The tour dates are going immensely well. We had our first (ever!) sold out gig, in Glasgow, so thanks to all for coming to that one. It was properly brilliant. This weekend we’ve been down south to That London and surrounding areas, and that went amazingly too.

Next up are Hull and Leeds. Check the gigs page as ever for details. Leeds is selling particularly well so do make sure you get a ticket (links on the gigs page again).

The raffle is over, but there will still be a few people waiting for their CDs and hence up for a prize. Go here to check your numbers. The prizes will be sent out next week for this. The numbers will stay up until the end of May for any stragglers.

All Pledge parcels have gone out now. Hooray. That went pretty well didn’t it?

A couple of the Pledge songs are still to be done but aiming to get those done this and next week. Finishing the album then going straight out on tour was, in retrospect, slightly too high a workload to get every single thing done. But we’re back on it and everything will be with you soon.

See you at some of the gigs, hopefully!

X

It goes online on Thursday 21st February at 7pm (GMT). We will all be online, have a natter with us on Twitter using the hashtag thingy #eureka3 – our addresses are:

@chrisalyst
@hankdavros
@petehuman
@wayneinsane1

Or give us a shout on the band Facebook page, or on the Pledge site, or email us or anything really. You are a part of this as much as we are, so it’d be great to hear what you think.

Looking forward to Thursday!

EM X

In a rollercoaster year where we went from deciding we were more or less going to knock the band on the head, due to a feeling of general apathy and disinterest… to launching a campaign for YOU to fund our album directly which went, as you know, rather well.

We started the recording process for this back in September or October or whenever it was, and it’s been a long hard slog. Our stuff is a lot more complex than it appears, and we’ve worked very hard on making it as great as we possibly can, with the added pressure to repay your faith, and added freedom to do what we want to do with the extra money you afforded us. We are so immensely grateful for your help, and we can only hope we have paid you back with the entertainment you have received through our Pledge campaign – ultimately culminating in the eleven tracks we’ll be sending you very soon.

The artwork is also done. Again, this whole thing means we could put a little more into this than we have in the past, and we feel very confident you’re going to love it.

Remain In Hope album cover

You (and we) have Andy Hawkins (mixing), Tom Woodhead (mastering), Tony Wilkinson (cover art) and Rich Jones (general artwork) to thank for this. Cheers guys for your hard work and patience.

The physical CDs will be with us, fingers crossed, in about two weeks. They will be posted to you as soon as we get them.

We are talking about having an online listening party which seems to have been brilliant for some of our friends recently. We’re talking about putting it online for you guys to hear on Thursday 21st February at 7pm. In an ideal world, the physical copies won’t be far behind.

Thank you for your support, for about the millionth time. We really, really mean that.

X

As we reach the final stages of our Pledge campaign, it’s time for us to start telling you a bit about the artwork. Here’s a picture of us with it and the talent behind it – Tony Wilkinson. Thanks so much Tony, we love it.

All pledgers before a certain date (TBA) will receive the album in an exclusive limited edition numbered embossed slip case. There will be a cut-off point for this so please make sure you get your orders in ASAP. This is looking amazing and is absolutely 100% exclusive to Pledgers. Each will be individually numbered, so each is one-of-a-kind. We currently think it will be limited to 1000 copies. We’re also putting together some other goodies exclusively for you Pledgers too.

The album itself is reaching the final stages of mixing. It’s sounding absolutely fantastic and we can’t wait to play you it. We’re overjoyed at pretty much every aspect of this whole thing.

Stay tuned, there’ll be more news next week.

X

The album will get a commercial release later in the year, but this way you’ll get it in your hands before anyone else, plus there are lots of fun exclusives that you won’t get elsewhere.  All this and the warm glowing feeling of doing A Good Thing.

On top of the Pledge-based excitement, we’ve also now announced a full UK tour, hot on the heels of the dates we’re doing with The Wildhearts.  Check out the Gigs page for the full list and get yourself down to a show or three!

X

And happy new year! We had a nice Christmas and hope you did too.

More interestingly, we’re doing some dates with The Wildhearts in April. We’re supporting on their ‘Earth Vs’ 20th Anniversary Tour, which will be brilliant, right? They’re doing two sets: one Earth Vs and one with a load of other stuff. Brilliant.

Anyway, here’s the dates:

• Thursday 4th April – The ABC, Glasgow
• Friday 5th April – The Academy, Manchester
• Saturday 6th April – Rock City, Nottingham
• Sunday 7th April – Wulfrun, Wolverhampton

These are four of our favourite venues and we’ve got a great set of old and new stuff for you. The new album will be out by then so hopefully you’ll know the words.

In other news, it’s Pure Rawk Awards time again – having done rather well in previous years, we kind of hope we might this year too. We’re up for Best Video (with our pals at AshTV), and Dave is up for ‘Axe Hero Of The Year’. Which he surely is, so get voting if that’s your thing. We’re always very aware of not asking you to vote for us in every single thing, as music isn’t a competition, but the way we feel about the Pure Rawk Awards is that we should let you know about it and you can decide from there. As much as anything, it’s a vote for independence. Anyway, lots of categories and lots of good music in there, so have a look.

The new album recording is going immensely well, and we’re hoping to have something to play you at the end of the week.

We think that’s about it for now. We’re finalising tour dates for April and May at the moment, so those will be up forthwith.

All the best, and hope to see you at a gig.
EM X

There’s a NEW TRACK AVAILABLE NOW on the Pledge page, but ONLY FOR YOU PLEDGESTERS. So go have a look and get involved if you haven’t already! Not only are you taking the power back from The Man, but your money is going directly towards funding our third and best album. Plus 10% of all proceeds go directly to our friend Tim Smith (Cardiacs), who remains in constant rehabilitation for brain injuries sustained when he suffered a combined heart attack and stroke.

There’s a COMPLETELY NEW PLEDGE now up, for the Christmas card/EM ‘Best Of So Far’ CD for your pals. More details on the Pledge site again, and below in the previous news item. They’re only £10 (UK) and you can buy as many as you want. These are to spread the word, and to fill the stockings of your nearest and, occasionally, dearest.

Also Chris has been beavering away on the handwritten lyrics this past few days. Every one is completely bespoke, written with a fancy fountain pen and framed, with different drawings and doodles. Each one ordered before December 17th will arrive in time for Christmas. A great gift for the more ardent supporter. Again, go to the Pledge site to have a look.

Finally the new ‘Tie’ shirts are here to buy on the Eureka Machines shop. There’s also a small amount of the ‘LISTEN TO EUREKA MACHINES’ shirts left. Go have a skeg.

Cheers all.

EM X

Thank you all again for an amazing run of gigs – Birmingham, Worcester, Hull and Darlington were four of our favourite gigs ever. Cheers to Percy and Givvi, Martyn, Tony and everyone who travelled to come see us. We were astounded that people wanted to give up their weekends to come see our little band, and it was great to see you all.

The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted a new shirt for sale at the gigs. It’s a design more than a few people have suggested. It’s a white tie, so you can look like us. They look particularly great with a jacket, and they are very confusing to us when we look at you from the stage. Go to the Shop page to buy them.

Meanwhile, everything in Pledge Towers seems to be going pretty swimmingly. This Thursday (15/11/12), we will be gifting a FREE NEW (old) SONG for you. It’s a track called Born Ready, which we recorded for the Champion The Underdog album. We didn’t get it finished in time, so we thought we’d finish it now and give it to you as a thank you for pledging. As with the video updates, live stuff and upcoming Cookery Corner, it is EXCLUSIVE FOR PLEDGERS so if you haven’t done already, now might be a good time.

There’ll also a new Pledge up for those of you who are searching for something to buy pals for Christmas. It’s an exclusive and slightly bizarre Christmas card which contains a CD with a few choice EM tracks from the first two albums, plus Pop Star and our take on Silent Night. Pretty festive, I think you’ll agree. With this gift, you can send your pals the gift of music this Christmas, and spread the word about our little band. Lucky recipients will also be able to download the third album when it’s done, as well as get involved with all the exclusive web updates. The aim with this one isn’t to make a load of cash, but rather to tell like-minded fans of silly rock music about our band so they can join the party. You can buy as many as you like for your pals, so do get involved if you’re stuck for what to buy someone for Christmas.

Think that’s everything for now… stay e-tuned for more Pledge updates and so on and so forth.

Thanks again everyone for the support, we are blown away.
Eureka Machines XXX

It also means that we think we can now afford to record the LP in what we think is the best studio in the North, with an amazing producer, so that’s pretty exciting. Still to be confirmed, but fingers crossed.

To say cheers to everyone who’s got involved, to try and drag more people to the party, and to generally Have A Laugh, here’s our new video for a song called Pop Star that we did.

(Permalink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOjOwyT8XEI)

We don’t like to beg, but if you’re that way inclined, please feel free to share it about on your Facebooks and your Twitters and so on. As ever, we rely on the goodness of you people to share this stuff about. Okay, we are begging. Spread the word!

The video was made by our wonderful friends at AshTV. Once again, they have pulled it out the bag with this fantastic effort. Thank you so much to Ash and Richy for being so great. Go and have a look at their website, which has loads of examples of brilliant stuff they’ve done.

The song was recorded at Cottage Road Studios in sunny Headingley, Leeds, where it was mixed and produced by Andy Hawkins and Chris Catalyst. Thanks to Andy for his hard work, patience and endless tea.

We’ve got gigs this weekend in Birmingham (Friday) and Worcester (Saturday), where we’ll be playing this and a couple of other new bits, and selling you new t-shirts, hopefully.

Hope to see some of you there, and cheers again for being so nice.

X

As we’ve said in about six billion internet places now, thank you all for your help in smashing our target and making it so we can record our third album. We are so very grateful to you all for making us realise that we shouldn’t knock it on the head and go work in Tescos or something.

There were a couple of little gremlins with the launch. In the T-shirt bundle, there was no XXL version of the Champion The Underdog shirt. This has now been rectified. If anyone wants to swap an order, get in touch with Cecelia on the ‘Ask A Question’ on your Dashboard thingy and she’ll sort you out.