Desmond Chancer And The Long Memories: General Info
Member Since
7/17/2007
Band Members
Desmond Chancer (vocals), Junkfood Jones (piano, guitar), Anna Soprano (violin, vocals). Desmond provides the lyrics, melodies and atmospheres, Junkfood provides the music, instruments and production, Anna provides the talent and the glamour.
Sounds Like
The ghost of Paul Robeson sat in Boris Karloff's dressing room relaxing with a glass of wine after a sunny day out in the countryside haunting pagan witches.
Desmond Chancer is the sort of midnight crooner you’d expect to find chain smoking in an empty bar in the wee hours, bawling into a microphone through neglected vocal cords. Fortunately for Desmond Chancer And The Long Memories, however, these aforementioned bars are not quite so empty, and it would seem that many are enchanted by his deep booming voice, charming persona, and marvellous musical accompaniment.
"A trio then took the stage, under the banner of Desmond Chancer and the Long Memories (scheduled for the Oxford Punt in April). Desmond is actually former Big Speakers rapper Tomohawk, but in this outfit he eschews the motor-mouth brilliance and gives us thirty minutes of basso-profondo croon, backed by Oliver Shaw’s (sorry Junkfood Jones’) cocktail-lounge jazz piano alongside the glamorous Anna Soprano’s violin and breathy back-up vocals. The songs offer no concession to modernity, which may be no bad thing; the success of Vince Vincent and the Villains suggests that music that could have been performed wholesale fifty years ago can still do well today. The Long Memories’ musical era is perhaps the thirties (one or two of the tunes remind me of ‘Buddy, can you Spare a Dime?), although Chancer’s vocal emotionalism may be closer to the forties and fifties. His favourite subjects are staples of old country music:mistreatment by women, mistreatment of the bottle, and so recall the doleful Hank Williams, but Chancer’s exuberance and bonhomie banish the maudlin; it’s almost as if his inexhaustible Falstaffian cheer is fighting with the gloom of his chosen subject matter- this creates a strange, laddish cabaret that is partly awkward and partly compelling." - Oxfordbands.com
Hello! Our second single ‘Bill Hicks’ is now available for pre-order on download, 7" and CD.
We are self-managed, self-published, and self-released on our own record label and our debut single "Trauma Town" entered at #9 in the Official UK Indie charts. We're hoping to make this one go even bigger -
Hi, Thanks for checking out my page! The stuff I do at Baby is more acoustic, it'll be a good night. Worth arriving for this month's guest Firebird, amazing Columbian singer with a violin player, they'll be on at 9pm. See ya, going to listen to your tunes now. m
Hey Tom, Yeah, well up for doing something in Oxford from October onwards, especially if you're able to get some people down. We know a couple of people down that way, but not that many. Anyway, glad you like the tunes - we're well up for giving them a work out on stage. Let me know if you need any more details, etc., etc. Cheers, Craig from SeeBeeOne.
The Opium Den is back to bring you fireworks on the 4th July.
With performances from the Stillhouse Orchestra, Sam Astley and Craig Temple providing bluesy hillbilly rockin sounds to dance and sing along to and The Opium Den Madame Amanda Mae Steele and Miss Rose Thorne providing the Burlesque you'd be mad to miss it.
There will as always be the delectable opium tea served up to those who need it! And also the inimitable Lydia Darling providing the tunes for you to dance to.
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