Tuesday 6 December 2011

Cereal Nights

So, lately I've been eating a lot of cereal.

Mainly because it's easy, and if you look hard enough, you can usually get a packet for about a quid. Tonight I'm eating Honey Waffles.
I'm pretty lazy in the kitchen. I can't cook very well because the "if at first you don't succeed" motto has never worked for me when food happens.
In fact, the only thing that I can create with regular success is bread. I'm probably more proud of that than most people would be.

I just got in from a great jazz gig which I almost missed, in Maida Vale. Nat Steele, Leon Greening, Luke Steele and Steve Brown playing bop in a venue which is slightly too trendy for the clientele that descend on a jazz gig. Maybe it was quirky once. The best quirky venues with old signs and rusty lanterns and grizzled barmen who haven't left for years eventually all get bought out and turned into gastro-pubs. Apparently that's happening with Positively 4th St too now.

I almost missed it because I'm still getting my sleep cycle back to normal after Tankus the Henge played Kingston on Thursday, then I drove us to Pembrokeshire, arrived at 6am, and went to sleep. Because we got up in the afternoon, played the gig, stayed up most of the night and then drove back to London, my body clock has gone awry. So tonight I woke up at 8pm, which is when the gig was starting, and jumped on the next train.

Still, it was a great gig and a regular Monday night gig (The Elgin, Maida Vale - 8pm).

A dude called Adam was going on to Ronnie's to play bass in a late night set there. Normally I would have gone along to that as well but I'm playing the piano tomorrow morning in Stockwell for someone's show and I haven't learnt any of the songs yet. I figured I should know the tunes if I want the guy to pay me.

I need that at the moment. I think if I hadn't found this cereal for the price it was, and gone with a more flamboyant one, I would be walking to Stockwell tomorrow.

Jaz

Thursday 22 September 2011

You dance, therefore we are!

Step right up, ladies and gents... I have to say something.

Thanks very much for coming along to our shows this year in muddy fields, sunny afternoons and torrential downpours where you maybe just stumbled on our show to get out of the rain.

We've had a quality summer, thanks to you, the audience, and the festival crews we've met for the last few months! As a thank-you, we're playing a completely free gig on the 30th of September at the Elgin, in Ladbroke Grove. Details, click here

We won't forget the chaos of playing at Glastonbury, in Shangri La in the middle of the night, and the expanded Fluffy Rock Cafe, at Croissant Neuf with limited electricity but no shortage of enthusiasm from the crowd, Jelly Festival where the entire safety barrier made of hay got destroyed and thrown into the air, Willowman which ended up in us having to travel the 250 miles home on the back of a recovery truck.
Then there's the circus show at Kingston's IYAF, and the three mental gigs at Bestival, which is probably my personal favourite.

I know that a lot of you want albums and we have had none. This is beyond our control, and will be remedied soon!
In the meantime, please don't forget that the only way to experience TANKUS THE HENGE is to come and see the show live.

Please tell your friends and enemies too; word of mouth works wonders!

Accept NO imitation, (although if there is one, I'd love to see it)
Please share us with your friends on facebook and join our mailing list (you get a free song) at the bottom of this post.

In the meantime, there's a lot of love here for you, but you still can't take us home to meet yer mum.

Thanks!

Tuesday 6 September 2011

RIP Christine, the original Tankus the Henge transit van.

It's with a heavy heart that we pass on the news that Christine, our original transit van for many gigs and many, many miles, has been crushed. We stopped driving her when we grew in number, and it seems she just never recovered from that.
Let's raise a glass to Christine, one of the most recognisable band vans around. We have gone into the time vaults and found some pictures of her with us, in various different adventures and paint jobs.






Monday 5 September 2011

September shows.


follow @tankusthehenge on twitter for up to date changes.

Bestival!
Thursday 8th September. On the Bandstand, 7pm.
Friday 9th September. In the Polka Tent. 11pm
Sold out.

Ascot.
Wednesday 14th September. Jagz. (with support from Luke Roberts)
01344878100 for tickets.

Maidenhead.
Friday 16th September. The Hobgoblin. 9pm.
Tickets on door.

London.
FREE SHOW.
Friday 30th September. The Elgin. Ladbroke Grove tube. 8pm.

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Cassiopeia and the Caterpillar

Once upon a time, a girl was leaving her house to visit her dear old granny. Her granny was very, very old; much older than anyone could remember, and moved about with the aid of a wooden caterpillar three times the size of her. The caterpillar was charmed and was very heavy but got Granny where she needed to go. At night, passers by could observe the silhouette of Granny moving around the house by the light of a flickering hurricane lantern (gas was all she swore by) and the sound of the caterpillar's eighteen legs on the creaking floorboards.
The sun was still in the sky when the girl, whose name was
Cassiopeia, set off to see Granny. The climate where she lived was mild and boring, and the neighbours rarely spoke to eachother, for fear of causing offence with conflicting views and the consequences thereafter. There were no barbeques, street parties or wild drunken tango nights, like in Lewisham, because no-one had any friends. Once a year they got together on the hill just outside the town to burn one of the witches that passed through. Apart from that, the witches were left alone and so was everyone else.
Cassiopeia was taking her Granny some fresh bread and olives from her garden, as she did every Wednesday. It was agreed, that since
Cassiopeia had killed Granny's cat the year before with diesel and airfix glue, she'd have to go and visit the slimy old hag every week, and endure a whole evenings reprimanding from the top of that awful wooden freak insect.
Cassiopeia rounded the curve at the end of the road leading to Granny's house, and felt the box of matches in her pocket. The curtains were open, and she could see the caterpillar skulking around the kitchen with Granny doing something over the stove. She wandered up to the door in no particular hurry and let herself in.
Granny. She said.
Hello my dear. Leered Granny. Have you bought rancid old olives again from your father's miserable vegetable patch?
Of course. Replied Cassiopeia.

Then she lit a match, put it inside the box and shoved it into the wooden caterpillars mouth which looked at her with dead unseeing eyes, and as it exploded into flames she ran out of the door, locking it from the outside.

As the thatched roof blazed, Cassiopeia sat on the hill and ate all the olives and the bread, thinking of what she was going to tell the king.

Postcards from Glastonbury Festival 2011



















Photographs by Roxi Kiley

Sunday 19 June 2011

Willowman Festival

After our 250 mile journey this morning to Northallerton for the charming Willowman festival, we pulled onto the ground in a cloud of smoke, exhaust and black coming out of the front instead of the back.

Then we played our show to a crackin' audience who danced for us in the overcast afternoon, (thanks boys and girls!) and then scrounged some free food before checking out the rest of the festival.

After the wonderful Rik deduced the problem, I called the AA and asked for a mend. When he came, he declared in his northern drawl, "ye'd be mad t' drive home in'at...you'll be gassed like."

So, we had to make the decision whether to put our beloved van on a truck for an 8 hour trip tomorrow morning...or tonight. There's more music to play tomorrow so we HAVE to get back.
We're taking our tents down... Slightly disgruntled as neither Tim or me have slept in our new tents yet! Tim hasn't got a clue how to pack his tent up, so I think (and bear in mind it's pouring with rain) he's actually putting it in the van as it is.

Blimey. Not looking forward to this drive home.
Good job the temporary citizens of Willowman are accommodating and enthusiastic! BlogBooster-The most productive way for mobile blogging. BlogBooster is a multi-service blog editor for iPhone, Android, WebOs and your desktop

Saturday 18 June 2011

Beans, sweet tea and tinnitus

So we're awake at ridiculous hour (6am) which some people do every day to go down the mine. Our mission today is get to Willowman festival - about 250 miles away, before we play at 3pm...if you're going!

Louis bought a new waistcoat but he got it from Shanghai and it's stuck in customs... Bad times!

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Wednesday 15 June 2011

Festivals are coming...return of the blog!

So... we're about to play some more shows in muddy fields with the weather joining in and thousands of mad party people who are all trying to forget that their gas bill is due on Monday.

I personally can't wait, I love festivals. Always have done. I love how cleanliness goes flying out of the window and the sight of one last tin of macaroni cheese can make you jump for joy.
This year we're playing Willowman, Glastonbury, Extalgic, Hop Farm, Croissant Neuf and Bestival.

At the moment I'm sitting in my kitchen musing on whether I should empty the contents of my under-the-stairs cupboard into the corridor to look for my wellies now, or after I've had some beans on toast.

Yes, with me, my normal life diet is pretty much the same as my festival diet.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

After major contributions to and playing countless shows in the UK, France and Albania and on our new album in America, and being a founder member of the band, Chris Owen has departed from Tankus the Henge. He is an amazing musician and has helped shape the band to what it is now. We have had many great, mad adventures with him and he is a true friend with an incredible family who let us write many of our songs in their barn! We all wish him the very best.

Stepping into Chris's footprints is the ex-circus guitarist Tim Fulker. After running away with a circus in India when he was eleven, he learnt the ropes and how to roller-skate and stiltwalk before moving to Wales to be a hermit. When we came a calling he renounced his hermit lifestyle to play the guitar very, very loudly. Our show at the Dublin Castle will be his first one with us. Don't miss it.


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