It’s the end of the year. Time to reflect, to look back again. And a little bit of seeing what’s ahead of us too…
January 2010 was all about recording the Weight Of The World EP. It wasn’t smooth sailing this time around though. Recording dates got pushed forward because of a change in schedule at the studio. In result we were less prepared. Then my voice died on me after the first song, leaving me to finish recording the songs in our rehearsalroom the week to follow. Nico mixed and mastered those songs on the road… Just to have it all done in time for our trip through Europe in March. But more bad luck was on our way. Although we made sure everything got at the pressing plant in time, the vinyl didn’t come in but after we did our trip. Shit happens, no matter how you plan it. We’re still glad with how that record came out though.
In February we broke the news that Joep, after 8 years (counting the pre-Said And Done days), was leaving the band. It was quite strange to break-up this line-up we were playing with for years now. But people change, priorities change and we all have to make choices. That’s the way the cookie crumbles. So we went searching for a new bassplayer right away.
We found one in the person of Toby pretty much right away, but first we had to play a final show with Joep. It took place at a local bar, ‘t Hert in Sint Anthonis, our hometown. It doesn’t get more local than that, does it? The show itself was ridicilous. Think dressing up, photo slideshow with photos of all the years, lots of confetti, fake-audience-tape, a discoball, bass-smashing etc. Needless to say we had a blast haha.
In March we went on an European trip again. The first shows with Toby on bass. You can read all about in the tourreport we did. In short that trip brought us both to new places and old friends. Meeting up with Carles (who booked our first trip abroad) and the guys in the Rezé / Nantes area is always a pleasure. This was no exception. It’s always exciting to see what awaits you in the next place. Sometimes you don’t expect much of it and the show is great (Valladolid for intance!). We went to some great cities this time, Madrid, Paris, Bordeaux… It was a good time all around.
In May we went to the UK. To finally release our 7″ and to hang out with the lads of Never Again. It was cool to meet up with the guys and play some kick-ass shows. Newport was off the hook (first time we played that Leeway cover) and chilling with Alex and Caroline in Nottingham was great too. London gave us the chance to see Pettybone (check them out people!) and made us feel at home with a lot of rain.
In August and September we played two cool shows at the Innocent. First up was the 25 years of Innocent show with Bitter End amongst others, we did a special cover set for that one, doing all the covers we did throughout the years. We also added Nirvana’s Aneurysm to the mix. Since Stef was about to become a daddy Goran filled in on guitar for him. In September we played with Blacklisted. Innocent has always been great to us, so it sucks to see it struggling at the moment. Let’s hope they pull through. It would be a shame to see another great venue go down the drain.
October marked the month we split ways with yet another bandmember. Remco decided he wanted to focus on other things in his life at this point. So it goes. We’ve been playing for years in the same line-up and all of a sudden we’re down two members. Such a strange year. Luckily we got a good replacement pretty quick again. Goran, mentioned above for filling on guitar, stepped in.
In November we went back to the UK again. The first shows with Goran on guitar. Making a stop first in Belgium, we went on to Leeds to bang our heads to Ark of The Covenant and play the Carry The Weight fest the day after. Seeing Wardogs open the show and witnessing the end of Never Again. Such a shame that band had to quit. It was great to see all these Carry The Weight related bands play live though. Tomas and Pat build something great in such a short amount of time. That trip also featured the release of my zine, Some Will Never Know #2. Glad to finally have that out.
That brings us to December in which we gave you all a christmas present right? We uploaded all our releases to BandCamp. Giving you the opportunity to stream all our songs for free and download them for whatever you think they’re worth. It’s the digital age baby.
And that brings us to the end. Looking back it’s good to see we didn’t slow down much, even with replacing two bandmembers. So what’s next?
2011
We started Said And Done in 2006, so we’ll be around for 5 years in 2011. Time flies while having fun. In January we’ll be playing 3 shows with Supertouch in Germany. Did everyone hear the previews of that new 7″? Shit is insane. Really looking forward to that. Hope to see you all in Nürnberg, Lichtenstein and/or Essen! Then in March we’ll be leaving for a trip to the colder parts of Europe. Hitting Denmark, Sweden and Finland (and Germany again) together with Upright from Finland. That’s all we know so far. Aside from that we’re mainly focusing on writing new songs. We’re working hard on a full-length that we want to record and release somewhere in 2011. Not much to report on that, aside from the fact I guess we’re about half way and the new stuff rocks. ROCK.
So yeah, 2010 might have been bad on a political level, for us it was great, bring on 2011!