Lost On Campus, Sam Little and More Announced for Slam Dunk Acoustic Stage

Lost On Campus, Sam Little, The Lion and the Wolf, Ghost Saddles and Jimmy Holland Music will be playing the Punktastic acoustic stage at this years Slam Dunk Festival.

Pandapalooza Tour with The Candle Thieves, Sam Little and Lost On Campus Kicks Off

The first show of Pandy Cane's 'Pandapalooza' took place last night in London. Tongiht the tour heads to Wycombe, before two final dates in Peterborough and Gloucester.

'Pandapalooza' features The Candle Thieves, Sam Little and Lost On Campus.

September
23rd BNU, High Wycombe (students only)
24th The Met Lounge, Peterborough
25th Underground Festival, Gloucester

Pandapalooza Tour with The Candle Thieves, Sam Little and Lost On Campus Begins This Week

Pandy Cane's 'Pandapalooza' tour begins this week and features The Candle Thieves, Sam Little and Lost On Campus.

September
22nd The Monarch, London
23rd BNU, High Wycombe (students only)
24th The Met Lounge, Peterborough
25th Underground Festival, Gloucester

New Luke Leighfield Single Announced

Luke Leighfield will release a new single, 'New Season' on September 6th, with all proceeds being donated to We Heart Arts. The single also features vocals from Jose Vanders and Sam Little.

'New Season' can be heard here.

Sam Little Announces Break From Music

Sam Little has announced he is to take a break from music.

Little posted the following on his blog:

"I need to explain before you read on, that I’ve thought about this for a long time. I know a few of you might try and stop me, some of you might be gutted, and well, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of you don’t care.. but I need to do this. I’ve tried to keep this short, so I’m not bitterly rambling..

Recently I’ve been the saddest I’ve ever been.

I know, to a lot of you, I’ve been this ‘happy, always optimistic, never faltering’ person but as a few of my closest friends will know I’ve slowly been destroying myself. I’m sick of constantly feeling ‘not good enough’ and pessimistic. I can’t do it anymore.

I’m taking a break from music.

I don’t know how long for and to be honest, I don’t know much about what will happen.. I’ve spent way too much time over this last year ‘expecting’ things and they’ve never happened.. so I don’t want to give you any false hope.

I’ve spent the last year and a half working as hard as I can, playing more shows than I can afford/handle to make sure that you got a chance to see a show, bleeding myself dry to get around and try to live. Saving and spending all the money I had to make sure you had merch and heard new songs, even if it meant I couldn’t afford things for myself. I’ve been sleeping on sofas and floors for the last God knows how many months so I can do this for you and to be honest.. it feels like it’s completely unappreciated.

I know that’s not the case for all of you and though that last paragraph is highly discouraged.. I’ve met some of the best people and had the BEST times over the last year and I’m massively in debt to those people for making my life so much richer.

I don’t think this is goodbye, I sure as hell hope not.. I just need to clear my head, take some time and hopefully have something give me faith.

I’m sorry."

Over the past few months Sam has become a good friend of the site and he is truely is one of the most honest, supportive and nicest people in the UK music scene today. From everyone here at Alter The Press, we wish Sam all the best in the future and we thank him for supporting our site.

New Sam Little Demo Video and Free EP

Sam Little has posted a new demo called 'Don't Leave Without Me', which can be viewed by clicking read more.

In additional news, his 'Trust Me, Something Beautiful will Happen' EP has been made available for free download here.

Pandy Cane's Pandapalooza Tour Dates Announced

Dates for Pandy Cane's 'Pandapalooza' tour have been announced.

The line-up consists of The Candle Thieves, Sam Little and Lost On Campus.

September
22nd The Monarch, London
23rd BNU, High Wycombe (students only)
24th The Met Lounge, Peterborough
25th Underground Festival, Gloucester

Exclusive Sam Little Tour Blog: Day Fifteen

Day Fifteen: Ben & Jerry's Sundae Festival

So after a long ass coach journey from Manchester to London Victoria, then a good tube journey to Kensal Green, I can finally drop everything and lie down. I'm staying at my manager Bev's house tonight on her floor. Surprisingly, I'm so used to sleeping on floors, that I pretty much pass out straight away.

Today, I'm playing the prestigious Ben & Jerry's sundae festival in Clapham Common, London. The concept is simple, you pay £15 for a day ticket (£25 for a weekend) and you get all the free ice cream you can handle. Oh and there's some amazing bands playing like Slow Club, Scouting For Girls and Idlewild. I'm more than lucky to be playing the acoustic stage today, and I'm excited, if not nervous.

For some reason, I've decided to walk to the arena from the overground station, which probably wasn't the best of ideas, especially as I have the worst directional sense ever. But after a good twenty five minutes worth of walking, we're here at the artist entrance.

Exclusive Sam Little Tour Blog: Day Thirteen and Fourteen

Day Thirteen and Fourteen: Birmingham and Manchester

It's been pretty eventful actually. I'm currently sat in Manchester with In Gratitude and the lovely Rose & Jess, who's house we're staying at. It's 5am somehow and I'm so awake. The boys are drunk, we spent tonight at Rockbox in Manchester which mostly consisted of bumping into a million and one old friends that I haven't seen in ages. Was rad to say the least.

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna end up tomorrow with no voice due to a mix of alcohol and having the best pop punk sing alongs with the boys from Riot Pop records tonight. Matt broke some girl's heart. He's the singer, and heartbreak extraordinaire. I played the last two shows with them and they're awesome; like a british version of Minus the Bear meets Jimmy Eat World. I'm excited for the August tour we're doing to say the least.

Exclusive Sam Little Tour Blog: Day Twelve

Day Twelve: Birmingham

It's over. Kinda. It's actually really sad, which I know sounds a bit pathetic but I've become so close to these boys (Maycomb) and it's been literally the best week and a bit. Tonight's show is in Birmingham, land of dreams. The party will be amazing.

The day starts with me waking up next to Jack in his bed, and getting ready to leave. We're going to buy me some new shoes today because my converse got destroyed over the course of tour, and I lost/threw them in the road at Nottingham's show. I'm gonna get me some Vans; not that you care, but I'm excited and this is my blog.

Exclusive Sam Little Tour Blog: Day Eleven

Day Eleven: Leeds

Today was a good day.

I always love Leeds whenever I visit. The people are amazing, the shows are always dead good and ultimately I always end up having the best time. I'm now in Wallheath, somewhere near Birmingham and I kinda wish I was still in Leeds partying, but you can't win them all.

Jack and I are the first ones awake today, which is strange because we're the ones that sleep the most. Shortly after we're in Starbucks, which is the place of dreams, on a little bromantic date. Bromance has been at all time high over this last week and to be honest, I'm full on heart broken that it has to end.

Exclusive Sam Little Tour Blog: Day Ten

Day Ten: Sheffield

I'm not sure I've laughed as much in my entire life, as I did last night before bed. Jonny and I had a little adventure at Si's house, that resulted in us in tears laughing.

Today we're playing Sheffield. I haven't played Sheffield before, so I'm quite excited for it. Before the drive starts we're being fed a royal feast by Simon's parents. Cooked breakfast & a BBQ for lunch, a meat overload. My vegetarian tour challenge died an ultimately quick death. It's a relatively short journey to the venue tonight, which is full of me DJing a medley of the cheesiest pop. There's been some amazing sing-a-longs to Bieber and Ke$ha.

Exclusive Sam Little Tour Blog: Day Eight and Nine

Day Eight & Nine: London and Nottingham

I'm not entirely sure how I'm alive, I'm not sure how I got 'home', I have no idea how I managed to play a show last night and I definitely don't know how the hell I don't have a hangover today. Fuck.

Thursday July 15th, 11:58pm (end of day seven):
I'm a little bit tipsy, I've been drinking enough vodka to send a slight surge of intoxication through my veins. Maycomb and I have just demolished some Dominos pizza that I bought as a birthday treat for everyone and we're waiting for the clock to turn the day. I can't believe I'm gonna be 21, I'm definitely not mature enough. Come midnight, the boys are singing and they've bought me a cake of dreams. I've got so much time for these guys, they're literally the nicest people I've ever met. About an hour later, Jimmy sits in the remainder of the cake, brilliant.

Woke up fairly early so that the boys could go do a photoshoot with my friend Maryam in Victoria Park. After messing around in a playpark for a good hour, we headed back with some pretty awesome shots! I'm sure they'll be online soon enough. Johnny looks so much like Ray Romano, it's amazing.

Exclusive Sam Little Tour Blog: Day Seven

Day Seven: Day Off in London

I'm sat on a balcony in London. The view is the best thing I've ever seen. The sky is most beautiful shade of dark blue and I can see the entire skycape of Canary Wharf. I'm surrounded by Maycomb, who in the last week have become my best friends in the world. I really don't want this tour to end, I know that's probably the case for everyone on tour, but I honestly don't think I've ever gotten on with a bunch of people as much as these guys. Bromance is very heavily in the air. Jimmy's sat next to me and if he was my type well, he'd be next haha. We're staying at a friend of theirs who's been amazing and putting us up in her room. It feels like a sleepover again. Sleepover tour 2010.

Highlights of today were getting another birthday present from Grace, which happened to be perfect (my pyjamas are so ripped up, and she'd bought me a new pair. BONUS!), taking some sweet photobooth photos with Jonny, which I'll twitpic and also today was the beginning of my new challenge. Everytime we stop at traffic lights, I have to see how many times I can run around the van before the lights turn green. I'm at one. Tomorrow's a whole new day, I reckon I might be able to break the world record and get three.

Exclusive Sam Little Tour Blog: Day Six

Day Six: Bath

We're nearly in Bath. There's still an hour to go though, and we just had the severe disappointment of being stuck in the wrong lane for the services. Jimmy's let us down. It had a Starbucks and a KFC as well, there's a lot of sadness in this van right now.

Last night concluded with me falling asleep shortly after 'Black Knight', while the others stayed up and watched 'Aladdin' and drank more beers. Jonny was so drunk. I remember my first beer. I'm toying with the idea of getting drunk on Friday, though I know I shouldn't as I'm on tour and I shouldn't jeopardise my money/voice for the sake of one night. Maycomb have other ideas, they reckon I should destroy myself. It is my 21st, so I probably will end up in a horrible state. Actually I think I remember people saying they were bringing me Jagermeister, it's probably gonna be a lot worse than horrible.

Exclusive Sam Little Tour Blog: Day Five

Day Five: Norwich

"I'm woken up by the boys in a classic tour fashion. Video camera's out and they all bundle themselves on top of me. Very much like the dream I was having, except none of them are Hayley Williams. We're off to Norwich today, which should be awesome. If it happens. We stayed just outside Ipswich last night, so we're gonna take a small venture into town to grab some 2pm breakfast. Boys in bands take forever to get ready. It's not that they're not efficient at getting ready, or I'm dead quick, it's just that the more people there are to get in the shower, organise and get ready, the longer it takes.

Breakfast was disappointing. The vegetarian option consisted of the same stuff as the regular breakfast but without the meat and for the same price. Fully got ripped off but it was one of those things where you don't mind cause the people that work there are beautiful. Like when you go to a hair salon and you pay ridiculous amounts but the person washing your hair is dead pretty so it's all good. Come off it, we're all guilty of doing it.

Exclusive Sam Little Tour Blog: Day Four

Day Four: Ipswich

Ipswich, we're coming for you.

We (me and Maycomb) are all packed and clean and ready. The next ten days are gonna be amazing. I went to the their band practice and they're gonna easily blow some people away on this tour. We tried to collaborate an amazing cover, but time was short and we had to go pack the van. As I'm oriental, I'm obviously amazing at Tetris, so the van is packed like a beast. Even the Maycomb guys are impressed at how much stuff I've managed to fit in a small space (wahey).

We're now sat in this van that'll probably contain more in-jokes, obscenities and skin that should be shared between five guys that met properly yesterday. I'm looking forward to it though. There's something about being crammed in a small van, driving for hours in the most ridiculous conditions, that makes it feel like a tour. I reckon I could do this forever, though I'm not sure if that'll still be the same story by day six.

In Gratitude Set To Start UK Shows Next Week

In Gratitude begin a run of UK shows next week, which includes show with Make Me King, Sam Little and They Sink Ships.

21 Jul 2010 Sound Bar, Birmingham w/ Make Me King/Sam Little
22 Jul 2010 Retro Bar, Manchester w/ Make Me King/Sam Little
24 Jul 2010 Blues Loft, High Wycombe w/ Make Me King/Sam Little
26 Jul 2010 Engine Rooms, Brighton w/ Make Me King/They Sink Ships
28 Jul 2010 Steamboat, Ipswich w/ They Sink Ships
29 Jul 2010 Beacon Court, Kent w/ They Sink Ships
5 Aug 2010 Boilerooms, Guildford w/ Sam Little
6 Aug 2010 Hamptons, Southampton w/ Sam Little
7 Aug 2010 The George, Luton w/ Sam Little
8 Aug 2010 Orange Box, Yeovil w/ Sam Little
13 Aug 2010 Summer Slam, Southend w/ Rio

Pandy Cane Planning 'Pandapalooza‏' Shows

Pandy Cane Music and Clothing have announced early plans for Pandapalooza‏, which will take place in September and the line-up consists of The Candle Thieves, Sam Little and Lost On Campus.

Exclusive Sam Little Tour Blog: Day Three

Day Three: Wolverhampton

My bags are broken beyond the repair of gaffa tape. Both straps on my backpack have snapped with the weight of everything I'm carrying and the pull along handle of my merch suitcase is reminiscent of a dislocated arm. I'm ridiculously glad that today I'm meeting the boys in Maycomb for the next line of shows and I can throw everything in their van for a few days. I think the 3 mile walk I've just made to the station, whilst carrying both broken bags, has made me never want to carry anything ever again.

I assure you, that not every blog I write will be a collection of misfortunate events, I'm just followed by the worst luck. But yeah, once again I'm sat on a train travelling with my life above and next to me. The most bizarre man is sat opposite me talking to himself about the 'downfall of the robotic empire' and to be honest, I'm having to try SO hard not to laugh as I type this. That's one of the things I do love about public transport, you get to people watch.