman CTRL curated by Gallows @ The Flapper, Birmingham

(below as a previous post you can see the detail for this)

come and say hello.

Gallows pick us for Topman gig

2009-10-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

We're real happy to be picked by Gallows to play the next Topman CTRL event. You can find more details on what Topman CTRL is and why Gallows have picked us at www.myspace.com/topmanctrl

The gig will be at The Flapper on Thursday 29th October, just before we head out on tour with Youves!

We'll be putting some more stuff up on here over the next week or so, including footage from the Mimas tour and JAPAN!!!

Home time.....

2009-09-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

So thats it for shapes in the land of the rising sun or probably a more accurate name would be land of the crazy bastards! We`re really gonna miss this amazing country and playing to such awesome people every night but all good things must come to an end and i`m not sure how much more cold rice i can take!

Since being here we`ve realised a few things;

1) We are very tall.

2) Rich DEFINATELY does not like japanese food.

3) All you can drink kareoke is the greatest concept of the eastern world.

4) We owe zankyo records a beer.

Now with an 18 hour journey back to the uk we have some great memories and some great new friends and fans of the band, we`ve shared sweat, spit and sushi with what feels like half of japan, we were lucky enough to play all our shows with a great swedish band called scraps of tape and were taken care of like we were westlife (without the fat one) by a great tour manager/friend called juinki .

Anyway gotta go I`ve saved just enough money to pay for around 6 hours in the massage chair at the airport so hopefully after that they`ll have to pour me onto the plane like a curly soup.

goodnight tokyo!!!

2009-09-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

Ｆｉｒｓｔｌy massive apologies for the lack of content in this blog this week...we`ve been using a communal internet access and cant really upload videos or photos, but we have loads to share when we get home.

Tonight we played the most intimate show of them and it was amazing!! We had the pleasure of sharing of playing with our swedish friends Scraps of Tape check them out here and we also played with some other brillaint bands from across the globe, including the japanese wonders Cinema Staff who are lovely lovely boys.

We are so happy to be part of the Zankyo family and are having the best time of our lives. Jpan rock.

We`ll try and shed some more light on things tomorrow or soon at least.

luv to our families and friends x x

2009-09-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

Gotta be real quick...

Last night was awesome, amazing crowd (lots of them!!) and amazing bands. One of japans biggest rock bands 9mm parabellum bullet plyed and scraps of tape were bloody awesome.

Check SOTs blog for better updates than ours www.sottourdiray.blogspot.com

second tokyo gig tonight

woohooooo

Konichiwa

2009-09-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

So its taken some time to get to do the first blog and its now four thirty am and on a Japanese computer, so please excuse how this may read!!

Japan so far has been more than amazing, despite a thirty hour trip to get to osaka, we were welcomed with open arms and everyone is awesome, especially our new best friend and most excellent tour manager Junki - he rocks.

Zankyo Records are amazingly organised and we have had everything sorted for us so well.

OSAKA Club Quattro
The venue is in the middle of the centre on the top floor of a shopping centre, and is well cool. We joined a load of other Zankyo bands and were lcky enough to play to a packed out 600 audience - it was jaw droppping.

NAGOYA - Club Quattro
Another brilliant venue and again at the top of a shopping centre. The crowd were amazing and it`s crazy how they respond to us. We`ve even been signing tee shirts and stuff haha. We found a feature in a Japanese magazine on us and a sick band from Sweden Scraps Of Tape, who we have been sharing our bus with, they are excelellent guys and bloody brilliant band too.

Headlining both nights has been te, who are well worth checking out.

We`re playing one of Tokyo`s top venues tomorrow, along with a load of awesome bands and are really excited.

This trip so far has been nothing short of amazing, and hopefully will carry on that way.

We`ll get some pics and videos online when we can...promise
For now - Sayanora!!!!

We're going to Japan!!!!

2009-09-02T03:15:00.000-07:00

We’re absolutely amazingly excited to be going to Japan!

We’ll be over there for a week, playing four shows, in Osaka, Nagoya and two in Tokyo, as part of Zankyo Records Annual Festival.

We’re going over there to promote the release of our album over there (album consisting of tracks of both UK released EPs) via the mighty Zankyo Records, home to 65 Days of Static and Youth Movies amongst numerous awesome Japanese bands too.

We’ll be flying out on 17th September and then get to play these awesome gigs:

19.09 - Osaka Shinsaibashi CLUB QUATTRO
20.09 - Nagoya CLUB QUATTRO
21.09 - Tokyo Shibuya O-EAST & DUO MUSIC EXCHANGE
22.09 - SHIBUYA O-NEST

We get a nice day of sightseeing at the end before heading home back to reality.

We’ll hopefully be keeping our blog page updated with photos and stories of our weird and wonderful experiences

NEW SONG

2009-07-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

We're putting a new song online on Monday ffor 1 week only.

Get on it whilst you can!!!
www.myspace.com/weareshapes

Live video

2009-06-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the awesome people at Beatcast TV we have a video of our set at Hot Damn...

CLICK HERE....

Things Going On

2009-06-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

Yo!

Still we haven'tt bothered trying to sum up Ireland, but we'll get round to that another day, in the meantime though...

Recording
We're off to Serafina Studios to record a new track, which we will be releasing on 10" vinyl alongside tracks from The Tupolev Ghost, Brontide and Holy State, courtesy of BSM and Holy Roar Records.
That will be out at the start of August. And yes, we're very excited to do avinyl, nevermind alongside such good bands.

August Tour
So this leads on nicely to us doing some shows in August with Brontide. Nearly all of the dates are booked now and are on our myspace page www.weareshapes.com

BSM Summer Collection
Big Scary Monsters have a sexy new compilation coming out next month, which you can see full details of on www.bsmrocks.com. There's some awesome stuff on there, and we've got a track and the Trampled By A Horse video too. Go have a mooooooch

Cheers,

Kerrang Review

2009-06-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

Ireland was a disaster, but that's another story....

On the other hand, Kerrang liked our show with Blakfish at The Great Escape.

Off to Ireland

2009-05-27T05:29:00.000-07:00

We're off to Ireland tomoro, with the ever-so-sexy Blakfish. It's going to be chaos. We'll do our best to get back alive, but can't promise anything.

If anyone reading this (does anyone read this...?) is in Ireland and lives near/in Dublin, Cork or Derry, then come to one of the bloody gigs you beautiful Irelander!!!

Guiness Guiness Guiness!

Tour - Day whatever...

2009-05-15T07:13:00.000-07:00

We played in Portsmouth last night which was sick, it was bloody hot and sweaty as hell, but good fun! Thanks to Dan from Munroe Effect for sorting the show out, and thanks to La Roux for letting us try and play louder than they were next door!

Tonight we’re off to Camden to play The Purple Turtle with HORSE the band, Blakfish, The JCQ and a few more – apparently it’s gonna be busy busy, and we’re being filmed too, which you’ll be able to see sometime soon.

Tomorrow (Sat) we’re playing the BSM showcase at The Grreat Escape Festival. It’s free entry at The Hobgoblin, from 3pm til 8pm. We’ll be joined by Mutiny on the Bounty, Crown on the rats orchestra, blakfish and This Town Needs Guns. This will be awesome!

Rock!!

Tour - Days 5,6 and 7

2009-05-13T09:31:00.000-07:00

I'll try and squash this in quickly...

Huddersfield was pretty cool, we played, we drank we got letter P's tattooed on us by Maude, we didn't sleep much

Saturday we were meant to play a house show but didn't and sat in the botanical gardens and got drunk instead.

We then drank a bit more and a load more then ended up at a house party full of neon lights and strobes. I (Gavin) managed to pass out at the house and wake up with no glasses, no phone, no friends and no idea where the fuck I was!! It was pretty crazy!

Sunday was hungover, we ate a roast dinner in a pie. We played The Harley and were very well looked after by the lovely people there. A girl from BroOklyn played who was very good, some dickheads with synths played, they were fuckin shite, The JCQ played and were awesome, we played and were tired, but obviously rocked the balls off the remaining 10 people ;)

We've enjoyed a couple of days chilling now and were meant to be playing Southampton at a house party tonight, but Steve has got some kind of flu/bug/deathbug so can't. Hopefully we'll be good for Portsmouth and the scikass shows on Fri and Sat.....fingers crossed

Tour - Day 4

2009-05-08T06:11:00.000-07:00

Nottingham

We played at a cool bar in the centre of Nottingham called The Chameleon Arts Cafe, pretty sweet, like a massive old student house almost, but without the smell of piss.

Talons were missing two members, but still rocked the shiznit, Thew JCQ were utterly mental as usual, even though Maude managed to get stranded in Manchester and had only walked into the venue about 5mins before they played.

Our set was a fuckin nightmare!! Bass problems seemed to get the better of us, so the bass got smashed up in different ways during different parts of the set! Oh well, shit happens.

This weekend we have Huddersfields tonight, then probably be playing a house party in Manchester on Saturday and then in Sheffield on Sunday. We've been travelling home every night so far to go to work, but not the weekend so partying is well in order!!!!!

Tour - Day 3

2009-05-07T05:32:00.000-07:00

We played The Old Blue Last for a BSM showcase kinda ting last night, which was sicker than dead babies!

Talons opened up with strings a plenty and riffs galore, they're playin Nottingham with us tonight to, check em out myspaz/gotalons..

Blakfish literally tore the place apart (as usual) and we had a pretty good set, completed by Mule Fish joining us for the extra added vocals at the end of You Butcher. We fuckin loved it.

Huw Stephens played Trampled By A Horse last night on his Radio 1 show, which is cool. You can hear it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/huwstephens/ and please feel free to email him and tell him to play the damn thing again sometime soon!

Tour - Day 2

2009-05-06T05:26:00.000-07:00

Manchester @ Kro Bar

We were greeted and welcomed by the lovely people who were promoting the show, 'Killing A Camera Collective' - proper nice chaps!

The JCQ played the most sickeningly brutal and jaw-dropping set, it was mayhem, utter insanity - loved it. We caught some of Rig Up Explosive's set too, having not seen them before despite seeing their name dotted arounds lots, them were good! and a nice bunch too.

We played a nightmare set with runaway kick drums and pedals that wouldn't work - but it was fun nonetheless and a few new faces joining a few familiar ones made for a good night.

Tonight we're in London at The Old Blue Last for a free entry BSM show - it's gonna sick, with Blakfish and Talons - booooom!!

Start of tour

2009-05-05T01:24:00.000-07:00

So the 'Lock Up Your Pets' Tour kicked off at a rate of knots last night, with our Birmingham EP Release show at The Flapper. The JCQ opened up with their balls out big style, followed by a tight-as-steve's-lycra (check this pic!) set from Blakfish, and we then had the task of following them, so did our very best.

Twas a great night and a brilliant start to the tour and glad to have so many people out to celebrate the release of 'The Pasture, The Oil' which is out now so go buy one damn you!

Manchester tonight @ Kro Bar. Yes.

MAY TOUR

2009-04-17T03:56:00.000-07:00

We're going on tour to promote the new release.
The England dates are mostly with The James Cleaver Quintet and then we go to Ireland with the marvellous Blakfish

Proper excited!

New Track with Video

2009-04-01T06:06:00.000-07:00

Opening Track from The Pasture, The Oil - Out 4th May through Big Scary Monsters

Booking May Tour

2009-03-31T02:53:00.000-07:00

We're booking a tour to back the release of our first record for BSM.We'll be looking to play through the majority of May with our mates in The JCQ.

SHAPES (BSM) www.weareshapes.com

Rockmidgets ones to watch, Noisy Birmingham 3 piece with raw and loud live show on tour to promote new EP 'The Pasture, The Oil' released through Big Scary Monsters on May 4th.

New Punktastic review - http://www.punktastic.com/reviews/3215

"fidgety bass, off-kilter screams and quite literally tearing the roof off the place to get their point across. Well, quite literally, almost." - New Noise Live Review
"a band that move walls and smash windows with their live sound" - Push To Fire
"Ones to watch" - Subba Cultcha

The James Clever Quintet www.myspace.com/thejcq

Topped for big things in 09, Party Rock And Roll to smash your car up to. Releasing first EP (finally) and packing an energetic live show to envy many.

"Madness meets Blood Brothers in Hell" Eyan - Rig Up Explosive
"Takin a kick in the nuts while havin your gooch tongued by Kerry Katona." Lewis - Colour

Taking bookings through May 09, so please get in touch if you want us in your town - weareshapes@googlemail.com

Dates so far:
Mon 4th - The Flapper, Birmingham
Tues 5th- Kro Bar, Manchester
Wed 6th –Old Blue Last, London
Thurs 7th – Chameleon Arts Cafe, Nottingham
Sat 9th - Fighting Cocks, Kingston
Thurs 14th –Fat Fox, Portsmouth
Fri 15th Purple Turtle, Camden (Hot Damn night)
Sat 16th –The Great Escape Festival
Thurs 21st –Engine Rooms, Brighton (Hot Damn night)

Any dates you can offer - please get in touch

Punktastic Review

2009-03-25T05:53:00.000-07:00

Punktastic.com had a listen to our new record and quite liked it.

See for yourself at http://www.punktastic.com/reviews/3215

Ennit

Get Your Learn On Free Download

2009-03-13T05:53:00.000-07:00

You can download the entire Get Your Learn On EP for free!!

Click below...

Also included is acopy of You Butcher.

Enjoy

New Track Coming

2009-03-04T05:53:00.000-08:00

We're putting up a Brand New track of the forthcoming EP on Monday 9th March at Midday.

Keep a look out!

Good News & Bad News

2009-02-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

You get the bad news first...

I (Gavin) ended up helping difuse a heated moment at a party on Saturday and consequently spent the night in A&E receiving 6 stitches to my hand, after slicing open the part between my thumb and finger. Luckily there should be no more long-term damage, but was told it will be couple of months before I'll be playing drums again. It goes without saying that I'm Really Pissed Off!!

Good News however....
We can today announce the awesome news that we have signed to our favourite UK label 'Big Scary Monsters'. We're massively excited to be joining the bsm family, which is most definitely the best label for us to be working with.
We'll be putting our new record out through bsm in May - woohoo!!

Hopefully I'll have my hand back in action ready for the release tour in May (fingers crossed). In the meantime our good friend Wiz from Blakfish will be filling in on drums when possible. The cuirrent tour weith Munroe Effect will continue from Wednesday with Wiz playing, so check dates on our page for info.

Thanks for all the kind words so far x

New Limited RunTees!!

2009-02-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

We've got some lovely new tees for the tour. We're only doin this 1 run of them, so get them while you can!
Big up to the Mr Gordo for producing some ill shit yet again!!

It's bugly time...

2009-01-29T03:17:00.000-08:00

Ok, so i finally managed to get another video together, apologies’ for the amount of time its taken to get round to doing this but there seams to be a lot of illnesses going around at the monment which is probably a result of sleeping in a damp lockup for a week, did i mention that there were NO wash facilities the entire time we were there, NO SHOWERING! Unbearable.

February Tour

2009-01-23T04:52:00.001-08:00

We just got the flyer for our February Tour through....

**CLICK THE FLYER FOR FULL FLYER IMAGE**

We're doing most of the dates with Munroe Effect and some of the shows without Munroe Effect will see Pattern join us.

Big up to Sam Lambert for the lovely artwork.

We're hoping to get some new tees in time for the tour. We're all out of the White Shapes face tees so the sexy mind of Mr Gordo is pencilling some stuff together for a new design.

We're tracking vocals and little touches today, we'll try and get some videos up asap..

Still going...

2009-01-22T06:46:00.000-08:00

We're still chopping away at the tracks in the studio. Things are going really well and we'll get a video up later hopefully, just haven't had much time to do it yet, but a couple more vids will be going online this week.

We have a little guest in the studio today adding some awesome extras, which you'll see in one of the vids

Recording

2009-01-20T05:42:00.000-08:00

Santa brought Rich a video camera, so we've been playing...

Recording is going well, all the drums are done. Today Rich has his one way ticket to The Tone Zone

Day 1 Recording @ The Stable's.

2009-01-18T04:01:00.000-08:00

So for our first night down @ 'The Stables' in Eastbourne, we prepared ourselve's for our first nights sleep, it seemed that we had to bunk down in a damp room that is commonly used as a practice space.There was a fucking lovely incident where one of the bands that store all their equipment here had returned from a two week tour and wanted to load in all their gear....it was 7am. All's fair in love and war, baby!

On a positive note, we're heading into brighton to watch the insanity of The James Clever Quintet tonight, nose's will be broken because i'm going to be windmilling at the fucking front with Steve, We're gonna hit the town like our parachute's failed.

Whilst i finish this up Gabby is currently getting everything ready with Nick to start tracking the drum's. we'll keep you posted.

r x

Ready to record

2009-01-16T02:23:00.000-08:00

So we had one last rehearsal last night before going into the studio on Sunday. Luckily we managed to finish the the last song we've been writing, which will be the opening track on the EP - it's a belter and a face-melter!

Keep an eye on the blog, as we'll be posting vids and stuff up whilst recording.

We've been shaping up ready for the graft too......

Big Love
x

He saw it coming..

2009-01-15T03:41:00.000-08:00

"Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalised and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to Communism."

Karl Marx
Das Kapital 1867.

Jamming video

2009-01-13T05:31:00.000-08:00

So, with the new recordings getting ever closer, we've been grafting away writing new stuff. Here's a glimpse of what there is....

We're heading down to the coast on Saturday to start laying down 6 new tracks - weehee excited!!!

Keep an eye on this blog as we'll be putting videos of the recording up on here.

1 year old this weekend

2009-01-06T02:03:00.000-08:00

This weekend we will be playing a show exactly 1 year after our first ever gig as the 3 piece Shapes.

Come and party, drink, dance, shout, howl and party even more with us in Birmigham at The Island Bar....

2008-12-23T04:07:00.000-08:00

So what a year!
We worked our balls off during our first year of Shapes, gigging as much as possible and getting round as much of the country as possible.

We want to thank all the people that have supported us in 08, mostly the people who come to watch us, and also the bands we've met along the way and the lovely promoters who've looked after us, as well as the lovely reviewers who kindly wrote good things about us.

Here's a brief account of what we got up to in 2008:
Started gigging without having fully written a set, but couldn't wait to get started.
Wrote and recorded our debut EP and released it through Godmonkey Recordings.
Took on a 2 week tour with OK Pilot.
Went on tour with Exeter's Targets
Took Conquistadors on the road for a week
Went out on tour with our good mates Blakfish
Joined the BSM Xmas tour for a few dates.
Outside of tour dates we also played some awesome shows including Rapturefest, Bonefest, Blakfish EP launch, and even took part in the BSM 5-a-side football comp with Blakfish, which was a sweaty, sicky, drunken, rowdy mess!

Now as we draw to a close of 08, we're really looking forward to 09, with a lot of exciting things in the pipeline:
We'll be recording a 5 or 6 track EP in January.
10 date tour in February.EP release and nice big fat tour with No Kilter in May
And a few other cheeky surprises to be announced soon too.

Again, thanks for all the support and see you in 2009!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year MoFos!!!!!

Rock Midgets Best of 2008

2008-12-19T01:38:00.000-08:00

We were asked by the lovely people at Rock Midgets to give our views on the music of 2008. Unfortunately they cut out the question where we name dropped all our fave British bands on the scene at the moment.

But, the rest is online now CLICK

ALSO - Thanks to everyone who sent us kind words about our new track, glad it's being appreciated. It's called Such Stoics, by the way.

NEW TRACK

2008-12-18T08:17:00.001-08:00

We've put up a new demo track on our myspace at www.myspace.com/weareshapes

Go enjoy x

Last 2008 Gig and Demo tracks

2008-12-15T07:13:00.000-08:00

We played our final show of 2008 this weekend, as the last of the BSM Xmas shows and also the Flapper Xmas Bash it was quite a night.

Sunday we spent 13 hours locked in Hockley Street Studios in Birmingham with our mate Thompson from the band This Is Greed recording new demo tracks. We got 3 tracks down and had a real good time doing them, which is a rariety for a recording session, let alone a rushed one!
We'll be putting one of the tracks up online soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

The weekend

2008-12-08T02:58:00.000-08:00

Well Kingston was a bit lame, but fun nevertheless, and Resonate played a corker of a set. Check them out if you haven't already www.myspace.com/reso
Bonefest was utterly awesome. We were 1st on, but weere fortunate enough to have a good crowd to watch us, and we were even more fortunate enough to be able to see some amazing bands playing. Particular highlights being Shoes and Socks Off and No Kilter (who we'll be touring with next year) and the Blakfish set, which was bloody great!
We're playing with Zach Hill of Hella and Shield Your Eyes on Tuesday in Nottingham, then with This Town Needs Guns and Blakfish in Brixton
YES!

This Weekend - Kingston and Leeds

2008-12-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

This weekend we're playing in Kingston on Friday with Resonate (Lockjaw Records) and Brontide (Holy Roar Records). It's at The Fighting Cocks, which is an awesome little venue (FACT) and is only £4.00 in.

Then on Saturday we are happy to be part of BONEFEST:

We're opening up, so get there early, doors midday and we're on at 12.45.

SEXY!!!!!!!

December Shows

2008-11-27T01:53:00.000-08:00

Here's a lovely little flyer courtesy of our good friend Sam Lambert

2008-11-19T04:50:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed we've chilled out on the gigs this month. It's because our lovely Rich is away for a few weeks harrassing the Americans with Mr Gordo.
While he is away we're sorting out next years tours, recording and getting some new stuff jammed out ready to write the rest of the new record.

We'll be gigging a bit in december at the following gigs:

5th Dec - The Fighting Cock, Kingston w/HPR, Rig Up Explosive and Resonate
6th Dec - Bonefest @ Brudenell Social, Leeds, w/ loadsa awesome bands!!!
9th Dec - Bodega Social, Nottingham w/Zach Hill (Hella, Team Sleep) + Shield Your Eyes
10th Dec - BSM Xmas Party @ The Windmaill, Brixton w/ This Town Needs Guns, Blakfish + Shoes & Socks Off
13th Dec -The Flapper, Birmingham w/ Blakfish, OK Pilot, Calories, Conquistadors & more...

Hell yeah!! x

Writing & Recording

2008-11-05T01:27:00.000-08:00

We looked ourselves up in our lockup this weekend. Lockup, loc up, lock pup lok cup..

The reason for this was to finish writing some of the new tracks. So all day Saturday and Sunday were speantin a windowless, damp room writing and then recording the 3 new tracks.

We started mixing them last night, and we'll see how they come out, we may put them online if they sound any good like....

We'll keep you informed :)

Neglect

2008-10-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

We've been real busy lately and have therefore neglected ths blog - sorry!
So here's the last couple of weeks in short....

BLAKFISH TOUR
The dates with Blakfish went well, unfortunately a few were a bit lame, but we had a bloody good time anyway. Particular highlights were:

Playing in a front room in Southampton
Driving home from Plymouth to get 4hrs sleep then go to work.
Taping Wiz's whole face up.
Spraying people with fire extinguishers and nearly getting battered for it.
Blakfish breaking EVERYTHING in Lichfield, and a stroppy sound guy moaning.
Sellotaping a drumstick to a broken mic stand, to hold 2 mics - we're fuckin DIY we are!
Driving home from Huddersfield to get 4hrs sleep then go to work.
Rockin out to Blakfish with feet on monitors - Rock n roll!!

BELLAFEA SHOW

We played with Bellafea at The Rainbow last night. Not many people were there, and boy did they miss out! Bellafea were pretty sick and really lovely people too. You should check them out - www.myspace.com/bellfea

SHOWS...or lack of shows...

We're playing on Nov 3rd with Blakfish, Outcry Collectibve and Cut The Blue Wire at The Rainbow again. Tis gonna be sick. Come to it.

After that we're not playing any more shows til December, as we need to write some new music for your beautiful little ears.

2008-10-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

We're off on tour with Blakfish next week. Hell yeah!!!
Come and dance, drink and make noise with us.

If you're living in a little bubble and haven't yet heard the awesome Blakfish, go to www.myspace.com/blakfish and check them badboys out.

Also see http://www.samlambert.com/ for more designs from Sam, who kindly did the tour flyer for us. Thanks Sam.

On Dry Land

2008-10-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

Our good friends in On Dry Land have now added us to their roster, so we will be booking some more tours and shows outside of UK next year. On Dry Land currently work with Blakfish, Tubelord, The JCQ, Colour, No Kilter and more awesome bands.
We're very excited......so much so Steve had a little bit of wee come out of the end of his willy!

Check out what those badboys do at www.ondryland.com

And if anyone wants to get invovled in any of our future tours, please contact kirk.harrington@gmail.com (yes it's that bloody email address that you see everywhere!)

The stangeness continues...

2008-09-29T04:08:00.000-07:00

Birmingham
So the tour continued, with us playing Bar Academy on Friday night, which was alright, good amount of people, but idiotic sound engineer, who took great pleasure in asking 'Is that really how you really hit your snare..?' - what kind of question is that? No, it's how i butter my toast! Fool.

Harrogate
Harrogate was bloody wierd. We loaded in to the venue, a funny little pub with a back room for the gig, all cool though. The woman behind the bar was pretty mental though, but let us get on with stuff. Then about half hour later a chair was accidentally knocked over and the women turned into a hate-ridden beast, shouting at everyone, yelling for us to all leave - maniac! She was clearly out of her mind, ranting on about respect and chairs, beer and all sorts. Mental.

We luckily got another venue and moved the gig, rocked out and got drunk. then good times were had back at Josh's, with nuff beer comsumption and idioticy.

Nottingham
Local support supplied by venue, turn up late and missing a member, had loads of equipment, went on far too late and then insisted on trying to play every song they'd ever written. After their lame indie drab crap set finished, we were left about 45mins to fit Conquistadors and our sets in. Conks played an awesome set, by far the best I've seen them, and we went and made some noise and a mess. I threw up straight after too, good times.

So in conclusion, it has been the least successful and wierdest tour ever, but it's been bloody funny!!
Big up Conquistadors - www.myspace.com/conquistadorsmusic

Fuck Halifax

2008-09-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry if you're from Halifax, but I don't like it anymore.

We went to play the 1st date of our little tour with Conquistadors and were completely screwed over.
No flyers, no local supports and then not even allowed to play!!!

I think they expected a coldplay tribute or something, but out music was not welcome at Bar crapping Rouge.

Sent home, with only half the moeny we were meant to get, so lost money on fuel, as well as wasting hours of our time. PANTS.

Birmingham tonight -that should be a goodun though.