So we have a new website then. I wouldn’t know about that type of thing I only use X-Hamster and Bebo. Same meat different gravy. Very different gravy.

Now if you’re like me (and you’re fucking not) then a shot of pure news delivered directly to whats left of your fucking nervous system is what you’re all clamming for. Well I hear you and I’ll tell you now you might be a bit disappointed. Or not, depends how dull your life is.

“SHIT, GET THE CREAM WE’VE GONE VIRUS!” …..is what we want to do apparently. So what we have cunningly done is preempted our actual video launch with a series of cutting skills based tutorials. Fiendish! Here is numero 1 to get you all viral mental.

Brief Synopsis: Thatcher and dog shite filmed by a scruffy fucker who used to be on Soccer AM. He isn’t anymore. He can’t get on TV for love nor money. It’s pathetic really.

Pretty grown up right? RIGHT!

Right then. News Fart 2 now.

Because we are evil we’ve decided to step inside the holiest of holy to see if we burst into a furious ball of flames and plunge into hell to burn for eternity. With only our sins and the Yewtree massive to keep us company. In the unlikely event that we all survive this trial by religion we will be playing a very special show in Sunderland Minster.

Disaffected youth: “Whats that Dave? You’re overcharging the kids again for pop shows?”

Me: “BULLSHIT, you’ll get enough change for a pint and a cowie out of a tenner”.

DY: “Yeah, yeah, but what if I want a drink shit for brains? Its in a shitting church”

ME: “You best chill out sunshine. We are bringing a bar. Mines a pint”.

DY: “Which charity is it for?”

ME: “Oh just fuck off!”.

And that’s how it happened.  But we will be in a church and it will be as special as we can make it. I’ve used internet magic to ‘attach’ ‘deets’ (ask your nephew (not you Tarbuck!))

CLICK HERE

Well, go on. Fuck off.

Actually don’t. I have been working on this 1 thing. Its my great new catchphrase. When I shout “AM I RIGHT?”, you reply “YOU’RE NOT WRONG!”. This way we all feel involved and don’t have to deal with the acute depression that lives in the very black core of every single one us as we get closer to our inevitable death.

Love ya, Bye.

David Harper

Tickets go on sale next week (6th May), full story over at the Sunderland Echo, here

Its not the worlds biggest secret that we are busy working hard on a new record. This is why we have not been playing live as much as we have over the last few years. Our time away from the road has also given us a bit of time to work on our precious POP SEX LTD, if you dont know what this is, then your a dick. Its basically a database for all of our inspirations, achievements and passions. To bring you up to speed with what we have been up to here is a quick catch up.

We released a single by North East based artiste Ajimal, this was POPSEXLTD #101 and #101.5. The single sold out almost instantly as did the gig we put on March 19th, we held the event in the unusual surroundings of Newcastle’s Literary & Philosophical Society (Lit & Phil) and it is the largest independent library outside London, housing over 150,000 books. Our very own Mick Ross produced the tracks and played live on the evening with Ajimal. Nadine Shah was also on the bill that night, and what a very civilized night it was.

On May the 18th/19th we put The Futureheads on in one of the oldest buildings in Sunderland and sold them both evenings out. Over the two days, with support from Lucas Renney and The Lake Poets, 800 people filled out Sunderland Minster to the rafters. The Futureheads played incredible versions of their classic hits and their brand new album Rant in full with help from the Longbenton Community Choir. This was a really special event and if you were lucky enough to see it, you wont be forgetting it in a hurry.

Which brings us up to our latest endeavor The Neat are a great band from Hull, we like them so much we have decided to put out their new single New Kids. Our Mick has been on producing duties again and it has already been spun on national radio as was Ajimal. you can listen to the single here.

We have put a lot of time and thought into the physical appearance of this release. When purchased it comes in a 7′ style package including CD of single, 2 badges, a postcard and some lovely artwork from Mez the bands singer. This is POPSEX#102 and can be bought here.

these are all individually put together and numbered by our Dave limited to 250 copies so dont be slow in getting one. Dave has also made arrangements for the release to be available in your area at the following nice shops

Rough Trade East/West
Hot Rats Sunderland
RPM Newcastle
Sound it Out Stockton
Spillers Cardiff
Piccadilly Records Manchester
Crash Leeds
Jumbo Leeds
Avalanche Edinburgh
Rounder Records Brighton
And other (strictly) Independent record shops

The single is officially released this Monday June 2nd

Right so I hope thats informed you as to what we have been doing with POP SEX LTD over the past couple of months, we have loads of ideas on the drawing board so expect more news soon, but in the meantime follow our progress at https://twitter.com/#!/popsexltd

Speak soon

Frankie x

Hello, Tom Fun here just to let you know that we are busy writing new material and will be making a few but not many appearances over the Summer, mainly because Dennis is competing in the Olympic games for team GB, thats right he’s going for gold in the egg and spoon race !

stand by for more announcements soon

lots of love xxxx

well, we had a super dooper time on tour with our new best mates the Kaiser Chiefs. They really looked after us and fed us a 3 course meal every day on tour, imagine that !!!

we played some towns that we had never been to before and had a really good time, Blackpool and Grimsby for example WE LOVE YOU GUYS

as a special treat here are some exclusive behind the scenes photos from our travels.

in other news we are currently working on new material for another record so keep watching this space, follow us on twitter for updates twitter.com/frankiestrings

We’re very excited to tell you that the lovely Justin of The Vaccines fame will be will be DJing immediately after our performance at the Pop Sex Ltd night at the Shacklewell Arms next Friday, 24th February (full details in the post below) to kick off the dancing element of the night.

Tickets are nearly sold out and will certainly be gone in advance of the show, so do buy yours ASAP. You can get them at the following places: SeeTickets.com TicketWeb.co.uk WeGotTickets.co.uk (the cheapest ones - no delivery or postage charges)

See you there!

We’re very excited to tell you about a special London show we’re playing on Friday, 24th February.

We’re putting on our own Pop Sex club night at the Shacklewell Arms, E8, later this month.

We’ll be performing on the night, as well as our special guests Hookworms from Leeds, who we highly recommend. There will also be another live act TBA and some guest DJs - we’ll be roping in some pretty cool ones you’ll like.

Tickets go on sale this Friday (3rd February) at the following places.

See Tickets, We Got Tickets, TicketWeb.

Hopefully see some of you there, or at one of our shows with the Kaiser Chiefs this month - check the live page, innit.

IN OTHER NEWS
Frankie & the Heartstrings are releasing the debut 7″ by a Sunderland artist, Ajimal on their Pop Sex Ltd label. You can listen to the tracks and check him out here. It’s the first non-F&TH release by the band on their label, so it’s quite the exciting thing.

See you soon, and be good.
x

Please keep visiting our cyber home to find out all new dates for 2012, new music and exclusive behind the scenes videos and pictures lovingly captured by us

Frankie x

Hi there we’ve just got back from the best tour ever with our new best mates THE VACCINES.

We enjoyed every moment of the tour including the days off where we played football and jungle golf,and had a few pints. Well we did that most nights, not the footy or golf bit.

Howler were also on the tour and they are all great lads, go see em on their UK tour early next year.

Here is a few pics from our time on tour, if you saw us for the first time, its a pleasure to have you on board. If your an old friend we hope your well. ITS NEARLY CHRISTMAS !!!

speak soon

Frankie x

Check out the video for EVERYBODY LOOKS BETTER (IN THE RIGHT LIGHT) - Released 28/11/11
Pre-order the 7″ now!

Special after shows following our gigs in the following citys on our current tour with THE VACCINES

Sheffield, The Harley 23rd Nov
Manchester, Deaf Institute 25th Nov
Leeds, Nation of Shopkeepers 26th Nov
Southampton, Cellar 28th Nov

see ya there

Frankie x

HITTING UP THE FOLLOWING TOWNS

Glasgow 19th/20th Nov
Newcastle 21st Nov
Sheffield 23rd Nov
Lincoln 24th Nov
Manchester 25th Nov
Leeds 26th Nov
Southampton 28th Nov NEW SINGLE OUT
Oxford 29th Nov
Norwich 30th Nov
Bristol 2nd Dec
Cambridge 3rd Dec
Leamington Spa 4th Dec
Eastbourne 6th Dec
London 7th Dec

Being part of Frankie & The Heartstrings is essentially an unwritten agreement to strap yourself to a precariously swinging pendulum. Swinging from the unexpected highs that life never seems to set a sustainable president for and the kind of lows only the afflicted, damned and Sting could hope to imagine. The ticking of every day erodes the fine line between wanting to hold, love and care for these curious little shits and the primal need to beat upon them with whatever flesh and bone I have left. I can afford myself this metaphorical folly because I think deep down we all feel the same way about each other. 5 aggravating best friends. Retarded geniuses playing at a different life for a while. So what better way of degrading the people I love, than by dissecting their musical projection. We have been asked to put together a mix-tape for The Line Of Best Fit. We did, it is our job and a pleasure it is too. Sometimes it isn’t a job.
Mix tapes have almost became Peter Kay territory. The type of conversation raised amongst people of a certain of age (me) at uncomfortable get togethers. Wankers throw around words like ‘romance’, ‘tactile’ and ‘earnest’ with such ease that they almost seem to forget that they in fact a massive cunt who needs to get so far away from me that they are in the space I’ve reserved for Sting, Collins and Thatcher. My own private middle earth. Cassettes were just retro Smartphone covers waiting to happen. Of course you think I’m wrong, i am often wrong, but allow me to explain. Before my wife was lucky enough to meet me and trick me into marrying her I did, (rather unbelievably given the gift of hindsight) manage to entrap other women, some of which I enjoyed months of coitus and others that actually made good on their restraining order pillow talk. One such pig faced swine was lucky enough to underwhelm me enough that I felt inclined to put together a mix tape. An extension of what it was to be me. A chance to make this silly shitflap remark about how sensitive I was. And drop bullshit bombs like “why have I not heard this”. All part of fooling yourself that you are in love. So I start. I select a cassette that had already been abused by a ‘friend’. A cassette lovingly fucked up with Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. Obviously I’m above that grebo nothingness so I hadn’t made the 3 yard journey to my combined stereo system to invoke more hate. It was to be the new home for my special gift to a not to special one. The cassette to tick the boxes that I wanted ticking. The mix to make pig faced lady talk to her friends about me so they would look at me in a different way even when I had wet my pants whilst drunk.

3 hours, 2 plugged cassette (do not record over) holes, a lot of pausing and selection of running orders in……and it with a clunk, click…….it was done. In its plastic hinged home and primed for presentation to this unassuming swine in waiting. I don’t recall what was on that cassette. I could guess because I was pretty much best friends with myself at the time and I was quite the pretentious cunt. Still am.
Madame Swine face would be allowed out of the sty of a Monday evening and we would meet in a local gin pit to push bullshit between one another across a filthy table, the occasional fruit fly for company. Bouncing towards the big shitty city on the 152 bus my inner monologue congratulated me to the point of smugness on that veracity of my creation. She had no idea that this gift was trundling its way to be thrust into her terrible terrible trotters.
We meet, we kiss, her snout pushed into my nose (If you have seen my nose you may be feeling that pot/kettle/black electricity, that’s your prerogative) we disembark for drinking house we always went to (I still do) and i am in a hurry to change her world. Almost upon entering I am ushering this tape towards her silly pork mittens and she’s grabbing at it like a tramp at a binjy!
Then things took a turn for the worse as this bacon faced bitch retorted with her own cassette. How fucking dare she piss on my chips.

The night whipped itself into a frenzy of nothing and we fell into our separate buses after the kiss, after the thank yous, after the see you soons, after the “I’m going to listen to this as soon as I get in”s.
Of course I was furious. But in particular I was angered because of the curiosity that this bag of chops had unleashed inside me. So I get home and I listen and I’m slightly sated as essentially its dogshit. So as you can imagine i am excited to exercise my superiority whether it be via meeting, text, pigeon, smoke signal or fucking telegram. Id have my time regardless. And I did, via phone, but not in the way I’d really thought about.
Now I do take an interest in music, it’s a shitting disease. But what I didn’t know much about was carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine. Why would I? They were Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. Another element I failed to take into account was the fact that cassettes deplete after being recorded over again, again and again. This results in old recordings, in some occasions, being present for a few seconds at the beginning of the cassette even when its has (seemingly) been erased from the history of this particular receptacle.
The phone call comes and the oinking and grunt commence. Only the grunts and punctuated with squeals and tears.
Like I established, I know very little of Carter..etc. I do know this………now. The album I recorded over begins with a delightful composition called Sheriff Fat Man. I’m not sure how pig girl managed to depress the play button upon her cassette played but apparently she did. The first thing she hears was not the beautiful, sentiment and pre-emptive knicker dropper for which I’d hoped. It was in fact a mantra of “You fat bastard” for about 5 seconds or so.
Despite what you may think I wasn’t happy with this outcome. This silly pig was supposed to be, well as happy as herself in shit.
To finish off this terrible and truthful tail, this is what happened. I got fat, I got dumped, I got skinny, we got back together, I got dumped, she married a friend we used to joke about because he was creepy and I fell in love and got married. I made a lot of mix tapes.

Now I’m in a band and we have made a mix tape. My choices are so amazing I can’t quite comprehend how much I would hate myself if I wasn’t me. Frankie, Michael, Mick and Dennis have also tried to do whatever it is they do. But it’s not on cassette. Which is probably a good thing.

We are very excited to announce our new single ‘Everybody Looks Better (In The Right Light)’ (produced by Bernard Butler) which you can listen to RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW!

The single will be out on the 28th of November on Pop Sex Ltd with a brand new b-side ‘The Way That You Kiss’ (produced by Ryan Jarman of The Cribs), just in time for our November / December UK tour with The Vaccines. You can see the full list of dates on the live page.

Over the tour we’ll be hosting Pop Sex Ltd nights with special performances and DJ slots which we will announce shortly - though the nights in Manchester and Leeds have already been confirmed.

Finally, we will be playing a very special Christmas gig at The Independent in Sunderland on the 29th of December. Check the live page to get tickets!.

Oh yeah, the latest episode of the Podcast is available now!

Frankie & The Heartstrings Australian Tour Sept 2011 from ,, on Vimeo.

We have just got back from down under. The jet lag is in full swing and and I can confirm I do not know what day it is, nor can I tell my arse from my elbow.

What I do know is that we had an amazing time in Australia. Sydney & Melbourne are world class city’s and we enjoyed both immensely. Great food, great people and plenty to see and do.

Big love to the Eskimo Joe boys for taking us on tour and showing us the best Australian venues, like The Forum in Melbourne and Enmore theater in Sydney.

We hope that one day we get the chance to go back. Thank you if you came out to see us play during our time over there, and a big welcome to the gang to our new friends

This weekend was so much fun, so much so I still feel ill today…

poor me, anyway we had a wicked time at our first appearance at Bestival. We got there in time to soak up the atmosphere and even had the chance to watch the Village people who were ace on the main stage. Our show was brilliant thanks to the people for packing out the tent and going nuts, we loved every second of it.

On Sunday we played a huge gig in Leeds with Spector, The Cribs and Kaiser Chiefs in Leeds’ Kirkstall Abbey it was a brilliant setting for a brilliant gig and we want to thanks the Kaisers for asking us to play with them.

only one more festival left to do this summer and thats Split fest in our home town of Sunderland this coming weekend.

as usual here are some snaps

Frankie x

Hi guys, so needless to say we had a totally amazing time at the weekend when we smash both Reading and Leeds. We were very humbled and delighted to see the tent we played full on both days, so if you made the effort to come and watch us, then thank you very much.

here is a couple of pics from our weekend

Frankie x

Well the answer to that is LOADS !!! we have not stopped all summer and with the prospect of a very busy Autumn/Winter we are using our time wisely and working on new material whenever we can, back home in Sunderland.

We have been very lucky to go to some more countries for the first time since we last spoke, Poland last weekend for OFF festival was a real delight.

We played In Belgium and France and of course a boat load of festivals up and down the UK from Camp Bestival to Kendal Calling to Underage and more…

we have been having an amazing time and we think that our live show is really something at the moment so if you havnt seen us yet we’ll be seeing you at Leeds/Reading, Bestival, Rochester feel good, Kirkstall Abbey or Split Festival, lets rock out, here are some pics from our travels.

see you soon, Frankie xxx

Check the live dates section

- support Vaccines on their November / December UK tour
- special Pop Sex nights to take place on Vaccines tour
- added to Kaiser Chiefs’ Kirkstall Abbey outdoor event
- re-arrange London headline show due to touring commitments
- Reading & Leeds, Bestival, Underage, Kendal Calling, Camp Bestival and Beacons festivals still to come
-Looks like we are all set to go to Australia for the first time also

how exciting!!!!!!

Frankie xxxx