MAPS Line-Up

25 February 2010

Here is the line-up for the Debt Records Stage at Manchester’s MAPS Festival. Running order and stage times will be published nearer the event.

Where: The Bay Horse, Thomas Street, Manchester Northern Quarter
When: 2pm-10.30pm - 3rd May 2010

• JOHN FAIRHURST
  
• DAVID RYBKA & THE VICTORIAN DAD BAND
  
• SAMSON & DELILAH
  
• THE SUNS
  
• MOLLY MACLEOD BAND
  
• AL BAKER & THE DOLE QUEUE
  
• RICHARD BARRY & THE CHAPS
  
• SR GENTS
  
• BECCA & THE BROKEN BISCUITS
  
• STILL DOWN GILL
  
• LOUIS BARABBAS (acoustic)

Compere: MONKEY POET MATT PANESH

• DJ Sets from ROXBY’S WONKY DISCO
• BBQ (weather permitting)

Join the MAPS Facebook group here to be kept abreast of the latest festival developments and Manchester Arts news.

Read More | 1 comment

Al Baker is On The Move

24 February 2010

Our good friend Al Baker, much-praised radical folk-punker and leader of The Dole Queue, is teaming up with revolutionary leftfield hip-hop artist The Ruby Kid for a short tour of the UK next month.

The dates are as follows:

THE RED SCARE TOUR March 2010

Friday 12th - Brighton - Caroline of Brunswick
Saturday 13th - London (Stoke Newington) - Ryan’s Bar
Sunday 14th - Bristol - The Croft
Monday 15th - Leeds - The Pack Horse
Tuesday 16th - Manchester - The Corner (compered by Debt’s own Matt Panesh with DJ sets from Roxby’s Wonky Disco and appearances from celebrated Debt Associates!)
Wednesday 17th - Nottingham - Chameleon Café
Thursday 18th - Cambridge - The Hopbine

Upon their return, Al and the band will be locking themselves away inside PlainSounds Studio and laying down (at long last) their maddeningly anticipated second album. The record will be released through Debt later this year.

More information on Al Baker & The Dole Queue can be found at www.albaker.co.uk

Read More | Leave a comment

Latest Becca Dates

20 February 2010

Becca & The Broken Biscuits have just updated us on some new gig dates, including a performance with award-winning folk sensation Jim Moray in North Wales and a mainstage appearance at Cumbria’s much loved Solway Festival.

Sunday 21st Feb - Nordoff Robbins Charity night @ Oddest, Chorlton.

Sunday 28th Feb - Appearing on BBC Radio Manchester (95.1fm) Andy Crane show. 12-2pm

Saturday 6th Mar - Supporting Jim Moray @ Trelawnyd Memorial Hall, N.Wales.

Sunday 11th Apr - Green Bohemia @ The Green Room, Manchester.

Saturday 24th Apr - Hope Mill, Manchester.

Sunday 2nd May - MAPS Festival @ Night’n’Day, Manchester.

Monday 3rd May - DEBT RECORDS STAGE at MAPS Festival @ The Bay Horse, Manchester.

Saturday 3rd July - Ymuno Festival, Conwy N.Wales.

Sunday 29th August - Solfest, Cumbria.

For up-to-the-minute news on Becca & The Broken Biscuits visit their myspace page or contact us to be added to their mailing list.

Read More | Leave a comment

LOVE IS...

15 February 2010

You wrote to us in droves, like swarms of angry cupids, some wanting to take advantage of our Valentine’s Day album giveaway, some merely wanting to share their innermost feelings about LOVE.

So, what did you have to say for yourselves?

Here are a few of the responses we got (sorry, couldn’t publish them all - partly due to sheer numbers, partly for the sake of decency!)

LOVE IS…

…that indefinable feeling that sticks two together even when the glue stops working

… always being on your side even when you’re not on your own side.

…a hungarian poetry recital

…sadly slowing down my heart

…not buying your girlfriend a Valentines Day card or present, and her being remarkably calm about the let down.

…never running out of Marmite!

…champagne at lunch time and chunky Fanny Burney through a drunken haze in the afternoon.

…nearly as good as getting a free album

…freedom?

… someone that understands you when everyone else is left scratching their heads

… pain…

…never lost, just sometimes misplaced.

…everything

…A nice cup of tea being made for you just round about 3 in the afternoon. (biscuit/roll up optional)

…the only true adventure that keeps me guessing, sustained by action, communication and belief in yourself as much as trust in the other.

…a universal common thing that melt all the living things

…was and always will be exhausting- in a good way mostly.

…patient … a losing game … in the air … blind … just another word i never learned to pronounce

…very difficult and not hollywood-like at all, but usually worth the effort (if it’s really real…)

…like a new pair of Doc Martens, when you first get them you can’t stop looking at them, the longer you have them the better they become including creases and scuffs, you just love them for being them :-) x

…getting stuff free, especially good music!

…saying ‘I love you’ and doing (free) nice things every day and not just because it’s Valentine’s Day and the media say that you should spend lots of money doing it!!!

…food for the soul, devour it while you can!

…love is someone drawing on you with a biro

…the enemy of apathy.

…like a box of chocolates: you didn’t ask for it in the first place but you just can’t help dipping-in, pinching all the good stuff & feeling guilty about throwing away the hard bits.

…not what you think it is…

…wanting to spend all your time with someone, but understanding when they can’t!

…the slowest heart attack you will ever have.

…a pain in the heart, arse and wallet

…knowing someone has your back and you will always have theirs

…cabbage and chocolate soup.

…better than a warm trombone

…giving me a free download of an album. love is loving a free download. love is defining love.

…not for me

…a near-death experience.

…either a fools game or the most powerful force in the universe

…what happens when you didn’t believe in it anymore.

…blind… So why is lingerie so popular?!?

…a good excuse for a drink.

…usually over in the morning!!!

…like a plane ride - a huge amount of anticipation and uncertainty, a quick take off and takes ages to land. Sometimes you crash. Sometimes you get cheated. And it’s bloody expensive too.

…incurable

…an illusion lost in the mist of some distant misunderstanding, and a constant warmth embracing my solitary heart.

…never having to say ‘that’s disgusting’

…a fascinating combinations of chemical reactions in the brain. Rather than making love seem less special that fact we can understand it makes it even more immense.

…whatever you want it to be

…a green-eyed monster.  No, that’s jealousy.  Oh wait, what’s the difference?

…short-sighted

…the ultimate selfishness.

…not about looking in each others eyes …. it’s about looking in the same direction

…gleefully severing off an appendage of your choice then through the subsequent off-kilter blinking, nauseating pain and suffocating dizziness finding that the flailing, spurting stump has in its sanguinary writhings produced a dazzlingly accurate replica of your true and only heart’s desire, Les Dennis

…fighting the battle between my instinctive selfishness and the desire to make other people happy. If you can find balance from the chaos, you might occasionally glimpse real love.

…a morpheme which, through convention,now represents a feeling of affection from one human to another. Love is misleading. You don’t need to be loved back in order to love. But surely the more love you give, the more you will get back. Be loving.

…short and life is always over in the morning. …never having to go to Surrey. …the giving of an umbrella in a back street boozer in Salford.

…not a crackhouse, it’s a crackhome.

…Complicated… painful… obsessive…. hardwork.. but also beauteous, joyful, carefree and passionate….. to quote Tennyson “It is better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all”

…complicated..frustrating…obsessive…hard work…and yet beauteous, joyful, carefree, passionate….

…difficult, frustrating, heartbreaking… but always worth it

…the tragicomedy that makes life more than an empty stage…and we all know something is better than nothing..

…free, at least, it should, but every year as the 14th draws near, we wrestle ideas from behind blind eyes and between deaf ears in a crass attempt to tempt the attentions of those who are subjects of our amorous intentions, only to find that behind the lines that divide the sexes, the lovers , the ex’s, that money talks, but bullshit walks………

…everything it’s cracked up to be. That’s why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.

…a dangerous and exiting poison that makes us think for a brief moment that our life has meaning. But when you’re alone, you realize that love is a horrible mirage and the only true love is the love for yourself. Women let me go…

And here’s a new one from Louis Barabbas:

LOVE IS…not some open road we walk in pairs. It is an open wound we salt with promises.

“Found Drowned” by Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six is now on general release.

Read More | 1 comment

Happy Valentine's Day!

14 February 2010

Well it’s Valentine’s Day and the Debt Set are scattered across the world wondering what all the fuss is about. But, since romance is the number one cause of song-writing, we thought that it was appropriate for a record label to get in on the action.

As you may know, Debt Records is giving away “Found Drowned” by Louis Barabbas and The Bedlam Six for free (today only!) as an antidote to all the rose-tinted mania. To claim your free download simply go to The Debt Records contact section and write a message with the subject line “Love Is…”. We will then send you a message with a special download key. Offer is open globally until midnight (we will take timezones into account - if you message us on monday we’ll probably just assume you’re in Samoa).

Many of you have already sent us your definitions and they’re absolutely brilliant! You’ll be hearing from us before the day is out.

In the meantime, give your lover a kiss from us…

(Illustration by Rebekah Joy Shirley www.rebekahshirley.com)

Read More | 4 comments

David Rybka & The Mexican Dad Band

13 February 2010

David Rybka is currently on tour in Mexico. He is the latest in a line of Debt songwriters to cross the Atlantic and bring the new Manchester sound to North America (the first being Louis Barabbas last November - the next will be John Fairhurst later this year).

He is touring with author, producer and raconteur Jon Bonfiglio, recently seen in these news pages in the context of his own world tour. In addition to the live shows Dave will be teaming up with a number of Mexican musicians (plus Victorian Dad drummer Matt McNicholas - joining them in March) to record an acoustic record fusing his own style with those of the local artists. The record will be released on Debt in the Autumn.

Last we heard Rybka and co were about to rent a truck and speed off into the mountains.

Let’s hope they actually get some work done.

Here are a selection of live dates:

13th Feb - El Limonero (Cholula), 26 Feb Galeria Rahel (Mexico City), 7 Mar Black Horse (Mexico City), 13 Mar Caso Spencer (Cuernavaca - Distrito Federal), 28 Mar Oaxaca, 8 Apr UNAM Morelos (Cuernavaca), 10th Apr La Turbina (Tepotzlan), El Hijo Del Cuervo (Mexico City).

For a full list see The Victorian Dad Band myspace page

Read More | 3 comments

Valentine's Day Giveaway!

10 February 2010

PRESS RELEASE - DEBT RECORDS’ VALENTINE’S DAY GIVEAWAY

LOVE IS…
A free album from Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six

Manchester independent label Debt Records is offering you a Valentine’s Day gift that’ll outlast all those bouquets and boxes of chocolate (and probably the subsequent marriages and children too). Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six’s debut album Found Drowned is available on 14th February 2010 absolutely free.

The twelve track LP - recorded over the course of a ten day caffeine blur in a crowded Withington house - was completed in January 2008 and is only now being officially released after two years of the band flogging clingfilm-wrapped hand-illustrated versions for petrol money at gigs.

The group have achieved much acclaim since their inception in late 2006, playing with the likes of Supergrass and Motorhead, rubbing shoulders with jazz veterans Sun Ra’s Arkestra, adapting poems by John Cooper Clarke and even winning the support of the Hell’s Angels. In spite of this success, however, the near constant destruction of instruments, vehicles and equipment has meant that there’s never been enough money left over to press a record. Luckily for the band, The Community Foundation of Greater Manchester recently decided to help out and this long overdue album (the first of three records anticipated for this year) will at last be on general release.

But why give the record away for free? On Valentine’s Day of all days?

“Because,” explains song-writer and front-man Louis Barabbas, “Valentine’s Day is a wretched, gimmick-stricken, expensive excuse to hate yourself and this album is, contrastingly, all about love. Granted it isn’t about the radiant, hopeful, life-affirming aspects of love… the material is sordid, obsessive, manipulative and cynical - the perfect soundtrack to Valentine’s Day.”

The songs - gleeful romance tragedies that range from swing to folk to rock and back again - are peppered with love metaphors that you’d be hard pressed to find in a
Hallmark card (such as “Relationships are like chickenpox, you’ve got to get immune when you’re young”). This is the crux of the giveaway - it requires an act of creativity on both sides: Go to www.debtrecords.net, fill out the contact form with the subject “Love Is…” and send off your own definition (or leave the space enigmatically blank) to receive a secret Found Drowned download key to the tracks and artwork.

If you miss the offer, the record will be out through the usual channels on 15th February. Stay tuned for Mother’s Day plans…

Read More | 31 comments

DEBT MEETS MAPS

09 February 2010

Debt Records will be working alongside Manchester’s formidable MAPS Festival to make the 2010 Mayday Weekend a truly memorable event.

The festival’s aim is to support and promote music, art and creativity in the busy Northern Quarter - and in Manchester as a cultural city - through involvement of the public in the wide variety of activities encountered in the area.

Unlike many city festivals MAPS has the full backing of The Musician’s Union with a programming and profit plan that follows a strict code of conduct.

Debt Records will be offering a free album made by contributing signees to MAPS weekend wristband holders. We will also be curating the Bay Horse underground stage for the all-dayer on 3rd May - a whopping eight hours of music, poetry and dancing. Our full line-up will be announced next month but so far we have confirmation from John Fairhurst, Al Baker & The Dole Queue, Molly Macleod Band and David Rybka. Monkey Poet Matt Panesh will be compering.

More details to follow nearer the time…

Read More | Leave a comment

Movement & Memory

04 February 2010

Debt Records Affiliate and Creative Consultant Jon Bonfiglio is currently touring the world with his talk On Movement and Memory, a project that began in the fictional world of his latest play Midnight, When Trumpets Cry but now has a life all of its own.

The subjects of history, identity and collective memory feature in the talk though two are never alike, each one being written on the day of performance (usually on transient objects such as newspapers or menus).

Bonfiglio is regularly twittering about the lecture series. Here are a selection of his recent posts:

Photographs only ever display earlier versions of us, make us constantly aware of what we used to be. Little wonder the weight of the past. 12:57 PM Jan 30th

The central paradox of Gibraltar is in its physicality, at once tiny yet also visibly a colossus, to the Spanish a perpetual inverted scar. 11:34 AM Jan 27th

We do not mourn strangers because they cannot recollect our lives - whereas our lovers…; without their memories, we find ourselves erased. 12:22 AM Jan 12th

To follow Jon on twitter follow this link

Read More | Leave a comment

And That's A Wrap...

01 February 2010

Filming for Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six’s video “Mother” is now complete. The crew wrapped at 06:15 on Sunday 31st January after twenty six hours of shooting (following weeks of set building, prop manufacture and storyboarding).

The sight of The Bedlam Six standing on nursery chairs with their heads in nooses over the course of the first night’s shoot was creepy enough, but nothing could prepare the crew for Louis’ transformation into the austere figure of Mama Barabbas during the final hours of filming. It seems there has now emerged a new level to the singer’s mania. We hope you enjoy the result.

For more information about the film company responsible for this project visit www.seriousfeather.com

Read More | Leave a comment

bang out

01 February 2010

John G. Hall’s latest book of poetry (entitled “Bang”) is now available in the UK and USA

“In these sad, terrible, wondrous days, it is reassuring to read the poetry of John G. Hall, writings that remind us that the generative power of poetry comes not from the formalists and the faux counter-culturalists inside the academy, but from the people standing outside the academy’s lustrous gates…”

(George Wallace, Poet Laureate, Suffolk County, New York)

Cover art is by German artist Marion Lucka, Forward by poet Lucy Lepchani.

It is available to buy here

Read More | 1 comment