Friday 6 January – 12 midday – hmv Leicester (Signing)
Friday 6 January – 5:30pm – hmv Birmingham (Acoustic live & signing)
Monday 9 January – 5:00pm – hmv Cardiff (Signing)
Tuesday 10 January – 5:00pm – hmv Reading (Signing)
Wednesday 11 January – 12 midday – hmv Leeds (Signing)
Wednesday 11 January – 5:30pm – hmv Manchester (Acoustic live & signing)
Thursday 12 January – 12 midday – hmv Middlesbrough (Signing)
Thursday 12 January – 5:30pm – hmv Newcastle (Acoustic live & signing)
Wristbands will be available for access to the signing with pre-order in person of You Me At Six’s ‘Night People’ album from stores hosting an event, limited to one wristband per person only, subject to availability. Wristbands will be available upon collection of the pre-ordered album from day of release (Friday 6th January). Any remaining wristbands will be issued on a first come first served basis from day of release with purchase of the album.
The song tells the cautionary tale of a man who sets his house alight after a night out drinking and goes on sale on Friday.
A video which accompanies the track clocked up more than half a million views online within days, prompting bookies to halve their odds on the song reaching number one.
The track is being released to remind people of the contribution of firefighters who will be on duty this Christmas Day. The campaign has won the backing of fire and rescue services from every corner of the UK- and even as far afield as Canada, Australia and the US.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer Martin Blunden, said: “We’re going for Christmas number one to remind people that tens of thousands of firefighters and other emergency services staff across the country will be working this Christmas Day to keep you safe, including red watch firefighters and control staff who helped to make the video which accompanies the song.”
William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said: “Every now and then you come across a song that should have no chance but this is great fun and ticks many boxes. We have already slashed the odds and this could be one of the greatest shocks in chart history.”
Good causes will benefit from the assault on the festive song summit, with cash raised from sales of the single going to charities Age UK and Shelter.
‘Chip Pan’ by the Everly Pregnant Brothers is available to pre-order on iTunes, Google Play Music, Amazon, Spotify and Deezer. But to give the song the best chance of reaching number one when the official Christmas chart is released, the public are asked to only download the song after 16 December.
The partnership was officially announced by DEFDISCO Head of Label Operations Barry Gilbey and adds huge weight to their aim of bringing music and brands together.
Formed in 2014 in Sheffield and Dallas by experienced music producer and industry professional Gilbey along with branding specialists Justin Williams and Paul Herron, DEFDISCO, which also has a UK office in Sheffield represents artists including Public Enemy, Kasabian and up-coming talent from both the US and UK.
“The quality of the artists, brands and agencies we are working with on both sides of the pond is first rate,” says Gilbey.
“DEFDISCO’s understanding of music publishing and digital culture, and how they fit together for brands and broadcast, is very exciting for the future.”
With the music industry becoming multi-faceted over recent years and with a focus on collaborations and social platforms for promotional activity, DEFDISCO is in a prime position to utilise its network and skillset to help push such boundaries.
Speaking from DEFDISCO’s Sheffield office Paul Herron added “For us this relationship really is proof of concept. We set out to build a record label for how things work today: music, sync and brand.
“I’ve always described DEFDISCO as a ‘mini-major’ and now we truly are. Joining forces with ADA Warner gives our artists, and the brands we work with, worldwide exposure faster and better than we could ever do on our own.
“DEFDISCO brings the artists, music, ideas and capabilities to engage with millions of avid music fans and with the additional support of ADA Warner’s innovative mindset, it will, no doubt lead us to an exhilarating future together.”
Back in 1983/84 I ‘lived’ in a student short-life house in Clapham Old Town, south London. I say ‘lived’ because I really wasn’t supposed to be there at all. How I managed to live there most of the time is a long story, I’ll leave it at that.
It was a big short-life house that was basically three terraced townhouses that had been gutted and joined together so you could go in one front door and out of another – yep a bit like the houses in the Beatles’ film – so there were a lot of people that lived there. One of the residents swore he’d been taught piano by Howard Jones, something that impressed us hugely at the time – look it was the 80s I’m not going to apologise for that.
Anyway I sort of fell in with a geology student – whose name unfortunately I can’t drag out of my brain – because the friend I stayed with wouldn’t let me smoke in their room, and we spent many happy hours smoking ‘yellow box’ cigarettes sitting on the stairs outside his room. ‘Yellow box’ cigarettes came from a cheap supermarket and cost around half the price of average cigarettes (which was important when you earned not very much money as a cycle courier). The disadvantage of ‘yellow box’ cigarettes was that about one in six cigarettes would empty themselves out of the ‘tube’ when you took them out of the packet.
If you’re wondering why we didn’t actually sit in his room and do this, I have no idea. We were students – well at least he was, I was a part-time cycle courier who attended college on a very part-time basis – perhaps we both thought that’s what students did, sit on the stairs and smoke.
Musically we didn’t have that much in common if I’m honest. I was deep into a Creation Records phase at the time, mainly because in my part-time job as a cycle courier one of our clients was Creation Records (they had an office in the building the courier company I worked for was based). He liked stuff that I may have liked at one time but in an effort to be hip and trendy I was denying I liked.
Being in the same building as Creation was cool – we got used to seeing leather trousered bands in the building reception area, and being asked what we thought of various recordings. And once I accidentally ‘worshipped’ Poly Styrene. I came running down the stairs on a job and tripped, noticing simultaneously that she was sitting in the reception area. I fell full length at her feet. She looked down at me with an expression I can only describe as serene amazement, as I mumbled that I was sorry, and that I was a huge fan.
Anyway back to the geology student, one evening he told me about his industry placement in Australia, and he casually mentioned that he’d seen ‘this band’ while he was out there and put on a tape he’d got.
He told me that they were called Redgum, that this was a live album and that he’d “have to explain some of the songs to me”. He also told me that Redgum were the official band of the Australian Communist Party, a fact that I’ve been unable to confirm in my research.
In the first minutes I was hooked, this was brilliant. I’ve loved this album ever since. I even went to the extent of ordering the CD from Australia.
Who were Redgum?
Redgum were an Australian political music group formed in Adelaide in 1975 by singer-songwriter John Schumann, Michael Atkinson on guitars/vocals and Verity Truman on flute/vocals. They were soon joined by Chris Timms on violin. They stopped playing together in 1990.
‘Caught in the Act’ was released in June 1983 and was their fourth album, and only live recording.
Redgum played in the UK in 1984 including dates in London where I was lucky enough to see them. Although at one gig I fairly sure I was the only non-Australian present.
The music
I’m going to have to admit two things before I go on. Firstly Redgum are unashamedly left wing – there are songs about poverty, an anti-war song, and a song about the impact of multi-national companies in Australia. There are also plenty of songs that comment on the attitudes of Australians at the time. However these have universal meanings, and current relevance, even though some of the references are Australian.
Secondly, a few of the references in the songs are going to be fairly baffling and might have you reaching for Google. I, of course, had the helpful assistance of the ‘geology student’ to explain it to me.
Having said that the songs range from incredibly moving, to laugh out loud funny with side trips into songs that make you think.
I suppose you could describe their music as folk-rock or as folk influenced rock but this is the starting point for their music they go way further.
I also need to emphasise that this is a live album. Many of the songs are extended by improvised material or sections that have been added to the songs.
Tracks
‘Beaumont Rag’
‘The Last Frontier’
‘Brown Rice and Kerosine’
‘Nuclear Cop’
‘I Was Only Nineteen’
‘Caught in the Act’
‘Stewie’
‘Lear Jets Over Kulgera’
‘Fabulon’
‘The Diamantina Drover’
‘Where Ya Gonna Run To’
‘It Doesn’t Matter To Me’
‘Long Run’
‘Poor Ned’
‘Raggin’’
The album is probably best known for the performances of the songs ‘I Was Only Nineteen’ and ‘Caught in the Act’.
Not all songs about the war in Vietnam came out of the US, ‘I Was Only Nineteen’ is more properly called ‘I Was Only Nineteen (A Walk in the Light Green)’ and is about two friends of John Schumann’s who went to Vietnam. The alternative title ‘A Walk in the Light Green’ comes from the Australian soldiers who knew that if their patrol route was shown as crossing dark green on the map they’d be OK because this was thick jungle but if it crossed light green areas they were likely to hit mines. The performance on ‘Caught in the Act’ is chilling.
‘I Was Only Nineteen’ got to number one in the Australian charts so tv appearances are available and you can watch and listen below.
The version of ‘Caught in the Act’ on ‘Caught in the Act’ (if you see what I mean) is hugely extended. It’s extended with what can only be described as a way of defrauding your credit card company out of the cost of a holiday. I wouldn’t dare endorse this but the track is laugh out loud hilarious. Look out for Redgum’s trademark working in of other songs into their songs on this, and sound effects.
There’s not one dud song on this album so I’m going to mention a few of my favourites.
‘Stewie’ is a song about a guy whose life went wrong. It’s hugely emotional but also comments on the Australian system’s failure to save him. Commenting on the apathy of the Australian right-wing voting middle classes ‘It Doesn’t Matter To Me’ is both funny and bitingly effective.
‘Beaumont Rag’ needs some explanation. Beaumont is an affluent suburb of Adelaide and the song sets out to, and succeeds in, sending up the Liberal Party voters who live there. The background is the defeat of the Australian Liberal Party and their leader Malcolm Fraser by the Australian Labour Party. This might make it sound as though it’s a heavy handed political song but no, there are some very very funny additions to the song.
Droving was as much a part of Australian farming as it was for us and ‘The Diamantina Drover’ is a moving song about the life of a drover.
Can I still get this album?
‘Caught in the Act’ is available on the Australian iTunes – there’s probably ways of getting at that, I suggest doing a Google search. Redgum songs are available on the UK iTunes but unfortunately not the live versions.
CD copies of the album are available on Amazon and Ebay at the time of writing.
There are places where fans have shared the songs, as this is probably not entirely legal I can only suggest a Google search. Songs have been shared on YouTube.
If you’re really keen you might try Australian music forums which is where I found a store that would ship it to me around 10 years ago.
Thomas & The Empty Orchestra is the music of Thomas Matthew Bower – formerly of the band O Captain. In his songs he explores topics of love, loss, obsession and lust. The project was born in 2013 as a means of dealing with his severe depression but came back into focus in 2016 as a result of the breakdown of his band.
He is influenced by artists such as Bon Iver, Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes and the broader American emo scene, as well as other artists as we will see.
Thomas has played with artists like Jon Gomm & Crywank as well as having closed the acoustic stage for Fieldview Festival 2016 and headlining the Café Nero stage at Tramlines Festival 2016.
We took the opportunity of a new Thomas & The Empty Orchestra release – ‘A More Equal Punishment’ to ask Thomas some questions.
You mention some contemporary influences – like Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes. Are there other less recent artists that are influences on your song writing style?
Actually, I probably draw more influence from further back than the more contemporary artists I’ve mentioned; Nick Drake is a huge influence, Paul Simon (Graceland sits comfortably as what I would consider to be the greatest album ever recorded), Buckingham Nix/Fleetwood Mac. John Martyn was one of the biggest influences on me to explore what’s possible with the acoustic guitar.
You’re very upfront about your depression. Firstly is song writing something that for you helps you deal with it, and secondly does this mean that your songs are personal statements of things you feel you NEED to get off your chest?
Writing helps immensely, but it was the absence of playing music that I think helped me to recognise I had a problem in the first place. I took some time away from it after the break up of an old band and completely imploded. I spent a long time trying to fill the gap with sex or drinking or whatever made me feel temporarily good, but writing and playing music is the thing that has helped me the most. And yes, definitely, there are songs that I play on stage and being able to scream and shout and engage with people like that gives a catharsis that I’m yet to find anywhere else.
And do you think it’s important for people to be upfront about their depression?
I think it’s incredibly important, but it can also be incredibly daunting to do so. It’s a cliche, but the first step is admitting you need help, respect that (contrary to occasional evidence to the contrary) people are fundamentally good, they will help if you need it.
Your songs sound and feel very intimate – this is difficult to describe but things like the sound your fingers moving on the guitar strings give me this feeling – is this something that falls out of the songs themselves? Or is it just how you write?
I think intimacy is just a natural by product of how I write. I try to be honest in my writing, a kind of warts and all poetry, whether it’s talking about my own indiscretions (of which there are many) or trying to explore lust and longing and love and all those other tropes. I had the great pleasure of working with my friend Nathan Bailey at Toolmaker Studios on ‘A More Equal Punishment’ who really got how that might translate in terms of production, we wanted it to feel like I was in the room with you, no histrionics, just telling a story, a little confessional.
What comes first for you the words or the music? Reading your lyrics the feeling I get is that they’re not something that is thrown together but crafted over a period of time.
Lyrics are the most important thing to me when writing a new song, and they tend to come together over a long period. I write down all the little notions that I have throughout the day, and then slowly develop them into couplets and stanzas over time. ‘A More Equal Punishment’ came from a joke I made to a friend about love being more labour than Sisyphus could manage, and developed from there. I’d recently come out of a pretty toxic situation, but wanted to explore the idea of longing for something even after it’s been evidenced that it hurts.
Is there more music to come in the near future?
Yes! I’ll be releasing a few more bits and pieces over the upcoming months, live sessions and sketches of songs prior to releasing a new EP in the first quarter of next year. I’m going to be experimenting a little more, it’s a broader canvas to play with. I’m incredibly excited to share what I’m writing now.
Do you have live dates booked, where can people catch you live beyond your single launch?
There are no (announced) dates at the moment, but I will be making some announcements very soon, and am in the process of arranging some touring for early next year.
Review: ‘A More Equal Punishment’
I’m not a huge fan of the current crop of singer/songwriters – with some exceptions – but Thomas’s track, to my ears anyway, does bear the influences of less recent artists like Nick Drake (a personal favourite). His voice has that quiet depth that is way more effective at conveying emotion and feeling for me than a forced tortured vocal. I’m not saying a tortured vocal doesn’t work, it can, but to me there are very few people who can carry it off effectively.
Behind that voice is a really effective ‘simple’ arrangement. I say ‘simple’ as I know there’s a lot going on musically but it there’s a lot of space. I really like the two builds in the track where you get other sound layers and a really nice backing vocal added. There’s nothing added in the arrangement or production that doesn’t help get the song across.
If you’re a fan of good songs with really good lyrics, sang and played really really well, then you should listen to this track. For me, this is one for my list of perfect songs, it’s that good.
The track is available through Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Deezer and other digital platforms.
And while I’ve got you here, do check out the other tracks on Thomas’s Bandcamp page.
If your music, performance, and ambitions are drawing comparisons to the leather clad, cast iron spirit of Pulled Apart By Horses and Queens of the Stone Age, and The Dead Kennedys beckon you to support on tour, then you must be doing something right.
The new single ‘Animals’, released today on Killing Moon & Alya Records, is a delectable banquet of guitar rich energy from start to finish. Its catchy, rhythm-focused, head banging rock influence is nothing short of original and sure to get stuck in your head.
“In Britain in 2016, there’s a growing culture of social elitism and entitlement that I’m sure everyone’s been on one side or the other at some point,” says Howells. “This song is just supposed to be a reminder of where we all come from and that we’re all really still the same when you strip away the job titles and the camel coloured windbreakers and the new model Audis.”
Explosive and guttural, Fizzy Blood are aptly named and causing a stir. The Leeds band consists of Benji Inkley (lead vocals/rhythm guitar), Paul Howells (lead guitar/backing vocals), Tim Malkin (rhythm guitar/backing vocals), Ciaran Scanlon (bass guitar), and Jake Greenway (drums).
‘Semper Femina’ is released March 10th 2017 on Laura’s own label More Alarming Records via Kobalt Music Recordings. It was recorded in LA in late 2015, and produced alongside US musician/producer Blake Mills (Alabama Shakes, Jim James).
Alongside the announcement of Semper Femina, comes Laura’s directorial debut with the video for the first fruits of the record and the album’s opening track, ‘Soothing’. The inspiration for which was a series of vivid dreams Laura experienced whilst making the album.
‘Semper Femina’ was largely written out on the road, following the release of Laura’s acclaimed album, ‘Short Movie’, in Spring 2015. Its loose lyrical thread strings together her keen, freshly observed take on womanhood, and what Laura describes as a particularly ‘masculine time in her life’.
Laura Marling: ‘I started out writing Semper Femina as if a man was writing about a woman, and then I thought; “it’s not a man, it’s me”
“I don’t need to pretend it’s a man to justify the intimacy, or the way I’m looking and feeling about women. It’s me looking specifically at women and feeling great empathy towards them, and by proxy, towards myself’.
The announcement of ‘Semper Femina’ follows the success of Laura’s recent Podcast series, Reversal of the Muse. As an exploration of femininity in creativity, the collaborative project opened up an important conversation around whether the lack of feminine presence in the studio environment would ultimately make any difference at all to the creative outcome. With no ulterior motives, nor any pre-conceived expectations, ROTM was as much about the conversation created than expecting a conclusive answer. Guests included HAIM, Karen Elson, Vanessa Parr, Dolly Parton, Shura, and Emmylou Harris.
‘Semper Femina’ is Laura’s sixth studio album in a little over nine years. It is a record that similarly addresses questions of how society views sexuality and gender but without seeking to provide definitive answers. It retains an openness to express and portray her own ‘voyage’ of self-discovery, but also to develop and learn as artist, performer, and as an individual over the course of her career.
As well as being able to pre-order the record, in collaboration with Kobalt you can also “Pre Save” the record to your Spotify Library. Using new, innovative technology, simply by following a link and signing in with your Spotify login the album will be automatically added to your collection when it’s released.
Laura follows its release with a full UK tour throughout March. Tickets are on sale now when pre-ordering the album via http://smarturl.it/lauramarlingwebsite, or on general sale from Friday 2nd December.
Declan, recently voted onto the BBC Sound of 2017 longlist, is currently in the studio completing his debut album due for release in early 2017 through Columbia Records. He precedes his January headline tour with four support slots alongside Cage The Elephant, and will return to Europe in support of Blossoms throughout February.
20th December – The Forum, Tunbridge Wells
21st December – The Square, Harlow
16th January – The Academy, Dublin (w/ Cage The Elephant)
17th January – O2 ABC, Glasgow (w/ Cage The Elephant)
19th January – Albert Hall, Manchester (w/ Cage The Elephant)
20th January – O2 Brixton Academy, London (w/ Cage The Elephant)
23rd January – Waterfront, Norwich
24th January – The Cookie, Leicester
25th January – Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
26th January- Studio 2 Parr St, Liverpool
28th January – Think Tank?, Newcastle
29th January – Brudenell Club, Leeds
30th January – The Leadmill, Sheffield
31st January – Patterns, Brighton
21st March – O2 Academy 2, Oxford (NEW DATE)
22nd March – Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth (NEW DATE)
23rd March – The Garage, London (NEW DATE)
To celebrate the centre taking possession of their long-awaited new building they have introduced ‘Pay What You Can’ for some of their shows. Pay What You Can is all about trust. It’s about the audience, making a judgement for themselves and about what they can afford to pay for a show they wouldn’t necessarily have heard of before – and Square Chapel, trusting the audience to take a risk on something new. There are three different price levels for guidance, all that’s asked is that this Spring audiences take a chance on something new for whatever price will encourage them to experience theatre. Square Chapel can promise a warm welcome and a cracking experience at a price the community around it can afford.
For information on performances in the scheme visit their website or call the Box Office on 01422 349422
Review: ‘A More Equal Punishment’
