My dear friends,

It is with great sadness and much irritation that I bring you news that the Islington Arts Factory, Power Down’s birth place and home, may be forced to closed. The fire brigade dropped in on them before Christmas and told them that unless they upgrade their fire safety stuff, doors, alarms, who knows what, then they’ll shut them down. The work comes to a staggering £12k, which has brought the Factory to their knees as I’m sure you can imagine.

So of course, there will be a special Power Down organised to help raise as much as possible. The date will be Saturday, February 20^th, 2010, and so far the line-up under candlelight will be:

The Boy Who Trapped The Sun

http://www.myspace.com/theboywhotrappedthesun

Wry, alt-folkish singer-songwriter from the Isle of Lewis with new EP out on Rough Trade now.

Monooka

http://www.myspace.com/monooka

Romanian folk singer that swallowed an aviary.

Chancery Blame

http://www.myspace.com/thegadjoclub

The virtuoso gypsy violinist from the Gadjo Club.

Marmaduke Dando

www.myspace.com/marmadukedando

Shameless, I know, but why the hell not? I’ve not played one of my own nights in years now.

These fantastic musicians are playing entirely for free, so all money from the door and bar will go directly to the Islington Arts Factory. If you’ve been to a Power Down before, then I hope you’ll agree the night is worth much more than the meagre sum of £5 that it’s usually priced at. With this in mind, I’ve set up a two tiered pricing system for the tickets this time. For those of you that can afford it and want to help keep the Arts Factory open, I urge you to purchase a ticket for £10 here:

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/71075

And if you’re lacking in funds for whatever reason, of course, we’d still love you to come, you can buy a ticket for £5 here:

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/71076

I leave it entirely to your discretion. If you’re not able to make the concert on February 20^th, but would like to donate some money to the Islington Arts Factory, you can do so here:

http://www.islingtonartsfactory.org/about/donate/

And now onto some other news for this weekend. My band and I are playing Radio Gagarin at Passing Clouds in Dalston this Friday, Jan 29^th. It’s £5 with a flyer that you can get from me, or £7 before 11pm, and £10 after. I believe we’re on about 10pm, and the brilliant Chancery Blame and the Gadjo club are also playing. Here are the details:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#/event.php?eid=263743769499&ref=ts

Have a grand weekend all, and hope to see you soon,

Marmaduke

My dear candle lit concert revelers,

Power Down is upon us again, at it’s old haunt, the old converted church hall in the Islington Arts Factory, on Saturday, October 17th, 2009. The full line-up is now confirmed as below:

Read more…

The view from the tree house

What a splendid afternoon of music it was with Power Down at the Treehouse Gallery in Regents Park yesterday, and not even a whiff of torrential rain this time. The Treehouse Gallery was a couple of tree houses erected in Regents Park this summer, which hosted many and various activities and workshops, performances and lectures. For the last day of habitation before they were dismantled Power Down was asked to put on some music for the occasion.

Read more…

Power Down VII is upon us, and will be Saturday February 28th at the Islington Arts Factory, 2 Parkhurst Road, N7 0SF. Apologies for the late news of this date, but we had a slight issue with the cancellation of some acts. However, all the troubles are over, and this will be a very special one, i can guarantee that.

Read more…

Since Power Down began, the lighting we employ has gone through a number of incarnations. I scoured the internet looking for the best source of lighting for our needs, and found many possible solutions. Clearly the motive behind Power Down is the looming energy crisis and man’s contribution to global warming, so it was imperative to bare this in mind when choosing the solution.

Read more…