“Do you like drums? Great.”
“How about Latin percussion? You’re right, it is awesome!”
“… whaddabout midi-bass with quite on-the-nose compression. To die for isn’t it?”
More details to follow. Suffice to say this studio and these producers are something special and the new LP is coming along nicely sir.
Spring has sprung, a nation is convulsed, every flower-strewn path is bestrode by mediocre political hacks, their hearts black and full of empty promises… So what’s the medicine? Music and words my friends, words and music!
Come to the Tin Tabernacle
I will once again be performing music with the inestimable London wordsmith Guy Sangster-Adams, showcasing some great new compositions we’ve been collaborating on. Poems with a beat, songs with wit, call them what you will, but make sure you catch us performing them in front of a battleship inside a tin church. That’s our entertainment special pledge to you all…
So mark your diaries: Friday May 26th, from 7.30pm.
The top-notch bill also features delectable hosts (and Biba legends) Delisia and Chris, with music also from the wonderful Mike Nisbet.
Vote art! Book now!
(You can grab a ticket here)
AFH
x
“Guy Sangster-Adams combines a poet’s eye with an art rocker’s ear to offer brilliantly observed and subtly woven, lyrical and pop cultural romantic tales.”
– Murray Lachlan Young, poet, broadcaster, BBC6 Music poet-in-residence
Photo: Guy Sangster Adams and Alexander Mayor, shot by Paul Kelly
“Welcome back!” as they used to say on ITV after the adverts.
2017… bit of a mixed bag thus far, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. But let’s focus on the positives, AMIRIGHT? Hack-like comb-overs and political melt-downs notwithstanding, I’ve been in the studio finishing a bunch of songs for an exciting new AFH album that is also a book.
“Not from above”, the next Alexander’s Festival Hall album… will be 12 songs and about 33 stories, available as book, vinyl single and art print. It’s a title I liked and imagined might work as a spoof self-help book where the schtick was absolutely nothing spiritual would ever work out for you.
But that was a bit poor, a bit … obvious. That said, I really liked it as a phrase, there was something there that had a bit of a poetic gamble about it. And in the end that one phrase led to a really fun writing and recording project – a whole collection of short stories, a set of what-ifs and crazed concepts… accompanied by a 12 song album recorded with some brilliant, musical friends.
Anyway, there’ll be more details to share very soon. We’re just mixing and polishing at the moment. But here are some stills and clips fresh from the oven…
Hi everyone,
Just to announce what should be a great little show at The Horse Hospital on Tuesday 18th October. AFH will be performing some songs and telling some stories at ‘The Map is not the Territory’, featuring author Geoff Nicholson, writer/raconteur Travis Elborough, some great vinyl DJs and more. There’ll be spoken word, music, short films, DJs, maps, walking, it would be lovely to see you there! 😉
More details and ticket booking links here:Â Horse Hospital.
Yes indeedy audio-ear-content-fans! We present The Hackney Kansas Radio Hour:
The “Bloody awful! Sorry Barb, but it was atrocious” Edition
Featuring excellent musics from:
Tennis
Alvvays
Van Dyke Parks
Perfume
Barbra Streisand
Momus
… and many more…
Also including exciting feature items from our artisanal contributors:
Mike Monaghan’s View from the Drum Stool
George Terry’s History of Britpop: feat. Dodgy
Piney Gir’s Drunk Cookery: Three
“Our voyage begins at last” a nearly-sci-fi story from Alexander’s Festival Hall
Katrin Geilhausen the Hackney Kansas Weather Girl
… for the february-curious!
Yes it’s a gig with a difference… an entertainment-strewn blend of spoken word, polite punk choiring, and infectious pop music.
You’re in good hands with:
Fax Telex – the latest brainchild from pop’s whizz kid Tim Ten Yen.
Piney Gir – our good friend Piney appears, in a warm up for her US tour with Gaz Coombes of Supergrass.
AFH – our lot performing in micro-acoustic format with some story-telling thrown in the for good measure.
The Hackney Secular Singers – a choir from East London who’ll be throwning in some punky vocalising.
MC’d by Kevin Reinhardt – a celebrated wit of London’s poetry scene, and pro-bingo/karaoke doyenne.
DJing from Mr Travis Elborough – writer and film-maker
It’s all happening at Paper Dress Vintage by Hackney Central. You should be there. There are cool clothes and excellent beers too.
CONCERT NEWS UPDATE FOR YOU:
Alexander’s Festival Hall play a full band show at The Slaughtered Lamb, Clerkenwell, on Thursday 14th of January. Lovely little joint. There’s comfy seating and a contemporary drinks selection. Nothing too pricey, which will be comforting news to those who’ve had to “go large” on a Sylvanian Families Cottage and Volkswagen set for a thankless god-niece this Yuletide.
Doors at 7.30pm. Be lovely to see you there!
AFH x
Somewhat tardily, mine and Piney Gir’s podcast enters its critical second-episode all-grown-up phase!
The Hackney, Kansas Radio Hour 31.December.2015 by Radionowhere.Org on Mixcloud
Yes, it’s episode 2 of RadioNowhere’s “The Hackney, Kansas Radio Hour” – an eclectic mix of light entertainment from the imaginary borough of London that’s stuck in the middle of the American mid-West. Your hosts Piney Gir and Alex (of Alexander’s Festival Hall) take you on a spin through exotica, pop, lounge and country, intermingled with sport, cookery, and documentary shenanigans. In fact, let’s just file the whole thing under “shenanigans”…
Quand vas tu rentrer – Melody’s Echo Chamber
Prussian Blue – The Lilac Time
Supersonic – Oasis
Jacqueline Taieb – La coeur au bout des doigts
Shades of Winter – Streetplayer
Dreaming – Knower
Donut Taco Palace – Shiny Ribs
Palast Orchester mit Max Raab – Super Trouper
The Love You Save – Jackson 5
Home – Jane Birkin
AFH recently collaborated with performer/poet Guy Sangster Adams on four musical poems, short vignettes of love and loss, encompassing the grey possibilities of the seaside, fumbled first beginnings, and memories of a look that changed a life forever.
You can buy “To the Fore” on iTunes, Amazon and from many other fine electronic retailers… Many thanks to the Horse Hospital for hosting our launch party on Tuesday 1st Dec. A wonderful and supportive arts venue in the heart of London, which is of course under threat from rapacious developers. If you can support them in any way, there are details of their ongoing campaign on their website.
Cor… cold innit? Why not come warm yourself up at The Horse Hospital on the 1st Dec 2015… where AFH and performer/poet Guy Sangster-Adams will be debuting an EP collaboration called “To the Fore”. Four musical poems, available soon from Spotify/iTunes/Amazon and all good digital stores.
AFH will be playing a short support set with the micro-acoustic-storytelling team, there’ll be some lovely records from Travis Elborough and some recent photography from Guy, Travis and Isabelle Sarginson Allen.
Reserve your free ticket here: eventbrite.
Map: Horse Hospital (nearest tube: Russell Sq.)
Well, that was one lovely show in Berlin’s famous Sudblock venue last week! (Friday 6th November 2015). Effortlessly capturing the Berlin wit, November Depression is hosted every year by the charming Christiane Rosinger, a luminary of many fine German bands and independent labels to boot. A show, a quiz, a sing-off, prizes and much tanzen, it’s an entertainment arrow aimed straight at the misery of winter.
As this was a nearly-solo show AFH enlisted the help of local visual artist Astrid Rostaing to open the show with a heliumized recollection of a lost but wonderful summer, a story from the forthcoming AFH album and book “Not from above”. Then it was a quick whirlwind tour around a few songs old and new to open what was a lovely evening that reminded one that really, a good show is always about variety and ‘Variety’…
Vielen dank!
Many thanks to Thomas Venker for organisation, to Jens Friebe for the Telecaster, to Julius Beltrame for some fine photography, Sarah Szczesny for the mid-80s Tokyo-Sound and Marc and Andy at Ragu for the best recovery food known to man… Some photos, including from the Editions-Fieber launch of Claus Richter’s amazing soundtrack, and an excerpt from the night’s opening story below…
To the Fore (EP) – Guy Sangster Adams
AFH has teamed up with writer/poet/performer Guy Sangster Adams, to create four tracks of love, lust with healthy doses of “it’s complicated”. Guy has written four  mini-dramas documenting seaside lust, confounded romance and that particular longing that hits you as the sun dips below the horizon. AFH has crafted musical settings for each from elegant piano tinkling to peppy pop…
The EP will be available on Spotify/iTunes/Amazon in December and we will be performing it for the first time at The Horse Hospital, Tuesday 1st December. AFH will also play a short acoustic set and there will be some deletectable vinyl spinning from Travis Elborough and much more besides.
We’d love you to join us…
Free! Reserve your seat here: 
Eventbrite.
Hallo!
AFH is appearing at a small show in Berlin this Friday. Winningly entitled NovemberDepression, this little solo set will attempt to encompass the manifold of human misery in the best way we know how: popmusik.
Come and say ‘hallo!’ if you’re in Berlin. It’s at Sudblock. Starts 9pm. Freitag, 6th November.
Details:Â https://www.facebook.com/events..
BONUSÂ DJ set: Thursday 5th November
AFH will also be spinning some 7″ platters-that-definitely-don’t-matter, at the Claus Richter / Edition Fieber launch party, 5th Nov, Smaragd Bar, Prinzenallee 80 13357 Berlin, from: 9pm–. You can find out more about Richter’s wonderful soundtrack and vinyl art piece here: Edition Fieber
Hi all,
Just time to mention a hastily booked appearance on Monday 28th September at Servant Jazz Quarters in Dalston. It’ll be a reappearance of AFH in story-team form. We’re playing with Piney Gir who have a new double A-side out. It’s a lovely venue, and we’ve got our fingers crossed the piano is in tune 😉
There’s a map here, it’s right by Dalston Kingsland station:
http://www.servantjazzquarters.com/find-us
Hope to see you there!
AFH x
Aloha! It’s time for something on the board-treading front so come join AFH Acoustic Story Team for a slightly different kind of [makes air quotes] “gig”. I’d let you in on a few more details but that would be a touch previous, as at this point we’re still brainstorming in the ideas lounge, lost some steps among the gnarled roots within the forest of possibility… I’ll get Clive to ping you an update, first thing Monday, promise.
Mark your dance cards for the Specks in the Sky, at the Slaughtered Lamb, Clerkenwell, 21st March 2015. Doors 7pm.