Mourning Birds - new year, new recordings, new live shows

Mourning Birds kick off the rock n roll sound of 2014. Fresh out of the studios, they head towards a second release this spring, starting LIVE on stage in London.

Formed in January 2013, Medway thrillers, Mourning Birds, released their debut single 'Oh Yeh!' (with “Gutter Rats”) at the end of the year on The Preservation Society label. One minute and 45 seconds of bluesy garage punk riot hit music fans like a smack in the face with a frozen killer whale. This filthy rock 'n' roll spectacle, wring the cliché’s from the genre, leaving the best bits to pack more of a punch than a Keith Richards cocktail.

Recorded with Rhys Downing (Pete Doherty, The Subways), 'Oh Yeh!' is the real sound bite in an era of rambling musical dissertations. Jimmy Gilder (Vocals/Guitar), Bill Williams (Bass) and Sam Mitchell (Drums/Vocals) have condensed one hell of a riotous racket into 105 seconds of pure carnage;

'Oh Yeh' incited play from various of the BBC Introducing radio shows around the country, multiple Band Of The Day / Week picks / sessions etc. It's been streamed on NME Buzz Playlist and been played on Tom Robinson 6 Music show, plus Jim Gellatly, Gill Mills and The Rock Show on Amazing Radio. Radio 1's Huw Stephens liked 'Oh Yeh' so much that he played it twice. Back to back.

Free download of 'The Last Thing (I Need)' 
https://soundcloud.com/thepreservationsociety/mourning-birds-the-last-thing

Thursday 23rd January at The Alleycat, Denmark Street, London WC2 with Fur Cough, Stella +, Hall Of Strangers, Freewheelin' Troubadour. http://smarturl.it/uniqulture1

Saturday 25th January at The Good Mixer, Camden NW1

Saturday 15th February 2014 at the New Cross Inn, SE14 with CuT, Rhiannon The Nightmare, 16 Hole Boots, Jean Genie's Massive Hugs, Dizzy Spell, Aeromancy, Kalamity Kate http://smarturl.it/uniqulture2

More gigs being sought and confirmed around the UK. Watch https://www.facebook.com/mourningbirds

Poltergeist at The Kazimier - Review

 

Poltergeist is the new group created by Echo and the Bunnnymen's Will Sergeant alongside fellow bassist of the same band, Les Pattinson and last night saw them play a gig on home soil at The Kazimier.

The set draped all in white with a reel to reel tape recorder to one side set the scene nicely and brought an eeriness to the place as the crowd awaited the group. And once a short message was announced by someone dressed like an extra from a Clock Work Orange via a megaphone the guys, dressed in white hooded tops, took to the stage to the sound of  "Dem bones" 

What followed for the next hour was a set of compelling and hallucinogenic music which wouldn't have gone amiss at an Andy Warhol shin-dig and with the projections of such images as ventriloquists dummies and clowns flickering against the white back drop you at times felt as if you were a part of some macabre nightmare created by Oliver Stone.

Poltergeist have taken it upon themselves to let the music speak for them. Not a word is uttered by the band and at times it almost seems like they are oblivious to the applause and cheering after each song, completely immersed in playing and relaying their music to the people.

Moving from one song to the other, without so much of a hick up, is credit to the band who are obviously masters in their field and the lack of any communication to the audience only strengthens the effect. You actually don't even need to be watching the band to enjoy the music.

Leaving the stage the same way they entered after their last track , silently and without fuss, left you thinking "what just happened" and the introduction of the lights drags you back, reluctantly, into the real world. 

Cameo Live at HMV Ritz, Manchester

Cameo - One of the grestest Funk Rock and Soul groups of all time live at HMV Ritz, Manchester

Cameo

Sunday 15th July // 7pm // £22.50

Cameo have topped the R and B charts for more than a decade, sold more than 17 million albums and are one of the most popular Funk/Rock and Soul bands of all time. Line-ups change, styles evolve, and record labels merge, but Cameo have maintained their core funkiness for nearly four decades. Cameo have permanently marked major turning points in music and set the standard that many have tried to duplicate and follow. Cameo’s creator and producer; Larry Blackmon, along with founding member Tomi Jenkins are once again ready to challenge the way the world listens to music, live at the HMV RITZ, Manchester on Sunday 15th July.

The New York City-based band, led by drummer Larry Blackmon, debuted with a single called Find My Way on Chocolate City Records. Larry Blackmon has been synonymous with Cameo since the beginning of his career in the music industry, growing up in New York City, and digesting the sounds of the city streets.  A sought-after writer/producer/director/ musician;  Blackmon has produced projects for several outstanding and chart topping artists including: Bobby Brown, Chaka Kahn, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall and 8 Ball and MJG, just to name a few.  Many artists have paid respect through the replication of Cameo’s unique funk-filled sounds. A multitude of recording artists and filmmakers have re-created and/or used original recorded versions of their favorite CAMEO music and songs in projects/films being played today. These artists include TuPac, Boys II Men, Will Smith, 8-Ball and MJG, Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, KORN to name just to name a few.

Tickets/Info: http://bandonthewall.org/events/3556/

Tickets also available in person from Band on the Wall, ticketline.co.uk or by calling 0845 2 500 500.

Article posted by Musicmafia

Phenomenal Handclap Band at the Kazimier Liverpool

Form & Control album and live dates

March 5^th 2012

Phenomenal Handclap Band return with their second album for Tummy Touch - Form & Control – an ambitious work which takes their clever fusion of international psych, soul, and cosmic disco a bold step forward.

The band – or self-styled collective – broke through in 2009 with their debut single 15 To 20, a club hit both in America and Europe that set the scene for a self- titled debut album later that year. Their sound and style had roots in New York and San Francisco, San Paulo and London, some physical and others more spiritual. But imagine a scenario where Curtis Mayfield and Deee-Lite threw a Nu-Yorican party with Afro-beat, Italo-disco, Turkish psych, ‘70s West Coast rock and Boney M also on the decks. Kaleidoscopic or what? But when Form & Control hits your deck or laptop, you need to reconfigure expectations. Imagine The Human League, MGMT, Fleetwood Mac, Black Devil Disco Club, Justice, Hercules & Love Affair, Blondie and The Steve Miller Band produced by Mike Chapman at London’s legendary RAK Studios, home of prime slices of ‘70s glam, soul and disco. In other words, a sleek and shimmering alternative to the first album’s spicier mutant stew, but just as groovy. The production/ songwriting brains behind both albums are two gentlemen by the name of Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand, who are equal parts DJs, producers and crate-digging enthusiasts. Joining forces for sessions with likes of Latin soul legend Joe Bataan, Daniel and Sean decided to not only produce more sessions at their own East Village studio but to “make a record on our own terms, our own masterwork,” says Daniel. “I was in my late twenties and being in a band seemed undignified. Being the guy pulling the strings was much more interesting.” Roll on to 2010. The band that didn’t mean to be a band - which also included Laura Marin (lead vocals), Quinn Luke (guitar, vocals), Patrick Wood (drums, vocals), Jason Roberts (lead guitar) and Emily Panic (bass) – had toured the UK twice, and when they were offered the chance to record at RAK and stay in the next-door apartment, Collás and Marquand couldn’t believe their fortune, what with the likes of UK soul-pop legends Hot Chocolate making hits there. 

Touring their debut, the band imbibed a whole slew of other music, including the tastes of bands they’d toured with. A new PHB sound began to evolve under that legendary RAK roof, with Sean back and sharing songwriting and production with Daniel. Shorter songs. Punchier arrangements. Crisper sound. Guitars crunch, the synths glide and the beats swish and pump. The singers on Form & Control are Laura, Patrick, Quinn (who also wrote “Give”) and Daniel, adding to the kaleidoscopic effect.

In an attempt to explain their choice of album title Daniel says – “We had gone into the studio with only two tracks written beforehand, and after we’d got the rhythm section in for the first half, Sean and I worked on it for long days, and as we got inspired, “Form & Control” made sense to us. The lyrics are about making a deal with the devil, like, how over history did some people become that famous? Julius Caesar, for example, who people still talk about thousands of years after his death. To a lesser extent, musicians or actors who have made an indelible impression, who have left their mark. It’s a pre-destined path, but perhaps you have to give up something to make it possible...form and control. In and amongst these strange and curious currents, The Phenomenal Handclap Band has forged a path that sets them apart from the pack. And so their journey continues, touring - they’ve just supported Bryan Ferry in the US - he now calls The PHB “my favourite new American band”) and will headline Tummy Touch Records 15th Anniversary party on November 23rd at Hiro Ballroom at The Maritime Hotel. Joining them on the bill are label mates Bing Ji Ling + DJ sets from Horse Meat Disco, Thomas (Rub & Tug, Wicked), Krunk Pony and TT head honcho Tim ‘Love’ Lee.

About Tummy Touch: From it's roots as a cult dance music label and club night in East London to it's current homes in Brooklyn, New York, and at the UK's legendary Rak Studios, Tummy Touch Records has been defying convention, resisting categorization and championing the unique musical vision of label founder Tim “Love” Lee. Since the first release back in 1994, if it's doped up, blissed out or living on the margins of the acceptable, it's found a loving home at the label. Having launched the careers of artists like Groove Armada, Tom Vek and Phenomenal Handclap Band, Tummy Touch now has, according to the BBC, “an influence far in excess of it’s tiny size”!

• 02/24: London, UK @  Village Underground/ Shoreditch,
• 02/28: Liverpool, UK @ Kazimier 
• 03/01: Chelmsford, UK @ Hooga
• 03/02: Manchester, UK @ The Night and Day Cafe 
• 03/03: Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hound

Sun Ra Arkestra announce Manchester show

Sun Ra Arkestra - Under the direction of Marshall Allen. Live at Band on the Wall, Manchester on Saturday 10th December.

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Sun Ra Arkestra
Saturday 10th Dec // 8.30pm // £22.50
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Cosmic jazz composer, keyboardist, bandleader and philosopher Sun Ra was one of the most important figures in 60's avante garde jazz along with artists such as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and Albert Ayler. Claiming that he was of the "Angel Race" and not from Earth, but from Saturn, Sun Ra developed a complex persona of "cosmic" philosophies and lyrical poetry that made him a pioneer of Afrofuturism. He abandoned his birth name and took on the name and persona of Sun Ra (Ra being the ancient Egyptian God of the Sun).

 

From the mid-1950s to when he left the planet in 1993, Sun Ra led "The Arkestra", an ensemble with an ever-changing lineup. Sun Ra's music ranged from keyboard solos to big bands of over 30 musicians. His music touched on virtually the entire history of jazz, from ragtime to swing music, from bebop to free jazz. He was also a pioneer of electronic music, space music, and free improvisation, and was one of the first musicians, regardless of genre, to make extensive use of electronic keyboards.

 

After Sun Ra left the planet, the Arkestra was led by tenor saxophonist John Gilmore. Following Gilmore's death in 1995, the group has performed under the direction of internationally critically acclaimed alto saxophonist Marshall Allen. Marshall Allen has now given 52 years of uninterrupted dedicated service to the Sun Ra Arkestra. He continues to move the Arkestra forward as a spiritual band, maintaining the discipline centered on the study, research, and further development of Sun Ra's precepts. Along with leading the Arkestra, Marshall plays the alto saxophone, flute, clarinet, oboe, kora, and EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument). He is internationally recognised as the premier avant-garde saxophonist on the planet.

This show has been rescheduled from December 9th and is an exclusive Northern England concert.

Tickets/Info: http://bandonthewall.org/events/3295/

Tickets also available in person from Band on the Wall, seetickets.com or by calling 0845 2 500 500.

Liverpool hidden gem to re-open as new live entertainment venue

A 1200 capacity performance space is to open in one of Liverpool’s hidden architectural gems. The Dome, situated in Grand Central on Renshaw Street, in the heart of Liverpool City Centre is a former Methodist Church. The venue will officially re-open its doors next month with an exciting mixed programme of events. 

The new venue in the Grade 2 listed building will provide a mixed genre of live performance from touring bands, theatre, stand-up comedy and variety nights they already have confirmed bookings from November 2011 through to May 2012.  Full details will be announced next week.

The owners Jenny Davies and partner Sean Finnerty already own the lease on the impressive Gaudi style Barcelona Bar on the ground floor of the building and have now bought the 25 year lease on the impressive upstairs venue. 

Director Sean Finnerty said “This is a five year dream come true for me, it was a crying shame to see this stunning venue decaying and not put to good use and I was determined to do something about it, it took five years to secure the venue and work began a year ago. Along with the building owner Jerry O’Brien, we have put in a lot of time, energy and lifelong savings to get the venue back to public use”.

The owners want a space that encourages and develops new local talent, as well as providing a space for those already established in the industry nationwide. A special open day has been arranged for Sunday 16^th October from 1-5pm inviting the city’s top promoters and festival organisers to take a look at the space and facilities and have the opportunity to chat to the owners.

Sean Finnerty continues “This area will be transformed in a year or so time, with Central Village coming to life between Bold Street and Renshaw Street and I want The Dome to be a big part of the regeneration of this area too. There is a gap for a venue of this size in the city centre and I am already impressed with the enquiries coming from local, national and international promoters to book the venue”.

The Dome offers theatre style seating on two levels with 500 fixed circle seats and an option of 700 standing or 500 seating downstairs in the stalls (Cabaret style tables is also an option), A huge organ installed in 1907 acts as an impressive back drop and stands proud behind the main stage. The venue has an inbuilt hi-tech lighting and sound system, two bars, catering facilities and an in-house promotions and production team.  The Dome will offer a wide range of affordable daytime hire rates to welcome local community groups through to full-scale conferences.

Grand Central is set to become a hub of creativity and The Dome set to be one of Liverpool’s leading live music, theatre, cabaret, variety and vaudeville venues.

VENUE INFORMATION

THE DOME (Grand Central),

35 Renshaw Street, Liverpool, L1 2SF

Website: www.thedomegrandcentral.com

Ruarri Joseph live this weekend

Ruarri’s rather peculiar music career began, in part, when his mother - a practicing witch – relocated her young family from Cornwall to New Zealand, away from his alcoholic father. A childhood was spent living on a farm in the middle of nowhere, where it was common practice to make explosives, drive at fourteen, swim in the ocean and shoot possums. When Ruarri’s family wanted to move to a bigger field, they simply sawed the house in half and took both bits with them.
 
With a growing love of music, Ruarri headed back to England. He met his wife--‐to--‐be at seventeen, and soon found himself a Teenage Dad, working as a nurse for the elderly and mentally ill. Joseph found musical solace gigging in a Jazz Cabaret band, and in 2007 – after buying ten Tom Waits albums to locate the one song he’d heard of – Ruarri stumbled into a solo career, and a Major Label deal. He was, he now concedes, completely unprepared for the music industry, having never really experienced one in his homes of New Zealand and Cornwall. One album and a good deal of critical acclaim later, following support slots with the likes of David Gray, Seth Lakeman and Paolo Nutini (with whom he remains close), Joseph quit his recording contract.
 
Ruarri returned to his roots, writing songs for the fun of it. His wife helped him found a record label and release a follow--‐up album, effectively acting as his A&R. Just as the record, ‘Both Sides of The Coin’, started to get going, the campaign was dealt a hammer blow: Ruarri’s son, Alfie, had to undergo emergency brain surgery, while his wife gave birth to their third--‐born, Harper. ‘Shoulder To The Wheel’, then, was written following the eventual (and full) recovery of Alfie. It is a hopeful record, somewhat unusually shaped by Gospel (or Joseph’s idea of gospel music: like Cobain’s introduction to Punk, Ruarri notes, he is more influenced by the attitudes than the aesthetics). Ruarri’s 4th album will be released in early 2012 and has released an EP ‘Til the luck runs dry’ with 2 new songs taken from the record, which is released through his web site.

http://ruarrijoseph.ning.com/

 

www.facebook.com/RuarriJoseph

Saturday 1st Oct @ Mello Mello Liverpool

Sunday 2nd Oct @ Ruby Lounge Manchester

Monday 3rd Oct @ Milo Leeds

Tickets from www.glasswerk.co.uk / www.ticketwerk.co.uk

 

Emmy the Great @ Stanley Theatre Liverpool October 2011

EMMY THE GREAT

Friday 7^th October 2011

Liverpool, Stanley Theatre, University Of Liverpool

160, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5TR

Tel. 0151 794 6868 www.lgos.org

£12.50 advance doors 7.30pm

Two years after her critically acclaimed debut First Love, Emmy The Great released her second album Virtue earlier this year. Written and recorded under very different circumstances to her first, Virtue began as a series of stories Emmy embarked on after her engagement to an atheist, but took on a very different shape when he left her for the church.
Using symbols borrowed from fairy tales and mythology, Emmy added the icons that have replaced them in our modern consciousness – industrial buildings, mushroom clouds, West London’s Trellick Tower. This was Emmy’s personal collection of myths that she fitted to her music – a genre she refers to as digital medieval. She’d noticed that women only make it through the woods in big myths if they keep their virtue and she felt lost in the woods twice while writing the album, first when she got engaged, the second time when the stitches came apart.
When her fiancé left, Emmy had to pick up the pieces. She hid in the country, lost herself in books about saints, archetypes, and folk tales, trying to make the world work. But she didn’t want the album to be about her. It had to save her from what had happened, but be about everything.
Virtue was made in London and Sussex. This time round, Euan Hinshelwood, her long-term musical collaborator, and Emmy took the reins, rather than develop the songs with their full band in the studio. Euan came up with the guitar palette, strange, ambient, twisted and atmospheric, while Emmy wrote backing vocals for different characters she voiced herself. The ghosts of the Cocteau Twins and Suzanne Vega feature, as well as the stories of Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter, and the writing of cultural theorists like Marina Warner. Emmy wanted a cast for this album, to lift up the world she was trying to conjure, and kept albums in mind that have similar ambitions – Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea; Janelle Monae’s The Archandroid. While making it, she listened to girly pop like The Bangles, tempered with religious choirs, folk from the South Pacific, while Euan became obsessed with post-punk and Bulgarian choirs. They even spent a night Googling Enya.
Producer Gareth Jones (These New Puritans, Depeche Mode and Grizzly Bear) indulged their romanticism, but understood their wish to make the music sound precise, rather than precious. Emmy also knew she had to let go – to confront things without fear, to throw her head high, say what she thought, things she couldn’t say to herself without music. It’s this record, she says, that’s made her feel like a person and that she hopes will speak to others who’ve endured and survived.

www.emmythegreat.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Emmy-The-Great/49401939332

http://twitter.com/#!/emmy_the_great

http://www.myspace.com/emmythegreat

Puressence live @ Stanley Theatre Liverpool

PURESSENCE

Plus special guests

Saturday 8^th October 2011

Liverpool Guild of Students, Stanley Theatre,

160, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5TR

Tel. 0151 794 6868 www.lgos.org

£9.50 advance doors 7.30pm

2011 saw Puressence release their new single, ‘When Your Eyes Close’, an edited version of the track found on their brand new album ‘Solid State Revival.’
A soaring, emotion-soaked beauty, ‘When Your Eyes Close’ features the guest vocals of luminous American folk-rock legend Judy Collins alongside those of the band’s frontman James Mudriczki. Collins’ pure vocal dovetails beautifully with that Mudriczki, the owner of an extraordinary and distinctive vibrato bolted to raw power and a fantastic range.
Collins, a convert to the Manchester-based band since she heard their 2007 album ‘Don’t Forget To Remember’, says Puressence, “swept me off my feet when I first heard them. They’re a very moving experience, very, very special indeed, and they have such amazing songs. And where did James learn to sing like that? His voice is an instrument of such clarity and purity and flexibility, it just does you in.”
Puressence have always been about the emotion since they formed in the early nineties after schoolmates Mudriczki and Tony Szuminski (drums) first met Kevin Matthews (bass) and founding guitarist Neil MacDonald on the bus to The Stone Roses’ legendary Spike Island show in 1989. Puressence married the presence and attitude of the Roses to a haunting and molten guitar rock that last hit the heights during the era of Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen. After two singles on Manchester’s 2 Damn Loud label in 1992 and one for Rough Trade’s singles club, Island Records won the race to sign them. 1996’s self-titled debut album and 1998’s Only Foreverfollowed, with ‘This Feeling’ breaking the UK Top 40 single chart that year. “All I Want” was another Top 40 hit, as was ‘Walking Dead’ from 2002’s beats-laced Planet Helpless album.
All these tracks were included on their 2009 compilation ‘Sharpen Up The Knives’, which drew on the band’s Island Records years between 1996 and 2002. Plus there was Mudriczki’s spine-shivering solo version of ‘Che’, originally recorded for 2008’s Judy Collins tribute album Born To The Breed, also featuring the likes of Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez, Chrissie Hynde and Dolly Parton, though Collins thinks ‘Che’, “was the most interesting thing on the whole album. So different and wonderfully fresh.”
On stage, James’ thousand yard stare is legendary among fans (though he always breaks into a broad smile between songs): “it is a really draining experience for me, to get out what I need to for the tunes,” he says. “I can’t just casually let the words drip from my mouth; I have to really feel it. The intensity comes from believing it, and letting it out. It’s like when you hear Scott Walker and Ian Curtis – no way were they faking what they were singing about.”
That intensity can be traced to growing up in North Manchester, “one of most deprived parts of the country. I can only draw on my life experiences, to those people close to me, and channel that in the music. I'm singing about love, deceit, being let down, good times, bad times. Stuff people in Victorian times wrote about, that people will be writing about in five hundred years. But it proves that good can come from the bad.”
Not forgetting the band’s first independently released album in ‘Don’t Forget To Remember’ (with new guitarist Lowell Killen in place), ‘Sharpen Up The Knives’ represented the band’s real big new beginning, as it included two new tracks ‘Raise Me To The Ground’ and ‘Our Number’s Oracle’. Both signalled a return to Puressence, knives sharpened, back to their brilliant and most emotionally charged best. Judy Collins likes the album so much, she sings on a second track too, the album’s smouldering seven-minute opener “Swathes Of Sea Made Stone”.
Especially loved in their Manchester homeland and also Southern Europe (they play to tens of thousands in Greece), Puressence are, as July Collins says, very, very special. Starting with “When Your Eyes Close’, let Puressence sweep you off your feet too.

www.puressence.co.uk

The Big Pink announce UK tour

The Big Pink recently confirmed that their long-awaited second album, Future This, is to be released in January 2012. Last week saw the first single, 'Stay Gold', being given its world premiere on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show with the accompanying video then being aired from the band's website, www.musicfromthebigpink.com.

To coincide with the single release, they can now announce their return to the live circuit with their first UK tour for well over a year. Happening this November, they will be headlining nine shows with support coming from tipped London duo 2:54 (all dates except Leeds).

Tickets go on sale this Friday at 9am from both www.gigsandtours.com & 0844 811 0051.

NOVEMBER 2011

Friday 11^th                 Glasgow Classic Grand

Saturday 12^th             Leeds Metropolitan University

Monday 14^th              Manchester Academy 3

Tuesday 15^th     Liverpool O₂ Academy2

Thursday 17^th            Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

Friday 18^th                 Brighton Digital

Saturday 19^th             Birmingham HMV Library

Monday 21^st               Nottingham Rescue Rooms

Tuesday 22^nd             Bristol Thekla

More Information:

musicfromthebigpink.com
futurethis.tumblr.com

facebook.com/musicfromthebigpink
twitter.com/thebigpinkin
4ad.com/thebigpink

 

Stephen Langstaff @ 02 Academy Liverpool

Stephen Langstaff is rapidly becoming one of the UK’s most prolific singer songwriters. Stephen began writing and performing his work from the tender age of 11 and into his teens, never lost the passion to create. His songs are both powerful and subtle. They engage you instantly with evocative and haunting melodies, brimming over with bare emotion.

His voice is unique. Stephen’s soulful style has earned him exciting comparisons with artists such as Jeff Buckley, Tracy Chapman and David Gray. Like these artists, Stephen blesses the listener with something honest and direct.

Stephen has made several festival appearances and was invited onto the 02 ‘Academy Live’ tour, designed to promote the UK’s newest and most exciting artists. He has also toured as opening act for the Lightning Seeds, once again captivating new audiences and critics.

Stephen Langstaff is a major talent. He follows the tradition of the hardworking singer/songwriter and is a breath of fresh air in these days of mass marketed idols. His reputation continues to grow and who could blame anyone for not being able to keep quiet about him. He has the songs and he has the voice. This ambitious artist emerging out of Liverpool seems to be the city’s worst kept secret.

http://stephenlangstaff.co.uk/?p=37

http://stephenlangstaff.co.uk/?p=32

http://stephenlangstaff.co.uk/

Kevin Critchley Outfit plays the Masque Liverpool

Live With Choir And Extended String Section

Kevin Critchley Outfit

plus

Bird

Shy And The Fight

Deafen The Creatures

There is going to be a very exciting show at The Masque Theatre in Liverpool on Friday 21^st October.

Kevin Critchley Outfit will be performing with Sense Of Sound Singers and an extended string section in an ambitious live show on an unprecedented scale for an unsigned band.  The night will see KCO unveil their new band name and launch a limited edition EP containing live recordings and material from a forthcoming studio album. 

With a performance at Chester Rocks described as the “...highlight of the day...” (Liverpool Live) as the band “...stole the show...” (Radio City), KCOhave continued to up the ante with a support slot for Sharon Corr on the Liverpool leg of her UK tour.  Their line up - cello and violins alongside drums, piano, bass, guitar and vocals-  results in a truly original sound that blends film soundtrack, world music and energetic acoustic rock.  

Singing alongside KCO will be members of Sense of Sound Singers.  The choir have been previously involved in performances with Brian Eno, Damon Albarn and Massive Attack in support of Greenpeace, Seal and John Bon Jovi at The Royal Variety Show and grand finalists for BBC “Choir of the Year” competition.  

Amongst the special guests on stage with KCO are violinists Christoph Demetriou (Shrek 2/Counting Crows, Seal, Jessicas Ghost) and Greta Svabo Bech (Picture Book), as well as backing vocals from Norwegian singers Kaya and Grethe Børsum.

The night will also showcase three other diverse acts that KCO have chosen especially for this event.   Deafen The Creatures are an acoustic/electronic 4 piece whose singer Elle won MOJO’s “New Voice Award 2011”.  Shy & The Fight, from Chester and Wrexham, recently had airplay on BBC Radio 1and featured on the Jack Wills summer advertising campaign this year and whose more soulful nu-folk has made the band firm favourites with BBC Radio Wales.  Finally, Bird will be performing their unique brand of atmospheric folk, which fuses influences as broad as PJ Harvey, Portishead, Bat for Lashes and Kate Bush.

KCO have also had the pleasure of supporting artists as diverse as Seth Lakeman, Mark Morriss (Bluetones), Ian McNabb, Amsterdam and Mica Paris.   

www.KCOmusic.com

Tickets can be purchased from www.glasswerk.co.uk / www.ticketwerk.co.uk

Howling Bells release free Download

Free Download : ‘The Loudest Engine’ - Available now

New album "Loudest Engine" - 12 September 2011 on Cooking Vinyl

New single "Into The Sky" - 5 September 2011

Title Track from New Album Available from www.howlingbellsmusic.com

 Howling Bells are giving fans the chance to get a free preview of their spectacular new album in the shape of a free download of its title track.  "Loudest Engine" is available now from www.howlingbellsmusic.com, giving a thrilling first peak at the record, which will be released on Cooking Vinyl on September 12th.

About "The Loudest Engine"

Recorded in Las Vegas with The Killers' Mark Stoermer producing, "The Loudest Engine"'s release will be accompanied by a clutch of live shows, including a date at London's Electric Ballroom on September 15th.  The album will be preceded by a single, "Into The Sky" on September 5th.

A raw, psychedelic third record, and the sequel to 2009's "Radio Wars", the recording of "The Loudest Engine" saw Howling Bells, the Australian-formed, London-based four piece comprising singer/ guitarist Juanita Stein and her brother Joel (lead guitarist), drummer Glenn Moule, and bassist Brendan Picchio - forge a sonic union with Nevada's expansive surroundings and Las Vegas's street-soiled vibe. 

Says Stein of the album, “There's a singular sound which is more folk and rock than our last two albums, but it's interpreted in a modern sense. It wasn't a conscious effort to make a '70s tinged record. It was a very natural progression.

"The album shows that we're 21st century kids making a modern psychedelic record. [It] is our grown up record. The first was about that great initial leap, the second was us exploring different waters. This one is us, all having met at one place, at one time. I think this record will change people's perspectives of the band."

HOWLING BELLS LIVE

         Weds  14th SEPTEMBER PORTSMOUTH (UK), WEDGEWOOD ROOMS                           

                           Thurs 15th LONDON (UK), ELECTRIC BALLROOM                           

                               Fri 16th  SHEFFIELD (UK), PLUG                                                            

                        Sun 18th LEEDS (UK), COCKPIT                                                     

                                 Mon 19th GLASGOW (UK), ORAN MOR                                                 

Tues 20th  MANCHESTER (UK), ACADEMY 3     

 

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Plastikman Live 1.5 UK tour dates announced

Richie Hawtin Presents Plastikman Live 1.5

UK Tour Dates Announced

Tickets on general sale 9am Friday 22^nd July 2011

We are pleased to announce the return of Richie Hawtin’s iconic alter ego Plastikman for his first ever standalone world tour which will see him perform 3 spectacular shows in the UK including Manchester, Glasgow and London.   The award winning live show will unveil itself in an all new 1.5 format as it continues to evolve and push technology and live performance forward. 

Plastikman is arguably one of the only live shows around where all aspects of the performance - music, lighting, audio, visuals and real-time audience interaction via the SYNK App - are controlled by a single on-stage performer. The Plastikman live experience has been developed by the electronic visionary Richie Hawtin, Derivative and his production team over the past ten years. In 2010, readers of the largest electronic music portal Resident Advisor voted Plastikman as the ‘number one’ live electronic show of the year.

Richie Hawtin’s Plastikman creation returned in 2010 and debuted its new look at Timewarp in Mannheim in March of that year. This version toured festivals the world over, establishing an unrivalled reputation as one of the most spectacular electronic live shows of all time, and quickly united a new generation of music fans with those who had followed the Plastikman project from its groundbreaking innovations in the 1990s. The Plastikman logo once again has returned to the forefront of the electronic movement as EDM (electronic dance music) fever gripped North America and Plastikman performed acclaimed shows at Electric Daisy Carnival and Canada’s Mutek.

Hawtin and his team have continued to develop and evolve the show - incorporating brand new Plastikman music, visuals and interactive technologies. The updates of the show have once again been created within Hawtin's fully-collaborative lighting, visual and interactive team: Ali Demirel & Jarrett Smith of Derivative. (TouchDesigner visuals);  Matthias Vollrath (lighting integrations); Jeremy Jacobs (JPLS) & Johannes Kramer (sonic upgrades); and Robert Hexler & Bryan McDade (interactivity).

As with all previous dates, Plastikman Live will be fully interactive for any fans with the free SYNK iPhone application, which itself has been re-launched with new features including a live chat, live behind-the-curtain camera feed and more interactive elements, making the show one of the only genuinely interactive concert experiences in the world today. 

Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman states: “I'm incredibly excited to finally take Plastikman on its first standalone tour. These dates will represent the last opportunities for fans to catch Plastikman Live in its current form: the 1.5 version of the show we've spent nearly a year of fine-tuning. After that, Plastikman will be returning to the shadows to begin work on a brand new 2.0 concept. The fall tour will be full of surprises, and the performance will continue to be spontaneous and unique for every show – the way I believe live music should be performed in 2011.”

Support on the UK leg of the tour will come from Magda and Ambivalent - with full line-ups for each date to be announced shortly.  For full info on the world tour go to www.plastikman.com/live

The Plastikman Live 2011 tour is in proud association with media & ticket partner Resident Advisor.

Tickets go on general sale 9am Friday 22^nd July.

RICHIE HAWTIN PRESENTS PLASTIKMAN UK TOUR DATES

Manchester Academy

Thursday 1^st December

Plastikman Live

Doors:  9pm – 2am / Age: 18+ / £25+BF 

O₂ Academy Brixton

Friday 2^nd December

Plastikman Live

Doors: 9pm – 2am / Age: 18+ / £25+BF (Early Bird) / £27.50+BF

Glasgow Barrowlands

Saturday 3^rd December

Plastikman Live

Doors: 8pm – midnight / Age: 18+ / £25+BF

TICKETS

www.aeglive.co.uk

www.residentadvisor.net

www.seetickets.com /  Tel: 0870 120 2224

www.ticketmaster.co.uk / Tel: 08444 775 775 (24hr)

www.viewtickets.co.uk

www.hmvtickets.co.uk

www.ticketline.co.uk / 0844 888 4401

www.gigantic.com

www.stargreen.com / Tel: 0207 734 8932

EVENT INFO

www.plastikman.com/live

www.residentadvisor.net/plastikmantour

www.m-nus.com

www.derivative.ca

www.liine.net