+ Sky Larkin +

HAPPY NEW YEAR

As we welcome ten we owe nine a few words.

(ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE BE WARNED: THIS IS A REALLY LONG BLOG…BUT A YEAR IS A LONG TIME)

We realise that today is the 20th of January and more organised types write these things in November, but we’ve been busy for a good reason. Trust.
But we couldn’t just leave things unwritten as thanks to many people, we did a lot of living last year.
Thanks to everyone that invested in us in whatever capacity, it’s been a pleasure to recall the countless way we’ve met kindness this year.

Additionally we’d also like to extend non-thanks to
- Katie’s wisdom teeth.
- An RV rental company that doesn’t accept cash and left us stranded (you fuckers).
-The Noro Virus (that was 2008 but we’re still bitter about it).
-That guy in Edinburgh.
-Traffic.

But I must stress they were all tiny little flies in the ointment at best.
We’ve selected a few choice cuts of 2009, in no logical order. Here goes…

- Firstly, foremostly and most shit-our-pants excitedly; our debut album was released on Wichita Recordings. We had a party at the ever-awesome Brudenell Social Club in Leeds to celebrate.

- Huw Stephens put his name to our album release UK tour, with support by the ever-able party-equines Pulled Apart By Horses.

- We went on our first headline tour of Europe, taking pals Johnny Foreigner along for the ride.

- Our hire van broke down 90mins into said tour.

- We went to IKEA in actual Sweden and had actual Swedish (well, IKEA) meatballs.

- We ran out of gas in the desert in Utah and got saved by a Mormon called Phil

- We saw a man poo in the street in Oslo. Later that night a man asked if he could watch Nestor pee.

- We hid from Hells Angels in Copenhagen with Metronomy.

- We kept the habit of a lifetime and went on tour with Los Campesinos for the fourth time (around North America).

- We accidentally found the most powerful t-shirt shop ever in Aldershot, UK.

-We played the largest UK venue in Larkin gig history, Brixton Academy supporting The Cribs.

-A man in New York paid Katie $20 to play the saddest song she knew.

-We kept the habit of a lifetime and went on tour with Los Campesinos! for the fifth time (around the UK with The Cribs, and for one night only, The Slits).

-We played glow in the dark mini golf near Niagara Falls. Oh and we saw Niagara Falls.

-Nestor broke a cymbal clean in half in the pouring rain at Latitude Festival.

-We started a new habit and went on tour around North America with Peggy Sue (now official label mates).

-Our American tour manager Ben drank every brand of energy drink under the sun, including a Californian one formulated for women called “Go Girl!”

-Christoph in Germany made a Lego version of our album cover!

-We met Adam Buxton AND Newton Faulkner AT THE SAME TIME.

-We squatted in the corridor of a hostel in New York for about 14 hours when we got screwed by an RV rental company. With all our gear.

-We played with Los Campesinos! in Portland on Katie’s birthday and went to a vintage video games arcade bar afterwards, pleasingly called ‘Barcade”.

- We lost our dignity at a Nu-metal clubnight in Aberdeen with Copy Haho.

- We visited the real life Golden Spike in Utah. Ranger Ken, the gift shop lady and us were the only people for miles around.

- Inbetween touring, in order to make new noise we took up residency to in the crypt of a Victorian church in Yorkshire (the church is mentioned in a Bronte novel apparently, literature detectives.)

-We went to LA, home of the beautiful people, and got very muddy. (This is a bucket of Hollywood grade mud.)

-We hung out with Nardwuar the Human Serviette in vancouverbritishcolumbiacanada thanks to twitter!

-We drove (and just about survived) the beautiful highway 101 with Peggy Sue. Only 1/3 of us was sick down the side of the RV on the windy roads.

-We stopped off along the 101 to hang out with these seals.

-We played the zombified cast of ER for Halloween in Chicago with Peggy Sue

-We completed the triple crown at La Botanique in Belgium when we headlined the small room (having played the middle room with Los Campesinos! and the large room with Conor Oberst).

-We played the court house of a small town in Ohio and had to wait for traffic court to finish so we could soundcheck.
Joe and his family in Ohio adopted us, ran our merch stand and fed us superman birthday cake.

-We snuck into a Nintendo party in New York and ate all their tiny food.

-Due to a broken card reader, we got locked outside our hotel in deepest darkest France at early o’clock, the whole time being serenaded by a troupe of Spanish folkers who were also stuck.

-Denise Van Outen and Richard Hammond were outside our gig in Tunbridge Wells (shooting the Morrisons Christmas ad).

-At the end of The Cribs tour we all went to a karaoke bar in Edinburgh, Neil Campesinos! made a convincing Beastie Boy and Gareth Campesinos! sang a Beautiful South song. One of Copy Haho got thrown out.

-We had to drive directly through protesting racists to get to our gig on John Peel day in Manchester. The event was well attended despite the hostile mood of the city that day, thanks again to everyone that made it.

-We recorded a single in a day (the free download ‘Smarts’) in Wales in a room once used by Black Sabbath. Apparently there’s pentagrams drawn on the walls by Ozzy under the soundproofing \m/

- We played a festival on a cliff in Cornwall and got to look out to sea whilst playing. Dreamy.

- Mike of Mechanical Owl drove us around some European festivals and we invented Gin-cendiaries and Rum Grenades. Tasty. Dangerous. (Here is a photo of Mike unable to comprehend the sheer awesome-osity of the Channel Tunnel).

- We played the Wichita showcase at SXSW and Katie threw up.

And at the end of the year, this happened

Ta itunes!

Plus lots and lots and lots and lots of driving.

We ended the year with a New Years Eve gig at Nation of Shopkeepers in Leeds, messy messy good times.

ta very much, there’s more pictures of us in various stages of undress from 2009 at http://myspace.com/skylarkinskylarkin if you need more evidence.

we are lucky sods and hope to have even more fun with you all in 2010.
pretty massive news soon this way comes

Katie, Nestor and Doug

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