15/11/2019

Since I recorded prog-folk seven-piece Tape Runs Out at the Mill over the Easter holidays they have signed to a local label (Kuang Grade Recordings) and recorded three EPs in the Anglia Ruskin University music department studio.

The first of these EPs has been mastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road studios and came out (streaming services and pay-what-you-like on BandCamp) on Friday. CDs to follow shortly.

09/12/2019

“The one-man venn diagram intersection of maths, pop and comedy returns. In the follow-up to his award-winning debut BORN TO SUM (Best Stand-up, Swindon Fringe 2018) he once again casts a mathematical eye across popular culture and wonders whether there is a place for all this pedantry in a world seemingly going to hell in a handcart. Expect songs, mathematics, fiendish wordplay and weapons-grade pedantry. If the devil is in the detail, he is Lucifer.

Kyle is an award-winning musical comedian and science communicator (winner, Famelab UK 2016) who takes a borderline perverse enjoyment in using any platform possible to preach the good word of mathematics. He has performed musical/comedy maths shows at various events, such as Cheltenham & Manchester Science festivals, Blue Dot, Green Man, Camp Bestival, London Science Museum, Edinburgh Fringe & various other festivals. He is a regular contributor to Radio 4’s flagship numbers show ‘More or Less’ and the Today programme’s puzzle of the day.”

I have been a fan of Kyle D Evans for over 12 years, since his days in the bands The Dawn Chorus and The Retrospective Soundtrack Players. He’s worked with Frank Turner, Chris T-T and Ben Marwood. Kyle has recorded » Continue Reading.

24/11/2019

Purple Rain, Parade and Sign o’ the Times played from first pressing vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

3-5pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

My periodic ‘band’ the Legends of Tomorrow (rising from obscurity and releasing something every so often since 1995) has a download EP out on 11 November. Four originals, a Pentangle cover and a montage video encouraging people with artistic aspirations not to go to Nashville.

Here’s some of the PR blurb. The montage video is in the comments.

Don’t Go to Nashville EP The Legends of Tomorrow Digital release: 11 November 2019 on iTunes, Amazon, etc.

Author/music creator Colin Harper has wheeled out the ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ as a periodic moniker for recordings gathering many musical friends together since 1995. This EP comprises two new songs, two from 2007/08 and one from 2000 – the oldies hitherto digitally unreleased. All are newly mastered by occasional ‘Legends’ member Cormac O’Kane at RedBox Recordings Belfast and showcase five of Northern Ireland’s finest pop, rock, Celtic soul and bluegrass vocalists: Mickey Rafferty (The Minnows), Ciaran Gribbin (Leya/INXS/solo artist), Paul Casey (solo artist), Janet Henry (solo artist) and Lyndsay Crothers (Wookalily).

The title track was inspired by the current obsession among songwriters, particularly in Belfast, with the idea of ‘Nashville’ and particularly with the scourge of ‘co-writing’ – a Nashville practice » Continue Reading.

Tthe great Ian A. Anderson – erstwhile country-bluesman, cottage industry record label mogul, events organiser, broadcaster, folk music magazine editor (for 40+ years), the man who invented world music (or something like that), all round good bloke and/or cantankerous agitator for the betterment of the world and the fun we can have in it – is in financial trouble.

The banks are after Ian, personally, for £90,000 following the collapse of his magazine ‘fRoots’ (formerly ‘Folk Roots’) after an amazing 40-year run. Ian had propped it up with personal funds for more than a couple of years and despite a carefully planned and executed restructuring of the business, with the aid of a popular Kickstarter campaign a year ago, the contracting of the print publication world / change in the market was too great. Ian himself will admit that maybe he should have rolled the dice differently after the first £40,000 or so of debt, but he did his best to fight on and try to pull it back and we are where we are…

Back in the 90s, when I more or less made my living as a full-time newspaper/magazine writer, I always enjoyed contributing to ‘Folk Roots’ » Continue Reading.

So Roban is exposed as Grand Lizard of the Bavarian Illuminati, being a direct descendant of sect founder Adam Weishaupt and thus the man who has pulled the political and legal strings since the beginning of all things Spiral. I was shocked.

Zut Alors, mes amis – quelle revelation! Laure and Josephine are (non-identical, obviously) twin sisters, the result of a secret tryst between former French President Giscard d’Estaing and Brigitte Bardot. Mon Dieu, c’est incroyable! Where does the story go from here?

27/10/2019

Risqué, We Are Family and Diana (the Chic mix) played from half-speed mastered vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

3-5pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

You can view the whole of Steve Earle’s recent appearance on Austin City Limits via the link. He’s playing his recent tribute to Guy Clark, which he titled, very appropriately, Guy. It’s time limited and only available until November 17th.

This Friday on BBC TV – an hour of weasels, stoats and their relatives. Great news for mustelid enthusiasts!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009mvb?fbclid=IwAR2-PmL1duNu4weMgFvL9YplBp0Uvnnu9MnlxpYE5_buM5u5wIgQjorSXnA

Just a heads-up but I’ve a new batch of my Bowie pods all set to go and today I uploaded my encounter with former The Area guitarist, Mod memoirist (and one time Home Secretary) Alan Johnson, in which he reminisces about the old days and Hunky Dory. As well as hearing about why Hunky Dory is his go-to Bowie album, we repeatedly revisit his love of the HJH (and his rather original assumption that DB didn’t much care for the Fabs), as well finding out what his all time favourite LP is (not Bowie or The Beatles) and there’s an acappella rendition of the song he wrote when his first son was born.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2-alan-johnson-on-hunky-dory/id1355073030?i=1000453490316

11/10/2019

Club Wino returns to one of its favourite London venues, the Underbelly in Hoxton. The line up includes No Coward Soul with some fabulous Americana and the hosts, Neil Gowans & The Winos (featuring lurker and occasional Afterword poster, Turtleface) with their trademark power pop and roll . We will also be joined by Garden Room who are a bit like Teenage Fanclub moving in downstairs, finding Billy Bragg is your neighbour and Joe Strummer has been crowned King. Groovy huh? Rumour has it that Jon Heal (or TrypF round these parts) is no longer doing the bass for The Winos. Instead he’ll be making a solo appearance as an insensitive singer songwriter. So all in all, a marvellous evening. Here’s a clip of No Coward Soul NG&TW

12/10/2019

The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society played at 3:33pm “in glorious mono” from 180g vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard. ‘Support’ from various LPs randomly-selected from a box of LPs.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

2-5pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

14/11/2019

Spare ticket for Steve Hillage / Gong on 14th November in Southampton

Engine Rooms. Starts 7:30

Cost me £30. I’ll take £15

(This is a Noticeboard post so I’m just pasting the info.)

Including a lavish 136-page coffee table hardback book and 96-page tour history book, Unburied Treasure is a 30-disc deluxe boxset with signed photo, authorised by all members of Gentle Giant.

Strictly limited to 2000 copies globally, the set includes remastered versions of the 12 albums the band released between 1970 and 1980, along with 15 concert albums (7 never previously released, 7 never previously officially released and 1 previously unavailable on CD). The box also includes two posthumous live/outtakes albums and a Blu-ray bonus disc (featuring a Steven Wilson surround mix of the band’s 1970 debut).

Also included are books, posters, replica promotional items and much more.

**This boxset will be shipped by courier**

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The contents of the Unburied Treasure box set include:

• Signed photograph by band members Derek Shulman, Ray Shulman, Gary Green, Kerry Minnear & John Weathers • Brand new cover artwork illustration by Bob Venables based on original illustrator George Underwood’s design for the band’s debut album • The 12 original albums released during the band’s active years, including live album Playing the Fool • Two albums released after the disbanding: Winchester » Continue Reading.

29/09/2019

Back To Black played from half-speed mastered vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard. ‘Support’ from The Ronettes, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, and The Specials.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

3-5pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

05/10/2019

This annual festival runs from 5 – 26 October this year. Afterworders may be particularly interested in the appearance of David Hepworth, speaking about his Fabulous Creation book, and Stephen Morris of New Order being interviewed by Jon Savage on his Record Play Pause book. There are, of course, many other delights worth checking out too if you are in the area.

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Renowned Dutch guitarist Jan Akkerman will be releasing ‘Close Beauty’, his first studio album in 8 years and his first on Music Theories Recordings / Mascot Label Group on October 25, 2019.

At 72 years old, the supremely gifted guitarist is equalled by very few and his legendary ability makes him impossible to pigeon hole. As a founding member of Focus from 1969 to 1976 he recorded a number of breakout albums, which included the mega-hits “Hocus Pocus” and “Sylvia”.

For generations, he has impressed and inspired large numbers of guitarists with his timing, harmonics, virtuosity and his ability to perform with a wide range of musicians from various musical backgrounds.

‘Close Beauty’ can be considered as one of Jan’s most varied works, while this record is his first album in almost 30 years that also gets a vinyl release. The stunning album cover, painted by Michael Cheval, fits the musical content of the album perfectly.

Close Beauty will be released worldwide on CD, double shiny gold vinyl and digitally. The double vinyl includes a code for a complimentary MP3 download of the album.

» Continue Reading.

A few weeks ago, I started posting YouTube montages of period cuttings, pics and audio from bands I enjoyed in the mid-90s in Belfast – often at a now legendary 18-month venue called ‘The Warehouse’, near the docks. That online activity led to renewed coffee shop get-togethers with a few people from back in the day… which led to a ‘Warehouse Remembered’ concert, featuring reunions and repertoire resurrections, at a current local venue (The Pavilion) in September!

It was literally an old warehouse, opposite The Rotterdam Bar – an isolated, down at heel old bar in the middle of nowhere that had become famous among the cognoscenti for hosting local and touring troubadours, folk, trad, soul, country,local rock and blues acts. Chris and Ernie, the proprietors of the Rott, vaguely planned to renovate it to moved their license to what became ‘The Warehouse’ in late 1994. (They never did – after 18 months or so they just moved back to the Rotterdam and it rumbled on for a couple more years, before everything around it was redeveloped or turned into car parks.)

The Warehouse became a fantastic venue – several times the size of the Rotterdam, coinciding with » Continue Reading.

14/09/2019

An Evening with Steve Kilbey & Amanda Kramer will enchant you with old songs, new songs, borrowed songs, blue songs. The show will feature Church and solo songs by Kilbey as well as eclectic interpretations of other songwriters, plus storytelling from their combined 70 years of touring the world.

Steve Kilbey is the lead singer, bass guitarist and principal songwriter of Australian band The Church, who have been together 38 years, released 26 albums and sold 2 million records worldwide. Their 1988 album Starfish went Gold in the US and featured the hit Under the Milky Way which featured in Donnie Darko. Steve has released numerous solo albums and collaborations including Isidore, Speed of the Stars, Jack Frost (with Grant McLennan), Kilbey Kennedy and more. He has written and published over 1,000 songs. Steve is also the subject of a recent art house film ‘Something Quite Peculiar’.

Keyboardist Amanda Kramer’s first band Information Society, also had a Gold record in 1988, with their debut album. She has been the keyboardist in the Psychedelic Furs for the last 15 years and also played with The Golden Palominos, 10,000 Maniacs, Siouxsie Sioux and more.

Kilbey and Kramer met when The Church » Continue Reading.