News — In Full

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  22 December 2014

  My Favourite Gigs of 2014

  I played almost sixty shows in support of ‘Hendra’ during 2014, taking in UK, Ireland, North America, Japan and Australia; I didn’t even manage to get to mainland Europe (apart from one show in Berlin) which explains its absence from the list below, although I am planning to visit Spain, Germany and more in 2015.

  Over the course of the year I played solo, as a duo with Bernard Butler, as a trio with Bernard Butler and Martin Ditcham, and even as a full band with a guest appearance from David Gilmour. I can’t really think of a bad gig, but here are my favourites; can’t always tell what marks one out from another - it needs something from everyone in the room - but they were nights when it all seemed to gel and connect in a special way. Dublin, Tokyo and San Francisco were outstanding. Thanks, everyone.

  01. Dublin - Whelan’s
  02. Tokyo - Club Quattro
  03. San Francisco - The Chapel
  04. Newcastle - Cluny 2
  05. London - Village Underground
  06. Minneapolis - Bryant Lake Bowl
  07. Hebden Bridge - Trades Club
  08. Sydney - The Basement
  09. Port Eliot Festival - St German’s Church
  10. New York - Joe’s Pub & Le Poisson Rouge
  11. Edinburgh - Voodoo Rooms
  12. Brighton - Komedia
  13. Los Angeles - The Troubadour
  14. London - Islington Assembly Hall
  15. Bexhill-On-Sea - Music’s Not Dead

• 20 November 2014

  Pearson Park - Deep Folk Mixtape 4

  Inspired by my return to Hull recently, here is the fourth in my recent Deep Folk Mixtape series. I wandered round the city while I was there, the old town, the old arcades, the avenues where I lived as a student in the early eighties. It was my first time back for many years. So much of it was still the same but I seemed to view it through different - older - eyes. I wanted to mix something that captured that mood. 

  Tracklisting: [FX] Annabloom - Connolly to Sligo / Winter Aid - The Wisp Sings / Jon Brooks - Pond i / Laurence Vanay - Lovers Prayer / Michael Chapman - Caddo Lake / [FX] Klankbeeld - Creak Oak Wind / Itasca - Glass / [FX] Klankbeeld - Creak Oak Wind / Desertshore - Turtle Pond (feat. Mark Kozelek) / [FX] Klankbeeld - Summer Street Downtown NL / Nick Drake - Work in Progress 05 (Demo) / Your 33 Black Angels - So You Say You Love Me / Fotheringay - Two Weeks Last Summer / Lola Perrin - Newark Airport 4 / [FX] Klankbeeld - Creak Oak Wind

  Mixed by Ben Watt with additional space echo, found sounds and field recordings. Recorded early November 2014.

  This is a non-commercial, non-profit mix. If you like any of the artists featured, please seek them out and buy their music.

   

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  22 December 2013

  Where Britain Lost America

  I have lived within walking distance of Hampstead Heath for most of my adult life and although I walk there regularly I am still discovering parts I have never seen before. Recently I discovered 'Pitt's Secret Garden'.

  The garden was originally attached to a large house, North End Place (owned by ambitious businessman and would-be politician Charles Dingley) which although now long since demolished was where in 1767 the then English Prime Minister, William Pitt, the elder, sought refuge during one of his regular bouts of depression and gout. Story has it his desire for solitude while at the house was so complete, that he asked for his meals to be passed through a service hatch so he could remain on his own. Some also insist his detachment from public life and lack of decisive leadership at such a critical time was a major contributory factor in the muddled events that culminated in the American revolution in 1775. In fact, some years later in 1908, the Illustrated London News ran a picture story of the house and garden mischievously entitled 'The House in which Britain lost America.'

  
  You can still walk through the garden, even if it is now overgrown and full of brambles. All that remains of the garden structure is a length of wall down by the dirt road, a few steps up the bank and this majestic lone and increasingly gothic archway threatened with collapse by the root structures of a huge beech tree.

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  12 November 2014

  Bernard Butler and Michael Chapman

  Blown away by my London show at Village Underground this week. Brilliant crowd. Amazing live stream for people who couldn't make it. And the chance to play with two of my favourite guitarists - Bernard Butler who has been my long-term sidekick all year, a great friend and travelling companion; and folk-rock-blues Michael Chapman, who came down to play a blistering opening set of guitar instrumentals. Here they are in a pic I grabbed backstage with Bernard picking up some tips!

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  8 November 2014

  64 Pearson Park

  On November 1 I went back to Hull for the first time in a long time to play a gig at a new venue near the old fruit market. I took the opportunity to revisit some old haunts from the days when I lived there as a student in the early 80s with Tracey, and where we wrote much of our early work. Here's a pic of 64 Pearson Park as it is today. Over the winter of 1982/83 we wrote most of our debut Everything But The Girl album 'Eden' in that ground-floor front room bedsit.