He's behind you!

I went to the panto at the Playhouse with Anders & Nick last week. Now, I've got to be honest, at about 2 o clock that afternoon I was feeling really tired and really just wanted to ditch the panto and have a night snuggled up on the sofa watching some dreadful TV and taking it easy. Partly this was down to the tiredness and partly down to my aversion to pantos. I've just always thought they would be bawdy, childish and get infuriated by all the "he's behind you" shouting. I think I went to see a particularly bad one as a child. I have a memory of tiny me all red faced and angry being made to shout "He's behind you" for about the fifteenth time. I used to hate it when people deliberately used to pretend not to know/see things. Sounds like I was an angry child. Weird.

Anyway, off we went to see Mother Goose, rather reluctantly, had a quick bite to eat at Cast (burger, very nice) and loaded up on sweeties for the performance. About 10 minutes in I think the first "Boo!" squeaked past my lips. About 20 minutes in I was laughing along at the one liners and ad-libs. Before the first act ended I was joining in with the singing, cheers and jeers with all my heart. I loved it! It was genuinely funny, the costumes and set were bright and spangly, the songs were fun and I didn't have to repeat chants 10 times to get anything to happen. They had a really nice balance between stuff for kids and adults, between playing it knowingly and getting involved in the performance and between the different characters. I've always been pretty certain that the panto wouldn't be for me, but I loved it and would recommend it to anyone.

On Friday we were hosting two gigs - one a proper Hello Thor gig at Spanky Van Dykes, with Injured Birds & We Show Up On Radar playing live - one a Broadway gig with Anders doing the organising, a celebration of Scandinavian sounds called Nordic Noise, with a Cardigans For Goalposts element thrown in.

Thankfully both  were a great success, with lots of nice comments and some awesome performances. I won't talk about them all, but just want to record that We Show Up On Radar played with their full band for only the 3rd time. They were great. Having a fuller sound just totally makes sense and gives the songs a proper setting in which they can sparkle. The full band brings a bit more power and confidence to the performance as well as the tunes and everything just seems really right. I can't wait to see them again.

Here are a few of my favourite pics from the evening:







See more pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellothor/sets/72157625467734169/

This week I will be:

- Sewing tonight! Yeah! last one before Christmas

- Jumpers for Goalposts tomorrow - not at the Alley Cafe for one month only. Read more here: http://thesecretdiaryofjumpersforgoalposts.wordpress.com/

- Dinner at Angi & James' on Friday

- Daddy Bones' Birthday at Broadway on Saturday - This is going to be great. The Yeah I'll Play It Later DJs will be on the decks, lots of lovely people will be hanging out and dancing. FUN.

- Snoozing all day Sunday please.

See you soon!

Bex
x

FISTS EP Launch gig - 9th April & Fools' Gold Loaves

Hello!

Isn't it nice to have a bit of sunshine? Mmmmmm.

I realised I haven't posted or put up any pics since the Hello Thor/ Fists EP Launch at the Rescue Rooms on the 9th April. What an amazing night. ALL the bands were brilliant. Escapologists had a hard slot being first on, but totally set the tone for a great night with their performance. Pilgrim Fathers killed with a big rock set and lots of great posturing from frontman Shelf. Swimming were brilliant and it was awesome to hear one of my favourite songs (Tigershark) live. Then Fists rocked up and played the best set I think I might've ever seen them play. It was an amazing way to launch the new Fists Olympic Hits EP and lots of people went home with copies. If you didn't get one you can buy them at http://www.hellothor.com/ or on amazon etc.

Here's some pics (apologies for the variable quality - not much light in the Rescue Rooms it turns out):
(*Random order is due to the intensely annoying new Blogspot editing*)

Fool's Gold Loaf? It's what killed Elvis and recently our kitchen turned into a film studio when we helped Burly Nagasaki to try and make a music video for the release of their forthcoming album. We heard the album too, it's GREAT! They recorded it in a month for the RPM challenge, doing it all in February, and it sounds awesome. Can't WAIT for their Launch Party at the Chameleon on the 7th May (I think). Hopefully some of the footage we shot will also be useable so you might get to see the horror that is a FOOLS GOLD LOAF - AKA A jar of peanut butter, a jar of jam, a whole heap of bacon and a massive buttered loaf. It tasted disgusting and was definitely a month's worth of calories in one go. Elvis used to eat them as a midnight snack. Unbelievable. here we are filming:

Fun!

This week: off to see Greenberg at the Broadway on Thursday (part of Screenlit), hopefully just relaxing on Friday then it's Dolly Disco time on Saturday! It's at Moog, Nick (Hello Thor) & Daddy Bones & Abi are DJing, so it should be ace!

Bye!

Bex
x

Fists single launch - THIS SATURDAY!

Come down to the Art Organisation for the Fists single launch this Saturday!

Not only is this the first release on the new Hello Thor record label it is also Fists' first single - Cockatoo b/w Skit. It looks set to be an amazing gig with Mexican Kids at Home, Rory McCarthy &, of course, Fists themselves all playing live. There might also be a secret special guest (!) and Daddy Bones will be DJing.

The single has already been getting attention & airplay from XFM, Artrocker & the BBC. It will be available to download from www.hellothor.com after the launch and is actually really brilliant. On the night you will be able to pre-order / buy vinyl 7" singles with a great cover designed by Fists' own Angi Fletcher using an photograph taken by Steve Mays - www.smays.com - at a Halloween party in the 70's. Brilliant!

I can't wait!

Bex x

Well, that was brilliant!

(I had such a good time at the Fists gig I wanted EVERYONE to read about it!)

A great turn-out...

Nottingham luminaries were there - Swimming, Joey Chickenskin, Rob Yunioshi, Bones, the lovely ladies of Tether, Tom & Nick from Hello Thor, Dan Toporowski... so many brilliant minds we could've started a revolution!

A great set from Fists...

James parping his giant horn, Joe dressed as a greaser-cowpoke, Angi delighting us all with an immense analogue beast of a keyboard, Pete's brilliant new tune You Dudes Rock (thanks!) and Tez rocking out the world's smallest drum solo.

I loved it - Thanks everyone!

x anders