LXV Books Instore Performance

Yes, I'll be doing a solo acoustic set at this small bookshop on Roman Road, close to Bethnal Green Tube Station, and this will happen on the Wednesday 31st August. It's going to be a nice and intimate performance, where I have plans to play several new numbers, as well as dig into my older material. I'll be joined by William George Kettle who will be playing keys and mandolin, and I may have another surprise planned also. Find out further details about the shop and the event here.

Obviously it will be free entry and there will be a bar. You get a free drink for every book you buy over £3, so it's a chance to claim some classics you've been meaning to get into, as well as have a merry time. Two birds!

The occasion will also mark my birthday, so I'm very happy to keep the drinking spirit up as we move onto a nearby drinking establishment.

Also coming up, the full Neo Ferns band will be making another appearance at Jamm to play at Beirut's Brixton Academy afterparty, which should be another smashing event.

You can get tickets here. Or just get in touch as I have to sell to hand also. Hope all is going well in your world, thank you for reading.

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Dead Space Sessions

So a couple of weeks ago I made my way over to Whitechapel to record a couple of songs on top of a roof on an afternoon that couldn't decide if it was going to sun, rain or hurricane. The set was part of the Dead Space Sessions, warming up for the festival this weekend just gone. I played Five Weeks, Solar Year and Count To Sleep. I was joined by Dominic Faber who played some great sax improv. Hope you enjoy.

You can see the performance here

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Crazy times

Strange, strange times in this country at the moment. The weekends events suggested even further unrest, but no one could have predicted Monday. I was on my way to work in the early afternoon through Lower Clapton and Hackney, and the atmosphere was bizarre. Hackney Central always has a slightly mad feeling about it, but with far more police on the beat than usual and Riot Vans parked up outside the town hall it gave a sense that something was about to happen. This was of course before anything did, everyone was going about their day to day business, but there was an air of unease. Me and Tim went to a cafe and talked further about the situation, not knowing which way it would go. It soon became clear which way it went.

We locked up early at work and I stayed out, Hackney was still a war zone approaching midnight.

Something is very wrong. You can blame individuals, or gangs. Say they're opportunists and thieves, which of course they are. But it can't be that simplistic. I am by no means on the side of those causing mayhem, just trying to understand it, there's no justification, but there must be a way to explain the events. I hope it calms down, and I equally hope the country changes for the better because of it. The gap between rich and poor should not be increasing in the dramatic way that it is. Hope that that isn't a naive closing statement, just think as history repeats itself, people are angry for a variety of complex reasons. Two cents over.

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