ASIA – ORIGINAL LINE UP – UK & WORLD TOUR DATES – NEW ALBUM JULY 2012

ASIA, featuring the original line-up of Geoff Downes (keyboards),  Steve Howe (guitar), Carl Palmer (drums) and John Wetton (bass, lead vocals) will release a new studio album entitled “XXX” on Monday July 2^nd.  The new album dovetails the news of the band’s upcoming 30^th Anniversary World Tour and the collectors’ edition of their eponymous debut album.

Planet Rock will launch an exclusive 48-hour ticket pre-sale for ASIA’s UK-leg of the 30^th Anniversary tour at 9am on Wednesday April 25^th.  Fans can order their tickets from www.planetrock.com. From Friday April 27^th, tickets will go on sale to the general public from the 24 Hour Ticket Hotline: 0844 478 0898, www.thegigcartel.com.

ASIA will play the following UK concerts in December 2012:

Tavistock The Wharf                                               Saturday 15^th December

Holmfirth Picturedrome                                           Sunday 16^th December

Edinburgh Queen’s Hall                                           Monday 17^th December

Salisbury City Hall                                                    Wednesday 19^th December

Birmingham Town Hall                                            Thursday 20^th December

Manchester Royal Northern College of Music       Friday 21^st December

London o2 Shepherds Bush Empire                       Saturday 22^nd December

Thirty years after its eponymous debut album, ASIA ascended to the top of the Billboard Top 100 chart (where the album remained No.1 for nine consecutive weeks). The new album, “XXX”, is produced by Mike Paxman, and features a stunning front cover illustration by the legendary Roger Dean. “XXX” has been hailed as ASIA’s best album since their classic early 80s releases. The album will be released on CD, collector’s edition CD/DVD (featuring new music videos and behind the scenes footage), and on a limited edition vinyl.

The first single taken from the new album is entitled Face On The Bridge, will be released digitally worldwide on Monday May 14^th.  “We wanted to recapture the energy of the first album,” says ASIA’s guitarist, Steve Howe. “ASIA has always been about great songs, fantastic musicianship and I am sure fans of the first album, will fall in love with XXX.”

BOB DYLAN TO RECEIVE THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM

Bob Dylan is to receive the highest civilian honor awarded by the United States – the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as first reported in the New York Times. The award will also go to author Toni Morrison, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, astronaut John Glenn and former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

In a statement about the honor released by the White House Dylan was praised as one of the “most influential American musicians of the 20th century”. The White House also acknowledged that Dylan had “considerable influence on the civil rights movement of the 1960s and has had significant impact on American culture over the past five decades.” The award will be made by President Obama who said of all the awardees ‘They’ve challenged us, inspired us and they’ve made the world a better place’.

Dylan was previously honored with a National Medal of Arts in 2008 and at the age of 71 shows no signs of slowing down – in 2011 he played 89 live shows on his ‘Never Ending’ tour and he rolls right on.

It s interesting to reflect on what Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone wrote about the first interview that Dylan ever did with the iconic US media magazine – Nov 29 1969
‘They say Bob Dylan is the most secretive and elusive person in the entire rock & roll substructure, but after doing this interview, I think it would be closer to the point to say that Dylan, like John Wesley Harding, was “never known to make a foolish move.”’

Here’s a link to listen to extracts of that first ever Rolling Stone interview and to read the whole interview

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/listen-bob-dylan-on-drugs-john-lennon-and-much-more-in-1969-20110510

MINA TINDLE DEBUT ALBUM OUT MAY 28 2012

releases debut album ‘Taranta’

- out 28 May 2012 on Believe -

… and supports Camille on the 27th April at The Barbican

- RSVP for guest lists, and also Mina will be available for interviews on the day too …

http://www.minatindle.com/

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/user/MinaTindleOfficiel

http://www.believedigital.com

Taranta is Mina Tindle’s debut album. Her name has been whispering through the pop-folk scene like a breath of fresh air for some years now. And a cosmopolitan name it is too (borrowed from Milo Tindle, a character in Joseph Mankiewicz’s 1972 film Sleuth) for a French singer (with Spanish roots) who has electrified anyone lucky enough to see her live or hear her self-produced songs. Now, after the buzz, the breakthrough, with a debut album that delivers on its promises – and much more besides. “It’s all there. It sums up where I’ve got to, but it’s also a new stage on the road.

But there were other stages before this one of triumph. The first was when, like many music-lovers of her generation (she’s 28), Mina Tindle – who was called Pauline at the time – saw the light in Catpower’s songs a dozen years ago. “When I heard her cover of ‘Satisfaction’ by the Stones, I fell in love with her voice. It knocked me over backwards, but I could identify with it. My first song copied Catpower. I discovered that singing wasn’t that hard – and that it was thrilling. But I already had a special relationship with music before that; my grandfather and my mother were both keen singers. I remember spending summers on my own at my grandparents’ in Spain. I sang as I played and my voice kept me company. But it took me a while to start taking it seriously.”

Second stage: A few years after her first song, the Parisian moved to Brooklyn for a work placement for her final year of studies. She lived upstairs from the Zebulon, a bar that put on three gigs a night. “I lived right above the stage and I didn’t get any sleep for eight months.” It was a wake-up call. She confronted her budding songwriting skills with her music’s American roots, met musicians, played her first gigs and formed a Franco-American band, The Limes, via MySpace. “The environment was good and things started to take shape.” Her profession was becoming clear, and when she had to go back to France, Pauline decided to make a go of it.

Third stage: “I wanted to make a record, but it was more about crafting an object than launching a career.” So she took her time. Back in Paris, she teamed up with the gang at Sauvage Records again (they would later release her first 45), had quite a few joint projects and experiences, played a lot of gigs (with Beirut, Lee Ranaldo and Alela Diane among others) and created a stir in the media. Then, again via MySpace, she met one of her musical idols, whose songs she used to sing when she was small: JP Nataf, former lead singer with The Innocents and one of the great craftsmen of French pop. Mina Tindle wrote to tell him she was longing to hear his second album. The ensuing correspondence proved fruitful and their admiration mutual. JP Nataf fell head over heels in love with Mina Tindle’s voice. He brought her in to sing on his own second album and then produced her debut album. This adventure, too, was a long haul. It took over two years to record Taranta (at Garage studios in Paris). “I didn’t have a ready idea of the record; we tried things out together. I learnt a heck of a lot from JP. He gave me confidence – he’s a perfectionist and a dreamer. He wasn’t in a hurry; we could’ve spent five years on this album. When we were mixing the final track, we found ourselves re-recording the drums at midnight. This album is all about my meeting JP.”

She’s responsible for the intimate, heartfelt songs she sings in a magnificent, magnetic voice that is delicate and sensual, profound and restrained at the same time, as if conjuring up memories of summer nights to make it through the winter. “I sing to cure myself of something,” she says discreetly, and the therapy is contagious. He’s responsible for producing a sound like a rising sun, scattering touching arrangements like intersecting rays and a multitude of subtle but sophisticated details.

Together they have made a debut album that sails off towards unknown horizons like a yacht driven by tropical winds on a quest for moments of voluptuous grace. On an album of inner journeys, we meet some of the great dreamers of modern pop music such as Feist, Catpower, Emily Loizeau, Emiliana Torrini, Regina Spektor and Kate Bush.  Mina Tindle isn’t a singer under the influence, more a place of confluence. She sings mainly in English on Taranta, with a little French and even some Spanish. But her album title comes from Italy. “The last few years, I’ve spent my summers in the south, in Puglia. I’ve got a friend who’s really into the traditions – the tarantella, music and dance. There used to be a festival for women, for the mad women of the village, the depressives of the time… I wrote a song about that called Taranta. It isn’t on the album, but I will come back to that song some time. I’m waiting to be able to really bring it to life.” Another stage…

Earl Scruggs, who is widely regarded as the “father of bluegrass banjo”, has died aged 88. He pioneered a colorful “picking” style that helped to transform American country music. It is Bill Monroe who is generally regarded as the one who brought various diverse styles of mountain music together and made it bluegrass, a style he once described as “Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin’. It’s Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. It’s blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound.” Earl Scruggs’s banjo transformed the genre even further and raised it to new levels of popularity. Rather than frailing he picked the strings with three fingers, coaxing the instrument to produce recognisable syncopated melodies.

Earl Scruggs was best known for his partnership with Lester Flatt which produced the hit ‘The Ballad of Jed Clampett’ the theme song for the 1960s television series The Beverly Hillbillies, and for Foggy Mountain Breakdown (1950), a fast-paced instrumental piece which was heard during the car chases in the film Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Both were recorded with Lester Flatt and the Foggy Mountain Boys.

One critic observed “It’s hard to say what might have happened to bluegrass had Earl Scruggs not come along, but without question, it wouldn’t be the music form it is today without the Scruggs banjo.”

Earl Eugene Scruggs was born on January 6 1924 at Flint Hill, a small farming community in North Carolina. His father, a small farmer and bookkeeper, died when he was four, leaving his mother to run the farm and bring up her five children on her own.

Everyone in the family played music and, although Scruggs acknowledged the influence of the banjo player Snuffy Jenkins on his own style, he claimed to be self-taught and to have developed his three-finger technique on his own. The bluegrass historian Neil Rosenberg described Scruggs’s style as “a ‘roll’ executed with the thumb and two fingers of his right hand” that essentially made the banjo “a lead instrument like a fiddle or a guitar, particularly on faster pieces and instrumentals”.

In 1939 Scruggs joined a local string band which performed on the radio, but left to work in a textile mill during the Second World War. In 1945 he took up his banjo again and performed with “Lost” John Miller and His Allied Kentuckians in Nashville. He soon came to the attention of Bill Monroe, whose Blue Grass Boys performed at the Grand Ole Opry. Monroe booked Scruggs to replace his banjo player, Dave “Stringbean” Akeman, who played in the more traditional “clawhammer” manner.

Scruggs made his recording debut with the Blue Grass Boys in 1946 on Heavy Traffic Ahead and embarked on a gruelling touring programme with the band. But in 1948, frustrated by the low pay and hard work, he left, planning to return to the textile mill. Before he could, however, he was persuaded by his former Blue Grass Boys colleague, the guitarist and vocalist Lester Flatt, to join him in a new group. Flatt & Scruggs with the Foggy Mountain Boys secured a radio show and signed with Mercury Records. By the mid-1950s it had a nationally syndicated television show and a regular slot at the Grand Ole Opry.

Scruggs’s banjo gave the band its distinctive sound. They performed several times at the Newport Folk Festival and recorded a live album at the Carnegie Hall in 1962. The Ballad of Jed Clampett made it to the top of the country music charts, and in 1968 a re-recording of Foggy Mountain Breakdown won a Grammy for best country performance.

But Scruggs was never content to rest on his laurels and was always looking to develop to new techniques and styles of playing. As bluegrass lost ground to rock and folk rock, Earl Scruggs began playing with his three sons, recording material by Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones and appearing alongside The Byrds, Joan Baez, Elton John and other stars.

Flatt, however, resisted innovation, feeling that it would alienate the band’s grass-roots fans. In 1969, amid growing discontent, the two broke up. Flatt continued to work with the other Foggy Mountain Boys,  and Scruggs, with his sons, formed the Earl Scruggs Revue. This was a mostly acoustic group which took what Scruggs described as a “no-cubbyhole, category-free, barrier-less approach to music”. They released several albums and toured until 1980. Scruggs’s wife, Louise, died in 2006 and a son died in 1992. His other two sons survive him.

After a successful 14-date UK and European tour in 2011, and having just returned from playing at the Volvo Ocean Race in Abu Dhabi, The Straits will be heading out on an 18-date European tour during March 2012.

Dubbed as The Sound of Dire Straits, The Straits kick off the European tour at Belfast’s Ulster Hall on 5^th March, with concerts in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, and The Netherlands, wrapping up with two UK dates at London’s indigO2 on 29^th March and Guernsey’s Sir John Loveridge Hall on 1^st April.

The upcoming European tour is a direct result of the overwhelming demand to hear the band’s much loved catalogue of unforgettable songs. The Straits will perform songs from the classic albums Dire Straits (1978), Communiqué (1979), Making Movies (1980), Love Over Gold (1982), Brothers In Arms (1985) and On Every Street (1991).  Expect to hear all the classics including Money For Nothing, Sultans of Swing, Walk of Life, Romeo and Juliet, Brothers in Arms, Private Investigations, Solid Rock, Tunnel of Love, and many more.

The Straits are comprised of former Dire Straits members Alan Clark (keyboards) and Chris White (sax, vocals), plus world-class musicians Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty’s drummer), Terence Reis (lead vocals, guitar), Mike Feat (bass), Adam Phillips (guitar) and Jamie Squire (keyboards, vocals).

The Straits’ 2012 European Tour Dates:

Belfast – Ulster Hall (March 5)                        Zurich – X-Tra (March 18)
Dublin – Olympia Theatre (March 6)               Porto, Portugal – Hard Club (March 21)
Gothenburg – Brewhouse (March 9)                Lisbon – Aula Magna (March 22)
Copenhagen – Amager Bio (March 10)            Bilbao, Spain – Sala Santana 27 (March 24)
Aarhus, Denmark – Train (March 11)              Gijon, Spain – Teatro Jovellanos (March 25)
Stuttgart – LKA (March 13)                              Paris, France – La Cigalen – March 27)
Prague – KC Vltavska (March 14)                    Tilburg, Holland – O13 (March 28)
Vienna – Gasometer (March 16)                      London, UK – Indig02 (March 29)
Munich – Muffathalle (March 17)                    Beau Sejour, Guernsey – Sir John Loveridge Hall (April 1)

The Beaverwood Road, Chislehurst, Kent BR7 6HF – Tel: 020 8300 1385
Bookings/Info: Pete Feenstra 0208 761 9078 – www.feenstra.co.uk

Thu 8 Mar:     MARTIN TURNER’S WISHBONE ASH
Sun 11 Mar:     WT FEASTER Band (USA)
+ Special Guest The HOUNDS

Thu 29 Mar:     ERIC SARNINAS & BIG MOTOR (USA) +DAVE JACKSON BAND
Tue 3 Apr:     STACIE COLLINS Band (USA)
Thu 12 Apr:     BILLY WALTON Band
(ASBURY PARK, NEW JERSEY, USA)
Thu 19 Apr:     CHANTEL McGREGOR  & Band + Ron Sayer band
Sun 22 Apr:     The REVOLUTIONAIRES
Thu 26 Apr:     STACKRIDGE
Tue 15 May:     ERJA LYYTINEN Band

Thu 17 May:     CITY FUNK ORCHESTRA

Tue 22 May:     BLUES CARAVAN/GIRLS WITH GUITARS

If your into old school guitar stuff, this might light your pipe..

Walter Trout launches his brand new CD ˜Blues For the Modern Daze with an
exlcusive London club show at the Boom Boom Club/Sutton Utd FC.
Walter Trout is one of the worlds great guitarists. The former lead guitar player
with John Mayall Blues Breakers, Canned Heat and John Lee Hooker recently
celebrated his 20th year as a solo recording artist in his own right with the
chart busting album ˜Common Ground. Now comes the preview of his brand

new CD ˜Blues For The Modern Daze torrential, gladiatorial guitar player – LA Times
www.boomboomlive.co.uk

WT Feaster launches his own ‘Juggling Dynamite’ cd on Mystic.

KING MOB – the new British rock and roll super group announces new bassist and UK dates.

At the end of 2011 the brand new English beat combo, KING MOB released their knock-out debut album ‘Force 9’. Now, as the  new year develops, KING MOB are looking forward to working hard on the live circuit, with dates already scheduled for the UK and the rest of Europe and summer festival dates in the offing. As it’s going to be such a busy year for the group, they’ve parted company with bass player Glen Matlock due to his heavy commitments on other projects, and in his place have taken on the amazing, young Japanese bassist, Toshi Ogawa. The group first met Toshi in one of London’s vintage guitar shops and when the position of bass player became open he was their first and obvious choice. Lead singer Snips says “King Mob came to rock the joint and raise the dead. We will continue to do so in 2012”

KING MOB have announced the following UK dates with more dates to be officially announced

17th March - Tivoli Theater, Wimborne

28th March – 02 Academy Islington, London

For all things King Mob and for show ticketing information head to the official website and Facebook page:

www.kingmob-beatgroup.com

www.facebook.com/KingMobBeatGroup

As reported to us by Hamish Birchall  The Live Music Bill, co-sponsored by Lord Clement-Jones and Don Foster MP, cleared its last Commons hurdle on Friday (20th Jan).
It is now on the home straight to becoming law.  Two minor amendments
agreed in Commons Committee must be ratified in the Lords, probably
within a fortnight, and dates set for Royal Assent. Implementation will
require secondary legislation.  A lead-in period of several months is
likely to allow time for the live music sections within statutory
Licensing Guidance to be rewritten.

The Bill represents a historic shift in the treatment of live music
under the law.  The Licensing Act 2003, and many preceding Acts,
embodied a presumption against most performances unless first licensed,
on pain of criminal law sanctions. This harsh treatment, dating back
more than 250 years, will end for performances within certain hours and
to a relatively small audience.  The potential risks are already
regulated by separate legislation.  While there were and are rational
grounds for licensing large events, there is also a puritanical streak
in English culture that was amplified by licensing legislation.  The
enduring puritanism was expressed in often unreasonable objections to
even the mildest live music licence applications, with absurd
over-regulation and enforcement by many local authorities.

The Bill could easily have been sunk by a combination of tedious
filibustering on Daylight Saving Bill amendments and arcane
Parliamentary procedure.  Indeed, it came very close to failing, not
because of insufficient numbers in the House to carry a vote (over 130
MPs), but lack of time.

Debate yesterday started at 9.30am and had to finish by 2.30pm.  The end
time arrived and MPs were still on the Daylight Saving Bill. Many
observers present thought the Live Music Bill had been lost.

Lord Clement-Jones said: ‘I was sitting there and I was absolutely,
completely confounded. I had no idea what was happening when the
Daylight Saving Bill was up.’

Then, as one observer in the public gallery put it, ‘something weird
happened’.   MP Philip Davies, the last in a succession of honourable
members grinding through DSB amendments, suddenly sat down as the
Speaker, Nigel Evans, stood up and shouted  ‘Order, order’.  The
remaining private members bills titles were read out. Next up was the
Live Music Bill.

There followed a short exchange between the Speaker and Don Foster, and
the Bill was passed to a loud chorus of ‘Ayes’, with no objections.
(View on Parliament tv, scroll to 4hrs 55mins:
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=9853 )

The good news flashed quickly around arts and music media:

Jo Dipple acting chief executive of UK Music, the UK commercial music
Industry’s umbrella body, said “This is a great day for music. The Live Music Bill will make a real and positive difference to lives of musicians. There is no doubt that the
current Licensing Act has created needless layers of bureaucracy -
making it complicated and expensive for pubs and other small venues to
host live gigs. The entire industry would like to thank Lord
Clement-Jones and Don Foster MP who have made this change possible.”

John Smith, Musicians Union General Secretary, added-
“We are delighted that the Live Music Bill has finally made it through
Parliament. It is a real achievement for a Private Member’s Bill to get
through and the MU would like to thank Lord Clement-Jones, Don Foster
and all of the other MPs who helped to pass this Bill.”
http://www.basca.org.uk/news/live-music-bill-passes-third-reading-and-report-stage/

Links to other press coverage:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16657152

http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/34983/live-music-bill-close-to-becoming-law

Heartfelt thanks is certainly due to Lord Clement-Jones, Don Foster, the
licensing minister John Penrose, many other MPs and Peers who have
tenaciously campaigned within Parliament, especially John Whittingdale,
Chair of the Culture Select Committee, also to the civil servants and
lawyers who have worked hard behind the scenes on the bill, and indeed
to the Coalition government. But the time is not yet ripe to celebrate.
That should be saved for the day the new law comes into effect. And it
will take many months, perhaps years, for the full benefit to be
realised by musicians, venues and the music loving public.

The sharp decline of small gigs in pubs coincided with reform of
entertainment licensing in 1982, when local authorities were given
powers to set their own fees.  These quickly rose by several hundred
percent, and by 2000 the Home Office estimated fewer than 10% of pubs
had entertainment licences, although all of them could still have one or
two live performers (the ‘two in a bar rule’).  But even that modest
musical provision was abolished by the 2003 Licensing Act, legislation
that marks the highwater point of regulation of live music through
licensing.  It was under this Act that even providing musical
instruments became a potential criminal offence unless licensed.  This
ranges from pub pianos to instruments provided by schools for concerts.
The Live Music Bill does away with that requirement.

One long-time campaigner asked me yesterday what I would do next.  I am
not against licensing regimes per se.  Where there are serious risks to
the public, inadequately regulated by separate legislation, prior public
consultation may be necessary and proportionate.
To that end, perhaps MPs should be licensed.

THE DEVIL’S MUSIC IN THE KITCHEN – BURY ST EDMUND’S DEVIL’S KITCHEN COLLECTIVE

ESTABLISHED AS A ‘REAL’ MUSIC VENUE WITH MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE – NEW YEAR’S EVE SPECIAL FEATURES LONDON’S QUIRKIEST ROOTS BLUES ROCKERS ‘ELEPHANT SHELF’

The Devil’s Kitchen Collective is described as the most original jazz n’ blues club in the U.K -‘a winning formula of kooky volunteers, from hip teenagers to funky septuagenians’ We are a not for profit music club run by musicians, retired artists & live music lovers in Bury St Edmunds. It’s held on THE FIRST SATURDAY OF EVERY MONTH at THE GREENE KING SOCIAL CLUB THE DEVIL’S KITCHEN COLLECTIVE at The Greene King Social Club, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 THE DEVIL’S KITCHEN COLLE… St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 The venue has presented a very high standard of music in the fields of blues, jazz, roots and rock ‘n roll – artists who have appeared include – Mark Butcher, Hokie Joint, The Untouchables – Steve Downs –Gabrielle Ducrombie –Skip McDonald –Big Mama’s Door- Liane Carrol – past gigs have included acclaimed tribute gigs to Jimmy Smith and Ronnie Scott. Not only is the music acclaimed but so is the food – every gig features a superbly prepared menu that varies from the exotic – Creole Special – to traditional ‘Bangers ‘m Mash’ – spokesperson Fiona Kerr says “We pride ourselves on presenting great music and great food at a great price”

This New Year’s Eve special gig features one of the UK’s rising R&B / Roots acts ELEPHANT SHELF – the colorful band is fronted by two of the country’s leading transgendered musicians – Vicky Martin on Vocals and guitars, and Diana Stone – (acclaimed as a wonderful boogie pianist by London promoter Pete Feenstra) on piano and fiddle – the band’s exciting brand of swing based retro R&B has appeared all over the UK this year Festival appearances at Upton, Plumpton, glamorous Skegness, Cambridge and appearances at venues as far and wide as Swansea, Weston Super Mare, Sheffield Lincoln and Bethnal Green have all added to Elephant Shelf’s burgeoning reputation. Numerous gigs by The DELTA LADIES featuring Vicky & Diana of the Shelf have cemented a reputation for great musicianship and great entertainment.

.

The collective’s supporters are in process of setting up a “FRIENDS OF THE COLLECTIVE” too. They thank Paul Dennet & the team at Greene King for all of their help and kind support and on their website give thanks for the support of many honest local businesses & organizations.

The collective are VALERIE BOLTON, KRIS K, Patricia Routledge look-a- like FIONA KERR, ROGER POWELL, HATTIE (THE LEGEND) ASHTON, plus recent recruits RICHARD (‘DICKIE DARLING’) & RUTH (also known as RUTH & ROGER) you find out more about this wonderful venue and about these lovely people at. http://www.thedevilskitchencollective.com/

DEVIL’S KITCHEN VIDEO CHANNEL – http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=devil%27s+kitchen+collective&oq=devil%27s+kitchen+collective&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=5563l19750l0l21125l28l14l1l10l10l0l938l1156l0.2.6-1l3l0

ELEPHANT SHELF – www.elephantshelf.com

DELTA LADIES – www.deltaladies.com