Hello Gore II @ Nottingham Contemporary

AMAZING trailer for HG:II this weekend:


HG2 Teaser from Dan Toporowski on Vimeo.
What a great line up! Without a doubt this is going to be the Halloween party of 2010.

Have you got your costume sorted yet? The theme is B-movies, but given that I haven't seen any we will be interpreting that very loosely. This is one of those occasions on which I wish i'd been better organised. Three days to go. Haven't decided on an idea. Oh dear. We're in trouble!

Full line-up for Gore II:

FISTS
HOT HORIZONS
YUNIOSHI
BLACK POWDER
HHYMN
RED SHOE DIARIES
BONSAI PROJECTS
JOEY CHICKENSKIN
& Hello Thor DJs
 
Plus! Nottingham Contemporary will be decorated up by the Left Luggage theatre people AND you can have your picture taken in the Garments of Gore photobooth!
 
All bands will be performing a spooky cover and a track of their own. It's going to be amazing!
 
Here's the poster by Rob Garner: (I love this poster, it's so cool)

 
See you on Saturday!
 
Bex
x

Jumpers for Goalposts, Hockley Hustle & Hello Gore!

Just wanted to post up some details about 3 gigs we've got coming up over the next couple of weeks. You can get more info on the Hello Thor website or read below.

1

Jumpers for Goalposts @ Alley Cafe - Thurs 21st Oct.

We've got Cecille Grey playing live and the craft competition will be spooooooooooky. And it's free.
More info here: http://thesecretdiaryofjumpersforgoalposts.wordpress.com/

2

Hockley Hustle @ Jam Cafe - Sun 24th Oct

We're back at the Jam Cafe again this year, because we had such fun there last year. We've got a cracking line up too. Over The Wall, Moscow Youth Cult, Escapologists, Mexican Kids At Home, Matthew Stephen Cooper, Japanese Sleepers & Make A Halo.

It's all raising money for charity - there are other great bands playing all over Hockley and Hello Thor are really pleased to be a part of it.

3

Hello Gore II: The Return @ Nottingham Contemporary - Sat 31st Oct

Hello Gore is being allowed out for a second time. It's a massive FREE party at the Cafe.Bar.Contemporary with 8 amazing bands playing live. Dress to distress and have your photo taken in the Hello Gore Photobooth. Here's the poster:


Check out Hello Thor's GIGS page for full details on everything above.

See you there!

Bex
x

busy-ness

Things have been busy lately, right? The sun makes me busier too, because I don't want to do boring things while the sun shines. One brilliant thing about the sun shining though is "Summer Tea", which just involves sitting eating our food on kitchen chairs in our little garden. It's brilliant.

Fun things over the past couple of weeks have been:

- Seeing Fists play in Sheffield. It's really great to see your friends doing something they are really good at. It just makes you see them as something else besides your friend who you've known for ages and have lots of fun memories with. I think seeing them play in Sheffield did this x2, because in a little room above a nice pub there was a bunch of strangers really loving them and their music. It makes you sure that you don't just like them as a band because you know them and reminds you how good they are.

- Playing SingStar R&B with my friend Abi. We already owned SingStar Classics and were pretty high up the score table for Depeche Mode, but SingStar R&B is a different ball park altogether. I have a new respect for R&B singers... their songs are HARD! It has also introduced me to Teardrops by Womack & Womack, and I'm very pleased about that.

- Making a draught excluder snake. He's lovely. He's called snakey and so far hasn't been used to exclude any draughts.

- Seeing our veggies growing really big in the garden. We are going to be overrun with beetroot soon.

- The guilty pleasure of the BGT final last Saturday. Oh dear, what have we come to? Loved Britain's Got Talent all week through the semi-finals, felt slightly tarnished and ashamed as soon as the final had finished.

- The Tether Art Crawl. Truthfully I didn't actually crawl. But me and Abs met up at the Ropewalk with Anders who had been leading a group round the various venues, teaching them about the history of Nottingham and sharing some of his favourite stories. Go Anders! Everyone involved was really nice and I wished I had booke in time to do the full crawl. We went on from the Ropewalk back to Tether where the Tom Tomas Club performed a "greatest hits" set after a painfully protracted set-up which involved boo-ing random people (including Dan Toporowski) as they came into the room. The TTC were as terrible/amazing as always. The room at Tether was mental, it was like a cardboard igloo. I don't know why, but it was warm and oddly comforting.

- Planning our website at work. I work for my family firm, which is mostly a little bit dull. At the moment though I'm beginning work on setting up an ecommerce website for us. This is a lot more fun. The internet is fascinating. Last month something like 70% of everyone who went online visited Facebook. It's huge.

- Looking up stuff about CUBA! Me and Anders are going in July. Can't WAIT. If you know of any "must do" things please let me know!

Hope you've been having fun in the sun too.

Bex xx
x

Popcorn, shoots, jumpers and other random things

Hello!

The Hello Thor gig at the Broadway on Saturday was mental. Here are my over-riding memories from the evening:

1 - Dan T's visuals looking AMAZING properly projected on a big screen
2 - Looks of dread from all 3 Hello Thor boys as BattleCat rampaged round the room almost causing destruction
3 - The wonderful aroma as Yunioshi distributed popcorn in cute individual little bags during their set
4 - VERY LOUD Wu Tang Clan as Nick stormed his way through a DJ set
5 - A weird fight and a man being wrestled out... the perils of a late licence
6 - Tez calmly standing by in the big window with a guy who was dancing & almost stripping for the crowd
7 - Saying a man's feet looked like bananas because he had yellow shoes on

In other news, it's Jumpers for Goalposts tomorrow and Hello Thor will be celebrating their birthday with a calamitous Tom Tomas Club performance.

We've planted some vegetables in our garden, after a couple of strenuous weekends building wonky home-made raised beds, and our first shoots are already coming through!! We've got radishes, rocket & lettuce growing away in the garden!

Fists are playing in Sheffield this weekend and at Dot To Dot on Sunday! Can't wait to see them playing live again so I can hear the new song Ace is the Way. It's brilliant!

Tonight is Apprentice night round our way. I love it. What a bunch of idiots. I've got my fingers crossed that James doesn't get booted off because he's ace. A big smiley slightly goofy wordsmith who comes up with beautiful phrases like "codshit". No Sir Alan, fire Braces Ben instead!

Bye for now!

Bex
x

Video for Fists - Cockatoo - Out now on Hello Thor!

Hola,

I just heard from Nick that the Fists records have arrived today at Hello Thor HQ, free at last from the French fishermen's blockades and box fresh in Nottingham.

It's going to be really great to finally see & hear them. The test pressings sound AMAZING, so with the brilliant cover and proper label they will be even better.

It's been so exciting seeing them start to get picked up by magazines and the radio... artrocker, BBC6 on Steve Lamacq's show, XFM... can't wait to see what's next! There's something really strange about hearing a song you are so familiar with in that official radio setting, it sounds really new and different.

Anyway, here is the video for Cockatoo by Fists, available now on vinyl or to download from www.hellothor.com. The video has been created by the very talented Dan Toporowski, a wonderful animator and visual artist:

FISTS - Cockatoo from Fists on Vimeo.

Photo Link

Hi Everyone!

Well the Hello-Thor-Dan-T-exhibition-launch-night went fantastically well. The work looked great and the Ox & Lamb performance was something really special. The prints are selling like hot cakes and the projections look wonderful. If you haven't had chance to get down to the Hand & Heart and see it yet then go today or tomorrow as it's nearly at the end of its run! I think Joe's Musical Circus is on tonight so you could kill 3 birds with one stone... see some music... see some art... eat some cake. Tha Hand & Heart really is a great venue, I'd heartily recommend it to anyone who hasn't been down yet.

Anyway, here's a link to the photos. Go take a peek!

Here's a sneak preview:




Love Becky
x

p.s. Did you see Fists at Splendour? We couldn't go and were really gutted, but I'd love to know what you thought if you saw them. You can leave comments below.

Dan T's Inferno! THIS FRIDAY!

Now I wish I could lay claim to that headline but the praise all has to go to Nick from Hello Thor. He's clearly in the wrong job. He should be working for The Sun with skills like that.

So anyway, just a quick note to let you know about the exhibition, private view, performance happening later this week:

-----
Hello Thor presents...DAN TOPOROWSKI
With a very special opening night performance from OX & LAMB
@ The Hand & Heart Gallery, Derby Road, Nottingham
Friday 18th July (8pm-11pm) Free

An exhibition with our very favourite artist - illustrator, animator extraordinaire and Nottingham legend Dan Toporowski. The man behind the Black Piñata comic, and countless Supernight and Hello Thor visuals, Dan T's work takes you on a ride that might make you afraid, but that might also make you laugh your arse off. Check out his YouTube site to see what we mean.

He calls what he does "super-doodling". Other people have called him "Dr Frankenstein with a pencil case". We think he's AWESOME. Come down to the Hand & Heart Gallery and see for yourself. Dan's got a stash of never seen before visual treats up his sleeve - all new animations and one-off prints.

Dan T's inferno will be on at the Hand Heart Gallery until Saturday 26th July, but make sure you come along on Friday 18th July (8pm-11pm) for the opening party - it WILL be a belter. Ox & Lamb, the brand new Fists side project, will be playing live to accompany Dan's films. Only their second ever performance, expect sweet harmonies and a big bag of beautiful slightly bruised lo-fi pop.

And it doesn't end there my friends...join us for the after party @ Moog featuring Yeah, I'll Play It Later DJ's and, with a bit of luck, some cake (until 3am)!
-----

So that's what's going down. It's all free and it's all going to be amazing. I'm hoping they'll let me play some records at the party. And when I say play some records I mean choose them and dance behind the DJ booth like I'm really cool while someone else actually plays them.

Becky
x

Things we've been doing

Hello lovely internet friends (and real life friends who are reading online)

What have we been up to? Allsorts (ish)!

First, let me tell you a little bit about Saturday night, which was ACE. It was Supernight vs Im Not From London at the Maze and it was a cracker. Ox & Lamb played a great set, despite only having had 6 hours to put something together. All the songs sounded fantastic and it was nice to hear a different tone/feel to their Fists work. Plus we got to hear Yr Glove (which I love) live and some new materials too.

Following that we were treated to a noisy set from 20 Year Hurricane who brought energy and comments about being "very porous" to the stage, as well as a child's mexican wrestling mask. Nick (the singer/ex-colleague of mine/friend) later mentioned that Daddy Bones's verdict on the too small wrestling mask was..."burn victim". Harsh, but when I manage to get the pictures up here, you'll see it's also true! They were great, second outing for them and I hope to see them again soon.... Bassist Chris striking a pose, Drummer (and Birthday Boy) Gareth being amazingly into performing and brilliant to watch and Nick playing guitar, singing, being self-deprecating and moving around the stage like a wind-up toy. Brilliant!

If I'm honest I didn't really watch the other two bands. I saw a bit of two guys playing covers which wasn't really my sort of thing and then I got so hot I had to go outside. I heard a bit of Nephu Huzzband from out there and they sounded pretty good. Definitely not what I expected... I've seen the name around before and thought they were some sort of ska/punk/reggae/funk-rock band. Delighted to say they're not! Mainly I just chatted outside to loads of random people and caught up with Ang and James a bit, which I always love.

I'm rambling but I should quickly mention two more things. Firstly, the wrestling, scary, shocking, very well prepared (they had suits and masks and everything!). Secondly, Dan Toporowski made some visuals for the gig which we tried every which way to get projected but technology failed us. Not only am I gutted for Dan that his hard work wasn't seen, but I'm gutted for me that I didn't get to see them and I know they would be amazing. THANKS Dan, hopefully we can persuade you to put them on YouTube? Or will they be a lost classic?

Anyway, what I'm basically rambling about here is that it was a great night, and thanks to everyone who came, hope you enjoyed it?!

Other stuff we've done:

- Exams - for me, in the middle of them and should be revising now. BOO.

- Saw Iron Man - What a preposterous film! I did enjoy this, but seriously, I can't believe it exists in parts. he has his own private jet and the air stewardesses pole dance for him. Who wrote this? A 13 year old boy? It was ludicrous, but fun.

- Watched the Apprentice - Love it as always and very much looking forward to the Interview show tomorrow (when I should be revising again). Who's going to win? Boggle eyed Helene? Gobby Claire? Beret-maniac Lucinda? 3rd Person talker Lee McQueen? Or pouty sulky Alex Wotherspoon (Wotherspoon is a great name!)?

- Saw Indiana Jones - Another preposterous film. Worth seeing, but god it gets silly, be prepared. I won't say more, because I'm not a spoiler, but be aware that there are great bits and there are shit bits. And boy does he look old at times.

- Baked brownies - and did a blind taste test on Anders... mine won, I'll be honourable and not say who I beat!

That's another exciting installment of "things I've been doing"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a.k.a. ramble ramble blah blah blah


Have lovely weeks everybody, and see you soon!

Bex
xxx

FISTS ARE PLAYING!

Fists are playing THIS Saturday (1st March).
It's at the Orange Tree, it's completely FREE and it's going to be brilliant!

They will be accompanied by visuals courtesy of the brilliant Dan Toporowski

There are also rumours of pagan masks and new material paying tribute to Heavy Metal.

Support comes from math-rockers Alright The Captain and Stiff Kitten DJs.
The whole thing's presented by Leftlion so a good time is pretty much guaranteed.

Mine's a Sailor Jerry & Ginger - hope to see you down the front!

x anders

Supernight presents... Cuban Crimewave, Scutty Neighbours & Yes My Ninjas?

Junktion 7, Friday 23rd November, 8:30pm till late

So friends, the days are getting shorter, the nights are drawing in, it's starting to get really very cold, the shops are getting busier...but fear not, Supernight has exactly the dose of electric spazzrock treatment to grab those winter blues by the neck and to shout very loudly in their faces.

Join us at Junktion 7 on Friday 23rd November to see some of the dirtiest, noisiest, most riotously entertaining oiks we could round-up do what they do best - have a blinding rock & roll party. Yes, for just £3 you can savour the following filthy treats:


CUBAN CRIMEWAVE
Party-stomping twin bass slinging satanic cinemascope movie soundtracks for 1920's Cuban gangs. Think Death From Above 1979, think The Stooges, think howls, growls and raw, rumbling scuzzrock at its finest.
www.myspace.com/cubancrimewave


SCUTTY NEIGHBOURS
A filthy cocktail of punk, metal and cider, this Skull Tanker side-project are "a ragtag bunch of misfits, miscreants and diseases" hell bent on having the noisiest, scuttiest, most riotously enjoyable party in the neighbourhood.
http://www.myspace.com/thescuttyneighbours


YES MY NINJAS?
Sonic mentalists from Lincolnshire cramming genre upon genre to create music that is both insanely catchy and, well, insane. Electro-pop, metal, hardcore, d'n'b...it'll make your head hurt, in a good way.
www.myspace.com/yesmyninjasrock


All this PLUS projections from the talented Dan Toporowski, who also designed our poster. Go to www.myspace.com/supernight to see it.

See you down the front.

Nick
x