these guys have graced the calmer* stage over the years: Curtis Eller's American Circus, Marissa Nadler, Charlie Parr, Edd Donovan, Devon Sproule, Paul Curreri, James Blackshaw, Mi and L'au, Josephine Foster, Thomas Truax, Rachael Dadd, Richard James, Soft Hearted Scientists, Sam Beer, Scott Matthews, Danny Schmidt, Carolina Herrera, Pete Bruntnell, Nathan Filer, Rivulets, Annalies Monsere, Men Diamler, Annette Buckley, Rose Kemp, Chris Collins, MPE Band, The Corn Fed Girls, Lianne Hall, Mario Vendredi, Caroline Martin, Jamie Lawson, Amy Wadge, Miles Mann, 90 Degrees South, Longstone, Fruitbat, Symon Bye, Rogue, Lorna, Earnest Cox, Bodixa, Sam Holmes, Jim Bob, Applecraft, Pony Club, Pete Bruntnell, Inkubus Sukkubus, Susanna Waters, Steve Franks, Black Flowers, Wonderful Wednesdays, Halflight, Dik Cadbury, Jeff Martinez, Bela Emerson, Jon Gomm, Knowledge of Bugs, Richard Walters, Mat Gibson, Pronefoal, Urban Space Epics, Family Machine, John Smith, Chloe Poems, Danny Schmidt, Cajita, John Harris, Chris Cundy, Alex Ward, Smokehand, Jana Hunter, Andrew Hockey, Chris T-T, Jim Lockey, Safetyword, Vialka, Liz Green, George Thomas, Sam Holmes
Books
Bookings...it's usually by invite only but if you'd like to play please send us a message to calmercheltenham @ googlemail dot com!
About me: Calmer* is a DIY promotion team. We put on shows packed full of the best sounds, experiences and performers in the whole wide world. Articulate acoustic angels, back porch drawlers, melancholic folk sirens, hungover hillbillies, smoking jazz queens, experimental electronicas, burlesque beauties, whisky drinking bluesmen, piccolo playing pixies, circus whores and so much love it's sometimes quite painful.
Calmer* is somewhere articulate with new and innovative acts, somewhere reflective that dare not follow the mainstream. Somewhere that takes a chance of the two.
Here to bring the antidote; a real alternative. Here to bring acts that we truly love to the most wonderful, respectful audience. Here to put Cheltenham on the map. Here to promote independent promoting, where beauty and belief outweigh cash and all its dirty madness.
Experimental, acoustic, alternative and always, entertaining acts.
www.calmermusic.co.uk.
'Stunning...this is the best singer / songwriter debut I have heard in a long while'- 5/5 *****- Maverick
'Outstanding debut...pastoral, romantic and lit musically by summer rays...this album is no routine singer- songwriter offering but some-thing totally engaging in melody and lyric'- **** 4/5- MOJO
Also available from HMV, Amazon, Play.com and all other good retailers.
Featuring Fyfe Dangerfield (from Guillemots), Gannets posit an alternative jazz history in which 30's swing developed straight into a combined form of the free jazz and fusion movements, without any of the intervening decades.
Fyfe Dangerfield - keyboards + electronics
Alex J Ward - clarinet
Christopher Cundy - bass clarinet
Dominic Lash - double bass
Steve Noble - drums
WILD BEASTS + DON'T MOVE! Sunday 22nd February 2009 £8 adv - £10 door £5 concessions 8PM-2AM DJs SAM LUCAS + LEAH JOHNSON www. tinangeltickets. co. uk www. wild-beasts. com Wild Beasts...by Louis Pattison
Looking at Wild Beasts' credentials – well-dressed art-rock band, signed to Domino, and named in tribute to a 20th Century art movement called the Fauvists – it's tempting to whip out the chalk and write them into the post-Franz Ferdinand wave of vaguely smart guitar rock. But where few Franz copyists can hold a candle to their conceptual cleverness or way with turning outré influences into pop, a quick listen to Wild Beasts' debut album Limbo, Panto confirms that this band are no intellectual slouches.
At their most simplistic on tracks like The Devil's Crayon, they play febrile indie pop with an Orange Juice bounce, a stout croon courtesy of bassist Tom Flemming and flowery, quietly epic arrangements that recall the score of Black Beauty or some similarly windswept children's drama. Flemming is not Wild Beast's main vocalist, though: that role is played by Hayden Thorpe, who for most casual listeners will be something of a deal-maker or breaker. Somewhere between Russell Mael of Sparks, outsider pop curio Tiny Tim, and the contents of a farmyard, Thorpe's grandstanding falsetto occasionally dissolves into a cacophony of whinneys and growls. It's certainly weird, but weirdly compelling, if you submit. And Wild Beasts give the accompanying music sufficient oddity for it to shine.
Woebegotten Wanderers, the tale of a hapless lower-division football team, swings from sad elegy to slightly deranged fairground romp. Please Sir is a haunted waltz, where Thorpe's sad, Antony Hegarty-like vocal is back
UNWED SAILOR is helmed by Oklahoma-born songwriter Johnathon Ford. The basis for the instrumental project came into being while Ford was still writing with Seattle luminaries Roadside Monument. Pulling towards a bass guitar-oriented sound, the songs he had begun to craft did not fully feel right for Roadside Monument, thus the unbeknownst predestined forming of Unwed Sailor. Not aiming for Unwed Sailor to fall into the regular confines of a typical band, Ford's ever evolving cast and crew has been tirelessly composed over the years of good friends and company. Throughout the past decade, Unwed Sailor has shared the stage with the likes of Pedro the Lion, Mary Timony, Low, The Danielson Famile, Sufjan Stevens, Early Day Miners, Minus the Bear, The Advantage, The Starlight Mints, Battles, Mates of State, and Beach House(just to name a few…). The band has since been relocated and based out of cities across the United States, including Chicago, Seattle, Washington D.C., Jackson MS, Little Rock, AR, and most recently Lawrence, KS. With numerous tours in the U.S. and Europe, the band has traveled almost as much as it has evolved.
New Terry Emm music from the debut album (LONGMANCD051) 'White Butterflies', coming out on the 16th February 2009 is online now. The album, produced by Richard Durrant is limited to 1000 copies and available to pre-order now.
Hiya, I'm just letting you know that you can now download the new album from iTunes here! Hope you like the new tracks up on our myspace, we're going to be swapping them about over the next few weeks so keep a look out. Mezza :o)
THE AUTUMN DEFENSE (two members of WILCO) + PLUSH (Liam Hayes) Sunday 7th September @ Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
The Autumn Defense is a collaboration between Wilco/Uncle Tupelo bassist John Stirratt and Wilco multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone who has also produced records for the likes of Andrew Bird and Joseph Arthur. They have released 3 albums of beautifully arranged, organic, wispy folk-rock and singer-songwriter musings.
"Comfort music for the soul...” UNCUT **** "never less than utterly gorgeous" THE WORD "reference points include Nick Drake and CSN, Bread, Big Star and the essence of Love, Steely Dan and a dozen others" MOJO **** "edifying and beautifully textured" DAILY MIRROR **** "soft rock at it's most elegant." TIME OUT "Soft, dreamy and bittersweet” WASHINGTON POST "Warming, gorgeous and delightful” DAVID FRICKE, SENIOR EDITOR, ROLLING STONE
Liam Hayes appeared as himself in High Fidelity and his band Plush's long lost masterpiece 'Fed' is currently receiving rave reviews across the music press including 5/5 in Uncut, 4/5 in Mojo, Q, Plan B, NME 8/10 etc. A regular collaborator, he has also worked with Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy), appearing on keyboards across the Palace era output, and also played on records by Royal Trux.
"Fed is beautifully excessive, ornamented with dazzling soul/pop arrangements. And the songs are glorious..." UNCUT ***** "A banquet of sonic gorgeousness" NME 8/10 "Fed is something of a lost classic" MOJO **** "Fed can be finally heard as a testament to Hayes's widescreen obsessions" Q **** "Perfect takes time" PLAN B “a soulful symphonic masterpiece” ROLLING STONE
A pretty decent amount of superlatives there for just £9 (adv.) Get your tickets from www. clwb. net, Spillers (Cardiff) or Diverse (Newport)
Online Now!
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