Once in a lifetime. . . The stuff dreams are made of. . . Every Schoolboys desire. We were asked to play football at Wembley. On the pitch, the actualy full size Wembley pitch, with the full size Wembley goals. Anyone who has ever shown even the slightest interest in football will know that this just doesn’t happen.
An early one the night before then you might think. A good meal for strength and book in bed to rest up to prepare for this, the most momentous of days. Well not exactly. We went to a wine tasting and ended up trying somewhere in the region of 40 very nice wines and one very large cognac ending in zero memory of getting home. oops.
So upon waking on what might be one of the most significant days of a young man’s life, the day on which I get to play at Wembley, at the home of football, on the hallowed turf – I have THE worst hangover of the year. Nice one.
It was very kind of Umbro to invite myself and Danny down to play football, not sure they would have done had they known our collective hours (or minutes) spent on a football pitch of any size since our teens. Or had they known about our combined medical history which has had one or the other of us laid up at some point over the last few years with a slipped disc or totally busted knee. In short two very unfit, permanently injured and very hung over not so young chaps limbered up in the dressing room (a real Wembley dressing room!) with some much younger, taller, fitter more professional looking footballers. oh and the boys from Reverend and the Makers, that guy off Soccer AM and the lanky one from Football Focus
Me and Danny were drawn on different teams, had it been the school yard we would have been reluctantly picked last by the team captains, thankfully someone had picked the starting 11s before hand and as requested i returned to my favoured position of goalkeeper. When i was kid i used to play every week for a team in my town and the school. I was pretty useful between the posts, not the tallest, but committed. Danny found himself on right midfield. There was every chance that me and Mitchell would come face to face at some stage. We lined up in the tunnel (!!!) side by side and trotted out for teams photos and then we were off.
In all honesty i imagine a blow by blow account of how the game went would be less than fascinating. Despite appearances nearly everyone was pretty average. As legs got tired there were plenty of goal mouth opportunities, i was kept especially busy of the two goalkeepers making quite a few saves including a top corner effort from a free kick, but alas, i did let 5 in. Danny held it down on the right, covering two positions at times and making a couple of incisive through balls. Our good friend Ted Kessler stole the show with an over head kick off the line (thanks Ted). We did 90 minutes at Wembley. Danny and his mates the Reverend and Makers won 5-3 although i think its only fair to note here that we had a goal disallowed for nothing and they scored a goal so far offside it wasn’t funny. We were kind of robbed.
Anyway, more importantly we both survived (although i did need help out of the bath this morning) with no major injuries and absolutely loved it. So much so that we’re gonna arrange another fixture for some time early next year. We’re going to be putting together a Social 11 for a few games against some other shitters, so any takers for a runout or indeed a game against us please drop us a line. I will ask about Wembley’s availability of course but we’ve got a scrap of dog shit grass and broken glass on hold at Regents Park failing that.
The Magic Numbers set out on their tour of smaller venues last
weekend and I was lucky enough to see them at The Band on the Wall in
Manchester on Sunday. We were treated to eight songs off of the new
record – out in April – and a whole heap of old favourites.
If you managed to get a ticket for any of the dates make sure and
check the merchandise stall for two exclusives. Firstly a tour 7″,
which features the recently downloadable ‘Hurt so Good‘ b/w a great
dub mix. This is a limited edition of 1000 and comes signed by all
four members of the band.
There’s also a tour screen print, again it’s a limited and numbered
edition.
We got a couple of each to give up as competition prizes. Just write
in and tell us what your magic number is & why. The entries that we like the
best will be declared the winners. Comp closes on Sunday 29th at 6pm. E-mail your magic number to danny@heavenlyrecordings.com.
This looks ace & features some friends of ours :
HEAD : The Art Show! @ Prescription Art Gallery, The Old Music Library,
115 – 116 Church Street, Brighton, BN1 1UE… Perscriptionart.com
Opening night event Saturday 21st November 7pm
HEAD:
a mind-expanding leap into the future: As we exit the noughties and
leap into a new de…cade – 9 Artists come together to herald the future:
Pete Fowler, Matt Sewell, Pinkyvision, Russell Maurice, Dan Mudwig, Neasden Control Centre, Milk, Paris and Eco.
www.pinkyvision.com
www.monsterism.net
www.russellmaurice.com
www.kuildoosh.com
www.dasmudwig.com
www.neasdencontrolcentre.com
www.mattsewell.co.uk
Without further ado, head over to Beck’s ‘Record Club’ for some real heavenly jukebox vibes and see Beck and Tweedy and Feist and Jamie Lidell doing a killer cover of Skip Spence’s ‘Little Hands’. Then go listen to ‘Oar’. Hallelujah.
Jeff Tweedy joins Beck's record club
In Beck’s words – Record Club is an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day. The album chosen to be reinterpreted is used as a framework. Nothing is rehearsed or arranged ahead of time. A track is put up here once a week. As you will hear, some of the songs are rough renditions, often first takes that document what happened over the course of a day as opposed to a polished rendering. There is no intention to ‘add to’ the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens. And those who aren’t familiar with the albums in question will hopefully look for the songs in their definitive versions.
Here’s our T shirt collaboration which we’ve just finished for our friends Millionhands based in Berlin. 6 months it took us! We might have missed the boat on festival season but I think the months of deep conceptual thought, the hours of studied pen craft (when was the last time you had to draw something almost properly?), the minutes of computer wizardry might have actually paid off. This iceberg of a creation can now be yours if you so wish to own one – they’ve been designed to look bloody ace on everyone & there’s only 50 in the whole wide world! Hope you dig x
Check out the excellent Millionhands blog & shop
& this is part of a Q&A we did for em . . .
Tell us how HJ began: Born out of the Heavenly Recordings label 20 years ago, The Heavenly Jukebox allowed a group of different selectors to mix and match musical styles in the same night; a broad selection of tunes – crucial, essential. Pop music. And it’s the capers we’ve been up to ever since.
What new projects are in the pipeline? A HVN JBX Christmas party at the Glinlik, a monthly residency at The Social next year, some Jukebox parties in Brighton and Hackney… and our clothing range ‘Heavenly Casuals.’
Your favourite records: Here I come by Barrington Levy, Stop that Girl by Vic Goddard and Love Action (I Believe in Love) by League Unlimited Orchestra.
What tune are you most playing? Answer to Yourself by Soft Pack.
What’s on your radar? Caught by the River, Le Gun Magazine, Billy Childish, Absolute Beginners, Kruger, Grace Collins, Paul Laffoley, Country Bizarre, T.C Lethbridge, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Peter Ackroyd, No.1 Village Bakery, Soul Power, New Judas, Autodisco, Edwyn Collins, Time & Space Machine and Fox Base Beta.
Describe your look: Red with purple flashes.
. . . You can read the rest of the Q&A by going here to the:
check out the rest of their T’s & collaborations here:
& pick yourself up one of these ltd edition T’s from here:
Millionhands v Heavenly Jukebox – T shirt
Many full moon’s ago we ligged a party on the promise of free vodka & a performance by a talented Murphy Kid. We came away from the show with a bottle of vodka in one pocket & a new friend Al Murphy in’t other & a screenprint of his work with no pocket to fit in which subsequently got lost to the night.
Al’s since designed the iconic ISM house bag sleeve for us (Sesame Street meets Disraeli gears), a series of flyers for The Social, some T-shirts, painted the Heavenly mural that span 2 floors of our old office (back in the day when record labels could afford 2 floors) & been the only artist unfortunate to have a pice of his work stolen from his exhibition at The Social (YO THIEF FOOL IF YOUR READING THIS THERE IS AN AMNESTY CLAUSE ON THAT PIECE IF RETURNED)
You will no doubt recognize some of his handywork if you go to his website & there’s a cheeky piece in the Guardian’s G2 section today.
Excellent stuff Murph! Happy Halloween x
HAND OVER THE PACKET!
‘PROTECTION RACKET’ is available as a FREE download from here as from today.
FIONN REGAN – ‘PROTECTION RACKET’
“Protection Racket” is the irresistible new single from Fionn Regan, and the first track to be lifted from his sublime second album, “The Shadow of An Empire,” released in early 2010 on Heavenly Recordings.
It’s been an interesting couple of years for Fionn Regan… Never one to take the easy route, Fionn could easily have made a safe and predictable follow-up to “The End Of History”, his 2007 Mercury-nominated and critically lauded debut… He could have simply recorded another collection of beguiling acoustic beauties… He could have made The End Of History part Two… But that would have been too easy… Instead Fionn has returned with a very different second album bursting with ideas and a set of dazzling new tunes which are sure to reaffirm his reputation as both maverick genius and one of the most talented contemporary singer-songwriters around… If The End of History was the sound of the countryside and woodland lanes The Shadow Of An Empire is the sound of towns and dimly lit streets; heartfelt and with a ragged edge. Regan has ploughed himself a new furrow.
It was during a period of great global upheaval, whilst touring his debut album for two years worldwide, and in particular across the US, as Fionn puts it – “seeing the world, the bone structure, the pulp” – that he began work on its follow up. It seems natural that his response was to become more outward looking and in The Shadow of an Empire this manifests itself in a collection of songs that are peopled with characters and conversational dialogue. The often witty vignettes are used to facilitate more complex soul-searching.
Fionn again produced the album himself but the journey to this end wasn’t as straightforward this time around… Fionn parted company with Lost Highway last year when it became apparent that they had different ideas for the album… So Fionn bought himself a trident desk and a tape machine, set up in a small, disused factory space in Co. Wicklow, Ireland and set about making the album without interference. Never short of champions, Jeff Barrett was bowled over by the results and quickly signed him up for what will be Heavenly Recordings first release of 2010…
The good news is we’ll have a chance to sample “The Shadow Of An Empire” way ahead of release as Fionn will be playing a number of intimate live shows for the fans in November… Dates/info below… The London dates sold-out within a few hours of going on sale…
Monday 9 November – GLASGOW – Captain’s Rest (£7)
Tuesday 10 November – MANCHESTER – Deaf Institute (£7)
Wednesday 11 November – LONDON – Luminaire **(SOLD-OUT!)**
Thursday 12 November – CARDIFF – Iforbach (£7)
Friday 13 November – BRIGHTON - Jamm (£8)
Monday 16 November – LONDON – The Social **(SOLD-OUT!)**
Here’s a must see Doves performance captured in all it’s glory by the BBC when they played the Roundhouse last Thursday 22nd October for the BBC Electric proms series of events.
The gig was made all the more special as the boys were backed by a 40 strong ensemble of London’s Bulgarian choir for the whole show & then joined by North Indian classical musician Baluji Shrivastav for ‘Birds Fly Backwards’. The choirs input on the already beautiful track ‘Firesuite’ is something else & throughout the gig they shine new light on the bands back catalogue. An inspired piece of music programming!
DOVES ON BBC iPLAYER CLICK HERE
SET LIST:
‘Snowden’, ‘Winter Hill’, ‘Firesuite’, ‘10.03′, ‘Pounding’, ‘Jetstream’, ‘The Storm’, ‘Black And White Town’, ‘Sea Song’, ‘The Greatest Denier’, ‘Kingdom Of Rust’, ‘The Last Broadcast’, ‘Catch The Sun’, ‘Birds Fly Backwards’, ‘Cedar Room’, ‘There Goes The Fear’
www.londonbulgarianchoir.co.uk
DOVES – BIRDS FLEW BACKWARDS (Alternate version)
Download The Soft Packs new single ‘Answer to Yourself’ from the NME’s daily download. The track will also be getting a physical release as a 7″ on November 2nd. Keep an eye out for the black bull & anchor in a discerning record shop near you soon!
The debut album is now available to pre order & comes with a free Tote Bag bearing the weight of this mighty fine image:
How Liam Maher from Flowered Up changed my life
Before their single Weekender became an anthem for hedonists, Flowered Up inspired me to put on my first ever gig
Thinking about it now, I owe my career to Liam Maher, the frontman of Flowered Up who died yesterday.
Back in 1990 I was just another a teenager in thrall of the music press itching to leave my hometown of Newport. There were no clubs in South Wales playing acid house or its low-slung rock’n'roll counterpart, “baggy” (not yet a term of derision). Flowered Up were part of that new breed. They had graced the cover of the Melody Maker before releasing a note. They embraced a club culture that seemed utterly vital from my voyeuristic standpoint on the wrong side of the Severn Bridge. I put a call in to Flowered Up’s record label – Heavenly Recordings – and asked whether I could book them to play “the legendary TJ’s”. I had never promoted a gig before – I didn’t even know what a rider was. With a float that I’d cobbled together doing summertime odd jobs, I set about learning.
You can read the rest of the story on the Guardian website:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/oct/21/liam-maher-flowered-up
& here’s the last recording the band made for Heavenly back in 1994, a fitting way for Liam to be remembered
