The Balloons:
We are honoured to welcome The Balloons. A trio that exhibits some of the essence of The Magic Band but twisted into their own unique style. Listenable, danceable (you know what I mean) and funny. Around so long they now operate as their own tribute band, The Balloons remain the dark and cheery purveyors of juddery, shuddery, jittery, jottery, scuttlesome jat they always was. Jock? Razz? Who gives a monkey’s makeover!!
Investigate The Ballons on Bandcamp
Aura Riot/Aylwin
Aura Riot: Visual and sonic experiments with paint, balloons, glitter and noise. In a previous incarnation she was a member of the Soviet Aristocracy, avid collector of Faberge eggs and lover of Rasputin. This has had a profound impact on her life. Upon meeting, one is expected to kiss her hand, but only if offered. Banned from high society having gate crashed a debutant ball with apparently no credentials. A chance meeting with a sewing machine and an ironing board and she became a longterm conspirator with Aylwin hatching plans of debasement and turpitude. The duo offer a new philosophy on performance art. Domestic, playful, intense.
Aylwin (Junk and cheaply purchased tat):
A vinyl fetishist of the most dubious nature, Aylwin resists description, being neither animal, vegetable or mineral. What similarities he displays with the rest of humanity is purely illusionary, if not superficial. A purveyor of a world that rips sounds from the ordinary: caressing tones from scraped crockery, tinkles and jangles from broken glass, rasps and crashes from a metal shelf or junkshop ornamental artefact. A refined ear for the sonic possibilities of rubbish and junk coupled with a larger than life performance persona. However, there’s little point in predicting the instrumentation for a concert (or any other aspect of the performance). Much will be gathered on the day, some objects may be salvaged from the bloody remains of a previous concert. And there will be blood. Aylwin is as out of control as an undesirable virus.
Lust Rollers vs Spinecakes
Lust Rollers – Mark Browne: (saxophone /collected objects):
Mark Browne picked up a saxophone in 1980 first playing alto and then soprano and sopranino (affectionately referred to as the castrata and piranho saxphones). 1983-86 playing with Cockpit Improvised Music with Adam Bohman, Jonathon Bohman, Richard Crow, Nick Couldry, Paul Bevan and Teddy Coleridge. An occasional member of Conspiracy with Adam Bohman, Andy Hammond, John Telfer and Nick Couldry. 1984-present duo with Steve Nash (The Fanatics Of Disaster/The Fastidious Amateurs Of Grief). 1994 performed around Denmark as a guest of Martin Klapper. Throughout the 1990s occasional concerts and recording with Lol Coxhill. Late 1990s changed instrumentation to incorporate collected objects (small percussion, bowed objects, bone, glass and game calls). Attended the first Eddie Prevost workshops. 2006-13 member of the Roland Ramanan Tentet. 2007-2012 guitar and saxophone playing with the Alpha Males. 2010 formed Crush!!! with Sonic Pleasure and Ian MacGowan. Recent recordings: Malapert and Erratic, The Prejudices Of History, The 1926 Floor Polish Variation (Browne/Sanderson/Thompson) for Linear Obsessional and Genial Decay a solo saxophone recording for Confront. 2015 – present recording and performing with Lust Rollers with Dan Gregory and with Richard Sanderson as Nostalgia Blocks. The 4th Edition of the 52 Noisy Little Clouds (a set of 52 unique recordings packaged with artwork) complete in 2017.
Lust Rollers – Dan Gregory (Junk/Snare):
Dan Gregory (born 1938) comes from the Eastend of London. Before finding salvation in music he had performed many and varied jobs, most noticeably as high end “bit of rough”, offering various types of unethical massage to woman of “a certain age” at a very reasonable rate. A chance meeting with Spinecakes whilst escaping the boudoir of a high profile mistress secured the musical association. Lengthy periods of unnecessary self-indulgence resulted in the him hanging out with Moore and Curtis on the set of the Persuaders. Negotiations for the Persuaders film soundtrack came to nothing. In desperation Dan has recently returned to his Eastender routes and has taken up market trading specialising in East Asian hedge funds and illegal Japnoise vinyl.
Spinecakes (Mark Gerrard) born in 1921, starting life as the seventh son, of the seventh son of some minor English Royals. The silver spoon of this low ranking toff extended to a boarding school education, holidays in the South of France, and many introductions to various types of turpitude. Fast running out of funds in the early 80s and becoming notorious after alleged liaisons with both Jerry Hall and Jade Jagger in the 90s, Mark was required to reluctantly embark on a career in music. Having no other talent than an unnerving awareness of natural occurring magnetic fields, his chosen area of expertise was to become a practitioner in lo-fi electronics. Further disassociation with his past was achieved with his nurturing of the young Dan Gregory into his realm of debasement.
