Less Campesinos

Ellen Waddell has left Los Campesinos!.

What the pop papers say: Not what the musician said

There's misquoting and then there's making stuff up. The NME's rather strange editing of Gareth Los Campesinos' words from a couple of weeks back seems to be the latter.

Gareth offers a compare-and-contrast.

What he wrote (about Becoming a Jackal):

HIS NAME IS CONOR AND HE SOUNDS LIKE BRIGHT EYES!!! Yes, but Cristiano turned out every bit as good as Fat Ronaldo, right? Decent song, thumbs up.

What the NME published:

HIS NAME IS CONOR AND HE SOUNDS LIKE BRIGHT EYES!!! Yes, but Cristiano turned out every bit as good as Fat Ronaldo, right? Liam Fray turned out to be every bit as good as... ah, this argument seems to have lost its way somewhat. Well, it's a decent song, whatever (even on its second release around), so thumbs up.

I think that adding a reference to it being a second release is fair enough - although perhaps slightly less clunky wording could have been found - but adding in a totally unrelated insult aimed at a third party under a writer's byline? That feels like a liberty too far, surely.

The Lost Campesinos: Ollie's off

Ollie has left Los Campesinos, as you're probably aware. This is his farewell:

It is with very sad regret that I have to announce that I, Ollie Campesinos!, have parted company with Los Campesinos!.

When we first started this band we never expected in a million years that three years down the line we would have done and achieved all the things that we have. It’s been an amazing experience and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

I want to thank everyone that we have ever worked with. Without your hard work we wouldn’t have done all these things. Thank you to every band I have ever had the privilege of playing with. I have made some really great friends.

But most importantly I want to thank every one of you that has ever taken any time to take interest in us. Whether it’s coming to a gig, buying a record or merely reading my food reviews. If it weren’t for you guys and gals we would have faded out a long time ago.

It’s been a true honour and a privilege, my life is going to be very different.

And this is the remaining band's response:

This is really tough to talk about for so many reasons. I guess first off, you should know that the last few weeks have been pretty horrible for everyone, especially Ollie. We didn’t think we’d ever be in this position and it’s been hard enough to deal with privately, let alone publicly, but we’ve certainly taken no pleasure whatsoever in any of this: asking one of our best friends to leave the band we formed together really does feel as shit as you would expect.

It’s obviously difficult to explain this decision in a sensitive way, because Ollie’s been nothing but professional and genuinely lovely throughout his time in this band, and has continued to be, even now. Any of you that have met him will know what he’s like, and what a good guy he is.

So we feel we should stress that the reasons for this decision were never personal nor down to any lack of effort or professionalism on Ollie’s part; we still love and respect Ollie deeply. Please understand that it’s a decision we all felt we had to make for Los Campesinos! to be able to continue as a band at all.

We’ve had over three brilliant years with Ollie and made three records I think we’re all proud of, and in that time he’s always been enthusiastic and hard-working, and, well, just an all-round nice guy. Hopefully this decision won’t make any of us less proud of what we’ve achieved together, as it really has been a pleasure being in a band with him. Again, we can’t emphasise enough just how shit this whole situation is, but we hope you’ll understand.

There is no danger of this being the end of Los Campesinos!, and we will definitely continue more enthusiastically and stronger than ever. All scheduled gigs will continue as planned.

And this is what they were like, in less shit times:

Embed and breakfast man: Los Campesinos

From Carson Daly - kind of like the Talkshow Marc Riley:

Los Campesinos plan Winterval

Touring Britain in February, Los Campesinos? You'll need two sweaters or you'll catch your death:

11 Feb Wrexham, Central Station (14+)
12 Feb Liverpool, EVOL@O2 (14+)
13 Feb York, Fibbers (14+)
15 Feb Aberdeen, Tunnels (14+)
16 Feb Dundee, Dog House (14+)
17 Feb Edinburgh, Bongo (18+)
18 Feb Derby, The Venue (14+)
19 Feb Leicester, Queen’s Hall (14+)
21 Feb Cambridge, Junction (14+)
22 Feb Norwich, Arts Centre (14+)
23 Feb Brighton, Audio New Slang Night (16+)
24 Feb Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms (14+)
25 Feb London, KOKO (15+)
26 Feb Falmouth, Princess Pavillion (ALL AGES)
27 Feb Bristol, Thekla (14+)
01 Mar Birmingham, The Rainbow (18+)
02 Mar Northampton, Roadmender (14+)
03 Mar Reading, Plug & Play (16+)
04 Mar Kingston, Banquet New Slang (18+)

Downloadable: Los Campesionos

Some point in the future, you'll be able to download this into your Guitar Band game-pack. For now, you'll just have to make do with The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future by Los Campesinos.

You can watch the song with pretty moving pictures on the LC website.

UPDATE 07-09-14: These links both now go to long removed pages. But there's the song from YouTube:

Los Campesinos on tour

Yes, yes, LC! are heading off out. These are the dates:

Coventry Kasbah (October 21)
Southampton Joiners (22)
Exeter Phoenix (23)
Cardiff The Gate (24)
Manchester Deaf Institute (26)
Newcastle University (27)
London Garage (28)
Oxford Zodiac (29)
Leeds Cockpit (30)
Glasgow King Tut's Wah Wah Hut (31)

They really should give Manda Rin a support slot, don't you think?

We don't either

Sweeping The Nation doesn't know what's going on here:

HI THERE! Welcome to the internet-based mouthpiece of several UK based bands who double up as AWESOME PALS TOGETHER. DON'T TAKE DRUGS BECAUSE YOU'LL GET IN TROUBLE.

* DANANANANAYKROYD
* LOS CAMPESINOS!
* SKY LARKIN

I don't know, either. But I'm looking forward to finding out.

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet: Los Campesinos

The New York Times goes to see Los Campesinos at the Bowery Ballroom:

Oh, and there was the rest of the band, too. Gareth is but one of seven in the quirky Welsh indie rock outfit Los Campesinos! — all the group members perform with the surname Campesinos! — but, even as the frontman, he was using up a disproportionate amount of the room’s air.

Los Campesinos - exclamation points at the ready

A news pulse from the Los Campesinos, erm, camp warns the world to be ready for new stuff:

27th October sees the release of what the majority of you have decided to call our 'second' 'album'. Not that we ever have mind you.

- There will be no singles released from this RECORD.

- This RELEASE is going to be limited. There will be one, worldwide run of CDs, and then it will be out of print. Done with.

-The package comes in a 14cm by 19cm by 2.5cm two-piece card box. That makes it rectangular in shape.

- The CD will be accompanied by a self-made DVD documentary of our weekend at Oya festival and SummerSonic in August of this year.

- It also includes a 30+ page 'zine, including the record's lyrics and contributions by artists including Xiu Xiu, Grandaddy, Tender Forever, Menomena, Parenthetical Girls and Paul Heaton, based around the title 'We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed'.

- Also each box comes with an exclusive poster drawn for us by Jeffrey Brown.

In other words: it's going to be veryveryveryrare and veryverydesirable. And thus, worth a small fortune on eBay. Potentially.

There's also tour dates:

14 Oct: Komedia, Brighton (14+)
15 Oct: Carling Academy 2, Liverpool (14+)
16 Oct: Irish Centre, Leeds (14+)
17 Oct: Whelan's, Dublin
18 Oct: School Of Arts, Glasgow (14+)
20 Oct: Electric Ballroom, London (14+)
21 Oct: Fleece, Bristol (18+)
22 Oct: Academy 3, Manchester (14+)
9 Nov: Botanique, Brussels
10 Nov: Luxor, Cologne
11 Nov: Melkweg, Amsterdam
12 Nov: Atomic Cafe, Munich
13 Nov: Estragon, Bologna
14 Nov: Piper, Rome
15 Nov: Rolling Stone, Milan

The European leg will also feature Sky Larkin and Lovvers, and the UK tour will be multipliedmediawise through a portally thing at Shredyrface.com. Phew.

You! Them! More dancing!

Los Campesinos are heading out on tour in support of the We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed album:

Brighton Komedia (14 October)
Liverpool Carling Academy 2 (15)
Leeds Irish Centre (16)
Dublin Whelans (17)
Glasgow School of Arts (18)
London Electric Ballroom (20)
Bristol Fleece (21)
Manchester Academy 3 (22)

Embed and breakfast man: Los Campesinos

Let's just put things on hold for long enough to look at the new Los Campesinos video, shall we?



It's called My Year In Lists, by the way.

You! Me! Um... Louis Walsh?

Quick, lock the doors: Louis Walsh likes Los Campesinos!:

"I love that song. There's a really good vibe about the band, there's an innocence that is very nice about them.

"I don't think the business has tarnished them yet, and I hope it doesn't. And it's great to see three girls and four boys together. Historically that doesn't happen much."

You might argue that being praised, in public, by Walsh, is all the tarnishing a career needs.

Live, tonight and thereafter: Los Campesinos!

Fabchannel, home of the ad-supported free streaming live show, is streaming Los Campesinos at the Paradiso, live from 8.30 GMT tonight; and then on demand thereafter. Fabchannel.com is where it'll all be.

UK! And Me! And Dancing!

Next February: while you're busily trying to remember Valentines Day, you'll find your life brightened by a new album from Los Campesinos - Hold On Now, Youngster - and a bunch of tour dates with which it will be promoted:

11 February - Dublin Village
13 Birmingham Academy2
14 Glasgow King Tuts
16 Northumbria University
17 Sheffield Leadmill
18 Manchester Club Academy
19 Brighton Concorde2
22 Bedford Esquires
23 Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms