Austin is a great place. I guess it’s especially great at the moment with the festival – so much going on and every single person we’ve met have been incredible.

Wednesday was our gentle start to SXSW – we headed to the Fader Fort to record an acoustic show for Tripwire and do photoshoots and interviews, we had some nice Tex Mex food, we wandered around and watched a few bands – including Ra Ra Riots at Ms Beas, who were great and a great little venue too, kinda outside the main areas but with a really lo-fi friendly atmosphere.

Amos being interviewed by Music For Listeners

In the evening we split up to go see various bands – Amos and Justin picked Witch, Cathy headed off to see Tacks, The Boy Disaster, Simon loved Pattern Is Movement and Leon and I were mostly in it for the drinks…

Thursday, after popping back to Ms Beas and discovering a crazy and brilliant band called Ponytail we all took a trip outside of Austin into the real Texas – our friend Jason’s family ranch out in Dripping Springs. We had an ‘awesome’ (as they say here!) evening and met so many more great people – as I say everyone we’ve met have been incredible. Highlights included a trip out on the 4×4 round the creek, shooting a shotgun (not something you usually get to try in England) and a fantastic outdoor Texan meal… we saw the real Texas and what made it great was the people.

Fanfarlo on a rusty car on a Texan ranch

Amos with the cold dead eyes of a killer… but I guess we already knew that from the Cluedo video…