09/02/2019

https://youtu.be/_uCqWky8DgM

The wonderful Jarrod Dickenson is playing Oslo in London this Saturday night (9th Feb) and, due to illness, I have 2 tickets (on e-mail) going spare. They are £16-80 each but I’ll do the 2 for £20.

02/04/2019

I have a spare for Ryan Adams at the Royal Albert Hall. Good seat, just behind the mixing desk. Face value + fees is £63.96 but I’ll take £50.

27/01/2019

Two hours of classic Aretha Franklin on vinyl with Otis and Dusty providing support. Played on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, microbrewery ales, artisan gins.

Watch as I attempt to bluff my way through a history of Southern Soul music.

2:30-4:30pm, free entry.

22/02/2019

Sometimes these days I write long essays in reissue/archive CD booklets, but more often (not least because it’s easier) I get involved in the background of such projects – putting audio source holders in touch with appropriate labels, recommending other (better) people to do the notes, digitising audio if required, rummaging around for period adverts to scan for the booklet from my vintage magazine collection, etc.

I was delighted to do all of the above for a terrific release coming up next month on the Turtle imprint (part of the Cherry Red group): ‘Honesty: The Unreleased 1963 Studio Session’, a 2CD set and the very first album ever by the Fat John Sextet.

The release came about, really, via Facebook. I’m a member of an FB group that celebrates 1950s–70s British jazz and among its other members are a couple of fabulous musicians who passed through the ranks of Fat John’s band back in the day (versions of the band spanned 1962–66). I posted something there about Fat John, being one of those names that crops up relatively frequently when scouring period copies of the ‘Melody Maker’ for other research purposes, yet who left little trace on record (just » Continue Reading.

30/12/2018

By popular request, a double headliner this month of Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall and Thriller, all played off vinyl on a £12,000 hifi. And a bit of scene-setting nerdery from me.

Coffee, cake, gin and micro-brewery beers on tap.

2:30-4:30pm on Sunday Dec 30th.

The Courtyard Cafe, CB23 3UY.

Free entry with donations going to Eddie’s music therapy charity.

25/11/2018

Musician, producer, author and Neil Young expert Sam Inglis reads from his 33 & 1/3 book on Harvest.

I play the recent Archive remaster of Harvest on 180g vinyl, on a £12,000 hi-fi borrowed from the lovely people at Criterion Audio.

Steph serves freshly-ground coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-brewed ales and home-made cakes.

2:30-4:30pm at the Courtyard café, Papworth Everard, CB23 3UY

17/11/2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6VDQaiXp2s&fbclid=IwAR1vq_eLNfL-MROHdYvq3ZrTMh0XIbdR7o8INie0mEE3uc7-lN9x_ZxLAIE

“Berlin-based songwriter and singer performs tracks from his new album. Supporter Alexander Carson (Wooden Arms). Originally from Cambridge, Tom is now based in Berlin and his location and love of travel have shaped his song writing. The concert is part of Tom’s national and European tour to launch his new album ‘Yes, sleep well death’”

I find his music a bit proggy for my tastes, but the venue is beautiful with lovely acoustics, and I’m manning the desk so it’ll sound great.

Hello. I thought readers might be interested in Barmcake, a magazine partly inspired by Word.

Barmcake offers northern entertainment for the middle-aged and the latest issue (No. 9) has interviews with The Lovely Eggs, Graham Fellows, Jane Weaver, Nightingales, Ruts DC, Northern Broadsides, Olivia Hemingway, Rob Chapman, Mark Hodkinson. Plus: David Nolan, Salford Beer Festival, Louder Than Words Festival, Hylda Baker, Rebellion Festival.

A limited number of free copies is available in about 45 venues in West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Sheffield, New Mills and Glossop. See website for details of stockists. I can post copies if you send a donation via the website.

I started the magazine because I was fed up with style-over-substance magazines that only catered for the under-40s, the sort of magazines that are full of flabby features and boring interviews.

I write most of the articles, design the issues, edit them, and deliver them.

You can find more about Barmcake on my website, including details of back issues and sample interviews. I hope Afterword readers like it!

The always excellent Sarah McQuaid is currently touring Britain. A string of dates over the next three weeks or so, with Surbiton tomorrow. Highly recommended!

http://www.sarahmcquaid.com/tour?fbclid=IwAR1uwTCTUeaNHbVsHwRmeoTxDTG_QGLpCqDEkzu3xUfO9XFXIzLpG1G-tRs

Debuting online this Wednesday, November 7, at 9.30am – the video for ‘Smash the System’ by Colin Harper’s Bourgeois Fury featuring Petesy Burns. A double A-side with ‘Steppin’ Stone’ by Petesy Burns’ ARSE, both recorded in one fabulous sessions three weeks ago.

The pitch in one line: Bourgeois East Belfast author and academic joins together with legendary North Belfast punk/anarchist to tell Northern Ireland Assembly Members (MLAs) ‘do the bloody jobs we’re paying you for’.

In the past 20 months these 90 workshy, posturing, amoral disgraces have trousered £10.25 million in salaries and estimated £11.77 million in expenses. They haven’t attended their workplace once. Time to start shouting about it, if nothing else.

Bert Jansch: Around the world in 80 plays A worldwide journey for Bert Jansch To launch on Bert’s 75 birthday, 3 November 2018 Supporting the Bert Jansch Foundation (BJF)

Bert Jansch would have been 75 on 3 November 2018. Although he has been gone for seven years, his music and spirit are ever-present. Today, some of his closest friends and collaborators begin a world-wide musical odyssey in his honour.

Johnny Marr has kicked off this voyage called ‘Around the world in 80 plays’, in which a TransAcoustic guitar, the latest version of Bert’s favoured Yamaha L series, will be sent from artist to artist across the globe to play and say something special for Bert. Each artist then chooses the next recipient, anywhere in the world, for the next stopover on the journey.

Johnny has passed the TransAcoustic in turn to Bernard Butler who also collaborated with Bert. Bernard is sending the guitar to the extraordinarily talented guitarist and songwriter, Anna Calvi. Graham Coxon and Beth Orton have also had this guitar in their hands for their contribution to this odyssey.

All the contributions will be showcased on a dedicated section of the BJF website https://80plays.bertjanschfoundation.org/ where » Continue Reading.

25/11/2018

My friends have taken over my local cafe. I’ve somehow persuaded Criterion Audio in Cambridge to lend me £10k worth of hi-fi. I’m going to put on vinyl playback afternoons on the last Sunday of each month.

First event is open-doors; Crosby, Stills & Nash on Oct 13th for National Album Day.

First closed-door event on Oct 28th; Sgt Pepper & Pet Sounds introduced by me.

Nov 28th: Neil Young’s Harvest introduced by Sam Inglis (author of the Harvest 33 & 1/3 book).

Other guest experts to follow. Anyone who doesn’t mind talking to 20-50 people for 5 minutes about the album of their choice can apply – local experts in, say, Jethro Tull please PM me.

Location is the Courtyard Cafe, Papworth Everard, Cambridge, CB23 3UY. 2:30pm to 4:30pm on the last Sunday of each month. Free entry.

28/09/2018

Model Village celebrate, in their own self-deprecating way, 10 years of folk-infused indie pop.

Support from The Pony Collaboration, playing their first gig in 5 years to support this year’s third album ‘Everything Was Ages Ago’; and groovy Roger McGuinn-enthusiasts Violet Woods.

Venue: The Blue Moon, 2 Norfolk St, Cambridge, CB1 2LF. Doors: 8-11pm Tickets: £5.

12/10/2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98b5klMLo_k

Once again rowdy tunesmiths Neil Gowans and the Winos are putting on their Club Wino, this time on Friday October 12th with fabled Medway mod’n’rollers the Len Price Three as special guests.

Venue is the ZigFrid von Underbelly in Hoxton Square, a delightful place many steps up from the usual sticky floored pub venue – great sightlines, great sound, nice toilets, everything you could want.

A few of you may know that two of the Winos frequent this board, as TrypF and TurtleFace. We’re delighted to get The Len Price Three on board and it promises to be a great night out. Show starts at 8pm. £7 entry. Here are the Len Price Three in action…

25/08/2018

My novel, Bloody Kids, is currently free to download on Kindle across Amazon. It’s a gory and at times decidedly unpleasant horror-thriller about a guy who comes a cropper at the hands of feral children. It isn’t for everybody, obviously, but there have been some pretty decent reviews of it on Goodreads, here. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36639487-bloody-kids#other_reviews

If you do download it, thanks! And if you download it and actually read it, then I’m buying you a pint.

Not breaking any posting rules, I hope (not intentionally anyway), but just wanted to share a mini album (26 minutes) I recently completed and I’m kind of proud of. This is sample-based music, so very much Avalanches/DJ Shadow inspired (and yes, cynics will say it’s just “stealing bits of other peoples’ music” but surely that argument is redundant by now). On the Avalanches Reddit page we quite often share amateur and homegrown music, and this is the first time I’ve been brave enough to do it. Feels good to actually finish something creative!

There’s a minute-long sampler for those who just want a flavour – https://soundcloud.com/arthur-cowslip/found-horizons-the-sampler

And a Mixcloud page if you can’t play Soundcloud – https://www.mixcloud.com/arthur-cowslip/found-horizons/

My pals from NI are coming your way. Here’s their blurb:

Wookalily are coming all the way across the Irish Sea to embark on their first UK tour of England and Wales. Five women, ten instruments, Wookalily display a spectacle of musical instrument gymnastics with an eclectic style that’s sure to prick the ears of music lovers everywhere. After appearing on BBC4’s UK’s Best Part-Time Band Documentary presented by Rhod Gilbert this is what Midge Ure had to say about the band…

“The all female band, four Irish and one Welsh, make a glorious noise guaranteed to put a smile on your face and a skip in your step”

From York to London and Cardiff in between, Wookalily will be playing some of their much loved classics from their folk/bluegrass inspired debut album, All the Waiting While and also promoting their soon to be released somewhat darker second album Everything is Normal…Except the Little Things Inside My Head.

Wookalily create a cinematic soundtrack that’s otherworldly and will keep you awed and bemused with their folk-noir troubadour tales. Will you join them in making musical mayhem?

28th July 2018 Hunmanby Community Ctr, N.Yorkshire 29th July 2018 » Continue Reading.