An Interview

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Further to the first review of "Halflove" posted on the site the other day, there's an interview with Carolyn and me at www.bhone.co.uk in which we attempt to explain a bit about the songs and the making of the record. I don't think we really give too much away, I make ridiculous pretentious statements and contradict myself and Carolyn gives me the mocking I deserve. We also come clean about some of our wierd compulsive behaviour...

Massive Thankyou!

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On behalf of my fellow Betikans, I would like to say a great big thankyou to every single person who came to the album launch party last night, for it was your presence and participation that made it the incredible night that it was. I had more fun playing last night than I think I've ever had before, everybody in front of me seemed to be dancing or singing along, and every time I turned round to look at the band there were ear-to-ear grins all round. It was bloody brilliant! I hope your Saturday mornings were less painful than mine, my fantastic Friday night came at a price, and I paid in braincells. But it was well worth it. I will post some photos of the night soon.

There's a review of "Halflove" that's just been posted on BHOne, and this will be followed by an interview with Carolyn and myself and some other Betika-related content in the next few days.

Today's the day!

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Had a marvellous gig at Talking Heads in Southampton with Toupe and Little Green Last night, a fantastic evening in itself but also a spot of last-minute training to make sure that we're 100% match fit for tonight, when "Halflove" is formally introduced to the world, and vice-versa. All the details you need to know about the event are in the posts below, but I should warn you that our guestlist is almost at full capacity, if you want to come email us at info@betika.co.uk and we'll do our best to squeeze you in, but please don't make a journey if you haven't heard from us that you'll be able to get in, I'd hate to have to turn anyone away.
Have a fantastic weekend whatever you do,
Dave

Larmertree Pictures

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Here's a few pictures taken by Julian Stodd of one of our three performances at the Larmertree Festival last weekend. Due to various quirks of fate we ended up playing on all three days and on all three stages! These pictures were taken at the Big Top stage on the Sunday. If you were at the Fest and took any pictures of us, I'd love to see them - if you mail them to me at info@betika.co.uk I'll post them up here.

The big Betika news this week is that we are throwing the launch party for "Halflove" on Friday at Centre Stage in Bournemouth, where we'll be playing the whole album in it's entirity for the third time ever. It's free, and if you'd like to come, just drop me a line at the email address above and your name will be duly added to the list.

Alternatively, if you're a Southamptonite and find yourself unable or unwilling to travel over to the 'mouth for the festivities, we're playing at Talking Heads in Portswood Road on Thursday in support of our good friends Toupe. Toupe will also be joining us at the launch party on Friday, as will the Old Psychiatrist's Club.

See you somewhere hopefully,
Dave

Now we are eight

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photo: Paul Savine

for the last eighteen months or so, Betika has consisted of these seven people (l-r: me, Lexi, Caz, Rich, Imogen, Martin, Chris). This is quite a large number of people to have in a band, but still it isn't enough to accurately recreate live the sound of the record we've just finished making, and so we're very happy that our long-term producer and even longer-term friend Gary has (re)joined us (after a spell of being our bass-player while Imogen was broken), playing extra guitar, synth, percussion and singing. He's been very much one of us for a long time, in a behind-the-scenes kind of way, now he has a namebadge and a uniform. Look, he's wearing them in the top photo, he's on the far right.