New Wolf Am I album out to pre-order *signed* – and win tickets

Yup – good news for well – everyone – is that you can now pre-order the magnificent Wolf Am I debut album Lead the Way from our shop now!!!

Sounding like something that will fill you full of fire, whilst breaking your heart with emotion overtones – ‘Lead the Way’ is a cracker…. First 20 come fully signed, and a few T-Shirt bundles are available too. Oh and did I mention it comes pressed in sexy cardboard gatefold with fold out inserts and things? I did now…

Pre-order from the shop and we’ll make sure it’s with you by the 3rd August (a week before official shop release)

To celebrate this, and WAI’s tour across the country – we’re giving a pair of tickets away to their show in London on the 30th – which will be scorching! To win, simply email us at info@ilovealcopop.co.uk telling us ‘what name you’d give a pet wolf if you were to own one’ – the best answer takes the tickets, as well as a limited edition copy of the band’s virtually sold out ‘Glasgow Seven’ single on vinyl effect CD…

Closing date Friday at 3.13pm – Now go buy the album and seek out your dancing shoes…

I’m excited

Win 2 tickets to go see This City @ London Barfly on Tuesday 23rd!

Recorded music is all very well (I mean, let’s be fair – indie record labels like ourselves bloody love it) but there’s nothing quite like witnessing people rock out live. And we’re dealing with a whole heap of incredible live acts at the moment – and we really want you to see them…

Therefore, in association with our pals in the band (who are both handsome and witty) we have managed to procure two pairs of VIP guestlist passes for the This City gig at London Barfly on Tuesday (take a hot girl/boy – imagine how impressed they’ll be on the door)– pour vous with the gracious love of Alcopop Records….

All you need to do to win them is correctly email us (at ilovealcopop@googlemail.com) the title of the B-Side from the band’s latest single (coming out on Alcopop on Monday) – for clues you can either check the shop, or the bands MySpace… We’ll be announcing the two winners on Monday evening (maybe Tuesday morning depending on how lazy we are) – and 2 runners up will get a pint bought for them by Jack Alcopop if they happen to be at the gig anyway.

So enter immediately if you fancy a bit of a rock out in London on Tuesday, and we’ll see you at the front… We Move is out on Monday too on very limited edition 7” vinyl…  Fuckin’ buy it!

This City offer up a fine competition!

They move at just the right speed, they’re releasing a very limited 7″/digital single on Alcopop, and now This City have proved themselves to be pretty damn benevolent too, by offering a really rather corking competition on their MySpace blog, with a free track to go…

As they say, it really couldn’t be simpler – and all you have to do is buy just a single ticket for their massive upcoming tour (more details here) which will set you back not much more than a fiver. Southsea, Stoke and Norwich types… That includes you!

All you have to do is forward a ticket confirmation email / take a photo with your ticket / scan a ticket etc and email it to THISCITYCOMP@HOTMAIL.CO.UK to win….

1st prize

T Shirt of your choice
Signed We Move promo CD
We Move 7″ vinyl
Kids With Fireworks CD
ThisCity tote bag

2nd prize

T shirt of your choice
We Move 7″ vinyl

3rd prize

We Move 7″ vinyl

Whatsmore, those who buy tickets for any of the above dates will be sent a brand spanking new demo track “GHOSTS” absolutely free. Man…. What more could you possibly want!

goFASTER>> rock Bristol till it crumbles + win signed vinyl!

Another day, another gig – and sandwiched tastily inbetween watching Rival Schools at some university in London, and Darren Hayman kick out Hefner hits in the 100 CLub, Alcopop’s very own (and greatest pals) goFASTER>> turned up to The Louisiana in Bristol – and ripped out a set that none of the 50-odd strong crowd will forget in a hurry!

Starring Geoff (Bristol folk will know who i mean) as stirling rock of er.. rock at the front of the stage throughout, single Flammable Leisurewear (available now on 7″ from our shop for just £3 with free CD) prompted a mssive stage invasion that went on for 3 songs, and involved pretty much everyone there. Unable to make out the band in amongst the mass of excited onlookers (see if you can find em in this pic) they continued to rock the now heaving stage – and have made some new fans for life in Brizzel methinks.

Then it was onto the Thekla, Alcopop HQ – shots from the Drambuie bottle… and well, god knows what else!

However, in amongst the drunken haze, i did think to get Liverpool’s hottest indie-pop property (fresh from selling several 1000 albums in Japan by the by) to stick some signatures onto copies of ‘Flammable Leisurewear’ – of which are now ready to fly…

So to celebrate all things scouse, for a (very) limited time only – like, really limited as there’s only 5 signed ones here – we’re offering the vinyl for it’s 3 quid cover price, not only with the tracks on CD – but also penned and fully signed. Top eh… Also, in the spirit of summer, we’re offering one fully signed 7″ (and free BSM 50 not out album) to the person who can most accurately describe goFASTERS>> charming faces in 9 words or less.

Just scribe your answer in the comment box below – and we’ll announce the winner next Wednesday 25th June. Top do$$ar…

And for those who have already bought the viny, if you fancy buying a new one signed, let me know and we’ll include a gift too cos we don’t want you to be sad…

6 Machine shortlist – BSM news

The shortlist for our 6 Machine compilation has just been announced. Now it’s down to you to choose which of the 12 bands make it onto the record.

Listen through them all at Last.fm

And then go to www.bsmrocks.com/the6machine to vote for your favourite

The deadline is 12pm Monday 10th March

It’s summer at Alcopop – badge design competition!

Despite the bleak rain lashing against the Alcopop HQ window as I write, we feel all summery at heart – and to celebrate as such, we’ve decided to launch another one of our super competitions. This time harnessing your design skills! We’d love you to submit designs for one of our forthcoming releases Alcopop013 – which will be a nicely-sealed collection of 4 Alcopop badges with a summer postcard theme, ideal for cheering you in these rainy months.

Basically, we’re looking for you to submit photos, pictures, words – or whatever makes you think of summer, and we’ll pick the best ones and use them in the badge collection. Whatever you fancy… Dogs with sunglasses, grinning sunshine or a Jamaican bobsleigh team. It’s your call. Just send us your design by 20^th February and we’ll announce the winners the following day. The badges will then be released on the 29^th Feb – as the ‘Merry Jungo Collection’. Winners will recieve a pack of badges, a couple of CDs and the joy of being released on Alcopop.

It’s the summertime baby!

Tapes are back en vogue! Competition…

It may have come to your attention as you entered the website, that as Big Ben hollers out the final strike of New Year’s Eve and 2007 beomes nothing but a year consigned to the history books, that precisely 1 minute into the 1st January, Alcopop Records will be officially releasing the first must-have of 2008! Yup, that’s Alcopopular vol 2.

A brilliant compilation tape (that’s right, tape!) featuring Dartz, Johnny Foreigner, Sky Larkin, The Honey Brothers (feat. Adrian Grenier AKA Vincent Chase from Entourage), Jeremy Warmsley, Sam Isaac and loads more – Alcopopular vol. 2 is not only very limited, but each case has been hand paintd by Jack and Kev (each one different from lthe last)…. For full tracklisting see here. To order see here.

What’smore – we’ve decided that the dedicated individual who manages to preorder their copy closest to the release minute, will win a Alcopopular #2 limited edition walkman (1 of 1) to play their lovely tape. Said item has not been crafted yet, but an artists impression of the walkman is pictured below… Imagine owning this piece of musical history – the re-emergence of the casette revolution!!

Good luck, and just make sure as the first drink of 2008 slips down – you have a dedicated aunt, grandfather, minion or wi-fi connection ready to win that walkman!

1am and all’s well… Sam Isaac winner!

So it’s been a fine night for representing gigs across the country tonight, with Kev showing his bedraggled face over at CSS at the Oxford Zodiac, and me poppin in on Future of the Left in Bristol – and from a personal point, I must say they were rather good. Fusing the works McClusky and Jarcrew (two particular old favourites of mine) – they got some serious screwball, hard-edged alt rock going… And after a difficult early mix which left ears bleeding and eyes sore, they whipped out a keyboard and sounded like being punched around the head – but in a really nice way (if you know what I mean)…

Ahem.. Movin on – it is with great pleasure that I can announce the winner of the Sam Isaac competition, and may I say (like the stereotypical prizemaster of a particularly intense child’s colouring competition) that I have been delighted at the quality of all our entrants! Of course I may be lying a little – but I’ve picked out a few paticular favourites.

“.sam is a man who likes lamb..” from James and “Sam Isaac is ginger and not ’stawberry blonde” from Coxy  may or may not be true, but are refreshingly bold and clear statements, and who can forget the impressive sibilance layered by John Brown… “Sam sings sensual seductive songs superbly”. Zoe’s “Sticker, Star & Tape me to Sam!” was close to being the winner – and Joe from the awesome band Decades effort “SAM LOOKS LIKE A BIG LOVELY TREE” was magnificent.

But there can be only one winner, and in this case Jenni’s simple yet effective snippet of prose won our hearts and minds. I’ve been listening to his super new single Sideways a lot this week, and I don’t think you can say fairer than this about our Sam than the….. “musical equivalent of the best day ever”

Nice work Jenni!

And fear not all of you non Jenni’s out there, because you can win too – (for the cost of 79p admittedly) Download the Sam track b’yere.

Win yourself a merry little Sam Isaac Christmas

Ah December – a fine month, and the season to be jolly – not to mention the giving of great presents, and often receiving crappy ones in return. Example from last year: Oh I bought you the supercool Semifinalists album (signed) and you got me a small tin of Chocolate Eclairs (not Cadburys mind you) even though you know I don’t even like them! Grrrr…

Sound familiar? Well stick with us, because to make your Christmas brighter than the Bridlington lights, all we want from you is seven words (not the popular rock club anthem) about Alcopop’s favourite son, already touted as one to watch by Jo Whiley, Zane Lowe, Colin Murray, The NME, Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens, The Sun and more.. Sam Isaac – and in return we’ll furnish you with festive love galore, a signed CD single, 7″ record (ltd to 500, available here, and bound to be gold on eBay) badges, and even a poster too.

All you have to do, dear reader, is to exclaim in delight (in the comment box of this post) what you think of Sam Isaac in 7 words or under – and the most exciting nugget of prose (as chosen by Jack and Kev Alcopop!) will win the goodies!

Closing date is 10th December, incidentally the date that the single is unleashed to the public – and just to make it fair, if the winner has preordered the CD/7″ or both – we’ll chuck in a copy of Alcopopular 1 (3″CD) and 2 (upcoming supercool retro tape release) to add to the pile of prizes!

Good luck!