OUR NEXT SHOW

Chips and dips my toe tapping chums, ive spent the last few days juggling things in my cap of contemplation and have come to the conclusion that life really does chuck some proper random situations at us all and unless we're switched on 110 % it will creep up liberating yer mind and rationality....however, their is an upside as it does put things into perspective, drives those in the gallows / firing line to make harsh and needed choices ultimately leading to a reshuffling of commitments in both love, work, life and ambition to a chase that dream of a long and happy existence. There are many choices we can be faced with in this life and when tredding the decision making process their is a need for release, a step back so to speak and you may find an ever growing desire to turn speakers up to 11, concoct more obscurities, go with the flow and want to take more control. Do we focus on the trivial? what trually is important? What can every person on the face of this earth do to improve? Do we all need to improve? Is this it? How far can we go? Do we really know the way? Can we find peace in what we already have and can we find the strength to let it go?
Just some deep thoughts their, on a lighter note the gig on saturday in Gosforth civic hall went down an ale and cider powered storm. Faced with 16 types of ale, 8 types of cider a little taste of valhala was bestowed upon us and after having not gigged for a while the euphoria was rife amongst us and the crowd where we witnessed some (very high) knee to the sky action. Again tony, ye are a legend man, always a pleasure, never a chore.

Catch the rest o' ye in edinburgh on the 27th.

Phil

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yo ho ho and a bottle of jimmy's old eyebrow tweeker. Thursday again and a gig lays before us in the fine town of newcastle, kebabs, beers, full blown frollics and debauchery shall be afoot, an arm, couple of fingers and maybee a leg or two. This gigs been sorely needed by yours trually as due to a lack of (constructive) madness ive found the cheese has begun to in all honesty "slide of my cracker" so im kinda fired.

On a totally random note i heard a story today about some guy who was arrested in edinburgh for 'cracking one off' at his window and get this.....his surname was cumming! You really cant make that stuff up man. Nice to see the world/fate has a sense of humour eh?

Right im off, its getting hard to write this while walking in the dark (seriously):

Phil

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Top Tuesday tongue flappings to ye all out there, been a while since weve updated this interweb contraption so here i am with a wee update following last weeks show-downs in glasgow and newcastle.
First off was pivo pivo in Glasgow playing alongside ol' ska demons 'Esperanza' sweet as night likes so big ups tae Gary for booking the bands and also big ups tae their fruit machine that paid me a nice wee earner tae! Really cool bar, friendly staff and foods pretty tasty, cannae wait to get back actually.

Newcastle to be honest was a bit on the quiet side but that never stops the hand goin as nuts as possible and cracking it tae 11 on the ska-ometer. Seemed like a group of old school skankers so it was good tae see the heads bopping and bods shuffling in appreciation tae our off beat rhythmical wonder machine. On top o' all this its always good to be playing gigs for the ska monkey lot, top blokes (and lass).

Plans for the next wee while are minimal as we are taking a weekend or so off tae grow hairy bottoms and learn latin.
happy holidays everyone.


p.s !!!!!!!our new video for let it out is done and looks amazing, keep yer eye's at the ready for the release date!!!!!!!
x

Phil

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Evening all, hope yer weekends been as rocking and as sunny as ours.
For those of you that didnt know we where down in Bristol on friday playing at Mr wolfs new venue called the junction. The venue itself is still in development but is already showing signs of becoming one of the best venues to gig in Bristol and as soon as the pizza oven is installed its just gonna make it even better to be there so watch out for it folks, well worth a look. Also while in Bristol looking around a charity shop with pabs i found an amazing bargain in the form of an old school stylaphone (Rolf Harris tastic) for £2.50, needs a wee bit work but i cannae wait to get some obscure noises out of it onstage

Saturday saw us in london for again another sunny day (weather seemed to be following us, not that we complained of course) and a fairly early show in the camden barfly with support from the loveable toe tappingly jumpy euphoria enducing beats provided by 'fight the bear' and the awe inspiring mind altering skank machine of the 'New town kings'. Barfly as usual never fails to dissapoint, the crowd skanked hard, the beer flowed well and i came off stage covered in lovely black ming from rolling around the floor for shits and giggles, good times.

As the night ended the band and co all fired up tae jamies, joe's and toms flat for some tea and scones and general merry goings on, again, good times.

would love to stay and type but my brain needs another coin in the meter........................................
Phil

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Well folk, August is now closed for the Hand. As Luke said in the last blog, it’s been an amazing month and we’re sad to see it gone for yet another year, although slightly relived to be catching up on sleep and sunlight.

Big up to Neil and all who helped put on an awesome show in Ullapool on Friday - We hope to be back very very soon… We were however upset to see the departing of Sally the Seagull, who’s life was prematurely ended by a 5 Series BMW, driven by our esteemed bass player. I always thought birds moved when they were about to be flattened?! Well, most of us live and learn. We tend to just live, so we hope there are no repercussions next time we’re up driving through Mordor!

In other news, it’s been Nottinghall Carnival this bank holiday weekend, where two of the guys drove straight to from Ullapool on Saturday, avoiding death at every turn to enjoy the Reggae snacks and beer of the heavens – Not even a fly was squashed on the windscreen en route.

A few facts about Carnival for your next pub quiz or barmitzva: An estimated 1.5 Million people attend over 2 days. 12,000 Mangoes, 1 ton of Jamaican patties, 16,000 Coconuts and 15,000 plantains are eaten and 25,000 bottles of rum and 3 million cans of Red Stripe are drunk… Big Up to the bin men on Portobello Road!

Pabs x

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well as I sit feeling slightly hazy in an internet cafe in Inverness (which also happens to be a laundrette). I'm overcome witha sense of pride mixed wih extreme fatigue. It has been one hell of a month for the hand and the sense of shellshock in playing this many gigs in such a short space of time might take a wee while to wear off.

I'm really looking forward to getting back home to London to my lovely lady and family and friends. It is however hard not to feel like you want to just keep going. The heaven for those of us who love playing live would be a never ending road full of new fans, odd and exiting towns, amazing resturants and hotels where they don't kick you out at 10.30am. Playing live music and touring is one of the most addictive things I can think of. I really hope that we've bought pleasure to all who have seen us over the past month.

I'll see you London and Bristol folk over the next few weekends. Really looking forward to tonights gig with Bombskare. We haven't played with those boys since Feb and I don't forsee it being a sober affair....

Oh well my credit is running low so better split.

Much love

L x

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Bit of a weird one as late going up n this head of mine. Obviously the fact that we played 16 gigs in 15 days with the bulk of them between the hours of 3 and 5 in the morning puts you in a certain headspace. However I’ve been touring most of my adult life so it’s not exactly a feeling that I’m not used to.

Back to the weirdness, it turns out that alot of folk that like to hang out with us before an after our shows become suddenly mute when a controversial point or some slightly risqué humour is used. Now we’ve always been a band who love to hang out with everyone. We have universal music so why the hell should we filter who we socialise with around our shows. Why indeed? There’s no reason, so I fully intend to continue treating the world as an extended family. As long as individuals don’t give me a reason to dislike them then I won’t. (and now to the point…)

If someone does say something that offends me or upsets me I tend to do one or both of 2 things:
1) Challenge them on the point and see if it can be discussed. Lets face it the only way that opinions can evolve is via taking life out of the black and white and getting down to the grey in which reality exists.
2) If option 1 fails I walk away and go find someone else to chat to. If I’ve been particular upset or annoyed by what the person has said to me I make them aware that this is the case. Bizarrely folk often aren’t aware they’re being offensive especially if large amounts of booze are involved.

Simple eh? You’ll notice at no point was there a secret option 3 where I stayed there for a few hours, said nothing and then bitched about the person to their mates or manager about it a few days later…. I’m not a fucking pop star and it takes balls and strong opinions to be part of a band who are outspoken on issues. In fact it takes balls to stand up on a stage in front of people and play music. So if you want to come chill before or after a show I welcome you with open arms (it’s one of my favourite things about being in the band). Just remember that not everyone in the world thinks in the same way……..

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Well the Edinburgh festival madness has kicked off, and we have turned into nocturnal vampiric creatures of the night, staggering out into the bright (ish) Scottish sunlight / wind and rain as people make their way home from work, eating breakfast around 6pm, and generally living a bit of an australian topsy turvy kind of existence. We did our first show on Saturday. Went well, apart from the fact that in our excitement to be back on the hallowed ground of Teviot, we played every song at our usual frenetic breathless pace, and having figured that a nice 22 song set should see us nicely through the 2 never-enind hours. were a little surprised when, having played 16 of them, our manager enthusiatically told us we still had an hour to go! Still, luckily we have a whole underused arsenal of b-sides, rarities, questionabe banter, poetry routines, drummer-related crowd participation, experimental spinal tap-like jazz interludes, that managed to see us nicely through the set. Still, we learned our lessons, and most of our songs are evolving in unexpected ways, sprouting new sections, becoming agmented with gratuitous guitar solos and drum and bass breaks, and all kinds of new things, which is nice and refreshing. So well done if you have been one of the hardy revelers who have joined us and fed us with your limitless energy - keep it up!

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This may be the last blog i write before my brain capsizes into a realm of festival euphoria so i better make this important.
having survived my recent trip to london and missing the edinburgh train on the way home ive been mainly focusing on 3 things:
1) bourbon consumption
2) earning pennies
3)mastering my skills at risk

All of which go hand in hand with my fiendish plan of creating a gambling version of a war based strategy game whereby you gamble with alcoholic beveridges (due for world wide release early spring, year of release 'undetermined')

So yes indeed festival is about to start for us and deep in the realms of my mind i recall so many fun times which i know we all shall be re-living yet again whilst living the life of nocturnal hedgehogs, expect to see either some or all of the band most nights( sorry mornings) in either the penny black or the scotsman sharing stories of tantalising adventures, surreal situations and rhymes of revelry.
If anyones kicking about the festival and is looking for some top comedy may i recomend the effervescent mr phil kay whos show starts at 6.30pm, im planning on firing up with some of the crew and going for brews after, any fans of the hand are welcome to come and booze with us Only thing is though is the bar we shall be getting smashed in has not yet been defined.
(penny black?)

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Oooooh boy I’m hungover, Djed at the Kerrang awards last night and there was
ALOT of free booze. God bless Red Stripe for trying to brand themselves as a beer that metalers drink (probably down to the large metal scene in Jamaica). Anyways you’ll not hear me complaining. Still this rainy London day brings with it something of headache, I guess you only live once eh?

As much as for me absolutely nothing can beat a gig I’m really getting into my Djing at the moment. Bizzarly in contrast to the rock awards aftershow last night a few weekends ago I played at a wedding after the band had played and there is just a great feeling in getting people dancing even if it’s not to Big Hand tunes.

Sooo I’m gonna make an effort to play out more. Look out fort Big Hand DJ sets coming to a venue near you and if you happen to need some tunes (from cheese to chalk) playing then let me know.

A couple of handy tips for you if you fancy DJing:

1) Only play tunes that you enjoy, I love music from every genre but if you only like Thrash metal then only DJ that.
2) DJ in the same state as the crowd (I’ll leave this up to your imagination).
3) Try not to get too into mixing stuff, just play good tunes it’s not about showing off.

Woop woop

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Hey there folks out in ye olde world of the internet hope this sunny Friday afternoon sees you well and looking forward to the weekend. We’re at Hoots in Brixton tonight so if yer bopping down we’ll see ya in a few hours. Apologies for the lack of blog yesterday but it is with good reason…..

..we spent a wee 12 hour stint in Trouble studios in Kilburn yesterday working with the great Jonny C and Will Worsley (you’ll know them best as producer and mixer of Big Hand & Oh No). Now as has been hinted at in past blogs the next album is the first thing on our mind at the moment. As any of you that are in bands will know that sorta thing takes time and money. However about a month ago Tim wrote a song in reponse to the BNP getting 2 seats in the European parliament. I’m not gonna drone on about it but we’re really not happy that the far right seem to be edging their way back in. The song is called ‘Rock The Boat’.

Sooooo basically we couldn’t wait to get this one down. It will be coming out hopefully over the next few weeks and is a stormer both lyrically and musically (not to blow our own trumpet*) and I kinda just want to walk around with a set of headphones playing it to people in the street. We’ll have a new set of T-shirts to go with the tune so stay tuned to the site.

Right I gotta splat and drive a our gear down to Brixton, look forward to seeing you all ASAP.

Lay-tar

L x

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Our weekend got off to an awesome start playing for Philip and Tara as they tied the knot in sunny Oxford and we caught up with good friends in the big smoke for a few cheeky halves.

However, as we entered the final leg of our weekend, we were painfully reminded that there are many times in life when happy memories aren’t quite as accurately wonderous as we care to think, but often than not misplaced and far removed from the doomful despair of the reality at the time

Take, for example, ye beast from the east – The 2nd Big Hand van of doom – A woefully poor Peugeot Boxer van with a Ford transit engine, which is now the size of a small hairdryer in a pound somewhere in West London. We always care to look back with a smile about the time we were stranded in the pissing rain in the middle of the M6 waiting for some poor breakdown sod to load us onto the back of his van and tow us 350 miles I the opposite direction at 45 miles an hour. Or when we needed to stop every 20 miles to stop it overheating, or cleaning the debris from the carnage caused from the nights before

Sunday night was a knitting needle through the leg reminder that these memories should be banished to the bowels of hell and only ever brought back up to inflict pain and misery on our enemies, or evil ex-girlfriends.

Some bright spark (that would be me then) had the inspired idea of driving 400 miles overnight to Scotland straight from our gig at the majestic ‘Boathouse’ in Putney in the PY Jeep of destiny. The brief story unfolds…

11pm – Following the 90 minute set, The Slinky Scotsmen (AKA Phil and myself) head north spending the first 90 minutes realizing we could work the i-pod radio tuner and not have to listen to Sunday night commercial radio. Ecstatic and smug in our feat a 6 year old would be proud of, we paid less attention to all the lights in the jeep gradually fading and losing power.

1am - Stop in a services in an emergency-type fashion being bent over a pole and reemed by the AA charging us £200 for a call out

2am - Demonic AA man arrives and in his tightly fitting high-viz jacket states that “we were fecked”. We now know we’re in for a long night… Long story short, our alternator was buggered. The £600 quote to be towed to Edinburgh wasn’t appealing, so got el capitan to charge the battery enough to get us another 150 miles closer to home. Start the engine…

4am 150 miles later, it’s still raining. We breakdown in the Lakes. AA call out 2.

5am – Next dude arrives. Same result. We get started again knowing if we turn the engine off, we’re fecked…

7:30am - 120 miles later, diesel a little low. Abington. We need to turn the engine off to put more in. AA call out 3. Bacon rolls & coffee.

8:30am – Nice AA man arrives and gets us on our way blinding us with technical jargon Stephen Hawkins would have trouble following.

9:30am - Finally arrive in Edinburgh. Drop Phil off in Leith. 10:30am – Drop van into East Lothian garage. 11:45am, Arrive home. Cold shower. Now we’re ready to start the day 12hours 45 minutes after leaving London.

At least we didn’t have office jobs to go straight to, explaining why we were 4 hours late, or looking after 4 year old effervescent kids….

I think we’ve all had better nights.

I’m now happy with a hot curry and more Red Stripe than you can shake a stick at. Time to crack open the Glenmorangie soon… Back in a happy place

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Oh boy oh boy, I’m in that wonderfully state of utter excitement meets nervous apprehension. Last August a club night saved my life and almost ruined me at the same time. I was having a pretty rough time of it but wouldn’t have thought that the answer to all my woes lay in playing live music to a load of crazed comics, crew and reprobates between the hours of 3-5am. Oh well I’ve been wrong before (once…).
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Edinburgh arts festival, it’s one of the coolest things that happens in the uk (aside from the Notting Hill carnival of course). It’s a book festival, music festival, theatre festival, film festival etc. Anyways at the heart of said festival lies the venue that n term time is know as the Edinburgh university student union ‘Teviot’.
During the festival you will mostly find Big Hand at this mystical venue. It’s the Hogwarts of the festival. Everyting magical revolves around it and we get to hang out with some of the coolest folk ever. It’s the ultimate tonic for the soul. We love tha comedians! Why not come and be part?
See ya on the dancefloor 

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Anyone that reads my blog regularly will know that im an absolute sun freak. The good weather sets me off and I get kinda euphoric a rue child of the sun. Anyways there’s been a lot of bad stuff that seems to have been happening lately. The BNP getting seats in Europe has been something we’ve gone on about a lot so I’m not gonna drone on about it too much. It would be safe to say that It’s something that’s hit all of us hard and we were left feeling at tad let down by the voting population of the UK. You then get into a feeling of helplessness about the whole thing.
On cue the sun comes out and the energy comes back to you (well me anyways) you look back and realise that shit is totally dealable with and the fight just needs to be taken to them. The life zips back to you and it’s all good.
I’m highly energised and can’t really wait for everything that’s happening this summer. Plus I’m a man who can say he played Glastonbury 2009 and gets to spend time around the most amazing folk.

Get ready folks there are a swarm of folk who love and respect life on the way to fuck up your self pitying right wing rally.

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Got back safe and sound to Edinburgh after travelling on 3 trains, 4 buses and 1 airoplane. The Mexican night went well into 4am and me and the missus made a fine spread of nacho's, fajita's and many other nibble tastic tasties.
Have just awoken from a short slumber my head has melted and still in a sleepy void state.

Might say more later.
Phil

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Ska heads, skankers, bouncers and jivers listen and listen thee well the Big Hand are in camden town tonight playing in the enterprise so if ye read this in time get yer sexy little selfs down for a night of malevolant leg shaking action.
In other news / updates / etc our gig in Bath (moles club) went down a storm and we even got probably one of the most die hard fans along at the gig all the way from liverpool so big shouts to you 'Rob' yer an absolute nutter sir but we luvs ye for it. Many beers flowed, many people skanked., you know how we roll and if ye dont, well get yerselfs along to a gig pronto mofo's!

In terms of more personal stuff me and the good lady have decided come wednesday were gonna throw a mexican dinner party effort with plenty of booze, nacho's and all things nice with spice however, should i acquire funny little mexican hats i wonder?
Oh, speaking of food, during my stay here in london luke and his family have very kindly (once again) put me up at theirs and i have to admit the cooking here is insanely good! I woke up on sunday morning to a rather tasty bowl of fancy pasta that lukes brother made, you may be thinking nothing glamorous there right? Wrong!! this pasta had almonds, garlic oil, chilli flakes, salad stuff through it, i aint no chef so cant say all the ingredients but this boys cooking rocks as much as our music. Nice one G!

til thursday folks.
Phil

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We hate having to pull out of gigs. Full stop. And we've only ever had to drop about 5 shows out of over 500.

Unfortunately we had to drop out of Saturdays charity bash in Farnham as Phil was stricken with pain in his tooth (his one real one thats left and anyone who's had a hurt nerve can testify its hard to think of anything other than pain let alone blow down a trumpet at 500 miles an hour for an hour!

But it makes you think. About your fragility in this world as a musician or part of a band. What happens if you lose your capacity to do what you love doing? The one thing in your life that gives you a thrilling rush and unreachable highs and then its gone. Never mind the loss of experience what about the loss of a livelihood? Fucking daunting it is when you think about it. An accident, sheer blind stupidity or coming into contact with someone that has something nasty could impair you and end your life's game. Its all fragile and all in the balance this world around us.

But, thankfully, there is hope where there is adversity. Your drummer from Def Leppard managed to lose an arm, arguably became a better drummer for it and kept on going with the thing he loved. Love has the power to turn all the nasty things on their heads and make them positive in some way.

And there are other good things out there such as toothpaste, toothbrushes and regular dental checkups. So now Phil will show the love that his shredded nerve reminded him of. Love your teeth dude - brush 'em and check 'em!!

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Hi folk, just uploaded some of the edited snaps from Glasto this year. No photos of us on stage unfortunately as we were, well, on stage - have a peak and enjoy

Had some challenges on this site, which be remedied soon. So in the meantime, check out the pics on our facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group ... 0051160326) or http://www.myspace.com/bighandmusic

Lovely x

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Oh yes folks we have popped our Glastonbury cherry, playing a killer set to a packed Bimble Inn tent at 1am on Sunday morning. Firstly a massive thanks to everyone that came to see us as it would have been more than a little dull if you hadn’t been there. Secondly thanks to Mike and the Bimble Inn crew for smashing it on hospitality. Also to the lovely Phil Kay for introducing us and dancing like the lovely chap he is (well done on the new sprog fella) .

Pabs has got loads of photos which I believe he’ll be sharing with you all on Thursday but as he’s currently driving up the M6 with Phil I’m doing his blog today. For Tim and Phil it was their first ever Glastonbury. I’d only been there once when I was plugging Garbage back in (2002?). Anyways we can’t say enough nice things about it. As a band that have played a whole bunch of festivals in the UK over the years it defiantly scores a lot of points. The vibe of everyone from punters to security staff was sooo chilled out. We’ll be coming back I’m thinking.

A few highlights that the band caught that we’d recommend checking out on the bbc iplayer, were:

Easy Star All Stars, Horace Andy (funky as hell), The Specials, Pendulum, Spinal Tap (hysterical), Lily Alen (emotional), Dreadzone, Q-Tip, The Streets, Tinariwen and of course the might Neil Young (grizzled).

Much love.

BH x

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good lord I was hammered last night. I'm holding Harry and Johny pretty much equally responsible for my disgraceful behavior. Bel was also involved to a small extent but I can't really hold her fully to blame as I blocked out alot of what she was saying as it was mean. Anyways in a roundabout kinda way I'm trying to say sorry that the blog didn't go up yesterday when it was supposed to. I had a random issue that meant I needed to speak to a professional (a barman).... hee hee.
I'm off to Glastonbury in a wee bit which is pretty cool eh? The Specials are playing along with Q Tip and a host of other folks. Shame about the mud. My mind has gone pretty blank in the light of some odd things coming to the fray which I can't really talk about here.. all in good time folks. Anyways i had this whole speech planned out about fake laughter and how it's important to only laugh when you really mean it or it looses impact (a bit like swearing).

Shame about MJ too, poor fecker.

Oh well

Bye

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well good day folks, and what a lovely Monday it is. Apart of course for the fact it's Monday and most of us have to go off and earn money....sigh. Anyways reverting to happier times my mind is cast back to Saturday night when we played our best gig to date in Glasgow at King Tut's with the lovely Amphetameanies. Now as well as being the ska band with the sexiest members that we've played with (other than Bombskare obviously... snort) they like us seem to suffer from the old East hates West and vice versa divide in ye olde Scotland. It seems like only months ago (it was about 2 years*) that we bought them through to play in at the Bongo Club in Edinburgh and they were surprised at how well they went down (I wasn't I think they're great). We in the land of tha hand have suffered the same fate a tad given that we ram our shows at pretty much every Scottish festival or gig we play outside of Glasgow.

It's also not through lack of trying, we've played every venue in the city from the Butterfly and Pig to the Barrowlands, have done instore sets at Urban Outfitters, received loads of plugs and plays on XFM (RIP) and played every West Coast festival we get the chance to.....sigh. Fear thee not for this story ends well (I wouldn't write a blog that made Mondays worse, honest) as the Tut's show was off the hook and it was like playing back in our home town. A massive, massive thanks to all those who came along and made the night (my 406th show with the band) one to truly remember. A big shout out to Paul from Jager for letting half of us crash at his (and drink most of his beer), The DF concerts crew and Pam for once again lending us her lovely Jeep.

If you haven't heard the 'Meanies' I would advise stopping whatever yer doing right now and checking em out www.myspace.com/meaniesmusic. 'Sunday Driver' is my favorite tune

Oh in the latest Iain Banks book 'Dead Air' there's a conversation about the East / West divide being down to something to do with the English when they tried to invade. Anyone know owt about this? I'm of Irish / Italian heritage so unlikely to be offended but no being racist please, just the facts. .

Happy Monday

L x



* I really should stop taking so many drugs

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Realising it is thursday thought i should write some words of obscurity.
Inspiration for today came in the form of a cantelope melon which i purchased from the german hyper mart of lidl for a fantastic price of 49p

Indeed i am so happy with this purchase i wrote a short ditty:
(perform while stroking a shoe)
In the key of A.

Cantelope cantelope you and i should elope to darkened corner where i can taste your juicy melon-ness.

Cantelope cantelope this aint no joke your zingy aroma's more addictive than coke.

(enter the voices of 3 slighty drunken ranters)
Oh cantelope cant cant cant cant cantelope, cant cant cant cant cant get you of our minds.

The end.

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Happy Monday, today has been a day of sleep and rest. So, not much to report other than i got dropped of at gatwick airport at 1am on the sunday morning after playing a blinding show in harlow (the square) survived my flight back to edinburgh after waiting 5 hours in the airport, got into edinburgh at 8.15am got a lift to asda, bought a shirt, tie and new shoes, slapped the shirt straight on fresh out the packet, attended the blessing of my stu's wee baby daughter faith (whom he asked me to be godfather to) then afterwards got on a bus, headed home and as i had at this point been awake for near enough 36 hours crashed out on the couch and have been cabbaging out since.
So, like i say not much to report.
However though i did come across this rather disturbing picture of a sprout telling me the summer has ended.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e247/ ... prouts.jpg
You silly sprout, no its not! Its only just begun.

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Well friends, summer is temporarily back after forgetting itself for a moment, and spirits are high in moist anticipation of another raucous Barfly adventure tomorrow night. All those with tickets, you can hold your heads high, and congratulate yourselves on a fine acquisition, as these barfly shenanigans are rarely short of spectacular. And just because we are the kind of hard-working, dedicated, bleeding-finger sweat stained rock and rollers that we (sometimes) are, for your listening pleasure we will be locked away in a dank airless basement in Acton from grey dawn tomorrow until the very second we hit the stage practicing to perfectiona couple of new songs that it is high time we unleashed upon the world. Well, I am excited at least (the others are cursing my stubborness, just as I curse theirs!). Fingers crossed that this accursed tube strike will have finally ended, and you all get there in lovely relaxed upbeat style for a fine evenings skanking. Rock on x

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Ska music has always been associated with political awareness - about speaking up for the oppressed and for those struggling and suffering. It has been about standing up to those who would oppress, to those who would trash society, to those motivated by greed and selfishness (what song better sums up the way Thatcher ruined Britain in the 80's with her right-wing money-driven selfish poison that Ghost Town by the Specials). It has been about spreading unity, freedom and love, about building bridges between people, between different cultures and races, abouy raising awareness of issues, and all the while helping people to come together and have a good time.

Us in Big Hand care deeply about all of this - we passionately do. We want people to come together in unity and happiness, and want to help in our small way by providing a happy and maybe uplifting soundtrack for all this to happen. The reason we don't speak out explicitly about all these things, the reason we don't have political songs, is mainly because its just pretty hard to write that kind of a song without sounding preachey or using worn out cliches - it takes a special kind of geniuns (like the Specials had) to do it well.

That said, I don't think thats a good enough reason anymore. On a morning when I wake up, here in 2009, to see that the BNP has won two seats at the European parliament, I am sickened and saddened. So what am I going to do about it. I distrust politicians and politics as much as pretty much anyone else, but apathy and cynicism onyl clear a space for poison to seep in and take over, and so while people are staying away from the voting booth and gorging themselves on scandals like mp's expenses, extremist parties are actually getting their hands on levers of power. As the saying goes (or something like this) - all it takes for evil to prosper is for good people to do nothing. So I'll try and do my best to stand up for what I believe in, and maybe even write a song or two about it, nevermind if I sound clumsy or whatever - there are more important things to worry about.

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Tour began on a sunny Thursday with our London and Edinburgh contingents linking in the canny north-east. Our Ska Monkey pals were in their usual good spirits although some of them were worried about their fine football team being relegated (its happened and we're sorry lads). But ska is a good thing to chase the worries away and Bubbles was bouncing to the beat of Big Hand. Post gig we drove over to Tony E's and were entertained by his stories of criminals and peace protesters charging into cesspits. We're still chuckling away at that one Tony!!

We never have enough time to do all that we need to do on tour so it was fitting that Tim scheduled in a practice so we could work on some new material. So, we dashed from Newcastle to the rehearsal studio in Edinburgh first thing in the morning. Morning is not something we usually wake up for when on tour so Tim must've had something going on in his head. We hit the studio and two hours later we'd perfected a new song bouncing around in Tim's head. Its a cracker. It's called 'Ride' and you'll all be seeing it soon we hope.

After rehearsal we were on the move north again. This time to Aberdeen where we had previously been treated to some exhibitionism by the girls in the support band. No such luck this time although there was a cracking ska punk band on whose name escapes me... sorry guys- let us know if you're reading. The venue was looking like a graveyard but filled out nicely by the time we got on. Was good to see you Hen, Dod + Dod but where was Random Bunny again? See you next time we hope!

We drove back from Aberdeen right after the gig and steeled ourselves for Glasgow. Glasgow is a bit of a weird one. An hour's drive away from Edinburgh, where we can pull in 500-700 for a gig, and we struggle to get even a handful of people. Apparently there might be some sort of prejudice to bands outwith Glasgow, especially if you're from Edinburgh? Its news to us but might explain a few things... come on Glasgow you're supposed to famous for your openness and friendliness not for being insular, ignorant and sneering. Please shed some light on this people if you can. We'll be back to play King Tuts in a few weeks with the brilliant Amphetameanies so we'll see how that kicks off but we're starting to take Glasgow ignoring us personally and we don't take things personally lying down. Fight for the free thinking in your life! Anyway the staff at Maggie Mays were all cool and the girls were amazingly cute ;D
Plus it was good to see Jager Paul too.

To ease the frustration of the Glasgow gig we zoomed back to Edinburgh, dropped Philo back home as his wee boy was no feeling well and the rest of us headed to Messenger Sound System at The Bongo Club for a Dub attack. Was good to feel the riddim. Our manager got told off by the Bongo's answer to the Gestapo for being unprofessional which was highly amusing before Pabs was sent home for passing out on a high stool with a massive grin on his face. What were you up to boys?! The remaining band members supped banana beer through the lock in and thanks to Pete for letting us chill.

We wrapped up the weekend with our hometown. Unknown Hagana were the first band on the bill and they get better every time we play with them. Then onto the Skababs who played the big ska tunes big style and warmed up the crowd briliantly for us go mash em up. And the usual skankfest ensued. We then chatted to all the quality people who'd come to the gig including an air traffic controller from London and his mate who'd come to see Big Hand especially for his first post 18th birthday gig. Respect Rudeboys!! Once the gig was done with Luke, Tim and Ingi were away back down the road as Luke had a plane to Australia to catch and Tim had also decided to go on holiday for the thirteenth time this year. Hope you're having fun fellas!

Free thinking, Easy skanking

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Well, glad to say that Big Hand have collectively survived another weekend of Edinburgh may day madness - living to tell the tale without falling down any mountains, having any dramatic bike accidents, removing fairly large chunks of memory, damaging a nice suit, breaking a guitar, losing the ability to function on a day to day level, or ending up otherwise in Hospital. Still, it was good fun. Maybe this is what it means to 'grow up'.

One of the band's 'founding fathers' came of age too over the weekend, and to celebrate organised a very succesful game of 'city break'. For the uninitiated, this is basically Risk on a city-wide scale, involving competing for territory in the form of pubs. Luckily our unit was dispatched to the Oak, where the talks involved downing half pints as quick as possible, while being serenaded folk-style. I proved to be surprisingly good (given the glacial speed at which I usually drink my pints), and this in no small part led to our overwhelming success.

Despite having wrecked mind, body and spirit, we gathered our strength for the gig we'd all been waiting for for all these years....NOFX. Was suitably amazing and anarchic (and angry, in the case of our manager, who spend much of the time engaged in vertical warfare with the dumb punk-girl pouring beer on us from the safety of the balcony - shame on her! - still, he gave good few soakings back), boucning round to Reeko like we were 15 again. Good times...


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Right folks, today celebrates the start of the summer of Homecoming in the land of Pagan-ness.

For those of you new to this, the only way to celebrate properly is to get naked, paint yourself red, grab a drum and join in the firey revelry of the ancient fertility Celtic festival know only as Beltane on Calton hill in Edinburgh.

See you there, warts and all...

Beltane, beltane, having fun, banging drums etc...

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Nights out in the capital are always great fun and Brixton, Brixton, Brixton, how we love it! Red Stripe, Jerk chicken and the Scottish Ceilidh bar serving Thai food we all know as Hootananny. The weekend was wicked with another ska-fuelled party of destiny and doom on Friday with the usual mischief and fun associated with South of the river. With me sporting a shiner most suitable as an advert for ska pirate eye patch and having to play the full gig in sunnies, along with the usual crazy ramble of skanksters dancing the night away, it was another quality show. Cheers to all who made it along!

Can’t wait to get back down in June for the Camden Barfly gig, where we promise to rock the Casbah even more. We’ll also ensure we collect the incriminating evidence of Luke in full make up, blusher and all, and show Tim where he is staying for the night, after spectacularly forgetting where we were sleeping and lodged on a hall sofa for the night while we were tucked up in some of the most comfy beds we have ever had the pleasure of falling unconscious in…

See you then folks

Pabs x

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well folks as the sun wine and music effect me I feel the need to delve into that to which I truly aspire. the simple art of enjoying oneself. I've recently found that much of my more enjoyable moments come from a mild indulgence in being unconventional.
This is not by any manner of means a new thing for me. I still recall the days of high school and being bullied for having along hair and likeing the Levellers (to be fair the latter part may have been fair play even though I still like that band). I've simply noticed that with ignoring convention there is massive fun to be had.
So all ahead and lets look at some things that will confuse the more rigid amongst you and inspire the less rigid.

1. Watch Bill Hicks - he's quality and truly inspires you to reading between the lines

2. Listen to NO/FX - if ever there was a group of four folk (other than us) that proved that fun can be had no matter what, well here they are.

3. Have a BBQ in a public area - the authorities don't like it but you'll make some cool friends cause everyone loves things cooked by flame in the open air.

4. Watch Primus videos on the net - you knows it! Although YouTube haven’t payed their PRS (Wankers) there are still load of cool vids from this awesome band. So check em!

5. Write drunken Blogs _ even if yer mate in PR in LA is telling you not to via MSN

Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Right folks hope this Monday sees you well, the sun is shining where I am and I’m about to go off for sushi which is never a bad thing really. I managed to drive roughly 1,200 miles and play 2 gigs, watch 1 gig, work a bar shift, DJ a wedding and get drunk with Pabs and Jamie Thursday – Sunday so am feeling a wee bit spaced. All in all a very cool 4 days. There was however 1 exception to the good times which I’m gonna have a wee rant about as it’s really annoyed me.
Now I’m not the sort of person to hold a grudge or dwell too deeply on petty things but some things just piss me off. With Tim back in London for his help a Buddha meeting on Friday myself and Pabs had a rare evening off in Edinburgh. So we went to see Phil play with our mates Unknown Hagana in a new venue on the cowgate called Sneaky Pete’s. Mid way through the set Phil did a Phil trick and jumped up on the bar with his horn. The barman or ‘Bar Manager’ as he referred to himself tried to get him kicked out halfway through the set for doing this. The doorman looked fairly embarrassed at being asked to do this and I lent over and had a quiet word with him explaining that Phil was just in a zone and would say sorry if any offence had been caused after the show. The bouncer was cool with this and the show went on…
After a cracking show I went and spoke to Phil and explained there had been a bit of a situation and he should prolly go say sorry as he’d managed to piss the bar guy off all be it totally unintentionally. Phil having a heart of gold went and tried to apologise (despite being a tad confused at what the issue was). The bar guy was a total prick about the whole thing and was acting as if Phil had punched his mum or something. He stated that in 8 whole months of being open they had never had an outrage like it. I mentioned that quite a few bands I have toured / played with (including The Mad Caddies) use the ‘horn on the bar’ trick as part of the show. He was once again an utter prick about it.
Now to the moral of the story: Very few people join bands to be sensible. If you get into music especially live music and are dealing with bands with good energy then try not to act like Hitler eh? Phil is one of the best live performers I have ever seen and having worked with the likes if Slipknot, Muse and Machine Head this praise doesn’t come lightly. Also if yer trying to set up a live music venue in an area with a load of good music venues in it already (Binkies, Bannermans, The Bongo, Cab Voltaire etc) then don’t hire staff that want all the bands to behave like New Kids on the fucking Block.
Big Hand will not be playing this venue or going to see anymore gigs there, I’d also advise any other local bands to avoid it until they hire staff who understand Rock n’ Roll a bit better. In short Fuck You ‘bar manager’!

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Ian Tomlinson tragically died of a heart attack at the G20 protests last week. He was not a protestor but a working man on his way home. The Met Police initially stated that they were not involved in any way with the mans death and that they had to fight off rioters in order to treat him. Today video footage has been released showing that this INNOCENT man was assaulted without provocation by the police moments before his death.

The police have diseminated false information in an incident that they appear at least partly culpable. When they released their original statement great emphasis was placed on them having to fight off rioters in order to get the stricken man to safety. WATCH THE VIDEO OF IAN TOMLINSON BEING ASSAULTED BY THE POLICE AND LET US KNOW WHERE ALL THE RIOTERS ARE WHEN HE IS ATTACKED.

And when have the police previously released false information about a death that they were culpable for? The case of Jean Charles De Meneses.

This is unnacceptable. We know that the police do a valuable job and are often taken for granted and abused. We just want them to stop their double standards, their poor treatment of working people and most of all their fucking LIES. We deserve better. We are the people. And we shall not be moved. Justice for all people!

Check the video here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/07/ian-tomlinson-g20-death-video

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Evening fellow hand folk,

Looking forward to this weekend more than Luke and a bowl of hot nachos, Phil with hair gel and Tim with a new questionable flowery headwear as it's a sporting marathon; with the World Cup qualifiers for all the home Nations, England vs the Windies in the third test and it's the start of the Grand Prix season - if you're into all that energetic stuff... Much pubbage to be had and beer to be consumed. maybe a few pretzels or two as well

If rivers with boats and rowers wearing extremely tight lycra is more your thing, then pop along to the Boathouse in Putney on Sunday as it's the Oxbridge boat race and we're playing for the lucky lucky folk that can make it. Jagermeister all round...

catch ya soon

Pabs x

'Come on Scotland!'

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Hello folks I did my first video blog for you all. It's how to play pirates.




Enjoy and do not question my attire. It had been a long day.

Much love

L x

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Well, good evening folks out there in the world of blog. It’s been a while. I’m gonna try and make Thursdays blog a wee bit exiting by doing a video thing on how to play one of our songs.
Well the bass and guitar bits, maybe Phil and Pabs will do ones on how to play the other parts… that would be good eh?

I’ve just finished reading ‘Kingdom of Fear’ which is one of the last things the great Gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson. A chapter in it is entitled ‘Fear and Loathing in Elko’ (my nickname within the band) and covers the story of the Doc
running a rather large V8 Cadillac through a heard of sheep amongst other things. Pretty good reading folks, in fact I’d go so far as to say you should
try n get your hands on a copy of it. You should also read the Rum Diaries. That’s a quality read as long as you can get on with the style. A lot of H.S.T’s
hype came around his drug use yet he was never so out of control so as not to be able to produce a great read.

On a different note I’ve recently become obsessed with Birthday cake (old skool iced sponge
style). It’s absolutely incredible. I haven’t actually eaten more than a small square
of it in the past 6 months but think it’s something I could get into over the
next few days in the lead up to my Bday. Also if you think about it it’s
someone’s Birthday every day so why not eh?

Why not indeed?

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Well, just returned down to earth after an incredible gig at Studio 24 supporting the majestic Bombskare on their long awaited album launch. As well as being perhaps the hottest sweatest hour we've spent outside of a sauna, was also perhaps the most fun. Good slippery fun. Though its a wonder we finished in one piece. Big thanks to Bomskare for the invite, upon which we downed our respective tools and raced 100's of miles across fields and rivers to be present. Also thanks to Root System and the Amphetameanies, both as ever awesome and crazy. And of course to the hundreds, thousands even, of people who came along to make it an amazing night.

And so on to the mystery that is Bombskare... It brought a tear to this old man's eye to see the bombskare leviathan getting stronger and stronger by the year, defying time, gravity, the law and many other things, like a primal force of evolution, devouring all in their wake. Where next...visions, 100 years from now, a juggernaught, various parts of the machine retiring in glory to be replaced by new blood, of grandkids of grandkids keeping the ska alive, Bombskare striding across the globe, the oldest band in existence (with all original members looking proudly down and dancing with Bob Marley and Moses on a cloud), keeping the the good people and robots up and down the Ark dancing, till we evolve up to teleportation and living on the moon and the name passes into misty legend. Something along those lines anyway.

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After weekends of fun and debauchery for our four digit warriors of doom in the four corners of our fair isle, there's nothing like a gig to galvanise the spirit and make folks dance, dance, where ever they may be... It's fair to say that we love playing and the face we get to jig on Friday night again with oor pals Bombskare for their album launch in Edinburgh fills us with moist, warm feelings of wonderment.

Our intrepid team of Tim, Luke, Ingi and Ralphus (maximus) are braving the UK transport systems to make it up, teaming up with Pabs and Philo in our fair Scottish capital. If yer in Edinburgh and no there on Friday night, sort it!

It's gonna be messy, and more fun than you can shake a Polaroid picture at

Pabs...

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still it's all for a good cause as we were in the pseudo studio yesterday working on some demos for the new album. It's kinda in a Big Hand unplugged stylee which is how we often write stuff to start off with. This meant the fantastic mixmaster Matt coming round and turning my loft into a big maze of mics and cables and pressing play. (I’ve taken a pic on my phone and put it on the myspace, facebook and bebo pages). We then had a big ol jam session and are probably going to stick it out for folks to have a a listen to in the new year (exiting eh?)

We’ve done versions of songs that have never been recorded as well as a few tracks that were left of the first album due to space issues and an acoustic version of the live anthem ‘Let It Out’. It’s not gonna be for everyone but will allow us to sit back n have a listen and make sure the 2nd album rocks.

Speaking of things that are going to rock the Cardiff, Birmingham and London dates all look like they’re gonna be well busy and we can’t wait to get out and see folk as it’s been way to long since we played down saff. I personally can’t wait.

Much love

L x

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Oh my, it really is freezing at the moment. I'm now back in London which to be fair lacks the biting go straight through you wind of Edinburgh. Inverness was just silly especially as we ended up in some country place just outside of Inverness having been stranded out of our Hotel… (big thanks to Kit and Sally for sorting that
Anyways with the onset of Christmas decorations and all the high streets being lit up I’m actually enjoying this time of year. I’m aware that it will all go to shit in January but there we go. I’m hoping my mood reflects yer own as there really aren’t enough public holidays based around being kind and hospitable to yer fellow person. Try and keep that in mind and not focus on the material stuff too much. As the great Don Henley one said ‘You don’t see many hearses with luggage racks.’
Go see friends, hang out get drunk and enjoy one anothers company. If yer in the mood for some music and live down saffffff we still have a few gigs on. Sorry that the Fly’s sold out, we’ll book a bigger venue next time.

Much love folks (ho ho ho)

L x


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Hey cyber hand fans hope yer all feeling good this cold monday evening, just thought i would report on random events going on in my life just now, saturday saw me attending my friend natalies birthday party round at her gaff where the theme of the night was rather obscurely "potato night" and as a humble, fairly standard potato eater i was pretty damn impressed with the variety of potato based munch that was on the menu mainly the 'sweet potato' mash that mim made who, coincidently, used to sing for a fantastic group called polymyth which i highly recomend you do a wee search for and have a listen to the tracks on their myspace. Anyways, needless to say as always the night got pretty damn messy involving games like centurion and the spoon game but games aside for the moment i was well impressed to see my mate 'Scum' make an appearance. I'd not seen this dude in like 4 years as he went off to live in Birmingham but the guy (legendery as always) arrived in a proper badgered state and ended up K.O'd on the couch for the WHOLE night after only being there for like 30 mins, crazy fool
Sunday saw me feeling well shit and almost in a totaly crippled state but through some miracle brought on by the consumption of ridiculous amounts of vitamin C i managed to find some sense of functionality and went up to my old mans with the boy and wife for an evening of surf and turf curry and trivial pursuit genius edition although through some ironic twist it was spelt 'the genus edition', See, the little silly things in life do make me laugh. The game lasted about 3 hours before we finaly decided to call it a day and beleive it or not but i managed to acquire 4 bits of fantasticly colourfull pie, it seemed though that sport and history was where i was failing miserably. Any hoo just gonna kick back tonight and enjoy the next few nights of chill time before the next string of gigs kicks in. I suggest you all get yerself someone tasty to curl up to during these wintery days and save that energy for the next time the opportunity to skank comes yer ways

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Thought for the day - Is it cool that pirates have over-run a Saudi oil tanker?

They are clearly not the warm, cuddly, loveable pirates we all know and aspire to be, but there is a sense that hijacking an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia worth $100M with pending US and UK airforces ready to strike, has a certain bragging factor associated with it?

I bet they are all comparing swords and drinking rum. Arrrrrgggghhhh

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Gazing out of my window I am noticing that it appears to be a full moon tonight, or at least pretty full and circle like (hard to tell what with the mysterious wisps of possibly - portentious clouds obscuring it). I have also just noticed, checking my calender on my useless phone (if you a thinking of changing network, do not use 3, i swear, you could be sitting on top of a phone mast and you still wouldn't get reception), that it is friday, and also that it is the 14th, which is obviously one away from the 13th, a quite significant number, as is the number 1. So, flicking through my 'numerology for dummies' handbook it appears essential that you me and everyone be on their guard against any wayward or stray ill-begotten spirits, and keep out of the shadows. Either that, or don't be taken in by any superstition and live a nice neurosis free carefree life, but then where would we be, and what songs would ever get written.

Or perhaps, the secret 3rd option of getting nicely toasted and merry on red wine, which i think i shall take, and drink to all of your's good health.

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Having moved down south from Edinburgh to London last month, a rode out the wierdness of this on a wave of optimism that at the very least I would be warm, somewhat less windswept and a good deal less wet. I have seen the error of my ways. I have spent the last 3 days being ed that this is of course Britain, and having used up the national quota of 10 days sunshine a year, we are not fullly immersed in Novermber gloom (as I write this, at midday, a car is driving past with headlights on), and that unless I go about a thousand miles south, this situation will not improve. Not only that, yesterday I spent 2 hours getting home from Richmond on the bus (Its 3 miles! 2 hours gets me halfway to Edinburgh!). However, I am consoling myself with nice summer memories, and the thought that, barring any serious mishap, the next one will soon be nearing. That said, it does look like The Flood is starting outside, and the Noah within is already sizing up planks of wood in the shed in anticipation of the deluge. Still, on the bright side, Obama won, and while I'm sure I'll be brought down from my current adulation and find out he can't actually walk on water, at the very least he won't be an illiterate posturing waterboarding redneck,and the world won't end quite so soon as it otherwise would have done.

Its nice to feel hopeful about the state of the world for a change.

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morning cyber folks out there in the land of ze Hand. Just checking in quickly to wish everyone an enjoyable pagan festival of lost souls. Speaking of which lets hope that the tides chance in the US and the lost souls that have been running the place for the last 8 years let someone in who actually knows what they're doing.

Laters

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So Big Hand folk, we get a call at the start of the week - "can you do a gig this coming Saturday for Edinburgh Uni Freshers week" Our reply is that 2 of us are in London, one of us has major dental work the day before, one of the singers has lost their voice from an evil bug going round and we have no backline in Scotland...

So, obviously, we gratefully accept the challenge and "the planning stage" begins... Two tubes, two trains, two flights, a large amount of Dyhydrocodiene, hardcore intake of hot honey and lemon, a very annoyed taxi driver with leather seats in his poeple carrier to take our borrowed gear to the gig, 4 stops around Edinburgh the beg, steal and borrow equipment, we find ourselves at soundcheck at the Union...

The show is a storming success and could only have been better and more worth while if there were more people and, well, folk wanted to let themselves go a bit and get down like it was 1984. Nevertheless, we had a wicked time, got drunk on beer, wine & single malt, ended back at one of our flats, played Mario kart on the Wii until our two southern members had to get their flight from Edinburgh airport at 8am.

All that way for a chicken?

Anyone that even dares to utter the words that we're picky on gigs and only do easy shows, you are indeed Gary Rhodes, and not the good one...

peas and muchos luv,

Pabs x

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Another Monday has arrived and after a weekend of top notch ska my soul is revived, Friday saw us playing with This R 2 Tone at the Bongo club in Edinburgh along with Big Fat Panda, who i must admit skanked good style! if ye ever hear of them kicking about your town go pay em a visit yeah.
Once the music had all but gone i armed myself with a sack full of beer and headed out on the voyage to find a suitable party pad but not before jamming for some time outside on the street with Mr Tom Pickles. I was well loving the sound of dual melodica's dubbing out the streets of the burgh. Anyways, the whole drinking session for me lasted right through to the next day when we where due to play the Edinburgh Rat Race and 12 pm Afternoon. Still pretty mashed i arrived clutching my trusty friend Mr cider who more than helped me make it through the day. Come 5pm my brain began to capsize and a homeward journey was called for topped of by a big fat indian meal. Mmmm.
Needless to say saturday is a bit of a haze but hey what you gonna do about it

A new day, a new Sunday 16:00.
Having recovered mostly from the previous insanity another Rat Race was on the cards, was amazing seeing lots of familiar faces and friends of mine whom i hadnt seen for a quite a while and it was even more amazing seeing a load of our fans invading the skate ramp at the front of the stage so they could skank like the beautiful loons they are You peoples who were giving it large on that ramp I feckin luvs ya! Was speaking to some dude called John who had taken some snaps of the event so dude, if yer reading this POST THOSE BAD BOYS UP.

right im of to liberate my mind a little further, anyone else smell burning plastic?

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It’s not often you have an absolutely cracking weekend where you love every minute and lament the fact you have to go home. Anyone looking to find the answer to this age old quandary and seek further enlightenment should visit Bishops Castle in Shorpshire 'BC - The land before time' (Halsey TM) and follow this with a jaunty trip to the capital of Somerset where the crazy fun folk live, Bristol.

With a couple of cracking shows, great weather, good friends you’ve not seen for a while, insane sporting events with friendly faces, cider boats, Jamaican take away’s from Zion, and of course, the establishment where magnificent magic happens, Mr Wolfs, you just really can’t get much better...

For those of you who were around and missed us and at the rat race with awesomely auspicious fight the bear and crazy sporty folk, you missed a few days of unadulterated joyful joy and jamming. Better make sure you see us around the country soon and we'll fill in the gaps

A massive thanks to Mark 'the living legend' Pearson, Jules 'it will have to do' of the fantastic Zen Hussy's and Barney 'I'm designing a terminator' Walker for a couple of days that will long live in the memories of us all. At least until the next time we're out with you, armed with mischeivious thoughts, Jagermeister and canoes. (Bear, Jim, Johnny and Dunk, you have been warned….. wa ha ha ha)

It was ace enough that burned out cars by the RAC building in Birmingham causing a 90 minute delay on the long drive back to sunny Scotland did not dampen the ye olde spirits of the Hand.

That's all for now hand folk, but until next time, remember to make sure you embrace, love, keep smiling and dance for joy.

Pabs x

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