firstly i'm wondering whether to have another week off to give people time to miss it a bit what do you think about restarting on the 16/17th?
also we need to decide the direction for next setlists.
i'm thinking of quite a few ideas simultaneously so tricky to decide how to start:
1. a gig roughly near valentines day called "love in outerspace" named after a sun ra tune we'll be doing. nothing booked yet but trinity are holding us the 26th feb... and colston hall lantern the 24th... this event would work better in all hallows however so i'm waiting to hear back from them. the folk house will also work for this so i'll contact them.
2. the reason trinity and colston lantern are holding those dates is because i'm up for hosting a leonard cohen tribute in which the FO can be fairly involved. I'm not super-mad-keen about this but i think it will be good. jimmy goodrich is the driving force behind this and has signed up plenty of bristol-known names to play already. the idea is we/ i'd be hosting it and probably provide a backing band if not an orchestra and choir. any thoughts about this cohen night?
3. i'd love to do some recording this year.. and release a record. again am torn between doing something entirley original like FO verisons of bristol and paris based artsts OR just a bunch of our best working arrangements regardless of what kind of music they are OR doing something else like acoustic electronica record which could potentially have a greater impact in the wider world. I'll be discussing these ideas with a few labels i know but it would be great to have your response too.
4. I'd love to do a set of acoustic electronica but it needs to be in the right setting. best thing would be to link with some festival that specializes in the field. who's got time to do research into events coming up, in bristol and elsewhere that either might book us or where we could tag onto like we did the 6 music fringe?
this could also work with shamballa or supernormal. we should also find out if these fetsivals have themes we could adopt.
5. Underwater set "the neptune champion games". again we need the right setting. somewhere we can decorate and prject images. this would work if we self promote. was hoping for the wardrobe theatre but they seem just too booked up. the cube could also work. it would also be great if someone could make enquiries to tropicana in weston.
6. animal set. mels been in touch with bristol zoo but no response as yet. any other good venues for this? we could work with the gorilla trust again and use that theatre. i'm sure it would work well with proper promotion. would be fine at the cube.
7. 1967 set - perhaps a good one for kingweston steps, we already have a few tunes from that year to which i'd love to add some velvets, early electronica, and other psychedelia.
8. a tea dance - this would include old time music duke ellington, andrews sisters, ronald binge but also sun ra and other whacky but dancable-in-twos tunes. possibly good for village halls and old peoples homes.
9. Bicycle tour. i've still high hopes to do something in france but it looks like we'll certainly have a little one in the uk, basically to frome. we can relive the one from a few years ago with gigs in bath, bradford and frome (already booked for the 8th july).who fancies helping?
as with the electronica set, all these ideas will be 10x more effective linking in with an appropriate venue or festival.. we need to think wider than bristol... i just havent time to do this research
trouble is we need to have the gigs booked before we start rehearsing so we know which tunes to rehearse (and for me to have ready in advance).
so please let me know if you've time to do some serious chasing/ helping and we'll give everyone appropriate tasks.
happy new year everyone!
jesse x x
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"Fashion" by the Fantasy orchestra, Paris