In our customary belated style let us be one of the last people to wish you a Happy New Year! The 3rd of January seems as good a time as any (?) to reflect on the past 12 months, an amazing year for us as a band – things that happened in the first few months of 2011 seem such a long time ago now and maybe thats because so much else has happened as the year went on!
In January we played our first gig of 2011 and our first gig at Ronnie Scott’s in London, a gig that we all really enjoyed and that seemed to go down well too… Then in March we were off to Germany (kindly supported by the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund) to compete in the final of the European Young Artists’ Jazz Award in Burghausen – which we won! This meant that we got a giant novelty cheque (below) and the honour of opening the Burghausen Jazzwoche, performing a full set before Chick Corea & Gary Burton in a concert that was recorded for TV and radio. We all had an amazing time in when we were over in Germany, check out some of the best photos here (or if you’re really keen, here’s the complete gallery from days 1, 2, 3 & 4).
The next major thing on the horizon for us was in June when we played a really special gig at Band on the Wall in Manchester that was recorded and released as an extremely limited edition live DVD in October. We’ve still got a few left – head on over to our shop to get your hands on one! Here’s one of the tracks:
Over the summer we played in Norwich, in a field in Cheshire, and had a great day at Mostly Jazz in Birmingham, and then in August we were invited back to Ronnie Scott’s for their annual celebration of all things British in a double bill with the amazing Kairos 4tet - again this was another brilliant night, with some really nice reviews!
At the beginning of November we were busy recording our debut full length album, which was a hectic few days to say the least… Its all come together nicely though, and will be out in February – more information to follow shortly! Here’s us all at the end of the session at Livingston Studios in London with producer Tony Platt and engineer Simone Filiali – more photos from the weekend in our gallery here and on our tumblr blog here.
Finally, we ended our year at the London Jazz Festival with an amazing gig at Kings Place which was a fantastic way to round off 2011! As for 2012, we’ve already announced some gigs at some lovely venues and as I’ve mentioned above, our album will be released in February – its already shaping up to be an exciting year. Thanks for your support in 2011 and we hope you enjoy what we’ve got lined up for you in 2012!
Posted by on 03/01/2012 at 10:22 in misc and tagged 2011, band on the wall, burghausen, dvd, germany, kings place, london jazz festival, recording, ronnie scott's. Leave comments here.
Its been a really busy but really exciting time at Beats & Pieces HQ – lots more info to come in the next few days so keep an eye out… Here’s just a few little things though that I wanted to let you know about before the big news drops!
Firstly massive thanks to everyone who came to our London Jazz Festival gig at Kings Place – we had a great time and it was really nice to see so many people there! It was also cool for us to speak to a lot of people in the interval and in the bar after the gig, you’re all lovely… I said this on stage on the night but massive thanks again to everyone at Serious and the London Jazz Festival, as well as to everyone at Kings Place for having us. The picture below (taken by Ben Watte) is our drummer Fin getting a bit excited in soundcheck…
Secondly, you can now purchase our Live @ Band on the Wall DVD through our online shop – just in time for Christmas… They’re priced at £8 + postage which also includes a digital download of the audio tracks and a PDF photo album from the night. We’ve also updated our remixes EP with a brand new remix of yafw (part iii) by our very own Nick Walters – he’s not used his own awesome solo but its still amazing work! The eagle eyed amongst you may notice that our 2009 EP is no longer available to download – this is in preparation for the release of our debut album early next year, as I said above there’ll be more details to come in the next few days…
Posted by on 29/11/2011 at 13:22 in news and tagged band on the wall, dvd, kings place, london jazz festival, nick walters, remixes, shop. Leave comments here.
Ahead of our gig at Kings Place during the London Jazz Festival next weekend (tickets here!) we’re running a competition to win one of 14 copies of our extremely limited edition Live @ Band on the Wall DVDs, signed and dedicated to you by a member of the band!
Full details are below in the customary smaller print but basically all you need to do to enter is send an email with your name and postal address (so we can send the DVD to you if you win) to dvdcompetition@beatsnpieces.net before 1200 GMT on Saturday 19th November. After our soundcheck at Kings Place in the afternoon, each band member will pick an entry at random and then sign a copy of the DVD with a personal message…
Here’s a track from the DVD to whet your appetite – don’t forget that only 200 of these will ever be sold, so if you want to guarantee yourself a copy make sure you get down to Kings Place next weekend and get hold of one! Good luck…
Posted by on 13/11/2011 at 10:56 in news and tagged band on the wall, competition, dvd. Leave comments here.
Our new live EP recorded at the legendary Band on the Wall venue in Manchester is available to download NOW! Head on over to our shop to take a listen or check it out below… You also get a pdf photo album included with the download with 10 great shots by Martin Wilson of us during the soundcheck and the gig back in June.
Don’t forget that the EP launch is Thursday 20th October back at Band on the Wall (where else!) and it’ll be an amazing night – get your tickets in now, they’re cheaper in advance. Also if you’re coming down, say hello on our facebook event!
You’ll also have seen that we’re releasing an extremely limited edition DVD alongside the download which will initially be available exclusively at gigs – you’ve seen pictures of the box, now its time for a preview of the video! Check out queen spark below…
See you on Thursday! We start at 8pm sharp, don’t be late…
Posted by on 17/10/2011 at 11:03 in gigs, news and tagged band on the wall, dvd, live ep, party, youtube. Leave comments here.
Next Monday (17th October), we’re releasing a 3 track live EP recorded in June at the legendary Band on the Wall venue in Manchester – you’ll be able to download it via the Efpi shop. As well as recording the audio, the whole gig was also filmed and I can now reveal that we will be releasing an extremely limited edition DVD of the three tracks alongside the download.
We will only be selling 200 numbered copies of this DVD, and initially they will be available exclusively at our final two gigs of 2011 – the EP launch party at Band on the Wall in Manchester on 20th October (tickets), and at Kings Place during the London Jazz Festival on 19th November (tickets). If there are any copies left after the Kings Place gig we will of course make them available online.
The DVD is pictured above, and we’re really pleased with it! Its a really nice cardboard sleeve, very minimally designed, and each DVD comes with a code to download the audio version for free. We’ll be putting some of the footage from the DVD up on youtube to preview over the next few days so keep an eye out – it looks great though!
If you can’t make it to either of those gigs fear not – we will be holding a competition to win one of 14 copies signed by a member of the band, full details to be announced soon!
Posted by on 13/10/2011 at 13:55 in news and tagged band on the wall, dvd, live ep. Leave comments here.
Very excited to announce details of the release of a live EP next month, which was recorded in June at Band on the Wall in Manchester. You’ll be able to download it from our online shop on Monday 17th October, and there will be an extremely limited edition physical release available alongside the download – more details to follow soon!
We’ll be launching this EP with a big old knees up back at Band on the Wall on Thursday 20th October – tickets available NOW… If you were there in June for the recording, you’ll know that it was a really special night and this promises to be another amazing evening. This will also be our last Manchester date of 2011 which has been an incredible year for us (European Young Artists’ Jazz Award, Ronnie Scott’s twice, live recording etc etc!) so there’ll definitely be a party atmosphere!
See you there…
Posted by on 21/09/2011 at 13:57 in gigs, news and tagged band on the wall, ep, manchester, party. Leave comments here.
I’ve just uploaded a load of pictures from our gig at Band on the Wall in June – there’s few below but check out the rest in our photo gallery. As well as photos from the gig, we also had a quick photoshoot in the morning while microphones were being set up for the recording, and I’ve also uploaded the pick of the bunch from that! All photos are by the rather excellent Martin Wilson.
Also keep an ear to the ground for news about the recording from the night, which you’ll be able to hear very very soon…!
Posted by on 14/09/2011 at 11:59 in gigs, misc and tagged band on the wall, martin wilson, photos. Leave comments here.
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