It has been a tumultuous year for Great North. In a shocking act of monogamy, three of our members got married - two to each other. It was also the year our drummer Olly left for Hawaii about five times. The last time he left was in October. We don’t know when he’ll be back. We also recorded the skeleton of an album that we hope to release and tour sometime in the first third of 2012. If someone wants to drum for us.
We really want to do is say thank you for all those who supported us this year. When we haven’t been spending Friday nights sewing wedding bunting together, we’ve had some great times. Thank you for bearing with our ever-changing line ups. Thank you to the 12 people in Paraparaumu who came out on the cold night and still were one of our most supportive crowds of the year. Thanks to everyone else who came to a show - at the Kings Arms, a cafe, a lounge, in Wellington, in Raglan, but mostly in the safe fluid-filled womb of the Wine Cellar.
Christmas is coming soon and we wanted to do something to reward your patience. So Rach and I took a break from recording this week to put together this cover of Angels We Have Heard On High with a lot of help from our remarkable producer/cider, baked goods and tea lover, Dave Parker. I think he has done a great job making it sound wistfully festive, or festively wistful. It is available for free on our bandcamp page. Merry Christmas. Gloria.
Great song.
Well, things are starting to heat up down on E Street.
A lot of you have been hearing that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be on tour in 2012. That is absolutely correct. The European dates run from the middle of May until end of July and are being announced this week. Info on the US dates and the World tour dates will coming up shortly.
In addition, we want you to know that the music is almost done (but still untitled), we have almost settled on the release date (but not quite yet), and that we are all incredibly excited about everything that we’re planning for 2012. That’s all the info we have for right now, but we’ll get back to you—real soon.
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A revealing email
… 3 Iraqis Terrorist’s TARGET was “King Hussein Of Jordan”. At the time, for every ASIO officer there were five MI5 present. Whitlam got caught with his pants down
Since then, The White Australia Policy,The Buy Back Australia and Australia becoming a Republic were put in FULL REVERSE. In Parliament, … were blaming the Russian for their misfortune… A Court Action by BHP, in this matter, is long overdue…There is a fear that this may provide an opportunity to the Australian Unions to reactivate a public debate on an “Australian Republic”. The amount of Shit behind close doors in this matter is beyond comprehension and its high time for me in tickling their fancy. They have made sure to remove ANY EVIDENCE that may exist and that is why I am still alive. I do not have a “CRIMINAL RECORD”, I am still waiting for one from BHP.
The world encourages you to lock into a particular routine. I fucking hate when I hear people in their 50s say, “I’m too old to change.” Fuck you, you’re lucky to be alive, asshole. Why don’t you try to grow? It’s a gift to get to be born and not suddenly die of cancer or get hit by a car. One day, you’re gonna be a rotting body in the ground and you’re gonna be like, “Wow, I kinda wish I listened to new music from ages 30 to 70.
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Will Sheff from Okkervil River is passionate about dying with a respectable music collection.
Rachel Brandon took this lovely video of us playing at Happy in Wellington. It’s of a new song called Casey Jones - after the American rail engineer who famously refused to let go of the brakes on his passenger train as it collided head on with a freight train. Note Rachel’s worried look as I forget what I’m doing at around 2:20.
Rach and I are fleeing the graupel to play in Raglan, Wellington and Paekakariki with our friends Luckless and a host of local bands on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
