Alex Mayor | Alexander's Festival Hall

New project! New music! 🎶

Operation ‘Alexander’s Festival Hall’ has been on a quiet hiatus the last few months, while an exciting new LP project comes together. The new-new-thing is a single called ‘I am a businessman‘ by Astrid & Alexander – a project with my wonderful singer pal, Astrid.

Our debut release is a torrid tale of power, robbery and the tribulations of the mindbogglingly wealthy. It’s also the first single of a new album that ‘drops’ towards the end of summer. We hope you like it!

You can follow all things ‘Astrid & Alexander’ right here:
🎶 https://www.astrid-and-alexander.band

📸 https://www.instagram.com/astrid_and_alexander/

Playing fun records in some sort of sequence – Sunday 31st July

Hi gang. I’ve been asked to dip into the boxes of lost European pop dreams, to spin some tunes in the main bar at The Lexington this Sunday. It’ll be FUN. The excellent Piney Gir is playing, promoting her new EP. The reclusive genius that is Tim Ten Yen will also throwing down some pop moves. And my good pal Rob Mesure, a man of delectable vinyl opinions, will be joining me up in the booth. 🎧🕺💃🏻🍹

Tix here: eventbrite. Doors at 7pm.

When it’s no longer an act

In which ‘Deleted Scenes’ from the last LP gets the director’s commentary treatment, oh yes.

Erm… who’s ya hot friend?

Who do you have to sell your soul to in this town these days anyway?

RRR podcast: episode 9 is a spring-filled delight, YES.

Put down that algorithm, and allow two highly unreliable narrators to guide you through the best part of an hour of highly selective musical whimsy. Yes, it’s episode 9 of the Rather Resplendent Records podcast!
The show features a lounge-y take on the Sisters of Mercy, some Bruton Music Library gold, and un bon niveau of French cinematic score grooviness! Enjoy. AFH x

Going slightly mad, pt.94

Nightclubs. Boîtes, as it were, de nuits. Evenings out, a shimmy at the old disco. Or you could just stay in. So here we are in lockdown <enter-variable#>, pining for a night on the tiles with friends, under flashing lights and spinning reflective ball.

So I made thing for my insta, #DiscoInspo if you will. (Argh.)
Enjoy! 🕺💃🏻

Music to be distracted by?

Hi all,

Need some new tunes? Course you do!

We bring you another podcast from the imaginary record shop run by m’self and good pal, Christopher Laird! It’s our usual blend of lost Europop gems, Japanese genre-craziness and some recent American gems, to celebrate the passing of the Donald. As ever, the only algorithms involved are decades of two men hanging around in record shops. Check us out and give us a follow on Mixcloud.com!

Where’s yer bucket-n-spade, eh?

Another in a growing list of ‘remain-indoors’ musical whimsies, I bring you ‘Where’s yer bucket’n’spade, eh?’ – the forbidden taste of now lost holiday-making. Drizzle and ice cream. Stubbing your toe on the gravel beach. Someone’s ghastly uncle flirting. Chips.

Grazie to Pathé News Reel’s YT channel for endless source of how-we-used-to-live goodness.
[Trigger warning: features scenes of Sid James golfing]

Lockdown #inspo: Sexybored

Because what precisely no-one needed was ‘a song about the difficult time we’ve all been having’. However… with good friends at The Betsey Trotwood, one of London’s finest community-musical venues, holding an online fundraising show… I had an idea for a song that seemed to capture the overlong-longeurs of this strange time.

You can watch the whole show on YouTube here. And drop some coin in the hat for the fundraiser right here. Many fab people contributed music, comedy or films, including Parenthesis DotDotDot, Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift, Piney Gir, Darren Hayman, Emily Barker, Ren Harvieu and oodles of others.

*Thanks to folk who sent through home-viewing perspectives.*
*It’s not quite ‘Live at the Budokan’ but I’ll take it ;-).*

Anyway, I give you… Sexybored.

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Not From Above! Vinyl EP out now!

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know that you can now also purchase the ‘EP from the album of the book’, Not From Above! It’s available from our good friends at BandCamp and comes with a high quality download of the album too. You can even buy a bundle and get the accompanying book of darkly comic stories.

Tracklisting:
A. The Greats
AA. Deleted Scenes
B. On Peacock Island
BB. Not From Above!

Why now head over and grab your copy: BandCamp.

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Perhaps you were looking for Norwegian throat-jazz? Podcast ep. 2

Good news stuck-for-what-to-listen-to music fans! As Fri(y)ay afternoon hoves into view, what better way to discover some new music, established and just-hired alike, than by tuning in to episode two of Rather Resplendent Records. Join Christopher and myself as we rifle through another batch of future classics and lost gems:

And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram:
instagram.com/ratherresplendent/

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New podcast: Rather Resplendent Records!

Hi there…

Your Friday progressing well I trust? But somehow, you’re in need of a little musical inspiration? Understandable. There’s only so much kismet you can generate by algorithms from Spotify headquarters.

So why not join me and Radio Nowhere’s chef-de-platters-that-matter, Christopher Laird, for a gentle canter around the weirder corners of popular song, and listen to our new podcast:

Once a month we’ll be dusting off some delicious old gems, and giving some exotic and under-heard lovelies a rightful spin in the shop, just for you. It’s a great way to start your weekend, a whistlin’ a tuneful tune. Join us!

AFHx

And thanks to TypeChap Stephen for our jazzy logo.

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Launch party for Not From Above!

Ah what a time we had! Am-dram, top quality tunes on spinning vinyl disks, lots of lovely people. Thanks to the always wonderful Horse Hospital for hosting us, to Travis Elborough for playing some kick-ass tunes, and to everyone who came along.

Photos feature “Pete” (Nick Faber) and “Chris” (Laurie Innes) in our (makes scare quotes) “adaptation” of The Onset of Battle from Not From Above! A kind of immersive theatre satire set in a Russian warzone that looks suspiciously like Hampstead Heath. Photos by Michael Jones.

Interview: Portobello Book Blog

Here’s a little interview I did for the Portobello Book Blog, as part of the Random Things book blog tour for ‘Not From Above!’. A bit of book backstory, musings on self-help, and why tidying isn’t my new jam:

Read: Ten Things About…

Thanks to Joanne at Portobello Book Blog.

AFH x

Today: ‘Not From Above!’ is published and released!

It’s out. It is en-released. It is in the wild. And it’s even in some shops! (Champagne and party hat emoji here. Ed.)

Yes folks, ‘Not From Above!’, my book of darkly comic stories and accompanying 12-track album of songs, is finally out. The album was finished in 2017 on a lovely floating boat studio in London, and the book crowdfunded into existence by supporters all over the world in late 2018.

Since then the book has been professionally prepared and improved by the lovely team at Unbound; the fact-checking alone should get a high-five. Ahem!

As of 25th April, the book’s available from Amazon, Waterstones, The Owl Bookshop, Pages of Hackney, with more independents being added all the time. The album is available as a Bandcamp exclusive until June, after which it’ll be on Spotify, Apple Music and all the other streaming services too. A vinyl EP of four songs will be available in mid-May. More on that, later…

Order your copy:
Amazon | Waterstones | Bandcamp

This has been my first foray into fiction, an enjoyable new way to think creatively about the many strange aspects of life, love and London. I’ll write a longer blog post about the actual stories, and the wonderful musicians who play on the album soon. For now, thanks to everyone who supported this project – you helped make it happen.

Oh and there’s a little launch party if you’d like to come along:
https://www.eventbrite.com/…

AFH x