The
Magic Lantern

At over the halfway mark on Any Path Will Do, the tour I’m on of England But Mostly The West Country with the very excellent Mr Will ‘FaceOmeter’ Tattersdill, we have a day off – and I have time to write a blog entry! We’re currently cosseted at Magic Lantern HQ in Dalston, having played a show at the Servant’s Jazz Quarters, a walk away from here, last night. It was lovely – one of the best PAs I’ve ever played through, and one of the best audiences ever. Will is tapping away at his laptop, sweat beading upon his brow as he contemplates his PhD viva in a little over three weeks, I, meanwhile, have been running around finishing off small errands and carved out enough time to write this.

We’ve been on trains like they’re going out of fashion, putting many miles of rail behind us in our quest to take our music to the furthest corners. Our furthest ranging has been to Falmouth, at the tip of Cornwall, where the students at the art college decorated our venue with their work and clustered into the hallway in order to listen to us play. A more sparsely-attended show in Exeter was part-redeemed by the appearance of several lovely FaceOmeter fans from the distant past. In Oxford, defeat turned into victory on a greater scale – despite the venue not knowing that the gig was on (!) we played an exciting show to a wonderful crowd. And wonderful crowds were also the theme in the Dartmoor village of Gidleigh – not just the audience, who packed out the village hall to hear us do our thing, but the family we stayed with, who also set the show up, and fed and hosted us with humbling proficiency.

Something great about the tour has been how individual each show has been. It’s easy to get bored of your own material on tour, because you have to play it so much, but the variety of the venues and types of show we’ve been playing have really saved us from that particular gremlin. There have, however, been two constants: we’ve been playing to truly exceptional audiences everywhere so far, attentive and giving crowds of various sizes who have really contributed to the atmosphere in each place; and we’ve shared the bill with fantastic other acts in each place – Rosie Caldecott, Freddie & Diggory, Mount Olive, Jess McAllister, Shine Like the Sun, Sam Taplin, and Matt Chanarin. We’re looking forward now to playing with Polly and the Billets Douxin Birmingham tomorrow and Rachael Dadd in Bristol on Thursday – the latter show, which will close the tour, I’m especially excited about! Hope you can join us at one of them, and if not, do tune in here for a full tour report after we finish!

Tour Day 1 – Oxford!!

Snatched success from the jaws of disaster after nearly missed trains, wrangles with money, promoters who forget the gig, a place to stay that fell through and finally a great show, a new place to play! Thanks Sam Taplin and Matt Chanarin and the Gardeners Arms in Oxford. FaceOmeter is rocking it. Falmouth here we come!!

Getting very very excited about the start of the tour tomorrow with Faceometer. Here are few of the posters made for the tour already:

Those dates one more time:

‘Any Path Will Do‘ Tour – November 2012

6th OXFORD – Gardener’s Arms (w/ Sam Taplin & Matt Chanarin)
8th FALMOUTH – Harbour House P (w/Rosie Caldecott)
9th EXETER – North Bridge Inn (w/ Jess McAllister)
10th GIDLEIGH – Gidleigh Village Hall (w/Freddie Crowley & Diggory North)
11th LONDON – Servants Jazz Quarters (w/Shine Like The Sun)
13th BIRMINGHAM – Kitchen Garden Café (w/ Polly and the Billets Doux)
15th BRISTOL – Scout Hut (w/Rachael Dadd)

J x

Friends, I hope autumn finds you in good spirits! While spring is more typically associated with rebirth, autumn is a watershed season, where one thing ends and another begins. In its own way it’s the most beautiful and poetic of the seasons. And so it has proved for us. Its been a long time since I updated you all and the intervening time has been a reflective and eventful period for us as a band. Early in the summer Phil and Lucy decided to leave the band to concentrate on their own musical projects after contributing so much of themselves to The Magic Lantern over the last few years. Rather than try to find replacements for them, which would have been impossible, I decided that it was time for a change. We played our last gig with the full band line up at the Cambridge Folk Festival in July and while a huge storm raged over head and the last notes of Phil’s guitar on ‘Cut From Stone’ rang out, one thing ended and another began.

The Magic Lantern started with me playing my songs on my own to my friends. Since then it has grown and changed beyond anything I could imagine thanks to your continued support and with all the wonderful musical creativity of Dave, Lucy, Phil, Ben, Zac, Ellie and most importantly, Fred, whose incredible arrangements came to define the sound of the band. But in taking some time to think about the direction I want to take the new songs in, I realised that what I want to get back to is the emotional intensity and directness of playing them on my own – simply, honestly and I hope, beautifully. So going forward, The Magic Lantern will be me playing solo but leaving open the possiblity of collaborating with different artists and musicians. I hope you will enjoy the new solo direction and can’t wait to play for you all. J x

Its been a busy few weeks and i’m getting behind on catching up with everything. Almost all my evenings are taken up performing the music for this new play ‘Knoweldge of Angels’ at Shoreditch Church. Its been really fun rehearsing with the actors and writing the music as they devise the movement. We had our first week of shows last week culminating with the press night last friday at which the author of the original book, Jill Patton Walsh’ came down. Thankfully she enjoyed it and said some lovely things about the play which set everyone’s mind at rest. The reviews came in on monday and were amazing, making some particular references to the music:

“Its true triumph is the ingenious way the company flits between physical theatre, puppetry and breakneck costume changes, and Jamie Doe’s live music, which mixes melodies that could be torn out of Simon and Garfunkel’s songbook, with disquieting, drone-like sound effects.” – The Stage 

“The music for example, beautifully composed and performed by Jamie Doe, is absolutely haunting as it echoes round the space, and adds further resonance to the actors’ powerful voice work.” – A Younger Theatre

“Finally, a word on the music, as we are serenaded by Jamie Doe and his guitar throughout, creating a beautiful atmosphere that becomes an intrinsic part of the production. Sitting usually where the pulpit would be, Doe’s melodies, far from just being a concept to help to tell the story, just seem to fit within the play beautifully.”  One Stop Arts

On the gig front there have been two really exciting solo shows. The first was at the Merge Festival on saturday afternoon outside Tate Modern. The festival line up was curated by our good friends at the Gladstone and it was a great gig. I played it as a duo with Zac Gvi, the first time we’d played together as Magic Lantern for a few years and it was fantasic, great reception and the sun came out shining!

After a sunday of much needed sleep, tuesday night I was up in Bristol for a wonderful solo gig at the Golden Lion. Nuala Honen, the ever amazing host of the night kicked things off with a characteristically wonderful set showcasing her amazing voice. Whenever she sings i’m reminded of a Joni Mitchell at her most powerful. As a fellow antipodean its also great to hang out with Nuala as i feel we share a lot. I played after Nuala and was given a generous 45 minute set which i really enjoyed. I always enjoy playing in Bristol as its a chance to see old friends and it was great so many of them including Andy Skellam, Ben Please from the Urusen (who came all the way from Bath) and Mo from the Black Cat Roundabout. It was a great opportunity to play the new songs live and ‘Stiches’ in particular went well. Watch a video of the whole set thanks to  Yourmusic Productions for recording it! 

This weekend should see a gig at Oxjam Festival in Islington but details are as yet hard to come by, other than that its performing ‘Knowledge of Angels’ all week and working on some more new songs for the album! Watch this space!

J x

Well its been a long time coming but finally our new website it up and running! With huge thanks to the boys at Limner studio for all their hard work helping us get it together. The aim of the site is to pull together all the different bits and pieces of the Magic Lantern world and have it all in one place for you to peruse at your leisure. There have been a lot of developments with the band and progress on the second album. A full update on everything that’s been happening and future developments is coming next week. Meanwhile, Jamie will be doing a duo set with Zac Gvi at the Merge Festival on the Southbank tomorrow at 5pm. Hope to see you there! Onwards! TML x