The Duke Spirit Tourzine

Liela, The Budding Fashionista...

We all know Liela is a rockstar, but did you also know she has quite the eye for style...?  Read on.



This summer I have been asked loads of times about where I get some of my clothes, so I thought it was about time I gave credit where credit was due and lead you to the work of some great young people...

Through my travels and chance meetings with brilliant people, I have been given a few garments that I can honestly say have changed the way I perform. New shapes and fabrics have given me a fresh vigour and a new attitude on stage, and the most satisfying thing about the clothes is that they were given to me by people who were into our music, thus creating a perfect creative-cultural exchange. I love the fact that this swapping of creative matter was born out of sheer inspiration and mutual affection. The pictures attached show you the awesome things these women made...

1. Suzy who runs her own label UNHEE is the creator of the black 'JUMPER'. I get so excited by puffing up the sleeves! The vintage classicism is right there in the puff, yet at the same time due to it's stark blackness, there is something of the monstrous or futuristic about it. Brilliant. http://www.unhee.com

2. Renata Morales runs MORALES. I met her via mutual friends who work at our UK and Canada Record Label. She took a few words from me, something like "pleats, catwoman, cape, girl-group" and came up with some wonderful yet wearable things. She is great. http://www.renatamorales.com

3. D'ALBERT & HART is Julia Pusey's house of smart gothic sensuality, inspired tailoring and vintage joie de vivre. I just made up that last phrase and I dont really know what I'm talking about - but you'll get the rough idea of how sublime the clothes are if you look at this link  http://dalbertandhart.com/mainbody/mustang.htm   She made a great short sleeved shirt for me with silk chevron breast plate and black feather epaulettes! All three have the Spirit for sure and you should definitely keep your eye on their work...

Woo hoo...Thank you xxx
Liela

Congrats to The Duke Spirit / Buzznet Contest Winner!

Congrats to Chris Castellani whose winning picture was hand-picked by the nice people over at Shangri-La and Buzznet.  Out of nearly 150 entries of the best live Duke Spirit photos, this was the winning shot -- hey gotta think outside the box, plus Liela's legs are hot. 


Here's what Chris won:  
- Rock Photographer Camera Set-up: Nikon D40 6.1MP Digital SLR Camera
- Official Email Interview with The Duke Spirit coordinated with the band and the winner by ShangriLa Music.
- An autographed 12-inch 'Neptune' Vinyl
- The Duke Spirit t-shirt

Special thanks to Buzznet, Shangri-La, and all the entrants!  Stay tuned for more tour dates and more rockin' photos!

Tour Diary: PART 2

Find out what The Duke Spirit do to entertain themselves in between shows and on their tour bus.  Even rock stars have to make sacrifices for their craft.  Straight from Ms. Liela Moss...

arrrggghh. Woo hoo.

Tonight, about half an hour before we went onstage at the Ottobar in Baltimore, I was full of a mild form of dread. Energy at such a low, a few of us starting to get paranoid and screwed up about random stuff. Cat napping all day and still no good, just no power inside my veins and every one loose and giggly and wasted but good for nothing. And then, as nature has it, our buddy ADRENALINE turns up (honest,he's not selling us anything else tonight) and makes every thing better for the next few hours. Thank you if you were in the crowd...you were our Prana tonight and we did it and it felt goooooood. And now I'm all awake and fresh.


Living on a bus... You have to animate your inner adolescent and be foolish and ruin yourself, just to make the show good at about eleven every night.

This morning by the way, we loaded in to do a live radio session  -  no work shy fops here! I want a medal, an OBE from our Queen and an Olympic...well, I suppose Bronze, would be appropriate, considering our slack discipline with the booze. 2 shows a day, that is rock and roll Athleticism.

I am now listening to Streets of Baltimore by Gram Parsons and Baltimore by Stephen Malkmus. Its the latest bit of fun we invented...DJing songs about the city we're pulling into.

Tomorrow  - we'll listen to only BOSTON albums. Urrgh, that's gonna be disgusting. I don't even know any of their songs, but I'm guessing they are fairly outrageous in that 70's americana styleeee.

Reading. We do this a bit in the bus. George Orwell this week and a Stones Biography.

Eating food on the bus. Cereal has become a fascination. At 60 miles an hour with Maryland countryside slipping by...I use Oat milk. Yep. CHeck it. Olly and TM Kim go for Soy. Fine, but a problematic crop. Too lucrative right now that Rainforest is getting destroyed to grow it. Back to front agrarian planning. Lets grow it in other spots where Cows stand in their own faeces, perhaps?

Air conditioning dramas. Lord, I hate it. Drying the hell out of my sinuses. Too cold. Then too hot and we all wake up at six looking for switches and pushing buttons and turning on DVD players intead of the AC unit. Pathetic.

Our Brooklyn Babe Ryan joins us for a couple of nights. He's outrageous. We adore him. He took embarrasing pictures of us Lording it up on the bus along the freeway somewhere over the Franklin Bridge near Philly. We might let you see a couple of those stupid pictures. If you are good.

Singing off - Thanks to Philly, New Jersey and NYC for being great hosts this last week. We also have a great story about Luke and 8 tough, buff Firemen in Boston. Not a homoerotic story unfortunately - cos lets face it, that would be fun! But it does include Paramedics and Tuna FIsh. Watch this space xxx

Download Festival photos by Jess Simon

A Happy Ending!

Remember the cutest and littlest Duke Spirit fan we posted about earlier?  Well, little Judah finally got to meet his icon at their San Francisco show at the Bottom of the Hill!  Look at him with his little green earplugs... bet everyone is jealous he got to be wrapped in Liela's arms.  He'll be the coolest kid in school!  Thanks to The OCMD blog for the update!

Tour Diary: PART 1 'A MARINER'S TALE/TAIL...'

As The Duke Spirit embark on their second U.S. tour, Liela offers the first (nautical) installment of their Tour Diary on the road:

There is an inner merman or mermaid in all of us, clearly, you just can't keep us out of the water. That gorgeous hunk in the black and white picture is Travis Shettle, by the way. A member of the Duke Spirit family who plays keys with us when we're on the road out here and he played on the album too. But mostly we hang around with him to look cool beside his tattoos.

We have been drying our scaley tails with hairdryers - recreating scenes from Splash of course, and     finding time after that to play the TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO SHOW, SAN DIEGO'S BELLY UP, L.A's  HAMMER MUSEUM, PARAMOUNT STUDIOS, PORTLAND'S DOUG FIR. AND we made a video with Adria Petty... UNDERWATER. It doesn't get much better or wetter than that...



All photos by Luke Ford, except for underwater photo by Nabil

Now THIS is The Duke Spirit's Number One Fan!

I know a few posts back, we featured Liela interviewing The Duke Spirit's Number 1 fan, but we stand corrected, as this toddler is most definitely The Duke Spirit's number one fan.  Watch this adorable clip as this young boy gives even Liela a run for her money.  Enjoy!

The Duke Spirit Hijack Q Radio!

Toby and Luke, Duke Spirit bassist and guitarist, took over UK's Q Radio for the Q Mix a couple weeks back DJ-ing their favorite songs for 2 whole English hours.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

-Click on Q Mix - Glastonbury Special - Saturday 8:00
-Under the Listen Again section on the right of the page.
-After the CSS song, there's a link from the girls at Glasto then the fun begins!

Join The Duke Spirit US Street Team

Looking for a way to get tickets to the next TDS show? Yearning for more Spirit in your life?
Well now's your chance! Join The Duke Spirit US Street Team and get tickets to the show and a chance to meet the band!

Sign up here!

The Duke Spirit Plan Triumphant Return

UK indie rock outfit The Duke Spirit have been busy touring Europe, but are making their triumphant return to American shores this summer for a string of cross-country headlining dates and festival appearances.

Friends Supergrass join them for their NY date with other openers to be announced.  Don't miss your chance to catch Liela and the boys' capitivating live show this time around!  And keep checking back for all the latest news on the road!

The Duke Spirit Tour Dates:

July
15 Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern
17 Los Angeles, CA - The Hammer Museum (Indie 103 show – FREE)
19 Mountain View, CA - Download Festival @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
20 Los Angeles, CA - Download Festival @ GIBSON Amphitheatre
22 Los Angeles, CA - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
23 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
24 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
26 Seattle, WA - Nectar Lounge
28 Hollywood, CA - Amoeba (instore)
30 New York, NY - Webster Hall *

August
1 Philadelphia, PA - WXPN/World Café (FREE)
1 Asbury Park, NJ - The Saint 
2 Camden, NJ - Download Festival @ Tweeter Center
4 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
5 Boston, MA - T.T. The Bear's
8 Jersey City, NJ - All Points West Festival @ Liberty State Park
9 Pittsburgh, PA - New American Music Union Festival @ SouthSide Works
10 Nashville, TN - 3rd & Lindsley
12 Columbus, OH - The Basement
13 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
14 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle

* = w/ Supergrass

Liela's Favorite Records

Check out this awesome video interview with Liela as she uncovers her impressive vinyl collection in her own home.  Among her faves, she mentions The Specials and Sly and the Family Stone.  Special thanks to MySpace for the sweet vid!

Liela's Favourite Records