Hello 2009 Goodbye 2008

First show of 2009 kicked off the new year in style with Michael's round up of the cream of the sessions from 2008: Debbie Leggo being his choice for session of the year. James III and the Bi-taliban (complete with Burkah) and BC played excellent live sets, setting a suitably high bar for 2009. Good to see BC using a Korg MS10: a truly classic analogue synth.

Saddle up!

Cracking live session yesterday from the autoharp wielding Mary Epworth & the Jubilee Band, whose current Wicker Man-esque single 'The Saddle Song', is one of my favourite releases of the year. Here's the video:



They also played a live version of their next single, 'Black Doe', which sounded equally fantastic. Lucy John Paul was also in session and you can see both her and Mary this Thursday, 18th December at the Gladstone in Lant St, SE1.

My bass or yours?

Impending fatherhood and mountains of marking have made the Badger a bit slack on the blogging front once again of late, so here, better late than never, are the last two Saturdays. Pub Pop at the Miller was a cornucopia of remarkable bassists, with Georgie from Plug playing the casio with her feet in a most impressive display of multi-tasking. Not to be outdone, Rose Kemp's bass player opted for the over-arm approach to his instrument, to very good effect, it must be said. T-Lo and I were on the brand new wheels of steel, with Ugly Pop not being killed, but unceremoniously resurrected.Ye Gods: Life in a Northern Town, anyone?
Left With Pictures and the Soft were live and direct on last Saturday's show. The Soft are something of a super group, featuring not only the lovely Rich Nuvo once of the Teens but also ex-Bibster, Chris Kaos, now splendidly renamed Chris Kiosk. Champion!

Whales, Plug and Marquez

Prints of Whales were at the Gladstone on Thursday in all their glory - you can't beat the sound of twin musical saws...except possibly with a trio of musical saws.

Plug and Ish Marquez were in session today. I was particularly impressed by Georgie from Plug's ability to play the bass while also playing a keyboard with her feet. Now that is multi-tasking! Come and see them play next Saturday, 29th November at the Miller in London Bridge.

House Ache Horse

A vintage Hello Goodbye show with the incredible Men Diamler playing live - check out the shaky footage of him performing 'House Ache Horse'

Ljubljana's avant-rock finest, Zoambo Zoet Workestrao, also clocked in an excellent live session so a quality show all round.

Debbie Leggo/Sleaford Mods

The last Hello Goodbye show before our summer break brought together an impressive trio of urban wordsmiths: Gerry Mitchell's rants were accompanied to great effect by the youthful Debbie Leggo, Sleaford Mods put in a deceptively smooth performance, no less powerful for avoiding some of his more 'adult' content, and A Man Reading Stories (not pictured) read a great story about walking backwards. Terrific stuff; the show returns on 6th September.

Tap and Gun

Twin-drummer fuelled blues grungers the Tap Collective and acoustic songstress Alice Gun put in splendid performances in a sultry Resonance studio this lunchtime. I managed to make an unscheduled guest appearance on one of Alice's songs as I fell onto the radiator while closing the window to shut out the sound of a passing police siren. Mercifully, I'm told, the resultant clang was in time.

Great Danes, folky fairies and crisp winter mornings

Out last night in Hackney at Peter, Trine and Oskar's farewell do, before they head back to Copenhagen. We'll miss them for many reasons, but for me particularly because Trine is the only other person in London I know who shares my passion for tractors. Good party though; we ate bread baked with entire eggs inside, complete with shells, and drank whisky from eggcups with lions on that looked like mini-toilets. Classy people, those Danes.




A busy but mellow Hello Goodbye show this afternoon. Playing live were Emma Tricca, who looks like a folky lady Ramone and has a fantastic voice, along with Smoke Fairies, also with fabulous voices and the Crisps, who were quite splendid too. They have a song called Tring and their guitarist Walter spent their entire interview applying extra layers of clothes until he had almost disappeared. I guess that must mean winter's here.

Formidable!

Cracking sessions from improvisers Uncle Rabbit and French duo John & Jehn on the show today.