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Post Belladrum Blether / August Dates

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Wow Belladrum Festival was brilliant. Thank y’all that came to see us at the Hot House Stage. Lots of photos and videos over on our Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/thelittlemillofhappiness). Thanks again for those who came along.

We have a couple of dates confirmed for August with more hopefully to be announced soon.

August 16th – Ironworks, Inverness, Scotland (please email the band for tickets: thelittlemillofhappiness@gmailcom)

August 25th – Newmarket Bar, Thurso, Scotland

There are some reviews of our Belladrum set over  at http://www.highland-news.co.uk/Whats-On/Music/Belladrums-hottest-sounds-06082012.htm and http://www.invernessgigs.co.uk

Hopefully see you on the road soon.

TLMOH

 

Some words from S.D.V.A Obern

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My dear 209 friends, believe me when I tell you all that…THERE IS A WAR !!! And we the collective artistic community in the Highlands have been immersed and engaged in a conflict with banality for years. Banality is not a euphemism or a cheap metaphor that I deem to be shit or evil. I mean ‘banal’ as in mundane, plain, no focus . People’s high tolerance of the mundane is as soul destroying as it is horrifying and baffling to myself . I’m sure Brian Eno would completely disagree with me but his affiliation, his embracing and subservience to the cause of banality of late has left me feeling that this once great pioneer is now worshipping at the temple of mediocrity allowing his talent and passion to just drift off and away into the ether…….God it depresses me. It must be like sitting in an air port terminal on a grey day thick with fog watching planes start their engines up, turn around and move on to the runway and then disappear into the mist, into nothingness with out watching them take off……hmm…Well that’s my point of view and perhaps not one shared with the other members of the Mill . At the same time though my love and faith in the local scene has sustained and nourished me in ways that are too varied & perhaps too complicated to even begin to get into. We have always known that there is a constant cooking scene up here that’s always been bubbling away (& may it always be so).
I really got off on the fact that the showcases at the Ironworks recently demonstrated a whole litany of musicians all following their own artistic paths with out any apparent care for the cool set in London or Glasgow. We are like the Texans of the United Kingdom, perceived as red necked inbred heathens, we even have the oil!!! Truly, we are the outsiders and I take a lot of pleasure in this preconceived, ill informed ridden cliche…..nothing gives us greater pleasure than hitting the road down south and sonically reducing the room to complete dust every time….This Saturday, Inverness is going to witness a truly fantastic band ‘Two Wings’. They have a really wonderful musical vision and a singer who is blessed with a peerless voice. I’m very proud to inform you that The Little Mill of Happiness will be opening for them. Proud because they are a band composed of truth and belief and proud because we are doing the gig IGLU. IGLU (the ICA HQ) is one our strongest allies in the battle against banality. I understand there are some who will find that last statement a little to jagged to digest but they do a colossal amount to encourage and nurture the artistic scene in this town of ours along with a very few others. The whole experience will take an hour and a half of your life but discovering a new band, waking up the next day and being haunted (hopefully in the beautiful sense of the word) is exhilarating.It’s like discovering a new colour. It would be wonderful to see all 209 of you there at IGLU at 7pm. Hope you are all well. Peace love and conviction. S D V A Obern

Review of Netsounds Gig – Hoots/Inverness/01-4-12

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Here is some nice words from Invernessgigs.co.uk about our gig on 1st April at Hoots, Inverness.

http://invernessgigs.co.uk/mill-happiness-reasons/

(Photo by Frank Finlayson)

“The final trip downstairs took us to the final act of the night, The Little Mill of Happiness. This was the first time that I’ve seen them this year. One local writer said that they were, in 2011 in terms of local acts, “head and shoulders above the rest”, so do they still have the edge? Well, a word, yes. But that doesn’t make a review.

What does make a review is watching a band full of intensity and purpose, something that Little Mill have bucket loads of. Tracks from their Capsized Sailors were interspersed throughout the set, but newer yet to be released, and in some cases to be titled songs, invaded our minds making them as memorable as those recorded. Steve Obern was in the zone tonight, with intense connection. This sense of purpose pervades the rest of the band as they shake the bar to its foundations. Direct, emotive and with no innuendo, Little Mill have an agenda, an agenda they are fulfilling. Tonight confirmed that they still sit at the top of the pile, at least in one writer’s opinion.

Further photos of the evening are here.”