St. Bartholomew’s Church session

At the start of June we recorded an acoustic session at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Armley with Jacob and Chris of Minster Studios. We played two songs, the first of which was a stripped down version of Powerful Pill, from our Molehills Out Of Mountains album.  If you have seen us do this song live recently, you will probably recognise this version:

We also played a brand new song called Hell On The Waves.  This song is still very much work in progress, and may well end up on our next album, but may end up sound a little different to this:

The acoustics in the church, and the setting itself were amazing.  We may end up going back there for a proper gig.

Hope & Social Crypt Covers – Ghostbusters!

The ever-amazing Hope & Social have this year embarked on a series of collaborative cover versions, known as Crypt Covers. The deal is simple yet challenging.  Hope & Social choose their musical comrade for each cover, and you suggest songs you think  should be covered. The winning song is ultimately selected and recorded all in one day.  We were chuffed to bits when Hope & Social asked us to partner them for Crypt Covers no.6. The results of the 5 Crypt Covers before ours were staggeringly good.  Ellen & The Escapades, She Makes War, Sam Airey, Chris Helme and Louis Barabbas and the Bedlam Six have all in turn visited The Crypt for a day, and knocked out terrific performances.

Simon and Sam K react to the wheel choosing Ghostbusters

On Wednesday 31st October we amassed with Hope & Social.  Drawing up the shortlist was a challenge in itself.  There had been some wonderful suggestions come in, mostly via Twitter.  What with it being Halloween, there were a number of ghoulish suggestions among them.  And it could have been predicted that the wheel stopped on Ghostbusters.  It has to be said that our initial reactions to our task were mixed.  But, as it turns out, I don’t think any of us would have wanted it any other way.  Everything Hope & Social do is informed by their motto, Have Fun Make Art.  That is certainly the case with their Crypt Covers.

The recording was complete by midnight, and and within 48 hours the ultra-efficient and skilled Shot By Sodium film team had put the resulting video online.  You watch it here.  Enjoy.  We did.

Temple Works afterthoughts

Gigs have been relatively few and far between for us this year, as we’ve been recording and mixing our album Molehills out of Moutains. As that is just about ready now, we hope to get back into playing live more frequently, and covering a greater breadth of the country. So, if you think we should come and play near you, get in touch.

Temple Works gig, Wednesday 9th November 2011, photo by David Preston

Last Wednesday’s gig with The Miserable Rich in Leeds was terrific. The Temple Works is a lovely intimate venue, and there were a fair few people in. Thanks a million for all who were there. I’m sure you’ll agree that The Miserable Rich were quite marvellous.

Thanks to Helen Harrop, who did a few Audioboos from the gig, you can hear the most part of Caught Between Seaons and DIY from our set online,  as well as some of The Miserable Rich too.

And it doesn’t end there, you can also see us playing The Waltz too, thanks to ken1953clark on Youtube:

Here’s our setlist for the gig:

Happy 40th anniversary Jumbo Records

This Saturday Jumbo Records in Leeds will be celebrating their 40th anniversary.  We’re big fans of Jumbo and what they do to support independent music, both local and global.  It was no surprise that they recently won the ‘best music’ category of the Leeds Retail awards.

Here’s our anniversary greeting for Jumbo Records:

 

Here’s to another 40 years! 🙂

First Yorkshire Musician’s Social Media Surgery

Last Wednesday 4 of us went along to the Round Foundry in Leeds for the first Yorkshire Social Media Surgery for Musicians.  The event had been arranged by John Popham and Rich Huxley of Hope And Social and had been sponsored by Ctrl.  Between us we learnt a great deal from the people we spoke to.   One of the best things was how willing people were to share their knowledge; people like John, Rich, Helen Harrop and Graham Richards.  John has written his own summary of the event on his blog.

Although we’ve already got ourselves spread well over the internet (see sidebar links on this blog), before last week’s session we didn’t actually have…this blog!  It was after speaking with Helen, Rich and John about different blogging platforms that we opted for this one.  So, thanks to them for all the advice, and also thanks to Rich for inviting us (as well as Gary Stewart and David Henshaw) to do a few acoustic songs at the end of the evening.  Here are our 3 songs, as captured by John Popham:

The Duke & The King afterthoughts

I had thought about suggesting a band night out to go and see The Duke & The King when I heard they were coming back to Leeds. Instead, I got the chance to ask the rest of the band if they were available to support at the gig!

And what a good night it turned out to be. The Wardrobe was packed out for The Duke & The King, and there was a reasonably large crowd there early enough to see us. Thanks a million to those of you who were there to see us, and who gave us such a warm reception. If you left the gig with our Vast Atlantic EP, I hope you enjoy it. The Duke & The King were, as expected, marvellous. They do really have something unique going on there.

We came out of hibernation for this gig, as we are currently hard at work recording our album. Our present goal is to complete recording by the end of 2010. We won’t have any more gigs until February 2010 as we draw towards the end of the recording process.   You will, however, be hearing from us again before the end of 2010, because we have something else lined up for you…