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Wookalily – ‘Wookin’ Around the Christmas Tree’

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The Wookaladies recorded a long-awaited album a couple of years ago… and then various things happened that delayed it appearing… then they launched it in October 2019 at a sensational Belfast show… and seemingly within days it was withdrawn… because the Wookas had an offer from a record label in Germany, which might release it on a bigger platform… and next year it looks like that will indeed happen. Still, you never know.

In the meantime, here they are with a terrific non-album version of something festive. Watch it soon – before they withdraw it! 😀

Thunberg / the Who / Wookalily

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Okay, okay… I admit the Who haven’t recorded with Greta Thunberg and my favourite all-girl Belfast bluegrass/folk-Gothic band Wookalily – though I’d be the first to purchase if they had 🙂 – but I recorded a home demo observation on Thunberg at the UN a day after she appeared there, with a few Townshend-ish power chords, and thought about adding it as a fifth track to a download EP by my ‘band’, the Legends of Tomorrow (an evolving collective, really), that was ready to be made available. But my own vocal wasn’t good enough – all the grit, none of the quality – so I thought about getting a young woman involved.

I had two singers in mind whose voices I could imagine working with it – for one, the timing was wrong, for the other, she wasn’t convinced her voice was right for it. Eventually, I asked Wookalily vocalist Lyndsay Crothers. Much as I love her singing, I hadn’t thought it would work with the song, but I was delightfully incorrect on that. We recorded Lindsay’s vocal in a studio on Friday and she did a wonderful job, I think. Production wizard Cormac O’Kane wisely shunted the guitar » Continue Reading.

The NO politics ‘music for the weekend’ thread!

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Here’s my suggestion: those among us with strong views about recent politics events who need to talk about it, STAY on the ‘take control’ thread. Let’s not let it bleed across the forum – let’s no of us fall out about it all.

What are you up to this weekend?

Me, I’m about to go into Belfast to see GT’s Boos Band from Glasgow at a free Belfast Blues Fest show – yay! And tomorrow, it’s Welsh Sarah’s ‘Our Back Yard’ Festival in Gilford, Armagh, headlined by Wookalily! Double yay!! 🙂

Wookalily Rocks! In a Swedish style…

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At last, after endless gigs with crappy sound systems, misbehaving banjo pick-ups, noisy punters, forgotten plectrums, unplugged cable TV sessions and dodgy cameraphone clips Wookalily have finally SORTED THE WHOLE THING OUT – and not only that, but this PA/public relations epiphany has happily coincided with a brilliant live performance, a convenient camera crew, a gay disco classic, and a huge white room with NO PUNTERS WHATSOEVER!

The Wookas doff their collective cap at Abba and feature the closest they’ve yet got to fusion solos – terrific flute, banjo and bass improvisations. And WookaLyndsay, not only causing jaws to drop having only taken up the bass four or five months ago – and having to sing at the same time… and being left-handed… – is not even wearing shoes!

This is a blistering performance – let’s rock!

Wookalily doco this Friday on BBC4

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Okay, there may be an element of exaggeration there, but the Wookaladies are featured in this Friday’s first episode of ‘The UK’s Best Part-Time Band’ on BBC4.

The episode apparently features the NI-Scotland-Wales semi-final (filmed at the Limelight, Belfast), which was great fun (I was there, though I didn’t see @Johnny-Concheroo, who is traditionally at everything).

The Wookas get that far – do they get further? We shall see…

25 minutes of Winter Wookalily

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I mentioned recently that I’d been to a couple of Wookalily TV recording events for a show that was inexplicably Not Allowed To Be Talked About. Now that the series in question has gone overground (advertising itself on BBC ticketing outlets), we can kick all that cloak and dagger guff into touch.

The wonderful Wookalily will be appearing on a forthcoming BBC4 series called ‘Britain’s Best Part-Time Band’. It seems to be some sort of competition, though not open to the public – all filmed in advance of broadcast. Comedian Rhod Gilbert and various music legends get to travel around the UK, see some bands, have a laugh and decide who they like best at a regional level and then, presumably, at a national level.

The Wookaladies are through from NI, and will be filmed again on January 15th at a live open-to-the-public thing in Belfast along with regional winners from the Celtic fringes. Tickets from the link herein.

Meanwhile, line up those mince pies and a steaming flagon of mulled wine, put your feet up and watch the Wookas on the considerably lower-budget NVTV performing six songs (some of their best, plus one real turkey). There are four chairs » Continue Reading.

Wookalily in TV sensation…

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My pals the Wooka-ladies were filmed in performance for, how shall I put this, ‘an extra-local broadcast in the not too distant’, last Saturday, in front of a select coterie of their greatest fans, closest family members and assorted people who had nothing much else to do on a wet and miserable Saturday afternoon in Belfast.

Unfortunately, I can tell you nothing whatsoever about the show, as the Wooka contracts suggest that if a word is breathed to anyone, a crack squad of BBC hitmen led by a figure like, say, Alan Yentob flying in with his Bond-villain cat at colossal expense will descend upon all their houses, sieze all their belongings and throw them in prison, never to see daylight again. Similarly, once the show is broadcast and available for anyone to see, they must not mention it for months to anyone. (You think I’m making this up?)

Meanwhile, here are Wookalily with no frills and not much amplication, filmed in a disused warehouse by an amateur enthusiast.