Our last trip out of 2012 took us up to the picturesque village of Warkworth for the very lovely Out Of The Trees festival, in which acts alternated between two pubs and then decamped to the Memorial Hall in the evening. Our set was in the Mason's Arms. Thanks to John Egdell for asking us to play and for joining us on drums, and to audience member Jay Anna Walker for showing willing on sleigh bells.
Setlist: 1) Toledo
2) Merry Christmas One and All
3) Young and Miserable
4) Eight For A Fiver
5) Goodnight and God Bless
Personnel: g.w.lang (Gtr, Vox), Mark Oliver (Gtr, Vox), John Egdell (Drums), Jay Anna Walker (Percussion).
Tracklist:
01) Fishtickbreath
02) It Wud Be Rude Not To
03) Mark Luvs Emma
04) Who Put This Thing In Here?
05) Fonecharga
06) Simon Luvs Carrie
07) Smellybellybutton
08) The Night Sky
09) A Nicer Slice Of Brie
10) Three Pints At Spoons
Personnel:
g.w.lang
All tracks by g.w.lang
Produced by Jimmy Buxton for Mario's Recording Services, Ashington, Northumberland.
Tracklist:
1) A Game of Soldiers
2) Random Thoughts On the Possibility Of A Supreme Being
3) Five Major Ways To Soften Your Brain
4) Memories Of You
5) Untitled
Personnel:
g.w.lang
Written by g.w.lang
Produced by Jimmy Buxton for Mario's Recording Services, Ashington, Northumberland.
Available from Bandcamp with a "name your own price" deal.
SJI's final run-out of the year is as part of the 8th annual Out Of The Trees festival, taking place in Warkworth, Northumberland. From their website:
Out of the Trees is an independent music festival that takes place annually in the small Northumbrian village of Warkworth. It is the only alternative music festival in Northumberland and one of the most unique events on the North East music scene calendar.
This year’s Out of the Trees will take place on Saturday the 29th December 2012 and will be our eighth year.
The festival originally began in 2005 as a strange idea on a winter night and has gradually developed over the years to become a day-long festival that show-cases some of the most original musicians and artists from the North East and further afield.
All profits raised from this year’s event will be going to SPOWE Uganda, a grassroots charity that supports victims of AIDS and HIV. You can read more about the incredible work of SPOWE here: http://spoweuganda.blogspot.com/
You can find all of the details about the event from the festival's website here.
Note: There are three venues, SJI's appearance will be at The Mason's Arms.
SJI were guests of Nick Newcombe's excellent Kick Out the Jams show on Koast Radio with the brief of choosing tracks that had been influential in our musical development, or musical lives, or something. Whatever the brief actually was, we did our own thing in the end.
g.w.lang's choices:
John Cooper Clarke - Beasley Street Listen
Squeeze - Up The Junction Listen
The Specials - Friday Night and Saturday Morning Listen
The Jam - Down At The Tube Station At Midnight Listen
Jilted John - Jilted John Listen
mark oliver's choices:
Laurie Anderson - O Superman (For Massenet) Listen
The Jesus And Mary Chain - Never Understand Listen
American Music Club - Western Sky Listen
Belle and Sebastian - String Bean Jean Listen
The Horse Loom - Valley I could only find one ropey sound quality version on YouTube, so:
More info about Kick Out The Jams HERE
More info about Koast Radio HERE.
Thanks to all who came out to spend an evening with us and our friends Cerys Atchison, Cinematic Submarine, Nev Clay, and Wrist! at the beautiful and venerable old venue The Morden Tower. We decided to split our contribution so that we ran through the evening like a stick of sour rock.
Links to YouTube Clips where available (thanks SmogDog!)
Set 1: The Organist Entertains
1 - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) [Shelley]
2 - Blue Spanish Eyes [Singleton / Snyder]
3 - As Time Goes By [Hupfeld]
Personnel:
g.w.lang (Organ)
Set 2:
1 - Next [Brel] Video1Video 2
2 - That Sick Rose Video
3 - Thanks A Bunch, Fat Boy
Set 3:
1 - Gang Of One Video
2 - What Use Is Love? Video
3 - Adjunct Video
4 - Eight For A Fiver Video
Personnel:
g.w.lang (Guitar, Autoharp, Keyboards, iPad Apps, Vocals), Tony Bennett (Drums), Bing Bongo (Bass, Vocals), Mark Oliver (Guitar, Autoharp, Vocals), Andrea Woodyer (Saxophone, iPad Apps, Vocals).
The previously announced Set 4 could not take place due to time constraints. It would have been a full-band take on That's It, It's Done, It's Over Now.
We had such a fun night, we may well do another some time soon. Watch this space.
The night garnered reviews. The first (with much potty-mouthed swearing) appeared on the noredindian Blog. Mr. Noredindian also posted a different video of our spirited romp through Jacque Brel's Next to the one provided by The SmogDog. Two videos of the same thing from two different angles. Imagine! If that much attention had been shown to President Kennedy in Dealey Plaza, there'd have been lot less fuss afterwards.
This was the second, by Rachel Brown on the KYEO.TV Blog:
Wrist!, St. James Infirmary, Nev Clay, Cinematic Submarine, Cerys Atchison @ Morden Tower, Newcastle (24.10.12) Words: Rachel Brown This bedroom-sized venue, hidden in the heart of the old town walls, is the stuff of legends, and tonight it provides a fitting backdrop to a blurry night of bizarre delights, brought to us by the self-proclaimed Rolling Stones of Ashington.
First up is singer-songwriter Cerys Atchison, a velvet-voiced teenager whose efforts, though somewhat wispy and insubstantial, belie a nascent talent.
With St James Infirmary’s first set comes the social club atmosphere which will prevail for the rest of the evening, as their pub-folk cabaret, Thanks A Lot, Fat Boy humour, and Smartprice lager get the crowd in swing.
Stealing the show completely are Cinematic Submarine. With their frantic energy, breakneck temp changes, and uniform shorts that make it at times difficult to tell if this is a gig or a particularly manic PE lesson, it’s not unlike bring in the passenger seat of a car hurtling round a mountain road with the wind screaming in your ears. It’s to be hoped that rumours of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.
SJI take the stage once more for a slightly more serious, musically-driven set, before the appearance of Nev Clay, who is tonight as charming and sweet-toned as ever, constantly interrupting his own songs with jokes, questions, and running commentary.
Finally it’s the turn of the Marc Almond-esque vocals of oddball showman-with-a-capital-S, Wrist! Rattling through a set of tragic-comic ditties, and at one point employing a flipchart as accompaniment, he’s certainly not your average performer, but his mirth and sheer zest for life are infectious, and soon get the crowd in the palm of his hand, where they remain til the end.
Thanks all!
.JPG)
