It will be available from the Debt Records shop and all the usual digital retailers plus selected independent outlets.
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It will be available from the Debt Records shop and all the usual digital retailers plus selected independent outlets.
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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
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
]]>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.
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
“Dog Days” (diēs caniculārēs) are the hottest, most sultry days of Summer and were popularly believed to be an evil time “when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid” (according to Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813). Consequently the Romans sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of this period to appease the rage of Sirius.
Something similar happens almost nightly to Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six. There is one song that haunts the band more than any other - a song that tells the story of an ill-fated love triangle between a man, a woman and an eternally panting dog.
“This is the one the audiences always want,” remarks Louis, “it’s taken on a force all of its own, I feel like it’s reached the point where the song plays us, rather than the other way around… We’re not complaining - we love it - that’s why now, almost three years after it first emerged from its kennel, we are giving The Tell-Tale Hound its very own show.”
Sam Alder (co-founder of film company Plastic Zoo and new internet phenomenon Manchester Scenewipe) was approached to lead the project that would translate this twisted fairy tale into a visual feast. After working closely for many months with acclaimed animator Scott Lockhart the pair have done just that.
“It’s been a lot of fun but I see what Louis means… that dog really latches onto you - it burrows down into your brain like it’s sniffing out some long-buried bone. Scott and I got kind of obsessed with that dog… it got scary.”
This is not the first time Louis and Sam have collaborated. Sam recently provided illustrations for Barabbas’ collected lyrics (entitled “Love, Sighs, Regrets and Goat” - due out later this year through Irish publishing house The Tragically Flawed Press). The Hound video is the first in a series of events that build up to the book’s publication.
Louis says: “According to The Book Of Common Prayer the ‘Dog Daies’ begin on 6th July so that’s when we’ll be unleashing (if you’ll forgive the pun) the video for the first time.” The Old Farmer’s Almanac states that these are the days of the year when moisture is at its lowest. When better then to tell a tale set in “a dirty old town where it always rains”?
The video can be viewed on YouTube, metacafe, daily motion, vimeo, and myspace tv)
www.plasticzoo.co.uk
www.scottlockhart.co.uk
www.louisbarabbas.com
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.
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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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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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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.
]]>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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“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/
]]>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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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.
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