1 word: Glastonbury!!!!!!!! A dream realised.

Huge fun on our 1500km drivathon over Patricks weekend, big thanks for Cork, Bantry and Belfast. We drove through all seasons during our trips, beautiful sunshine, intense blizzard, lashing rain and freezing cold. Great fun, and at the end of it all, a radio interview with Marc and Andy on Irish Beats . We were very tired, having left Bantry at 4:45am that morning, so do forgive the waffle!

And in case you hadn’t heard, WE’RE OFF TO GLASTO!!!! WOOOHOOOO!

Loadsa fun at Sencity, pics over here, where we are all looking suitably sweaty, sexy n stuff. Some reviews of the night here (scroll down a wee bit). Great night overall, and we now know what we taste and smell like!

Next up, we are trying to break the record for the most amount of time spent in a car on St Patricks weekend. Always a busy weekend for us, but this year is that bit crazier. Details as they come in will be posted above, and on the aul Tweet machine and Bookface.

Back in the studio to finally end what is probably the most drawn out recording schedule of all time, but hey, we are seven drummers, it was never going to be easy. Preliminary listens are exciting, and will be worth the wait, promise.

I hope you all are beginning to shed those additional pounds that may have crept on over the festive period. We have all began our strict diet and exercise regime since Jan 1st, in order to be tip top for 2013, and any topless antics we may get up to.

Coming up on Sat Feb 9th in the RDS, Dublin is a show we’re more excited about that usual – it’s the first of it’s kind in Ireland, and somehow we’ve been lucky enough to be asked to perform at it. As you can see above, it’s Sencity Dublin 2013! Sencity have been travelling the world for some time now, putting on shows for deaf, hard of hearing and hearing people in cities everywhere. The performances are ‘holistic’ almost, in that as well as hearing the music, you can also see it, feel it, smell it and taste it – all senses are used to allow you to experience music in an amazingly unique way. We can’t wait, and the line up is excellent – Kormacs Big Band, SignMark, The Wonder Villians and Gavxmas.

Thorougly enjoyed our two hometown shows in December – The Hot Press Freezer Sessions and BlaFest. Really good fun, and you simply can’t beat a hometown crowd! Thanks y’all.

More shows to announce shortly

So, the tasty tasty line up for the Hot Press Freezer Sessions is…

Kodakid     Neon Wolf     (the mighty) Toby Kaar     and     us!

All for FREE!!!! Tix available at hotpress/freezersessions

Saturday Dec 8th, The Forum, Waterford. What better way to end the Farmers Day Out than by rocking it out to some sweet ass beatz???

So what’s the story with November  then? Well, if you would like to see us at Other Voices, git yo’self over to their website, where we have entered ourselves into a competition for a slot. I believe an element of it is by public vote, so please do

We’re involved in the Hot Press Freezer Sessions in the Forum on Dec 8th (details of line up soon, but it’s gonna be a good one), and also in ‘BlaaFest‘ in the same venue on Sunday Dec 23rd – a celebration of all things Bla (well, moreso a celebration of the supremely excellent music Waterford has produced this year – Solar Taxi, Propeller Palms, Kodakid and us!).

There’s other bits and pieces bubbling under too, but they must remain on the boil a while longer, before we can reveal their juicy goodness…

It’s been quiet here in Torann Towers, but that’s not to say we haven’t been busy! Since we last spoke, we’ve played for Burger King and a large amount of barristers, been involved in some dodgy activities under the guise of the ‘Ra with the Rubberbandits and another little Torann baby has arrived on the scene (that’s 5 Torann Toddlers now).

Most of this month was spent planning, purchasing, building, transporting and installing a spanking new studio for our incredibly lucky producer. Well, to be fair, NiallH did 95% of the work, and hats off to the mofo, he did an amazing job, GuerillaSounds now has probably the bestest studio in Dublin! If the weight of the end results has any bearing on their quality, then you all need to be knocking on his door with your recording requests! Grouse wha??

There is pics, we’ll lob a few onto FB, as they won’t mean anything to most people (including most of us!), but they are undeniably pretty.

Well what can we say Kendal? Wow, firstly, thanks so much for the incredible response to our show, you almost blew us through the back of the stage with the volume of your roar! And what dancers you lot are! Up almost immediately, and danced all night long! You made us feel pretty damn special, so thank you for that

Next up, we got a few of the aul corporate type gigs, just to keep the wolf from the door, ya know!?! Head down and get the album completed (EP is done now, at loooooong last!) We’re also working on a new show, so trying to deconstruct what we do and rebuild it into something bigger and better is already proving a challenge, but one we’re up for.

As for individuals, we’re quite scattered, two based in Dublin, one semi based in Cork and Torann Baby number 5 due in the next few weeks too – things are getting hectic, but it makes us all the more focussed on getting something ‘amazeballs’ together for you lot next year.

In the meantime – keep it realz y’all – we’ll keep ye updated, as always.

And as a wee pressie for yis – Torann @ Indiependence Green Room 2012

And we’re off to Mintfest in Kendal at the end of the month, to play at a showcase type festival, where we will be in excellent company (full detail here) This is all thanks to Culture Ireland, who very kindly stepped in and gave us the assistance we needed to get ourselves and our gear across the pond!

Thanks to Culture Ireland for getting us to Kendal!

What did we get up to in August? Not a lot, unfortunately, as the glorious Irish summer meant we ended up cancelling some of our shows, due to torrential rain, hideous amounts of muck, or a combination of both.

Two shows at Spraoi (where we celebrated our official 10th birthday, with a crowd singing happy birthday to us in the pouring rain!). The first gig got cut short, and the second one went ahead with 4 of us under a marquee, whilst poor aul Andy and Gav ended up getting soaked in the downpour! Some pics you can view of us, and Spraoi in general, here.

Indiependence, well, when we got there, the muck was insane, and that was early enough on Saturday afternoon! Regretfully, we had to cancel both shows, due to safety concerns (electrics and rain/mud not the best of mixes) and our own gear getting destroyed. We did manage to play for a lucky few in the Green Room, the results of which should be available to view soon on TG4.

The craziest news of the month is Andy’s haircut – he has had a pony tail for approx 17 years and now it’s gone – full detail here!

Hello. Between the arrival of Torann baby number 4, and gremlins in various machines, the aul site has been feeling negected of late. But fear not, the above have fallen under our control and life can continue once more!

Since we last spoke, we’ve had the pleasure of Life (reviewed here by the wonderful Festival Monkey) and our own summer party in Waterford, on what was probably the wettest night of the summer so far, down these parts anyway. Still, fun was had, booties were shook, and people left with smiles and sore feet.

Then the gremlins struck, and the babby arrived, and heads were kept low.

But we’re back now.

Next up, this Saturday (21st July), we’re Bantry bound once again, to play at the Atlantic Challenge festival. Should be good fun, last time, Bantry nearly broke us, but this time, we’ll win!

August Bank Holiday weekend is officially our busiest weekend every year, and this year is no exception. Friday, we have a show for Waterford Spraoi @ 9.30 in the Peoples Park, right before the Luxe show. And there is a rumour of another, ‘secret’ show somewhere around John Street Village on Friday evening, maybe, perchance…???

Then it’s into the van/car to belt down to Deerpark Farm for Indiependance. Second year there, and I think you shall find us lurking around the Bacardi Oakheart arena on Sat evening and Sun afternoon.

You can also find a link to a remix that has been done for us by Molotov Ape here – track is Torann Theme, we know it’s in there somewhere!

I hope to have a snippet of some sounds you can expect from the EP soon, if I am allowed to post them. Honestly, the only way this EP is going to get released at the moment is if Wikileaks release it!