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- Behind the Music: Tony Moore is proof live music need not cost a fortune
The former Cutting Crew man, who is about to receive a Basca Gold Badge award, has been running free gigs for over a decade
When singer-songwriter Tony Moore discovered he'll be receiving a Gold Badge award this year from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) he naturally felt honoured, but also more than a little surprised. After all, he hasn't written any huge hits or composed a soundtrack to any big movies. Yet despite being unknown to the majority of music fans, his contribution to British songwriting is undeniable – and it all started in 1997 with a weekly music night called the Kashmir Klub at a pub in London's Holland Park.
Initially Moore, who started out as an original member of Iron Maiden and later joined 80s band Cutting Crew (those of I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight fame), created the night to give himself and his friends a chance to perform their own songs. The London live music scene at the time was pretty much all about rock bands, so when a friend told him about the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, a small venue where established and up-and-coming songwriters performed their own songs, he felt inspired to recreate it in London.
He had very specific ideas of what would make it special. There would be no cover charge. "A cover charge is a psychological barrier for most punters," says Moore. The artists wouldn't be paid; nor would they be required to bring in a certain amount of punters (many venues ask that). The sound had to be fantastic, so he'd get 10% of the bar takings to be able to pay a good sound engineer. All the equipment was given to him for free by the firms that made them. "It's amazing how, when you're passionate about something, people are willing to support you," says Moore, exuding an infectious enthusiasm.
The night quickly became so popular that they expanded it to two nights a week. After the pub lost its licence, the Kashmir Klub moved to a basement underneath a restaurant in the middle of London – and that's when things really kicked off. Soon Moore ran the club six nights a week. Every weeknight would have the same structure: all artists would do two songs in the first set and two in the second. To the audience this meant, if you didn't like the act performing, you'd only have to endure it for less than 10 minutes; and even if you couldn't stay all night you'd get a chance to hear all the acts. To the musicians, it meant the audience members wouldn't leave as soon as their mates had performed.
The club has acted as a launchpad for artists like Damien Rice, KT Tunstall, Imogen Heap, Nerina Pallot, Paolo Nutini, Rumer and numerous other successful artists, who arrived as complete unknowns to hone their performance skills. But many international stars have also graced the tiny stage as they've passed through the city, knowing the sound would be up to scratch. Sheryl Crow did a secret gig and was allowed to play a 40-minute set – but the "no cover charge" ethos remained, even for her. "You know how the performers always bring some friends who sit at the front? Well, her friends were people like Chrissie Hynde and Emmylou Harris," says Moore.
What makes the Kashmir Klub extra special for artists is that people don't talk all the way through the performances. Apart from the first venue, every place that's hosted the club has had a bar in a separate room where people can go if they want to talk. Moore, who would MC every night, kicked off each evening by saying: "As you've noticed there's no cover charge. All you have to pay is attention."
When he lost the basement venue in 2003, the Bedford pub in Balham, south London, got in touch. Its owner had come to realise the value music brought to his pubs, and so hired Moore to run that part (he's now also taken on the Regal Room in Hammersmith). "Initially it was difficult. It's funny – people are willing to travel to Berlin for a gig, but not to Balham," Moore explains. Still, he's is now finally able to make a living from it.
The Musicians' Union is currently planning to stop its opposition to venues charging bands to perform (for those who are interested, I'll be debating the issue of so-called "pay to play" on a panel featuring Guy Garvey at Manchester's In the City conference on 13 October). Before doing so, they should speak to Tony Moore, who has proven it's possible to run a successful music night without charging musicians or punters. His mailouts usually finish with a "thought for the day", and his favourite is: "Find a job you love doing, and you'll never have to work another day of your life." He says he hasn't worked for 13 years.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Переслать - Has the Velvet Underground's Moe Tucker really joined the Tea Party?
Could this really be the former Velvets drummer complaining about 'being led towards socialism'? Fans seem to think so ...
It's certainly a Maureen Tucker. And it certainly looks like the one who used to stand and pound the drums in the Velvet Underground (ie the coolest member of the coolest band of all time). But could such an avant garde icon really be turning up at Tea Party demonstrations and complaining about the Obama administration?
"I'm furious about the way we're being led towards socialism," says a Maureen Tucker on this news clip. "I'm furious about the incredible waste of money when things that we really need and are important get dropped because there's no money left."
Fans on YouTube and Twitter think it's her but we're trying hard not to accept it ... can someone please say it ain't so?!?
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - New music: First Aid Kit – When I Grow Up
These Swedish sisters have taken the fear out of Fever Ray with this charming cover
Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg first appeared on many people's radars following their breathtaking cover of Fleet Foxes' Tiger Mountain Peasant Song, the video of which has now been watched over 1.5m times on YouTube. Since then they've released the critically acclaimed The Big Black and the Blue album, and cast a spell over many a rapt festival audience this summer. This B-side to their new single Ghost Town, is a cover of fellow Swede Karin Dreijer Andersson's (aka Fever Ray) haunting paean to domestic boredom. The original's themes of alienation are transposed from chilly electronica to acoustic warmth, while the stand-out line: "I'm very good with plants/When my friends are away they let me keep the soil moist" sounds like a matter-of-fact confession as opposed to the Andersson's terrifying murmurings.guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Music Weekly: These New Puritans
With Hidden, These New Puritans have made what will surely be regarded as one of 2010's best albums. Combining visceral art-rock with ambitious orchestration, it's a brave and challenging record that begs the question: "How the hell are you going to play it live?" The band's Jack Barnett drops in to answer exactly that question and also to talk to Alexis Petridis about rock'n'roll tuba players and being snubbed by the Mercury prize panel.
Next up on the show is Singles Club, in which Alexis is joined by Rosie Swash and Alex Needham. They sink their critical teeth into Salem's King Night, Idiot Glee's Mine Is All Packed Up and Owen Pallett's Scandal at the Parkade.
To finish things off, Alexis (it truly is a Petridis special this week) meets up with disco don Leo Zero – the man behind a zillion re-edits.
And that, as they say, is that. To extend the fun times, do follow us on Twitter or friend us on Facebook. Cheerio!
Переслать - Readers recommend songs about the Beatles
Last week we vegged out in the Cucumber Castle, now let's celebrate John Lennon's 70th with a Fab Four feast
Greetings pop pick-yer-owners. Here's a thing I learnt this week. There is an incredible amount of songs that take some sort of inspiration from the humble vegetable thanks, presumably, to its ability to suggest so many different things: from home and childhood and poverty and feasting, to dancing and vitality and comfort.
Vegetables are our friends; they are cheap and filling and plentiful. They're even good for us, but their beauty is all on the inside, under a cover of mud and thick, mottled skin (rather like … actually, it doesn't matter). Having said all that, there's not much wrong with a juicy pork chop either, but you get the idea.
Anyway, the A-list:
Louis Armstrong – Potato Head Blues;
Half Man Half Biscuit – Asparagus Next Left;
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell – The Onion Song;
Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers – Let's Call the Whole Thing Off;
RZA – Grits;
Can – Vitamin C;
The J.B.'s – Pass the Peas;
Dead Prez – Be Healthy; Echo & the Bunnymen – Thorn of Crowns; The Rutles – Cheese and Onions
OK – so that lot are julienned and ready for the pot, let's bouillon (bring on, do you see?) the B-list:
The Soul Investigators – Greens Please
Maniacally focused plate of rough as old boots early 1970s American inner-city funk recorded a few short years ago by a group of super-dedicated vinyl nerds from Finland. Don't you just love the world?
Eric Satie – Le Chant Guerrier Du Roi Des Haricots
A war song from the King of the Haricots. There are no words and, frankly, he doesn't sound up to much fighting, but Satie's solo piano piece is a delight none the less.
Olu Dara – Okra
This from Makinavaja: "[Okra is] an ode to a simpler time when a roast sweet potato was the weekly (or monthly) treat. The song recreates [an African] market, the joy of buying something simple, but wholesome. It's infectiously joyful and that's a lot to get out of a potato, ain't it?" Yes! Yes it is.
The Bee Gees – Cucumber Castle
Described by Thewinslowboy, with some accuracy, as being taken "from one of the best psychedelic albums of 1967 or any other year: the Bee Gees' 1st", Cucumber Castle is candy-striped whimsy of the first order. A castle made of cucumber would, sadly, be disastrous. Unless you had a moat full of Pimm's.
Ricky & Bunny – Bush Weed Corn Trash
I am ashamed to say I had never even heard of Ricky & Bunny before this week – but I've listened to this track about 20 times in the last few days. That's the beauty of this column – so many great new things to discover. Anyhow, I understand this as a complaint about the quality of marijuana on offer in R&B's locale. It is, in essence, little better than smoking corn skins. A sort of anti-vegetable song then.
Blind Blake – Hot Potatoes
From 1927, perhaps the greatest year in the history of popular music. The story appears to be that his woman has done him some sort of wrong, but frankly, a toot on the old duck whistle – put to expert use here – and a piping hot tuber, and all is well again. Dead for 77 years, still sounds alarmingly chirpy.
Dinosaur Jr – Turnip Farm
The more I listen to this grunge-a-lot belter from 1991, the more I realise – with clanking horror – that it's not strictly speaking about vegetables at all. However, it was between this and Howard McGhee's 1945 bebop smash, Turnip Blood. And that title was just too upsetting. So it's well done, J Mascis of Amherst, Mass.
The Jungle Brothers – Sunshine
The breakfast routine chez JB sounds rather appealing. "Gather my leaves and all my minerals, fix myself a bowl of vegetables, ice cold water and chopped-up fruits, gonna be a long day so I throw on my boots …" Who's in?
Jelly Roll Morton – Red Hot Pepper Stomp
His seven (or eight) piece band were, of course, called The Red Hot Peppers, so, in a (fairly stretched) way, this is a song about vegetables played by a band about vegetables. It's also very, very good, which is why it's here.
The Queers – Stupid Fucking Vegan
Pop-punk "hilarity" here because sometimes you can take the whole vegetable thing a little too far. Or can you?
To round things up, here's a Spotify playlist of the A and the B (with no Dead Prez, sadly).
As you are now probably aware 9 October would, perhaps should, have been John Lennon's 70th birthday, a fact that prompts a whole host of questions. Would he still be recording or would he have abandoned popular music for another art form? Just how bad would that 1985 album he made with the Linn drums and bad synths have been? What about his acid house remixes or his Unplugged CD for MTV? Would we have even needed Oasis had he lived?
When you affect as many people's lives as John Lennon it's easy to lose focus on what was amazing about that person in the first place, ie this was a tremendously good pop star. So this week's topic is a simple one. Songs about the Beatles. Not Beatle covers, but songs – and music – that offer up some thoughts, positive or negative, on the group of all groups. I'm looking for lyrical references, praise, blame, celebrations and condemnations, tributes and raspberries. Songs that offer insight and songs happy just to incite. Musical references are also allowed as long as they are utterly blatant and knowing. Happy birthday, old chap. It's a shame you're not here.
The toolbox: Archive, the Marconium, the Spill, the Collabo.
The rulebook:
DO post your nominations before midday on Monday if you wish them to be considered.
DO post justifications of your choices wherever possible.
DO NOT post more than one third of the lyrics of any song.
DO NOT dump lists of nominations – if you must post more than two or three at once, please attempt to justify your choices.
Let's keep it clean, in fact, let's keep it the cleanest clean under the sun.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать
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