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
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Stuff we've been up to

Isn't it nice when people visit and you have a special reason to do fun things at the weekend instead of boring chores? We had friends up from London this weekend and we:

... cooked goats cheese and onion tarts and drank wine on Friday night.

... slept late and then wandered round town drinking "the best hot chocolate in the world" (TM) from Aubreys (the crepe place), before heading up to Nottingham Contemporary for the Star City exhibition. I made a "hilarious" joke about the big wheel in the city centre and how our visitors would never have seen anything like it. I'm funny. Anyway, the exhibition, firstly, don't see the exhibition backwards, we did and I regretted it afterwards. Secondly, it's pretty big/long, so don't linger too long over stuff you're not bothered about. Highlights for me included:
- the machine making noises as water droplets fell - it was like a dystopian sci-fi scene, a bit menacing, like it should be in the basement of a multi-storey car park in a horror film.
- the old Russian posters promoting space travel, really made you imagine how people must've felt about space in the old days. It was such a magical, almost spiritual place then.
- the collages of religious icons & rockets - I love icons stylistically and I really like space imagery, so this just really worked for me!
- the 'doctor's surgery' bit made by a husband/wife team who were some of the first installation artists
- And finally, the quote from Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, near the giant spacesuit in the bottom of the building:

"Those who have already been in space yearn with all their heart and soul to return there again and again. With every single day passing, time leaves my flight in the past. Occasionally the wind will whisper something from the tops of tall pine trees and then everything becomes silent. In such minutes I remember the most bright and wonderful experience in my life: the flight into space."

I can't get over how beautiful that is, and how well she captures a moment and a feeling that pretty much no-one else has experienced.

... saw the most random performance I've seen in ages at Nottingham Playhouse. It was called Pregnant?! and involved a PowerPoint animation with a live performance from a Japanese artist which was about being impregnated by rabbits. I can't really explain any further than that to be honest, as that's pretty much the extent to which it made any sense. Despite that, it was brilliant, really funny, the interaction between the animations and the artist was great, surreal and confusing but great. Plus we learned that bunnies ovulate even when pregnant, so that's a new fact for us all there. It was insane, like someone saying "I had this really weird dream, right", only without it being the most painfully boring conversation in the world, because it actually recreated that dream world for you. Ace.

... ate breakfast late, enjoying John's discovery of bacon and eggs on crumpets instead of toast. Super nice, especially when you get lovely local bacon from JT Beedham's instead of horrible, watery, over-salted bacon from Tesco. Then we wandered round the cemetery next to the forest in the snow. It was lovely. I took some photos and me and Anna Ray made this tree:

... Finally, on Monday night we saw Hot Horizons at the Social. They're really good, strong vocals, interesting guitars and some really good tunes. I'm looking forward to hearing the recorded stuff later in the year. Then we popped over to say a quick Happy Birthday to Andy from We Show Up On Radar who was celebrating with an apple juice at the Orange Tree. We heard about his visit to Maida Vale at the weekend to record tracks for the BBC, it's really exciting! Don't know when they will be on the radio yet, but we've heard that they sound really good.

Anyway, enough rambling from me, hope you have a nice week!

Bex
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Brimming over with post-party festive fun

It's been a great run-up to Christmas what with the Christmoustache Party AND the Xmas Covers.

We'll post some pics from the HT Party soon to show the kind of furry fun that ensued. In short though, we were treated to a We Show Up On Radar set that was short but very sweet and a wonderful version of Blue Christmas from Andy (sporting an equally wonderful moustache). Then Fists rampaged all over the stage. They'd been in the studio all day and drinking for at least a few hours so were considerably looser than usual - but all to the good as they tore into their ever-brilliant set (with a couple of new tunes in the shape of Angi's 50s-style swoon, Endlessly and Pete's Cramps-like Squeek Squirl - I'm completely guessing at the titles). James' onstage banter was AWESOME and Dave's rock stances (foot on bass drum, groin uncomfortably close to Tez's eyeline!) was the shizness.

Finally Hot Horizons took to the stage. I was taken aback by just how HUGE and ANTHEMIC they were. This was stadium pop. Bloody brilliant it was too!

After that, me and Bex got on the decks and caused a bit of a commotion to the likes of Passion Pit and Jay Z by way of Ace of Spades and Killing In The Name Of*

It was a great way for Hello Thor to round off a great year.
Even that though couldn't hold a candle to the institution that is the Damn You Christmas Covers Party. Now in its 6th Year (seems like more than that, no?) this is an opportunity for bands to do unlikely and thoroughly entertaining covers in the name of Mr Claus. My brother came along one year and even though Our Gaz doesn't often attend gigs once the Hellset Orchestra got stuck into Eye Of The Tiger he was loving it!

Some of my highlights from this year's Xmas Covers have to include: Wander Phantom's version of ODB's I Got Your Money, Fists' Breaking The Law & Kids In America, Din Din's whole set (gimp-masked electro!) and Burly Nagasaki's Winds Of Change of course

x Anders

* Christmas Number 1 - HELL YEAH!

Hello Thor's Christmoustache Party!

On the 12th December Hello Thor are holding their Christmoustache Party at the Chameleon. Here's the poster:



Hot Horizons will be playing (people in Seattle like them) alongside Fists, We Show Up On RadaR and probably the (whisper it) Tom Tomas Club... oh dear. Latest news is that Super Fun Team Go! will also be joining this line-up! Amazing!

Brilliant. It's £3 to get in, £2 if you are wearing a moustache. The bigger the better.

Oh, and Me & Anders will be DJing too. When I say I will be, I mean I'll be selecting songs and demanding that Anders plays them.

See you there!

Bex
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