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Interview with Gale Paridjanian before 2013 Australian tour began in Brisbane.

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Olly's guest post on PhilipBloom.net about how music videos have changed over time and how you must adjust accordingly.

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Shelter at Xmas

Chim Chim Cheree is now available on iTunes with proceeds going to Shelter UK and the 2 Shelters in USA that feature in the Phillip Bloom film. Please buy it and spread it round. For the price of half a cup of coffee you will get some funds to some people in need especially at this time of year.

Thanks for coming out and supporting us on the Optimist Tour, its been a lot of fun and a great successso far - which wouldn't happen without all you people being there . So many thanks to you all for joining us . I probably mention it every night but it is quite an education for us (or re-education!) to play the Optimist as it is on the album. I remember being in a pub after a Brighton

gig about 10 years ago and over hearing someone tell his friend he'd just been to see the Turin Brakes - "I dont want to pay to see them play it just like the album " - he was dissappointed in our lack of adventure. I'd hear his comments whenever we talked about how to play live . That, and many, many, many gigs later with kick arse musicians meant that after 10 years we were not exactly playing the album as it appears in people's homes . So revisiting it has been an eye opener - we've had to learn the subtleties of the old aesthetic . Are you still reading ? my word , I am boring even myself - you get the point though. The Optimist LP was good, it had a sound and coherence that we forgot about a while ago....

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Feel whats to happen all happened before

As I mentioned on the previous blog its the 10th Anniversary of The Optimist LP and we are heading out on tour to play the whole album from start to finish , in the style of the Optimist LP

We have recorded a small EP that will accompany us on the tour - 3 covers and one brand new track . We've called it XEROX and I guess it will be the second release of our label The Complete Atomic .

Our friend Mr Dermot O'Leary has been playing a song from it on the Radio 2 - a version of sinister classic Chim chim Cheree from Mary Poppins which we've put up on the Audio player for those of you that can't wait till the tour .

We can't wait for the tour - we plan to run through some other non Optimist tracks by the end of every night - it has been a fruitful 10 years !

And we're just hatching the next 10 year plan for the future ...

we are now on twitter, keep your eyes peeled for the new web store that will be appearing anyday now. Fingers crossed all this technology holds together. tho my brains falling to bits after fiddling with that audio player ...

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Hit the Road

We are very excited to announce an anniversary tour of our debut album The Optimist LP. It was released 10 years ago this year and our aim with this tour is to play the entire album from start to finish , in the style of the album . We realised that we had to do something to mark the occasion and this is it . If you love that album please come along and join in .
 
To remind you all of how good a live band we are I am going to put up a couple of live radio sessions from our JackInABox USA tour - a tour where we'd set up and do a radio session way before we even considered breakfast .
 
There are also a few extra dates this side of the summer . best to keep an eye on the home page . we might even change the webcam link one day now that voyager is on her last mission ...
 
Hope to see you out in the sunshine somewhere!
 
TB x x x
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its been awhile again, sorry

Tune in to RESONANCE FM 104.4 London this Weds 11th May. Hopefully it will be proof that we are still alive, but we'll see! Last time was a lot of fun and again we've got quite a lot we want to get through .

Its the 10th anniversary of the Optimist LP this year and we're trying to put something together to celebrate before the years done and its too late. There is still a bit of time left . We're not entirely asleep all the time , honest !

TB

Press

Philip Bloom and Olly Knights discuss the making of the video for Ascension Day - includes photos of the shoot and a very lengthy explanation.