​Well folks, HUGE news! After over 6 years preparation and much recent teasing on my part, we're FINALLY ready to make the biggest announcement of my musical journey so far:

My DIY ska-punk project Better Than The Book will be celebrating Ten Years On from the debut full-length album Two Years On by playing its first ever live show on Thursday 5th February 2026 at The Hope & Ruin in Brighton! With the big anniversary coming up, myself and the live band guys, Sam, Eamon & Andy agreed this was the perfect time to finally push for the stage and after many MANY setbacks and going around in circles, it's finally FINALLY set in stone!

We did aim for the actual anniversary of Feb 6th, but quickly realised that Friday nights are INCREDIBLY difficult to book apparently if it's your first gig! We managed to secure our dream venue of The Hope & Ruin in Brighton though! I've shared the stage with Andy many times there back in our LCA days and it's a great venue for a high energy music party! The capacity is only 150 peeps though so get your tickets booked as soon as you can to secure your place. I honestly have NO idea when we'll next be doing a live show, especially as grand and special as this one! Book your tickets below:

https://www.fatsoma.com/e/q2ub5sxo/better-than-the-book-presents-ten-years-on-with-special-guests-look-what-happened-luvd

And for the extra keen among you, use the promo code "TENYEARSON" (ALL CAPS) for a £1 off your ticket! Limited to the first few people though so get there first if you want the discount!

And be sure to get there early on the night too! Doors open at 7pm with the music planned to start promptly at 7:30pm. You don't want to miss a thing; it's gonna be one heck of a night!

As a little sneak peek of what to expect: we've prepared a 1 hour set of ours and the radio proven fan favourite songs for you folks, 14 songs from across Better Than The Book's 14 year discography + a few surprises for you! Get ready for a ska-punk, pop-punk, alterative rock party like no other!

But it's not just us playing OHHHH NO! You can't have a big party like this without friends so we've hand-picked two of Brighton's best and fantastic up-and-coming bands for a half hour set each as well! Say hello to Look What Happened, a pop-punk quintet who released their debut self-titled 3 track EP earlier this year and even made their BBC Radio debut last month, and LUVD, an alternative rock quintet who's been gathering momentum on the Brighton live scene and prepping to release their debut single in the next few weeks! It's an amazing pleasure to be playing alongside both of you and we can't wait to hit the stage with you in February! It's gonna be a night to remember!

A huge thanks to everyone who helped make this happen! It's been a LONG journey in the works and I am SO excited for next year! Thanks so much for sticking with me and my friends on this musical journey and I hope to see you from the stage on Thursday 5th February 2026 at The Hope & Ruin in Brighton! Much love, take care, and more updates coming soon!

Check out the press release below and announcement video below:

Hi everyone and hope you had a great Halloween (I spent it playing spooky video games)! It's been a super busy month prepping for BTTB LIVE stuff while much of my "Jabun energy" has been spent making beats for Cyberdevil's INKtober challenge, so I only got a little bit of arrangement work done for Jabun's Lost Tracks this time (no more mixes complete). Some exclusive downloads to share this time as well as hefty dose of news so let's get straight to it!

First of all as has become tradition, my good friend Cyberdevil has been back to his usual yearly INKtober challenge where he pens, performs and records a new rap every day for October! This year I threw 2 beats his way and he came up with 2 amazing raps to complete them! The first was a super emotional tribute to his parents. Check it out, it's quite the journey:

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1482515

And the second turned what I thought would be a throwaway meh b-side beat into something awesome with tight wordplay commentary on the culture of gratuitous movie violence! Check it out below too, I think it's a winner!

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1483066

I think they were 2 of the highest played tracks this month too not including guest remixes!

And feel free to explore the entire month of Cyberdevil's INKtober challenge over here:

https://www.newgrounds.com/playlist/490470/inktober-2025

My supporters on patron also have an exclusive download of both instrumental beats below too:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/140648898

A little backstory: both beats were written and performed on my KORG EM-1 Electribe Groovebox (with just some mastering in Ableton after recording) which has been my go-to instrument for these INKtober Challenges for the past few years now. "b55" was the first of the ideas, but as it developed I kind of went in a different direction to what I intended to make so call it the B Side of this year's grooves XD "b59" was the beat I intended to make with a more chill grimey edge! Hope you get a kick out of them!

Onto some Better Than The Book News, in case you missed the show when it aired BTTB's Hold Me Tight (Non-acoustic) from the Side Character In My Own Life album was on BBC Music Introducing The South earlier this month! Check out the replay below and thanks so much for spinning the track Melita!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002kqzp

Melita also shared a HUGE BTTB announcement on the show too, which unfortunately since has been a bit up in the air and needing some correction... Some big news (see last month's post https://www.patreon.com/posts/138213103/) I'd HOPED to have shared is that Better Than The Book will be playing its very ever LIVE show on Friday 6th of February at the Hope & Ruin in Brighton but unfortunately an error/miscommunication in the venue booking has left us without a venue for that date at the moment! We're working hard to restore and finalise the date/venue details and aim to have it sorted in the next week or so, so keep an eye out for a big concrete announcement later this month if all goes to plan! In other news though, if aIl's still good we've confirmed our second support act band for the night and it's looking to be an amazing night to come! Amazingly too, the previously alluded to first support band just had their BBC Radio debut on the same show as I was on, but the following week's episode. See if you can guess who we'll be playing with (they're friggin' fantastic). All will be revealed soon! Keep a note on your calendars!

Next, a couple of Tuesday Takeover features to share on Newgrounds! Thanks so much for sharing the music guys:

October 7, 2025 - Jabun's Apotheosis - Final Boss Theme Phase 2 featured in Takeover Tuesday on Newgrounds.com (by Cyberdevil)

October 21, 2025 - Cyberdevil and Jabun's Cyberdevil's Back featured in Takeover Tuesday on Newgrounds.com (by larrynachos)

And while there was no new YouTube videos this month (and I've still got to a Patch Bay and J-6 sound list video to do at some point too), I will be sharing those INKtober beats on my JabunAudio YouTube Channel in the coming weeks too!

That's about it for this month unless you're a $10 patron in which case I'm sharing with you the final mix (pre-mastering) download for "Thinking" from the upcoming Jabun Lost Tracks project (a very old idea that's finally coming to fruition)! Head over here to grab the reward and hope you enjoy a new (old unreleased) jam!

$10 Extra Reward: https://www.patreon.com/posts/142736671

It's set to be a super busy month ahead finalising these gig details, and I'll actually be down South again for another big rehearsal too so should be very exciting! Until the next update (which I'm hoping will be the long overdue gig announcement in a week or so), I hope you have a great November to come and thanks as always for supporting my music and projects however you can! All the best and take care and I can't wait to share some HUGE news with you soon!

$1 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/140648898
$10 Rewards: https://www.patreon.com/posts/142736671​
Reward Archives: https://www.patreon.com/posts/50344842
Find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding