Originally written by Colin Roberts · 9 May 2006
We're excited to be able to announce The Long Blondes' first movements as a Rough Trade band...
As you may have read in April, Sheffield's superb, infectiously (seriously, you try and get the chorus to 'Separated by Motorways' out of your head...) pop-rocking five-piece The Long Blondes signed to the ubiquitous Rough Trade label.
We're proud to be able to exclusively announce the first fruits of their labour, as well as a massive London headline date, regional dates and more.
'Weekend Without Make-Up' will be released on June 19th, produced by former Pulp man and acclaimed MIA producer, Steve Mackey. Across two CDs and a 7", the single will also feature Erol Alkan (Trash club) produced b-sides, 'Forward Babylon', 'Platitudes' and 'Last Night on Northgate Street', the first of which received a debut Steve Lamacq play just t'other day.
Speaking to DiS earlier, drummer Screech Louder proclaimed, "we're really thrilled to be signing to a label with such a great pedigree, and we're all looking forward to having a long term career in music. It's also nice to finally be able to quit our day jobs."
Not to be outdone, Rough Trade muscled in, stating, "we're absolutely thrilled to working with such an exciting band with fantastic songs." Hear, hear!
So, there's a London headline show at King's College on June 21st (more exclusive info, yes!), as well as these dates:-
May 10 Glasgow QMU 11 Middlesbrough Empire 12 Manchester University 14 Portsmouth Pyramid 15 Leicester University 16 Cambridge Junction 17 Bury St Edmunds TBC 18 Norwich UEA 19 Sheffield Leadmill 20 Liverpool Academy 23 Oxford Brookes Uni 24 London Electric Ballroom 25 Lancaster Library 28 Nottingham Dot-to-Dot Festival
June 17 Isle of Skye Festival 19 Cambridge Jesus College Ball
August 6 Kent Electric Gardens Festival 13 Leicester Summer Sundae Festival 25 Reading Festival 26 Leeds Festival
September 3 Ireland Stradbally Electric Picnic 10 Isle of Wight Bestival