Long time no see
We’ve been busy moving, writing new songs, being played on Radio 1, knitting, playing gigs, buying old keyboards and going to ATP.
Have you got your tickets for The High Llamas at the Whitechapel Gallery yet? We have. See you there.
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
The truth is, I’m completely mad
“My name is John Harrington. I’m 30 years old. I’m a paranoiac. Paranoiac. An enchanting word, so civilized, full of possibilities. The truth is, I am completely mad. The realization which annoys me at first, but is now amusing to me. Quite amusing. Nobody suspects I am a madman. A dangerous murderer. Not Mildred, my wife. Nor the employees of my fashion center. Nor of course my customers.”
We watched Mario Bava’s Hatchet For A Honeymoon yesterday evening as a bit of post-gig relaxation. Wonderful music by Luigi Zito, an opulent setting and plenty of dark humour and unsettling imagery: I loved it. Perhaps one of our future videos will be a visual homage to this giallo gem.
Mei Yau has a brand new hat!
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:
Sharing A Staircase
I was reading today about a fascinating application developed by UCL that puts surnames into a sort of league table of poshness. Since this combines both my interest in names and snobbery, I was instantly hooked.
It gets its information from a database that plots the frequency of surnames against geographical locations and socio-economic information from the census. Weirdly, the National Trust now looks after or owns this thing (not sure which).
Well, what about a socio-demographic breakdown of Hong Kong In The 60s?
Curiously, only 10% of the population have a more “high-class” name than “Kan” and it’s in the Mosaic category Just Moving In:
“Many people are from minority ethnic populations and in particular from the Chinese community which has traditionally chosen wherever possible to live in recently built accommodation… Choosing to live in the newest types of property, often in the trendiest ‘up and coming’ urban areas, they are nonetheless traditional in some of their values… This belies any notion that such urban lifestyles automatically embrace the bohemian, free thinking existentialism, so often associated in the past, with artistic contemporary loft-dwelling city populations.”
I admit I’m a horrible, horrible yuppie. But at least I’m not a filthy-rich, hedonistic, jetsetting Greenberg (which is a surname so posh that 0% of the population can beat in the class stakes)! “Greenbergs” are most often found in the Global Connections category:
“These people are prosperous, self-confident, optimistic, well-educated, well-informed and ‘cultured’ in the broadest sense. They are driven by performance and the need to achieve… They define themselves according to the choices they make, and less by affiliations to family, community, religion and the other conventional reference points. They consume conspicuously, but this is not a result of any need for approval… These people represent the aspirational group of many others, in that they have ‘made it’. They have all the glittering prizes of contemporary, wealthy urban life.”
Unfortunately, Tim’s humble background is cruelly revealed by his surname: 94% of people have a posher name than “Scullion” and it belongs in the category Sharing A Staircase (potential album title??):
“These people are perpetually worried about money… For routine shopping, which is frequent, discount stores are normally used. Predictably, price is the major criterion for choosing both store and products. These people, like many in similar circumstances, find they have little interest or time for cooking, or for considering dietary requirements carefully. Convenience foods such as oven ready frozen meals are seen as perfectly adequate… These people are fatalistic but they often fantasise about a better life. In truth, their lives revolve around the ever-pressing need to make ends meet and then to search for impulsive and immediate self-gratification which provides an occasional escape from what is usually an unpleasant reality”
You could see Hong Kong In The 60s as a grand social experiment in uniting the dizzy heights, despairing depths and bourgeois middles of British society. How long before we are riven by band set-tos about “dinner”, “supper” and “tea”?
Try it and let us know if you’re Burdened Optimists or Greenbelt Guardians: National Trust Names. Or read more about Mosaic and geodemographics from the ever-erudite Momus.
The Clientele & North Sea Radio Orchestra
Last night all three of us went to Cargo to see The Clientele, supported by North Sea Radio Orchestra, and both were spectacular. The Clientele’s new album God Save The Clientele has just come out on Track & Field (Merge in North America), and it’s a peach which we heartily recommend.
Try to see both bands live if you have the chance.
Forthcoming Clientele dates
Oct 18 2007 - Academy 3, Manchester
Oct 19 2007 - Academy, Newcastle
Oct 20 2007 - King Tuts, Glasgow
Oct 21 2007 - Glee Club, Birmingham
Nov 11 2007 - Union Chapel, London (acoustic show, with Kurt Wagner of Lambchop)
Forthcoming North Sea Radio Orchestra dates
Nov 17 2007 - The Roundhouse, London
Dec 05 2007 - Union Chapel, London
(Lovely photo of NSRO taken by Simon Parkin)
Super Pop Art
Things have calmed down a bit now so I’d better give a report about the PopArt superhero all dayer. We were rather pleased about how our covers of Brainiac’s Daughter and That’s Really Super, Supergirl went; we worked on them specially for the gig and it was the first time we played them in front of an audience, and probably will be the only time. Two superhero-themed XTC songs back-to-back - what a concept!
Another first for us: our gig got reviewed. It’s strange to realise that one is public property now. I mean, if you put yourself out there, play live, have websites and the like, then people have a right to talk about you I suppose. It’s just very weird to have strangers do it without any prompting from you!
Anyway, more gigs should be coming up in the autumn so I look forward more reviews.
Thanks to Simon Scott for taking lots of great pictures of us! See them here.
Valerie & Her Week of Wonders
Mei Yau and I watched something last night that we must recommend to you. It’s a Czech film from 1970 called Valerie a týden divů (Valerie and Her Week of Wonders), and you can read about it on this Wikipedia page.
This story of 13-year old Valerie’s blossoming adulthood is a beautiful and nightmarish haze, told through a succession of disturbing visuals and situations. The film seriously is a trip, and it’s really inspired us. Please look forward to our new vampire/incest direction.
The soundtrack has recently been made available, and we want it. It’s available here and here, among other places.
A Long Overdue Report
I almost forgot to report back on the the Bloomsbury Bowl gig that we played last week! The venue was great as always and we had some apparently-prize-winning hot dogs there. Organ Morgan, who headlined, were very good too.
I have to say we were rather taken aback by the first public airing of Insignia, a song we’ve had for a while; the new backing track took on a character in a live setting that none of us could have possibly predicted and, frankly, we were ill-prepared for the dance-rock juggernaut that came out of our amps. It was a lesson learned.
Here we are looking pretty cool:
At The Good Ship
Here’s a slideshow of photos from our gig at The Good Ship.
For a full-screen slideshow, or if it isn’t working above, click here.
All © Hong Kong In The 60s, 2007
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