GA Blog 52: Andy - "The best moment of my entire career" Date added: 09.03.2010 Hello Andy, how are things going? Very good, thanks. It's been a big week in the history of Groove Armada. Definitely. We've really got it going on now with the live show. It's become of all the things we had hoped it would be at the beginning. The gigs in Glasgow, Manchester and, of course, London have been really satisfying. It's great to have finally got it sounding like you've imagined it in your head. And SaintSaviour just gets better all the time. We've got this blend of old tunes but done in a Black Light style and the new stuff that's just really powerful. And the Black Light tunes are getting big cheers as more and more people get the record. So, yeah, it's been a really exciting week for us. You're getting some incredible critical acclaim too. Yeah, I don't really read reviews because I just find it much less stressful if I don't, but from what I hear, things are really positive. We know when we come off whether it's been a good or bad gig, and when we came off at London everyone in the band was saying that was one of the big nights for us - not the biggest size audience, of course, but it was a really big night and everyone just felt it. You could see from the people, the paying public, the people who matter, that they felt it too. That's the review done there, from our own harshest critics. But obviously we want as many people to get on board with this as possible. We want people who think they've made their mind up about Groove Armada - probably including some of the people who are now changing their minds and writing these things down - to give it a listen. So yeah, the more of that stuff the better. And the album's been in the iTunes top 10 all week. Yeah, I think it'll be a real massive achievement to have gone off, done something completely different, and spread the word organically through playing it live and through all the underground means we could think of making videos and the live footage. To end up anywhere near the top 30 is a massive achievement. Especially considering the supermarkets are not stocking it. It's a properly independent record. It is an independent record and we've had great play from some specialist radio DJs but we're not on day time radio. So it's been an underground experience and you're going up against people who are just playing a different game with billboards and TV advertising and all that different stuff. It's going to be a real testament to music lovers is we can keep it somewhere near the top 30. Presumably it's been as satisfying as any other album campaign you've had before because you believe in this record so much. Oh definitely - it feels far more exciting than anything I can remember. I can't really put into words the moment we came off stage on Wednesday night - that was probably the best moment of my entire career. It's something in which so much energy has been invested in, over such a long period of time. We always have done but this one feels particularly personal for lots of reasons and when you start getting that kind of response, it really does mean a lot. It was just a massive massive night that for us. It won't be forgotten. And now you're off to Europe. Yes, we're off to Brussels tomorrow. It's great in Europe at the moment. We're working with all these independent labels, we're doing a sold out show in Brussels, a sold out show in Amsterdam on Sunday, and then we go to Paris where a busload of about 35 people from where I live will be coming along. I see Black Light is in the Belgian iTunes chart too. Yeah, and we were number one in America this week, in the iTunes electronica chart. It's all quite specific but nevertheless if you think out of all the people in America making electronica and there's no one selling more copies than us, then that still feels good. Of course, you're going to America later this month. We are - the vibe over there feels brilliant. Again, this is the first time in our history where we've worked with a record label who really means it. Om Records are only little, but they're just doing a brilliant job, they just love it. So yeah, we're doing shows in great venues: there's the Henry Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles which is just a classic venue and that was sold out within a week, Fillmore in San Francisco - in fact we're doing two shows there because it sold out so fast. We're not talking about arenas and stadiums but on a kind of organic level it just feels exciting. Buy Black Light: - Amazon.co.uk - click here (just £7.99, inc free delivery!) - iTunes (including bonus track/videos) - click here

GA Blog 51: Tom - School trip down under Date added: 15.02.2010 Hi Tom, how are you? Not bad, thanks. A bit hungover, though. I went to see that Coco Sumner last night at a place called the Proud Gallery. She was alright. She seemed like a nice person and the music was good. Are you thinking of booking her for Lovebox? It's a definite possibility, yeah. I could imagine her on the Gaymers at about midday. Do Gaymers sponsor a stage? Yes, they do. The second stage is sponsored by Gaymers pear cider. Do you advocate the use of such a thing? I actually quite like, yeah. Although I'd never really contemplate drinking it anywhere apart from a festival. But when you're at a festival, it hits the spot. So, it sounds like Australia was a rip-roaring success. Yeah. It was. The first gig was actually Auckland, to give the Kiwis their due. And that was actually a brilliant gig. New Zealand is the only place we've ever had a number one album, so we're big there! Although that probably only means we sold about 12 records in one week. But, yeah, that show was great. And then we did Brisbane which wasn't quite as great a performance. But sometimes that's good, as it makes you realise where things needed a bit of work. Did you change things around after that? We sat down and had a full-blown production meeting. We've never really done anything like that before. And we re-worked a lot of stuff about the show, the way the lighting worked with the music and that sort of thing. It was a great meeting. From that moment, pretty much to the end, it really came together. Did you enjoy the Big Day Out experience itself? It was an amazing thing to be part of. I don't think I really understood the scale of it beforehand, which is probably good, as I'd have been too scared to get on the plane. But it was a big deal. In Sydney we were playing to 25,000 people in a room. We played to 50,000 at Glastonbury, which was amazing, but that was obviously outdoors. To play to 25,000 in a room was just really intense. Was it fun to be part of travelling roadshow? It was, actually. There was a really nice bunch of people doing it. Peaches was a particular favourite of mine. Amazing live as well. Calvin, Dizzee and Tom Is she as full-on offstage as she is on it? Not at all. It took me about a week to pluck up the courage to speak to her, but then when I did she was nice as pie. She's really quite a sweetheart. And Dizzee and his crew were great, particularly Dizzee's tour manager Paddy, who's hilarious. And I always gets on well with Calvin Harris who was there as well. He's a nice fella. Didn't speak to Lily Allen at all, though. She constantly had a minder with her, which seemed a bit daft. And Muse were there. I stood and watched a few of their shows from the side of the stage and it really was extraordinary. Three fairly normal-looking men making an incredible noise. Absolutely. When you see him up close, it seems utterly improbable that this man is a rock star. But when they're on stage, it just totally works. I was really impressed with them. It all sounds a bit like a school trip. It was a bit like that, but lacking a headmaster. Although our tour manager, Jamie, did keep us in check. But, yeah, you're on the plane with all these people travelling around together. There were a lot of American bands, who all just looked the same. They all look like skater kids, with loads of tattoos, and they could be anyone from Devendra Banhart to Mastodon, who I think were some kind of heavy rock band. We mainly hung out with Dizzee and Calvin. Dizzee, of course, is headlining Lovebox next year. That's right. He was the first to sign on for 2010. We've got a load more announcements on February 23rd, actually. It's looking like an amazing line-up. We've really nailed it this year. Of course, Black Light has already been released in Australia. Yeah, it seems to be doing well. The set-up over there was great and the label have been fantastic. And it's out in a month in the UK too. It feels to me like it's been around for absolutely ages now, so I'm quite keen to get on with it. But the vibe around Paper Romance has been really encouraging. I spoke to Alex Metric on Radio 1 and he said it was his favourite tune of the year so far. It all feels quite positive. I've got absolutely no idea how the record's going to do, but whoever hears it seems to really like it. Including the critics. Exactly, which is great. Apart from Mixmag who described it as sounding like "Pat Benatar fronting Ultravox". I really enjoyed that - first bitchy comment of the year. And, hey, if Pat Benatar fronting Ultravox is available, we'll book it! She'd be great doing Vienna. Are you happy with the finished album? I am, yeah. I haven't really listened to it, to be honest, but this morning, I found myself watching the live videos from Big Day Out which we've put up. So then I had a look at the video for Paper Romance. And it was my first moment of slightly basking in a bit of my own glory. It's great that 6 Music have A-listed Paper Romance too. So, you've got this little tour coming up around the album release. That's right. A mini run of dates, to keep us going until we hit some festivals in the summer. And we're going to the States in March, which is cool. I'm really looking forward to that. I think we're playing in Brooklyn, which is great, as everything I love about music seems to be coming out of there now. And we're due to finish off in Miami at the Winter Music Conference. After that, April looks quite quiet, then it'll be festival-tastic for the rest of the summer, hopefully. We're going to hammer it as many festivals as we can. It's all shaping up pretty well, then. It is, yeah. There seems to be a real interest in the album and the touring has been fantastic. The show has moved on leaps and bounds from when we played the Coronet, so people should definitely come and check us out again. SaintSaviour is just amazing live and having a frontwoman like that is incredible. I'm really looking forward to the whole year now. Cambridge United, meanwhile. Just crap. Absolute crap. We've got to that point where we just never, ever win.  We seem to lose to absolutely everyone. And we've sold our best striker. I think we over-invested in the last couple of seasons, then lost in the play-off finals both years, and now we're paying for it. The club's just absolutely skint. If by some miracle Black Light goes multi-platinum in at least seven different countries, I'm going to rescue the club from disaster.

GA Ozblog 5 - Andy 1.2.10 Date added: 01.02.2010 Big Day Out Lineup 2010 Aliens on the Gold Coast.... Arrived at the Big Day Out Gold Coast after-party to find Peaches looking pretty tidy around the tennis court. Our MC MAD was making up one of the doubles partners at the other end. The vodka-tennis was welcome. BDO aftershows are pretty tough on letting people other than the bands in, so you're always in danger of ending up talking about monitors or guitar strings. Proof that it's getting tight in the music industry came when the free bar switched to a paying bar and the party was over in minutes. Down to Sydney and on the itinerary there were a couple of days off. Not so. Day one was press. Day two was radio. But there were some upsides. Firstly, our new label over here are brilliant and took care of everything. Secondly, everyone seems to love the new music and agrees with us that it's the best album so far. We did the full album-analysis type shows, and the loads-of-people-in-a-studio-shouting kind of shows. Best of the shouty type was Apple Armada, a game in which we had to guess whether things like 'Santiago' was an apple variety or the name of a ship in the Spanish Armada. Radio gold. We had an evening promo meet-n-greet party on the roof of an old warehouse in the suburbs and then off to see a Passion Pit gig. Brilliant band. Had a chat with Michael, lead singer, who was saying how much he wanted to sing on the tracks we sent him during work on Black Light. Especially the tune that went on to become Cards To Your Heart with Nick Littlemore. Somehow the collaboration had got lost in translation. Next time. Most evenings in Sydney ended up at the Ivy, a Miami-style pool bar opposite the hotel and open late. But post Passion Pit we went to a place called World Bar, memorable for some good tunes from the resident and for selling shots in teapots. There were some impressive moves being thrown at the Salsa night down the road too. If you want the keys to the town, learn to tango. We squeezed in an award ceremony. Rolling Stone magazine had a soiree to make the most of all the bands who were in town for Big Day Out. It was a mix of glamorous tv presenters and bearded metal men. Chaos later when the party moved to a bar called King Pong. In the middle of a packed room in which every one was carrying drinks was a table tennis table with totally committed players diving left and right. Gig day came around and it was hot. It was 36 degrees in the town centre, and probably 3 or 4 degrees above that at the festival site. The whole massive area was concreted over and you could fry eggs on any piece of it. The ambulance men were busy. Jamie (tour manager) had got himself a hat. This time the Boiler Room, the area of the festival we are headlining, was not in a tent but in a building so large it had a big wheel inside it and massive lorries drove backwards and forwards. 30,000 people would be in there later. The Boiler Room Sydney GA offstage... Boiler Room Sydney GA onstage... During the pre-gig waiting period Dorian and I somehow ended up spending a couple of hours looking after the kids, aged 4 and 2, of the singer from an ozzy rock band while he did his thing. There was table tennis and pool, but whichever we chose the basic game for them remained the same. Try and throw the balls under the toilet block. The heat was intense. 100% humidity apparently, though I'm never sure how that works without the air turning to water. Lots of interviews, the good thing about that being the golf carts we used to get about from one to the other. The noise as we went on stage was amazing. The place was packed from front to back. There'd been some doubt as to whether Becky's reflective costume was working, but when she came onstage it was clear we had no problems on that front. It was a busy night for Tim, Hatty and Tec (the crew boys) as bits of equipment here and there gave way under the extreme temperatures. Hat off to them that noone else seemed to notice. For the first time, Sydney was hosting 2 Big Day Outs. Before the 2nd gig on saturday night there was a mini monsoon that made all the difference to the temperature. It was the 100th edition of the Festival. The atmosphere was electric. It was the gig of the tour so far. The sides of the stage were packed with the great and good checking it out. It seemed that word on Black Light was spreading. Spirits were high afterwards. Being the last band on means that we always go from on stage mayhem to a completely deserted dressing room area, so we got out of there sharpish and went into town where a BDO after party was being laid on. But we had friends in town and it was Triple A pass only again, so we moved on after a while and the evening took a couple of surprising turns. In a lift up to a nearby bar, we gave it a go and pressed the 'P' button. The doors opened and the bouncer wasn't keen. But with a bit of persuasion we found ourselves in the penthouse of the man who owns most of Sydney. He gave us the keys to another penthouse down the road. All of a sudden we had more penthouses than we knew what to do with. And so it went on. The next night a friend with a penthouse overlooking Bondi Beach brought in some bar staff and some speakers and threw open the doors. The result was the best party of the tour to date, except for the girl who dropped her handbag over the balcony on to a bit of inaccessible rooftop. Then it was back to the Horden Pavilion. A legendary venue in Sydney and the first place we ever played here. It's a big room and a tribute to Sydney music fans that after buying 110,000 tickets for the Big Day Out festival they filled up the Horden to watch us again. It was good night. More and more people singing along to the new songs. HORDEN Here's a view from the other side. Amazingly, behind all this lazer madness is this man... RYAN Horden Pavilion crowd In Melbourne we were back on familiar ground. We always stay in the same hotel on the same street, but it happens to be one of the best streets in Australia. You can find everything you can think of on Chapel Street. Walking out to do another round of radio promotion, I found George (guitarist) standing next to Serena Williams. Later that night we were followed into a restaurant by Martina Navratilova. Didn't know we were so popular in tennis circles. By this stage, great reviews for the gig and album were coming in from around Australia and the Melbourne interviewers were keen too, making the promo pretty painless. The exception was a girl at the festival who did an interview asking for backstage secrets - the biggest party, craziest thing, maddest night, blah blah. On and on it went. Tedious. I think she tried the same thing with Dizzee and he wasn't too happy about it. Melbourne Big Day Out was down at a racetrack just out of town. I did a quick tour of it on an electric scooter and found out that they go much faster than you might think. The Boiler Room here was back in a tent. Once again the stage was busy with other bands from the festival, and Sasha spent most of the gig going for it, standing on stage behind the drums. The crowd was amazing. From the first note it was a big one. Ground control to major tom..... Melbourne Big Day Out continued.... Another day in Melbourne, and another gig - this time our own show at the Palace Theatre. This gave us a bit of soundcheck time (you don't get any at festivals) and allowed us to make the final couple of tweaks to the set. The blend of old and new songs and the new sound is really working. The theatre is a classic venue. Sam, 'the scientist', spent the afternoon fixing the PA system and had it sounding family sized. MELBOURNE And from backstage..... After the gig, we'd fixed up an aftershow at the Match Bar. Word had got out and the placed was packed. I was DJing, there were chaotic scenes, and the police circled but left us alone. In the middle of all the noise, the 'can I have a photo' requests, the drinks spilling over my tunes, the cheering and the dancing, a girl came over, gave me a drink and said 'Your music has given me ten years of happiness'. Nice. It was close to dawn when things wound down, and a couple of hours before it was time to leave for the airport. Waiting to leave in the lobby, it looked like a cast of characters from The Road. Jamie had to get the yellow jacket on to restore order. Arrived in Adelaide feeling a little shaky. Went off with Martin (drums), MAD and Dorian to play some pool and take it easy. MAD, Martin and Dorian We found a nice table in the back corner of a local Irish bar. All of sudden, the Bonkers tune came on at full tilt, along with some mobile disco lights and the place filled with heels and handbags. We'd picked Paddy O'Brian's Famous Ladies Night. $2 a vodka for the girls. We tried the local nightspot instead. The only thing of note in there was an art exhibition by Bill Clinton's Climate Change Advisor's goddaughter. Unexpected. Spent most of the next day going through recordings and videos of the gigs. Extracts to follow. Went down to The Adelaide Big Day Out site a couple of hours before showtime. It was a working livestock market and so bands hung around signs that said 'No Tethering of Sheep' or 'Cattle Only 9.30-5.30'. Despite his flowing serving action, I held my own on the table tennis table against Strobe, Dizzee's right hand MC. Becky went through her daily transformation from english rose to winged keeper of the stage. Great gig again. The shows is locked in now. Once again there was a BDO after party at an old hotel in town. Much better this time though in that it was open to anyone. A nice outdoor terrace and some great tunes, in a 'Love Is In The Air' kind of way. The Simian Mobile Disco boys proved that once bitten twice shy doesn't apply when it comes to hash cookies. Next morning, there was another difficult day for the Qantas hostesses when the Adelaide to Perth flight was entirely taken over by Big Day Out bands. It's not everyday a cactus comes walking down the isle. The captain came on the PA system to request that the cactus kept his seat belt fastened. Instead, the cactus got on the PA himself and finished a long and rambling speech.... "it's 2012 already a new millennium it's winter in Europe there's no better time to get naked" Lily Allen was next to me on the plane and she was telling me about her tour manager who'd been rushed in for emergency surgery after his headphones got stuck in his ears. Normally when the festival plane arrives at the airport, there are a few people who have sneaked through security and stand there waiting to get things signed, have photos taken etc. So far, they've all been for the oz bands and a couple for Muse. But in Perth it was our turn, and we had a welcoming group each with a large colour photo to sign. In Perth now. One to go, but there'll no time for blogging between the gig and the flight home. Look out for the live recordings over the next few days. For now, it's thank you and goodnight. Andy Cato

GA Ozblog 4 - SaintSaviour 31.1.10 Date added: 31.01.2010 Woah-ho, it’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it yeaaahhhhhhhh...  I’m typing this in the 34 degree heat, trying to look remotely cool as Muse make their way round the breakfast buffet in our allotted hotel. Were all in Adelaide and on the home stretch of the Big Day Out’s trip round Australia, with only tonight and the show in Perth left to do. We just got here from Melbourne, which I believe is the ‘garden state’ of Australia and very beautiful indeed, oh yes indeed, I had to get an inhaler to breathe, I’m so used to smog (thanks Syb, you may have saved my life). Having learned from various sources that Melbourne was the ‘cool’ and ‘arty’ place to be, we were kind of expecting a muted response, almost like a Shoreditch venue (any will do) where they could make the suppression of any sort of visible enjoyment and/or emotional engagement an Olympic sport. However, thank heavens, we were proved wrong. It seems cool people can jump, and dance, and sing, and even throw beer at one another. We might as well have been in Sunderland, the crowd were really giving it some. It's always amazing to be standing off stage watching Mike and the boys launch into Superstylin’, and witness a crowd of thousands become one undulating, throbbing mass of sweaty arms and hair, giving it everything they’ve got because they know every drop and every lyric. What’s also fabulous is, the longer we’re out here, the greater number of people know the new material and even sing along, since Shock, our Aussie label, have done such a fantastic job of getting the music out there on Aussie radio and the GA fans out here are so committed. I might add here too that they have been incredibly welcoming to me as a newbie and I appreciate that hugely, as I do Meesha, a beautiful and kind Melbourne lady who came all the way out from the south to do my stage makeup both nights. The next night we had a ‘sideshow’ (a gig outside of the Big Day Out which we book and promote ourselves) at the Melbourne Palace Theatre, which was similarly great. All made a little more nerve wracking for me since Kasabian, Calvin Harris, Dizzee Rascal and Lily Allen’s band were in the audience, which isn’t exactly an everyday occurrence, but hey-ho, a gig’s a gig! We hosted an after party at Match Bar in Melbourne, with Andy on decks, working hard as usual while we mingled with some lovely fans and partied til the morning light, addressing morning munchies with yet more amazing Aussie pies. Cheese, bacon and beef together in a shortcrust pastry – what else could you possibly want, I ask you?

GA Ozblog 3 - SaintSaviour 24.1.10 Date added: 24.01.2010 It feels pretty bad to admit this while those of you back home are freezing your extremities off, but we are having one heck of a party over here in Australia. I’m writing this from my hotel room in Sydney, just round the corner from the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, where I like to go for a jog in the mornings before partaking in an unbelievable smoothie which tastes like inhaling a cake, but somehow 97% fat free?? So, as you may know if you’ve been keeping up, we are out here to play the Big Day Out Festival, which travels round Australia like a crazy caravan of love. It’s run by some really ‘way out’ guys, (one of them is called Duckpond) who create this really authentic feelgood vibe wherever we go. Our dressing rooms are always mystically adorned with different decoration and funny little presents (including some pretty cakes we have learned not to go near before we go on stage) and each night they handwrite us all a funny letter wishing us luck and letting us know what the secret code is for the after party which, to be honest, they seem to be more into than the actual gig. Last night the whole of the backstage area was an exact replica of Easter Island. Go figure. So last night was the 99th Big Day Out, and our first gig in Sydney after three ‘Big Days Off’. The Sydney version is held inside the Olympic Park and our venue (The Boiler Room which we are headlining) is some kind of other-worldly huge tent. It’s so big, there’s a full size ferris wheel in there.  We were being filmed and recorded so the emphasis was on being a slick, well oiled music machine, which we of course were, and more. Mwwhahahaha! Here's our dep guitarist Dorian, showing his mettle while George was off having a wee baby (Hi Johnny!) Lemme tell you, it wasn’t easy in the heat. I feel like a broken record going on about it, but if you imagine being the hottest you have ever been, then put on a full stage outfit, then do a 90 minute aerobics class, you’re getting there. However, looking out at the crowd - who had already been partying for around 8 hours in the sun, then piled in their thousands into a hot tent for an extra helping, with their hands in the air throughout - we can’t really complain.  If there’s a kind of Victoria Cross for partying, the Aussies should definitely get it. Big times. Oh, and thanks to whoever threw the orange creature at me, He's gonna get his own blog....

GA Ozblog 2 - SaintSaviour 18.1.10 Date added: 18.01.2010 Hear me now. I'm writing this to you, our dear Groove Armada fans, from approximately three million feet above the ground in a massive piece of metal pelting through the air. All part of the job when you're in a touring band arsing about in the land down under. Andy, being the tallest man in dance, is comfortably folded up in business class but I'm in the back with the Ladyhawke crew who I still haven't plucked up the balls to chat to so I'm trying to look cool with my laptop writing a blog. For those who know me, I know you're thinking "Christ, they must have done a 'Mister T' to get her over there in a plane for 26 hours" as usually I spend flights rocking back and forth, foaming at the mouth, eyes clamped shut with an endless horror movie of my death going round and round my head. However, I've been cured by a hypno doctor so ner-ner-ner. Anyway, enough about me, on to the good shit. The gigs, the lights, the lasers, the showbiz, the schmaltz, the power-cut. Yeah, first gig in New Zealand at the 'Power Station' (pff) we knackered the place, the air-con smashed, I sweated my entire life out, lights went, sound desk exploded, the whole street died, and get this - right in the middle of Superstylin'! The crowd were screaming for more, Mike had to run for cover, Andy lost his trombone, it was madness. Ah well, jetlagged and delirious, we went off to a party, leaving the Power Station to recharge it's batteries. Good gig. The next morning refreshed but somewhat lighter in the pocket after a 47 dollar hotel brekkie, we popped off to the Big Day Out site to get ready for our first BDO appearance in 'The Boiler Room' where we have the headlining slot. I had in my head that the tent would be a quaint little side stage. It seems I was mistaken. It holds 20,000 and the sides are open where an extra 10,000 or so hang about trying to see in, and by jimminy it was packed. And the heat! Strewth! Now I know where the tent got its name. That kind of sweating needs a new word. Suggestions welcome via Facebook.... Anyway, the temperature didn't seem to bother the Kiwis, they just danced and screamed the whole way through. Love it. One guy shinned up to the top of the big pole in the middle to show some love, and after a whole day of drinking and dancing in the sun, we seriously admired the commitment. I thought I was going to die up there, and now we're off for the second show in Brisbane, where I'm told it's hotter. Seriously guys, what?

GA Ozblog 1 - Andy 17.1.10 Date added: 17.01.2010 POWERCUTS AND MARINE STINGERS Left from Toulouse with Dorian. Guitarist. George, the guitarist your used to, is at home awaiting the birth of his son. Dorian is a star musician from the gers, the bit of rural France I've somehow ended up in. His first band's album was funded by selling a cow. After a tidy 39 hours, first stop was Auckland. Could only catch a couple of hours of sleep here and there, before comin up as fresh and bright as you can imagine for a morning of TV interviews. New Zealand is the only place we've had a number one album. Consensus was that the new album is 'awesome' so a good start. Then off to the Powerstation for a pre Big Day Out warm up gig. A few tunes needed some work. You never find that out til you leave rehearsal rooms. Heroic efforts from band and crew who pulled off a 5 hour soundcheck after 3 days with 20 minutes sleep. Becky (Saint Saviour) has got a new costume. It took half an hour to put on in the venue's only backstage toilet. Worth it though. She went in as Becky and came out as Flash Gordon's quarter-back. All our lights had to go straight to Australia so Jonny was working up to the wire to get what he needed from the bits he had. Meanwhile laser Ryan tweaked his mirrors to create the mother of all virtual glitter balls. Local boy nick d got things going nicely. Then it was showtime. First gig for Dorian, every song different and Becky's costume debuting in 40 degree heat. And half a set of new music played to people who haven't heard the new album yet. Nothing to worry about. But the blend of favourites and new tunes was working a treat. Becky was attracting loving looks and causing divorces. MAD was whipping things up as only he can. Sweat dripped from the Walls. Then… darkness. The Powerstation had lost power. Bits and pieces of emergency lighting came on. Half the PA was coaxed back into life and we played our last 3 tunes. More silent disco then heavy weight sound system, nice one to the Powerstation crew for going for it and giving us a great send off. Post-gig a local bar looked after us with a round of Grenades. A complicated cocktail complete with pin pull system. Then onto the Ponsoby Social, which seemed to be where things are at. Finally we headed down to a below stairs cocktail bar. By this point MAD was talking to soundman Sam about 'jimmy sevens and the age of bamboo'. MAD's late night speech making is legendary. The word 'gaffling' has developed to describe it. Big Day Out Auckland the day after. We're closing the Boiler Room across the Big Day Out tour. The boiler is legendary and lives up to its name. 12,000 people awaited us in an enormous marquee with a couple of thousand trying to get in. A light drizzle of sweat dripped from the ceiling. The power stayed on, and it went mental. New tunes and old. Singalongs to the favourites sounded louder than Rockin All Over The World at Live Aid. Artists' party back at the hotel. Mainly boiled down to shop talk. Apart from one of the promoter's assistants who told me her friend was a Ugandan princess, taller than Grace Jones, and was going to eat me alive. She didn't say where or when. On high alert. Day after travelled to Brisbane then down to Surfers Paradise. Promoters laid on some great food for us with other artists from the festival - Sasha, Dizzee, his man strobe and SM Disco. Went out to sample local nightlife afterwards. Blackpool on new year's eve was the kind of vibe. MAD on a gaffle ban due to croaky voice. He even made a little card that said 'no gaffing' that he could hold up to explain his silence. Body surfing this am. Fortunately I missed picking up what I thought was someone's hearing aid floating past. Soon after a warning sign with a picture that looked just like it went up on the beach. Turned out it was a "marine stinger". Left the sea soon after. Sun is like a double grill. Boiler room should live up to its name again tonight. Photos to follow. Andy

GA Blog 50: Andy - Off to Oz / 2010 plans Date added: 15.01.2010 Hi Andy, how are you? I'm fine, thanks. Just on my way to the airport to begin the voyage to New Zealand. Which way are you going? It's a particularly mammoth one this time. It's Toulouse to Paris, Paris to Dubai, Dubai to Melbourne and then Melbourne to Auckland. Apparently we'll come up smiling sometime on Wednesday afternoon for a cold beer. Are you on your own? Actually, I'm with a friend of mine called Dorian. Our usual guitarist, George, is expecting a baby any day, so we're bringing along Dorian who's more used to playing guitar in little French bars around where I live. But he's already turning out to be a bit of a GA legend. I think he can handle the step up! What's the weather like in Auckland at the moment? It's apparently about 35 degrees, so a bit of a change from the snowman I was building in the garden yesterday. Have you rehearsed for the tour? Yeah, we had a week of rehearsals in the UK last week. It was very festive, because we were pretty much snowed in. It had quite a Christmassy feel. What were you busy with at the rehearsals? Well, the last tour was the first time we'd played the new material, so first of all there were things which came out of that which we wanted to change, as always. Then there were a couple of tunes from the new album which we wanted to add to the set. Normally what happens is we rehearse three or four new tunes and then maybe a couple of them will survive in the set. But all of them were sounding brilliant, so we kept them all. When we do the sideshows, we'll be playing for an hour and 40 minutes. That's a nice long set. Yeah. It just sounded great and we couldn't decide what to cut out, so we eventually thought we'd cut nothing out! How long will the Big Day Out sets be? They'll be 75 minutes, which is pretty good. We've got the headline slot in this tent called the Boiler Room, which has a legendary status out there. The live set is sounding the best it ever has, it really is. Even though I say so myself! I can't wait to give it a road test. It's great that you're so enthused by it. Well, there's 15 or 16 of us going to Australia and playing live is going to be the thing which we dedicate the whole year to doing, so you've got to get it to the point where it's just killer. We've revisited old stuff again - we've got this 90s rave version of Easy which is going to blow the roof off. And the old faithfuls Fogma and Superstylin' have been given another once over. And My Friend has gone all Gary Numan. So, even the old ones are new ones this time. Have you played Big Day Out before? No, we never have. I think we've done every other festival in Australia apart from this one. So, yeah, it's not a bad start to play for the first time by headlining the Boiler Room! You're on straight after a DJ set from Sasha. Yeah. I think the idea is that he plays while the last band that's on the main stage plays, then we play after. Apparently there's always more people left on the site than the tent can hold, so you're pretty much guaranteed complete mayhem! Are there any other acts playing that you're excited about? To be honest, I haven't looked at the line-up at all yet. But I've got about 48 hours of sitting down coming up, so I've got plenty of time to go through it! You're a Passion Pit fan aren't you? Oh, are they playing? I definitely want to check them out. I like their album a lot. You've been to Australia and New Zealand quite a few times, right? Yes, many times. And New Zealand holds the honour of being the only place where Groove Armada have had a Number One album. But both Australia and New Zealand have always been special to us - a lot of our best ever gigs have been over there. How is Black Light shaping up over there? Really well, actually. We're working with a new team over there and they're absolutely nailing it. The tunes are all over the radio and the vibes I'm getting from guestlist requests and that sort of thing suggest that it's as big for us there as it's ever been. It's quite mad to be big in a place so far away. It is. But we just got off to a really good start over there. We had a good label there in the beginning and we've taken the live show over a lot. It's going to be nice to go back and get a real bite of the cherry with this great new show we've got. Will you get any time to look around Australia? We've got two days off, actually. In Sydney. It's unprecedented! We've got two Big Day Outs there, and a gig at the Hordern Pavilion, which is one of our favourite venues in the world, plus the two days off. I think if you put all that together with the Groove Armada travelling circus, it's going to be absolute chaos! And then when you're back, you've got the UK album launch gigs. Yeah, we wanted to play a few dates around the release, in some classic venues which we couldn't really do before, because we couldn't squeeze the show into places like that the way it was. Now it's much more punky and flexible, so we can finally go and play these classic venues where we used to watch gigs. I think the atmosphere at those shows should be great. Are any more shows likely to be announced? I think there will be a little run of dates in Europe, too. They should be confirmed soon. And the album is totally finished now? Yes, we've let go completely. I think it's now in the bulging in-trays of the nation's press. So we'll see what they make of it. Is that quite a nervy feeling? No, not really. We've played it live and I've listened to it a couple of times over the holidays when I was playing it to people who were coming to visit and wanted to hear it. And I just think it's great. It remains, without question, the best album we've ever done. The live show sounds brilliant and the albums sounds brilliant. And that's really all that matters. Obviously if everyone agrees, that's fantastic, and I hope they do. But if they don't, I won't lose any sleep over it. When you played the album back to your friends over Christmas, did you think of any tweaks you'd like to make to the tracks? Do you know what, I actually didn't! What's coming up in the rest of the year for GA? We're going to go to the States in March. The new stuff is getting some great radio support out there too. We're just trying to work that out, now, but it looks like we might play South by South West, then dates in LA and New York. Then after that we'll be getting into the European festival merry go round. Are you planning to play a lot of festivals? Yeah, I think we'll do as many as we can. This year is the year of the GA live band. We'll be DJing in Ibiza too, but the main focus is going and playing Black Light live, definitely. Did you DJ on New Year's Eve? We did. We played in Turin, at an open-air free party in the beautiful town square. They had a 20 minute firework display, which was maybe a little bit over the top in these financially tricky times, but apparently it's because there was a mayoral election coming up, so they wanted to impress! Then we got dragged off to some little basement and DJ'd there for a little bit longer than we should've done, given that we had to leave straight for Madrid to DJ at a New Year's Day thing. How was that one? That was good, too. We were slightly ragged around the edges, but it was one of those big uber raves, with about 30,000 people there. I have to say, the Armada absolutely rocked it. It was a great night - and the perfect way to kickstart the year.

Andy Copenhagen Blog Day 14: Suicide Pacts and Survival Guides Date added: 20.12.2009 "Mr President, I ask whether - under the eye of the UN secretary general - you are going to endorse this coup d'etat against the authority of the United Nations?" The President did, and the last minute 'Copenhagen Accord' was pushed through. It was a document agreed between a handful of rich nations whilst the majority of delegates talked amongst themselves. The Sudanese were blunt in their verdict. The 'accord' asked "Africa to sign a suicide pact". It was widely reported as an Obama brokered deal. But the UK Climate Change Secretary Ed Milliband was the man who stepped in at 4am to save it. He's been something of a late night specialist over the last two weeks. On this final occasion, he was heading for bed when reports came in of a turn for the worse in the negotiations. African and South American countries were set to use their veto, leaving world leaders with nothing to sign at all. Milliband was straight on the podium, arguing that it was far from a perfect outcome  "but it is a document that will make the lives of people around this planet better because it puts into effect fast-start finance of $30bn; it puts into effect a plan for $100bn of long-term public and private finance." Shortly after this speech,  UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said: "We have a deal." The deal was that the delegates agreed to 'take note' of the document. The money is far from water-tight. In fact the $100bn is a 'goal' rather than an obligation. And aside from the money, the Copenhagen Accord simply recognises that it would be a good idea to keep temperature increases to less than 2 degrees, but makes no mention of the emissions cuts needed to do so. A little like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting agreeing it would be a good idea not to have a drink before heading back to the pub. By this stage in the process, few people seemed interested anyway. For the last couple of days, the talks had been knocked off the top spot on the news by advice not to give children watered down wine, and by the cold weather. The Sunday Time's comment piece saw Dominic Lawson have a go at former chief UK scientist David King. Even if things do get hotter, said Dominic, King's "apparent belief that man is completely unable to adapt to a changing environment suggests that, whatever his claims as a scientist, he knows next to nothing about either human nature or history". What David King knows, along with most people apart from Dominic, is that our entire history has taken place during 11,000 years of remarkably stable climate. Yes there have been ice ages in the past, and the earth has been much hotter in the past, but there weren't 7 billion people on the planet at the time. So on balance maybe we should try and avoid pushing the earth into a climatic shift that will render uninhabitable much of the land where humanity now lives, and that will destroy the agriculture on which our lives are based. If that's not going to be a problem, can we please have his guidebook as soon as possible. "How to feed 7 billion people with 50% less water and farmland than we now have", by Dominic Lawson. His piece is full of the joys of Christmas on the basis that we now have the green light for the developed and the developing world to continue to burn as much fossil fuel as we like.  "Let's toast the negotiators of Copenhagen. By failing so spectacularly, they have presented us with a wonderful Christmas present. All we have to do is open it." Lets open it. As the developing world's demand for oil and gas rises, prices will skyrocket. Ofgen, the UK energy regulator,is already predicting energy price rises of 60% as more and more people fight over fewer and fewer resources. Military budgets will go through the roof and lives will be lost as we fight over the remaining supplies. Increased coal use will add to the hundreds of thousands of people who die each year from coal related air pollution. Unless Dominic thinks that the UEA stolen emails have reversed some basic scientific laws, massive increases of CO2 in the atmosphere will mean that more heat gets trapped and things get hotter. This will finish off melting the glaciers that provide the drinking water for millions and the irrigation water for the worlds' two biggest producers of food - India and China. They may try and make up the difference by pumping even more water from the non-replenishable aquifers that irrigate the rest of the harvest. But these are already set to run out in 20 years or so. As is the great aquifer that has supported the 'bread basket' plains of the USA.  This is all bad news for the UK where 60% of our food is imported. Meanwhile, tens of millions of refugees will pour into Europe as the African deserts expand. We heard last week that the rains failed for the 6th consecutive year across much of East Africa. So maybe Dominic is so full of festive cheer because he knows that the borrowed time which Copenhagen's failure condemned us to, is enough time for him. "World leaders in Copenhagen seem to have forgotten that they were not negotiating numbers, they were negotiating lives," said Dame Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive. But Xie Zhenhua, head of China's delegation, was defiant. "For the Chinese, this is our sovereignty and our national interest". Is it? The technologies for a low-carbon future are ready and waiting. A price on CO2 emissions would unleash these technologies at affordable prices within a decade. But it seems that collectively we can't even think a decade ahead. So we're left in an enclosed space with nowhere else to go, but we have decided to leave our engines running until someone else turns theirs off first.

Andy Copenhagen Blog Day 11: Decline and Fall Date added: 18.12.2009 Sleep deprivation is beginning to bite. A Times journalist reported that at 9am this morning, some microphones in the main hall were switched on and all they could hear was manic laughter. An Indian Negotiator stumbled out into the daylight.  "The situation is desperate. There is no agreement on even what to call the text." Gordon Brown's office had sent out a 1am tweet. "Late night haggling with 30 leaders. Tough, but we're determined to crack it." At 2am, Gordon told UK Climate Secretary Ed Milliband "Keep talking and I'll see you at 6". Ed Milliband tweeted "Haven’t slept since Wed night". Despite the all night talks, this morning Gordon was still trying to pull a deal together in a hotel room with Obama and 24 other leaders. Danish PM Rasmussen did his best to keep the meeting in order but as he went through outlines of an agreement, the two Chinese negotiators intervened "after every point of substance." President Sarkozy broke ranks and had a go at the Chinese in public. "There is a lot of tension" he admitted. Meanwhile, the rest of the delegates were listening to a series of speeches from world leaders.   Chinese premier Wen stepped up to the platform and admitted that China has a particular difficulty with cutting carbon emissions because of its reliance on coal. But we should rest assured that "targets for cuts will be included in our long-term plans." Then came Brazil's president Lula. He said he wasn't happy about being kept up until 2am in last minute negotiations. Ed Milliband would regard that as an early night. But Lula went on to say that Brazil will spend $166 billion on reducing emissions by 38% and reducing amazon deforestation by 80% , both by 2020. He also offered to contribute to, rather than receive, climate funds destined for developing nations. He said he hoped this would help to turn the talks around. "Since I believe in God, I believe in miracles, and I want to be part of that miracle." It was a tough act to follow for Greece, although they were helped by a memorable introduction. The urbane Greek PM Andreas Papandreou was introduced by a stand-in chaiman as 'Andras Papa-papa-papandroo'. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe managed to turn heads. “I’d like to draw your attention to drug trafficking,” he said. Unexpected, but there was a climate link. “Drug trafficking has destroyed more than two million hectares of our forest. Whenever a citizen in an industrialised nation consumes cocaine, he is destroying one of the world’s lungs”. Meles Zenawi, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, was back again with more straight talking. He urged that doing nothing "would be tantamount to genocide by inaction.” But the people he was talking to had effectively been removed from the process. The real negotiations were happening in a hotel down the road. Finally Obama took the floor. "This is not fiction it is science. Unchecked climate change will pose unacceptable risks to security, economy and the planet," he said. A good start. "There is no time to waste", he continued. "America has made our choice. We have charted our course. We will do what we say. Now its time for the nations of the world to come to a common purpose." The problem is that the course the US has chartered involves emission reductions of less than 4% from 1990 levels and a climate catastrophe. Friends of the Earth director Andy Atkins declared that Obama "has disappointed the whole world". Outside the conference centre, perhaps in preparation for rapidly rising temperatures, activists were cutting off their hair. As it fell amid the snow, Andreas Carlgren, the Swedish Environment Minister and EU team leader,  was talking down the prospects of a deal. He concluded "The great victims of this is the big group of developing countries. The EU really wanted to reach out to the developing countries. That was made impossible because of the US and China." The US and China aren't getting on. This evening, the Chinese PM Wen was said to be furious about Obama's pointed reference to the US being the world's second largest emitter. Wen has a point in that, per head, the americans are 5 times as carbon intensive as the chinese. Back in the UK meanwhile, there were more words of wisdom from The Telegraph's climate sceptic blogger James Delingpole. Today James revealed the last nail in the coffin for climate science. If the stolen emails from the UEA have left anyone in any doubt that climate change is the world's biggest scam, he now has the final proof. Firstly, he said, it's snowing in Copenhagen. Secondly, he quoted an article citing claims from the Institute of Economic Analysis in Moscow that the UK's Hadley centre for climate research had manipulated Russian data. So in one corner, we have 100 years of scientific research, the national scientific bodies of every developed nation, and daily observations of expanding desert and retreating ice, all agreed that we're in the grip of rapid, man-made climate change. In the other corner we have some stolen emails that first appeared on Russian servers just before Copehagen, and a new claim from the Institute of Economic Analysis in Moscow about manipulated data on the last day of Copenhagen. Quite a coincidence. Especially when you consider that Russian oil and gas account for 60 percent of government revenue as well as 60 percent of all exports. Then there's the source of the latest claims. The IEA Moscow says it is an organisation which 'focuses on mutual influence of economic growth'. It's articles only appear in Russian. Delingpole was using a posting on the climate-sceptic Icecap website. The posting came from an article attributed to an outside source on a Russian news website that states "It is not responsible for the content of outside sources". The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev didn't mention it when he became the first high-level departure from Copenhagen. A Kremlin spokesman said Mr Medvedev left in order to visit to Kazakhstan. Over in Kansas, another climate sceptic oil producer, Dick Shremmer, told his interviewer that he hoped the Copenhagen process failed.  "I wouldn't say the climate isn't changing. But, you know, it is always changing. We once had an ice age thousands of years ago, and during that ice age where we are standing used to be covered with an ocean. I think it is something that is going to drive up the price people's electrical bills, people's fuel bills and I don't see any reason for it" Maybe one reason for it is so that where he's standing isn't an ocean. Dick Shremmer's neighbour, Oklahoma, Senator James Inhofe,  has long believed that man-made climate change is  "a Hollywood Hoax". He arrived in Copenhagen today to tell the world that the president can't deliver on his promise of a 4% cut in 1990 levels of greenhouse gases by 2020.  "It's dead. In the Senate it's dead. Let me restate that so that nobody has any misunderstanding, there are two pieces of legislation. Both are dead." As the day wore on, the UN secretary general appealed for extra time, asking delegates not to leave tonight. But a golden goal looks unlikely. So far there are no overall commitments to 2020 targets for emissions reductions. The European Union's plan to raise its pledge from a 20% to 30% cut in emissions was blocked, killing the hope of a series on increased offers from other nations. And the latest text omitted a deadline for reaching a legally binding agreement by the end of 2010. 5 days ago, Gordon Brown was saying that a 6 month delay was the maximum we could afford. Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, lead the charge for South American states angry at the "pitiful" sums of money being offered by the developed world. "$10bn a year is a joke. The military expenditure of the US is $700bn per year. If the climate were a bank it would have been saved already." Writing his final piece from Copenhagen, the Guardian's George Monibot was similarly angry. "The interests of states and the interests of the world's people are not the same. Often they are diametrically opposed. In this case, most rich and rapidly developing states have sought through these talks to seize as great a chunk of the atmosphere for themselves as they can – to grab bigger rights to pollute than their competitors. Corporate profits and political expediency have proved more urgent considerations than human civilisation." As the talks rolled on tonight, the latest draft text said there should be a review in 2016 and that the review should consider strengthening the target on global temperature to an increase of only 1.5C. But everyone knows that by then this will be impossible.