Hi everyone

It’s been a while! I’m playing a set tomorrow in Stockport, at a brand new mini-festival called the Teenage Market. We had the organisers in the studio last Monday (for the All FM Unsigned show). Sounds like it’s going to be a great event. Loads of music-related stuff, as well as street performances, lots of film showings, and Mr Scruff’s Tea Tent. It’s from 12pm-4pm, though there may well be street performances and events in the morning too.

Last night’s All Fm Unsigned Show was great fun. We had live sessions from North West-based bands The Portlands and Glass Ankle, plus loads of other music from Jon Kenzie, Passenger, Extra Love and loads of others. You can take a listen to the MixCloud copy of the programme below…

I’m a bit late catching on to this, but I’ve finally begun to really “get” spotify. Absolutely great to have pretty much unlimited access to music on the move. Looking forward to getting into listening to other people’s Spotify playlists…

This week’s Unsigned Show is now up on Mixcloud:

Here’s the track listing:

We Are Willow – Deep Blue Skies
JP Cooper – Little House We Built
Extra Love – More Love
The Restless – The Way I Do
Dr.Butler’s Hatstand Medicine Band – Penny Farthing
Gideon Conn – Yes No Maybe
KT Whitehouse & Kenny McGeachin – Coming Home
Mike Mellor – On a Train
April Maybe May – Seasalt
Liz Green – Midnight Blues
Phil Davies+The Ninja Smokebombs – Enid Blyton
Roos Galjaard – In the Night
God’s Little Eskimo – In Salute Of The Body
Nancy Elizabeth – How Can I Stop
The Bee’s Niece – Funny Features
Jessica May Buckle – Drop It In
Edwyn Butler – Birds On A Wire

I’m getting round to uploading some of our previous Unsigned Show broadcasts. Here’s the first – from 28th March 2011

And here’s the complete tracklisting:

• Glass Ankle – If You’ve Been There
• Letters To Fiesta – Drag The Fire
• Bedlam Shake – Indian Giver
• KT Whitehouse+Kenny McGeachin – Coming Home
• Liz Green – Midnight Blues
• The Restless – The Way I Do
• Safires – Straydogs
• We Are Willow – Bound By String
• Gideon Conn – Londonderry
• Maxwell Watts – Climbing This Ladder To The Top
• Roos Gaaljard – In The Night
• Extra Love – No Rush
• Bluebird Kid Clark – Hold Me Down
• Monsters Build Mean Robots – Psalm 57
• Josephine – Fun In The Dark
• Paper Aeroplanes – Safe Hands
• John Fairhurst – Daylight
• John Fairhurst – Pay Day
• John Fairhurst – Big Dig
• Thoughts In Therapy – Secret Garden

This week’s Unsigned Show on All FM was great fun, as always. We have the Bee’s Niece (Ragnhild Zeigler) live in session (fresh from Oslo) and played the cream of the crop of unsigned music too. Here’s the playlist:

# Kreg Viesselman – The Busker
# The Safires – Stray Dogs
# Jo Rose – Balcony Doors
# Garron Frith – This One
# Monsters Build Mean Robots – Psalm 57
# Louise O’Brian – Runaway
# JP Cooper – All I Ever Wanted Was To Be A Better Man
# Liz Green – Midnight Blues
# Letters To Fiesta – Traveller
# Glass Ankle – If You’ve Been There
# The Locals – Nah Don’t Shoot Me Down
# John Fairhurst – Big Dig
# Samson And Delilah – Black Dog
# Maxwell Watts – Happiness
# Joe Swindells – Time Makes Fools of Us
# Death To The Strange – Drink and the Devil
# Denis Jones – Clap Hands
# Edwyn Butler – Birds on a Wire
# KT Whitehouse and Kenny McGeachin – Coming Home
# The Bee’s Niece – The Bike Song
# The Bee’s Niece – Saw song
# The Bee’s Niece – Funny Features

See you next time! AllFm.org

This week’s unsigned show on All FM has been great fun! Here’s our tracklist…

1. Joe Swindells – Time Makes Fools of Us
2. Phil Davies and the Ninja Smokebombs – Morning Flight to Stockholme
3. HoneyFeet – That Little Boat
4. April Maybe May – Seasalt
5. Richard Barry – Strolling Along
6. Travelling Band – Hindsight
7. John Fairhurst – Daylight
8. TG Elias – Rancid Misbehaviour
9. Mike Mellor – On A Train
10. Louise O’Brien – Runaway
11. Josephine Oniyama – Fun in the Dark
12. Roos Galjaard – In the Night
13. Letters To Fiesta – Drag The Fire
14. Old House PlayGround – Katherine Has Left the Bed
15. Bone Box – Dragging Wires
16. Zoe Mulford – Open Water
17. Thoughts in Therapy – Secret Garden
18. KT WhiteHouse – Man Of Few Words
19. Beggar Joe – Ain’t No Way
20. Beggar Joe – Rely On
21. The Roots Union – The Straight And Narrow
22. Beggar Joe – No More Revalations

Really enjoyed doing tonight’s unsigned show. Was good having Nay Medici on the show – they ended up staying on into the second hour and playing a few more tunes. Here’s the complete tracklisting from tonight’s show:

Glass Ankle – If you’ve been there
JP Cooper – Little House We Built
Matthew Ganley – Salford Lullaby
Mike Mellor – On a Train
Caulbearers – Small Spaces
Nay Medici – Nancy Whiskey (live)
Nay Medici – Men and Women (live)
Nay Medici – Soliloquouy (live)
Nay Medici – The Horse Song) (live)
Nay Medici – Down and Out in Paris and London (live)
Roos Galjaard – In the Night
Deaf to Van Gogh’s Ear – Several Ways to Eat a Biscuit
Tanante – Mendiani
The Bee’s Niece – If you’re Lucky
Jessica May Buckle -Drop it in

I’m playing at Huddersfield’s Cotton Factory tomorrow (Friday 10th Dec 2010). It’s a charity gig, raising money for the Karma Enduro rally, which in turn raises £10,000 for charity. Click for more details of tomorrow’s gig.

It will be good to be in Huddersfield again. I seem to have ended up playing there quite a lot recently – including the Huddersfield Oxjam event back in October.

I’m really excited to be playing the Oxjam Huddersfield gig on Saturday, 23rd October.

It’s a whole afternoon and evening of music, with a total of 42 acts playing – from acoustic solo artists and duos, to full bands.

Tickets can be bought at Oxfam’s shop on New Street, from the venues on the day or online at We Got Tickets.

Complete Lineup for Oxjam Huddersfield 2010

The Graduate (Huddersfield SU):

5.45-6.15pm – The Rise

6.30-7.00pm – The Creeks

7.15-7.45pm – EBGBs

8.15-8.45pm – Ether5

9.00-9.30pm – Ashe Vendetta

9.45-10.30pm – Five Minute Limit

10.45pm Onwards – The Rag Tags

The Parish, Kirkgate:

5.45-6.15pm – Wind Up Mind

6.30-7.00pm – Nicola’s Cage

7.15-7.45pm – Mark of 1000 Evils

8.00-8.45pm – Mr Shiraz

9.15-10.00pm – MinionTV

10.15-10.45 – Cub Club

11.00pm-0.00am – The Scaramanga Six

Bar 1:22, New Street:

5.30-6.00pm – Luva Gunk

6.15-6.45pm – The White Tide

7.00-7.30pm – NAKED

8.00-8.30pm – Keirononon

8.45-9.30pm – Escape Artist

10-10.45pm – King Kananga

11.00pm-0.00am – AuditCONTROL

Sleepers, Viaduct Street:

5.30-6.00pm – The Kitschens

6.15-6.45pm – Last of the Sirens

7.00-7.30pm – Bad Bad Bird

7.45-8.30pm – Feeds

9.00-9.45pm – The Revenues

10.15-11.00pm – Leo Brazil and His Twitch

11.15pm-0.00am – Nu Popes

Little Buddha Bar, Viaduct Street:

5.45-6.15pm – Thomas Armstrong

6.30pm-7.00pm – Aether

7.15-7.45pm – Jack Hopkinson

8.00-8.45pm – Stuart Nolan (psychological experience)

9.00-9.30pm – Harrison Richards (mind reader)

9.45-10.30pm – Owen Phillips

10.45-11.30pm – Liz Mackenzie

The Head of Steam, St George’s Square:

5.30-6.00pm – I am the prize

6.15-6.45pm – Dave Haigh

7.00-7.30pm – Jasmine Kennedy

7.45-8.15pm – Alice Nicholls

8.30-9.00pm – Tom Kerswill

9.15-10.00pm – Ben Marron

10.15-11.00pm – Steph Stephenson

I’m starting to get excited about this year’s in the city. The Fugitive Motel blog have a really good preview of some of the artists playing at this year’s festival. I’m having a listen to that now, and beginning to plan out which acts to catch.

I’m excited to have a delegate pass this year, courtesy of All FM and Ursula Pabish’s Monday drivetime show on the station.

As always, it’ll be a mad rush trying to fit in as many talks and bands as possible!

Had a really good, busy week – including a trip to Go Ape yesterday, which is always good fun. We also went to check out Alt Country band Mt. Desolation, who played at the Deaf Institute last night. It was a well-attended show – impressive, because this is the band’s first tour. They’re made up of members from Keene, the Killers and Noah and the Wale. Though in actual fact, the touring band seemed to basically be the two frontmen from Keene, and some other assembled musicians. It was an enjoyable gig though.

This afternoon I’m playing at the Yard Bird in Birmingham. Doors open at 4pm, and I’m on at 4.30. It’ll be good to be doing an afternoon gig. The event is called the Free Love Club, and it runs from 4pm right through to midnight. You can get more details of the event at reverbnation and Facebook.

Last Saturday I did the sound engineering for a really lovely gig at the John Rylands Library on Deansgate in Manchester.

The gig took place in the evening – after the library usually closes. It was in the main hall – an amazing, ornate building, with incredibly high ceilings, and a really weird acoustic – kind of dead-sounding if you talked quitely, but with a really nice reverb if you clapped your hands or shouted.

The space was laid out to hold 130 people, and the gig was sold out… or rather, all the free tickets were taken. It was a great atmosphere. Becca Williams (and her Broken Biscuit band) opened the night, followed by JP Cooper, and finally Karima Francis.

The night was organised by Chris Thomas, who has put on several gigs in unusual places previously – including the Manchester Museum. It was a highly successful evening, so hopefully there will be more of the same in the future…

I just logged into Myspace for the first time in ages, to see a message saying they’ve changed the privacy settings. Well, I suppose Facebook did that recently, so they’ve had to follow suit…. Anyway, so I clicked through to check the settings. This takes you to a load of options. The first is a tickbox which asks me whether I want to “Turn my visitors on”. It’s ticked at the moment.

Hi everyone

I’m playing at the Green Room in Altrincham tonight from 9pm (Thursday, 12th August 2010). It’s been a while since I’ve done a gig, so I’m looking forward to it. Here’s the address:

17 Goose Green
Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 1DW
07971 676 049

We’re presenting another Unsigned Show from 11pm-1am on Monday night. You can listen on 96.9FM in the Manchester area and on allfm.org

We have live sessions from Sam and the Bathroom Crooners, plus We are Willow – who are made up of Chris Butler from Butler Williams, and Kathryn Edwards.

So it’s going to be a great night of live music, and we’ll be fitting in as many of the best unsigned tracks as we can too…

Tom

Hi everyone….  I’ve been a little bit lazy updating the blog recently!

Glastonbury festival was great. I worked for a lot of it, but had a really good time. Saw the Levellers headling the Glade on Sunday night, plus The XX, The National, Florence and the Machine and lots of other good performances.

The work part of it involved driving 4x4s across the site – mainly scanning in stewards at different gates on the site, and giving them tea and coffee in the middle of the night. Quite a fun job really!

The weather at Glastonbury was absolutely fantastic – no rain at all for the whole week.

Looking forward to next year’s festival already!

Tom

I’m supporting the fantastic Passenger at the Bay Horse tomorrow (Tuesday 15th June). One of my favourite Manchester acts, Pablo’s Finest Hour, are also on the bill. Here’s the line-up:

• 8pm – Pablo’s Finest Hour
• 8.45pm – Tom Kerswill
• 9.30pm – Passenger

I’m really excited about doing the gig. You can buy tickets here…

Hopefully see you there!

Tom

Hi

I now have a SoundCloud dropbox, which you can use to send me any tracks you think would work for the Unsigned Show on All FM 96.9…

Here’s the dropbox — feel free to upload anything you’d like us to listen to!

Send me your track

We’re currently driving from Exeter to Totnes, for the last day of rehearsals before the gig tonight. It was sounding really nice yesterday. Basic premise is to get a load of songwriters together and then work on one new song for each songwriter, over a weekend. Then we’re all playing on each other’s songs.

A lot of the arrangements involve vocal harmonies, but there’s a cellist, two keyboards, guitars and djembe between us, so lots of scope for doing stuff.

The gig starts at 7.30pm tonight (Sunday, 9th May) and it’s £4 on the door. The venue is the Ariel Centre, Totnes.

Tom