…but there’s more to life than crappy weather. Hey, welcome back after the break! And now here’s Eric with the news…

Couple of new gigs to announce – First a loooong, long long overdue return visit to Manchester, and on New Year’s Eve to boot! Yes, our good friends in the town, previously of the mighty Birthday Party, now ensconsed behind the reigns of Same Teens and XOX Magazine, are taking over The Ruby Lounge to throw the house party you’ve always wanted to have, but have never felt like cleaning up after!

In their own words… “The Ruby Lounge will be transformed into the best house party you ever went to – we’ll have a kitchen with a fridge full of beers, bedrooms to sneak off to, and the best stereo you ever heard in the living room – we’ll even have music in the garden shed and it all goes on to an unseemly 4am with no chance of the neighbours complaining.”

Long time fans will know the combination of lunacy and attention to detail these folks are capable of, and we’ll be gracing the living room stereo alongside The Whip, May 68, Lost & Found, The Answering Machine, Same Teens and some genuine secret spesh guests. Really, I can’t think of a better place on this isle I’d rather be doing New Years, so get your asses down/up. Full details here. I’m trying to talk ’em into a New Year’s Day meltdown session too, so watch this space…

Second in order only, in the new year Eric will be heading out across for a debut performance at Bootie Berlin, by invitation of the mighty fine DJ Morgoth, who will be providing backup along with the splendid Dr.Waumiau. Friday 15th January is the date for your diaries, my German friends (and anyone else that feels like a weekender!), and with the Bootie seal of quality, you know this is going to be a spectacular show!

Last and most definitely not least, the fine US VJ DJ Tripp has put together a videomash for “Voodoo Sabotage” – Many thanks to him. Check it out below and hope to see you soon – more shows in the pipeline as always!

Gig update time again – got a few mighty fine shows over the next couple of weeks…

As mentioned below, it’s the Aliens and Demons party this weekend (23/24 October) – details are in the previous post – Eric’s playing on Saturday evening, but the whole weekend will be chock full of insanity. I think it’s pretty close to selling out, but all the info and so forth can be gleaned from Fex Projects.

Next up on Thursday 29th October, Eric is back at Idle Hands @ The Pelirocco in Brighton, following the mighty fine time we had last month with Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne (even got to play the new Richard X version of “Only Love” with blessings – thanks Pete!). This month Eric’s going to be teaming up with the very esteemed Gary Yay from Brighton megastars The Telegraphs for a trawl through the uncharted ends of their record collections – starts at 7.30, it’s free and the cocktails really are the best in town (and 2 for 1 at the start of the night too!).

Finally, on Saturday 31st October, it’s off into the realms of Central Europe, as Eric beams down to Budapest to play Mashup Central, one of the finest current hubs of audio cut and paste activities, hosted by the one-man promo inferno, producer, designer and all round good egg Simon Iddol. Really looking forward to this one obviously – details can be found at Audio Porn Central.

Hope to see you out there!

First off, I have to extend the hugest amount of love to all the new and old friends we’ve partied with this summer – everyone that sorted gigs, ran festivals, drove the wagon, bought us a beer, came back for an after, or simply got down and dirty with us – it really has been the most amazing few months. Thank you!!!

Now, as we head into the tail of the year, there’s a few upcoming shows to plug, and plenty more to come.

First up, next Thursday 24th September, back at home in (still) sunny Brighton, I’ll be fingerflicking my digital ones-and-twos back to back with the legendary Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne at the towns most esteemed mid-weeker, Idle Hands at the (equally legendary) Hotel Pelirocco. It’s free, and the cocktails are cheap and very, very good, so if you’re in the area, you have no excuse.

Next up, on Saturday 26th September, I’ll be cheerfully providing the sound entertainments, alongside representatives from KaraUke and The Gents, at a party in London to celebrate the return of James Bowthorpe to these shores. James is in the final stages of his round-the-world bicycle ride, during which he has shattered the world record by three weeks! Serious kudos to this man, indeed. The party is at The Larrik in London, and runs from 7-11pm, RSVP to globecyclersvp@googlemail.com please. We’re on the lookout for somewhere to play afterwards too, so if you fancy helping out, let us know ;-)

Finally for now, on Saturday 24th October, we’ll be upping sticks to a mystery location somewhere near the border of North Wales, to play at the Aliens and Demons weekender, hosted by the esteemed Fex Projects. We played a party for these fine folks at the start of the summer and it seriously went off, so we’re delighted to be invited back, and in the fine company of Eat Static and Far Too Loud amongst others. It’s a two-dayer in fine countryside with all the trimmings, and you can get all the info and book tickets here.

Plenty more to come, if things like this are anything to go by – Don’t touch that dial…

But this is the best one :)

Although there’s tribulations here in Brighton, due to the last minute cancellation of the Beachdown Festival (at which we played our best gig of last year, I think), everyone has rallied round, found venues, pinned down artists and kicked into touch what is shaping up to be one of the best weekends for music and partying this place has seen for a while. And this city pretty much knows it’s onions in that department, y’know?

So, that means for me, a DJ set with my good friends (and yours), Bust The Box, who will be taking over The Gladstone with their sparkly sound system tomorrow from 3pm till as late as they can manage. If you’re in Brighton, get your petard down, because it’s going to be a good one.

Double fun for me, as I now have Monday off (hangover notwithstanding), so will be hiking up to That London, not to DJ sadly, but to drink, eat and be merry at Notting Hill Carnival. First time I’ve been for ages, as I’m usually busy, so I’m chuffed!!!

So chuffed in fact, that in assembling tunes for tomorrow, I’ve prepped a little Carnival-esque / Bust The Box-ish tribute in a digital dubplate style, as they apparently say.

Caper vs DJ C & Zulu – Body Jump (Kleptones box clever mix)

Hope you like it, and have a fucking top weekend, wherever you’re at!

What I think will be our last UK festival of the summer – the lovely Festinho @ Kentwell Hall, Long Melford, Suffolk – A brilliant boutique festival donating all proceeds to the ABC Trust helping street kids get sorted in Brazil. It’s down to the last few tickets, so check it now if you’re interested!

Eric is on in the woods (eek!) 12midnight to 2am on Friday night / Saturday morning!

Also, we’re looking for interesting places to play for a post-album autumn tour, so if you know somewhere out-of-the-ordinary, big or small, please get in touch!

Okay, due to seriously popular demand, and cos technical gremlins interrupted some people’s listening at the time, here’s the mix from the plinth. It’s a bit ragged, as my controllers were playing up a bit (not their fault!) and I’ve hacked off the last tune, as it was an afterthought to leave something running while I packed away and left, but apart from that… here it is – warts and all.

All K-tunes (including quite a few new album ones) apart from the last track, which is the Chase & Status mix of Nneka’s “Heartbeat” and is an absolute bomb that I only heard that day for the first time. I couldn’t get out of my head and it became my anthem for the day, so I played it!

Thanks again to all who tuned in, or tried to and failed. If so, hope this makes up for it. What an intense experience! It’s given me a taste for Extreme DJing though, so I wonder where next…?

Direct download: MP3 or FLAC

Well it’s been a day of technical bumps and grinds, but we’re ready to go :)

Live audio stream will be here : http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kleptoneslive
and here http://www.resonancefm.com/listen

Live video stream (with about a five minute delay!) here:
http://www.oneandother.co.uk

Timezones:

UK – 04:00 Monday
NYC – 23:00 Sunday
LA – 20:00 Sunday
Sydney – 13:00 Monday
Hong Kong – 11:00 Monday

Will be checking emails eric@kleptones.com and hopefully twittering http://www.twitter.com/kleptones – check it out.

Fingers crossed it all works!

Some rather crazy news to impart – I’ve been chosen to stand for an hour on the Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square in London, as part of artist Antony Gormley’s “One And Other” project.

“This summer, sculptor Antony Gormley … is asking the people of the UK to occupy the empty Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, a space normally reserved for statues of Kings and Generals, in an image of themselves, and a representation of the whole of humanity.”

“The project, which is commissioned by the Mayor of London with funds from the Arts Council, and produced in partnership with Sky Arts, will see a different person take their place on the Fourth Plinth every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days. It will run from Monday 6th July until 14th October 2009.”

Now, I know what you’re thinking… and you’d be right! I will be creating a live mix via laptop from the plinth and broadcasting it in real time across Trafalgar Square and the whole city on radio and also to the world online via London’s Resonance FM. (My humblest of thanks go to the Resonance folks for agreeing to assist!)

The time slot I’ve been given is not the most family-friendly, being 4am BST Monday 10th August, but we’ll be taking advantage of the darkness to bring a whole additional level of visual wonderment to the proceedings – more details on that very soon!

So if you’re in London, or fancy witnessing a rather unique Kleptones event, please set your alarms, come along and don’t forget to BRING A RADIO!!!

If not, you’ll be able to see the live feed at the One And Other website, and hear the live mix streaming at Resonance FM.

Either way please spread the word – this will be a total and utter one-off :)

EDIT : You can pledge your support for me on my profile page at the One And Other site.

(Wow! I’m getting excited already – it’s going to be a whole load of fun, this one!)

Delighted to get an email from Timm from Doing Damage, who has submitted a Kleptones T-Shirt design to the folks at La Fraise:

Wish we were driving that around the festivals this summer – thanks Timm :)

It would be great if you could spare a minute to vote for the shirt by registering on the site here and then scoring it here (if you don’t speak German, click the little European Flag on the top left to change the language!) – The contest only lasts a week, so you have just under six days now to get your votes in!

We’re game for sorting out some more designs for shirts, and also looking for makers, so if you think you’re up for the task, gimme an email and we’ll make it worth your while!

…or rather grey, as usual, hehe. It’s been a while, mainly due to some very bad luck with internet providers following a house-move. It’s an interesting experience to be offline for two months (punctuated with occasional screaming/reasoning with various customer service representatives), but not one that I’d like to repeat, unless it was self-enforced.

But yes sir, we’re back, with a whole crapton of goodies to post, and plenty news as well. All coming up very soon, so thanks for hanging around :)