For Folk's Sake » Anna Calvi

News | Portraits of Emmy the Great, Iron & Wine, Dan Mangan go on show

Lynn Roberts — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:39:57 +0000

Dan Mangan

Portraits of Emmy the Great, Dan Mangan, Iron & Wine and Anna Calvi feature in London-based figurative painter Joe Simpson’s exhibition ‘Musician Portraits’ opening next month.

The paintings will be on display from 14th – 30th October at a temporary gallery in the converted library at 16/17 Greek Street, Soho, London W1D 4DR. Entrance is free.

Joe has spent the past year flying all over the world to meet the musicians at their houses, studios and backstage at gigs.

He said: “The paintings have a physicality to them that you don’t get with a photograph. The paint has a specific weight and application and you can see layers and brushmarks in the hair and skin tones of the subjects. I’m really excited to see all the paintings displayed together under one roof for the very first time.

The portraits will be sold after the exhibition, with 25% of the proceeds going to the charity Seeing is Believing.

>> More about the exhibition at Joe Simpson’s website
>> Joe’s twitter

Emmy the Great

Sam Beam (Iron & Wine)

Lisa Hannigan

Anna Calvi

Matt Berninger (The National)

FFS’s pick of the Southbank Centre Festival of Britain

Lynn Roberts — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:11:42 +0000

There’s not much lovelier than a stroll along Southbank in the Spring sunshine, so it seems the perfect place for the 4-month long Festival of Britain, starting this month at the Southbank Centre. The festival will feature music of all genres, as well as comedy and talks. Below we choose our top ten of the hundreds of events on offer. And if you don’t live in London – why not make a pilgrimage? There’s certainly enough going on to warrant it.

Talvin Singh & Niladri Kumar at Queen Elizabeth Hall on Sunday 24 April 2011
Tabla player and producer Talvin Singh has worked with musicians including Björk, Madonna and Massive Attack. He recently released an album with sitar player Niladri Kumar Together – the Southbank have got the pair for a rare performance together.
>> More information and tickets | Guardian review of Together

Billy’s Big Busk at Festival Riverside Level 1 on Saturday 30 April 2011
Billy Bragg is inviting musicians of all abilities – which we take to mean “anyone who can get their hands on a musical instrument” – for an afternoon of busking on the bank of the Thames. Chord charts and lyrics will be available on the Southbank website before the day.
>> More information

The Great Folk Jukebox at the Royal Festival Hall on Saturday 7 May 2011
Part of the These Lands are Your Lands series, the Great Folk Jukebox is a tribute to the 1951 ‘Singing Englishmen’ concert at the first Festival of Britain. Marc Almond, Green Gartside and members of Bellowhead will play folk songs from the past 60 years. After the concert at 10.30pm, we’ll be heading down to the Midnight Ceilidh for a wee dance. Admission to the Ceilidh is free.
>> More information and tickets for the concert

Gaggle at the Clore Ballroom on Friday 13 May 2011
Transgressive’s all-female choir Gaggle will take to the stage of the Clore Ballroom for a free show. BBC 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne called them “nu rave pre-Raphaelites you’ll want to experience live” and who are we to argue?
>> More information | Transgressive Records website

In Search of Nic Jones at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Saturday 28 May 2011
Nic Jones is a highly influential folk musician who was forced to stop playing due to a car accident 30 years ago. In this concert a veritable who’s who of trad folk pay tribute to the great man through his songs, and Nic himself will return to the stage for a reunion of one of his old bands, The Bandoggs. With performances from Jim Moray, Jim Causley, Anaïs Mitchell and Jackie Oates, this is not to be missed.
>> More information and tickets

Michael Eavis: Glastonbury Life in the Purcell Room on Monday 13 June 2011
The Godfather of festivals, Michael Eavis, will be speaking about what it’s like to be in charge of Glastonbury.
>> More information and tickets

7	Ron Sexsmith and Anna Calvi at the Royal Festival Hall on Thursday 16 June 2011 Acclaimed songwriter Ron Sexsmith joins Anna Calvi, whose “swooning sensual debut album” was released this year to great acclaim. >> More information and tickets

Ray Davies & London Philharmonic Orchestra with the Crouch End Festival Chorus at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 19 June 2011
Kinks frontman and Meltdown director Ray Davies is playing a one-off show with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Crouch End Festival Chorus. In the first half of the show Davies, the orchestra and choir, will play songs from the Kinks’ album Village Green Preservation Society. Imagine! Tickets are pricey, but we think it’s worth it.
>> More information and tickets

Robin Ince at the E4 Udderbelly on Monday 11 July 2011
A frequent guest on BBC 6 music, comedian Robin Ince is a self-proclaimed ‘angry man’. Music fan, science geek and avid reader, he is a true polymath. And his brand of indignant and self-effacing geekery is hilarious, says I.
>> More information and tickets | Robin Ince’s website

Isy Suttie at the E4 Udderbelly on Tuesday 12 July 2011
Isy Suttie is a musical comedian – best known as Dobbie from Peep Show – who sometimes duets with folk musician Gavin Osborne. She pokes gentle fun at village life, herself and her family with such good-humour and charm that you can’t help having your cockles warmed.
>> More information and tickets

Mumford & Sons headline NME/Communion show

Lynn Roberts — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:00:27 +0000

Communion – run by Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett and Cherbourg alum Kev Jones – have teamed up with the NME to promote a special folk show at London’s Dingwalls.

Headliners Mumford & Sons will be joined by Anna Calvi (read our review of her brilliant album), Marcus Foster and new FFS favourite Rachel Sermanni, who appeared on the Communion Compilation.

These days Dingwalls is about as intimate a venue as you could hope to see the Sons in, but Ben says: “We played at Dingwalls for our second EP launch a couple of years back, it was such a massive deal for us to play a venue of that size, and I remember how nervous we were to play infront of that many people.

“We cannot wait to be back in London and return to the venue alongside such an amazing line-up of acts, new and old friends, and for another great Communion night”

Tickets for the show go on sale on Thursday from Musicglue.com for £20.

Words: Lynn Roberts

Album: Anna Calvi — Anna Calvi

For Folk's Sake — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 11:55:02 +0000

The opening track of Anna Calvi’s eponymous debut, ‘Rider to the Sea’, is gloriously filmic, a Western in two-and-a-half minutes, complete with rattlesnakes, rumbling drums and gongs. Calvi’s vocals enter only as a crescendo at the end; it’s like meeting a particularly melodramatic mermaid.

This swooning, sensual album has endured much comparison with PJ Harvey, which is an irritating challenge to die-hard Harvey fans like me, so let’s address the charge swiftly and move on. Yes, Calvi echoes PJ Harvey’s To Bring You My Love era: all deserts, devils, grandoise passion and strong, deep vocals. But this is more of a sun-drenched landscape, less messy; even in Harvey’s cheeriest moments there is a dark chord.

In fact, Anna Calvi seems to be at her best when she’s not trying to be dark, like a flamenco dancer donning a goth costume; I grew impatient with the husky come-ons of second track ‘No More Words’, but was practically euphoric at third track ‘Desire‘, which is the most fun thing I’ve heard in a long time, with its tub-thumping beat and joyous, sweeping chorus.

‘Suzanne and I’ is like a Bond film soundtrack; it could have been written at any time in the past four decades. Indeed, Calvi is so slick that it’s hard to tell if all her songs really come from the heart; there’s something of the cabaret act about ‘First We Kiss’: theatrical, sexy, possibly insincere.

There’s so much to love that any misgivings are quickly drowned out, however; her major theme is seduction, and she does it brilliantly. ‘Blackout’ is beautiful, gleefully sweeping everything off its feet. Some may find it all a bit overblown, but this album sounds like someone having a hell of a lot of fun, and potentially creating a classic in the process. Final track ‘Love Won’t Be Leaving’ sounds like Judy Garland crossed with Pulp Fiction. She shoots, she scores.

Words: Becky Varley-Winter

Out now on Domino: Anna Calvi

WIN: tickets to Rockfeedback 10th birthday celebrations featuring British Sea Power

Lynn Roberts — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:54:44 +0000

Website and promoters extraordinaire Rockfeedback are celebrating their anniversary with a London show “Rockfeedback X: Ten Years of Rockfeedback”, which featuring a stellar line up of gigs and an exhaustive list of DJs.

On 17th September RFB will take over new East London venue XOYO with performances from British Sea Power, Future of the Left, Anna Calvi, Three Trapped Tigers and some secret guests.

For more information and tickets visit Rockfeedback.com. Doors open at 8pm and goes on until 3am.

Rockfeedback’s founder Toby – who started the website in his bedroom when he was 15 – said: ‘We’re thrilled with the standard of artists that have wanted to perform – we’ve actually been trying to book British Sea Power for one of our live events for what might as well be a decade now, so it’s apt we finally got them!”

Rockfeedback since spawned Transgressive Records, which has worked with artists including Johnny Flynn, Regina Spektor and The Shins.

To win a pair of tickets to the show just tell usthe name of British Sea Power’s first album. Send answers to RFBcomp [at] forfolkssake.com by noon on 14th September. The winner will be notified the same day.

Festival: Secret Garden Party 2010 – Fact or Fiction

For Folk's Sake — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:14:32 +0000

After a journey to secretdom (somewhere between Cambridge and Norwich), the garden unfurls itself all centred around a huge flying machine anchored in a giant lake. This years theme was ‘Fact or Fiction’ and no effort was spared with the hidden quirks and treats laid out for us to discover.

Foraging was positively encouraged and results included *deep breath* an origami penguin grotto, a “harp hive”, a tree-house stage, a mud wrestling amphitheatre, live chameleons, snakes and tarantulas, naked ping-pong, a home-made post office, a flirting tent, hay-bale mountains, vintage fancy dress stalls, a pedal-powered disco and more sculptures than possible to describe.

The music stages, some tented some open air, added to the settlement, like a pick-and-mix circus camp, the eclectic line up served up three days of wall-to-wall live music ranging from reggae to Americana, dubstep to swing, folk to funk… over 1000 bands in all — meaning you and 100 of your friends could all have had totally different party experiences in the lands of “dreams & fables”, “twilight & voodoo”, “adventures and inventions” or “the edge of the future”.

Friday

Fionn Regan

It’s hardly Dylan going electric but Fionn Regan has gone rock, soft rock. A “relaxed” main stage midday crowd didn’t greatly enthuse and calls for his earlier heartfelt acoustics went ignored.

Famed ex-Beta Band front man and a man of many guises Steve Mason performed a mixture of old and new from his many cannons.

We battled, squeezed, wheezed and ultimately failed to see much of Marina and the Diamonds. The main stage was at it’s busiest to see the synth-pop darling – all too competitive for us fragile folk, but the crowd were engrossed!

Honourable mention to Brightons croon-gypsy-swing outfit Code Luna who played a smooth, bop-able set in the unqiue surroundings of the Taxidermy Diner, a gyspy version of the Thomas the Tank Engine theme went down a storm!

Saturday

Sarah Blasko

The start of a busy day saw Sarah Blasko tackle the difficult early main stage slot. A powerful, dark, almost sultry vocal kept the crowds attention.

Pearl and the Puppets

Quick tracks were made to the Where The Wilds Things Are stage to see the rightly-tipped Pearl and the Puppets and Summer Camp neither of which disappointed and oozed summer indie-cool, a pair of real highlights for the festival.

Summer Camp

The interesting combination of techno-gyspy-swing was delivered by an incredibly smooth Caravan Palace, perhaps only let down slightly by their own polish.

A rammed Living Room tent saw Eliza Doolittle deliver a charismatic and confident set, you can see something of the starlet in her… a real coup for the small stage.

To cap the night off James Yuill almost singled-handedly deafened me, his poignantly bass heavy electronica kept the darkened Living Room hypnotized and prepared all for the rest of the nights djs and revelry.

Sunday

The airship had been burned, hangovers were in full effect, the pace and bass seemed to drop a jot, but many memorable performances were still to be had.

Anna Calvi

The impressive, powerful Anna Calvi displayed exactly why she was billed as “possibly one of the best female guitarists around on the underground” — praise that was not misplaced.

Preston boys Ivan Campo played an intimate acoustic set to a crowd nuzzling softly on cushions and sofas, a heartfelt set and just the right pace for the afternoon.

I Am Arrows

Next was “must see” I Am Arrows — moving on from past success and taking centre stage can’t be easy, so kudos to ex-Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows, however the set of forgetful indie-pop failed to live up to the billing.

Chilled out is an embarrassing understatement to described the feel of reggae legend Horace Andy, solid set from the Jamaican stalwart, almost lulling the crowd into a further state of mellow.

Darwin Deez

The mellow feel of the day didn’t last long. Enter Darwin Deez. Easily the most enjoyable set of the weekend and one greatly anticipated by the crowd. Never has a band fit a festival so well. The interlude break-dance skits verged on the hilarious, the entire band beamed and oozed frivolity – matched only by the lucky girls who won a kiss from an impromptu game of spin the bottle down in the crowd mid-set. Between songs banter was almost awaited, never were the crowd allowed to rest on their laurels.

An incredibly, almost embarrassingly, shambolic Beans on Toast turned in a “set” of sorts, supposedly his 246th of the weekend… after constant complaining about the mic set up, half a song was played, the crowd were asked to invade the stage, then asked to pick up all the litter in the tent… a bizarre 30 minutes… culminating in free beer being handed out at his insistence.

The Apples closed our festival with up-tempo big band swing and double DJs. The mix was intriguing but worked a treat, brass and vinyl working perfectly in harmony… a closing cover of RATM “Killing in the Name Of” was a highlight of the whole weekend.

Get set for Secret Garden Party 2011: Procure a gold jump suit, kit your dog out with a tutu, forget your middle name is Leonard and you work in an open-plan office; drink, dance and revel in the carefree atmosphere that oozes effortlessly out of this festival!

Love Jovid xx

Words: Dave Wall; Pictures: Jo Kirk

WIN: Tickets to Peggy Sue’s Royal Albert Hall gig

Lynn Roberts — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:50:03 +0000

We’re not going to pretend we don’t feel a little bit precious about Peggy Sue. We remember them back in the day when they were lamenting the fate of Superman, covering Kimya Dawson songs and a person could get right to the front of their gigs with only the slightest bit of elbow work.

But Rosa, Katy and Olly have moved on to bigger and more exciting things, with their wonderful debut album Fossils and Other Phantoms getting rave reviews across the board. We’re pretty happy that the world is catching on to their unique sounds. And now, they’re only playing the Albert Hall. The Elgar rooms rather than the ginormous main one, but still… pretty swish.

Peggy Sue will be joined by Anna Calvi and The Rural Alberta Advantage at the regal venue on 12th May for a Rockfeedback Hush show.

The chaps at Rockfeedback are kindly giving away a pair of tickets for this exciting show to an FFS reader. To be in with a chance of winning just send your answers to the following question to win[at]forfolkssake[dot]com before noon on Wednesday 28th April:

An old cover of which Kimya Dawson song featured on Peggy Sue’s recent free EP A Body Of Work?

Hear more from each band at their MySpaces: Peggy Sue, The Rural Alberta Advantage and Anna Calvi

And if you just can’t bear to wait to get a ticket safely in your hands you can buy them here.

WIN tickets to RFB with Kassidy, Andrew Davie & Anna Calvi

Lynn Roberts — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:00:01 +0000

One lucky FFS reader will win two free tickets to Thursday (25th Feb) night’s Kassidy, Andrew Davie, Anna Calvi and Lulu and the Lampshades gig at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen.

The bands will be joined by Blue Flowers DJs and Helen and I will be on hand to spin a few tunes as For Folk’s Sake DJs too.

You can read FFS’s review of Davie’s first solo show here.

To be in with a chance of winning. Just tell us which band Andrew Davie fronted until recently. Answer in the comments box below, or email win[at]forfolkssake[dot]com.

Competition closes at 6pm on Wednesday 24th February. The winner will be picked at random and emailed with the smashing news.

If you’re not lucky enough to win, tickets are available from We Got Tickets.

And, when you have the time, we highly recommend you check out Rockfeedback’s other shows, sessions and reviews.

Words: Lynn Roberts

Rockfeedback launches folk nights

Lynn Roberts — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:33:39 +0000

Our pals over at Rockfeedback have been putting on great folky shows for a while now. The souvenir keyrings FFS has attached to our belongings (Peggy Sue + Local Natives + Curly Hair and First Aid Kit + Blue Roses + Kill it Kid) prove as much, but now they’ve launched a new thoroughly folk night called ‘Over the Green Hills‘ just to make sure there’s no question at all.

The first OtGH show will be on 25th February at London’s Hoxton Bar and Kitchen and will feature Kassidy, Andrew Davie (formerly of Cherbourg – read our live review of his first solo show), Anna Calvi and Allotment veterans Lulu and the Lampshades. And Helen and I will be spinning a few tunes as For Folk’s Sake DJs, which is jolly exciting for us, if not for everyone else.

Tickets are available from We Got Tickets (which – in our humble opinion – is the least scammy of the ticket sites. Just sayin’).

Come along and say hello. Gowan.

Words: Lynn Roberts

Special deal at Peggy Sue album launch show, download Lover Gone

Lynn Roberts — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:56:11 +0000

The wonderful Peggy Sue are celebrating the very exciting release of their debut album with a London show on 29th March. The Brighton/London trio are offering a special admission + album ticket to the show for £14.

Fossils and Other Phantoms will be released on Witchita records a week after the show.

The gig will be held at The Relentless Garage, promoted by Platforms Live. Support comes from the amazing Dan Michaelson & The Coastguards and Anna Calvi.

Without the album, tickets for the show are £8.50. Both types of tickets are available at www.platformslive.co.uk.

Have a listen to Lover Gone to whet your appetite for this long-awaited album.

Words: Lynn Roberts

For Folk's Sake » Anna Calvi

News | Portraits of Emmy the Great, Iron & Wine, Dan Mangan go on show

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Friday

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