mERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! lEVELLERS 2008

Beautiful Nights
The 20th Anniversary year kicked off in style with three big Beautiful Nights shows in March at Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Manchester Apollo and London Brixton Academy. The support on these shows came from 3 Daft Monkeys, Alabama 3 and Dreadzone who got the crowd going nicely before the Levellers hit the stage. These shows were preceded by an intimate benefit gig at the Concorde in the band’s hometown, Brighton. There was an amazing atmosphere at all four gigs as people came together to celebrate 20 years of the Levellers and their songs.
Letters From The Underground
The band recorded Letters From The Underground at their own Metway Studios with producer Sean Lakeman. The album was recorded in the winter months and mixed in New York by James Brown. This was the first Levellers studio album on their own label On The Fiddle recordings which had previously released the Levellers live DVD Chaos Theory and McDermott’s 2 Hours album Goodbye To The Mad House.
The first two tracks to surface were A Life Less Ordinary and The Cholera Well which were released as free MP3s on March 3rd from www.lettersfromtheunderground.com  
The next track to be released as a free MP3 was Burn America Burn on 2nd June which had an accompanying video which can be watched here
The single “Before The End” was released as a 7” and download on 28th July. The video can be watched here
Letters From The Underground was released on 11th August and charted at 24 in the UK charts which was the highest chart position the band had achieved in a decade.
The press reviews started to come in:
" lean, mean and musically in your face" The Mirror CD of the Week 4/5
"Burn America Burn is a brilliant slice of fiery pop reminiscent of late Clash" Classic Rock 9/10
“the Levs provide rugged anthems for crowd consumption...with frantic fiddles and rabble-rousing guitars that burn holes in festival fields and club floors” – Mojo
“DIY folk punk heroes have unleashed their most impressive and powerful album for years with the urgent and intelligent Letters From The Underground” – Big Cheese 4/5
 Burn America Burn was released as a limited 7” vinyl on November 4th.
Letters From The Underground is currently available on I-Tunes for under a fiver.
Beautiful Days Festival
Another muddy one but it didn’t dampen the spirits of the festival go-oers! The excellent line up saw the Levellers play alongside Flogging Molly, Supergrass, Squeeze, Seth Lakeman, Turin Brakes, Stiff Little Fingers and many more. You can see photos from this year here
The dates for Beautiful Days 2009 have been set for 21-23 August and tickets are available for OTF fanclub members now until 2nd February and on general release from 5th January from the shop section
Royal Albert Hall
The Levellers played three acoustic shows at the end of September culminating in a special performance at the Royal Albert Hall on the 27th. The other shows were at Royal and Derngate and Buxton Opera House. Here is a superb review with photos:
Benefit gigs and politics
2008 saw the Levellers release an overtly political record which they backed up by playing the following events:
Brighton Concorde benefit show on 5th March
http://www.ryico.org/
http://www.release.org.uk
http://www.cowleyclub.org.uk/
London Brixton Academy on 30th April
http://www.hopenothate.org.uk
London Brixton Academy on 30th April
http://www.hopenothate.org.uk
Glastonbury Festival Leftfield Stage on 26th June
http://www.antislavery.org
Tolpuddle Martyrs festival, Dorset on 1st August
http://www.tuc.org.uk
Album launch in aid of The Big Issue – Proud Gallery, London on 11th August
http://www.bigissue.com/
London British Library "Taking Liberties" on 1st October
The struggle for Britain's freedom and rights
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/takingliberties/index.html
Levellers on the net
The Levellers official site had an overhaul at the beginning of the year and now features a music player gigography and gallery. The band’s myspace took on the look of the album in August Myspace and the new Official Facebook group has become a great hub of activity
The Levellers Alt. Board still remains the best place to meet and discuss all things Levellers with other die-hard long time fans.
Fabchannel
The Levellers toured Scandinavia and Europe in November and the show at the Paradiso, Amsterdam was videoed. It can be watched for free from here
Back catalogue download offer
Rhino records, who own the back catalogue, have reduced the price on I-Tunes to £4.99 for a limited time.
Best Of
Levelling The Land
Zeitgeist
Mouth To Mouth
Levellers
Hello Pig
The Xmas 2008 bundle
To round off what has been a great year, the Levellers and OTF recordings have got together to give you a Christmas present!
The free bundle contains:
McDermotts 2 Hours Molloy MP3
Jon Sevink and Nick Burbridge Better Luck Next Time For Hove Musician MP3
Levellers Behold A Pale Rider live at the Albert Hall MP3
Video clip of Carry Me taken from “Chaos Theory” DVD
Live photo jpegs from 2008  
Letters From The Underground cover jpeg
If you would like this bundle and haven't received it in an email already, it is available for a short period from www.lettersfromtheunderground.com

You can check out the European and UK dates for next year from here:
http://www.levellers.co.uk/www/en/gigs/

Have a great Christmas and New Year and we’ll see you in 2009!
The Levellers & OTF

BEAUTIFUL DAYS 2009 -  TICKETS ON SALE NOW FOR OTF MEMBERS

2009 will be the SEVENTH Beautiful Days festival. We are planning another colourful weekend packed full of great live music and (hopefully) lots of sunshine! The festival is not increasing in capacity and the campsites and arenas are in the same locations but we will be improving things around the site, as we do every year, but particularly the car parks. We are in talks with bands but the line-up will not be announced until a bit later in the New Year. Please post your suggestions of who you'd like to see play at the festival on the Beautiful Days message boards - all suggestions are noted! 

Tickets go on general sale from Monday 05 January but On The Fiddle (Levellers fan club) members are able to buy discounted tickets from now until the 02 February in the shop
We have held the prices from the last two years for all children's weekend tickets, campervan passes and car routing passes. Children's tickets are £60 for 10 to under 16's, £30 for 5 to under 10's and £5 for under 5's. Campervan passes remain at £30 and car routing passes which include parking remain at £10. Adult weekend camping tickets have increased from £90 to £100 to help cover increasing costs faced by the festival. All tickets are subject to booking fees. 

Full details of ticket prices, links to buy and terms and conditions will be on the festival website in the coming week. The dates for the festival next year are 21 – 23 August 2009. www.beautifuldays.org / www.myspace.com/beautifuldaysfestival

If you are not a member of On The Fiddle you can join in the shop and get Beautiful Days festival ticket discount when the tickets go on sale from December 6th.
If you are a member of On The Fiddle and you have any problems getting your discount you will find help in the FAQ at the bottom of the website

ON THE FIDDLE - levellers fan club

On The Fiddle members receive the new Levellers freebie, Going Underground, a CD of early demos from the new studio album Letters From The Underground and an unreleased track. Members get Levellers merchandise discount, receive a membership card and if we have your email, monthly newsletters.
On The Fiddle members are also entitled to a discount of £5 on up to two adult tickets to Beautiful Days 2009 by booking between 6th December 2008 – 2nd February 2009
There’s Only One Way to ensure you are first in the queue for Beautiful Days 2009 and that is to Join On The Fiddle!
You can join OTF for £15 plus p&p in the shop section

LEVELLERS MERCHANDISE

Visit the shop section of our website for loads of Levellers music, clothing & more.
With winter approaching and the days getting colder maybe it's time to get all warm and cosy with a Levellers football scarf and fingerless gloves.
Levellers leather belts with a solid silver chaos symbol clasp, long sleeved Letters from the Underground tour shirts, lanyards, latest album on CD & vinyl, and Zeitgeist original CD & CD singles offer.