EURO TRIP: Hitting the road!

Day 5: No pressure...

My luxery sleeping days are over. This was the last night at Nick's house because starting today I will crash on floors, busbenches and all the other types of beds imaginable.



With some miscomunication here and there we kinda went from here to there which delayed us at least an hour. Also forgetting your pasport doesnt really help to get you any quicker to your first show.
We planned our last rehearsal in Belgium in the venue where we play our first show the next day.
After we picked up our merchgirl Lydia, we headed to dover to catch the channel over to Calais.



The trafficjams aren't in our advance either. The vibe in the van isn't luckily not influenced by it. The soundtrack for this tour is an uplifting one. From 80's (overall UK) classics to the modern hardcore/punk stuff we enjoyed the ride to Weelde where we are now at the time of writing.



Never thought that playing in Helsinki Seven would be such an adventure. Why? You better read on then! Nothing really spectacular has happen since we crossed the french border... What suppose to be a 7 hour drive made it to be 10/11 because of our own delay and the jams. Talking with Joe & Lydia about my fasination for UK bands I discovered over the years, I heard that some of the artists are Helsinki Seven fans. Damn! That stunned me. Anyway, literally minutes away from arriving at our destination we got pulled over by the police. One of the officers was suprised organised we were (with the papers eh!) but while the man started checking our pasports this dude approaches from the other side with high speed the cops, threw back our pasports and we were free to go went chasing the guy for a speeding ticket. What just happened? Well, let's get on... almost there. With a little search we finally found the youthcenter. It one o'clock at night so practice won't happen anymore. The lights are on, there seem to be a few folks havin' a good time... Happy that we arrived and tired as we are, we get a warm welcome. A bit too warm if you ask me. The people there were very happy to see us... and let me say this again, maybe a bit too happy. These people were WAY PASSED HAMMERED! Don't even know where to start... Even for dutch standards this is pretty extreme what we actknowledged. I thought that it kinda went too far at one point. They made this chair with wheels thing and just bumped into anything possible. Walls, the stage, the bar, tables, you name it. The weather isn't helping either. As we try to make the best of it, it was time to sleep. Respect for those belgium folks who seem to sleep through The Bronx, Ghost of a Thousand and Mastodon records on 11!

They informed us that national TV will be there tomorrow to interview us and record footage of our show. The show will be packed with at least 500 people: I still hear the Master of the Universe say: No pressure Rudy, no pressure...

Ben already went to sleep in the van. I decided to also sleep in the van because I'm deadtired and hoping for a few hours sleep. It was and still is bloody freezing in the van... At the moment of writing it's pooring outside and my feet are cold again...

So now am writing this blog with H7 on and thinking... Today I would've seen City & Colour but instead am freezing to death in a UK van on a European tour... and still convinced I made the right choice. I wouldn't want it any other way...

Save a prayer for me.

Good morning!


Sidenote: While on tour there is less internetaccess so, you can have a laugh at my writing or just wait it out till am home and read the final version.

Thanks!

UK TRIP: Shopping for a crew!

Day 4: Getting skinned in Manchester.

On my day off I took the train (mixtape on the headphones and enjoying the view) to Manchester (distance Leeuwarden - Zwolle) to meet up with my friend Dani, who recently visited the AvP with Andy and Joël for a student exchange project. It was very pleasant to see her again.
But this time it's the other way around. Instead of me showing her the places to be in Leeuwarden, it was her turn to show me Manchester... What a lovely city it is!

First off we had tea and coffee at The Teacup.

Coffee at The Teacup
The English have their tea obsession as we "Dutch people"
have our bike obsession according to the "English people".
Earthlings... weird people. Lost it? Me too.

Isn't that cute... BUT IT'S WRONGGG!
I am fasinated very fast and this time it wasn't any different. This building that looked like a student flat, it has al sorts of (discount) shops in the vain of Ursula or London Mode. It's called Aflecks Palace. It is HUGE! Just when you thought you've seen it all, it keeps on going... The only "awkward" thing I saw in the building was a dentist. You can also eat, drink and chill out between the shopping and to top it all, you'll find a modeling agency in the same building. F**kin' rad mate!

Anywho, Dani & I had a wonderful time in the city as she skinned me to the bone. The record stores overhere are FAR MORE BETTER! Am gonna move the UK when am done in The Netherlands with all my stuff I have going and that's a bloody fact! I got Joe some string back-ups at Dawsons for the tour... DAMN those guitarshops! luckily I could keep my hands off some instruments and not carry them towards the counter... Manchester was sunny, rainy and half darkclouded today so I got an impression of both. I cannot mention all the big stores we went to but I know we did some good business at HMV, H&M, Fopp Records, Pulp, The Vintage Clothing Co. and last but not least... Primark!

Imagine entering in a very fancy Wibra
with the coolest close for cheap-ass!

SCORE!
...on a more personal note:
Thank you so much Dani, for the wonderful day you gave me. The talks, the laughs, the sightseeing, coffees and tea's. You are a fantastic friend to shop and hang around with. It is very much appreciated...
and totally worth the trainticket ;)

Tomorrow is the start of the tour, well, the driving starts tomorrow.
I saw the van. It's also HUGE! As I say in The Netherlands:
Ik ben fan! Trek-ut! I'd better get some rest, so i can pack my bags in the morning and finally rock across Europe!

Goodnight.

UK TRIP: Kurt Ballou, Nibbles and a hangover from hell!

Day 3: Sometimes it takes a turn...

I didn't knew what to expect what would happen today. Nick woke me up laughing,,, Probably because of my snorring or my weird postioning while I sleep. Time of awakening: half past six.

Good morning!

Nick had to go to work (12,5 hours shift) and so he dropped me off at Joe and Hannah where I chilled out for a few hours, did some work and got all the chords of the songs on paper.

"that riff you probably wanna try to dance on"

Me and Joe got some quality time discussing lots of things like the upcoming tour, financials, other tours and futureplans. We pretty much got that figured out. On facebook I chatted with our merchgirl for the tour and tomorrow I get to meet her. Furthermore me & Joe had lots of talks about producers, american musicians, the fucked up people in the business (ourselves included, haha) while Joe is cleaning the oven. You could tell it was his first time.

Joe's view from his backyard

He also managed to make fried egg rice (?) so Hannah could enjoy a lovely meal when she came home from work. We saw the movie Thor. Joe had football practice so he dropped me off at the rehearsal studio so I could practice on my own first. Things started to go downhill for me here. Deadtired and a "neighbour" who came by to let us know that he could hear us from miles away, just like his kids... owh well, the friendly punkrockers we are, decided to stop rightaway and call it a day. I recieved a text from Erwin that New Killer Stars decided to split up. Pretty shitty. Well, tired as f**k, we drove home and now am here finishing my blog with eyes that can barely stay open...

Tomorrow is my personal day off...

My plans are shopping with Dani in Manchester and hopefully also catch up with my friend Rosie who I met through the Kensington Arms UK tour where she gave us a show on very short notice when there was a show cancelled during our stay.

Anyway... am hitting the sack.

Nighty-night!

UK TRIP: Upbuilding tour pressure

DAY 2: Meet Tracey...

When I opened my eyes this morning, I couldn't get the smile of my face. Things are going well for me. I feel blessed to this kinda thing. Everyone is very friendly and very helpfull when needed. Finally I got to meet Nick's mum. She's indeed Sjoeke's duplicate except for the language and jobfunction.

Anyway, me & Nick uploaded some rehearsal video's and run down some things that needed to be done for the tour. Like making my laptop "tour-ready" stuff like that. Spoiled by their wonderful and delicious coffee, I had to enjoy that with a fag.

Sun, Fags & Coffee

Yesterday in the rehearsalroom we bumped into a "major" problem. With the right tuning things started to look up. Why? Because all the riffs and stuff started to make sense. We might throw in a Thrice cover from the "artist in the ambulance" record! That would be 2 covers then haha. But let's keep that a suprise for you readers who will atend a show on the tour. Anywho... Today we nailed down 7 to 8 songs for setlist that will contain 10 songs... Maybe more.

Meet my "dirty" girlfriend that I take with me on this upcoming tour...

Tracey Elliott

While driving with Nick & Joe to the rehearsalroom I recieved a phonecall from 3voor12 (biggest music platform from The Netherlands) for an interview about the new Kensington Arms record. It's weird to realise I intergrate very fast in the english language as I had trouble with finding the right dutch words sometimes, come to think of it... I also have that generally. Owh well, the english language suits me the best. So stick it maestro!

Tonight we travelled to H7's (Helsinki Seven) townpub in Northwich. A place where I have been before while touring with Kensington Arms (during our wintertour, december last year) I got the chance to meet some of Nick & Joe's friends. We are celebrating Joe's pre birthday party. I catched up with Hannah (Joe's girlfriend) again and got to meet Becca, Tom and some more lovely people (Carla?) I'm sorry...
not good at names... It needs repetition.

And that makes me come to the point where I am now, Tired but happy and between the sheets.

Let's put out the lights... Sleep well!

By the way... My tour name is established: Bergkamp.

UK TRIP: From the airport...straight into rehearsals!

Hey there,

My first blog on the UK trip & European tour.

What's the idea?

Well, I thought it would be nice to put down some words and visuals here on how things progress while am in the UK, practicing with English rockers Helsinki Seven and ofcourse the following European tour in a few days.

DAY 1: First flight ever!

After the goodbye's at school and from Elcke, Suzy, Chiel and my other dear friend Chantal, I hopped in the train to get to the airport in Amsterdam to catch the flight to Manchester. The nervous started to get worse at one point but eventually it all managed itself.

'

Checked in, Starbucks & Fags... I'm ready!

It's the same as riding a bus or train, except the view is better...

Nick (Helsinki drummer) picked me up from the airport. It was so nice to see him again... and guess what, am not the only one who lost a few pounds. Anyway, this morning, me and Joe kinda joked about rehearsals straight from the airport. The dude wasn't kiddin' haha. As I thought (after me getting on a plane) no problems would occurre. Well, what do you do when you practiced all the songs in the wrong tuning? Right, start with the new ones first. I could see Joe's (Joe, the man, the legend, Midget Glasses) world falling apart. But I must say that I pick up things quite easy with a bassguitar in my hands. I'm not saying playing bassguitar is easy (for the outsiders, I usually play the 6 strings) but it's funny to see it from a point of few with a minus of 2 strings. Now I get the chance to lay down some heavy groove instead of melody or a light rhythm. Back to the problem... There was one second I thought: FUCK! but the next one was like: Challenge accepted!

"Groove is in the heart"

The thing that stunned me the most so far is Nick telling me he has a suprise to show me. If it's food I had to dissapoint the sweet man. But none of that. The guy is even more obsessed with touring than me. Why? Nick has my face tattooed on the side of his stomach! On the European tour we might reveal it for those who are interested...

Here's a video of the first rehearsal: From airport to rehearsal til 3am

After rehearsal, Nick took me to where he lives with his sweet mom (haven't met her yet but from the stories I heard and how Nick is, she must be a duplicate of Sjoeke from the AvP). Now I am feeling like a dead beat. So, this was the first blog of my traveladventures in the UK and Europe. Hope you enjoyed it.

Goodnight!

Kensington Arms preview 2 tracks from debut album "Geospizinae"

After months of recording, mixing and arguing Kensington Arms eventually managed to finish their self-produced debut album 'Geospizinae'. The decision to record everything ourselves has made for a slow but rewarding process and the band is very proud of the outcome.

Produced and mixed by Corné Driesprong at Studio Nova Zembla.
Mastered by Mendel bij de Leij.
Artwork by Berber van den Brink at www.loft.nu

Release date: 01.10.11

Now you can listen to the new tracks here: Bandcamp

Next week we will be releasing another
2 brand new tracks from our upcoming release!

The release show will be at Vera, Groningen (Downstage) @ 23:00
With awesome supportband: Screw Houston, Start Screaming!
For more info on the show and bands go here or here

Please, feel free to join/like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kensingtonarms

For some of the more manly stuff we did a few years back go here! www.myspace.com/kensingtonarms

If that's not enough you'd better hook up with us here: Last.fm


A little Kensington Arms history:

Kensington Arms is a hardcorepunk band from the north of The Netherlands. Influences vary from newschool hardcore like Refused, Modern Life is War and Snapcase to punkrock from bands like Propagandhi.

The first incarnation of Kensington Arms released a demo-cd in November 2006. By summer 2007 the band had lost half of its band members. This led them to reconsider the amount of manly and moshy breakdown they put in their songs. After a new line-up was formed of (just slightly) less manly and moshy musicians, the band put all it’s effort in writing a bunch of fresh new songs. This resulted in the recording of a brand new, self-recorded, less manly and moshy ep, named ‘Songs of Separation’, in the month of december 2008.

With the release of ‘Songs of Separation’, the band went to perform their songs live in front of Dutch and German audiences from 2009 till mid 2010...

Another (let's hope) final shift in band members took place.
Kensington Arms quickly welcomed a new bassplayer into their warm, not-so muscled arms and the gods saw that it was good.

The band continued on touring through Europe and the UK. After that they finished writing and recording their Magnus Opus: Geospizinae.

Our debut album will be availabe through these fine recordlabels:

5FeetUnder Records
Dapsone Records
Predestination Records

Kensington Arms:

Joris van Montfort - drums
Rudy Land - guitars & vocals
Corné Driesprong - guitars
Aldert Bitter - bass
Hidde Zemel - vocals

Contact & Bookings: kensingtonarms@gmail.com

Records, tours and tattoos!

Hey everyone!

Time for a new blog, after like 2/3 months?

First up Kensington Arms is in the finishing stage for the album. End of august, our album will be mastered by Mendel bij de Leij (Escadron) and we set the releaseparty in Vera, Groningen on Oct the 1st! Come over and celebrate the release we put our blood, sweat and beers in... Come early because we have the almighty Screw Houston, Start Screaming to support us!

Kensington Arms shows:
01.10.11 Kensington Arms "Geospizinae" Releaseparty
(supp: Screw Houston, Start Screaming)

RE-AMP!

Brutal guest vocals from Gosse Haarsma (ex Last Days of Slavery)

The very next day I will get on a plane for the UK (Liverpool) to catch up with my buddies in Helsinki Seven and fill in for Evan for the upcoming european tour! I just bought a (secondhand) bassguitar for several reasons...



So this is a great opportunity to check that thing out.
Also It's Joe's birthday then so IT'S ALL DARN GOOD!

Check out Helsinki Seven: http://helsinkiseven.bandcamp.com/album/helsinki-seven

Helsinki Seven European Tour 2011:

Sat 08th Antwerpen @ ROGERFEST (BE)
Sun 09th Hamburg @ Bar 227 (GER)
Mon 10th DAY OFF
Tue 11th Hamburg @ St. Pauli (GER)
Wed 12th Utrecht TBA (NL)
Thu 13th Groningen @ Platform Theater (NL)
Fri 14th Leeuwarden @ Mukkes (NL)
Sat 15th Emmen @ Huize Spoorloos (NL)
Sun 16th Amsterdam @ ADM Hoornweg (NL)
Mon 17th DAY OFF
Tue 18th Chemnitz @ Subway to Peter (GER)
Wed 19th AVAIL (GER)
Thu 20th Olten @ Coq D'or (SWI)
Fri 21st Geneva @ Espace Grossain(SWI)
Sat 22nd Le Mans @ L'endurance Festival(FR)

The Forrester Soundtrack continues too...
(where the fuck do I get the time from)



We've been very busy the last months before summerbreak. We recorded some songs, shot a video, did some shows and still have 2 to go. After am back from the Helsinki tour, I am planning new recordings and see from there what to do with it. An album is up my sleeve but when it's done... I can not tell from this point. The video for the track "Draw the line" will be released soon and another video for a new song will be shot at the end of Sept. All good here too.

Find you Forrester Soundtrack music here:

Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/theforrestersoundtrack
Bandcamp: http://theforrestersoundtrack.bandcamp.com/

Shows:

21.08.11 Troubadour Treffen @ Prinsentuin, Leeuwarden (13:00)
21.08.11 Mooie mensen feest @ Froske Polle, Leeuwarden (16/17:00)

Last but not least: Nom the Plume.
The big rockband everyone wants to get to know!
Yesterday JB completed the band after a big audition for a drummer. After a decision struggle on the mix we decided to let Mendel bij de Leij (our 5th invincible bandmember) to finish our EP and we will be rehearsing our show as fast as we can. The EP release will be in November... The month we also head out to the UK to promote our EP over there.

So that's in a nutshell what I am up to...

I'll keep you posted.

P.S. New tattoo and a new one coming next month <3!