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July 2005 Thanks
from eight! Well it's been a fortnight since our last ever eight show at The Studio in Auckland. . . and we just wanted to say Thanks! We couldn't have asked for a better way to sign off as a band, what an amazing night to top off an amazing tour! It was a packed house and there was such a great vibe from the crowd, all determined to make the most of the last show. We gave it heaps on stage as we have with all our final tour shows, and had a blinder, it was definitely a great way to finish. (check out the photos . . .) We hadn't performed live as a band for over 9 months before the final eight tour, so were absolutely blown away by the response to all the shows. Thanks again to everyone who came out, we're so stoked that we were able to share our music with you one last time. We also had a great response to the release of our new demo archives CD 'Unfinished', and the re-release of 'Build'. Both these CD's, 'Moving' and the 'Shift' EP are still available to buy online and only 5 'enought about eight' tshirts are left so get in fast . If you're stuck for getting online or don't have a credit card, you can also email us at email us at merchandise@eight.co.nz with and we'll holler back with details of how you can get them via internet banking/mail order/cheque. Credit Cards can buy through amplifier.co.nz. As
we've said before, eight has been an important part of our lives, we've
had a great as a band, and are extremely grateful for our fans and the
support our music has received over the years. Paul, Bruce, Alastair, Hamish, and Chris - eight
June 22 2005 eight
– The Last two Shows EVER this Week! This
Thursday June 23rd @ Valve, Wellington
June 2005
eight
- Final Tour and New CD releases! Thursday
16th June @ Arc Cafe, Dunedin We’ve
had a number of emails and enquiries from fans outside of the four main
centres and we do apologise we couldn’t do a more extensive list
of shows for the Final Tour. If there’s anyway you can make it, just
do it anyway as we’d love to see you there. Invercargill, Timaru,
Palmy and Hamilton in particular are practically just over the fence so
don’t let a few km’s stop you . . . it’s nothing that some
energy drinks and good company on the road can’t overcome! If you
are planning on coming in from out of town though don’t forget your
tickets in advance!
May 2005
eight:
1996 – 2005 . . . The Final Tour! After an extended break, and time both to reflect and to explore new musical directions and solo projects, eight have decided to call it a day as a band. This has been a collective decision for us which has taken shape over the last few months. eight has been an important and rewarding part of our lives with some amazing times spent writing and performing together, and we are extremely grateful for the opportunities we’ve had to share our music over the last nine years. Thank-you to everyone who has supported us, played our songs, brought the albums, and come to our shows. Your encouragement, enthusiasm and energy has been a huge inspiration. Our album ‘Moving’ has also just reached Gold status in NZ which is a great note to end on! Unfortunately there’s no juicy Rock n Roll mis-adventure, ‘creative differences’ or ‘Yoko-Ono’ story to tell. We’ve had a great time as a band, we’re still very much inspired to make music, and are looking forward to supporting each other as we explore some new directions. We do however want to have one last chance to hit the road together (just wouldn’t be right if we didn’t) and have organised our last ever eight shows in just a few weeks! The dates and venues are as follows: Thursday
June 16th @ The Arc Cafe, Dunedin Tickets go on sale this coming Friday May 17th and are available from Red Tickets at your local postshop or online from www.redtickets.co.nz For venue details, door times, and ticket prices, check out the live guide at live guide In a surreal twist, and as a hint of what we mean by ‘new directions’, the shows will be opened with acoustic solo performances from Bruce Conlon, Alastair Rogers, and Chris Cope! Chris will also be performing with eight for these final shows. We want to go out guns blazing and would love it if you would come and hang with us one last time, so spread the word, tell everyone you ever knew, get your crew together, get your tickets, and we’ll see you soon! Thanks for listening . . . . we’ll miss you Paul,
Bruce, Alastair, Hamish, and Chris – in no particular order –
eight
February 2005 This
Update: Fall Apart Remix, Rock 'n roll OE, New
Songs... Christmas 2004 This
Update: Brand New U.S Remix of Fall Apart
out Now, 2004 revisited, and Summer Greetings all round! Crazy
thing is we currently have four singles in the rock charts Top Ten
on amplifier.co.nz;
Whale, Moments Gone, Shift, and the new Fall Apart! September 2004 Hey
Ya’ll, August 2004 Hey
Ya’ll, You
can get tickets for you and 10 of your closest friends from www.redtickets.co.nz,
from your local postshop or by phoning 0800 000 575. July 2004
Hey
Y’all, Tickets
are available from Red Tickets at your local Postshop, or online at www.redtickets.co.nz P.S: The ‘road wound’ award of the tour so far goes to Alastair who during a freak ‘dish-washing’ accident took a bite size chunk of man-flesh out of his thumb. . . congratulations tough guy.
June 2004
This
update: The Tour Dates, The New Single, The New Video Tickets
are available online now from Red
Tickets at your local Post Shop with limited door sales available
on the night.
Paul, Bruce, Hamish, Alastair, and Eli – eight
May 2004
This Update: New Zealand music month, New guitarist, New single, New website, New t-shirts, New winter tour . . .
Hey Y’all,
There’s a lot to cover in this one so I’ll categorise it so we get it all covered.
Small Talk: We’re fine, how are you?
New Zealand Music Month: Bruce helped kick things off in adventurous fashion by bungy jumping off the Auckland Harbour Bridge as part of the official launch. We also performed at the Radio Broadcasters Association Showcase, an awesome opportunity where only five acts are chosen to perform in front of radio programmers from around the country. It went really well so hopefully you’ll be hearing more of eight on the radio. (Thanks again by the way for getting in touch with the stations and requesting our songs, that’s what keeps them playing our music, or makes them sit up and take notice if we’re not already on their playlist!). Other things to look out for from eight this month include: Juice TV Live @ Float – recorded Sat May 8, to be played on Juice TV later this month. Just text ‘Sat’ to 288, txt cost 99c… numbers are limited ZM Live to Air – from 4pm Thursday May 13 Life FM Live to Air – from 4pm Tuesday May 11 The Rock will be giving away a free eight concert to a lucky winners place of work (lunch included) The Rock are also hooking up an opportunity for a winner to come and hang out on the set of our upcoming video shoot for the new single later this month.
This is a great time to get out and celebrate local music so don’t be shy. Our good friends from the band Op Shop have just released their debut album ‘You are Here’ which is a beautiful record and well worth getting your hands on.
New Guitarist: Eli Murray, representing from Whangarei Northland. He’s a great guy and he’s put in some serious hard yards to be ready for music month (If I hear that Whale riff one more time . . .). His first show was in front of the primeminister, the record company and all the radio programmers in the country, no pressure aye! So he’s already made the 6 o'clock news after one show and his second is to be broadcast on Juice TV (nerves of steel this guy, he’s like a thunderbird or something). We’ll try and find some snapshots to put on the website so you can check him out. Cheers heaps for all the emails wishing Chris all the best too, it’s always nice to know you’ll be missed, and keep an eye out for his solo stuff in the near future . . .
New Single: ‘Centre of Me’, due out early June has been reformatted and remixed especially for radio and sounds wicked! We’re shooting the new video in Christchurch later this month and as mentioned you’ll be able to win the chance to come and experience the making first hand, courtesy of the good folk at The Rock, tune in to the station for details.
New Website: A whole new concept, very interactive - you can move things around, the site evolves and grows, very ‘organic’, definitely feels like eight. The new site will be online in the next few weeks so keep an eye out.
New T-Shirts: The new design, courtesy of our good friend Sphere at Grimm Statistics productions is available through the website now, check them out. Grimm Statistics is an emerging local brand, wicked t-shirt designs and accessories available at select shops around the country – go kiwi made!
New Winter Tour: Yes Yes Y’all, it’s on! We’ll be kicking off a full nationwide winter tour along with some ‘yet to be named’ special friends at the Queenstown Winter festival in July. We’ll be spending a couple of weeks in the South Island, and will be touring the North Island throughout August. Full details to come but get ready, we expect you to know all the words (and the air guitar) when we come to your town!
and that’s about us for now. As always feel free to share the love and drop us an email.
Good old New Zealand Music aye – get amongst it!
Paul, Bruce, Hamish, Alastair, and Eli – eight
April 2004
This Update: Some good news . . . and some sad news...
Hey Ya’ll,
Firstly, big thanks to everyone who came out in force for the album release shows throughout March! We had such a great time on the road, and all of the shows went really well. It was awesome to be able to meet a lot of you and hear your thoughts on the album, and we’re stoked to see that people are digging it, so cheers heaps!
The Incubus support was a nice surprise and a huge blast for us. We had a wicked time at both the Auckland and Wellington Shows and it was inspiring to see them in action again. We found out just before we played in Wellington on the Thursday night, and still had the Hamilton show to go on Saturday. This meant driving from Welly to Hamilton and playing the show, driving halfway back, sleeping a few hours, getting to Wellington for the Incubus show, and then jumping straight in the van and driving all the way back to Auckland overnight to get some of the guys back to work Monday morning! Some serious driving and lack of sleep but it was well worth it for a bit of big stage adventure. For the record, Incubus are a great bunch of guys, very down to earth, and we were fortunate enough to be able to have a few good chats before the shows. In Auckland half of the band was hanging out behind the drums watching our set which was wicked, and yes, we did flick them a copy of the album for the road.
We have a bunch of pictures from the Incubus shows and the album release shows on the website for you to check out.
We’re very grateful that the last month has been so much fun for us and that we were able to play around the country a bit, because unfortunately, it was to be our last time performing with Chris Cope (yep, this is the sad news). Chris is an incredibly talented guy and has been wanting to work on his own solo material for a while now, and now that Moving is completed he’d really like to give his own music 100%. Chris has been a huge part of our journey as a band over the last few years, and we’re very sad to lose him (especially as he’s the best looking out of all of us!). It’s not our decision but we respect Chris for pursuing his dreams and as his friends we’re behind him and wish him every success. We’ve known for a little while now but we really wanted to see out the album launch and have Chris be a part of the album release tour as well. This last month has been a really cool time for us to be able to hang out and celebrate the work we’ve done together over the last few years.
We have been quietly working away over the last couple of months to find someone to fill the Chris shaped hole in our hearts, and can announce that the next month for us is to be spent rehearsing with a yet to be named new guitarist. Chris is helping bring our ‘new guy’ up to speed in all aspects of crazy pedal configurations and huge stage smiles so that we’ll be ready to get amongst it again for NZ Music Month in May. It’s a bit surreal I know, but we’ll keep you in the loop as we get stuck into rehearsals over the coming month.
So there you go. We thought we should lay it all on the table for you so you hear it from us first, and we didn’t want to just spring somebody new into the press shots and make like Chris had just been on extreme make-over or something. And hey, don’t fret about missing ol ‘Guy Smiley’ on guitar too much, as we’re sure he’ll be in the headlines with his solo stuff in the very near future . . . aye Chris!!
that’s us for now, except to say a big Cheers Chris! Love ya maaaate.
oh the memories. hugs all round.
Alastair, Bruce, Hamish, Paul - in order of best looking after Chris - eight
March 2004
This update: ‘Moving’ hits the charts, Answers to F.A.Questions, Release show tickets . . . Hey Ya’ll,
Firstly, cheers to all who rushed out and brought a copy of the album when it landed in stores last Monday. Thanks to your support ‘Moving’ has debuted at number 16 on the album charts! If you’ve brought a copy and like what you hear, feel free to help us spread the word and keep it in the charts. If you’re based overseas and want to get a copy of ‘Moving’, we've added a list of online stores on the website for you to check out if you haven’t already.
Big thanks for all the feedback too, we’ve been getting loads of emails over the last week, it’s always good to hear your thoughts on what we’re doing, so don’t be shy about letting us know what you think.
One question that’s come through a few times is, ‘what happened to Shift?’ Here’s the deal for all who have been wondering the same thing. Shift has already been released twice on cd, first back in 1998 on our demo album ‘Build’ and then as part of the four track single last year, which featured a longer remix version also. We really wanted to include a lot more of the new material on the album and so the decision was made to leave Shift off the tracklist in favour of including Whale and Moments Gone, both of which had not yet been released on cd. The four track ‘Shift’ cd is still available if you want to get a copy. We’ll make sure we have a bunch at the upcoming release shows if you’re keen.
A lot of requests for song lyrics have been coming through this week. This is being addressed, and Bruce is currently working on getting all the album song lyrics up on the website. They’ll all be up there shortly.
We’ve also had a huge number of requests for tickets to the upcoming release shows, which is a bit of a learning curve for us as we’ve never pre-sold tickets for a show before. Thankfully we’ve got it sorted this week and pre-sale tickets are now available for all of the upcoming gigs. We’ve had to adjust the entry price to reflect the cost of the tickets and also to provide an incentive for getting your tickets early, so here’s the new deal:
Pre-sale Tickets are $12, and door sales on the night are $15 (all except Dunedin for some reason, you guys get the hook up this time round – see below)
Here’s where you need to go for tickets:
The venues are all limited capacity, so get in quick to make sure you can come and hang out and celebrate the album with us. For full details of special guests, door times etc, check the live guide.
and that’ll do nicely. see you soon.
Paul, Al, Bruce, Hamish, and Chris – eight
February 2004
The Debut Album! Hey Ya’ll,
This is it, by far the most exciting update we’ve had yet.
eight’s full length debut album – ‘Moving’ hit’s NZ stores nationwide on Monday March 1st!
They say that good things take time, and this album has taken over five years for us to finally deliver so by that theory should nothing short of fantastic! We’re pretty stoked to say the least, as we’ve been waiting just as long as you to finally get it out there and we can’t wait for you to hear it.
It’s a pretty good representation of the eight journey so far, and features some of the older tracks like ‘Whale’ and ‘Moments Gone’, as well as the new single ‘No Way to Decide’. There’s some brooding epics as well as some newer singles yet to be released, and even one song we’ve never played live before.
We’ve also included a CD Rom as part of the album, which has exclusive footage of the studio and the making of the album. So, pencil the 1st of March in your diaries, run out a buy a copy, and don’t be shy about telling all your mates to get in there too! If you’re overseas you’ll be able to purchase it online through www.soundsnz.com, www.planetjack.com or www.marbecks.co.nz.
We’ve organised a bunch of album launch shows throughout March to celebrate the release and we’d love for you to come and hang out with us. We’ll have more details (and possibly an extra show on Fri 26th) online soon, so keep an eye on the live guide and listen out on the radio over the coming weeks for ticket giveaways.
Thanks for all the feedback about the new single ‘no way to decide too’, it’s been getting some great airplay on the radio and telly. You can still vote for it on C4 select by texting S440 to 8824 and request it on Juice TV. It’s been climbing the charts on The Rock, and you can also get it up there on Channel Z by voting for it on the top twenty online.
And that’ll do for now. we’ll be in touch over the next couple of weeks with more debut album info.
Thanks for your patience and support. This album is for you, and we hope it’s worth the wait. bring on March 1 . . .
Paul, Alastair, Bruce, Chris, and Hamish – eight
December 2003
eight Christmas goodies . . . . Kia Ora Y'all, Man time flies. We started our debut album project in June this year and now Christmas is right around the corner. The good news is the album is finally finished! Bruce just returned from getting the album mastered in Sydney and we all had our very first listen to the final mix together. It’s
quite a surreal experience to be caught up in something for so long and
then to try and listen to it for the first time. Suffice to say, we couldn’t
be more stoked and it sounds wicked (of course I would say that). The
proof of the pudding will be in February '04 when you all get to
hear it for the first time too. It’s a really honest representation
of the journey of the band to this point and we can’t wait to see
what you think . . . roll on Feb. Apologies to all in the South Island that we aren’t able to come down on this run, but we are definitely planning to hit the mainland again early in the new year.
Thanks to all for your support and patience while we’ve had our heads
down making this record. We’re looking forward to being a lot more
visible again next year with the release of the album and can’t wait
to get amongst it - let the hard yards begin . . .
November 2003 This Upd8: The Album, New Single and Video . . . Kia Ora Y'all, We thought it was about time you heard some of what we've spent the last five months making! The first new single from the debut album "No Way To Decide" has gone to radio this week, and we've put an mp3 on the website for you to check out. We just shot the new video last week in Christchurch with director Richard Bell (ta NZ on Air!) and it should be on your telly from the beginning of December. It's a part performance/part storyboard idea shot in black and white. We put our actor Richard through some serious trauma to get some of the shots we needed (we've put pictures from the video on the website which will show you why . .) Recording the album has been a huge process for us, but we're almost finished and the songs are sounding wicked! Some of them were written just before we headed into the studio and have continued to grow as we've been able to experiment with new sounds and lines and it's really exciting to hear it all coming together. We have one more week of final mixing to go before Bruce heads to Oz to get it mastered and that'll be it, no more tootuing, five months worth all done . . . finally!! We've decided not to try and squeeze the album out before Christmas as it's a consumer overload at this time of year, and we also want to make sure we have everything in place to do it well. We've been building a great relationship with a 'yet to be named' record company over the last 6 months and they're really excited and fully behind the release of the album which is fantastic. The official album release will be in February 2004. The new single is a song we're really proud of and is a great one to crank up over the summer so hopefully it'll tide you over for the holidays. We could really use your help to get it out there, so have a listen online and if you like it, feel free to ring, text, email, put up posters, make t-shirts, bake a cake, and generally harass your favorite radio station to play it! (If you like, you could pretend that sending bulk emails to everyone in your address book is like, super cool . . .) Here's a wee smorgasboard of contact details to get you started:
We're very fortunate to have such a cool fanbase, thanks heaps for the emails over the last few months, it's been a real motivator for us making the album and we can't wait for you to hear it! On the live show front, we're just waiting on final confirmation of a summer tour which should be through next week, and will hit you up soon with a bunch of dates where you can come and hang out. You can also keep an eye on the live guide. and that's us for now. Paul, Chris, Hamish, Bruce and Alastair - in no particular order - eight
August 2003 This update: The Album, Juice TV, L.A and more . . . Hey Y'all, Well we've passed the halfway point now in recording the eight album, and all is good! We pretty much took over the producers house for the first four weeks with amps in various room, leads running everywhere, and all of us recording the tracks together in the lounge room! Among all the sterility of getting gear working and finding the right sounds we've managed to get a great vibe in the house and the songs have come through with a real organic feel about them (of course we would say that though aye) We're pretty stoked with the sound of things so far and can't wait to hear how it's going to sound in another six weeks! We've added some photos to the website for you to check out . . . . . As you'll notice Hamish and Al are looking decidedly 'shaggy' (showing that even facial hair grooming takes a back seat to the dedicated focus of the studio. . ) Meanwhile in the outside world, eight have been nominated in this year's Juice TV Awards under the Best Indie Video category for the single 'Shift'. The winner is decided by public votes so if you: a)
like the video and think we should win then log on to http://www.juicetv.com/events/voting.html and vote for eight-shift in the Best Indie Video category. It's your democratic right to have your say . . . . . and you can win prizes, so don't be shy! (Voting closes on the 17th August - thats this Friday...) In other news Bruce and Paul are off to Los Angeles for a week in September to catch up with the boys from Steriogram and scope out some future opportunities to share our music with the good folk of the United States. Keep your fingers crossed as they'll be landing on Sept 11th . . . . . Also keep an eye out on TV2 for the latest Space 'In between shows filler' as it features us in the studio talking about the album and recording one of the newer tracks. Coming Up: We'll be dropping a brand new single to radio in the next couple of months, theres some new T-shirts on the way, and we've started the ball rolling on an end of year summer tour as well. Keep an eye on the website for details and hang in there . . . the album is coming! cheers as always for your support. Paul, Al, Bruce, Chris, Hamish - eight
July 2003 KiaOra Y'all, We've had a few weeks to catch our breath after a pretty busy Music Month in May. Cheers to everyone who came out to the tour shows, sent emails, brought T-shirts etc. The South Island was a whole lot of fun (oh the memories) so bags we do it all again soon . . . Now, for the news we've been anxiously waiting for and can now happily report: In the last week we have been approved for 'Phase Four' funding from NZ on Air, which means that we now have the green light to finallly start recording the album. Our application has been pending for a while now, so hopefully this explains our less than concrete answers to the "When's the album coming?" questions over the last while. Thankfully, it's officially all go and we'll be head down, volume up in the studio over the next 10 weeks. We're recording in a character two story Villa in Central Auckland and are tracklaying all the instruments at the same time to help capture an organic 'live' feel for the album. It's been a long time coming for us so we're all buzzing and have even written some brand new songs since coming back from tour. Keep an eye on the website for updates/photos from the studio as we'll let you know how it's all going. As always, feel free to share the love, drop us an email, bake a cake, it'all good! . . . and cheers again for the good vibes and support. It makes a huge difference recording this album knowing we're not the only one's waiting to hear it! that's us for now, except to say a huge thanks to NZ on Air. THANKS
NZ ON AIR! Paul,
Alastair, Chris, Bruce, and Hamish - eight
May 2003
This Update: South Island Tour, RtR this Saturday, Juice TV, Coleman Sessions CD . . . Hey Y'all, Well we're packing our own breakfast for the discount flights and heading to the mainland this Friday, South Island here we come!! 15 days and 10 shows, we're all pretty excited and can't wait to get there. Alastair has been Op shopping especially and is looking forward to showing off his five dollar autumn selections. Check the live guide for all the gig details, and don't be shy to shout it from the rooftops and bring all your mates. One thing to note is that we have a change of venue for our all ages show in Timaru with WASH this Saturday. We'll be playing at 'The Community Centre' on Barnard St' instead of the Loaded Hog (R18 show on Friday is still @ The Loaded Hog). Big thanks up front too to everyone who's helping us out while we're down with gear, accom, transport, promo etc. Feel the love, we really appreciate the support. Through the pre-recorded magic of television we are also joining Erika and Jason on RtR Countdown this Saturday at 6pm. This is a biggie for us as they're only featuring four local acts through NZ Music Month and they've picked us to be one of them (go the little independent battlers aye) We had a great time at the interview, and yes you get to watch us say "Hi we're eight and you can catch us on Coke RtR" so don't miss it (and you can win eight T-Shirts and CD's too) Last week we performed with a number of bands at The Levis Live @ Galatos series for Juice TV. It was a fun time had by all, and the good thing is, you get to watch the whole live eight performance as it happened when they play it on Juice TV later this month. Not sure of the exact day and time so keep an eye out, but could be a good opportunity to visit that 'mate' who happens to have Sky . . . . Also, The "Coleman Sessions" CD from Channel Z is out now and the live @ York St version of 'Shift' is on there so feel free to go and invest in some more local music and check it out. Cheers
to everyone who came out to see us on the North Island leg of the Tour,
we had a whole lot of fun, met some great people and loved playing in
front of people who have never seen eight before. Thanks too for the positive
vibes via the emails, and as always don't be shy about getting in touch,
it's all good. Paul, Bruce, Alastair, Hamish and Chris - eight
1 May 2003 Hey Y'all, May
- NZ Music Month
is upon us and we're looking forward to getting amongst it and no doubt
enjoying the full spectrum of local talent that exists in our beautiful
corner of the world. On Tuesday May 6th we are performing for the Juice TV 'Levis Live @ Galatos' series in Auckland. It's open to the public and each band performance will be recorded live and featured as a half hour concert on Juice TV later in the month (and we all get free jeans which is handy). We're also flipping coins to see who gets to hang with Pheobe Speirs on Channel Z and rank their favorite kiwi tunes of all time (I'm picking it'll be Alastair but we'll see) And then theres the South Island Tour . . . . Finally we get to bring our music to the mainland! (to see the tour poster click here) We're booked to fly on the 16th of May and have a 10 show tikitour booked including True Colours in Christchurch, before heading back up for the Auckland True Colours show on Saturday 31st. Getting down South on a limited budget has been a 'wee' challenge so we'd like to say a huge thanks to Pegasus Rentals, Christchurch Airport for hooking us up with some reliable transport. If you want a good deal on car hire out of ChCh, give Roger and his team a call on 0800 354 504 or check out www.christchurch@rentalcars.co.nz Righto, heres the South Island Tour dates. Don't be shy about spreading the word, and hopefully we get the see the southside represented in full force! For full gig details, check out the live guide at www.eight.co.nz and there you have it. Keep an eye on the website for more updates as they come to hand. Happy NZ Music Month, and we'll see you out there . . . Paul, Hamish, Chris, Bruce, and Alastair - in reverse alphabetical order - eight
April 2003 If you book it, they will come . . . . Hey Y'all, eight are a strange bunch; we've played in Germany, India, and Singapore, but we've never played the South Island (or a good half of the North for that matter!). Well, with the new single and video for 'Shift' out there and NZ Music Month on the way, we figured that was a good enough excuse to get amongst it, so we've decided to book some shows around our fair country and hit the road! The North Island dates are in, starting in Whangamata this Easter Saturday (with The Feelers and Augustino), with a bunch more shows heading into the beginning of May. We'll be teaming up with the band Wash for a couple next week as they will be on their way down south. The
South Island is being booked now and we'll be heading down for a couple
of weeks to coincide with The True Colours showcase in Christchurch on
Friday 23rd of May. Thanks for the feedback on the new 'Shift' video, no complaints yet other then the odd dizzy spell/nausea, so we're pretty happy. If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you're sitting down and request it on your favorite show. Also, NZ Music Month is a great opportunity to push local artists on the radio, so don't be shy about hassling your favorite station to play the new single (or just more local content in general, it's all good!) Thanks
for the emails and support, it's what keeps a band like us going, and
it looks like we'll finally be able to answer those South Island requests
real soon . . . .
February 2003 This update: New Video, eight Tshirts, Coke, and Gigs . . . Hey Y'all, The year is flying by already, what with the Big Day Out last month, the America's Cup, impending global war . . . . . she's all on! And in the middle of it all, still trucking along, it's your favorite band, still holding out for that lucrative hair product endorsement to help fund their dreams of world music domination . . . . Or more realistically, still inching along the independent road to recognition, fuelled by the possibility of one day finishing that elusive debut album! We're having a fun start to 2003, and as always, it's great to get your feedback, so cheers for all the positive responses from the Big Day Out, and for the new single 'Shift'. We've got some photos from the BDO on the website if you want to check them out. The four track CD ('Shift') is ticking along nicely through the stores, but feel free to buy another six or so just for kicks! The Good news is we are shooting the new video in a couple of weeks (coming to a roundabout near you) so keep your eyes out for that from around the 7th March. This one will feature the band which is a novel approach for us, and even playing our instruments too so look out! We have some eight T-shirts out now too if you're a fashion victim in need of some cred (all the cool kids are wearing them) You can buy them through Real Groovy in Auckland, at our shows, or email us and we can hook you up that way. We also recorded a new anthem for Coke the other week (hence how we're able to make the Shift video - cheers) so listen out for the new eight flavoured commercial on your radio. We also played at the shooting of the new Coke TV Ad, featuring Nesian Mystic, complete with snowboard ramp at the beach crazy chilly bin beach volleyball water fight action . . . . which was heaps of fun. And finally, we figured why not play a few gigs seeing as we're a band and all, and have proceeded to organise a bunch for the coming month, so check out the live guide for details as they'll keep getting updated as more get confirmed over the next couple of weeks. And that'll do nicely for now. Keep plugging away at your favorite radio station if you want to hear 'Shift', go the Kiwis in the America's Cup (all of them!), and give thanks that we live in a country that's not about to charge off to war next week . . . . . . . peace on earth Paul, Bruce, Alastair, Hamish, and Chris - in no particular order - eight
November 2002 Hey Y'all, eight playing at the Big Day Out 2003 aye, get in there with your 'only independent act in the second round of announcements' action!! We're pretty happy about that for sure, particularly as we've been somewhat underground for the last few months working on the album. It's great timing for us as well, as we have a new single going to radio in December, to the stores in January, and we'll be releasing the full album in May of 2003 as well. The new single is called Shift and will be part of a four track release which will be in stores nationwide in January, with our Big Day Out performance marking the official launch. This will be the first eight release to hit the shops since the demo album 'build' in 1999 (which has since sold out). We're pretty excited about that as we've had loads of requests for our music in the shops and via emails, and it'll be nice to finally put something out there again. The C-Fu remix of Moments Gone has been getting a lot of airplay recently (thanks Channel Z) and that will feature as one of the tracks on the upcoming release as well. We're coming to the end of our communal living stint at the 'eight house' and work on the album material is going well, with a couple of brand new songs to add to the mix. Thankfully, we haven't come to fatal blows over the dishes and who's in charge of the remote, although I think we'll probably all be glad when a certain someone has their own bathroom again (nuff said). We'll be taking a break over Christmas before heading into the studio first thing next year to record. Still being an independent act has made it a long process for us (and for our fans too) but we're almost there, so cheers heaps to everybody who's kept us pushing forward with emails of support! On that note . . . .
July/August 2002 This
Update's a biggie: The New Single . . . Che Fu Remixes . . . & The
Eight 'House'! Hey
Y'all, After
the wee flurry of NZ Music month in May, we've been a bit quiet on the
gig front, but as you'll see, it's all been for good reasons, and there's
a lot to fill you in on, so here goes . . . Paul
had a successful excursion playing drums with Che Fu in England, and on
arriving home, shot off with Hamish on a two week jaunt around the North
Island with Anika Moa (nice for some). After a five or six week break
from playing, we put some serious work into getting our groove on again,
and put the final touches on what will soon be the new single. We're
exploring the 'other side' of eight with this one, encapsulating the drum
and bass/sound-scape elements of what we do, and we're looking forward
to getting it out there. So far, aside from the limited release of Moments
Gone with the 25th anniversary Rip it Up mag, our singles have only been
released to radio, so this time round, we're making every effort to put
a CD in the shops, so we'll keep you posted. We're set to record this
month and will hopefully have it out there around Sept/October. In
other news, Che Fu has recently completed a hip-hop remix of 'Moments
Gone' which sounds wicked (cheers brother!). So far it's aired on both
The Edge and Channel Z networks, so feel free to request it if you want
to check it out. To return the favour, we've also just finished a remix
for Che of the song 'Top Floor' off his Navigator album, which was a nice
wee challenge. The good news is, he likes it (yay!), so we'll let you
know what happens with that as well. You
can check out a snippet of both the remixes on the website: C-Fu
remix of 'Moments Gone' and eight
remix of 'Top Floor'. The
Biggest news for us though is that we've just secured the eight 'house'
(explanation to follow) and can finally get stuck into finishing the songs
for the album! We've
been looking for a while now to embark on a big communal adventure, escape
the distractions of the city, and get down to finishing the album songs,
and we seem to have found the perfect place. While the location is a strictly
guarded secret (that we keep telling everyone about), we can let you know
that it's pretty freaking cool and we can't wait to move in on the 16th
of August. Plenty of fresh country air, minutes from the beach, and fingers
crossed we'll have Bruce's table tennis table to keep us on our toes. At
the end of it, we hope to come away with an album worth of songs that
we're really stoked with, and from there we'll get into the studio and
put it all together. And heck, how often do you get to take off for a
few months with your mates and have a bunch of fun making music and playing
table tennis! (the correct answer is - not often) Once
we're settled in, we'll post some photos on the site, and keep you in
the loop with how we're getting on. You can keep in touch with us via
email, and we'll still be doing some live shows so you can hear the progress
for yourselves. We've had heaps of requests for an album, and it's great
to know that there's people out there who are as keen to hear it as we
are, so cheers heaps for the support! For
the latest gig info, keep an eye on the live
guide That's
us for now, much love,
May/June 2002 Hey
Ya’ll
May 2002 Hey Y'all, Firstly, thanks heaps for all the positive feedback from the Incubus/Creed show at Western Springs. We had an awesome time and it was cool to play to a crowd that had mostly never heard of us (and we got to see Incubus for free). Theres some photos on the site for you to have a look at. May is NZ music month and we're getting amongst it with a veritable smorgasboard of eight flavoured goodies. Check out our music month calendar on the live guide, and yes, we are venturing outside of Auckland this time (get in there Raglan!). We've got a couple of TV performances, Space and Good Morning, and are kicking things off with a single release show at The Odeon Lounge in Auckland on Wednesday May 8th. Have had quite a few emails from the deep south (much appreciated) and yes, we are working on getting down there sometime soon, perhaps over winter . . . . The video is on the way for the new single 'Moments Gone', and judging by our casting call last weekend, looks like we're going to have a lot of fun making it! If you didn't know already, Moments Gone is on the NZ on Air 'Heatseekers' Compilation which is available free with the latest Rip it Up. Many thanks to The Rock radio network for getting behind the new single before it was even released! In regards to airplay of the single and the video, a lot depends on requests and audience feedback as we're still an independent act, so if you're keen to help us get out there, feel free to ring up and request away. You can get contact details from the new single section of the site. Once
again, appreciate your thoughts, get in touch anytime,
March 2002 We'd definately planned on trying to increase our audience a wee bit this year, but this is just being silly. We are all pretty stoked to be opening for Incubus and Creed at Western Springs on Saturday March 23rd (get in there with your international support!) It's good timing for us, with the new single 'Moments Gone' coming out over the next few weeks. Once again, Malcolm Welsford has done an awesome job of making the song sound larger than life, and we're looking forward to seeing how it goes out there all on it's own in the big scary world of radio. We're also playing with Goodshirt at The Classic on Easter Thursday, as well as making the video for the next single over the coming weeks too, so we're not short of things to do. Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback to our first single 'Whale'. We've had heaps of people asking where they can get a copy so, for the record: Whale was only released to radio and unfortunately you can't buy it in the shops, yet. As we're yet to secure lucrative endorsements from a leading hair product manufacturer (or simply large amounts of money and promotional support from an international record label), we're on our own, and so have to make do with pretending it's cool, and real 'underground' to not have anything in the shops. Hopefully we'll be able to put something out soon . . . . . Best
bet at this stage is to request it on the telly, and sit poised with finger
on record button - speaking of which (note smooth tie in), If you like
what you hear of the new single, feel free, or even strangely compelled
to get behind it and request it on the radio. The video will be finished
for the beginning of April too, so keep an eye out. eight
February 2002 Hey y'all, Hmmm,
it's back to work already?! We also played at the Rock radio's 'big day after' (hanging with the Mad butcher and hamming up our best Creed impersonation, had a wicked time!), and Bruce and Paul spent an hour with John on Channel Z breakfast in late Jan as well. It's been cool to hear our first single on the airwaves a bit, and the video for whale has been fairly well thrashed through Juice TV and the like, so cheers heaps for all your support and requests, and for all the positive feedback, you make our mamas so proud. . . . . We're
currently in the studio finishing our second single, which will be going
to radio in early March by the looks. Live wise, we're keen to get amongst
it again, and once we nail the next single we'll be into it, so keep an
eye on the live guide or an ear on the radio for any future shows . .
. won't be long. |
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