The Dials

“Show of the evening” at NXNE

dermot — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:03:31 +0000

We’ve just seen the first review of our show at the NXNE showcase…happily, the reviewer (from Toronto’s Soundproof Magazine) thought we were ‘the show of the night’. Not bad, considering the competition from 200 or other bands that night, including such folk as Money Mark of Beastie Boys fame.

We’ve put live shows on the back burner for a little while as we’re sorting out album number 2, but we’re playing at the excellent What’s Cookin’ on July 5th if you fancy making it along…hope to see you there.

Back From Canada

martin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:12:38 +0000

We’re now over the double jetlag and the lack of Harveys and able to report that we had a great time in Toronto. The gig went well and the band saw some good and not so good acts throughout the NXNE festival. We were especially impressed with the limbless keyboard player outside the chinese laundry who was busking some top Ibiza choons and the lady who was signing a calypso version of “Killing me softly…” into a carrot along Kensington. Less impressive was the “Russianmafiabaronclassicalmetal” outfit we witnessed at the Tattoo Rock Parlour, no-one should be allowed a leather effect harp, ever.

Thanks to the PRS foundation for assisting us with this venture and a big hi to Nitin Sawhney’s crew who we drank under the plane seats on the way over….

Executive producer ‘Mad’ Billy Taylor

dermot — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:11:59 +0000

So we’re back in the studio today…objective: vocal overdubs. All going swimmingly at point of writing, despite the daunting presence of industry legend ‘Mad’ Billy Taylor at the controls (pictured).

We’ve just gotten through some of the rough edits of our first days recording….nice ‘n’ live and sounding super punchy. Next date is later is in mid June (straight in after Canada and live date at Barden’s Boudoir in London …things are getting busy!)

Video Diary Episode 1

andyt — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:44:05 +0000

It’s here! Episode 1 of our recording video diary - highlights include “Wine Club” and “Dermot Clapping”. Pour yourself a plastic beaker of Merlot, sit back and enjoy…

New Album Started

martin — Mon, 19 May 2008 08:40:59 +0000

The group started recording thier new album over the weekend of 17th/18th May. Concentrating on the acoustic songs first the band got six tracks on to tape (oh yes, vintage tape at that!!) at Church Road Studios in Hove with the urbane and bequiffed Paul Beat in charge. The feel was very much relaxed with pedal steel, Vox Continental and 12 String guitars to the fore. To aid with the ambience, a few (!) bottles of the excellent Cabernet Sauvignon from Wolf Blass were administered thus inducting a new feature of Dials life, the Dials Wine Club, keep watching the site for reviews and updates on “what we bin drinking” (mostly Brasso usually…..)

The Dials on CIUT FM

martin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:53:07 +0000

The band have been invited to play live on CIUT FM, Toronto’s college radio Station. The group will have their live session broadcast on the morning of Fri June 13 at 10 am, the same day as the gig at the “C’est What”. Stay tuned to 89.5 FM in Canada or listen at http://www.ciut.fm/

Toronto here we come!

dermot — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:14:52 +0000

I’m happy to say that we’ve been invited to play at NXNE in Toronto, Canada in June. It looks like a great event and seems to have Whispering Bob as patron saint, so that can only be good.

You can find out more about the festival at www.nxne.com. ….and a special prize will go to anyone who makes it for our gig there!

More gear?

dermot — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:35:01 +0000

…yes, afraid I’m a weak man when it comes to guitars. Having long been impressed with my Eastman mandolin, I’ve gotten my hands on an Eastman Semi (805 E to be exact). Wow…what a perfect beast. All solid wood (ebony fingerboard, spruce top). It’s perfect for those Eddie Lang type tones, so expect to hear some on the new album. Now, how does that augmented 13th go again?

Live songs on YouTube

andyt — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:38:38 +0000

At long last we’ve been dragged kicking and screaming into the, erm, 20th century and got ourselves a YouTube account. You can access is by clicking here or on the link in the menu on the left.

There you can find a couple of vintage clips from our performance at the Luminaire in London from summer 2006. This balmy evening is best remembered as the night we drank the Mekons’ rider, asked Jon Langford if he had a day job and accidentally stole his jacket. (All of which he took with the kind of humour only a great man can.)

So, for your entertainment we give the ubiquitous Theme From Dials and the cosmic and somewhat elongated Been Inside Your Mind. Tune in, turn on, drop off.

New songs, new album

martin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:42:49 +0000

The next batch of songs will be recorded for the new album during may, its been fun whittling the material from around 20 new tracks to just ten. The interesting thing is how some tracks just turn up, we have a new as yet unnamed track that just came , fully formed last monday and is a def. for the new record. The older tracks wont be scrapped though, we’re going to leave them for later, hopefully, at least i hope, we’ll do some more recording soon after this albums done and have another ready quite quickly. As the Dial who loves the recording process more than anything else i could happily spend everyday in the studio so the prospect of having lots of tracks that are just begging to be recorded is great.

I think this album will be more direct and simpler in terms of sounds than the last, really its ten tracks of pretty straightforward pop stuff, albeit with our trademark sounds all over it…but some departures from the last one, its less country IMHO, and theres a shortness to the tracks which works well…poptastic in fact…and we are covering new ground, doing stuff we’ve never done before, like more blues based songs….should be fun.