Brazilian Carnivale Night

Wednesday February 1st

A congo dancing, cocktail drinking salsa session in aid of Save The Children.  Featuring live performances from Karamba Samba, Latin Dance Classes with Salsa Inferno Don

Save The Children

An international children’s charity based in the UK which supports both emergency and long-term relief and development projects.  This event is particularly focused on Save The Childrens wonderful work helping the homeless and destitute children in Brazil.

http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/

“Here’s to tonic, here’s to gin, here’s to sparks and here’s to gasoline…” You’re The Radio

We are lucky to have musicians like Thea Gilmore, musicians that want more from themselves and more from music than some pre-formed, whistle-friendly cud, something to chew on but never fully digest. In an age where artists – male and female – tend to be either hyper-sexualised or completely neutered, Gilmore is that rare creature, an actual adult with a heart and a soul, a grown up with an opinion. Thea Gilmore is a real person tackling the sort of issues real people deal with every day, only, unlike the rest of us, she tackles those issues with an utterly beautiful voice and songs that touch on folk and jazz and rock and Americana.

Not for no reason does Bruce Springsteen buy her records, do artistes ranging from Martha Wainwright to Mike Scott seek to collaborate with her, and not for no reason does Tom Waits’ celebrated percussionist Michael Blair appear on Murphy’s Heart, Gilmore’s tenth album – one that follows a sustained period of artistic and critical success.

2008’s Liejacker was a deeply personal collection that included a track with Joan Baez. It was, in Gilmore’s words, “the lovechild of whisky and heartache”. The Observer seemed to agree, noting that these songs would, “make your heart catch, your skin prickle and your eyes fill with tears”, which seems a good place to start. The Times said that last year’s Strange Communion was so good it just proved that Gilmore is, “unarguably one of the finest singer-songwriters of her generation.”  There is the sense of a tipping point being reached. Album ten is a serious landmark release in anyone’s book except, perhaps, that one owned by the artist in question.

“It’s just a number,” Gilmore says, laughing, a cup of tea in her hands. “If it’s a milestone at all it’s because I feel my guard has dropped a bit and that’s something I’ve always battled with in the past. There’s been a bit of a glass wall in front of what I do. I never tended to let people in. If that’s not all gone, then it’s only clingfilm now.”

Gilmore says she’s not “an easy going sort of girl”, but if that translates into firmly resisting pressure to conform to singer-songwriter stereotypes then we should hope more people take up the fight.

“Maybe being 30 and being a mother has changed me,” she says. “That’s my everyday now, but the greatest art comes from the everyday. I always used to be getting told what to do, getting told to be more like whoever was happening at the time, but that’s what happens when you put baked-bean salesmen in charge of art. I hate calling it “art” as that sounds awful, but when you’re dealing with what comes from the human psyche, you’re dealing with art. Trying to make one person’s mind like another inevitably leads to failure. It struck me even at 16 or 17 that this was weird. So I got this name as someone who was stridently against signing a major record deal, but I just thought of it as being sensible.”

For someone who has grown up “standing back and making great state of the union addresses”, Gilmore is quietly delighting in examining the tiny aspects of life and pulling at each thread to see what just how enormous the repercussions can be.

“I don’t have to live my life with this sense of impending self-importance anymore,” she says. “That’s very liberating. You don’t have to be trying to write Masters Of War every time. You can write about your own decisions, turn small parts of your life into songs that people can relate to.”

So Gilmore’s new record Murphy’s Heart is smart and honest and confident enough to concentrate on life’s most important themes: love and sex. She considers both the damage that love does, the violence that it can invoke, the guilt that comes with parental love, but also the maddening truth that one means precisely nothing without the other. Gilmore is wise enough to write a song like God’s Got Nothing On You which casually nails an habitual self-regarder (already speculation has it that one Tony Blair was the inspiration) who abandons “all those friends you outgrew with Bombay gin and a rose tattoo…”, while being uncynical and open enough to write something as beautiful as Due South where a young man heads off, “feet on the dash of a rented car” only to soon find himself alone and lost, “looking for hope in stiletto heels…”

If not all of life is here, then certainly the bits that really matter are dealt with in ways that will have you going back repeatedly, poring over her thoughts and words, her actions and their attendant inactions.

“I’m a 30-year-old woman with a 3 1/2 year old son,” Gilmore says. “I feel like I know life a little more now. I am in the dance rather than watching from the sidelines.”

Parenthood crops up – subtly – on the album. Mexico is about impending parenthood, how your life is changed forever in that moment of discovery, while Wondrous Thing is about suddenly being a parent, imagining that the world might just stop at any moment with the shock of this strange, undying love.

As for sex, well if the song Teach Me To Be Bad had a subtitle it might well be, Teach Me To Do Bad Things. “I’m from a small dreamy village in rural Oxfordshire,” Gilmore says with a twinkle… “So I grew up appreciating people who take their time over things… and, err,  further education can never be a bad thing?”

She also describes Jazz Hands as, “a pure sex thing. I wrote it and it made me laugh so it had to go on. I love that track…”

The single, You’re On The Radio is a decidedly sunny take on being properly in love, appropriately as it’s a co-write with her partner, Nigel Stonier. It is, Gilmore admits with a laugh, a distinct artistic departure for her.

“I’ve not done much like that, no! But you can’t be dark all the time. I wondered about whether I wanted a bright, breezy, happy person for a few minutes – then I thought, why not? What could go wrong! In fact, being upfront and honest about the positivity in my life is way more of a challenge for me than getting the dark stuff across”

That darker side (“I think of it as bleak optimism…”) is well represented by How The Love Gets In, a piano-led piece that considers the “glimpses” we get of fulfillmnent and happiness, while Automatic Blue deals with a friend of Gilmore’s who met the love of his life some years after getting married and having children to someone else.

“Watching someone so in love with the person they couldn’t have made me very, very sad,” she says. “I come from a background of having experience of that – my father did the same thing for years and years and years – so I know what the fallout feels like. But my friend was very dignified. He backed off and it made me feel very sad. That was an unknown feeling for me as I’ve always been on the side of the injured party, the person who had been cheated on, as that’s what I’ve always dealt with.”

Gilmore grew up in a house was full of “hippy” music. Dylan, Beatles, Fairport Convention, Hendrix, Cream, but they found room for Dire Straits and Abba too. Her dad was a fairly hardcore folky – there were John Renbourne and Jake Thackery records – while her mum was a huge classical music fan who, famously, refused to even enter the Isle Of Wight festival when she saw the state of the place.

Gilmore was a solitary child. There were only two other children in her village, both boys. She was “gobby”, but the youngest of two, so she could be gobby and not get a smack for it. “I was pretty bookish,” she says. “I loved to read and write. I enjoyed my own company.”

When Gilmore was 6 she had an all-three-books-in-one copy of Lord Of The Rings. She took it into school only to be told she was not allowed to read it as it was “too grown up”.

“My mother steamed into the school and tore shreds off this teacher. I loved her for doing that, but I also thought, why aren’t more people doing this?”

Gilmore was, she says, “raised on Guinness and live music”, though she insists she never wanted a wild party lifestyle, which was lucky as, “there wasn’t one to be had!” At 17 she moved to the heaving metropolis that was Sandbach in Cheshire taking her Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits records with her.

Thea had got some work experience at a recording sudio when she was sixteen. She loved words and loved singing but she never wanted to be a singer – it never crossed her mind apparently. But she met Nigel, wrote a few songs and got a deal with a tiny label in Oxford. “I was passionate,” she says. “But I never thought anyone could get that lucky. I thought it was magic – and it is! Writing music is magical and the idea of selling it was too much to imagine. But these things kept on happening.”

She still looks back on the ten years that have passed with bewilderment, like she can’t quite believe the way things have really evolved. The first time she got on the radio she was already on album three. Her career had been fuelled by her own passion for writing and making music, but also by the small, close-knit team she had put together.

“That feeling never diminishes,” she says. “Especially as I don’t have a £300000 ad campaign behind me. When I get radio play it’s because they like the song. Incredible. And it keeps getting better.”

So now Gilmore gets to play Glastonbury and go backstage to meet Bruce Springsteen.

“His whole team is amazing,” she says. “The first time I met Bruce he’d just done three hours on stage in Manchester and he was still bouncing off the walls – he has so much energy. He said  he’d just bought another one of my albums. I said Bruce you buy albums?? You so should have just called me I could have spared you one!!But he goes to record shops and buys what he likes. He puts his hand in his pocket and supports the musicians – that’s an amazing person…”

Ten albums in, Gilmore has a strong and supportive fanbase in place, the sort of people who turn up for every show and want to meet and talk, to share how her music makes them feel.

“So much of our life now is transient,” she says, “but there are people out there who have really stuck with me. I speak to a lot of people who come to gigs, but I try and speak to everyone. With this record I want people to hear the progression, the broadening of what I do. I’ve stepped outside my musical box and actually pulled it off!”

How does that feel, I ask?

“It feels natural,” she says, putting the teacup back in the saucer, “but it took a long time to get here!”

Free Before 9pm, £4 Thereafter

With DJ Adam Walton (BBC Radio)

To call Nick a superlative singer/songwriter could put his highly lauded guitar talent in the shade, and to call him a guitarist’s guitarist might slight his distinctive, soulful voice and passionate songs. Not forgetting the wild ride that is one of his live shows – from personal introspection to biting political satire via a charmingly caustic wit that would make Groucho Marx proud. He often segues from his own compositions to well-loved covers he makes his own – he takes on Presley, Zappa, Jeff Buckley, Led Zeppelin, Monty Python and Public Enemy (yes, on an acoustic guitar). He also has the alarming ability to break guitar strings almost by sheer force of will… and then change them without dropping a beat. For over a decade, he has been dazzling audiences and reviewers alike with this heady mix of virtuosity, boyish charm, showmanship and sheer bravado.

Son of the legendary UK singer-songwriter Roy Harper, Nick was born in London and raised in Wiltshire. Having played the guitar from the age of 10 and surrounded by the likes of Keith Moon, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and Dave Gilmour as he grew up, it was no surprise when Nick made his recording debut on his father’s Whatever Happened to Jugula? in 1985.

Nick’s talent and energy entranced Roy’s fans and it was inevitable that he would begin touring and recording in his own right. The 1994 EP Light at the End of the Kennel was swiftly followed by his powerful 1995 debut long player Seed prompting The Independent to describe him as “hugely talented”.

In 1996 Nick met Squeeze frontman and songwriter Glenn Tilbrook. Tilbrook was so impressed that he offered Nick a job playing with and supporting Squeeze and promptly signed Nick to his own label, Quixotic Records. Following tours in the UK, USA and Japan, Nick recorded the 1998 album Smithereens with Tilbrook as producer. This album and subsequent 40 date solo tour, including dates in New York and Glastonbury, confirmed Nick as a formidable talent in his own right. “If imagination, energy and bags of talent were the only factors in making a successful pop career, few would deny that Squeeze man Glenn Tilbrook has backed a winner in Nick Harper…Splendid stuff” – MOJO magazine. He teamed up with Tilbrook again on 2000’s highly acclaimed album Harperspace. This is the album that confirmed his position at the forefront of a new generation of British Acoustic Performers. “Nick Harper has a quality that stands head and shoulders above anything else you are likely to encounter…The Verse Time Forgot from the new album ‘Harperspace’ is as close to a perfect song as you are likely to get.” Edinburgh Evening News

His talent and showmanship were recognised in 2003 with a (Glasgow) Herald Fringe Angel award for excellence in live music during his Edinburgh Festival run. “Harper has so much musicianship in him that it just leaks out all over the place.” The Times

After 6 studio albums, a double live CD and 2 EPs (including Instrumental, a stunning display of his guitar talents), Nick’s work is still as fresh and vital as that of his first solo release in 1994. The recently released sixth studio album, Miracles For Beginners, was a return to a more stripped-down acoustic based style, from the folk tale of the meeting of King Henry 8th and Francis 1st in 1520 in The Field Of The Cloth Of Gold. to a beautiful latin tinged paean to the the Bolivian President Evo Morales in Evo. But, as with his highly personal 2004 “family album” Blood Songs, he still has time to sing about the most important things in his world – family, friends, love, life.

2010 sees the release of Nicks 10th CD The Last Guitar. An eclectic mix of 12 songs showing off Nicks unabashed individuality and bold choices allied to a new maturity. Included are a gumshoe detective story called Pop Fiction; One of the 38, a dedication to the trekkers on the Everest trail and Silly Daddy, which has the recording debut of his daughter Lily.

Between solo albums, Nick tours with a vengeance. In the first 8 months of 2005 alone, he’d traversed the UK from Devon to the most northerly point in Scotland, along with 2 dates in Holland and acclaimed sets at Glastonbury, Beautiful Days (with his band Sleeper Cell), Oysterband’s Big Session and other festivals including 2 tsunami benefit gigs in Thailand.

Plan 9 from Harperspace was the spring tour of 2007 promoting the new DVD ‘Love Is Music‘ – a ‘rockumentary’ style film with a selection of Nick’s best loved songs recorded in 5.1 sound.

Also recently released was Nick’s first single for download on iTunes. Taken from the CD ‘Miracles For Beginners‘ and called ‘Blue Sky Thinking‘ it quickly went to no.1 in iTunes downloads. All proceeds from the single were donated to the Love Hope Strength Foundation. Nick had just returned from Nepal after setting a new world record for the highest gig on earth at Kala Pattar above Mt. Everest Base Camp on October 21st 2007, whilst helping raise over £200,000 for the fight against cancer, before going on to play as part of the Love Hope Strength all-star band to approximately 20,000 people in Kathmandu.

Nick has been on two further treks with the foundation to Macchu Picchu in Peru and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania helping to raise substantial funds for local cancer centres and hospitals.

“The sweetest guy in rock’n’roll – a legend as far as I am concerned.” – Alan McGee

Robert Ian McNabb (born 3rd November 1962) first rose to prominence with ‘The Icicle Works’ when they scored two major hit singles”Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)” (Top forty US) and “Love is a Wonderful Colour” (Top twenty UK). Their eponymously titled debut album was also a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, achieving gold record status in Canada. ‘The Icicle Works’ released four albums between 1983 – 1988, all achieving top forty placing, until they broke up immediately after their swansong Blind.

Ian’s 2005 album, Before All Of This, was previewed by the top 40 single “Let The Young Girl Do What She Wants To.” This was Ian’s first ‘hit’ in 21 years proving there’s life in the old dog yet. The album was divided into two distinct acoustic and electric ’sides’ and featured the enchanting backing vocals of Wirral born singer Livia Johnson, as well as powerhouse drummer Steve Barney (Annie Lennox, Jeff Beck). Long time cohort Roy Corkill returned for bass duties.

In Autumn 2006 Ian resurrected The Icicle Works for a sold-out 25th Anniversary tour.

Ian’s autobiography “Merseybeast” was published in October 2008 and was greeted with great acclaim from both critics and fans. But not ex-girlfriends…..

Ian spent January through June of 2009 recording his new album “Great Things’ which is due to be released in January 2010. It will be preceded by a single “New Light’ which features Ian’s old friend Mike Scott (The Waterboys) on guitar and backing vocals.

With DJ Jon Nelson

Support from Tensheds

Tickets £15

“They were absolutely fantastic, bringing the entire audience roaring to its feet.” Daily Telegraph
Striding into the spotlight with cult movie Breaking Glass, award-winning singer-songwriter, Hazel O’Connor immediately became an iconic figure .
Here live and onstage, her unforgettable songs from the film including Eighth Day, Will You , Big Brother, and If Only seem even more relevant in our present times. Expect a sumptuous evening of some of the greatest songs from the 20th Century delivered with passion and fire – a soulful introspective dip into Hazel’s stunning portfolio the old, the new and everything in between .
Hazel is no stranger to the live scene, continually performing, writing and delighting audiences the world over. From her early tours in the 80’s to her critically acclaimed partnership with harpist Cormac De Barra; her autobiographical theatre show Beyond Breaking Glass and her recent successful 30th Anniversary Breaking Glass Live tour .
Accompanied here by virtuoso saxophonist CLARE HIRST (Bellestars, Communards, David Bowie) and the stunning SARAH FISHER (Eurythmics, Sax in the City) on keyboards , this powerful blend of voices and musicanship brings a sweet touch of class and energy to their vibrant performance.
Having completed a series of debut sell-out shows in France and the UK, they’re back and firing on all cylinders, with a much anticipated new album Bluja – you’re in for a treat !
“.The expressive power of her singing, songwriting craft and warm strong personality” The Times”
“The year was 1980. The UK slid into recession and inflation stood at 18 per cent. Amid the doom and gloom – a film that captured the era precisely and made an unknown singer-songwriter from Coventry into a star. ” Andy Bevan (ITV)

www.hazeloconnorofficial.com www.blujaproject.com
With support from Tensheds – PRS Unsigned Award Winner.
stylish and authentic music with just an acoustic guitar, piano, harmonica and voice that dons its cap top Bob Dylan, David Gray, Leonard Cohen and Woody Guthrie! He has performed all over the UK and Europe from Cannes Festival  to The Vladimir Palace in St.Petersburg
www.tensheds.com

The Telfords legend that is Mark Henderson will be taking to the Telfords stage with his unique style of folk. Get here early to put your names down, music will start around 9pm.

Friday 12th August

With DJ Adam Walton (BBC Radio)

LOONALOOP, fondly referred to as “The Globe Trotting Troubadours of Genre Hopping Cosmic Electronica” are a music collective that perform as a 5 to 8 piece band. Originally formed in Australia, Loonaloop have been active on the international festival circuit since 2003, and have since performed at many festivals and clubs across the globe, with appearances at some of the world’s finest events such as Glastonbury (UK) 4 x over ….Beach Bop (NL), Dance Valley, and Lowlands (NL) Love Planet (CZ), Big Day Out (AUS) as well as many other cultural festivals and dance party’s.

Best described as a live organic dance band, Loonaloop’s music is an excursion into the various styles and genres of modern electronic music, drawing on influences ranging from dub, drum & bass, tribal trance, and gypsy/tribal house. Loonaloop are well renowned for their intoxicating high energy performance. As quoted by Mixmag U.K “Mesmerizing!… this crew are a unique and powerful act, with a profound ability to seduce and transport the audience, and get the dance floor totally rocking!”…Mixmag U.K

Loonaloop’s distinctive sound is driven by a combination of traditional instruments fused with contemporary programming, synths and samples. The live show includes drums, percussion, bass, vocals, Violin, Didgeridoo, human beat box and keys to create a full lush sound.

Since completing their début album in 2003, “Cleared 4 Take Off”, Loonaloop have toured Australia, Europe and the UK consistently for 7 years. In 2005 the band completed their second album, “Images of Flying” and followed it up with a European tour, including a spot on the main dance stage at Glastonbury Festival (UK) as well as playing alongside Orbital, Dreadzone and Kosheen at Planet Love Festival in Czech Republic. Loonaloop have also headlined numerous festivals across Europe including The Big Green Gathering (UK), Blijfestijn (NL), Global Beat (PL) Knochengorroch festival in Scotland, and The World Body Painting Festival in Austria.?Loonaloop have since then toured Europe and Australia in 2006 and 2007, and in 2009, released their third CD “Skipping Stones” and backed it up with another European and Australian tour. The band recently completed another European tour in mid 2010.

Loonaloop reached the top 5 dance artists “OZ music awards 2010″ for their track “Skipping Stones” and, their track “Only human” was voted 13th on the Australian internet radio favourites for 2010.