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2007

The new year begins with a three day stint in the studio to mix and master Lea Valley Delta Blues over the first few days of January, a suitably productive start to 2007. The studio sessions are completed just before Morning Bride's first international jaunt, with the band flying to Ancona, Italy, for a long weekend of performances and their most satisfying shows so far.

Back on home soil for late January, and preparations get into full swing for the release of LVDB; promos begin circulating, artwork is delivered and approved, national distribution secured and manufacturing begins. An online release date of March 12th is also finalised.

The first single from the debut album, 'Time Delay', is made available exclusively on the band's and their label's websites from January 22nd.

February begins with a visit from the Bride's Irish comrades Noland Folk, Andy Wilson and Yvonne O'Grady. A long weekend encompasses an over-attended, memorably intense show together at Barracuda, in the Bride's home manor of Stoke Newington, north London.

A show at the Rhythm Factory in Whitechapel follows in early February, before the band fly to southwest Ireland for the return leg with their Irish friends, with shows together in Limerick, Clare and Cork city. Influenza and broken bones fail to derail the Bride's second continental adventure of the year, and a return to the emerald isle is pencilled in for later in 2007.

Spring

'Lea Valley Delta Blues' recieves glowing reviews in the national press upon online release in mid March, and the band celebrate with a launch party in their native manor on the 17th, at The Orchid Lounge in Stoke Newington, north London.

Several days later and the band fly to Scandinavia, for their third European trip of the year so far. Kicking off in Copenhagen, the tour takes in six dates, in three countries, in eight days; many new friends are made in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

The spring sees the band take an enforced break while two members successfully survive academic meltdown and LVDB is physically released to more enthusiastic national reviews, although two local performances (of a very contrasting nature) are played.

The first involves Amity, Mark & Pete playing acoustically for the kids of The Betty Layward Primary School as the finale to the schools' World Music Week celebrations on a sunny late April afternoon. 430 kids aged 4 to 11 singing and clapping along with the likes of 'Mother Hackney' make it a very memorable day for the band.

An invitation to play a Stokefest fundraiser for Cuta-a-shine / The Magpie's Nest is also honoured at The Others in London's Stamford Hill at the end of May (complete with barn-dancing); the same month sees the online release of the second single from 'Lea Valley delta Blues', 'Replica'.

Summer

As word spreads of the debut album, more enthusiastic reviews appear in national magazines and across the internet, and the band play fours shows on the spin in north and east London over 7th - 10th June. The first is a semi-acoustic show for Falcone Records in Clapton, the second a return to the What's Cookin' Club in Walthamstow, the third at Ryan's in Stoke Newington, and the last at Stokefest in Clissold Park, north London.

The billing on the second and third of these shows is shared with Morning Bride's Danish brothers Homesick Hank, the second of many 'cultural exchanges' the band instigates throughout the year. The extended return leg (following the Bride's Copenhagen visit earlier in the year) encompasses a week with the band as guests of the Bride, and the two shows are a great success. Morning Bride round off a week of performances and entertaining/ment by playing Stokefest 2007 in the sunshine of a warm summer afternoon in the park before a enthusiastic home crowd.

The summer continues with more shows in south-east England. A late June show at Barden's Boudoir in Dalston, London is followed by two shows in Essex - a headline slot at The Liberty Mall Festival in Romford, and a return to the Alter States club in Chelmsford to bring authenticity to the 4th of July celebrations; the 14th of the same month sees the band headline a very special night at The Seabright Arms in Whitechapel, London, with comrades supporting in the form of The Cesarians and Abraham & The Ditsy Blondes, the Bride's guests from Gothenburg.

Late July and Mark & Amity take a break in Norway; short-lived as it transpires, with a request to play an impromptu acoustic show at Sound of Mu, Grunerlokka, east Oslo happily fulfilled before an enthusiastic Norwegian audience.

The late summer continues with more local shows; the band headline the Roadhouse club night at the N16 Festival in mid-August, followed by another very memorable show with the band's labelmates from Ostersund, Sweden, Penny Century on the 25th of the same month.

Autumn

A whirlwind trip to south Wales for two shows in September involves a headline show for the Hot Burrito club in Newport on the 5th, followed by an acoustic show the following night in Llanthony, in the wilds of the Black Mountains (and a welcome opportunity to camp out in the valleys). The same month sees the release of the third single from 'Lea Valley Delta Blues', 'Stepping Out In Front Of Cars' - which appears simultaneously on The Word Magazine's Now Hear This! covermount CD.

The Bride travel north for two shows in October, as reviews continue to appear in the press in praise of 'LVDB'. An enthusiastically-recieved support slot with The Broken Family Band at The Faversham in Leeds is combined with a homecoming show in Mark's native village on the East Yorkshire coast, and the Bride return to London to work on new material.

Winter

The band slow up the pace of their live schedule in order to concentrate on the demoing and recording of their semi-acoustic mini-album, 'Greetings From Abney Park, N16'. Following enthusiastic reactions to an increasing number of semi-acoustic shows during 2007, the Bride set out to capture to the loose, campfire spirit of these performances with a live recording, taped in a local basement adjoining the overgrown victorian cemetery of the title.

Five more shows follow before the end of the year. An appearance at the Prozac Yodel clubnight in Great Leighs, rural Essex on 4th November is followed by the first of several appearances at The Carpenter's Arms in Whitechapel, east London on the 16th; more americana-themed clubnights are headlined with Red Bricks in Islington, north London, on the 19th, and Under The Boardwalk's Americana night in Sheffield on December 2nd.

2007's live schedule is rounded off in style with a special Hackney Gazelle Christmas show at The Lion in the band's native borough of Stoke Newington on the 20th December.