News

BUY OUR NEW SINGLE, THE DOUBLE A-SIDED RED GOLD - THURSDAY, HERE:
To buy a limited edition CD for £3.50 (incl P&P and some freebies), click HERE

To buy a digital copy from iTunes click HERE, or from AmazonMP3 click HERE

30th August

The summer gigs were a lot of fun (we even sneaked in a quick acoustic gig at the Nottingham Riviera). You can check out pictures from them all here: www.myspace.com/theamberherd/photos

We'll be back soon. We're playing The Old Angel on the 9th October with the awesome Luxury Stranger (if you're a fan of early Cure (Pornography/Faith era), The Chameleons, David Bowie and Joy Division, they'll be right up your street) and the Hockley Hustle at the end of October (we'll let you know the date and venue when it's been confirmed).

8th July 2010

It's been a while since we updated you but we haven't just been sat in the sun drinking copious amounts of beer (although there has been a lot of that!).

So what have we been doing?

At the start of June we played our biggest gig todate supporting Delays at the Bodega Social in Nottingham. We had an awesome time, and played to a sold out crowd (just the way we like it). We went down really well, and have had some great comments and feedback from the band and their tour manager

Since then, as Rachel is now on maternity leave from the band, we have been practising with our good friend Ollie from Made of Leaves who will be playing keys for us for a couple of months. We 're really looking forward to playing live with him in the next few weeks.

Neil and Fitz took part in an interesting experiment in June for Tom Whiter's last show on URN. Tom got members of four great local bands (us, Frontiers, Dog is Dead and Sharp Knees) to go in to the studio and write and record a song in an hour. You can check out the results here

So - back to the present, and we're about to return to the stage. We have 4 great gigs coming up over the next 4 weeks, including a return to London for another headline shoe, and Fitz birthday. I hope you can make it to at least one.

And don't forget you can still buy our new single from iTunes, and Amazon. We are getting very low of CDs too - so if you want one, get in touch!

Our upcoming dates are:

17th July - The Good Ship, Kilburn, London

24th July - Moog, Nottingham (Fitz's birthday party - with The Trestles (from Liverpool) and the fabulous Lois)

31st July - InFlux Festival, Nottingham (with Euler, Sharp Knees, Long Dead Signal and many more)

6th August - Out the Box Festival, Alfreton (with The Petebox, Luxury Stranger, Eskimo Fires, Lost Controllers, In Isolation and much much more)

28th May 2010

On Tuesday (1st June) we will be playing our biggest gig yet - supporting The Delays at the Bodega in Nottingham. This is expected to sell out so get your tickets soon!! We're playing at 8.30pm (doors at 8pm)

In other news we have just been confirmed for the InFlux festival on the 31st July. This is taking place over 5 stages down by the canal in Nottingham - we're actually playing at the Fellows Morton and Clayton. More details are here: www.influxfestival.com If you'd like cheap tickets (£3), please e-mail info@centralmusicvenue.co.uk, and say you want to see us!

After our gig on Tuesday our next gigs are:

17th July - The Good Ship, Kilburn, London

24th July - Moog, Nottingham (Fitz's birthday party)

31st July - InFlux Festival, Nottingham

6th August - Out the Box Festival, Alfreton

So an exciting couple of weeks - and hopefully we'll have some new songs to play you!

.....oh, and don't forget to buy our single Red Gold/ Thursday at the link above!!!

10th May 2010

Here's our interview with Dean Jackson on BBC's The Beat show from Saturday night. Dean plays the radio edit of Thursday, and Neil and Mark talk about the single, and the Sparklehorse tribute night. Take a listen here:

BBC The Beat 8th May by the amber herd

And here's an article from URN's Tom Whiter about the Sparklehorse tribute gig:

http://urn1350.net/blog/twhiter/2010/05/ local-bands-unite-sparklehorse-benefit-g ig

Hopefully see you at the Rescue Rooms on Saturday!

7th May 2010

Even more exciting news for the Herd - I can't keep up - I hope you can! Earlier this week Neil and Mark went in to the hallowed BBC studios to be interviewed by Dean Jackson about the upcoming Sparklehorse tribute gig. This will be broadcast this Saturday (8th May) sometime between 6 and 9pm (or if you are out we'll post a link to the listen again on iPlayer when it is up). The radio-edit of Thursday will also be getting it's first public outing on the show!

We've also had a couple of awesome gigs confirmed. On the 1st June we'll be supporting The Delays at the Bodega Social in Nottingham, and then on the 6th August we'll be playing out first festival show of the year at the Out The Box Festival in Alfreton. We can't wait for these - hope you'll come and support us!

Our next show is the Sparklehorse tribute gig next Saturday 15th May. We can't wait to play this, and see the likes of We Show up on Radar, Lorna and Peter Morely playing their favourite Mark Linkous and Sparklehorse tracks.

I think that's all for now - but check back again, as I'm sure we'll have more news soon! And don't forget you can get our new single now from iTunes, AmazonMP3 and CD (links above).

2nd May 2010

Thank you to everybody who came to our single launch party on Saturday - we had an awesome night.

Our new single Red Gold and Thursday is available to buy from today. The single is available as a limited edition CD (only 100 produced) from this site (link below) and gigs, or in a digital format from iTunes and AmazonMP3.

TO BUY THE SINGLE FOLLOW THESE LINKS:

Limited edition CD (£3.50 including postage and packing):

Digital format:

iTunes

AmazonMP3

We really hope you enjoy it! Don't forget you can also buy our debut single (the double A-sided Stage Fright - Foot Tapper) from AmazonMP3 and iTunes too!

Our next gig is at the Rescue Rooms, Nottingham on 15th May for the Sparklehorse/ Mark Linkous tribute night. This is going to be a great night for charity, with bands such as Lorna and We Show up on Radar perfroming.

25th April 2010

With the single release and launch party only a week away we have a few things to tell you.

We have just uploaded some of the fabulous photographs Steve Rowe took of us earlier this month. We are really pleased with the way they've turned out. Take a look in the gallery, or on our Myspace or Facebook pages.

We've also had an interview and single review publised in the Nottingham Live on-line magazine (download it here). Neil talks about goings on with the Herd, and someone called Tommy Sonic reviews the new single. It's an OK review - "It's alternative, vaguely psychedelic rock which is well-written, flawlessly performed and benefits from high production quality" / "The Amber Herd are definitely a band to watch (and listen) out for". Make up your own opinions when the single is released a week on Monday!!

Don't forget you can get a limited edition CD of the Red Gold - Thursday from the gig at Central this Saturday. We'll put a link on here to buy the CD on Monday the 3rd - and this is the date you'll be able download it from iTunes and Amazon MP3.

And finally - Neil and Mark will be interviewed by Dean Jackson on BBC Radio Nottingham, with Mark Rolfe (from the band Lorna) about the upcoming Sparklehorse tribute gig at the Rescue Rooms on 15th May! The interview will be broadcast on Saturday 8th May - we'll let you know what time the week before.

Oh - one more thing - honest! We now have a mailing list you can join. We'll send you occasional e-mail updates and special offers if you join - just click the link over here ->

Hopefully see some of you on Saturday - for our first Nottingham gig of the year!! Wahey!

17th April 2010

Today is Record Store Day, so to mark the day here's a list of our first record purchases. We have all spent a large amount of time in record shops browsing through racks and racks of records, CDs and tapes, and think it is terrible that the right of passage of going in to a record shop and handing over cold hard cash for your first record is becoming (has become) a thing of the past!

Fitz - "The first vinyl album I ever handed my own cash over for was 'All Things Must Pass' by George Harrison from Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street. In the days before barcode scanners I peeled the £13.99 price sticker off it and replaced it with £6.99 representing excellent value for a triple album. First vinyl single was 'Nobody Tod Me' by John Lennon"

Neil - Rockabilly Rebel by Matchbox. "At least it's a proper song rather than Captain Beaky or some such shite. The next door neighbours were really in to Rock 'n' Roll so they leant me Eddie Cochran LPs so I thought I'd browse that furrow. About a fortnight later I saw Judas Priest on Top of the Pops and changed my mind!!"

Paul - Brown Girl in a Ring/ Rivers of Babylon (double A side) - Boney M. "I was very young - OK! The second best selling song ever - so I wasn't alone!!!"

Rachel - Woman by John Lennon. "I was four, I'd never heard of him, but the day after he died my brother told me about this wonderful man who'd been shot, so I cried for 24 hours and then went and bought this record. This was an emptional week for me as my brother also revealed that Santa didn't exist, and that Jesus had been nailed to a cross. Thus began my love of sad music."

Mark - I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow - "It was in a tiny record store in a small village in Cambridgeshire - I purposefully went in to buy this and bought a limited edition version, although I had no idea what this meant at the time. On getting it home I played it to death, and then wondered what the B side would be like. So I flipped it over and all I got was a scratching sound. It was limited edition because it had an etching on the b-side rather than a song - Iwas gutted and felt very cheated - and it knackered the needle on my dad's record player!"

11th April 2010

Following the sad death of Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) in March, we are honoured to have been invited to play at a tribute night to this talented songwriter at The Rescue Rooms on Saturday 15th May. Some of Nottingham's best acts, including We Show Up on Radar, Lorna, Sugar & Lust and Peter Morley (ex Model Morning) will be performing tracks written by Mark. Tickets are £4 in advance (available from the Rescue Rooms' website) or £5 on the door. All proceeds are going to charity.

In other news, we had a first professional photo shoot last weekend with the awesome Steve Rowe - we'll be posting these shortly on this site, Myspace and Facebook. We're really pleased with them, and think Steve has done a great job!

Our single launch party is getting closer - and we're really pleased to announce that our support for the evening will be the lovely Lisa de'Ville. Check her out at www.myspace.com/lisadevillemusic

Exciting times!!

4th April 2010

On the 1st May we'll be holding a single launch party upstairs at The Central in Nottingham. This will be our first gig of the year in Nottingham, and our first with Fitz on bass (we decided to break him in a bit easier than just throwing him on to the stage at the Rescue Rooms!) It'll be £3 on the door, or £5 with a limited edition CD. Hopefully see you there!.

31st March 2010

Our new double A-sided single Red Gold and Thursday will be released on 3rd May. Thursday had it's first radio play earlier this week, on Tom Whiter's URN show, and we got a great reaction. We can't wait for you to hear it.

The single will be available to download from iTunes and Amazon MP3, and we'll be selling CDs from this website and gigs. Links will be posted here nearer the date. To support the release of the single we're starting to book some live shows for the next couple of months. Our first gig with our new bass player Fitz will be at The Rescue Rooms in Nottingham (yep, we're throwing him in at the deep end). This will be a special tribute gig to the late, great, Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) who sadly took his own life earlier this month. Other acts playing Sparklehorse tracks on the night include We Show up on Radar, Lorna, Sugar & Lust, Emily Cash, Peter Morley (ex Model Morning) and more to be confirmed.

We're honoured to have been asked to play this night as we are big fans of Mark's song writing. It's going to be an awesome night, and all proceeds are going to charity, so please come down and support the night! We have also been invited back to the Good Ship in London for another headline set. We loved playing there in January and can't wait to go back. It's an awesome venue. We're playing on Saturday 17th July and hope you can make it.

That's all ... for now. We have lots of exciting things in the pipeline, but are going to keep them quiet for now so we don't jinx them. Please check back for more news soon!

14th March 2010

To kick off the New Year we're pleased to announce the arrival of our new home on the 'interweb'. We'll continue to update our pages on Myspace and Facebook, but this is our official home.2010 has been interesting so far. We played our first London show on the 16 January, headlining at the fabulous Good Ship venue in Kilburn, and then played at Rip It Up in Ripley. Both were great nights, with excellent audiences and bands.

Our gig in London was unfortunately Guy's last with the band. We are sad to see him go, but wish him luck with his "harsh electronica" project. We thought it'd take a while to find a new bass player - but we recieved a message shortly after we'd announced we were looking from someone saying he was "the man for the job"! And he is! We're pleased to welcome Fitz in to the fold, and look forward to introducing him to you all.

The next couple of months will see the release of our brand new single, a double A-side, containing news songs "Red Gold" and "Thursday". Both are recorded and sound great. For a sneak peak of both tracks check out the live video of "Red Gold" and "Thursday" from The Good Ship in London and an acoustic version of "Thursday" we recorded for the BBC's Dean Jackson's The Beat show - both our in the Media section.

At the end of February Paul and Neil were invited in to Tom Whiters show on URN for an interview and to play acoustic versions of the new single. Take a listen to here.Another exciting event that occurred in the last few weeks is that Neil has discovered the joys, and volume, of playing an electric guitar - so the hunt is on for a new guitar and amp rig. So expect even more noise from the Herd!!Please check back here for updates - we have some exciting gigs in the pipeline for the next couple of months, and are hoping to have an official single release party.

Cheers

the amber herd