Bukka White, Son House,
Ravi Shankar , K. Sridhar, Captain Beefheart, Ivor Cutler, Charles Mingus,
Don Van Vliet, Zappa,
The Doors, Robert Johnson,
Jimi Hendrix, Blind Willie Johnson,
Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy,
Miles Davis, Denis Jones, Paco de Lucia,
Ashok Roy, Nick Drake, James Wilson, Davis Rybka,
G Plot, Django Reinhardt and on and on and on..................
I play guitar and have been doing most of my life. Sometimes i sing, but only more recently. I also like to plug my guitar into big loud amplifiers and make as much noise as i can. My Dad got me into slide blues when i was young and K.Sridhar opened my ears to Indian Classical music when i was about 8.
For the last few years i aimlessly wandered far flung parts of this great globe, playing music and getting into trouble.
I recorded most of this album in a shed with my friends in the beautiful countryside surrounding my delightful hometown of Wigan. Currently, i am working on my next batch.
"Truly Exquisite"
THE GUARDIAN-Laura Barton
"Joys of Spring is a small, complete utopia"
PLAN B
"One of the most original, enlightening and entertaining albums you’ll hear all year."
BBC MANCHESTER-Chris Long
"There's something paradoxical about 'Joys Of Spring'. Like a window onto someone's private world it has an unerring intimacy and yet there's a strong undercurrent of bold audacity. The result is that we can only expect the unexpected and that's a magical thing."
SPIRAL EARTH-David Kushar
One of the highest compliments I can pay this album is that I love to write to it. It occurs around you at times, and others it completely takes you away. You can relax to it or get completely lost in it. ‘They’ say a picture can paint a thousand words, well these songs can create short films with narratives, whilst barely saying a word throughout. This is my own interpretation – you make your own story from it, just don’t change the soundtrack whatever you do.
WHISPERINANDHOLLERIN.COM-James Higgerson
"A one man explosion of blues, Indian ragas and English baroque folk"
IN THE CITY
"New Age guitar Superstar."
OPUS
"This extraordinary debut album arrived unannounced in our offices one morning.
Playing a bewildering array of instruments, John Fairhurst has produced an instrumental record of immense power and creativity that blends eastern melodies with brilliant guitar dexterity.
He exudes a zest for life and being that is nothing short of intoxicating. We predict a very bright future for John Fairhurst."
ELECTRIC GHOST/YELLOW MOON
"Virtuosity is all too often substituted for catchiness in popular music. And to see John Fairhurst’s debut reach its deserved summit would turn the above theory on its head.
It’s hard to put your finger on a guitar-based genre whose stone has remained unturned by John.
John’s listening experiences and hard work have led to music that shimmers with a delicate aural caress"
STUDENT DIRECT-Ian Pennington
Spirits were flowing, the sofa was full, and gravelly guitarist JOHN FAIRHURST was unleashing merry hell in the middle of the living room
His performance jangled into life with a Delta-bluesy flavour before surging into an epic Indian classical melody, dropping jaws from kitchen to corridor with his speed and style.
Every now and then, he'd pause to re-tune his bruised instrument, like a frustrated dad nefariously stroking the cat before suddenly drop-kicking it off the sofa.He savages his guitar like a hyena unwrapping a Christmas present. John is a blur of fluttering fingers, full of raw, sandpapery authenticity, with a foot tap you can hear under your knees from several rows back, never mind in a room so cosy that you can get paper cuts from his eyelashes.
WHISPERINANDHOLLERIN.COM-John Hill
Entirely instrumental, this beautifully played album takes you on a journey around the world to the point where your senses can make you believe you are there. John is a master of a huge number instruments,but it’s the brilliant playing of so many types of guitar that really grabs you.
Even if instrumental music isn’t your thing you should own this album. John Fairhurst deserves to go far and if people are willing to give this type of music a go then there is no denying that they’ll be drawn in by it. Buy it now!
"Drapes of Black" is the new single from Aidan Smith's new album, Allotments. It was played on Radcliffe and Maconie's show on Radio 2 on Monday and is in this week's Pick and Mix!
Go here to vote for Aidan to get played on their show every day next week!
ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ITS GLASTONBURY WEEKEND,MBV AND RADIOHEAD ARE ON BLAH BLAH, BUT SHOULD YOU FANCY A COSIER EVENING OF TROPICALIA, EASTERN FOLK AND CINEMATIC EXPERIMENTATION THEN LOOK NO FURTHER... MINDTRAIN THIS MONTH PROUDLY PRESENTS...
BEHAR'S Inspiration comes from traditional Bosnian folk music (Sevdah) - often described as ‘The Balkan Blues’. Behar are a newly formed group in the North-West and aim to bring this amazing music to new audiences. their music is passionate, soulful and poetic with stories to tell through unusual rhythms and beautiful eastern harmonies.
imagine Broadcast scoring the BBC ghost stories for christmas and you may be somewhere close to the splendour of DAVID A JAYCOCK...
all the way from Rio de Janeiro JOHANNE RUSSELL brings sunshine psych folk and Tropicalia tapped directly into the Gal Costa / Secos e Molhados / Os Mutantes source!
weather permitting we'll be having a barbecue early doors, CHEAP bevvies, tropicalia djs, nudie 70's czech flicks...all on your doorstep!! (if you live in west didsbury...)
alright chief? think this'd be right up your strasse if your about... THE FAMILY ELAN at the Art Of Tea, tuesday 10th june. dramatic, sensual, hypnotic & hauntingly beautiful devotional songs of autumn leaves and nights of fire and wine.
Elan derives much inspiration from devotional and folk music traditions. The tanbur playing of the Kurdish Sufi mystic Ostad Elahi and Âshyq songs of the Azerbaijani sâz master Edalat Nasibov spring immediately to mind, alongside the rawer, more percussive sounds of the Yayla musicians of the Eastern Black Sea region – who fashion reed instruments from young pine saplings - like Hasan Yïldïrïm (who plays the violin like a drum) and Hayri Dev. The music of the Rebetes of early twentieth century Greece is an obvious benchmark, alongside more recent European folk revivalists like the Hungarian band Muzsikás. Other signposts might include the bouzouki inventions of Anne Briggs and the musical tapestries of the Incredible String Band. There is also a ‘pop’ sensibility lurking in there somewhere, though it is nigh on impossible to pin down in the conventional sense.
The Family Elan is Chris Hladowski - bouzouki, vocals, guitar, baglamas, fiddle, gimbri, clarinet, thigh slapping, and an unknown Chinese Lute – and Hanna Tuulikki - metal flute, wooden flute, wooden recorder, plastic recorder, voice. Both players have been involved in critical groups such as A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Scatter, Nalle and One Ensemble, they release their debut album on Chicago’s Locust Records in late 2007.
YAY MINDTRAIN IS BACK MOFO'S!! AT OUR NEW HOME - DIDSBURY'S BEST KEPT SECRET THE ALBERT CLUB IN WEST DIDSBURY. From Lancaster in England’s North West, fresh from supporting A Hawk and A Hacksaw,with whom they share much in common -The Balkanics Band promise a night of HIGH ENERGY Eastern European folk music. their style encompasses traditional Balkan, Klezmer and Breton folk,bringing to mind latter day acts like Taraf de Haïdouks and Musziskas, always played with an eye on the dancefloor, as this music never truly comes alive without reciprocal MOVEMENT from the audience.this will be hot, sweaty and intense, and will bring out the whirling dervish in you! http://www. myspace. com/thebalkanicsband &&& Purveyors of wine stained gallic noir et rouge duende -SR GENTS & Indodeltajazzraga guitar polymath mr JOHN FAIRHURST!!! PLUS mini festival of experimental movies from the likes of stan brakhage, maya deren, jan lenica, harry smith, shuji terayama,vera chytilova etc & psychedelic vinyl delights from the four corners of the globe &&& beer starting at only a pound a pint!! 8pm - 1am £5v ONLY 100 TICKETS BE EARLY!!!
Just read through your reviews johnny boy. Sounds like people are really getting the message. Wish I was there to see it all with you. Well done brother.
Ive heard so much about you John & you are doing Barna thats really good....The Catalans will like this & i will tell lots of people there to support you..... Dont mind me ..... Im just leaving a comment i can see youve travelled....only the travelled can create a timbre like that....its not just my ears that tell me that...
