Last week we released our brand new live album ‘So Close to Heaven (Live at Troxy)’ via Bandcamp, and now just a week later it’s available on all streaming platforms, wherever YOU choose to listen to music.
The response last week to the new recordings was very kind, thank you to everyone who’s taken the time to post a comment or send a message to let us know you’re enjoying it. If you’re listening on Sp*t*fy or via YouTube then peep the bonus video footage from the shows too.
Pre-sale tickets for our triumphant return to Cardiff are ON SALE NOW.
PRE-SALE TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW
When we came off stage at Green Man Festival, we thought we’d played our final show of 2025, but just last week we got the call from our old pal Huw Stephens with an offer we couldn’t refuse. So in just 45 days we’ll be playing in the city that birthed us, as part of Cardiff Music City Festival.
Not just the city in which we formed, but the same building where we played our first show. Back in May 2006 we played our first gig in the side-room of University club night ‘Fun Factory’. Now, nearly 20 years on, we return to the Students’ Union to play Y Plas (formerly known as Solus, to all us Heads), barely 20 metres away.
Full line-up to be announced, and we’ll give you plenty of notice on stage times etc too (keep your eyes peeled on Instagram for that). All the usual guarantees for a Los Camp! show apply, including the provision of low income tickets.
If the tickets you want are sold out, please try again from tomorrow (Friday) at 10am, when general sale begins (a much greater percentage of Low Income tickets will be available then).
PRE-SALE TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW
When I write about the cogs and gears of how the band’s finances work it always gets a positive response, but I’m wary of stripping away all the awe and wonder. I’ve said before how when you form a band it’s not due to a love of accounting and marketing, and similarly when you become a fan of a band, it’s for the songs and the shows rather than a behind the scenes look at the balance sheet.
But the figures behind this live album release are quite simple, so I thought it worth breaking down the first week of sales.
890 of you purchased the album via Bandcamp, paying a total of £6,260.40 (at an average of £7.03 per purchase). Thanks so much for your incredible support. By the time Bandcamp (10%, plus an additional “payout fee” for transferring the funds to us) and PayPal have taken their cuts, the amount paid through to us for these 890 sales is £4,906.19. Bandcamp is shortly implementing a new payout system, direct to bank. This will be great, as the amount of money that PayPal takes off the top in their fees is always quite a surprise.
Our outgoings? The project cost us £5,247.75. This consists of costs for mixing and mastering the album and paying our horn and string players for their contributions to the recordings. Tom and Rob did a ton of work on the recordings and the artwork, but very graciously did this free of charge. These are obviously separate to any costs relating to actually playing the shows in the first place, back in February.
So, a week after release, we’re a few hundred quid (-£341.56) shy of breaking even. Maybe about 50 sales away!? And when you factor in sales of the related poster, we’re already in the black. From an artistic perspective, I think this release is a really great addition to our back catalogue, and will bring a lot of enjoyment to you guys. But also, from a financial perspective, it will continue to generate income for us, as you all listen to it on streaming platforms in the months to come.
I realise you’ve probably had your fill of “Los Campesinos! live recordings” recently, but if not, our full performance from Porto Primavera, earlier in the Summer, is streaming on YouTube. Very early on during this set I spotted someone wearing the t-shirt of one of my most beloved bands (and friends!), Former Ghosts. Can you spot them too?
We’re very pleased to report that we now own the masters to our early albums Hold On Now, Youngster…; We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed; Romance is Boring; and all other EPs and recordings from that era. The only one of our releases which we don’t own outright for now is Sick Scenes. What does this mean? Well, a few different things, all of them positive. But the detail that might be of most interest to some of you is that we’ll now be able to repress vinyl and CDs of our back catalogue with much greater ease. Of course, this is dependent on us having the money to manufacture etc, but you can expect to FINALLY be able to get your hands on physical copies of those albums much more easily in 2026 and beyond.
Thanks for the Pikmin recommendations! I got Pikmin 3 from CEX on the weekend and am very much enjoying it.
Been having a very strong urge to listen to the first xx album this past week, for the first time in probably a dozen years, but haven’t been able to find the mood to do so. Every time I think of that album I am reminded of the first time I listened to it: the day after its release in 2009, the first time I'd had sufficient wi-fi to download (pre-streaming!) the album since it dropped. We were spending a day off in Marfa, Texas between shows in Houston and Albuquerque. After dark, everyone drove out to see the Marfa Lights. Except for me, stubborn as I was back then, who stayed in the Motel to listen to the xx album in the dark on my own. It was a vibe tbh.
You may have followed the news from Portsmouth’s Victorious Festival this weekend. On the festival’s opening day, Irish folk band the Mary Wallopers had their set shut down by the festival just moments into their performance, due to the presence of a Palestinian flag onstage. Such egregious silencing of support for the Palestinian cause and the more general suppression of artistic expression must not be accepted. We have huge respect for those bands that pulled out of the festival in solidarity. But most bands did not! While young and new artists were unwilling to compromise their morals and so gave up their opportunity to play to thousands of potential fans, every established and legacy act on the bill carried on as planned. They kept their mouths shut, they smiled politely, and they collected their money. I’m not suggesting that these acts do not care, but I am suggesting that they are greedy and they are cowards.
Will likely be a little while without a newsletter now, as things are gonna be a bit quieter for us over the next few months. In the meantime, if there’s anything you’d be interested in hearing about in future newsletters, or that you’d like to see us include, let us know in the comments!
See ya next time,
LC! x
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