Fresh off of their Japan tour, Swing Out Sister is selling their Japan concert-only CD titled “Private View” via Facebook (www.facebook.com/swingoutsister). It’s a collection of new arrangements of their favorite songs and also contains 3 mini movies. It’ll undoubtedly be a collector’s item very soon! Get your copy today!

It’s Corinne’s birthday today and if you’re a Facebook (www.facebook.com/swingoutsister) or Twitter (www.twitter.com/swingoutsister) member, make sure to wish our beautiful singer and grand birthday today!

From swingoutsister.com, I wish Corinne a wonderful, happy and grand birthday!

Sincerely,
Kun

A last minute add-on for the site, Swing Out Sister is performing at Vintage at Goodwood this Saturday!

Vintage at Goodwood is a fashion and music event covering the 40’s to the 80’s in all their wonderful artistic glory. So air out your vintage clothes and stop by and say hello to Swing Out Sister this weekend!!

http://www.vintageatgoodwood.com/artists/bandsdjs.aspx

What do Crosby, Stills and Nash and Norah Jones have in common with Swing Out Sister? They’ll all be attending the Milan Jazzin’ festival, just announced by Swing Out Sister. They are currently schedule to play on August July 23rd.

Information is here (but it’s in Italian): http://www.milanojazzinfestival.it/

I just wanted to update everyone that Corinne has announced that all US dates that were scheduled for last month have been “moved” to 2011 to cover the missed concerts in April. There are no hard dates but for the US fans, I’m sure it’s a bit disappointing. Interesting tidbit, Corinne says that there’s a possibility of adding more cities so I’m going start a thread for “Cities that Swing Out Sister Should Visit In 2011!”

I’ve stickied this post so it’ll be there until Swing Out Sister announces dates next year. Have fun with it and I’m sure that Corinne and Andy will be reading.

Updated: I’ve added the text from the site in case anyone wants to read from here directly:

“A big thank you to all of you for being so patient. As you know we can’t make decisions in a hurry… and it’s not just because we take so long to decide! There are lots of things to take into consideration…. the organisation and availability of everyone in our band and crew… availability of venues close enough to each other to travel on consecutive days (preferably by bus so we can get some sleep!)… enough lead time to promote the concerts ….. volcanic activity (!)…. we also have other touring commitments throughout the rest of the year which may make it difficult to work a US tour around them. We hope all of you have now been reimbursed for your tickets and that those of you who had booked flights and hotels didn’t lose out too much… this kind of natural disaster is unprecedented so we ourselves are still waiting to see if we have any chance of compensation. So- back to the drawing board- we will probably be looking at organising a US tour in 2011, but hey- hopefully with enough time to plan ahead- we may be able to include more cities and get to see more of you!”

Corinne & Andy  and all of the SOS team xxx

via http://sosister.com/us-dates-latest-news

I always say that nature will win no matter what happens and it’s true in this case as well. All the US dates are currently canceled until otherwise. Flights are still grounded, the volcano is still spewing ash and who knows when the air will clear again. It’s affecting everyone here and abroad from marathon runners to master classical musicians. We’ll just keep playing the ‘waiting game’ and hope for sooner than later!

Corinne and crew are very sorry about the cancellations and once they know what’s going on, we’ll post the information here.

(Update – 4/18) Heathrow Airport reports that all flights out of London are suspended at least until 7PM GMT Monday. This means that the Birchmere will certainly be canceled. I’m waiting on official word.

Everyone in the NY metro area are pretty bummed that SOS can’t make it because of the volcanic ash spewing all over Europe. Well, it looks like it’s gotten worse for travel. Apparently, all UK airspace is closed until at least 7PM GMT Saturday! So if this continues on, and it just might, other dates may get cancelled as well.

I’m not a musician nor do I know the details on what’s involved but my guess is that there are a lot of logistical issues that need to be sorted out even if Corinne and the band gets out by Saturday night. There’s practice, additional travel time and moving equipment across multiple states. We’re all hoping that more dates don’t get canceled. At this point, we’ll have to just wait and see what nature gives us next.

If you want the latest from SOS and what’s going on with the US tour, find them on Twitter (swingoutsister, andyconnell) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/swingoutsister)

Hey Andy and Corinne, if you’ve got video, I’d love to see your what’s going on with you and the rest of the crew!

OK NY fans, take a deep breath…

Corinne announced that they are unable to fly out of London for this Sunday’s concert at the Highline Ballroom. =(

There’s still hope for the other dates that are forthcoming in VA and MD.

This is directly from the SOS Facebook page:
OK.. the bad news. Continental have informed us that there will be no flight to New York tomorrow. This means, we’re very sad to say, that there will be no gig at the Highline in NY on Sunday night. Don’t know what else to say other than we’re terribly sorry – there’s just absolutely nothing we can do about it..

Sorry guys! If you really need your fix you can attempt the VA, MD and GA dates later in the week though there’s a chance that the VA date could be canceled as well since it’s supposed to be right after the NYC date. Stay up to date by visiting this site or following Corinne on Facebook (www.facebook.com/swingoutsister) or Twitter (swingoutsister)

If you haven’t read recently, Europe has been engulfed by a volcanic ash thanks to a volcano in Iceland. This lead to the grounding of all British flights in and out of the country since Wednesday. Fans in the US should be concerned because Corinne and company are still awaiting flights out of the England as of this morning (Friday.) This could potentially mean cancellation of at least the New York concert that is scheduled for Sunday night and if things get worse, the Birchmere concert the following night.

Let’s not fret yet. The latest news reports that Ireland has resumed flights today and Corinne mentioned on her latest Facebook message that most flights will resume at 1AM Saturday morning at the earliest. What does this mean? The concert will probably go on as planned as SOS rushes through customs and runs for downtown New York City and all will be OK. Perhaps there will be a twinge of jetlag but there’s nothing like a few hundred SOS fans to keep them Corinne and Andy awake!

Latest update RT from Corinne. They’re cutting it close!
@HeathrowAirport: Update: All flights to & from Heathrow suspended until at least 7am [12PM EST] Saturday morning. Next update at approx 8.30pm

I was just recently made aware of an unsubstantiated rumor that began over on the forums here. On March 18th, a member had posted news that Andy Connell could not play live because he had acute alcoholism. Besides the fact that alcoholism cant’ be acute, this member had claimed that he received this information from Paul O’Duffy, Swing Out Sister’s long time collaborator and producer. This forum member also claimed to have worked with Paul as well.

After a few responses from members who challenged this information, Paul himself contacted me about this post. He was upset that someone would use him as a source of information that was completely false, especially since this directly involves to his long time friend, Andy.

This is what Paul had to say:

“Firstly, I do not know or have ever worked with or employed anyone called (removed). Secondly, his comments are completely untrue, Corinne and Andy are among my oldest and dearest friends and I have nothing bad to say about either of them to anyone! As you can probably tell I am very annoyed about this and am puzzled as to why someone would go to the effort to offend both myself and Andy.”

My guess on why this person had decided to do this is beyond me, however with the internet full of trolls, this is just to get some people excited and to cite some kind of ill reaction. What’s also telling is that this person used an anonymous email account to create the post. The likeliness for us to find out who this person is much tougher though not impossible. You can’t hide forever on the internet… Here’s the funny thing, the poster didn’t even know that Andy posts here and even had the nerve to post that he had just emailed him. Andy, in response, said:

“Not sure this really needs a response. Bit of a shame, really. Thanks, (removed), though for making me aware of it..” – Andy

I’ve since removed the post (though still have it in case it’s needed in the future) and banned the user. If there’s any posts in the future that you, as fans and commenters on this forum, please let me know if there are any fishy, offensive or unsubstantiated posts by clicking on the “!” icon on each post. That will alert me to the post and I’ll take appropriate action on it if it’s required. There’s no way to go through each post here but this will help tremendously help prevent any misinformation from spreading.

For now, Paul and I are still dumbfounded on why anyone would speak badly of Andy. As someone who’s had a chance met and speak with Andy, I can’t say why anyone one ever stoop that low.

If it was meant to be a joke, it was as horrible joke and unfunny on many levels. I’m sure Andy would agree.