Southampton based Still Moving has recently started employing painters and artists to create images and navigation for company web sites.

“It is very important for us to be ethical in our approach to business and using an illustrator not only gives websites a unique look and feel but also helps support an artist,” explained Still Moving’s co-founder Martin Davis. “Following the reaction of our clients we’re convinced the paintbrush is mightier than the mouse.”

Nova & Isabel Amber Ewen

Their latest collaboration is an entry to a competition to make the video for ‘Fires’ the next single by Southampton rock group Band of Skulls: the most recent south-coast act to gain major recognition in Europe and America.

vist and vote at: http://genero.tv/watch-video/10194/

“This challenge is an ideal way of introducing art into the ‘Moving’ aspect of our plan,” confirmed the other half of Still Moving, Isabel Amber Ewen,  “and although there are many great street artists in Southampton, once we saw Nova’s skull designs we knew who we wanted.”

Southampton street artist Nova uses stencils to spray multi-layered images on walls. Recently he was invited by the Portsmouth art collective P.A.M to add his creations to the alley-ways around Fratton Park.

“They have a much freer attitude towards street art in Portsmouth and they’ve opened up many walls,” he said “but the artists have to responsible and professional or this opportunity will disappear.”

Stencils and wall

The designs around the stadium have become so respected that Portsmouth football club is planning to invite P.A.M to create murals inside the ground.

With every creative aspect of this production based in and around Southampton the irony of shooting in Portsmouth is not lost on the video’s co-director Xan Phillips. “Although Southampton is famous for it’s walls, the city’s street artists have no where so public to express themselves.

Everyone who walked past Nova told him how good the art he and P.A.M have created. It definitely inspires rather than repels.”

Although the ‘Band of Skulls’ video competition has a £3000 cash prize and global exposure Isabel, who shot and edited the whole promo, is ambivalent about winning: “Every element of the project slotted into place so well that we’re already delighted with our achievement. The win would be very helpful but this video is already a great demonstration of how local art can work as a promotional device.”

NOTES

The video can be seen here http://genero.tv/watch-video/10194/

Closing date for public voting on the video – 11.59pm GMT, July 21

Winner announced: July 26, 2010

Example of a web site with local artist illustration: www.magpie-shop.co.uk

Nova can be found here: http://www.novaindustries.co.uk/

Still Moving: http://www.still-moving.co.uk/

Showcase UK: http://www.showcaseuk.tv/

P.A.M – the meaning of the acronym has not been released.

Band of Skulls www.bandofskulls.com

The single Fires will be released September 13th 2010 see http://www.nme.com/news/band-of-skulls/51147

Belfast born Eamon Nancarrow didn’t expect his autobiography ‘Holywood Star to cause such ructions seeing as the climax of his rock career was a disastrous tour of Scotland during a bleak winter.

But the singer’s tales of rock and roll misadventure have sent beds rocking with uncontrollable laughter leaving many partners irritated and awake.

‘It would start with Michael’s shoulders shaking,’ said bank manager Angela O’Sullivan (49) of her husband’s reaction to certain passages, “and then turn into a belly laugh.”

As a resident of Holywood, County Down, her irritation was needing to know what, and more importantly who, in Eamon’s adventure was making Michael laugh so much.

Funny / not funny

This reaction has spread to the mainland with Rhian French (37), a copy writer from Andover, Hampshire, suffering the same fate. Although her wound was self inflicted as she bought the book as a Christmas present for her husband Alan (right), another struggling musician.

“I had to ask him to stop making so much noise. Every night he was having a bit of a snort and if it wasn’t an outright guffaw there would be a lot of giggling and more snorting. It’s a bit worrying when someone is having so much fun on their own in the same bed.”

Her solution was simple: “He had to read it downstairs before he came up to sleep.”

Eamon’s Irish eyes might be smiling at the thought of bringing laughter into some people’s lives but the negative aspect is beginning to concern him:

“It is never great to cause friction in the boudoir, especially when there are nylon sheets involved, and it was never my intention to set marital sparks flying. The book was only supposed to make people laugh and that seems to be the crux of the problem.”

If this is another calamity to befall Eamon Nancarrow at least he’s used to it. From the horrors of his first perm in the early 80’s to the moment a misplaced stage pyrotechnic almost curtailed his parenting capabilities, he has still been able to see the funny side of life.

However, in some bedrooms around the country, there is only one side of the bed laughing.

Holywood Star is available in paperback priced £9.99 (Showcase UK) from Amazon, WH Smith and www.showcaseuk.tv

Those who keep a straight face and don’t chuckle ”at least once” will receive a cheque for the book’s £9.99 cover price. He will also send ”miserable critics” a handwritten letter as an apology.

According to experts, the offer is a publishing first and could prompt hundreds of other authors to follow suit.
But despite the guarantee, Mr Nancarrow insists only ”one-in-a-million” readers will ask for their money back.

The book, which went on sale this week, tells the story of his failed attempts to make it as a rock star during the 80s. It has already attracted a string of rave reviews since its official release.

Eamon Nancarrow in the Maypole Bar (Ned's), Holywood

The station’s founder, Paul Campbell, said: ”We try to reflect the realities of life for musicians, and help them overcome some of the difficulties of writing, recording and gigging.

”Eamon’s taken that simple idea and made it hilarious. We’re delighted to be able to broadcast extracts from his brilliant book on Amazing Radio. We’re certain it will raise lots of rueful smiles from listening musos, as well as tons of laughs.”

Billed as a ”crazy rock n’ roll tour of calamity”, Holywood Star tells of the author’s futile attempts to secure a record deal. Having grown up on a rough council estate in Holywood, a village near Belfast, Northern Ireland, he dreams of performing with his band on the world’s biggest stages.

But his grand aspirations fall flat time after time, and his plan to reach the ‘’sleazy heights” of super-stardom repeatedly fail. Mr Nancarrow, who lives in Belfast, penned Holywood Star – his first book – in less than 24 months.

Following a number of ‘’superb” reviews, he is now offering a money-back guarantee to those who fail to find the memoirs funny. The father-of-two will contact and question critics individually in a bid to prevent the offer being exploited.

Refunds will only be made to those he is convinced are telling the truth.

No Joke

Mr Nancarrow, 44, who still performs with his band Strictly No Ballroom, said: ”The offer might sound a little crazy, but I think it’s fair. ”The book is billed as a ’side-splitting’ autobiography, so if people don’t find it funny then I’ve not done what I set out to do. As a result, I’ll contact and question anyone who claims not to have laughed at least once and, if they can prove that they’ve read the book from cover to cover without doing so, I’ll return their money.”

Miles Bailey has run The Choir Press, an independent publishers based in Gloucester, since 1982. He said the offer could be the first of its kind in the publishing world.  ”This is the first time that I’ve heard about an author offering a money-back guarantee,” he said.

”Depending on its success, the offer has the potential of being copied by other authors in a number of genres.” But he added: ”I can’t imagine that the offer will be taken up by many people, though. I’ve read the book and haven’t laughed so much in years.”

Holywood Star is available in paperback priced £9.99 (Showcase UK) from Amazon, WH Smith and www.showcaseuk.tv

A favourite pastime for some office workers is window gazing: peering through the glass, letting the mind wander to the weekend or beyond and of course studying any passers-by.

One such pedestrian piqued the interest of Southampton singer/songwriter ‘The Real Raj’.

He regularly saw a woman holding a bunch of flowers and then returning empty handed a while later.

Soon he realised she was visiting the local cemetery and this, he told me, inspired him to write the song ‘Sway’: “I put a back story to how it must have felt to be in love with someone for 40 or 50 years and to loose that person.”

I heard ‘Sway’ for the first time on Monday night in the Soul Cellar. In fact it was the last song of his set and it really touched the silent audience.

Any earlier we would have missed it as the noise from evening’s crowd was so loud that only someone with a very keen ear would have picked up the melody, let alone the words.

The Real Raj has about five hours of similar material as he pointed out: “all of my songs are about something. I write songs that touch me or someone I know.”

But there is no CD for sale, just a button badge to modestly hand out: “I feel as if I’m giving something back to people for taking a moment out of their time to say thank you for a song.”

www.myspace.com/therealraj

First published in the Daily Echo Friday 11th December 2009 ]]> http://www.xan.co.uk/wordpress/2009/12/the-real-raj-through-the-window/feed/ 0 http://www.xan.co.uk/wordpress/2009/10/showcase-uks-debut-publication/ http://www.xan.co.uk/wordpress/2009/10/showcase-uks-debut-publication/#comments Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:42:46 +0000 admin http://www.xan.co.uk/wordpress/?p=693 SHOWCASE UK is delighted to announce that they have signed EAMON NANCARROW to a three book deal with the first instalment of his memoires ‘HOLYWOOD STAR‘ to be published on 18th November 2009

Eamon Nancarrow grew up in Holywood, County Down with a passion for rock and roll. He dreamt of striding across the world’s stages, singing his heart out as a rock God and lapping up all the trimmings that success would naturally deliver. As you are well aware he didn’t make it but by the end of his autobiography ‘Holywood Star’ you’ll wish he had.

With a keen eye for observational humour and a knack of getting it down on paper, Eamon Nancarrow will have you convulsing with laughter as he takes you through almost every calamity that befell him, every moment that fate turned against him and every support band that tried to upstage him…

As the final note of the crescendo was being held by his bandmates Thunderchild’s guitarist proceeded to try and smash his instrument up. Unfortunately the flexibility of the floorboards meant that instead of the Gibson SG shattering into a million pieces it just bounced around the stage like a basketball.

His embarrassment was quite palpable. In an attempt save face, he put even more effort into his swings, which only caused the six-string to bounce higher and higher, smashing some of the lights on the lip of the stage and sending shards of red-hot coloured glass into the crowd. Shoulders slumped, drenched in sweat and sporting a reddner like a flasher’s giblets in July, he was just about to give up when he spotted the hatchet that Rollo had used to secure the now demolished lighting board.

A heavily perspiring guitarist ran off stage and returned brandishing the axe above his head like a mad Comanche on the hunt for a fresh paleface scalp. He grabbed the guitar by the neck, knelt down and took a swing. The hatchet made contact, forcing the SG into the trampoline-like stage. The elasticity of the floorboards caused the poor instrument to catapult past the rabbit-in-the-headlights eyes of its ungrateful owner. I couldn’t help but think that for a guitar player with two fingers of his hand already missing this was quite frankly a ludicrously risky thing to do.

And it doesn’t stop there. Eamon’s life is full of moments that not only give you a great insight into how funny trying to make can be, he also draws you into his world and the characters around him. Like the moment he decided to get his first perm…

The girl on the other end of the phone felt the need to remind me that it was a woman’s hairdressers that I was calling, not a barbers. Holywood still hadn’t really taken to the idea of male grooming as such. Men only went to the barbers when absolutely necessary or in Specky Beard MaCaffery’s case when his nasal and ear hairs became the talking point of the kids in the street. The thought of a male asking for a cut and blow dry nearly had the local priest visiting the family home with a little pamphlet about the birds and the bees and the benefits of the Rhythm Method.

Eamon’s failure is his success and even though fame alluded him, once you’ve finished ‘Holywood Star’ you’ll feel like a life long fan.

ABOUT THE BOOK
‘Holywood Star’ is divided up using Eamon’s bands as the chapters: Guilt Edge, No Hot Ashes, Nellie Dean, Social Idiot, Strictly No Ballroom. The book is a paperback and 356 pages long. It’s cover price is £9.99 although Amazon currently have it discounted to £7.99. It is a print-on-demand book that was edited and produced by Miles Bailey and his team at The Choir Press.

SHOWCASE UK was created by broadcaster and journalist Xan Phillips as a vehicle to promote unsigned musicians. Based in Southampton it’s first release was the CD ‘Showcase Sett’ a 16 track compilation album of acts from the south coast. However back in 1987, Xan was an aspiring bass player who accidentally joined Eamon Nancarrow’s band ‘Nellie Dean’. Since then they’ve remained close friends and in July 2007 Eamon began sending a stream stories about his days as a musician and growing up in Holywood. From the beginning it was obvious that Eamon had a knack for comic writing and observational humour. The idea for putting these gems into a book followed soon after which is why ‘Showcase UK’ is proud to have ‘Holywood Star’ as it’s first publication.

Eamon Nancarrow in the Maypole Bar (Ned's), Holywood

EAMON NANCARROW was born at an early age, but grew up fast, so fast; in fact, that he outgrew his hair. He always considered himself to be a bit of a rock star with a fine singing voice, however it wasn’t until the GP presented an ill-fitting truss that he developed his astonishing vocal range. Sounding like a cross between Donald Duck and Tiny Tim made him an attractive catch for bands desperately seeking a singer.

From the age of fifteen he has assaulted the eardrums of the general public without a concern for the damage he was causing. He has used music to achieve his goal of living in abject poverty and boy was he good at it. His life can be mapped out in chapters of the bands he has been in and funny enough that’s just what his book has done. After failing miserably in the music business he decided that a new career was necessary, unfortunately for the sanity of his poor family this didn’t happen until he was thirty.

Eamon resides in Belfast with his partner Donna and his two kids Teelin and Tara. He still screams rock and roll at the weekends but makes a living as a specialist Infection Control Nurse (God help us all).

Holywood Star: The Life and Times of a Rock and Roll Misadventurer
ISBN-10: 0956390005
ISBN-13: 978-0956390004

One day you hear an idea; the next you almost have an album!

And it was 23^rd June that Julian Aplin from ‘Angry Badger Records‘ suggested we put together a compilation album.

Julian had become a regular at the Showcase UK nights in the Soul Cellar and decided to put on a few gigs at the venue  to showcase some of his own acts. He asked me to perform a DJ set between the bands following that sent an email with the immortal words: “How do you fancy a Showcase UK/Angry Badger compilation CD?”

There was no need for persuading as I had been thinking for the past two years we needed a follow-up to the previous South Coast collection “The Coming of The Railways” which introduced me to Birdpen and many others.

I would have loved Birdpen to have been on this collection but as they are now signed to a French label this excellent trio are beyond our reach. However we both know many great acts and could easily find 15 for a compilation which we’ve called ‘Showcase Sett’.

Where Julian and I agreed immediately was that it had to be quality through and through, at a very reasonable price.

Showcase Sett by Peter Jaques

So we enlisted the wonderful painter and graphic designer Peter Jaques to create the cover (left). For the design and layout of the inner sleeves Oliver Taylor was recommended by the Soul Cellar.

The music had to have a flow, and each song sound it’s best, so we visited Peter J Croissant at Grand Master Audio to master our first pick of the South Coast’s talent.

We’re expecting this to be the first of many. This area is rich in quality musicians and, as I have been saying in the Daily Echo, there is a ’scene’ on the South Coast and scene is quality song writing.

And here we are, almost a month later and we are sending the elements to be turned into ‘Showcase Sett – Propeller’, a limited edition album (400 commercial copies) which is already receiving pre-orders.

You can see the full track listing and place your order at Iconic Culture. It is released August 1^st 2009 priced £4.99 online and £5 in the flesh.

Order: Showcase Sett – Propeller

Singing and Winning

These two are responsible for Saints Aid, a musical extravaganza which is raising money to help Southampton’s football team.

It started as a one day event but has now spread around the city, rapidly turning into a weekend of gigs and entertainment.

As Lee told me: “The idea started when David Reid from Olympian offered to play a gig to raise a few pounds for the club. Glynn Root from Fingermen also said his band would like to play. I spoke to to Nick Illingsworth about moving the event to St Mary’s and making it an all day affair. After this myself and Nick joked about being Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in red and white stripes, so Saints Aid was born!”

Headlining at St Mary’s on Saturday 23rd will be The Rebs and Dlugokecki. On Bank Holiday Monday The Artful Dodger will be back home at Oceana on the 25th May in a unique performance specially for Saints Aid.

On Friday 22nd Melodee Rockmore will be ending eight hours of music at the King Alfred in Northam Road. And on the same day a heavy rock night at Louisiana Nightclub, Leisure World.

Showcase UK is also taking part and tonight Monday 18th we’re having a preview night at the Soul Cellar, playing tracks by all of the artists taking part in Saints Aid, call it pre-match training if you like but we’ll be raising money for the team and building the anticipation for the weekend to come.

Musicians from around the city, and even beyond, are trying to save the Southampton FC, according to Lee: “It’s part of the feeling in the city of people wanting to do something to help the club but do not quite know what they can. As we have asked for local musicians, the bands have approached us in their droves. ”

“The response has been both overwhelming and quite inspiring. The support for Saints-aid has been fantastic and it has snowballed into something quite enormous, which is why we have had to use over venues and take it all over the city. It just goes to show how much the football club means to the city of Southampton.”

For more details and ticket information visit www.saints-aid.co.uk

Singing and Winning

A musical extravaganza is now taking place at the St Mary’s stadium on Saturday 23rd May.

Saints Aid starts at 2pm and continues right up to 11pm featuring a wide variety of musicians from X-factor hopefuls Afrodisiac, through rock and metal bands like Big Num and Raging Silence to co-headlining songwriters like Dlugokecki and The Rebs.

As a preview to the weekend’s entertainment Showcase UK will be hosting a
Saints Aid preview night at the Soul Cellar in Southampton on Monday 18th May starting at 7pm. The night will feature the bands below and more.

Full details about
Web site: Saints Aid can be found here:

Web site: Saints Aid

Saints Aid on Facebook

Showcase Uk on Facebook

Showcase UK at the Soul Cellar
78 W Marlands Rd
Southampton, SO14 7FW
023 8071 0648
www.soulcellar.com

The Saints Aid line up so far:

The Rebs
Dlugokecki
The Radics
Blackcouch
Jesserit
Big Num
Moral Soul
Tench
The Docks
Catalinas
Hours Till Autumn
The Skore
Coast
Raging Silence
Olympian
Fingermen
Prong horn
Blind Vision
Matt Britton
Rayguns Look Real Enough

They have been happy to place our flyers in prominent positions and started spreading the word about this new night at the Soul Cellar.

Below are the places where the flyers can be found and we recommend a visit to one and all as you never know what musical bargain you might walk out with!

The photos link to the shop’s web site.

The Guitar Store

Drumzone

Becketts Music Ltd

Cost was the big issue followed by various reasons ranging from lack of desire, attitude or someone who can actually film and cut the pictures together.

So here out first attempt at a low cost, homemade video that looks the business.
The song comes from the album “Brittle” by Welsh singer/songwriter Davy Cartwight. We picked “The Grey Song” because its sound and feel would suit a set of photographs and sent Davy some ideas and directions to follow: what to shoot, which angle to use and various other tricks of the trade.

In return he sent us some CDs with pictures taken by himself and his daughter Hannah from around Llantwit Major on the south coast of Wales. All we had to do is string the pictures together and the result you can see below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmSY4pg8OsQ&hl=en&fs=1]