End of Year Round-Up

As we're approaching the end of 2013 (where did the year go?!), we thought we better get another blog post out - no blog posts since before the single launch; we know! Rubbish.

BUT at least it's because we have been busy with lots of gigs and recording. Not just because we can't be bothered ;-)

We have been seriously busy since the epic single launch. And for those of you who missed out or those who simply want to re-live the night, here is a link to a review from The Musix Fix.

 

 

Cheers for everyone who made it a success!

 

Since then we have had a string of gigs and have been enjoying sharing lots of nights with top bands in some quality venues.

 

Recent highlights for us were playing in an absolute gem of a new venue, 'The Eagle Inn' in Salford with The Clocktower. These guys are from Wolverhampton, but don't let the accent put you off :P They were proper tight and we really enjoyed their set. Check them out if you get the chance, and make sure you get down to The Eagle Inn, you won't be disappointed.

 

We also just played a gig where Adam's heroes Carl Barat and Gary Powell were DJ'ing Unfortunately they didn't turn up 'til after our set, so we refrained from pulling out our Libertine's cover, but he still got to have a little word with them so he was a happy chap.

 

As well as gigging we've also spent some time in the studio. With the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Jake Bugg, The La's and The Black Keys all recording there, we were pleased when the studio contacted us having heard some of our demos to say that they think they could really make the most of our tracks. So off we went to the  Liverpool Motor Museum studio to record one of our new songs. And they have really done it justice! We'll be back there in the new year to record some more and will be working closely with them on our new EP!

 

We have one more date in the diary before the year is out, and that is The Nankeens Christmas party which we're having in week or so. All the usual suspects will be there with their Christmas jumpers, beer and entertainment provided by yours truly (and probably our ipods). 

 

We're looking forward to Christmas, but even more so for 2014. We've already got a string of dates booked in some class venues for our own night ' The Playlist,' after the success we had on the night this year, so keep your eyes out for dates and info in the new year.

 

See you on the other side!

 

The Nankeens

 



 

Single Launch - 'Scenester'

First of all, how long has it been since we last blogged? Where does the time go? We have no excuses except to say we have been busy bees and hopefully this next Nankeens fix will help get you up to date with us.

SO...to start with we are VERY excited for this coming Saturday (21st September) as this sees the launch of our new single, 'Scenester'. Not only will it be available on ITunes (and all good music streaming services) we are having a launch gig at the Deaf Institute, Manchester. Tickets have flown out for this, and with great support from our friends Skinny Roller, and another top band The Relays it is looking like it is going to be a top night.

We're in the middle of polishing two brand new tunes that we are hoping to slip into the set, and as we haven't ever played them at a gig before it means even if you have come to see us recently we have something new for your ears too. We have a few tickets left at £5 each so get in touch for them, we are out delivering tonight (Thursday 19th), so if you want tickets delivered to your door by the band you have one last chance.

Not that you need any more convincing, I'm sure, but take a look at some of the previews of the new single and a band interview that have come out this week:

Preview from 'A Little Bit Louder'

Interview with 'The Music Fix'

Preview from 'Bitter Sweet Symphonies'

We're also really pleased to have had a lot of support from local, student and community radio recently. We've been played on Terry Christian's Northerners With Attitude for the last two weeks, and last night we hope you were all tuned in to our good friend Daz's show The Music Files on Salford City Radio 94.4 where we made an appearance along with some of Daz's other picks of choice new music. It's always a great show for new music fans. Then tonight you get the chance to listen to us being interview and the new single twice, firstly on Wythenshawe FM 97.2 4-5pm and then on Hive Radio at 7pm so make sure you tune in!

If you're still reading at this point well done!

Anyway we have a new logo! What do you think?

 

Cheers to our friend, Lucas who designed it. We had a good chat about what we wanted and he went away and got it spot on. The cotton plant relates to our name, and the bee is there to represent our Salford roots (taken from the Salford coat of arms). T-shirts are on the to-do list so watch this space.

The last thing we'll mention in this post is that if you're at Old Trafford on 28th September watching MUFC play WBA listen out at half time, as we have had confirmation that they will be playing 'Scenester' in the ground. We loved hearing 'I'm Not Playing' last season, and are really looking forward to our single blasting out to thousands again. Thanks to everyone involved at the club in promoting local bands.

We have a load more gigs for you to put in your dairies for the next few months, but we will save that for the next blog post. In the mean time keep up to date with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Cheers.

Outdoor Gigs and Sinking Ships...........

Just though we would stick a quick blog up about our last weeks worth of antics and also to let you know a few of our plans for the future.

It's been a busy month for us so far and this last week was no different. After a session in The Mill rehearsing on Tuesday we packed the van up and shot over to Stockport for a mid week gig on Thursday at The Bakers Vault. 

The venue had a really good vibe and was nice and busy, it was full of people just out to watch live music rather than a specific band or artist. We went down a treat and our CDs disappeared in seconds and had lots of people asking for more which was nice. Thanks to everyone who watched us and thanks to John from Leaf Promotions for inviting us down to play.

Next on the agenda was a nice day time gig on an outdoor stage at Barca in Castlefield. The sun was out and the place was packed. Before we took to the stage we got treated to a show from a passing boat which had decided it didn't want to float anymore and managed to attract a nice little audience.

Anyway the fire brigade turned up and rescued them just in time for us to take to the stage and grab everyone's attention back.

        

As you can see The Nankeens were enjoyed by young and old :)

The feel of this gig was totally different to playing indoors and everything felt a lot more chilled out and easy going and we just had fun playing and hopefully people could see that in our performance.

So after a busy month in July it's looking like August is going to be a bit slower, with a lot of trips to the studio to get our next single (Scenester) ready for release.

We will book in the odd gig to keep us busy so keep an eye out for them, but our next big gig is going to be our single launch.

SINGLE LAUNCH

So as we said before our next single is going to be called "Scenester" and we're really looking forward to launching it. We have teamed up with Scruff Of The Neck Records again for this release and are pleased to announce that we will be launching it on the 21st September at The Deaf Institute in Manchester, full event details are on the link below.

https://www.facebook.com/events/207254679431149/

Just to finish we want to say cheers for everyone who has helped out and also everyone who has watched us recently and one last thing........Please give our facebook page a "LIKE" and also ask your friends to do the same.

https://www.facebook.com/thenankeens

Cheers - The Nankeens : ) 


Photos Courtesy of TrustAFoxPhotography

The Playlist and Manchester Evening News

After an awesome weekend, we thought it was about time to do another blog!

First off leading into a busy weekend we had a couple of nice surprises, the first of which was an nice email from Manchester United Football Club asking for the details for our song I'm Not Playing so that they could arrange our royalty payment from when they had played it at half time at Old Trafford.

The second was a total surprise, after flicking through the pages of the Manchester Evening News we were shocked to see a great review on us in the City Life section labeling us a ONES TO WATCH :) Hopefully this is a sign of some good things to come.

Anyway, moving on if you follow us on Facebook or Twitter (if you don't then please do, it's a BIG help) you will already have seen lots of promotion about our own event that we have been organising over the last few months.

We decided on the name 'The Playlist' because we wanted to host a night with bands who are our friends and we love to watch followed by a DJ playing music we love - a  playlist of music we're into.

As we hadn't done this before and had no idea how popular the night might turn out to be, we chose the intimate Castle Hotel in Manchester's Northern Quarter as the venue. We can't stress enough how much of a brilliant music venue this is! It has an amazing sound (that the great sound engineer worked perfectly) and the rooms character with it's high arching ceiling and skylights gave all three acts a great backdrop to perform from.

Skinny Roller started the night off packing a right old punch with their big sound, and at that point we knew that the night was going to take off. If you haven't been to see these guys you need to. 

Skinny Roller

Our pal, David Liversidge took to the stage performing on his acoustic and wowed the crowd with his amazing vocals - and an AWESOME cover of 'Go Your Own Way' which  had the room rocking.

David Liversidge

We then took to stage with our extended set. It could not have gone any better! By this point the room was packed, the sweat was dripping, hands and legs were flying everywhere as everyone seemed to be dancing. All the regulars were there singing along, and so many new faces. We threw in two covers to our set - The Clash 'I Fought The Law' and The Libertines 'Up The Bracket', basically because it was our playlist, we love the songs and mostly, just because we could! Although it was just a one-off for the night, I'm sure we'll throw them into our sets every now and again after the reception they got from the crowd.

We also asked ex Hacienda  DJ Paul Langley to play some classic tunes before and after the bands so we partied on until the early hours with his help. 

We are all still buzzing at how well the night went down, and because we all had a top time too. So a massive thank you to all who came and made it such a good night for everyone involved.

Roll on the next Playlist  ;)

Thanks to Trust a Fox for the photos.

playlists itunes and everywhere else......

 We have recently been getting a lot of new likes on Facebook and follows on Twitter so just wanted to say hello to you all and cheers for taking the time to check us out. Also big thanks to everyone who has been helping share our page and spread the word about The Nankeens.

So to bring you up to speed with what we’re up to we have a really busy month of gigs ahead but the one we’re most excited about is going down on the 20th July at The Castle Hotel (Manchester).

After starting to sell out gigs for promoters we have decided to put on our own event, ‘The Playlist’.  We are basically taking one of our Friday night Mill Sessions to town, making our own playlist of bands and DJs.

All the info for the gig is below so get your peepers on it…

 

Those of you who haven't yet been fortunate enough to attend one of The Nankeens 'Mill Sessions' that take place after a gig and see the band party with their mates and anyone who is up for it until the small hours, then don't worry - because they are bringing it to Manchester!

 On 20th July, The Nankeens are hosting their own intimate gig at the Castle Hotel, presenting a playlist of music from them, their friends David Liversidge Music,Skinny Roller and DJ Paul Langley.
In true 'Mill session' style it's limited capacity so NO Tickets, NO guest list just £3 on the door FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED. Get there early as its gonna be busy!
Limited number of free EPs available on the night. Can't say fairer than that.

Doors: 7.30pm

Bands: 9.00pm

DJ 'til 2.00am

 

                                       itunes
And also in other news our EP, ‘Autonomy’ is now available on Itunes and should be online everywhere else - Amazon, Google Play, Spotify etc. in the next week or two. So if you haven’t already then you should check it out and learn a few of the words before our gig on the 20th at The Castle Hotel.

EP - Autonomy - (iTunes)

Peace Out ..............The Nankeens

Media City to Isle of Wight

It's been a pretty hectic month and we have been that busy we haven't had time to do much blogging. Sorry...must try harder.

Before we get started we would like to welcome our new manager, Mr Thomas Oldbury to The Nankeens With things starting to get very busy we have joined forces with Tom, who has already bagged us a few quality gigs, and brought lots of energy and ideas to the band. He loves our music and what we're doing, so together we're hoping to take the band up a level.

 

The main updates we wanna tell you about since the last time we blogged all happened over the bank holiday weekend at the beginning of May...

Firstly we got asked to take part in a competition to play at this years Isle Of Wight Festival! We have tickets to go and watch all the brilliant acts on already but having the chance to actually perform is amazing. Our heat was the first of 3 with the top 2 artists from each heat competing in a final on the 24th May at Walkabout, Manchester. Things couldn't have gone much better for us and we played an awesome set to an awsome crowd and managed to win our heat which means we are now in the final! More about that shortly.

 

The next bit of action was on the Sunday. Were you at the Man Utd vs Chelsea game at Old Trafford? If so you might have heard a cracking tune being played at half time ;)

 

If you didn't catch it, here is a little video of us listening to our tune,  'I'm not playing' with thousands of other people!

 

 

We got invited down to watch the match as they had put our song on the play list and it got blasted out at half time. Must admit it was a strange feeling listening to your song being played to such a massive audience but hopefully it's something we can start getting used to.

 

Finally on the bank holiday Monday we played or first outdoor gig in the glorious sunshine at Media City for the Lowry Food festival.We couldn't have asked for a better day, and it was good to see the likes of Mr Clint Boon and Mark Radcliffe come and check us out.

We were shocked at the amount of people that turned up to watch us and we just want to say a massive thank you to everyone.

 

 

 

We finished of the day with a trip to St Helens to meet with a production team who are interested in working with us but that's about all we can say on that at the moment. Listen out for more on that soon.

 

Anyway, back to the 'Road To Isle Of Wight' competition - it's the Manchester final on Friday 24th May.

We need all the support we can get so please get all your friends and come along and make some noise to help us be part of this years festival line-up:

Walkabout
Manchester
Entry - Free
Time - event starts at 7:30pm.

Our stage time is around 10:30/45pm.

A week in the life of The Nankeens

First off we want to say thank you to everyone who came to our EP launch at Night and Day Cafe.  It was a megga night and the EP has had nothing but great feedback. Remember you can download the EP, Autonomy for FREE HERE, or see us at a gig to get one of the remaining CDs we have left.

We've got loads on this week so we thought we'd jot it down to keep you posted on what we're working on and the gigs we have coming up over the bank holiday weekend.

Monday
We're starting the week off with a rehearsal. Then we'll be shooting over to our local (Wangies) for our traditional Monday club pint or two.

Tuesday
We will once again be in The Mill grafting and working on some new tunes.

Wednesday
Out location spotting for a photo shoot we have coming up. Also Daz over at http://www.salfordcityradio.org/ will be playing one of our tunes on his show, The Music Files.
It's a cracking show which champions lots of unsigned bands so make sure you give it a listen - 94.4fm 7pm-8pm.

Thursday
Our only day off this week but we have managed to get some air play on Ruth Barnes at Breakfast show on Amazing Radio so make sure you tune and also contact the show and let them know what you think about our tune....https://twitter.com/ruthbarnesmusic
                https://twitter.com/amazingradio

Friday
Back in The Mill for a quick blast through the set and then we'll be getting all the gear sorted and ready for our double header of gigs.

Saturday
1st of 2 gigs over the bank holiday weekend is at The Engine Rooms near Wigan. They're hosting an event over the 2 days. It starts at 3pm finishing in the early hours. So if you live in or near Wigan come along and check us out.

Sunday
To round off a busy week for us we'll be playing at none other than our local Monday club venue - Wangies.

After going in there over the last 3 months they asked us if we would be up for playing.
It's walking distance home for us all and it's a bank holiday Monday so it has potential to be a messy one.

If you weren't planning on coming already then sort it out and come check us out over the bank holiday weekend.
Peace Out......

Who's coming to our ridiculously cheap EP launch?

This Saturday - 16th March

Familiar date?  Ermmmm YEAH because you've probably heard us banging on about our EP launch for weeks!

And so, come Saturday (tomorrow!) we're launching our debut EP, Autonomy at Night and Day Cafe, Manchester. The cost to get in is £3. T-H-R-E-E English pounds.

That gets you in to watch 3 top bands (The Minor Blues, The Deleplains and us), it also gets you a free copy of the EP.

If you don't appreciate the amount of hard work that has gone into this self-recorded, self-funded EP then the pictures below should tell a few thousand words:

Hope you can all make it down, but if you do happen to be one of our fans who can't then the EP will be available to download for free by 18th, so keep an eye out for the link ;-)

Here's a link to the video to the single to get you warmed up for Saturday!

Cheers! #Epicindie #Herewego

Our EP.....Johnny Marr, The Joy Formidable, Foals.....

Thought we'd take a breather from a hectic couple of weeks to let you know what we've been up to. 

Firstly let's just take a minute to recognise what a top week for gigs it was last week. We managed to get to 4 of them, all in Manchester. It really is the place to get out and see music from emerging artists - as well as those that aren't doing too bad for themselves!

In a nutshell here's how the week went:

Monday:

Johnny Marr - secret gig at Night and Day Cafe. Totally unplanned and unexpected but we were in the right place at the right time and had the pleasure of being one of the lucky few that got to hear some of his recent work.

Here's our mate Trewy looking rather pleased with himself at meeting the Johnny. SAY CHEESE!

After we watched Johnny, we mooched over to the Castle Hotel to watch a band called Girls Names. They filled the intimate venue, and are definitely a band to look out for if you ask us. Sorry no pics of this, we were a little worse for wear by then.

Thursday:

The Joy Formidable - The Ritz

The clue is in the name. They were formidable (was gonna say they are a joy to watch, but it sounds a bit wet doesn't it!) They were epic, totally owned the stage. Ritzy Bryan is cool as fuck. 

Saturday:

Foals - Manchester Academy

Well. It was like one big rave! Even the most dismal of dancers would not have resisted moving their feet at this gig. They put on a right good show - no wonder the touts were asking £80 for tickets outside, don't think anyone was disappointed.

So anyways. On top of taking in some musical genius, we were also busy sorting the EP tracks out and finalising the video for the EP single 'I'm Not Playing'. You can now watch our home-made video on youtube here: 

Highly recommend you watch this if only to check out Mark flying. We promised you he'd fly, and he does. We've had some great feedback on it so far, but we'd really appreciate it if you could share it with your friends and ask them to do the same.

So finally then just a quick reminder that our EP launch is going to be at Night and Day cafe, Manchester on 16th March. It's £3 on the door and everyone gets a FREE copy of the EP.

We'll be releasing a link for anyone else to download the EP tracks for free online after the launch so keep your eye out.

2013 starts with a bang

WOOOAAAHHH <---- that's us just about coming down from the high that was playing to a packed out audience at Academy 3, Manchester this weekend.

THANK YOU to all of our fans who made it. It sold out, and we played to nearly 400 people who were all as up for it as we were!

More pictures of the night will be posted on Facebook / Twitter over the next week.

We had a brilliant night. Our two brand new songs went down a treat, saw all the regulars dancing at the front, and a lot of new faces making their way forward to have a boogie too. We know it's a good gig when Tatt gets down on his knees on his guitar solo, and yes. It happened.

Thought we took enough demo CDs to give out at the end but there seemed to be a bit of a scuffle to grab them and they all went in seconds - weren't expecting that! If you didn't get one, don't worry, we'll have plenty of free EPs to give away as of next month - but more about that later.

Josh Beesan, El Gazelle and The Quangos banged out some amazing sets, anyone who went definitely got their monies worth.

Cheers to Scruff of the Neck / Beached Festival for organising the whole thing, same again soon ;)  

...And it doesn't stop there. We are very busy at the moment. First of all we're in the middle of producing our second music video to our track 'I'm Not Playing'. We're just doing the final tweaks and it will be up on youtube...keep a look out to see Mark FLYING in the video.  We shit you not. He flies. Check out the cheeky shot from the video shoot.

As well as that we've been busy moving our recording gear into The Mill, so we can have a go at recording our two brand new tracks 'Shunt' and 'Breaking Bad'. Hoping to get them polished off for you to hear very soon.

Anyone from Blackburn? We're playing at The Live Lounge Saturday night (16th Feb). Come and have a listen!

And last - but by no means least. We're launching our FREE EP on 16th March at Night and Day Cafe Manchester. It's going to be another mega night so get your behinds down there to listen to some of our Epic Indie and bag yourselves a free copy of the EP. What's not to like? Keep checking Facebook and Twitter for more details on this.

Recent press and upcoming events!

Happy new year everyone! Just a quick blog to share a few things with you.

First of all, if you live in our local area you might have seen us in the paper this week. We were chuffed to have a little column written about us and why 2013 might be our year - we can only hope eh! For those of you who missed it, or that live further afield here's a picture of the article. If you squint you might even be able to read it.

Nice to see people are beginning to notice our music.

Recently we've been coming up with lots of new ideas and we have started doing a lot of recording at home.  In fact the main song on the free EP, (that will be out in coming months) has been done that way and sounds top. We are in the middle of a DIY video for it too. We're working with our good mate Ant Moss to create a 'stop motion' video. All sounds very grand doesn't it? 

Anyway, just trust us when we say it's looking brilliant. We are having a great time doing it, and will be posting lots more information about it it in future blogs, so keep an eye out for links to it.

If all goes well, we're hoping to do the same with two brand spanking new songs that we have come up with in The Mill lately. Still a little tweaking and polishing to be done on them, but they are almost there and we hope at least one will be ready for our next few gigs, including the next big gig at Academy 3, Manchester on 9th February.

Speaking of the gig at the Academy we are hoping to see lots of faces - new and old  - there. Get in touch with us via Facebook or Twitter for tickets.

We'll be blogging again soon, but in the mean time just a little thank you to everyone who is liking, sharing and recommending our Facebook and Twitter pages. We are steadily growing in numbers on both, and it is definitely a BIG help in getting our name about, and under the right peoples' noses so we can carry on getting booked for gigs and getting our music listened to. We really can't stress  how helpful it is when you like and recommend our page to friends so more of that please! Cheers.