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A Badge of Friendship Update: Music, Comedy and More!



Now we're officially striding through the last half of 2012, we thought it was about time we sent out an update. 2012 has been our busiest year yet working on a variety of wonderful clients from Last.fm to comedian Doug Stanhope and an array of wonderful bands and labels.

If you'd like to read more about our PR and event management services, please check out our ABoF case studies pdf which you can download online. If you'd prefer to get in touch personally, please drop us an email here: info@abadgeoffriendship.com.

Coming up...



We're about to add an array of wonderful new clients and projects to the ABoF roster - we've not announced all of the bands, comedians and new projects we're working on just yet but we're not ones for holding back the good stuff so we thought, why not just announce them here? Don't say we don't spoil you!

We're very excited to be working on comedian Dave Hill's forthcoming book Tasteful Nudes. The multi-talented Mr. Hill has appeared on the US TV show The King of Miami, currently appears as on-air talent for HBO and Cinemax and currently fronts the band Valley Lodge and plays guitar with Walter Schreifels' (Rival Schools, Quicksand) solo band and Diamondsnake, a hard rock band also featuring Moby. Tasteful Nudes will be released in October, we'll have more information on this release and Dave very shortly.

Continuing on from last year's pop-up sessions, we're working with Last.fm on their Originals sessions. These sessions are an intimate an exclusive look at new and established artists featuring interviews and exclusive live performances.

Berlin based duo Me And My Drummer have already released two tracks from their forthcoming debut album The Hawk, The Beak, The Prey and the anticipation is building. Hailed as a cross between Florence + The Machine, Bat For Lashes and Delphic, they've already got John Kennedy and Mary Anne Hobbs (XFM), Huw Stephens (BBC Radio 1) and Tom Ravenscroft and Chris Hawkins (BBC 6Music) signing them praises. The Hawk, The Beak, The Prey is out on September 24th via German label Sinnbus.



Scottish band State Broadcasters release their second album Ghosts We Must Carry via Olive Grove Records on September 24th. They just released a free download of the album track "Trespassers" with another to follow in August just before the album's release.



Another fantastic Olive Grove release coming up is Jo Mango’s album Murmuration. Having already collaborated with Vashti Bunyan and Devendra Banhart, this much anticipated album will showcase Jo’s brilliant songwriting talents as a solo performer.

Also watch out for new artists Cara Mitchell, The Maginot Band, Verse Metrics, Jonny & The Giros, Shirock, Damian Cox, Humphrey Milles, The Jar Family plus more releases from ABoF favourites Atom Eye, Turnpike Glow, The Birthday Suit and The Murder Barn. We'll be posting out information on all of these very soon!

2012 so far...



It's been a year of great releases so far here at ABoF towers. However, not only have we been working with some of the finest new bands around, we also had the chance to work with controversial comedian Doug Stanhope and top music sharing platform Last.fm.

Doug Stanhope released his latest DVD Before Turning The Gun On Himself back in March and completed another successful UK tour, which ended on a high to a packed out audience at the Hammersmith Apollo. The DVD was released to rapturous reviews with Doug appearing in the Shortlist, Rock Sound, MOJO, Nuts and Front on the run up to its release.

After the success of their pop-up sessions with HP last year, Last.fm asked ABoF to event manage their media party with HP earlier this year. The party was to celebrate the activity their activity in 2011 with David Guetta headlining the event.

We've been working with even more brilliant new bands this year, we’re very proud of the quality of our roster this year. We would love to list all the amazing bands we've worked with this year but instead we've put them all on this handy Soundcloud set and you can also read about some of our highlights below!



Knifeworld returned with their strongest release to date - Clairvoyant Fortnight. The EP followed 2011's critically acclaimed EP Dear Lord, No Deal and their 2009 debut album Buried Alone: Tales of Crushing Defeat. Prog Magazine and Rock A Rolla heralded the EP a success and special praise went to their brilliant (and slightly mental!) video for 'Clairvoyant Fortnight', which featured snooker legend Steve Davis.

Scots boys Vigo Thieves have gone from strength to strength providing T in the Park with this year's 2012 theme tune, playing the BBC Introducing stage, packing out shows in Scotland and appearing on Classic Rock, Drowned in Sound, Spinner and NME.com to name but a few.

French Wives have also been flying the flag for talent in Scotland. They released their album Dream of the Inbetween this year with everyone from BBC 6Music, The Line of Best Fit, The Herald, The Fly and The Skinny Magazine singing them praise.

If you'd like more information on anything you've read here or our PR services, please email info@abadgeoffriendship.com.