Apologies!
I’m sorry to report that we had to cancel all of our June gigs due to Christopher’s ongoing ill health. Hopefully he’ll be able to play some keyboard parts by next month, ready for our HDIF gig.
But we haven’t been sitting about, no. We’ve been cooking up a whole batch of new songs and, as I write, Tim is putting the finishing touches on the three that we recorded at the weekend. Expect to see some activity on our MySpace page soon.
London and Oxford in The Same Week
We are going to be busy next week! On Tuesday the 1st of April we’ll be supporting the excellent NOW at the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane, London. The gig will be FREE ENTRY all night. Here is some info from the venue website:
Tuesday 1st April
HEAD & ARM
More a continually evolving collective than a band, ‘NOW’ claim to make pop music while managing to incorporate 11 minute soundscapes, dainty electronica, thumping techno, and all-out samba throw-downs. They have collaborated with Krautrock legend Damo Suzuki (Can) and supported bands such as Faust, Tunng, Psapp, Rothko, Plaid, A Hawk and a Hacksaw amongst others. Their album ‘Frisbee Hotpot’ is out now on Pickled Egg recordings. Live they are hugely enjoyable, their myriad of influences brought together by a strong rhythmical heart to create astoundingly catchy and inventive 21st century pop music. Currently they are an eight-piece.
7.30pm - 11.30pm — FREE
Then, two days later…
Thursday 3rd of April
SWISS CONCRETE
On Thursday, we’ll be doing our FIRST EVER HEADLINE SHOW at the Bullingdon Arms, a pub on the Cowley Road in Oxford. The lovely people at Swiss Concrete are putting this gig together, and the lineup is a peach. Come early because you should listen to main support group My Sad Captains. If you live in Berkshire, Hampshire or Oxfordshire, you really ought to come. Entry is £4 on the door or £3 in advance at WeGotTickets.com.
Here is Swiss Concrete’s rather silly flyer (click for bigger):
Riffs & Fragments
What a nice flier, eh? Come catch us at Riffs & Fragments on Friday 14 March at Christ Church and Upton Chapel, Lambeth (map). The sublime Télégramme à Jane, who we supported in Paris, will also be playing so make sure you don’t miss them.
Doors are at 8:00pm, entry is an extremely reasonable £2.
February Fortuna POP!
Our next gig will soon be upon us - Friday 22 February is really not that far away. And it looks as though Fortuna POP! has assembled a fine evening of electronic loveliness. Playing alongside us are: The Keyboard Choir, Champion Kickboxer and The Leaf Library.
Tickets are now available at WeGotTickets.
Live in Paris
We’re very excited to announce our first show outside the UK and, indeed, outside London! We will be playing with the wonderful Télégramme à Jane on 23 February 2008 at Le Vieux Léon in Paris. It looks like a lovely little venue.
Tim and I have both never been to Paris before so we are double excited and plan, with Christopher, of course, to make a little holiday of it.
Come and see us at Le Vieux Léon, 18 rue de La Grande Truanderie. Merci mille fois to Télégramme à Jane for organising this!
More acts confirmed for Scaledown
Two more performers have been added to this week’s Scaledown line-up:
Mark Norton - Although best known for his saxophonic talents with the mighty Gene Drayton Unit and a host of other bands, tonight Mr Norton will be leaving his horn at home and entertaining us with a sparkling spoken word set.
Martin White - Mr White has played at Scaledown both solo and with his Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra. We welcome him back as he returns with more accordion and ukulele masterpieces of mirth.
Having seen Martin White (better known to us as The Accordion Man) live before, I know that you’ll be in for a treat. Come along this Friday for an evening of variety and interest in central London!
More on Scaledown
Some more acts have been announced for the Scaledown gig on 25 January at the King & Queen. Here are the details:
Mark Braby, Andy Coules and Dan Whaley present the latest in an ongoing series of genuinely alternative after-office live entertainments.
Admission is free to members (show your membership card) otherwise sign in for membership. Donations, to the performers, will be sought.
Featuring live performances from (in no particular order):
Hong Kong In The 60s - Taking their cue from old Oriental pop, classic AM radio and the baroque melancholy of groups like Blonde Redhead and Broadcast. The band play hypnotic lullabies through a filter of cheap keyboards and guitars.
John Ellis - Founder member of classic punk band The Vibrators and ex-Strangler, Mr Ellis will be playing at Scaledown his superb electro soundtrack pieces using a looping pedal, ebow, and laptop.
dogs&stuff - Back in July of 2006 dogs&stuff first played at Scaledown, now they’re back to delight us with their quirky, left-handed tales of the world’s lesser known bi-beasts, dirty earthy colours, shiny things and plantlife.
+ more to be confirmed
Sounds like a good night.
Daemonia
I donned the finery of a debonair Dennis Wheatley-esque Satanist in order to attend a rare UK performance by Daemonia, the band led by former Goblin keyboard maestro Claudio Simonetti, last Saturday night. He’s one from the left below, though sadly in this photo he isn’t sporting the fetching half-moon reading glasses - with spectacle cord - that he wore on the night.
The crowd at Slimelight was somewhat sparse, but counted amongst its number none other than Doug Bradley - Pinhead from Hellraiser. The band were outstanding, and played all the classic Dario Argento themes including Profondo Rosso and Suspira. They also performed a cheeky medley of Halloween and Tubular Bells in a jazz-rock style, and overall put on a stunning show of old-school prog-jazz classical-synth-rock soundtrackery.
It was a shame to miss the Sisters Of Transistors gig that the other two-thirds of the group attended, but if anything could equal that, it was surely Daemonia.
The Sisters of Transistors
On Saturday 1st Dec, Mei Yau and I went to see the Sisters of Transistors at the George Tavern in East London. The group are a new project from Graham Massey of 808 State, and their myspace page describes them thus:
The Sisters Of Transistors (S.O.T.) are a Combo Organ Quartet and Ladies Social Club. S.O.T. hold weekly afternoon workshops at the Museum. Members who graduated this year are Sister Wigby Elka Whippany Sister Ragna Teisco Dottir Sister Naomi Doric Pencrest & Sister Henrietta Vox Humana S.O.T. play a selection of fully working exhibition organs with an emphasis on the Italian models from the early 1970s. Accompanied on drums by museum curator, Prof. Vernon World. Repertoire includes a mixture of S.O.T originals in the style of baroque disco prog (B.D.P.) and classics from the golden age of Horror OST (H.O.S.T ).
They lived up to the description. Live, the Sisters of Transistors were mostly instrumental, with six vintage synths blazing and live drums by Massey played over laptop beat tracks. I can’t recommend them enough. I was also thrilled to discover that Die Die Deneuve were supporting, as I saw them at an art squat party about a year ago and they were excellent. They played the gig in a slimmed-down two-member incarnation called Plug, and they were great.
Listen!
http://www.myspace.com/thesistersoftransistors
http://www.myspace.com/diediedeneuve
Misty Roses coming soon
I hope everyone is keeping Sunday 18 November free in their diaries because we’ll be supporting the wonderful Misty Roses at the Enterprise in Camden. Also supporting is Sunny Intervals (Andy from Pocketbooks’ solo project) who Tim will be helping out on some guitar duty.
Misty Roses last came to these shores on tour with Patrick Wolf and the duo are sure to wow (woo?) us again with their dark and sensual Morricone-esque sounds. We’ve been listening to their album Komodo Dragons for that lamp-lit, late-night mood and can highly recommend it. Really, we’d be going to this gig even if we weren’t playing it. And so should you.
The Enterprise is right next to Chalk Farm tube. See www.poplookandlisten.co.uk for more information.
South Eats London
On Saturday 27th October we played at the opening night of South Eats London at the Deptford Arms in New Cross. Good night, cool venue, nice crowd (apart from a few creepy drunk guys who turned up later in the night) and we felt it was probably our best live performance so far. We were also able to enjoy an excellent set by our good friends Shimura Curves, and what we believe to have been the debut performance of Dora Brilliant. Unfortunately, no photos have yet emerged of us actually performing, but here is a picture in which Mei Yau and I are (just) visible enjoying one of the other bands:
Live: South Eats London, Sat 27 Oct
We are playing live with the wonderful Shimura Curves at the launch night of SOUTH EATS LONDON, “an odyssey through the happier ranges of human emotion in the form of a club night.” Here is what they have to say:
Saturday 27/10 - SOUTH EATS LONDON at The Deptford Arms, 52 Deptford High Street, SE8 4NR: Another new party to blow your neon socks off. Bands, buns, bingo and balloons! Tonight - shimmery pop wonders from Shimura Curves, Hong Kong in the 60s and Dora Brilliant. Party from 8pm-1am with the resident deck monkeys. Free entry all night.
The Deptford Arms is in walking distance of the following stations:
Deptford BR
New Cross tube
New Cross BR
Deptford Bridge DLR
Greenwich DLR
Greenwich BR
Here’s a Google Map. Deptford BR doesn’t seem to appear on it, but it’s actually the closest station to the venue.
There will be a free CD for attendees, featuring tracks from us, Shimura Curves and Dora Brilliant. Free entry x free CD = worth the trip to New Cross, surely?
All © Hong Kong In The 60s, 2007
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