The next Debt event is in Liverpool, running a stage at the wonderful @ThresholdFest on 11th Feb. Details here: http://t.co/Yla1OZOQ
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
Shows and Tours Articles
Threshold Festival
31 January 2012
Threshold Festival returns to Liverpool 10th-12th February 2012 and, once again, Debt Records is a part of it.
The Debt Records stage (Saturday 11th Feb) will feature a range of artists plucked from across the UK and Ireland: Age Of Glass, Felix Hagan, Bridie Jackson & The Arbour, TE Yates, Pearse McLoughlin and Rik Warren. Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six will also be playing on the Liverpool Live stage on Friday 10th.
Festival Director Chris Carney said “Even though there is talk of juicy headliners this year, the focus will again be stoically grass roots. Last years event prided itself on being the platform for those without one, and this is as important as ever.”
It promises to be another great event.
For more information visit the Threshold Festival Website
All tickets are available here so click on and buy yours now, or to offer your services as a volunteer just email info@thresholdfestival.com
Festival Directors: (and press contact) Chris Carney, Chris@Thresholdfestival.com, Kaya Herstad Carney, Kaya@thresholdfestival.com Festival Co-Ordinator: Rachel Dyer, Rachel@Thresholdfestival.com
Debt At The Chapel
24 January 2012
Debt’s first outing at the wonderful Platt Chapel, and have we got a party for you! An unholy double bill comprising FIGMO and Physical Jerks.
Here’s what people say about F.I.G.M.O…
Imagine a thousand, no, a million golden eagles! Swooping to earth, talons extended, they are met by a whoosh of glory as the Virgin Mary fires out the Son Of God. From the flank, as yet unseen, a stampede of tyrannosaurs bring in the low-end. In the distance, but getting louder, volcanoes erupt in perfect precision……
Enough said.
www.wefuckingrock.co.uk/
The Physical Jerks
Physical Jerks are a ska/reggae/dub band who met somewhere in salford in about 2004. Brought together by a love of Phatt bass, offbeats, theremins and sax cadenzas they went on to carve an unwanted swathe across the manchester ska scene, engaging in sonic terrorism of the masses.
“…he mechanically shot his arms back and forth, wearing on his face the look of grim enjoyment which was considered proper during the Physical Jerks…” - George Orwell, 1984
WR Audio are providing the live sound rig and Roxby’s Wonky Disco will be providing the gap filling foot tappers. After F.I.G.M.O. finish off the live element of the evening RWD will bust out the serious boogie music for those still left standing.
Tickets £4
An Open Recording Session presented by Louis Barabbas
04 January 2012
IT’S LOUIS BARABBAS’ BIRTHDAY ON SATURDAY 21st JANUARY… AND HE WANTS TO MAKE A NEW RECORD.
Louis J. Barabbas does not want presents… he wants PRESENCE. Specifically YOUR presence at an open recording session in the theatre space above the Black Lion pub (on the Manchester/Salford border).
Louis will open the evening with an unplugged set of new material and old favourites. Next up will be Newcastle’s Bridie Jackson followed by Manchester’s infamous Richard Barry.
The event begins with a drink and chat with the performers before we close the doors at 8pm and begin the recording. Late-comers will not be admitted whilst recording is taking place (though there will be intervals). Once the performances are over we’ll be letting our hair down and dancing to some old swing classics of Louis’ choosing.
We do hope you can come be a part of this recording (they always sound better with the tinkle of glasses in the background!)
Tickets are £5 on the door
Debt At The Mansion
18 November 2011
We bring you a massive Winter Weekend filled with delights for all your senses - from live music, film and DJs to seasonal market stalls and some lovely foodage courtesy of Fuel Cafe. A free glass of mulled wine and a mince pie will be available to all ticket holders.
Advance weekend passes can be booked online here (no booking fee).
Antwerp Mansion is located at Kent Road West, Rusholme Manchester M14 5RF
Saturday - Doors 7.30pm - An evening of live music and DJing. Hannah Moulette will start the night off, followed by Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six then DJ Coops will spearhead the party which will carry on long into the night.
Sunday - Doors 2pm - A day of merriment. Market stalls featuring local produce and collectable items will be punctuated by intimate acoustic performances from T.E Yates, Dave Rybka and the showing of a Christmas film. Food will be available all afternoon from the wonderful folks at Fuel doing a spot of mobile catering. Then begins an evening with Honeyfeet, giving the band a chance to wow you with all the songs you don’t usually hear at gigs, as well as the hits.
Tickets - £5 for day tickets or £8 for the whole weekend (option to upgrade on the day).
Honeyfeet (Sunday)- Put simply, Honeyfeet are Manchester’s best ethio-trad, barrel-house pop, cowpunk and folk-hop band. Put even more simply, do not miss this! “This is a band with the talent to make you listen, the beats to make you move and the sheer confidence and audacity to pull the whole gosh darned thing together. They really are worth catching up with; your hips will thank you for it…. ” - David Edwards, Manchester Music http://www.honeyfeet.org/
Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six (Saturday) - Manchester and Debt Records’ very own ‘Dirt Swing’ aficionados will make your feet fall foul of dancing fever. “Excellent in every way” - BBC6 Music “Outstanding” - Drowned In Sound “A dynamite vest couldn’t have blown my tits off with such gusto..” - Front Magazine www.bedlamsix.com www.debtrecords.net
Hannah Moulette (Saturday) - Hannah Miller of the Moulettes will perform her incredible solo set. Prepare to stop jaws from hitting the floor. “Complex & beautiful. Intriguing & unique” -MOJO http://www.myspace.com/moulettes
T.E Yates (Sunday) - When left alone for long enough T.E. Yates will dream up worlds of stirring laments and fever-inspiring aural daubings about everything from trainspotters to doll assembly lines. “I can’t stop watching T.E. Yates” - Liz Green www.teyates.com www.debtrecords.net
Dave Rybka (Sunday) - Mr. Rybka of Victorian Dad goes all solo with his moving yet muscular songs. “Bright and ballsy, down and dirty, Rybka’s northern swagger sets the tone, a unique and original talent” - BBC6 Music www.victoriandadband.com
DJ Coops (Saturday) - With his obscure yet terrifyingly infectious records, Coops will not fail to make you boogie. “Absolutely and without question the best DJ in Manchester” - Rik Warren http://www.mixcloud.com/coops/
Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six Album Launch Party at The Ruby Lounge
04 August 2011
The launch party for Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six’s new live album will feature special guest appearances and exclusive collaborations with Kirsty Almeida, Liz Green, Richard Barry and Becca Williams at Manchester’s Ruby Lounge on Saturday 6th August. The album is officially released the following Monday (8th August).
The first album by original Dirt-Swing progenitors Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six featured a string section, brass ensemble and twelve-piece dog-impersonation choir; the second release closed with a Richard Burton-style narrative-led instrumental epilogue. This new record, however, is much simpler - seven friends playing seventeen songs recorded live in their hometown of Manchester at the beginning of a Europe-wide tour.
They chose the prestigious Dancehouse Theatre as the location for the ambitious recording of their infamously energetic live show. That night (5th February 2011) the auditorium was packed to bursting and those that didn’t book ahead had to be turned away from the door. The band played three sets (including a stint as backing group for special guest John Otway) and over the course of the night the bar had to be restocked no less than three times. When the final curtain fell the calls of Encore rang out long after the houselights came up.
“It was a real career highlight” says Louis, “it’s been a hard slog getting to this point but walking out onto that big stage in our hometown, playing with my personal hero to a full house and making a record all at the same time was an experience I’ll never forget… it also energised all of us in anticipation of our first European tour.”
Now the album they recorded that night is about to be released and the band have got a fittingly spectacular launch party planned. This time the Ruby Lounge will be the venue - “it’s a less formal setting than the Dancehouse” says Louis, “a place where people can feel at ease heckling or throwing their drinks at the stage - and it’s good for a boogie!”
As well as performing two sets of their own material the band will be joined by contemporaries from the Manchester music circuit, playing specially prepared collaborative pieces. Guests include the internationally renowned Kirsty Almeida and Liz Green, as well as popular label-mates Richard Barry and Becca Williams.
The collaborative aspect of this launch is typical of The Bedlam Six, a band that have always avoided conventional support/headline events if they can help it, especially in Manchester:
“There’s only so much control you can have over a show when you’re out on tour” says Louis, “but when you’re playing to your home audience - some of which were there at the very beginning - you are obliged to make that show something special, something a bit exclusive. The day we stop making that special effort is the day we retire.”
Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six play Manchester’s Ruby Lounge on Saturday 6th August. The live album is out the following monday, available from the Debt Records Shop.
Bedlam Six Live Album Inlay Notes
10 May 2011
We are going to send the Bedlam Six live album to the pressing plant soon. As promised, the names of audience members will be among the sleeve notes.
If you were at the show please have a quick glance at the list below to check that we have transcribed your names correctly. If you see a name of someone you were with but the spelling is inaccurate let us know about that too as they may not see this post.
Only about half the people present on the night gave us their name so if you know anyone who was there and isn’t on the list but would like to be let us know and we’ll add them.
Right, here it is…
Stefan Elsaesser, Dan Keehan, Ruthie Roo, Jennifer Liddle, Alex Mastin, Kim Casement-Mastin, Helen Crosbie, Adam Harper, Jess Connor, Vivienne Webster, Jade Mellor, Paul Rawlings, Richard Mullineux, Annemarie Visser, David Smith, Phylidda and Mike Maude Roxby, Terri Lucas, Carol Lucas, Gus Fairbairn, John Weldon, Louise Bilous, Neil Hilton, Erik Swyngedouw, Cail Kinton, Ian Moss, Mr Beg, Robert Woodhead, Richard Taylor, Eric Hamill, Trish Nevitt, Patrick Maude-Roxby, Danny “Mr Beat” Chorlton, Tom Munday, Jess Maude-Roxby, Lucy Moffit, Richard O’Connor, Ant Parr, Becky Dixon, Martin Connell, Chris Bye, Sam Garrett, Bee Gebhardt, Maria Kaika, Melanie Phillips, Ben Ferguson, Eleanor Goddard, Eric Thomas, Elaine Ellery, Kirstin Ramskir, Rashid Bouaissi, Liam and Nazia, Sam Saxby, Gemma Bradley, Laura Mackey, Andy Holland, Chris Naylor, Keith Naylor, Kyle Naylor, Judy and Len Cegielka, Jimmy Cush, Lynne Maggie Jaap Jenkinson, Gemma Hadsall, Rattler Damo, Ratther Jenkins, Louise Silous, Neil Hilton, Chris Wood, Mike Morris, Caroline McKevitt, Nick Wright, Mark Wharton, Sinbad, Mark Dwyer, Aiden Spencer, Philip Taylor, Adam Robertshaw, Colin Jackson, Sam Roberts, Jennifer Jackson, Alison Jackson, Sarah Wilde, Sophie Wright, Lorna Bennett, Arwell Jones, Damian McAreavey, Benedict Gifford, Jonathan McAreavey, Daniel O’Connor, Lauren Beard, Carol Hamson, Julian Romero, Johno Johnson, Eleanor Ives, Anne Hogan, Joe Brannigan, Michelle Gibson, Claire Ashton, Lisa Clarke, Derek Green, Alan Ackerley, Paul Addison, Chris Parkinson, Sean Bechhofer, Richard Cowan, Linda Irish, Mike Grierson, Richard Wood, Michelle Goodrich, Julia Goodrich, Mick Harris, Helen Nightingale, Gary Nightingale, Jeff Thompson, Zoe Thorman, Neil Tiffen, Kate Stephenson, Andrew Robinson, Claire Philbin, Jane Stratton, Lauren Wroe, Matt Panesh, Lissa Pinard, Gareth Hacking, Amelia Ubergoover Asburg, Jennifer Nelson, Laura Nixon Carfield, Mini Tombie, Ursula Pabisch, Camille Audsley, Lemmy Mark, Becky Webb, Alan Jones, Caroline Channing, Vicky Higgins, Nim Burgin, Victoria Symonds, Jessica Mancini, James Carr, Jo Eyre, Warwick Holland, Chris Horkan, Aidan O’Rourke, Charles Britten, Claire Hewitt, Claire Slatter, Clare Heaton, David Harbottle, Nick O’Sullivan, Doctor Yad, Christin Kusitzky, John Banks, Ina Prugel, Samantha Bail, Aleksandra Vuruna, Hannah Riley, Jane Mooney, Joan Wilson, Sam Alder, Chris Mitchell, Alex Lee, Dee Outtara, Tom Duffy, Jonathan Ritson, Zoe La Bron, Sophie Jane Daniel, Steve Pearce, David Crabtree, Marielle Hehir, Richard Barry, Gemma Foxcroft, Kelly Joseph, Hannah Crayk, Molly Macleod, Pam Shurmer-Smith, John Otway
Phew.
The launch party will be at Manchester’s Ruby Lounge on Saturday 6th August. We hope you can all join us for that. The album will be on general release on Monday 8th August.
T.E Yates and John Fairhurst support Curtis Eller on UK tour
10 April 2011
T. E. Yates and John Fairhurst follow in the footsteps of The Bedlam Six and Al Baker as the latest Debt Records musicians to play with exceptional US writer-performer Curtis Eller.
CURTIS ELLER is North Carolina’s (formerly New York City’s) angriest yodelling banjo player. He sings about pigeon racing, performing elephants and Jesus, all of which he has seen with his own eyes. He started his show-business career at the age of seven as a juggler and acrobat in the Hiller Olde Tyme Circus in Detroit, but has since turned to the banjo because that’s where the money is. His biggest musical influences are Buster Keaton, Elvis Presley and Abraham Lincoln.
Mr. Eller and his band, The American Circus stubbornly perform and record in New York City. They have appeared at funerals, horse races, burlesque revues and punk rock dumps. Haunted by the ghosts of silent film and wearing a dead man’s clothes, Mr. Eller and the band have staggered their way into the hearts of audiences from London and Amsterdam to Los Angeles and Montreal. 2008 promises to see them touring extensively on both sides of the Atlantic ocean.
Along the way, they have shared the stage with strippers, contortionists, glass eaters and folksingers. They play more waltzes than any other band I know of, but nobody ever seems to feel like dancing.
On the lastest American Circus CD “Wirewakers & Assassins” Mr. Eller presents songs about John Wilkes Booth, Joe Louis, Fidel Castro, Jack Ruby and Richard Nixon (as well as the usual tales of Civil War generals and Elvis Presley). As always, sporadic yodeling and some strong language should be expected. Mr Eller’s tune “Alaska” was voted “2003’s most Popular” on NPR’s All Songs Considered. The music has the unmistakable sound of a pistol being fired in an abandoned salt mine: lonesome and violent.
The bands three previous CD’s, “Taking Up Serpents Again” (2004), “Banjo Music for Funerals” (2002), and “1890” (2000), prove The American Circus capable of being recorded magnetically. On them you will here true stories about snake handlers and Coney Island, lies about P.T. Barnum and Amelia Earhart, and all the banjo playing and yodeling anyone can reasonably expect in these dark times.
T. E. Yates is supporting Curtis at The Ruby Lounge in Manchester on 26th April and John Fairhurst will be in support the following month at Hoxton Grill in London on 6th May.
Honeyfeet launch Friends Of Mine Festival Jazz Stage
04 April 2011
This Year Matt and Phred’s Jazz Club have been asked by Friends Of Mine Festival to curate their Bowl stage for Saturday 21st May
To mark the occasion, Manchester’s most famous jazz bar will be launching their Friends Of Mine Festival stage on Friday 8th April with the magnificent Honeyfeet!
Renowned for their guerilla gigs and energetic performances Honeyfeet manage to weave together so many influences it’s nigh on impossible to describe their sound, but to try and sum them up, they include influences from Irish Folk, Gypsy and Eastern European Folk, New Orleans Jazz, 60’s psychedelic, Delta Blues and even a touch of Pirate shanty music.
With this melting pot of sounds the atmosphere is always electric.
Honeyfeet will play three 45min sets from 9pm
£5 entry.
Bedlam Six European Tour
16 March 2011
Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six are taking the Get Religion tour to the continent after playing to packed venues in England, Scotland and Ireland. You can follow their daily progress by visiting the The Bedlam Six Tour Diary which features a blog, photos and video clips.
The wheres and whens are as follows:
Thursday 17th March 2011 - Alte Feuerwache, Mannheim Germany
Friday 18th March 2011 - Hafen 2, Offenbach Germany
Saturday 19th March 2011 - Erfurt Jazz Club, Erfurt, Thuringia Germany
Sunday 20th March 2011 - Villa Hasenholz, Leipzig
Monday 21st March 2011 - Weekender, Innsbruck Austria
Wednesday 23rd March 2011 - Schokoladen, Berlin, Germany Germany
Thursday 24th March 2011 - Zentrale, Hamburg Germany
Friday 25th March 2011 - Glocksee, Hannover, Niedersach Germany
Saturday 26th March 2011 - Kino Ebensee, 4802 Ebensee, Traunsee/S Austria
Monday 28th March 2011 - Hirscheneck, Basel Switzerland
A John Fairhurst Track and Tour
03 March 2011
John Fairhurst’s instrumental track “Berkman House” is now available for free download here.
Fairhurst is now on a UK tour, check the tour poster below to see if he’s coming to a venue near you.
Debt Records at Band On The Wall
02 March 2011
Debt Records are joining forces with event organizers With A Little Help at legendary Manchester venue Band On The Wall to stage a fund-raiser for music therapy charity Nordoff-Robbins on 13th March.
With A Little Help have been staging events for the Nordoff- Robbins Music Therapy charity since 2009, raising funds and awareness and working to unite the Manchester music scene around this worthwhile and fitting cause.
They now announce a series of shows at Band On The Wall this spring. Showcasing some of the city’s most prominent and interesting artists, labels and collectives, they aim to celebrate the incredible diversity and richness in Manchester music today, whilst continuing to support the charity and their work.
First up, on March 13th, Debt acts Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six, Honeyfeet, Becca & The Broken Biscuits, Alabaster Deplume, Richard Barry & The Chaps, Red Tides and John Fairhurst will be joined by Caulbearers and Josephine to give you a night of entertainment you’ll never forget.
Tickets are available from Band On The Wall here
For more information about Nordoff-Robbins and the work they do visit their website here
Monkey Poet's North America Tour
23 February 2011
Monkey Poet Matt Panesh is about to take his two award-winning shows “Welcome To Afghanistan” and “Welcome To The UK” to North America.
Described by The Stage as a “MUST SEE”, the two shows have garnered Panesh no less than seven awards around the world. There will be one last chance to see the two pieces in England (back to back) on Friday 25th February at White Circle (14-16 Lever St, Manchester) before he takes them across the Atlantic.
The USA and Canada tour is as follows:
3rd + 4th Canuck Cabaret, New Yorks Frigid Fringe, NYC
11th Welcome to Afghanistan Fringe Central, Mass Ave, Indianapolis
12th Welcome to the UK! Fringe Central, Mass Ave Indianapolis
18th UK + Afghanistan Toronto
25th UK + Afghanistan London, Ontario
For more information visit www.monkeypoet.co.uk
Causes and Cures launch party
18 February 2011
Al Baker & The Dole Queue’s long awaited new album, “Causes and Cures”, is being released on Monday February 21st through Irregular Records.
To celebrate the release from this long time friend and associate of Debt Records, we are helping the band put on a very special (and FREE) show at Fuel Cafe Bar, our spiritual home in Withington, South Manchester.
Al Baker & The Dole Queue will be playing material off their new record, and will be joined on the bill by some of Debt Records’ finest folk players: Becca & The Broken Biscuits, Richard Barry & The Chaps and T. E. Yates.
There is a facebook event page with all the relevant information here
Stage at Liverpool's Threshold Festival
08 February 2011
This weekend Debt Records will be curating its own stage at Threshold, Europe’s largest indoor arts festival.
Threshold is Liverpool’s newest grassroots festival, an annual event boasting over 200 live acts from the worlds of music, dance, theatre, art and photography - and much MUCH more - under one roof.
Spontaneous, innovative and independent, on the second weekend in February Threshold will transform Liverpool’s CUC into a hive of arty, musical goodies; bands, dancers, exhibitions, flashmobs, photography, galleries and games, by a feast of performers and artists who’re the best of the North West. Watch, listen - learn. Get involved. Step over the Threshold…
Threshold is a partnership between promoters Under the Influence and the Liverpool CUC and this means it’s a festival with a conscience. Every penny you spend when you come to Threshold - every pie and pint, sandwich and snack you consume - goes straight back into helping those with greater needs and fewer chances. Profits from ticket sales are reinvested into next year’s festival.
Advance tickets cost £5 a day, or you can enjoy the whole weekend’s events for a tenner. For more information visit the festival website
Full House for Bedlam Six live album!
06 February 2011
On Saturday 5th February Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six recorded a live album at the Dancehouse Theatre in Manchester. The evening featured two sets by the band and one by special guest John Otway (accompanied for two numbers by The Bedlam Six).
The night was a sell-out. By the closing number the audience was dancing in the aisles and in front of the stage. Then the bar was drunk dry and restocked no less than three times.
BBC photojournalist Gordon Jackson was granted an Access All Areas pass to cover the event. You can view some of his photos and commentary here
John Otway and The Bedlam Six
11 January 2011
Manchester Dirt-Swing outfit Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six team up with their hero to create a new live album at the Dancehouse Theatre on Saturday 5th February 2011.
It has been a busy year for the Manchester band, releasing the album “Found Drowned” in February, followed by the controversial single “Mother” (later included in Drowned In Sound’s top singles of 2010). They also played shows with rock behemoths Motörhead, jazz legends Sun Ra’s Arkestra and musical inspirations The Blockheads, before gaining national notoriety with their seedy lounge version of Take That’s “Relight My Fire” commissioned by the BBC.
But all that is nothing compared to what they have planned. Not content to mark the release of their new record with a conventional gig they have instead asked one of their musical heros, the anarchic John Otway, to join them for a special live recording session in The Dancehouse Theatre - a stage more famous for ballet than rock & roll.
“I first saw John Otway when I was sixteen,” says Barabbas, “he tore open his shirt, head-butted the microphone and put his head through the ceiling… to say he inspired me would be a criminally gross understatement - he was THE reason why I became a performer… I’m absolutely thrilled to finally be sharing a stage with him.”
This isn’t just a dream project for Louis though, the band are also keen to use the event as a gesture of thanks to their fanbase. Last year, members of the mailing list were asked what songs they’d like the band to play at the show and the band have since been busy rehearsing up old material and obscure covers. They have also announced that everyone present at the Dancehouse show will get their name added to the record’s liner notes and receive a free signed copy of the album upon release.
“The cyclical nature of it all is very appealing to me” says Louis, “this new record sums up the band in a way that our past releases don’t… I feel like it’s got a lot of truth in it. The decision to mark its release with a show in an old fashioned theatre, scripted in part by the audience and doubling as the next release, seemed very apt - a snapshot of The Bedlam Six on the first date of a Europe-wide tour at the beginning of a new decade. To then add to that mix a performance by the man who got me started in this business is the final piece of the puzzle - it just makes the whole thing perfect. One thing is certain: it’ll be a hard show for us to top!”
Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six with special guest John Otway will take place at The Dancehouse Theatre in Manchester on Saturday 5th February 2011. Tickets are £10 on the door and £8 advance. The show begins at 8pm. “Get Religion!” will be on general release from Monday 7th February.
Here Come The Moulettes!
06 December 2010
Debt friends The Moulettes are midway through their WInter Wanderings tour and will reach Debt’s home town of Manchester by the end of the week, playing The Ruby Lounge on Friday 10th December.
We love The Moulettes, they’ve worked (and sometimes even cohabited) with many of our artists in the past. They provided a haunting string section to The Bedlam Six’s debut album “Found Drowned” and featured a number of our artists (including Honeyfeet) on the B-Side to their recent “Horses For Hearses” single. Anyone who was at October’s Debt At The Dancehouse showcase will remember lead singer Hannah Moulette wow the crowd with her captivating solo set featuring collaborations with Alabaster Deplume and Louis Barabbas.
Main support on Friday comes from another friend of Debt, none other than Liz Green (who will be appearing on Louis Barabbas’ solo album “Gentle Songs Of Ceaseless Horror” next year).
If you are in Manchester on Friday then we urge you to attend what promises to be a show to remember.
Facebook Event Page for the gig is here
More information here:
www.myspace.com/moulettes
www.myspace.com/lizgreenmusic
www.therubylounge.org
Message from Future Artists
02 December 2010
Here is a message from arts co-op Future Artists…
Dec 4th we plant the seeds…
Grow your own Arts and Film council? One step ahead of the proposed northern creative hub!
The ‘Big Society’ is happening with out the need for Prime minister David Cameron as businesses from the big to the small from across the creative sectors are coming together to form a new way forward with co-operative Future Artists Live and are already to work with Channel 4.
In the face of government cuts companies have come together to cut costs, improve opportunities and access to talent and are announcing the launch event and networking party on the 4th December in Manchester at Fac251.
So far on board are both UK and international companies including Renderyard, Mofilm’s President Andy Baker, co-founder of Unconvention Jeff Thompson, innovative visual directory The Chook, West End theatre producers Hartshorn and Hook and the media content producers best friend DNA actors resource.
The co-operative is intended as an informal trade network, knowledge sharing platform with the ability to provide training for members as well as an education resource, due to work with Channel 4’s 4 Talent and the UK’s most successful Twitter Journalist Ian Aspin in 2011.
‘We are really pleased to have both large multimillion companies right down to freelancers on board. Its a meeting of minds with the great, the good, the old and the new, and the condem government can’t CUT it!!’ Mark Ashmore of Future Artists Live explained.
The Night starts at 7.30pm at FAC251 in Manchester, UK, with the evening kicking off with a Introduction by founder members Mark Ashmore, Jenny Inchbald and Jeff Thompson to the creative co-operative its aims and objectives, the stage will then be open for 6 of the co-operative’s members to take to the stage and give a short 6 minute presentation.
6 minute talks from 8.15pm
Mofilm.com president Andy Baker on new ways of getting exposure as an artist via brands. Manchester based, London west end theatre producers Harts and Hook productions on theatre. Jeff Thomson talks un-convention http://www.unconventionhub.org/ Rebecca Evans producer of ‘The Dinner Party’ talks film, fresh from her world premiere in London this week! Niko Paterakis talks about his debut musical, the ambitious, Ano Throsko: Musical for the 21st Century. Jenny Inchbald talks on behalf of Rederyard a social media platform for film and audience members, http://www.Renderyard.com
Music from Debt Records’ RICHARD BARRY
Plus: A showreel of members work playing throughout the night, a free myebook and live music all night till 2am! As we carry on the party with FAC251.
If you want to have Dinner with Future Artists founders before the event, join us for dinner on Oxford Road, at 4.30pm, Saturday 4th Dec, tickets priced at £25 via the links below.
Tickets are priced at £7 or £10 on the door, and are available from www.futureartists.co.uk with all profits going to the co-operative. For more information go to www.meetup.com/futureartists or search Future Artists Live on line.
Debt At The Dancehouse
05 October 2010
On Saturday 16th October 2010 - as Manchester’s In The City delegates nurse their wine-hangovers and fringe promoters stack up the unused chairs - Debt Records will throw open the doors of the beautiful Dancehouse Theatre for its annual live extravaganza.
For one night only the Northern Ballet School’s sumptuous art deco headquarters will be transformed into a hub of independent music and performance, brought to you by Manchester’s cooperative imprint Debt Records.
Debt is a label ready to admit that the music industry is currently in a condition whereby live performance is, for the first time since the formation of EMI in 1931, the only dependable way in which a artists can realistically and sustainably ply their trade. What better place then to hold this independent label’s annual party than in the splendour of a 1930s proscenium arch auditorium?
The timing is not insignificant. The three day ITC conference that precedes Debt At The Dancehouse is a world famous music industry event that will facilitate (albeit naively) many local bands being seduced into performing for no pay by fringe promoters promising them the attentive ears of hungry and sympathetic industry representatives (who, in reality, will all be half a mile away in a four hotel campus getting drunk). Debt Records is not opposed to the ITC conference - indeed a number of Debt associates are taking part and Debt’s technical director Dan Watkins is on the team recording the event - but this showcase will be an antidote: an evening of exceptional entertainment free from agenda or artifice.
The Debt Records team believes that no space should be ignored when planning a concert. They have to date performed and organised shows in museums, churches, libraries, olive groves and derelict buildings but, for their yearly label celebration at least, they prefer to be old fashioned: a theatre is the proper place for an evening’s entertainment, especially in a time when the world outside seems so uncertain.
According to BBC Manchester, last year’s Debt At The Dancehouse elicited “a general feeling of bonhomie”. This is precisely the sentiment musical performance should be associated with rather than the commonly accepted posturing of the recorded industry. It is with a spirit of inclusion - as well as independence - that Debt Records is run. Come see for yourself on 16th October 2010.
The line-up is as follows:
JOHN FAIRHURST - www.johnfairhurst.com/ “As gripping as it is totally different” - The Guardian
LOUIS BARABBAS & THE BEDLAM SIX - www.louisbarabbas.com “Excellent in every way” - BBC 6 Music
BECCA & THE BROKEN BISCUITS - www.beccaandthebrokenbiscuits.co.uk/ “Thoughtful, emotional music that cuts to your heart and feeds your soul.” - BBC Manchester
RED TIDES - www.myspace.com/itsredtides “Music that sounds like the last day of summer, like shadows creeping across golden fields, like the echoes of a time long past finding their way into modern-day dreams” - Manchester Music
RICHARD BARRY & THE CHAPS - www.richardbarry.net “A talent that Vivian Stanshall would roll around in flames for” - 3 Weeks Magazine
ALABASTER DEPLUME - www.myspace.com/alabasterdeplume “Absolutely stunning, evocative, confusing, tragi-comic. I felt like laughing and crying - I didn’t know whether it was poetry, music or theatre, all I know is that it was wonderful” - Shambala Review
HANNAH MILLER (from THE MOULETTES) - www.myspace.com/moulettes “Complex & beautiful…Intriguing & unique” - Mojo
PLUS A special DEBT SUPERGROUP to close the night…
£5 advance £8 on the door
Tickets available in person from the box office (0161 237 9753) and online at ticketline
We hope to see you there!
What a Weekend!
04 October 2010
Well, Un-Convention Salford is now over (for this year). It was a fantastic weekend of entertainment and education. We were honoured to be involved in such a successful event that incorporates art, business and debate in such a productive and enthusiastic way, taking place in some weird and wonderful locations in Salford and Manchester.
Our stage at The People’s History Museum was an absolute joy to curate. Every one of our eight acts (squeezed into an amazing five hours) was at the top of their game. Below is a photo of John Fairhurst’s jaw-dropping set in the Edwardian Engine Hall. More photos will be surfacing on our facebook page in due course. Feel free to upload your own.
We’d like to extend our thanks and congratulations to the organizers of Un-Convention, in particular Jeff Thompson, Ruth Daniel, Jojo Crago and Gina Hewitt (the people who had to deal with us personally!). All did a great job. Here’s to the next one (wherever it may be).
Our next event will be Debt At The Dancehouse, our annual showcase extravaganza on 16th October. You can buy tickets here
Debt at the Museum
27 September 2010
It’s Un-Convention time again.
From the amazing team who brought you the public recording of an album in one day (plus a dozen international conferences and showcase events) comes Un-Convention Salford 2010 - number twelve in the Un-Con series - held in the city where it all began.
Debt’s first signing Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six have played at two Un-Conventions so far and this year our little label has been asked to curate a stage of its own, a saturday afternoon acoustic showcase in the Edwardian Engine Hall of Manchester’s People’s History Museum.
The Debt Records Stage at the People’s History Museum will be the only Un-Convention event open to the general public as well as to pass-holders (free entry).
In addition to providing music Debt’s own Louis Barabbas will don his “industry cap” and join one of the panels at Sacred Trinity Church. The discussion - entitled “Building A Sustainable Career In Music: 9-5 What A Way To Make A Living” - takes place at 2.30pm on the saturday.
He will then be playing with The Bedlam Six on the Now Then stage at The Rovers Return at 9pm.
For more information visit:
For venue details visit: http://www.phm.org.uk/visit-us/how-to-find-us/
Line-Up for the Debt Records stage is as follows:
12.00 - 12.30 : BECCA & THE BROKEN BISCUITS
12.35 - 13.05 : SARAH McQUAID
13.10 - 13.40 : RICHARD BARRY & THE CHAPS
13.45 - 14.30 : HONEYFEET
14.40 - 15.10 : KAYA & CAPTAIN TEMPER
15.15 - 15.45 : PHILLIOUS WILLIAMS
15.50 - 16.20 : RED TIDES
16.25 - 17.00 : JOHN FAIRHURST
Facebook event page here
The Weekend Ahead...
24 August 2010
This weekend Debt’s home town of Manchester will be something of a ghost ship as all of our acts and label directors will be off making merry in the fields of England and Scotland.
Solfest in Cumbria will see the biggest influx from our roster with not one, not two, not three or four but FIVE of our acts gracing the fields with their talent.
Becca & The Broken Biscuts, John Fairhurst and Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six will be appearing on the Mainstage on saturday and sunday. Red Tides and Richard Barry will be performing on the Drystone Stage.
Honeyfeet and Alabaster Deplume will be playing The Wandering Word stage at Shambala Festival in Northamptonshire (also appearing will be Louis Barabbas solo acoustic - as well as on The Compass Stage later that same night). John Fairhurst will also be appearing at Aeon Festival in Devon. Meanwhile Monkey Poet Matt Panesh continues to wow the crowds at the Edinburgh Fringe.
www.solwayfestival.co.uk
www.aeonfestival.com
www.shambablafestival.org
www.edfringe.com
Edinburgh Fringe Festival
11 August 2010
Our acts have been in and out of muddy fields all summer - both in the UK and overseas - but there is one festival that takes the cake for mayhem and that’s the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Three of our number have shows spanning the full three weeks:
MONKEY POET is premiering Welcome To Afghanistan - his first play and one man show. That takes place at the Sin Club on Cowsgate Click here for more information He’ll also be doing his regular stand up poetry show (and album tie-in) Welcome to the UK complete with Debt label-mate Alabaster Deplume and some amazing people we met at Kiuperfest this year (including the puppeteers from the Something Something Company!) Details of that can be found here He’ll also be filling in a 9.15 solo slot with an hour of stand-up poetry at Sin Club.
SAM BUCKLEY, bassist and co-singer in Honeyfeet will be playing the part of “The Sex” in a new opera entitled “Man And Men” at Hill Street Theatre at 4.35pm every day except Tuesdays. It is a strange, other worldly production backed by a contemporary classical score. Written and composed by Joshua Goodman with libretto by Tom Riley. More information here
ALABASTER DEPLUME (pictured) will be appearing at Faceplant, The Forest on 17th August, at 8pm, compered by none other than Louis Barabbas’ enigmatic publisher A. Valliard. Venue info here
He will also be at Banshee Labyrinth, from 17th - 19th August as part of Monkey Poet’s Welcome to the UK at 6:20pm (see above)
Please enjoy poetry responsibly
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
The Festival that wasn't there
29 June 2010
The Debt Records team has just returned from the Aragon region of North Spain where almost all our acts (plus others from across the globe - spanning every conceivable artistic discipline) gathered to celebrate the final Kuiperfest, an all acoustic festival hidden among the olive groves of the Mattaraña mountain range.
The festival is one of the most welcoming and challenging events an artist can be involved in (as well as the most secret) - there are no lighting rigs, stage props or effects pedals - not even amplification beyond the terraces’ natural acoustics - all a performer has is their material and the trust of a listening crowd. To say that the festival is “no-nonsense”, however, would be grossly inaccurate… with turns from The Navet Bete clown troup and the Something Something puppetry duo there is certainly plenty of nonsense - though nonsense of the finest caliber.
Over the years the Kuiper showcase has led to collaborations, international tours and Fringe Festival residencies for those that have taken part. David Rybka and Louis Barabbas, for example, found themselves with bookings in Mexico, Alabaster Deplume ended up performing alongside a string quartet and contemporary dancers, Biff Roxby became Monkey Poet’s producer and a lot of drunk musicians fell down a ravine (but that’s another story).
This year’s Kuiperfest was always set to be the final installment, its founder Jon Bonfiglio (producer, playwright and author of the Movement and Memory lecture series) was adamant that one cannot sustain the innocence of such an event indefinitely. Anyone who has watched the metamorphosis of festivals like Glastonbury over the years will no doubt agree.
The legacy will live on though as Debt plans its own arts festival to begin next year. An acoustic Kuiper stage for both seasoned and emerging talent will most certainly be in the schematics.
If you have any memories of Kuiperfest please add them to the comments board below.
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.
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.
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/
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!
News From Mexico
29 April 2010
For the last four months David Rybka and Honeyfeet’s Rik Warren have been touring Mexico with Debt’s creative associate Jon Bonfiglio. As well as the usual bars, clubs and festivals the pair have also been booked to play shows in a maximum security prison and the British Embassy. They are also working on an album with local musicians from Cuernavaca (which will be released on Debt later this year).
We finally caught up with Dave to get his thoughts on this latest tour, so far from his native Wigan…
“There is so much history, so much to understand… the Ruins and archeological finds are really inspiring. I have seen so much yet barely half of what Mexico is about. On my return I intend to delve deeper into its history.
And what effect has it had on your writing?
“It’s made me write songs that are very different to those ones I wrote back in England… the different climate, the scenery, the feeling - it all just adds to the creative flow that boils inside all of us.”
What can we expect from the new record?
“The project is with two Mexican musicians called Matisse and Andrea Valdez. We are producing a record consisting of two traditional Mexican songs and two European Folk songs, then two songs from each of the four musicians involved in the project. They sing and play on our songs and we play and sing on their songs, then see what comes out. It should be an interesting project for everyone involved.
And what are your thoughts on the prison gig?
“Blake wrote that the body is the soul’s prison unless all five senses are fully developed and open. He considered the senses the ‘windows of the soul.’ People in prison deserve a second chance most of the time, lets hope we awake their senses…”
Rybka and Warren will be reunited with the rest of the Debt Records community at Kuiperfest in North Spain this June before returning to the UK to get their Mexican collaboration album ready for a late summer release.
MAPS Festival Tickets in our shop
26 April 2010
Tickets for this year’s MAPS Festival (which takes place between 30th April - 3rd May) are available in the Debt Records shop
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.
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
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.
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
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
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!
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.
Signed
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