R.I.P Harold Pinter

Just a quick - and slightly late - post this holiday season, to pay tribute to Harold Pinter, who passed away on Christmas Eve. One of our very first Departure Lounge performances was the music for Mary Luckhurst's production of Pinter's Landscape in York, a powerful work which has stayed with us all, and which we often still recall. Pinter was an inspiration both in his writing and his political passion and commitment; a true icon of the Twentieth Century.

I would like to stand by the sea...

Harold Pinter - Landscape

On a slightly different note - to all of our readers and listeners, very best wishes for 2009, from all of us at Departure Lounge.

Shame on this Govenment...

"Form 696" proposes draconian regulation of live performance

(With apologies to Johnson's Rambler for reprinting the same article...)


From The Independent:

"Teenage kicks will be harder to get if publicans and managers of other small venues are forced to comply with a new piece of bureaucracy called Form 696, a former punk rock star has warned.

The form demands that licensees give police a mass of detail, including the names, aliases, private addresses and phone numbers of all musicians and other performers appearing at their venue, and the ethnic background of the likely audience. Failure to comply could mean the loss of a licence or even a fine and imprisonment.

The police say they need the information demanded on Form 696, which runs to eight pages, so they can pinpoint which acts and venues attract troublemakers, and make sure venues are safe. But Feargal Sharkey, who rose to fame during the punk era as the vocalist on the single "Teenage Kicks" by the Undertones, is so angry about what he sees as a threat to live music that he is consulting lawyers about how to stop it."

I wouldn't normally be so overtly political on this blog, but this is an absolute disgrace; the government seems to think that 'Big Brother' needs to be watching everyone in a way that can only be described as resembling a police state.
And wanting to know the ethnic background of the audience? What use could that information possibly be to the police, unless you're making broad-based assumptions about peoples' behaviour based on their race? They should all be ashamed.
And in case anyone thinks I'm being party-political; I think the Tories would behave as badly if not worse, they don't deserve to call themselves the opposition.

Please show your support; click here to sign a petition on the 10 Downing St website.

PS: Kudos to Feargal Sharkey for making a stand...


Jim.

Happy Birthday Elliott Carter

Elliott Carter
100 years old today and still going strong.
Many happy returns from all at the Lounge to an inspirational composer and human being; may his youthfulness, energy and astonishing output continue to put the rest of us to shame.

Read more coutesy of The Guardian

Gina's Sunday Story (5)

Neal Gaiman... Need we say more?

Our Sunday Song (4)

Influenced by Roald Dahl books and Tim Burton films... Le genius!

Sunday Lounging...

Well. We've had a great day of Lounge recording - and also, a glass of wine or three! Anyway, Paul had a great gig on Monday, at the 'Gobsmacked' event in Kilburn, London - videos coming soon on the DLXA YouTube channel. Meanwhile, today's session involved much recording - including Gina's story about the hidden tunnels under Manchester, and a studio version of 'Your Spell' (have a listen to our first Podcast to hear the original improv version...)

More news soon...

J & G.

Gina's Sunday Song (3)

Click here...

I think she's beautiful.
Enjoy.

Jim's Sunday Song (2)

This time, a track a live BBC set by Damien Rice... the combination of roughness and beauty in the music is unparalleled, and this is one of my favourite tracks of his - probably because its a little less than conventional. Enjoy...

- Jim

Happenings... &c.

Well, we had one of our infamous Departure Lounge planning meetings on Thursday, in the delighful surroundings of the Ducie Arms pub in Manchester (once upon a time it was reputedly Friedrich Engels' local, no less... and if it was good enough for Fred and Karl to plan their revolution, its certainly good enough for us to plan ours!) See it here: http://manchesterbars.wordpress.com/2006/11/23/ducie-arms/

Lots of exciting things in the pipeline - and some seriously brilliant ideas flying around, but for now we're going to keep you all in the dark. 'Cause we're cruel like that...

One thing we can say, though; there should be some more recordings/videos flying around the internet in the next couple of weeks, and you'll find links to all of them from this very page. Enjoy!

Website gets fresh new look

Ive been busy plugging away at the new Departure Lounge Arts website, www.departureloungearts.co.uk New information and updates will be posted all the time and the online shop should be ready soon.

Happy Departing!

Sunday Music...

Well... we've been doing a little writing today... we put down three tracks and put out our first podcast at www.departurelounge.mypodcast.com... enjoy!

Jim's Sunday Song (1)

Here's a new little feature for the DL blog... every week I'm going to share a youtube video with you all, of something we found inspiring, exciting, or just worthy of enormous respect.

For starters - David Bowie, performing 'I'm Afraid of Americans' live at the Beeb... Brilliant show!



Jim

Three Left Legacies

Idiam Records is delighted to announce the release of Paul J. Abbott’s exciting new album, Three Left Legacies. Raw and immediate, this high impact electronica collection shatters the limits of sonic expectation.
Paul J. Abbott, has performed and recorded throughout the UK. His work as a composer, singer and producer has been broadcast on Radio 3 and Canada Radio, along with a number of performances on the internet. Influenced by both academic and club culture, his recent work strikes a balance between artistic relevance and the inevitable commercialism of the music industry.

To hear sample tracks and purchase a copy of Legacies, go along to www.idiam.co.uk

Introducing...

...the 'loungers'...

Current Projects:

(1) Folk-Storytelling-Improv

• Paul J. Abbott - voice, clarinet, guitar, composition
• James Stephenson - oboes, composition
• Gina Perry - storytelling, writing, voice, historical research

(2) Cabaret Electronica

• Paul J. Abbott - voice, guitars, keyboards, programming
• James Stephenson - oboes, keyboards, programming
• Rob Clark - guitars, mandolin

Welcome...

... to the Departure Lounge blog!

Here you'll be able to find out all about our shows, events, happenings and recordings; listen to us rant about all things artistic and the world; and have your say about what we do, and what you think.

To find out more, subscribe to this blog, visit our website at www.departureloungearts.co.uk, or email info@departureloungearts.co.uk

We'll look forward to hearing from you... music and pictures coming soon, watch this space!

Jim