Chaos 2012 video

The folks at Guernsey Gigs have posted a great video of this years festival

A Summer Concert

Guernsey Symphonic Winds present "A Summer Concert," at St James Concert Hall on the 7th July. Tickets availible from here.

Sark Folk Festival 2012

Next weekend is Sark Folk Festival 2012. 29th June to the 1st July, Sark hosts an incredible festival, which books up very fast, if you were lucky enough to grab a ticket here is the line-up.
  Wow! My Highlights are marked *
* 3 Daft Monkeys
*A Day Before Thursday
Act Natural
Alison Frosdick and Jack Burnaby
Anthony Mak
Big Sheep
Blue Gypsy Revolution
Bruise
Bryn Le Poidevin
*Burg
Charlie & Roanne
Chris Walden
Colette & Phil
Colette Esteves
DJ Karmaloji
Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo
Emily Portman Trio
*Ernie Roscouet
Ewan McLennan
Folk on 2
Frankie Davis
Gadarene
GU10
*James Dumbelton
James Findlay Trio
Jamie-Lee
Jenkin’s Ear
Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman
Katriona Gilmore & Jamie Roberts
Leon Hunt n-Tet
Les Dieses
Lucy Ward
Lydia Pugh
Martin Simpson & Andy Cutting
McGhee - Spoelstra
Mick Le Huray
Milo Bellamy
Oliver Daldry
Phil Capper
Rachel & Lilias
Random (Ceilidh)
Rune
Sarah Joy
Scots John
Show of Hands
Stephan Metcalfe
The Barley Dogs
The Crowman
The Id Shade
The Jitterbugs
*The John Wesley Stone
The Recks
The Shee
*The Space Pirates of Rocquaine
*The Ukaladeez
Three Drunken Maidens
*Tonight the Skies
Troy Faid
Whose Shoes

BarLines

 Richard De La Rue has been an integral part of music here in Guernsey for many years and much of what I go to see is from his e-mail Bulletin, "BarLines." His ensemble Baroque Band is a real favourite, with monthly gigs in one of my local pubs of choice.

BarLines

• The Baroque Band has been given the night off on Monday 18 June at the C & Bull at 8.00pm but Niall McCathie and Marilyn Pugh have graciously stepped into the breach with an invitation to all voices to join in Jubilee Sings in celebration of a certain event that may have caught your attention last week.  The programme will include pieces taken from ‘Guernsey Sings’ from Liberation Day 2010 (bring your copy and join in) and will also feature the first performance in Guernsey (we think) of ’SING’ written by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Gary Barlow for the gig at Buck House.  Download from: http://www.stageamusical.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Sing1.pdf 
• Take a look at the new VH Festival website at www.vhfestival.com  Tickets are now on sale at www.guernseytickets.gg   A separate BarLines will appear on 2 July with full details.  Follow on twitter at @VHFestival and Victor Hugo International Music Festival 16-21July on facebook.
• Calling all music teachers: Details of a new competition for young string composers aged 12 to 19 devised by ESTA and Purcell School are available at http://www.estastrings.org.uk/news-events/newsitem.php?id=00000251 Closing date: 31 August.
• STOP PRESS: Congratulations to Tom Hicks, the young Guernsey pianist, for getting through the audition and selection process of the Gina Bachauer international piano competition held in Venice.  Tom is now to take part in the final rounds in Salt Lake City at the end of June.  He is the only British pianist in the final round which has over 30 young pianists from all over the world.  Good Luck Tom!
• We are grateful to the Dean and churchwardens for rehearsal facilities at Town Church.

Look out for:

• NOW until 22 June: Guernsey Photography Festival.  Full details at www.guernseyphotographyfestival.com 
• TONIGHT 12 June: Orsino Piano Trio Haydn in Eb min Hob XV31, Shostakovich no 2 Op 67, Schumann in d min Op 63.  £13 conc.  Spon GAC.  St James, 8.00pm
• 16 June: Picnic Concert Old Time Music Hall.  £6 conc. bring your own picnic.  St Peter’s Rectory Garden (church if wet), 6.30pm
• 17 June: Arts Sunday full details from www.arts.gg  Seafront, 10.00am to 4.00pm.
• 18 June: Jubilee Sings in aid of the Friends of the Guernsey Music Centre at C & Bull, 8.00pm
• 19 June: Guys and Dolls BTEC Student’s annual musical.  £6 conc.  PRCPA, 7.30pm
• 19 June: Diva Opera Puccini’s Tosca, and
• 20 June: Diva Opera Mozart’s Magic Flute in aid of charity.  Spon HSBC Pte Bk.  £55 incl champ & canapés from Mrs Hodgetts La Collette, Les Croutes, St PP. GY1 1QH  St James, 7.30pm both nights.
• 22 June: Guernsey Music Centre Summer Concert Youth Wind Band, Youth Training Orchestra, Intermediate Choir.  Spon Bank Julius Baer.  £8 conc.  St James, 7.30pm
• 23 June: Picnic Concert Midsummer Jazz.  Alison Castle.  £6 conc. bring your own picnic.  St Peter’s Rectory Garden (church if wet), 6.30pm
• 23 June: Guernsey Music Centre Leavers Concert.  Guernsey Youth Orchestra, Concert Wind Band, Youth Choir, Philippa Cordall hn, Martha Male cl, James Keirle tu.  Spon BWCI.  £8 conc.  St James, 7.30pm.
• 25 June: Liz Courtney ob, James Hatton trpt with Dan Madden pno.  Poulenc, Saint-Saens, Boni, Reade + Summer Music. Admission free, retiring coll.  Town Church, 8.00pm.
• 5 July: Llyr Williams pno  Beethoven son op 110 in Ab no 31, Mendelssohn songs without words, Schubert 3 Impromptus D946, Liszt 2 transcriptions Liebestod.  £13 conc  St James, 8.00pm.
• 7 July: Guernsey Symphonic Winds, Guernsey Bach Choir Philip Sparke, Malcolm Arnold, Von Suppe, Vivian Dunn.  £10 conc.  Spon Sarnia Hotels.  St James, 8.00pm.
• 9 July: Baroque Band in aid of the Friends of the Guernsey Music Centre at C & Bull, 8.00pm
• 14 July: Guernsey Concert Brass & Bourne Concert Band.  £10 conc.  St James, 8.00pm.
• 16-21 July: 6^th VH Festival
• 16 July: Northern Trust Benjamin Grosvenor Piano Recital  Bach Partita no 4 in D, Chopin son no 3 in b op 58, Scriabin son no 2 in G#, Rachmaninov Etudes-Tableaux op 39, no5, Lilacs, Polka de WR, Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit.  £15 conc  Spon Northern Trust.  St James, 8.00pm
• 17 July: Glennie Unplugged JKT meets Evelyn Glennie.  Exploration of how someone  can overcome being profoundly deaf to become a world renowned percussionist.  £18 conc.  Spon Fractional Ownership Consultancy.  St James, 8.00pm.
• 19 July: Ommm One of Europe’s hottest vocal groups!  £15 conc.  PRCPA, 8.00pm
• 21 July: The Burning Bush Songs from the Soul – A Night of Jewish Music and Dance with the BBC’s Lucie Skeaping vocals, Ben Harlan cl.  Dance to leader Guy Shalom in 2^nd half.  Spon Mourant Ozannes.  £18 unreserved.  St James, 8.00pm
• Buy tickets online at www.guernseytickets.gg 

Thee Jenerators

Guernsey Band worth checking out for your summer days mix tape

you can buy it here on the Amazon Shop

 So important for musicians of all flavours, it does need to be said, and this says it it a good way.


Article in Dying Scene by Jan Quixote, from the band The Shell Corporation.
 

13 Common Sense Guidelines for Playing In A (Punk) Band

Psilopsyb at Chaos Festival, Guernsey

Here is another taste of what's to come in the Peace Tent at this years Chaos Festival...Psilopsyb!

Chaos Festival Poster

Here is the latest poster from Greenman MCC for the Chaos Festival, here in Guernsey on the 13th till 15th of July. As I understand it, the headliner bands are still being negotiated, but we are promised an announcement will be made soon.

The organisers added,  "In addition to the dozens of bands, the field full of bikes and the biggest beer tent in Guernsey, we have at least six different food vendors supplying a great variation of food, a load of stalls selling all kinds of clothing, jewellery and other stuff plus some local bike related traders showing their wares. There is no facility for cash back on site, so stock your wallets and purses before coming down for the weekend of your life! Couple of reminders. Chaos is not a BYO event and under 18s must leave the site by midnight each day."

The Harrison Ensemble at the Round House, London

I highly recommend attending the The Harrison Ensemble performance at the Round House. I attended their performance of Cage in Motion a few months back and it were bloney marvellous. It showcased John Cage's relationship with dance, in particular his collaboration with his partner choreographer Merce Cunningham. The show I watched, had fantastic performances of Cages work with dance inspired by Cunningham, video sections of the two men taking and new works written by YBCs!


Round House Page


3rd of June - go to the Round House!

Psilopsyb coming to Guernsey

Coming down from Leeds just to play The Peace Tent at Chaos 2012, Psilopsyb! Find out more about the man and his music here on the facebooks

 

The Last Drones

Here is an old friend Matt Read, now the guitarist in The Last Drones. Their own music can be found here on Soundcloud.
You can check out their Myspace too.

Another Guernsey DJ in Competition for Glade Set

Guernsey's Alex Psymons has launched his bid to DJ at this years Glade Festival. Playing under the name EqUiLibRriuM you can listen to his mix here:

Alex's Mix on Mixcloud

Guernsey DJ in Glade Competition

Better known for flirting with BBC Radio Guernsey's JKT during Chaos festival interviews, Guernsey's Psylobster has entered Glade Festival's search for this years acts. Promoting both Glade and Mixcloud, the hosting site sponsoring it, the competition has provided a load of interesting stuff to listen to.
Give this mix a listen to first though, even though I was unable to sneak any trombone into the mix.
Psylobster's Mix on Mixcloud

and here he is in 2006

Ai Wei Wei still being harassed by Chinese Government

Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

Ai Wei Wei is still being harassed by Chinese Government. Since May last year, when the artist was disappeared, I have been following his story with interest. His is a story that I will not be able to use to find some understanding of a seemingly brutal government in a country I know little about.

guardian.-ai-weiwei-refused-public-hearing

Just a Minute?

Just a Minute is one of my favorite radio shows. It has been around for thousands of years and is hosted by the suspiciously young Nicolas Parsons. One of the best exponents of the game is Paul Merton. Currently there are 5 episodes  of the show, filmed for television hosted on the BBC's  iplayer service.

Bands confirmed for Chaos 2012, Guernsey

Confirmed so far are:
Godsized
myspace
facebook




The Roughneck Rio
myspace
facebook 

 

Art Spotting

 Walking around the south bank, dodging protesters and tourists with push-chairs, we spotted Living Architecture's boat on top of the Queen Elizabeth hall at the Southbank Centre. That was enough culture for the day so we went to the Porter house to recover.

Coffee and Cigarettes

This beautiful film includes Tom Waits and Iggy Pop and the classic scene; "Jack Shows Meg His Tesla Coil."

Matthew and The Atlas and Me

In 2010, I was lucky to perform and record with Matthew and The Atlas. I am chuffed to bits to be on a real life vinyl record! - released on Communion records.
Here are some snaps taken my friend Jamie in some dirty out of focus venue in London, during the E.P. launch.

 but listen to the lovely band and Matt's voice here on three free downloads DEADWOOD still grabs me by the balls!

and here is a making of video for "Kingdom of Your Own"

In it you can see Paul and Hugh, with whom I did the horns with on "To The North" EP and Ian Grimble who produced.

Paul Kilbey: Huff-Post/culture

Paul Kilbey reminds me that:

"Next Monday, an event at the Royal College of Music will set three of John Cage's pieces - including Etudes Boreales and Four³/Beach Birds - to new choreography. It's free; that is, there's nothing to stop you going. Or make you go. Either way. Or both."



The reason I'm trying to make this gig is because our mutual friend Katherine Tinker is curator and pianist. Here is the facebook event page.




To get you in the mood, here is Cage's Six Melodies which I have not heard before tonight, whilst reading Paul's article.

Great Food Blog

Dan's Snap Crackling Pop, is worth a look, this weekend. Lots of well tried recipes and interesting anecdotes of this London based Food Blogger. I have been to restaurants on Dan's recommendation and trust his judgement entirely, the best one being the Dim Sum place.

Video Piece from Falmouth

The New Chaos Website is up and Running

So The Chaos site is up, I’ll be checking that out for updates of who is playing this year. I'm getting excited, me! They also have a dedicated Peace Tent page.

The Oomphalapompatronium

Wow! This is going on the Christmas list.

New Mbira Academy Launched

Based in Dartington College, Devon, the Mhararano Mbira Academy will run courses in the mbira, an African instrument consisting of metal keys mounted on a wooden soundboard.
The new academy, headed by the Zimbabwean mbira player Chartwell Dutiro, will run one-off workshops as well as short practical and theoretical courses, and intensive residential courses. The aims of the academy go beyond instrumental tuition, and stretch to wider-reaching musical and social ambitions — ‘mhararano’ means ‘cross-roads’ in Shona, a language spoken in parts of Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique. Among the stated aims of the new academy are ‘supporting our planet and all life on it’, ‘practising honesty and ritual’ and ‘finding non-traditional ways of measuring outcomes’.
The next residential course is titled the ‘Zimbabwe in Devon Camp’, and takes place on 26 June to 2 July 2012.

Peace Tent Jingle 3

Pauline Amos at Shunt 2009

Bloody hell! - putting this up because I missed this performance by Pauline at Shunt. Double wammy of fail by me then, missed Poppy and feel slightly ashamed that I didn't go to Shunt often enough before the shambles of Westminster Council buggered it up.

Any way -

LUXOR William Orbit Anna-mi Amos @ Shunt London

vid footage credits; F.Hegland; R.Hand; A.Tilston; S.Swindelli

Tom Girard's New Blog

With burst of material, Tom Girard has started a blog, in which he will be writing about all his favourite things: 

"Well like many other blogs on the big wide world of the internet it takes a look at film, music and, occasionally, books and gives you an opinion on them."

 Not only has Tom always tried to catch almost every gig and music event in Guernsey for years now, he has also within the year began gigging, as The Phantom Cosmonaut.

Peace Tent Jingle 2

Peace Tent Jingles

The Line up for Peace Tent at Chaos, Guernsey- Music Festival

The Peace Tent, has announced that the line-up for the Peace Tent at this years Chaos Weekender, will be released early this year. With the success of last years event, acts have been quick to confirm their interest in taking part this year. I for one, hope we get to see a return of Pin-Hole Burns, whose set last year was one of my highlights.

Nick Mann's Increasingly Long winded and overblown traditional blues depression hour? - fantastic

Dartington International Summer School

In 2005 I experienced the whole five weeks at Dartington International Summer School, I enjoyed it so much, for several years after I volunteered as a trog for a couple of weeks each year. I ended up working so hard and intensively the friendships I made there are really strong and the temptation is to keep going back. I will need to decide quite soon if I will attend this year either as a volunteer or join the ranks of loyal participants at one of Britain's best loved music summer schools.




The Trogs putting the Gamelan into storage DISS 2010 Week 5

Here is the DISS 2012 Brochure on ISSUU:

More Chaos News

Yesterday, there was movement on the Peace Tent Facebook site, with the updating the the group's description.

Every year at Greenman Guernsey MCC's Chaos weekend The Peace Tent teleports down from deep space to provide a third spoke to Chaos weekend’s musical front wheel. We have looked into the future can see that this year’s tent will be as difficult to describe as ever. Expect the ‘usual’ (ahem!) fully immersive UV environment, alien artefacts, non-stop wonky music, Cramps O’Clock, bad dancing, comfy sofas, random brown caffeinated beverages, cheese based toasted bread snax and of course a bar.

We'll be open along with the rest of the festival at midday Friday 13th July 2012 and carry on well into the evening of Sunday 15th July..............

Please leave a message on the wall or email thepeacetent@hotmail.co.uk
if you want to perform

Anyone fancy a toastie?

Please see the soon to be re-launched Chaos website here:- http://www.chaosevents.com/

The main event lives on FB here:- https://www.facebook.com/events/240552419317401/

Not heard of Cramps O'clock? 
this should explain everything:

Nerd Nights in Guernsey

Meeting in The Gallery, Mansell Street (top of Mill Street in the Old Quarter), Nerd Night promises to be really interesting and looking at the facebook group here, some of the islands top hacker/makers are going to be in attendance. Quothe:

"If you...

...live to make things.
...aren’t afraid to make mistakes and learn from them.

...don’t use things the way the manufacturer intended.

...look at the things around you and think “I could make that better”.

...love to open things up to find out how they work."

The Nerd Nights Manifesto

Guernsey's International Short Film Festival - Sarnia Shorts

Sarnia Shorts has opened its letter box for submissions for its 2012 competition. You have until the end of May to get your shit together
....
oh and its free to enter! hmmm

(Not keen on the name, but why criticize - they have got a film festival off the ground!)

James Dumbelton's Dawn Chorus

Second treat tonight actually, as it is stupid time in the morning and this is what I'm listening to, for the second time! This is James' debut album and he has put the whole thing on sound cloud which is a very good thing indeed.


Listen to the whole of Dawn Chorus on Soundcloud - its beautyful!

Tonight The Skies

Todays treat is Tonight The Skies' Tropic, a demo in which all the way through, you can hear nice little touches.


James Le Huray and Hollie Martorella continue to show great promise - it must be E.P. time surely!





TTS on facebook

Oddsocks - The Merry Wives of Windsor

Last week at St James in Guernsey, Oddsocks showed their version of Merry Wives of Windsor. It was not a play I knew, but I spotted lots of Shakespeare's favourite themes - young love conquering, confused fools, wise women helping a bad man get his comeuppance, and a fantastic uplifting end scene. I had heard mixed reviews about the amount of technology in the company's shows, but I thought that Merry Wives got it right in that it was not only functional - helping set changes - but entertaining in it's own right. 

The main thing that would draw me back into the theatre to see Oddsocks, is their great cast of actors, the extremely enjoyable writing and the cracking set design.

They are in Jersey till tomorrow!

January
28th Jan-1 Feb (not 29th) Jersey Arts Centre, Jersey JE2 4SW, 8pm, 01534 700444
February
3rd Bishop of Hereford Bluecoat School, Hereford,
4th QEH Theatre, Bristol,
6th The Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury
9th-10th, The Theatre-Chipping Norton, Ox’shire 

11th Lamproom Theatre, Barnsely
20th-24th Bridge House Theatre, Warwick

25th Scarborough Spa Theatre, N.Yorks 

Oddsocks

 

Best Festival in Guernsey, Channel Islands - Chaos 8 Weekend

With the new year hype all finished with, I've started with the holiday planning and longing for summer I feel every year. I can't be alone in this and if we keep listening to economics news, most people will be looking to spend money closer to home and with at least 4 festivals in Guernsey this year we are spoilt. This year we have Sark Folk Festival, Festival of Performing Arts, Victor Hugo Festival and best of all Chaos Weekend 8


It is telling I've only missed one year at Chaos in the last five. I have had personal involvement in this little gem since my first year and this year, this three day festival will be my main focus for the next 6 months as I help organise and run the Peace Tent. The Peace tent has developed over the years from a Greenpeace information and tea tent to a complete little mini event of it's own. We proudly offer an alternative space to festival goers, there is bands, djs, poets, story tellers and some people seeking somewhere to sit for ten minutes returned every waking moment of their three days.


But the Peace Tent is only a small part of Chaos 8 - the majority of first time visitors come because of word of mouth - and word of mouth is the best recommendation for a festival. next up more of Chaos 8 but for now: look at the photo above and tell me that"s not the best view!

Beach Art

More Beach Art for 2012 please.

Three Cubes Colliding from Jimandtonic on Vimeo.

I have yet to see any beach art over here on Guernsey. Someone must surely have done some, I must do some detective work.

Great Gig Photography in Guernsey

Well actually this guy can take a great shot of pretty much anything - he has the eye! He has covered the Chaos Music Festival in Guernsey since 2006 and it is all on his site to check out and order.
Gaa Gaas featuring Brobots-20


Andrew Le Poidevin's TALLPICTURES