*Breaking it all*

'The Bevin Boys'



Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh ruddy dear.

What a few days this country has had, whats happening to us?

I'm afraid I'm going to be predictable and give my thoughts on the current riots that are defacing our once great nation.

Poverty, lack of opportunities etc etc - These are the reasons offered for the widespread riots and looting. I don't buy it, its just pure greed and a lack of respect for whats right and whats wrong. I'm skint, theres no jobs and I'm facing the cut from work but you don't see me chucking bricks through curry's window. Its not the answer and for everyone who is blaming the government for the recent events they need to waken up. If I went robbing and causing mayhem my dad would give me a clip round the tab and I'd be told to get a grip of myself. I don't always agree with politicians and I'm no Che Guevara but I have to agree with Mr Cameron's statement “The young people stealing flat screen televisions and burning shops that was not about politics or protest, it was about theft,”.

The sheer lack of morality by some of today's youth is being made even more clear to me as I am currently reading a book by Tom Hickman which is called 'Called up, Sent down'. Its the history and memoirs of the Bevin Boys who were conscripted during WWII to be sent down the mines. They were boys aged 17 - 25 who were chosen at random to be conscripted to work down the mines, no excuses. Can you imagine asking the 17-18 year olds of this day and age, absolute uproar would surely ensue.

I didnt want to go on, which I already have, but I think parents, children and the society as a whole need to have a good look at themselves. I'm not tarring everyone with the same brush as most folk are good upstanding citizens trying to make a fist of it but the minority need to get back self respect and self decency.

RANT OVER.

In Mabel Love world, we played a successful headline slot at Y-Not which was followed by and epic battle on the dodgems with The Reverend Jon McClure, Miles Kane and his motley crew - good times. Keep your eyes open for news on the next single and a potential tour or two coming up over recent months. I will also be doing a acoustic set in Sheffield soon.

Keep the faith, keep following us and stop bloody causing trouble.

Peace and love.

Mr Rice x

PS I suggest reading the book i mentioned, well worth a read.

Y-Not ahh kid..

ML: giving it 'The big-un' (Edinburgh - Miles Kane Tour)



Afternoon,

Quick reminder and catch up. This weekend Mabel Love are taking to the Peak District complete with musical instruments, camping stoves and parka's. Yes ladies and gents we are playing a festival, in a field, and yes it is going to get messy as we are camping over. We are pleased to say we are headlining 'The allotment stage' at the Y-Not festival in Matlock, Derbyshire on Saturday night. Its our first headline show at a festival and has quickly followed our jam packed Tramlines show which took place at the Leadmill in Sheffield.

We are very excited about the weekend and we are especially looking forward to hooking up with Miles and his gang who are also playing on the Saturday. If you didn't know we recently did a UK tour with those boys and it appears the bands have bonded. How nice!

Anyway if you are at the festival please pop along and give us some support. I might even do the festival thing and don the shades.

In other news we have recently completed our support tour with ASH. We thoroughly enjoyed the gigs and the crowds were great, we look forward to more dates with them soon.

We are due back in the studio after the Y-Not gig and hopefully will have some more material and possibly another single soon enough.

Keep the faith, keep going to gigs and keep supporting bands, we need you.

Cheers

R x

..ML..

**Rebel Rebel**

'Well that was fun, lets do it again'

Above was my immediate reaction following our slot on the Arctic Monkeys Don Valley shows. It was fun and we really enjoyed ourselves, there was about 4 thousand ish in the crowd when we took to the stage and, minus the two pints and a bog role hurled at me, they gave us terrific support. We were really looked after by our crew(Pagey, Wayne, Martin and Scouse Ian)and the whole event was superb. Only issue was that we wanted to play longer....

Anyway that's the past now, you can see the pics and hopefully some readers were there so you can make your minds up on how we performed.

To the future...

We need your help, our debout single 'Hardened Face' has been chosen for BBC6 'Rebel Playlist' by Steve Lamacq and if we get enough votes to win we will be played on all the daytime shows next week. So please follow the link or email Lamacq direct with Mabel Love in the subject line.

Cheers people, oh and I cant get sodding links to work so just copy and paste it into address line. Need to get some computer geek to show me what to do re links...

LINK - http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/steve-lamacq/features/rebel-playlist/

EMAIL - lamacq.6music@bbc.co.uk
Nice one.

Mr Rice
...ML...

~What a week~

So yesterday afternoon the band receives a blanket text from the management. It reads 'You lot might be getting played on Radio One tonight, Zane has you on his playlist, fingers crossed'

Interesting....

Fast forward a few hours and Zane is excitedly announcing his latest hype live on air. Turns out he's chosen us, very disconcerting but very nice all the same. We all had a little celebration in our own unique way:

I was in The Bowery (my second home) getting jumped on by our overly excited manager whilst trying to sink a celebratory ale, George was in his bath tub shaving his rat tash(his words), Daz the poor bugger missed it as was covered in plaster skimming a ceiling and Dan was in his kitchen dancing away with the mrs.

So there we go, 1st single is out, its been played on Radio one and its available for download (link below). Have a listen, have a download and why not pop along and see us? we have a few gigs this week.

Wednesday 8th June - Barnsley, Ceder Rooms
Thursday 9th June - Newcastle, Dog and Parrot
Sat 11th June - Sheffield, Don Valley Bowl

See thee

Mr Rice & the chaps.
...ML....

Single - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/hardened-face-single/id441761673

*Happening*

Right, need more activity on here seen as people seem to be taking some notice of our gang. All the other 'social' network sites are being updated so we should really keep this one as well. Plus I feel like I have something to say.

So what we been up to...Deep breath. I will summarise.

...Checks calender to remember...Just going for last month.

April

Recorded two new demos with Mr Al Smythe, these now appear in set and are looking like front runners to be possible singles - Hardened Face and Bootstrap.

Heartbreaks gig. Manchester. 1st gig back of year, smashed it and then had the 'Joy' of having John Rev and there Chris in back of van smoking and jamming all the way home. Seriously lads we love you...

Record store day, I spent money didn't have buying Tom Petty ltd edition white vinyl and also (another) copy of Killing moon. PS nice to see people buying records, keep it up.

Queens Rd gig, great hometown support of over 300 hundred. Great crowd and a good gig for us. Learning our trade all the time.

Royal Wedding - watched it with me nan. Nice to see some good old fashioned English pomp. Go on the Royals.

That's about it for slightly interesting stuff for April. I will bring you May's shizzle tomorrow. Bored of typing and need something for tomorrow. I will try and think of more medial stuff also.

Cheers everyone.

Regards

Mr Rice

...ML...

**eyup pal**

Next sheff gig...



See you there

...ML...

^^laarndern^^

As I write this blog I must tell you I am in unfamiliar territory, the land of the enemy some might say. Yes ladies and gents I am in 'The Big Smoke'. I have dragged myself away from my safe haven of friendly 'eyup ducks' and I have temporarily re- camped myself in London.

Why you might ask??

Few reasons really - friends, football(sort of, my team isn't playing any at the minute) and a catch up with the management.

So this morning I was woken up by Sheffield DJ Toby Foster playing a bit of Rick Astley, not a bad way to be woken I might add. A three hour journey using 5 methods of transport (walk, bus, tram, train, tube, walk) then followed and I tipped up at the Supervision offices in the EC postal region of London. It is at this point I would like to tip my hat to Britain's transport system, it is brilliant I had no delays and I made it from my front door to London in under 3 hours and only had to walk 500 yards in total! How can you knock that, granted I had no delays, beginners luck I say.

So whilst Ive been in the office Ive heard the new Strokes record, first listen doesn't bode well I'm afraid, I am a massive fan but it does seem to have any energy, hopefully another 'official' listen will change my opinion.

Well plans are set for the band, next agenda on my list is to meet up with my pal, drop my gear off and get out on the town. The only criteria for tonight's watering holes is anywhere that serves beer and is less than £6 a pint.

From the south,

Im Richard Rice reporting on behalf of Mabel Love.

...ML...