Album launch and live performance at Rough Trade West!

UK Decay live at Record-Store-Day 2013

UK Decay live at Record-Store-Day 2013

We are launching our new album New Hope For The Dead with a short live performance at this years “Record Store Day 2013” at the Rough Trade West Stage, Talbot Road, Ladbroke Grove, London on Saturday 20th April at 2.30pm. This is an outdoor all day family event to celebrate the culture of independent record stores.

Further info here

Our new album to premier a world first print technique

New Hope For The Dead cover

New Hope For The Dead album cover (front)

Our new album New Hope For The Dead is to premier a brand new printing technique on limited pressings of the CD and Vinyl cover artwork. The covers of both formats will feature a 3D “oil painting varnish” effect which will give a real textured feel to the sleeve replicating artist Franko B’s striking paintings. This print effect is a world first for a CD or Vinyl LP.

Both formats of the limited edition will be personally signed by the band. The special limited editions are available now to pre-order from our store and the album will be officially launched in April. A special album launch performance is under wraps and will be announced shortly. Details to follow.

To order the CD version click here

To order the Vinyl version click here

Strange Boutique

Aside

DaveSharmanThe band were interviewed at the recent Brighton gig by host, David A. Sharman for a Brighton radio station. Dave’s ‘Strange Boutique’ features Punk and Post Punk and is broadcast every Thursdays at 7pm. The interview with ukdecay will be accompanied by excerpts from the new album ‘New Hope From The Dead’. We will update further details, there will be a ‘listen again’.

Opening salvo

Writing from a bunker hidden from the world’s reality here in the Llyn Peninsula , North Wales , I just wanted to send a big note of appreciation to all you that offered up such great hospitality in Helsinki (yes , the birthday party post gig was class ) and Berlin , and of course back home in London . We’re firing on all cylinders again , there is New Hope For The Dead , there are a lot of of you to hook up with in your home towns out there , the beers are on me , see you sooner ………

Rimini: Italy

Moonlight Festival 2011moonlight2012_3

Dateline : Sunday 28th August. Britain 16C overcast Rimini 32C sunny

 

Moonlight candid 0017am ish. After a two hour drive and another hour working the car park at the airport out, we take a photo to help us locate the car on return the following day…don’t want to take any chances! Note the cheery english weather we are going to leave behind for a day.

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12.30pm local time – “Lucky bastards! the Italians are having a proper summer!” Spon exclaimed in frustration at the lack of a British ‘proper summer’. We drove 100 kliks from Bologna airport to the festival site at ‘Velvet’, Rimini…nice motorway (or autostrade)

 

Moonlight_candid_0032pm -ish. Pull into Festival venue by nice lake with fishermen (and as it turned out later, nasty mosquito’s!)

 

 

 

 

2.30 pm ish. Despite being late for soundcheck because of lost baggage (Abbo’s guitar) at airport..the festival techies are running behind & we have to wait another half hour..”don’t worry, this is Italy – everything runs late” we were confidently re-assured.

Moonlight_candid_0042.45pm ish. Time for a quick scuttle round venue of moonlight festival site at club ‘velvet’. Nice venue – bit like a graffiti-ed cow-shed by a lake. It wouldn’t make it through a british summer let alone winter..but in italy’s climate it actually works really well as a venue.

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2.50pm ish. The side of the venue facing the lake The back-stage area is near the other end of the building, beyond the tomato trees.

 

 

 

Moonlight_candid_0062.55pm ish. The punters have arrived as you can see in this car park at the other end of the long building. In the distance you can see san marino mountain, we were to have dinner there later as it turned out. Actually the festival wasn’t due to start until 7pm

3pm ish. Back to the van, where everyone is ‘hanging out’ and keeping real cool…just awaiting that starter pistol..

3.30pm ish. Technically, the soundcheck should have finished 15 minutes ago. Everybody is ready to jump into action, once the word “let the soundcheck commence” is given.
Well, very soon, the word was finally given…we soundchecked and were told that dinner would be in nearby in San Marino later..

5.30pm. Arrived at the hotel, this was to be the shortest stay ever, 3 hours kip then sign out and go to dinner.

10.30pm ish..Dinner in a San Marino ‘rock cafe’ with authentic san maronian cuisine – veggy chilli, of course!

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10.30pm ish. Special guest at the san marino buffett was a life size dummy of a san marinoian ‘melvis presley’ how bizzare! By 11pm we were back in italy and back at the venue. mucho stuff to prepare.We left the ‘house’ at 3.30am ish and raced to make our plane back..

 

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6.30am ish. mid flight back and “gosh! look at those mountains” An hour later we were hobbling through the arrivals and fumbling through our bags for the car keys.

So a it was thirty hour jaunt by the time we got back to our homes, with little or next to no sleep.
But boy! what a thirty hours “I met a boy who wore a mask, just like today” It was Spon…

Helsinki: Finland

Helsinki HarbourDateline: January 18 2013 Minus 25c We were taking off on one of the last planes to depart from Heathrow before the blizzard closed in that morning. We had a tight schedule  flying two hours forward into the time zone  for a gig with Finnish hero’s ‘Silent Scream‘  at the Ravintola Kuudes Linja  club in the heart of down town Helsinki.
Our arrival at Helsinki airport nearly two hours late, meant for a speedy 20 kilometre drive straight to the venue. The Finnish are not phased by the cold or snow, over here the piled up snow in the spaces between the parked cars has taken on an air of permanence  Not like the ‘anglo slush’ but more of a feel of hard granite, you wouldn’t want to crash your motor into this! The cars were all moving – they had snow tyres, folk were going about their daily business, to them this was normal. Soon they would arrive in their hundreds for our show.
We got out of the transport and the cold literally took our breath away, we made haste and prepared for the sound check.  We were greeted by the promotion folk and by members of Silent Scream, they all seemed relieved that we had made it. After the sound check, it was interview time and we huddled around a digital audio recorder whilst Oskar Terramortis asked the questions.

Instead of eating we stayed at the club and watched some of Silent Scream who made an impressively big sound, guitars that sounded like great valkyranian horns. Their music was intelligent and their performance in front of the home crowd was awesome. The bass player has a fascination with 60’s and 70’s Brit comedy movies like the ‘Carry On’ series, all of the band were really friendly as was a great deal of the audience as it turned out.
It turns out that Rock Music generally in Finland, is the nations Pop Music. All respect to the Finnish, they are a tough bunch, they have to be to survive the harsh climate. We were reminded however that Finland had a much better summer in 2012 than the rain sodden mire we had here back in blighty. But even for Finland it was cold, in fact the coldest evening of the winter of 0′ 13 so far.
Then it was time for our performance, we would be premièring a number of new songs from the album, and had to stay in focus.

Then we were on. The set flashed by in ultra quick time, visions of crowds of enthusiastic punters rocking out down the front, they were round to one side as well. At the back people watched, some standing on things, there were red digi lights and flashes going off in the crowd. The crowd were warm then they got hot, making lots of noise as we changed songs. There was a couple of minor odd glitches, but overall we were reasonably happy with our performance. It was new guitarist Johnny G second gig with us, his first was in Berlin back in November. Since his arrival and the new material the band feels like it’s really beginning to fire on all four cylinders. Ed, Ray and Johnny are getting down to the groove, Spon is soaring above and Abbo caresses and taunts giving performance that defy.

Following our show the audience queued up to meet us and we chatted and signed merch and memorabilia away the following hour. After finally eating the most awesome veggie kebab cooked up by a couple of fine Soumi dude chef’s, we hastened to a down town bar where a hall at the back was assigned for an after show party. We continued networking and drank away the next couple hours before heading to the hotel for some well earned sleep.

The following morning following breakfast and a short band meeting, there were a couple of hours to spare. We decided to hang out for a bit where the harbour meets the city centre. It was a beautiful bright sunny day despite the cold, a bunch of us threaded our way meaningfully down to the harbour. We were astonished to see the Sea frozen and as we watched, an icebreaker was ploughing it’s way through the ice towards the jetty.
The harbour was a glorious vision of crunched and refrozen ice. To add a sense of surreality there were a couple of futuristic leviathan super cruise liners frozen in situ straddling the harbour edges. The classical architecture of the city was the backdrop with the hustle and bustle of humanity going about their daily normal business unfolding before us. We walked round to what looked like the focal point of the harbour area and by a ring of stone turtles.  Che magically produced some fine Beaujolais wine that we drank in plastic glasses as the sun reflected untold shades and sunbeams in the ice. The wine literally froze solid before we had chance to finish and soon it was time to make our way back to the airport and home.
It wouldn’t be a story without a twist, the transporter was late picking us up to return to the airport, it turned out it was so cold the diesel had frozen in the tank! Hastily transport was rearranged and got us back to the airport only just in the nick of time, but despite the cold, it made us sweat!

Necromanteion Show on Cathedral 13 Radio on Mixcloud
Oskar Terramortis interviews ukdecay

 

Live and Gigging at The Hat Factory – Luton

Live and gigging at The Hat Factory Poster

Live and gigging at The Hat Factory Poster Landscape

UK Decay are returning to their home town to take part in a “Live And Gigging” event run by Luton Cultural Services in conjunction with BBC Introducing. The evening will include a live performance in front of a home crowd and before that band members will be taking part in workshops, mentoring a support band, and a general networking question and answer session. The Live and Gigging event will also offer one local artist/band a one to one session with UK Decay and a support slot during their gig; plus additional industry prizes and opportunities.

Further information and tickets

Review of Electrowerks gig in ‘Louder Than War’

Electrowerkz, Angel, Islington, London,
16th February 2013

A Night For Celebration as UK Decay take London by storm with their first gig in the present incarnation. Louder Than War, needless to say, were in the audience in the form of writer Dave Jennings & photographer Elaine J.

It’s thirty years since UK Decay played their legendary farewell gigs at the Klub Foot in Hammersmith yet the hundreds who crammed into the Elecrowerkz will agree the world is a much better place with the band back among us and the fact that the show coincides with the release of their new single ‘Killer / Heavy Metal Jews’ is additional cause for celebration ..more……