A huge thank you to everyone who make it down to our launch last night! It was a resounding success and a lot of fun, and fantastic to meet so many of you. Pure Groove was packed out with lovely, chattering people and good tunes. We hope you enjoyed the cupcakes, cookies and gift bags. Oh, and the magazine, of course! x
Well folks, it's finally happened - the launch of Issue #1 of Oh Comely magazine is tonight. We're pretty excited about this and we hope you are too. It's all happening at Pure Groove Records from 7:30pm tonight (Wednesday).
We've been painting these bags in the park. They're our limited edition goodie bags, so come down early to get your hands on one. Then grab yourself a complimentary cupcake, hit the bar and settle in for the marvellous tunes courtesy of Foxx Bandits and DJs Planet Earth and The Atrocitator (The Quietus).
Entry is free. Hope to see you there.
Tonight sees the urban festival behemoth known as Stag & Dagger take over multiple venues across Shoreditch, London. Head honcho and globetrotting DJ Crispin Dior recently took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about the ups and downs of putting on the festival. He said that the motivation to first stage Stag & Dagger was to create a festival that showed off an electric range of music - "a chance to see all kinds of different bands playing all over London for a relatively low ticket price." The hardest part, said Dior, is finance. "You can never do everything you want to do and book all the bands you want because there's never enough money". And his favourite part? "It's great to see people picking up their wristbands at Shoreditch Church on the night and seeing how excited they are". (Note: wristbands are now collected at Corbet Place, Truman Brewery, EC1)
Set times and map are now available on the Stag & Dagger website.
There are at least ten gazillion excellent acts playing tonight and the best way to fully experience the festival is by traipsing all over the shop, seeing as many bands as humanly possible. If you don't know where to start, here are a few of our recommendations:
Timber Timbre - playing 6:30pm @ Rough Trade East (Rough Trade)
Wax Fang - playing 8:30pm @ Café 1001 (Sexbeat)
White Hinterland - playing 9:00pm @ The Macbeth (The Quietus)
Planet Earth - playing 9:45pm @ Catch (Young & Lost Club)
Still Flyin' - playing 9:45pm @ Jaguar Shoes (The Church of London)
The Phenomenal Handclap Band - playing 10:45pm @ Hoxton Bar and Kitchen (AITBF)
Archie Bronson Outfit - playing 11:00pm @ The Macbeth (The Quietus)
teenagersintokyo - playing 11:00pm @ Queen Of Hoxton (Kill Em All)
Teeth - playing 11:45pm @ Jaguar Shoes (The Church of London)
We have Band - playing 11:45pm @ Hoxton Bar and Kitchen (AITBF)
The Radio Dept. - playing 11:45pm @ The Legion (Sonic Cathedral)
Some £15 pre-sale tickets are still available from Seetickets or you can get them for £20 on the night from Hearn Street Car Park, EC2.
The launch party for Oh Comely issue #1 is less than a week away! Come down to Pure Groove Records next Wednesday (the 26th of May) from 7:30pm to help us celebrate. Entry is free and it's open to everyone, so bring your friends.
Playing live will be up-and-coming 'dreampop folk-gaze' band Foxx Bandits, who'll be treating the crowd to a specially stripped-down set. [http://www.myspace.com/foxxbandits]
There’ll also be DJ sets from Planet Earth [http://www.myspace.com/planetearthsongs] and the Atrocitator (the Quietus) [http://thequietus.com/]
Use Facebook? sign up to our event page for updates.
Hope to see you there. x
Paper cut illustration virtuoso Rob Ryan was the artist in residence at the recent Pick Me Up graphic art fair at Somerset House in London. He relocated his paper cutting studio and printing presses from his usual base of operations in East London for the exhibition, so that visitors could have a look at how he goes about making his exquisitely detailed creations. Watch the amazing time lapse video below, which shows Rob and his team of cut out experts working on a large piece for the show. The piece was created over 7 days--every second of film equates to 20 minutes of work. Phew!
More on Rob Ryan at his website: http://www.misterrob.co.uk/.
Never one to be quick on the uptake, I came across 'I Blame Coco' far too recently, even though her single 'Caesar' was released back in February. There's something about Coco Sumner; those deep throaty vocals, that menacing cat eyed stare and the fact she describes herself as 'feral' which I both applaud and equate to. She's hitting the stage on Friday 21rst at Koko in London and her album is coming out soon. For those of you not able to make the show, I advise you to check out the myspace. I predict we shall be hearing a lot more from Coco in the coming months.
Have a flick through our new illustrations gallery. It's got all the illustrated portraits from the first issue, plus a few that might be appearing in the next. They range from skillful to cute to downright eccentric (I'm looking at you, Slagsmalsklubben).
It’s not often that you bump into an elephant in the UK. But walking around London the other day I did just this.
If you’re down this way during the summer, there’s a good chance that you’ll catch one of these multicolored elephants too. There’re peppered around in busy and quiet spaces; here's a map.
It’s a project from the Elephant Family, a charity that works to protect the Asian elephant. High-profile celebrities aside, there're loads of interesting artists and designers who have painted and decorated the 200 or so elephants.
Have a look at Camberwell College of Art student Soju Tanaka's one below.
But hang on a second. You might remember the Cow Parade from a couple of years ago. Like the colourful Asian elephants, a herd of artistic cows descended on London, charming the Big Smoke.
One London council took inspiration from this bovine popularity. In Hackney, there're Cow Bins and I've long loved these urban recyclers. Petition for some elephant themed bins, please!
