Loft Tickets Now Available

Tickets for Sunday's gig supporting Middleman at The Loft, Xscape, Castleford are now available. Priced at only £3, they can be obtained by emailing theridings.band@gmail.com with the quantity you need and we'll bring them to you.

The Ridings

Futuresound Competition

Unfortunately we didn't win a spot at Leeds and Reading. 44 bands entered with 6 places on offer. Congratulations to The Coopers, who won overall, as well as the other 5 bands who won places on the BBC Introducing stages.

There's always next year!

thecockpit.co.uk

We're Sorry About This

We really are.
But, to celebrate Will's new job as an ice cream man, we present to you:

He's got a point.
'99 with a flake?

Oh ah.

Futuresound Photos

Photos from the Futuresound Competition Heat 1 at The Cockpit, Leeds can now be found HERE, courtesy of Good Cat Collective.

   

goodcat.co.uk

New Lyrics Page

The lyrics to all songs on Morv is Innocent are now available at our new lyrics page. Lyrics to songs from both before and after the album will be available soon!

The Ridings

Good Cat Acoustic Session

Following on from the interview with the Good Cat Collective last week, Kris and Danny played a couple of tunes acoustically - Because of the Fear and Tell Me if I Go, You'll Go.





Thanks to Chris and Tom at Good Cat!

Will's Wacky Worldly Wonderment

Some say it's been too long. Many others say it's not been anywhere near long enough.
Most say "what?"

Will Groves says:

Isn't that great everybody?

Futuresound Competition 2011

Thank you to all those that came tonight to support us and the other bands that were on. Fingers crossed for the results in mid-July and best of luck to all the other bands (but not too much luck obviously).

The competition takes place over 11 heats, with a total of 44 bands taking part. The band voted best by the audience and judges will win a slot on the Festival Republic stage at both Leeds and Reading festivals this year. 5 runner-up bands will win slots on the BBC introducing stage.

We played the best we could and would really like to win, it'd be lovely.

The Ridings

Good Cat Interview

Below is Kris and Danny's interview with Chris from the Good Cat Collective, talking about the upcoming (TOMORROW!) Futuresound Competition at The Cockpit Leeds.


The Ridings Interview from Good Cat Leeds on Vimeo.

goodcat.co.uk

Tickets for the Futuresound competition are £4. Send an email with the quantity you require to theridings.band@gmail.com and your tickets will be waiting for you at the venue!

Gig Tonight at The Hop, Wakefield

The band are on at 9pm, get yourselves down for an all-round swingin' good time.

Gigs at Short Notice

Apologies for the late notice, got a few gigs coming up in the next week.

TOMORROW: Friday 24th June: The Hop, Wakefield
Get down around half 8 for a great night of live music.

Next week: Wednesday 29th June: The Cockpit, Leeds
This is a Futuresound competition to win a slot at Leeds Festival 2011! Any support will be greatly appreciated. Tickets for this event are only £4. To buy, send an email titled "Futuresound Tickets" to theridings.band@gmail.com.

Please come down and cheer us on!

The Ridings x

Demos Today, Gig Tomorrow

Today was spent recording demo versions of 3 new tunes, videos for which should be appearing in the next week or so.

Tomorrow night is the gig supporting Bez and Total Stone Roses, at Black Flag, Wakefield. Should be an awesome night. For tickets, send an email to theridings.band@gmail.com and avoid paying a booking fee! Just state the quantity you want and we'll get them to you before the gig. Price is £5.

Doors are at 8pm and the band are on at 9:30. Come down for another great Wakefield gig!

Ridings TV - April Update

YOUTUBE

WILL'S WEEKLY FACTOID

In anticipation of tomorrow's video update, we present to you our new feature - WILL'S WEEKLY FACTOID.

This week not so much a factoid as it is a general wonderment, but still wholesome and enjoyable.

The Ridings x

Through to the Final!

After playing a stand-out set last night at The Royal Park, Leeds, the band have advanced to the final of the BotB competition in support of Heart Research UK. Details of the final will be posted soon.

I'm Sick of all the Lies - Video

The demo version of new tune I'm Sick of all the Lies is now up on YouTube with a video of footage shot throughout March 2011.

Watch it HERE or in the player below

Gig Details: Live Wire, Sheffield 07/04

Full details for the Sheffield Student Union gig next Thursday have been announced. The gig is free entry and open to non-students, 18+. Doors are at 10, the band will be on at about 10:30, followed by Sheffield locals Two Skies and then an indie club night to see you through to the wee hours.

Get yourselves down to the Raynor Lounge (by Bar One) and give the new bassist a big welcome, enjoy some reasonably priced booze and have a good old fashioned boogie.

New Gig Dates

We have some gigs booked around Yorkshire for the next month or so.

• 7th April - Live Wire, Student's Union, Sheffield
  Free Entry!
• 11th April - Battle of the Bands, The Royal Park, Leeds
  £3 on the door.
• 23rd April - Supporting Bez, Black Flag, Wakefield
  http://www.seetickets.com/Event/BEZ/Black-Flag-Venue/536986 
• 6th May - The Plug, Sheffield
  http://www.the-plug.com/events-and-tickets/live/soundclash-presents-tarka-dawn
• 24th June - The Hop, Wakefield

If you're able, get your tickets and get down! If you're not able, rearrange your plans and come anyway! These will be the first gigs with new bassist Will Groves.

For more info on any of these dates, or for tickets without a booking fee, email theridings.band@gmail.com

A Change of Bass

After appreciable consideration Dan Curtis has decided to leave The Ridings, due to other commitments leading to a lack of time. Will Groves, formerly of The Antix, has stepped in to take his place. Plans for the remainder of the year are, on the whole, unaffected and we still aim to release an EP over the coming months.

We're currently working on some new tunes and rehearsing the old ones for a few gigs we have lined up over the next few weeks, details to follow. Come down to one and give Will a warm welcome!

Apologies for the Delay

One or two concerns both inside and outside of the band have kept us too busy recently to be able to write up a blog post. Needless to say we seem to be coming out of the other side of the tunnel now, and hopefully it wont be too long before we can share a few more details about what's been going on, and what we're planning on for the not too distant future.

Expect a few new gig dates to be announced, some recent news and insight, and some erudition on some new tunes on their way. Our year plans have changed slightly but you can still expect a new EP, that's not far off, we just want to fine tune it a little more.

Thank you for your patience

The Ridings

New Tunes on the way!

We spent most of last night in Hopetown Liberal WMC in Normanton with Morv's beefy computer, a ton of microphones and two songs in need of recording. We've got some nice (but very rough) demo versions of I'm Sick of all the Lies and Because of the Fear recorded in anticipation of a single release coming pretty soon and we're all excited with what we've got together so far. The songs are sounding great, a bit of a bigger sound than most of Morv is Innocent, more akin to Desperados and that sort of a theme. I think you'll like it.

We've got a few gigs booked and some more dates to be announced pretty soon, there'll be more on that in a few days or so. As for the single recording, we've scouted a few studios that we aim to visit over the next few weeks and then we'll decide which one to go for. We'll be tracking more demo versions next week, and if you're lucky we might even post a sneaky preview somewhere. Stay tuned!

Danny

x

New Ridings TV!

Our youtube channel has been quiet for a while and we've amassed a decent backlog of video content to upload. Over the next few days you can expect a good number of videos to appear from the Morv is Innocent launch party back in June last year. Yeah, June last year. We'll try not to leave it that long again, I promise.

Anyway, check out Ridings TV for launch party footage, live versions of tunes and some new music videos, as well as the tour and studio diary stuff that was there before.

Tell your friends!

Danny
x

Looking Forward to 2011

With such a great 12 months behind us it's only natural we start planning for an even bigger and better year ahead. We've got a lot of new and exciting stuff coming up in the next few months so we thought we'd give you a quick teaser of what's coming and when you can expect to see it.

First off is a cheeky little single release that should be out within the first half of the year. The full tracklisting is as yet undecided, but you can expect it to include the as yet unrecorded tune I'm Sick of all the Lies, and our newest song Because of the Fear. We're still planning our studio dates at the moment, but updates will be posted here as they occur.

Plans moving on from this are a little more loose, but you can look forward to another launch party to release the single in the early Summer. Specific dates and the venue, as well as ticket prices, will be updated nearer the time, but for now try to keep your calendars open ;). We're also roughing out some dates for another UK tour in the Summer or early Autumn. We'll be travelling to some similar places to last year's tour, but expect bigger venues and (hopefully) even bigger crowds this time!

We've never stopped practising and writing and there'll be no break in that tradition moving into 2011. We've already got a few tunes coming along that you might be able to get a taste of shortly, and hopefully soon we'll have enough to start thinking about album two.

All the best for 2011,

The Ridings
x

Reflecting on 2010

Happy New Year! 2010 was a great year in camp Ridings, the best yet! It all kicked off in January with the completion of the recording of our album, Morv is Innocent, followed by a celebratory tour of the country. We spent a week on the road, playing a bunch of major cities. Newcastle and Leeds were highlights, with the Leeds Cockpit gig the biggest we'd played, to a sold out Room 3 crowd.

Next on the agenda, as well as a few more gigs here and there, was our first live radio appearance with Alan Raw at BBC Radio Humberside. We played 3 tracks from Morv is Innocent: Desperados, Dutty Feef, and No-ones Looking, followed by a short interview with Kris and Morv.

Following this, plans for an album launch party were set in motion. Taking place in the summer, with a fresh new backdrop and intro music, with a couple of new tunes thrown in for good measure, we were greeted by a fantastic atmosphere from the sold out Cockpit Room 2 crowd. The night was like one massive party for us, it's a night none of us will ever forget.

The album launch attracted some interest from a local music venue, Black Flag in Wakefield. Ultimately, this helped us to round out 2010 with a gig there in support of one of our all time favourite bands, The Sunshine Underground. After some heavy practice following a few months off (our first break in 3 and a half years!), we played a well polished set to our biggest audience to date. The set closed with our newest tune, Because of the Fear. We spent the rest of the night enjoying perhaps the most underrated band of the last decade and getting very merry. A great way to cap off a great year!

Thanks to everyone who's been to see us this year, and all those who've bought the album, especially those who've told friends about it. Again, 2010 has been a proud year for The Ridings, and we can only hope and plan for more in 2011!

Kris, Danny, Morv and Curtis x

Special thanks for 2010:

Jonathan Armstead and Bluestone Design.

Steve Eaton, our patient and tolerant sound engineer.

Stuart, our even more patient and tolerant tour bus driver.

Alan Raw and everyone and BBC Radio Humberside.

Everyone at The Cockpit and Futuresound, Leeds.

Terry and everyone at The Black Bull, Castleford and Black Flag, Wakefield.

The Sunshine Underground and their road crew.
Will Groves and everyone at Ark Magazine.

Stu and everyone at Ozzyrock Studios.

Rob and everyone at Lazy Dog studios.