Tellison

It’s Christmas Eve. A few years ago I was three floors downstairs in my folks’ basement recording the first demos of songs that became “Edith” and “Freud Links The Teeth And The Heart”. This year I’m in the attic. Outside it’s raining.

In 2011 we released our sophomore album “The Wages Of Fear”. We toured and toured. In lovely vans and vans that were broken beyond recognition. We played with The Get Up Kids and watched Devon Williams of Osker play to nobody in London. We made three videos and released two of them. We dressed in drag. We swam in the sea. We moved to East London. We wore speedos. New Found Glory liked us. We grew our moustaches in April. We carried on working jobs that aren’t being musicians. We rode the teacups in Essex and watched Daniel Flay drink cocktails out of goldfish bowls. We got way too drunk in Leicester and upset a poor girl’s housemates. Penguin tweeted about “Edith”. We formed The Sticky Bandits in Manchester. We made a Christmas song over a weekend at the start of December. We played in a street in Stirling. We finally found a copy of Don Quixote on tour in Scotland. Henry got into Fantasy Fiction. Pete got promoted. Andy got serious. Ric got (even more) handsome. Matt opened a bar. Ben toured the world and made us jackets. We wore tour jackets on the beach. We loaded in through torrential rains and wind and sun, mornings, afternoons and nights. We played a gig at an indoor ski-slope. We headlined 2000 Trees. We met a million people. We met a couple of great bands. We dressed as wrestlers and fought. We toured some more. Ric got sick in York. We went to a church in St. Pancras. We talked to Americans. We got doubtful and then we got resolute. We tried to say thankyou. We had a good time. We were grateful.

Giant hugs and thankyous to Matt Hughes, Simon Drake, Greg Hilson, Kev Marston, Peter Miles, James Bragg, Aisha Ali, Ed Thompson and all of the other people who’ve helped and helped us. We don’t exist without you. Stay brave this Winter.