How did i get here?

Ok, so i wouldn't normally post a blog about a specific gig, but i just have to ramble about this one for a while. It's actually more of a blog for my sake than others as i'm really giving myself a talking to and telling myself to shut up, but feel free to listen well read in.

I'm quite a humble chap really. I don't take much for granted, and as i've mentioned in a lot of interviews etc i tend to worry a lot. I worry if i'm not worrying because SURELY there must be SOMETHING i should be worrying about.
I assume the worst in most situations. I tend to self-loathe somewhat. I don't think i'm the best at anything. I don't think i deserve anything. I want to be better at everything.

As you can tell i give myself a bit of a hard time. But i'm aware of the fact i do, and it's only by being brutally honest about it in situations like this now, sitting at my computer i feel i can keep on top of this whirlwind of a brain i was granted with.

I was in Carcassonne in the south of France with my lovely lady when i received a message saying the Richard Thompson had chosen Lone Wolf to play in support of Broken Bells at his Meltdown festival. It is very hard to really comprehend what an honour that is for little old me.
As you can tell from hearing me finger pick the guitar, i am a big Nick Drake fan and this man played alongside him back in the day as well as Fairport Convention etc. So to have him actually say he wanted me to perform is something magical.

Then 2 days prior i found out it was in the Royal Festival Hall. I'd already psyched myself for the fact it was in the Queen Elizabeth Hall which seats about 900, but to get to play in the RFH? nearly 3000? Lordy.

So when we rolled up to find about 10 crew waiting for us who at the attitude along the lines of 'you just sit back and relax while we sort out all of your problems' that was very nice indeed. Special props should go out to this crew who were the most professional, kind and CARING crew i have ever met in my life. The same thing goes out to the gig rep Lorna. If i even frowned slightly she was on top of the problem and it was solved before i had the time to blink. This really doesn't happen often.

So i walked out to see this view from the stage:



I got to use the Steinway Grand Piano and while that was being tuned especially for me (WTF?) i looked around me and just thought to myself, Jesus, in 2007 i was on the verge of giving up music entirely due to NOTHING happening, and here i am sitting at a Steinway in the Royal Festival Hall surrounded by 4 amazing friends who are playing in my band for next to nothing with Richard Thompson watching in from the side of the stage. How the hell did this happen? I'm certainly not complaining.

So the gig came along (after an hour of me practically hyperventilating in my dressing room, and my voice was a bit, well, shit at first to be honest. The nerves Paulie, THE NERVES! But when the band came out and joined me, the next 30 mins just went in the blink of an eye. This is one of the first gigs I have played where i simply just enjoyed it. The crowd were wonderfully responsive. I think they could tell what a big moment it was for me. One of them took this pic:



My friend Stacy took these:





So like the clicking of fingers the gig was over in a flash. I took a moment to really take in my surroundings and try to get through to the 'worrying' part of my brain and say "Just look where you are buddy, calm the fuck down".

So yeah, now all that is just a memory. Apologies if you have read this blog and you get any vibes of 'ooooOOoohhh look at me' about it. It's actually meant to convey the message that we really do sadly only have one life, and therefore, it's a cliche, but we really do have to just enjoy every minute and make sure that when something this good is happening, you have to take that moment and realise what you are doing/where you are. Everything is relative on so many levels. Just having a roof over my head, a nice family, a cat and a wonderful girlfriend provides the same feeling every day.

So, stop worrying about stuff Marshall and learn to enjoy your life! Same goes for anyone who deals with the same issues as me every day.

Now bring on Union Chapel and lets do it all over again! Can't wait!

Take care folks. Love you all!

xxPaul Mxx

Lone Wolf ticket giveaway!!!

Hi everyone!

Just a quick message to let you know that over the next couple of days i am going to be giving away 5 tickets to the amazing Bella Union night happening next week (24th) at Union Chapel featuring John Grant, Mountain Man, Alessi's Ark and yours truly.

But i will be doing this exclusively on Twitter! So if you aren't following me now, i suggest you do so here www.twitter.com/iamlonewolf

I will probably be giving away one pair a day over the next 5 days.

See you there!

xxPaul Mxx

Lone Wolf done a telly programme...

Hello all.

So yes i thought i'd get in there early to remind you all that on this coming friday night at midnight on Channel 4, Lone Wolf (with full band) is appearing alongside the awesome Everything, Evreything on Alex Zane's CTRL show. We recorded a version of 'Keep your Eyes On The Road' for it and so i'm hoping they use that. The normal version of the song kinda exceeds the TV limits so there is a possibility they will use another song from the set but we'll just have to wait and see. Here is a link to the show on Radio Times so you can set a reminder: Click Here

In other news--->

3 gigs i'm positively ecstatic about playing are all occuring in London next week.

Monday 21st sees Lone Wolf (full band) appearing at Queen Elizabeth Hall in the South Bank Centre as part of Richard Thompson's Meltdown festival supporting Broken Bells. Just in the last 5 minutes we have confirmed that i am going to be allowed to use the Grand Piano there so i'm really excited about that! Jon can't make that one sadly, but in his place the wonderfully talented Laura Groves (Blue Roses) is stepping in.

Then we move on to Thursday 24th which is a Bella Union night at another fantastic venue Union Chapel. This gig features John Grant, Moutain Man and Alessi's Ark also. I always enjoy playing gigs alongside my fellow Bella Union cohorts and so this is particularly exciting.

Then on the Saturday 26th you can catch us on the Bella Union stage in Hyde Park's Hard Rock Calling festival! We are obviously warming up the crowd for Stevie Wonder.

So have you gone out and bought your copy of The Devil And I yet? I'm really happy with the press it has recieved so far. Drowned in Sound gave it 8/10 and called it "A minor revelation", it got 4 stars in both Q and Uncut, it even got a 10/10 on one web blog so i must have done something right!

So what are you waiting for? I have actually put the whole album up for stream on my myspace page so if you want to try before you buy head over there right now......

See you next week at one of these gigs hopefully!

xxPaul Mxx

Lone Wolf vs Blue Roses FIGHT NITE!

Hello all.

Apologies for my lack of bloggisms for the past week or so. Since the album came out i've been a busy bee. Up and down between Leeds and London like a yoyo.

The first thing was for the Stag and Dagger fest in shorditch last friday where me Jon and James played as a 3 piece for the first time. The venue was very small and HOT! We played well but i was more bemused by something that had never happened before... DANCING! People were dancing to Lone Wolf i shit you not. When we got to the last song (which on this occasion was The Devil And I (Part 2)), i uttered, "Try dancing to this one" into the mic before we started. And guess what. They danced. All be it very slowly! So if you are reading this and were one of the dancers in question, i thank you personally! :)

The next day was a helluva lot of fun. We went to BBC Broadcasting house and played on Radio 4's loose ends with none other than that awesome Clive Anderson. See pic below taken from my own fair iphone, what a pose:



We were told, albeit a couple of days prior that we had to cut 'Keep Your Eyes on the Road' down to 3.30. So we basically chopped lots out of it and then played it about 100bpm faster. I think it's still up here on iplayer if you want to hear our turbo version: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sf0t8/Loose_Ends_22_05_2010/ its about 32 mins in. You also get to hear what i sound like when i have just got out of bed. :)

One of the best things about that show was meeting the wonderful Nick Frost. Probably unknown to many of you that beneath this shady exterior there is a comedian waiting to get out. Myself and my best pal Rob have been writing sketches for years and we are dying to make a sketch show. So being a massive fan of Big Train, Look Around You, Brass Eye, Partridge, Spaced (i could go on but you know i basically mean the GOOD STUFF) to meet Nick Frost was a good thing. He approached us (as did actor Richard Coyle who also turned out to be a bloody nice bloke) to say how much he enjoyed our performance and naturally i thought he was just being polite. But he was then nice enough to say that 'The Devil And I' was his new favourite album on 6music the other day so i think i can safely put Nick in my file containing 'bloody nice blokes' that i keep next to my computer. Nice one Nick! I was going to post an image of one of my favourite characters of his that i spoke to him about, however i wouldn't suggest typing 'Hot John' into google image search.

So anyway onto the title of this blog. Lone Wolf is going to be taking a slightly different guise for a few gigs this summer including tomorrows Sheffield gig with The Invisible and next weeks gig in London with Arab Strap's Aidan Moffatt.
Myself and the wonderfully talented Laura Groves aka Blue Roses are heading out on the road as a two piece version. We have altered some of the songs slightly to give them a new identity when it's her and i playing. For example, when we play 'Soldiers' its a bit of a slower more minimal affair with me playing piano rather than guitar etc. I won't say too much and spoil it for you but i'm really excited about it and very happy to be working with her. She's a great person with an amazing sense of humour so we get on like a house on fire. So yeah, come and check us out.

I have a lot of news regarding the video for next single 15 letters, but i'm going to have to save that for the next blog. It's very exciting! So i'll just leave you with a still from it:



Take care everyone and love you all!

xxPaul Mxx aka the lonely wolf

The Devil And I is officially relelased today!

Hi everyone.

It's been a long time coming but i am please to annouce that you are able to head to your local music retailer and pick up a copy of the album. It feels like forever since i got on that plane and headed out to my little hideaway in Sweden to record with Kris. So today is a good day.

Been really happy with press and stuff for it so far with the likes of Uncut, Q and clash magazine dishing out lovely reviews and just yesterday myself and the band recorded a session for Alex Zane's CTRL show which is due to be broadcast on Channel 4 on June 18th. Not sure what time yet but i'll keep you informed.

For you wireless lovers out there myself Jon and James are also going to be performing 'Keep Your Eyes On The Road' live on Clive Anderson's Loose Ends show on Radio 4 next week. I'm really looking forward to that as we are going to be in the studio with Simon Pegg! I love that guy and so im going to have to take a course in 'not being a dick' this week. Will be a hard course - my god, just look at all the possible innuendos from that last sentence.

I have also just announced a new batch of dates coming up over the coming months so see if you can make it to any of these shows. Some are full band and for a few of them i will be heading out as a two piece with none other than the beautifully talented Laura Groves aka Blue Roses. Here are the dates:


21 May LONDON, Stag and Dagger at The Spread Eagle

29 May SHEFFIELD, Bungalows and Bears

05 Jun LONDON, The Borderline w/ Aiden Moffat

18 Jun BRISTOL, Start The Bus w/ Little Boots

24 Jun LONDON, Union Chapel

25 Jun LONDON, Hyde Park, Hard Rock Calling Festival

02 Jun BOURNEMOUTH, 60 Million Postcards

20 Aug GLANUSK PARK, Green Man Festival

Anyway. I will have more news about the new video soon. All i can reveal right now is that im currently waiting for my Dad to arrive as he is going to be in it playing an older version of me!

Take care everyone and i hope you enjoy the album.

Love to you all

xxPaul Mxx

2 Weeks till judgement day!

Hello everyone.

So as you are all probably aware it is only 2 weeks until 'The Devil and I' hits record stores all over the UK and Europe.

So what better thing to be doing with your time than pre-ordering a copy on either CD or Vinyl?





If you fancy yourself a CD digipak then look no further than this link:

http://bellaunion.sandbag.uk.com/Store/DII-4186-1-lone+wolf++the+devil+and+i+cd+preorder.html

If it's the vinyl you so desire then click here:

http://bellaunion.sandbag.uk.com/Store/DII-4393-1-lone+wolf++the+devil+and+i+lp+preorder.html

You are also able to buy the limited 'Keep Your Eyes On The Road' 7" single here:

http://bellaunion.sandbag.uk.com/Store/DII-4485-9-lone+wolf++keep+your+eyes+on+the+road+7''.html

So there you go. The album has been received well by the press folks getting a couple of tasty 4 star reviews in Uncut and Q which is nice, and we just played an awesome gig at Live at Leeds.

Next stop. The album release! See you there! x

Keep Your Eyes On The Road - A very late, but proper thank you!

Hi everyone.

Rather than hitting you with the 2nd half of the tour blog so soon, i thought that on the eve of the first TV broadcast of the video for 'Keep Your Eyes On The Road' on MTV Rocks, i really need to dish out some serious thank you's to the people involved who travelled from all over to come and help out. Ash (Director) knows how much i appreciate his endless hours of work and what he has achieved with this video.

But it's so easy to get caught up in your own little world when making a video like this. It's safe to say that after my 45th hour of being pixelated i was more than ready to commit suicide if i had to spend to any more time on set. So my head was definitely spinning.

So i think it's time i properly thank every single extra. I don't even know if there has been a cast list released with all the extras' names, some of which were of my best friends, some i actually don't know! Im sure if Ash (the director) is reading this he may be able to comment if i have forgotten anyone.

So it's time i thank you all properly for your amazing work and let everyone else know who you are.

So the first extra is the pretty lady in the bed next to me in the 'bed' scene. This is no other than my wonderful other half Sofi Lundgren. For the record, after she slips out of shot it was actually her turning the cone and replacing all the glasses on the bedside table. That was by far my favourite scene to shoot becasue i basically had to lie down in my bed next to my lady for two hours. Now that was much nicer than sitting in a chair at an awkward angle for 6 hours!

We then have the three people who devoted 6 hours of thier time to film just 6 seconds of footage in the labyrinth style 'helping hands' scene. They were:

Soozy Creamcheese - That really is the only way i know her. I didn't wan't to put her real name as i like to think this one is! I dont really see her that often and so thats why it was particularly special she came and helped out on what has become one of my favourite scenes.

Jen Burdess - I speak more about later
Keith Smith - Ditto
The next set of extras you see are the people kindly hammering the nails into my coffin, and then mourning my death!

The first is Ali Aaron. A good pal of mine who i used to work with.
The second is none other than director Ashley Dean, followed by Marcus who owns the space we used to shoot this scene and maker of my coffin. He was wearing some awesome shades with his black suit and as he was shooting the scene we realised his head was out of shot and so the shades wouldnt get seen. So thats why if you look carefully, his head pops into shot for about 4 frames just so you can see the shades!

Next my upmost thanks goes out to my 8 humble backing dancers. Some of which travelled from as far as London just to come and be in this scene. They are the following:

Rob Wills - My best friend in the world for the past 16 years. He's the guy in the turquoise jumper. He suffered hours on the stinky megabus from London to come and shoot this scene and i can't thank him enough.

Lins Wilson - A lovely friend and bassist/cellist/synth player in the Lone Wolf live set up and also cellist in Grammatics. She's the red head in the plain dress (provided by Ash im sure she'll want me to say!)

Kelly Taft - Another highly cherished pal and girlfriend of my friend Wu who is going to be playing Bass for the next couple of Lone Wolf dates. Shes wearing a yellowish dress and has long blonde hair/glasses.

Danny North - Well what is there i can't say about this ace gent. Simply a top top man. If you have seen any photographs of me over the past few years, chances are they will have been taken by Danny. He's wearing the brownish striped shirt.

Chris Leeds & Jen Burdess - I met these two wonderful people randomly at a gig about 5 years ago and we became very good friends. They are sadly moving back to the USA for good in a couple of weeks, so it meant a lot to me they they were in this video. Going to miss them dearly. Chris is in the grey trousers and Jen is the red head with black rimmed glasses.

Keith Smith - An old friend who kindly drove me all over the country for pretty much nothing when i was first starting out. He is a man who i keep reminding i owe him about a thousand favours, but he never seems to cash them in. So here's another reminder Keith you GEM! Keith is the handsome dude in the blue shirt.

Elly Oracle - The way we met is about as bizarre as it gets. She provided me with a cage for my cat Lupin when she had a knee operation! ha ha. But Elly writes for a few different sites about gigs and happenings in the Leeds music scene and is one of the brightest and bubbly people i know. Elly is wearing a reddish dress with short dark hair.

After the 'dancing' part there are a few more people that pop up for the odd frame spinning around in a chair. One of them is Ash's Dad who was always helping out throughout the whole process, making nice food and generally being awesome. There was also one of Ash's friends called Rachel who makes an appearance.

Then for the final section where a sea of people seem to appear from my body there is a veritable banquet of Leeds faces there, but you may need to pause the vid and skip frames to catch them all! But they are everyone from the previous scene with added:

Jon Foulger - Ace friend and also a member of the Lone Wolf live troop.
Fran Rodgers - Another old friend who i love dearly. Phenomenal musician also.
Dan Howard - One of my best mates. was frontman of the now defunct Wintermute along with Dave Hemmings who is also in this scene, and also one of my best mates! Leeds is going to be a sad place when Dan moves away :(
Wu - who i mentioned earlier. He arrived in time to shoot this scene. Diamond geezer stangely a big fan of Darius Danesh.
Sofi Lundgren - The other half i mentioned earlier.

And i think that's it. I know it's a cliche, but i think it is quite obviously the truth when i say that without all of your help and patience this video could not have been completed to look the way it does. It's also a great document of all the ace people i know at this point in my life.

So basically - I thank you all!

Now if you weren't in the video, next time you watch it you need to try and spot everyone!

have fun!

http://vimeo.com/10001188