I think deep down, deep deep deeeeep down, the 4 of us all want to play orchestral instruments. So far, our albums have included string quartets, orchestral harps, cathedral pipe organs, brass bands and large scale epic choirs. We even have songs with no guitar at all?! I mean seriously… no guitar? And we have the nerve to call ourselves a rock band!?

Well I suppose that’s just kinda how we like it. We like the sense of theatre and drama that orchestra’s and concert-style bands bring to an album. They help us generate the sombre landscapes and energetic hopeful explosions that we want on our albums. Don’t get us wrong, we love a few rock singles on there too, but only when they sit within a greater body of work. We are ‘albumists’ not ’singleists’ (and when we try to be singleists, it usually comes out very average).

But enough of this muso soapboxing! Onto the real news.

This week, we took our love of brass bits to the stage at the 2010 Q Song Awards. We were asked to play Bring on the Colour Guard at the awards night, so we thought we should really bring it on. Nick got on the blower and got the 26 marching band (still without a name) back for a live performance.

Firstly, a MASSIVE SUPER-ULTIMATE EPIC thanks must go to:

Daniel Allen – Tuba
Lisa Squire – Bari Sax
Nicola Dunn – Trombone
Laura Gibson – French Horn
Peter Skippen – Trumpet
Madeleine Johns – Trumpet
Sarah Johnson – Clarinet
Luke Carbon – Flute
Julie Whiting – Snare
Alanna Ritchie – Snare

They were all sensational and we were very proud to stand next to them on stage.

We’ve been bombarded with comments and positive feedback since the performance. We were even called inspirational on the night. That’s pretty much the best feedback 26 could possibly hope to get from a gig. So to our brilliant brass band – thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you and thank you again. And to all those who came up to us after the gigs, thanks for the very kind words. We loved having the opportunity to do something like this, and will be sure to do it again.

Also, thanks to the stage crew at The Tivoli, our photographers Ryan Pearson and Robin Bent and Hughsie for the belt pack.

I wonder how we could move a pipe organ?

“Are you ready to ROCK…Ness!” – It was the catch phrase of the day, and not just from us. We were delighted and privileged to be asked to play at the RockNess festival in Scotland, on the banks of Loch Ness. Fan-fricken-tastic! This was amazing for 3 reason.

Reason 1) Loch Ness is an amazing place, that all of us saw for the first time. We even got a special private viewing at the waters edge because we put on our Australian accents. Everyone else was being chased away by people in orange vests. We tried desperately to see nessy, but alas, we saw hide nor hair of him/her.

Reason 2) Fatboy Slim, The Strokes, Pendulum, Aphextwin, Ian Brown, Vampire Weekend, Blondie, Leftfield… this was a festival of big names – and we were on the bill. What a treat!

Reason 3) The Doves! 4 years ago, we timidly waited for the Doves after a show they did in our hometown of Brisbane. They politely said hello to us, and took our first CD. 4 years later, and we are delighted to be playing the same international festival as them. This was an epic feeling for us, and it carried into our set. KA-POW! we exploded on stage. But take heed Mr Goodwin & Co! Next time, you might just be on our stage.

Some happy snaps are up on our flickr page. More will appear as we sort them.

Link on the side –>

Hi 26ers,

with the amount of  shows and travelling we have been doing around the UK we thought it would be great to show you guys how much fun we have been having by putting together a video diary for you.

Enjoy | 26

First 2 days of the UK tour = DISASTER!
First the van was too small so we wasted a day sorting that out. Day two – we drop back the “shit van” and pick up the new “awesome van”. Thinking that our luck has changed and everything was sorted we head down to the London Drum co. and pick up the Drum Kit (Thanks so much to Simon for helping us out!). Oh btw did I mention that we had to leave Drew’s keyboard at Brisbane airport as it was going to cost us and extra $3000 in excess baggage all up for the Hong Kong / UK leg of the tour…. so we spent most of the rest of day two ringing around about 30 music stores. We finally find one on the other side of London which = Traffic… which = Shit! So we jump in the van and head to Brighton via the Music shop in Essex…. not a smart move! An hour of traffic later we decide to ring the venue and see if they know anyone with a keyboard we could borrow as it was becoming plainly obvious that we were going to miss the closing of the store and therefore the gig in Brighton…. given we weren’t even close to the music store and sitting in miles of traffic with about 5 minutes till the store closed. So… the venue had a keyboard…. YAY! Small victory!
We thought everything was looking up and the night was going to work out alright and then FUCK!!!! I open my guitar case for the first time in two days and it appears that the air pressure from the flight had snapped the neck of my guitar (1969 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop Deluxe i.e. Expensive and rare). Lets just say the day couldn’t have got much worse!
So I hear you say…”how the hell did you manage to play the show?!”. My answer to that is simple…. I grew up in a house full of actors and one thing I learnt was “The show must go on”. I guess it just has stuck with me all these years. The crowd was a little thin last night but everyone that was at the show went off!!! Turned out to be a great night some how.
Special thanks to Tim for helping out with sound and our new favourite Irish bar man “Fingers” (i’d love to know why he is called Fingers…. why didn’t I ask???)
There are sadly no pictures of my broken guitar nor Brighton pier as I think we were all in so much shock that we weren’t capable of anything but breathing and drinking. We will be picking up my fixed guitar tomorrow morning before we head to Derby. See you soon Derby…. let’s hope we have a great night!

We are so behind with Hong Kong entries, I have taken the executive decision to compress the rest of our time in Hong Kong to 1 entry. So that in mind, here is tonight’s Top Ten Things 26 did in Hong Kong. (cue David Letterman top 10 music)

At #10 – Being given a round of shots with the Drawn from Bees boys at The Bulldog in LKF for being ‘rockstars’. (applause)
At #9 – Ross ordering Eel Nagiri and Rice for lunch, only to see the same Eel and Rice come back out later that night. (Laughter and applause)
At #8 – Visiting the Mong Kock Markets (snickering from teenage boys at the back)
At #7 – Convincing the sound techs at both venues that we are not crazy, and really do need everything we say we do. (sympathy sighs)
At #6 – Watching 2 bands be given 64 free San Miguel beers by the venue, and none of us wanting them. (Hooping and hollering!)
At #5 – ALLAN! ALLAN! AL! AL! ALLAN! (refer to Youtube)
At #4 – Watching Iain get drenched with water after a market tarpaulin decided it didn’t want to hold water anymore. (excessive laughter)
At #3 – Stage invasion by Ross and Nick for the last Drawn from Bees show. (Laughter and thoughts of Band Aid lameness)
At #2 – Both the Beer Bar show and the Cavern show went very well, and made us some new fans. (Crowd disapprove of the soppy lameness)
and the #1 thing 26 did in Hong Kong – Take the train. What a public transport system! (WOO! Applause! HOOPING HOLLERING!)

And that was 26 in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong – Where do we begin!? What an amazing and surreal city.

We landed in HK airport, and were instantly accosted by a guy offering to take us to our hotel in his ‘VAN TAXI’. If you were to be more accurate, you would more likely call it ‘his mates van’. He then proceeded to tell us it would cost us $200AUD to get us to town. After sternly telling him off, we got 2 officialtaxis, and made our way into town for $80AUD. Nice little introduction to the great east.

Then comes the hotel rooms. I say hotel rooms, but its more like cupboards. But, its clean, convenient, and the staff are all really nice. PLUS I can control the lighting in the room through the TV. Our preferred setting is ‘Moody’.

Mingle On the Wing. Odd name, nice people.

Then we headed off into the steamy Hong Kong night to find some food. We went to the closest place we could find, and had an excellent Singapore Noodle. Then it was straight back to out cupboards to get some rest.

Next day we found a little piece of paradise, thanks to the Bean Hunter App on our beloved iPhones. Coco Espresso is a tiny little coffee shop that actually makes a great coffee. It was a little bit of heavenly relief to know there was some good beans around the corner.

Real coffee in HK

Then came the time for all good managers to be managers, so we left poor nicky to do manager stuff, whilst Ross, Iain and I headed for the ferry, and did ourselves some shopping. Talk about an eye-opener. People, taxis, more people, more taxis, then some more people next to some people…… you get the idea?

Hong Kong Harbour

Tourist things now done for the day, Iain, Nick and myself went to a welcoming drinks at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Fancy little place that. We did our best to get the most out of the free drinks.

Drinks consumed, we then headed off with some local expats and did us some more drinking.

End of day 1. Alcohol consumption levels – High.

Lads in LKF

26 is heading to its second musical motherland. Check the Shows button at the top of the page for locations and times.

Keep coming back to www.26theband.com for daily tour updates, including embarrassing photos, dodgy videos and other attempts at being humerus.