Mind fundraiser with Little Fish

The plans are finally coming together. We'll be main support for the (frankly stunning) Little Fish on Wednesday 8th April at the Bullingdon Arms, Oxford. With additional support from The Follys and Alphabet Backwards (playing an acoustic set) we'll be raising money for mental health charity Mind. This is set to be an amazing evening so make sure you get down there nice and early. Who knows what kind of crazy stuff will happen?

-Dave G

Obsessive-compulsive organization traits

I really ought to get out more, but I keep on finding things that need labelling correctly.

I'd downloaded A Quantum of Covers from iTunes, burnt it to CD, and was about to rip it to my preferred format (Ogg Vorbis).

It turns out that I'm the first person to try this particular manoeuvre, as neither MusicBrainz or FreeDB have the track listing for my CD ripping software to use - so I was compelled to go and fill it in at MusicBrainz.

Generally I don't mind doing this, as a little effort by me can potentially benefit a lot of people who subsequently don't have to type in all the info themselves, but this time the tedium/benefit ratio is not looking good. I'm probably the only person in the world who's likely to download that album, burn it, and then rip it with software that uses MusicBrainz - plus virtually none on the performers on the CD were in MusicBrainz, so I had to create records for them as well!

Doing this may be a "useful" outlet for obsessive behaviour, but I'd recommend all bands releasing music on CDs or other formats to add their entries in FreeDB & MusicBrainz (there's also Gracenote for iTunes, but I frown upon that for political reasons) - that way when your punters put the CD in their computer they'll rip it with the right names and titles, and stuff like Last.FM will work all the better.

And I won't have to do it ;-)

Anyway; in the end, we have A Quantum of Covers on MusicBrainz, and a few more Oxford bands with an entry there as well, so it's all good really :-)

Laters,
Dave B.

PS. Martin's studio is well labelled, but that's not my story to tell...

A Quantum of Covers on BBC radio

Yo!

The latest edition of the always entertaining BBC Oxford Introducing is available online until Saturday, and is a Bond special, featuring all 11 tracks from A Quantum of Covers - the Bond theme covers fund-raiser for Children in Need. Go and have a listen...

You'll be able to buy A Quantum of Covers from iTunes next week - make sure you get a copy, it's for charideee!

Laters,
Dave B

Audioscope warmup

Good gig last night at The Cellar - the Audioscope08 warm-up, featuring ACTION BEAT + 50ft Panda + FROM LIGHT TO SOUND + EGYPTIAN DEATH.

Great stuff from Egyptian Death (Oxford's answer to Shit and Shine, with added brown note) and From Light to Sound (good mix of restraint and onslaught , love the name), but 50ft Panda were standout awesome, I need to go see them more often :-)

I wasn't really getting into Action Beat, but I think they were all ill and only played a short set, so maybe worth another look some time...

Anyway, make sure you get to The Jericho Tavern on the 15th for the main event! (Witches are on around 6pm.)

Laters,
Dave B.

A Quantum of Children .. erm .. in Need

Hi – Martin (the Grumpy one) here ...

As you may well know – we try and do stuff to help Shelter and support Audioscope – as a result I find myself with an e-mail from Stuart saying I am on the door for this years Audioscope gig in the evening – so I have to spend an hour checking everyone's hand as they walk in and out and tell them they are too late – they missed the best band. Nothing is too much.

Actually I am the least charitable person I know when it comes to putting my hand in my pocket – fnar – and if there's one thing I hate it's being stopped in the street by someone dressed in fancy dress with a bucket telling me I have to help Children in Need – particularly when it's the third person in the space of 100 metres (nearly said yards there – showing my age) and I have refused all of them – so this year I am getting a special T-Shirt made – and a sign up on my front door (next to the no junk mail / salespeople / drunkards offering to tarmac my drive/ god botherers / people I have invited round if you haven't bought a bottle with you notice).

And what will that T-Shirt / Sign say? It will say –

Blimey – I actually did something for Children in Need this year – I must be going soft.

Some time back – the two beardy chaps at BBC Introducing asked us if we would like to contribute to an album they were making for Children in Need. The idea was that a number of local bands would contribute a version of a James Bond theme song. Straight away Dave said he wanted to do "Nobody Does it Better" – because he wants to be Carly Simon – so we went into the rehearsal studio (Jo was in America at the time so we roped in our good friend Pete Bastard to help - Cheers Pete) – and demoed up a few versions of the song – and then forgot all about it thinking we had until November to finish it. This was in – erm – July I think.

Next thing – we get an e-mail from Tim saying that we have 2 weeks to submit the track – this is happening right in the middle of our recording and people being on holiday and stuff – so we panic – imagine we can't do it – and then in a matter of hours manage to record the track – upside down (meaning we did the vocals first with a keyboard backing – and then added all the other instruments afterwards – ((Jo - I hasten to add - had returned by this point)) which anyone worth their salt will tell you – is not the way to record (see previous posting by me) unless you are a DJ doing a remix – and they don't count (see previous posting by me deleted by Dave to prevent me being beaten up by DJ's in every town we visit).

So – to cut to the chase …. And steal from the Loverly Maria Ilett's mail – which I just got which was much briefer than this blog – and would have sufficed really so in future i will get her to write my blogs for me:

"check out our james bond cover on this link....a preview of the album 'A Quantum Of Covers' to be released on nov 10th on itunes only........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2008/10/16/a_quantum_of_covers.shtml"

So – don't ever say I don't do stuff for charity!!!!

Right - where's the number of my local T-Shirt printer and why is it I can't think of Children in need without remembering Joanna Lumley sat in her underwear on Terry Wogan's Lap ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAgdvPs8y0U

Witches, Ivy's Itch and Fee Fi Fo Fum raise £130 for Shelter

We're dead happy with the outcome of our Shelter fundraiser gig last Saturday (17th May), which was organised in association with Audioscope. Between us, Ivy's Itch and Fee Fi Fo Fum we raised an impressive £130 for Shelter. Thanks to all the bands, and to everyone who came along and parted with their hard-earned cash. Give yourselves a big pat on the back.

Cheers

Witches

Shelter fundraiser - May 17th

As part of our ongoing relationship with housing charity Shelter,we're organising a fundraising gig at The Wheatsheaf, Oxford on Sat 17th May. We're particularly proud to have Ivy's Itch and Fee Fi Fo Fum join us on the bill, and want to encourage as many people to come along and support a cause that we continue to feel very passionately about.

We're running the gig with Audioscope, who last year raised an impressive £1,200 for Shelter at a one-day festival at the Carling Academy. All profits from the gig (we have very few overheads) will go direct to Shelter. Advance tickets: £5 incl. booking fee from WeGotTickets.

Cool night

Audioscope was great last night :-) Practically every act was a highlight, and playing our set on a decent sized stage was particularly nice.

And of course, hopefully it raised a good amount for Shelter as well. Well done to the Audioscope team for putting all togther!

Here's a few pics

Audioscope

We're proud to be joining a fantastic lineup of band playing at this year's Audioscope festival, to be held at the Oxford Carling Academy on Saturday 10th November.

Kraut-rock legends Michael Rother and Dieter Mobius will be headlining this year's festival, which raises money for homeless charity Shelter. Also appearing will be Clark, The Sea and Cake, Shit and Shine, Rothko, Einstellung and Sunnyvale Noise Sub-Element.

Tickets are available from We Got Tickets, visit the Audioscope website for more info.

Free video download when donating to Shelter

http://witchesband.com/shelter/

Witches are raising money to support the work of Shelter. Focusing primarily on the causes of homelessness, Shelter helps more than 170,000 people a year fight for their rights, get back on their feet, and find and keep a home.

Make a donation via our Just Giving account and we'll send you a URL, username and password allowing you to download a four-track Witches video: Witches - Live and Undead.

Recorded at the Heart of Stone album launch in Oxford in September 2007, the video contains exclusive performances of four tracks from the album:

• Josef's Lament
• Taking Myself Home Again
• Heart of Stone
• At Night I Dream of Black Dogs

You'll be given an opportunity to sign up to the Shelter mailing list as part of the donation process.

http://witchesband.com/shelter/

All the best,
Witches

OxJam gig tonght!

The Port Mahon has their second OxJam Oxford night tonight, starting at 8 - hope to see you there!

Audioscope 2007

We're proud to be joining a fantastic lineup of band playing at this year's Audioscope festival, to be held at the Oxford Carling Academy on Saturday 10th November.

Kraut-rock legends Michael Rother and Dieter Mobius will be headlining this year's festival, which raises money for homeless charity Shelter. Also appearing will be Dalek, The Sea and Cake, Shit and Shine, Rothko, Einstellung and Sunnyvale Noise Sub-Element.

Tickets will be on sale soon - keep an eye on the Audioscope website for more info.

Truck

Truck Festival has had to be postponed due to the crazy mental flooding we've been experiencing this summer. Fear not, however - the festival will now take place over the weekend Saturday 22nd - Sunday 23rd September. We'll be playing on the Lounge Stage on the Sunday at 11am. Keep an eye on the festival website for more info.

Oxjam 2007

Our friend Stuart from Oxfordbands is organising an Oxjam fundraiser, to be held at the Port Mahon on Wednesday 17th October 2007. We'll be headlining the gig, with excellent support from Harry Angel, Richard Walters and Mewgatz. This will be a good chance to see all four acts in a very intimate setting as well as doing your bit for a very worthy cause.