In the meantime here is a YouTube playlist of acoustic stuff we’ve recorded when practicing or performed live to give you a feel.

So here’s the idea…

Rob and I turn up to your house, student flat, church etc.

We play some songs for you…some off ‘Escape This Town’, some covers and some new.

You invite your friends!

…Simple!

So…if you’d like to have a couple of musicians turn up in your living room for an evening of entertainment with you and your mates here’s what you need to do…

1 – Check out the dates below…we may be able to put other dates in at your request but these are definitely blank in our diaries

2 – Contact me using marktiddy [at] me.com (turn that into an e-mail address!) or via Facebook or Twitter

3 – We confirm a date and turn up at your house!

We’re not charging for this however if you fancy giving us some food or somewhere to sleep or something towards travelling costs that would be very nice but not compulsory!

Anyway…here’s the dates

Escape This Town is Out Now!

The fully re-recorded and remastered version of my album ‘Escape This Town is out now on CD (link) and to download (from FREE)

Why download it?

If you’ve heard the last album then please have a listen to the new version. There’s 2 new songs, slightly less songs but it sounds 100 times better…I should have a review from Ben to post in the next couple of weeks too!

If you like the album please tweet, Facebook it etc. and spread the word!

I’m incredibly excited to announce that you can now pre-order ‘Escape This Town’ for it’s digital and CD release!

On the 19th March I will be releasing my album ‘Escape This Town’ as a brand new, fully mastered and re-recorded 15 track album.

For the first time I will be releasing it as a physical CD as well as releasing it digitally via iTunes, Amazon etc. and on a ‘pay what you like’ basis from my bandcamp page.

Here are the details…

CD Release

The CD edition of my album is going to be available through my own store and also through Cross Rhythms. You can pre-order yourself a copy of the album from me directly by heading to by store. If you want to hear snippets before buying scroll to the bottom of this page.

The CD release comes in a jewel case with full coloured artwork including a 4 page booklet containing all the lyrics plus some photos of the recording process. The CD and artwork are all being professionally done and if you buy it through my store it will cost you just £5 (plus a small amount for postage).

Digital Release

‘Escape This Town’ will also be released digitally on the 19th March through iTunes, Amazon mp3 etc. (along with streaming on Spotify). However I’m also releasing it on a pay what you want basis from my bandcamp page. This means that on the 19th March you can head to bandcamp and name your price (even 0 if you want!) and download it in whatever format you like.

To pre-order digital (even the free version) just pop your name and e-mail in the form below and upon release you’ll receive a link to download the album in it’s entirety including pdf artwork in whatever format you like!

Digital Pre-order form

[contact-form-7]

Thank You

Whether you order the CD, download via iTunes, Amazon etc, stream through Spotify or get it for free from bandcamp thank you for taking some interest in my music. Please write about it on your blog, Facebook and twitter and share it with your friends.

Album Sampler

A few years ago I was invited to an event on Facebook titled ‘Luke Leighfield’s Free Album launch’ and seeing the word ‘free’ naturally clicked onto it and ended up downloading Luke’s album ‘Have You Got Heart?’ (Get it here) and I was sold!

For those of you who’ve never heard of Luke Leighfield he is an independent pop musician from Southampton and has played over 600 gigs, released 4 albums, a variety of EP’s and is a generally great guy!

Last year Luke asked his fans to fund his new album ‘New Season’ before its recording process. Luke offered a variety of options ranging from a copy of the CD upon release to having Luke phone you up or write you a song. After seeing countless tweets, updates and photos (and eventually hearing a couple of songs) New Season became one of my most anticipated albums for a long time.

After a year of waiting on Monday I received my digital download of the album and today in the post came a nicely packaged ‘New Season’ envelope containing my CD copy of the album, some stickers, a poster (with personalised greeting) and some postcards (you don’t get that from major labels!).

I’ve listened to the album quite a lot over the last few days and thought I’d post a review so here it is…

New Season comes in a beautifully designed digipack with a 20 page photo-booklet and lyrics sheets and contains 10 songs.

The album has a more spiritual side to it than ‘Have You Got Heart?’ and both musically and lyrically feels more mature but without losing the energy that ‘Have You Got Heart?’ had. Throughout the album there is this theme of slowing down and making time and as a listener you find yourself feeling both challenged by this and part of the journey that Luke has been on in writing these songs. There’s a real authenticity that comes across in Luke’s lyrics on this album which you don’t find often on albums.

Personally I think my favourite tracks on the album are ‘New Season’, Garde Ta Foy’ and ‘The One Thing’ but there’s actually not a weak track on the album. ‘New Season’ has some immensely rawkus moments such as the crescendo in ‘The One Thing’ which, on full blast in the car is amazing!

Overall I think ‘New Season’ is a cracking album. For new listeners of Luke Leighfield I don’t think it’s as easy to listen to as ‘Have You Got Heart?’ but it’s certainly worth listening to, buying and recommending to others (and if you get a chance go and see Luke live too!)

Links: Luke’s Website | Stream ‘New Season’ here | Buy the CD and a variety of goodies here

Shameless Plug: Finally my album ‘Escape This Town’ is out on the 19th March in it’s fully remastered/re-recorded glory. You’ll be able to get it here on the 19th March and you can pre-order the CD here now! (For full info on the release go here)

I’ve basically taken the album back to the start and re-recorded guitars, bass, keys and vocals. On top of that I’ve fully re-mixed and fully mastered it. I’m incredibly proud of how different this album is compared to the original release and the addition of the previously unreleased ‘Hopeless Romantic’ and studio version of ‘Secret’ really makes the album for me.

But don’t just take it from me…

On listening to a mostly mastered version Ben tweeted

Today I’ve been sending off press releases (oh yes!) and doing all sorts of publicity type things. I’m really excited about the new album!

Finally here is the new track listing and cover artwork

1 – I Need You
2 – Make You Smile
3 – All Fake & Just So Selfish
4 – Station Girl
5 – It’s Not Right
6 – Summer of 2005
7 – Marry Me
8 – Escape this Town
9 – Something So Unbreakable
10 – Violence Doesn’t Bring Salvation
11 – Trading Your Faith
12 – Pleading Insanity
13 – Hopeless Romantic
14 – Secret
15 – Joanna

Here is is…

Don’t forget: Escape this Town released 19th March 2012!

Tonight I’m playing an acoustic cover song with Rob as part of Beverley Minster’s Youth Fundraiser event ‘Minster’s Got Talent’. There’s a whole host of other acts and all money goes towards the Minster’s Youth Ministry.

The event starts at 7:30pm and tickets are £5

Come along and have a listen to our cover song!

In other news…

I spent the tail end of this week writing press releases for ‘Escape this Town’ which is pretty much finished and will be released on the 19th March. Watch this space.

If you like it please share that you like it via Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc.

Here’s the lyric video for the song

Blink 182 – Neighborhoods (Deluxe)

The album I entered into 2011 looking the most forward to was the new Blink 182 album. I’ve been a huge Blink 182 fan for years and when they announced that they were getting back together a few years back I was really excited and have spent the last few years waiting to see what the new Blink 182 would be like.

The deluxe edition of Neighborhoods contains 14 tracks and shows more maturity than Blink 182′s previous stuff and really shows Mark taking aspects of Plus 44 and Tom aspects of Angels & Airwaves back to Blink.

It’s a fantastic album and my personal highlights include Kaleidoscope, Heart’s All Gone, Fighting the Gravity and Ghost on the Dance Floor.

You can read my full blog review of the album here

Avril Lavigne – Goodbye Lullaby

I’ve been an Avril Lavigne fan since she first released ‘Let Go’ when I was a teenager and all of her albums feature in the ‘guilt pleasures’ section in my music collection however her follow-up albums since ‘Let Go’ have been a bit hit and miss. In typical pop-fasion they’ve included a handful of good tracks and then some fillers.

Thanks to Spotify I was able to give ‘Goodbye Lullaby’ a proper listen before deciding to buy it and it’s turned out to be one of my favourite albums of the year.

The album has a more mature feel to it and still follows Avril’s ‘pop-rock’ style but she seems to be more comfortable in her own genre rather than occasionally trying to be something else. The album is pretty much all good and my favourite tracks include ‘Wish You Were Here’, ‘Smile’ and ‘Darlin’.

Kristopher Roe (The Ataris) – Hang Your Head In Hope

One of the bands I’ve got into the most over the last few years has been ‘The Ataris’. In the midst of all the synths and over production of newer pop-punk I’ve found the more simple yet effective side of their music refreshing.

On top of that they’ve been in the process of recording a new album for the last few years and without a record label they’ve been doing it pretty much on their own.

In order to support their new recording process Kris Roe (lead singer/guitarist) released a ‘pay what you like’ acoustic album called ‘Hang Your Head In Hope’. The album is pretty much him and a guitar playing the best of ‘The Ataris’ songs and I love it!

For me Kris Roe’s slightly edgy voice and aggressive guitar style makes this album fantastic. The whole thing is worth downloading and you can get it here for whatever you want.

Owl City – All Things Bright & Beautiful

Owl City have been one of my favourites for a couple of years now and since their success with ‘Fireflies’ the follow-up has always going to have been interesting as artists tend to either dramatically change after a hit or stay the same…often there isn’t anything in the middle.

All Things Bright & Beautiful breaks this rule. The follow-up to Ocean Eyes is the beautiful pop that Adam Young has always produced but seems to have a bit more edge…the drums in particular on this album seem to have more kick. If you like Owl City’s previous stuff you’ll love this…some of the best tracks include ‘Deer in the Headlights’, ‘Galaxies’ and ‘The Real World’.

Yellowcard – When You’re Through With Thinking, Say Yes

Yellowcard’s first album ‘Ocean Avenue’ is one of my favourite pop-punk albums ever. The bands unique blend of pop-punk with a violin makes them always a refreshing listen however despite trying to get into them on Spotify their follow-up albums have never quite cut it.

Their new album ‘When You’re through with thinking, say yes’ however changes this and returns to the style that they had originally. The album is energetic and a fantastic listen. Some of my favourite tracks include ‘The Sound of You and Me’, ‘Be The Young’ and especially ‘With You Around’ (because it references a song off Ocean Avenue).

So there you have it…my top 5 albums of 2011. In 2012 I’m really anticipating the release of Luke Leighfield’s new album ‘New Season’ and getting to listen to plenty of other new stuff.

This is amazing because he sits there above the likes of Coldplay and Rihanna and with acts such as Little Mix with the full force of the X-Factor in front of them only just in front.

Whether he gets number 1 or simply in the top ten surely this has to be a game changer!

Think about it. Alex Day has no major record label and has only really got where he is thanks to his own hard work via YouTube and the handwork of his fans which have been building up over a number of years.

Much like the 2009 campaign of getting Rage Against the Machine to Christmas number one people power and social media is having an impact.

The difference between the RATM campaign and Alex Day is that as a musician Alex Day has no major label, no real money behind his press yet is in the Top 10.

Surely this is good for the music industry? Surely this means that actually you no longer need a major label to do well but you need to put a lot of effort into your music and actually have talent?

I don’t think if this changes the entire game but it certainly means that with the internet and social media a major label isn’t the only way to do well in the charts.

Hopefully this campaign will encourage more musicians to get out there and do self promoting!

Tonight the awful X-Factor will announce the winner of their 2011 karaoke competition and it’s more than likely that this time next week some depressingly unimaginative cover of a song that’s not really old enough to be covered properly will be released however the Christmas number 1 slot of no longer a given to the X-Factor winner following the success of the incredibly exciting campaign in 2009 which saw Rage Against the Machine get the number 1 slot (and raise a lot of money for Shelter (not Simon Cowell) in the process).

Last year’s attempts were more copies but this year there seem to be 3 equally credible and deserving contestants to go alongside the X-Factor and so here’s a summary.

1 – Alex Day – Forever Yours

My favourite of the contestants is Alex Day (pictured above), I’ve been following his YouTube channel for a while and he posts amusing videos and is also a full-time independent musician…the bookmakers William Hill have given his catchy pop-song ‘Forever Yours’ 16/1 odds of getting the slot.

Forever Yours is a fun, catchy electro-pop song which will easily get stuck in your head…on top of that Alex Day is independent which means that actually his growing YouTube and music popularity is because he is a genuinely talented guy and not some karaoke singer auto-tuned to hell in a studio.

On top of that Alex all money raised for the song goes to providing water to people in Africa!

You can listen to the song here

 2 – Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

Following in the footsteps of ‘Rage Against the Machine’ a Facebook campaign is aiming to get Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ to number 1…with currently over 100,000 likes on Facebook and the promise of a vinyl re-issue of the single from the record label this campaign seems to be growing with momentum.

On top of that the campaign is raising money for charity ‘Rythmix’ who (as the story goes) protested to the X-Factor girl group stealing their name only to be told ‘you’d better find some lawyers then’…although since the name has been changed.

You can check out the campaign on Facebook here and Twitter here

3 – Military Wives – Wherever You Are

The Military Wives who have been coached by Gareth Malone are releasing their song ‘Wherever You Are’ also in contest for the number 1 slot raising money for the British Legion….the song isn’t to my taste but I think they’re equally deserving of the slot.

Conclusion and Buying Info

So…there you have it. 4 options for Christmas number 1 in the form of X-Factor, Alex Day, Nirvana and Military Wives and all but the X-Factor are raising money for charity so there’s clearly 3 out of 4 which are better but which will get it?

Personally as a fellow independent musician I’d love to see Alex Day get the top spot but only time will see!

You can buy the Christmas number 1 songs from the 18th December for them to count but only buy a song once or none of your purchases will count.

Get involved, raise some money for charity and let’s make music about music and not winning some competition!

Five Iron Frenzy had this habit of drawing you into the music and then hitting you with the most profound God-lyric ever! We even had the worship band at our wedding adapt their song ‘World without End’ adapted to be played as a worship song.

Over the last few months the bands website contained a mysterious countdown and their Twitter and Facebook came to life, building hype around something that would happen at 2am this morning (or 7pm in the USA!)…having toyed with the idea of staying up or sleeping through and checking out twitter in the morning I opted in for a 1:55am alarm and hoped that it would be something worth disturbing my sleep for.

And it was!

I’d spent my day telling myself that it would be a greatest hits or rarities album and not a reform or anything new but how wrong was I?

Five Iron Frenzy announced (with a slightly bizarre video of Reese Roper in the desert) that they were getting back together and would be recording a new album (to release in 2013…10 years after their break-up) and possibly playing some shows….oh and they put a new song online!

Now the latter doesn’t excite me as much unless they venture to the UK (I wish!) but the thought of a new album and a chance to hear a new Five Iron song really got me excited. To make this new album the band were asking for pledges in return for a variety of things ranging from a CD of the new album to the band writing you a song…I went for the former and amazingly the band aimed to get $30,000 to make, master and release the album and amazingly they got that within 55 minutes and less than 24 hours later they’re on $80,000.

Turns out I’m not the only one excited about the new Five Iron Frenzy.

I was also pretty excited about the new song titled ‘It was a dark and stormy night’ and it’s so good! It’s like a mix of ‘Electric Boogaloo’ and ‘Our Newest Album Ever’ and I think will please all FIF fans.

So why the blog?

This blog is simply to express my burst of excitement…share the word and tell you to listen to Five Iron Frenzy…they’re amazing and so much fun but also seriously challenging.

Go listen, support and download at: www.fiveironfrenzy.com

Note: I also had a worship blog in mind to write which also included some stuff about FIF so this blog might end up a little FIF obsessed for a week or so!

Having had the last theme for a while I fancied a change to something a little more creative. This one takes slightly longer to load but I think it’s nice…Hope you like it!

New Song!

Over the last few months I’ve been re-recording, mixing and mastering ‘Escape this Town’ to fix some of the things that slipped through the net last year and I released the first new single from it a few weeks back.

You can download the fully re-mastered track ‘Escape this Town’ for free here or if you’re feeling generous it’s on iTunes and Amazon (You can also listen for free on Spotify)

Geography Rocks EP

Finally in half term Dave came up to stay and we spent 2 days trying to record, mix and master and EP of Dave’s geography songs (which he actually sings to his classes) and we did it!

Geography Songs is available to download here or on iTunes here

They’re pretty catchy and it was great fun to try and do something of good quality in 2 days…and I think we managed it. I also got to play drums and record some bass and guitars on the record.

You can watch a ‘Making of Geography Songs’ video below

The Making of Geography Songs from Mark Tiddy on Vimeo.