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Michael Head And The Strands

The Magical World Of The Strands

2015 is a busy year for Michael Head:

His second record as ‘Michael Head and the Red Elastic Band’ has just been released on his own label, Violette - ‘Velvets in the Dark’ 7 inch single. Shack’s 1990 single ‘I Know You Well’ opens ‘Perfect Motion’, Jon Savage’s 2LP compilation as “a musical return-trip to these fondly remembered years spanning 1988-93”.

Plus, Megaphone is set to reissue ‘The Magical World of The Strands’ in its original form, with the addition of a 20-page booklet, including new liner notes by Michael Head himself and photographs testifying to the album’s sleeve work-in-progress.

The CD version will come with 2 bonus tracks – the B-Sides to the 1998 NME and Melody Maker Single Of The Week ‘Somethin’ Like You’. ‘Green Velvet Jacket’ is an acoustic solo piece by Michael Head. And Queen Matilda (demo) was recorded in early 1993 and produced by the band’s friend and live engineer Ian Eastwood on a 4-track Tascam cassette recorder.

Alongside this reissue comes ‘The Olde World’, an exclusive new album of recordings from the same sessions.

Last but not least, Michael plans his first gigs as ‘Michael Head & The Strands’ promising to play his classic album ‘The Magical World of The Strands’ in full.

After a couple of demos for the French promoter who paired him with his childhood hero Love’s Arthur Lee in 1992, Pale Fountains and Shack legend Michael Head entered a Liverpool recording studio the following year, with a new project in mind, ‘The Strands’. Michael teamed up with his brother and lifelong companion, John, his long-time drummer Iain Templeton and two new recruits, Michelle Brown on bass and Les Roberts on flute. The recording sessions would last two years and were only halted because Michael was offered a new major label deal. A deal, not for his current work, but for him to record as Shack again.

So it came to be that Stephane Bismuth, the French promoter, was left with 100 or so minutes of a thwarted project, only a third of which had made it to the mixing studio in Sheffield in the summer of ‘95.

Patch-working and weaving rough mixes and sketches – by engineer Steve Powell, made in Liverpool – with completed mixes by producer Mark Coyle who had hired an arranger and string section for sessions in Sheffield, Stephane Bismuth founded a new label Megaphone and finally released ‘The Magical World of The Strands’, in autumn of 1997.

This work-in-progress comprising sketches, rough mixes and fully orchestrated tracks, garnered great critical acclaim and is still rated by many as the "rarest jewel of the 90s", Q Magazine.

About “The magical world of the strands” :

“AS THE MAGICAL WORLD SO CONCLUSIVELY PROVES HE DESERVES THE WORLD” (9/10 NME 1997)
“THE RAREST JEWEL OF THE 90S” (Q 2014)
NME :`LIKE NICK DRAKE STRUMMING ALONG WITH THE STONE ROSES."
- **** GUARDIAN: "ONE OF THE FURTHEST REACHING ENGLISH GUITAR RECORDS THIS DECADE."
- **** Q: "INCREDIBLY AFFECTING, A STAGGERING ALBUM.
- **** UNCUT: "Regarded by many as the equal of the STONE ROSES debut."
- **** THE TIMES : ’BIGGER THAN A LEGEND '.


TRACK LISTING

1. Queen Matilda
2. Something Like You
3. And Luna
4. X Hits The Spot
5. The Prize
6. Undecided (Reprise)
7. Glynys And Jaqui
8. It's Harvest Time
9. Loaded Man
10. Hocken's Hay
11. Fontilan

CD BONUS TRACKS:
Green Velvet Jacket
Queen Matilda (Demo) 

Lecube

From Here To Now

    Julien Lecube' Barbagallo was born to Sicilian immigrant parents in the pastoral landscape of Tarn in France's South-West, where he still lives. His first EP "My Bungalow" marked the beginning of his solo project, Lecube and lent him mythical status via the only French magazine which got hold of it, Magic (French equivalent of Mojo). With a simple 8-track machine and a few intimate songs, he began telling the stories he held close to his chest, a fragile combination of glances and breathes, collected randomly on local buses and unmade beds. In the spring of 2004 he began to record new material, on his friend Benjamin's staircase, a collection of songs which were to become "From Here To Now", stories where women he'd love to love meet men he'd love to be, and vice versa. These recordings remained on the stairs until Julien played a local party where he met Stephane Bismuth, Megaphone Music (The Strands, Angil, Karen Dalton), who convinced him to release his new songs initially as a series of 7". Those tracks drew comparisons to amongst others, The Monochrome Set, Neutral Milk Hotel, Bob Dylan, Syd Barrett, The Byrds, Elliott Smith and Howe Gelb.

    Blind Blake & The Royal Victoria Hotel Calypsos

    Bahamian Songs

      Blind Blake was from the 30s to the 60s the singer and leader of the house band at the Royal Victoria Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas. His music was a strange mix of old island classics, more recent calypso compositions and American ballads. His musicians combined jazz guitar licks with vocal harmonies and West Indian rhythms, with the result that his recordings have an easy humour and swing that few musicians from any continent can match. Alphonso Blake Higgs, commonly known as 'Blind Blake', was born at Matthew Town, Inagua, Bahamas, in 1915. He was adept at string instruments - ukulele, banjo, tenor banjo, six-string guitar - and also played the piano. He lost his eyesight at the age of sixteen and kept pursuing the goal of a career in music and a unique style, a blend of folksong, calypso and early jazz. This CD is drawn from a series of recordings made in the early 1950s. His band 'The Royal Victoria Hotel Calypsos' featured Dudley Butter (guitar, maracas), Chatfield Ward (guitar), Freddie Lewis (lead guitar), George Wilson (bass fiddle), and at times Lou Adams on trumpet. Its popularity with tourists led to them being widely heard in the US, and they became an inspiration to many folk revival musicians. Josh White and Johnny Cash covered "Delia", Pete Seeger "Foolish Frog", Dave Van Ronk "Yas, Yas, Yas", and "Run, Come See Jerusalem" was done by dozens of groups, not to mention Blake's influence on Harry Belafonte.

      Karen Dalton

      Green Rocky Road

        Another chapter in the ever evolving story of Karen Dalton. These are home recordings, taped by Joe Loop, as was the double live album, "Cotton Eyed Joe", released last year. The "Green Rocky Road" consists of recordings made by Karen herself at her Boulder home on reel-to-reel. It sounds like the album Dalton would have made in 1963 had she been given the opportunity then. Here are the first takes of "Ribbon Bow", "Katie Cruel" and "In The Evening".. and a more complete testimony of Karen's repertoire on banjo.


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