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show, shows, show and US album release

Boom. Well we’re all off on our hols (finally managing to grab two whole weeks off from touring!) but already looking forward to our Paris show on sept 3rd – double bill with Dave Douglas and Ibrahim Malouf no less! Then onto Berlin the following week and back to the UK to play Bestival – one of our favourite festivals.

And as if that wasn’t enough to be getting on with our album ISLA is released in America on August 31st and we’re touring there at the end of September! Shows in Philly, Chicago, Kent, Cambs and two shows in New York, plus a stop off in Montreal – we simply can’t wait!!

Finally we have also added some London shows – they’re not till December but they’re at the ICA one of our favourite of the more intimate venues.. should be loads of fun and we’ve got Leaf Cutter John on the bill one night and our mate Ibrahim Malouf the other.. Safe!

Mini (mental) tour x

Huge thanks to everyone who came to see us at the Park Stage at Glasto despite it being in the middle of the England game! Still a wicked crowd and good times… Big, big weekend…

Now- tomorrow we begin a hectic run of shows- 5 days, 5 gigs, 5 different countries!! Thursday night is WARSAW (SummerDays festival sharing a bill with Pharoah Saunders!), Friday is COPENHAGEN Jazz Festival, Saturday we’re in SALZAU in Germany for Jazz Baltica, Sunday is back in the UK for the Mostly Jazz Festival in BIRMINGHAM and Monday we finish at the Jazzfest in VIENNA! Ahhhhhhh shiiiittttt!!!

SEE YOU THERE X

GLASTONBURY

WORD! Mega excited about Glastonbury. We’re playing the Park Stage on Sunday at 5pm. Gonna be a hoot. Also looking forward catching Dr John, Joy Orbison, The xx, Stevie Wonder, Band of Skulls……hopefully see you in a field x

It’s been an eventful few weeks for us as we finished our German tour, had a few days rest and then headed to Bergenfest in Norway. Gatwick baggage handlers managed to lose our instruments though! We had the hangs as hand-luggage (thankfully), but the rest (double bass, saxophones, cymbals, snare drum, electronics…) all had to be found. Our tour manager Jules was calm in the crisis and found replacements for everything in a few hours. No mean feat. The gig went ahead…

Really enjoyed our show at the Brighton Dome last week. Amazing venue. Part of the Brian Eno currated Brighton Festival. Thanks for coming out…

From Brighton we zoomed over to Paris for two day’s promo (here’s me and Dunc chatting live on French lunchtime news- http://www.france24.com/en/20100506-london-band-portico-quartet-eve-jackson-mercury-prize-nomination-isla-jackson). Really excited about how things are shaping up in France….

And then a gig this Monday gone in Milan. Show was great- met Ludivico Ianaudi who personally invited us to play his festival this July in the hills outside Naples…

Next up is Coutance Jazz Festival in Normandy this Saturday… Onwards and upwards…

Big thanks to the wonderful PRS foundation for helping us out with our tour! http://www.prsfoundation.co.uk/

OneTaste special at Koko…..

Just wanted to draw your attention to an exciting show we have coming up- the OneTaste Special at Koko on June the 16th. We are dead chuffed to be a part of this night put together by our good friends OneTaste and it is our only gig in London for a while. Also on the bill are Oi Va Voi, the inimitable Jamie Woon, Kate Tempest and the legendary poet David J. Gonna be an amazing one, I expect to see you all there!

Buy tickets at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/76440

Alles gutte in Germany…

Yo! Halfway through the tour and we couldn’t have asked for a better reception in Germany. Gigs have been packed, people really seem to get the music and the albums are selling a shedload… We’ve played a variety of places from ‘in-the-round’ style 360 degree audience jazz-clubs, to a range of theatres and a few churches. Munching plenty schniztle and drinking hearty Bavarian beers as we go. Our ‘German’ tour also includes a gig in Switzerland (Stans Jazz Festival), a gig in Austria (Salzburg) and a show in Prague before heading back to Germany for about five more shows. Right now I’m in a hotel room on a Swiss mountain overlooking a pristine lake, tired from a long days travel but listening to the very good Bell Orchestre…. Could be worse… nick x

Zzzzzaaaaappp! Germany get ready- the Portico Invasion is about to begin. We start a tour of 15 dates tomorrow night in Stuttgart and we will play all over Germany for three weeks. We are very excited. Don’t miss it! Check www.porticoquartet.com for all the dates… Its gonna be MASSENHAFT!

The voyage continues…. Top gig in Istanbul- wicked club called Babylon. Great people, amaaazing food. We played on a double bill with the very cool Norwegian, Bugge Wesseltoft. Improvised, minimal, Scandi jazz-techno (?) with big character. Really good. Check him out at http://www.myspace.com/buggewesseltoft. As far as seeing Istanbul went, we had to catch all we could from the windows of the taxi to and from the airport!

Next morning we hotfooted it from the ‘gateway to Asia’ directly to the less glamorous but no less dramatic scenery of Kendall in the Lake District. What a journey. Mega props to our tour manager and driver Jules. Gig went well though we were all a bit tired. Next night was Liverpool Philharmonic. Followed Saturday at the Sage in Newcastle (LOVE the Sage Centre) then Band on The Wall in Manchester and Bracknell Wilde Theatre. All cool shows. Thanks for making it along if you came.

Came home for a few days and found out our landlord is bankrupt and has to sell our banging house in Clapton so we’ve got to move out! Damn. But the tour rolls on! Southampton tonight…

The Barbican

Biggest thanks to all those who came to the Barbican last night. What a night! The four of us are very pleased. Tired but chuffed. No rest for the wicked- off to Istanbul at 5am tomorrow and then directly on to the rest of the UK tour…..

For those interested here is the set list we played on Monday at the Barnican:

1. Su-Bo’s Mental Meltdown
2. The Visitor
3. …an improv…
4. Knee-deep In The North Sea
5. Paper Scissors Stone
6. Line
7. Life Mask
8. Clipper
9. Dawn Patrol

Encore: Steps In The Wrong Direction

Nick x