Like most years, 1978 bore witness to some great songs and some absolutely terrible ones.  Filthy Little Angels are celebrating both ends of the spectrum with their new compilation ‘Nineteen78′.  The follow-up to last year’s 1987-themed release, the release features some of the label’s favourite acts covering songs by bands as diverse as Public Image Ltd and Boney M.

Me? I’m on there covering The Ramones’ ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’.  The best bit of all is that the album is completely free to download from the Filthy Little Angels website, so get over there now and grab it!

My copies of ‘Just A Minute’ arrived the other day which means that as soon as I’ve posted this note on the site I’ll be adding it to The Star Fighter Pilot shop!  Feel free to head over and buy your copy.

Mind you, if you do order one I hope your postman is better than mine.  Look at the state the records arrived in…

Postal service goes postal on a parcel on 12seconds.tv

Filthy Little Angels’ fantastic new compilation 7″, ‘Just A Minute’, is now available.  Consisting of 19 tracks in less than 15 minutes, it’s well worth getting hold of.  It contains my song ‘Stalk Tonight’ alongside tracks from bands like Billy Ruffian and The New Royal Family vs. Alexander’s Festival Hall featuring none other than Mr Eddie Argos of Art Brut.

To get hold of the release (it’s not quite an EP and too short for an album so I’ll call it a ‘release’) head over to Filthy Little Angels now and click on ‘Shop’.

Last night was my In The City show at The Attic in Manchester.  Thanks to everyone who came down.  If you missed it, you’ll be glad to know that Manchester music bog The Indie Credential was there and not only reviewed my set (see here for that), they also videoed my first ever performance of ‘The Invisible Invasion’.  Comme ça!  Many thanks for that, Indie Credential!

In other news, the Filthy Little Angels compilation ‘Just A Minute’, featuring my song ‘Stalk Tonight’ will be available very soon indeed.  Check back for more details on how you can get it soon…

A couple of weeks ago Manchester-based music blogger Justhipper posted a message on Twitter saying:

“Dear Twitter musicians. For my birthday, can somebody write me a bleepy electronic song about robotic pigs driving flying cars?”

Quite why she wanted that particular subject matter I have no idea.  However, always up for a challenge (there’s nothing like a specific brief to concentrate the mind) I decided to take her up on the task.  Well, I missed her birthday by two days, but on Thursday night I turned in my finished MP3.

On Saturday morning it went up on the blog that Justhipper co-runs, The Indie Credential, for free download. So, go get yourself the new Star Fighter Pilot song ‘The Invisible Invasion’ now by clicking here.

Next month sees the busiest week in the Manchester music calendar - In The City.  The world’s music industry flocks to the city to catch loads of new bands and hopefully sign a few along the way.  Of course, some of the industry bods will only turn up to the most hyped shows and then sit around ‘networking’, talking all the way through gigs; but hopefully they’ll be at a minimum this year.

I’ll be playing as part of a line-up of acts on the last day of the event, Tuesday the 7th of October.  It’s an electronic music showcase at The Attic on Oxford Road, also featuring The Tender Machine, Shmoo, The Glorious Yang lm, Modern Bullies and No Life.

So, if that sounds like something you’d like to witness get your tickets sorted today.  Email martin.starfighterpilot@gmail.com for details right now!

Filthy Little Angels’ 7″ compilation of 1-minute songs (including ‘Stalk Tonight’ by me) is now available to preorder from their shop.  There’s also a pretty tasty bundle offer to preorder all their upcoming releases.  Head over to their shop to place your order!

Now here’s some sad news.  The Castle Hotel, a place that has played host to several Star Fighter Pilot gigs in recent times, has closed down.  They’re blaming loss of revenue due to the smoking ban.  That just goes to show that smoking is good for something, after all.  This unfortunately means that my upcoming show at The Castle has been canceled, although a replacement venue may well be found.

Meanwhile, I’m still playing at Dry Bar in Manchester on Thursday 30th August.  Hope you can make it!

Filthy Little Angels’ ‘Just A Minute’ compilation - a slab of 7″ vinyl containing a bunch of sngs last no more than one minute each is set for release in September, and I’m on it!  You can listen to my song from it, ‘Stalk Tonight’, over on my Myspace page right now.  More details of how you’ll be able to get hold of the vinyl soon.

If you missed last week’s gig at The Hard Rock Cafe in Manchester, head over to Manchester Music’s review of the night to find out what went on.  I was rather impressed my the Hard Rock’s hospitality.  If any other venues want to give me a complementary burger and chips for playing I’ll gladly accept!

Thanks also to Andy Rodgers, who took some great shots of my set (including the one over to the left).  He actually took them by mistake (he was supposed to be doing The 66, the band who followed me) but it worked out well in the end, for me anyway.

Meanwhile, new gig bookings for the autumn are now up on the live page now.  If you’re a promoter who’d like to book me anywhere in the UK, send me an email!

Over the summer, as well as taking a rather ace holiday to Japan, I’ll be working on my next release.  It’s going to be more dancefloor oriented than most of my stuff, and it has a working title of ‘Disco?’ (question mark compulsory!).

Just a few things to update you with. Number one is that next week sees me playing at the Hard Rock Cafe of all places. Get down to Exchange Square in Manchester on Wednesday 9th July for Fog Lights, me and The 66. I’m on around 10pm. You can always get a meal and soak up the retro-rock’n'roll… ambience… while you’re waiting!

In the meantime, have a read of this review of the Kingdom Hearts EP from Myspace-based blog Crash Bang Pow! Once you’ve done that, why not listen to The Madcast, which features my song ‘Ringo Starr Love Thing’.

Hopefully see you in Manchester on the 9th!