music
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The Threechurches take Shoreham
A lovely gig at a friendly open mic in Shoreham. The Welly is a pub that quite clearly plays a crucial role in the town’s music ecosystem – here you find local teens (underage, but allowed to play), wizened singer-songwriter hobos, and a backbone of regulars who add percussion, piano, and even flute to anyone… Read more
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Word With The Bird @SweetFest, Yellow Book
Last Saturday afternoon I appeared as headliner at the final “Word With The Bird” all-ages show, hosted and produced by Mark Tournoff. I’d not met Mark before, but he seems a most well connected man. I bemusedly shared a video promoting our show from local MP Sian Berry, before discovering that Kim Fuller, who wrote… Read more
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REVIEW: Brighton Fringe – Bad Luck Cabaret
Electro-pop titan Laurie Black is a Brighton Fringe staple, her Bad Luck Cabaret an always-diverse mix of interesting art far from the complacency sometimes seen in this genre of tent-based vaudeville. A Spiegeltent refugee – Black explaining to the audience how this year’s replacement “Spiegelgardens” is run by a crappy pub chain – a full… Read more
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Brighton Folk Choir at the Toad Lickers Collective Folklore Exhibition, Newhaven
It was glorious to return to the world of folklore and strangeness, as the Brighton Folk Choir found ourselves in an artistic studio looming above the port of Newhaven. The only time I’d previously been here was to take the ferry to Dieppe, and my train today was full of French families readying themselves for… Read more
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The Halfchurches Take Shoreham
Due to various types of exhaustion, only two of the band made it to Shoreham this evening for a mooted open mic gig. Thus The Halfchurches was born, to go alongside our other doppelgängers, The Girlchurches (the rest of the band without me), and The Burnchurches (our Norwegian Black Metal side project). [1] The Duke… Read more
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The Highchurches at The Court, Sweet @ The Yellow Book, Brighton
Our fifth gig as a four piece, and our third venturing beyond our spiritual and (kind of) actual home of The Folklore Rooms. The Court is a monthly celebration of folklore, produced by the marvellous Hattie Snooks and JD Henshaw. This was an imbolc special, for which we were treated to tales of the Celtic… Read more
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I interviewed Rachel Stamp’s David Ryder Prangley for Indie Brighton
This year I’m trying to do a lot more features and interviews alongside my weekly listings. The plan eventually is to set up a proper website to compliment the newsletter, which means I think I have to think a bit more about how comprehensive I want my guide to be, and how to stick to… Read more
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Recording Artiste
As of today, I’m a professional musician. Strange thing to write, but true. In the morning I will invoice for my services as 1 x folk singer (tenor). What the song is, and how it sounds, I’ll save writing about until we have a release date. But my huge thanks to Jo for giving me… Read more
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Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage + David Cronenberg’s Wife, The Crescent, York
This review first appeared in The Morning Star In a working men’s club turned community venue in Old York, indie kids young and old are out in force to see Jeffrey Lewis: New York’s finest, and possibly only, comic book artist, perma-touring troubadour, DIY garage-rock musician, and anti-folk songwriter. What is anti-folk? Tom, singer in… Read more
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Wake me up before you play a gig in a Grade II listed gothic ex-church
It’s been a breakneck few days since my dad’s funeral, which went about as well as these events can. The turnout was huge, and the wake was full of stories and cheer. Lots of people from Dad’s overlapping lives (work, family, being a geezer) came up to me to say how much they enjoyed the… Read more
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