Wonderful Town Update

Here is an update for the Wonderful Town Project.

Wonderful Town black-vinyl

Wonderful Town black-vinyl

£5759.83 has been raised so far to SoLYD and Lutonfoodbank
To date over 850 physical copies and over 1000 downloads have been sold to Hatters and Decay fans throughout the UK and Ireland and Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the USA.
The Hatters Hatters video has had over 12,000 views on the Club’s You Tube channel.
The release attracted local, regional and national radio, press and TV interest, including features on Diverse FM, 3CR, Anglia news, 5 Live and The Luton News and the Daily Telegraph.
 There is still remaining stock for sale in the Luton Town FC club shop in the Mall or in Kenilworth Road.  The EP is still available for download on I tunes and check out www.ukdecay.co.uk for very limited edition t shirts, hand pressed orange vinyl singles and screen prints.
The band are overwhelmed and grateful for the support from Hatters and UK Decay fans, and townsfolk and we hope to reach our target of £7000.
Many thanks again, more updates to follow.
UK Decay

New four-track EP WONDERFUL TOWN Now available

LTFC have been crowned Conference Premier Champions 2013/14 !

LTFC 2014 Meet the Players – Luton Town Football Club Press Release..

The Town are aiming to help Lutonian punk band UK Decay hit the top of the charts and raise money for Solyd with the release of the group’s new EP Wonderful Town.

To help celebrate the release of this fantastic album and the news that LTFC have been crowned Conference Premier Champions 2013/14, four of your favourite Luton Town players will be in Smith Square in the Mall on Thursday 17th May between 3.15 and 4.15pm.

This is a great opportunity to meet your stars and get Mark Tyler, Steve McNulty, Luke Guttridge and Andre Gray’s autographs on your copy of the Wonderful Town EP.

You will be able to buy your copy from the stall and then have it signed instantly by the heroes that have helped us secure promotion back into the Football League.

The CD can be bought for as little as £5 or why not go old school and pick up the 7 inch Vinyl for just £10. 

You can also buy the individual tracks on itunes from as little as 79p and remember that every copy you buy counts towards our push for another title: The charts title. 

If you cant make it down to the Mall on Thursday, you can still buy it online at www.hattersworld.co.uk 

 end of hatters press release….

Why not come and see UK Decay and Bowfinger Live in Luton on May 3rd….

UK Decay and Bowfinger live at the Hat Factory Arts Centre. Saturday May 3rd

UK Decay and Bowfinger live at the Hat Factory Arts Centre. Sat May 3rd

Saturday 3 May 2014, Luton Hat Factory, Luton Tickets available here

Wonderful Town Vinyl, CD and Download…information..

Wonderful Town EP

The Wonderful Town Ep – is now available on iTunes from Monday April 7th

UK Decay’s new WONDERFUL TOWN EP is available in shops and download stores now. The EP is available as a limited edition 7” vinyl gate-fold sleeve with art print insert, limited edition CD gate-fold single with lyric sheet and as a download.

‘I had the idea for a song about the town I love when walking back to the train station after a Luton game 2 years ago . It dawned on me that it is the common aspiration to live in the countryside , but I thought about the generations of my family that had walked the same streets I was walking , and how , even unbeknownst to me , they had probably helped shape the town in both physically contributing to building the environment around me and as spirits that drank in these pubs , rode their bicycles through these streets , came back from 2 world wars ,I wouldn’t have wanted to be from anywhere else ’ says singer Abbo. ‘ Luton educated me about how to get along with people , their cultures , their music and it gave me probably the biggest interest and thread in my life , Luton Town Football Club . I’ve lived in New York and London for most of my life now , but this powerful magnet brings me back . “

The band worked closely with others in the town to produce the EP, using local recording facilities, design studios and pressing plants. Luton Town Football Club also got involved, with the full first team and manager joining the band in the recording studio to put down cover versions of LTFC fan favourites Bring Me Sunshine and Hatters Hatters. The fourth track is a second version of the lead track, but with lyrics linked directly to LTFC. WONDERFUL TOWN is also available to pre-order and buy through the club shop.

‘Luton moulds and shapes anyone who lives there, it gives you a sense of identity that is rarely reflected in the wider media,’ says guitarist Spon. ‘But the production of this shows how wrong those assumptions can be; everyone involved in this has done it for love and a wish to show that the town is not as it is viewed by others.’

All the proceeds from WONDERFUL TOWN will be split between two charities: Luton Foodbank and SoLYD – a supporters’ initiative that helps fund the club’s youth development. Its production has received the kind support of Latent Lemon Audio, ATP Media and Diamond Black, in addition to Love Luton and LTFC.

Digital Download through iTunes

Wonderful Town EP Vinyl Version

Wonderful Town EP CD Version

Direct Order Links below

Rough Trade

http://www.roughtrade.com/albums/82607

Hattersworld

http://www.hattersworld.co.uk/

iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/wonderful-town-ep/id850357245

Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wonderful-Town-UK-Decay/dp/B00JBROLTE/

A night to unwind at the O2

Steve Ignorant’s – Slice of Life, Frankie B’s – At Night We Cry and Cambridge’s very own Freedom Faction and a wonderful crowd , joined us for a mega night to unwind at the O2 Academy, Islington, London last Saturday. Big thanks to all of the artist’s mentioned above, plus Frank Flag, Jason and the O2 technical crew and staff for making the show run pretty much glitch free. We really enjoyed ourselves and thought all the other bands and the audience were fantastic, the O2 is well set up technically for bands, apart from the countless flights of stairs between the stage and the dressing rooms.

The only regret is that we didn’t get chance to meet up with everyone afterwards, the management needed everyone out, so they could open the night club in time.

Video by puremania7777

Bring on 2014 and there is a plethora of back-scene activity of gig planning happening at the moment, we will bring further news of gigs in due course, but right now we can announce that we are appearing at the Whitby Gothic Festival on the April 26th . There is talk of new material and further release’s, nothing definite to report at the moment but watch this space!

live in London UK Decay, Steve Ignorant and Franko B – just two weeks to go

UK Decay live in London..

So not long now until we’re joined at the O2 Academy Islington on Saturday 16 November by Steve Ignorant’s Slice of Life and at Night We Cry with FrankoB.

There’s a big connection with Steve, with Decay playing one of its first gigs with Crass and recording regularly at Southern Studios. Werewolf was also released with the help of Crass on the Corpus Christi label.

Also on the bill is Cambridge’s Freedom Faction. Doors are at 6pm and tickets are £14. available here

Hope to see as many of you there that can make it.

Cheers

Decay get arty

As gigs go this wasn’t really the usual UK Decay experience. When Franko asked if we could step in at the last minute to replace the mysterious Revelator, we asked what sort of night he was planning.

‘Art!’ He shot back, ‘lot’s of art. And loud music too.’

Simples we think, and load up Jon’s Volvo for the fairly short trip from the blessed holy lands of Lutonia to South East London. Ed was making his own way down and Abbo was hightailing it in from Chester. Jon was in his usual mad driver mode, and so Spon and me spent the majority of the trip with our eyes shut and praying we’d make it in one piece.

The venue was an old pub in Camberwell that’s been converted into a swish bar. The landlord is well in with the art crew and hosts lots of leftfield events there, including regular fetish nights apparently. We bowl in and find Chairman Che and Marsha already there and doing the business. Today Che’s smoking small, thin cigars, rather than the Zeppelins he usually prefers.  We set up and sound check. Things are sounding good. We’re just playing through the backline and a vocal PA, today but there’s a lovely crisp urgency to the sound.

Franko and his crew are already in attendance – as are a selection of London’s finest performance artists. To be fair, some of it went over our heads. In fact, most of what was going on went over our heads – a great deal of which seemed to involve nakedness and gaffer tape. But everyone there was engaged and respectful; the ideas well executed.

As well as being a great artist Franko was singing in the first band due on that evening: At Night We Cry.  While they sound checked we cleared off to a nearby café to drink beer, eat food and talk about next moves – possibly another record. Che reported back on gigs booked or being planned: which at the moment include a big London show later this year, then jaunts into Spain, Poland, Germany and more. We’re adding shows by the day and once everything is signed off will be putting up the dates. The sun was hot and the beer was cold and it was the first time in ages we’d been able to just sit around and hang out – which was great.

So back to the venue in time to see Franko do his thing. At Night We Cry are a three piece: drums, bass and Franko on vocals and FX. Considering there are just three of them they make a great racket, lots of heavy, monstrous grooving between the rhythm section and Franko doing his nut through effects laden vocals. Hopefully we’ll be playing with them again in Italy later this year.

And then to us. We only had to play for 30 minutes so did the same set as we had outside Rough Trade West a few weeks ago:

  • Shake ‘em up
  • Heavy Metal Jews
  • Killer
  • City is a Cage
  • UK Decay
  • For My Country
  • I Feel Good

It’s probably the first time the band has played in front of an audience who has never heard them before. Although Steve and Lee did manage to get down to see the show. It was a good show: tight, energetic and powerful – the usual Decay ingredients minus the swinging belts. Before we knew it, the night was done. A few beers and then a face from the past: Phil Keefe from Luton who made the short journey from his new home in SE London, but arrived 30 minutes after we’d played.

Time to head back. Spon and me looked at the Volvo with trepidation. As I was navigating from the map on my phone, I drew the short straw and had to sit in the front.  I shut my eyes and prayed!

Announcement: release date confirmed

The voice of chairman Che

UK Decay are proud to announce that Monday 22nd May 2013 is the release date of their long awaited new album New Hope For the Dead, with pre-release copies available in record shops across the UK participating in Record Store Day tomorrow (Saturday 20th April).

In fact the band will be playing a short set outside Rough Trade West at around 3pm.  Get yourselves down there and join the party with the band.  Copies of the album will be available in the Rough Trade Shop on Talbot Road London W11.

A bit about the album: produced by rock legend Chris ‘The Dark Lord’ Tsangerides, the new songs cover a wealth of subjects, from the fracturing nature of society and the twin evils of extremism and bigotry, to the lack of engagement by today’s generation and the attraction of things that ultimately harm us.  It’s’ quite literally a sonic assault on the senses – You have been warned!!!!
Photo of the vinyl front cover, in shrinkwrap with sticker

Photo of the vinyl front cover, in shrinkwrap with sticker

The album is available on deluxe cd booklet with lyric sheet poster and heavyweight vinyl.  A very limited pressing of the vinyl and CD will be in “oil painting varnish” and gives a real textured feel to the cover replicating artist Franko B’s striking paintings. This print effect is a world first for any record sleeve.
Get the album through ukdecay.co.uk, at any good record shop, Amazon and it is also available on I Tunes download.
UK Decay will be be spreading their hot sauce throughout Europe and the UK with live shows very soon.

Louder Than War review of NHFTD album

With one crashing blow, UK Decay have rewritten the rules of engagement for supposed ‘comeback’ albums and redefined the term ‘Punk’ for the modern age. Make no mistake about it, this is no sentimental rehash of a sound from over 30 years ago, this is a seismic explosion of anger unleashed in a sound that emanates from both Heaven and Hell depending on your current stand-point. Louder Than War

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’.

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.

Moonlight_candid_002

 

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.

Moonlight_candid_005

 

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!

Moonlight_candid_007

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..

 

Moonlight_candid_008

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