Amelia’s Magazine | Music Listings: 14th – 20th September

999 it’s time, sildenafil erectile is another green focused campaign. As the website notes “We are in a state of emergency – socially, store economically and ecologically. What do we do in an emergency? In the UK, viagra 100mg we dial 999…” Well that all sounds pretty heartening until you realise that the 999 campaigns reaction to this emergency hasn’t exactly been particularly speedy so far. I can’t help feeling that the climate emergency we are facing means groups should be advocating some real direct action rather than just planting a tree or joining the 10:10 movement. However the campaign has some great initiatives to get the ball rolling and hopefully get more people thinking about the global crisis.

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All illustrations by Suzy Phillips

Of course the campaign does have some credibility, it encourages people to get more environmentally friendly, and behind the celebrity endorsements 999 has some forward thinking ideas about how communities in particular can work together to create a more sustainable world. Transforming rural and urban spaces into shared land to grow food has been one of the most successful elements. Capital Growth is the place to start with a great run through of the process and steps and how to get involved. Land sharing empowers people by growing their own food and creating stronger links in communities as well as reducing the reliance on supermarkets. A definite step in the right direction.

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I caught up with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the rural country celebrity chef, to talk about his part in the 999 campaign.

Can you outline what 999′s main priority is about and why you’re here today?

999 is about driving home the issue of climate change and what we ourselves can do to combat the emergency situation we have found ourselves in. I’ve come today because our aim ties in with the Climate Rush campaign, and its a great way to get talking with the local community, and of course it’s the 9th of the 9th 09.

How is the 999 campaign coming along? It doesn’t seemed to have gained as much prominence in the press such as campaigns like the recent 10:10?

It’s an on-going process, im specifically been looking at the food aspect, and as the ambassador I’m really interested in what small scale communities can do to combat the threat of climate change.

Can you please give some examples of the message your trying to get across in relation to the food aspect of the campaign?

With my books and TV series I’ve been highlighting the importance of locally grown produce and recently I’ve been pushing the idea of land sharing. The idea is to find land, whether in urban or rural spaces where people can grow their own food, there is so much land wasted around the UK that can be used. With over a thousand people on waiting lists for allotments especially in the south, it is vital we utilize all the land we can instead of relying on foreign markets for our vegetables. Food is a great way to create a cohesive community and bring people together.

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How is the land sharing campaign going, have you had much success?

We’ve had over a thousand land plots given to us and up to 30,000 people signing up to the website, so it’s defiantly getting people interested. The campaign is also working with groups like the Church of England and a range of British NGOs. The National Trust for example has just given us 1000 plots of land, so although it’s quite a slow process, there’s been a real positive reaction across the country.

With your interest in climate change, have the facts about the meat industry’s huge carbon footprint persuaded you to become vegetarian yet?

No, not yet, I’m aware of the issues, and I keep by own pigs and livestock, and always advocate buying locally soured meat to keep the carbon footprint low.

So let’s hope this campaign can help to stop this emergency from escalating, with 1 day, 11 hours, 9 minutes since 999 Day, the pressure is on.
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Designers in Residence @ the Design Museum
September 18 – October 31

The Design Museum’s annual exhibition of young designers begins on September 18 with site-specific works from Marc Owens and Dave Bowker. Owens is inspired by virtual realities – his work Avatar Machine replicates video gaming via a headset (above), order designed to make the wearer see themselves as a virtual character in the real world. Bowker works in data visualisation and will be re-examining the way visitors move about the Museum.

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Open House weekend

Once a year thousands of London’s most interesting and historic buildings are opened to the public, sale some of which are locked up tight for the rest of the year. Although some of the most popular buildings in the centre of London have already been completely booked, drugs there are still plenty of places worth visiting.

If you haven’t got your eye on anything in your local area, consider visiting the house of Dr Samuel Johnson, of “the dictionary” fame. It’s free to visit on Friday (there will be free cake on this day) and Saturday, in honour of the great man’s birthday.

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Radical Nature

This exhibition of works revolving around nature and inspired by environmentalism features pieces from architect Richard Buckminster Fuller and artists such as Joseph Beuys and Hans Haacke, as well as newer names such as Heath and Ivan Morrison and Simon Starling. Impactful and timely, there are lots of strong visual statements such as the Fallen Forest by Henrik Håkansson (above) and a visual record of the fields of wheat planted as an act of protest on a landfill site in Manhattan.

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Thames Festival

Sunday

One of the few fireworks displays allowed along the Thames will occur on Sunday when the Thames Festival fireworks are set off in all their glory, fired from barges between Blackfriars and Waterloo Bridge so everyone can get a perfect view. There are also events all day, including fire-eaters, an outdoor ballroom (starting to become the South Bank’s speciality) and the annual Night Carnival, where 2,000 costumed revellers bearing lanterns and luminous costumes will welcome the pyrotechnics.
Another load of talks, healing workshops and activities to get stuck into, information pills don’t forget Co-Mutiny is still on all this week in Bristol, Climate Rush are still on tour, and also make sure you get down to protest against the closure of the Vestas Wind Turbine factory this Thursday. Good luck with fitting it all in, I’m certainly going to struggle!

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Illustrations by Emma Hanquist

Cambridge Climate Conference
Monday 14 Sep 2009 to Tuesday 15 Sep 2009 ?

An exciting event has been organised with international speakers and delegates involved in policy-making, business, and academia. Understanding the role of climate change policy is central to a business’s future success. Topics will include the political, economical, technological, and legal challenges and solutions for decarbonising electricity.
To register for a discounted ticket visit the website and enter ‘ge2009′ as the discount code.

Time: 9am-5pm
Venue: Churchill College, Cambridge, UK
Website: www.cambridgeclimate.com/

A Global New Deal needs a Green New Protectionism
Wednesday 16 Sep 2009 ?

An evening to learn and discuss the ‘triple crunch’ that we face: climate change, energy insecurity, and financial and economic meltdown. Colin Hines, Author and convener of the Green New Deal Group will be leading the talks. Colin has worked in the environmental movement for over 30 years including 10 years at Greenpeace. His recent work focuses on the adverse environmental and social effects of international trade and the need to solve these problems by replacing globalisation with localisation. During the evening there will also be a tribute to ‘Teddy’ Goldsmith, founder of The Ecologist magazine.

Time: 6.30pm drinks and food, 7.30pm talk begins at Burgh House
Venue: Gaia House, 18 Well Walk, Hampstead
Contacts: To book email, book online or call 0207 428 0054.
Website: www.gaiafoundation.org

Protest against the closure of Vestas Wind Turbine Factory
Thursday 17 Sep 2009 ?

As well as the continuing protest against the closure of the Vestas Wind Turbine factory at the Isle of Wight, there will also be a chance for people to make their feelings known across the country. People are meeting at the Department of Energy and Climate Change in London to lobby against the government. There will also be speakers including John Mcdonnel, MP (Labour, Hayes and Harlington) and Tracy Edwards (Young Members Organiser for the Public and Commercial Services Union).
Couldn’t put it better than Phil Thornhill from the Campaign against Climate Change “Just when we need a huge expansion in renewable energy they are closing down the only significant wind turbine factory in the UK. The government has spent billions bailing out the banks, and £2.3 billion in loan guarantees to support the UK car industry – they can and should step in to save the infrastructure we are really going to need prevent a climate catastrophe.
Whilst the impact on employment on the Isle of Wight will be quite devastating, this is an issue not just about jobs or one factory but about whether the government is really going to match up its actions to its rhetoric on green jobs and the rapid decarbonisation of the British economy – whether its prepared to act with the kind of resolution and energy we need to cope with the Climate Emergency”.

Time: 5.30 to 6.30pm
Venue: Outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change, 3 Whitehall Place.
?Website: www.campaigncc.org

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Out of the Ordinary Festival
Friday 18 Sep 2009 to Sunday 20 Sep 2009
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OOTO is a 3 day family friendly and eco friendly festival set in the beautiful Sussex countryside celebrating the Autumn Equinox. Featuring a variety of live music powered by solar panels and wind generators, fascinating talks and workshops, children’s activities, awesome performances, a green market place and many more out of the ordinary surprises. The festival is also offering Big Green Gathering ticket holders a discount for the event held over the weekend
Venue: Knockhatch Farm, Hailsham, East Sussex
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Website: www.outoftheordinaryfestival.com

Tree-Athlon
Saturday 19th September

Get fit and get your very own tree sapling to take home! Participants run a 5km race to raise money for Trees for Cities, an independent environmental charity working with local communities on tree planting projects. There is also music, entertainment, lots of tree-themed activities, whatever that may consist of, and plenty of other workshops to keep the whole family entertained.
The race is open to runners aged 14 and up and is ideal for beginners or experienced runners alike. Register now, to make sure you can raise as much sponsorship as possible before the day, and look forward to a grand day out.

Time: 9am-3pm
Venue: Battersea Park
Website: www.tree-athlon.org

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The Urban Green Fair ?
Sunday 20th September

?The Urban Green Fair is held in Brockwell Park in London this Sunday, Its a free event and with plenty to do and see, the fair is also powered by solar and wind energy.
The annual family event, has a range of films, talks, workshops, kids activities, stalls, sunshine as well as some unusual bicycles. Unfortunatly no bars or big stages but this keeps the emphasis on education and communication. A chance to share ideas, meet familiar faces and make new friends. With little government action on peak oil and climate change there is plenty to discuss and lots we can do as individuals. ?

Time:11am-7pm
?Venue: Brockwell Park, Lambeth
Website: http://www.urbangreenfair.org/

Leytonstone Car Free Day
Sunday 20th September

Leytonstone Town Centre will car free day this Sunday. As well as having no vehicles hurtling around there will also be entertainment, stalls, live music, dancing, public art and childrens’ play areas. Simon Webbe from Blue and Aswad will be headlining! Get yourself down, and make sure you leave the car(if you’ve got one) at home.
Time: 1pm-7pm
Venue: Outside Leyonstone tube station
Website: www.walthamforest.gov.uk

Co-mutiny
Saturday 12th of September until Monday 21st September

A coming together of activists, eco-warriors gardeners, artists, community/political groups, cooks, builders etc. to demonstrate our creative power to build a city/world we would like to see. Co-Mutineers have taken an old cathedral (of the holy apostles) near the Triangle in the Clifton/Hotwells area, it’s a space to converge, eat, sleep meet and discuss, plan and skill-share!
There will be over a week of different activities, direct actions, workshops, film screenings, public demonstrations and parties. It’s happening all across Bristol and the wider South West.

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During the week there will be actions happening all across the city, which will climax in a fancy dress carnival through the financial district of Bristol on the Friday.
Venue: Bristol Pro Cathedral, Park Place, BS8 1JW
Website: http://comutiny.wordpress.com/
Monday 14th September
William Elliott Whitmore
The Garage, order London

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We can’t get enough of this distilled, medications gravelly bluesman. With Whitmore, it’s almost like you’re listening from inside a huge bottle of JD.

Tuesday 15th September
We Have Band
ICA, London

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This trio spin the grooves of Talking Heads via a stop off and natter with Hot Chip, it’ll make you jive and smile.

Wednesday 16th September
Beth Jeans Houghton
Rough Trade East, London

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Having supported folk heavy weights, Tunng, Bon Iver, and King Creosote, this ballsy 19 year old manages to blend the vocal lustre of Nico and Laura Marling whilst having an edgy stage presence more like Gwen Stefani. Beguiling.

Thursday 17th September
Alela and Laura Gibson
Shepherds Bush Empire, London

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We chatted to Alela recently and she was as lovely as her music. Gibson toes a similar line of enchanting bluesy folk airs.

Friday 18th September
Metronomy, Male Bonding, Your Twenties and Drums Of Death
The Forum, London

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We’re particularly keen on the immaculate indie-pop of Your Twenties after meeting the lovely ex-Metronomy frontman. Nice to see they’re still close.

Saturday 19th September
Tom Paley and Birdengine
The Deptford Arms, London

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A traditional folk night in a scuzzy South-East London boozer. You want more reason that that? Well living legend, Tom Paley who played with Woodie Guthrie back in the day and enchantingly odd, Birdengine are two big ones.

Sunday 20th September
Viv Albertine and Get Back Guinozzi!
The Windmill, London

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The Slits guitarist has picked up a guitar again after a 25 year sabbatical and come up trumps with punk rock outfit, Albertine.

Categories ,alela diane, ,beth jeans houghton, ,birdengine, ,bon iver, ,folk, ,hot chip, ,indie, ,laura gibson, ,metronomy, ,pop, ,punk, ,rock, ,talking heads, ,the slits, ,tom paley, ,tunng, ,viv albertine, ,we have band, ,william elliott whitmore, ,your twenties

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Amelia’s Magazine | A meeting with indie folk blues rockers Peggy Sue.

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Illustration of Peggy Sue by Kellie Black.

I arrive by bike as usual to meet the three members of Peggy Sue at Spitalfields Market. Rosa got lost on hers and didn’t make their 6Music interview earlier in the day, more about which handily alerted me to the fact that it is Katy’s 24th birthday today, as well as the official launch of their new album Fossils and Other Phantoms. I wonder if their plan to go bowling in Brick Lane has come off, but it turns out the bowling alley was closed and they had to make do with chucking oranges at Lucozade bottles in the Old Truman Brewery instead. After their launch gig at Rough Trade East the band plan to head over to the Scala to enjoy the scuzzy sounds of Mount Eerie.

Even though Peggy Sue have been around for a few years they were only signed to Wichita at the end of 2009. Despite this, Katy, Rosa and Olly began recording their album over a three week period in New York last year. Producer Alex Newport – who has worked with the likes of Does it Offend You, Yeah? – first discovered the girls a couple of years ago at SXSW and he was joined by John Askew, better known as a producer of trance music, but who has also worked with The Dodos. They worked on the album in the studio at night and it was really intense. “But we wanted to do as much as possible,” says Rosa, “plus we like to work really hard.”

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Illustration of Rosa by Kellie Black.

Many of the songs were written in New York, but they came back to the UK to overdub the tracks with friends. Peggy Sue seem quite amused that some of their session musicians belong to bands much more famous than theirs, with a horn section provided by members of Arcade Fire and TV on the Radio.

With the album finished a little over a year ago I wonder if they aren’t perhaps a bit frustrated with the long wait for it to come out officially?
Katy: For a little while we were, but then you just realise that you have to work around other people’s schedules. We’ve only been playing a few new songs on tour so we’re not sick of them yet. We haven’t run out of emotion!
Rosa: We purposefully held back some songs till the album came out.
Olly: And we’ve written some new songs since the album was made.
How pushy is your record company?
Katy: No one tells us what to do.
That I can well believe….

Quite a few reviewers seem to have identified a strong theme of heartbreak running through the album. How would you respond to this?
Katy: Some songs are about breaking other people’s hearts
Rosa: …or endings in general. They can be morose when taken as a whole body of work, but not when taken individually.
Katy: Some people are just ignoring the other themes. We take it in turns to do lead vocals so it’s not like they’re all about just one break up. I don’t know if I want to be known as horribly bruised by love…
Rosa: I don’t remember the last time I had my heart broken!

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Illustration of Olly by Kellie Black.

They used to be Peggy Sue and the Pirates. What happened to the Pirates?
Katy: When Rosa and I started the band we were both studying at Sussex and it was just for fun. I was doing American Studies and Film. I’m still supposed to go to the US for a year as part of my course, but I keep deferring…
Olly: I was studying Popular Music at Goldsmiths, but I didn’t finish either. I prefer to actually make music.
Rosa: I was studying English Literature, but I’m the only one who finished my degree. We started getting serious two years ago when Olly joined. It made sense to drop the Pirates bit when we stopped being a duo and our music became less folky.

How did you girls hook up in the first place?
Katy: I was offered a gig as a solo artist and I asked Rosa to help out.
Rosa: I was so nervous I vomited into my mouth when I went on stage.
Katy: It was really nice to do it together. It was how you should start a band – it didn’t work when I tried to find people I didn’t know; a band needs to be built on good relationships.

How did you guys find Olly?
Olly: I went to Brighton and saw Peggy Sue playing as part of Brighton Festival – I fell in love with them immediately and became a bit of a groupie. I met them again at SXSW, and saw them play in my hometown of Margate.
Rosa: You were one of our favourite fans; we used to give you CDs for free!
Katy: We made him come and watch The Dodos so he could see what we wanted with the drum section and he liked it.
Olly: To start with I didn’t think it was a good idea for the girls to get a drummer because I preferred them without… but then I kept sending lots of pestering emails…
Eventually he organised his own audition in one of the practice rooms at his college, at which point Katy and Rosa realised he could be a great asset. Does he mind being the only man in a band with such strong women?
Olly: Not really, I’m half a girl
Rosa: …and I’m half a boy.

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Illustration of Katy by Kellie Black.

Olly learnt drums at secondary school, Rosa learnt piano and Katy learnt a bit of piano and some clarinet. But as a band they play whatever they can lay their hands on, with great aplomb. How do they pick up all these different instruments so easily?
Katy: There’s something about teaching yourself that means you only play what you can but you play it really well. It’s nice to be self taught as it means there are no rules.
Rosa: I understand enough about how to put music together but I can’t read music very well. It means you discover new things.
Katy: I understand music in quite a mathematical way but I find it hard to translate that into playing a guitar. They are two separate things in my head
Which are your favourite instruments?
Katy: I like my electric guitar.
Rosa: For me it always goes back to the guitar. But when I try a new instrument I end up writing new melodies as I learn how to play it, which means that every song turns out differently.
Olly: I never imagined I would play the guitar but I ended up strumming a few notes on some of the songs, and now I’ve built a bucket base too…
Rosa: …it sounded in tune until we started recording…

I loved the video for single Watchman. How did you get that made?
Katy: We asked illustrator Betsy Dadd to make the video when she was going out with my best mate.
I like the humping angels. What guidance did you give?
Katy: I said she could tap into whatever themes she wanted. We don’t often make videos.
Rosa: In a perfect world we’d have one for every song
Some of the imagery would be great for putting onto merchandise.
Katy: I’d like to put some of the stills onto a t-shirt. We’ve got only one design going at the moment. It features a wolf dancing with a skeleton.

At the time of interviewing the band Katy had just been offered a place at Berkeley in California, but fear not she won’t be going unless she can put her heart and soul into it. Which means we’ve lucked out instead. For now you can catch that great big heart and soul at a whole pile of festivals this summer. Including Dot to Dot and the Park Stage at Glastonbury on Saturday morning.

You can read my review of Fossils and Other Phantoms here.

Categories ,6Music, ,Alex Newport, ,Arcade Fire, ,Berkeley, ,blues, ,Brighton Festival, ,california, ,Does it Offend You, ,Dot to Dot, ,folk, ,Fossils and Other Phantoms, ,glastonbury, ,goldsmiths, ,Indie, ,John Askew, ,Kellie Black, ,mount eerie, ,Old Truman Brewery, ,Park Stage, ,Peggy Sue, ,Pirates, ,Rough Trade East, ,Scala, ,Spitalfields Market, ,Sussex, ,sxsw, ,The Dodos, ,TV on the Radio, ,Wichita Recordings, ,Yeah?

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Amelia’s Magazine | Music Listings

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On Thursday the bath-time lovelies at Lush supported one of my great loves, case troche by staging Climate Rush themed picnics outside all 89 of their UK stores.

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As was detailed by Cari in a previous post, unhealthy my local Lush store just happens to be in Liverpool Street Station. Chosen as the flagship store for this event the picnic was attended by Lush superstar campaigners Sean and Andrew, here who have together helped us out in a very big way.

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I sent the interns ahead on foot and arrived to find a fetching gingham tablecloth – bearing the timely ‘Climate Change is No Picnic’ slogan – being spread and upon it a yummy selection of vegan cake and cookies laid out for passersby to enjoy.

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A trio of violins led by the Rush’s very own Deborah (her of sticky-fingers-in-parliament fame) struck up a tune as the lovely Lush girls, dressed in full Edwardian garb, handed out Trains Not Planes sashes to business men passing by and even managed to engage some climate change denialists in some productive conversation.

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The police, as ever, were present. In fact I swear I recognised one of them from the “Riot Gate” at Kingsnorth during Climate Camp last year. Unlike then, they were eager to smell the soaps (all packaged in recyclable paper – Lush tries not to use excess packaging, just one of the reasons we love ‘em) and chat to the pretty shop girls. I wonder if they’ll be so nice to us on Monday…

As Tamsin did her best to butter up the passersby in those famous suffragette must-haves, fishnet tights and a miniskirt, we were pounced on by a person dressed up as a giant mobile phone.

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A slightly surreal experience to say the least, as the Lush shop girls tried to dress the ungainly thing in some bright red sashes, whilst Sean did his best to engage the phone in conversation about how many times a year it flies. My interns finally arrived and proceeded to pose marvelously for the camera. We’ve been joking that Jonno and Roisin are evil twins – just check them out!

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Over the weekend there has been a flurry of Climate Rush activity, both promotional and creative – we’ve flyered the South Bank twice, and approached friendly looking cyclists left, right and centre.

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It seems that if you ride a bike you are generally a friendly soul, and all of them were happy to hear about Climate Rush bar a particularly unpleasant yuppie couple with a pair of fold out Bromptons that no doubt only see the light of day when the sun shines at the weekend. Fairweather cyclists, who’d have ‘em?!

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In between accosting cyclists we have managed to print a mammoth amount of sexy sashes and flags to attach to the back of bikes.

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I’ve discovered that I can still sew, and managed to knock up 5 pairs of fetching bloomers in record time (just don’t look too closely at the sewing, I was in a hurry okay?!) Made out of red and white striped fabric with lacey ruffles on the legs they look part clown and more than a little bit burlesque, but then whoever said we take the Edwardian theme too seriously?! I can’t wait to see what everyone else dons for out bike ride tomorrow.

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Bring it on…. let’s show the government and big corporations that we won’t let them get away with business as usual when it comes to Climate Change. Collectively we can stop this beautiful world of ours from being buggered over, so make sure you come along and enjoy a stylish Bike Rush with a purpose. This is one cycle ride you’re sure to remember…

Read a past blog about this event here. What do you think about direct action over Climate Change? Let us know your views.
Rowdy – Never Smile at a Crocodile

Sartorial Contemporary Art
26 Argyle Square
London WC1H 8AP
June 4th – June 27th
Open Tues – Sat 1:30 – 7pm or by appointment

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With work described as ‘Ren & Stimpy meets Goldsworthy’, shop this is the first major solo show for Rowdy in London to date. Mixing the Ancient with the Urban, medical Rowdy juxtaposes his trademark playful crocodile sculptures with the modern cityscape jungle. He also produces street art paintings reminiscent of caveman-esque cartoon monoliths.

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Abstract America: New Painting and Sculpture

Saatchi Gallery
Duke of York’s HQ
King’s Road
London
SW3 4SQ
Until 13th September
10am-6pm, illness 7 days a week
Free

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A new generation of radical American abstract painters and sculptors from the US, 35 of them in total, with work both daring and inventive, fresh and exhilarating.

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Aditya Pande

Alexia Goethe Gallery
7 Dover Street, London W1S 4LD
Until 18th July
Monday – Friday 10-6
Saturday 11-4

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New Dehli artist Aditya Pande’s first solo London show draws on both fine and applied art principles. What start as drawings on computer morph into paper prints or canvas creations, and then become starting points for three-dimensional narratives. Frantic, glossy, grand and descriptive.

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Feel The Force

Cafe Gallery
By the Lake, Southwark Park
London SE16 2UA
Until 28th June
Wednesday – Sunday 12 – 6
Free

Maja Bajevic, Benjamin Beker, Astrid Busch, Kate Gilmore, Immo Klink, Susan MacWilliam, James Pogson, Anina Schenker

Curated by Clare Goodwin and Liz Murray

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Inspired by engagement in power and resistance, Feel the Force is a collaborative show from eight international artists and debates the psychological, the political and the physical. Investigating roles of victim and perpetrator, the artists approach the term Force through avenues diverse as obsessional first love and the military.

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The Social Lives of Objects

Castlefield Gallery
2 Hewitt Street
Knott Mill
Manchester M15 4GB
Until 19th July
1-6pm Wednesday-Sunday
Free

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Hilary Jack, Lisa Penny and Dallas Seitz provide insightful examinations of society’s complex and perplexing relationship with material goods, from their beginnings in production to their inevitable obsolescence and decay. Everyday objects are recovered and represented and reinterpreted for our reevaluation of what role ‘stuff’ has in our lives and in our world.

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The Butterfly Effect

ARCH Gallery
15 Resolution Way
Deptford
London SE8 4NT
Until 20th June
Thurs – Sat 12:00 to 5:00pm

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The well-known theory that subtle actions can and will ultimately alter the paths of world disaster is given a makeover by God’s gift to drawing Paul Marks. Using the system to create intricate line drawings in which each line added by hand effects the next one added. The comparisons are as varied as lunar landscapes, overtly sexual and flows of air, smoke or water.

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ARCHIPELAGO – Gemma Anderson

Whitecross Gallery
122 Whitecross St.
London EC1Y 8PU
Until 6. June
Tues – Sat 11 – 6pm or by appointment
Free

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The final week to catch new work from Gemma Anderson including her signature drawings and newer etching work. Dream-like and fantastical depictions of fairies, land and seascapes drawing on her experiences of researching the Natural History archives in Canada, Japan and France her new work doubles as a personal travelogue.


Monday 1st June
Gang Gang Dance and About at Dingwalls, buy more about London
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Gang Gang Dance are one of the most exciting bands around at the moment. They take inspiration from all over the world without erring into the Vampire Weekend‘s at times jarring pseudo-exoticism, by mixing everything through a furore of delay pedals and reverbs, to create a cyclical and danceable freaky electronica. With support from Hot Chip‘s Alexis Taylor’s improv side project About.

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Tuesday 2nd June
Fanfarlo and {Stricken City} at ICA, London.

Amelia’s favourites Anglo-Swedish Fanfarlo, bring their grandiose but whimsical pop to the ICA. With support from {Stricken City}

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Wednesday 3rd June
Post War Years, Milke and My Tiger My Timing at The Lexington, London.

The Lexington reminds me of that friend you had when you were 16 who introduced to lots of awesome bands. Tonight they host Post War Years, Milke, My Tiger My Timing. Come and boogie on down.

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Thursday 4th June
Deolinda and Oliver Man at ICA, London

Get that summer vibe with some Portugese music… Deolinda, an excellent four piece inspired by traditional fado music. Australian Oliver Mann offers support at the ICA.?

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Friday 5th June
Dan Deacon, Future Islands, Teeth Mountain, Adventure at ULU, London.

This Friday, Upset the Rhythm are serving up the finest Baltimore exports since The Wire, with the promise of more bells than Stringer. Dan Deacon headlines at ULU with the Wham CIty Collective, having loved his latest record Bromst with it’s melodic plinky plonky electro noise, I can’t wait to see him live apparently his shows are a sight to behold. He shares the bill with the Baltimore synth-poppers Future Islands, the noisy electro outfit Teeth Mountain, and “game-boy” soul band Adventure.

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Saturday 6th June
Devo at The HMV Forum, London.

Q. Are we not men?
A. No we are Devo.

That’s right! Mega-group Devo play the Forum this Saturday, interestingly and even more awesomely member Mark Mothersbaugh also composes for Wes Anderson. They merge kitschy science fiction and a dark sense of humour- this is truly going be legendary.

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Categories ,Devo, ,Electro, ,Indie, ,Listings, ,London, ,Noise, ,Pop, ,Reverb, ,Sweden, ,Wes Anderson

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Amelia’s Magazine | Music Listings: 5th – 11th October

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Turner Prize

Enrico David, information pills Roger Hiorns, Lucy Skaer and Richard Wright are the lucky shortlisted ones on the Turner Prize’s notepad this year and it’s been noted that the Prize has gone for less shock and awe than usual, resulting in a more thoughtful set of works on show. You will probably have at least heard of Roger Hiorns via his incredible work coating an entire flat in blue crystals.But it’s not about the fame of course. From Tuesday, you can go along to the Tate Britain and see for yourself.

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Booker Prize
Announced Tuesday

The 2009 Booker prize shortlist is full of big-hitters, in the form of Sarah Waters (The Little Stranger), JM Coetzee (Summertime) and A.S. Byatt (The Children’s Book), as well as historical fiction from Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall) and lesser known authors Adam Foulds (The Quickening Maze) and Simon Mawer (The Glass Room). If you’re not sure what to read next the Booker shortlist is always a good place to get ideas outside of lists of the 100 Greatest Books of All Time. If you’re quick enough to have read them all already, look out for the winner announcement on Tuesday to see if you, in your wisdom, agree with the judges’ decision.

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Grayson Perry’s Walthamstow tapestry

Grayson Perry is trying his hand at something other than ceramics with his “Walthamstow Tapestry”, an amazing, detailed piece of work a bit like a Bayeaux Tapestry for 2009. They cared about war, we care about shopping, it seems. Perry examines our consumerism but has also made something that is anti-consumerist: a one-off object that is the opposite of fast fashion or instant gratification.

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Dance Umbrella

In recent years we’ve all rediscovered how amazing it is to watch and do dancing that is more involved than shuffling from one foot to the other while hoping that person over there will notice you. A big part of this change, other than Strictly of course, is Dance Umbrella. The influential dance festival-makers annual season kicks off this week, with the theme “African Crossroads”. They are staging performances and “days out” where you can get a little taster of lots of the shows going on around London over the next few weeks.

origin london craft fair

Origin London Craft Fair

There’s something special about an item that’s been made with love by another human being and not just generated by a machine or made under duress in a sweatshop. All the 300-odd artisans at this craft fair at Somerset House make beautiful pieces that are worth treasuring or just getting inspiration for your own Autum projects from.
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Monday 5th October, web Fuck Buttons, Rough Trade East

The excellent, abrasive yet sublimely melodic electronic duo, Fuck Buttons, who we reviewed last week, play cuts from their much-anticipated Andy ‘great name’ Weatherall produced second album ‘Tarot Sport.’

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Tuesday 6th October, Fanfarlo, Bush Hall

If your bones are composed of Beirut and Teitur then you’ll enjoy the musical flesh of epic London orchestral folk-popsters, Fanfarlo.

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Wednesday 7th October, Pixies, Brixton Academy

With what seems like an influential band anniversary reunion a week, this week it’s the turn of Frank Black to reSurface-r Rosa with his oddball bandmates, to play 20 yr old Doolittle in its entirety.

Wild+Beasts

Thursday 8th October, Wild Beasts, The Garage

We’re great fans of Wild Beasts’ elegant indie-tronica here at Amelia’s Magazine and singer Hayden Thorpe’s falsetto vocals in partilcular. Tonight, they celebrate the release of their stonking new album ‘Two Dancers’.

green kite midnight

Friday 9th October, Dance Yourself Happy, Round Chapel

Raising money for the Great Climate Swoop on 17 – 18 October, Amelia’s very own Ceilidh band, Green Kite Midnight, provide a stomping musical soundtrack to a really good night out.

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Saturday 10th October, World John Peel Day, Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes

Twenty acts and fourteen DJs over two floors equates to a mini-festival celebrating the late great DJ John Peel. You get the feeling with many a Peel dedication that he would actually back a small percentage of the line-up, but we’re sure there’s something amongst this eclectic mix – that’d feature on his posthumous playlist. If not, bowling if fun I hear.

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Sunday 11th October, Nick Cave reads from ‘The Death Of Bunny Munroe,’ Palace Theatre

Close your week in an unconventional manner, with gangly goth punk stalwart Cave as he reads excerpts from his new book and performs with the Bad Seeds, Warren Ellis and Martyn Casey.

Categories ,beirut, ,ceilidh, ,electro, ,fanfarlo, ,folk, ,fuck buttons, ,gig, ,goth, ,Green Kite Midnight, ,Indie, ,john peel, ,listings, ,live, ,Nick Cave, ,Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, ,pixies, ,pop, ,teitur, ,Wild Beasts

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Amelia’s Magazine | Little Comets – Live Review

secret garden party

Photos by Jazzy Lemon

It’s not often that a support band makes your ears prick up and pay attention; too often I’ve been to gigs where sub-standard support acts make the wait for the headliners feel that little bit longer. I doubt in their short career that Little Comets have ever had that problem.

They caught my attention when they supported the Noisettes on their national tour last year, viagra so it was exciting to see the band headline the Joiners in Southampton last week.

Little Comets are already favourites with the music press after a few well publicised stunts such as playing on the Metro, ask or in the bakery isle of the local Marks & Spencer store, diagnosis in their hometown of Newcastle. Their single ‘One Night In October’ reached No. 1 in the independent singles chart, so they’ve already got a relatively huge following.

It was the busiest I’ve seen the Joiners; it was a room full of sweaty, drunk lads who were all pretty excited for the band to start. When Little Comets play live they breathe life into their bouncy, poppy songs. It’s impossible not to get caught up in the fun of their live sets. At such an intimate venue, the gig really felt like we were watching something special.

Yes, Little Comets are a guitar band and that’s nothing new, but their songs and the way they approach them really are. In a genre that’s been done to death already, Little Comets are unexpectedly unique. In half an hour they convinced me that there is a future for guitar bands; something that no one has been able to do for a good year or so.

The audience sang along to pretty much every song as the band bounced their way through their perfectly formed pop-tracks such as ‘Friday Don’t Need It’ and ‘Adultery’, but it was ‘Joanna’ that really stood out. Unlike their other guitar-pop tunes, this a capella track quietened the room. It’s the song that sets them above their contemporaries and proves they’re not just four guys playing poppy lad-rock. They’re not a grown-up version of McFly, they’re a group of proper musicians who write proper lyrics and know how to engage the crowd.

Someone in the crowd shouted up to singer Rob, confessing that his girlfriend loved him. Rob got a lot of love that night; a couple of tracks in someone shouted that they loved him too. His witty responses, which were quicker than a heartbeat, had the crowd laughing throughout the set. Little Comets are the kind of band that will do well during the festival season. The fun they radiate is infectious and I can imagine nothing nicer than dancing in the afternoon to one of their sets.

They won over my friend whose CD collection extends to a collection of Now albums and the Glee soundtrack If they can do that, I have no doubt they’ll charm their audiences on the rest of the tour, and wherever else they get to play this summer.

Categories ,Adultery, ,Friday Don’t Need It, ,Indie, ,Joanna, ,Joiners, ,Lad, ,Laura Nineham, ,Little Comets, ,McFly, ,rock, ,southampton, ,the Noisettes

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Amelia’s Magazine | Album Review – She & Him – Volume 2

I suppose I should let Zooey Deschanel go by now. I was so young at the time, a mumbling, shy teenager with a crappy haircut (admittedly, the hair hasn’t improved much) when I first developed a bit of a pathetic fancy for those big blue eyes of hers – I can’t say my admiration of her looks hasn’t dimmed, admittedly (and somewhat shallowly), but I’ve grown wary of her acting ability. Being typecast is something some, if not most, actors attempt to avoid, yet Zooey thrives on playing what’s referred to in critical circles as the ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ role – a bit kooky, a bit insane, and just a tad an absolute fiction of a person, one who exists in the minds of fevered male youth everywhere. Her purpose is to bring the lead male out of his emotional shell, to embrace life, to seize the day (and, presumably, to act as therapist and counsellor and tissue) – to be, in effect, a nothing of a person but a blank canvas who’s just waiting for a chance to listen to all the moaning and despairing and general torment of the soul that characterises the most privileged demographic group in history, the Young White Western Man of the 21st Century.

So – as her roles keep her locked up in a safe little box, a box that doesn’t allow too much range (even (500) Days of Summer, whilst specifically a film about how real life doesn’t conform to the Manic Pixie Dream Girl stereotype, was hardly a stretch), I’m in danger of losing sight of Zooey Deschanel, Actress. All I will have left is Zooey Deschanel, Attractive Celebrity. Being left with that would just be unfair to her as an individual, considering how lovely she is an all – though let’s not concentrate on how I know this, or how I met her, or how her height disappointed me, or how her strapless dress was perhaps a brave choice for the evening but she rocked it admirably – let’s leave that for now. OK? OK. What we’re talking about today is She & Him’s Volume 2, the second album from the musical collaboration between Zooey and folk singer-songwriter M. Ward. Their first, the aptly-titled Volume 1, was an excellent stab at breathing new air into 60s country-folk, and Volume 2 is a further step forward. What it also does is reaffirm, for little old neurotic me, that Zooey Deschanel is a very ably-talented singer and songwriter. Zooey Deschanel, Artist, if you will.

Halfway through first track ‘Thieves’ and the blueprints from Volume 1 are still there – gentle drumbeats, an electric guitar-line with a lovely country twang, and Zooey’s lilting voice that’s as sweet as a glass of freshly-squeezed fruit juice (I’m an orange man, myself, but other fruits such as banana or kiwi would be acceptable alternatives). It can feel a bit like well-trodden territory, but the compositions are just accomplished enough to avoid this (though, of course, one has to ask how long this formula – and it is a formula – can keep working).

M. Ward still stays mostly in the background, leaving the spotlight to his leading lady, except for a notable appearance on a cover of NRBQ’s ‘Ridin’ In My Car’, here reinterpreted as a duet. The other cover here, the Milton Kellem-penned standard ‘Gonna Get Along Without You Now’, also manages to be reinterpreted in such a way that’s not hugely different to the more memorable versions by singers like Skeeter Davis – things are shifted around only slightly to achieve that She & Him vibe. Zooey’s recurring lyrical theme here is of losing or dumping a man but being the happier for it, so the background hums and ahs on this cover totally fit between the ballad to Californian lovin’ that is ‘Home’ and the filled-with-longing ‘ba-da-da-dum’ chorus on ‘Me and You’.

In The Sun’, also a single, fizzes and bumps along thanks to Ward letting his guitar do a little bit more work than on Volume 1 – I think it can be safely said that he’s let himself show a little bit more here. Despite mentioning earlier that, yes, he’s still largely a background figure, the actual music that carries Zooey’s lyrics so delicately is still mostly his work, and there are some more flourishes, a few more touches of individual energy that come peeping through. He’s got a very distinctive husk of a voice, and it would be nice if he could show us a bit more, but, as it is, Zooey still does well on her own. You can hear the smile on her face when she sings, “why do I always want to sock it to you hard?” on ‘Over and Over Again’ – she plays the role of the strong-willed woman admirably, and these are most determinedly not laments. At its heart this album is about sassiness.

I suppose the main lesson to be learned from She & Him is that soft rock isn’t a terrible sin. Sure, it’s repetitive, but when the basic framework is so enchanting (especially on closer ‘If You Can’t Sleep’, which has a fair shout at being the most beautiful lullabies you’ll hear this year). There’s something comforting about familiarity, and here that comfort comes in spades.



Categories ,album, ,Country Rock, ,folk, ,ian steadman, ,In The Sun, ,Indie, ,Indie Folk, ,M. Ward, ,Milton Kellem, ,NRBQ, ,review, ,She & Him, ,She and Him, ,Skeeter Davis, ,Volume 1, ,Volume 2, ,Volume One, ,Volume Two, ,Zooey Deschanel

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Amelia’s Magazine | Bat for Lashes: What’s A Girl To Do

The last time I saw Final Fantasy was in the tiny Spitz venue. Tonight he is playing to full capacity at the Scala; word has clearly spread and expectations are high. I am here on my own with only a monster coldsore for company. Prior to the gig I sit down at a table opposite a morose and unenthusiastic man in his mid-30s (that point where the unfulfilled of the gender start to become manically desperate) who is nevertheless keen to talk to me – his profession changes from writer on the blag to “actually I work at an internet company and I am a frustrated musician” at the drop of my job description. Not so worth trying to impress me, purchase buy eh?! I persuade him that Canadian impresario Owen, decease the man who is Final Fantasy, will be well worth watching. Post-set I am vindicated, but Mr. Morose is nowhere to be seen.

Owen takes to the stage with his inimitable banter in full flow, and proceeds to play his entire set on his lonesome, with just his trusted viola, a keyboard, and some looping mechanism (that I can’t hope to understand) for company. Oh, and a lovely young lady, who stands with her back to the crowd in front of an old fashioned projector that she proceeds to masterfully manipulate. Final Fantasy‘s music has been set to acetate drama, and the result is mesmerizing, even if I have to struggle to see the events unfold through the lighting rig that obscures my view on the top balcony.

Final Fantasy is on a one-man misson to coax as many sounds as he can possibly can from a viola, and in his looping hands this one instrument becomes a full orchestra, and the crowd loves it. There is even a lady at the front of the audience whose frantically waving hands can’t decide whether they are vogueing or conducting throughout the entire set. “Has anyone got any questions?” he asks at one point. “Any constructive criticism?” “No, I don’t normally do poppers!” he replies to the one query he gets. “Lesson learned, never talk to the audience!” Even when things go slightly pear-shaped with the looping business, which they inevitably do, he carries on in such a postive manner that no one minds. As the climax is reached and the star-crossed silhouette of lovers finally meet on the projection screen, Owen lifts his miniature partner into the air and they both stumble off stage. There will be a wave of enquiries into viola lessons across the capital shortly.

Did you know that the man who designed Battersea Power Station (Sir Giles Gilbert Scott) also designed the classic red phone box? Clearly a talented guy. I went to see the Chinese exhibition at the Power Station (as it has now been rebranded) for the same reason as everybody else was there – mainly to see the station before it is at last transformed. The art I could give or take – it was haphazard and I was unsure of its meaning, remedy although I particularly enjoyed the fermenting apple wall (mmmm, store yummy appley smell) – the other stuff was merely an adjunct to the amazingly damp interior of the building, (you will find out a lot more about Chinese contemporary arts by reading my new issue). I really hope that the ludicrously long-in-the-planning development will do this amazing building justice – the ominous and ugly “luxury resort hotel” going up next to it must surely be one of the ways in which they have at last found funding. I hadn’t realised how much I treasure the iconic shape of the station, what with me being a sarf-Londoner and all.

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Amelia’s Magazine | The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Watching their electric performance at The Garage, information pills I immediately understood why all the major music publications are getting their knickers in a twist over The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. With the recent release of their debut album, more about The Pains have quickly amassed a devoted fan base and garnered raptuous reviews for their perfectly pitched shoe gazing dream pop. If I hadn’t met them, I might have assumed that they were the sort of band who believed their own hype – and why wouldn’t they? Having sat down with Kip and Peggy earlier in the day I instantly realised that while they weren’t oblivious to the attention, they were unfettered by it. Letting the press get on with their excitable reactions, the band just want to play the music that they love.

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The new album has practically been lauded as the second coming by heavy weights like The NY Times and NME, did you expect such an immediate and positive reaction?

Peggy – Definitely not, I just think about the bands that play music like us that we have always admired, and most of them were were not that comercially well known, and not always that critically received either, so playing the kind of music we play… we didn’t have our hopes up high. But we were really happy with the record though, we really enjoyed making it, but we had no sense that anything beyond us being happy would happen. I always liked bands that I discovered on my own, I wouldn’t hear them on commercial radio or MTV.

Kip- There are a couple of bands that reached a bigger audience like Sonic Youth or Nirvana, but most of the indie pop bands of the 90′s were limited to a narrow community.

So you were expecting that the album would spread by word of mouth, and instead you were plunged straight into a media frenzy. Were you ready for this?

Peggy- It wasn’t the goal of the band. You know, “everyone is going to love us!” We were just friends that started playing music and this is the kind of music that we like and have bonded over. I think if we had set out to get commercial success we wouldn’t sound the way that we do.

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Kip- Where we come from, our backrounds in music, there is not really a strong tradition of bands expecting good things to happen. Perhaps American bands are more self depricating (laugh) but there is this built in expectation that if you do something that you love, it might not be well received by others, but you’ll be happy because you will be proud of it.

Peggy – And you’re happy with the five people that appreciated it! (laughs) I feel like I was that person that would always appreciate a certain band and I would have been totally satisfied with that kind of response for us.

Kip- Growing up, most of the bands that I liked, I didn’t know anyone else who liked them.

Did that give it a special resonance – liking a band, and knowing that no-one else knows them?

Peggy – I wouldn’t admit that…… but I secretly enjoy it!

Kip – I would have liked to have known other people who were into the same bands as me growing up. I felt quite isolated that way; I would sit at home playing computer solitaire, listening to an album over and over again, but it’s cool now that we are travelling more and meeting people who had similar backrounds.

What is the Pains’ backround?

Peggy – I’ve been in bands since I was 13, but none of them that ever went on tour. This is the first band where I’ve got to travel.

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Kip – I was in a similar situation, but none of them had graduated above playing in a basement. So this is very different from anything I’ve ever been in – one band that I was in, our goal was to play at this house we knew that had really cool house parties! (laughs)

Can you account for the reasons why the Pains have become so successful?

Kip – We started small, we were playing together for a while before anything happened, it’s easy to lose sight of that because once the album came out things changed a bit, but we were around for a couple of years and met with plenty of challenges, so it doesn’t feel to us like it is an overnight thing, but it may seem that way from an outsiders perspective. I’m grateful for the way that it turned out because it allowed us to mess up for a bit without other people watching! (laughs) We had a relatively decent period of obscurity while we refined what we do….. and also, the reason is luck!

Peggy – And being in the right place at the right time.

Peggy, Is it true that the band formed in part to play at your birthday party?

Peggy – Yes! I remember it was my birthday and I had only invited like, four people; because I only have four friends! (laughs).

Kip – It was at this big warehouse and it was basically an elaborate plot to try and get Manhattan Love Suicides to play, and so if we threw the party, we could play first and then we could say that we played with them. So we had a month to get ready.

It sounds like it was a natural way in which the band came together….

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Kip- It was the best way. If the last seven months have taught us anything; we are always together, and if there were people that didn’t get along, it would be hellish, but we were friends for a long time before we picked up an instrument. This made the whole experience fun and much less stressful then for bands who get formed by putting ads in a paper saying ‘drummer needed’.

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Peggy – The fact that we are friends and the fact that we have stayed friends is almost more lucky than anything else.

So there haven’t been any falling outs on tour then?

Peggy (emphatically) No!

Kip – This is our first experience of doing this, we don’t have a glut of expectations, we’re just appreciative of the opportunity and are excited by it all; and when you are excited and enjoying it, it’s hard to get upset about things.

Peggy – Touring can be really hard and gruelling, and I feel like if it were with any other people it would really suck, but it ends up being fun anyway.

What have been some highlights for you in the last few months?

Peggy – Playing Primavera was really amazing, that was the first big festival we ever played, and I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, I don’t like crowds (laughs) so I thought, today might be weird or awkward, but it ended up being really life affirming and it was the biggest adrenalin rush ever.

Kip- ABC news showed up at our practice place to hear us play. The fellow who does the news is on TV saying (in deep, authoratative voice), “And now, a report from Brooklyn” (laughs), and him saying our band name on televsion… I sent that to my grandparents, I think that this was the moment where my family realised that even though they didn’t quite understand what was going on with us, we were doing something worthwhile.

Which country has had the best crowds at your gigs? Apart from Britain obviously!

Kip – Obviously!

Peggy – I thought Germany was really positive, we played three shows in Germany and they were really enthusiastic.

Kip – Sweden was pretty amazing, that country has a strong tradition of appreciating bands like ours and even though Swedes are normally really reserved, the enthusiasm we saw there predated even us having a record out – we had released our EP and if we had played in New York, maybe 40 people would have come, and we would know 37 of them, and then we went to Sweden and all of a sudden we were playing really big shows and I had no idea that a band like ours could find an audience like that. But most of the places that we have travelled to have been positive experiences.

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You’ve got some more touring to do, and then what do you have planned?

Kip- We have an EP coming out this fall, we recorded four songs before we went to Europe in May, and after the tour we are going back to practicing and working on the new record. But every step of the process is exciting and I try not to think too far into the future, because then you miss out on what is happening in the present.

After this I get Kip and Peggy to take part in my game of Lucky Dip, which involves picking questions out of the bag (my handbag, actually) Peggy picks the “What is the first record that you ever brought?” and proudly tells me that it was Madonna’s “Like A Prayer”, and then with less confidence, quietly adds that a purchase of Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” was also made. “I was really into female performers at the time!” she cried. Kip gets the “What is on your rider?” question, and true to form, the down to earth bands requests are not unicorns, dwarfs and mounds of Class A’s, but bread, hummus, water and beer. ” We just need to make sure that we get fed around 5pm or we get a bit grumpy” Kip ventures, although I don’t think any explanation is needed when the sum contents of your rider can be placed in a Tesco’s 5 items or less basket.

“The Pains of Being Pure At Heart” is out now.

Categories ,Dream Pop, ,Gig, ,Indie, ,Live., ,Shoe Gaze

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Amelia’s Magazine | Album Review – The Travelling Band: Screaming Is Something

The Travelling Band album front cover

The brand new album from The Travelling Band features all the trademarks of a good folk pop album, site including introspective lyrics, fantastic harmonies and, as no self-respecting nu-folk band would be without, banjos a-plenty.

Natasha-Thompson-Travelling-Band
The Travelling Band by Natasha Thompson.

The Travelling Band hail from Manchester, so the group are joining the ranks of some pretty impressive acts including Oasis, Elbow and Doves – although they much more closely resemble the latter two of that particular group. The first single from the record, Fairweather Friends could well have been inspired by their fellow Mancunians, the layering of instruments, shimmering guitars and affecting harmonies create a ‘big’ sound a la Elbow, perhaps even X&Y era Coldplay.

Screaming is Something by Sarah Douglas
Screaming is Something by Sarah Douglas.

You’re reminded of their heritage every now and then too, when a Manc accent sneaks in, such as on Horizon Me And You. This is a fantastic folk pop song and shows real promise in their ability to create a catchy tune and yet make it their own.

It’s Sundial that claims the prize for best track on the album though, and it’s a real highlight – anthemic but all the while remaining sweet, “If I had a home to call my own/ then I wouldn’t need a sun dial/ to stop me roaming around” – it’s calling out for a sunny afternoon at a music festival one day this summer, and it stayed on repeat for a long while before my housemates and neighbours tired of it. Just give it a listen and see how long you can go without humming the chorus.

YouTube Preview Image

Indeed the band are no strangers to music festivals and actually got their break by winning the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition in 2008 where they then performed – I for one, am sorry to have missed them. A homemade video shows the boys hanging out, enjoying the sunshine, and performing Horizon Me and You at The Park at Glastonbury last year. And what an idyllic scene, boys performing their pretty music in the pretty countryside, makes you proud to be British.

Fairweather Friends by Libby Grace Freshwater
Fairweather Friends by Libby Grace Freshwater.

Tracks Under the Pavement and Hindsight are perhaps a bit confused – the folksier sound definitely suits this band more than rocking out to guitars, but perhaps live this would actually work better. All-in-all this album passes in a hazy stream of sunny guitars and lilting harmonies, the slower songs are perhaps slightly less successful than the more upbeat tunes, which is where the band appear to really flourish, but if you’re looking for a soundtrack to kick off your summer then The Travelling Band’s new album Screaming Is Something could very well be the record you’re looking for.

Traveling_Band_by_Melissa_Dow
Traveling Band by Melissa Dow.

The album is released on the 30th May 2011 on Cooking Vinyl. The band kicked off a UK wide tour this summer with a gig last night at The Nest in London. Details of further dates can be found here.

Categories ,album review, ,Coldplay, ,Cooking Vinyl, ,doves, ,Elbow, ,Emerging Talent, ,folk, ,glastonbury, ,Indie, ,Libby Grace Freshwater, ,manchester, ,Melissa Dow, ,Natasha Thompson, ,Oasis, ,pop, ,Sarah Douglas, ,Screaming is Something, ,The Nest, ,The Travelling Band

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Amelia’s Magazine | Two Thousand Trees festival

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Noah & The Whale may be the most obvious example of ‘morning music’ I could ever hope to find. Folk with the lyrical style of The Postal Service is a combination that seriously rivals corn flakes and ice cold milk in my opinion.

Tracks like ‘Rocks and Daggers’ and ‘Shape of My Heart’ are so damn catchy I reckon I could actually sing along to them in my sleep. I’ve been a fan of these tracks since the demos I heard them in their demo forms, site no rx but these new recordings seem to have a lot more life to them. With added vocals and different instruments used they take on a whole new, this more exciting, character.

The high point of the album has to be ‘5 Years Time’ though. It’s the recollection of a joyous daydream considering what a relationship could be like 5 years in the future. It springs along at the tempo of giddiness, with horns that are reminiscent of Beirut, making it sound like a declaration.

The album definitely isn’t all quite so memorable however, as many of the songs seem to merge into one. Towards the end of the album the pace slows and the songs seem to have less about them. They can pull off this style of songwriting as they show on tracks like ‘Give A Little Love’, but the last two tracks do come across being as being tucked away as if they were filler.

The Government, ailment along with the G8, has waged war on food wastage, and we’ve got to all confess to a bit of complicity here. Alright, so as a political task force the G8 is as effective as the East Dulwich Women’s Institute, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do our bit, if for no other reason than we could save £420 a year (enough to save eight acres of rainforest).

Make a shopping list – okay, it sounds a bit anal and motherly, but it’ll help to stop those nasty impulse buys cluttering up your cupboards.

Use your freezer – effective rotating of your freezer will allow you to store food for a few extra days, helping to use everything before it goes brown/grey/green/other bad food colours…

Long-life foods – where possible buy things that won’t go off in a couple of days, then you’re more likely to get round to cooking with it before it makes a break for the bin.

Share and share alike – if you have leftovers you know you can’t possibly use, ask if a friend, relative or neighbour might like them – better yet, invite them over!

Oh, and though I’m never one to promote big business, M&S has pledged to power six of their Simply Food shops with renewable energy from a machine that turns food waste into electricity. Wouldn’t necessarily suggest you try this one at home…

For more info click on lovefoodhatewaste.

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When half a band becomes half of a new band a comparison will be inevitable made. So who am I to buck the trend? In the interest of research I decided to play a track by Televised Crimewave formed with two alumni of Black Wire (Daniel Wilson and Tom Greatorex) and two fresh faces (Rob Bootle and Bat Neck, seek who I was informed by a ‘source’ is so called because he has a tattoo of a bat on his neck) at the same time as a Black Wire track. One thing is obvious immediately; Televised Crimewave are pretty much Black Wire but they lack in the guitar department.

Not only do Televised Crimewave owe a debt to Black Wire, health but with a mission to pursue old (but not forgotten) passions, they also owe a bit of pocket change to punk. Most notably on Fire and Flowers, with a hey ho-esque chorus that sounds very distinctly familiar. Hmm, I wonder where they got that from.

But tributes and similarities aside, televised Crimewave’s songs have a rousing sense of urgency. It’s a bit like music to have electric shock therapy to, if that was ever necessary. I like to say it’s psychedelic garage pop at its best, but it’s not. Televised Crimewave are pushing a sound that is rather tired and they seem to be holding back, they never quite reach the crescendo their music deserves.

When Dolly the Sheep was cloned it was hailed as a medical marvel. When Black Wire were cloned the results aren’t so marvellous. Perhaps Televised Crimewave could change their name to Dolly. Although, then they may get parallels drawn to that lovely lady who sings about working crap jobs. Televised Crimewave are worth a listen, but for those not sobbing into our pillows about Black Wire demise, a listen is all you need.

The ‘Future of Fashion’ exhibition located on the beautiful premises of the Orleans House Gallery in Twickenham is a showcase of the work from British students and recent graduates across the pathways of fashion design, ampoule illustration, illness photography, diagnosis textiles and accessories. The pieces – most of them on sale – selected by co-curators Mark de Novellis and Caroline Alexander, come from courses of various levels within colleges and universities all around the country, including the University of the Arts London, Edinburgh College of Art, Kingston and Southampton Solent University.

The display is divided into three parts, starting off with ‘Tradition’ and ‘Innovation & Creativity’ on the ground floor, leading to the open gallery upstairs showcasing ‘Diversity’. Whereas ‘Tradition’ focuses on the British (fashion) heritage – such as Savile Row tailoring and textile craft – being subverted and therefore reinvigorated, ‘Innovation & Creativity’ explores the more conceptual and experimental approaches which British fashion has become internationally recognised for. ‘Diversity’ finally investigates the global influences impacting upon the industry – whether these come from inside Britain itself because of its rich cultural mix or from outside, through the many European and international students who come to train here, each bringing their unique identity to the country.

One highlight of the display is Kimberly Patterson’s piece ‘Identity Theft – A Corporate Assault’ from BA Fashion, Kingston: An all-white ruffle minidress made of energy-efficient Tyvek® fabric by DuPontTM inspired by Douglas Coupland’s novel Generation X and the idea of the ‘McJob‘. With each pattern piece being a scaled-up company logo, her work examines questions of globalisation, consumer and corporate culture as well as sustainability.

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Faye Bamber from Fashion Design & Technology at the London College of Fashion produced interesting work for her 2nd-year project ‘Industrial Engineering & Sculptural Fashion’. Her architectural, Hussein Chalayan type pieces were inspired by research from the Museum of Science & Industry, the Royal Armouries and the National Railway Museum. Although her two showcased dresses made of aluminium sheeting and wire make great exhibits, the real treasure troves are her accompanying design development books in which she experimented with cog mechanisms, paper and wire maquettes, Grecian-style pleating, asymmetrical shapes and weaving techniques.

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Despite the ‘Tradition’ section showcasing a couple of pieces that were too – you guessed it – Vivienne Westwood and ‘Diversity’ featuring a few less strong works, some of them a bit out-of-place and/or lacking additional info and accompanying material, ‘Future of Fashion’ makes for a worthwhile trip down to Twickenham and proves that real artefacts which can be examined three-dimensionally, touched, yes even smelled are a much more valuable experience than the digital proposition used by other fashion colleges in Central London.
The supershorts film festival has been running for five years, buy more about and celebrates both the art of short films and those who make them. I’ve always been a bit of a geek about shorts, mainly because I’ve been making them for three years. Although I studied journalism, I have the secret desire to work in film and was a bit of a ‘groupie’ at uni, volunteering to be on almost every shoot, ever. So it’s always a treat to watch new shorts and spot the upcoming talent. I only managed to catch one night of the festival, but it was a brilliant and inspiring night of screenings at the Odeon in Shaftsbury Avenue, Covent Garden. Here are a few highlights:

A Difference in Shadow by Michael Mier was a beautifully shot and emotional piece with a nice little twist in the tale. Great performances from both Sakib Salama and Georgia Baines, which brought a shiver to the spine and brought to the surface how easy it is to assume.

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Broken by Vicky Psarias – a great little narrative piece which began more like a feature than a short, and felt as if it could, and perhaps should, go on. The story shows a Cypriot family immigrating to London to join their father who has already been preparing for a better life for them. But it turns out he doesn’t seem to have their best interests at heart. It had potential, but lacked punch in the final blow.

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Eric’s Secrets by Lucia Ashmore is a poignant documentary based solely on character on not much else -and that’s why it works. Eric, in his nineties, talks about his life with beautiful humour and wisdom, and this film went on to win the Lightning Media Best Documentary Award.

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For the Love of God by Joe Tucker provided some light relief – and also a change in format, as it’s a stop-motion animation. Main character Graham lives in a Christian bookshop with his overbearing mother and pet jackdaw. We follow him as his quest for faith takes on a macabre spin. Featuring the voices of Steve Coogan and Sir Ian McKellan, it’s a fantastic piece with just the right dose of humour and shock tactics.

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Joystick by Kevin Richards, another animation, is a thoughtful and beautifully drawn piece showing two joined beings ‘The Joystick’ whirl and twist through life, eventually split apart by conflict. Without each other, they perish in a tragic ending.

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‘Flushed‘ by Martin Stirling is a brilliantly funny piece about a boy caught short in the loos. Great characters and great production values, it’s the Director’s first funded short and he’s one to watch.

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The final, and most captivating of all, was Smafulgar (Two Birds) by Runar Runarrson. A short that made waves at Cannes was awarded both the Anthony Mingella Best Director Award and Sasusfaction Best Drama Award at Super Shorts. Shot on 35mm, it’s a gripping story of a shy teenager who loses his innocence overnight. Stunning cinematography, and with the perfect mix of narrative and intimacy on camera, it has also that all-important feature of a short – the catching of breath as the credits begin to roll.

Here’s to next year’s supershorts!
Take a trip around Chongquing with the lovely Miss M as your tour guide in this second issue of Scarlet Cheek’s bookzine. Inspired by a patchwork of childhood memories from editor’s Cindy Chens visits to the city with her beloved Grandpa, link she sets out to show you the lives and her loves of this Chinese metropolis.

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Scarlet Cheek manages to transport you to Chongquing, about it where you can really feel the firey sun beating down on you as your feet tread the paved streets of the city. Chen’s fondness for the place really shines through and the friendly atmosphere of the city washes over you with everyone of her tender words.

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Let her guide you through the streets, stuff tripping past playing children, graffitied walls and fortune tellers, before finally putting your feet up and dining out at Meishi Jie’s food street. With the accompanying photographs of these scenes from the street you get a multisensory experience of the city which leaves you dying to touch, see and smell everything that’s going on around you.
As your guided tour comes to an end you are left to wander freely through the rest of the pages. Interviews with bands and artists come to life as they are simply conversations you overheard. The factual history of the city is nicely combined with tales from it, adding to your experience of Chongquing as told by the people that call it their home.
From the streets upward we see the bangbangs, a group of migrant workers seeking all possibilities of a job, up to the beautiful women the area is known for, celebrated in a double page spread of loveliness. The region’s food is also tastily displayed in graphic food porn shots, whilst images of the neon night life tempt you out to play after dark.
This is not a gloriously glossy depiction of the city, but a wonderfully realistic glimpse into the lives of everyday people in Chongquing. This issue of Scarlet Cheek’s is a celebration of a place where memories are held dear and where many more are surely to be created.

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Windsmoor, more about the quintessentially English establishment label, link has just reached the ripe old age of 75. Bearing in mind that this brand is the same age as my Nan, page I was expecting the celebrations to revolve around a nice game of scrabble in a tea shop. Oh how wrong I was. Come the day of the party I checked the address, and almost keeled over when it read: ‘Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner’. The party was literally IN an arch.

A roomful of slinky cocktail dresses and flutes of champagne replaced the knitting patterns and scone recipes I had expected and I’d soon hijacked the prime balcony location to enjoy the view. Sights included all the London favourites: The London Eye, The Mall, and a sneaky peak into the Buckingham Palace grounds (sadly HRH was not playing on her tennis court this particular evening).

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Meanwhile back inside, decades of Windsmoor advertising campaigns graced every inch of wall space. These ranged from World War Two era posters to a campaign fronted by Cindy Crawford. Windsmoor have always maintained their desire to provide women with luxurious yet affordable clothes and after 75 successful years this philosophy will no doubt see them through the looming economic recession.

Indeed, Windsmoor is so much a part of British culture that even the poet laureate John Betjeman had something to say about it. In his 1954 poem, ‘Middlesex’, he tells of

Fair Elaine the bobby-soxer,
Fresh-complexioned with Innoxa,
Gains the garden – father’s hobby –
Hangs her Windsmoor in the lobby,
Settles down to sandwich supper and the television screen.

The night was monumental, and just like Elaine the bobby-soxer I headed home for some toast and the latest news from another integral part of British culture, the Big Brother house.

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Frock Me! London’s hottest vintage fashion event is back in town and it’s set to be a big one! It’s the one-stop shop to the dressing rooms of the past, click from 1920′s flapper chic to 1980′s retro cool.

Held in the heart of illness ,10268~3206161,00.jpg”target=”_blank”>Chelsea’s fashionable King’s Road, you will find the crème de la crème of the country’s vintage dealers, offering everything from beautiful clothing, hats and shoes, to gorgeous accessories, bags and jewellery.

Whether you’re a costume designer looking to dress the big stage, or a fashion student with an eye for a bargain, Frock Me! is the place to pick up that perfect item. Ranging from one or two pounds to several hundreds, whatever your budget, you’ll be sure to find the fabulous vintage gems to suit you.

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Brimming with one-off fashion finds and vintage trends, you’ll often spot top models and stylists gliding between the rails in search of the right item to complete their individual styles from the range of enchanting collections from days gone by.

It’s not only the magnificent range of clothing that will take you back in time while at the fair. The Frock Me! Vintage Tea Room offers a unique ‘pre-war’ experience, where you can sit back and relax with an old fashioned cream tea whilst listening to the nostalgic tones of the original gramophone.

Described by The Sunday Times Style magazine as ‘The place to pick up something old and stylish’, vintage fairs are the only place you can find more classic shoes, Lanvin dresses and pussy bows than Carrie Bradshaw’s wardrobe.

For the first time since the opening fair four years ago, 2008 sees Frock Me! expanding out of the big city and into Brighton to treat the South coast to the array of treats that the top vintage dealers have to offer. Being held at the Sallis Benney Theatre opposite the pavillion, Brighton joins London in being home to the fashion world’s favourite vintage event.

You can catch the next fair in Chelsea on 7th September, and in Brighton on 5th October so make sure you get to one of these fabulous events and pick yourself up some vintage, darling!

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This morning I got up really early and cycled up to Angel to join the Greenwash Guerillas outside the Business Design Centre in Islington, information pills in a protest against the E.ON sponsored Climate Change Summit being organised by the Guardian.

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C’mon, Guardian, what’s going on? Why are you colluding with E.ON? Is it the same irony that your paper shows by going on and on about being green whilst still supporting cheap flights with heaps of advertising space? We all need money but some of us are less likely to sell out…

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Caroline Lucas,the Green MEP for the south east joined us in her white boiler suit before joining the conference – she will be protesting about the choice of sponsor in her speech. Go Caroline!

E.ON is a major target for climate campaigners at the moment – Climate Campwill be protesting against their planned new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth in a few weeks time (join us!) which, if built, will rule out the UK’s ability to stop catastrophic climate change. Do you detect any irony?!

Of course E.ON would prefer to give the impression that they give a shit about climate change, hence the choice of sponsorship. However, they clearly don’t, which is why I wear my badge saying E.ON F.OFF with pride, and why I will be attending Climate Camp.

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We did the can-can, sung songs and handed out leaflets to the delegates – there was a big turn out of activists, all bearing handmade “greenwash detectors” with which to sniff out bullshit. These ranged from a butternut squash to feather dusters to highly creative hairdryer/vacuum hoover/bike light creations.

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Of course the police were as humourless and heavy handed as they always are – I was given a very aggressive shove for daring to take a photo from the steps.

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Bicycology also turned up with their super sound system, and we danced in the bright morning sunlight to a suitably apt soundtrack – it seems Britney Spears could have written Toxic specifically with E.ON in mind! When the bullshit all got too much we collapsed on the ground and with that most went off to their daily jobs, but not before showering E.ON with much unwanted attention. Hurrah to that!

Click below to check out different videos from the day.
One
Two
Three
Four

For more information please visit Indymedia.

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UNIQLO’s annual T-shirt design competition since 2004, pilule the 5th “UT Grand Prix” will call for entries from July 15th. UNIQLO has actively developed its global expansion as a casual wear brand from Japan, opening flagship stores in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Korea and China, and also shown the global promotion campaigns that world people can participate such as UNIQLOCK and UT LOOP!

Based on the concept of “T-shirt Design Olympics”, UT Grand Prix calls for T-shirt designs from young & upcoming creators from all over the world. Works will be chosen from more than 10,000 submissions in the first and second phases of judgment, & these will be shown on the web. In the final stage, 20 designs will be selected by presiding guest judges, & these designs will then be sold as UT (UNIQLO T-shirt) at UNIQLO stores. Cash & other prizes will be also presented to the winner(s). The Grand Prix (top) prize is 3 million JPY (or equivalent in local currency at current rates).
Submission Period: July 15th – September 21st, 2008

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As a fashion capitol, sale London loves looking for the next big thing.
Season after season fashion stars of the future ascend in the strangest of places: spontaneous off-schedule shows, information pills worn-down warehouses, more about hidden headquarters. The freshest, often cash-strapped design talent explodes onto the scene with experimental aplomb, giving little more than an eccentric knowing nod to the establishment.

This September seems no different. FaCshion is a two-day exhibition for trade buyers and consumers looking for that elusive fashion edge. Held perhaps predictably in The Old Truman Brewery, on the 13th and 14th of September FaChion invite new & brilliant designers working across knitwear, lingerie, footwear and accessories, to showcase their wares to the world, at a fraction of the cost normally involved in staging a memorable catwalk show.

The event, determined to rip up London’s fashion rule book once again, is billed as a brilliant way for buyers to source new collections and shoppers to source a design hit.

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Sensing a change in shopping sensibilities for the upcoming season, the organisers are keen to expose the ethical edge of the event. An array of modern design heroes from the eco age are lined up to attend. Recycled jewellery and reworked vintage nestle against second hand style and organic cotton pieces. With emerging brands like Lalesso and TraSsh already challenging the design status quo, this event aims to show how conscious clothing continues to shake up the hard-ass fashion clichés that haunt the industry.

Two days spent at FaCshion, dipping in and out of the stalls and catching a catwalk show, reintroduces London’s fashionista to the idea of experimenting. Designers are selected for their fresh approach, excellence and innovation.

FaCshion are currently looking for more designers to exhibit at the two day event, so if you feel you have what it takes and are interested in submitting your work, check out the website for more details on how to participate. For the rest of you – why not come and look again at what British talent can create. You might even find the next big thing.

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After being in a band called Catchers at school, see Dale Grundle began working on songs for The Sleeping Years solo. Living by the sea in Northern Ireland seems to bring about a theme of melancholic existence that justifies the suitably desolate title.

Having released three sell out EPs he then released the album, signed to rocketgirl records n the uk. This is an album of pleasant simple quiet melodies in which not many songs particularly stand out against the others. ‘Dressed for rain‘ is slightly different containing a single layer of acoustic guitar and a soft voice, but the song is far too long. ‘You and me against the world’ is the only song I had any desire to listen to more than once and I think that might be just because it reminded me just a little of Shout Out Louds. My nan told me the word nice is an unimaginative way to describe something but this album is just that, nice, nothing very memorable.
Last night as I was walking around the Vilma Gold gallery, capsule waiting for Tom Morton to begin his talk on the works of Brian Griffiths that were displayed there, dosage I did a spot of time traveling. It felt like I was in a time, perhaps not too far from now, where humans live amongst the huge land-fills that they have created. A lonely race, there is not much to amuse them aside from finding odds and ends in the junk heap (a victorian hot water bottle shaped like a rabbit, a tatty piece of tarpaulin, a crushed car, a giant bears head from a derelict theme park) and adorning them with bright paint or making odd compositions with them. However much these pieces might be treasured, their elevation seems strange – even laughable – to us in our time.

Perhaps this was Griffiths’ intention. Or perhaps I’ve been watching too many Wall-E trailers. Either way, I was looking forward to what Tom Morton (who is, amongst other things, the curator of the Hayward Gallery) had to say about it all.

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With his talk Morton proved that, not only does he know his art, but he certainly knows his comedy. Leading us around the Vilma Gold space Morton constantly referenced all those classic British sitcoms that work on the themes of aspiration, failure and despair… what those in Germany might call Shadenfreude but here in Britain we call prime time entertainment.

It’s a great analogy to run with, as Morton brought to mind Rising Damp
as we stood in front of the huge ‘Stone Face’. This giant concrete bear head took up almost a whole room, with it’s painted on grimace seeming to morph into the brave face Rigsby’s would adopt each episode just as all around him crumbled and his dreams disappeared before is eyes. Morton asked us to wonder whether beneath this surface of an eternal optimist is another creature slowly going mad.

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The comedy found in despair is not such an obscure reference, it seems, as Morton tells us that the darkly comic 1970′s series The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is actually an important influence on Griffiths. Griffiths himself has said; “The work, I always think, has high aspirations that are never met”. Disappointment seemed to hang, quite literally, from the walls of Vilma Gold with Griffith’s banner like pieces and the tarpaulin ‘Shadow’s in my Pockets’ displayed in such a way that they sagged and drooped wearily.

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Morton then directed our attention to ‘Daylight Jed’, a wooden box construction with a hole at the top and a drawer, containing a pair of glossy brown brogues, at the bottom. I hadn’t been sure what to make of this piece on my first walk around the gallery, but Morton had the answer for me; It’s a Houdini style magician’s box, except this one might have been used by Tony Hancock
in the series Hancock’s Half-Hour. With this in mind the piece could be seen as both the trapping-within and the possibility-of-escape-from a less than desirable life.

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Being led around Griffiths’ ‘Another End’ by Tom Morton really added to my experience of the exhibition because each piece on display was given a personality that I had not imagined before. We were encouraged to consider how the pieces had come to terms with their own disappointed selves, and so be inspired to find humour in the harsher knocks life deals us. The best thing about Morton’s talk, in my opinion, was that his references were pitched perfectly for a part time art dabbler like myself. Art criticism is often in danger of becoming so obscure that it loses the interest of it’s audience, but sling in a few pop culture references and I know my ears will prick up.

There was one classic comedy reference missing from Morton’s list however, and that is the incredibly apt Steptoe and Son. With the ‘Another End’ exhibition Brian Griffiths has definitely become a modern day rag and bone man, collecting junk for a living and turning strange trash into undeniable treasure.
Teddies, sildenafil dummies and rattles appear to any unsuspecting spectator to be the possessions of a young child, more about yet within the work of Hazel Davies they are not. With a body of work entitled Nurseries; baby pinks, buy blues and yellows leak from the photographs, suggestive of the love and security a parent hopes to provide for their little ones. Concealed amongst the toys and decoration are contrasting items which are foreign to the space Hazel shares with us.

And slowly the cogs turn; a toddlers harness stored on a size 14 hanger, a strange set of cuffs dangled from a high chair. The cleverly cropped leg on the chair is not that of a very hairy child. The ladies hanger is not mummy’s and those handcuffs, I need not say.

I reach for the exhibition brochure. I need clarification. Sleeping in a cot, wearing nappies and drinking from bottles Hazel informs, are pastimes of Adult Babies. These “Nurseries” for the fully grown, providing brief visits or overnight stays offer services from spanking to nappy changes.

Hazel states her intent is to break down misconceptions surrounding Adult Babies. Unaware of such a fetish I can’t say her work inspires me to condone it, but praise her for the intelligence with subliminal messages and a sharp photographers eye.

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Gob-smacked. Impressed. Amelia and I wander further through the Truman Brewery and stumble upon the work of Christopher Broadhurst.

Like magnets, our eyes are instantly drawn to the magical landscapes. A spectrum away from the Adult Babies, there is an element to this body of work which makes you want to climb in the images, to explore the mysteries which these forests hide in secrecy. Untouched, delicate and moody Christopher’s technique of traditional print making and digital processes make truly alluring images.

Roll on the closing Free Range starting tonight at six…

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AMUSE ARTJAM, more about a new art competition by a Japanese agency for all-round entertainment “AMUSE”, order will open calling for entries from August 1st.
This is a competition that has counted more than 5000 submissions and total 70000 visitors in the past 6 events, gathering attentions as a gateway for young artists to success. This year as a new project, they will open a new gallery for contemporary art called “ArtJamContemporary” in the art complex building “NADiff A/P/A/R/T” in Ebisu, Tokyo. The participants of ARTJAM will be mainly featured in the gallery and sent to the world.
Anyone can participate in this competition regardless of genders, nations, ages, educations, professionals or amateurs, and genres. However, the competition winners need to participate in the award ceremony, which will be held in The Museum Of Kyoto on October 5th, 2008.
Submission period: August 1st – 31st, 2008

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CG-ARTS Society with Agency for Cultural Affairs and The National Art Center, doctor Tokyo will start calling for entries for 12th Japan Media Arts Festival. They seek vibrantly creative works that are opening up a new era in each division of Art, Entertainment, Animation and Manga.
Submission Period: July 17th – September 26th, 2008

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Online magazine SHIFT presents DOTMOV Festival 2008, adiposity a digital film festival aiming to discover talented creators and provide them with an opportunity to show their works. Works submitted from all over the world will be screened throughout the world venues from November 2008 (Date will be different depending on the venue). Last year’s total submission was 297 works from 34 countries. This year’s tour will be Sapporo, this Sendai, visit Shizuoka, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Sao Paulo.
Submission Period: September 20th, 2008

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Shift has been trying to offer artists many platforms to showcase their works online. The Shift calendar competition held from 2003 successively, information pills pushes the boundaries between online and off line using a “calendar” as its medium. Entries are invited from all over the world and selected works will be distributed throughout the world in the format of a physical calendar.
This year, this selected works will be exhibited and sold at PRINT’EM web site for a year with support by PRINT’EM, a graphic print center operated by Mitsubishi Paper MIlls Limited.
Submission Period: September 10th, 2008

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coffee

A rich full bodied blend, viagra 60mg with each sip enticing you for another subtle caramel hinted caffeine hit… okay I hate to sound like Jilly Goolden so I’ll stop and get on with my point. Not only does this coffee taste top notch (trust me I’m normally a bit of a caffetier snob) but this blend can be drank with a clear ethical conscience. The creators Cafedirect have always paid above standard Fairtrade prices for their crops and reinvest 60% of their profits back to growers’ communities and businesses aiding to a brighter and sustainable future. A broke Londoner myself, I am the first to be tempted to shy away from organic and ethical brands and reach for the savers option, but at a mere £2.85 for 100g at all supermarkets, this is a truly splendid blend.

So, for all you coffee connoisseurs out there, put the filter coffee down, and give the Cafedirect Fairtrade Classic Blend Premium instant coffee a whirl and let us know what you think.
Two Thousand trees in Cheltenham began with our privileged arrival to pre-pitched tents, sildenafil not to mention a laminated-book-of-dreams (argos) gazebo. We then quickly found the open mic night taking place where the first memorable act I saw was The Loyal Trooper.
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Named after a tiny pub near Sheffield, viagra sale he sang and played clever, pharm observant lovely sounding acoustic songs to a jam packed tent, the crowd who had been fairly rowdy remained completely silent throughout. This small unpretentious festival was full of friendly people listening with open ears, being shockingly considerate to one another, and recycling. Then the man who introduced the acts sang some impressive Italian opera and played a ukelele! What more can a girl ask for?

The next day while I ‘wellied up’, Dave opted for the lesser known, i would say under appreciated Boddingtons welly.
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We thoroughly enjoyed a new band called A Silent Film who played piano related melodic noise that made my ears very happy and won the crowd over with a cover of Born Slippy. Then I scampered (as much as scampering is possible knee deep in mud) to see Chris TT, whose brilliant acoustic set sounds great, he even bravely sings one song acappella. His songs protest at the state of affairs in the world, then in a self-critical mode of genius he goes on to poke fun at people who object to the state of affairs in the world, while they sit at home eating biscuits.

There were some rather fabulous costumes around including,

Festival Mexicans.
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Papa New Guinea however has to be my favorite.
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No festival is complete without token ‘mud diver’ people but I was pleased to observe this being combined with a nice civilised game of cricket.
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Then the Duke Spirit came on the main stage (which was significantly tinier than most main stages). They were amazing! Leila showed her stunning front girl skills, strutting and singing powerfully yet prettily to the note perfect to loud deep dark guitar sounds that had me dancing in torrential rain. Sadly minus Dave at this point who had had one too many Boddingtons and had to be put to bed.
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My festival hero was Beans on Toast, who’s gravely voiced comedy songs made me weep with laughter. ‘The day that dance music died’ almost gave me a hernia. If you havn’t heard of him you are most certainly missing out. By the end of his set the whole crowd sang along with Beans and Frank Turner and a great Badgers Bottom cider fuelled time was had by all. I will certainly go back next year!

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