Wow, what an exciting weekend this was! Last Thursday we've played the IJmond Popprijs finals in a crowed Witte Theater in IJmuiden and the jury thought we were the best band of the evening. We've won three gigs: one at the Nozem en de Non, one at Wijkerpop and the main prize: a gig at the main stage of the Beeckestijn pop festival!

The day after was Queens day. We had a last-minute show at Café Briljant in Haarlem. Before we got there, we thought we would be playing in the corner of some kind of pub, but it turned out to be an awesome big stage on a square in front of a church where a lot of people were rocking out (probably because they were drunk ;) ).

We're going to take it easy this month, writing some new songs for the following gigs, next month at the BukBuk, Merv's and Beeckestijnpop!

I've made a minor change to the Music Importer. You are now able to keep the original files when restructuring them (ie copying them in stead of moving.) You can find and download the updated version on the Music Import software page.

The installation of Paddock is not quite intuitive. You need to rename some files, change some variables and add the table structures to the database by hand. I know this immediately scares off a lot of users, but hey, it was originally made for a friend of mine from the Dutch Racing League and I didn't think someone else would want to use it. :)

To help more people setup paddock, I've created a page for it with a FAQ! It explains all the issues that people mailed my about. If you still get stuck, please don't hesitate to mail me about your problem; I'd love to help!

Playing at the Nozem en de Non for the IJmond Popprijs with Against All Odds was a blast! We were selected to play as the last band and got the crowd rocking on their feet. The jury gave us an awesome report and we are going to the finals at het Witte Theater in IJmuiden! Check out the photos.

With the IJmond Popprijs finals at 29 april, this will be a busy month for us. Our first show is this friday at the Asgard in Beverwijk together with The Loss. The second is on saturday 24 april at the BukBuk in Heiloo with The Loss (again), Jude and Cellphyll. Be sure to check out at least one of the shows!

Tonight we're playing the first of a few gigs together with electronic rock/metal band The Loss from Alkmaar. We'll be playing at our local pub Café Lokaal at around 21:00 and The Loss will start playing around an hour later.

If you are unable to be there tonight, then don't worry. The Loss and us will be playing together at two more shows in the near future.

We've also been selected for the IJmond popprijs and are playing on 20 march in de Nozem en de Non. This should be a great show, since it is on a big stage, like last year!

We've had a few moments of spare time to work on Smash Battle again. As Jeroen created a new snow/ice theme for the levels, I went on and made a beginning of the single player portion.

The single player missions can now be created from our level editor and they can be played within the game. The only problem is, that we still only have one enemy, a small chick which you can stomp on. So the next thing we should do is make some more enemies and figure out what we want them to do. Then we'll be able to design some more levels and we might just get a beta version out!

While you wait for this beta version, check out the photos of an arcade cabinet running Smash Battle on our screenshots section!

So we played in the finals, last Friday. And we were quite confident, because we had a blast the week before. But everything went wrong. A sound engineer who was too late, (he walked in, when we were almost finished!) cables that went loose, mics that were not working, etc.

For me, it was the worst gig in a very long time. I can't even remember the last time things went that bad. But on the upside: we won a trophy for the third place and 25 euros which we can spend in a music store. Ah well... next time better.

Our first show with Evelien was a success. A lot of our friends that came to see us were head banging and everyone seemed to enjoy our performance. Although we did not win from the other band Glorybox, we are still going to the finals because they are unable make it.
That officially makes us the underdog for the battle, but a really small chance is better than nothing at all. And besides, music is not a competition; it's not about winning, but about playing a gig.
Jans brother Richard filmed our entire show, last friday. You can watch the videos on the Against All Odds website.

Now we are settled a bit with our new singer, it is time for the first show with her. The first one will be at de Til in Haarlem on 8 january. This is for band competition de Til Trofee, which is for bands who didn't get selected for the Rob Acda Awards.

After that we'll be player two other shows together with electronic rock/metal band The Loss from Alkmaar. The first one will be at cafe Lokaal in Heemskerk on 25 february and the second one is at cafe Asgard on 9 april.

Be sure to check that out if you are in the neighborhood!

Sad news yesterday. Wilma decided to leave my cover band Bootleg because she didn't agree on the direction the band was going. Too bad, because she really has a great voice. We will keep on going with only four of us, but are all a little bit shocked by the sudden decision. Good luck with whatever you'll be doing, Wilma!