Plus & Pink Choppers at Corsica Studios

Hi - I'm just looking at the new look of this thing, hmmmm... I haven't posted for a while but as far as I'm concerned this blog is still going, it's just... a lot things that used to sort-of happen here, have been eaten by my fb habits, it's just easier to upload photos there and you can get an instant response....

Anyway, Plus. This band is still going too but nothing much has happened since Simon died (see previous post). We were going to look into playing a London show at some point but it just seems so difficult to work things out it's easier taking a break. I guess. Also, that new album is still as finished as it was 6 months ago... (and it will come out!) But I finally got around to uploading most of our gig at the Corsica Studios 18.06. mainly a memorial gathering/gig for Simon Wring, with three bands playing who he was involved in, we were sandwiched between the Pink Choppers, George and Vikki who played with Simon as Rail previously, and the mighty Gallon Drunk who Simon played bass with. We played only 6 songs and it was quite a hard thing to do, a bit sombre and subdued and it took us a while to work out which songs to play, but it turned out to be one of our more focussed shows, and fortunately 5/6 of it was filmed and recorded by a really good camera so it's quite classy footage, if I may say so:

We played: Antique Doll / Tired Eyes / 48 Hours / Bijou 80s Breakdown / Shades of Green / Double Shine Dustbowl Future


so this is "Antique Doll":




followed by a longer video featuring "48 Hours", "Bijou 80s Breakdown", "Shades of Green" and "Double Shine":



if 48 Hours is a bit peculiar (as it mostly is) just move forward :)

and here are two of the three tracks played by Pink Choppers

"Lagoon"



& a really fun cover of "Walk like an Egyptian"



there's some GD footage too, which I may post but I think I'll ask them first...

thanks, xx

RIP Simon Wring

Our friend Simon has passed away last week.

I don't really want to go into the details but let's say it wasn't a complete surprise, he had got himself into a state where it was something that could be on the cards. Still, it's a shock and very, very sad...

He was an old friend of our drummer John, but I've known him for quite a long time too. We always felt he was the unofficial fourth member of the band. From the early days, and apart from demos, he did all of our recordings, and he also did sound for us quite a few times. I always remember going into Waterhouse Studio, a little place he set up with a friend underneath a church opposite Stratford shopping centre, for the first time and recording our first demo, and I'm not sure I even have a copy of it anymore. I was just so excited to be in a recording studio for the first time, and Simon was the perfect gent, very capable, precise, and supportive. From that time onwards he became a friend. He would always oversee everything we recorded and later, once he closed the studio, we would just be in his house to do it. He sometimes would add a piano motive, or other sounds to a song of ours (Shades of Green, for instance), and would reportedly work on that for hours, he was a bit of a perfectionist. But otherwise he often favored a first-take, spontaneous approach to recording, he didn't like recording too many takes, and more often than not, he was right. Our new album, which is finished you know, was probably one of the last things he worked on, there were several sessions, recording, mixing, etc. It's actually quite a while ago now, and the last time I saw him was at our last London gig in July last year which he recorded. 

He also played bass in Gallon Drunk, went on tour with them a few times, and was tour manager for Bright Eyes, The Wedding Present, and others. For a while he was always off on tour, and his house was full of music memorabilia and photographs.

Anyway, here are a couple of videos, from his short lived project Rail that played our "when i'm pretty" night a couple of times at the Cross Kings:






(Vicky and George have now regrouped as The Pink Choppers, btw)

 and with the mighty Gallon Drunk at the Corsica Studios (apparently they called him "The Bison"):



RIP Simon, I'll never forget you & thanks for all the music!

Thomas x

when i'm pretty in Brighton

Crayola Lectern soundcheck:

Bella Kardasis and Paul Farrington, moody, ambient improv collaboration by the daily sea swimmers:

Crayola Lectern:

a genuinely lovely & mesmerising set by all accounts, listen to a short snippet here:



and then it's...

BACKSTAGE AT THE PLUS GIG:

I dedicated the set to the people of Japan, I was still very much in shock from the news reports. We played: I know I know Colony Collapse / Double Shine Dustbowl Future / The Tenderness of Wolves / Bijou 80s Breakdown / Lemonade Laminate / The Cracks of Language / Rotating Futures / They're Watching at Home and finally Shades of Green. By the end we seemed to have lost/scared off most of the audience though. Still, we've got the photos to prove it...

Rotating Futures, we're almost there...

when i'm pretty presents... March 16 Brighton The Latest Music Bar

Wed 16. March, 20h

Brighton, The Latest Music Bar, Manchester Street . 

£ 4.—on the door

when i’m pretty presents....

Plus – Plus formed in Kemptown over 10 years ago. They use guitar, 808 and far-out vocals to create a unique noise pop/alt.rock wigout. Part performance art, part punk, part prog, you won’t have seen anything like them. Celebrating new album “Rotating Futures”.

www.myspace.com/mmmplus

Crayola Lectern – Torrid piano songs spew forth from Crayola Lectern, aided and abetted by Jon Poole (Cardiacs) on Casiotone and Al Strachan (Hamilton Yarns, Willkommen) on flugelhorn.

www.crayolalectern.com

Bella Kardasis and Paul Farrington

Daily sea swimmers Bella Kardasis and Paul Farrington will perform together for the first time on dry land. 

Bella Kardasis composes music for choreography, film, and animation.works using guitar, violin and piano.

http://soundcloud.com/bellamusic

http://www.kardasiscompositions.50g.com/

Paul Farrington works as a digital artist and musician under the name of Tonne. He has been primarily a graphic artist; however, he has increasingly been working with interactive technology which is music-driven. To that end he has been developing applications for making music. With his first release titled 'Soundtoy' published in 2002, he has been described by The Wire magazine as an "interactive software visionary". His interactive 'Soundtoys', which he has created for Depeche Mode, Mute and Moby, have set the benchmark for music 'packaging' in a post-print landscape.

Farrington's audio has also featured on numerous labels worldwide including BiP-HOp and Klitekture. His 'Soundtoy' CD - a collaboration with Scanner, si-cut.db, and Hakan Libdo - was a precursor to many similar audio/visual experiments, suggesting possible audio futures. Pauls interactive installations have been exhibited in the UK , Spain , Canada , USA , Germany , Italy , France and Croatia , and workshops have taken place in Sweden , Austria , UK and Ireland .

http://soundcloud.com/studiotonne

http://www.studiotonne.com/

& Space Disco DJs

Plus gig in B'ton: 29.09. at the Latest

I've been meaning to get back to the blog but it seems the only times I'm posting at the moment is when we've got another gig! Oh well, next week on Wednesday we're returning to the Latest Music Bar in Kemptown. Come along, if you're free! We're playing second so should be on stage sometimes after 9 pm!

when i'm pretty presents....:

The Lovely Brothers: a dysfunctional family of performing buffoons whose cabaret tunes combine tongue-in-cheek satire, pop plagiarism and punk mayhem.
www.myspace.com/thelovelybrothers

Plus: brooding noise pop & alt.rock wigout. www.myspace.com/mmmplus

Broken Star: Improvised guitar, keyboards and visuals.
www.myspace.com/brokenstardust

& Space Disco DJs. Compered by Brighton poet Naomi Foyle

Wed 29.09. 20h @ The Latest Music Bar Brighton, £ 4.-- on the door

14 - 17 Manchester Street, Brighton BN2 1TF

Hobson's Choice Night

Hi - I'm putting on another night featuring my band Plus and friends, next Wednesday 28.07.! Since the untimely recent demise of the fabulous Cross Kings bar and venue (RIP), which had to close as they were being evicted by their landlords Enterprise Inns, we had to move it, but, fortunately for some, it's still going to be in Kings Cross, for now at least. The Kings Cross Social Club is just around the corner from the Scala and the Big Chill House, on the corner of Kings Cross Road and Britannia Street, see it on the map here: http://tiny.cc/k4cqj. We're in the upstairs bar from about 8 pm, Plus should be on stage by about 10 pm. All dee-tails, pls see below...

cheerios, thomas x

when i'm pretty presents... HOBSON'S CHOICE SPECIAL featuring:

PLUS - noise pop with improv elements. www.myspace.co.uk/mmmplus
OF ARROWE HILL - gothic blues and psychedelia, solo acoustic set. "short, bittersweet'n'twisted alt-country by cult hero Adam Easterbrook" Tom Robinson, 6Music. www.myspace.com/ofarrowehill
(THE LEGENDARY) TOO DRUNK - garage rock. www.toodrunk.co.uk

DJ Gavin Hobson playing psychedelia, avant-metal, drone, noise, garage rock etc.
 £ 3.-- on the door
Wed 28.07. 20h @ KINGS CROSS SOCIAL CLUB (UPSTAIRS BAR) 

2 Britannia Street, London, UK WC1X 9‎

Behind The Music: Simon's old skool hard rock and metal party

rock pigs party!