Author Archives: cath

‘Hooloovoo’ liner notes

Last year, I was commissioned by the brass quintet Mardi Brass to write a piece for their upcoming album ‘Something New’. The album will be the last in their ‘Something’ series (can you guess what the other records are called?), and will focus on new compositions/arrangements written especially for this project.

I sent over my offering in Autumn, and was excited to hear in February that it has been recorded! The piece is called ‘Hooloovoo’, after a creature from ‘The Hitch-Hikers’ Guide To The Galaxy’: it’s a tribute to the late HHGTTG author Douglas Adams, who would have been 60 in 2012. Mardi Brass asked me to write some liner notes/blurb about my contribution, which resulted in the following:

Hooloovoo

In 2012, when I wrote this piece, the late author Douglas Adams would have celebrated his 60th birthday. The occasion was marked with a gig at the Hammersmith Apollo, and when I was asked to write something for Mardi Brass I thought straight away of a ‘blue’ connection that would allow me to make my own tribute. Adams wrote what was probably the most important non-trilogy of books in my childhood, ‘The Hitch-Hikers’ Guide To The Galaxy’ series (there are in fact five novels in the ‘trilogy’). I spent many hours happily lost in the fantastical universe of the HHGTTG, with its array of absurd, wonderful characters and places. This is a universe where humans are the lab-rats in a giant experiment presided over by mice, where a cupcake wired to a person’s head can provide a sudden crushing vision of her own insignificance in the cosmos. It is the home of the ‘Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster’, a cocktail the effects of which are described as ‘like having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick’.

 

One of the inhabitants of the HHGTTG universe is the Hooloovoo. Admittedly, it has a small walk-on part at the beginning of the fist book, but it’s a fascinating creature nonetheless: a super-intelligent shade of the colour blue. The Hooloovoo is part of the team responsible for building the starship ‘Heart of Gold’, and we encounter it at the launch ceremony for the ship, ‘temporarily refracted into a free-standing prism’ for the occasion. This is the scene I was attempting to evoke with the piece: the bustling atmosphere of the opening ceremony, with interjections by its attendees, hailing from various corners of the galaxy. I tried to make the music shape-shift like its namesake, and culminate in the triumphant unveiling of the ‘Heart of Gold’, a ship that becomes an important centre for the novels and, indeed, an important character in them. The Hooloovoo stands by, a splendid vision of blue, as the starship prepares to embark upon what will become, unbeknownst to the reader at this point, one hell of a voyage. All hail Douglas Adams, the architect of this universe and, as is said of one of the HHGTTG main characters Ford Prefect, ‘a frood who really knew where his towel was’.

 

More info on the release of the album when I know more…I’m looking forward to hearing the recording!

Edit: I just read that yesterday (11th March 2013) would have been DA’s 61st birthday, which makes this an accidentally timely post.

Quadraceratops and The Button Band at the Hackney Cut

On February 8th I ventured into the world of gig promoting and put on a double bill at the Hackney Cut. Quadraceratops were joined by The Button Band for a really nice evening of music, pizza, cake eating and general hanging out at a venue that boasts the address ‘Fish Island’. Sadly not open for public gigs any more (nothing to do with us!) the Hackney Cut is a great space and was also home to Dee Byrne’s ‘Jazz at the Hackney Cut’ weekly night.

We recorded and filmed the gig, and I’ll post some videos on here soon subject to the usual video-editing delay. Audio and I have a much better relationship though, so there are some recordings up on my Soundcloud page:

A big thanks to all the musicians, and also to Gideon Conn for producing the button/dinosaur flyer artwork that got so many compliments as I pushed it into people’s faces to promote the gig. The process of putting on a gig was moderately stressful but is definitely something I’d like to do more of. Plans are being hatched as you read this…

 

December 2012 gigs retrospective: MSQ on the road

I’ll continue this afternoon of cataloguing the end of 2012 with a look back to the Madwort Sax Quartet gigs in December. We left London behind and set off on a mini-tour of The Midlands and The North: not bad for the second thing the band ever did! Arguably, as it was a pair of gigs, this should be referred to as a series, but due to the travel involved I’m going to stick my neck out here and call it a mini-tour….

The first stop was Derby and Corey Mwamba‘s ‘One Note Sunday’ night at the Flowerpot. We played two sets to an extremely interested and appreciative audience. Again, it was a cool thing to have this happen at the band’s second ever gig. The idea with One Note Sunday is that people go along to hear something new…as in, not even something they’ve listened to online in advance to see if they like it, but something brand new to them. Risky tactics, you say! Yes. But, what it means from a performer’s perspective is that the people who show up are definitely going to be there to check out the music…and that feels great! We had a good gig there. The sign below was posted by the bar but was totally redundant.

Tom recorded the gig and filmed it. He’s posted a series of four videos on YouTube: the tracks are Shard, S (by Larry Ochs/Rova), Maps and Islands In The Green. Shard and Maps were new tunes that Tom wrote in time for the December gigs.

After Derby, we had a day off before travelling to Manchester to play at Efpi Records’ Freedom Principle night at Sandbar. It was nice to go back and play there again after the Quadraceratops gig for them in June, which was a lovely night. With the quartet, we shared the bill with the Anton Hunter trio. I have to say, perhaps egotistically, that my favourite part of this gig was when we combined the two bands and played some of my music! Anton had clocked that if we merged the two bands we would have a sort of hybrid almost-Quadraceratops septet and he suggested we did a couple of my tunes. With, well, basically no rehearsal. More risky tactics! I like to think of it as the Madanton Worthunter Quartrio. Four saxes, guitar, bass and drums! It was FUN, and pretty anarchic. There’s a video of it, and I’ll post it up here once I get my head around cutting the video into tracks….

November 2012 gigs retrospective

A freezing cold, snowy February day like today seems the perfect time to sift through the various photos, videos, and recordings I’ve amassed over the past three months. I’ve had a lot going on but not much time to write about it until now, so here goes.

Quadraceratops were lucky enough to play in the 2012 London Jazz Festival, which was the highlight of my Autumn. We supported Get The Blessing at the Jazz Cafe in Camden on the 17th November, playing to our biggest audience so far. It was also the biggest venue we’ve played, so the whole evening was slightly surreal and a lot of fun. Ricky Day kindly took on audience-eye-view photography duty on the night, and I’ve put up an album of his shots of the Quadraceratops FB page, plus the couple in this post. A big thanks to Dom Servini, who DJed at the gig, for booking us to come and play.

The following week we had a gig at ‘Jazz at the Waterline’ in Dalston. This is a night run by my friend Dee Byrne (although she has subsequently moved it to the Hackney Cut, due to what is hopefully the Waterline’s temporary closure). The back room of the Waterline is a cosy, intimate space and it was a nice gig for trying out some new music. I had recently finished a composition called ‘Flying South’, so it got its first outing on that night.

The Waterline gig was possibly also the first time that the band name has appeared on a blackboard (above) which I enjoyed. In addition, Dee took some photos on her phone including this one, below, and the trippy one on my ‘Gigs‘ page. Someone was clearly enjoying adding weird effects…hopefully inspired by the music!

I’d like to say a massive thanks to the ‘November lineup’, who put in a lot of work, switched around instruments a bit and played great on both gigs. They were (and indeed are):

Tom Ward – baritone sax (in role as a trombone while Magnus was away)

Andrew Woolf – tenor sax (in role as Tom Ward)

Chris Snead and Dave Orchant – trumpet (one on each gig)

Jason Simpson – bass

Kit Massey – keyboards

Luke Christie – drums

Dino Radio

Happy New Year!

More 2013 news: I’ve just confirmed that Quadraceratops will be playing live on the radio at the end of this month! It’s true. We’ll be on Dom Servini’s show on Colourful Radio, Tuesday January 29th sometime between 7 and 10pm. Hear the larks ensue as we cram the whole band into the studio for a live session…

2013 gigs…

Some write-ups of November and Decemberly activity to come soon, hopefully produced during fireside mulled-wine based blogging sessions. For now, a quick update about next year – 2013 – which it seems is just around the corner.

On February 8th Quadraceratops will be playing at the Hackney Cut, a new venue by the canal near Hackney Wick. This might be a double bill too…more info soon. Then on March 24th we’re heading to the Salisbury on Green Lanes, where the Madwort Sax Quartet had a lovely gig in September.

Should be fun!

Madwort Sax Quartet Mini Tour

I’m a bit out of touch with online stuff at the moment due to house moving chaos, so there will be more comprehensive posts to come soon, but in the mean time this is what’s coming up next week….

Madwort Sax Quartet Mini Tour!

Part One: The Midlands:

2nd December – One Note Sunday, The Flowerpot, Derby

Part Two: The North:

4th December –  Freedom Principle, Sandbar, Manchester

This will be lots of fun. We’ll be playing Tom Ward’s original music (including new stuff not even played at the band’s first gig!) and doing some group improv too. In Manchester we’re sharing the bill with the Anton Hunter Trio.

See you there!

Quadraceratops in November

Tomorrow, we re-group to start rehearsing for the upcoming November gigs. It should be larks and I just wrote a big round-robin email to spread the word. You probably know all this, but it reads:

Hello everyone,

Hope you’re all well. Welcome to the second ever Quadraceratops mailing list email, here to let you know about our upcoming activities in November. We have two London dates:

London Jazz Festival @ Jazz Cafe, 17th November
First up, I’m excited to say that we’re part of the London Jazz Festival this year! On Saturday 17th November, Quadraceratops will support Get The Blessing at the Jazz Cafe, Camden. We’re looking forward to playing at this top venue, and it should be a lovely night – also featuring DJ Dom Servini (Wah Wah 45s). There’s more info and tickets at the Jazz Cafe’s website and the Jazz Festival’s website….plus, I’ve heard on the grapevine that there will be some sort of cheap ticket list, so drop me a reply if you’d like to know more about that. It promises to be a lot of fun and we’d love to see you there.

Jazz @ The Waterline, 22nd November
When we’ve calmed down after all the festival excitement, we’ll be playing at the Waterline bar in Dalston on Thursday 22nd November. This will be a more intimate, chilled affair and our two sets will hopefully include some new material that I’m currently working on. If you can’t make it to the Jazz Cafe or (ideally) you can and you’d like to hear more of us, come down and say hello: we’ll be starting at about 8.30pm.

You might notice at the these gigs that the band looks slightly different – I’ve got a special November line up as a couple of the Quadraceratopsians have other commitments this month, so you’ll be hearing Chris Snead (trumpet), Andrew Woolf (tenor sax) and Jason Simpson (bass) guesting at one or both gigs. Tom Ward will be wielding the baritone sax too. Thanks guys!

If you’d like to receive these kind of emails from me in the future, drop me a line on hello[at]cathrobertsmusic.co.uk. Some day there will be a ‘sign up to the mailing list’ type link, but I’m kind of saving it for a rainy day.

See you out there…