Earlier this month Tracey and I announced we have made our first Everything But The Girl album in over two decades. It is due out next spring. We have also set up a new Instagram profile where we have been uploading vintage and rare pics with stories behind the images. Take a look. More news soon.
News — In Full
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Cool Oak Diary
Last month - following the launch of Cool Oak - I was invited by arts-nature journal Caught By The River to document my work campaigning at Brent Reservoir in a monthly column. Today saw the second piece posted online. You can catch up with both here. More will added each month.
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The launch of Cool Oak
As many of you know, prevented from touring, I have spent much of the pandemic fighting instead to save my local reservoir - Brent Reservoir (also known as the Welsh Harp) in North London - from decades of neglect.
My grandfather was the first naturalist-broadcaster on the BBC in the 1930s and 40s, so perhaps it wasn't such a leap that I should want to look after one of my local green spaces.
I formed a loose alliance with other local campaigners in January 2021, posted photo-stories online, presented crisis reports, met with owners, key statutory bodies and the local MP. The upshot is we have really moved the dial.
Last month we went go a step further and launched officially as an environmental pressure group called Cool Oak (named after the ancient road, Cool Oak Lane that bisects the reservoir).
You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram. And read all about it at cooloakgroup.com
I hope to be back with new music at some point. Until then, I hope you can support Cool Oak.
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Interview with The Guardian
I walked round my local reservoir Welsh Harp with The Guardian’s Sam Wollaston and talked about environmental campaigning, birds, lockdown and my new record.
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Storm Shelter, New Mini-Album, Out Today
Today I am surprise-releasing Storm Shelter, a 6-track mini-album and companion piece to my 2020 studio album Storm Damage, to stream or download.
Recorded during rehearsals for the Storm Damage Tour in January 2020, the mini-album is a stripped-back piano-and-vocals set that was due for release during my world tour last year, before it was held up by pandemic-related postponements and the ultimate cancellation of all my shows.
For a while I thought about abandoning them, but listening again I thought their unadorned spirit seemed to speak to something of the strength in adversity we have all looked for recently.
Storm Shelter contains two covers and four of my songs. The covers, Ten City’s house classic That’s The Way Love Is and Sharon Van Etten’s recent synth torch song Comeback Kid, both premiered online last year.
London film-maker Rahim Moledina, who wrote and directed films for Hendra and Sunlight Follows the Night, has made a new video for That's The Way Love Is.
The remaining recordings are new versions of three songs - Balanced on a Wire, Summer Ghosts and Sunlight Follows the Night - from Storm Damage, and one - Winter’s Eve - from my 2016 album, Fever Dream.
All the songs were recorded in one day at RAK Studios in London and are engineered and mixed by Bruno Ellingham.
I'm donating an advance on royalty proceeds to UK homelessness charity, Shelter. I have spent much of this year publicly campaigning to save my local reservoir in north London from decades of neglect. Aside from the ecological crisis, there is a human crisis of displaced residents from waterside redevelopment and shoreline rough-sleeping. I wanted to help shine a light on this too.
Storm Shelter is only available on stream and download for now.
Limited edition vinyl and CD versions are planned for later in the year.
As for touring, I have no concrete plans. I hope to return post-pandemic when the time is right. Enjoy the new music. Enjoy the video. Help Shelter. That’s it x
