Miscellaneous - January 2012

  by Admin

published: 15 / 1 / 2012

intro

Hello and welcome to the February edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine, and what is, after the break over Christmas and New Year, our first edition of this year.We are starting the year off by launching our next Bands Night

Hello and welcome to the February edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine, and what is, after the break over Christmas and New Year, our first edition of this year. We are starting the year off by launching our next Bands Night for which, having gone to Manchester for the last one in November, we are returning to London and our now regular venue of the Half Moon in Herne Hill, South London. The night will take place on Saturday 24th March, and will be an evening of new arrivals, old faces and departures. Our main act is two former artists from the legendary Creation Records, Pete Fij and Terry Bickers. Pete Fij, who was once described by ‘The Independent on Sunday’ as “the most under-rated lyricist since Jarvis Cocker last put pen to paper,” was the front man with Adorable, and the writer of 90’s pop anthem, ‘Sunshine Smile’, and the album, ‘Against Perfection’. After Adorable split up, he formed Polak with his brother, who released two low-key albums on the One Little Indian label. Terry Bickers was meanwhile the guitarist with the House of Love, one of Creation’s flagship acts during the pre-pop years. After leaving the band after the release of their classic eponymous 80’s debut album, he went on to form space rockers Levitation, who released several EPs and an album, ‘Need For Not’, on Rough Trade. The duo, who both live in Brighton, began playing gigs together last year, and will be releasing shortly ‘Broken Hearted Surgery’, a semi-acoustic album which they have described as “like a three-in-the-morning jam in which Johnny Cash, The Velvet Underground, and The Everly Brothers try not to wake the neighbours.” Main support comes from the Manchester collective, Last Harbour. The subject now of four Pennyblackmusic interviews over the last decade, the brooding, cinematic Last Harbour have toured with our previous Bands’ Night headliners, the Willard Grant Conspiracy. They have a new album, ‘Your Heart, It Carries the Sound’, out later this month, which was recorded in a Manchester church, and will be playing the London show of a seven date tour to promote it with us. Elsewhere on the bill are much acclaimed folk rock collective the Owl Service, who have drawn comparisons with Pentangle, Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. They have announced that, while they are not permanently splitting up, the Pennyblackmusic gig will be their last show, and that they will be retiring from all live work after it. Catch them while you can! At the bottom of the bill is Roshi Featuring Pars Radio, the project of Roshi Nahesi, a London-based singer of Iranian heritage, whose dream-like songs, which are influenced by Parisian folk traditionals and childhood memories, weave cello, keyboards and electronics around her intimate voice to unique effect. Joining her will be Gagarin, the nom de plume for Graham Dowsdall, the subject of a Pennyblackmusic interview last year and who has played and co-written songs with Nico, John Cale, Pere Ubu and Cabaret Voltaire. Tickets can be bought in advance from £6 for www.wegottickets.com/event/151048 and will also be available on the door for £7. It is my normal habit, when writing up these editorials, to list all the new items that we are running with. This month, however, as it is a very extensive edition, in which pretty much everything on the front page is new except for one interview and two live reviews (the bottom ones) it is probably best to let the new magazine speak for itself. It is worth highlighting just a few things though. We are running a new series this month, ‘Gig of a Lifetime’, in which a different one of our writers will be writing about a gig that they went to, which was memorable either for the right reasons or perhaps more occasionally the wrong ones. Andy Cassidy kicks things off by describing going to see ex-Pink Floyd man Roger Waters perform ‘The Wall’ in Dublin last year. We are also running more Photoscapes, our own photo shoots, than we have ever run before, and, courtesy of Marie Hazelwood and Darren Aston (and especially Marie), have seven of them. There are also interviews this month with all of the acts, who will playing the Bands’ Night except for Roshi which will following next month. As always, this magazine has been put together as a result of the support of a lot of people. Thank you to Peter Allison, Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Andy Cassidy, Dan Cressey, Anthony Dhanendran, Dixie Ernill, Tom Fogarty, Tommy Gunnarson, Marie Hazlewood, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Fiona Hutchings, Sarah Johnson, Richard Lewis, Spencer Robertshaw, Jon Rogers, Jamie, Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Dominic Simpson, Anthony Strutt, Lisa Torem and Denzil Watson, all of whom have contributed articles to this edition or the reviews up-date that we did in mid January. Thanks to Darren Aston for the Photoscapes of the Horrors. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks for all his work behind the scenes without whom all of this this would not be possible. We will be doing a album singles and DVD reviews only update in mid February, and then will be doing our next big monthly up-date with interviews, features, live reviews and more album and single reviews. At the beginning of March. We hope then to run interviews with My Life Story, the Selecter, the Fire Engines, Nada Surf, Mike Doughty, Craig Finn, the Twilight Sad, Bird, Martin Egan and Roshi Pars Radio, and articles on Brian Jones, Alex Harvey and Etta James. Thank you as always for reading Pennyblackmusic, John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk