Check out this utterly awesome and beautiful video for Mechanical Angel by Sunday Driver, made by the lovely Gareth at Zenith Films.
Here’s a couple of sneaky behind-the-scenes pics. Chandy and I filmed our parts in front of a green screen. You’ll have to look hard to spot us in the video but we’re definitely there!
Chandy rocks the corsetry:
The harp and I enjoying our moment in the spotlight:
Totally stoked to see this review of the new Sunday Driver album The Mutiny – out now!!! – in the Sunday Times Culture magazine this weekend (page 35 if you’ve got it to hand).
This was a perfect topping to an amazing couple of weeks in which we hit our Pledge campaign target, played an incredible album launch gig at Hoxton Hall, and made our debut at White Mischief at the Scala. Can I sleep now, please?
It’s been a busy week for Sunday Driver. Thursday found us at our old stamping ground – The Portland Arms in Cambridge – for a charity night in aid of Cancer Research UK. We were headlining, with support from the Cinematic Kiss, Thirteen and Sol Ruiz.
I forgot my camera, so I only managed to get some camera-phone pics. So, no pics of the first two bands as they were rubbish (the photos, not the bands!) But here’s a pic of Sol doing her thing:
She was utterly brilliant, and had the audience in the palm of her hand. We played next, and Sol leaped on stage to join us for our encore, Govinda, immortalised on iPhone forever. Apologies for the crappy sound quality…
Then on Saturday we headed off for a very special gig with some very special guests – the culmination of four days of Indian-influenced shows at the Forge in Camden.
We kicked off the night with a short performance poetry piece from multimedia artist Beyonder:
Then Sol Ruiz took to the stage, and put in another great performance, culminating in a singalong about masturbation:
I still can’t stop singing her song “Pizza Pizza”, during which she was joined by our drummer Scott:
After a beer break it was Sunday Driver’s turn, and we brought Beyonder on stage with us for a few tracks:
Here’s a short clip of him performing on our song Daniel’s Grave:
Both Sol and Beyonder joined us for an awesome grand finale, which brought the house down:
Such a fantastic night – one I’ll remember happily for a long time. Thanks to the team at the Forge, and to Simon from Milky Bomb records for bringing Sol along.
Check out this fantastic video for Sunday Driver’s new song Myself , made by Zenith Films featuring footage taken from the Halsteadarian film series. Love it 🙂
One of the things keeping me busy lately is making this little video for Sunday Driver for our new PledgeMusic campaign – pop over there now and preorder our new album The Mutiny, or any of the other wonderful goodies we have on offer. Go on, be a love…
I won’t bore you with all the details, but suffice to say that we really need some help. If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know we’re about to launch our second album – The Mutiny – and we’re really excited about it. We’ve got some fantastic people in the UK and US who want to do PR for it, but they ain’t going to do it for nothing.
We’ve also got lots of offers of gigs in the UK and further afield including the US and Europe. But unfortunately we don’t have any money for it, and the gig fees don’t cover the costs of taking all eight of us on the road. Thanks to the current pathetic state of the live music business and the size of the band, almost every single gig we do leaves us out of pocket at the moment.
So we’re launching a Pledge Music campaign to try and raise some cash – this will cover PR for the album, high profile but low-paying gigs, and some really exciting collaborations we’ve got in the pipeline with people like singer Sol Ruiz and spoken word artist Beyonder.
Please consider supporting the campaign – the minimum pledge is just £8, which gets you the new album as a digital download. But for a bit more, you can get a signed album, T-shirts, handknitted socks or mittens, or even a trip to the V&A museum with me and Chandy from the band.
Sunday Driver rounded off our half-term mini-tour with a couple of great but rather downbeat gigs. On Friday night we supported solo guitarist Clive Carroll at Cambridge Folk Club, which now takes place in a small room above the Golden Hind pub in Cambridge.
Even replacing Scott’s drumkit with djembe and cajon, we were pretty loud but the audience seemed to like it. Unfortunately I only managed to catch a few minutes of Clive’s set as I had to dash back to London to tend to a puking husband.
Then on Saturday we were up and at it again, playing a lunchtime gig for the Arctic Circle’s Daylight Music series at the Union Chapel in Islington. It’s such a fantastic venue to play, and it didn’t disappoint.
We were preceded by the fantastic Anja McCloskey and her band (and her 50lb accordion):
And melodic piano/cello duo My Glass World:
No pics of our gig as I forgot to give anyone the camera, but we had a great time. In retrospect, we probably should have played more upbeat songs – we were a bit worried about coming across as too boisterous in the relatively sedate atmosphere but I wish we’d rocked out a bit more!
Anyway, it was a great way to round off a successful week of gigs. There’ll be some very exciting Sunday Driver news coming up this week so watch this space!
Next stop for the Sunday Driver juggernaut was the High Barn in Great Bardfield, a venue in a tiny Essex village that has somehow managed to carve out a name as a great place for acoustic music (and also Four Poofs and a Piano, who were on the week before). We were treated to a beautiful sunset and an amazing starry night:
We were supported by a couple of lovely singer-songwriters, who not only played great sets but were super-friendly backstage – firstly Ellie Jamison:
And then Jon Hart:
Scott and Amit go through their strenuous pre-gig warmup routine:
We played. It was fun:
And then I went off to stay in the luxurious-sounding “Stansted Skyline Hotel”, which turned out to be little more than a few rooms off a restaurant on the road out of Great Dunmow, reeking of cigarette smoke and suffering from very poorly-fitted curtains. The harp was not impressed. I reminded her sternly that if she wants to stay in better hotels, we need to get some better-paying gigs…
The bathroom facilities also left much to be desired. Here’s the shower – can you spot what’s missing?
Ah, the glamorous life of a musician… Next stop, Cambridge Folk Club.
After our photoshoot, Sunday Driver headed off for another gig at Norwich Arts Centre, following our successful show there last year supporting Raghu Dixit. This time we were on a bill with the Ruth Gordon Trio and the Mary Hampton Cotillion.
First up were Ruth Gordon and the rest of her Trio, composed of banjo, cello and guitar. They played a lovely gentle set, and I liked her use of bells and shells on her ankles as percussion.
We were on next. No photos of that, as I forgot to ask anyone to take them. We were a bit loud compared to the other acts, but went down well I think.
Finally Mary Hampton and her Cotillion (apparently a type of dance figure) took to the stage. Their set was amazing – probably the best gig I’ve seen for ages. Elegant, creepy, dissonant, beautiful and utterly enchanting. I bought both her albums after the gig, and I hardly *ever* do that (cos I’m really stingy). Go and see them if you get the chance, they are fantastic.
Sorry for the blurry picture, – I was right at the back – but I was really taken by this song, Honey in the Rock, where the percussion was provided by two of the musicians playing pat-a-cake. It may sound a bit twee but it really wasn’t.
A wonderful night, topped off by staying over in Norwich with my fab friends Ruth and Russ. You know who your real friends are – they’re the ones who leave a hot water bottle in your bed on a chilly night…
Every so often I find myself wondering what the hell I’m doing with my life. These thoughts were prompted on Tuesday by finding myself trudging through brambles in the garden of an abandoned house, wearing little more than underwear in freezing February temperatures.
This self-inflicted torture was all in the name of a photoshoot for Sunday Driver, snapped by the fantastic Jonathan Doyle. We started off by getting ready in the Crown and Pipes pub in Fenstanton. Here’s Chemise modelling his wonderful hat:
Chemise modelling his spectacular hat
We moved on to slightly naughtily trespassing in the garden of a derelict house:
A sticky situation. Ho ho.
I was wearing a fabulous new corset from Corsets UK, which I am totally in love with:
Tits McGee.
Following a recommendation from two chaps in the pub, we headed over to Bannold’s Landscape yard, which is packed with brilliant backdrops including a genuine 1890s mobile shepherd’s hut:
Joe looking cool
Photographer Jonathan at work
And half a railway station with a couple of old carriages:
Mel - a man on a journey
Huge thanks to Mike and the team at Bannold’s (and Chippie the dog!) for letting us use their space:
Mike and Chippie
Rather than my crappy snaps, here’s a sneak peak of one of Jonathan’s proper photos. They came out really well – apart from/because of the fact that I appear to have no clothes on! Ooops…