We’ve got 10 discounted tickets available for Notes for Mount Pleasant readers which gets you entry for 6 pounds (instead of 8), that means an extra beer at the bar. First 10 to email us go on the NfMP discount list on the door.
We also have a signed screen print of their poster, designed by the fantastic Scarlett Rickard, from an original photo by Tommy Sheehan. Get your hands on one by answering the following question:
In Danny & the Champs new song “Every Beat of my Heart”, what animal is “always the one bopping around”. Answers by email please with *Champs Poster* as the subject. Good luck!
And here’s something to whet your appetite that we filmed in Cheltnam back in April on record store day.
If you’ve not yet stumbled upon Josh T Pearson’s new album, Last of the Country Gentlemen, then read this excellent review by Alaistair Mackay in Uncut and see if it sways you.
It won’t be to everyone’s taste. It is at times uncomfortable listening. You’re right in there with him, as he whispers and croons poetic but raw, unashamed and often cruel confessions of his unravelling relationship. As someone at NfMP said after full submersion in the album: I feel like I know him more intimately than I know my closest friend. It’s not always pretty, but it’s always beautiful. After listening to the album on repeat for a week I took to self-medicating with Onda Vaga. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a pleasure to lose yourself in there, but nice to be able to bring yourself back.
Three weeks after playing to a sold out Slaughtered Lamb (~150 capacity), Josh was back in London playing to a sold out Union Chapel (~800). Pianist and composer Dustin O’Halloran opened the show, delivering a note-perfect performance of cinematic arrangements. The ideal support for Pearson; creating a meditative and reflective space for what was to come. Dustin toured with JTP’s previous band ‘Lift to Experience’ and later in the show Josh credited him as being one of his heroes.
JTP wandered onto the stage, deliberating with the audience: “Jacket on or off?” Jacket off. He’d requested little or no light on him during the sound check. Once the sun had set he asked: “Can you see me? I wasn’t sure about the lights cause it was daytime when we set it up. S’alright? Cause I’m reaaally good looking” (said with a smile). “It’s true! I totally forgot to shave this morning”. Some more jokes followed, about how he’d planned to play from the pulpit and rise up from behind it just as Dustin finished his support. He’s naturally funny and endearing, but you sense his sharpness, he’s no fool.
“The King is Dead” he bellowed and he passed his hand over his face saying, “serious face, serious chords” and with that silence fell, as he launched straight into ‘I Ain’t Your Saviour or Your Christ’, which lasted over twelve minutes and managed to make you feel like it’s just you and him in the chapel in the dark. It felt almost dangerous. There was total silence apart from the irritating click from photographers who buzzed around the front of the stage. Not appropriate on this occasion – even though they were doing “the Lord’s work”, as JTP said. Though they did get some good shots. Union Chapel staff said they have never seen an audience so entranced… and silent.
He played most of his set unaccompanied, but for a couple of songs (‘Country Dumb’ and ‘Woman When I’ve Raised Hell’) he was joined by strings (not his idea, but because someone thought it needed to be grander for the Union Chapel) and Dustin on piano. He admits, and it seems, they were slightly unrehearsed.
In between songs he told more jokes: “What do you call a musician that just split up with his girlfriend? Homeless.”
“Mickey Mouse is on a charge for killing Minnie. The judge says – ok Mickey, so after all these years of love and devotion, you’re telling me you killed Minnie cause she was crazy? And Mickey says: I didn’t say she was crazy, I said she was f*cking Goofy!” And so on. Throughout the night he continues to pepper his dialogue with “the King is Dead“.
Here’s his second song: ‘Woman When I Raise Hell You’re Going to Know It’:
And third: ‘Sorry with a Song’, that has a distinctly Buckley-esque (Jeff) feel. Though as another friend put it; he makes ‘Grace’ look like Justin Bieber.
By the end of his encore we were wrecked (but exhilarated)… and understandably, he was too – exhausted from touring these songs. They’re not easy to listen to and, one imagines, even harder to perform. He invited the crowd along to the after-show drinks at the Buffalo Bar. “Password?” he says – “The King is Dead”.
The password did actually work.
Josh T Pearson returns to London 26th November to play the Barbican. We suggest you get your tickets now before they sell out.
We went along to see Michele Stodart (Magic Numbers) at the Slaughtered Lamb on 8th May 2011, playing from her upcoming solo album, with her new band. We caught her doing this beautiful new song: Too Much, Too Late which is featured on a limited edition Ep ‘From Me to You’ available exclusively for the tour she is currently on, supporting Villagers around the UK.
She’ll be playing Wood festival on Friday 20th May, doing two shows that day and also Truck festival on the 24th July. The debut album ‘Wide-Eyed Crossing’ is set to be released later in the year. There are plans to do more festivals this summer, with a headline tour later in the year around the release of the new album. Head over to her official Facebook page for full tour date listings
Sting described BJ Cole as the best pedal steel player in the world. You might think – what does Sting know? Well, you can read BJ’s CV for a start. In a career stretching back to the mid-Sixties, his recording credits read like a Who’s Who of rock music, to name a few: Elton John, Marc Bolan, REM, Bjork, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Verve, Depeche Mode, Beck, Elvis Costello, David Gilmour, Groove Armada, Emmylou Harris, Jools Holland, KD Lang, Moody Blues, Pet Shop Boys, Robert Plant, Scott Walker. He’s had an incredibly diverse career, playing on albums ranging in style from rock to ambient, jazz, country, folk, dance and classical. We caught up with him recently in his north London home for a chat and a glass of wine…
NFMP: Most people hear ‘pedal steel’ and they immediately think country music. But reading your CV, it seems to be an incredibly versatile instrument. Of all the musical genres you’ve worked in, which do you think was the most unlikely?
BJ: Classical music is the most demanding, because it’s got to be pretty convincing to make it work. You’ve got to raise your game to a level where playing pedal steel has got to come across properly, not like a novelty. Over the years I’ve raised my game to that point and it obviously spins off into everything else to make it better. If you’re learning Debussy and Satie and Purcell then playing country is something you can do in your sleep.
But I wasn’t a country fan to start with. When I discovered the pedal steel I was so blown away with the musical possibilities of it and the sound of it, that I didn’t really bother thinking that the instrument might be limited in people’s minds to country music or Hawaiian music. When I heard it in country records I thought, that’s interesting, they’re amazing players. But I discovered country music through the steel guitar, not the other way around. So when people say, it’s sounds country when I play Debussy then I get very narked cause I think, hang on a minute, you’ve got it round the wrong way and it’s your stereotype or your preconditioning that makes you say that. That’s always been the challenge of the instrument. I don’t hear any connotations in the instrument at all.
NFMP: So did you start off playing piano?
BJ: No, I played guitar to start with, mainly listening to Hank Marvin, like a lot of other people. When I discovered the steel guitar, not pedal steel to start with, I thought it was fluid and melodic, it was much better than the guitar at doing the aspect of the guitar that I liked. It was lyrical; I was always into the lyrical, melodic stuff. Hank Marvin, is a lyrical player, but then I discovered that he’d been listening to steel guitar players.
NFMP: Did you teach yourself the technique?
BJ: Pretty much; I went to a Hawaiian teacher for a little bit for about a year, but that was before pedal steel, just because I wanted to. It was someone who advertised in a magazine called BMG – Banjo Mandolin and Guitar – it was around in the 50s and 60s and very old school, very old fashioned looking and published by Clifford Essex Music who were based in Earlham Street, now long gone.
NFMP: How would you say you have adapted the instrument, and your technique, over the years?
BJ: I think when it comes down to it, it’s not the country thing that limits the pedal steel – it’s America. If it isn’t used in country music it’s used in country rock, or some sort of American music of a roots kind. It’s not been internationalised. And I want to try and internationalise it. If you listen to the sound of the way that pedal steel is played in America, it’s got an American accent. I try and play it with an English accent and that’s the difference between what I sound like and what one of the great players from the States sounds like. It’s the same with singers over here, if they’re singing country music or blues, they sing with an American affectation. I think there’s a parallel in instrumental sounds as well.
NFMP: Tell us a bit about Cochise – your first band – the first English country rock band?
BJ: This was between ‘69 and ‘72, it was three years but it felt more like thirty, it was pretty intense. Well – that era was pretty intense. We did a lot of gigs, mainly with Hawkwind because we were managed by the same people, which meant we were playing lots of psychedelic establishments with lots of liquid light shows and lots of marijuana, touring round the UK. There were lots of places to play; a lot more than there are now.
NFMP: Many people will have heard you play on Tiny Dancer, the Elton John song featured on Cameron Crowe’s film Almost Famous (2000). How did you come to work with Elton?
BJ: There were connections between Cochise and Dick James Music (DJM) because Mick Grabham’s (Cochise’s guitarist) music publisher was DJM and they had a demo studio. The studio was in New Oxford Street at the time, above the bank, neither of which are there anymore. Elton was on DJM as well so he did his demos in that studio. It was very much the centre of what was going on at that time; we’re talking 1969/1970. He happened to be one of the budding songwriters to be coming through the office and I got to know him incidentally because we used the same studios, he was just a mate really. It was bizarre the way he took off. He wasn’t Elton John then, most people called him Reg. I’d already known him a few years indirectly when they called me up to go and do that session. I think it was a last minute idea to have the steel guitar on it because they called me late in the afternoon and said – can you come in this evening. So we worked through the night on that and we all just sat there and worked it out, it was all done at the same time – apart from the strings and the voices which were added – the rest of it was all done in one go. We finished about six in the morning, came out of Trident Studios which is still there, not in its same form. But I wouldn’t have said at the time that this was so special that it was going to be the cornerstone of my career, cause at the time, it’s just another thing you do, in a studio full of a bunch of people you know.
NFMP: Looking back, what kind of impact did it have?
BJ: I think it’s crucial, now. I wouldn’t have had the objectivity to see it that way at the time, but when that record came out my phone started ringing. I was already doing sessions, but it wasn’t to the same level. That record really established me as a sound that people wanted to use. And it wasn’t because they wanted a country influence. It was the fact that an English songwriter had incorporated the steel guitar into his sound. On that level, other songwriters wanted a part of that. That really is what gave me my career. Singer songwriters started to see the steel guitar as one of the sounds in their arsenal. I worked on Gerry Rafferty’s City to City album, I didn’t play on Baker Street but I played on quite a lot of other tracks on that album and it wasn’t a country thing. He just wanted to use it as another sound in the production.
NFMP: Can we move on to another legend, John Cale – you toured a lot with him in the 90s, which was your longest spell on the road with an artist. He has a reputation for being a difficult man to work with, how was your working relationship?
BJ: My Transparent Music album was signed to Joe Boyd’s Hannibal Records, and that was how I met John Cale because he and Joe were talking at the time. John tends to fall out with everybody eventually. He’s a very unusual person. He’s quite a character, larger than life, egotistical as hell. But our working relationship was very good. I met him because he had written this piece called the Falkland Suite in the early 90’s, which he’d written as a full orchestral suite featuring Dylan Thomas poems, and Cale being Welsh, it was something very close to his heart. He had a piano part on it for him and a pedal steel part, don’t know quite why.
Here’s a clip from the US show Night Music of John Cale and BJ Cole performing Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night from the Falkland Suite:
And then there were other gigs; we played at a 60th anniversary of Elvis’ birth, organised by Don Was, the producer. He was a fan of John Cale so he got him down to this place called the Pyramid in Memphis which was a convention centre on the banks of the Mississippi and it was a 3 day musical blast, the most extraordinary gig I’ve ever done. We played Heartbreak Hotel – John does a version of it in a minor key, which is very bizarre. It’s not exactly Southern Rock – playing that to a Southern Rock audience, it went down a little mutedly. He was in his element; he likes it when he freaks an audience out. (You can see a version of it here from 1981 on Musical Express)
He has seen it all Cale. He’s been in at the beginning with all of the avant-garde of the Rock, Punk and classical scenes in the fifties and early sixties; it’s amazing, extraordinary he’s been there and back again. He’s now living in Los Angeles writing film music. I really enjoyed working with him. He’s not a person you like, necessarily, some people are too full of themselves. I’ve been lucky to work with a lot of people like that. I’ve worked with a lot of great singers too. Steve Marriott, back in the 70s, he was amazing. And working with Terry Reid now.
NFMP: One of your more surprising musical excursions has been into dance music (Drum and Bass) – your albums with Luke Vibert have been incredibly successful and exposed the pedal steel to a whole new legion of fans. How did your collaboration with Luke come about?
BJ: I knew David Toop (the writer and musician). In about 97/98 I told him I was interested in working with a DJ and he turned me on to “Intelligent Drum & Bass”, people like Squarepusher and Aphex Twin. I got deeply into it; I became convinced that it was very musical. A lot of musicians were deriding it and saying they were not musicians and that they were taking their work. This is not true, these guys were real craftsmen, with great musical heads and I’m not worthy of understanding their talents.
I was first turned onto Luke Vibert by his album ‘Drum and Bass for Papa’. I went out and heard him DJ and was just completely blown away. Those guys, back in the late 90’s, they used vinyl, and their sense of knowing how to play with tempo, and knowing how to play with the audience and judge how to get the vibe going and how to keep it going, it was something I really respect. At the same time I thought that that sort of music needed a musician to play over the top of it, something that was organic and improvised, and interacted as a person, on top of midi-constructed music. I loved that record and said to David Toop, I’d really like to meet this guy, not expecting to – but he knew someone who hooked us up in Stamford Hill.
NFMP: How did you work together, a DJ and a musician?
BJ: I turned him on to my record collection and he turned me onto his record collection. We started off making steel guitar records, or exotica records. All the guys at that time were deeply into exotica. And exotica obviously features steel guitar, a lot of steel guitar and Hawaiian music. So I just provided him with a limitless supply of samples that he didn’t have to pay for. Later on he started to give me tracks that he didn’t know quite what to do with. Because he’s so prolific, he’s at home turning tracks out whether they’re going to get released or not, great stuff. He just gave me various things that were unfinished and he didn’t know how to complete them, so he gave them to me and I would find a way to complete them. We developed quite a close and playful way of working with each other. He’s great, we really got on.
NFMP: You clearly have an unusually open mind when it comes to music. Where does this come from? A lot of people feel uncomfortable with things that are challenging or different, whereas you seem to be able to embrace all of it.
BJ: I’ve never had a component in my head for conforming or for stereotypes. I hate them with a vengeance and I think they should all be got rid of. I think we’d all be a lot more intelligent and better people if we didn’t have them. Unfortunately things like the fashion industry and the media industry depend on them to exist. Music is a voyage of discovery, and I’m open to be inspired. There are certain things I cannot handle for various reasons, like opera. The sound of it bothers me, I find the voices forced and over-coached, and unnatural. They were developed when there was no PA system. I’d much rather hear Scott Walker or Freddy Mercury singing opera than an opera singer.
When I was working in Cochise in that psychedelic period the climate was such that people were actively trying to find musical areas that hadn’t been invented. It was almost encouraged. You were looking for something that had never been done before. That was a good climate to come up through. There was much more of a willingness in the public and in the audience to hear something they’d never heard before. Whereas now it’s becoming harder and harder to find truly original things, or put it this way: the music industry has less and less ability to market things that don’t fit into certain categories. There are people out there doing innovative things, but there are less and less channels for it to find an audience.
NFMP: You’ve got such a diverse musical background. How have you not become pigeon holed?
BJ: When I first started, what music impressed on me was its diversity and that there was always something new, just when you thought it was stale to you, something would come round the corner that blew you away again. Which is why I can never understand why people get partisan to one kind of music, really. There are great things in every sort of music. Each one informs the other and makes you more passionate about any one. The difference between good music and bad music usually comes from the attitude of the people performing it.
NFMP: Don’t you think it’s the nature of the music business to try and keep artists in one lane?
BJ: Don’t get me started on the music business. I can see that it makes things easier; they don’t have to be as imaginative if they’re given a narrow area to market because they formulate their marketing strategy to one market or another and they don’t have to think about it anymore. It wasn’t really that way in the early 60’s and 70’s when I started, people in the industry were more music fans, the A&R men and the producers were more people that were passionate about the artists they were working with. Obviously the economics of it were much more manageable: there were less overheads, it didn’t cost so much to record people, so they could afford to run with developing an artist. It was run by music fans who knew what they were passionate about and had the time to develop an artist or a genre.
BJ Cole will be featured on BBC1’s ‘The One Show’ at 7.00 PM (17th May 2011), playing and talking about his role in the making of Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’, and how it helped establish his session career. You can watch it here on i-Player
If you’d like to see the passionate and diverse BJ Cole in action, you can see him playing at the Jazz Café on 21st May with the legendary Terry Reid and full band, tickets here; or at Glastonbury with Terry Reid, and also with one of his current collaborators, cellist Emily Burridge, 4pm on the ’71 stage, Saturday 25th June /. For more dates visit his events page.
Selected BJ Cole discography below, (for more click here – BJ says this is the most comprehensive he himself has found!):
• Swallow Tales: Cochise (1971)
• New Hovering Dog: BJ Cole (1972)
• Transparent Music: BJ Cole (1988)
• Stop the Panic: Luke Vibert and BJ Cole (Cooking Vinyl, 2000)
• Trouble in Paradise: BJ Cole (Cooking Vinyl, 2004)
• Lushlife: BJ Cole, Roger Beaujolais, Simon Thorpe (UntiedArtists, 2009)
• The Gnossienne Suite: BJ Cole and Emily Burridge (Academy Recordings, 2011)
Fresh from our very own Mr Washington’s camera, Alison Krauss, snapped in our favourite Mount Pleasant boozer, the Betsey Trotwood, being interviewed for Sky News last week. Mr. Washington was particularly excited to meet long-standing guitarist with Alison Krauss & the Union Station band: Dan Tyminski, unfortunately not captured in this shot.
Alison is in London promoting her new album, Paper Airplane, released on Rounder Records on the 12th April. It’s the first album from Alison Krauss & Union Station in seven years.
They are recording an exclusive show for BBC Radio 2 at the Mermaid Theatre in London tonight, Thursday 12 May at 9pm, playing tracks from the new album, details here.
We were delighted to welcome back our friends, lovely Tasmanian devils Ange Boxall and husband Mike, who were in London for a fleeting visit last week before continuing their grand tour. They’ve spent the last few months touring the US with Ange performing all over the country. Her stamina is unparalleled.
We held on to her long enough in between gigs and meetings to shoot some film on the old railway track that runs from Finsbury Park to Muswell Hill, if you’ve never walked it, you should; it’s a beautiful little hidden treasure, perfect for these sunny days. The acoustics are great under those tunnels, in spite of passing joggers and cyclists, and we got lucky with the last rays of setting sun, not that she needed any added radiance.
Ange’s next UK date is playing mini-fest Frankstock on the 23rd July 2011, which we’re looking forward to. If you fancy a day in Dorset’s rolling hills and a damn fine barn party, hog roast and camp-fire combo then go ahead and book your tickets. We’ll put more info up about it nearer the time, once the full line-up is announced.
The ever-touring, multi-talented, thoroughly productive, cottage industry that is Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou are hatching another tour plan for June 2011 to see them on their way to Glastonbury Festival. This time they’ll be trading their hard-working camper van, Namgyal, for a canal boat and playing pubs along the canal at the locations below. They’re joined by original line up from their Village Hall tour in 2010: Jack Day, Benjamin Folke Thomas, and the very welcomed, safe return of Pepe Belmonte.. Join them for some canal-side entertainment along the way, while the sun shines.
Prior to setting off on their canal tour they’ll be doing a London show at the Lexington on June 16th in case you can’t make the others.
CANAL BOAT TOUR | FREE ENTRY
JUNE DATES
Fri 17 Newbury The Lock Stock and Barrel
Sat 18 Kintbury The Blue Ball
Sun 19 Hungerford The Railway Tavern
Mon 20 Bedwyn The Cross Keys
Tue 21 Pewsey The Crown
Wed 22 Honey Street The Barge Inn
more dates to come...
Their new album ‘Quality First, Last & Forever!’ is released on June 20th on Heavenly Recordings.
We got to film them one breezy, sunny afternoon on a canal boat by Regent’s Park, and celebrated Hannah’s birthday with cake and fine wine. Bon voyage! Chocks away! (Or whatever the nautical equivalent is).
We also recommend checking this version out; their very own film of the same song with added jangles, balloons and boxing gloves.
We’re putting on a night with our very own Mt. Pleasant DJs and two great acts that we’ve featured and filmed for the blog in the past few weeks. The Benjamin Folke Thomas Band and Serious Sam Barrett (coming all the way from Leeds) make up a seriously top quality double headliner, all for the entirely friendly price of £4. We don’t think there’ll be any protesting about that now.
Come join us on Thursday 14th April at the Scolt Head | 107A Culford Rd |London N1 4HT
Doors: 7:30 with Sam Barrett on at 8:30 sharp so get down early cause you certainly won’t want to miss any of it.
Lovely leafy beer garden to enjoy too if the weather is good.
Look forward to seeing you there. There’s a Facebook event page for it here too if you need.
Word of warning to anyone coming by bike: don’t lock your bike to the beer garden railings. We’ve unfortunately experienced people sawing through the bars and just picking bikes off there like ripe fruit.
We’re in the process of uploading films from the Lantern Society Showcase from last Saturday 5th March.
Though the regular Lantern Society nights can be a bit hit and miss on the talent stakes as they work their way through the 30 or so acts that turn up to play in an evening, their showcases are always guaranteed to be pure talent and a real treat on the ears.
Following their last showcase in January which boasted a spellbinding acoustic headline set from Romeo and Angela from the Magic Numbers, this Saturday was equally rich in sounds with the hugely talented Hank Dogs making a welcome comeback. The thinly-veiled tensions on stage between Andy and Piano left over from their years together were endearing and intriguing and added an intimacy to their performance as they aimed lyrics at each other with accusatory looks and entwined their always complimentary guitar and vocal styles around each other. We filmed the majority of their set to share with you, so click through on the link below and check our YouTube site for other tracks from their set. More will be coming in good time so check back and watch the full show.
There were also quality performances from Simon Stanley Ward, Greg Harrisburg, Joe Wilkes and our recently featured Pete Greenwood, performing songs from his new album as well as some fantastic covers of Ryan Adams and Townes van Zandt, some of which we also caught on film and will follow shortly.
Headlining was Lantern co-organiser Benjamin Folke Thomas and his full band who put on a suitably energetic and rambunctious performance for a Saturday night. The Oliver Reed of the London folk scene, Ben and his band punched out some of their classics to a more than willing audience, almost too much for some, as one audience member got sick and had to be assisted from the crowded basement. We witnessed a similar reaction at a recent BFT band outing as someone developed a nosebleed as the band cranked it up. Is this a sign of things to come? “Nosebleed country”?
We also caught most of the BFT Band’s show on film and have uploaded highlights for you to check out.
The Lantern Society continues to run as usual, 1st & 3rd Thursday of every month at the Betsey Trotwood. The next Lantern showcase which will be part of the Camden Crawl on the 30th April 2011. More news here nearer the time or check their site for details.
There’s also a Lantern Radio feature coming up on the 12th April on Bob’s Folk Show featuring club favourites and regulars. Keep an eye on our featured listing for more info.
Best heckle of the evening: A request for ’10th Avenue Freeze Out’ from sick-boy. Got the thumbs up from us. Judgement clearly not totally impaired by booze.
We meet Pete Greenwood at dusk on a canal boat by Regent’s Park, which in retrospect may have been a risky choice. For someone who writes songs of evocative, gentle beauty, he seems disproportionately prone to accidents. He winces as he takes a seat, having hurt his back on his girlfriend’s bookcase the night before. More seriously, two accidents a while back, one to each hand, prevented him playing the guitar for several months: ‘I dislodged a knuckle, broke a finger and severed a few nerve endings for good. Really nasty, but after lots of laughing gas and big nurses ramming things back into shape it’s as good as new. They said I’d need surgery but it turned out fine, really. Bloody scary though.’ The first date doctors would allow him to pick up his guitar again luckily coincided with the opening night of a tour with his band, acclaimed psychedelic janglers, The See See.
Leeds-born Greenwood has been taking time away from gigging more recently for more positive reasons: to concentrate on writing and recording his second solo album, ‘Beauceron’, which will be released by Heavenly Records later in the year. The day after we meet, he is heading back into the studio for the last day of recording. He speaks fondly of both Heavenly Records (‘My last album “Sirens” didn’t lose them any money so they’re happy for me to make another’) and label-mates Trevor Moss and Hannah-Lou, with whom he recently toured on their lovingly crafted Tin Tabernacle tour.
So what exactly is a Beauceron? ‘It’s a breed of French hunting dog, it’s huge and can kill a wolf. I thought I’d go with something big and scary. The new album’s a bit meatier, there’s a lot more going on and I’m playing most of the instruments myself, including banging an old alarm clock because it was in the right key, B flat.
‘It’s a lot more assured this time round, and a lot more varied. It’s taken so long to make [two years] that it’s been through three or four horrid break-ups, coupled with whatever other weird and horrible things have happened. I’d expect recurrent themes of heartbreak, madness, sturm und drang and resignation.
‘As for the touring, I’m arranging a shedload of gigs at the minute, mostly in London to start with… I’m also playing guitar for The See See; we go to Europe a lot, and just did a Brian Jonestown Massacre tour over here.’
Pete takes a seat in the galley and we film live favourite, ‘The 88’, a song that Trevor Moss and Hannah-Lou covered on the Tin Tabernacle tour. Later, as we cab across London to catch Ben Folke Thomas’s gig at the Garage, we discuss the inspiration behind ‘The 88’ and Pete tells us, ‘Since writing the song, the number 88 seems to come up in my life all the time.’ At that precise moment one of us notices the taxi meter has clicked round to £8.80.
You can see Pete Greenwood play songs from his new album at the Lantern Society showcase on Saturday 5th March at the Betsey Trotwood alongside Ben Folke Thomas, Hank Dogs, Joe Wilkes, Simon Stanley Ward and Greg Harrisburg. Turn up early: last time it was such a popular night that people were left out on the street … the capacity is only 88.
Pete Greenwood also plays Trevor Moss and Hannah-Lou’s Tin Tabernacle Revue at The Social on 16th March. A European tour with The See See begins at the end of the month, with more London solo dates to follow.
A group of five music fans and makers, film takers, image makers, some-time tour managers, ex band managers, music journalists, archaeologists, banjo players, prize drinkers, sharp thinkers, festival tinkers and a whole host of other things too numerous to go into here. We'd like to share what we love about the Folk|Country|Blues we are lucky to be surrounded by here in London and give you access to some of the talent we see and hear. Use us to keep up to date with what's on, who's playing, what's coming whether you live here or are just passing through.
Contact us at: info @ notesfrommtpleasant.com
This Wednesday 8th June, Danny & The Champions of the World are back in London for a headline show at the Borderline.
June 6, 2011
Kathy Magee
Notes from Mt. Pleasant 