Tuesday, March 13, 2007

What's on this week

Greetings long-lost friends and regular companions!

It's been a long-time since this mailout hit your inboxes, apologies for the suspension of the service.....we are now back online and you will receive your weekly dose of info once again.

A little bit of catching up to do as well I guess so it's update time.

The Glass Onion is still open and just about keeping head above water. The volunteer crew is strong though still quite small and any time you can give to the project to help out on the bar or with anything else is gratefully received.....this is the only way for the project to work.

The face of Peterborough's nightlife has changed considerably in the last year and a half, with many venues changing hands and policies - we like to think that we have had a hand in the positive changes we have seen in the boro, and are chuffed to find that on our travels people are beginning to recognise Peterborough as somewhere populated with friendly and creative folk and interesting parties.

The summer is nearly hear too - I can smell the spring creeping into the Earth as life slowly spreads through the soil again and the sun slowly gets stronger. The Grassroots Spring Equinox party on Saturday 24th March will be our celebration of this - building up to a busy summer that will leave many smiles on many faces and bring us all new friends, experiences, knowledge and memories.

The sad news is that the Grassroots Festival will not be taking place in 2007. We have had many months of frantically trying to find a site since the sad news reached us that last year's site would not be available this time around. Having chased many many leads and scratched our collective heads plentifully we have had to come to the conclusion that we will not be able to make the festival this year without putting ourselves in great financial risk and compromising the nature of the event itself to its detriment. Work is already afoot on plans for the festival to return in 2008 - we still don't have a finalised site for it so anyone who knows of any prospective sites please let us know about them. We need to have space for party, camping and cars for up to 1500 people and would like to be as isolated as possible.

All things happen for a reason though and with all of the projects currently bubbling maybe it is for the best that we have a break from Grassroots this season. What we do have to look forward to is great:

1. Muddy Promotions are working with Peterborough City Council to run a two-day festival on the embankment in the centre of Peterborough. This won't be quite Grassroots but will be a party that will reach a much wider audience and hopefully cause much positivity in our locale. There will be a great diversity of music on offer and we hope that there will be much smiles, laughter and happiness caused. The event will take place on August 4 & 5. More updates to follow.

2. Newfoundland Festival is growing into a fully licenced event for the first time this summer - and the Indigo Children and Newfoundland people have kindly invited the Muddy collective (strongly headed by the Playskool bods for this one) to run one of the two arenas. We will be taking live music, DJ's, visuals and the arts to the event, and there will also be psychedelic music, spoken word poetry, literature and much more courtesy of the Newfoundland organisers. Links are being grown to Welsh arts group CADRA in order to maximise involvement of the local populous to make a truly multi-dimensional art and party experience in the beautiful Welsh countryside. The Newfoundland Festival will take place on September 7 - 9 and will be an intimate event for less than 500 people, with tickets for very cheap prices and a strong community focus (resonances of Grassroots anyone?). For welcome involvement please email andrewgates23@yahoo.co.uk with Newfoundland as the subject. Much more info to come and tickets will be on sale shortly.

3. We have also had the pleasure to be invited to take our dome, interactive arts experience and some of our DJ's to take part in the Secret Garden Party - one of the finest events in the UK. It will take place in countryside near Huntingdon on 27-29 July. We are only able to take a small crew with us but would love for the Muddy community to be there for a great party. I believe tickets are already on sale. I'll update you as to where soon.

4. The Grassroots name is not on hold just because the festival is, the indoor festivals for the Equinoxes are Solstices will still be rocking and keeping the spirit alive! The next Equinox party will be taking place at the newly renamed and refitted Lisboa Bar - now known as Spirit and Soul - on the 24th March. Keep your eyes peeled for the flyer and for further info. The line-up is superb and the party should be rocking so help keep the fome fires burning at this very special day and night event.

5. The Glass Onion is open full time with many interesting events. I think it's safe to say that the Friday night acoustic sessions and open mic has established itself as the best event of its kind in the local area, and we've also had the privilege of hosting performing artists from the worlds of theatre, cabaret and the full world the arts. Keep check at the Onion for the regularly updated program and on the forum at www.muddypromotions.org.uk/forum

6. Our affiliate and constituent groups have continued to do sterling work for the party and music scene in the boro.

The Playskool Sound Collective continue to bring multi-genre underground parties to the boro and some of the crew have also established Psychedelic Breakdown as the first purely psychedelic music focused event to take place in the boro ever - having hosted artists, DJ's and decorators from all over the country.

Unity are still running every Thursday at Spirit and Soul. Since the start of this year they were running the Unity Band of 2007 competition which has boosted the local live music scene and has now come to its completion (big congratulations to The Brackets - who won the crown). Unity are now relaunching their event and have some amazing line-ups of local musicians as well as some of the best artists from around the country.

Contact continue to experiment with music, visuals and art. They returned to the city with a fantastic line-up after a short break just last week and the event looked and felt better than ever.

System Abuse are still keeping the underground drum & bass parties rolling and have plans to kick some serious fire into their events in the near future.

A new promotion for reggae and roots styles (from dub, ska, and dancehall to rootsy reggae grooves) is being born shortly. Vital Rhythms are chuffed to have the wonderful Vibronics on board for their launch party - taking place on 13th April. They hope to put some much needed skank into the step of people in Peterborough and will also be bringing their party to the Glass Onion for an event in early May.

7. The recording studio at the Glass Onion is now functioning and Drip-Dry records, our in-house record label, have already had the privilege of recording and releasing Richard Hall's beautiful debut EP. He's now in Spain taking his songs far and wide for a while but the Drip-Dry work contines with Circus recording and many more in the pipeline. FOr more info or involvement pop into the Onion and have a chat with Benny.


Enough of the update and on to the immediate business in hand - what's on this week to take your fancy:


Wednesday

The Glass Onion is open for normal business with DJ workshops courtesy of Arry running from 7pm. If you would like to learn the art of DJ'ing, or perfect your skills pop down - it's free after all!


Thursday

Tonight is the Unity relaunch party - with a fantastic line-up of the finest in live music and DJ's:

Lazy Habits - live hip-hop/jazz fusion from London - www.myspace.com/lazyhabits
Groove Cartel - local jazz-funk & soul - www.myspace.com/groovecartel
DJ Urb - eclectic styles weaving the live acts together
Local - DJ from Playskool Sound Collective playing jazzy deep house

The venue is Spirit & Soul, 24 Lincoln Road, Peterborough. Doors open at 8pm with the open jam session running till 9pm. Entrance is FREE before 9pm and only £3/£2 muddy members afterwards. Kick out time will be late.

For a quieter evening its the Glass Onion's games night. Free entrance and lots of stuff to do.

Friday

The city's premier acoustic night/open mic will be rolling along happily at the Glass Onion. Entrance is free as ever, vibes are friendly, music is top notch and music starts at 8pm.

If you fancy a mission further afield Point of Origin www.myspace.com/pointoforigin123 and Opaque www.bandopaque.com are playing at Sound, Leicester Square, London with support coming from The Meercats. I think that entrance to the gig is £5. The afterparty will be the Liquid Records party at the Colosseum in Vauxhall, London - with the best psy-trance, chill and electronica on offer in a wonderful vibe and environment. Advance booking of tickets (£15) from www.accessallareas.org is advised.

For a groovy dance party closer to home Diszkotek are back in Spirit & Soul with underground tekno to get your stomp on to! Doors are 10pm till 4am and entrance is £5.

Just down the road in St Neots (at The Wrestlers) is another chance to see the finalists from Unity's band of the year competition - The Brackets, Revenue and Free Will & the Bad Influences. If you missed it last week you now have another shot at it - and all three bands are very good indeed.

Saturday

Playskool are in Spirit & Soul on Saturday night with two rooms of the best underground electronic music - taking in d&b, psy-trance, deep house, breaks, progressive and hard trance. Entrance is a snip at £4 and door times are 10pm till 5am.

Sunday

Sunday nights are film night at the Glass Onion, with a diverse selection of stuff always available on the Onion's big screen. Entrance is free.


...and finally

Many thanks to all of you for your ongoing support of Muddy Promotions and the arts and music scenes in Peterborough and beyond. Here comes a great summer.

Peace love unity and respect.

No comments: