Our wonderful cafe HQ now has its own vintage clothing shop, run by none other than Red Tides' own Molly Macleod!... http://fb.me/u5VvQhyf
Welcome to Debt Records
DEBT Records is a label born out of troubled times, a label nurse-fed on the understanding that current music industry practices are failing both artists and listeners. DEBT IS A LABEL THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO THAT INDUSTRY
Music Articles
Red Tides release WILD HOUR
02 September 2010
“Wild Hour” the new record by Debt’s jaw-dropping experimental folk outfit Red Tides is on general release from Monday 6th September 2010.
It will be available from the Debt Records shop and all the usual digital retailers plus selected independent outlets.
The Becca and Louis Duet Series
28 July 2010
Becca Williams (lead singer of Becca & The Broken Biscuits) and Louis Barabbas (captain of The Bedlam Six) have begun a long-term project that will see them tackle some of music history’s classic duets.
The idea for the duet series was first floated on the Louis Barabbas facebook page and received an overwhelmingly positive response. A call for submissions was immediately issued and over the course of the day dozens of suggestions came flooding in with ideas for potential covers.
From this first batch Louis and Becca chose Summer Wine (by Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra) to be the first in their series.
On 27th July they met up with Joel Roberts (Broken Biscuit bassist) at Fuel bar in Withington where Gus Fairbairn (Honeyfeet sax player) happened to be having a coffee. After a quick drink the four climbed the stairs up to the Debt Records press office where Debt co-founder Biff Roxby set up a small live rig to record the session.
Their version is faithful to the original. It is in the same key and tempo with similar orchestration. The only difference is that they have reversed the roles - Louis Barabbas appears as Nancy Sinatra and Becca Wlliams dons the tache to play Lee Hazlewood. In this new arrangement the song’s story of seduction becomes a more sinister animal. Louis’ delivery of Nancy’s choruses suggest that maybe the wine was spiked with something more than “strawberries, cherries and an angel’s kiss in spring…”
The song will be released as a free download exclusively through the Debt Records online shop on 4th August 2010 to mark the third anniversary of Lee Hazlewood’s death in 2007.
Here is footage of the four musicians laying down the track.
Honeyfest
14 July 2010
This year the UK’s most talked about new jazz-folk outfit Honeyfeet has been picked to open the 2010 Manchester Jazz Festival this month.
Times haven’t been easy for Honeyfeet in recent months. Their recent Spanish tour, whilst inspiring ecstatic audience reaction, was peppered with catastrophe - including two broken instruments and a defunct tour bus.
The five-piece (“graced by the Midas touch… plagued by the Midas touch”) stayed positive, however, and stayed tight. They are now back on home turf, putting the final touches on their new record “Scumbags” and getting ready for a lot of high profile shows around the country. As well as the Manchester Jazz Festival on 24th July, they will be the main support for highly acclaimed US performer C.W. Stoneking at the Ruby Lounge (2nd August) and among the highlights of the Green Phoenix Festival in Newcastle and Shambala in Northamptonshire (on 20th and 27th August respectively).
Tickets for the Manchester Jazz Festival can be bought here
Tickets for the C.W. Stoneking show can be bought here
www.greenphoenixfestival.org.uk/
www.shambalafestival.org/
www.myspace.com/honeyfeetmusic
Find Richard Barry's Uncle!
18 April 2010
Richard’s Uncle has gone away (but you can find him in the Debt Records shop)
Richard Barry is one of the most fondly revered performers on the UK folk circuit and Debt Records is making it their business to bring his work to a wider audience (whether he likes it or not). In the past Richard has shared the bill with the likes of Bob Geldof, Kiki Dee, Midge Ure, Fairport Convention and Dr Feelgood but now, at last, he is taking centre stage.
When the doors were first thrown open at the wonderful Kasbahn studio in Cheshire Richard and The Chaps went over to lay down a couple of demos in the live room, helping our engineer road test the space and iron out any kinks.
The result was two lovely little tracks that deftly address some of the popular song’s greatest themes: loss of a loved one and waiting for your wife to get dressed for dinner.
We urged Richard to let us officially release this as a double A-Side but he insisted that he had something a little more special planned for his first release with the label. He did, however, consent to letting us stick them in the shop as a free promo, as a way of sign-posting some of the material those Chaps have in store for us later this year.
So, to mark our second anti-press release (whereby we endeavor to reward those who are already supporting Debt Records by giving away music for free) here is “My Uncle’s Gone Away” and “Continents”, free to download from the shop.
We would like to let you know about future offers, releases and events so in order to take advantage of this freebie we ask that you join our mailing list. It must be said, however, that everyone at Debt is generally too busy gigging, recording and drinking to send out lots of mail so you probably won’t even notice you’re on the list. Needless to say, you can unsubscribe at any time.
Below is a video of Richard Barry & The Chaps performing “My Uncle’s Gone Away” live at The Dancehouse Theatre last year.
Debt Radio
06 April 2010
The Debt Records Free To Download Radio Show is here… and what a show to start on!
Biff Roxby presents an hour and a half of musical delights featuring tracks from Debt signings and independent contemporaries from all over the world. Plus the infamous John Fairhurst - recently returned from his tour of Australia and South East Asia - stops by the Kasbahn studio for an intimate acoustic session and interview.
Listen to the first Debt Records Radio Show
(Left click to stream, right click to download)
John Fairhurst himself will take the interviewer’s chair for the next broadcast. Check back here soon to find out who will be his guest…
This One Is For Mother...
02 March 2010
LOUIS BARABBAS & THE BEDLAM SIX WILL GIVE AWAY THEIR NEW SINGLE FREE ON MOTHER’S DAY. SIMPLY CLICK HERE AND LEAVE A MOTHER’S DAY COMMENT - THE BEST ONES WILL THEN BE READ OUT LIVE ON BBC RADIO MANCHESTER ON SAM WALKER’S SHOW.
IN YOUR MESSAGE PLEASE STATE WHETHER YOU’D LIKE US TO:
EMAIL THE MP3 TO YOU DIRECT
EMAIL IT DIRECT TO YOUR MUM
EMAIL YOU A DOWNLOAD CODE TO SAVE YOUR INBOX THE STRAIN
BELOW IS THE OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE AND VIDEO
Unlikely Mummy’s Boy Louis Barabbas, better known for his high-energy live performances and vitriolic lyrics, has announced that he will distribute his new single to mothers across the world free on UK Mother’s Day (14th March 2010), the day before its official release on Debt Records.
The song - aptly entitled Mother - sees Louis address themes of filial angst typically eschewed by more mainstream songwriters.
He doesn’t think his choice of subject matter is a strange one though:
“Why aren’t there more songs about the Mother/Son relationship? It’s one of the stock dramas, deep set in pretty much every myth going… that bond is so terrifying - in every sense - it’s both terrific and terrible.”
He goes on to wonder:
“Why does the music industry keep on churning out the same old inferior shadows of Peggy Sue when there are far richer models to revamp: Volumnia, mother of Coriolanus; Jocasta, mother of Oedipus - now that’s really destructive, properly violent, mind-altering love… Romeo and Juliet were such light-weights.”
So in what form will this give-away manifest itself?
Well, as much as we wanted to have a 7” vinyl pressing wrapped in the Maestà of Duccio waiting on every mother’s doormat, it’s just not possible in the current financial climate. The internet will, consequently, be our agent here. Visitors of the Debt website will be able to pick up the free single there and fans will have the option of giving us their mother’s email address so that we can send it direct. A selection of Mother’s Day messages will be published in the Debt Records news pages and the favourites read out on the evening of Mothering Sunday on BBC Manchester where Louis and the band will be in session to promote the release.
If you miss the offer, the record will be out through the usual channels on Monday 15th March.
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.
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…
Alabaster Abroad
20 January 2010
Debt’s resident absurdist wordsmith Alabaster Deplume, last seen buried in his home studio with Homelife’s Paddy Steer and members of Honeyfeet, has skipped town to play sax with Liz Green on her tour of Continental Europe. Below is a selection of their dates:
- 19 Jan - Fokus @ Jöngköping Bibliothek, Jöngköping (Sweden);
- 21 Jan - Fingerböllet, Kopenhagen (Denmark);
- 22 Jan - West Germany, Berlin (Germany);
- 23 Jan - Paris Syndrom, Leipzig (Germany);
- 24 Jan - Werkstatt, Chur (Switzerland);
- 25 Jan - better2gether, Reutlingen (Germany);
- 26 Jan - Graf Hugo, Feldkirch (Austria);
- 27 Jan - Rocking Chair, Vevey (Switzerland);
- 28 Jan - Papiersaal, Zurich (Switzerland);
- 29 Jan - Kohi, Karlsruhe (Germany);
- 30 Jan - Salle Ockegheim, Tours (France);
- 31 Jan - Mofo Festival, Saint-Quen (France).
Bedlam Break
15 January 2010
Debt’s in-house band The Bedlam Six will be taking two months off from playing live shows while they work on their second album.
After three years of near solid gigging they’re eager to recharge batteries, make plans and work on new material. Louis Barabbas, the songwriter, says “we’ve been playing the same set for months, it’s becoming slightly robotic. There are tons of songs ready to go, we just need to rehearse them. Also we’re determined that the next album won’t take two years to release (like the last one did) so we need to get going on that - it won’t record itself!”
Their last show before the hiatus is at the Dancehouse Theatre on Saturday 16th January.
We will, however, keep you updated with news and photographs from the studio, fresh recordings and upcoming live dates.
The Bedlam Six will return in March to play their first and second albums live - back to back!
Louis Barabbas commissioned to write the soundtrack for major motion picture
10 January 2010
Jog On Son and Boom Productions have asked Debt co-founder Louis Barabbas to write the music for their upcoming feature film biopic of BKB World Champion Paddy Monaghan.
This will be a major cinema release charting the childhood and professional career of the only undefeated bare knuckle boxer the world has ever seen. Paddy also reached international attention outside of the sport when he spear-headed the campaign to reinstate Mohammed Ali’s fight license after it was revoked following his refusal to go to Vietnam.
Louis is assembling a special team of musicians for the project including members of The Bedlam Six, Honey Feet and The Broken Biscuits. Pre-Production begins in March 2010. The working title is “The Rough Diamond”.
The Bedlam Six release first album
10 January 2010
After sitting on the recordings for nearly two years (occasionally flogging a few CDRs hastily wrapped in clingfilm at gigs) Debt’s in-house band The Bedlam Six will finally release their first album Found Drowned. The release will perversely coincide with Valentine’s Day 2010. The group are currently in the studio working on the follow up Love & Other Demons.
Debt comes to Mexico
10 January 2010
David Rybka, the enigmatic and unpredictable frontman of The Victorian Dad Band (currently performing in North Spain) is to be the latest member of the Debt Set to attempt to break into the Mexican music scene.
The tour has been organized by Debt Records affiliate and arts promoter Jonathan Bonfiglio (founder of the Spanish acoustic festival Kuiperfest). Bonfiglio organized a similar tour for Louis Barabbas in late 2009 and will be doing the same for John Fairhurst in April 2010.
John Fairhurst is the new sound of charity
10 January 2010
Music by Debt’s wildest signing has been used in a documentary about Traditional Heathcare, a charity set up in Australia to build and run sustainable healthcare facilities in India, Broom and Alice springs for very disadvantaged communities. www.thc.org.au.
Signed
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