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December 27, 2007
No shortage of other Franklin news bubbling beneath the surface: work on both a new solo album and a full length Setting Suns album should begin during the early months of 2008. We also hope to have more information on the upcoming Swervedriver tour for you very soon... Stay tuned.
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February 20, 2007
"The new album Bolts of Melody will see the light of day as an Adam Franklin album for the first time. The Toshack Highway moniker seems too unwieldy for a number of reasons - people never remember the name for starters (or pronounce it incorrectly!) and it's just easier for people to remember my own name anyway. Also the album is much more song/guitar driven, and to me Toshack is more this instrumental / keyboardy thing, so actually the Toshack name might re-appear at some point with music more in that original vein, but for the time being AF it is..
The album will feature the recent Syd's Eyes single and Birdsong (Moonshiner Version), which were previously only available as Black Mountain seven inch and Shifty Disco download-only release respectively, as those tracks should be made more widely available. The cover of Wolf Parade's Shine A Light that was posted at www.myspace.com/toshackhighway will also be on the album due to a certain amount of public demand - the lyric about "waiting for something that'll never arrive" seemed particularly appropriate due to this album taking so long to get released! The album should get released in the US/North America May/June time and there will be full band dates with the Bolts of Melody band in the US around that time. We're still finalising European release schedules..
In the meantime people can check out my new Setting Suns collaboration with Sam Fogarino from Interpol at www.myspace.com/thesettingsuns. Me and Sam have been knocking out a few ideas in recent months and will continue to do so in between doing our other stuff - Interpol have reached the mixing stage for their new album I believe and Sam will then embark on an endless touring schedule but we'll take that project out on the road at some stage in the future. People should also check out The Still Out at www.myspace.com/thestillout which is a new band featuring Josh Stoddard who will be playing bass for Bolts of Melody, and Arjun Agerwala who recorded the drums for Syd's Eyes. I've also contributed some guitars and vocals for this project. And hey, why not also check out Rol Jui at www.myspace.com/roljui featuring Locksley Taylor from Sianspheric and Dean Williams who of course played on/recorded Bolts of Melody. Ley will also be touring Bolts of Melody..
And lastly, Sophia plays Holland and Belgium next week and will be touring Scandinavia and Italy in April/May and is sounding pretty rocking - Will, Jeff and Robin made up the rest of Toshack Highway when we toured the Orange Album in Europe in 2000 and the band has aged like a fine wine! ...well, it's certainly aged... So come and check out the band if we're close by at all and have some More Wine..." -
January 15, 2007
More of Adam touring with Sophia to begin 2007:
01.15.07 Zakk, Düsseldorf (DE)
01.16.07 Karlstorbahnhof, Heidelberg (DE)
01.17.07 Substage, Karlsruhe (DE)
01.18.07 Manufaktur, Schorndorf (DE)
01.19.07 E-Werk, Erlangen (DE)
01.20.07 FM4 Fest, Arena, Wien (AT)
01.21.07 Rockhouse, Salzburg (AT)
01.23.07 Feierwerk, München (DE)
01.24.07 Alte Mälzerei, Regensburg (DE)
01.25.07 Conne Island, Leipzig (DE)
01.26.07 Fritzclub im Postbahnhof, Berlin (DE)
01.27.07 Café Glocksee, Hannover (DE)
01.29.07 Uebel & Gefährlich, Hamburg (DE)
01.30.07 Kulturzentrum Lagerhaus, Bremen (DE)
01.31.07 Forum, Bielefeld (DE)
02.01.07 FZW, Dortmund (DE)
02.02.07 Kulturkirche, Köln (DE)
02.04.07 Gleis 22, Münster (DE)
02.05.07 Mousonturm, Frankfurt (DE)
02.06.07 Roxy, Saarbrücken (DE)
02.16.07 La Route du Rock Festival, Saint-Malo (FR)
02.18.07 Pumpehuset, Copenhagen (DK)
02.21.07 Grand Manège, Namur (BE)
02.22.07 Vera, Groningen (NL)
02.23.07 Paard Van Troje, De Haag (NL)
02.24.07 Muziekodroom, Hasselt (BE)
02.25.07 Effenaar, Eindhoven (NL) Look for some Toshack news to follow this jaunt. -
November 13, 2006
Adam Franklin will be performing with Sophia during their upcoming November and December tour dates:
11.17.06 Maria am Ufer, Berlin (DE)
11.18.06 Gebäude 9, Köln (DE)
11.24.06 Uebel & Gefährlich, Hamburg (DE)
11.25.06 Star Club, Dresden (DE)
11.26.06 Club Schocken, Stuttgart (DE)
11.27.06 Backstage München (DE)
12.09.06 Melkweg, Amsterdam (NL)
12.10.06 Vooruit, Gent (BE)
12.11.06 Botanique, Brussels (BE)
12.12.06 Rockhal, Esch-sur-Alzette (LU)
12.13.06 Fri-Son, Fribourg (CH)
12.14.06 Abart Club, Zurich (CH) -
August 21, 2006
Toshack Highway live:
09.27.06 E-Bar, Guelph ON
09.28.06 The Casbah, Hamilton ON
09.29.06 El Mocambo, Toronto ON
09.30.06 The Drake Hotel, Toronto ON (Adam solo)
Arthur, rest in peace. July 22, 2006
Toshack Highway's curious relationship with Canada continues as more shows are being planned for Toronto and surrounding area for late September. To compliment these northern shows, the good people at Black Mountain Music are set to release a Toshack Highway 7" (Syd's Eyes / Silver Freight Train). More details soon.
Check out the latest Toshack Highway myspace tracks; Seize The Day, from the soon to be released Bolts of Melody. LSD Baroque, a laid-back alternate version off the Bird Song EP. A fantastic interpretation of Wolf Parade's Shine A Light. And Curtis Knight's Gloomy Monday by way of Jimi Hendrix. Syd, rest in peace.Check out the latest Toshack Highway myspace tracks; Seize The Day, from the soon to be released Bolts of Melody. LSD Baroque, a laid-back alternate version off the Bird Song EP. A fantastic interpretation of Wolf Parade's Shine A Light. And Curtis Knight's Gloomy Monday by way of Jimi Hendrix.
Syd, rest in peace.April 24, 2006
"Bespoke Gallery is pleased to present Soundtrack to Nothing, a series of black and white and color photographs by Christy Bush. A reception will be held on Thursday, April 27th from 6 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. This is Christy Bush's first solo exhibit at Bespoke Gallery. In Soundtrack to Nothing, Christy Bush's photographs document contemporary teenage music fans attending rock concerts (Interpol, The Others, Elefant and The Secret Machines) in various cities across the United States, Europe and Australia. The subjects of Bush's photographs, shot extemporaneously in diverse concert-venue locations -- lobbies, lavatories, backstage, in the audience -- are decidedly unabashed and devoid of self-consciousness... The audio track playing in conjunction with Soundtrack to Nothing comprises a number of songs written for the exhibit by The Last Night (Sam Fog of Interpol and Dagon James, in collaboration with guest musicians Adam Franklin of Toshack Highway and Swervedriver, Grasshopper of Mercury Rev, and Michael Stipe)"
Soundtrack to Nothing by Christy Bush runs from April 27th to May 27th, 2006.April 8, 2006
Well many thanks to those who showed up for the show in Austin, Texas. Chaos ruled supreme as is mostly to be experienced at SXSW so it seems...
February 9, 2006
This Friday sees Toshack Highway teaming up with Oxford based label Shifty Disco to release a downloadable MP3 EP called Birdsong EP, with two tracks being available for 99p this coming Friday Feb 10th and two more (plus downloadable artwork) for another 99p next Friday Feb 17th. Go here to get involved. The Shifty Disco Download Singles Club pumps out weekly releases each and every Friday throughout the year, a 12-month subscription comes in at only £12. The EP features four different versions of two songs to be featured on the latest Toshack Highway album Bolts of Melody to be released later in the year. This Friday's download is Birdsong (album version) and Theme From LSD (live version), the latter recorded with full band in Toronto on Nov 12th last year. The following Friday will be Birdsong (moonshiner version) a stripped down folk-sounding rendition and Theme From LSD (baroque version) a film score-like home studio interpretation.
Says Adam Franklin, ex of Swervedriver and the main man behind Toshack: "It's quite a cool thing doing a downloads only release because the whole thing has such a quick turnaround. "Dave Newton (Ride's manager who also runs Shifty Disco) heard the new Toshack Highway album and suggested putting a track up at Shifty Disco. "I said Why not, and when Dave said the track he wanted to use was Birdsong it reminded me that I had intended to record a slowed down solo version of that song. "Then the idea of expanding this to an EP release sprang up as we had these versions of Theme From LSD lying around as well. "But what makes it really like a 45 release from the 60s is that we're still finishing off the 'baroque version' of LSD - Ley Taylor and his brother Mike up in Toronto are putting a few finishing touches to it, piano and stuff. So we'll finish off the track and it'll be released within the week."