John Trueman RIP

John Trueman has died.

This is a strange one for anyone involved with the music scene in Leeds. He was an arrogant, greedy, selfish man - often embarrassingly so - who messed up a fair few gigs for a fair few bands on account of his attitude. But he had a certain ridiculous charm about him, and seemed omnipresent in Leeds for many, many years. Essentially, no artist who played at The Cockpit or Josephs Well between 2000 and 2005 would have gone without dealing with him at some point.

He died last night in the LGI after his liver packed in. He'd been ill for some time, largely self-inflicted over the years, and a few days ago it became clear he would not live much longer. Andy (Futuresound) and a few others went to visit the other day and said he was already pretty much gone then. It was only a matter of time.

John was an orphan and was always very secretive about his private life. It is known that he had a brother, but the last I heard was that the hospital had not been able to contact him. I truly hope they have managed to do this now.

He was a weird, abbrasive, awkward and uncomfortably selfish man. I'm pretty sure he would have had no idea who I am. But I'll always remember his ridiculous and often strangely endearing ways. He will be missed by everyone who had ever spoken to him or dealt with him in any way, for a variety of bizarre reasons. As John Keenan said over at Leeds Music Forum, I'm sad he's gone, but desparately hope he doesn't haunt me.

RIP John Trueman, the ultimate unscrupulous music promoter.

But in the meantime

...there are a load of people in my living room, locked in. I can hear vaguely who's there, but apparently I'm not allowed in for a few minutes. I have a sneaking suspicion this is something to do with my birthday, but I haven't the foggiest what's going on. Help.

Millions of years have passed

Happy new year, and all that jazz. Usual annual gumph and lists to follow shortly. I need to become alive again after festive death of my brain and liver.

Shock.

I have some incredible news. Are you ready?

Are you sure?

Right.

The album is pretty much finished.

Christ.

There's some tweaking to do and all that, but all the recording and most of the mixing is all sorted, and I'm busy as a beaver finalising everything as we speak. This has taken around 18 months, a lot of work, and a lot of rewrites/re-recordings to complete, but I think I'm actually pleased with this now, would you believe?!

I'd imagine it'll be out around Feb/March ish. I cannot believe this is finally done.

Secrets and Lies

So yeah, apologies for being crypic until it was all sorted and confirmed. Blue Sky Project will support Jubilee on January 23rd at Josephs Well, Leeds. Jubilee is co-fronted by Aaron North from Nine Inch Nails and Michael Shuman from Queens of the Stone Age. This is going to be a right gig, but these are also two of our favourite bands in the world. North is Alex's musical hero. We're going to be a tad nervous.

Tickets are £6 in advance and will be onsale soon.

Meanwhile, someone links me to this: 'legal' highs found to contain methcathinone and methamphetamine analogues. Which made me laugh a little bit. Selling modified Class-A drugs on the herbal highs market is rather sinister...

Been in my studio for the past couple of days putting the finishing touches on the music for the album. It's pretty much just vocal stuff that needs to be tweaked now, and it's sounding much more like a decent album than this time last year when I first announced the delay. In another studio on Wednesday to record the Blue Sky Project single, which should be proper bo selecta.

Leeds is secretive. Secret gig on Wednesday night, secret gig on Thursday night, notsecretanymore gig on Friday night. Go to the Cockpit on Wednesday if you want. The Brudenell on Thursday might be worth a look. On Friday at the same venue, it's Forward Russia, of course. I'll be there, drunk and disorderly.

BSP support gig in January

On the 23rd. I'm not nervous. It's not like they're in Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age or anything...

DIE3

Noah Brown, of Baby Food and Yes Boss fame, delivers what has to be the scariest spoken word set ever witnessed, and the moderate crowd in attendance doesn't seem sure whether to collapse in fits of giggles or head promptly for the fire exit. From a list of horrendous insults ('your grandparents hate you, and desperately hope they outlive you!'), to a painfully sarcastic engagement congratulation, to a fondly-recited tale about 'smashing the f*ck' out of a swan, it's highly engaging throughout, and Noah delivers it with enough clarity - and just the right amount of insanity - to keep the room captivated until the end.

Review of Benbow's ridiculous event for Contact Music. One of the most challenging reviews in memory to approach, but I think I've pulled it off with just the right amount of absolute, pure confusion.