A Date with Yates

31 May 2010

This month’s Debt Records Presents… will take place on the first saturday of the month rather than the usual second friday (due to the Debt Set flying off to Spain next week for the Kuiperfest acoustic festival).

We like to think that the gigs we curate are something a little bit special, after all we’re musicians on both sides of the industry and know what works live. The upcoming show on Saturday 5th June, however, is something we’re particularly excited about. As well as a headline set from our newest signing Honeyfeet (one of the finest live acts of our age), we herald the triumphant return of Thomas E Yates after a two year sabbatical from the live circuit.

Tom has been on our radar for years - we met him in early 2007 at a Bedlam Six gig (when they were called The Black Velvet Band). He was an enthusiastic yet very shy first year student from Wigan seeking to size up the Manchester “scene” before plunging into it himself.

Since then he has developed his craft and grown into one of the most compelling and unpredictable singer-songwriters we’ve ever come across. It is with great pleasure that we host his live show this coming saturday at Fuel Bar in Withington.

Yates’ debut EP will be released on Debt Records this Summer.

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Un-Convention's Day Of The Idiot

21 May 2010

The album that took only twelve hours to make can be freely downloaded from Un-Convention’s Sound Cloud site. The record is a re-imagining of Iggy Pop’s first solo release The Idiot, with covers by artists from all across the genre spectrum.

We are obviously most excited by track six as it is performed by Debt’s very own Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six (who managed to make a seven minute heroin dirge into something a little bit more swinging).

A slideshow of photos from the day can be found on the BBC Manchester website.

To learn more about Un-Convention and the wonderful things they do visit their blog page at unconvention.wordpress.com/

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Andrzej Hood

14 May 2010

Hollywood Hood is no good. Our friend Andrzej Stepien, however, has got something that’s actually worth giving to the poor - a free song about Robin Hood on the day Russel Crowe’s misguided interpretation hits UK screens

Here’s what Andrzej has to say on the matter:

“Everyone knows Robin Hood wears bright green tights and mugs people like David Cameron, then he gives the money to the poor. Robin Hood doesn’t swan about saving England from civil war and he certainly isn’t played by Russell Crowe. Robin Hood is brilliant and Hollywood always seems to let him down. When I wrote this song I wanted to put across that central ethos of violently enforced altruism in a manner that even a child could understand and enjoy. Giving the track away as a free download seems true to the spirit of Robin Hood and will hopefully go some way to countering this film’s cynical dilution of the Robin Hood myth.”

Click here to get your free download (tights not included)

For more information about Andrzej Stepien visit his website at www.astepien.com or go to Fuel’s Open Mic night in Manchester every Wednesday.

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Un-Convention's Invisible Band

09 May 2010

The last few days have seen two historic events take place: the first UK hung parliament in thirty six years and the first album to be recorded, produced, pressed and released in a mere twelve hours.

The latter is, of course, Un-Convention Factory. Eight bands, Sixty music industry professionals and three hundred people in a converted factory space recreating Iggy Pop’s “The Idiot” album to mark the thirtieth anniversary since Ian Curtis hanged himself while listening to it.

One of those bands was Debt’s own Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six who were commissioned to rearrange track six “Dum Dum Boys”. Despite receiving praise on the day from everyone from Har Mar Superstar to UB40’s sax player they don’t get a credit on the album sleeve. The artwork for the record was produced and printed in-house and somehow the band with the longest name (playing the album’s longest song) was left off the sleeve notes. This oversight comes as no surprise to Louis:

“It’s pointless getting annoyed about these things, it happens all the time and has characterized our musical career. We’re best known for our live presence but to the existing industry we’ve always been invisible - it’s apt for us to be anonymous on the only record that has any kind of mainstream appeal… it tickles my perverted sense of humour that anyone enjoying our track on the Unconvention album will have no idea who’s playing it. Besides, I’ve always said I’d rather be a myth than a legend.”

The whole Debt Records team were at the factory all day and were moved by the mixture of positive collaboration and useful discussion between current practitioners (coupled with the usual industry survivors wittering on about the good old days) - it was a curious harmony of new ideas, community spirit and optimism with a handful of irrelevant famous people wasting everyone’s time. A perfect mirror to what we now hesitantly call “the music business”.

For more information about the great things that Un-Convention gets up to visit their blog.

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Honeyfeet and Levantes Dance Theatre

04 May 2010

“The quirky & eccentric touches suggest the depths of emotion & even perversity that lie beneath the mundane & everyday.” The Stage

“With a kitsch aesthetic & kooky costumes… [they] create a space where a world of play is superimposed on the ordinary & everyday.” Metro

“Room Temperature Romance”
Manchester Premiere
Greenroom, Manchester M1 5WW
Friday 7th May @ 8pm
www.greenroomarts.org

Choreographed and Performed by Eleni Edipidi and Bethanie Harrison Multimedia design by Gopan Iyadurai
Guest performance by HoneyFeet

Room Temperature Romance blends dance, video & movement with flamboyant costume & evocative audio. This fantasy voyage indulges in the delights of both ordinary & extraordinary behaviour, revealing their beauty and ultimately making you smile.

It tells a charming story about the moments that mean nothing and everything in life’s daily routine. Combining the mundane with the absurd, audiences are taken on a trip down memory lane as the performers recount tales of youth, life and love.

Winner of the 2009 Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award & co-produced by barbicanbite09, this is the first time the work has been seen outside London.

This performance will be followed by a Q&A.

http://www.greenroomarts.org/archive/events/room-temperature-romance/

www.levantesdancetheatre.org

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MAPS Festival Free Download!

03 May 2010

This news item is being written from the Debt Records stage at Manchester’s Northern Quarter Festival - MAPS (Music, Art, Poetry & Stuff). It’s a great day, we’ve already had Louis Barabbas and Al Baker playing stripped down sets, currently Still Down Gill are rocking everyone’s socks off and the wonderful Red Tides are on next.

Later on this mammoth all-dayer we’ll be hearing from Debt’s own Honeyfeet, John Fairhurst, Richard Barry and Becca & The Broken Biscuits, as well as Plain Sounds’ signature signing The Suns, Samson & Delilah from Little Red Rabbit Records, SR Gents and poetry from Matthew Wilson, Carol Batton and… of course… our very own Monkey Poet compering (and drinking).

To celebrate this monumental line-up we have created a special promo download, available free from our shop for a limited time only (no idea how long it’ll be there - until the next giveaway probably).

So head over to the shop and pick up yours. Or better still, get down to The Bay Horse on Thomas Street in Manchester and come watch some of these acts live!

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