The Seb & Fiona Blog

Glasswerks presents:
Richard Godwin
Wednesday 2nd April at Tommy Flynn’s, 55 Camden High Street, NW1
Doors 7.30pm (on stage 9.30pm)

A startlingly original voice, capable of provoking hilarity, bliss and/or abject terror in audiences, Richard Godwin will make an unusual mark in 2008. Most often compared to an English Jacques Brel, he has developed a confrontational, dramatic performing style, and has created a canon of compositions which tell the tiny tragedies of repressed butlers, cracked vaudevillians and Houellbecqian clerks (tales often inspired by his day job as a journalist). His louche baritone recalls the tones of Bill Callahan, Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen, while his rich, melodic guitar echoes Elliott Smith and Nick Drake. The admixture of influences, however, is rather unique.

£6, £5 adv
myspace.com/richardgodwinmusic

Also on the bill at Tommy Flynn’s are:

Alamode - www.myspace.com/alamodeband

Alex And I - www.myspace.com/alexandimusic

Magic Bullet Band - www.myspace.com/themagicbulletband

http://www.glasswerk.co.uk

Frauke Requardt presents…
ROADKILL CAFE
A dance work in two parts set to a searing jazz score from John Zorn, performed in full for the first time on 18 & 19 April 2008 at The Place



“And then the Prime Minister approaches me and says ‘Daniel, you’re jazz. What do we do? There’s a war on. We need to win it.’ I think and then I say ‘Just play man, just play.’”

In ROADKILL CAFÉ Frauke Requardt thrusts us into an unworldly, jazz-fuelled meeting place. Here we encounter a ukulele man and his kooky cowboy sister, twitching twins who swing in, play out psycho-sexual dramas and disappear, and a sense of secret trauma that threatens to meander its way to the surface.

Produced during residencies in Venice, Portugal and London, this is a darkly humorous, surreal piece of mimicry and mayhem, seduction and shock with superbly choreographed fantasies.

The piece is Requardt’s second full-evening work, coming after JAMMY DODGERS, which was seen first at The Place in 2006 and was also performed at the Royal Opera House. In that piece Requardt and her dancers collaborated with some of London’s most acclaimed jazz musicians, using live performances by The Ingrid Laubrock Quintet and Leafcutter John in an exploration of identity, entertainment and invention.

Roadkill Café takes these themes in a new direction, exposing a Lynch-esque world of both self-consciousness and wild abandon. We see a dog doing a dog dance, a tale of jazz overcoming the military, a tale of paranoia overcoming jazz and a round of subverted line dancing.

The piece was made during three residencies: one in a rural Portuguese town, at Rui Horta’s space O Espaco do Tempo, one in a foggy and mysterious Venice at the intimate Teatro Fondamente Nuove and most recently one in London at Greenwich Dance Agency and The Place, as part of Choreodrome. In each location there was a work-in-progress performance, introducing the work to a new audience and inviting comments and discussion. Each residency has served to enrich the work and leave its own individual fingerprint on the final result, turning it into a truly international work.

Frauke Requardt is a choreographer and dancer based in London. She completed her Masters in Choreography at the London Contemporary Dance School in 2003 and went on to be an Associate Artist at The Place until 2006. Earlier this year Frauke created work in Bogota, Colombia as part of a three-month residency organised by Visiting Arts. Together with dancers from Danza Cumon she created ‘Pequenas Delicias’, a piece made especially for restaurants. She was also commissioned to make a piece for a special fundraising event at Sadler’s Wells, ‘Back to Front’ where the auditorium was reversed with the stage for a three tiered chase scene.

Requardt has also been a dancer in Lea Andersons’ ‘The Cholmondeleys’ since 2004. She is really very German.

Listing information:

April 18&19 2008
as part of Spring Loaded

The Robin Howard Dance Theatre
The Place
17 Duke’s Road
London WC1H 9PY
Box Office: 020 7121 1100

For more information, guest list, images etc please contact Seb at Seb & Fiona: seb@sebandfiona.com

A load of new artists have been confirmed for the End of the Road Festival 2008, taking place from 12 – 14 September at Larmer Tree Gardens in Dorset.

They are: Low, Dirty Three, British Sea Power, American Music Club, Billy Childish, Akron/Family, Kimya Dawson, Darren Hayman (Darren and Jack Play Hefner Songs), FM Belfast, Laura Marling, Devon Sproule, Angelo Spencer and Kelley Stoltz.

They join an already stellar lineup at the relatively intimate (5000 capacity) event, which won Best New Festival at the Festival Awards 2006 and was last year, for many of those who attended, the highlight of the festival calendar.

Bands also confirmed so far are: Mercury Rev, Two Gallants, Micah P Hinson, Mountain Goats, Sun Kil Moon / Mark Kozelek, Jeffrey Lewis, Jason Molina, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Bob Log III, The Wave Pictures, Woodpigeon, Friska Viljor.

THE END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL 2008 - Ticket Prices / Details:

The End of the Road Festival 2008 takes place from 12 – 14 September at the Larmer Tree Gardens in North Dorset.

Adult weekend (incl. camping) = £105
Children 13-16 (incl. camping, must be accompanied by an adult) = £105
Chidren 12 and under (must be accompanied by an adult) = £15
Children 5 and under (must be accompanied by an adult) = FREE
Live-in Vehicle / Campervan / Caravan = £30
Car park = £5 (cash on arrival)

(GO WITH ROUGH TRADE! - Perfect for those based in London, package includes festival ticket, return coach travel from Rough Trade East, in-coach entertainment, festival programme, CD and plenty of other goodies. Strictly limited tickets available. Email: eotr@roughtrade.com if you wish to receive further details.)

Tickets are available from endoftheroadfestival.com

Teatro Fondamenta Nuove is a small performance venue in Venice. It looks out over the north east perimeter of the city towards an austere-looking island called San Michele. I was there last Thursday, during a fascinating five-day escapade, and as I didn’t take a picture of the theatre, here’s a gratuitous one of San Michele, which is also known eerily as ‘The Island of the Dead’ consisting as it does entirely of a cemetery.

On the Thursday, I saw an unfinished version of choreographer Frauke Requardt’s new piece ‘Roadkill Cafe’.

The culmination of a two and a half week residency, the performance was to unveil the latest stage in a creative process that will come to fruition later this year. I already love it. It’s like the cheese-fuelled dream of an alternate David Lynch (this one a jazz critic rather than a director). There’s a mysterious pair of twins, a dog who does a doggy dance, a tale of jazz overcoming the military, a tale of paranoia overcoming jazz and a round of subverted line dancing. A soundtrack dashes from experimental jazz to screwed up country and western, but it is all by John Zorn.

For anyone interested in jazz music, it is a synaesthetic treat. For anyone at all, it’s a brilliant show. It’s on in London on 18 and 19 April, at The Place in Euston.

Seb

…until the End of the Road Festival returns to Dorset’s Larmer Tree Gardens. It’ll be great fun. Last year my friend Tom fell asleep one morning in one of the fields, only to be woken up by three baby peacocks walking across his chest and the sound of a dozen delighted camera shutters.

It’s 12 - 14 September this year - maybe see you there? Here’s a short video that the organisers have compiled from some of last year’s footage:

Seb

“Led Bib sound like they could have coped supporting ‘61 Sun Ra, ‘66 Beefheart, and even ‘69 Led Zep. Led Bib are jazz, though, through and through, crammed with horn and blast, and as much swing as sweat” - Paul Morley, Observer Music Monthly

Death jazz? Euphoric rock? Whatever term has been applied to Led Bib it’s never quite fit. It’s neither jazz nor rock and roll. And the only consensus that’s been reached is, “I don’t know what it is. But I bloody well like it!”.

Led Bib convince in every conceivable way. The trademark stabs of the toms, the oscine flow and the blast of the intertwining saxes, the Rhodes glowing and growing, the bass ever persistent – it all joins up into an intense live show of rawness, wit and charisma. Driving melodies roar at full throttle astounding and mesmerising audiences from Newcastle to the Netherlands. “The most credible thing going in UK jazz” said Time Out and “we need bands like Led Bib to make the world safe for dangerous music” cried the Observer Music Monthly last year.

So to 2008 and the twenty-something quintet release Led Bib Live, their third album - a limited edition (just 1000 in circulation) and individually numbered mini album. Recorded at Pizza Express Soho last August it documents the band’s emerging new sound. Earlier tracks from their first few albums ‘Arboretum’ and ‘Sizewell Tea’ have been revisited, developed and swung into new dynamic territory. This is a band that has grown together and individually - Liran Donin on bass, Toby McLaren on keys (and the strange noises that emanate from that little box), Chris Williams and Pete Grogan on alto saxes, and of course, the inimitable manically grinning bandleader Mark Holub careering off into the next improbable improvisation, on drums.

They come to a venue near you soon too.

Led Bib 2008 UK Tour….

7 February 2008: Vortex, London
27 February 2008: The Rainbow, Birmingham
2 March 2008: Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester
23 April 2008: Middlesex University, London
6 May 2008: The Cluny, Newcastle
12 May 2008: Pacific Road Arts Centre (Double Bill with Polar Bear), Birkenhead
25 June 2008: Barnstable, North Devon
19 July 2008: The Brunswick, Hove

www.ledbib.com

So Last.fm, the website-radio-network-thingy, has decided to release a Christmas single. By itself, the fact that they’ve got 20 million users (compared with 7.1 million X Factor viewers) is a challenge to the drab sense of inevitability resulting from the existence of both a Christmas number one spot and Simon Cowell. A user poll was set up to decide which track to release, and on Monday it was announced that the winner was Lucky Soul’s extraordinarily catchy ‘Lips are Unhappy’.

Now preordering at 40p a download from Last.fm via the indiestore, the bookies have immediately given it shortening odds of 16/1. If any independent band can be a David to Simon Cowell’s acid-tongued Goliath, it’s Lucky Soul, whose lush, lovestruck songs have stolen thousands of hearts across the world this year. Like Radio ‘name your price’ head, they release their music via their own label: if the unthinkable were to happen and the campaign snowballed to success, this would also be a defining moment in the march of new media vs old. In any case it’s a delightful instance of grassroots guerilla vs nasty, high-trousered dictator. Liberté, egalité, musique pop!

Seb

29 November 2007 6pm - 9pm
Old Spitalfields Market, E1
FREE

***An alternative Christmas service by Bestival favourites Lost & Found and Big Love, with singing, dancing, performance, games, mulled wine, a surprise celebrity visit, a “Sympathetic Reverend” called Duncan Pritchard and a Helium Choir***

On Thursday 29th November Old Spitalfields Market launches “A Merry Different Christmas”, a celebration of doing Christmas differently, avoiding sports socks, kipper ties, lumps of coal and Netto gift vouchers, and of actually having fun while you work out what might be right for Auntie Beryl.

Bestival favourites Lost & Found and Big Love will be leading an alternative Christmas service and all are very welcome. Helium Choir will be singing high-octave versions of classic festive songs including Christmas single ‘Little Drummer Boy’ (as heard on BBC Radio 1). Lillywhitesass will present something entirely new from their world of kaleidoscopic burlesque. And the Reverend Duncan Pritchard, in a rare trip away from his Big Love Inflatable Church will sermonise on the subject of bad gifts and other yuletide let-downs.

A visit from a very special celebrity guest (turning on our eco-friendly single Christmas light), a jolly good xmas disco and an Alternative Christmas Confession Booth will all be on the agenda in this night of singing, dancing, performance games and mulled wine.

It’s all in the Spitalfields tradition of Christmas events that avoid the usual C-list boy bands flicking a big boring switch and instead offer a marvellous night out for friends and families alike. Last year saw infamous local landlady Sandra Esquilant turn on a ‘Jingle Punk Rock Christmas Glade’ to the sound of surf Christmas covers and crooning, while the previous year saw Gilbert & George arrive aloft a horse and carriage to illuminate a tree made from scaffolding (later declared as one of London’s five best Xmas trees by the Evening Standard).

Old Spitalfields Market is London’s unrivalled best place to shop for original gifts, special somethings that will be loved and cherished for years to come. Shoppers who come to Old Spitalfields Market will be supporting small shops and independent market traders, selling products they have personally chosen and often even designed themselves. Boho jewellery, unusual chairs, gourmet teas, vintage vases, Moroccan teapots, leather handbags, maximalist kitsch, pocket gardens and old-fashioned wooden toys are amongst the many amazing presents on offer, making Spitalfields surely the *only place to get away from the High Street this Christmas.

The shops, restaurants and businesses of Old Spitalfields Market are open 7 days a week, while the market is open on the following days:

Thu: Antiques & vintage
Fri: Fashion & art
Sun: Busiest day

Opening Times are as follows:
Market Stalls: Monday to Friday, 10am - 4pm and Sundays, 9am - 5pm
Restaurants: Times vary but in general Monday to Friday, 11am - 11pm and Sundays 9am - 5pm
Shops: Times vary but in general Monday to Sunday 11am-7pm

Old Spitalfields Market is 2 mins walk from Liverpool Street Station and 10 mins from Aldgate East

www.oldspitalfieldsmarket.com

The Great Eastern Hotel asked us for a Seb & Fiona playlist to put on their inhouse ipods. I think what happens is that the ipods are then lent to guests and contain loads of new music suggested by local businesses. We chose:

1) The Count Five – Psychotic Reaction
2) Arcade Fire – Neighbourhood 1 (Tunnels)
3) The Shins – Phantom Limb
4) Jens Lekman – Black Cab
5) David Byrne - Tiny Apocalypse
6) Lucky Soul – The Great Unwanted
7) Beirut – Postcards From Italy Led Bib – Shower
9) Owen Duff - Turbine
10) Of Montreal – The Past is a Grotesque Animal

I think if I was alone in a foreign city listening to Owen Duff’s lyric “My heart is like a turbine / Spinning away at the end of the world”, the moment would acquire a filmic tinge. And that last track by Of Montreal sounds daunting but is one of our favourites - so dramatic and compelling that it manages to last 11 and a half minutes without getting boring. I like the idea of some visiting broker from Zurich arriving late to a crucial meeting because she wants to hear it to the end.

You can listen to ‘Turbine’ here.

Seb

November 4,11,18 & 25th

For four exclusive shows only, South East London guitarists Steve Morrison and Billy Jenkins present a refreshing two man, two guitar, two voiced programme of topical blues. Songs of wisdom, sadness, stupidity and human nature – both original and reworked blues classics – served up with a delicious, seductive double guitar twang. Bring your newspapers and supplements for a lazy Sunday afternoon gathering of upbeats, downbeats, poets, polemics and commentators!

- Bring your own chess sets for the Second Vortex Chess Tournament!
- Play who you want when you want!
- Player with most consecutive wins over the four afternoons scoops the trophy!

GRAND MASTER DANIEL KING ONCE AGAIN WILL BE GRACING THIS SECOND SERIES WITH AN OCCASIONAL VISIT!

Updates as they emerge at www.billyjenkins.com
Supplementary rules & regs available soon.

LISTING DETAILS:

HERE IS THE BLUES!- THE VORTEX CHESS SESSIONS
The Vortex Jazz Club
11 Gillett Street
London
N16 8JH
3.30pm - 6pm
First set 4pm

Door: £5 (under 16’s free if accompanied by an adult)
Booking: 020 7254 4097
www.vortexjazz.co.uk

Enjoy a small 90 second film of the first HITB! Chess Sessions here!