Sunday 27 March 2011

MONKEY ISLAND MAN IN BILLY CHILDISH-CURATED ART EXHIBITION

Pete Bennett, singer and guitarist with North London avant garagistes Monkey Island has his paintings included in an exhibition curated by Billy Childish, whom Pete met while repairing Billy’s knackered old amps.  The exhibition, shared with artist Jeannine Guidi, goes under the banner Unseen Paintings & Drawings and is at the L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, 31 Eyre Street Hill, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 5EW from 8 April to 8 May

Monkey Island’s critically acclaimed fourth album Luxe et Redux has been re-released to coincide with the exhibition.

Emerging out of the 90s London garage scene, Monkey Island’s first few singles were released by early champion John Robb, gaining plaudits in The Guardian, Melody Maker and Metal Hammer and airplay from Mark Radcliffe, Steve Lamacq, Rob da Bank and the great John Peel.

A self-produced third album pulled more mainstream press on board with glowing Kerrang! and NME reviews, and was acclaimed outside the UK in Italy where, several tours later, they have a phenomenal underground reputation. Their recent December dates coincided serendipitously with the failed bid to oust Silvio Berlusconi and soundtracked the resulting demonstrations.

A fiercely independent attitude and a constant reinvention has kept the band alive where contemporaries have fallen, Bennett reconstituting the band for Luxe et Redux as a fresher more feral outfit with two new collaborators, whipsmart drummer Sam St Leger and rigidly grooving bassist Andrew Speakman.

Luxe et Redux was re-released by Imprint Records via Cargo on 21 March 2011.


Friday 4 March 2011

MONKEY ISLAND ALBUM RELAUNCH & ART EXHIBITION

North London avant garagistes Monkey Island are relaunching last year’s Luxe et Redux album with a free gig on Friday 11 March at vintage clothes emporium Paper Dress, 114-116 Curtain Road in the heart of London’s Shoreditch. They’ll be supported by Cabaret Scene and Clicky Bones with a guest spot from rapper Nu2ral.

The relaunch coincides with an exhibition of singer/guitarist Pete Bennett’s paintings, curated by Billy Childish, whom Pete met while repairing Billy’s knackered old amps.  The exhibition, shared with artist Jeannine Guidi, goes under the banner Unseen Paintings and is at the L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, 31 Eyre Street Hill, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 5EW from 8 April until 8 May.

Emerging out of the 90s London garage scene, Monkey Island’s first few singles were released by early champion John Robb, gaining plaudits in The Guardian, Melody Maker and Metal Hammer and airplay from Mark Radcliffe, Steve Lamacq, Rob da Bank and the great John Peel.

A self-produced third album pulled more mainstream press on board with glowing Kerrang! and NME reviews, and was acclaimed outside the UK in Italy where, several tours later, they have a phenomenal underground reputation. Their recent December dates coincided serendipitously with the failed bid to oust Silvio Berlusconi and soundtracked the resulting demonstrations.

A fiercely independent attitude and a constant reinvention has kept the band alive where contemporaries have fallen, Bennett reconstituting the band for Luxe et Redux as a fresher more feral outfit with two new collaborators, whipsmart drummer Sam St Leger and rigidly grooving bassist Andrew Speakman.


Luxe et Redux is available on Imprint Records distributed by Cargo.


www.monkeyislanduk.com
www.bardofthemarshes.wordpress.com

Wednesday 2 March 2011

BAND OF HOLY JOY - NEW DOWNLOAD SINGLE RELEASED 7 APRIL

After the slaughter the fields stood silent, empty and silent, the footpaths and bridleways closed

The Band Of Holy Joy follow up January’s Oh What A Thing, This Heart Of Man single with the download-only double A-side On The Ground Where John Wesley Walked c/w The Black Middens on their own Radio Joy label, again drawn from the six-part radio play The North is Another Land broadcast on Resonance FM last Autumn.

A double racket of rural northern punklore that harks back to other spaces, other times, whilst speaking most presciently of the state of mind of this land as it is right now and all the while serving as a savage prayer for better brighter days to come. 

To celebrate the release, the Band Of Holy Joy will be performing a special show for Easter Week at the venerated St Pancras Old Church in London on Thursday 28 April.

The Band Of Holy Joy were formed out of the 80s South London squat scene by Newcastle émigré Johny Brown. After a hiatus during the 90s, where Johny concentrated on various other projects, they returned in 2002 with the album Love Never Fails on Rough Trade. Since then, eschewing the traditional album-tour-album treadmill, the band have chosen to explore other media, launching their own internet radio station Radio Joy in 2007, and presenting the play Troubled Sleep at the Shunt Theatre in London and The Star and Shadow Cinema in Newcastle in 2009. Johny has also hosted the immensely popular Mining For Gold show on Resonance FM for a number of years.

The Band’s 1987 track Who Snatched The Baby? was recently included on the MOJO magazine CD, Panic: 15 Tracks Of Riotous 80s Indie Insurrection. Nearly a quarter-century on, The Band Of Holy Joy are as relevant as ever.

Here comes hope, here comes faith, here comes clarity