Hey Pepsimaxcasters… It’s been a blinding few weeks indeed. We have had some truly brilliant gigs – Leeds on Monday was mental… we had the Sheffield Wednesday firm in and it went off!!

And the The London Forum last Thurs was totally insane!! It was packed, the crowd knew every single word to every song and  everyone was jumping about and going crazy- at one point I thought the balcony was going to come down! We then went on and partied till the small hours in Camden… I didn’t feel to clever in the morning though!

I also wanna say a big thank you to the Pepsi Max comp winners for coming down and saying  hello – top geezers! Anyway just thought you’d like a sneak peek at one of our soundchecks. This is me doing “The Drugs Don’t Work” by The Verve – one of my favourite bands. Liam, Andy and I like to take it in turns to choose a song to cover to keep sounchecks fun! Enjoy… TC.

Now that I am actually in a band, keeping up with what’s hot or what new and good feels a little bit too much like hard work. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that I don’t listen to music anymore but I usually just stick with the classics like The Jam, The Stones and Pink Floyd – they just never fail to inspire me. However in March we were supported by Manchester’s Twisted Wheel (www.myspace.com/thetwistedwheel) and they were awesome! I was really impressed with not only their songs but their ability to totally rock out, echoing the rawness and excitement of the clash with sheer coolness of The Stone Roses. They’ve got that real Northern Soul vibe going on (unsurprising really as they got their name from Manchester’s famous northern soul venue).

Give it a few months and Twisted Wheel will be selling out venues such as Academy 2 and giving the Courteeners a run for their money which can only be a good thing!!! My favourite songs are  ”Strife” and “You Stole The Sun”. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what the abstract lyrics are about; I am sure they mean something but with all the beer and bodies flying around at their gigs, you won’t have time to dissect them either!

Also check out Charli XCX www.myspace.com/charlixcx I saw her at a gig in London recently. I thought to myself “oh God more Hoxton dribble” but her songs are just amazingly crafted pop songs and she writes and produces everything. At 17 years old she’s very accomplished as a musician and performer. You heard it here first!

Tom

For the first in our Maxcast series, we have teamed up with Smivadee (aka Matt Smith) to get under the skin of our line up of Maxcast curators… first up, Tom Clarke from The Enemy, in a pub, keeping it casual.

They talk all things from how The Enemy got their name, Oasis breaking up, and Pirates or Ninjas…?

Check out the video…

A nice little Maxcast exclusive for you guys – the Making of video for “No Time for Tears”

Enjoy!

Maxcast Team

Hi guys

The time has come, and The Enemy have picked their winner to come and meet them at London Forum in November… the winner is Curtis Armstrong! His photo is pictured right, winning based on the description of his Max It Moment coming at Wembley. In Curtis’ own words;

“Me and my best mate Joe, fully clothed in our Cov City shirts at Wembley, watching The Enemy and Oasis rock the Home of English football to the ground ( I saw them at the Ricoh a few nights before with my old man, the gig that probably was the best of my life, sat next to my season ticket seat for that little bit of irony!). Although Wembley was the night that made us most proud to know The Enemy are from Cov like us and were playing with such a quality band as Oasis. We even got a few Spurs fans to sing Play Up Sky Blues to put the icing on top of the cake, the highlight of my summer!”

Well done Curtis, we’ll be in touch next week to give you all the details. As for now, a message from Tom Clarke;

Alright Pepsi- Maxers! I hope you’re all good this week – I’m currently stuck in the worst traffic jam EVER trying to get back up to Coventry and the only thing keeping me sane is Kasabian’s new album- “West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum”- it’s such a brilliant record, I can’t enough! Bring on the weekend by the way… V Festival here we come!! buzzin’ it’s gonna be a blinder! Plus nice one to the winners of the Pepsi MaxCast comp – looking forward to meeting you at the show in November- loving flying the Cov flag at Wembley. Ace.

Until next time…

Tom Clarke