As things have been fairly quiet round these parts we thought we?d just let you know we are still alive with a wee update.

Since the last time we reported a few things have been happening. On a personal level, the first member of Viva Stereo got married. Tim got married to Eilidh in May up in Dornoch so congratulations to them both. Obviously the whole band was in attendance(Rob was Best Man) with Stuart and Gav Onthefly spinning some discs at the end of the night. It was a grand day although Tim and Eilidh might have regretted putting the Viva Stereo lot on the same table!
Tim and Eilidh then spent their Honeymoon in Norway. Although Tim claims this was coincidence, that same weekend, the town they were staying in hosted a Heavy Rock Festival featuring such greats as Europe and Whitesnake. So yeah Tim was in his element we think!

Band wise, it has been quiet but a few things of note been happening.
March we played a one off gig in Dunoon. This turned out to be part of Tim?s Stag Night weekend. Four of us set off early one Friday to catch the ferry. It was our first gig of the year and we were lacking in practice but nevertheless looking forward to it. We?d booked a seaside hotel which was very nice and gave us the holiday bug. Some of us hadn?t been to Dunoon before so it was a nice thing to do for Tim?s Stag Night. We did get wary after witnessing a punch up in the street at 5pm but the gig itself, despite having some sound problems went not bad considering. Also on the bill were our long term partners in crime, Odeon Beat Club so it was good to catch up with them. The night ended(for Stuart and Doug anyway) back at a party at a hillside farm with OBC before a long walk back to the hotel at 5am through various dirt tracks. Just in time for the early morning alarm call at 8.00am and to catch the 10am Ferry, back over to Edinburgh for an all day drinking session for Tim?s Stag Night. Who says we?re getting too old to keep up?!

We picked some airplay in April with Radio One giving ?Knee High Boots a spin. Always nice to hear yourself on the radio even though we all missed it! Still, considering the album came out way back in November it was nice to get played.

April was most notable for this years Homegame. This was our 5th Homegame in succession and probably the best yet. Definitely our best crowd in terms of enthusiasm and mayhem. You can check out the final moments of our set complete with stage invasion here(the picture gets brighter about 30 seconds in when the house lights come on):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aYuz4PBRSM

The Homegame itself was fantastic and we?d like to thank Johnny, Kenny and everyone at Fence records for getting us onboard. Special mention to Kate for sorting out the equipment. Closing the Saturday night was a real honour and despite the fact our lack of practice was probably apparent, we managed to put on a decent show?.or maybe everyone was too wasted to notice!
The weekend was jam packed with highlights, all four of us went in different directions and saw lots of stuff(and missed lots too unfortunately). A special mention must go to Onthefly for a fantastic set before us(and probably got us in the mood for playing more than anything!) Other highlights were The Phantom Band(who somehow ended up kipping on our floor on the Saturday night!), Malcolm Middleton, Pip Dylan, Strike the Colours, Candythief, Pictish Trail, English Bore, Kid Canaveral and loads more..plus who can forget Hardsparrow?s ?Mushroom Ghost?(?) tune which freaked Stuart out somewhat after a heavy night.
Roll on next year.

We also managed to sell all copies of our limited edition ?Viva Fence? album?.thanks to everyone who bought one.
Doug and Rob also played a solo gig in August at Glasgow's Liquid Ship. Blues Bunny reviewed the gig and said this:
"Executing a stylistic right turn were Viva Stereo. Or at least half of them anyway as there's normally more than two of them. One guy with a guitar and one guy with what looked like an old and cranky synthesiser treated us to a selection of stripped down songs that sounded like they came from an unholy alliance between the Pastels and Hawkwind. Normally the mere thought of Hawkwind would cause me to spit flames but the mischievous sense of humour that Viva Stereo brought to their performance diverted me from that. They didn't take themselves too seriously and they actually appeared to be enjoying themselves. Altogether rather pleasing, I'd say."
Interesting!

So what next? Well, work has started on some new ideas that might feature on a new album at some point later in the year. Currently we?ve got the bare bones of 6 or 7 tunes. To be honest we?ve wiped the slate clean and want to try some new things. As usual we?ve also got a couple of remix/collaborations on the go. One with the lovely fellow Fencer Iona Marshal, if you haven?t heard her yet check her stuff, its ace. www.myspace.com/ionamarshall
The other with a couple of friends from up state New York which is sounding pretty off the wall so far and definitely a departure in sound for us! We?ll get some snippets up in myspace when we are happy with how its sounding.
We?re going to be taking it slow and letting things develop. We?re very pleased with our first three albums but we feel its time to move on and try something new?.well, that?s the thinking at the moment..this could change and we?ll just release a rehash of previously released tunes!

Hope you all have a great Summer. Hopefully we?ll sort out some live gigs at the end of theyear.

Viva Stereo

Our new album is now available to purchase. We?ve put a couple of tunes from it on our myspace player for you to have a listen to.
You can order it online from here.
http://www.resonancemusicstore.com/vivastereo

Its also available to download from itunes.

If you?d rather do things the old fashioned way and actually go into a shop then you can buy it from the following stockists:
Glasgow: Mono records, Avalanche Records
Edinburgh: Avalanche Records
Leicester: Rockaboom Records
Manchester: Piccadilly Records

If you?d prefer to send us a cheque we can sort that out too, just get in touch and we?ll get you an address to send it to.

It sounds great honestly! It features guest contributions from Onthefly, Malcolm Middleton, Chris Deveney from My Latest Novel, Candythief and King Creosote playing a bit of accordion...oooh yes.
We?re also playing the following live dates:
November 7th ? Glasgow ?Pin Up Nights at Stereo(Renfield Lane) with Licker (Late show...we will be onstage at midnight followed by DJ?s til 3am)
November 8th ? Aberdeen ? The Blue Lamp (De-Fence Records night)
December 13th ? Leicester ? Sumo (with The Dirty Backbeats, Emily Breeze & Ambrose Tompkins plus Onthefly -DJ set)

Theres a wee interview with us online here:
http://www.shaddersonline.com/page47.htm


Ok, thats all for now. Please buy the new album!!

Hello,

Three years since the release of our last album, we are pleased to announce our return with a brand new album 'Roar Lion Roar'.

The third and final album in trilogy of self-released albums that started in 2004, this new album features a myriad of songs and we believe the strongest body of work we have released so far.

Now with all four of us living in different cities throughout the UK with Stuart furthest South in Leicester and Rob furthest North in Aberdeen, we have embraced the 'problem' by ironically recording their most cohesive record to date.

Although not a 'concept' album as such, it is the mixtape(or cd!) to the Saturday night excess, through Sundays soul searching and into Mondays drudgery of the 9-5 job. With us now all in their 30's and dealing with the inevitable pressures this brings, from financial burdens to parenthood to resisting the feeling that maybe it is time to 'grow up'(!), this album is a celebration of still enjoying life, love and the occasional allnighter.

The album was partly recorded at Diving Bell Studios in Glasgow with Marcus Mackay and partly recorded at Viva Stereo's own Footfall Studios. We also recorded one track with Paul Savage at Chem19, Chemikal Undergound's studio in Glasgow.

As with previous albums we've enlisted the help of some guests, Track 8 features Malcolm Middleton on vocals, Track 5 features Chris Deveney(My Latest Novel) on vocals, and Track 3 features Candythief(Fence Collective) on vocals. While Onthefly(Fence Collective) co-wrote track 6 and King Creosote added accordion to track 10.

The album will be officially released on November 10th, with a launch night in Glasgow at The Winchester Club as part of Pin Up Nights on November 7th. However, we will have the album in our online shop and on itunes in October. Just keep checking back, or check the myspace page for more uptodate info.

The tracklisting of the album is as follows:
1) Another Night Out
2) Glass
3) This Is Not an Exit
4) Knee High Boots
5) Last Living Hope
6) Pariah State
7) Night Owl
8) The Seaward
9) War Paint
10) Teenage Dreams
11) Everything Goes Wrong
12) Suffocation

We will be uploading some of these tracks onto our myspace page so you can have a sneaky preview in the run up to the records release. You can also check Youtube for some short videos we have made to accompany a couple fo the songs.

If you'd rather do things the old fashioned way and actually go into a shop then you'll be able to buy it from the following stockists:
Aberdeen: One Up Records
Glasgow: Mono records, Avalanche Records
Edinburgh: Avalanche Records
Leicester: Rockaboom Records
London: Rough Trade Records
Manchester: Piccadilly Records

If you'd prefer to send us a cheque we can sort that out too, just email us at vivastereo (at) hotmail.com and we?ll get you an address to send it to.

To coincide with the release we will be playing a couple of gigs:

November 7th - Glasgow - Pin Up Nights @ Stereo, Renfield Lane, Glasgow(ALBUM LAUNCH)

November 8th - Aberdeen, The Blue Lamp (De-Fence Records night)

December 13th - Leicester - Sumo

We should be doing a proper tour in the Spring next year.

Other stuff...

We still have T-shirts available to purchase at £10 plus P&P. Red with black print or brown with white print. Get in touch for further information.

We are now on Facebook..just search for the band name and it should come up.

Ok, thats all for now. We would appreciate your support by buying our new album.

'Optimism is not a Curse' and 'Patterns of Behaviour' are now available to download through iTunes (UK, US and Japan). £7.99 each or £0.79p per track.

Yes, we are still very much alive. But we can forgive you for thinking otherwise! Its been a strange year for us. For the first time not one band member lives in our adopted home town of Glasgow. When we started Viva Stereo we all lived in basically the same postcode, but now hundreds of miles separate each of us...but we shall soldier on.

We are now in our 5th year as a band, and we?ve seen many of our peers come and go, watched so many next big things wither away, and so many bands split up over this time. However, maybe because of our sheer bloody mindedness or indeed our will to keep experimenting with different styles we find ourselves preparing the release of our third album and feeling the same anticipation as we did back at the beginning.

Yeah, it does get frustrating. Or it did. Being out of the Glasgow loop has helped us get on with doing our own thing without getting worked up about not getting that elusive festival slot or mentioned as "a band to watch". After all, five years is along time to be "the next big thing". Anyway, enough soul searching! We are pleased to announce the release of a brand new EP. The 'Miles Apart' EP will be available to download FREE OF CHARGE for a limited period only through our myspace site yes, four brand new tracks completely free of charge so you?ve no excuse apart from laziness. So DO IT NOW!! We will be changing the tracks around xmas time, so get in while you can.

The lead track from this Ep is taken from our forthcoming third album, 'Roar, Lion, Roar', which will be released early 2008. We?ve been working hard on the album at Diving Bell studios and we?re really pleased with how its sounding so far. We hope yet again to enlist the help of some special guests to give the songs an extra something but we have about 9 somgs almost complete with a further 2/3 in the wings. To coincide with the EP release we will be playing the following Scottish dates:

Saturday November 17th, Barfly(upstairs), Glasgow
Special 'Biff Bang Pow' and official EP launch night, with live sets from ourselves and dj sets from Onthefly and Paul from My Latest Novel until 3am. As well as free entry to the club downstairs. Tickets can be ordered from BarFly

Wednesday November 28th, Tunnels, Aberdeen

Thursday November 29th, Henry's Cellar Bar, Edinburgh

Friday November 30th, Monty's, Dunfermline (Is This Music? Night)

We can't emphasis enough how sporadic Viva Stereo gigs are these days(this will only be our third Glasgow gig of the year. We used to play 3 a month!) so if you want to catch us live anytime soon, these are the gigs to go to.

We've been busy in the studio. Rob, Tim and 'OnTheFly' have been blazing a trail on the new album. So far we have drums, bass and some guitars for about 4/5 of the tracks.
Stuart and Doug have still to put in their final recordings in for these. We hope to have it completed this year, but time we're not promising anything.
On a Live note, we're not playing again live till around November, so these are the last gigs while we invest some time pulling the album together.

Two exclusive tracks, one side of 10" vinyl. We are very pleased indeed to be taking up space on one side of a 10 part limited collection of Vinyl. 20 Fence artists in one box by the end! Go here and buy them all: De-Fence Records