On a more positive note to the previous post, there was a lovely post (and longer, more detailed newsletter) from Hamish Hawk this morning requesting fans send in their proposals for a song for him and the band to cover for a future release. There is a form to fill out to place in your request/proposal. The form was actually titled: “Hamish Hawk Covers EP.” Hello!
As he said in the newsletter, he’s also heading to Europe for a quick headline tour in the middle of January. Among the venues he’s playing is the Paradiso in Amsterdam. Oh, how I wish! But considering I am now committed to both Aberdeen as well as Newcastle (along with Edinburgh of course), Amsterdam is just not possible, which is a shame because god knows it would be AMAZING to see Hamish play the Paradiso! If there are any people from the places listed below, or you can easily get to them and want to see what all the fuss is about with this man and why I keep going on and on and on about him – go to one of these gigs if you can! I implore you! You can find out all the details for securing tickets HERE
As for Simple Minds? Well, they’re added more dates to the summer dates for Europe. There are two new festival dates in Spain and France and just this morning came an announcement of a second Taormina date, which might be a wee bit problematic for some fans that fly in on the day of the first show. I can see a lot of scrabbling around, changing flights, and altering hotel bookings, etc, etc. Thankfully not a problem I need to contend with! I guess it’s great for the Italians that may have missed out as all the overseas SM contingent fought for tickets for the first show, possibly meaning the more locally-based fans missed out.
So, that means Murcia in Spain on 19 July, Toulon in France on 23 July and the added Taormina date is 26 July. Head to the Simple Minds website for all the details you need in purchasing tickets.
Anything else to report? Hmmm…oh, there is a sale on at the SM official merch site – but unless you’re a size small, you’re not going to find anything. Great for the skinny things out there. A small would barely cover one of my tits. Lol. I still think I got the best piece of merch that was on offer this year, having nabbed myself one of those signed by Jim and Charlie Laurie Evans prints in Glasgow, thank you very much!
A reminder that The Anchoress show in London on 26 April 2025 is now on general sale. I’m super excited by this one. Catherine puts on an incredible show. And to have the privilege of hearing her play new material will be fantastic. Tickets for the show can be purchased HERE
Finally, there is just a few days left before the pre-order window closes on the New Gold Dream and Sparkle in the Rain Super Deluxe Edition exclusive Blu-ray audios featuring Dolby Atmos mixes by Bob Clearmountain. The window closes on Monday 2 December with Paul Sinclair from SDE stating that pre-ordering is the only way you can guarantee getting a copy as distribution will be limited. Click HERE for all the details.
Well, that’s it for now. Happy listening and gigging. What a year 2025 is setting up to be!