Band Profile: Ralegh Long & The Primary Three

Joining Sid Griffin, Tim Wells, and latest addition to the Bands & Books Amnesty International fundraising 1st Birthday party BONANZA Al Hutchins, is Ralegh Long & the Primary Three.  

Ralegh is a Bands & Books favourite having attended our inaugural show in Mile End way back in 2011, and we're delighted to complete the circle by having him & his band top the bill at our birthday party! 

Ralegh Long is an English Singer-Songwriter, guitarist and pianist. He makes records and performs either solo or with the Primary 3 (Richard Ellis - Bass, Will Lamport - Drums).  His debut E.P, Sprawl (2011) was celebrated for 'Placing the enigmatic within the classically melodic'. (Sweeping The Nation) and was supported with a U.K tour with Thomas White (Electric Soft Parade / Brakes).

His follow up, 'The Gift' is released late September 2012 and is a solo record of baroque piano ballads. Often compared to cult British luminaries such as Robyn Hitchcock and Epic Soundtracks, as well as stateside bands such as The Db's,  Ralegh writes timeless melodic pop songs.

2013 promises the first full studio record with the Primary 3, which has the working title 'Set to Music'.

http://raleghlong.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/raleghlongmusic

http://twitter.com/raleghlong

You can catch Ralegh Long, Tim Wells, Sid Griffin & Al Hutchins in a musical/literary/poetry smash-up on the 9th September at Power Lunches on Kingsland Road.

There are just 50 tickets available for pre-order, so be sure to get yours today - all proceeds from the night go to Amnesty International, meaning you can help fight oppression wherever it exists in this world whilst enjoying a superb night of live music and literature! 

Reader/Band Profile: Sid Griffin

Back from our Summer hols, having had a restful time witnessing the exertions of Team GB from the exhausting heat of Istanbul; team B&B is delighted to bring you news of our September 9th Amnesty International fundraiser! 

If you haven't yet booked your tickets, now is the time to do so, only 50 are available for pre-sale, and they're going fast!  Your ticket not only gets you access to a night featuring live performances from the majestic Tim Wells and the peerless Ralgh Long & the Primary 3, you will also get to see SID GRIFFIN:

 

Sid Griffin is perhaps best known as the leader of alt-country founders the Long Ryders back in the 1980s in Los Angeles.

Since those heady days Sid has written four books; Gram Parsons: A Musical Biography (1985), Bluegrass Guitar: Know The Players, Play The Music (2005), Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, The Band & the Basement Tapes (2007) and Shelter From The Storm: Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Years (2010). In addition Sid wrote for BAM, the L.A. Times, German Rolling Stone, Gosh!, spent ten years writing for Q, wrote for Mojo starting with issue two, has authored several late night BBC Radio 2 specials including a memorable one on The Carter Family which was narrated by Dolly Parton (!),  and he also did the research, interviews and wrote the script for the Warner Bros/BBC TV documentary Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel.

In 2002 he flew to Florence, Italy to received the Piero Ciampi Award for service to the arts, accepting the award on national radio. He is a native of Kentucky, a graduate of the University of South Carolina and now lives in Camden Town, north London. He has compiled and annotated over forty collections, anthologies or reissues for various record labels such as Rhino, Warner Bros, Universal and PolyGram, perhaps most notably Flying High, the well-received collection by his old friend Gene Clark (the Byrds, Dillard & Clark).

Sid Griffin is a raconteur, a solo performer of note with two solo CDs out, a mandolinist with “alt-bluegrass” heroes the Coal Porters, the resident musicologist on BBC 6 Music’s Radcliffe & Maconie Show and a political junkie of the first order. He has no chemical dependencies and is a vegetarian. 

Sid will be telling us stories about Bob Dylan and singing us some songs. We can't wait to see you there!

Bands & Books & Amnesty International & Pussy Riot

The 1st Birthday Party for Bands & Books on Sunday September 9th will raise money for Amnesty International. This means that aside from the wonderful talents of Sid Griffin, Tim Wells & Ralegh Long and the Primary 3, you will also have a chance to help an organisation whose purpose is to protect people wherever justice, fairness, freedom and truth are denied.

Amnesty carries out the most unbelievably awesome work, including recently campaigning for the freedom of Bands & Book's favourite feminist punk protest band Pussy Riot.  If you're not familiar with the story of the arrest and detention of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich, it would do you no harm at all to read a little more on the subject.

Bands & Books is not known for political activism, but when we see bands getting arrested for reading poetry in a church, we get upset.  For that reason, we are proud to support Amnesty international and stand shoulder to shoulder with luminous balaclava clad feminist activists the world over! 

You can help to free Pussy Riot here

You can support Amnesty International, and catch some unbelievable live music and reading here

Bands & Books 1st birthday party

Bands & Books is 1! 

We're throwing a party on September 9th at Power Lunches, to mark the wonderful occasion of our 1st Birthday!

  

Doesn't time fly?  

Join us for an evening of literature, music, poetry, drinking and fun, all in aid of Amnesty International!

Where?

Power Lunches

446 Kingsland Road

Hackney

E8 4AE

When?

  

Sunday 9^th September 7:30-23:00

  

How much?

  

Tickets from just THREE POUNDS (+ booking fee) here (or £5 on the door)

  

Who’s playing?

Sid Griffin - Musician and Bob Dylan Biographer (reading and performing acoustic set)
Tim Wells - Poet
Ralegh Long & The Primary 3 - Band
Al Hutchins- Poet

Should I go?

YES.

Special Summer Party Line-up Announcement!

If you're heading down to the Bands & Books summer party this week, you're in for a treat!  Not only will you get to see bands Fountains and Tied To The Mast, writers Stuart Evers and Zoë Howe, but you'll also experience the Audio/Visual mastery of Graphic Novelist & musician, James Eve.

James Eve is a musician and illustrator. His serialized online graphic novel Universal Son combines songs with comic narrative to tell a unique story, set in the current climate of music industry meltdown:

“I was writing these songs that all seemed to have a linking thread, and to place them in a graphic story seemed like both a natural and innovative thing to do What seemed interesting to me was the way songs can tell a very different story to any other form of art – and to present them with a graphic narrative really highlights that - in the same way music is used in film.”

We'll be displaying audio/visual extracts from Universal Son throughout the night, but if you can't wait until Thursday, you can get a sneak preview here. 

James also contributed to Bands and Books Spring by playing all the music between acts, we then bullied him into turning it into a spotify playlist, which you can check out here:

Bands & Books Summer Party takes place at Dalston's Power Lunches from 7:30 on Thursday 21st June, you can get cheaper advanced tickets here, or pay £5 on the door. 

Reader Profile: Zoë Howe

If we could design someone to perform at Bands & Books from scratch, we'd probably include in the spec that she should have written a book about the Slits and played percussion with Mick Jones.  But that would just be being too demanding right? 

Zoë is the editor of Iceland Music Export, and has written biogs, press releases and sleevenotes for artists including Bardi Johannsson, Command V, X Ray Spex and The Slits. Her writing has featured in The Quietus, Company, Classic Rock, BBC Music, Channel4Music, ITV, NME, Jazzwise, Notion, Contemporary and WENN. 

She has interviewed artists as diverse as Poly Styrene, Biffy Clyro, Mariah Carey, Pete Townshend, Macy Gray, Anna Friel, Suggs, James Chance, Wilko Johnson, Maximo Park,  Mugison, The Slits, Human League, Adrian Utley (Portishead), The Raincoats, Keith Levene, The Blockheads, Amon Tobin, The Tiger Lillies, Duke Spirit, The Twang, Pauline Black, Gareth Sager (The Pop Group) & Son Of Dave.

In 2010 Zoë made a series based on music and psychogeography for Resonance FM. The archives can be found here. She is  now working on a book  with Wilko Johnson and Cadiz Music, who produced the award-winning Julien Temple Dr Feelgood film Oil City Confidential. Her first novel is also coming to life...

Howe often appears at Gavin Martin's Talking Musical Revolutions, & she has played drums and percussion with artists including Anne Pigalle, Yumi Hara, Viv Albertine. Steve Beresford and Mick Jones. She recorded with Albertine and Jones at his Rock 'n' Roll Library in Ladbroke Grove in 2009.

Zoë has appeared as a talking head on E4, Planet Rock, BBC 6 Music, Absolute Radio, and has read at festivals including Stoke Newington Literary Festival, Un-Convention, Ladyfest, Writing On The Wall & Secret Garden Party. She is on the She is on the advisory board for Un-Conventional Women, a music event which takes place at the South Bank Centre in 2012.

Zoë has dedicated a YouTube channel to classic music writing: Rockanory - the Jackanory for Music Lovers. 

Zoë's latest book, 'Looking Back At Me' - the oral history of Wilko Johnson - is out on May 30th via CadizMusic.co.uk.

Quotes for 'How's Your Dad? Living In The Shadow of a Rock Star Parent' (Omnibus 2010)

'There's no official guide to rock'n'roll parenting - the best (musicians) have is 'How's Your Dad?'.'  The Independent

'Howe does a superbly comprehensive, humorous job. Lively, warm and sensitive.'  **** Kris Needs, Record Collector

Quotes for 'Typical Girls? The Story Of The Slits' (Omnibus 2009):

'Possibly the most important Brit-rock book of the year.' Gavin Martin (Daily Mirror /  NME / Rock's Family Trees) 

'A perfect representation written in the same spirit as them, absolutely spot-on in true kamikaze Slits fashion,'  ***** Kris Needs, Record Collector 

Having taken great pleasure in Booking Zoë for our summer party we were instantly excited about putting together her mixtape. Here's what Zoë had to say about her writing influences: 

Songs / bands that influence my writing: it depends what I am writing - if I am writing a band biog or working with a particular artist then I will listen to their music and the music they loved, were influenced by or were associated with - for example when I was working with Wilko Johnson from Dr Feelgood, I not only listened to the Feelgoods (which was no chore, I love 'em!) but also Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Chuck Berry (ok, I admit I was cheating, I listen to them all the time anyway...but you know). With the Slits book, I'd listen not only to the Slits but also Lilliput, The Pop Group, Prince Far I, the Raincoats, Public Image Limited, Flying Lizards - all artists who feature heavily in my record collection anyway. The Who and Pete Townshend's solo work has always inspired me, at once muscular and sensitive, questioning and incisive, and I also find the openness and often mystical bent of Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green and beyond) puts me in a good frame of mind for writing. They were all poets anyway.

You can catch Zoë at the Bands & Books Summer Party alongside Stuart Evers & bands Fountains & Tied To The Mast.  Book your tickets now!  Meanwhile, have a listen to Zoë's mixtape:

Reader Profile: Stuart Evers

We first encountered Stuart performing in the basement of the Queen of Hoxton at a night notable for the warning signs on the way in, informing everyone they would be subjected to the potentially harmful effects of live smoking. This turned out to be a requirement for performers wishing to exercise the legal loophole allowing them to smoke indoors. The performance itself was a reading from Stuart's debut book, 10 Stories About Smoking, which came out on Picador in 2011.  Did we mention it was utterly fantastic?

Stuart Evers was born in a small north-western town in 1976. Picador published his first book – Ten Stories about Smoking, which won the London Book Award – in 2011 and his debut novel, If This is Home, comes out in July. His interests include Columbo, country soul, giving up smoking and Walthamstow.

We didn't just want Stuart to read his book though, we asked him to tell us about his favourite bands via the medium of *internet* turn it up & enjoy:

You can catch Stuart performing at the Bands & Books summer party on June 21st at Power Lunches in Dalston.


Austerity Britain Edit: buy your tickets in advance and save £££