The boys will shake off the cobwebs before the prestigious Mathew Street festival slot with a secret warm-up show in Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port.

The show will take place at the Red Lion venue on Wednesday 24 August and support will come from The Garys and The Prodigal Sons. Entrance is £5 on the door and tickets can be reserved by phoning the Red Lion on 0151 339 2496.

This is the first time Amsterdam have ever played in Little Sutton, Ian’s home, and only the second time in 13 years Ian has done a home town gig.

The venue is situated on the A41, 25 minutes from Liverpool in a car and two minutes walk from Little Sutton railway station. It is also on the main bus route between Liverpool and Chester. There will be no guest list.

The stage times are confirmed as follows:

The Prodigal sons 8:30pm-9:00pm
The Garys 9:15pm-9:45pm
AMSTERDAM 10:00pm-11:00pm

As further details emerge regarding the summer festivals the band are playing this year, new photos are up in the photo gallery, including shots from the last tour.

The full line-ups for the Beached festival in Scarborough and the Mathew Street festival are now available on the respective sites, www.beached.net and www.mathewstreetfestival.com.

At Beached, the boys are main support act for indie heroes the Bluetones. There is entertainment all afternoon from 12 o’clock then rather brilliantly there is a break for 45 minutes because of high tide at about 6 o’clock.

Chris Helme from The Seahorses has his new band playing and Amsterdam will play for 45 minutes at 9:35pm, after which the Bluetones will follow.

Amsterdam bass player Paulie ‘Paul’ Hagan will be staging a one-man show at Liverpool’s Zanzibar club, this Thursday 4 August, as part of The Gary’s regular Top Drawer Promo event.

This is another great chance to catch a low-key performance by the hardest working man in Mossley Hill, before the boys kick-off promotional activities for the up-coming single Takin’ on the World.

Now-legendary Amsterdam guitar-tech Mikey will also be performing with The Gary’s, so you’re guaranteed plenty of bang for your buck…

The boys have been in the studio all this week doing the b-sides for the next single which we can confirm is Takin’ on the World, the much loved lead track off debut album The Journey.

You Can’t Trust the People is a duet between Paulie and Ian and is descibed as ‘something the Clash might have recorded between Give’em Enough Rope and London Calling’.

Career Building, a John Martyn/Isley brothers inspired new song, actually lead to a studio argument with producer Tony Kiley proclaiming ‘we can’t do that as a b-side, that’s a bloody single!’.

Meanwhile, hot off the press, several other news items have arrived at HQ:

The results to the whats your favourite song off the debut album poll are:

Give us your comments now in the debut album thread in the forum.

Amsterdam have now signed to Universal in Canada. The debut album will be released over there in the autumn.

The boys will be appearing on the cover mounted CD of the fabulous Word magazine next month. The chosen track will be Nostalgia and not Joe’s Kiss as previously reported.

A secret warm up show in Ian’s home village of Little Sutton on the Wirral is being organised in anticipation of the band’s biggest show yet at this years Mathew Street music festival in Liverpool on the August bank holiday. Keep your eye on the site for the latest news on this.

From next week you will be able to purchase the fabulous new Amsterdam t-shirt which sports the great new logo from this site. Details to follow very shortly.

Ian and Paulie will be doing a 30-minute acoustic set on Friday night at the Liverpool Carling Academy before Digsy takes his band Smaller take to the stage. Tickets are £5 or you can pay on the door.

Amsterdam have been specially asked to play at this year’s Beached festival in Scarborough on Sunday 21 August.

This succesful annual festival actually takes place on the beach and is FREE. Visit www.beached.net for all the relevant information.