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Hey,
So we've started using tumblr now. It looks better and more people seem to be following it...
Keep up with our shenanigans over at http://rolotomassi.tumblr.com

James

UPDATE/VAGUE NEWS

HELLO.

Rolo Tomassi DJ sets this week!!

Saturday 26th September
Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds

+++TUBELORD (LIVE)+++
+++ROLO TOMASSI (DJ SET)+++
+++DUTCH UNCLES (LIVE)+++

Doors 8pm
FREE entry before 10pm
£3/£2 afterwards

-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​-​

Wednesday 30th September
Tiger Lounge, Manchester

CRACK YR SKULL - LAUNCH NIGHT

+++ ROLO TOMASSI GUEST DJ'S +++
+++ CRACK YR SKULL DJ'S +++
+++ EXPECT DELAYS ZINE LAUNCH +++
+++ THE STRIP COMIX STALL +++
+++ NIGHT OF THE LIVING THREAD STALL +++

9PM-LATE
£2 entry
-------------------------------------------------------------

Also, our very own Ed Tomassi has began a task that we've had in mind since the start of summer! We purchased one of those Flip Cameras with the intention of documenting our summer travels! Ed has put together the first in what will be a series of awesome video montages. This one starts at the beginning of course. Nova Rock in June. More of these to follow...

END HYSTERICS

Alright so this is largely copied from the release that was sent out but its worded fairly well so here it is again...

"Saturday 3rd October
SEXBEAT presents End Hysterics, in association with Holy Roar and Fear & Records.
The Rest Is Noise
442 Brixton Road
London

Playing live:
Rolo Tomassi
SECRET SUPPORT
Pulled Apart By Horses
Decimals
Throats

With special guest DJs including Blood Red Shoes, Goldsmiths WI and more

From 8pm – 3am | £5 adv entry seetickets.com

Thursday 8th October
Iron Wagon presents End Hysterics, in association with Sexbeat, Holy Roar and Fear & Records
The Brudenell Social Club
The Club House
33 Queens Road
Leeds

Playing Live:
Rolo Tomassi
SECRET SUPPORT
Special Guests
Holy State

With special guest DJs including Grammatics and plenty more @ the aftershow party at the Nation of Shopkeepers

From 8pm – 2am | £8 adv entry seetickets.com

These special shows are last time the we will play London and Leeds until 2010 as part of two exclusive North / South UK shows before we go to the United States to record our second album. We've chosen support bands that made a huge contribution to our last few tours.

There will be exclusive merchandise at the event including a limited release and t-shirt that will not be available anywhere else."

Buy tickets from HERE

Summer of love

More videos and photos to follow, but for now, we have a sweet feature in this months Front which documents what we did at Sonisphere and below is a mental video from Lowlands last weekend.

I love 'the kids'

What a weekend! Infact, what a summer we've been having!

Seriously. Im not sure what we'd anticipated our summer to be like at the start of the year but so far its surpassed any kind of preconception I could have ever possibly had. Getting to travel to different places in different countries most weekends from the start of June has been absolutely incredible and for this, we thank every single person who has come to watch our band, bought our shirts, said hello and hung out. We all recognise how important the people who have come to our shows have been in making summer '09 a truly unforgettable experience thus far with more to come in the next few weeks!

We played our two biggest UK shows of the summer in the weekend just passed at Sonisphere and Underage Festivals. Sonisphere was such fun. Despite shitty weather we had a killer and chaotic day. We arrived on site, met up with our friends who'd travelled down and got food. We did an hour and a halfs worth of press, notably (and this went on all day) documenting our festival experience for Front Magazine. They gave us a bunch of disposable cameras and got us to take pictures of ourselves hanging out at the festival. Hopefully, it'll come out ok. I think the feature runs next month. Photographer extradinaire Tom Barnes came and took our pictures before we played, when we were playing and after and it looks AWESOME. But yeah, notable points of the day include;

* - Being interviewed by Adam 'Taking Back Sunday' Lazarra as soon as we stepped out of our van. A surreal and spontaneous moment. We kept bumping into him for the rest of the day.

* - Getting wristbands for a FREE BAR. Thats right, all the booze we could drink. It was sweet.

* - Ed meeting Corey Taylor from Slipknot. Pictoral evidence exists.

* - Playing; total carnage.

We stayed at our manager Petes house after (thanks Pete) and had a super early start for Underage the next day. We arrived at 10.30am and could see loads and loads of super excited kids waiting to get in. We got escorted to our stage, this huge outdoor beast and then just chilled out in the artist area for a bit. I managed to get my mum into the festival on the day which she was pleased about. Our set here was intense. So many people going ballistic. I swear the best thing about this festival is just how totally up for having the best possible time everyone is. We got a conga line going and I tried crowdsurfing a few times but just got totally ragged to the floor haha. My jeans and underwear got pulled down and I was exposd (!) but managed to do my best to not ruin any 14-18 year olds lives with a retina burning image of my naked behind. Props to the security at this festival for being totally sweet and not too involved as I've seen them at some shows. They let things happen, did their job properly and held me up when I stood on the barrier. Respect. After we played it was a weird one as we weren't allowed into the strictly 18 and under main arena so we just chilled out and did some minor celebrity spotting which we all enjoyed and made human bodies from the abundance of Maoam that had been left at the table we ate at.

Total props to everyone and everything. We play Poland this weekend. Im excited.
Here are some videos from this weekend I saw on Youtube. Thanks to whoever shot them.








Jamesxx

p.s writing is going well!

A couple of important thankyous!

The last week has been such a busy one! We have played at 4 festivals in 3 different countries. Lots of traveling, either by van or plane.

First up, 2000 Trees was a lot of fun! We turned up to pouring rain and mud. And didn't feel like getting out of the van. However, we put our wellies on, took to the stage and played a rager! It was loads of fun. I (Ed) took part in a drumming study, organised by Simon de la Rue of the University of Gloucestershire. Basically, if i was to play an hour long Rolo Tomassi set, i would burn 900 calories! I may be taking part in further data collection for this, so will keep you posted.

Next! Dour! Dour was a nice little village. We ate some sweet pizza there one night. It was good to see some old guard Tomassi family members Ellen (Holy Roar), Mike Diver and Dean Robot Ham. It seemed we were on a bit of a roll and played another sweet show and had a lot of fun! After the show, myself and Eva went to free massages. Very nice.

The drive home the next day was fairly painless. We all slept in our own beds and flew Milan on Tuesday. Then we arrived to find we were in an awesome hotel! Joe T and I had the best room with a double balcony. Parklife festival was a blast! I must thank everyone there who made us feel welcome! None of us spoke good Italian at all. James was able to exchange a few pleasantries. I do regret not taking the advice of a gentleman who offered me some mosquito repellent. James, Eva, Finian and myself are bitten so badly that 3 days on i still have loads of red dots covering my body.

And finally, last night in Sheffield at Tramlines festival. Our previous show in Sheffield was, in all honesty, disappointing. So we were well up for stepping up our game at Corp. It was amazing to see so many people there and a nearly full big room! Thank you to everyone who attended. I must say, we didn't have the best of luck on stage. But it certainly made us eagerly anticipate our next home town show and make it even better!

Peace out for now, enjoy the sun?

Ed

On and On and On

Hello.
Despite actually having a fair bit of stuff to say and having plenty of time to say it; recently this blog has been somewhat neglected. Apologies.

So we've been on the road a fair bit, around Europe mostly. We've had the pleasure of visiting France, Holland, Austria and this weekend we're off to Belgium. We've been filming loads of it on our new little camera. I think initially we'd planned to do little edits inbetween shows but that was pretty unrealistic considering we didnt have long inbetween shows/we've been practicing most waking hours/we're all a little bit lazy and not that savvy when it comes to making short films. So yeah, expect a mega montage of all the summer at the end of the summer and little bits, as and when its sorted.

Today we're doing our first UK festival this summer(!) and rather predictably, its raining... Maybe if you're not coming to this festival you could go to the cinema but I warn you, Ed said the new Harry Potter film isn't that good. This may have been because he read the book the night before and was more aware of the glaring errors in all the HP book to film transitions. It should be pointed out that we watched all 5 films during 2 days of travelling a few weekends ago. It was awesome.

James.

Eurockeenes

This festival was AMAZING. Beautiful location, amazing line-up and the weather was insane. Its in a region of France called Belfort. Its a pretty quiet place all year round until the festival Im told. Its pretty odd, me and Joe N did a French exchange there when we were 15. Bizarre to go back and play the festival! I managed to meet up with my exchange student which was really awesome and we caught up with the Dananananaykroyd dudes briefly and got to hang out with The Bronx too. Im hoping to put together a video montage from this weekend (as well as one from Nova Rock last weekend) but for now heres a video of us playing Jealous Bones. More words to come on this festival when I can articulate better...

James



p.s my 'editing skills' are limited. Windows Movie Maker FTW.

Album number two.

Hello All.
I write this in a house that is being packed down in Nottingham. The lease is up and me and my housemates are moving on. I've lived here for the last 9 months and its been absolutely amazing. Im very fortunate to have found incredibly sympathetic employers who have been nothing but supportive of our hectic touring schedule which has meant me disappearing for weeks on end. All that said, in terms of us getting new material written, me living 50 miles from the others has been fairly counter productive so, for the summer, Im moving back to Sheffield so we can concentrate on writing our new record.

It hasn't been discussed outside of the band much but we're now ready and focused in terms of writing. We have a lot of ideas, some skeletons of songs, some killer new equipment and the desire and drive to make the best possible sophomore album we can make. I'd talk about what its going to sound like but until its actually written fully I couldn't properly put it into words without just using a load of bullshit expletives. So just prepare yourself.


/////

In other news we bought one of those flip video cameras so we'll hopefully be filming some 'hilarious' scenes and making 'totally pro edited' footage from our travels around the festivals we're doing this summer. Zing.

James xx

New 7" Details announced...

Rolo Tomassi/Throats split 7” vinyl unleashed August 3rd on Holy Roar Records / Hassle

Holy Roar Records and Hassle are proud to present a unique collaboration between the two labels – a split 7” vinyl co-released between Hassle and Holy Roar Records featuring Rolo Tomassi and Throats. However, rather than simply present album tracks, b-sides or the like, both bands have recorded covers of the others work. Rolo Tomassi add synthscapes and haunting vocals to a medley of ‘Headclouds/Reign of Low’ whilst Throats turn ‘I Love Turbulence’ into a caustic blackmetalsludge nightmare.

Strictly limited to 500 copies, 250 copies will come in Hassle packaging (direct from Hassle only, natch) whilst the other 250 will be in Holy Roar packaging (available direct from, surprise surprise, Holy Roar). Buy both to have all versions of this release!

This release also forms the third part of the Rolo Tomassi Subs Club. All existing members will, of course, receive this as part of the subscription. The Subs club is still available from the Hassle webstore and already includes split vinyl releases with The Bronx/Fucked Up and Cancer Bats.

VOTE RT @ KERRANG AWARDS!

Hello.

Its that time of year again when Kerrang! start the voting for their awards in August.
This year, we need all of you to help us win the Best British Newcomer.

Alls you have to do is go to: http://awards.kerrang.com/BestBritishNewcomer.aspx and type ROLO TOMASSI in as Best British Newcomer. Pretty easy right?!

Get your friends, family, grandparents ANYONE YOU CAN to vote for us. We're counting on your support to make this happen!

Thanks,
James Tomassi

PLAN B RIP

Ok, so I might be a little late upon posting this as its been news for a while. The magazine Plan B will unfortunately not be pressed anymore. Whilst it will still continue to have online content (www.planbmag.com), physical copies of what was perhaps the most interesting and eclectic of all UK music magazines won't be available. We'd all like to say a huge thanks to everyone involved with the magazine in taking such a huge chance on our band and putting on the cover of their magazine prior to Hysterics being released. It was amazing for us and we sincerely appreciated it.








The final issue is out next Monday I think.
Plan B R.I.P

Shows with Gallows in Ireland...

The day before the trip to Ireland, i visited Nottingham for Dot to Dot festival! It was a super sunny bank holiday weekend. I caught the train down on the Sunday. It was an awfully uncomfortable ride. But meeting this guy made up for it...



Dot to Dot was mint. Most notably, i saw 65 Days of Static, Pulled Apart by Horses (thanks for the free entry guys!) and Cursive who i had wanted to see for years and years but never had chance to. All three were mint, as was Petebox.

Right after Cursive, James reappeared with a load of glitter on his face?!? This must have been at about Midnight?

4 hours later, we're at James' place waiting for the taxi to take us to the airport. James still has a glittered face, and is also pretty wasted. The other 3 Tomassis (Eva, Joe and Joe) had arrived by car a few hours earlier. We decided not to sleep at all over night and managed to see the sun rise over beautiful Sneinton.

The taxi didn't turn up. So we had to book another one.



Did i mention that this was the first time in ages we had travelled without our tour manager Finian?


this is finian

So we were left to our own devices, rushing like hell to check too many items of luggage onto our wooden ryanair plane, panicking about weight limits etc. That was fine. What wasn't fine was James losing his boarding pass! Having had our bags checked, we legged it to the gate through loads of perfume shops with loads of mirrors! When we reached the gate, James realised what he was missing. So, fresh from the previous night, covered in glitter, James had to scour the floor of East Midlands airport for his boarding pass. Sure enough he found it on the floor somewhere! And we made it on to the plane.

Upon arrival in Belfast, after the worst landing of a plane since my Birthday a few years ago, the time was 7.30 am. And luckily for us, our taxi dropped us outside the evening's venue 'Limelight' just as the cleaners were opening up. Amazing. We slept on our tiny dressing room floor.

The show itself in Belfast was great! The crowd were more than enthusiastic. However, our nights were cut short due to being so tired and stupid enough to not sleep at all the previous night.

Dublin! I've never looked around Dublin properly and we've been there 3 times now. This time was not really an exception. Again the show was awesome! Our set went swimmingly and then Gallows played one of the most enjoyable sets i have ever seen a band play!



Again, we were all pathetic and tired and had to go to bed early.

MASSIVE THANKS to Wounds! for lending us all their gear! We actually would not have been able to go over and do the shows without them. Check them out, they have shows over here pretty soon. Deadly!

Other thank yous go to Meesh, Nat, Gem and Grace for putting up with us until 4.45 on Monday morning, the taxi driver that turned up for us last minute, Wounds again, Gallows and their crew for having us! and of course, Finian and Duncan 'disorderly' Ladkin.

Ed x

This is why being on tour with your friends is the best fun ever.

The dream is over

Ok, so after what was one of the best 3 weeks we've ever had as a band, the Northern Alliance tour came to an end in Oxford on Monday. A huge thanks to everyone who came down and gave the show a totally awesome party atmosphere. An even bigger thanks to Grammatics and Horses. It simply wouldn't have been the same without them. Pics and vids to appear as we have them

For the rest of the month we have a bunch of shows with Gallows, including another trip to Ireland!! Then, festival season starts. We're playing lots. Check our Myspace profile to see the constant stream of new dates appearing.

Finally, Ill be DJ'ing at 7 in Nottingham on May 21st. Brontide will be playing live and they're our bro's so come down yeah? If you want to book RT DJ's for your clubnight/​house party/etc e-mail jamestomassi@​gmail.​com and we'll work something out. Good fucking times.


Take Care,
James

Touring, Festivals etc.

Still on the road, still having fun.
Bristol last night was INSANE. Cheers if you came and danced, all the three bands had an absolute ball. This was then followed by a little aftershow hangout at Tom Horses bro's house. It was fun. We played Buzz It.

Watch the first of the tour videos by clicking here. Theres also some pictures of ourselves and Grammatics from the Sheffield show on there.

We're also VERY VERY excited to announce we'll be playing at Dour Festival and Pukklepop in Belgium. The line-ups for both of those are great so check it out and lets have a massive party. Or something to that effect.

Cardiff tonight and the touring circus continues for another week. Get on it.

James

Irish jaunt almost over

I write this entry from a hotel room just outside of Dublin on a rare day off in the Tomassi tour schedule.

Last night we played our last Irish show as part of this tour in Dublin and we have to wait til tomorrow for our ferry back across to the UK to rejoin Grammatics and the Horses for the last week of the Northern Alliance tour. Whilst we've only played to modest crowds over here, the people that have been to the shows and that we've gotten to hang out with have been super sweet! The show in LImerick was incredibly fun. An all ages crowd with people as young as 12(!) getting involved with human pyramids and everyone in the audience being really forthcoming afterwards. A big shout out to Leah and Aoefi for taking out myself, Ed, Joe and Bean after the gig as well. We had a blast!

A running theme for this leg of the tour has been really early mornings and really late nights and having had to get up at stupid o'clock on several occasions, we had to play at 12.30am in Cork. Cancer Bats played a small venue across down and I would have made the effort to get across had I not been so exhausted. We scored some sweet food during the day at this cool restaurant. Food is expensive in Ireland though and my lack of Euros has hit my stomach hard on a few occasions. Props to Bean for lending me money. Yeah.

Last night we played Dublin and now, as aforementioned, Im in a hotel room pondering what to do with my day off. Any thoughts, please comment. I still have the majority of the day left to waste.

The first in a series of tour videos shot by Mr James Brown will appear on www.drownedinsound.com shortly. Watch that space.

James

There were a group of young kids from Sheffield...

Hello All.
A huge thanks to those of you who have made it out to shows so far. We're having an amazing time with Grammatics and the Horses (James Brown returns!) but are currently alone in Ireland. Last night we played Belfast with the mighty Cancer Bats who were absolutely incredible and tonight we'll be playing our first ever Irish headline show in Limerick. We can't wait. We have two more Irish shows in Cork and Dublin then return to England to wrap things up on the Northern Alliance tour and tear up Brighton with Gallows.

If you've been to any shows, we'd love to hear what you thought, see photos etc.
If we haven't been to your town/city yet, expect serious good times. Tell us where we should go in the day, tell us where we can party at night etc. We're at the halfway point on our longest headline tour to date and we're still ready for more.

Here are some things which have happened already, starting with a sweet video of a new Rolo Tomassi offshoot; Bitch Waltz.




Me, Joe and Si outside some important building in Belfast.





RT, Grammatics & The Horses. Plus these two stoners. I have no idea where they came from.




Much Love,
James

Oh, Hello Video

Directed by Jonny Carter.

It continues...

So we've almost been on the road for a week and we're holding up ok! The last few days in particular have been amazing fun. The Horses have joined us but alas, no James Brown. Sam Pryor is doing a great job as his stand in though and has some of the best facial hair you'll see this year.

Since the last entry we've torn up Nottingham, Manchester and Leeds. Living in Notts, I had a great time going back and getting to hang out in my house. I also got the broken key on my Synth fixed and I apologise if you were at one of the shows where it 'sounded a bit weird'. My mum told me it was really noticeable... But yeah, it was basically just dead dirty inside. Due to my intense naivety with electronics I literally paid a man £20 to just clean it. I need to learn about these kind of things so I can stop haemorrahging money.

We still have a good amount of time left on this tour and personally, Im well excited. Pictures will gradually appear and the entries on this blog may look a bit less dull.

Middlesborough tonight!

James