BAND OF HOLY JOY - THE BORDERLINE - SATURDAY 3 SEPTEMBER

Emerging from their studio cocoon, where they’ve been beavering diligently on a new album How to Kill A Butterfly, the Band Of Holy Joy are honoured to announce a special central London show at the famous Borderline club on Mannette Street, off Charing Cross Road, on Saturday 3 September. Presented by Symptomatic, the band will be joined by their very special guests Avert Francis, Stills and Howling Owl. Tickets are available now from www.theborderline.co.uk .  

Inspired by the historically renowned Observers series of guidebooks, How To Kill A Butterfly comprises a set of rural Northern songs, iridescent and distressed in nature. An album of sadness, ignorance and longing, it is scheduled to arrive into the world on Jonny Mugwump’s Exotic Pylon label later in the Autumn.

The Band Of Holy Joy are pioneers of a brutal if beautiful form of Urban Folk. They were formed out of the 80s New Cross Gate art/squat scene by Newcastle émigré Johny Brown. After a hiatus during the 90s they returned in 2002 with the album Love Never Fails on Rough Trade. Since then the band have wilfully explored other media, launching their own internet radio station Radio Joy in 2007, and presenting the plays Troubled Sleep at the Shunt Theatre in London in 2008 and Invocation to William at the Naked Lunch@50 conference at the Sorbonne in Paris 2009.  Songs from both plays later formed the album Paramour, which they released on their own Radio Joy label. Johny has also hosted the immensely popular Mining For Gold show on Resonance FM every Friday night since the stations inception.

Although the original wild spirit of the band is fully intact, the Band of Holy Joy remains committed to crafting new songs, creating a fresh sound, and pursuing new visions, yet continue to write about the same outsider concerns with spirit and care.

Forever changing, consistently unique, always the same.

www.bandofholyjoy.co.uk

BLUEFLINT READY NEW ALBUM FOR AUTUMN

With the success of their highly acclaimed debut album High Bright Morning, and their atmospheric and evocative live performances, Edinburgh’s Blueflint have built a strong reputation and following. Their much anticipated second album Maudy Tree promises to raise their profile even further.

The sound of Blueflint is defined by the sublime close harmonies of Deborah Arnott and Clare Neilson whose voices, both ethereal and warm, interweave in ballads and songs of eerie melancholy and heartfelt charm.

   

Intertwining banjos, fiddle, double-bass and drums accompany the singers in beautifully-crafted songs that swoop easily from the dark underbelly of folk to buoyant Americana-tinged ballads. Blueflint successfully thwart attempts at musical pigeonholing; their fresh and original sound refuses to sit squarely in any one genre, bringing an unexpected twist to the banjo sound and gaining them fans from across the musical spectrum.

Maudy Tree was recorded ‘live’ as a five-piece band to recreate the energy and emotive texture of Blueflint’s sound. While each song bears its own unique flavour and mood, the tracks weave together into a truly memorable album, with a strong supporting cast of players to take us along the Blueflint way. Opening with ‘Light In the Window’, the album swoops down into the intimate and dark ‘Maudy Tree’, before bouncing into the joyous love song ‘Take Your Shoes Off'.  The heart-rending ‘High Country’ sits alongside poignant country-tinged ‘Mary’ which is followed in turn by the the ballad of the murderous ‘Mr Lovealie'..The album signs off with ‘Barren Lands’ as its parting note.

2010/11 saw the band touring throughout the UK and Ireland to festivals and venues including Celtic Connections, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party, The Wickerman, Belladrum. High Bright Morning gained national radio play (BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Scotland), and the band also appeared in a live interview and performance on Scottish television programme The Hour.

The band are touring throughout the UK and Ireland in autumn 2011 to promote the release of the album.          

Blueflint are: Deborah Arnott on vocals, banjo and ukulele; Hugh Kelly (Longway) on double-bass; Clare Neilson on vocals, clawhammer banjo; Roddy Neilson (Peatbog Faeries) on fiddle and vocals.

R2 ****   The List *****   The Scotsman ****   The Skinny ****   Daily Express ****

“This is a Scots triumph... excellent songwriting”  The Scottish Herald

www.blueflint.org.uk

PUBLIC SPEECH LAUNCH DEBUT ALBUM

Striking out from the heart of London’s trendy Dalston, agit-pop punkers Public Speech put their words into action with the release of their debut album Publicity on their own P-SPEAK! label.

Fronted by singer and guitarist Joe Pollution, who’s joined by drummer Bill Austin and bassist Kevin Byrne, the band recorded the album at the end of 2010 at Reservoir Studios in North London. Raised on punk, like many an East End teenager, Joe served his time in the fabled Hackney hip-hop wars, under the banner of 3^rd Rok, eventually resulting in 2007 in Small Whisper-Ins, an album of short, sharp observations on global dumbing-down and economic crisis.

Fast forward to now, and these same influences and impulses are brought to bear in Public Speech as the Hackney native goes back to his roots. A refreshing, cathartic mix of ’77 punk energy, whipsmart funk, pop hooks, hip-hop techniques and searing rock licks, the band’s sound provides the perfect base for Joe’s quickfire delivery, a witty and confrontational social commentary, equal parts Strummer, Dury and Ice Cube.

Roadtested in the unfashionable divebars of Dalston and Camden, and on a brief expeditionary foray to the Netherlands, Publicity follows April’s download single ‘Queen’s Speech’, the band’s toast to the Royal Couple on the event of their nuptials. The video for the single has already brought them unwanted attention from London’s finest on duty outside Buck House.  Having gained considerable press and airplay, the band now look forward to annoying many more with their debut album. You have been warned.

“We don’t like your negative and offensive attitude.”    The Sun

Dates:

28 July                          Proud Gallery (SAUK Label Launch), Camden, London NW1

21 Aug                          Supernormal Festival, Braziers Park, Oxfordshire

www.publicspeech.co.uk

www.reverbnation.com/publicspeech

THEE FACTION - UP THE WORKERS!

Reigate’s Socialist r’n’b revolutionaries Thee Faction introduce their debut studio album on the Soviet Beret label. Up The Workers! follows on from the limited release of their debut live exposition ….At Ebbw Vale.

Allegedly lost somewhere behind the Iron Curtain since 1985, like Dr Feelgood before them, burning a hole in a 70s scene bloated to exhaustion by the pomposity of prog and paving the way for punk, Thee Faction come hurtling pell-mell into a 21^st Century musical climate ripened for agitation by economic gloom and crushing banality.

Recorded with renowned producer and engineer Ian Shaw, Up the Workers! comprises eleven tracks of rattling r’n’b proselytising and anthemic soul banner-raisers. Songs such as ‘Deft Left’, ‘Join The Party’ and ‘Capitalism Is Good For Corporations; That’s Why You’ve Been Told Socialism Is Bad All Your Life’ have already drawn a number of early devotees to the cause, including Nicky Wire, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, comedian Josie Long and Whitbread Prizewinner, Patrick Neate.

Having already established a bolthole with their regular DDR of R’n’B events at The Half Moon in Putney, the band is planning a series revolutionary activities throughout the Autumn. However, in the meantime you can catch them at…

13 Aug... Mods Against The Cuts, Blow Up Club, 4 Denmark St London W1

1  Sep…. Uncle Bob’s Wedding Reception, Upstairs at The Garage, London N5

PRESS:

“Bringing down the Tories one song at a time”  The Guardian

“Timely. I love these mad bastards”  Simon Price, The Independent on Sunday

“What a cracking record” Paul Brannigan, Kerrang!

“I have always been particularly fond of this lot” Gideon Coe, BBC 6Music

“Dr Feelgood meets Citizen Smith”  BBC Sussex

www.theefaction.org             www.sovietberet.com

Leigh Folk Festival

Two MuleFreedom acts, Deferred Sucess and Simon Onions, will be playing this year's Leigh Folk Fest in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on Sunday 19 June. They will be appearing on The Ship Stage (by the railway footbridge) during the afternoon alongside The Lucky Strikes, Danny & The Champions Of The World, The Rev Jim Casey, Steve Hooker and more.


The UK's largest free folk festival, over the course of the weekend the event will aslso play host to sets from Martin Carthy, John Otway, Tom Paley, Nancy Wallace, Jason Steel, O'Hooley & Tidow, Galley Beggar, Lucy Ward, Emily Portman and many more.


http://www.leighfolkfestival.co.uk/

TRENT MILLER & THE SKELETON JIVE

Following on from his self-released, widely acclaimed debut album Cerberus, Trent Miller now returns with his second collection of arresting country-folk, Welcome To Inferno Valley.

Unlike his debut, …Inferno Valley is very much a band album, comprising songs road-tested and honed at literally dozens of gigs around the London area and throughout Miller’s Italian homeland with The Skeleton Jive. Featuring the combined talents of Anders Dal (drums/guitars/backing vocals), Jim Taylor (bass), Shou Jie Eng (violin) and Jason Collins (ex-The Seers, mandolin/backing vocals), the album draws upon special guest contributions from labelmate Ben Folke Thomas (12-string), Duncan Drury (trumpet), Ruth Jacob (banjo) and Emily C Smith (backing vocals). The album was recorded at co-producer Richard Johnson’s Randomcolours Studio.

Born and raised near Turin, but based in London for some years now, Miller is strongly influenced by legendary 80s performers like Jeffrey Lee Pierce of The Gun Club and Guy Kyser of Thin White Rope (he contributed a version of ‘Timing’ to the TWR tribute album Hidden Desert), while ‘Fear Of Flyin’’, one of the album’s highlights, pays tribute to another hero Gene Clark.

This is the first full-length album release on the re-invigorated Bucketfull Of Brains label, following on from the acclaimed Benjamin Folke Thomas mini-album of last summer. Directly affiliated to the legendary magazine - 32 years publishing and still thriving – the first UK champions of the Paisley Underground and REM – as adept as ever at unearthing and supporting maverick talents.

Miller’s 2009 debut Cerberus received substantial press coverage and airplay, including Cerys Matthews on BBC 6 Music.

Trent Miller & The Skeleton Jive will be launching Welcome To Inferno Valley on Tuesday 7 June at The Betsey Trotwood, 56 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3BL.

Press for Cerberus:

These stripped back songs, with just him, his guitar, harmonica and the odd bit of percussion, are mean, moody and magnificent… Folk noir is definitely the new black and Trent Miller wears it well.  Bearded

Miller's voice conjures a life lived at the bottom of a whiskey bottle and an unhealthy acquaintance with a draughty boxcar… a perfect complement to the subject matter.  R2

It is incredible how a music so dark can warm one’s heart. 8/10  Blow Up

If you wish you could relive the troubadour folk scene days of 60s Greenwich Village, then you'll want to take this three-headed dog walkies.  Net Rhythms

www.trent-miller.com

LUCKY STRIKES PLAY FREE SHOW AT NEW HACKNEY VENUE

Up’n’coming Southend roots rock band The Lucky Strikes play a free gig this Friday (6 May) at CORE, a unique live music venue and arts centre in the heart of Hackney.

The gig serves as a benefit for the venue’ owners, local mental health charity Core Arts, which specialises in supporting individuals with mental health problems through the creative arts. Also featuring Hackney boy/girl folk-pop quartet Troubadour Rose, this is one of a series of monthly events giving Core’s users – including bands, singer-songwriters, MCs and poets - the opportunity to perform before an audience.

Formed in 2008 and fronted by Duke & The King alumnus Matt Boulter, The Lucky Strikes have recently released their third album Gabriel, Forgive My 22 Sins on happening East London label Stovepony to rave reviews in the national press and considerable airplay on specialist radio. Their eponymous debut album is reissued through Stovepony on Monday 9 May.

CORE

109 Homerton High Street

London E9 6DL

Close to Homerton Overground Station. Buses 236, 242, 276, 308, 394, W15

Regd charity no: 104388

www.corearts.co.uk

www.facebook.com/corehackney

www.theluckystrikes.com

www.myspace.com/troubadourrose