Go
to www.lesvalentine.com or write to lesvalentine@hotmail.co.uk to join the
mailing list and receive this update straight to your inbox!
Another
rearrangement of our interview with ITV local this week meant Les Valentine had
a very busy Friday. During the day we were filming our portion of the Beat The
Mix show for ITV local, and in the evening we played our first gig in a casino.
It was an excellent day for us, and it will be very interesting to see the results
when the show becomes available online in a week or so.
We
arrived at the Studio in Lancing at around midday expecting to be sitting and
waiting for long periods of time while the room was set up before we could
sound-check. We were very wrong as it only took a few minutes for the sound
engineer to put together everything we needed and, seeing as we were the first
band to arrive, we were almost ready to go.
Our
sound-check to set up the audio consisted of a run through of the song
‘Nervous’ to make sure everything was set up right for recording, followed by a
speedy run to the reception downstairs for drinks to cure the dry throats we
discovered we had during that rehearsal. Let’s just say we were glad they
weren’t recording it!
After
downing a bottle of Lucozade each (we had to hide the bottles from view for
filming, for commercial reasons) we did two takes of ‘Nervous’ followed by two
takes of ‘Gordon’, before heading downstairs to do our interview.
Last
week when we were interviewed on the radio, we found it relatively easy to
forget where we were and have a great chat with the presenter Ace. Introducing
cameras to the occasion however made it all very different. We are intrigued to
see how they edit together the results of the interview, but talking naturally
in front of a camera is a real challenge and we would be the first to admit we
froze up a bit. Let’s just hope we get plenty of practice at it in the future.
After
travelling home and laughing at the most grimace worthy sections of our interview,
we prepared ourselves for our evening gig at the Grosvenor Casino. It was a
very interesting venue for a gig but the reception we had was great and quite a
few people turned up to see us play so a massive thanks to them! We didn’t
realise, however, that in order to enter the Casino you had to sign up as a
member. So apologies to anyone who now goes on to spiral into gambling as a
result of coming to see us play. We didn’t mean it!
In
other news this week, our brilliant website/media/general good ideas correspondent
Joanna Walters has been working on a template for our website which should be
launched by the time you receive the next e-mail. For a preview of the site
exclusively available to members of our mailing list (and a chance to listen to
our full radio interview which was unfortunately cut short by the Reverb Nation
website I directed everyone to last week) go to
www.unistuffinabox.co.uk/lesvalentine.
Have
a click around and let us know what you think, it’s not quite ready yet as a
lot of the sections need to be re-written, but the aesthetic, designed to match
our myspace and demo CD should remain fairly similar. By next week, it should
all have been moved to its new home at www.lesvalentine.com!
Beat
The Mix Update – text ‘mix 339’ to 83070
Once
again we owe a massive thanks to those who voted for us in this week’s best the
mix chart. We were top for a record-breaking fourth week, meaning we were
played again on Juice 107.2’s Damo & Ace show. Ace in particular had some
fantastic things to say about us following our appearance on the show the
previous week, so we were extremely grateful, as always, for the exposure and
the compliments we received.
Please
keep voting for us at www.beatthemix.co.uk by texting ‘Mix 339’ to 83070’, it would be an incredible achievement if we
could keep catching up the competition leaders each week as we are at the
moment, but we can’t do it without your help. So keep those texting fingers
nimble, because if we keep doing what we’re doing (or even getting better)
we’re in with a great chance of finishing at the top of that leader board!
Thanks!
This
Week’s Gigwatch
We
return this week to the University of Sussex’s East Slope Bar following our
successful Laid Back & Latte gig on campus a couple of weeks ago. That
takes place tonight (14th) so if you read this in time, come along for student
beer prices and free entry.
Our
other two gigs this week are on Wednesday and Thursday as part of Brighton’s
brand new Fresh Meat Festival. We will be on from 10pm-12pm each night, at The
Joogleberry Playhouse and Mint Cafe in Brighton respectively. Apart from
anything else, this will our first appearance as part of any sort of festival,
and a challenge to our repertoire. Come along and see if we can stretch it to
fill 2 hours! Entry is free and the venues are both excellent places to come
along, have some chilled out drinks and perhaps a late supper.
See
you soon!
Dates for
the diary (e-mail us or go to www.myspace.com/lesvalentinemusic for more info
on gigs)
14th
October – GIG – East Slope, University of Sussex
17th
October – GIG – The Joogleberry Playhouse, Brighton (part of the Brighton Fresh
Meat Festival)
18th
October – GIG – The Mint Cafe, Brighton (part of the Brighton Fresh Meat Festival)
26th
October – GIG – Sanctuary Cafe, Hove (£4 entry)
3rd
November – GIG – Komedia, Brighton (£2 entry)
7th
November – GIG – The Joogleberry Playhouse (£6 entry)
11th
November – GIG – East Slope, University of Sussex
14th
November – GIG – The Pavilion Tavern/Pav Tav, Brighton
10th
February – AUDITION – Nationwide talent competition, www.liveandunsigned.uk.com
9th April
– Steve's Birthday
19th
April – John's Birthday
And
remember – SPREAD THE WORD!
If you
like our music, tell people about it. Copy our CDs for friends who you think
would be interested, bring people to gigs. The hardest part really is getting
heard, so if you can help in any way, please do. As always, your support is
very much appreciated.
Thank
you,
Les
Valentine