So the tour is over, and I'm back home, bored and wondering why I'm not playing a show tonight. This was the first time I'd travelled the country playing shows, but I imagine every tour has it's ups and downs. Some of our gigs were wonderful, some of them not quite so wonderful, but the vast experience I've gained will stick with me forever. I felt privileged to be playing my songs to new folks every night, and I'd very much like to do it all over again.

I'd like to say thanks to all the people who helped Kate and I. Thanks to Andy in Bath for putting us up, and Reuben and Max for booking us a fantastic show at The Royal Oak, my favourite show of the tour. Thanks to Kate's lovely friend Fiona and chums in Bristol, and Mr Wolfs for putting us on. The Hobgoblin in Staines, lovely pub and venue, thank you. Huge thanks to Chris and co at Chambers, I will never get tired of playing your venue (starting to think my biggest fanbase is actually in Folkestone), and the lovely people at Platform 5 Ashford, cracking night not far from home.

Thanks to Rockbitch and the lovely people at The Sanctuary in Basingstoke, you have a wonderful venue and it was a pleasure to play. A massive thank you to Kate's dad for putting us up on his narrowboat for a couple of nights, a fantastic experience and he couldn't have been a kinder host. Thanks to Chris in Derby for putting us on, and to Kate's mum and step-dad for having us to stay in Brigg (not Scunthorpe), and making me feel hugely welcome in their gorgeous home.

Cheers to all the legends at Verve Bar in Leeds, for putting us on, and plying us with booze so we didn't have to remember too much about the horrible hotel we were staying in, and to the mighty Shlaybear and Gemma, Rose and Milo for giving us a cosy home for the night in Nottingham, thanks Nirvana for putting us on. To the folks at Sound Food and Drink, and all the amazing people at St Hilda Hotel in Liverpool... in fact, all of Liverpool. We were only in your town for 24 hours, but everyone we met was so ridiculously friendly it can't have been a fluke.

Thanks to Stretch and Ellie, for not only having us to stay for the night, but also coming to see us at our Staines show the week before. Thanks to the Fiddler's Elbow Camden for giving us a show on a Sunday night in what turned out to be a great venue with amazing sound, to Paul and Bell for having us to stay for 2 nights, despite it being Bell's birthday, and to Chuck at The Hope Brighton for providing a fitting venue for our final night. Massive massive thank you to Mark for letting me drive all over the north of England with his guitar when my one broke, genuinely don't know what I'd have done without you.

To everybody who came out to see us, came and spoke to us at shows, bought CDs and so on, thank you so much for your support. Most dedicated fan goes to LadyFace, who made it out to see us at the Bath, Staines, Camden AND Brighton dates. My folks for supporting me far longer than they probably should, and anybody I've forgotten. 

Most importantly I'd like to say what a privilege and a pleasure it was to be touring with Kate Wintie. I will never get sick of listening to her, she has a rich, powerful emotive voice, I've never heard anything like it. Her songs are spellbinding, nothing phases her and she leaves it all on the stage. She absolutely nailed it, night after night, despite coming down with a chesty cold at one point. I learnt a great deal from her, I've made a friend for life, and I can't wait to play loads more shows with her in the future. Her Kate Bush cover is THE best version of that song.

What's next for me? I really couldn't tell you. I have 3 shows in December and 2 in January, info on all that in the coming weeks. I really do mean it though, thank you from the bottom of my heart, to everybody who helped make this thing happen, and a special mention to anybody who came out to a show and really, really listened. 

It feels like there's a real shortage of polite respectful folk at gigs these days. When I stand up in front of you with my guitar and my little vocal pedal, I am totally exposed and at your mercy. Please understand how that feels. All over the country, people are stepping up to play unique and original songs, and getting shouted over or ignored. I don't care whether you came out to see live music, I don't care if you don't like what someone is singing or what they're playing, if you're shouting over them, you are rude. It isn't their job to win you over, it's yours to be a good person, rather than a cock. On this tour I was greeted with far more good folk than bad, and that was so comforting. I met artists that listened, chatted with me, bought me drinks and offered me gigs with them in the future, and artists who talked over my entire performance, before taking to the stage themselves. I like to think that your odds of becoming a successful musician are greatly diminished if you don't even respect the artists on the same bill as you. Considering how many people are trying to 'make it', you probably don't want to make enemies at this level.

This tour has taught me that I deserve respect for what I do, like all the other musicians who work their socks off, writing music, practicing daily and travelling all over the place, just to get themselves heard. I love playing my music, there's nothing quite like it, and in terms of connecting with people it is absolutely unrivalled.

Thanks one more time,

Alex Parker

Click the picture below to check out our tour info, with details on all the venues we'll be playing.

It's been a little while since I sat down and wrote something on here, partly because I've mostly been tour planning (which isn't very interesting) and partly because I haven't played any shows for a month or so. A few days after the show at The Barge, I came down with something horrible, and had to pull out of a gig the following week at The Rafters. I spent the first half of September feeling under the weather and sorry for myself, and It took a good 3 weeks for my voice to fully recover.

Anyway, that's all done with now, and there are exciting things coming up, so lets get started. Firstly, I'm playing at a lovely intimate live music night in London this Thursday. The Icarus Club has been running at various venues since 2003. They have a unique format of quick 10 minute sets, so each act plays a couple of songs in the first half, and a couple in the second. I've never played a 2 song set before, let alone two of them at the same gig, but I suspect it'll be an excellent warm up for my inevitable appearances on Jools Holland in the future.. Things kick off at 8pm, follow THIS LINK to find out about all the acts playing.

Next up, let me share the final tour poster with you, including a new date we've added at P5 in Ashford.

As you can imagine, I'm desperately excited to get on the road and play in all these new places, especially with someone as talented as Kate Wintie. There's a lot to look forward to here for me, I've not been back to Bath since I was studying at University there. I've always wanted to play in Liverpool with it's rich history of quality bands and venues. I've got some very dear friends in Notts, and can't wait to come and play right on their doorstep. Ladyface's brother lives down in Southampton, another place I've always wanted to play, and the Brighton show clashes with one of my Brighton friends birthday, a problem she's resolved by turning the gig into her birthday party. I'm proper excited, I think you get the picture..

We've got lots of interesting stuff planned for the tour, the first of which is an interactive map, with information on all the venues, and our route around the country. Right now we're trying to book ourselves busy in each city during the day, getting onto Uni radio stations and early shows little coffee shops, to peddle ourselves to the locals before our shows in the evenings. No doubt I'll pepper you with details of all these things over the coming days, as well as info about all the exciting artists Kate and I will be playing with around the country.

I hope this bumper edition has made up for the frankly heinous levels of slacking, needless to say I have lots to talk about over the next few weeks, so expect all sorts of updates. 

Alex

Very excited to be heading out on my first ever national tour this November, with the wonderful Kate Wintie. Kate recently signed to Engineer records, and we've played several shows together this summer. We've almost finished booking venues, details coming soon. Not sure I'm supposed to say this, but winter can't come soon enough!

I'm not just bigging it up, this really is my biggest ever show. Proud Camden is a cracking venue, the bill is wonderful, Alt-J are DJing after Fossa, plus special guests you're gonna wanna be about for. All this for less than 6 quid is not to be sniffed at (It's a tenner after 10pm). This night also happens to be LadyFace's birthday party, I can't bloody wait. 

Get your tickets in advance here: http://hotvox.co.uk/events/nick-oshea-plus-support

I also want to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to everybody who watched my shows over the weekend. I started out at Herofest on Saturday, and lots of money was raised. On Sunday I had an absolute ball at Create Festival, it chucked it down and nobody cared, made some new friends and got to see the mighty One Day Elliott play a full band set for the first time since i was 17! Thanks too to the crew, the organisers, and the lovely people at Revelation St Mary.

I have a big old announcement coming soon, which I've no interest in discussing right now so stop asking about it. Catch you soon.

Alex

Another weekend, another couple of shows. This weekend it's all about Festivals, and I'm hugely excited to be involved in a great cause, and then one of the biggest festivals in the South-East.

On Saturday you can catch me at The Red Lion in Gravesend, for Herofest 2014. Great music all day, lots of stages, only £6 to get in and all the money goes to Help For Heroes. I'm on the acoustic stage at 6:30pm, but I'll be down way earlier than that to catch some cracking acts like Escucha, Delorean Mode and Kate Wintie. Stick around after me for the always wonderful Sirens and Shelter, and loads more. Great cause, great venue, great bands.

Following that on Sunday afternoon, I'm heading down to Victoria Park in Ashford for this year's Create Festival. This will be my first appearance at Create, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the line up almost as much as I am playing my set. You can catch me on the Revelation St Mary Stage at 3:20pm, and stick around later on for great bands like One Day Elliott, The Standard Lamps and Nizlopi (of JCB song fame). This is a free festival, should be a lovely old day.

That'll do for now, there'll be lots more from me over the next couple of weeks, including all the details about my very very exciting show at Proud Camden, courtesy of Hot Vox, and another quite mammoth announcement about what I'll be getting up to going into the winter months. Thanks to all for your continuing likes, plays, shares and trips out to see me. See you at the weekend!

After the bitter disappointment of having to pull out of my hometown show at The Barge, I'm nobbling this flu thingy, my voice is coming back, and I'm very excited about all the shows I'm playing in the next week or two. 

First up on Saturday early evening, I'll be down at Platform 5 in Ashford for James Vince's charity event "For Luca". I'm on about 6ish, but will be kicking about earlier to catch some of my favourite biches like Kate Wintie.  Then it's off to Folkestone for a 8ish, another wonderful charity event, this time in the street outside Chambers. Finally, on Sunday afternoon I'm making an appearance the Dover Festival, on the Live in the Living Room stage at about 4pm. Then it's back to the Hollywood of Medway for M&S Meal for 2 with Ladyface, and a well deserved poncy beer like Peroni or Pilsner Urquell.

Here are some pretty posters with the full line ups for this weekend: