dec 20 - kigh annual report 2008

20.12.2008

seasons greetings, friendlings.

i'm slumped in my trusty, spinny chair. it's black friday so i'm avoiding town and the plague of over-zealous festive knobs. i'm sat in my study (this has the double benefit of making my house sound stately and grand and makes me sound like a scholar... false and true, respectively. the heating is cranked to a level that's probably de-housing polar bears faster than you can say, p-p-p-pick up a brochure on global warming, prick.

it's annual update time. not the office email kind. there'll be no flowcharts or graphs or snipes at gregory, the bi-curious world of warcraft dynamo, who came to casual clothes day dressed as a 13th century wizard and got caught deep throating his wand by the water cooler. no, no. this is pure unadulterated, hallmark-approved, cyber-mush. directed at you.

i'm just here to say thank you for everything you've allowed us to accomplish this year. we literally (and this is the biggest cliche of the modern music world) could not have done it without you. its true. thanks to every single last one of you who came to see us, bought out debut album/single/vinyl/shirt/hoody/bag, wore a badge, handed out flyers, put our name in their music section, added us to their topfriends, put my beautiful face on their wall, told their friends about us, uploaded us to youtube, called us horrendous american-sounding wretches... anonymously... on a forum, wished death or immortality upon us, sang along to our songs, screamed 'bitch of a week' at reading, waited around after shows to hang with us, got to shows early to queue and hang with us, pointed us in the direction of town, made us gifts, commented us, messaged us, drew pictures of us, stayed in the lobby of our japanese hotel to say goodbye to us, helped us sell cd's in spanish/french/german/flemish/english/welsh/offensive/hostile/klingon, bought us a drink or just said hello in a lionel richie kinda way. we owe you guys the best year of our lives.

we know we've been a bit slack with replying to messages and comments over the last few months, and there's no excuse and we're sorry. as of next year, we'll try and keep on top of things and keep in touch more regularly. we'll be getting a myspace and website overhaul early next year which will make this whole communicating lark a lot easier. sorry if you got offended by our ignorance, but it wasn't personal and we do appreciate you having taken the time to speak to us. we'll also have a new merch store and brand new spanking merch of the kind we've always wanted but never got round to doing. it'll be unique and you won't have seen much of its sort around, so keep an eye on the page.

so, let's recap. this year we've toured with paramore and new found glory. played brixton academy twice. headlined the astoria. released an album. gotten playlisted by radio 1 and topped video charts for weeks on end. we convinced fearne cotton to like us and then went on her show (as drunk as bastards), we played t in the park, we played to 10,000 people in reading and leeds, we got nominated for another kerrang award and sat between slipknot, metallica, machine head and ratm, we went to japan, we went all over europe with simple plan, we made a thousand new friends, we learnt to appreciate the true benefit of the boxset and the ipod and started touring on buses instead of rickshaws. we sold out headline tours. twice. gosh. a lot. we wrote the theme song to callum best's nookie addiction, even.

right now we're back in cardiff writing for the new record. it's going pretty well and we have a bunch of new shit that we'll be demoing in january with our boy, romesh. we'll also be filming a new video for the last single off of the record, which will be announced soon. exciting times.

so. we have 1 show left in the pivotal calendar that was 2008. it's new year's eve. it's cardiff. it's a line-up of pure welsh brute/cute force.

h from steps and the red coats
walker and the texas rangers
adults wearing christmas presents (that's us)
i'm on smack! and/or crack!

tickets are £20 and all the money goes to kidneys. or the welsh kidney foundation, to be precise. it's a very worthy cause and you should all get involved and party with the only people who know how. fuck jools holland. fuck what fireworks stand for. fuck 'taxi's are too much'. the only thing that'll be too much, is the amount of joy that'll be omitting from everyone in that room. yeah.

we're all djing afterwards. watkins knows what he's doing, none of the rest of us do. sean might. he did used to spin wax in ten minute preview, like a young grand master flash. in our case, expect prince and not a lot else.

yeah, so next year, we'll be back. new page, new songs, new shows, new clothes probably, new year's resolutions. nu metal.

we all hope you have an awesome christmas and that you get that machine that do open jars that are too hard to open with hands. if you're not coming to have an amazing new year in cardiff, i hope you have a shit one and that snakes fall out of the sky at your chosen soiree and lick your eyeballs to death.

not really.

have a smashing end of year, everyone!

we love you

aled xxx