We only received very short notice of this, but our fans in the UK can tune in to Tom Robinson’s show tonight and hear The Home Guard get some airplay.

Set your DAB radios to BBC 6 Music between 0100 and 0300 in the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning (this gets less glamorous the more detail I give, doesn’t it?) to hear Tom play The City That Never Wakes. Sky channel 0120 will also do the job.

This is to be our third appearance on national radio, to go with numerous plays on local radio and once on Alex Zane’s show on MySpace Radio. It’s also our third different song to get airplay, which we don’t think is a bad average. Here are the clips of the last two times Tom Robinson played us:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/The_Home_Guard_on_Tom_Robinson_Introducing.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/The_Home_Guard_on_Tom_Robinson_Introducing_Again.mp3

Yes folks, it’s been a little while in the making – and a surprise to most of you – but here’s our version of that Beatles classic from Revolver, For No One (click to play, right-click and “Save Target As…” to download):

http://www.thehomeguard.info/free/The_Home_Guard_For_No_One.mp3

(Many, many humble apologies to any cherished youthful memories we’ve inadvertently just destroyed!)

We’ve recorded this cover of For No One as part of an online community’s attempts to put together a collection of fan-made versions of Beatles classics (I’ll post the link to the final product here when it’s completed). We haven’t changed anything too radically, but by the same token it’s not a precise facsimile of the original, either. The idea was to choose a song that we could record in the style of The Home Guard, whilst retaining the flavour of the original. I hope we’ve succeeded.

For those visiting our site for the first time (probably from rec.music.beatles), I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you and invite you to try out our own music. Champagne Socialist is by far and away our most popular (and commercial) song, but The City That Never Wakes and Walking Against the Wind have also been getting favourable attention. Our whole album can be listened to on our music page.

Meanwhile, if you scroll down to the post dated 18th November, there’s a collection of work-in-progress demos from our forthcoming album, due early next year. Your opinions are always welcome!

Many thanks for downloading the For No One mp3. Please feel free to share it with anyone you like – the further it travels, the better!

Many thanks to our good friend Acuvi who has yet again embedded one of our songs in her MySpace profile. See for yourself here:

http://www.myspace.com/acuvi

The song in question is Rendezvous. Previously, The Orator was embedded on her page. Many, many thanks!

We must offer our thanks to Last.fm user bisa, who mentions us in her journal about songs you can “not get out of your head”. She lists four tunes, one of which is our very own Friend or Foe?:

http://www.last.fm/user/bisa/journal/2008/11/26/2avfp0_wich_songs_can_you_not_get_out_of_your_head%3F

Last.fm journals are a great way to hear about (and listen to) new music, as well as promoting independent artists you like. Many thanks again, bisa!

Find us on Facebook:

Following the above link will take you to our brand new band page, where you can choose to “become a fan”. Further to that, please remember to click on the big orange “iLike this artist” button – this will make sure you’re counted in our total number of fans across a number of networks. (This is something new we’re trying, before you think our fans don’t number into double figures yet.)

On top of this, if you select “Dedicate” next to the song of your choice, you can send our music to all your friends with just a couple of easily clicks. Many thanks to all who do!

Of course, The Home Guard can also be found on MySpace, Last.fm and ReverbNation, amongst others. Feel free to add us wherever you find us!

A year after release, our debut album A Head of Steam has finally made it onto eMusic, the “indie iTunes” (it says here). This is the link:

http://www.emusic.com/album/The-Home-Guard-A-Head-of-Steam-MP3-Download/11334006.html

Of course, other download services are available (we recommend CD Baby or iTunes for the best deals for both you and us), but if you’re an eMusic subscriber this could be what you were waiting for.

Many thanks to YouTube user launic for uploading all the songs from our first album to the popular video-sharing site. It’s such a good idea we can’t believe it never crossed our minds! Anyway, here are the links in album order:

The Orator

Friend or Foe?

The City That Never Wakes

Poor Man’s England

Josephine

Champagne Socialist

Rendezvous

Walking Against the Wind

Everyman

I’m the World’s Best-Kept Secret

We are grateful to anyone who helps to spread our music in ways we haven’t tried ourselves. Of course, now the pressure’s on us to actually get into gear and make some proper videos to complement our music, but in the meantime these are more than effective.

Any budding cinematographers reading this willing to volunteer their services?

We’re a bit torn on this one. Here’s the latest version of One for the Road (click to play, right-click and “Save target as…” to download):

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/One_for_the_Road_(Demo)_18-11-08.mp3

This mp3 is us doing a song in the style of something in between Sparks and Madness. To begin with, we were certain that it was going to be the lead song from the new album on account of it being so commercial sounding. I mean, it’s the nearest we’ve ever got to pop, isn’t it?

Now, we’re not so sure. Is it a little too bright and breezy? Should we tone it down a bit? Should we leave it as it is but bury it in the album, never to see the light of MySpace? Decisions, decisions… As always, your opinions will be greatly appreciated.

Of course, the above file is completely unproduced and missing its lead vocals. If you want to hear the main melody, or simply want to compare and judge our progress, here’s the previous upload with it’s (frankly poor) guide vocal intact:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/06_One_for_the_Road_Demo_27-3-08.mp3

And, in case you’ve missed any, here are all our previous demos:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Turn_Me_Up_1-8-08.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Other_People_31-5-08.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Nothing_Can_Stop_You_Being_Mine_15-6-08.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Soldier_On_Demo_15-9-08.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Year_Zero_(Demo)_29-10-08.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Pseudonym_(Demo)_10-11-08.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Dead_on_My_Feet_(Again)_(Demo)_14-10-08.mp3

It turns out that our MySpace fan club has surpassed 100 members (102 as I write) in less just three weeks. If you haven’t joined yet, all are welcome here:

http://groups.myspace.com/TheHomeGuardFanclub

Many thanks yet again to Ian (www.myspace.com/varialus) for setting this up for us, as well as to all who have subscribed!

Our heartfelt gratitude goes to MySpace user Acuvi, who has chosen to embed our song The Orator into her profile:

http://www.myspace.com/acuvi

Many thanks to her!

On a similar theme, if anyone reading this wants to help us out in terms of spreading our music across the Internet, why not sign up to our Street Team? We’ll occasionally send you a few ideas on how to help us to get noticed on the Net, such as writing a review of our music in iTunes or posting in a MySpace forum. (You get the idea.) Anyway, if you want to join, simply submit your e-mail address here:

(You can go here and click on “Join Street Team” below the picture if the widget doesn’t show above.)

Many thanks in advance to all that do!