Remember November - new Bluehorses album goes to print

Greetings horsey folk,

It is a momentous time...
The smoke out of the chimney has finally turned white, and Nic was seen emerging from the depths of the forge here at Bluehorse towers, clutching a shiny new disc. There was a reverent hush in the reception party, followed by contentment and much back slapping - I even got a celebratory carrot! The seventh Album - Thirteen Fires was now a reality.

In the end, after months and months of nail bitting agony and waiting, everything happened so quickly - the art work was produced and approved, the final editing tweaks were applied, the disc mastered and "red booked" (not sure what this is but Nic says it is important), and I dictate this - I chewed my nails off so cant write - the hallowed disc is with the CD production company to be glass mastered, stamped and put into pretty digipacs for your delectation.


Thirteen Fires - Bluehorses

1. Dance With Me
2. Ray of Light
3. Calling My loves
4. The Ride
5. Chant
6. Raggle Taggle Gypsio
7. The Unknown
8. The Fool
9. Aberdulais
10. Waes Hael

This is a quote from Nic to give some of the background to Thirteen Fires..
"Over the last 15 years we've played numerous festivals in every country in Europe and Scandinavia, but compared to the stuff we've jammed in the privacy of Bluehorse Towers, we've always toned things down quite a bit.

Now thanks to the delights of YouTube, we've discovered there's a massive Folk Metal scene going on with fantastic bands like Korpiklaani and In Extremo and it's made us realise there's an awful lot of people around who want to hear the kind of music we've always really enjoyed playing.

We spent the summer at our studio up here in the Welsh mountains with Jay MacDonald our guitarist - who also played bass on Thirteen Fires - writing and recording the new album which has just gone to press, and we seriously think it's a bit of a stunning beast!"


Copies will be delivered (courier dependent) in time for the Xmas shows - with the web site and other channels having them available shortly afterwards - so an excellent opportunity to get ahead of the game and come to the shows. Liz and the boys are hard at work rehearsing the new tunes so expect to have many of them included with all your old favorites ;)

The Xmas shows are
14th December - The Flowerpot - Derby
15th December - The Railway - Winchester
16th December - Robin2 - Bilston

full details from the web site.

Previews (or rather full copy review versions) of six of the tracks are available on the Bluehorses MySpace site (www.myspace.com/bluehorsesrock). Mike also plans to get some video up on YouTube (www.YouTube.com/bluehorses) to compliment the MySpace tunes.

Hopefully we will see you at the Xmas shows, if not have a happy Yule and a fantastic new year (don't forget the new album they make fantastic stocking fillers)

Neddy

Bluehorses in October

Greetings horse-mates

There was not a newsletter last month as it was all quiet on the Welsh front - there's still no white smoke, however the mutterings are that there has been good progress.

Nic has been locked in the studio editing then mixing down the tracks - This is the pedantic phase where every note has to be perfect. There are 9-10-11 tracks, and a full listing will be available shortly along with some sound bites (those that came to the summer shows will have already heard three of the tracks - Dance with Me, Raggle Taggle Gypsio, and Waes Hael).

The next step is to get the resultant tracks "mastered" then we can send it all off for pressing. The main aim of all this is to hopefully have a physical CD thingy available for purchase around the Xmas shows (got to make best use of the marketing potentials ;) ). So here is a plug for the Xmas mini tour ...

Friday 14th December Flowerpot - Derby, Saturday 15th Railway - Winchester, Sunday 16th Robin2 - Bilsden.

Whilst we are talking about shows - much apologies about the cancellation of the show at the Thomas Tripp - I think they discovered that we were not a "covers" band, so pulled out, not that we are cynical or anything.

We also have a new arrival at the stables .. Connor McDonnald - He was born on the 17th October at 16:45 BST, weighing in at 8lb 3.5 oz and 57 cm long. Pictures available soon on the gallery - once Jay has sound checked the baby guitar.

any way the nights are drawing in earlier these days and i need my beauty sleep..

hopefully we will see you at the xmas shows

Neddy

Bluehorses August Procedings

Greetings stable mates,

Just back from me 'olidays, Liz and the boys took me to various fields around the country, so despite not being able to canter around Chepstow (the castle not the racecourse) with the rain last month, things got brighter throughout the month, and finished with an almost summerish end to the month. All of the pictures - http://bluehorses.paganhost.co.uk , gossip - http://horsetailz.blogspot.com , and general vibes - http://myspace.com/bluehorsesrock are available at a good website near you!Bluehorses started off in Shropshire at Farmer Phil's - organised chaos - this is what festivals are all about - we like this place. Playing on the revolving stage was again a tremendous thrill for the band, and despite the lightly rain falling, the band proved to be a crowd pleaser. The following week they had a mid-afternoon slot at Cambridge rock festival, only this time Radio Caroline broadcast the show live .... yep that was straight off the stage and into the ether ... so on top of all the people in the hall, loads were listening in. Hopefully we can make selected highlights available in the near future for people to re-live the experience - especially Mr Rich's birthday surprise. Next up was Peterborough - if you like Ale this was one for you, once the number of different beers got past 5, I lost count v- comes of not having fingers and toes!! - but I am told there was several hundred varieties. To finish up there was Solfest (north to Carlisle turn left, and stop when the grass turns blue/ grey/ white). Apart from the strange stage time (1am is a long wait) everyone had a blast... With all the fancy dress around I didn't even look out of place!.

Hopefully we will get some video clips from all these and make them available on Youtube next to the ones already there - http://youtube.com/bluehorses

So what is coming up for Bluehorses in September .... the smoke coming from the chimney is still not white, but does appear to be grey rather than black. (pope analogy there) Now the summer holidays are over everyone is back in the studio ... 4 of the tracks are being mastered, with a further 8 being finalised. Nic has started to design the artwork, and there have been discussions of a video to accompany a track or two - most probably Dance with Me - which was played at the festivals last month. The other tracks played at the festivals were Waes Hael and Raggle.

Next show for Buehorses is the Thomas Tripp in November - http://www.thomastripplive.com/

see you all down there

Neddy

Bluehorses July she will fly... and so she did!

Bluehorses August Newsletter

Greetings stablemates,
July continued in the same vein as June - rain and more rain. Luckily none of the band were caught up in the flooding, but Andy from the crew spent a long time stuck on the M5 because of it. He made up for the experience by terrorising the locals with a Unimog (if you've not met one of these beasts before it is a 4*4 truck crossed with a seriously large Quad bike) helping to get feed to the animals.
We were all very sorry to see the Chepstow show postponed - I was looking forward to a trot around the course! - but just looking at the news coverage will give a suitable reason for this action, so there can't be any complaints. We will let you know when it get re-scheduled.
In a similar vein the Salisbury festival show has been canceled, again for reasons beyond our control, but this one is unlikely to get re-scheduled this year.
There were two excellent shows one at Cardiff and one at Spratton. Reviews can be found on the Tailz blog, with pictures in the gallery - a great thanks to Mike H and Dave J for allowing us to add their photos. There is also some dodgey video floating around of Rhayn and a Bull ride , but he is keeping me in sugar lumps at present!

August sees 4 shows, with the first one just coming up on the Saturday 11th at Farmer Phil's Festival on the main revolving stage.

Later on we are at the Cambridge Rock festival and then at Peterborough Beer Festival (this is a Thursday night) and at Solfest to round it off. - Keep up with the "up-to-the-minute" news by going to the news blog
****Breaking News**** Radio Caroline are planning to broadcast a live set from each day at the Cambridge Rock festival, and guess what!! - Bluehorses will be providing the set for the Saturday show... I had better make sure there are several rehearsals on the calendar, I would not want them embarrassing themselves!
Other than that; the steam continues to pour out of the studio here at Bluehorse towers, and there is still no one to gossip with :( although I am hopeful that the Iolo and Bran will pop round to have a chat now the sun has deigned to appear.
A couple of the new tracks have made it into the live set so far and were well received at the Point and Spratton. Raggle is a reworking of Raggle Taggle Gipsyo from the dim and dark past - for those who were around then it used to be in the live set when Dave and Jonathan were with the band, and also on the Dark Circus EP (only available on Cassette tape at the time, and now deleted - C30C60C90 anyone!).
The other new track, (under the working title of Hen but now looking like being called Waes Hael. A track of tremendous pace, which has a slight Balearic feel and is bound to get every one bouncing. The name imparts an idea of drinking and merriment, plenty of the latter, but I suspect that much of the former will be spilled as it is far too energetic!
Anyway more shows this month, and things are looking brighter ... so see you there!

Neddy
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Forthcoming Shows [More details here]

August
11th - Farmer Phils Festival - Shropshire - http://www.farmerphilsfestival.co.uk/
18th - Cambridge Rock Festival (formerly RBF) - http://www.rockinbeerfest.co.uk/
23rd - Peterborough Beer Festival (Thursday night) - http://www.beer-fest.org.uk/
25th - Solfest - Cumbria - http://www.solwayfestival.co.uk/

November10th - The Thomas Tripp - Christchurch

December - The Xmas Bashes
14th - The Flowerpot - Derby
15th - The Railway - Winchester
16th - The Robin - Bilston - Wolverhampton

**** News Flash **** Bluehorses Chepstow gig POSTPONED

Just a very quick note Horsey Dudes

We are sorry to relay that the Chepstow show ..... Sounds of Rock in the Swamp ... has been postponed

Sorry, but the Castle/ dell site is a bit of a swamp just now. Further news will be relayed as soon as we find out details.

Many thanks for your understanding

Neddy

Bluehorses Central

Bluehorses June Drop (heavier than April Showers)

July Newsletter

Greetings stablemates,
June dropped more than a shower, I haven't been out of the stable for ages so ..... Just a very quick note this month.

July sees 3 gigs, with the first one just coming up on friday at the Point in Cardiff supporting "The Men They Couldn't Hang".

Later on we are at the Spratton festival and then at Chepstow (the castle not the racetrack!) to round it off. - Keep up with the "up-to-the-minute" news by going to the news blog
Other than that; the steam has been pouring out the studio here at Bluehorse towers, and there is no one to gossip with :( so I stand and count the raindrops as they fall past my door. I have lost count so many times and had to start again - it is more soporific than counting sheep!.
Any way shows next month, so things are looking brighter ... so see you there!

Neddy
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Forthcoming Shows [More details here]

July
6th - The Point, Cardiff - Supporting The Men They Couldn't Hang
13th - Spratton Festival - Northants
22nd - Chepstow Castle

August
11th - Farmer Phils Festival - Shropshire
18th - Cambridge Rock Festival (formerly RBF)
23rd - Peterborough Beer Festival (Thursday night)
25th - Solfest - Cumbria

September

22nd - Salisbury Festival

December - The Xmas Bashes
14th - The Flowerpot - Derby
15th - The Railway - Winchester
16th - The Robin - Bilston - Wolverhampton

May - the Mud came to Bluehorses

* Album update
* Mayfest report
* News items
* New shows added to schedule




Greetings horsey folks

The new album has been high on the agenda this month, Nic has given a few progress updates, but you know what these creative types are like ... 2 steps forward and one back - what was absolutely in last week is now on the cutting room floor... however I do suspect that real progress is being made. So when the foals ask if we are there yet, from the back seat of the horse trailer, the answer is "Not yet, but soon".
_____________________
STOP PRESS
Just had a missive from Nic... all tracks for the album are now writ, demo'd up and recording underway!

see below for a translation
__________________

Spring is sprung, and then came the rain! so did the first festival of the year ... we were invited back to Mayfest near Buntingford. A nice setting on a slight hill just outside the village of Brent Pelham. Lots of nice lush green grass when we got there - I was even thinking of taking a few days to sample the local fields, however the rain had other ideas and the well trodden parts were slightly different when we left.
Full stories are in the blog - Tailz from Bluehorses:

Liz popped round to have a chat the other day ... She also wanted to show off her new New Rocks ... the nice people at Phutwear came up with the goods - a special delivery
direct from spain .. so look carefully at the photos from Mayfest .. splendid!

She also mentioned that the band would like to go back to being five again... This time with someone full time on keyboards. There are a number of songs being worked on for the new album that really need a fifth member to play live and there is already a few in the current repertoire that have Liz playing the keys, however it free her up to lay some wicked fiddle over the top *grin*

The band has been asked to support The Men They Couldn't Hang at the point in Cardiff on the 6th July. They are also playing at Chepstow Castle on the 22nd July. - Keep up with the "up-to-the-minute" news with the news blog

Neddy

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Nic's Note

We're finally there with track selection (heard that before... ned) and all have been recorded in demo form. After much experimentation, market research and the usual jaffa cake, diamond white and red bull frenzies, we've taken a bit of a different approach to this album. Can't say too much yet, but we're all getting very excited as we hear it coming together.

We're sort of going back to the bands early sound in some ways - a bit more medieval influenced than of late - but with the advantage of ten years practise! The new stuff is also much more of a reflection of our own personal musical tastes - we're all serial headbangers at heart!

But don't be afraid.

... OK, be afraid, but don't be worried... it still sounds like us!! In fact it sounds more like us than ever before!!! It just took us a while to work out what we sound like. It's not easy this, when you have a combined band attention span of 3 minutes :o)

I've already put drums down for some of the toons and all the final recording should be complete in 3 or 4 weeks. Then all we gotta do is mix it, so about another 5 years... :o) Heheh, only joshing. A couple of months should do it.

You're gonna LOVE it.

Or we'll send Big Stan round.

Watch this proverbial space... Nic

================================================================

Forthcoming Shows

July
6th - The Point, Cardiff - Supporting The Men They Couldn't Hang
13th - Spratton Festival - Northants
22nd - Chepstow Castle

August
11th - Farmer Phils Festival - Shropshire
18th - Cambridge Rock Festival (formerly RBF)
23rd - Peterborough Beer Festival (Thursday night)
25th - Solfest - Cumbria

September

22nd - Salisbury Festival

December - The Xmas Bashes
14th - The Flowerpot - Derby
15th - The Railway - Winchester
16th - The Robin - Bilston - Wolverhampton

Bluehorses April Foolery

Greetings stable mates

Just a very short note this time as were all getting quite excited here in the stables ...

The first shows of the year are upon us .... Rhayn has been putting in serious hours learning some tunes, not necessarily the right ones, but was in top form for Derby. He has even learned how to jump around in his new Rocks!


Probably just a coincidence, but the Flowerpot was Jay's first show, and was also the first outing for replacement Rob! There will be a full report for the Derby show on the forum and in the "tailz" blog as soon as someone recovers enough to write it.

A couple more shows have been confirmed - Solfest and Cambridge - both in August, and the office is still chasing down several other probables and some possibilities. If this was down at the track we could publish some odds, but we don't have a licence to run a book in the stables, also Nic would make sure the odds were stacked in favour of the house!

Anyway, I feel the call of a little light exercise - chewing some oats - so must dash

See you at the Mayfest on the 27th

Neddy

Forthcoming Shows

May
27th - Mayfest - Buntingford - Herts http://www.mayfest.org.uk/bands.html

July13th - Spratton Festival - Northants

August11th - Farmer Phils Festival - Shropshire
18th - Cambridge Rock Festival (formerly RBF)
23rd - Peterborough Beer Festival (Thursday night)
25th - Solfest - Cumbria

September22nd - Salisbury Festival

December - The Xmas Bashes
14th - The Flowerpot - Derby
15th - The Railway - Winchester
16th - The Robin - Bilston - Wolverhampton

Bluehorses March Madness

April newsletter


Greetings horsey doodes and doodettes,

March has been manic here in the stables - I have hardly had time to draw breath keeping an eye on all that is going on!

First off there is all the comings and goings for the new album, strange sounds emanating from the tack room, and it wasn't the farrier making my new shoes, although I'm sure a pair (or two) of NewRocks would not go amiss!

Then there is the culmination of a years search for a suitable person to fill the stage left position vacated by Nathan - We welcome Rhayn to the paddock, and look forward to his first outing with the troop at the Flowerpot in May. He is currently hard at work learning the routine - you know stand around lonely looking bored, a bit of nose bag then trying to persuade the groom to scratch the right place! Oh and then there's the sounds he is expected to make! More details can be found [here]

Which brings me nicely round to the next item... We have had confirmation of a bunch of festival dates over the summer, and are continuing to work on others. These are all up on the website [here], But have added links below for good measure.

Mike's been busy adding "features" to the web site in a section called "anthology", amongst which I am proud to unveil :-

"Mr Neddy's Aural Audience Chamber"

More details on the updates can be found [here]

Finally for all those of you out there, who never had the opportunity, or had worn out your original copy, we have re-pressed the studio albums in the back catalog.
Cracking Leather Skin and Bone, and Dragons Milk and Coal are now available through the amazon shop, at the gigs from the merchandise stall, and also from other reputable outlets. These are also the places to purchase the other albums - Ten Leagues beyond the Wild Worlds End, Skyclad, and of course the DVD Live at Saul

Stay healthy - Eat Organic Hay!

Neddy

Forthcoming Shows

May

• 11th - The Flowerpot -Derby http://www.rawpromo.co.uk/


• 27th - Mayfest - Buntingford - Herts http://www.mayfest.org.uk/bands.html

July

• 13th - Spratton Festival - Northants

August

• 11th - Farmer Phils Festival - Shropshire


• 23rd - Peterborough Beer Festival (Thursday night)

September

• 22nd - Salisbury Festival

December - The Xmas Bashes

• 14th - The Flowerpot - Derby


• 15th - The Railway - Winchester


• 16th - The Robin - Bilston - Wolverhampton

Bluehorses February Feedback

Greetings horseheadz!

It's all go at bluehorse towers right now, as the band knuckle down to some serious songwriting and recording in preparation for the new album. - as you may have noticed :o) it'll be the first full album from the worlds hottest celtic rock band in over 6 years and all that pent up creative energy is leading to some very exciting new stuff!

"Pushing the boundaries and looking for ways to progress the bands music, as ever, while still maintaining the good time roll and roll outlook you know and love"

The guys have a stack of new sounds, but have also been looking back at some of the very early pre 'cracking leather' bh material with a view to getting back some of the medieval toons and instruments back into the set. This was always a mainstay of the bands live show and it's taken them 10 years to notice it's not there any more. bloody musicians, wot they on then eh??!

So, more than ever in keeping with the

"very 'eavy, (yet) very 'orses"

theme, it'll no doubt be the most storming and genuinely bluehorses album ever!


There's not even a hint of the release date (one learns!)... but rest assured, you'll be the first to know (after me of course) :o)

So that's it for this time, however before I go, just got to mention all the new features on the website. Mike's been very busy writing blogs and diaries, and editing videos from live shows - including montreux jazz fest 2006 - that you can't see anywhere else... I'll leave Mike to fill you in on all the details where you can find all this lovely stuff - its a bit "techno" but he can't help it!


your friend... ned





You may have noticed that over the past few months we have been linking to a number of other sources of information on Bluehorses from both this newsletter and, more interestingly, the main website. I thought that it was about time we summarised what these various delights were and what they help us with.

If you think there are other places we should have a representation, or a technology we should be utilising then please get in touch, we are always looking for new ways to spread the word. In a similar vein, if you want to help in anyway, Andy is always looking for volunteers. this could range from mentioning the band on a few of your favorite forums to putting up a poster or two.


MySpace ... Over the last one to two years MySpace has become almost the replacement to a standard website for a lot of bands, it is certainly the first place any newly formed unit will start their awareness campaign. Bluehorses has had a page - http://myspace.com/bluehorsesrock on their site for nearly a year and has been a valuable way of augmenting the main web site. If you have your own page please connect to us as a friend if you have not already done so, you could even have one of the audio tracks playing on your page.

YouTube ... In a similar way that MySpace has taken off as a music directory, YouTube has rapidly become a fantastic resource for video clips. There are a number of Bluehorses clips available on YouTube - http://Youtube.com/bluehorses and there is a simple way to "embed" these in other websites .. the Main Bluehorses web site front page has an example of this.

Gallery ... Andy has been collating a whole heap of pictures from over the years - they are mainly from gigs, but there are some from "behind the scenes" and "on the road". - http://bluehorses.paganhost.co.uk/ . If you would like to add any to the collection (full recognition will be given) then he will be only too happy to hear from you.

Blogs ... Another strange Internet phenomenon. Basically just a neat way to write a page with some formatting. We have been using this to collate a magazine format for this newsletter - as well as the news bulletins - http://horsenewz.blogspot.com/ and gig/ tour reviews and diaries - http://horsetailz.blogspot.com/, http://horsezine.blogpot.com/ . the great thing about these, apart from the magazine format, is that they can all be tied into RSS readers, so you can choose to add them into your news feeds and get the new articles as soon as they are published

Horseheadz Forums - This is an area for fans and the like to discuss things and to ask questions of the band. Like a whole host of other similar services, we reached a point late last year where the site was being overrun with Spam and adverts for a number of un-savoury things. However since clamping down on the registration process and reviewing all applicants prior to letting them post on the forums, we have managed to thwart all attempts since.

Bluehorses January newsletter

Happy New Year to you all .....

........ as 2006 has drawn to a close, and we are all stood around the stables thinking about working off those Xmas excesses, one of the less taxing activities was to tidy up the archives... So what did happen in 2006? (as I write this, it does seem more than I remember)



The band played a number of venues that had been missed for a couple of years -

• The Wharf in Tavistock started the ball rolling - really this could almost have been an extension to the Xmas bashes.


• The newly refurbished Robin2 in Bilston - twice, and although Sunday night is not every-one's favorite, the turn out was impressive on each occasion.


• The Brooke in Southampton - nice place, with excellent sound.

The festival circuit was also a voyage to pastures new as well as some familiar. The highlight for most was playing 2 nights at the prestigious Montreux Jazz festival. (don't be fooled by the Jazz bit, there is a fair amount of Rock and a streak of Celtic). We must have been doing some thing right as we were cleared out of CDs during the first show. Farmer Phil's also provided some excellent amusement with his circular (ex milking parlour) stage - Andy started writing some interesting diaries from these times, so for more about the festivals, and a round up of the 2006 shows see here



Again there were 2 Xmas bashes, and the theme this year - Black beauty and the beast of mac goth, gave just the excuse for all the male members of the band and crew to dress in Kilts (black of course). Pictures are available for the right price!! or just go to the new gallery.





The band made 2 exclusive radio shows, the first for ARfm was more of an extended interview with some tracks, the second for Radio Caroline was a concert recorded especially for the Rob Leighton show.

The DVD finally got released. We are very proud of this production which stand up to critical acclaim. David Wheeler was again (he also directed the Live Video) at the controls. Purchase it here



The band created pages on Myspace, and YouTube, and a number of blogs on blogspot. At the same time we revamped the mechandise pages and also added the DVD and CDs to Amazon.com. Additionally we added discography and lyricon pages to the main website, and Andy created a huge new gallery, including a load of photos never seen in public before!



The sad news of the year was the departure of Nathan, and whilst the search is on for a replacement Rob Khoo is currently helping out.


And so for the rest of 2007;

amongst other things ....

• We are currently sorting out the gig schedule and there are lots of fests/shows in the pipeline from may onward
• Working on the elusive new album.
• Continuing to audition for a permanent replacement for Nathan