It has been a busy couple of months here at Monstrous Child Towers – very busy. We have been busy finalising dates for the Stray / The Groundhogs tour in February and March next year. 16 shows up and down the country and tickets are selling well.

We have also re-issued the Stray Live In Japan album, completely repackaged, and produced an amazing new shirt to match. We have just four more shows left this year with Stray, with The Stables virtually sold out and London well on its way to selling out.

Praying Mantis had a short run of shows including one of my favourite gigs, The Brickmakers in Norwich and the main stage at Hard Rock Hell. It is tough getting people out to shows outside of London but with hard work from the venues, promoters, and even the fans a successful night can be had.

Last weekend was the inaugural Cornwall Rocks festival in Looe. Headliners The Quireboys, Diamond Head and Massive Wagons were as good as usual but the highlight was the variety of ‘young’ rock bands matched with those more experienced.
Hollowstar, Ethyrfield and Collateral were excellent. In fact all the bands were.

With only about 200 people there it was a lot smaller than I expected but it will go ahead next year and I hope I have some of my artists on there again.

Looking forward to next year already, and plenty of festivals booked and in the planning stages. To start we have Stray, Praying Mantis and Vambo at Giants Of Rock and Vambo at the Rock & Blues weekend in Skegness. After Mantis blew the roof off Club OKO Czech they have already been booked back for two festivals next year. They will also be appearing at the appropriately named Bang Your Head festival in Germany.

After two consecutive sellout shows in North and South London, and a new album which is getting 5 Star reviews, Vambo look set to break big. We are again taking them to Sweden in May where they have a loyal following, and further European shows are are being planned. Here is the video for ‘Why Why Why’.

Europe also beckons for Stray and The Groundhogs and discussions are well under way for a tour later in the year. We continue to expand our activities ‘behind the scenes’ working with artists back catalogues and building a firm framework for the their future interests.