2009

A third night at the Hammersmith Apollo on the 25th October has been announced. Tickets are on sale now from Ticketmaster, online [here], on the phone (08448 44 47 48) and at outlets.

Be there or be tragically unhip!

Ahhhh festivals. Last week I did the Big Chill. I got muddy cowboy boots which I still haven’t cleaned and briefly resented all the good-looking young people in deliberately comical hats and accidentally comical sunglasses… but then I did a really fun set in front of many of them and was yanked from my curmudgeonousness. Thanks, Youth.

The related news is this: I’m playing at Reading Festival on Friday 28th August and Leeds Festival on Saturday 29th August. I think I’ll be playing in the afternoons, but I’m not sure. And I don’t know how long I’ll be doing, but prob 30 mins or something. Think they’ll be fun.

Loads of cool acts there, including lovely friends of mine like Jamie Kilstein, Brendon Burns, Sarah Millican, Doug Stanhope and Stephen Grant.

Slightly updated list of places and venues below. Go to the GIGS page for details and links.

[A note on Inverness: I’m really sorry this date was pulled. Apparently the venue were unable to confirm my booking, so we had to bow out. We’re hoping to put a show on in Edinburgh that night instead. Which will be great, as I’m not going to the festival this year, but a bit sad, cos I really wanted to get further up north. Sigh. ]

Manchester Lowry; Derby Assembly Rooms; Warrington Parr Hall; Swansea Grand; Swindon Wyvern; Cheltenham Town Hall; Cardiff St Davids Hall; Southampton Guildhall; Norwich Theatre Royal; Buxton Opera House; Dublin Vicar Street; Brighton Dome; St Albans Alban Arena; Stoke-on-Trent Victoria Hall; York Grand Opera House; Cambridge Corn Exchange; High Wycombe Swan; Birmingham Town Hall; Coventry Warwick Arts Centre; Bradford St Georges Hall; Tunbridge Wells Assembly Hall; Bristol Colston Hall; Reading Hexagon; Newcastle City Hall; Perth Perth Concert Hall; Dunfermline Alhambra; Edinburgh Usher Hall; Glasgow Pavilion; Aberdeen Music Hall; Bournemouth Pavilion; Belfast Ulster Hall; Sheffield City Hall; Oxford New Theatre; London Hammersmith Apollo; Northampton Royal & Derngate; Nottingham Playhouse; Birmingham Symphony Hall.

So, just a couple of weeks til I start my tour of the frickin world. By which I mean Australia and New Zealand. And by New Zealand, I mean Auckland. And by Australia I mean some bits. The shows are selling pretty fast with some already completely sold out, so I reckon you should book, eh. 

EDIT: this was a post in which i replied to an email sent to me by a Homeopath who had found some comments I made in an Australian newspaper disparaging. A justifiable criticism, as I am often disparaging towards alternative medicine in both my act and – if the topic is raised – in interviews. 

I have removed it, as my job is to find funny ways of putting these opinions across, and in posting my response unsatirically I was crossing over into science blogging – a very well-populated sphere.

I am glad I posted it, because it created a conversation, and hopefully even made a few people look a bit further into this particularly insidious form of mumbo-jumbo. 

However, I don’t want to get into a situation where people Google me and find an abrasive essay on alternative medicine. I’d rather they found a stupid song. 

If you are interested in this topic, there are a million places to go. Check out Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science blog. Or go to Quackwatch – an extremely thorough resource. Steve Novella’s Science Based Medicine blog is- like all his work – wonderful.

Or for some building blocks type any of the following phrases into Google or Wikipedia:
Causal Fallacy
Confirmation Bias
Falsifiability
Scientific Method
Pseudoscience

… and get in amongst it.

This is the shit that gets me excited. This is my porn.
Is that wrong?
Happy reading. Tim.x
[insert laugh track]

I did a tour last year to which as many people came as there were seats available. Now unless there was an extraordinary cosmic coincidence and it just happened that at every venue I visited, the number of seats correlated exactly with the number of people who wanted to see my show, we can infer that in all probability there exist some people who wanted to see my show but were unable to, due to demand for seats exceeding supply of seats.

So. I’m going back on the road y’all. Fuckin yeah. Woot. et cetera.

During September and October, “READY FOR THIS?” will be playing at the following venues in the following order::

Salford Lowry; Derby Assembly Rooms; Warrington Parr Hall; Swansea Grand; Swindon Wyvern; Cheltenham Town Hall; Cardiff St Davids Hall; Southampton Guildhall; Norwich Theatre Royal; Buxton Opera House; Dublin Vicar Street; Brighton Dome; St Albans Alban Arena; Stoke-on-Trent Victoria Hall; York Grand Opera House; Cambridge Corn Exchange; High Wycombe Swan; Birmingham Town Hall; Coventry Warwick Arts Centre; Bradford St Georges Hall; Tunbridge Wells Assembly Hall; Bristol Colston Hall; Reading Hexagon; Newcastle City Hall; Perth Perth Concert Hall; Dunfermline Alhambra; Inverness Eden Court; Glasgow Pavilion; Aberdeen Music Hall; Bournemouth Pavilion; Belfast Ulster Hall; Sheffield City Hall; Oxford New Theatre; London Hammersmith Apollo.

Not all these dates are on sale yet, but I thought I’d give you kind persons the heads-up, as I don’t want you finding out some other way, and feeling all dirty and used. Keep an eye out on the gigs page for shows coming on sale.

My Australian tour seems to be selling with heart-warming rapidity. As a result, there have recently been extra shows added in Perth, Sydney, Wollongong and Adelaide and we’ve shifted to a bigger venue in Geelong. (If things continue like this, I’m going to buy myself a pair of trousers in celebration.) Yessirree.

Again, the place to find out about these shows and all the others is the gigs page.

This post is very linky ain’t it. I just like linking. I feel like Abraham Linkin’ would feel sitting in Linkin’ Park.

There are also a few shows happening in Auckland, New Zealand. Tickets for them ones is got by clickin’ here.

And as always, one must plug ones crap: Get a DVD. Buy a song.

Oo, oo, also, (almost forgot) I PROMISE there’ll be Tee Shirts (including a new design) and Canvas Bags on sale on this site by March. Not to mention the little detail of the “Ready For This? Live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall” album being available around the same time.

Oh, it’s all so exciting. I hope you are all healthy and amused.

tx

For those of you interested in the not-so-comic side of my songwriting…

“Drowned” – the ballad I wrote for the film “Two Fists One Heart” – has been released on itunes. This oughta take you straight there.

You can also watch the music video exclusively on this site. Check it out.