The
Magic Lantern

Due to unforseen circumstances the gig i’m doing tonight supporting the wonderful Cocos Lovers has had to relocate to The Slaughtered Lamb – 34-35 Great Sutton St London, EC1V 0DX. (Nearest station is still Farringdon) Featuring Cocos Lovers The Magic Lantern and Sam Brookes it should be a really lovely night. So sorry for any inconvenience. Thank you and hope to see you all there later! J x

I was writing a letter to a friend today and thought one section of it I’d like to share more widely:

One of the things I’ve been thinking a lot about recently is the creeping domination of irony in the way we express ourselves in our culture. Irony isn’t itself a bad thing and used judiciously can be a great comedic and rhetorical tool, but I think without necessarily being aware of it, we’ve arrived at a place where the ironically raised eyebrow is the default response to any act of emotional honesty. I think as a result, most people are excruciatingly uncomfortable when they are confronted by real and raw emotions, what things really mean and how they affect us.  We deflect anything serious with a joke, or change the subject or roll our eyes – and we pretend that everything is going to be alright when sometimes its not.

As a person as well as a songwriter, this is something I struggle with all the time. Trying to have the balls to be honest where it might be exposing or embarrassing or painful and putting it out there to essentially be judged, when such a big part of why I’m a performer, consciously or unconsciously, is to get some external validation that perhaps things will be alright – in essence, to be loved.  And while this isn’t a wholly healthy state of affairs, when it does come, its only from a moment of real sharing – when however roughly hewn my attempt at saying something which means a lot to me, connects with someone else long enough to meet somewhere in the middle. In that way, the whole performance is an exchange and one from which, at its best, we both leave better for it.

This I guess is a long way ‘round to say that however much my songs may mean/have meant to you – knowing they’ve meant something to you in your life, on your own terms, means as much to me.

big love

Jx

I am very happy to announce the dates for the upcoming ‘SPRING’S LABOUR’S LOST’ tour I will be doing with the mighty FaceOmeter. As some of you will remember, I went on tour with FaceOmeter last November and it was so much fun we decided to do it all again! What this tour lacks in sensibly planned consecutive dates we make up for by having both Falmouth and Newcastle in the same tour which clearly goes to show that our geographical ambitions are growing! I hope that we will passing near enough to all of you to see you at one of the gigs!

We are really excited to be launching the tour in London at one of my favorite venues for intimate music, The Harrison, in Kings Cross on Friday 26 April. Its a really small, but beautiful space for live music and I strongly recommend getting tickets in advance (5 quid). In addition to FaceOmeter and I there will be a very special guest who will be playing…More details about each of the gigs can be found by clicking on them below.

‘Spring’s Labour’s Lost’ Tour – April/May 2013

• 26/4 – LONDON – The Harrison – Tickets
• 29/4 – BIRMINGHAM – Lamp Tavern
• 30/4 – OXFORD – Albion Beatnik
• 4/5 – NEWCASTLE – Shadow and Star
• 8/5 – LONDON – Wilmington Arms* (supporting Cocos Lovers)
• 9/5 – FALMOUTH – The Grapes
• 10/5 – BRISTOL – Café Kino

*without FaceOmeter

You can read FaceOmeter words about our excitement on his blog.
http://www.faceometer.tk/new-dates/

best wishes and big love

Jamie x

Painting by Chloe Paull

Here’s as demo of a new song i’ve been working on for the past week ‘Harvest Moon’. I made a demo of it at home and thought i’d share it as I haven’t posted any new music for a while! Looking forward to playing it live for the first time at the Shine Like The Sun EP launch tomorrow at the Ritzy in Brixton, London.

[soundcloud id=’84597627′]

Well after being teased into thinking spring was here, this missive comes to you from a wet and decidedly un-spring like sunday in London. After a busy february of gigs and starting the recording process, this first few weeks in march have been relatively quiet. A period of reflection, consolidation and planning. I am therefore, exceedingly pleased to announce that I will be going on a grand UK tour from 26 April to 12 May with the fabulous songwriters FaceOmeter and Roxy Brennan. We should be able to announce the dates and locations in the next week or so but it shaping up to be the most extensive tour I will have done and we are all really excited about it!

In the meantime, there are some great Magic Lantern events to look forward to. First of all, I will be playing on Radio Dacorum this very afternoon from 4.30. You can tune in and listen live and even watch on a webcam atwww.radiodacorum.org.uk . It should be a great show, i’m really looking forward to it. If you can’t listen this afternoon then you should be able to listen again from monday afternoon at www.mixcloud.com/dariakulesh9 .

Gig wise, there are two amazing gigs coming up, the first is on the 24th March supporting Shine Like The Sun at the Ritzy in Brixton for the launch of their EP ‘First Rays’. Following that, I am really looking forward to playing at Fiona Bevan’s amazing Servants Jazz Quarters night on the 4th April. Fiona has been putting these nights on once a month for a little while now and each one has sold out very very quickly indeed so if you’d like to come please get a ticket as soon as possible. 

Magic Lantern March & April shows:

– Thursday 4th April – Servants Jazz Quarters w/ Fiona Bevan
10 Bradbury St, London N16 8JN. Tickets and details.

– 26th April – 12th May – Magic Lantern / FaceOmeter / Roxy Brennan UK Tour!
Details to come soon!!

Best wishes as ever  and big love

Jamie x