Ballad Of’s…next event is on the 11th of March. Its also a fund raiser for Haiti, so a very very worth cause dears!
RSVP on facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=319987687301&ref=ts
Or email Ballad@balladof.co.uk
Can’t wait to see you there
x
….The 11th of March is the next Ballad Of event.
The Ballad Team are looking for exhibitors to show off their fantastic work at the party 
If you are interested we are after poems, illustrations, photography, painting…anything beautiful.
Or…
If any of you are wonderfuly talented at juggling, fire eating, maypole dancing and circus amazingness get in touch.
Email the team at either ballad@balladof.co.uk or yasmine.events@balladof.co.uk
Love Love Love
Emerging talents in music aren’t always just about the, erm, musicians. There are other artists ploughing the field, like Tom Martin, a music photographer. As such, we decided to pick his brain a bit and find out about him and his art, peppered with some his work.
Here goes:::
Who are you and where are you from?
I’m Tom! I have been given a hole host of bizarre nicknames (Mullet, Tmoose and more recently Wierdog?!) over the years, but Tom will do fine! I’m originally from a small village called Sowerby which is on top of a big grey hill in Halifax. However I’ve lived in Leeds for the last five years and I love it.
How long have you been a photographer?
Well I first properly tried Black & White photography in 2004 so nearly 6 years now.
How and why did you get into photography?
Completely by accident really. Things weren’t going well at school during my A-Levels so I left (which at the time felt like the end of the world!). I didn’t want to completely give up on education though so I enrolled on a foundation Art & Design course at Bradford College. During this time I got to try photography and I loved it. I had a brilliant Tutor called Dave Rowling who gave me some wonderful advice and encouragement- everything I seemed to be missing at school. And that was it I knew it was what I wanted to do, so I guess I owe Dave a lot for my career really!
What kind of photos do you take?
Up until now its all been music really, live bands, posed bands, festivals, etc. But now I’m looking to develop more into editorial and fashion photography. I’ll continue to do music though it’s what I love doing most.
Which photographers do you admire and why?
I’m lucky enough to be friends with most of the photographers that really inspire me. I have to say Danny North really, he’s been a great friend and inspiration to me and I’m sure he’s saved my life on more than one occasion (after endangering it a whole load of times with his extreme location choices!).. He’s a bit of a genius really, definitely one of the best live music photographers in the world today, I have no doubt about that.
What has been your best experience as a photographer and why?
Shooting Glastonbury this year for the NME hands down. I was with a great team if people, got to take some amazing photos and was basically just in awe of the festival the whole time.
What do you want to do in you career in the future?
To travel more would be very nice!
Who would be your dream to photograph?
I don’t know, I guess you wouldn’t until you’d taken it?! Thats the exciting part really.
Pretty neat stuff here.
You can find more of Tom’s work here.
We had a party and The Duloks came round to play. One of our operatives, Natalie Cox, witnessed the event, and stopped for a chat. Here’s what happened…
At the party to celebrate The Ballad of Tommy Lane I accosted 2/3 of The Duloks in the dressing room (get well soon sickly Mira Dulok). Away from the sea of fake mustache-wearing, tequila-drinking party goers, we had a quick cheat about the band, geography and phone box based anecdotes. Recently awarded 8/10 by NME for their LP Children Of the Sea, The Duloks have been off around Germany an all sorts but are happy to be back as this venue (Bardens’ Boudoir) where the current line up met. After getting through keyboard players like nobodies business, the band have recently celebrated their one year anniversary with Abi, who has just plated a set as her solo act Abi Makes Music: one girl and her keyboard/ mac accompaniment. The crowd is privy to her highly amusing third person anecdotal songs such as ‘this is the story of the day my shoe got eat by a fox’. Brilliant for their amusement value and as songs in their own right, the keyboard and synth accompaniment are endearingly catchy. Not one to hind behind her technology, Abi gives a live performance to make her band-mates proud.
The August tour of Germany was Abi’s first venture out of England, the first memory that springs to mind? ‘I saw a Man in a phone box with an orange; he was there for about an hour, it was the best experience of my life’. They also bumped into a guy from the motherland who introduced himself by whispering Bognor Regis into Abi’s ear and attempting to buy one of their badges for 43p. England represent. Mar ponders the idea of playing the Butlins Bognor Regis and writing some songs there: fingers cross a Duloks: Live in Bognor EP will emerge one day. Any other bizarre German tour stories? ‘There is the time the woman in the laundrette attempted to mop up what she thought was her own blood but is was actually something dried on to the floor, she put her jumper-come-mop back on and disappeared into the night’. Nice.
So I ask them where else they’d like to tour if they could choose?
‘Japan and China’ says Mar, as in every band she’s ever been in she’s been told Japan would love them. ‘I guess they just really love their music’. Iceland is another contender, which, I learn, is warmer than Greenland. Pretty hot on their geography these Duloks and as Abi informs me, she won the Year 8 Geography Prize.
The Duloks are above.
One of the best things about this band is the fun. As well as gigs like ours they also do comedy nights (you heard me). Confusion arises over which member of The Labour Party materialised the night Abi recently performed… ‘Mow Mowlam? or the Miliband guy? He’s hot stuff’ but it turns out it was Alastair McKenzie, who is quickly shunned for not actually wielding much political power anymore. Aside from her comedy Abi is also a dab hand at art (just check out the latest Duloks merch for her illustrations). But there is still more the come from The Duloks – their Fire EP, the second part of their four elements themed release, is out soon. ‘There will also be a joint 7″ with You Say Party, We Say Die’. It seems it’s all systems go for this East London band, who we hope will retain their American Jock stage attire for gigs to come. Ballad Of wish them very good luck indeed.
Find out more: www.myspace.com/theduloks
Recommended tracks: Children Of The Sea, Octapus In Love
New year, new stuff to listen to. We have our next installment of great songs of the free variety.
This issue comes straight from the hearts of those at Big Scary Monsters Records with a neat little track ‘Smash’ from Shoes and Socks Off.
Download Smash here
And here he is:
And here is some more info about him:
We’re a fan of (actually very practical) woolie hats and beards. According to BSM ‘Nothing about his life is neat and tidy.’ His music is ‘a collection of seized moments and casual living’ inspiring his 3 albums to date.. all released withint the space of 12 months. It’s good to be busy.
His third offering ‘Where the Skyline is Fortified with Windows and Doors’ is delicate acoustic guitar, banjo and a backing band made up of memebers from Blakfish, Palehorse and more.
‘Gone are the spazzy dance moves, in comes the thoughtful reflection and honesty. There’s no such thing as imperfection when perfection was never the goal’ – BSM. Good point.
With the tiniest front lady with a vocal range that scrapes to skies and heavy folk and shoegaze influences Asobi Seksu are a neat little band. They’re currently touring with White Lies who are fans of their US Alt rock sound. Their latest EP Transparence has been helping thoe of us at Ballad Music disappear into our ‘oh shit it’s winter… lets day dream’ world. And now you can too with this video below:
Here they are too:
Lovvers are playing in Leeds this week and it’s totally free – this is macca for the poor youth of today (poor = no cash not sad, youth = under 30 due to currently climate and that, macca = a northern word once used in playgrounds to mean large).
This is great cos their album is also out this week – plus they’ve released detailed of a tour in September.
Chickenhawk are a band from Leeds. Amongst other desirable features they have a totally excellent video. The best bit is when they drummer starts, erm, having blood spill from of his mouth whilst he is playing – it’s good because the drumming is really good AND i think the blood spills in time to the music – surely that is art? If the magazine was a video I would definitely include it in the music section – then everyone who buys it in the Tate will realise that Zombies are high value culture.
Watch it here.
Their label Brew and the band have donated a song called Dude-a-tron and you can download it here for free.
And look! Here are the lovelies in space.
very good.
Oh wow – in the age where you can basically download any tunes you want for free without paying for it we are giving you some clear exclusives by letting you download some tunes without paying for it.
Well actually, its almost true because you’d be hard pushed to find these online anywhere else (not that I’ve checked).
Today Bronto Skylift (ski lift, shirt lift…etc)have contributed some songs. They are Tiger and Cobblpot
You will enjoy these.
