The Fay Hallam Group - Photos & Videos from the "Propellor" LP Launch Party at Water Rats April 27th 2019

The Fay Hallam Group at Water Rats - photo by Retro Man Blog

Fay Hallam celebrated the release of her excellent new album "Propellor" with a Suit Yourself Music Culture release party at the Water Rats in Kings Cross last Saturday night. Fay and her superb seven piece band were on top form as they treated us to a set that included plenty of new songs alongside classics from Makin' Time, Phaze and her collaborations with The Bongolian and Magnus Carlson. "Propellor" is out now on vinyl, CD and download from Well Suspect Records, order it here. Here's some photos and a couple of videos from the show.

The Fay Hallam Group at Water Rats - photo by Retro Man Blog

The Fay Hallam Group at Water Rats - photo by Retro Man Blog

The Fay Hallam Group at Water Rats - photo by Retro Man Blog

Thanks to Alan at Suit Yourself Music & Culture. More photos can be found at the Retro Man Blog Facebook page here and there are more videos over at our YouTube channel here. You can also check out a feature on our last ever Retro Man Blog Night featuring The Fay Hallam Group here.

The Fay Hallam Group + King Mojo + DJ Lee Grimshaw - Retro Man Blog Night at The Half Moon Putney Sat Feb 9th

Following the success of October's show for Ebbot Lundberg & The Indigo Children, I'm very pleased to announce the next Retro Man Blog Night at The Half Moon Putney will be on Saturday February 9th and features The Fay Hallam Group with special guests King Mojo and DJ Lee Grimshaw from the Spinout Show. Advance tickets are now available from the Half Moon at the link below. Fay Hallam is a hugely respected Hammond organist, singer and songwriter, with over 10 albums to her credit. She first came to prominence in Wolverhampton Mod-popsters, Makin' Time, in the early 1980's, along with a pre-Charlatans Martin Blunt. Fay and Martin, along with drummer John Brookes and ex-Prisoners frontman, Graham Day, then went on to form The Gift Horses, which were the embryonic beginnings of The Charlatans.

Fay Hallam at The 100 Club - Photo by Retro Man Blog

Fay then joined Graham Day again, along with Prisoners bassist Allan Crockford and fellow Medway stalwart and ex-Daggermen drummer Simon (Wolf) Howard, to form The Prime Movers. This took on a rockier more progressive sound, including the 'Earth Church' LP, which was hailed by Sounds Music Weekly, as LP of the year Afer this, Fay went on to make over 10 albums as Phaze, The Fay Hallam Trinity and then as a solo artist initially on the Blow Up label, with her 2015 album release "Corona". Her second solo album release, "House Of Now" was released on Well Suspect Records in October 2016, received rave reviews, and gained airplay on BBC 6 Music and BBC London. Always with one eye on keeping things fresh, and developing her ever-evolving sound, Fay's current incarnation, The Fay Hallam Group, comprising of Paul Weller collaborator Andy Lewis on bass, her son Josh Day on piano, Kieran McAleer on drums, Jim Bishop on guitar, and the brand new brass section of Angus Law on sax and Kenneth Yarham on trumpet, have just completed their latest album, "Propeller", which is due for release in Spring 2019. Fay's current live set features songs from her entire back-catalogue, from classic Makin' Time favourites, right up to the present day.

For more info on The Fay Hallam Group please keep an eye on their recently updated official web-site here, or you can check out their Facebook page here. You can read our feature on Fay's excellent gig at the 100 Club which featured special guests French Boutik and Magnus Carlson in the Blog archive here. There are also some videos from the show at the Retro Man Blog YouTube channel which you can find in the archive here.

You can book your tickets in advance from the Half Moon Putney event page here.  

Thanks to Steve Rowland from Frank Phantom Design for the poster.

Retrosonic Podcast Episode 31: Rumble In The Jungle-A-Go-Go - Hipsville and New Music Special

Photo courtesy of ZigPix

Retrosonic Podcast Episode 31 is out and available for your listening pleasure now. This episode is a decidedly 'non-retro' affair as we'll feature only new and recent music from the best international contemporary Punk, Psych, Mod, Beat, Soul and Garage Rock acts and we even have a couple of unreleased songs too. There's a report on the fantastic Hipsville Jungle-A-Go-Go weekender and we pick some of the musical highlights over the three days including songs from The Parkinsons, The Oddballs, The Schizophonics, Les Lullies, Black Mambas and The No-Things. There's songs from new albums by artists such as Autoramas and The Most and the new single from Magnus Carlson & Fay Hallam with a report on their recent show at The 100 Club. There's also news on our next Retro Man Blog Night with ex-Soundtrack of Our Lives and Union Carbide Productions frontman Ebbot Lundberg and his new band The Indigo Children at The Half Moon Putney on October 13th. Here's the complete track-list to this episode, please click on the highlighted band name to check their web-sites and how to order copies of the featured records.

The Past Tense "The Supergrass" taken from their new LP "7A"

Professional Againsters "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll" from the Swedish band's LP "Everybody Hates The Professional Againsters". The band are part of Hans Selander's Record Union A&R roster so if your band needs help on getting your music onto digital platforms then contact Hans here

The Most "Girl Sees Daylight" another great Swedish band with a track from their new vinyl album "Beat Beat Boom!"

Autoramas "Stressed Out" from Brazil's Space Age Garage Rockers new LP "Libido". For full feature on the album including track-by-track guide, please check the Blog feature here

Autoramas "Libido" cover art by Julian Weber

The Oddballs "We Are The Oddballs" taken from their album of the same name

Les Lullies "Don Craine" from their "Don't Look Twice" E.P.

Black Mambas "Baby, I'll Give It To You" from The Witmer Sessions

The Schizophonics "Streets of Heaven & Hell" from their new LP "Land of The Living"

The Schizophonics at Hipsville - photo by Retro Man Blog

The Parkinsons "Numb" from the album "The Shape of Nothing To Come"

The No-Things "Miracle Man" unreleased song from Edinburgh based band's forthcoming single

For full feature on the Hipsville Jungle-A-Go-Go weekend including photos and links to videos, please check the Blog feature here

Thee Girl Fridays "Too Much of a Good Thing" from their new digital E.P.

The Past Tense "The Other Side" from their new LP "7A"

OHMS "6-8-1-6-79 (For A City Boy)" from their new LP "Melodies of Our Lives". For a review of the album please check the Blog feature here

The Moot "Backs Me Down" from their new mini-album "Tomorrow's Calling"

Magnus Carlson with Fay Hallam "Now That It's Over" new single from the Swedish Soul singer's forthcoming album "A Nordic Soul" out soon on Cosmos Music

Fay Hallam & Magnus Carlson at The 100 Club - photo by Retro Man Blog

French Boutik "Loin de Moi" a brand new track to promote an Indiegogo fundraising campaign for the band's forthcoming album. For more information on how to pledge, please check here

For review of the Fay Hallam, Magnus Carlson & French Boutik gig at the 100 Club including photos and links to videos, please check out the Blog feature here

The Nettelles "We Are..." new Russ Wilkins produced limited edition 7" vinyl single on DJ Lee Grimshaw's Spinout Nuggets label

Dirt Royal "Glory Days" one side of the Brighton based band's new single

Ye Nuns "Don't Worry" new limited edition single from State Records featuring unreleased songs written by The Monks' original bassist Eddie Shaw.

Andre M "Kenzy's Dream" new 7" vinyl single released on Crocodile Records

You can listen/download directly from our Soundcloud page below or subscribe for free at iTunes or stream at our Mixcloud page. Lots of our original videos from the Hipsville Weekend and of most of the bands featured in this episode can be found over at our Retro Man Blog YouTube Channel here and there are lots of photos at our Facebook page here. Check out Gwen Ever's "A Low Life In High Heels" radio show on Mixcloud here for some reports from the Hipsville front-lines. Thanks to ZigPix for this Episode's cover photo. Please click on the highlighted links above for more information on the bands and how you can order the featured LP's or singles. I hope you enjoy listening!

The Fay Hallam Band at The 100 Club with Special Guests Magnus Carlson, French Boutik & DJ David Edwards

Fay Hallam and bassist Andy Lewis at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

What a great feelgood Friday night down at the legendary 100 Club with a superb line-up...The Fay Hallam Band featuring a very special guest appearance from Swedish Soul star and frontman of Weeping Willows, Magnus Carlson along with support from our good friends French Boutik and then there was DJ Dave Edwards from the Sidewinder club night too. French Boutik played a superb set, bravely introducing a few brand new numbers which went down really well. After all the band have a knack of writing instantly memorable and catchy songs, so even though they might start out as unfamiliar, by the last chord the melodies are already stuck in your head for good.

French Boutik at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

French Boutik at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

Tonight we were treated to the full line-up of the band with vocalist Gabriela, guitarist Serge, drummer Zelda and bassist Jean-Marc augmented by Olivier Popincourt on keyboards and Graham Lentz on percussion and acoustic guitar. They started off with their recently recorded version of The Jam's "The Place I Love" as a happy 60th birthday tribute to Paul Weller and ended up with a well deserved encore and a Punky run through of a cover of "Beta Gamma" by Henri Salvador. Highlights for me included a storming "Je Regarde Les Tigres" and "Mieux Comme Ca" with Serge on lead vocals and new song "Loin de Moi" which sounded like it could become a future crowd favourite. The band are on fire at the moment and I'd recommend catching them play live whenever you get the chance.

French Boutik at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

Fay Hallam and her excellent seven piece band kicked off their set with a great version of the "Dave Allen at Large" theme tune which had many of us old nostalgics looking round for a cigarette and glass of whisky and checking that they still had their fingers intact! We were then treated to an uplifting and uptempo set that touched on most aspects of her career stretching right back to a couple of Makin' Time numbers including the classic "Feels Like It's Love". We were brought right up to date with some really promising new tracks "Magic Potion" and "Lie Detector" which featured Fay's son Josh taking on lead vocals and he did a great job, such a talented family!

Fay Hallam Band at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

Fay Hallam & Magnus Carlson - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

I particularly enjoyed "Do You Know How To Love Me?" taken from the latest album "House of Now" which was produced by Andy Lewis who I'm pleased to see is adding his considerable bass playing talents to the line-up tonight. Two tracks from the excellent "Lost In Sound" album with The Bongolian, "Dancing" and a fantastic "Freefall" in particular highlight how good a drummer Kieran McAleer is and they get a warm reaction from the appreciative crowd. There's a couple of cover versions included, a faithful run through of The Flirtations classic "Nothing But a Heartache" and a perfect take on Dusty Springfield's version of "Spooky". Magnus Carlson is invited on stage to join the band for a great run through of Nolan Porter's "If I Could Only Be Sure" on which the excellent guitarist Jim Bishop tackles that great melancholy riff perfectly.

Fay Hallam Band at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

Fay Hallam & Magnus Carlson - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

There is a sparkling chemistry between Magnus and Fay, they look like they are having as much fun as we are and their voices work perfectly together. I understand that Fay will join the line-up of his band on an upcoming tour of Sweden to promote his new LP "A Nordic Soul" on Cosmos Music. In fact the main reason that Magnus is here tonight is because he just released a stunning new single "Now That It's Over" featuring Fay on vocals and organ. It's a stomping slice of classic Soul and it was definitely one of the highlights of the night, almost lifting the roof off of the 100 Club. Magnus says his goodbyes and the band are called back for an encore and end with a great version of "Greenhouse" from The Prime Movers early 90's album "Earth Church" which was a nice surprise. Great night out, great music and great people - you just can't beat it.

Magnus Carlson at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

Fay Hallam Band at the 100 Club - Photo copyright Retro Man Blog

French Boutik are currently finishing off work on a new LP so please check out their Facebook page here for more details. You can pledge your support at their IndieGoGo campaign here. For more news and information on The Fay Hallam Band please check out their web-site here. Information on Magnus Carlson and his upcoming album "A Nordic Soul" along with his collaboration with Fay can be found at his web-site here or over at the Cosmos Music site here. There are more photos from the night at our Retro Man Facebook page here and videos of both bands over at our YouTube channel here. Here's a sample of what you will find...

Nina Persson, Ebbot Lundberg and Magnus Carlson "A Tribute To The Velvet Underground" live at Stockholm Kulturfestival August 14th

Nina Persson by Daniel Eriksson

Two years ago Ebbot Lundberg, of the now sadly defunct The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and Magnus Carlson from Weeping Willows and The Moon Ray Quintet, were asked if they would like to do a performance of The Velvet Underground's third album for an HBTQ Festival event at Haga Church in Gothenburg. It worked out so well that they both wanted to do it again and they got their opportunity at this year's Kulturfestival in Stockholm. This time Ebbot and Magnus wanted to widen the set-list to include songs from the iconic debut album "The Velvet Underground & Nico", so all they needed was a "Nico", and who better than Nina Persson from The Cardigans. They gathered an impressive cast of experienced musicans around them including, on guitars and keyboards, Gunnar Frick, who has toured with Weeping Willows and also played with Ray Davies among many others, bassist Sara Edvardson Ehrnborg, drummer Johan Håkansson, who is currently playing with Mattias Hellberg's excellent band The Fur Heads and on guitar, Tommy Sahlin, who plays at the beautiful Slussens Pensionat on Orust, with Robert "Biggles" Sohlberg's band. 

It was the first time for me to see Ebbot perform live since The Soundtrack of Our Lives emotional farewell shows at The Södra Teatern in Stockholm back in December last year, and it was great to see him perform again. The band took the stage and Ebbot and Magnus appeared and shared vocals on a sublime "Candy Says", which was followed by the rest of the first side of the third eponymous album in running order. So we got a thumping run through of "What Goes On", "Some Kinda Love", a beautiful rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" and then "Jesus". Then we were treated to "I Found a Reason" from "Loaded" and back to the third album for "I'm Set Free". Ebbot and Magnus compliment each other extremely well, their voices blend perfectly. Magnus has a smooth soulful croon which is wonderfully suited to Ebbot's slightly rawer more "Rock" baritone. But, still no Nina, and some of the crowd around me are getting a bit restless. Considering Nina's name is very prominent on the advertising, I'm beginning to wonder myself. There's a buzz as songs from the debut album "The Velvet Underground & Nico" start to appear with a gorgeous "Sunday Morning", which is followed by a powerful "I'm Waiting For The Man" with Ebbot on lead vocals. 

Ebbot Lundberg - Photo by Steve Worrall

Then it's "Femme Fatale" with Nina finally making an appearance, to a huge round of applause. I know Nico didn't actually sing on many songs, but I do think they could have planned the set or song arrangements to get Nina more involved from the start. For example, "Candy Says" and "Sunday Morning" would have suited Nina's lead vocals perfectly. "Venus In Furs" is next, with Gunnar switching to bass and Sara impressively taking on the John Cale viola part . "All Tomorrow's Parties", "There She Goes Again", "I'll Be Your Mirror" are all brilliantly performed, and Nina's smile lights up the stage. Then it's over to Ebbot to close the set with the slowly unravelling classic "Heroin". The encore is a bright and breezy "Who Loves The Sun" from "Loaded", which is followed by "Temptation Inside Your Heart", originally recorded with John Cale in 1968 but left unreleased until the "VU" rarities compilation came out in 1985. It's not a widely known song, but actually turns out to be one of my highlights of the night. They don't go down the easy option crowd-pleasing route for the encore, so there's no "White Light/White Heat" (in fact they skip the second album completely) and there's no "Sweet Jane" or "Rock 'n' Roll", which some in the crowd were shouting for. Instead they close the show with a slightly downbeat but nevertheless emotional and impressive,"Ocean". It's over, and the band are called out to take a bow and lap up the generous applause. It was an excellent show, considering it must be very difficult to please everyone, as there are so many aspects to The Velvet Underground's sound, I think they got the balance just right. So, I'm intrigued to find out what the next project Ebbot, Magnus and Nina have in store...

Magnus, Nina & Ebbot - Photo by Steve Worrall

David Liljemark, the renown comic book illustrator, film director and Wonder Boys main man, not to mention big Velvet Underground fan, gave me his perspective on the gig: "The "Ebbot Underground" gig with Magnus C & Nina P was most pleasant, but a bit too much focus on the third album and ballads, still no "Afterhours"...WTF?!...or "I'm Sticking With You" for that matter, a couple of songs should've been replaced by "I Heard Her Call My Name" and/or "White Light/White Heat" (or "Guess I'm Falling In Love"). I have never liked the song "Jesus" (with the exception of Smog's extremely good cover!) but here it got a heavier arrangement than the original, but "Hey Mr Rain" would've been a more urgent choice. The show closer "Ocean" was fantastic,  and very much in The Soundtrack of Our Lives style, but no one can top Lou's singing on "I'm Waiting For The Man" and "Some Kinda Love", but the evening's definite highlight was "Temptation Inside Your Heart"!"

 

Top to Bottom - Ebbot, Nina & Magnus by Daniel Eriksson

Here's a video from the gig, for more videos then please visit the Retro Man Blog YouTube channel.

We have set up a Soundtrack of Our Lives Facebook Group which encompasses all of the bands many off-shoots, collaborations, solo works, current projects and new bands - from Nymphet Noodlers and Union Carbide Productions to Free Fall, Tonbruket and beyond...please feel free to join the Group and contribute here...!

Ebbot & Nina - Photograph by Steve Worrall

Many thanks to Daniel Eriksson and Hans Selander for their excellent photographs, all are copyright 2013 as credited. You can check out more of Daniel's photos here...Also big thanks to David Liljemark. For more photographs please head on over to the Retro Man Blog Facebook page and "Like" for access to the exclusive Photo Album.

Johan, Magnus, Gunnar, Nina, Tommy, Sara & Ebbot - Photo by Hans Selander