The Big Untidy Magazine

30th May

Madame Riviere the debut single by The Krak is out on June 30th 2008 as a strictly limited edition CD & ‘lipstick pink’ vinyl!

Famed for their raucous studio shows at their base in Old Street, that has seen everyone from Noel Fielding to members of Kasabian join their fan club, the two boy two girl quartet’s vocal sharing chart-friendly corkers are fun factor central. They were the first band to ever, that’s ever, play the iconic Orient Express and the quartet took their travelling tour on a Routemaster bus for an acoustic show round the streets of London town. The band even made Velvet Revolver dance.

Some feelingsfrom Grae;

The Krak
Madame Riviere
With it's Latin-garage-surf stylings Madame Riviere is reminiscent of the god-like Dan Sartain and like Mr Sartain combines the catchiest of hooks with a noirish undertone fit for the sassiest of go-go joints. Having already proved themselves in trumps on the live circuit, it's often difficult to distil that sweat soaked adrenaline into 3 minutes of plastic, but this is a debut that manages to do just that.
What sets it aside from the pack is a dynamite production, from the phased drums and tequila soaked howls of the opening seconds to the tin-can reverb of the guitar breaks, the sweet senorita outro of la la la's and fuzzed up faux-live breakdown this is a track that has been crafted with care and a genuine voodoo-rock 'n' roll sensibility!
*****
Grae J.

Madame Riviere is available to buy from www.militantentertainment.com

21st May

Details have been announced o the UK tour package 'Reggae For The People', featuring UK’s leading ska/reggae/dub collective Pama Intl (ft.Lynval Golding of The Specials), The Slackers (USA’s premiere interpreters of Jamaican music), The Pietasters (from Washington DC, the band that backed James Brown!) and Mungos Hi Fi (Scotland’s No1 Sound System), on "the finest ska, rocksteady and dub tour ever."

Each night of the tour promises a nonstop exploration of the best ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub in the world today, kicking off from the minute doors open with the superb Mungos Hi Fi sound system (before, during and after each live act), followed by an unbeatable live bill. To conicide with the tour, Rockers Revolt (dist.by Universal) are releasing new albums by all four acts.

Rockers Revolt release schedule...
RRHITCD2 Pama Intl - Love Filled Dub Band out now
RRHIT121 Pama Intl ft.Michie One - Highrise single out 23 June
RRHITCD3 The Pietasters - All Day out 30 June
RRHITCD4 The Slackers - Self Medication out 30 June
RRHITCD5 Mungos Hi Fi - Champion Sound System out 7 July

June 2008
26 Glastonbury Leftfield
27 Leicester The Park
28 Sheffield Corperation
29 Glasgow Soundhaus
30 Edinburgh Liquid Rooms
July 2008
01 Newcastle Academy
02 Wolverhampton Robin 2

03 Bristol Bierkeller
All Saints Street, Bristol, BS1 2NA
Box Office 0117 9268514 www.bristolbierkeller.co.uk
Tickets from Bristol Ticket Shop 0117 929 9008

04 London ULU
05 Cambridge Junctio

13th May

2nd May

A special Untidy Performing' Room evening is taking place as part of the Brackley Music Festival on July 2nd. Performers so far confirmed for the evening are Darrell Mitchell, Tristan Pate, Lois Barratt and Ana McNichol with more promised. A wonderful acoustic evening of songwriting.
Even more splendidly on the previous Saturday June 28th, the wonderful people at Brackley Music Festival have suggested a Big Untidy Busk in the streets of Brackley - A Big Untidy Brackley Busk if you will and you're all welcomed to come and play or participate in which ever manner suitable and it couldn't be easier to get to! More details from barry at biguntidy.com

2nd May

The line up for the June 13th Big Untidy Night Out at The Rising Sun Arts Institute, Reading has ben confirmed and it is truly magnificent:

Grae J Wall & The Gentlemen of Leisure
Damian A Passmore,
Ugly Dog Poetry,
Unfortunate Bongo 5
Jed Hotspur and The Road to Recovery featuring Dave Bomaris
Mark Barnes
Stark

As usual fun starts at 8 o clock, it'll be a corker.

30th April

Pama Intl are once again performing at the Leftfield stage at Glastonbury this year. After last years show stopping performance Pama Intl have not only been asked back but they've been asked to co-host the stage for the Thursday evening as part of Leftfield's 'Anti-slavery night'.

As part of the programme, Pama Intl will be bringing their label mates along; The Pietasters (from Washington DC, the band that backed James Brown), The Slackers ("Americas premiere interpreters of Jamaican music") and Scotland's No.1 sound system Mungos Hi Fi. All four acts will have new albums out on Pama Intl's Rockers Revolt label (dist.by Universal).

Grae J Wall / Big Untidy faves The Krak are also playing before the Thursday Latin American fiesta rounds off the evening.

From Glastonbury the four band package will be hitting the road for a 9 date UK tour under the banner of "Reggae For The People" for what promises to be "the finest ska, rocksteady and dub tour ever." Rockers Revolt (dist.by Universal) are releasing new albums by all four acts.

 

25th April

Untidy favourite James Hunter will be releasing his new album The Hard Way in the US on June 10th, 2008. Produced by Liam Watson (also producer of The White Stripes "Elephant") and recorded analogue onto open reel tape at Toe Rag Studios in London The Hard Way also features Allen Toussaint playing piano on 2 tracks.

Van Morrison described james Hunter as "One of the best voices, and best kept secrets, in British R&B and Soul," we're out to help share the secret.

4th April

The Big Untidy Night Out is a monthly event held at The Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading.
Dates for your diary are May 9th June 13th and July 11th.
Hurdy Gurdy Poetry Percussion Upright bass, naturally lots of 6 string guitars and even Balkan folk songs if we're lucky.
Your favourite Untidy tracks will even be playing in the bar.
More details soon.
Launch night May 9th includes Damian Clark, Darrell Mitchell and Patrick Wass.
June 13th offers Ugly Dog Poetry, Grae J Wall & The Gentlemen of Leisure, and Damian A Passmore plus more.
There's even an Open Mic slot if you just want to try .. e-mail barry at biguntidy.com for details, putting 'Night Out' in the subject box.
Y'all come by now.

28th March

Untidy faves Andy Baron & Concrete Johnson are now to be known as Rebel Control.
You want an explanation?
"We started just getting together just to write a song or two and play the occaisional gig as a duo a few years ago ...next thing we've got this amazing band with us ,a single getting airplay across europe and the u.s.a and we're playing main stage at some great festivals. What started as just andy baron and concrete johnson having a jam has grown into quite something, from today onwards we are now called .......REBEL CONTROL"
Check the new live video and monitor mixes of tracks from their forthcomng album over at MySpace

26th March

Recorded in Oswego, New York State and produced by the legendary Kim Simmonds, Bob Hall regards his new CD, What Goes Around, as his best work yet.  The CD Bobs first recording in over six years features Kim's soaring guitar work and Bob's propulsive, intricately-constructed blues piano in a rare combination of talents.  The super-tight rhythm section comprises the immaculate Dennis Cotton on drums and percussion and the dynamic bass of Hilary Blythe.  The vocal honours are shared by Bob and Hilary and there are guest appearances by Pete McMahon on harmonica and Chris Sawyer on tenor sax.  Most of the songs are original compositions featuring Bob's wry, laconic lyrics. The album serial number is SPV Blue 42572 CD and you can hear samples of some of the tracks on Bobs web-site, http://www.boogie.demon.co.uk. The Bob Hall All Stars, featuring another guitar legend, Top Topham, formerly with The Yardbirds will be touring soon.

26th March

Guvnors Untidy Special Offer

In a fit of relentless generosity Bluesmaster Bob is offering to GIVE lucky readers of Big Untidy, or 'Untidy-ites' as Bob would have it, tickets to The Guvnors very special 20th Birthday Party to be held at The Bush Hall in West London's glamorous Shepherds Bush, on May 15th.

Simply send an email with your address quoting Guv'nors Untidy Offer to guvnorsinfo@email2me.net and a pair of tickets for the Guv'nors 20th anniversary gig could be in the post to you.

An outstanding offer from an outstanding band and an outstandingly Untidy Bluesmaster Bob.

Bob we salute you - see you at the gig.

14th March

Dear media-people worldwide,

since a couple of days (March, 7, 2008) the brandnew virtual single out of the new Desert Planet album is available as free download on our website. This smashing track titled "Riot Sector 68" gives a nice idea abvout what the upcoming album "Moonrock" is going to be all about. "Moonrock" is going to be released in Scandinavia & the Baltics on March 14 through Stupido Records/Finland and in Germany/Austria/Switzerland by 9pm Records on April, 25, 2008.

Here's the single!

11th March

Taking the idea that Music and Creative activity help with rehabilitation a Liverpool Hospital is asking for bands to contribute old posters/flyers. Better still taking the time to put an inspirational message on a photo it would be great or maybe send a photo of a hero who inspired you with a message why

If you could send it direct to

Nick Wade (Clinical Lead)
Rathbone Hospital
Mill Lane
Old Swan
Liverpool

Thanks again and remember what inspired you could inspire them

 

25th February

23rd February

The new TV Smith album is to be titled "In The Arms Of My Enemy" and will be released in Europe at the end of May.
The CD, featuring eleven songs, has a line up of musicians including Vom on drums, Tim Renwick on guitar and Tim Cross on keyboards, and has been mixed by Jon Caffery.

Exclusive preview of the album cover on www.tvsmith.com

Release dates:
Germany - May 23rd on Drumming Monkey records, distributed by Rough Trade. Cat. no DRUM 04
UK - May 27th on Boss Tuneage, distributed by PHD. Cat. no BTRC024

21st February

New Scaffold track

As unbelievable as it sounds The Scaffold have released a new track, Three Shirts On A Line, described by Mojo as "a daft, if anthemic rewrite of 3 Lions". The track is available on the compilation album Liverpool - The Number Ones Album.

7th February

BIG Big Untidy favourite Reg Meuross' new CD, 'Dragonfly' will be available by mid february.
The guests this time include Rabbit Bundrick, Keyboard player and full time member of The Who;
The brilliant young Exeter based folk singer & 5 string fiddle player, and 2008 BBC2 Folk Awards Nominee, Jackie Oates;
Tim Harries from June Tabor’s ‘Apples’ and numerous other top folk recordings & Simon Edwards from ‘Fairground Attraction’ & Billy Bragg’s ‘The Blokes’ on Bass & Guitarron;
Vashti Anna,Barney Morse-Brown, BJ Cole, Steve Turner on Accordion and Roy Dodds from Eddi Reader’s band on drums & percussion.

Produced by Reg and Roy Dodds, the CD consists of 15 brand new songs written from stories collected on recent rural touring around England. They include topics such as the real Dick Turpin: “Lizzie Loved a Highwayman”; The Tragedy of the two young lovers from Bowes, Yorkshire who died of broken hearts: “Martha Went Down to The Well”; “And Jesus Wept”, The story of Private Harry Farr who last year became the first 1st World War Soldier executed for “desertion” to receive a pardon; “Valentine”, a song about the soldier Matty Hull who was shot by Americans in Afghanistan by so called ‘friendly fire’; “William Brewster Dreams of America”, about the original Pilgrim Father’s flight to The New World, with his children Patience, Fear, Love, Wrassling & John; and so on.

If you would like to pre-order a copy of this new collection of songs for £11, please send an email to regmeuross@aol.com for details.You can also pay through Paypal to regmeuross@aol.com

30th January

ROCK AGAINST RACISM 30th ANNIVERSARY

This year sees the 30th Anniversary of the Rock Against Racism Carnival that was a high point in the political and cultural fightback against fascism and racism in Britain in the 1970s and featured landmark performances from The Clash and Steel Pulse. To mark the event a series of events is taking place including a huge concert on the original site at Victoria Park, East London on Sunday 27th April 2008 which, of course, Big Untidy was at, march, concert and all

22nd January

From trhe Liverppol Echo review of the One Concert last weekend,BIG thanks to Murray for the tip off.

"Bringing the first half to a boisterous climax, 60s legends the Scaffold delighted the audience with a sing-along version of Lily the Pink.They were joined onstage by the rest of the acts for a re-written version of The Lightning Seeds’ Three Lions.

“It’s like a big party,” said The Scaffold’s John Gorman.It takes a Liverpool audience to get a feeling like that. It was wonderful, just wonderful.”

Mike McCartney said: “To play the arena was great.Liverpool has needed something like this for years. Looking out across that crowd was fantastic.”

20th January

Round about 1975 I went to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm for one of the Sunday gigs I'd got used to going to there. This one though was different; I read a magazine called Zigzag which helped shape a lot of my musical tastes and it was going to be their birthday party. As if that wasn't enough excitement Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers were playing and best of all Michael Nesmith was headlining - my first Nesmith gig.
As an added bonus there was a guy in a cowboy hat that played just before The Nes, his name was John Stewart and he and his bass player buddy held the audience in the palm of their hands while they played; a spell that Nes and OJ 'Red' Rhodes did not break when their turn came.
John Stewart wrote Daydream Believer for The Monkees but he also wrote so much more, songs that could chill you and make you smile and warm you and make you think.
That was truly a magical afternoon / evening made even more special by John Stewart arriving in my life and his Phoenix Concert album became a cornerstone for me.
John Stewart died this week, in the very same hospital he was born in back in 1939.

14th January

THURS 15 MAY

THE GUVNORS BIG 20TH ANNIVERSARY GIG
THE BUSH HALL, Shepherds Bush London
Special guests to be announced. But in the meantime, check out the
venue website, look at who has played there and have a look at the
photographs of the place.
Watch this space for more details.
www.bushhallmusic.co.uk

14th January

Repent for he doth record!
Jesus of Cool reissue now available for pre-order!
2008 marks the 30th anniversary of Nick Lowe's album Jesus of Cool, released in the U.S. as Pure Pop for Now People, and to celebrate the fact YepRoc Records are releasing a 30th anniversary edition combining the original and U.S. versions to include all material ever available on either release. In addition, seven bonus cuts, including the UA contract fulfilling "Bay City Rollers We Love You" and "Allorolla" (by Tartan Horde), plus "Let's Go To The Disco" and "Everybody Dance" (The Disco Brothers) make this "the definitive version of this undisputed pop masterpiece."
The LP version is limited edition and there will apparently only be one pressing of Jesus of Cool on vinyl BUT All pre-orders of this edition come with a free digital version, available on release date.
Whats more you can celebrate the reissue of Jesus of Cool with limited edition "rockin' tee shirts and let everyone know: the Jesus of Cool cometh."

www.yeproc.com and tell em The Big Untidy sent you.

10th January

Our old friends at Elelfant Records have released a new single by The Television Personalities

After almost a decade The Television Personalities put out two new albums: "My Dark Places" (2006) and "Are we Nearly There Yet?" (2007) which were intended to be the beginning of a new era.

Now Elefant Records are "proud and excited" to put out the world exclusive new TV PERSONALITIES single "The Good Anarchist."
"One truly cries out in jubilation when listening to this song! Only true alchemists of pop can achieve to produce sounds of such sensibility in just a little over two minutes. Echoes of bands such as VELVET UNDERGROUND, SHOP ASSISTANTS and CAROUSEL ring about on this single, as well as the voice of Swede Johanna Lundström for the first time and Dan playing the guitar. The B-Side sparkles with the fabulous "She's Always Been There for Me" with the classic TV PERSONALITIES (basically Dan and Ed Ball) although it includes an irresistible touch of Northern Soul and a catchy rhythm that makes you put on your dancing shoes and leave your Ben Sherman shirt soaking in sweat! It's all a big surprise wrapped up in a 7" single and a definite must for long-time fans of the group, as well as newbies which became fans with their last few albums!"

More details at www.elefant.com

7th January

Seems the problems recording a Roy Wood DVD at Birmingham Town Hall were down to communication and the fact that Roy is just so damned popular, it appears no-one told he Town Hall that a professional film company would be working the gig and so no seats were held off sale to accomodate specific camera positions required for the filming.

By the time all this was explained Town Hall staff said there was only limited space for the required number of cameras and lights as so many tickets for the show had been sold.

A spokesman explained: "As Roy's show was sold out, we obviously could not offer camera positions in the audience, and this limits filming to areas such as the stage, side aisles and back of the hall."

There are now plans to film the Shepherd's Bush Empire gig later this year

4th January

Pressgang launch themselves into 2008 with a short series of gigs at Talking Heads Southampton, Jan 17th, Wintertreff, near Kronach, Thuringen, Jan 26th and then back in UK for The Flyer in Banbury Feb. 29th.
As Damian says the big tours of yore are gone but more gigs will follow in the summer including a homecoming / Damians big birthday gig in April.

24th December

New Roy Wood Releases

Our man at the Birmingham Town Hall tells us that just before Roy Wood played his new song New York City at his Dec 22nd gig he said it would be featured on a new rock and roll album he has written to be recorded in the New Year. What's more there was "mad audience appreciation" at this news and "the concert by the way was fantastic." Mystery though surrounds the planned Roy Wood 'Live' DVD with news that "a friend of mine was going to play in his string section and was cancelled at the last minute. Apparently wrangles over lighting andnumbnuts at the venue meant that Mr Wood decided to not go ahead with
the filming."
Oh well.

7th December

A small reminder that The Darrell Mitchel Big Band (an old bloke playing snare) will be playing a short set at Newbury Unplugged tonight to be recorded for a possible venue compilation CD.

After tonight there'll only be 1 more chance to catch the Big Man in 2007 - at Northampton on 19th.

The first scheduled gig of 2008 is back at Goring on Feb. 15th with the full blown Orchestra.

The CD is coming along and we'll tell you more about that in the New Year.

Stay Untidy.

5th December

More updates and changes. Music player properly sorted out now, and the TV Smith Discography. More to come....

3rd December

Yet another BigUntidy update. Poems, tunes, gallery, some software patches. But there is yet more to come; a christmas LP, some song releases, and more. Merry christmas, BU fans.

18th November

Untidy Podcats favourites Pama Intl's new single Highrise, featuring the fantastic Michie One is coming out on 3rd Dec'07 on their own Rockers Revolt label (dist.by Universal/Active). It's already picked up it's first National Radio play last Sun/Mon from one of the UKs best, Rob Da Bank with a further 8 DJs also spinning it. More DJs are coming onboard daily.

13th November

 

13th June
Big Untidy reaches 10,000th visitor (unique visit). While this obviously does not represent world-encompasing success, it'll do. What this means is; You are not alone, there are others who may be interested in the same thing. We're going to have to keep coming up with stuff... You know the drill. Anyhow, with over a 1000 hits this month alone, it seems as though the BU band wagon is finally in (1st) gear.

Some comments about this ?monumental? milestone;

"I keep coming back precisely because it’s untidy, you never know what’ll pop up next." Viv

From the Cedars: "Excellent work! I’m always untidy" - J

"Congrats to all at Big Untidy. It's looking good and full of fun and insight." - Dave Statistic

"It's my cultural vitamin supplement." says Mrs. S. of Droitwich

And finally a Liverpudlian Poet and former member of pop group Scaffold:

Congrats on all the hits, may the site grow and grow. Best wishes, Roger

1st January
It's the new year! As long promised (see below) the sketches and front covers are here! All the tracks have changed again, and some other stuff has changed as well. Loads more stuff to come, so it should be a good year! So far we've had 1600 hits, which in a month and a bit isn't bad. So yes, stay around. Also, imagine if there was a little radio segment based on the music and people featured here... It could be available as a podcast or something. Wouldn't that be interesting? Happy New Year to everyone who has supported Big Untidy, and lets look forward to it being bigger and messier than ever!

1st December 2006
And the world of big untidy trundles on... Different links, new poems, new music 'reviews', talks of having tracks to download...
Heard first "only x days till christmas" link on radio today.

28th november 2006 (early)
Coming soon; "the most powerful force in the world; merchandising". Soon T-Shirts, jumpers, hats and things will be available with either the biguntidy or the band logos... Be the first to wear something very few will understand!! Updates to come.....

27th november 2006 (late)
It's a bit late, but there we go... 3 New poems posted. Seems to be a bit biased against tennis though.... A Review and an interview dug out from the past now in the music section.

27th november 2006 (lunch)
New Website under construction, hoping to bring the wonder that was the original magazine to a new audience

Early november 2006
Barry and Clive start batting around the possibility of re-launching the magazine, digging out old photos, articles and recording new music.