Vega4 on purevolume™

Alternative / Rock

John McDaid - vocals, guitar | Bruce Gainsford - guitar | Bryan McLellan - drums | Gavin Fox - Bass

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"Life is Beautiful" Contest - Win Tickets To Live Earth

We are pleased to announce that Vega4's management and label have agreed to sponsor a "Life is Beauitful" contest, having seen some videos online that use "Life is Beautiful" as a soundtrack to powerful environmental ideas.

Earth Day is coming up and we are passionate about raising awareness about what can be done to make a change.

Conserving energy, using public transport, driving fuel efficient cars, petitioning local governments and demanding that they support bills and laws that hold companies accountable for their actions, and supporting those who are actively changing their corporate policies to make this rock under our feet a better, safer place for us now and in the future.

Use "Life is Beautiful" as the soundtrack to your videos and slideshows and upload them to the Vega4 Youtube Group. All the submissions will be viewed and a winner will be announced on 31/05/07 and will receive two tickets to the Live Earth at Giant's Stadium this summer.

Watch the promotional video here

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The bands collection of video blogs from the first half of the Augistana tour can all be found below. With the second part of the tour about to kick off be sure to check back for more from the band over the coming weeks.

Apostle Fox
Bry-Pod
Chrome
Gavin Gets His Oats
Johnny Gets Jimmied

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/>Vega4's latest album 'You & Others' is out now. Available from hmv and itunes in the UK, or from Album Player on the bands myspace page in the US, the albums tracklisting is as follows:

Tracklising
CD:
1. You And Me
2. Traffic Jam
3. Tearing Me Apart
4. Life Is Beautiful
5. You
6. Let Go
7. Bullets
8. Paper Cuts
9. If This Is It
10. A Billion Tons Of Light
11. Boomerang

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Vega4 Mailing List

To stay up to date with the latest Vega4 news, click for the UK and US mailing lists.

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Vega4 E-Card

/>Below you can see the band's latest e-card. We would love for you to add it to your own profile as a way of letting other people discover what Vega4's new album 'You & Others' sounds like:

April 24

Long Slow Goodbye

Hello all,

I am at this very moment in a car bisecting the highway as we forge our way through Northern California. We are heading towards our second radio station of the day so far and it hasn't yet hit the Post Meridiem.

Traversing the country is something I love, but I am at least as tired as I have ever been. This place is vast, bi-location would be a handy super-trait, and I feel like I could let the other one of me could sleep for a week.

Around me are fields of green and brown that flow out in all directions away from our car. Trees are painted black calligraphic silhouettes on the hazy purple hue of a mountainless horizon where the earth lazily meets the beginning of outer space. Telephone poles sprout from the ground and guard the road like soliders lined up along side us in their skinny brown parade costumes, each flicking into a blur out of the corner of my eyes. My own personal Daft Punk / Gondrey collaboration.

The tour with Augustana has finally seen its last curtain call and we will miss the Californian boys who have, over the past months become good friends. The ships of both our bands must cease convoy and reconcile our meetings from now on to a chance docking at a festival or TV show. The last show of the tour in San Diego was one of my favourite hours ever.

To all of you who made us feel so at home away from home on this leg of the tour, I would like to thank you on behalf of our band.

We are strangers in a new land and it already feels like we are finding that the dirt under our feet and the sky above our heads is more and more familiar and good to us.

Until the next time, from us to you, as you say - so long.

J x

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March 30

Falling Into The Sky

Dear all,

I am in a plane flying from Boston to Nashville. Out the window-side there is a veil made of tons of sublunary cotton-wool. The odd rip in it reveals a landscape, green with tiny trees and broken by rivers, the earth's veins carrying its blood back towards giant liquid hearts, the oceans. I am listening to 'Let's Trade Skins' by Great Lake Swimmers. It is gorgeous and its arms are around me, holding me up in the sky.

Gavin and I are on our way to meet Bryan and Bruce who drove on ahead of us two days ago. We've been doing Radio promo in Boston. It has been good to feel how well the music is connecting. We are bartering sleep for time with our guitars at the moment, but it is a worthwhile exchange.

The shows feel so good again and so quickly. I don't like not playing and I love playing (they are not the same thing). I feel at home when we are up there, out there.

There are a few new songs in the cauldron brewing nicely, and as soon as I find the sweat from a toads back and a lock of hair from a mermaid to throw in there, I promise that you'll start to hear evidence of their existence.

I ate some bad sushi last night and I feel peaky. The fasten seatbelt signs have just come on so I feel it wise to stop now, or unwise to continue (they are not the same thing), before I throw up on my computer and ruin everything. The businessman next to me would be, I fear, less than enthralled if the contents of my stomach were to end up on his pinstripes as I call out the name of my great uncle, Hughey.

So, south horse, south!

Love to all of you from up here.

J x

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February 19

Why Dont Penguins Feet Freeze?

This is one of the questions I'm currently looking for an answer to. Luckily, Johnny has given me a book with just such a title. I was asked why we sneeze the other day and I'm sure the answer is lurking somewhere in its pages.

While researching these questions, it strikes me that our bodies really are very interesting machines. After spending 38 days in what can only be described as a petri dish on wheels, I managed to fight off a cold successfully, until I got home. I suppose my body figured that it now had a few days to spend wrapped up on a couch, shaking and sneezing to its heart's content. Consequently, I now find myself with a few days to catch up on some reading, get some rest and thought also that I might take this opportunity to reflect on and share some of our recent adventures across the pond. Of course there's too much to tell in one little blog, so I'm going to have to just pick a few for now.

Day One San Francisco, The Fillmore
Well, what a place to kick off the festivities. Not only is it our first show for this tour, it's our first proper gig in America, with our new found bass player Gavin in tow to boot. Walking around the venue after soundcheck is a little awe inspiring to say the least. Posters of James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Cream line the walls along with newer artists like Prince, Radiohead and the Cure. A little jolt of nervous excitement hits me as the idea of sharing the stage with all of these legends starts to sink in. This is also when we meet our new tourmates for the first time. I'm relieved at how cool and laid back all of the guys in Augustana are. Of course, their drummer Justin and I bond over talk of all things drum-related.

So the show goes down a storm and we retreat back to our dressing room. We're also working with a couple of our road crew for the first time so all in all, there are many causes for celebration. We begin to work our way through our rider (technical term for free beer provided by venue) and head out on the town with a couple of the guys from Augustana after the show. Those who know me well, know that after a certain number of beers, I am gifted with superhuman strength or so it seems to me at the time. I like to display this new power to my friends by lifting things. Chris, our new sound engineer who's a very large man (picture David and Goliath), now seems like someone that I can quite easily carry back to the bus. I ask him if I can oblige, and he laughs. I assure him that I'm extremely capable and he indulges me. I attempt the fireman's lift and it felt like my whole world collapsed. I'm crushed under him like a small insect. His ankle is injured on impact and the tendons in my knee are shredded. We don't feel this right away as the alcohol acts as a tasty anesthetic. Our wounds will plague us for the rest of the tour.

Seattle, The Showbox
This is my first time in Seattle and it's a place I've wanted to see for a long time. Once we get to the venue and get set up, I go for a little wander around the neighborhood. The gig is just across the road from the world famous Pike Place Fish Market. I'd heard this was an entertaining place to do a bit of seafood shopping. There's about 15 fishmongers yelling at people and throwing huge salmons at each other. One unsuspecting tourist had a wet fish across the face as she perused the selection. That was my cue to keep moving.

A couple of old school friends managed to come to the show that night and once the gig was finished, we spent the evening reliving old stories and pretending we could still party like we did back in school. After the venue's bar closed, we followed the advice of one of the locals and made our way to another bar across town. It's about 10C and we're dismayed to see that we're going to have to cue up to get in. As we're waiting, a large smiling Samoan bouncer is forcibly ejecting a man by the neck. I might be wrong, but I could swear that the ejectee didn't have his feet on the ground on the way out. $20 later and we're inside the club. Word has it that the guy who was just removed was a member of the Russian mafia and was still outside yelling threats of revenge against the bouncer and his club. This, coupled with the fact that they were no longer serving beer, made for a good reason to head back to the bus.

Chicago, The Metro
We're parked up just outside the venue, which is just down the road from Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs. There's no shortage of good places to eat dinner around here, but Chris our trusty sound engineer assures us that he 'knows a place'. The first warning should have come with the name the Weiner Circle but he tells us that it's an experience not to be missed. We hop in a cab and head out for a bite to eat after the gig. It's only a small place, and as the name suggests, there's not many options on the menu. There's two ladies behind the counter serving up hamburgers and hot dogs, but there's a twist. Customers are treated to a barrage of abuse as they place their order. God help you if you're indecisive or take a while to find the right change. Chris tells us that he's seen them make a young girl cry in there before. I guess she wasn't expecting this level of customer service. Chris knew what he was getting into and engaged in a bit of banter with the ladies. Now, up to this point of the tour, it'd been driving me nuts trying to think of who Chris reminded me of. One of the ladies hit it on the head within 2 minutes of meeting him. He asked for a side order of fries and she said 'Shut up, Dan Akroyd-lookin motherfucker'. She then offered to show us her tits if we came back after midnight.

Toronto, The Mod Club
I've been living in England now for a long time, so my family in Canada have never really had the opportunity to see me play with the band. This is truly a momentous occasion for me. The 'homecoming gig' I guess. To say that I come from a supportive family is a little bit of an understatement. They arranged their own tour bus to pick up family and friends from all around the area. There were over 50 on the bus and another 20 or so made their own way there. A headquarters was set up next door to the venue where we could all meet up and I could introduce everyone to the band. No pressure on me for the gig then. As it turns out, it's the most fun I've ever had on stage. Johnny kindly points out my parents during the gig and my Mom was even signing autographs after the show. We all hung around and partied until our buses had to leave. Gavin disappeared at some point in the evening and almost finds himself having to make his own travel arrangements to Montreal. This, as we would find out later, is kind of par for the course for our new bearded friend.

Sorry reader. It seems I've rambled on to the point where this has gone from a blog to a short novel. There's just too much to tell and it's taking too long for me to write this in between sneezes. I must snip it here.

Much love,

Bryan

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February 12

Over the Ocean, The Great Destroyer

There are sirens outside in London town. The fire engines in New York are named after their ladder number. "Ladder 24" scared the frozen pants off me last week when it blew on 14th Street. It blew, it blew and it blew. There is no onomatopoeia for the sound of it. The beast of a machine with a hose strapped to its back looked capable of quieting the most recalcitrant flame. A dragon in reverse. In my head there's a picture of a giant pipe running up from the Atlantic and into the bowels of the big truck that spits water at the fire. Each twin packet of hydrogen bonded to oxygen, halts the process in play and quenches the burnee's thirst. Were the aqua molecules not already holding hands the story would be different. Ask a rocket. Boom.

The sirens here don't shake the earth. NeNaw. The fire can hardly feel scared. Nice red though. I want to post letters in the side of them. In Milwaukee a few weeks ago, I read the names of all the fire fighters who had lost their lives carrying out their duties. I read every one of them. Each had a story, and as I skimmed the chiselled granite I wondered what they'd be doing now, had they not fallen down.

I am lucky. I like fire when it is my friend. I used to light leaves in our garden in Ireland and watch the flicker of its curling fingers for hours. I am still here yet. I will take extra care when I put out this cigarette for I prefer to watch this movie from a distance. Be wise with our friend combustion, and may the siren's song always be dropping in pitch as she speeds away from you. Cue Mr Doppler.

J x

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February 9

Im Leaving Today

am in my friend Eamon's flat on the edge of the Village, NYC. He's the Eamon Harkin who remixed You and Me. It is so cold here -12 Celsius or 9 degrees as they call it here. Nothing this cold should have a positive integer to describe it. I am grateful for the long-johns and thermals. Atoms here move slowly. I am writing now the day before I leave for London. I can't believe the tour is over already. It has been amazing to play in America and Canada and I want to thank all of you who made us feel so welcome. The boys (and girls) from the Augustana camp were amazing and we'll miss them very much.

Talking of missing, Gavin missed his plane (or mis-read his itinerary) out of here, so he and I ended up in a Pub in SoHo the other night. We were there to watch a great singer songwriter Michael Brunnock. The talented, brilliant man from Kells played 'till 4 in the morning and capped the tour off perfectly. The Irish, singing in America. Gavin and I got up and sang a few songs to the smallest crowd we've played to so far here. The whiskey hurt the next morning but it made the night smooth. We ended it with breakfast in a diner and a walk in the snow at 6am, still singing.

We want to come back here. We will come back here. We have enjoyed ourselves immensely and if I hear the sounds of a bell ringing as my cab approaches JFK, I will surely turn around. I am however without a cat, my knapsack weighs about 50Kg's and Whittington turned back to London but I know what I mean.

Farewell to you for now, the shores of America.

Until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.
Sln go foill,
Johnny x

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