Wednesday 31 March 2010

Over The Wall, LIVE, tomorrow night

Hi Everyone!

Just a quickie to let you know that Hello Thor are putting on a gig tomorrow night at The Chameleon with Over The Wall, Three Blind Wolves & We Show Up On Radar all playing LIVE for just £3. Plus there will be HT DJs and lots of pre-friday-off-work fun to be had!

See you there!

Bex

p.s. Over The Wall are a great Glaswegian band. Have a look at http://www.hellothor.com/ for more info

p.p.s. Here's a fun game: 3D Pong: http://www.newsandentertainment.com/zFcurveball.html

Friday 26 March 2010

Wednesday 24 March 2010

Cracking London gigs this weekend

Fists are down in London this weekend to play 2 great looking gigs and I'm really hoping I can get down there and join them.

Firstly, on Friday night (26th March) they're at the Buffalo Bar for a Fortuna Pop party!

FISTS will be bringing the 6 Music-approved (Don Letts, Gideon Coe and Tom Ravenscroft have all been spinning the new EP tracks!) sound of Olympic Hits to our country's capital.  Artrocker recently hailed them as making the washboard cool again...and you can't get cooler than that!

Joining them are fellow Hello Thor hero, WE SHOW UP ON RADAR.  Fresh from a BBC Maida Vale session and bringing some delightful new songs with him, Andy will be lending London his trademark hushed lullabies for the night.

There's also THE LEAF LIBRARY (Stereolab-like drone rock meets indie pop lyricism) and the Isle Of Wight's MARCEL who "shake the ground and wet the eyes like Wilco".  Awesome!

AND Tom Whalley is DJing so expect indie anthems, northern soul, post-punk, alt-rock, French pop and 60s psych alongside 80s soundtracks and a man shouting "OHHHHHHHHH!" at his own records!
It's £5 in advance from We Got Tickets / £4 cheap list if you give hellothorrecords@gmail.com a shout in the next 24 hours.

THEN there's a gig / coach trip organised by I'm Not From London.

I can't seem to find a lot of details about this except for this...
SAT 27th MARCH-
ROYAL GALA / FISTS / HOT JAPANESE GIRL / CUBAN CRIMEWAVE / GIMME DANGER
MILK / CITY SHANTY BAND / ULTRAJELLY / CHRIS MC DONALD & THE LEISURE CLASS / AUDIO MASSAGE DJ'S

It's @ The Stag's Head [Orsman Road- Dalston] and is FREE with a free BBQ.

Both gigs promise to be awesome, please spread the word and get along there if you can!

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Hello Thor News

Thought it would be good to pop up a bit of Hello Thor news, seeing as things have been so busy and exciting with the label in recent weeks.


First off, Fists were featured in the NME! AND they got 4/5 in Artrocker! This is all down to the new EP Olympic Hits, which has also been getting airplay on 6music, BBC2, NME Radio and more. Brilliant news and SO great to see a great band getting coverage despite not being from a hyped city/scene. Let's hope the same happens for more of Nottingham's talented musicians.


We Show Up On Radar played a Maida Vale Weekender for the BBC! You can hear the tracks here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/sessions/maidavaleweekender/2010/  They sound Awesome.  Plus you can download the WSUOR EP from http://www.hellothor.com/, it's ace.


Then, last week Fists played at Rough Trade in London to launch their Counter Culture 09 compilation, which Cockatoo is on. Here are some pics:





They played some old favourites (Finger, 6-5 etc) and the tracks from the new EP, which will be released on 29th March. The new tracks sounded awesome, Weekend and Ace is the Way just work so well live and have a really full, fierce sound.


So, you can buy the new EP Olympic Hits on http://www.hellothor.com/ or you can buy an advance ticket for the launch gig, 9th April @ The Rescue Rooms, and get the EP for free. Not a bad deal. Get the advance booking deal on alt-tickets or maybe on Hello Thor's website.

The EP Launch Party is going to be a huge celebration of Nottingham music, with Fists joined by the wonderful Swimming, the marvellous Escapologists and the mythical Pilgrim Fathers. Hello Thor DJs will be on the decks and there's an after party up in the Red Rooms featuring Frank's Vintage Metal Disco and special live guests. Buy your ticket in advance and get the EP free as a thank you, so that's £5 for a ticket for a mega gig and a free EP worth £4. Good times.

We're so pleased with how everything is going with Hello Thor and are even more pleased that we've had such support from people in our hometown here in Nottingham. Thanks everyone.


Bex
x

Thursday 11 March 2010

HOLES - Prussian Projekte

Hello

I've been super busy lately (studying, sorting out the next Hello Thor releases and snowed under at work) and so haven't had chance to post about this great looking event...


Prussian Projekte have been doing lots of great stuff - just round the corner from us in Sherwood too! - and this promises to be no exception.

To coincide with the exhibition launch at Broadway there's a free showing of Holes, a great film based on a cracking kids book.  It's very charming and stars Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voigt, Henry Winkler (the Fonz!) and Eartha Kitt!  As well as Shia LaBeouf before everyone started hating him.

To find out more you can check out the Facebook event or contact Broadway or email info@prussianprojekte.com

x Anders 

Wednesday 10 March 2010

6music - the debate continues

There is some fascinating stuff coming to light in the continuing 6music debate. Please contribute to tell the BBC what you want for your licence fee.

Here is a post made in response to this article on the Guardian:

Well I am a 6Music listener and I absolutely HATE commercial radio. The tedious highly repetitive small play list, not to mention the constant adverts gnawing at your very soul.
It doesn't even come anywhere close to what 6Music does.

My listening options are:
1. 6Music
2. My (extensive) music collection.

There is no 3, commercial radio.


Even commercial radio agrees with me here.
Steve Orchard states very clearly that 6Music is of no interest to commercial radio:
http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2010/03/05/13011-radio-boss-commercial-sector-will-gain-nothing-from-6-music-closure

I should also like to point out yet again the crass contradiction that if something "had to close" (presumably to save money) why are you able to put the money into other more bloated stations? You clearly dont have any tangible objectives here. Quality? Its quality. Cheap? Its cheap! Commercial sector? Nope, they don't want it.

I really wish someone at the BBC would put their hand up to admit they simply don't have a clue what they are talking about. Everyone makes mistakes, but decent people put their hands up to them.

Steve Lamaqc has also written an article on the issue on his blog Going Deaf For A Living which is really interesting, and brave considering he's criticising his bosses. I think his point that what’s less clear is how sacrificing 6Music will help is a really interesting one. It seems from everything coming out from the Beeb that they don't really know. One minute the money is being put into TV programming, the next into creating Radio 4 Extra? I mean, WTF? I like Radio 4, but it definitely doesn't need an "extra". Maybe they should combine it with 1Extra and create Radio 14Extra? I'd listen to that.
 
Anyway, do the consultation, even though it seems like the BBC are very clearly not going to back down. Email the people involved, make your voice and opinion heard. It's your BBC.
 
Bex
x

Wednesday 3 March 2010

I LOVE this

Thanks to Lewis for bringing this to my attention:



What are the odds that it's real?

Bex

BBC Review

I'm genuinely gutted to hear about the proposal to close BBC 6music and (in a different way), BBC Asian Network. Both cater to an audience which isn't served by commercial broadcasters and both barely cost anything in comparison to high fees for big name presenters etc etc. I am a long-time BBC advocate and fan, but this is starting to make me question that faith in the corporation.

There's an excellent article here about it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/02/rupert-murdoch-tory-media-policy

Please do sign up to the petition about it: http://www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/1000/
 and write to  all these people:
BBC Director General Mark Thompson: Markthompsonandpa@bbc.co.uk

The Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw: bradshawb@parliament.uk
The BBC Complaints Department: www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

The BBC is a right and a privilege, let's get together to protect it from money grubbing Murdoch and the Tories.

Becky