ALL ENTRIES | DAVINA | ROSS | STEPHEN

Written: Monday 21st June 2010
Hello and summer greetings from (sometimes) sunny London!

Stephen here, how is everyone? It's been such a long time since our last diary or show that I'm sure many of you have given up on us. What I've learnt over the past 6 months or so is that it's amazing how busy you can be without playing any shows! We really have had our noses to the grindstone lately, building, improving, planning and generally still believing in THE MARS PATROL. I really hope that you will soon be able to enjoy the fruits of our labour and that it'll all be worth while.

Anyway, I'm not going to say what we've been up to just yet... you have to check back in on friday to find out. We're so stoked. All will be revealed!!!

Did everyone know we're now a 6-piece?! Yup, we're sounding fuller and more complete than ever at rehearsals. We've added Matt Baker on keys and he really does add a whole new dynamic to our music with his creativity and feel... not to mention he's just an all round musical demon! Ask him to play you some jazz sometime! Seriously! I'd happily pay him to play me to sleep every night. Is that creepy? Maybe. Anyway, we love you Matt... welcome. Check out these pictures of Matt and Ross at a masked ball in London the other week. New stage costumes me thinks?!



Who's been enjoying the World Cup over the last couple of weeks?! I've become so attached to it that I don't know what I'd do without it now! I got a ridiculous 'Vuvuzela' app on my phone. Man it's annoying... but awesome! I've been so busy lately I haven't actually been able to watch a game properly, you know, with friends and beer and nibbles, that kinda thing. I will though, oh yesss I will.

Did anyone check out the Official UK top 20 on Radio 1 at the weekend? I couldn't believe that there isn't 1 guitar or 'band' in the top 20. Barely even in the top 40! How do people feel about this? Personally I feel like it swings in roundabouts, pretty soon there'll be a bunch of bands releasing new material and storming back in there I'm sure... but it's pretty interesting to see the chart the way it currently stands. Don't get me wrong, I like a bunch of songs in there, I'm just a great believer that variety is the spice of life, you know. Who do people think will be the next 'band' to smash up those charts?

Ok, I gotta go. Loads of exciting stuff coming soon from THE MARS PATROL, I promise. Follow us on Twitter, 'like' us on facebook, spread the word and check back in on friday to hear some good news :)

Stevo,

x












Written: Thursday 22nd October 2009
Hey all, it's been a while!

Since last time I spoke to you we have been doing many different things including recording in the United States! At the begininning of the year we were offered a music publishing deal by a company based in both Nashville, TN and Sydney, Australia. We ended up signing it at the end of the summer and headed out to beautiful Nashville to record some new songs!

We recorded four tracks out there, three of which we will be releasing on a new EP. The songs are currently being mixed in a couple of different places including London. We are just trying to get it sounding as good as it should be. We'll be doing a video soon too for our leading single...yet to be announced!

Nashville was such a great place and completely different to what I'm used to. It has a great music scene and it was a pleasure to see so many fantastic musicians striving to be the best they can be. We recorded in a beautiful place just on the outskirts of Nashville, in the countryside where there were no distractions, just a big lake and many lovely horses taking it easy in the ranches. We took loads of pictures, there is a link to them at the bottom of this diary. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see as much of Tennessee as I would have liked because I was in the studio the entire time, but I'll definitely be going back at some point.



We are in the process of making a documentary. The entire trip was filmed and is being put together into episodes for a new Web TV Series! There's some awesome stuff in there, including Stephen getting tattooed for the first time and us all sticking out like sore thumbs in country bars!

We've also written many new songs as you can imagine and have recorded loads of them acoustically. We are hoping to maybe put a couple of them on the EP along with the three Nashville tracks.

Davina has been doing some amazing photoshoots recently, you should all check out the pictures on our Official Facebook Page. She plays some brilliant characters in these pictures, including a Cowgirl...



The next thing you will most likely see from THE MARS PATROL is the trailer for the new documentary, it looks amazing and it will give you a good insight to what we've been doing. The cameras will continue to follow us so we can have regular episodes for you all.

Stay tuned and add your name to our mailinglist if you're not on it already. This way you'll know when things are launched and released :)

Thanks for reading,
Ross x

P.S. The Nashville pictures and the Davina pictures are on Facebook here. Enjoy.







Written: Tuesday 17th February 2009
Hello, just thought Id give you a wee update, it’s been a few months I think!

We are all doing really well here in London. There are five of us in the band now and it sounds really amazing. Our shows have been getting busier and busier too.

Yesterday we did our first full band photoshoot and it went really well. I have seen some of the shots already and they look fantastic. Doing photo sessions must be one of the most exhausting things. I know it sounds stupid but it really is. Those shots will be coming soon and will be part of the launch of our awesome ‘new band’ so keep a lookout.

We’ve been rehearsing loads, both electically and acoustically and we’ve got many new songs. We plan to add quite a few of them into our set over the next few months. Some titles include Say It To My Heart, The Note, It Started With A Kiss and The Secretist.

There’s also loads of new merch and we just got some new badges too so keep a lookout in the store for those.

We hope to start playing shows more regularly soon so let us know where we should play! We’d like to hear from you :)

Talk soon,

Ross x






Written Sunday 21st December 2008
Hey guys,

First of all, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope everyone is feeling warm and fuzzy and festive. Christmas is definitely my favourite time of year (along with summer holidays). What's everyone up to these holidays? We are all heading home out of the big smoke to spend Christmas with friends and family. Myself, Ross and Davina are heading back home to Edinburgh, Steve our drummer is off home to Preston and our new guitarist James is up to Manchester where his parents live. Yup, we're a right Northern mix!

So yeah Christmas songs, I love em! I have a top 3...

1. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Mel Torme
2. Gaudete - Steeleye Span
3. A Spaceman Came a Travelling - Chris De Burgh

Controversial? Or not so? Wham's 'Last Christmas' was knocking at the door along with 'Carol Of The Bells', but I think that's my top 3!

I guess 2008 was a pretty big year for THE MARS PATROL. We took a big step in completely relocating. You gotta move for your art, and so far, it's the best thing we've done for our band's health. We also added two new members, Steve and then James. You'll be hearing from them soon for sure. I guess my band highlight, other than moving to London and making 2 new band member friends, would be playing at KoKo with our friend Finley Quaye. Big props to him for having us. It was just one of those shows where everything came together all at once... and our first ever show as a 5-piece! Magic!

I've got several New Years resolutions too. I won't list them, but one of them is to develop a better relationship with my camera! I'm bringing him everywhere with me this year! Look out for far more video clips etc.

So that's all just now. Eat, drink and be merry... and come and see us in London at the Camden Barfly on Saturday 10th January if at all possible. We're gonna be kicking off the new year in style! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year again. We'll see you on the other side!

Stephen xxx








Written Friday 24th October 2008
Mic check, 1,2,1,2. Is this thing on?!

Hello my good people,

I hope this diary entry finds you well. Firstly I think it's important for me to express how glad we are to be 'up and running' and busier than ever! As you all know we've suffered a lot of setbacks (completely out-with our control), but as they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and we're back stronger than ever!

We played a show on Oxford Street here in London on tuesday. A pretty awesome location for a gig. I still get a bit overawed by the city centre here. It's big and glitsy and very far removed from Edinburgh. I love it though, I can't say I've been bored once since moving here! Always something to do! Anyway, the show was great, you guys are getting pretty vocal! Keep that up for sure!

So what's next? Well we're coming up to Glasgow on friday 7th November to play with The Rifles at the Garage, we can't wait for that! Then we hurry back down to London to play at KoKo in Camden with our friend Finley Quaye on saturday 8th November! Busy weekend! The best kind!

And then? EDINBURGH!!! Our first home town show in over a year! That's far too long! We are gonna be in the mood for a party so please come and join us! It's on saturday 15th November at Studio 24 with Army Of Freshmen and you can get tickets from themarspatrol.com/tickets. If you haven't got them yet... GET THEM NOW!!!

Ok, I'm gonna try to get out for some air. My room is far too small to be sitting in all day!

'Join the Patrol. Wear red.'

Stephen xxx







Written: Thursday 25th September 2008
Hi lovely people, i hope this wee message finds you well :)
Welcome to our new site!! It's so nice to have a make over! I feel good when stuff is new...this new site is so cool i now have my own diary page and photo page!

So TMP is back out on the road, we are playing live again and jeez it feels good! We have been busy as always behind-the-scenes as well writing and recording new tunes all fit for one massive eargasm lol!! Some of the songs we have introduced into the set already. As soon as we can we shall let you hear them online. We have recorded some of them in rough demos.

As you know we all live in London now, we are lovin' it and i'm enjoying the new inspiration i'm feeling. I believe its good for the soul to change things up a bit in life and set yourself some new challenges. The area in London that we are staying has lots of creative people and its nice to brush shoulders with like minded people.

I am looking forward to writing on here more and keeping you up to date with everything that's going on, but for now I'll leave you to browse around the new website and check out all the cool new stuff. Hope to catch up with some of you soon at the upcoming shows!

Take care,
Love DD.x







Written: Saturday 20th September 2008
Hello to you all. What a pleasure it is to have a new website up & running. It feels good to have something fresh and it’s taken us a little while but we had to start something new and positive now that we are back on the go.

Today is a beautiful day here in London which makes for a much happier city I think. And I’m even happier because I met Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones today. I was thinking about asking him to join THE MARS PATROL haha...just kidding.

We’ve played two shows in London recently, both were amazing and I think the general response from people was that we are better than we have ever been. There’s quite a few new tracks in our set now too and Davina’s voice just keeps getting better and better! We’ve got more gig plans on the way too so stay tuned for that. (Check out the tour page for current gigs)

I have been working on a mix of our new song ‘Mrs Materialistic’, it’s really dancy, passionate and vibey all at the same time. It’s an awesome tune and a great one live. A lot of our tracks are sounding so distinctive, it’s brilliant. When the track is done we will be putting it online exclusively somewhere so if you want to know where then sign up to our mailinglist here.

Gonna go just now, can’t tell whether I should take advantage of the sun and go out for a bit or if I should just keep getting on with stuff. I think I’ll probably get on with stuff actually, then it’s done and we can move on quicker.

Thanks for reading!

Ross x