For being patient with us, we’ve been frightfully quiet recently as life, festivities and superbowls got in the way but we wanted you to know that we’re still here strong as ever and ready to face the rest of 2012 with escalating pride and furious belief.
Whilst we’ve been hibernating much has happened. Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun have moved on to pastures new with one of our favourite indie labels Xtra Mile Recordings to release their new album. Midnight Mile have sadly decided to take some time apart, the silver lining to this cloud is that Andy Oliveri has finished work on his debut solo record and that is penned in for an April release date. Boat to Row have been busying themselves with taking over the folk world and are about to embark on a few dates with their friends Dog is Dead (details below), which will follow with a full and proper release of their E.P ‘Grassmarket’ this spring. Ruth Bewsey will play a string of dates this spring in preparation for a full album release, she’s been guesting on all manners of songs by up-and-coming producers and songwriters and has a great year ahead.
So as you can see the istf family have been out warming hearts with beautiful folk music whilst we’ve been sluggishly kipping in the woods. Twenty twelve will hold a lot of interesting occurrences for our bands past and present and our little label in turn, expect a couple more trees on fire all dayer shows, loads of touring, more releases, more blog entries!!! hooray! and maybe even a sidestep into the vast world of music outside our folky safe house, but who knows.. we’ve only just woken up.
Andy Oliveri’s ‘Sing Mercy’ E.P expected 16th April 2012
Boat to Row tour with Dog is Dead during February.
18th NORWICH Arts Centre
19th OXFORD 02 Academy
20th BIRMINGHAM 02 Academy
21st BRISTOL Thekla
Ruth Bewsey and Boat to Row play London’s Nambucca on 9th March.
On a slightly happier note than this mornings announcement about Midnight Mile, tickets for our xmas extravaganza in partnership with Two Thousand Trees Festival are now on sale and available from HERE!
Hooray!
It is with great sadness that we announce Romy and Andy will be taking a break from Midnight Mile due to life commitments, so plans to release their latest record are on hold for the time being. The band would like to thank everyone for their support over the past few years and want to make it clear that this is not the end of the band but merely some time apart.
As a thank you to their fans MM are planning to release a free download single of live favourite ‘Timber! Timber!’ on 24th October and perform at a celebratory show in Cheltenham in November. Here’s what the band have said about the news..
from MM:
“Time for abit of an update… The coming months see us in separate countries, and although this breaks our hearts a bit, we’re calling it a temporary sign off. We’re planning on taking this opportunity to better ourselves both as musicians and as human beings, and come back stronger.
As a thank you to everyone we will be putting out ‘Timber! Timber!’ and a new track for free at the end of this month. To celebrate the sign-off in style we will be playing a show at the Frog and Fiddle on 11.11.11 with some of our friends that we’ve made along the way.
We send a massive thank you to everyone who has ever watched a show, bought a record or leant their ears. You continue to inspire us.”
Details on where to get your copy of Timber! Timber! will be on our news pages in the coming days, until then warm your saddened heart by watching this amazing MM video of the single!
Midnight Mile - Timber! Timber! from Karl Poyzer on Vimeo.
We urge everyone to join us at the bands farewell show on 11th November and the give the guys the send off they deserve. For more info please check the facebook page.
Okay, so its only October but we’re getting into the Christmas spirit here at istfHQ, so much so we’ve gone and booked a massive show in December to facilitate a Christmas hangover the size of Bono’s Cranium, oh…and celebrate a fantastic year for our roster and our growing little label.
In partnership with the guys at 2000 Trees Festival we’re hosting another of our ‘Trees on Fire Festival’ all dayers.
Scheduled for Sat 17th December at the Frog & Fiddle in Cheltenham, the show will host 16 bands and solo artists over two stages, showcasing our entire roster plus a few of our favourite folksters from in and around Cheltenham, AND a whole bunch of 2000 trees bands past and future, all for the bargain price of £5 adv. (that’s 31p a band!! Don’t ever say we don’t give you anything)
Tickets for this show will sell fast so get yours early to avoid sad faces, they will be available from our news page and blog this Friday 14th October.
For more information and full line up check out our facebook event page, and click attending!
We’re stepping things up a gear here at istfHQ and delving into the wonderful (and frankly confusing) world of new websites. We’ve felt the old one doesn’t especially reflect who we are and what we’re doing now, two years down the line, so we’ve jumped ship to the guys at limitedpressing for all our hosting needs.
What this means is that over the next couple weeks we’ll be updating everything, which may mean certain pages etc may be unavailable. For the most up to date news focus your eyes on our facebook page. During this switch around our old bigcartel store will remain fully operational if you’d like to place an order, afterwards however the new site will be the central hub for all things istf, we’ll still have fb, twitter and out blog but all news, info on your fave istf bands and our store will be available at either istartedthefire.co.uk or .com
We hope that during this switch you’ll be able to find all you need and are not too affected by amateur html-ers like us losing pages and redirecting you everywhere but our site, it won’t take us too long we promise and it’ll be worth the wait!
wish us luck.
istfTEAM
wish us luck.
istfTEAM
You may have noticed that ‘A Boat to Row, to Row to You’ isn’t currently on sale in our store, but don’t fret, it will soon be listed. Due to the gargantuan demand for vinyl records to celebrate record store day, coupled with impromptu public holidays the 7” record has been delayed beyond the planned release date. Whilst this is obviously disappointing for us all we are assured that they will arrive soon and as soon as we have them in our office they’ll be sent out to those who attended the release show and purchased the special download card and will be listed on our store.
If you’re impatient (like us) you can listen to the tracks on Spotify or download them from Play, and all good digital retailers, but remember you only receive extra tracks ‘Portland Bill’ and ‘St. Wallis’ when you buy the limited edition 7”!
On a slightly happier note……istf were very proud to attend Boat to Row’s single launch show last night at Taylor John’s in Coventry. The band played their richly textured folk ditties to a room of adoring fans with support from Midnight Mile and Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun. A night not to be missed.
To celebrate the best day on the Indie record store calendar istartedthefire will be giving you a few treats and a whole load of shows to watch. Taking place on Saturday 16th April RSD is an incredibly event that highlights the importance and the need for indie record stores to exist. Right, so on with the programme….
Nicholas Stevenson - ‘Can You Bring a Camera?’
Nicholas Stevenson will be releasing an exclusive track titled ‘Can You Bring a Camera?’ will be released on hand-numbered postcards illustrated by Nicholas himself, and limited to only 100 copies. Each postcard will come with its own unique download code. As if this wasn’t enough, Nicholas will also be doing a number of in-store appearances throughout the weekend starting with a solo support slot for New Wave pioneer Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen on Friday 15th April at Gloucester’s Guildhall.
Performances:
April 15th – Gloucester Guildhall w/ Ian McCulloch
April 16th – Bristol, Rise Records (1pm)
April 16th – Cheltenham, Badlands Records (4.30pm)
April 16th – Marlborough, Azuza Bar (8pm)
Postcards will be available to purchase from all locations.
Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun
Lockey & Co will be performing at Badlands Records in Cheltenham on record store day before they head over to Subtone in the evening to open for legends, Willie Nile and Danny & the Champions of the World. Instore performance begins at 12:30pm sharp! and will include a couple of currently unheard songs…
Boat to Row
Ahead of the release of their debut single ‘A Boat to Row, to Row to you’, (Out 2nd May) Nuneaton’s Boat to Row will descend upon our fair town of Cheltenham to play an exclusive instore peformance at Rise Records, Starting at 2:30pm.
Just before this (at 1:15) istf ‘Supergroup’ Falcons will be performing hits from their forthcoming E.P at Rise Records before eagerly awaiting Boat to Row’s arrival!
Record store day is promising to be a fantastic event and a great chance to meet new artists / discover something you didn’t know / buy an exclusive record! (stay away from the Glassjaw ones though… they’re mine!)
to stay up to date with our RSD Shenanigans follow us on Twitter at @istfrecords
x x
