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Glen’s Turn To Write A Blog

Glen's Turn to write a blog

Hello to all you beautiful people!

It is my turn to write something for our blog. After reading Paul’s last one I’ve not much more to add, but let’s see how it goes.

Last weekend we flew out to Harare, Zimbabwe for a show and I’ll tell you what, I haven’t been that cold on stage for a long, long time. As luck would have it, of course, I had decided not to bring anything warm to wear because I mean, let’s face it, who would ever think that it gets cold in Zimbabwe? We survived, and had fun. Many South African artists who had been booked to play north-of-SA that week had cancelled their shows because of all the anti-South African protests that were going on, but not us! We even flew into Zim the day after Robert Mugabe passed away – how’s that for timing?

Our videographer Jerome, catching the footage and all the crumbs

So thank you to the beautiful people of Harare for coming out to the show, and to everyone who was involved in making us feel so welcome – especially our van driver (who’s name I’ve forgotten) for making the extra effort to get us post-show junk food, and getting us to the airport at an unthinkably early time on Sunday.

Speaking of post-show eating, there’s always a point of the night where Neil demands food. Mostly it’s KFC that his post-show body requires. So he’ll demand that we stop at a KFC on the way home, and then 30 seconds later he’ll fall asleep.

The rest of us (who really just want to go to sleep) are then faced with the decision to either:

a.) Go to a fast food place and try to rouse Neil (which is mostly impossible)
or
b.) Go back to the accom and deal with his wrath when he wakes up and realizes the van doesn’t stink of gross, greasy fast-food.

It’s one of those things that has always been and will always be, and it’s one of the things we love him for.

Every member has their ‘thing’. Most of us have more than one ‘thing’…

Kahn will do his vocal warm ups as near to everyone else as possible, and everyone will just adjust their talking or music volume accordingly. We’re used to this now, but for other people witnessing this for the first time it’s quite alarming. It’s quite the room-clearer.

Our sound guy Josh likes to panic, and will “lose” at least one thing every night, and then proceed to miraculously find it again just in time. He is Peter, from Peter & The Wolf, really.

Paul will give you a steady stream of random and useless information from
things he’s read, and is generally Devil’s Advocate for most given topics.
“Meditation has been found to make recovering addicts relapse into old addictions” was his last one to me.

Rob often scares me silly with his out-of-the-blue dance move attacks on stage.

AK likes to start every trip on tour with a 10 minute long joke, setting the mood for that day.

So I bet you’re wondering what my ‘thing’ is? Well so am I. One of them, I guess, is that after a few beverages I assume the form of ‘DJ DREADFUL’, a name given to me by Rob. D.J.D enjoys hijacking the blue tooth and spinning songs that he likes, but no one else does, at ear-snapping volume on every drive home. The only relief from him comes in the form of any open KFC along the route home. I’ve heard rumours, though, that D.J.D has gone into retirement, due to the lack of booze in his system – so that’s good new for everyone.

Like Paul mentioned, we’re currently winding down our ‘Unplugged-ish’ tour, and will be heading to UK and Europe next month, so go get your tickets and we’ll see you on the road –you can find us late at night at most Services buying food or trying to catch stuffed animals in those impossible claw machine games.

Much Love to you all.
Glen

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

September Newsletter - On the Road again.

Greetings from Johannesburg where Spring has finally sprung in South Africa!

It’s been getting warmer and warmer here, but predictably there’s always that last little chilly snap just as you’re thinking you can pack away your winter jackets and gas heaters. And then of course as it’s getting hot in South Africa we’ll heading over to the UK and Europe where it’ll be Autumn, and then back in time for Summer with our December South African touring!

So when it comes to packing bags for tour, it’s always a balance between having enough clean clothes to last the trip but also not having to lug around a huge suitcase full of every possible outfit. The most important items of clothing are obviously what we need to wear on stage; which is usually any combination of red, white, and black – closely followed by clean underwear and socks for each day of course!

Recently we did a photoshoot with Heidi Couture and their line of clothing Stoompomp (an Afrikaans spin on Steampunk) and now we have some interesting new outfits for stage, but they’re quite a lot bulkier than just the usual skinny jeans and t-shirts. So once that’s all packed into a kitbag or small suitcase, any leftover space is for the stuff you need to wear during the day for travel. Any tour away from home for longer than a few days means you need to wear the same clothes a few times, so extra cans of deodorant are a must. Life on the road is not always glamorous!

We’re really excited about returning to the UK and Europe and looking forward to seeing you all and making new friends. Speaking of new friends, a band called The Magic Es will be joining us on the UK leg of the tour, so we’re looking forward to touring with them.

Dates for the tour can be found on our website or Facebook

Start planning your calendar now already, because we’ve got a very special show planned for the end of November. Last year we did a special event with the National Youth Choir and it was a sold-out show. It was such a great evening that we knew we had to do it again. It’s taken some planning, but we’re very happy to say that we’ll at Teatro in Montecasino with the National Youth Choir along with support from Majozi and introducing Bard.

More details will be announced over the next few weeks, but rest assured it’s a show you don’t want to miss and promises to be something very special. The bonus is you’ll get The Parlotones thrown into the mix as well! 😊

We’ve named the show CHORALTONES and so far, it’s a one-night-only event. So don’t delay, go get your tickets today.

Well that’s all for now, so hope we’ll see you all soon, wherever you are in the world. (And if we’re looking a little scruffy or smell a little funky, you now know why…)

Cheers!

Kahn, Glen, Paul, Neil
aka

The Parlotones

February Newsletter

The Parlotones - Official Website

February 2019 Newsletter

The Parlotones - Official Website

Hello everybody! Hope it’s going well with all of you.

We’ve had a fairly busy beginning to the year, with shows at Kirstenbosch, Underberg and the Randpark Golf Club. 

If you saw us at Underberg you might have noticed Glen was not on stage. He had already made plans to go the UK with his fiance to watch The 1975, Frank Turner and Jimmy Eat World but we still had to the play the show. So we brought in our friend Trevor Rebello to help out on bass and backing vocals. Despite only having two weeks to prepare and one practice before the show, he did very well.

However Glen is now back and the band is hard at work in the practice room. We are learning a few more songs off our latest album, China, to start performing at shows this year.

Speaking of the new album, we are finally bringing China to the rest of the world. At the moment, the single “Can You Feel It?” is available on all streaming platforms in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and the Netherlands. And soon it should be available in the US and the rest of the world. Click the link below to have a listen.

(We also got a sneak peek of our physical CD which will be available in the UK and Europe soon, but more details on that later.)

Can You Feel It?

We’ve got some exciting plans for the year, but for now keep your eye on our website and our Facebook events page for details of upcoming shows. 

The Parlotones website

Facebook page

Also, if you’re interested in listening to podcasts, check out the new Parlotones podcast Paul is doing. There’s a couple of episodes up already.

The Parlotones podcast

And lastly, go have a look at our YouTube channel. We’re filming short 1 minute documentaries on each song off the new album, plus there’s music videos for 3 of the new songs. (And of course lots of older content, you’ll defintely find something to amuse you.)

The Parlotones YouTube channel

And that’s all for now, thanks to all our new subscribers, it’s good to have you on board! Hopefully we’ll see you all soon, wherever you are in the world. 

Cheers!

Glen, Kahn, Neil, Paul aka The Parlotones

Recent News

New Album

The Parlotones New Album Available

Available Now

EPISODE EIGHT – BRIGHTER SIDE OF HELL

The Parlotones New Album Available

Episode Eight - Brighter Side of hell

Welcome to 2019!

In this episode, Paul talks about the song, “The brighter side of hell”  and reads a bit from the “Stories behind the songs” chapter “Stardust Galaxies”

Check out our Youtube channel

Listen to Stardust Galaxies here

www.patreon.com/paulhodgson (my patreon site)

Euro Tour 2018

The Parlotones New Album Available

The Parlotones are heading to Europe and the UK for a 6 week tour.

It’s hard to believe 2018 is almost over. It’s been an exciting few months as we’ve been touring our new album around South Africa. Now we are very happy to be bringing CHINA to Europe and the UK. We feel CHINA is some of our best work and we’re really proud of it. 

Many people have asked us “Why call the album CHINA…?”

Well, as a band we are now 20 years old, and the traditional wedding gift for 20 years of marriage is china or porcelain. So that is the reasoning behind the title.

Well, this newsletter is just a brief one, we need to pack and get our gear together for tour. We’d love to see you on the road somewhere. For tour dates head over to our new website http://www.theparlotones.co.za

We will be posting daily videos to our various social media platforms, so keep an eye out for that.

Cheers everybody, have a great weekend!

Paul, Neil, Kahn, Glen aka The Parlotones.

The Parlotones New Album Available

China

The new album CHINA is available right now in South Africa. CDs will be sold at shows on the Euro Tour, and the album will be available soon on digital platforms worldwide soon.

European Dates

For tickets, please go to http://www.theparlotones.co.za

The Parlotones New Album Available
The Parlotones New Album Available

UK dates

For tickets, please go to http://www.theparlotones.co.za

Episode 7 – Rock Paper Scissors

The Parlotones New Album Available

Episode Seven - Rock paper scissors

Paul talks about the upcoming UK/Europe tour and talks a bit about the song Rock Paper Scissors. He also reads an excerpt from the book “Stories about the songs” from the chapter “Radio Controlled Robot”. Enjoy!

Listen to Radio Controlled Robot here

www.patreon.com/paulhodgson (my patreon site)

Episode 6 – Big Fright

The Parlotones New Album Available

Episode SIX - Big FRight

Welcome the Episode Six! In this episode Paul introduces Rob and the part he plays in the band, the process of choosing songs for the set list for the upcoming European tour, and reads from the book “Songs about the stories” – featuring a section from the chapter about Episoda – The Parlotones’ first studio album, released in 2003.

Listen to Episoda here

www.patreon.com/paulhodgson (my patreon site)

Romania

Castle-Romania

BUNA FROM ROMANIA

We just got back from Romania, where we played a festival in Transylvania. It’s a fascinating country with a very rich (and complicated!) history. The festival itself was an amazing experience, set on the grounds of a castle. The backstage area was actually inside the castle, which was a first for us!

The next day we got to drive across the country and visit two more castles. The first was an unscheduled stop in a small town called Rupea, and we visited an old fortified church on top of a hill overlooking the town. And the second was Bran Castle in the city of Brasov. It is primarily a museum, showing the history of Queen Marie, and also has plenty of tourist memorabilia themed around Dracula. This is Transylvania after all! It’s all very fascinating, and we can thoroughly recommend visiting Romania if you ever get a chance.

Back in South Africa, we can’t wait to play at Joburg Day on the 1st of September. It’s always a blast and there’s an amazing line-up (as always!). AKA, Goodluck, Goldfish, and many more. Sadly, it’ll be the last time Gangs of Ballet will be performing. So, come along and sing “Hello Sweet World” and try hit the high notes of “Don’t Let Me Go” with the rest of us…

There’s also Aardklop and the Karoo Fees coming up, and then we head over to Europe and the UK. We’ll be all over the UK and Scotland, and then Germany, Austria, Netherlands, and even Prague in the Czech Republic! It’s gonna be a great tour, we can’t wait to get out there and bring our new album, China, to everyone out there.

For all the dates and venues and ticket links, head over to our website www.theparlotones.co.za and have a look around.

Speaking of China, it is still regrettably only available in South Africa at the moment, but we’re busy finalising the international release. Unfortunately, it’s something we can’t afford to rush and it’s just taking a little longer than we anticipated. However, it’s worth the wait, and won’t be much longer.

Hope to see you soon!

Glen, Kahn, Neil, Pauw aka The Parlotones

 

Episode Five – Phonecast

The Parlotones New Album Available

Episode FIVE - Phonecast

In this episode, Paul talks about their recent trip to Romaina and a little about the historic sites they visited while there.

Have a look around on our Instagram to see some photos from this trip

www.patreon.com/paulhodgson (my patreon site)

Episode Four – Heat of the Moment

The Parlotones - Official Website

Episode FOUR - HEAT OF THE MOMENT

Welcome the Episode Four! In this episode Paul talks about formatting his laptop, the writing process behind a song on the new album, and a little bit about Patreon. Enjoy! Here are some links to follow while you listen…

http://smarturl.it/TheParlotones_China (links to our new album)

https://njin.co.za/ (the team who built our new website)

www.patreon.com/paulhodgson (my patreon site)

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