Media appearances 2021

Hello everyone. We're still together in case you're wondering. LP4 is in front of us still and there's about 25 demos knocking around.

I (Dan) did a couple of media things this year for the band. The first was an episode of the podcast The Scene Was Dead Anyway. If you don't want to look at youtube and just want to hear it, it's on Spotify. But there's a visual version.

The other thing was a longform written interview that hasn't come out yet. I don't know if it ever will, so I am producing it here. If this treads on your toes, Manu, let me know and I will delete it. After the jump:

Back to work we go

Despite ML being violently sick into the Saône, followed by an emotional and spiritual low watching a dubbed version of Midsomer Murders in a budget hotel in Tassin-la-Demi-Lune, the general consensus of our first tour in two years is overwhelmingly positive.

Thank you to everyone involved in putting us on, giving us a place to stay, or looking after us. You are heroes and saints whose reward is in heaven.

We're looking at returning in 2020, possibly for a tour, possibly for festivals. It is partly out of our hands.

Owing to a botched delivery there are a few tour 12" EPs available and we'll put them on sale soon. Once they're gone, they're gone. Everything else currently is out of print, apart from a handful of copies of the third pressing of National Service.

Next: we're going to finish recording demos for LP4 (current working title: The Very Best of Arthur Mullard) and then get to recording it properly (ie. not in our rehearsal space).

Also we're going to try and keep playing live rather than forgetting all of our songs the minute our suitcases hit the bedroom floor after tour. We hit a nice groove mid-tour and it would be nice to keep it alive.

See you in 2020.

LIVE IN TWENTY NINETEEN

On the road again
I just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again

~ Willie Nelson, 'On The Road Again'

We're back, gang, now as a sextet. That means you should get extra volume and hopefully a little extra of that sweet Total Victory melody in your ears. 

As promised, we have some UK dates ahead of leaving for the continent once more.

JULY 6 Horwich Music Festival @ Horwich RMI Club.
with Parma Violence, Bone Idols, Meal Deal + more

This already happened.

AUGUST 31 Rivington Music Festival @ Rivington Terraced Gardens
with Jeremiah Ferrari + more

Up in the hills, big thrills and spills. On at 6pm.

SEPTEMBER 15 Worcester Music Festival @ Marrs Barr, Worcester
with Evilwitch, Time of the Mouth, Hey You Guys!

OCTOBER 12 The Globe Inn, Glossop.
with The Maitlands + Bones Shake
 
OCTOBER 17 Paper Dress Vintage, Hackney
with Coeval

(only took us 12 years to play London, well done dickheads)
cancelled

AND THEN THE MADNESS BEGINS....

18 OCT PARIS ESPACE B

19 OCT LORIENT LE GALION

20 OCT RENNES MONDO BIZARRO
+ FORMICA

Early show, Formica on at 19hr.

21 OCT BREST L'AVENIR

22 OCT DAY OFF / ML BIRTHDAY / VOICE REST
 
23 OCT LYON LE SONIC
Oh shit Total Victory ON WATER. This can not end well.

24 OCT COLMAR LE GRILLEN

Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Le Grillen
Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegría why cosa buena
Dale a tu cuerpo alegría, Le Grillen
Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy La Grillen!

(Los Del Rio unconfirmed)

25 OCT METZ LES TRINITAIRES
+ CUT CITY + AVALE
FB GROUP:

26 OCT TRIER LUCKY'S LUKE
+ CUT CITY

RELEASES 

Two things

- Set Controls For the Heart of the Pendle is nearing completion. This will be our tour merch special - 26 minutes of new music. People who come to the shows get first chance to buy.. Here's the tracklist:

01. Flowers in my hair
02. Rightward drift
03. Tongue in my eye
04. Oldham loop

You can call it an EP, a mini-album, an experimental release, or an indulgent flop, but it isn't LP4. It won't be going up on Spotify or any of that shit. 

- LP4 (current working title: Dance Floor Erodes At Midnight) is being demoed. We hope to start recording late in 2019 for a 2020 release. 6 songs demoed, 8 to come. We'll pick the best 35-40 minutes and put that out. Interesting mix of material so far.

VISION2020

A short and punchy news-based entry.

i. Matt has rejoined the band. LOOK:

 

His return was open-armed and open-hearted by all Total Victoryites.

ii. What is he working on? Something new for the estimable gentlefolk of Total Victory? (Yes). New album? No.

iii. Encouraged in most part by ML's touching advertorial feature, The Pyramid of Privilege gatefold is moving quite nicely over at our Bandcamp. Act now or pray for a repress.

iv. European tour 2019. We're very hopeful of getting this together soon enough. If it happens it will be after summer. A couple of minor details to sort out (work, dates, Brexit) but things look better than they did at the beginning of 2019.

v. UK shows. Statistics show that we are now more popular than ever in Britain. This could only happen to us in a year where did absolutely fuck-all. Anyway, we all decided that we need to play more UK shows and not just the usual spots. We may be coming to a city at least 60 miles from you, unless you live in Thurso or some shit.

vi. LP4. We have some songs.We need to get together and play the shit out of them. Make them sound like humans played them in the same room.

Pyramid of Privilege (re)issue

On January 29th 2019 (or at least "at some point in late January", I am very bad with dates) The Pyramid of Privilege, our first album originally released on some CD-Rs in 2011, is coming out on vinyl with a lovely gatefold sleeve. It's been remastered and a couple of annoying errors that were on the original release have been eliminated. The release is being helmed by our friends Florian and Jennie aka Specific Recordings, and our other friends David and Helene at Kerviniou are involved too. 

photos of the packaging beneath

I played the test pressing recently. I was both taken aback (the sound is good, we wrote some decent songs) and taken back in time. Not to the recording of the record, but all the bits before the album materialised where we were just floundering looking for a sound and direction and using the band as a kind of social club.

the march of time

Here is a brief and mostly boring update about the antics of Total Victory as we reach January 2018. I won't even advertise this post, it's just out there.

- split single with Harassment still planned. most of our track ('Flowers On My Grave') is recorded. just needs mixing and I think we've entered the stage where we'll get someone else to do it.

- Most of our music (NS, EM, vBE) is now entered into the great streaming databanks at Spotify, Apple, iTunes, Google Play, Deezer, Amazon, etc. This is a 'legacy move', designed to keep our wares at your convenience while we do nothing in 2018. In truth I'm not hugely happy about this turn of events but I am informed that it is pretty much necessary if you want to be thought of as existing these days. The whole thing cost £90 for three albums for one year.

breaking up the text with a great photo by Pascale Cholette

TOTAL VICTORY CONCRETE CO. (inc. TOTAL VICTORY "BAND") SUMMER STATEMENT

BEFORE THE TOUR

So after Matt E left we had to sort some things out to play these shows. James, who has drummed on all our records and nearly all of our shows except the last tour, played guitar. Andy, who drummed on the last tour, remained on drums.

live at Freakshow 2017, photo by Yetiz Back

And our good friend Thom flew in from China and played extra guitar. After a lot of hard work and a couple of warm-up shows (PRESTON HAS COME OFF THE "PLEASE FUCK OFF" LIST, A RARE ACHIEVEMENT) across two months we went from being a creaking pissed-up ghost of a band to being, once again, a reasonably adept guitar group. Listen to Thom's mini-album from a couple of years ago. It is really special.

TEN YEARS OF TOTAL VICTORY

A long post of many parts after which we will shut up for a while.
Worcester, June 2017

(EDIT: a general flavour of this entry can be found in French with this interview with Alter1fo)

HISTORY
Ten years ago Total Victory formed in Queens Park, Bolton. Back then you still had great bands like Moco and The VCs and Neurosync and we wanted to join the party. Now we're the embarrassing guys at the party who won't leave.

We're not doing anything special to mark this moment other than writing this.

MAY / JUNE TOUR 2017
The tour of France that took place to promote the record is complete and we'd like to thank everyone who put us on, played with us, came to see us, gave us food, let us sleep at their place, or helped us in any way with promotion. And a special thank you to Ste who drove and played extra guitar, and Andy, who deputised on drums for James.

photo by Jesse Overman / Blast Radius

SHOWS SHOWS SHOWS (and some album info) (and some other stuff)

ENGLISH MARTYRS IS COMING OUT ON SPECIFIC AND KERVINIOU IN JUNE 2017 BUT FOR NOW PLEASE CONTEND WITH
 
INFORMATION RAFT #42

A SHOW IN THE UNITED KINGDOM!!

AS RARE AS THE TOOTH OF A HEN

ALBUM III (no, really) and TOUR V and RE-PRESS NEWS

Three major pieces of news. No messing around.

NEW ALBUM

It is completed. It is called ENGLISH MARTYRS. It has nine songs and is about 34 minutes long. This is the album cover.

1. Triangulation Point
2. Gore Seer
3. In The Home Counties
4. Once In Every Century (LISTEN)
5. Playing Golf With The Precariat
6. Written Backwards
7. Mistakes Upon Mistakes
8. The Public Weighbridge
9. Gold Curtain

We expect to have it on tour and on general sale after. Tour, you say? What tour? A-HA!

NEW TOUR

We're returning to France and Belgium in May and June. Dates as follows:

• 29 MAY Rennes, Bar Hic
• 30 MAY Nantes, TBA
• 31 MAY Toulouse, Pavilions Sauvages w/Marc Sens & Oliver Mellano
• 1 JUNE Grenoble, TBA
• 2 JUNE Metz, La Chaouee w/MALAÏSE
• 3 JUNE Liege, Le Garage

RE-PRESS NEWS

We are going to repress National Service. Some guy is selling it for 50 euro on Discogs and this will not do. Flood the market! We will have it soon, but maybe not by tour.

I WANT TO BUY TOTAL VICTORY VS. BIG ELECTRIC ON VINYL + minor news

THIS IS A LIVE DOCUMENT: LAST EDIT 7 DECEMBER 2016

Total Victory are here to help. As are Specific Recordings!

vs. BIG ELECTRIC is out NOV 18.

you may buy digital version here. or just stream it. 

vs. BIG ELECTRIC + news + reflections

It's been a while! We're not dead. Still. They can't take us out. To be fair they haven't tried very hard.

TOTAL VICTORY // vs. BIG ELECTRIC 
 

Coming the final quarter of 2016! This is a compilation of our EPs to date with a couple of songs taken from those sessions that we couldn't finish properly - until now. Here is the tracklist.

TOUR IV / EXTENDED PLAY

Lille 20th, not 19th

Has the year flown so quickly? Are we all nearer to the grave? Will we realise the futility of our endeavours? Is our ego not sated enough?

TOUR III and ALBUM III

Hello there gentle flowers of the early year sun. We hope you are well. Here are two pieces of news.  

LIVE PERFORMANCES

MAY 16
Chorley
Brock and Broll
w/Cactus Knife and Grave Diggers Union

Information here

An interview with IAALS

We did an interview with I Am A Lungfish Song that was translated into French. Here is the English version. Go and read that excellent blog here.

What is the story behind Total Victory?

I (Dan) had split from an old band and was working a shitty job and living in an unfamiliar town and needed some kind of thing to occupy my time and brain. I put an ad out in 2007 for people wanting to play noise-rock kind of like XBXRX and Skin Graft/Gold Standard Labs kind of music. Matt L (bass) and Matt E (guitar) joined, followed by James (drums) one drunken day at a festival.

We realised we couldn't play at 200kph like those bands so we slowed down and tried to not sound so forced and began to incorporate our regional identities and actual personalities a little more. Martin (guitar) was a friend and fan who we asked to add guitar to The Pyramid of Privilege and gradually we forced him to join full-time.

If it were a film it would be a strange story about a group of people who were nobodies at home and vaguely interesting to people somewhere else. Like the opposite of Cool Runnings (which was called Rasta Rockett in France).

THANK YOU FRANCE / HELP THE DOG

Two things. One good, one bad.

01. FRANCE REPORT

We did a tour to France. It was fantastic. We had a great time. There will be no diary as such because there was no conflict. It was just really really fun. Here it is in bullet points.

• Rolled into Nottingham to crash at ME's house (he moved. This was covered in previous dispatches). Visited England's oldest inn, which was a moving experience for all concerned, mostly in the gut.
• Left at 2.30am the next day for the ferry and just powered through to Rennes by 6pm (take off the hour time difference). Great show here with loads of brilliant people being super bien to us. 

LET'S TOUR AGAIN, LIKE WE DID LAST AUTUMN

Hello friends

We're off to France again. One warm-up show. Here is the news!

SALFORD CRESCENT VAULTS
17th October 2014
+ Leer A Los Heroes, Mr. Heart and Shut Up Dad.
Free in. We're on about half ten. Should be fun.

Then we get into a van and head to France. This time we visit...

RENNES BAR'HIC
29th October 2014
+ Trombe
Six euros. Really looking forward to return to Rennes and providing a show where the singer has a functioning voice.

 

LYON LE PÉRISCOPE

30th October 2014

+ Deborah Kant

Again, six whole euros. We visited Lyon last time but didn't play there. Our hosts were magnificent so we really wanted to come back and if that means torturing them with our music, so be it.

REIMS LESPACE LUDOVAL

31st October

+ Kitchen Tool Set, Oui Mais Non, Taulard

HALLOWEEN PARTY! FREE!

LILLE LA MALTERIE

1st November

+ Berline0.33

Six or eight euros though I can't remember the circumstances in which you pay the higher price. It's Saturday. Live a little! Also we're playing with Berline0.33 who are KVLT AS FVCK.

Only four dates this time - bastard capitalist employers! We'll be back!

NEWS HAS A KIND OF MYSTERY

Really quick post this, I'm trying to beat a work deadline.

NATIONAL SERVICE IS AVAILABLE ON VINYL COURTESY OF BRUISSON/KATATAK/KERVINIOU/TANDORI. 180GSM. IT LOOKS AMAZING.

BUY HERE NOW: https://totalvictory.bandcamp.com/album/national-service

COST IS £10. INCLUDES HQ DOWNLOAD.

IF YOU DOWNLOADED IT ALREADY LET US KNOW. IT WILL THEN COST £7.

Reviews (French language):
- http://www.perteetfracas.org/zine/kros2014/kros_t/total_victory_national_service.htm
- http://www.indierockmag.com/article25030.html
- http://www.maplatine.com/blogs/135-selection-juillet-aout-2014

ATTENTION LA FRANCE! AVAILABLE TO BUY HERE: http://www.t-dt-b.org/Site/Pages/av.php

We're also going on tour in Europe again. Dates TBA. Pre-tour shows in Bolton and Salford announced.

END OF YEAR ACCOUNTS 2013

Greetings all.

- France tour was a great success on both a personal and musical level. Financial? We're not giving up the day jobs just yet. Regardless, we can't thank everybody involved in making it happen as much as we would like to. Needless to say we hope we can make it back one day.
- A tour diary is available to read here.
- A review of the final show is available to read here (French language).
- A photoset of the final show with Musicsova is available to view here.
- There are no more shows in 2013.
- National Service will be issued on vinyl in 2014.
- A third LP is being thrashed into shape and we hope to also release this in 2014.

Here is some assorted media.

dicking about in Dover

live in Lorient

with Fred of Berline0.33 in Rennes, post-tour crashout

Right we're going to shut the fuck up for a bit now, that's quite enough of us for this year.

TV / FRA / 2013

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
Me / I = Dan (sing)
ML = Matt Leonard (bass)
ME = Matt Evans (guitar)
James = James (drums)
MM = Martin (guitar)

CONTEXT / PREAMBLE
Fans of rough and tumble rock diaries in the vein of Henry Rollins' benchmark Get In The Van, Steve Albini's in-character last slog around Europe with Big Black or Jon Wurster's trips around the US for Superchunk's website might find themselves a bit disappointed with the general alacrity contained within this write-up. However, when Make It A Little Bit Louder asked the band to do this, ME leapt at the opportunity to make me do some work in light of having no gear to carry or vans to drive. So, here it is, the largely unexpurgated diary of TV's first European tour, all 2600 words (approx.) of it, complete with pictures, links and diversions. Recommended commute reading.