Grand album launch
Good people, it is under a week away now until the grand launch of 'Heathcliffian Surly'. Roll up, roll up, get your tickets while pay day is still fresh in your minds.
Uncivilisation
I am due to play a festival next month called Uncivilisation, which is part of the Dark Mountain movement.
I shall be arranging a Power Down on the first night of the festival, Friday May 28th, and bringing some of the familiar stars with me: Monooka, Will Miles, Rebecca Jade, and Citizen Helene. It promises to be a wonderful weekend, and quite different to any of the usual festivals.
With an emphasis on discussion there will be some notorious loud mouths such as George Monbiot, Tom Hodgkinson, and many more. Tickets are just £60, and the festival is being held in Llangollen in Wales, in a valley, between two (dark?) mountains.
It promises to be a most inspiring weekend in the countryside, and I invite anyone intrigued, you are very welcome.
The magic of radio persists
Even in this day and age, what a phenomenon.
I shall be on Resonance FM this Wednesday from 9.30pm – 11pm Greenwich Mean Time, playing a few songs live, and a cover from 1964. You can listen on the airwaves in London at 104.4FM, or online for those who are too far away http://resonancefm.com/listen.
No more fiddling
I have some sad news to report this week. My good friend and band mate, Naomi Doran also known as
Naomi De Kleined,
will no longer be playing with the band. She has decided to call it a day with my rabble in order to dedicate all
her spare time to her own art work, which has been causing quite a stir in recent months.
She has been a delight to play alongside these last few years and her influence on me has been in no way slight.
My sincere best wishes go out to her.
Secret Cinema: Wings of Desire
The weekend just past, the band and I were booked for Secret Cinema. As the name suggests, it was supposed to be all very hush hush regarding the details of the event. Now it’s all over I can reveal what actually happened.
Secret Cinema puts on classic films in unconventional venues, then themes the night around the film. The audience does not know what the film is until they arrive at the venue. The film that was screened last weekend was Wings of Desire, directed by Wim Wenders, set in Berlin in 1987, it follows a couple of angels that watch over some troubled characters. It’s all rather dreamy, and not a lot happens, but it’s a very beautiful film to watch.
The venue was a disused theatre on Shepherds Bush Green, right beside the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Inside the main hall where the film was being screened, there were some circus acts and a trapeze artist, which fitted in well with the contents of the film. They also had Fyfe Dangerfield playing a few deliciously romantic numbers before the film began, swamped in natural reverb and backed by a viola and fiddle player, “faster than a setting sun…”, the soundtrack to the weekend, I melt in recollection.
Outside of the main hall, Secret Cinema created a small Berlin night club called the Metropole, with a few rooms mocked up in 1980s German decor. I was to host this area, as the owner of the club, play with my house band, and introduce a few other acts. The other main act was This Is Laura, which were possibly the most appropriate act to put on, other than Nick Cave himself.
Well with 4 screenings, that meant music either side, making it a very intense 48 hours. Matinees and evening shows on Saturday and Sunday. The crowd would walk past us to get to the main theatre, or leave the venue. Thankfully, many would stay for a drink and watch and listen to me spitting about throbbing tumours and the like, and by the end of it they were screaming and hollering and dancing and leaping around.
Certainly a weekend to remember, plenty of camaraderie between my own band and This Is Laura. I now feel very toned, like a musical equivalent of Dolph Lundgren.
There will be plenty of post promotion of this event, which I’ll post up as I receive the links to it. Though you can see a slideshow of the event here to get an idea.