Swindon Music

after a great year, great last couple of gigs, a photo shoot, re recorded album and a touch of re- branding, devolution are now officialy Lavington Bound. nearly got the b band finished, just need a mandolinist if any fancies a go. i can supply a mandolin if a guitarist fancies a shot, its all easy chords. then with two bands we can play twice as much. looking foward to the next year.

Sounds like it's been a good year for you!!

hope 2010 is an ever better one

Much as I'd love to have a go on a mandolin I think I would make a very poor mandolin player, not sure a bass player raised on the recorded works of Joy Division is quite what you've got in mind

well done to Ed and the gang, a great band who have just quietly got on with the business of making cool and original music and gigged all over the West Country with it. Good luck with future endeavours people, hope to share a gig or two with you again next year.

well its been a bit slow so far this year with the weather and all but we do have confermation for the crawly folk festival (oh fucking yes) then up to scotland for the lomond folk festival in the summer. and fingers crossed getting on with some folk clubs and open mics from today.

doubt anyone will be off to Frome but.....

THE FROME FRENZY!!!

Throughout Febuary, Lavington Bound will be going to Frome and surrounding areas Dropping into all the open mics and folk clubs along the way to promote a gig in Frome at the end of the month at the Old Bath Arms. Dates are as follows


Wednesday 3rd folk club. the half moon, Horsington, Somerset, BA8 0EF

Friday 5th Vilidge pump Folk club. Lamb Inn, 14 Mortimer Street. Trowbridge BA14 8BN

Sunday 7th open mic@Nunney acoustic club, Nunney Village Hall, Berry Hill, BA11 4NR 14 00h

Thursday 11th folk@the oak. Royal Oak, 72 High St Corsham, SN13 0HF

Sunday 14th open mic@ frome acoustic club, Griffin Milk Street, Frome BA11 3DB. 14 00h

Sunday 14th Melksham FC, The Rachel Fowler Centre, Market Place, Melksham, SN12 6EX

Thursday 18th open mic@old bath arms. 1 Palmer Street, Frome, BA11 1DS


Sunday 21st open mic@railway hotel, Welton Road, Radstock, BA3 3RR

tuesday 23rd Bradford on Avon FC, the George, 67 Woolley Street, Bradford on Avon, BA15
1AQ

Thursday 25th Gig@old bath arms, 1 Palmer Street, Frome, BA11 1DS


Keep an ear out for Frome FM playing album tracks through out the month.

well The Frome Frenzy was always gonna be a tough one with most of the open mics and folk clubs a bit far away. that coupled with a rainy gig night, we didnt manage to pull to many punters to the gig and once again, we were put on last which is always flattering and agreable at the time but most people left before we played. however we did make friends with promoters along the way securing gigs at the Frome festival, the legendery Village Pump folk club (details coming soon) and the promace of others - we wait with baited breath!?!?
other news from the month includes finaly getting the album sorted and pressed (cheapist quote got the contract and arsed it up a bit!) and i am told by tune core is now avilable on itunes (though i have as yey failed to locate it an am awaiting an email reply! on the subject!)
i also chatted to a nice man from a record company who says he would have loved to sign us but does not have the money to do so but will act as a distributor and sell it through his channels for us.
all promising news me thinks and i still have 50 envelopes to send off!
and quite possibley the most shocking news of all comes in the form of a gig in SWINDON. we will be supporting the sweet plums and the shudders at the vic on the 22nd april.

soooooooo to the month ahead and east to....THE OXFORD ONSLAUGHT!!! a massive open mic/folk club tour of oxford. and what does oxford have that frome and the surrounding area doesnt? STUDENTS. we have three gigs in oxford over march and april so we will see how many we can pull this time. this will include the first outings with the new B band.

MON 1st The Corridor..........O/M....119 Cowley Road Oxford, OX4 1HU
.............The Somerset........O/M....241, Marston Road, Marston OX3 0EN
WED 3rd The Plough............F/C.....24 High St Long Wittenham Abingdon, OX144QH
SUN 7th Old Bookbinders....O/M.....17-18 Victor Street, Oxford, OX2 6BT
..............The Fleur-De-Lys...O/M.....9 High Street, Dorchester-on-thames, OX10 7HH
MON 8th Fox Hotel................F/C.....Market Place, Chipping Norton OX7 5DD
WED 10th Gardeners Arms....O/M.....Plantation Road, Jericho, OX2 6
THU 11th The Flowing Well....O/M.....Sunningwell, OX13 6RB
...............Half Moon..............O/M.....18 St Clements, Oxford OX4 1AB
TUE 16th Mason's Arms..........O/M.....2 Quarry School Place Oxford Oxfordshire OX3 8LH
...............Baby Simple...........O/M.....213 Cowley Rd,, Oxford, OX4 1XF
WED 17th Cape of Good Hope.O/M.....The Plain, OX4 1EA
..............Folly Bridge Inn........O/M.....38 Abingdon Road Oxford OX1 4PD
SUN 21st Falkland Arms..........F/C.....19-21 The Green, Great Tew, Chipping Norton, OX7 4DB
THU 25th Catweazele..............O/M.....44b Princes Street, OX4 1
FRI 26th Folly Bridge Inn.........F/C.....38 Abingdon Road Oxford OX1 4PD
SUN 28th Old Bookbinders.......O/M.....17-18 Victor Street, Oxford, OX2 6BT
..............The Red Lion............O/M.....5 Oxford Rd, Kidlington,Oxford, OX5 2BP
..............The Living Room.......O/M.....1 Oxford Castle, Oxford OX1 1AY
TUE 30th The Fir Tree Pub.......O/M.....163 Iffley Road, Oxford, OX4 1EJ
...............Cafe Coco...............GIG.....23 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1HP
April 14th Café Tarifa..............GIG.....56-60 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JB
April 10th Folly Bridge Inn........GIG.....38 Abingdon Road Oxford OX1 4PD


TTFN!

due to a few gig cancellations, the bristol leg of the open mic/folk club tour has been posponed till a bit later on. however our first album is now available on itunes.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/heart-working-heart-stops/id355381778

Hey all. Well i had a bit of a lazy month as far as band managing went, bare minimum realy so a long up date. So due to this that and the other we stretched the Oxford onslaught out and ended up only scratching the surface of Bath, ending up with a typicaly rainy night gig with about ten people there. Still they loved it and we sold some cds. (four to a very drunk Scottish chap!) As of oxford, we picked up a gig at the Cape of Good Hope and a residency spot on the last wednesday of the month at the Cafe Coco Royal and two others that were subsiquently cancled.
A particuly significant event we played at on 1st may was the Disk World Spring Bash. Quite randon realy but some one we met at our first open mic in somerset had to drop out and thought we would go down well. We went down VERY well. Every one loved it including Sir Terry Pratchett who along with many others, bought a cd. (now the label is in the black and we can pay ourself petrol expences! Yay!) More exciting thouh is that he offered his permission to write some songs based on the Disk World books so we are looking to put together an album of um ready for Hogswatch in November (the Christmas Disk World celibrations if you dont know!) which we were invited back for, and hopefully the big event in Birmingham next year. this could be a very prosperious association me thinks.
So a slow one for the rest of the month with Roge on holiday for a couple of weeks then straight back into it with our first Cafe Coco residency gig, a dash down to Western Sumer Mare and a charity event in Bristol.
June is a month of preperation for the big one, Crawley Folk Festival. We shal be playing with the big boys so its practice, practice, practice. But still time to squeeze in Devizes and a couple more Oxford ones including The Cape Of Good Hope where we have always gone down a storm at the open mics. Hopefully somewhere between all this we will have some time to record some new songs.
July and august will kick off back in Frome with a session on Frome FM to promote the festival and a gig at the Old Bath Arms. Then it will be back to the grind stone and the return to Bristol where it all kicked off last year with hard core open mic mission and featured artist with our old buddy Mark Venus, and OMG a gig in town at the Rolli. After that the calenders pritty clear. Finish off Bath then Glostershire me thinks!

Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.

Finaly we have some video up on the ol Youtube!

start here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txqwo6Pl_k8

Lame blogging again afraid, probably a reluctance to give a disappointing report as it has all been going so well. Soooooooo lets start with the bad. Various things not going to plan over the last few months include our Cafe Coco residency in Oxford being cancelled at the last second due to a big change in management and the promoter departing, Frome FM never getting back to us about our slot on the radio, turning up at gigs to find they had been cancelled and no one told us till it was too late, then breaking down on the motor way on the way home, (bbbbrrrreeeaath!) getting booked for a gig only to be told " well matey boy doesn’t book the bands, I do", and generally having to slow down due to other commitments. Generally frustrating all rounds I would say.
So good points. June was interesting. Due to our up coming appearance at Crawley Folk Festival, we did that thing where you get together and play without a crowd, what’s it called? Reversal or slactice or something like that. Something we have not done for a while. But it was definitely worth it with the high light of the bands existence so far with opening the main stage on the Saturday. We went down a storm to a respectively full Hawth Theatre where we had watched The Bad Sheppard’s the night before. Someone even took videos and put them on the YouTube, saying we were one of HER high lights. The best thing was getting our own dressing room with lights around the mirrors a few doors from the legend Martin Simpson. And it’s also always great to play in our home town Swindon which we have done twice in these last few months including at The Swindon Shuffle, Swindon’s massive Charity festival. that was a stonker too.
So to present, coming to the end of our return to Bristol with many gigs, open mics and folk clubs being cancelled from all angles. The last few coming up this week with featured artist spots at The Spring garden and one of our favourites, an afternoon session at The Seven Stars, then a quick stop in Oxford for a one off at the Coco.
So to the future and it’s good and bad again. Bad we will be once again loosing our girlie singer Tor who can no longer give us the time we need. So the plans to take Gloucester will have to be postponed for now. The last gigs with her will be The Golden Fleece in Stroud, possibly a Prom in Bristol if I talk to the person who actually books the bands, and then to end on a hi with a gig in London as promoted by www.cherryecho.com. We are currently have the most votes to play this gig but any one wishing to help us on our way can register and vote on the site. it would be much apreciated folks.
The departure of Tor at this time is particle frustrating as off the back of our performance at Crawley, we will be having one of our songs on the cover disk of the Oct/Nov addition of Rock And Reel magazine and a review of the album in there too. (little nervous).
So what beyond that then? Well until we find a new singer and get back up to speed the boys will be concentrating on finishing writing and recording the second album 'Songs Of Woe And The Like' .
Any females wanting this job can drop us a message or a mail at lavingtonbound@hotmail.co.uk. Tambourine ability essential, any other instrument preferable.

Hopefully the next blog will be titled 'Back up to strength!'

Well infact the next blog will say...
Thanks to a cheeky email we will be supporting 3 Daft Monkeys at The Vic on 24th September.
It never hurts to ask!

Our gig from The Good Shiop in London will be broadcast live over the internet for the whole world to see. Check it out.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=150494061656752

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After MTV's Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County became one of the network's highest-rated programs, producers wanted to continue the story of one of its more popular characters, Lauren Conrad, as she moved to Los Angeles. After the cameras turned off for the Laguna Beach cast, those same producers stayed on to follow Conrad as she left her home in Laguna and moved on to a new life in Los Angeles. The Hills follows the daily lives of Lauren and friends, documenting all of the drama that eventually ensues. Despite being billed and formatted as a reality series, scripting is used for production purposes.
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The Hills Seasons 1-6 DVD Boxset

Hi Lavington Bound, any chance I could have some contact details for TOR / Victoria / Tor Bird?

I want her to come play a solo show in Devizes on November 6th at The Lamb, just round the corner from where she works!

Many thanks

Rock 'n' Reel, 3 Daft Monkeys and Sir Terry Pratchett.

Hey all. So some big things in the last few months starting with a respectable three star album review from Rock 'n' Reel magazine as well as a song on the cover CD along side the likes of Mark Chadwick. The review went like this went like this....

Opening their album with a song that sounds like a fusion of Chumbawumba's harmonious folk and the wordy rooks-pop of Blyth Power is a good move, and elsewhere Lavington Bound's acoustic melodies and harmonies work to creat a debut albu the foru-piece Swindon based outfit can be truly proud.
There's certainly to build on, though the harmonies are a little suspect at times and while forging acoustic folk-pop in the manner of Noah and the Whale and Mumford and Sons, they remain a little rough around the edges. That said there a delightfully ramshackle, acoustic, DIY underground feel permeating this album and when it's at its best, as on opener 'Hole In The Earth', and 'Truest', the latter benefiting from sublime four part harmonies and driving melody, it suggest that the foursome have an exciting future ahead of them.
Their unusual instrumentation of mandolin, acoustic guitar, hand drum and tambourine (with all four members contributing vocal harmonies) certainly sets them apart and Heart working/Heart Stops! proves intriguing and stimulating in equal measures.

It’s funny because time and time again, Truest is singled out as a top tune when in fact it barely made the album in the end. For me it’s just a good tune and has far less character and stands out less than a lot of the others. Hell what do I know!!

Secondly was a chance to play with some of the bands heroes, 3 Daft monkeys. Though there was mixed opinions within the band as to how well it went, it was well received by the rather large crowd, and I got a cd signed!

Then to top it all of we were back in Somerset to plat for Sir Terry Pratchett and his Discworld fanatics at Hogswatch. We got to play our special Discworkd songs which went down a storm, in particular 'Where’s My Cow?' Terry loved them and an officially endorse album is now in the pipe line. At special from Sir Terry, Where’s My Cow is up on the space for all to listen to.
Hogswatch was to be our last gig with Tor but she is now staying on for the disk world side of things to write the album with us and play at all associated shows.

On the non Discworld side of things, we have been practicing hard the last few months with out new singer/tambourineer Becca. It’s coming on in leaps and bound and we have gigs already booked for the New Year. Watch this space for dates.

And on a final note, check out an interview we did fore LiveLifeWest.

http://www.livelifewest.com/event-guide/?p=938