I’ve decided you’ve waited long enough. In truth it’s only been a week, and not a particularly slow one, but here, in response to overwhelming demand, is part 2 of my DJ set in support of The Band Of Holy Joy in Charterhouse last month. It’s another jolly fine selection, though I say so myself and I simply could not keep it suppressed a moment longer:
You are so welcome. No, no, please, get stuck in. Notice my amusing juxtaposition of Yma Sumac and Lee ‘Scratch Perry’? I thought you might…
Anyway, you join me today on my bedroom floor where I am currently convalescing. This was the dramatic conclusion of a day Chris and I spent lugging the Howlround soundsystem to and from a secret performance for the students of Havering College as part of their ‘Sonic Futures’ event. The theme this year was ‘dereliction’ – who else would they call, quite frankly?! And after a couple of hours on these floorboards, I’ve started to gain real, first-hand experience of what feeling ‘derelict’ is like.
We were made most welcome by the staff and students of the college who took a real interest in our work (particularly our demonstration of how much fun you can have with a loop of tape and a staffroom radiator) and were in turn most impressed by the student’s work that was on display. Plus we were rewarded for our efforts with a slap-up thai meal and – even more excitingly – two new additions to our army of PR99 tape machines. Not a bad day’s work at all! But every silver lining must of course have a cloud, which accounts for the fresh scar on Chris’s right hand, the fresh scar on the wall of my flat where I inadvertently threw a tape machine; and the apparent lesions to my spine which asserted themselves the following morning while bending over to pick up a sock. Such are the risks of a life spent hulking great big reel-to-reel machines around, risks that have now afforded me several hours stiffly regarding my bedroom ceiling from a dramatic new perspective. The moral of the story? Leave your socks where they fall…
I’m completely confident, however, that by the coming of our next gig at Archaeologies, all will be back to full working order (with the exception of the wall – I’ll just blu-tak something over it and hope the landlord doesn’t notice). Those of you based in the vicinity of Winchester are warmly requested to The Railway, 3 St. Pauls Hill, where we’ll be playing alongside Stephen C. Stamper, Clive Henry, Olan Mill and our old friend Kemper Norton, who’s recent album Carn for Exotic Pylon is a thing of beauty indeed. Tickets and further information here.
For those of you who never leave London, not even for a moment, I’m pleased to add that we shall be playing Club Bermuda at The Roxy Bar and Screen in Borough on April 25th and The Electric Dog Show, Power Lunches, Dalston on May 7th . Further details for both of these exciting performances to follow. I also implore you to read this extremely flattering review of Howlround‘s trio of official releases on the blog of ace music magazine/radio show The Sound Projector! Made our chests puff out with pride, so it did!
In conclusion, special thanks this week must go to Andy, Alex, Dave and the students of Havering College (there’s some more photos of the event here if you fancy a gander). We’re very grateful for your interest and the new additions to the Howlround arsenal. I’m quite sure those new Revoxes will work a treat once we’ve scrubbed a decade’s worth of Andy’s garage off them!
I’ll leave you with a sneak preview of something new that may or may not be part of a much longer composition that may or may not be coming out on a brand new album at some point in the not-too-distant future. Such a tease:
PS: ‘OWWW’, obviously…
Robin The Fog 