The Union Jacks

Check out our new promo video for Hard Times!

Watch on YouTube.

Hope you like it! If you're a YouTuber, don't forget to rate it!

Merry Christmas everyone! And all the best for 2009! I don't have much more to say than JB did last month, so I will make this a short one.

It's just over a week to go until we are back in to the studio! The songs have been finalized, and I can say the two songs we will be recording at Leeders Farm are: "Hard Times" and a new song called "Seeing Green" – We still haven't played this one live yet! So it will be a great surprise for all of you. We all can't wait to get back behind the desk and lay these tracks down, as it's been almost a year since we were last at Leeders.

It's been a great year for us; we've had loads of shows including the Waterfront with Fortune Rookie, way back in March and Breckfest, in September, with Showaddywaddy, Hot Chocolate and Suzi Quatro. We've also had lots of radio play, and interviews, which is great publicity for us, pushing our main track for this year, Solitude Doesn't Help, out. And of course we went on tour! Barcelona was a great learning curve for us, the ups and the downs all leveled out, and I think I can safely say we all had an awesome time.

As you may well have noticed, I have started a web series on our YouTube channel, titled The Union Jacks TV (A.K.A. TUJ TV). The amount of footage, both on and off stage was piling up on my computer, so I thought it was about time I did something with it! Each episode is about 10 minutes long, and features the highlights of 2008. So far there are 3 episodes available to watch. These cover our recording at Leeders Farm at the start of the year, the Waterfront show, and then everything in between spring to summer, including James and I wrestling in Sumo suits! Episode 4 will be coming very soon, which covers Breckfest, our first festival. Soon after that I will have finished the tour video; these will be episodes 5, 6 and 7. Episode 5 features Matthew Davies-Kreye, of Funeral for a Friend, who we met in Norwich on the 3rd of November, so keep an eye out for that!

Well, I did say I was going to keep this a short one, but I guess I got carried away! Anyway, it's all exciting stuff! Now there's nothing left to say but Merry Christmas! There's a lot to come in 2009, so stay tuned!

P.s – What did everyone get for Christmas? I got some new boxers with glowing space invaders on! And some new shoes! Yay!

www.theunionjacks.com
www.myspace.com/theunionjacksofficial
www.youtube.com/user/TheUnionJacksBand

Official The Union Jacks merchandise www.theunionjacks.com/apps/webstore/

Hey guys!

We've been pretty busy lately; writing, demoing, playing shows and doing all the crappy school work which unfortunately we still have to do!

I just wanted to let you all know that we have booked some studio time for the 3rd and 4th of January 2009 and we're really looking forward too it. We're going to be going to our favorite place in the world, Leeders Farm in Whymondham, Norfolk With our producer Nick Brine to record 2 brand new tracks. The tracks we have chosen are brand spankingly new and one of them we haven't even played live yet. But I can assure you, its sounding brilliant.

We're changing our sound a little bit, its going to a bit heavier, a bit rawer and we've thrown in some pretty cool breakdowns along the way/ But still staying true to our pop punk roots.

Also you may have noticed that we have a new MySpace profile layout! It was designed by our friend Andy Hart and we love it. He was also the man behind the promo shots we had done in October. If you get a chance check him out in our top friends, he's currently taking on design/photography work for bands.

Finally, we're going to be appearing at the Waterfront in Norwich once again with our good friends Fortune Rookie around Easter. As soon as we know the date we'll let you all know.

www.theunionjacks.com
www.myspace.com/theunionjacksofficial
www.youtube.com/user/TheUnionJacksBand

Official The Union Jacks merchandise www.theunionjacks.com/apps/webstore/

Evening everyone! The sites new sidebar is finally here!

What's the benefit? The sidebar is an easy way to show you guys what's new on our site. It automatically updates itself with the latest content, such as photos, videos, or forum posts, that have been added our site.

There are six modules right now, and more will be coming soon.  Here's the current list:

• Sign In / Register. An important module for allowing you members or visitors to sign in or register across our entire site.
• Recent Photos. Do you have a Photo Gallery? Then upload it! This module updates with the most recent photos added to our site in any album.
• Recent Videos. With the Recent Videos module, our members can see the latest videos added on our site, as well as the number of views and comments on each.
• Recent Forum Posts. The forums module to display all recent posts as well as who submitted them.
• Recent Members. The Recent Members module and members display pictures will appear as people join our site.
• Featured Products. All our new merch will appear, linking you directly to our store.

As always, your opinions would be great, so tell me what you're thinking!

More updates coming very soon, so stay tuned!

www.theunionjacks.com
www.myspace.com/theunionjacksofficial
www.youtube.com/user/TheUnionJacksBand

Official The Union Jacks merchandise www.theunionjacks.com/apps/webstore/

Hey Guys & Girls!

Our CD's have finally been printed and we're really happy with them. They are limited too 100 copies in the first run, so get yours quick! The track list is as follows:

1) Solitude Doesn't Help (Radio Edit)
2) Space Invaders
3) Solitude Doesn't Help (Live)

We would really appreciate it if you could buy one from us, we've spent a lot of time getting these sorted and we want to get all of them sold before we go and record some brand new tracks for your listening enjoyment. After we have sold all of the first run (hopefully during the tour) we will be having more produced, in different packaging, and possibly a different track listing, so that makes this run quite special!

Each CD costs 2, including P&P to the UK (to any other country it may cost just a little more). Alternatively, you can come and see us at any of our shows and we'll be happy to help you out.

Stay Safe

JB and George x

www.theunionjacks.com
www.myspace.com/theunionjacksofficial
www.youtube.com/user/TheUnionJacksBand

Official The Union Jacks merchandise www.theunionjacks.com/apps/webstore/

Eh up guys!

I've just added our live DVD from Breckfest 2008, recorded on Saturday 13th September 2008.

We were the opening act on the day, and the other acts included:
Suzi Quatro;
Showaddywaddy;
Hot Chocolate.

It was our first festival and it totally rocked! What a remarkable experience! We played a total of four songs; all four are available on our YouTube channel. One of the songs, Hard Times, is a new song and it was the first time we had ever played it live (properly).
The songs were (in order of play):
Sabotage (We are The Union Jacks);
Solitude Doesn't Help;
Hard Times;
Soundtrack to Our Lives.

Watch out for our backstage video diary of the festival coming very soon and our other videos in the series "The Union Jacks TV" or "TUJ TV"! (As soon as Hitachi fix my damn hard drive!!!)

www.theunionjacks.com
www.myspace.com/theunionjacksofficial
www.youtube.com/user/TheUnionJacksBand

Official The Union Jacks merchandise www.theunionjacks.com/store.htm

I haven't done one of these for a while! But I very much doubt you've all been dying of suspense! Anyway, here goes...

Things really have been looking up for us lately, We've got loads of gigs booked for the summer and obviously our tour to Barcelona is creeping closer and closer, we really cant wait.

My self, Matt & JB have just been into Norwich to pick up our brand new ProAudio 1.6 kilowatt (Mega Loud! for all you people who don't know what that means!) P.A System. Since we got back too mine we've had Pendulum & Jay-z, among others, Blasting out of my garage, probably really annoying my neighbors! So we can't wait to start gigging with it.

And we've been having a major rethink of most aspects of the band, Our name, our sound, and the places we play. Basically we think we have grown up a lot more since we started the band back in 2006 (bearing in mind we were about 12/13 back then) and due to this we are in the process of choosing and thinking of a new band name. We feel that 'The Union Jacks' is a little juvenile and doesn't reflect the amount of professionalism that we have developed over the years.

Also our sound; We are going to have a go at trying to write some more varied music from the stuff we have already, and incorporate a little more of all of our musical tastes but still try to maintain the roots of our genre. We think this is the way forward and we are really looking forward to seeing how these experiments turn out. We are also going to learn some more unusual covers for the style that we play. Who knows, you might even hear a bit of Pendulum in the future.

Anyway, so far we have had an amazing 2008, it's definitely been the best year for us as a band and we're really looking forward to finding out what the rest of the year holds.

www.theunionjacks.com
www.myspace.com/theunionjacksofficial
www.youtube.com/user/TheUnionJacksBand

Official The Union Jacks merchandise www.theunionjacks.com/store.htm

Good news everyone!

The Union Jacks are embarking on the latest leg of their musical journey. A Tour of Barcelona, Spain! We auditioned at Janel's Drum Tuition (JDT), and were picked out of 13 other bands, from all over the area. We are leaving, next October, for a week in Barcelona and will be playing 5 venues there. We are all very excited and can't wait!

Look Out Spain, here we come!

There will be much more on this to come soon, so stay tuned!

www.theunionjacks.com
www.myspace.com/theunionjacksofficial
www.youtube.com/user/TheUnionJacksBand

Official The Union Jacks merchandise www.theunionjacks.com/store.htm

Where to start? All of us had the best 2 days of our lives; we never thought that something like that could be so good! 2 days off school to eat lots of food, play on the Nintendo wii, watch sky, Work with some fantastic people, meet Dan Hawkins and best of all record the most kick ass E.P known to man!

Day 1:

We all got up early and set off to Leeders Farm recording studios near Whymondham. in the morning, after a cup of tea and a tour of the studios, we got the drum tracks down for 'Space Invaders' and 'Solitude Doesn't Help' Which took 6 hours! then started on the guitars.

James soon got to grips with the workings of a Rickenbacker bass guitar and the bass tracks were down in an hour. Now it was my Turn. After a long time finding the right guitar and mixing different sounds we got the sound we were after and got the guitar track for 'Solitude Doesn't Help' Done.

Day 2:

Another early start.

We Arrived at Leeders Farm, greeted by Andy and Nick (Our Producer and Engineer) excited to finish our recordings but there was a lot of work still to be done, so after a short cup of tea fight we set to work. George had a lot of work to do as he still had all of his guitar lines to record, but good ol' George recoded almost all of them in one take, saving us lots of time. After a bit of lunch, cooked for us by a producer who has worked with bands such as 'Ash' and 'Oasis', it was my turn to record vocals for both songs. To start with I was really nervous about professionally recoding vocals for the first time (being filmed & projected onto a big screen in the control room for everyone to see didn't help either!) but after a while I settled into it and really enjoyed myself. After me, we had just enough time for George to add some backing vocals to 'Space Invaders'.

Andy Played around with it all and we all listened to the basic finished product and started adding all the finishing touches, like synthesizers and of course the Kaoss pad!

What happened next was a something much unexpected, Dan Hawkins (Ex-Darkness, Stone Gods) Co-owner of the studio, paid a surprise visit, after driving down from Bristol that day, to see us! He was a really nice guy and after a chat about the band he signed some lyric sheets for us and gave us a signed copy of The Stone Gods' limited edition E.P which is unavailable in shops, of course he signed that too.

The Final Mix Of our tracks 'Solitude Doesn't Help' and 'Space Invaders' will be available to listen to on MySpace and Bebo by 08/03/08 and will be available to buy as a limited edition single from us and at any of our gigs.

The Union Jacks would all like to say a huge Thank You to:

Nick Brine, Andy 'Magic' Bell, Katy Dann and Dan Hawkins for your astounding hospitality.

Tracy Perks - For generally being amazing and there for us 100%.

www.theunionjacks.com
www.myspace.com/theunionjacksofficial
www.youtube.com/user/TheUnionJacksBand

Official The Union Jacks merchandise www.theunionjacks.com/store.htm

It's what you've been waiting for! We will be professionally recording our latest tracks for all you lovely people out there to enjoy. We will be recording at "Leeders Farm" Studios in Whymondham, Norfolk which is owned by Ex "The Darkness" and Current "Stone Gods" guitarist Dan Hawkins. His team will be producing our tracks along with legendary producer Nick Brine.

By March we will have studio recordings of our new tracks:

1. Solitude Doesn't Help.
2. Space Invaders.

These tracks will be available to listen to on MySpace and Bebo, and will be available to buy as a limited edition single from us and at any of our gigs.

www.theunionjacks.com
www.myspace.com/theunionjacksofficial
www.youtube.com/user/TheUnionJacksBand

Official The Union Jacks merchandise www.theunionjacks.com/store.htm