Free bets at Cheltenham races for all Alcopop shoppers…

Alcopop Records are going to Cheltenham racing festival (physically on Friday and digitally Tue – Thur)… Because in between releasing cracking record after magnificent T-Shirt, we love a bit of low end gambling! And we should very much like to get you all involved.

Therefore, we’ve decided on a brusque new promotion that will mean that anyone purchasing anything in the next week from the Pop shop during the festival will get a free bet on one of the races at Cheltenham, courtesy of us. One pound per ten spent, with prizes paid out in prime pop merch.

So – if you spend anywhere between 1-10 pounds in our shop you’ll get a quid bet, 11-20 = 2 pounds, 21 – 30 = 3 pounds and so on. I’ll be picking the horses, and sticking the money down on Betfair (which should end up with better odds than anywhere else) and updating every bet via the Alcopop Twitter feed pre race – so you’ll know what has gone on for who.

Follow us here if you don’t already, or to find out what Twitter is – this is your link!

Got it? So, when said nag romps home at 30-1 after you’ve purchased our new 16 pound mega deal (for instance) you’ll win a further 60 quids worth of stuff – which will be nice. Similarly, just 3 pounds on an Encyclopedia single could win you a T-Shirt and Family Machine album if Crack away Jack comes in at 16-1 tomorrow. And let’s be fair, he probably will.

Plus – for anyone who doesn’t fancy a flutter, but still has some excellent tips – let us know via comments below or emailing info@ilovealcopop.co.uk. Go horse go!

Alco pop to Sziget Festival

Ah – another lack of updates, but this time we’ve got a fair old excuse… For you see, while Kev grafts ever hour god sends selling BSM and Alcopop records – I have upped-sticks and flown towards Sziget Festival in Hungary, safe in the knowledge that while he deals with everything else, I’m free to kick around drinking ridiculously cheap beer, crisping my skin int he midday sun – and slowly grinding out a blog post on a slightly obscure Hungarian keyboard, with every word turning red as i can’t remember where the fuckin’ language setting is.

Apart from that though, the festival has thus far been great, and despite an 8 hour journey from Prague to Budapest on a train staffed by a paedophilic looking jobsworth who charged us extra for beers because we moved from the train bistro to restaurant, and a rapidly drunkening German, we made it past a rip-off cab driver whose anti-english repost I imagine was scant compensation for the 10,000 gobblers (roughly 35 quid) we refused to pay him on top of the fare he agreed.

Otherwise though, the highlight has thus far been narrowly avoiding a good rogering from a burly Hungarian man who plied me with iced shots, before moving in for the kill…. And the traditional Jewish costumed lads who rocked out an obscure tent we happened upon during a drunken stroll to the party arena. It was carnage, with a mass of sweaty bodies dancing furiously… Ace! Then i payed a quite frankly paltry sum to seek answers to lifes questions from a rabbi. We talked long and hard, and although i cant much recall his advice – i’m sure it was sage.

Iron Maiden were also, and obviously, superb, despite one of my pals getting destroyed on double tequilas and inexplicably falling over a bush-hidden massive open sack of mayonaise at 7am (incidentally the first time i’ve ever come across a massive sack of mayonnaise in my life). VIP creds were tough to get too, with us ending up in a hut marked ‘troublesome cases’, being led over to a corner and told to wait there. The folk then totally ignored us for 15 minutes, and left our forms on a shelf before we asked how progress was going. There was no progress, and we were sent away. Useless

Now I’m off to sink a few pints of tasty European lager, and watch some more bands – including the interestingly monikered ’Orange the Juice’ and The Cribs… (I win Kev – where are your sacks of mayo and mindbogglingly hateful festival toilets eh?) Oh, and speaking of the cribs – make sure to go and see Pavilion on their forthcoming tour. Buy the single too, and know summer’s here!!!

Put it in your diary – 26th July! Alcopopalooza summer party/gig at the Brixton Windmill

Two stages, mega-boozing and around 8 hours of awesome live music, DJs and to herald the summer in true Alcopop style, this ones going to be big! Alcopop would like to cordially invite you to our big ol’ summer bash – ALCOPOPALOOZA – Just as good as its American namesake (ahem), and a whole shed-load cheaper to put together, just take a look at this magnificently rendered poster (featuring alcocroc), and buy tickets here for just £6!

Just in case you hate pictures, you’ll be pleased to know that it features 12 bands and solo artists – including The Xcerts, The Computers, This City, Secondsmile (with their first EVER acoustic set) Pavilion, Cut the Blue Wire, Attika State, Flash Flash Photography, Decades, House of Brothers, Russell Joslin and Sean Clothier. There’s a free BBQ as doors open at 4, and special guest DJs and Alcopop regulars playing an eclectic mix of retro pop, classic 90s indie, electro beats and modern anthems (not forgetting Kev’s ill-advised Nu-Metal hits machine).

Whatsmore, Alcopop will be taking part in the BSM 6-a-side tournament the next day, so anyone who fancies sticking around and watching one of the best footie tournaments to take place… EVER.. is more than welcome.

Anyone going to Truck Festival….?

Well you better get some facial hair! I’m alright (thank god) having diligently prepared for this eventuality since the Summer of 2007, but it seems like every good kid who’s going on a rocking stroll through Steventon this July (and if you’re not, why not) has a whole new problem to deal with.

You see, incredible as it might sound – according to thisistruck.com, Queen singer Freddy Mercury has, from beyond the grave, instructed the festival organisers ONLY to admit moustachioed patrons! Eek… Not only does this arguably rule out most females from attending the festival, but will mean that the prime cuts of indie-pop lain on for the handsome indie types may have to make way for a whole swathe of hair metal acts, and twee bearded hippy sorts.

Fear not though – we all have a month so grow, Grow, GROW – Here, just take a look at Tom Selleck – and sort out your faces

Brighton’s Great Escape – in a word… Great!

So with bands galore all playing at different venues across fair Brighton, an impossibly difficult task of fitting them all in – and plenty of people to chat, negotiate and drink with – Great Escape was always going to be a tough experience… And it wasn’t made any easier with the inordinate amount of booze supplied by The Australian Tourist Board (thanks), Red Stripe (thanks more so) and Mr Pimms (I love you), all of whom contributed to quite the most enjoyable Friday eve I’ve had in a long time.

Starting off with a quick chat and passes from the irrepressibly ace Sam Isaac (or Sam Isaacs if the programme was to be believed) – the Alcopop (or Alchopop if the programme was to be believed – are you spotting a theme here?) boys (AKA Kev and I) hooked up with some charming industry types in the *FREE* hotel bar. Bliss! Smashing back the booze till it was all done, we then managed to take in a few bands between downing shots of Pimms in a boat, inadvertently fighting with the sea in a vague attempt to skim stones in it (I lost) and eventually being thrown out of some god-awful Brighton club for ‘spinning on a chair’.

Yup! Spinning on a chair! If you put spinny chairs in a club, surely people are bound to spin on them?? Still, one of the bouncers was quite pleasant, offering to go stone skimming at 4 if I stuck around – I politely declined his offer though – incensed that in an otherwise well-mannered war of words, another door-devil had called my hair greasy… Que? Shiny and lustrous surely?

As for the bands themselves, probably my pick of the night was Sam Isaac and This City, both of whom played storming sets – although rumours of lots of other inspirational gigs sparking off about town (of which Tellison were widely mooted as delivering) only made me wish that the shows had gone on all day, so there weren’t quite so may clashes.

Overall though – a great festival experience, and even the crappy, overly salted rubbish served up in a seafront American diner (called something like JB’s I think) the next morning couldn’t spoil it. Oh and lots of thanks to Paul Steel and The XCERTS who let us stay in their house… Very kind, and I’m sorry if my sea-splashed trainers left any salty residue (that sounds really unpleasant doesn’t it)….

I’m feeling v. festivally though now – net stop, Boring by the Sea!

Alcopop DJs confirmed for Boring by the Sea Festival

Handsome news for the Weymouth Festival going public, as a frenzied Alcopop vs. BSM DJ set has been confirmed for the Boring by the Sea afterparty, alongside Drowned in Sound’s very own Sean Adams, and Fierce Panda funsters Shitdisco. It’s not till June 29^th, so don’t hold your breath waiting for it just yet – but we’ll be spinning all the usual mix of hot-indie classics, modern day stomps and classic mid 90s dance – and it all comes with a cast-iron, 100%, Andrew WK will be played at least twice tonight, guarantee!

Come down if you’re near by – the festival promises to be awesome too with the likes of Good Books, Frank Turner, Sam Isaac and Jay Jay Pistolet amongst the line-up… And it’s all but a stones throw from the beach apparently, which is great news for a label based just a few miles from the furthest point in Britain from any hospitable coastline!

Expect many metaphorical musical bombs to be dropped all over that floor baby!

Summery weather = festivals!

Welcome April! March was a weak month, tailing winter as it did quite so angrily – but with the first glimpses of sun breaking through the clouds comes the lure of pub gardens, the drenching of sun-parched lips with cool liquor – along with the feeling once again that festival season is a-coming… And with it the joys of boozing in fields, loads of quality bands, overpriced greasy food and the promise of ending up starry-eyed in a drum & bass tent, busting insane moves to music you don’t know, with people you hardly know at around 5AM – but nonetheless loving it!

But, with so many festivals doing the rounds these days – how does one know which is the best event to shell out cash for, and drag your tired body too for a truly unforgettable experience, even though you’ve just worked all week and have barely recovered from Latitude? Well, after deciding that Glastonbury and Reading are too pricey, and probably too full of c**ts (especially the latter) to really bother with, I’d suggest taking a look at the following:

Truck Festival, Oxford: A staple diet of any festival season, Truck is a one night bingefest of a mash up, where drinks are sub 2 quid, and the rotary do banana cake for pence. Expect: Your new favourite band, Oxford’s finest and sing-a-long headliners.

Boring by the Sea Festival, Weymouth: It may only be one day, but the organisers have packed such a compendium of up and coming/hip new artists together, that to NOT pay the paltry 25 odd quid to attend this festival would be a travesty! Expect: Literally everyone who’s been whispered about, but is still too cool to feature, in the NME for the last year (including the lovely Sam Isaac)

Sziget Festival, Sziget: Literally the best 120 Euros you’ll ever spend, REM, Maiden, and the Sex Pistols are a few of just the handful of names to be announced so far. A week… On an Island… In Hungary… With Eastern European chicks/gents… What more do you fuckin’ need! Expect: Handsomeness, cheapness, the perfect rock n’ roll holiday and a golden brown tan.

End of the Road Festival, Dorset: Winner of Best New UK Festival 2006 (I was there), EOTR is the most chilled out indie rock event of the summer. Complete with its own peacocks, football goals and genuinely nice food stalls – you will not find a nicer festival crowd – I could have married every one of them. Expect: Really nice people, never worrying about your stuff being nicked – and a genuinely awesome twee indie line-up.

And that’s my picks thus far… But I may have missed classics? If you’re popping to any of these though, give me a shout – and we’ll hook up for a beer!

I’ve got racing fever…

It’s been a good day today over at Alcopop HQ as my teeth have got a clean bill of health from the dentist, I won £70 on a horse called Crack Away Jack at Cheltenham (proving that the form book means nothing when the ‘he’s got a brilliant name so he’s bound to win theory takes place) – and I’m off to aforementioned festival on Friday to cleverly invest some of Alcopop’s budget on (definately) winning nags – any tips anyone? I could do with some 30-1 dead certs…. Free Alcopop merch to anyone who wins us a packet.

Meanwhile, for anyone else who fancies a flutter, here are the tips for tomorrow from the only record label proud to reveal its heritage of not only being built on indie passion and commitment, but also a whole heap of vices (I really ought to write a blog post about that sometime)…

15:15 – Tamarinbleu

16.00 – Peacock e/w

16.40 – Ornais

And if those don’t come in, I’ll be all sorts of shocked! Meanwhile, if anyone is around London town on Monday 17th (St. Patricks Day) with nowhere to head for great music, green painted leprechaus with pots of gold and cheap pie/Guiness pint deals – then come on down to The Social for a super BSM night, complete with Alcopop DJ’s. Oh, here’s a lovely picture of some horses – this woman is likely to put up some more…

Truck line-up party & Hush the Many

So another day, another petting zoo in East London, and at least half of Alcopop were in attendance at the Truck Festival launch party – to soak up the free booze, eat the (weak) food and enjoy the surroundings of the line-up announcements of one of the friendliest festivals in indie. And it all makes for rather pleasant reading – and already confirmed for the 11^th festival (July 19^th & 20^th) are Noah and the Whale, Camera Obscura, Emmy the Great, Champions of the World and Robots in Disguise amongst various others.

But it was Alcopop’s very own Nima (of Hush the Many, Heed the Few) who stole the show, and managed to pick up a guitar throughout the drunken haze and hubbub of excitement – and launched into an impromptu set of several tracks (including forthcoming single ‘Revolve’) much to the delight of everyone (apart from two random Germans who merrily chatted over the entire 15 minute set).

 

All good though – and with more reviews over here, and here – and the tour dates below…

 

21 March – THE KNIGHTS MIDDLESBOROUGH

22 March – THE SOCIAL NOTTINGHAM

23 March – THE ACADEMY OXFORD

26 March – FREEBUTT BRIGHTON

27 March – BARFLY CARDIFF

30 March – LITTLE CIVIC WOLVERHAMPTON

1 April – 93 FEET EAST LONDON

Keep an eye out…