Blogs

FEEDER TO PLAY TREDEGAR PARK, NEWPORT


By Ceri Shaw, 2021-04-19

Newport Events Presents

FEEDER

THE HOMECOMING!

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Friday 9 July 2021



Feeder have announced they are coming home to perform in Newport’s Tredegar Park on Friday 9 th  July 2021. Tickets will go on general sale from 10am Tuesday 4th May via  www.newport-events.com Support for the homecoming will come from special guests The Magic Gang and Welsh bands Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard and Tom Auton and the Bottle Breakers.

As ever, Grant Nicholas leads from the front, alongside bass player and comrade Taka Hirose. The British rock mainstays are responsible for some of the biggest British indie rock hits in the past twenty years. With 8 top #10 studio albums and 20 top #40 UK, the band are responsible for such anthems, ‘Just the Way I'm Feeling’, ‘Tumble and Fall’, ‘Just a Day’, ‘Feeling a Moment’ and the widely loved ‘Buck Rodgers’.

Since forming in 1994, Feeder have released ten studio albums, spanning early albums like Echo Park to Comfort of Sound and Renegades. The Welsh rock band's ninth album All Bright Electric came out in 2016 and the band released their most recent album Tallulah in 2019, which was met with critical acclaim. The album peaked at No. 4 on the UK Album Charts on release and was supported with singles 'Fear of Flying', 'Youth', 'Daily Habit' and 'Blue Sky Blue'

Feeder have come full circle. More than two decades after their first show the band are reinvigorated, tapping into the essential, primal energy that first inspired them.

Support for this huge event come from very special guests Brighton indie band  The Magic Gang , whose second album ‘Death of a Party’ received critical and fan adoration worldwide; NME hailed it as  ‘A timeless and genre-blurring record’.   The line-up also sees two Welsh artists performing, first up is retro rock outfit  Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard,  who have received prestigious air play from BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac, Jack Saunders and Huw Stephens and disco-infused blues rock from  Tom Auton & the Bottle Breakers.

Feeder will perform at Tredegar Park, Newport on Friday 9 th  July 2021.
Tickets will go on general sale 10am Tuesday 4
th  May via  www.newport-events.com

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Names on Lanes No One Knows Now


By Paul Steffan Jones AKA, 2021-04-16

On his laden career bicycle

Johnny Onions or Sioni Winwns

meets paramours and cousins 

the names the lives of names

the routes of commerce

way from Armorica to corner Cymru

an unnamed lorry driver

flat cap trim moustache

hooded eyes 1956

registration number PO 5384

brake lights brighten pre dawn hedgerows

in the squeal of stopping

on a stretch where the farm is unseen 

he carefully steers metal milk churns 

from the concrete stand

to the flatbed of his vehicle 

replacing them with empties 

the mornings will lighten then darken

then back again for this employee 

dependable essential anonymous 

on leaving these lanes forever or so

our Emrys as Ambrose as Ambrosius

us as Arthur yr arth the bear

is he with Glyndwr awaiting the perfect dawn?

I don't know but sometimes pretend I do

to conceal my plastic bag full of fault lines

I don't happen I don't occur I don't figure

I a mere carrier of bags

a haunter of yesterday's hedges

nearly everything’s changed 

but the grass still grows

in places it should and should not

and the land that sustains it is unmoved

I walk away from away 

I thought I recognised you 

but I was someone else



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Released physically via Ffynnone Records on the 28th of May, 'For Morgan', the beautiful debut album by Dawn-Song will be available on Limited Edition Vinyl and Compact Disc.

Come with us on an epic journey from Dark to Light, an extraordinary tale of total excess to finding ones inner calm, a musical time-capsule 'For Morgan' is an audio letter from Father to Son. Welshman Nick Evans originally from Penarth, South Wales found himself in the centre of London's consuming Music Business in the 90's. His Elemental Records a pioneering Label was home to Alabama 3, Rocket From The Crypt amounst others.

"I made an album of my songs with some wonderful collaborators over the last couple of years. When I’m gone I wanted to continue to be able to sing for my son Morgan if he needed me. My father published a small book of poetry before he died and if I’m missing him a lot I read a bit of it and I feel reconnected. I also wanted to make something my mother could enjoy. So the record is for Morgan" -  Nick Evans AKA Dawn-Song


"When we were young We dreamed of creating a better future We Screamed, We Shouted We Loved, We Lost But We Lived Sometimes Together, Sometime Apart And Now I hear my friend talking from a future to his son I hear my friend imploring the world to do and to be better I hear the same song with a different sound I hear the Byrds, I hear Crass The shoutings gone, replaced with fragility and love I hear dawn Song"  - Ffynnone Records


Links Online 


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The debut single ‘LUNGS’ from Freyja Elsy - an epic, yet introspective look at the end of a relationship.

Freyja Elsy is an independent singer songwriter and composer with a nomadic past and a sound that pushes into the future. Creating songs with a keen ear whilst pursuing music education, she found herself within the vibrant, engaging Cardiff scene. Through both outside musical influence and internal personal conflict she started to establish a clear identity, forging a path forward to create ‘ Lungs ’, her first single.

Based around very real, very intimate voice recordings, ‘ Lungs’ starts small and reserved, fragile in its form and structure. The track slowly unfolds and develops into rising crescendos alongside uncompromising percussion. A mixture of glitchy synthesisers and rising strings interweave around Elsy’s voice, which sits unwavering and steadfast. Her bold lyrics are strong in the face of a contrasting anguish found in the recordings nestled within the music.  

With other musical endeavours in the form of collaborations within the band Blue Amber, alongside orchestral compositions performed by members of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and thematic interludes created for commercial use - this single is her first, strikeout release and sets the course for a prolific career ahead.

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We are delighted to welcome  My Name Is Ian  back onto our release schedule after an uncharacteristically long development period for their latest album,  Fantastic Company , out via  Bubblewrap Collective  on  4 th June 2021 .

The band’s standard ‘prolific-and-terrific’ approach, culminating in no less than 18 releases since 2010, has been put to one side, with their latest being written and recorded over two years, with time spent in four different locales (Cardiff’s  Rat Trap  and  King’s Road Studios , the pop-up  Snowbird Studios in Riofreddo, Italy and  Axe and Trap Studio in Wells). The resultant LP takes a substantive shift from the garage-pop of previous records and leaps double-footed into a charmingly wonky, indie-dance parallel universe where almost anything seems possible.

Placing centrally the multi-layered, pre-programmed beats of in-house production guru, Joseph Coleby, live instrumentation including electric guitar, four different keyboards and synths, smooth funk-soul bass and hand percussion are also liberally sprinkled throughout.

Flanking Reginald Foxwell’s ever-incisive lead vocals are over 20 other singers including members of  The Burning Hell, Quiet Marauder, HMS Morris  and more. The aggregated effect of this production methodology, musicianship, and spirit of sonic adventurism is a warming, texturally deep and irresistibly catchy set of tracks straddling pop, hip-hop and experimental soundscapes.

The next single to be released from  Fantastic Company  will be  Where is The Time? Featuring  HMS Morris  on  16 th April 2021 . The album will be available on limited edition heavyweight black vinyl and across all the usual digital streaming and retail platforms.


Links: 

https://mynameisian.com
https://twitter.com/goodmynameisian
https://bubblewrapcollective.co.uk/artists/my-name-is-ian/
https://mynameisian.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/mynameisianmusic



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It’s been 10 years since Little Arrow emerged with their debut album, ‘Music, Masks & Poems’ way back in 2011. In marking this monumental milestone, we also celebrate the life and music of frontman, William Hughes, who we sadly lost to cancer in December 2018.

The release charts some of the many aspects of Will’s artistic life with a ‘Words & Art’ booklet showcasing his sculptures and lyrics; all accompanying the heavyweight, marbled blue vinyl of music. The digital reissue will also include bonus live recordings spanning Little Arrow’s career alongside interpretations of the album tracks re-recorded by some of Will’s closest friends. The first of these bonus tracks to be released is a live performance from Four Bars, Cardiff, in 2014. The track stands as a juxtaposition between the folk roots of the album version and the final live lineup of Little Arrow.

Brimming with themes of hope, love and community, the album remains an expansive, airy and understated folk-tinged gem. Label owner and Little Arrow drummer Rich Chitty elaborates in his accompanying liner notes:

“From the tranquil opening of ‘Bitten Blues’ to the vivid imagery in ‘Aeroplane’; the lyrics felt old-worldly but familiar. Full of hope, but tragic. Wetting its toes amongst the mayhem, as Will puts it in ‘Poetically Diseased’. It was intimate, strange and personal yet somehow relatable, as though it talked of your pain and your joy, all through metaphors nearly lost to time. ‘Easy Now’ and ‘Beneath the True Blue’ were haunting and heart-breaking. ‘People of the Volcano’, ‘Boat’ and ‘Poetically Diseased’ were optimistic but borne of that same curious cloth. To this day, it remains my favourite part of Will’s back catalogue.”

All proceeds from the album will be donated to Paul Sartori - Hospice at Home.

https://www.facebook.com/littlearrowmusic/
https://bubblewrapcollective. co.uk/shop-bubblewrap/

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Bandicoot’s description of their new single FUZZY perfectly incapsulates its timeless, joyful energy ... “FUZZY is a deranged attempt at seduction which draws on 70s ‘Top of the Pops’, glam rock and memories of misguided adolescence.”


Following hot on the heels of the bands successful debut single on Libertino ‘Dark Too Long’, FUZZY shares DTL infatuation with the decade where you cycled to catch your dreams on your trusted ‘chopper bike’ and ‘glittered teenage anthems filled the airwaves as much as your imagination’.

With FUZZY Bandicoot are Gene Vincent’s lustful, greasy-haired, leather-jacketed rebellion channelled through Bolan and the New York Dolls infectious boogie. As they sing FUZZY is their Vitamin C, now let FUZZY be yours!

According to Bandicoot “FUZZY is a strutting statement of intent, fizzing with energy, rolling relentlessly on. It captures the energy that we’re bursting with, cooped up in our homes, awaiting the return to the stage. And a triumphant, ferocious return it will be”

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A Nation of Singing Birds  Ronald Rees.jpg Wales is known as ‘the land of song’ and the Welsh are renowned for their love of hymns – perhaps no other nation has sung them with such fervour. This passion is celebrated in a new comprehensive history of hymn writing and singing in Wales and amongst the Welsh diaspora in North America.  A Nation of Singing Birds: Sermon and Song in Wales and Among the Welsh in America  by Ronald Rees looks at the time between the Protestant Revivals in the late 18 th  century until the present day.

Described as “Lively, entertaining, and valuable – a real gem” by the journalist, presenter and newsreader Huw Edwards, the book considers the influences of key figures such as William Williams Pantycelyn and Ira Sankey also examines rhythmic elements in Welsh preaching.

Author, Ronald Rees, said:

“Two particular incidents led to the writing of this book. The most recent was my reading of Barbara Ehrenreich’s  Dancing in the Street . Her book is about the need, manifested throughout human history, for communal expressions of feeling – in dance, parade and song. The other incident was a combined concert and  cymanfa ganu  held at St David’s Hall, Cardiff about forty years ago. The concert performers were members of Rhondda’s peerless Pendyrus Choir, led by the late Glynne Jones. The singing was hair-raising. As the final repeated chorus died, a deeply moved Glynne Jones let the hall grow silent and said quietly and reverently: ‘This is who we are.’”

Painstakingly researched in libraries and archives in both Wales and America, and encompassing information from emigrant letters and diaries and local newspapers of the period, this definitive history tells how hymns and the religious movements and revivals spread via Welsh emigrants to religious communities of the USA. For example, it was a group of Welsh migrants to Utah, led by John Parry, who formed the nucleus of the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

“To engage their audiences, Welsh preachers at home and in America often delivered their sermons with a discernible cadence or rhythm in which sound could be as important as meaning. By combining the persuasive power of the word with the emotive power of music, assemblies could be brought to states ranging from spiritual readiness to hysteria. In our own times there are echoes of the mesmerizing, cadenced style in the recorded speeches of Dr Martin Luther King and the poetry readings of Dylan Thomas. Thomas’s great-uncle, Gwilym Marles Thomas, was a Welsh Congregationalist minister.”

“My objective was to explore how hymns, and the religious movements and Revivals of which they were part, fired the Welsh imagination. The chapels may have emptied but hymns remain our tribal songs,” said Ronald Rees.

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Following swiftly on from last year’s Tiny Men Parts EP, Quiet Marauder re-enter the sonic fray with their latest Bubblewrap Collective long-player, The Gift, on 9th April 2021. Taking a strong divergence from the bombastic pop-punk of its predecessor, The Gift sees backing vocalist Kadesha Drija step to the foreground for the majority of the album, standing afront a richly crafted, multi-instrumental acoustic-folk backdrop.

Recorded pre-pandemic, January 2020, in The Burning Hell’s (Canada) pop-up Snowbird Studios, aka an art deco villa in Riofreddo, near Rome (Italy), this release marks another chapter in the ongoing international collaboration between the bands. For this album, Quiet Marauder’s (Wales) contributions of acoustic guitar, bass, trumpet and layered lead and backing vocals are granted further textural depth from their Canadian counterparts. These include minimalist harmonic splashes of flute, piano, organ (Jake Nicoll), electric guitar, bouzouki (Darren Browne) and bass clarinet (Ariel Sharratt).

Returning to the conceptual songwriting approach of previous releases MEN and The Crack And What It Meant, The Gift charts the narrative of a troubled teenage girl (Willow) haunted by visions of a mysterious house fire. Willow’s path is traced through well-meaning foster parents, teenage love interests, time-bending superpowers, distrust of domestic appliances and, ultimately, her own memories; covering themes of self-identity and the fallibility of human recall. Though the album marks a more overtly serious tone for the band, the sensitive subject matter is delicately handled through their trademark low-key, observational and, sometimes, darkly humorous lyrics.



The Gift will mark the second Quiet Marauder vinyl release via Bubblewrap Collective and will come on a heavyweight 180gm, purple marble 12-inch adorned within bespoke, Sims-based artwork designed by Carlota Nobrega. Each vinyl also comes with a lyric fold-out and sew-on ‘house fire’ patch. Alongside the vinyl release, The Gift will also be available to stream and download via all standard digital retailers and streaming services.





'The Gift' Tracklisting

 


1. Pilot: The Fire
2. Will I Remember To Remember?
3. My New Foster Parents
4. No Friends, Just Visions
5. Her Love Interest
6. His Love Interest
7. The Future Is Bright, The Future Is Orange 8. I, Robots
9. The Ballad Of Loss And Self-Doubt
10. The Domestic Accomplices
11. Mastering My Powers
12. Infinite Versions Of Myself, Same Old House Fire
13. Let’s Run Into The Flames Together
14. Epic Plot Twist: Extinguished

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Career Opportunities


By Paul Steffan Jones AKA, 2021-03-16

So what if he'd won big on X Tractor

that night with the other grinning hopefuls

of the combined Young Farmers of his county

but fame and its fickle flame didn't burn long

with the fattening catalogue of demise

and enough freshly signed death certificates

to fill a library of uncomfortable learning 

he should have been sated

busier than ever with 

the practiced condolences

the pressing of the flesh

and the liaising with 

the dependables of the funerary industry

despite this unexpected windfall

Tomb Jones was restless

seeing no end to a career 

of infinite possibility and beginning 

to despair even as his ISA multiplied

he spoke granite rather than Italian marble

and his wife complained that he was not urbane

enough for this stage of their union

fretting that she had not succeeded 

in niggling and nibbling away

all the burrs and bumps that constituted him

as ever he completely misheard her

confusing "urbane" with "urban" and snorting

"of course not dear we live down a farm track!"

he who had thought that Cinzano Bianco 

was somehow linked to that stranger Quixote 

hamboned enough to charge at a windmill

but when the day was over

the battered container of gossip emptied

and Death and his wife put to bed

his thoughts turned to a change of career

a new dawn a higher calling

on the reverse of a large used envelope 

propped up by the lectern of his pyjamed thighs

he began to draw the outlines of a combine harvester

sketching the insignia of the Red Cross on its flanks

and pencilled in military grade syringe-cannon

that could fire small darts of vaccine 

accurately into the unsuspecting arms

of anyone within a hundred yards 

doing away with the need for any sort

of organisation other than a simple timetable

and allowing thousands of health workers

to return to their wards to relieve their colleagues 

whilst ensuring that everyone was vaccinated

whether they wish it or not

he fell asleep satisfied that if he put his mind to it

he could harness his agrarian past

to a bright pharmaceutical tomorrow

and help broker a sort of medicated peace

a freedom that no one would suspect existed

Posted in: Poetry | 1 comments
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