SAVE OUR VENUES (AND FUTURE)

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Do you care about music? Click Music Venue Trust‘s Save Our Venues link asap! https://saveourvenues.co.uk/ (or… The Entertainment Industry wrecked).

No rising star venue circuit, means no future head-liners/awards winners, economic, cultural and reputational benefits (creative self employment and social collusion included). SERIOUSLY.

“Venues are the vital first stop for a band to build its fan base, confidence and character on stage. Unforgettable memories from all the venues we’ve played, sadly many are shut now. Lets try our best to keep the scene alive.” The Gulps (@TGulps)

Since announcement, artists and audiences alike have galvanised an online collaboration with local communities, national and independent media – plus venues themselves (many of which I’ve visited as fan/crew, inspiring Music Tourism. Many of us spend much of our lives in positive vibrations).

Follow and amplify #SaveOurVenues on social media. Don’t stop.

Join the #FIGHTBACK at   https://saveourvenues.co.uk/#/

Join the #FIGHTBACK at
https://saveourvenues.co.uk/#/

Like our NHS, our venues are a life blood of modern life that goes beyond passion to the genuine civilisation of being in a space where music people are. Our own documentary evolves in small venues with real stories of artists rising to lockdown’s hiatus.

These are essential multi purpose spaces that enhance any town or city. Often with iconic history and anecdotes worthy of a national treasure plaque.

We are ALL in some trouble or other now. Sad and scary days with a bleak outlook. Lockdown is Safety First, but what we do now shapes everything towards Day Zero of the new “normal”. Even the slightest help makes a difference, brightens the near future.

Visit the campaign site, watch the Play At Home gigs, spread the # and website address far and wide. As this movement grows, it would be heart warming to see the biggest artists throw their cash and weight into the bottom rungs of the ladder, trickle down style.

For now, DIY people power is the majority of this force and what an impressive community of belief, already!

“The situation is dire, government support has been exhausted, and it now falls to artists, music fans, local communities and the wider industry to take action.Put bluntly, without these venues the opportunities for artists and audiences to connect in a meaningful way at a local level will simply disappear in a lot of cases. If they go they will never come back.” (Music Venue Trust) 

Read the statement in full and donate at https://saveourvenues.co.uk/#/

Words: Caffy St Luce

ELLIE MOON – ‘PROMISE IT WON’T BE BORING'

Liverpool and Madrid bred musician, Ellie Moon was Tidal ‘Indie Britain’ front page news with her second single, the joyful, retro tinged ‘Promise It Won’t Be Boring’… future accolades are calling. We want to know more pre-Moonisms! Interview by Kelly Munro:

Tell us – how long have you been making music?

Ellie : “This sounds so cheesy, but like most kids when I was little I’d always make songs up and also used to write little poems and stuff like that…

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…I suppose that fascination followed me through teen-hood, when the traditional angst kicked in and forced me to “like-totally-express-myself” (fortunately not through the medium of dance, but in song form). I remember one of the first songs I “properly” wrote was when I was about 15. It was most definitely super cringe and about some love interest that wasn’t even real… haha”

What have been some of the highlights, so far, on your musical journey?

“I think this project is actually the most exciting thing I’ve probably ever done. From leaving school and going on a journey of artistic and self-discovery, growing up alongside this project over the past couple of years. Maturing with the music to some extent. A lot of the songs are almost like time stamps of new life experiences. Also creating and recording the EP meeting all the cool people along the way.”

Your latest single is called ‘Promise It Won’t be Boring’. Have you ever broken a promise? If so, tell all!

“Surprisingly not, I mean not as an adult haha! I do have a big mouth and a dying urge to gossip sometimes. I’m always the friend everyone comes to off-load to and I take that duty very seriously. 

It’s like I’m harbouring all their secrets with no one to tell. So instead I channel it into my writing a lot of the time. And if anyone asks: “is that song about me?” I always say “Noooo! It’s just a story I made up”.

Tell us more about the single, ‘Promise It Won’t Be Boring’. Is there a meaning behind the song? A story attached to it?

Listen to "Promise It Won't Be Boring": https://smarturl.it/EllieMoonPIWBB Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisiselliemoon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com...

Yes there is! The song was actually inspired by a wild weekend I had up in Glasgow visiting some dear pals of mine. Lyrically it’s the antithesis of a party anthem and I wanted to convey that sense of impending doom you feel at the end of a night out – but the reality is the next day is never as bad as we like to make it out to be.

I also wanted to capture the fact that we as young adults love drama and hangovers, the drama of a hangover, drama in general….. and have an unwavering sense of invincibility and originality. 

Are we invincible? Yes, of course. However, we are typically not as original as we like to think we are and I have tried to capture this by paying homage to, and recognising the inspiration of, previous generations in a number of ways – via the “retro” production on the track, referencing the music of The Beatles and one of my favourite quotes from Bowie which is where the song title actually came from “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise that it won’t be boring”.

Your forthcoming EP is called ‘Moonisms’. What is a Moonism?

“Whilst working on the project, specifically the past year or so, the more I was writing and kind of understanding in which direction I wanted to go as an artist the more of the same little phrases were cropping up. I suppose it’s kind of like my own idioms that I use normally I would put into my lyrics. I’d show people my songs and they’d comment on the way I phrased things and sort of coined the term ‘moonism’ for these little turns of phrase. I would say a “moonism” is the tongue in cheekiness of the lyrics.”

What albums do you never get tired of listening to?

Blue – Joni Mitchell
Hunky Dory – David Bowie
Speaking in Tongues – Talking Heads
Alright, Still – Lily Allen
Melodrama – LORDE
Yesterdays Gone – Loyle Carner
Bad Contestant – Matt Maltese
Voyager – Moonchild
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles

What can we expect from you this year?

Planning to keep recording and releasing music and getting a band together to play live whenever we are able to.

We look forward to live moonisms!

https://www.instagram.com/thisiselliemoon/

https://www.facebook.com/thisiselliemoon/

https://twitter.com/thisiselliemoon\

Words: Kelly Munro

BUGEYE: FOR ‘WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT’!

Digital single ‘When The Lights Go Out’ – 24th April 2020 via Reckless Yes |Pre-save  https://ffm.to/a79olom This precedes the debut album, also produced by Paul Tipler, that is coming in June!

Art by Julia Woolams, 31% Wool

Art by Julia Woolams, 31% Wool

The lights of hope HAVE gone out in the eyes of many. Praise the music goddess for Bugeye, shining aural light into our lives with a pure PunkPop passion;

“It’s Friday night, at last the working week’s over, and guess what, it was a bit of a shitty week… again. Nothing changed, everything’s the same, so we go out and we drink with our mates to escape it all. Legendary night of self-medication, the downward spiral, before the week starts all over again. 

This song is about depression and using alcohol as a pick me up to freedom, only to find you are trapped in a cycle.” (Bugeye)

Many of us have been here. Even in day-structure-free lockdown, we can repeat this pattern. 2020 is a zeitgeist for humanity. At all levels, already with future and historic soundtracks.

Generating love on the culled culture grassroots circuit, artists who shape the rising underground in “Austerity” (A-Pop?), emit extra stardust. With nothing to lose, they give all.

Bugeye are one such band. They’ve a debut LP bonus – ‘Ready Steady Bang’ – in the wings for June! The excitement fizzing from their producer, Paul Tipler, when we chatted at one of the band’s shows was crackling before they’d even released recent (and rightly praised on high) taster singles. This year, they are part of the collaborative, innovative Reckless Yes (label matesinclude LIINES and Mark Morriss).

There is so much more to each lovely Bugeye gang member – Angela Martin – guitar and vocals,  Grace Healey – keyboard,  Paula Snow – bass, Kerrie Smith – drums – photographed by Julia Woolams

There is so much more to each lovely Bugeye gang member – Angela Martin – guitar and vocals, Grace Healey – keyboard, Paula Snow – bass, Kerrie Smith – drums – photographed by Julia Woolams

Dropping into the kind of April that nobody can fully comprehend, ‘When The Lights Go Out’ is another facet of what already sounds like an LP of the year on these teased singles, alone. It’s the sound of a space-cadet school disco exploding euphoria in shimmery techni-coloured layers of HD instrumental sounds, vocals included. Musicality powered poptastic breaks like these should put Bugeye on every serious “must-get-tickets-for” bucket list to feel these songs live.

With our minds on so much right now, only the strongest sounds can earworm. We can’t go out but also can’t complain if we are well, safe and fed. We riot in isolation joys of new found appreciations if lucky. Shout and dance along defiantly to this deliciously rhythmed HIT. Bugeye remain one of the musical groups that would play Top Of The Pops in a parallel dimension bringing light to sometimes dark subjects.

Disco-punks Bugeye are teasing their indie debut album with the release of new single Don't Stop, via independent label Reckless Yes on 28 February 2020. 'a ...

With their tour cancelled for safety, Bugeye entertain online with live sets and informed, engaging podcasts. Watch their spaces for the next ones.

Born in the late ‘90s (gigs included The Astoria and Wembley), Bugeye took a break until 2015. They keep pushing boundaries of sound while maintaining and expanding their polished live performance. 

With praise from key spotters like John Kennedy, God Is In The TV, Louder Than War, Get In Her Ears, Janice Long, Steve Lamacq and ace independent / international radio play, their time is NOW.

‘For When The Lights Go Out’ is another expansive Bugeye musical production that will turn our inner lights straight back on.

Connect to their socials via https://bugeyeband.co.uk

Words: Caffy St Luce