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  • Not From Above! – book now out to pledgers!

    Hi all,

    Exciting news… after many months of preparation, and some deft copy-editing and cover designing by the lovely team at Unbound books, ‘Not From Above!’ is finally being mailed out to you, dear pledgers.

    An influencer-ready photo of ‘Not From Above!’ accompanied by a fashion-forward pale ale and kickstartered cycle helmet, YES.

    The official publication date is Thursday 25th April, but supporters of the project receive their copies early. The 12″ ‘Not From Above!’ EP is still being produced, within a vinyl pressing plant deep in the wilds of the Czech Republic, and should be with you in mid-May. (I’m blaming Record Store Day for the delay, and you should too!).

    If you’re not a pledger, but would like to order a copy of the book it’s available from:

    > Amazon
    > Waterstone’s

    And you can pre-order the album at
    > Bandcamp

    Thanks again to all who have supported this music-on-paper project!
    AFH x

  • Next gig: 23rd March – Union Chapel, N1

    Next gig: 23rd March – Union Chapel, N1

    Hi all

    AFH return to the stage on 23rd of March 2019, for one of those lovely Daylight Music sessions. We’ll be playing songs from the new album ‘Not From Above!’, featuring a few friendly guests and reading some extracts from the book. Should be a lot of fun! Also on the bill, the wonderful Fiona Bevan and others.

    Daylight Music is a free lunch-time concert, and starts at midday. Hope to see you there!

    Alex x

  • Coming 29.04.2019: “Not From Above!”

    Yes indeed, the new album and book of stories are finally scheduled for release! The book has been corrected, errant apostrophes told to go to their rooms, the cover chiseled and honed… The album has been mastered, a vinyl EP is being worked on in a distant European factory, good lord, we’re even learning to play the songs!

    More details as we get nearer, but mark your diaries: 29th April 2019.
    (insert minor whooping noises here).

    Ax

  • Fake novels and strange buildings: Instant City

    fauxnovels
    #fauxnovels – one paragraph stories, in different styles, inspired by London’s oddest buildings…

    I’ve got a new book project in the works for 2019… a collection of ‘microfictions’ inspired by the gloriously odd architectural delights of London. More in the new year, but for now, look for the tag #fauxnovel on Instagram. There’s quite a collection building up, little dramas suggested by the most intriguing buildings that pepper the city’s streets. Lost captains struggling to get home, children on unfortunate errands, young couples pondering their futures in hotel attics, and horrors beneath the Barbican Centre…

    I’m hoping to publish this next year, with some bonus, brilliant photos from my long-term visual collaborator, Julius Beltrame. For now… why not expore the #fauxnovels…

  • AFH DJ Set: Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club 9th Nov

    AFH DJ Set: Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club 9th Nov

    Who doesn’t love those spinning black platters, chiefly the type that matter? Yes, I’ll be playing a rarer-than-hens-teeth DJ set at ‘Brace Yourself!’ – a night of singing and cabaret and dancing hosted by my good compadres in ChapsChoir. I’ll be among the merry throng singing some fun songs in the ace Bethnal Green WMC, along with SHE Choir, Len Blanco and others. Then self and comrade Rob will be playing an all vinyl 7″ set of daft disco, synthpop and various rug-cutting favourites. Absolutely no blow-wave or tech-house, but you’d guessed that 🙂 .

    Advance tix here (for a darling discount)

  • We made it! Thanks to everyone…

    They said it couldn’t be done. They said we were dreamers. They said no-one actually buys short-stories-backed-with-an-actual-album-of-songs.

    Well… together (SFX: swelling music here)… we proved them wrong!

    Ahem. Thanks to simply everyone who supported the crowdfunding campaign for ‘Not from above’ over the summer. Some of you went digital, some ordered the paperback, some were up for the vinyl 7″ (more on that soon), and eleven of you even ordered a personalised song. It feels a bit like the arts should be, a nicely interactive back-and-forth.

    Next up: we go into the book production process now with the nice people at Unbound. More details on precise release dates once we have them…

    Much love,

    Alexander x

  • Book excerpt: “Things that happen on islands”

    Strange things happen on islands. I should know, I live in the U.K., an island currently searching its bottom drawer for a backup drawbridge, in fitful attempts to become even more island-y, if you know what I mean (#ongoingtopicalgag).

    About a year ago, I vaguely recalled reading about the Barclay brothers who own the Daily Telegraph (among a hundred other businesses). The trivial fact that caught my attention wasn’t their steely-eyed commitment to small state economics, but that they both lived ina  castle on Sark. For the uninitiated, Sark is a tiny island in the Channel where cars haven’t yet happened, a place ruled more along the lines of a Game of Thrones sub-region (House Barclay?), and yet still hold an outsize influence over the minds of Great Britain’s leaders. It’s a tax dodge one presumes.

    Sark, then
    Sark, incl. Castle Barclay, yesterday and presumably looking fairly similar at more or less any point in the last 100 years or so…

    Sark, though. In common with the Isle of Wight, the Isle of Man and the others, there’s something inherently Tintin-esque about little kingdoms and overlooked empires, unfamiliar liveries and strange customs. Islands dramatise the distance between ambition and achievement – the smaller they are, the more the effort to organise seems sweetly (or darkly) bizarre. You get the same feeling in Port Meirion, the world suddenly seems over determined, like someone has invented a place based not on experience but a borrowed recollection. The scale is all wrong. But always strangely intriguing.

    Anyway, here’s a little extract from the ‘Not from above’ book, read by me in a voice-over style we’re calling ‘Jackanory-noir’… Enjoy, and don’t forget to pledge/pre-order the book and album from Unbound.com. Thanks!

    Alexander x

    Video note: excerpts ‘borrowed’ from the brilliant Powell & Pressburger film, ‘I know where I’m going’. (imdb)

     

  • Krowdfunder klaxon: we made it to 50%!

    “We made it to… fifty per cent…” A lot of people shy away from the use of statistics in songwriting. They say it’s a little dry, a tad cold, but there are … ways.

    Ahem. So huge thanks to everyone who has pledged and got my book-and-album to 50% funded…! More ways to support the project, including a gig round your house… visit unbound.com 👉🏻 “not from above”.

    A few weeks left to go!

    Alexander

    x

  • These are the New Zounds!

    Here’s a little teaser video I made to kick off the crowdfunding campaign for ‘Not from above’ this summer. The music is an instrumental from the new record, called ‘New Zounds!’

    Zounds, (or “Zounds!” as it is more commonly exclaimed) is one of those words I think I first encountered in P.G. Wodehouse. A sort of upper-class, toff surprise word. As the graph below clearly demonstrates, it’s been on something of a losing streak for the last century, but… there’s been an uptick. One that tracks with a certain bunch of useless horrors currently running the country. Ah well. As I say, faced with that set, the only solution is dancing… The full song is a kind of musical theatre-goes-disco love letter to house music and ballads, if that’s conceivable.

  • New story… ‘Home time’ and still time to pledge!

    Just look at their faces. They know it’s all over. The clammy realisation as tiny misadventures unfold. An afternoon beset by gentle horror and micro-reversals of fortune. Just what is it about ‘Home time’?

    Find out in this audio-excerpt from my new book (and album) ‘Not from above’. Beautifully read by London comedian Alison Dennison, the story is taken from the book. Pledge today to pre-order your copy, vinyl single, and digital album.

    Alex x

  • Pledge today to support the new album + book

    Pledge today to support the new album + book

    There’s a crowdfunding campaign going on… 🙂
    The new AFH album comes with a book of stories. You can back the project now on Unbound.com. Pledge and you’ll be pre-ordering either the book, the book and album, the vinyl single, and you can even commission a personalised song.

    Visit unbound now to watch the promo video and support the project.

    Many thanks!
    Alexander x

  • Upturned (Zachary Gray remix) hits Apple Music

    Upturned (Zachary Gray remix) hits Apple Music

    When Upturned came out a few years back I approached a bunch of different people to re-build the track, with some delightful results. One of them was a dreamy-than-thou chillwave re-boot by Zachary Gray, another alumnus of America’s once most eclectic labels, Le Grand Magistery Records. Zach’s “Mitternacht in Koln” remix took the original’s electronica roots and dug a whole lot deeper. Other tracks on “Remixes & Reinterpretations” include Phoenix, Holobody and many other fine people.

    For Apple Music subscribers you can listen now, for those on iTunes it’s still available to buy!

     

  • A little taste of the next AFH record, you say?

    So while we’re waiting for the slow-moving admin of pop to grind away, I thought I’d give you, the keenly-mousing website visitor, a cheeky behind-the-curtains preview of the new AFH record.

    More release details in the New Year, hopefully with some shows in winter 2018 to promote this literary beast of a record. For now here’s a quick mega-mix of what’s been brewing:

    Here are some of my lovely singing friends from Chaps Choir, nailing the title track’s chorus:

    Some top showtunes-y backing vox from some dear chaps… #notfromabove #afh #mixing #vocals #showtunes @grandcru.studio

    A post shared by Alexander Mayor (@alexfestival) on

  • In which a box of book proofs arrives…

    In which a box of book proofs arrives…

    Now this is a tad exciting… (indulge me). Just had a box of proofs arrive with a resounding thud. For yes, the new AFH record is also a book. A collection of mad monologues, passive aggressive board game instructions, and dictator’s memoirs.

    Not from above – a literary-musical adventure if you like – will be out in the new year. Hopefully with a lovely cover once I’ve got round to figuring out quite what should be on it…

     

  • Live performance, Sunday 27th August … in a tiny box!

    Live performance, Sunday 27th August … in a tiny box!

    Hi all,

    This Sunday, 27th August 2017, I’ll be performing at Folk in a Box in the Barbican Centre. Taking the idea of an intimate gig to its logical extreme… a single audience member gets a gig-for-one… in a box. ‘Now wait just a minute there,’ I hear you say, ‘since when did Mr AFH have any songs even passingly folk-some in nature?’ Your reservations are well taken, Madame, well taken…

    Instead of Cecil Sharp-approved balladry, I’ll be reading a couple of stories from the forthcoming AFH album + book “Not from above”, with a light musical backing. How does that sound? Lovely. Hope to see you there!

    More details on Folk in a Box’s Facebook page: