Going once…

Jack has gone swanning off to South Africa for 10 days so mousey Kev is left to play.

Through my day job at Big Scary Monsters we run an annual 5-a-side football tournament, which took place this past Saturday (Alcopop did so-so. A leaky defence very nearly cost them. BSM had the 2nd best in the tournament. Just sayin’). We used the event to raise money for charity and by the end of the weekend were already over the £1000 mark, which is just incredible. Yesterday the second phase of this began with a series of 9 online auctions going live. Items so kindly donated by a number of the teams who took part in the tournament include huge bundles of records from XL (12″s from Radiohead, Prodigy, MIA, Adele), Wichita (Loads of CDs, t-shirts and more from Los Camp, Bloc Party, Gold Panda, SMD), Hassle (Trash Talk, Alkaline Trio and Fun CDs, vinyl and shirts), Holy Roar (Brontide, Young Legionnaire and Gallops bits), Banquet (Frank Turner test pressing and lots more stuff), BSM (a record player plus sold out vinyl from Andrew WK, Pulled Apart By Horses and loads more), Stagecoach (a bloody mandolin!) and The Xcerts (some sweaty shirts and a signed 12″).

My favourite auction of all though (and one I never thought I’d be able to persuade him to do), is the one from Alcopop. “Win a night out with Jack Alcopop”.

As regular readers of this blog you may have noticed Mr Pop enjoys “the odd tipple” (ahem). A man with arguably more alcohol than blood in his body, there’s a reason I named him Saturday Night Jack when we first moved in together and began this lovely little label. Now you can witness this tour de force of booze, winning yourself a night in his company (he’ll travel to you – so let’s make it nice and far away, yeah?) where’ll be provide one of his signature Reverse Jagerbombs – I’m afraid that is indeed dropping a shot of Red Bull into a glass of Jager – as well as a big bag of Alcopop records. I make no promises of vomit, his hair coming down on the dancefloor or sleeping on the streets, but I would say that chances of the three happening are highly likely.

Bid on it here. The current price, at time of going to “print”, is just £41, which is an absolute snip and all for a good cause, remember.

Meet the new #bsm5aside Alcopop signings… .

So tomorrow is the #BSM5aside football tournament, and it’s been a busy summer in the transfer market for Alcopop! Out have been former ever presents Darren Gillick (to moving into a house with his missus – FREE TRANSFER) and treacherous Leigh ‘Nedry out of Jurassic Park’ Shorter (Bag of balls to BSM), whilst former favourite Tom Elephants has retired from the circuit (for now at least). We will miss them all, apart from Leigh, who was last seen chuckling at the foot of a crucifix whilst juggling a bag of silver coins from hand to hand – and stamping on the head of a kitten.

But – while these dears have departed – 5 hardy heros still remain. Paul McManus (skipper), Thom Day (cat like goalkeeper), Matt Emery (champ), Andy Hoatson (the people’s choice) and Jack PoP (me) form the backbone of the squad… With 3 epic new signings. Please welcome

Mike ‘GOALZ’ Wilkinson: A former star of the Swansea University side that saw Jack PoP dominate the intermural leagues – Mike has a problem. He can’t stop scoring goals… Now resident in Blackpool and scourge of the local chicken shops he is a prestigious talent, once having a trial with Hucknall Town – and, PoP fans will be pleased to note, is now fully vaccinated against Tetanus since Wednesday

Michael ‘Cyril’ Williams: Handsome of face, and usually seen gracing the stage with Jumping Ships – Swansea fan Michael (spotting a theme here) is a hot young property in the 5 a side, and we’re proud to have him. Diminutive in stature but big of heart, he should be at peak physical fitness after spending all day yesterday vomiting. No longer a shred of ill health in his body. Winner

Ross ‘Swanny’ K Witt: Famous for his lovely voice and getting into all sorts of vicious scrapes with the general public, Swanny may have a lovely friendly attitude most of the time – but don’t get him angry! Widely vilified in the BSM camp after he shattered head honcho Kev’s arm at End of the Road festival, and well feared in bars across Oxford – Ross is My First Tooth, and now Alcopop FC’s, champion!

Lets go Team POP!!

ALCOPOP! TURNS 50 with a jacket and compilation

So – even though it kinda seems like yesterday that Kev and I got home from watching Midget in Stamford and kicked off Alcopop! Records – bizarrely… We’ve been going a whole 49 releases (and 5 years to boot). This is, quite frankly, wonderful and truly humbling for us, and its with great thanks to all you awesome people who regularly support us and the stonking bands we’re putting out – that we’re about to hit the 50th milestone… Alcopop050 down, and plenty more to come!

It’s been a really nice time for us, sitting back and taking stock on what’s been before, going through all the old photos and generally recapping on everything we could remember in the last five years – but we’ve got a massive year ahead, so there will be a few moments of nostalgia before hammering on with details of ALCOPOP050 baby! Up for sale now!!!

First up – names and deets – basically this badboy is coming out on CD and Jacket (yeah, physical wear it out summer jacket) and is called ‘We grew up on a diet of Jurassic Park and Sensible Soccer (and all we have left is this lousy record label)’, It contains 17 tracks from just some of our awesome bands from the very beginning (Emily by Encyclopedia) to the present day (including the as yet unreleased A Casting Call by LightGuides). Full track listing here. All up in the shop now and artwork features (as you’d expect I guess) dinosaurs, Streetfighter II and Sensible Soccer – and also has loads of photos on the inside of well – Team PoP! Bands, Kev and I, you lot – and one of Lomana Lua Lua for reasons that will become clear ☺

CDs are cool and all, but because we bloody love exciting stuff too – we’ve taken a nod from our (well, Jack PoP anyways) fabourite label ever Fierce Panda, and created our very own Alcopop050 jacket. They’re being produced as we speak so excuse the crap artist rendering in the shop (that was mine – ahem) but they’re made by Dickies, hand embroidered with the Alcopop logo, as well as featuring a New York Cosmos style Alcopop Records patch. They’re very limited to 50 and available in S, M, L or XL.

They will be fairly pricey (£30 with comp CD) but these are real expensive to make, and are ace quality… However, because we love you guys we’re also offering a ‘I’m a bit skint’ version too – where we’ll be offering the jackets + CD pack for exactly cost price. It’s not a limited discount, just to make sure that whether you’re skint or rich – if you want a PoP jacket + comp CD, you can damn well have it ☺.

Other than that can we just say, thanks for sticking by us for 50 releases – and here’s to 50 more!

My First Tooth new video and Athlete tour support!

Isn’t it ironic that the more that happens the less time you have to write about it. I’ve always loved writing this PoP blog but it struck me the other day that so much has happened that I’ve just not updated all you massively handsome readers on! I guess that’s partly due to mixing all the content up between Facebook and Twitter and stuff, but dear reader – I digress.

I was here to tell you about the magnificent My First Tooth, who have been kicking it of late. Literally quicker to list the festivals they aren’t playing rather than the one’s they are – they have also been confirmed for 10 (count em’) support shows on the new Athlete tour, was well as filming this rather marvelous video with the epic Marc Bird – a man of many talents having previously managed Attika State.

So lower the lights, grab yourself a Hooch Lemon and enjoy this little beauty. It contains a swan, lovely tricks of the light and Gareth Stix… What more could you desire!

and those tour dates…

13 Wed MANCHESTER @ Lowry Keys
20 Wed LONDON @ Union Chapel
22 Fri NORTHAMPTON @ The Roadmender
23 Sat BRISTOL @ Thekla
24 Sun OXFORD @ Academy 2
27 Wed NEWCASTLE @ The Cluny
28 Thu PRESTON @ 53 Degrees
29 Fri YORK @ The Duchess
30 Sat GLASGOW @ The Arches
31 Sun BIRMINGHAM @ HMV Institute

Top 10 stereo hits

So in the midst of polishing the oh-so-fine edges of the compilation that is Alcopop050 and getting everything for the sunshiney month of August (so much happening we’re all excited) – I was approached by some handsome folk from mp3HD who have asked me to pick a top ten tracks for ‘saving’. Saving from what I’m not entirely sure, but they make, like, the best ever MP3s apparently so I thought I’d see how good they are. Obviously we’re ALL about physical formats at Alcopop!, but that doesn’t mean digital doesn’t have its place… Whatsmore they were very nice, and are sending me a free flipcam so I could hardly say no.

So – I’ve undertaken that impossible task of picking a Top Ten which would almost certainly be different if selected tomorrow But – here goes! I would have of course packed it with Alcopop! acts given the push, but I thought I ought to make it a bit more diplomatic…

So here goes… In no particular order (and missing anything from Hundred Reasons’ Ideas Above Our Station and Cable’s When Animals Attack I’ve just realised – eek! My bad)

Reuben – Let’s Stop Hanging Out
Symposium – Fizzy
Fight Like Apes – Something Global
Johnny Foreigner – Salt, Pepper and Spinderella
Andrew WK – The Song
Elephants – Strong Arms
Gene – Fighting Fit
Pavement – Stereo
Rocket From The Crypt – On A Rope
The Xcerts – Aberdeen 1987

Does that read OK you think?