Doors 19:30.
Tickets £5.
All fivers go to MND charities.
I believe we are on first.
Later on...
Friday 2 September 2011
Ringing Out
My friend John, from the band Sleeps in Oysters, wrote this a few weeks ago:
A thought borrowed from 'Fight Club' a bit: Suppose what we're watching here is a generation who've been raised by television, movies and song lyrics to believe that probably, eventually, they're going to make it as pop stars, actors, models, millionaire entrepreneurs. And, moreover, to believe that these are the ONLY aspirations worth having, the only people that count, the only way to validate one's existence. Suppose, at the same time, they're learning from adverts that smartphones and iPads and HDTV are basic human rights. And that they were born into a world where formative social interaction is increasingly reliant upon technology of the kind that costs a lot of money. And suppose that in the country that we all call home, accepted political doctrine is that economic achievement and the acquisition of wealth and property is paramount, that poverty is a consequence of laziness, inadequacy, stupidity. And then that certain opportunities turn out only to be available to those who can afford to pay impossible fees for a University education or work for free for six months in an internship to prove their worth. Suppose, then, that the voice of authority in school or in Whitehall or wherever gets stuck on the idea that in a free market economy, if you work hard enough, work single-mindedly and for longer hours than you would in any other country in Europe, success and wealth will follow inevitably, cause and effect. Suppose that turns out not always to be true. And that if you wanted to change any of that, it would really help if you'd gone to Eton.
Suppose following your dream, believing in yourself, working all the hours under the sun turns out not actually, necessarily, to count for much. And that you've watched it not count for much for your parents for your entire life. And you're still poor. Hang on, I'll rephrase that, because you're not. As everyone's keen to point out, you've got a Blackberry and expensive trainers, so compared to a Somalian refugee at Dadaab, you're OK. Actually, compared to 80% of the world'd population you're certainly not poor. BUT compared to the people that our insanely unequal society celebrates, adulates, idolizes...Compared to the tiny minority who've really won at the free market...Compared to the bankers who pillaged your country and left you to live with the consequences...Well, you're not rich, either. Your not winning. And that fact is in your face, all the time. And life is ordinary, it isn't glamorous. And despite your best efforts and your conspicuous affectations, you still don't have all the things that every day of your life the world is telling you that you should have in order to feel happy, to be successful and complete as a human being.
I suppose if all of that turned out to be the case, it maybe wouldn't be all that surprising if your first impulse in response was to smash a few things up, and your second was to just take some of the stuff that cold hard real life doesn't allow you.
I'm not trying to excuse or justify anything. It's obviously abhorrent and appalling and impossibly sad that innocent people have lost livelihoods and been made to feel afraid and, almost unbelievably, have lost their lives as a result of this shit. But I do think we have to try and think about WHY this might have happened. And happened here, now. It's starting to look like an easy get-out clause for the politicians to deny any kind of connection between these events and the social and political environment that they've occurred in. I do not accept that riots happen in a social vacuum, that the 'sickness' in our society is attributable only to those who lash out, and has nothing to do with any of the rest of us. And a lot of us seem to be so busy inventing justifications that we imagine might be posited by those responsible for the riots in order that we can scoffingly reject them, nobody seems to be asking - if that's not a reason, then what is?
All that said, no answers here. I dunno. Rant over.
Suppose following your dream, believing in yourself, working all the hours under the sun turns out not actually, necessarily, to count for much. And that you've watched it not count for much for your parents for your entire life. And you're still poor. Hang on, I'll rephrase that, because you're not. As everyone's keen to point out, you've got a Blackberry and expensive trainers, so compared to a Somalian refugee at Dadaab, you're OK. Actually, compared to 80% of the world'd population you're certainly not poor. BUT compared to the people that our insanely unequal society celebrates, adulates, idolizes...Compared to the tiny minority who've really won at the free market...Compared to the bankers who pillaged your country and left you to live with the consequences...Well, you're not rich, either. Your not winning. And that fact is in your face, all the time. And life is ordinary, it isn't glamorous. And despite your best efforts and your conspicuous affectations, you still don't have all the things that every day of your life the world is telling you that you should have in order to feel happy, to be successful and complete as a human being.
I suppose if all of that turned out to be the case, it maybe wouldn't be all that surprising if your first impulse in response was to smash a few things up, and your second was to just take some of the stuff that cold hard real life doesn't allow you.
I'm not trying to excuse or justify anything. It's obviously abhorrent and appalling and impossibly sad that innocent people have lost livelihoods and been made to feel afraid and, almost unbelievably, have lost their lives as a result of this shit. But I do think we have to try and think about WHY this might have happened. And happened here, now. It's starting to look like an easy get-out clause for the politicians to deny any kind of connection between these events and the social and political environment that they've occurred in. I do not accept that riots happen in a social vacuum, that the 'sickness' in our society is attributable only to those who lash out, and has nothing to do with any of the rest of us. And a lot of us seem to be so busy inventing justifications that we imagine might be posited by those responsible for the riots in order that we can scoffingly reject them, nobody seems to be asking - if that's not a reason, then what is?
All that said, no answers here. I dunno. Rant over.
Tuesday 28 June 2011
Monday 30 May 2011
No Sparrow
Unfortunately we have had to cancel the Sparrow & the Workshop gig. Due to 'orrible work-related junk we can't make it in time for our alloted set. Bummer. Maybe next time, kids x
Thursday 19 May 2011
Sparrow & the Workshop - 2/6/2011
Friday 6 May 2011
Tickets etc.
Here are the ticket links for our two recently added gigs:
All the basic info is, as always, over to the top right of this page.
Cheers!
Monday 25 April 2011
Jelly Legged Giggin'
On Sunday 1st May, Amy's Ghost are having a party and have very kindly asked us to play.
We will be on at seven'o'clock.
There will be lots of other music too.
It is at the Jelly Legged Chicken Gallery HQ, in Market Place, in Reading.
There is a door, opposite Picnic, between a hairdressers and (possibly) a bag shop.
It has a buzzer.
If you wish to come in, you must push the buzzer's button and utter the words
DARK TWISTED GRANNIES.
DARK TWISTED GRANNIES.
Once you get inside, there will be a charge of three pounds fifty, which all goes to the Jelly Legged Chicken or something.
And excitingly it is a BYOB event.
Boom.
Saturday 16 April 2011
Wednesday 13 April 2011
Alterations of You...
However, there is good news too, as now House of John Player is on the bill! It will be a stripped down acoustic set of Dean's loop-based goodness too, which is a rare thing these days as I understand it.
http://houseofjohnplayer.bandcamp.com/
http://houseofjohnplayer.bandcamp.com/
Hopefully see y'all there x
Wednesday 6 April 2011
Oxford - 14/4/2011
Another killer flyer from one brainside of the unstoppable
Tuesday 5 April 2011
Toddlers album
Be sure to pick up Toddlers' ace new album, in some format or other, won't you?
You can get it digitally at their Bandcamp page, http://toddlers.bandcamp.com/, or physically from them at gigs and other jollies, etc.
It's a smasher!
You can get it digitally at their Bandcamp page, http://toddlers.bandcamp.com/, or physically from them at gigs and other jollies, etc.
It's a smasher!
Thursday 31 March 2011
Editions of You
Here is some information about the Editions of You event that our Oxford gig on the 14th April is a part of. It is being run and curated and what-all by, amoung others I think, Lisa from our pals Sleeps in Oysters. General gig details to the right, extra stuff below...
A-thank you very muuuch.
Mark.
Editions of You (www.editionsofyou.com) is an ongoing project curated by the Popular Music Research Unit at Oxford Brookes University. Its aim is to celebrate and showcase self-publishing and self-releasing musicians and the handmade and unique editions and releases they create. It explores the history, politics and creative processes of these forms of self-publishing in the music and arts worlds; providing an opportunity to celebrate the cultural lineage of these forms whilst creating a forum for relevant contemporary musicians and artists to present their work.
We are currently working in collaboration with promoters Oxford Contemporary Music (www.ocmevents.org) and the O3 Gallery Oxford (www.o3gallery.co.uk) to programme a month long festival of events at the gallery which includes:
Exhibition of handmade music editions and releases
Saturday 26th March – Sunday 24th
April Handmade Independent Music and Music Zine Fair
9th April, 11am – 6pm
…and assorted live gigs, performances and happenings
…and assorted live gigs, performances and happenings
Thursday 10 March 2011
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Tuesday 15 February 2011
Monday 7 February 2011
Jonny, Again
...it's a real shit-your-pants feeling when you clamber through a door holding your amp in your arms and the first face you see is Norman Blake's... and then you realise the guy standing next to him is Euros Childs... and yet it's an excellent one...
Thanks a lot to everyone who came down to the gig, and to those who took a step forward. We had a total blast.
Mark x
Tuesday 1 February 2011
JONNY
If you wish to get into the Jonny gig this saturday for 6 instead of 10 pounds just say on entering at the door that you are there to see us and enjoy the feeling of saving money. Mmmm.
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