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Wed 17th September Cruel Francis got played by Mr.Marc Riley last night. He also told a very similar, but much shorter version of the story below. I'm booked in for a session with him on the 7th of october so take a listen!If you would like to hear last nights show go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00dhl0j/ and skip to just over half way to hear Cruel Francis. Tue 16th September Possibley the most coincidental night of my life last night? Played with Bon Iver for the second time to a nicer audience. It was my brother, Ben's Birthday so Justin (Bon Iver) dedicated Creature fears to him to his delight, which was realll sweet. After the gig we all ate cake and I was introduced to a drink justin had invented with Bowerbirds to keep them awake. It's called yatze and is basically irish whiskey and a load of red bull. Then followed a strange, drunk, but very fortunate turn of events. When it came time to go home we realised Dav was way too far gone too drive so we got our blankets, quilts, sleeping bags and pillows from the car and set off across a dark park in manchester looking like the extended family of the mitchalin man. On our way back we passed a bar and dav suggested we go in for a drink but grandma beth piped up and voted we go back and sleep. But the general consesus quickly changed and we headed back to the bar for drinks. Outside i was confronted by a girl who stated i was 'the most glamorous homeless person she'd met'. I wasn't sure if i should take this as a compliment or not, but either way i muttered something like 'I'm not homless, this is just my bed' and got a bit weird and skuttled into the bar after the guys. Once we had made a big puffy mountain of bedding in the corner i turned around to see damon goff (badly drawn boy) coming towards me. He told me he really enjoyed my set at greenman. I was suitably breath taken and gave him a copy of my 7". He then pointed at a man coming towards us and said this is my freind marc, he's on the radio, you should gice him a cd. So I did, little did i know it was Marc Riley from BBC 6 Music. We said our good bye's and headed to an indian resteraunt for food upon our enchanted floating duvets and ate and ate untill we were burst. Then I checked my phone and there was a text from Marc Riley asking if i wanted to do session on his radio show and i was all 'yeah dude' and he was all 'like totally' and i was all like 'wow' and he was like 'chaaahhhhh'. Mon 8th September The council are re-surfacing my road so I can't record for the noise. I feel biotic, not bionic and I can't bring myself to make my maps of the london underground lest I get scared and 'accidentally' miss my train. I'm playing with Bon Iver on thursday, and so far practise is going well, I have discovered Dav's weird talent at playing piano so we can now debut 'carouselle' at shepherds bush empire along side the so far unnamed 'new song' I wrote last friday...... I'd better getting wrapping them chocolate bars... Sat 6th september Today is the day I switch from cow juice to soya milk and see if it makes me feel bionic. I'll let you know... Fri 5th September I saw The Dodos play last night at the cluny. Recommended to me by a small Italian man with a soft spot for fake dior, this band were high on my to see list. Once i'd realised that they were all still alive that is - they appeared to me to be too good to be from this era. There ace, from sanfrancisco. This could turn into a love rant, but i'm really cold - So i'll keep it short and just list the most important points. They own: A bin with a dent in it, a loop pedal, a gibson hummingbird and a moustache. Oh, and good names too. Meric, Logan and joe. We can forgive joe for having a more normal name because he looks a bit like Julian Casablancas. I can't describe they're music, but it's a bit like if everybody lived in new age tribes and wore curtain togas and feathered head dresses and sheilds made out of coke cans. Listen to trades & tariffs. Thurs 28th August I'll be going up to London in a couple of weeks for the Shepherd's Bush gig, and also a Black Cab Session. Basically a one-song gig in the back of a black cab in london. You can check out some of the other sessions here, www.blackcabsessions.com. Recording is going really well, I've recorded 9 songs in two day's, 7 of them are new and theyre still comming. My favourite so far is called Carouselle, i'm kind of going for a 1900's fairground theme, the kind you imagine is rife with colora and half of your children are fathered by igore the three jawed tooth-monger. We'll see how that one pans out. Mon 25th August Wow, so I got my ProTools working finally (after almost a year), It's like a release, audio-daiorhea. And I know I can't spell, but I really don't care. I can finally record my songs how I want, when I want. It's so pleasing just to sit down and make sounds, and then reverse them and cut them up and stick them back together and see what comes out. More on this later, but i'm going to put up some of the tracks once they're tidied up a bit. Sat 23rd August My New Things... This weeks purchases that i love... Silver Brogues Royal Blue wool ( I'm Knitting Some Shorts ) A Fostex Four track recorder ( twelve pounds ) A red 1950's Zither with creepy, laderhausen laiden german children painted on it ( sporting a very intriguing H note? ) A selection of LP's including.... The Rolling Stones - Get Stoned Jimi Hendrix - Experience Cat Stevens - teaser and the firecat The Chiffons - Greatest Hits Blues Brothers - Breifcase full of blues David Lee Roth - Eat 'Em and Smile (no Idea who this guy is but he's paited like bjork and sing's tobacco road so i guess he's ok.) David Bowie - Aladdin Sane ( 'how much?' 3 pounds, 'no way'! yeah. 'ace') Tue 19th August THE GREENMAN FESTIVAL 2008 hola, so greenman went well, very well infact. We had a minor misshap involving rory's bass being locked in a van that we had no key for fifteen minutes before we were about to play. A replacement bass was brought in but rory is left handed and there was no time to change strings so the only option was to learn the songs upside down. then Rory dissapeared and in his place arrived a crazy eyes balling creature from the deep lagoon's of inahmabal and he was all 'yeah, i'll play with you' and i was all 'yeah ok' but only for fear of being devoured if i said no. but then rory's bass arrived on this flying seahorse and i was happy and then the creature shrank into rory and we realised it had been him all along, he just had a temter we never knew existed and all was fine and rory was happy again. Everone seemed to enjoy the show and the courtyard was packed, and there were no roudy men for me to crack my wip at. Though my dress came undone half way and i felt like a harlett but i apologised to the children, and i think i'd rather my dress came undone than it start raining and everyone dispurse. i'm not saying my dress is capable of rain dancing but the rain stopped when i came on so, you know, next time the forcast say's showers i might put it back on. I saw booger red open the festival and was blown away, apart from an attack from a small wasp, it was the best ive seen them play. they were so tight, much like Tommy's lady pants from TKmax. Wolf people were amazing too. I love they're style. for some reason I alway's think they're american but they are from our turf. It's always nice to find an amazing english band, it makes me think that this country isn't so band. after they're set Ross, who plays flute with them, offered to play on one of my tracks. I'm over the moon. check them out and you will see why this is such a compliment. I never knew flute could be played that way. at least not since 40 years ago anyway. Artrocker Review... '...we are won over by 18-year-old one to watch, BETH JEANS HOUGHTON. The slacker pop of this sailor-girl Lolita is too cute for words and Badly Drawn Boy, Richard James, Guto Pryce (SFA), Dion (The Peth) are all there to watch her. Verdict = Good' Mon 11th August Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes.... So alot has been happening in the past two weeks, and alot has changed. All for the better. I am taking control of my life and for the first time in two years I feel excited about what is happening, both in my music and my personal life. i am realising that I am not as incapable of forging my own path as i am constantly being told and i can look after myself. I have been working hard, and enjoying it. In other news, I'm off to play The Green Man festival in wales on thursday, woohoo! Im really looking forward to this gig, and have been for along time and am determined to enjoy every minute of it - rain, or shine.... News Just In - I will be supporting the sublime Bon Iver at Shepherds Bush Empire on september the 11th. Tickets have sold out, but if you are already going, i look forward to seeing you there! Sat 9th August NME Today I met up with with a journalist and photographer from the nme, and took them on a tour of newcastle for the nme student guide in september. All went well and they got a delightful* photograph of me pouring air out of a tea pot in Heaton Perk Cafe' and and an ever more delightful* and not at all awkward* photo of me looking at a ladder and standing in something that looked surprisingly like sewage, next to the cluny. Then I was asked to say things like "whey aye" into a little tape recorder whilst they kept their eyes out for ex-member of biker grove. All in all the experience was one that i will hold in my heart forever**. The NME Student Guide will be out mid september, so get a copy if your planning to move cities, as it gives the best information on where the best places to eat, drink and dance are in englands many cities.
**maybe only for a little while. Thur 31st July Radio one play... I got played last night on radio one by Huw stephens! time for a celebratory cup of earl grey me thinks! If you want to have a listen then just follow this link, click on "listen to this weeks show" and skip to very near the end: www. bbc. co. uk/radio1/huwstephens thanks huwey boy... Wed 30th July I guess life is like a GPS. You get lost along the way, you re-calculate and eventually you will end up where you want to be. And sometimes, just sometmies, the voices in your head sound like Mike Myers. Wed 30th July I have work this morning and im shattered, partly because I was stuck riding around heaton in the dark on my bike for hours last night. Part of my ocd is that I say to myself 'I"ll do ..... when .... happens", and this time i said "I'll stop riding when this bike runs out of gas". obviously push bikes don't run on gas so.... I read somewhere that black coffee is fattening (and so is white, obviously), but ive been trying to drink loads of the stuff, thinking i was doing good. but apparently now there is not one thing in that cafe that I can actually eat without feeling bad about myself. Hark the herald Coffee, Danish pastries. brownies, and milkshakes sing. sigh. Mon 28th July Ok, so my Debut single is out today, hurrahh! The only problem is, I don't have them yet. where could they be? They'll have been distributed through-out the country already, but i just don't have mine yet? Oh alas. But never fear, im sure they will arrive soon, and i can finally have decent-looking merch to sell at my gigs. Ive put the opening track on my myspace, as i say it's not really a song. more an interlude.. is that the right word? Anyway, I went back to work today and was swiftly caught under the wing of caffeine madness. I did not realise, however, untill i got into the bath thinking it was a giant cappucino, how loopy i was actually going. Iv'e also lost my appatite, I had a tomato and a piece of toast, which i really had to force down myself. its now 5:40 in the afternoon and im still not hungry. Sun 27th July My year 11 math’s teacher looked like yogi bear when he didn’t shave, and when faced with ‘sir, my pen’s run out’ replied with ‘well run after it’, everytime, without fail. And my A level sociology tutor (why does it change from teacher to tutor when your 18?) Was soo cool. Once i handed in my work on this amazing paper i got for christmas, it was spider man writing paper, with a little cartoon strip on the back, envelope stickky-when-you-lick-it edges, and space for an address.... He just gave it back and said it was inapropriate. He was cool though, he looked like an owl. But I got a U, so I left and got a job in a cafe. Fri 25th July Glastonbury I know it’s been a while but i havnt yet touched upon the wonders of glastonbury. hats off to a bad start. So follows one of the best shopping trips of my life. So i get home and naturally dont start packing till mat and patty arrive to pick me up. It sounds like im joking when i say this, but we got away in 40 minutes, really a record time for me. just before we leave, Tommy arrives with hot coffee from heaton perk. It makes me feel sick but i know its the last one shot caramel cappucino i will consume before we enter starbucks territory on the motorway. The coffee snob that i have become since starting work in a coffee shop realises that these giant coffee gusling, katie melua playing monsters, will not let me nip behind the counter to make my own, so there begins my caffeine detox. maybe tea from now on..... (and plenty of it, you will soon find out). We get to London after around 6 hours in the car. the journey wasnt too bad, apart from I had to sit cross legged throughout (my brown leather suitcase, i painted to look like the ones out of the darjeeling limited) because of the amount of luggage we are carrying in the car. Mat and patty entertained me with stories of why mat’s girlfreind isn’t called billie really, she’s only refurred to as that because her last name is holliday. flash back to year 7 highschool, I entered a talent compition with some aquaintances and we sang a bille holidaysong and did a little dance too, to rapturace silence. I guess we lost because we were up against loads of 12 year olds sexy dancing to liberty X in their undies. we were just naive. anyway, we get to london, and swiftly find out we are staying in the largest jewish community in europe. We get lost a bit till Matt G (dogtanion) comes and finds us teetering along in a back alley and shows us which way to go. Finally we arrive at a warehouse where Matt has been staying for the past couple of months since he sadly left newcastle. we get introduced to Sam whom matt has asked to do the visual’s for our show at glastonbury. he’s tall and has black hair and big shoulders, like he’s wearing an 80’s jacket for women under his top. Four days of practising and supernoodles ensue. Tue 22nd July Sometimes I feel like im crouching in the corner of my head, then, just as im getting used to it, i get vomited out onto the floor all naked and covered in vaseline, and thinking, why can't i just be watching the waltons? Mon 21st July Ive done a lot of thinking today and realised nothing is ever as it seems. I can't comprehend comfort, how can we feel comfortable when nothing is ever certain, i guess its just hope and ignorance. I thought of the first thing i could when confronted with the word comfort, and that was the santa on the side of the christmas coke lorries. A lie we tell our childreldren, drinking something that will makes they're teeth fall out and they're stomache's rott. A wise girl called Katy Gulson once told me to ‘alway's reassess'. This reminds me of a train trip i once took. From london to newcastle, back from Tommy's mum's house daaaan saaafff. We took our seats, it was at a table, a girl sat down and it was one of those ‘don't make eye contact, just look out the window' things, where the person your avoiding inevitably thinks the same thing, which results in you both staring at eachother in the unconfortable 80 mile an hour reflection in the window. Tommy comes back with tea and complimentary mini-cakes. I sit and eat the lemon cake with bitter regret. So, it's like a 4 hour train journey back to newcastle? And we're having this great conversation with these women, claire tell's us how she loves train journeys because of all the observations she can make on people. And Laurie gives us all a buiseness card with her website on. She explains how she has been getting commissions for wedding dresses. The fabric, and the method of getting it is all eco-freindly and when you have a baby, you can take your wedding dress back to her and she will made a christening gown out of it. re-cycle... Sat 19th July Im off to the lakedistrict tomorrow for a holiday with madamioselle jeans, and it got me thinking of other trips ive taken. One more recently lead me and tommy to roxy's house opposite a turkey farm where we threw pigs and ducks in the air for our photographing pleasure.... Im playing a gig tonight, which im most looking forward to, also on the bill are mary hampton, benjamin wetherill and prince rama of ayodyha. (ill check my spelling later....) Ant then off to another venue to see Adem.... Fri 18th july Firstly, i should explain that the post below is a dream i had, i am not therefore, decapitated. I am now off to the cinima with ash and papa hough to go see 'a complete history of my sexual failures', The amount of reviews i read about it whilst in london was unreal. It looks like my kind of thing, a loser, unrequited love and a certain amount of stalking...excellent. Don't let anyone tell you stalking is freaky..... sometimes it pays off.. in other news, i lost 3 pounds in two days! hurrah!! and also, i got wasabi sauce in my eye, extra bummer. Fri 18th july I fell off this high wire (like 8000 feet high-wire) and theres this helicopter below with spinning prepelars, and it cut my arm and opposite leg off, and suddenly my head is in my arm, and im my arm, falling watching my body fall too and it sends me this sad message being all 'oh this is a shame, we had such a good time together. like the sad loss of a freind mixed with an "oh well..... " Tue 8th July i want a harp real bad. So, im off to tommys to eat beef with him and edwin and tallulah the cat (AKA black cat the third) she makes my eyes explode. Mon 7th July Back from work. I was working with adam, he told me this story about how he saved a baby in a pram from a speeding car cos the mother didnt put the brake on the pram when she left it to close the door. Sally taped my toe up and gave me socks, i can walk much better now but it still aches. I made myself a frappe for the walk home and dan dan tattoo man gave me some strong painkillers when i went to see him on my way home, whilst a bald man passed me and electrical plug through the window. i dont know who he thought i was, but i had nothing to do whilst waiting for dan so i took it anyway. I worked for dan for a day in his tattoo shop. He fired me a week later by saying ‘oh, i forgot you worked here, ive hired someone else’ when i got there. Mon 7th July I broke my toe. that’s a joke Last night me and Tommy watched a film which turned out to be suspiciously like gay porn. graphic as anything. It was a japanese film about two lovers who have a shit relationship. It was really shot beautifully though, with alot of super8 and orange filters. can’t remember the name but i don’t regret watching it. Sun 6th July So me and Tommy went to this jamaican-themed house party last night, where he Bet Chris a tenner that David Jason is the voice of danger mouse. A passing man confirmed he was right. What does this mean? WE WON AT GAMBLING DAY !!!! We're winning at life too.. Sat 5th July GAMBLING DAY!!! The 5th day of the month, hurrahhh. So, me and Tommy have been doing this for three months. First month we won two pounds on a scratch card, then in june we won six on another scratch card. Then today Tommy went and messed it up and bought a scratch card without me (needless to say, we didn't win anything....) Bugger. Fri 4th July It’s quarter to twelve and i have work in the morning. Ive been speaking to tommy about a music video for cruel francis, he’s comming up with some really creatie stuff and i love all of it, im really getting excited, so i hope it goes well. Sun 15th June Tea with single cream? though glorious..................... Sun 8th June I can’t get to sleep. Talking of Magpies. but yeah, me and ash were on the floor, and Tommy was up there taking photo’s, and he was like what do you think? and i said ‘vashti bunyan’ and he replied but i couldn’t hear him, so he started sticking his finger in his mouth, and i thought, ‘that’s rude’ like he felt sick it was so bad or something. i later found out he was pointing to his tongue. he meant they sounded like Tunng. Friday 6th June LATELY Latley I've been thinking of how i want to get away. I've been dreaming of big cluttered cottages filled with objects that I'm sure I won't ever need but will keep just in case. Everything is tinted sepia like I'm looking through brown sunglasses and there are friends and strangers alike, all in fancy dress. I want to live in a commune, in the country, with like-minded people who eat at the same times and everyone helps clear up. Nothing Manson or sex cult. I'm tired of buildings and sad people. The city is so melancholy, it's a tired old man who says 'do it' just because he's too tired to argue otherwise. Whereas the country says 'do it' because I'm here, and you are, and there's space to do so. In the city you can't help but walk three times faster and be self centered, not because you love yourself, but because no one else will do it for you. When it rains in the country, it's beautiful and calming, because somehow it's more natural, people go walking in the rain in the country, people in the city stay indoors, shut the blinds and turn the TV up loud. Somehow the rain against the grey of the buildings makes for depresson soup. Well I want to drink my soup elsewhere. Tue 3rd June Boris johnson’s house looks like a harlequin sqaushed into an egg cup. GLASTONBURY 2008 I will be joining my friend's band Dogtanion for two sets at this years Glastonbury festival in summerset. Fronted by a very talented Mathew Girdaudeu, Dogtanion are an amazing band, mixing folk and hiphop to sound like nothing ive heard before. With Radio 1 plays under their belt and a slot at last years glastonbury aswell, these charming young fellows are set to succeed. I'll be singing backing vocals and playing some hand percussion and some ukulele with the band, who will be appearing on the John Peel stage, and also on the Greenpeace stage aswell, I'll post more details when I know....
DEBUT SINGLE - Out in july on Bird/FindersKeepers My single is to be released in july of this year on Bird/FinderKeepers. Im really looking forward to this, it will be limited addition - 500 copies - pressed on 7" vinyl. The cover has been designed by myself and Andy Votel, and is kind of art nouveau. It features the four songs listed below: 01 - I Love This World I love this world being a short a'cappella dity that i will maybe later develop into a full length song, but for now is ok at 23 seconds. lets say it is a pond and the rest are lakes. Next is one of my favourite tracks, The garden, featuring Rosa Crowley Bennet on her cello. We also dug up Tim's daughters toy zither for fun. We didn't know how to tune it so I tuned it in the order of the notes I wanted to play so i could just pluck one after the other. Sink is an as of yet, unheard recording. It is a song written about a wonderfull person who is very close to my heart but not so close to my feet. Cruel francis is another of my favourites. There are only two songs I am still happy with and they are both on this record, so your getting a good deal. I wrote the lyrics to cruel francis just as a means to remember the song, I planned to change them later, but later never came, and they still mean the same old nothing that they did to begin with, but i kind of like it that way, because there's nothing too heavy to think about when I sing it.
Thurs 22nd May Today I am listening to Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. It's a compilation record of westcoast psyche between 1965 and 1968. A man called Roy Muncey-Varty , one of the funniest, possibly the funniest men to have ever lived, told me about it one day when I was in Belle & Herbs cafe on heaton road, one of the best cafe's in the world. You see i was very lucky that day to have experienced both at the same time. Here's the tracklist: 1. The Electric Prunes: "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)" My favourites being 'Farmer John' - the premiers, 'don't look back' - the remains, 'run run run' - the third rail, and 'Baby please don't go' - The Amboy Dukes. I recommend this cd strongly. This is what I plan to put on in my VW camper when I drive accross america. Best get a licence then.... Sun 1st June i want a onesy.
THE COSMOS COMPILATION ~We are all circling the stars..... Named after a commonly missheard lyric, this compilation blends a mix of better known artists such as Diane cluck, King Creosote, The Skygreen Leopards and lonepigeon, with artists who deserve to be better known such as Helen renaut, Benjamin wetherill and Mary Hampton. The comp also features my song, 'Milkbottles'. So if your in to psychedelic folk then this just might be your kettle of fish. Tracklist Disc: 1 Disc: 2 Available at all good online record stores and quite possibly a real bricks and morter store near you. If you do happen to be computer bound check out these websites to get your hands on the cd..... www.amazon.co.uk You can find reviews of the compilation at the links below... http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=94701 Wed 28th May Papercuts. Holy jahova they hurt... But it’s also the name of an ace band from sanfransisco (?) they have this one song called emplloyee which me and ash eat soup too on the doorstep..... Sun 25th May
Wed 21st May Last night I played a gig with the Swedish group, Wildbirds & Peacedrums. I had heard the music on their myspace and it sounded pretty good, but I wasn't prepared for how good they would be live, they were amazing! Just one guy and one girl, they were on tour promoting their new album Heartcore. I bought the record on vinyl after the show and i'm looking forward to listening to it in my garden with a sweet potato after I finish writing this. The girl, Mariam, has an amazing voice, reminiscent of regina spektor at times, but alot more adventurous, and very soulful. At the end of the last song the duo launched into a drum solo ( do you call it solo if they were both playing drums?) and alot of dancing was going down on Mariams part. They were utterly fascinating. Listen to 'I can't tell in his eyes' and 'Doubt/hope'... Also on the bill were Baloa, a band from newcastle sporting frontman John Nellist. Their drummer Dav Sheil, will be joining me to add percussion and backing vocals to my set for Green Man festival 2008 in August. We are yet to decide how this is going to work, but I am so excited. it should be ace. Mon 19th May Annen berg is the work of one Scott Jackson. We met over the inter-waves one fine day to discover we were both writing music for screen plays, he for his friendsfilm and me for my yet unfinished screenplay about a confused little gay boy and his best friendwho tries to mold herself into a boy to make him love her. Scott is from Portland, Oregon where he listens to simon & garfunkel and goes for tasty breakfasts with his dad. He sent me his cd 'All things must last' in the post last week and its ace, especially 'Sylvia' and 'Riddles of the worm', my favourite song though is one that is not on this cd, called 'Le Dernier Combat'. I love it. |
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