123 Days till Christmas. Merch.

https://www.artspacecumbria.com/product-page/aoire-appyali-organ-doner-7-45rpm-lathecut-vinyl

As I type this there are just 123 Days and 11 hours till Christmas. Avoid unnecessary panic by investing in these fine products. We have Books, animation flipbooks, Cassette tapes, Lathe Cut 45s, Screen printed t shirts and pop cult figure sculptures. Everything comes with a screen printed bag too, and the £ goes to the artists.  Link above. If you're local and don't need the post, message us.

REVERB EARLY DOORS AT SEAHOUSE AND ULVERSTON

Appropriately, we have a cassette recording of Aoire /John at Seahouse in Barrow, along with Jim's video. The music is a mix of treated Dulcimer and Shaun's Barrow Demo Cassette samples, we also screened 3 of the video pieces from the show and the Best Merch Table In Cumbria(tm). Here are a few shots from the set up and the show...  

Seahouse is a great spot, there's more info on it here...https://seahouserecords.com/the-sea-house/

Many thanks to Seahouse's Rebecca and Steve, and Matt who mastered our vinyl... and to our audiences here and in Ulverston. A couple of days ago we held an afternoon of Screenings in Ulverston's best music pub, The Hope And Anchor, and plans are afoot for more events, including our Heritage project and a follow up to an enquiry from the National Museum Of Youth Culture in Camden.

"How do you get music out of just that stuff? It's absolutely lovely"

"A great film, really impressive"

 

REVERB on CANDO Tonight 6pm

Off to see Deb Henry at CANDOFM tonight. Deb delivers an excellent show looking at the local music scene, and a while ago she had me ( John) and Shaun Blezard- AK Aoire- in the studio to talk about our FON gig and various plans for records and other REVERB events...tonight I'm going in to see Deb and tell you about the show at Seahouse on saturday evening. We'll play the records  and talk about the body of work that we are bringing along with us, including the Artfly Barrow Scene Jukebox, animations, video, Sculpture, tapes, and books, and to look at what comes next, like the Heritage project I'm doing with FON and ooh all sorts.

Deb's show begins at 6pm, https://candofm.co.uk/deborah-henry/

 

Reverb at the Laurel and Hardy

Images from our event at the Laurel and Hardy Museum the other week. A lovely turn out, next stop is cando Fm with Deb Henry, and Seahouse in Barrow on July 25th. We had some great comments from our audience..here's a cross section..

grand evening - could see how much you’ve put your heart and soul into the work . Always true to your roots - good on ya lad xxx

grand night that.

Congratulations on such a successful event and fab project John! It was really inspiring.

 

Ellie Chaney, Flipbook Animation

You may remember we had a great morning at Full Of Noises in Barrow, recording a traditional Afghan dance for an animation. Ellie Chaney has been working on this, and we have compiled her drawings as part of our Reverb Sampler project video. The end product will be a Flipbook. The dancers were the nicest bunch of lads you could hope to meet, so thank you to Sartoor Shaman Said (photographer)
Hamidullah Mangal,Abdul Razaq Sagan,Rahim Ullah Jabarkhail, andNoorsalam Arabzai. Hopefully we'll see you in Barrow for the Seahouse show.

Thanks to Linda, Pat and Pete from Furness Refgee Support for the introduction, and Amy at Full Of Noises for the introduction.

Here is a special post from Ellie, describing her methods...the results are beautiful, what you see here is just a taste. And if you want to see more of Ellie's wide ranging practice...here she is...https://www.eleanorchaney.com/

“While I've made lots of animations before, they have always been stop-motion using puppets and I had very little experience making a flipbook or a frame-by-frame cell animation.

Looking at the video John recorded with the dancers, it became clear the first step was to extract the still frames for the 80 pages of the flipbook. After a bit of research it seemed like the best way to do this was to use FFmpeg, which is able to take a small edit of the footage I gave it, and export the frames at even intervals. 

The next step was working out what the drawings should actually look like. This part was definitely more difficult. 

I initially tried drawing the dancers in a few different ways on Procreate using my iPad - using loose sketchy lines, using ink tools to look like images created with a dip pen and using charcoal tools to try making tonal drawings...but nothing really worked.

Feeling a bit stuck, I researched animation techniques to find a more effective approach. I knew I really wanted to capture the sense of movement in the dance, and I could image something that was less linear and more tonal would create an feeling of atmosphere and energy.

This led me to looking at two animators - Caroline Leaf and William Kentridge.

Caroline Leaf is widely recognised for her innovative approaches to animation.

In 'the Owl Who Married A Goose' from 1974, Leaf used sand on using sand on glass creating lightboxes that formed organic, tonal images full of movement and fluidity. https://youtu.be/FbFD-3GCnVI?si=zjADfD2TSBIqGj6Y

Whereas in 'On The Street' from 1976 she used paint on the glass, adding glycerine to watercolour to keep it from drying out so she could move the paint around. https://youtu.be/Xsb29V2ecj4?si=HoF4KAC93XPeaOTx

William Kentridge is also an award winning artist who is well-known for his labour intensive technique of drawing onto large sheets of paper with charcoal, then creating animations by smudging and erasing his work before drawing the next frame on top of this. This creates animations where images emerge from one another with visible marks of the process. https://youtu.be/Xsb29V2ecj4?si=HoF4KAC93XPeaOTx

My main goal with this work was to create a flipbook though, and this project didn't have the time or budget to create something so demanding. However looking at both artists helped me to develop a technique I could use on the iPad to find that sense of movement I was looking for.

The method had to be something I could do in under 30 minutes for each frame (because I needed to make 80!), and it also needed to be accurate so the flipbook and animation would be true to the choreography of the dance, and work at the end when all sense together.

So I ended up creating each image in four stages using Procreate on my iPad.

Step 1 was to import the image on to a black canvas the dimensions of the flipbook.The dancers moved across the page so I also needed to make sure they would fit from start to finish, starting at the far edge of the paper.”

Thanks Ellie

REVERB SAMPLER at the Laurel and Hardy Museum JUNE 25TH

 

REVERB is entering the lead-out groove..., our project  on pop culture, the agency of souvenirs and ephemera is coming tp a close.  First, there's a nice night in the offing at the Laurel and Hardy next week...we will be presenting a video compilation of  animation, performance excerpts, new music, video  and images from the project, including John Rennie's video piece from the Dock Museum show and Jim Alexanders "Song Of David" animation and the marvellous Artfly Jukebox, a kind of audio documentary in a beautifully crafted format.   We'll be previewing the new lathe-cut 45s from me and Shaun,  Alex's pop tribe sculptures and the video versh of Ellie's Dance Flipbook, using video we shot with five Afghan lads last year in Barrow. There should be a book available too, on pop, its products and place, and oooh, allsorts.   

Admission is by a donation to the Ulverston Food project, doors open at 7 so you can sample the museums excellent bar, and we'll be down at about 9 so we can come to the Hope. 

There'll  be another event in Barrow next month, and then we will be following up the responses and spinoffs.....I had a piece in the Radiophrenia festival last year, Shaun's tape release "The Keening" has had an excellent review in Wire mag, and we had an enquiry from the National Museum of Youth Culture about Alex's work and the project in general.

Come and see us on thursday.   

"White Lion / I Want The Lion / White Lion /" etc

    

The first two of Alex Blackmore's Youth Tribes editions, along with a bit of stout packaging in progress.

These figures are really beautiful, 6 inches tall, detail and clobber  dragged from Alex's memory and from photos loaned and uploaded by friends. 

 You'll get a detachable period graffiti'd brick wall, for the figure to glower in front of, and a badge for your Lewis leather or Donkey Jacket.

Ideal for intimidating your Star Wars figures.

Craft Slices. Lathe cut 45s

This is almost unbearably exciting.  2 boxes of Lathe-cut 45s arrived today, the AOIRE single Appyali / Organ Doner, and my Familiar Music EP, which is actually about the length of most singles, but you get four tracks.

If you heard AOIRE at FON in Barrow just before Christmas you'll have an idea of the deepmined intricacies of this music, which is sourced from local band demo tapes, rehearsal cassettes and recordings made by our much loved and missed Ali Rigg, whose home recordings were among the most popular recordings on the Artfly Dock-ola Juke Box during the Play One Of Your Own exhibition. At the same gig you'll have also heard versions of the 4 instrumentals that make up Familiar Music, played on Dulcimers, Guitar and Psaltery. You also hear a Yamaha keyboard and last years Bees in my garden.

The recordings were mastered by Matt Kassel at Seahouse in Barrow, and cut in real time by our friend Ben at Plastidisc. 

https://seahouserecords.com/

https://plastidisc.com/

The quality is marvellous. As is the music, obviously... but Ben and Matt have done us proud here. 

So, now we have to assemble the sleeves and get the records into them. There'll be a launch event, but before that there'll be other news on REVERB.

We'll be back after this short break.

 

Box Fresh: The Teams That Meet In Caffs

 Pieces from the first of 3 editions by Alex Blackmore, The Yoof Culture Collection, perched on their packaging. The Teams That Meet In Caffs, in Donkey Jackets, Dungarees and Wool Caps.  Tea, three sugars, Eggy Bread, NME. 

3D printing by FUSION 3D of Barrow in Furness https://www.facebook.com/p/Fusion-3D-Printing-100085543682492/

info@fusion3dprinting.co.uk

Self-assembly Flatpack.

 These are the sleeves for our lathecut vinyl editions. After a bit of folding and sticking we'll end up with 2 45's, from recordings lovingly mastered by Shaun and Matt Kassel at Barrow's Seahouse Studio. There's also some great footage in the offing from AOIRE/Shaun's FON gig, recorded by Laurence Campbell, associate dust photographer. 

We are Dust Mites / We are Golden.

I've been allowing dust to settle on this LP record for about two and a half years, and today filmmaker / editor Laurence Campbell - who did the video for me and Shaun at FON the other week, and records all their shows - has recorded some marvellous video footage of my pick up-arm ploughing through the dust and of it gathering on the stylus.

An excellent afternoon. Thanks Larry.

Yes Master.

 

Right then.  The masters for me and Shaun's singles are in the hands of Ben at Plasticraft the vinyl lathecutters. Alex is assembling his ranks of picket line indiekids (or something) while me and Jim work on the packaging. The animation is looking good and Ellie is working on a flickbook.  I had a trip to Chesterfield last week to talk to their Museum about a similar project dahn theeyer, and stopped off to talk to Phil, late of The Instructions about their brief and bewildering journey from a flat on Steamer St to the Ambrose for the latest of the heritage interviews project. Then back here for further chats with Glyn Fogharty on drummers and drumming, and Sue Gill on Blast Furnace. I'm stoppininternate it's baltic.

 

Busy Old Week..the FON gig, Animation and 3D Printing.

 

A very busy and very good few days on Reverb. Song Of David, Jim's animation took another giant step, and  We were at Full Of Noises in Barrow Park last week for a performance. We showed a teaser loop from  and I played some of the recordings that will make up the soundtrack and a vinyl release called Familiar Music next year. This was followed by a performance by Aoire.  Aoire deep-mines rehearsal tapes and cassette  releases by for stems and samples, and subjects them to a granular, forensic examination. What emerges is like a hazy memory of youth glimpsed from a middle aged perspective, it floats in a suspension of blue pub air and valve amp hum, pinpricked by shards of clarity. You also heard recordings from what had been the Edisons night club on Abbey Road, kindly made by Jon Borgia,and voices from audience tapes of performances there.

Cassettes of Aoire's music are available here..

https://www.johnhallartistcumbria.com/product-page/aoire-the-keening 

There is video of the evening and the set-up on the way from Laurence Campbell, and audio from various sources, this will be included in the final presentation in March at the Barrow Dock Museum, along with Alex Blackmore's collective Pop Culture Figures. We got the first 3-d proofs of these from Andy at Fusion 3D in Barrow  the day after the show, and they look marvellous. 

You might also look in on Second Spin, Barrow's new vinyl venture on Crellin Street,and our friend Steve Cook's Sergeant Pepperry mural of Barrow music legends, which, I'm proud to say,includes a shot of the Artfly  Jukebox from the Play One Of Your Own exhibition.

Our thanks to all who came to the FON

show,to Larry Campbell for his photos,  and to the FON team for their hospitality.

Great few days.             

                    

 

Colossal, Yoof*

Good day at the office yesterday...This is Andy from Fusion 3D Printing in Barrow In Furness.  Andy's firm will be scanning and printing the edition of Alex's Yoof Culture figures. We don't know the extent of the edition yet, Andy is kindly providing us with some options, and we'll let you know.

All very exciting. If you want to  know more about what Fusion 3D Printing can offer you, here's their site. Cheers Andy.

https://www.fusion3dprinting.co.uk/

* A No-Prize to anyone who gets the reference.

 

Meat on the bones and Bass under the floorboards

Alex Blackmore's small scale sculptures of pop culture tribes are accumulating detail and character. There is meat on the bones and more than a hint of demeanour. I'm seeing the austere anti-glamour of

the Eighties, taking a step back from of the social-realist wing of punk and into the bookish, mushroomy activism of post-punk. 

Meanwhile, here is Jon Donohoe in Sheffield adding bass to my soundtrack for Jim Alexander's attic animation. 

  

 

Phil and Fiona: John Peel Ears. Dave, Nessa and Sarah; Zippys, Squatters, Labour Clubbers.

This is  Fiona Ogilvie (front, in black) and Phil Musker (beard)  in Ulverston with the popular singing group Meat Raffle.

Fiona and Phil have the open ears and curiosity that they had as kids. 

They find things by going to look for them. They travel, they go to sampler shows and  all-dayers, in search of something they don't know about. One discovery leads to the next. Their internet is a source of information rather than music. They find shape shifting and amorphous scenes inhabited by pools of do-ers and activists,  villages of musicians, designers, t shirt people, putting on festivals without name bands or even headliners. There are echoes of counterculture; of Co-ops and communal living, ways of doing things that have risen out of both necessity and nous, a determination to be in control of the vehicle; an insistence on fleshy, real time relations within overlapping scenes; a pleasure in operations on a human scale, with a core audience that is big enough to maintain you and small enough to get to know.

They never miss a support act.

They still have what Phil called  their John Peel ears.

NOW...Reverb writer and pal Geoff Cox and me met up with them for a few beers with a view to collaboration of some sorts . After , Geoff said this, and sent this diagram /score...

Hi John,

I’ve been thinking about what I’d be interested in chasing via the Reverb project, stuff we’d be able to include other folk in and discover some interesting ideas. I’ve been doodling a first pass at what that content might be - the diagram atttached is a big-picture take. If you think this is where we should be going I’d be happy to refine some questions for each of the 7 areas, though I’m not sure we’d need much more to get folk talking?

Ta Geoff....Meanwhile the oral history project rolls on some of it gets into the writing too, thanks to everyone who has engagaed after reading this stuff, and through the social media links and word of mouth.

Of what we've done, this is one of my favourite interviews....Labour Club “Squatters” Dave Clancy ,Sarah Duffin and Nessa Hughes. Lovely, funny people...

Sarah Duffin.. My mam was involved in the Labour party, so I was there at the opening and at the close, we were at 6^th form, going there slightly illegally, and later we worked there as well..I did glass collecting, bottling up... we were very reluctant to work behind the bar...we were better on the other side of it..

David Clancy: I went for an 18^th there, uninvited, we smuggled our way in...it was rough as shit...but I went back with Sarah and Ness...., no,the first time I was about 14, there was a Clause 28 meeting going on...

Nessa Hughes. First time I went, I was meant to be in maths. I was 17...I didn't think about the politics.. I just knew I wasn't conservative..we didnt get judged in there......we were called the Zippys, the Squatters..We were the Zippys because we were a bit hippy, a bit goth and a bit of punk thrown in...we had our own little Squatters corner....we had all our records on the juke box, we got to play them for free, we got the pool table for free...they knew we didnt have any money.

S We'd sit there all night with glasses of water, near the jukebox..”play number 125!”

S We were comfortable...it was such a bizarre mix of people...a lot that I remember chatting to were probably in their 50s and 60s, going out for a pint of stout, and I was there with my Robert Smith hair and eye-make up all over the place and they'd be like “hiya Sarah....” and then theyd be arguing with Chatty and the punks...

N I got banned off drinking Newcastle Brown...they didn't ban me, but they'd not serve me a bottle of dog..

S There was Graham and Arthur.. I was on a YTS scheme, on Walney, and Graham used to make me my lunch every day...

S the only trouble was in the upstairs bar...18ths, engagements, christenings...wed work the bar on function nights, you'd get to nine o clock and you'd think...its going to kick off....the only time there was trouble downstairs was the bikers from out of town...they were asked to leave, and they started to chuck pool balls at the optics.

N one of the glass collectors had to hide behind the bar..

S Me and you took up pool cues, didnt we? “We'll protect you...” Some nights we'd be like scowling at the punks...we all had our own little section..but on music nights it was pretty united , just there for the music, even if it wasn't your genre..

N like the Clementines...who'd have thought we'd get into that sort of music, but we became the Clementeenies...it made you go wild on the dance floor...

S Everytime they played we were there...when we got up to dance, everyone else did...especially when they saw what our dancing was like, they'd think..oh I can do that...

N You'd sit inbetween the tables on the floor, round the dancefloor...everyone wanted to be there...

DC it was a place beyond rules...you'd get Hash n Thrash raffling mushrooms...

S The Regal was over the road... we'd leave the club...go in the Regal through one door, do a conga right through it and back to the Labour Club through the other...past some bloke doing “tie a yellow ribbon..”

S That's where we grew up, what we grew up in..

N It was a safe place... It had no beer gardens so wed sit on the ground outside, by the DSS...we spent every spare minute we had there, for no reason...you heard a lot of things... you were exposed to lots of people and personalities...

S 16 year old me , I wouldnt have got interested in poetry and stuff any other way...

DC You were interested in peoples difference, you could celebrate that.

S the people that ran it had a tolerance and acceptance that spread to the people they employed, and the people that came in...

DC it almost didn't need rules. There was no threat.

S it was built on respect...if we got out of hand you'd get a telling and you'd apologise the next day..

DC..when it shut we had to move into a different world......I used to end up getting battered..

N I went out a lot less after that...we lost a community

S yeah, when I moved outside of the labour club I thought mm, I'm not sure I like this

DC I got my nose broke in Eddysons...one of the bouncers, and then he threw me out...to go from the Labour club, your nice little bubble, to that...

N we weren't equipped for it.

DC the last night....that was depressing.

(Bob Spencer: On the last night, the Clems has a revolving dartboard with song titles on it....they'd ask you to throw a dart and they'd play the song... I recorded it, but I missed a lot of the speeches to get the music on...I wish Id managed to get both now.)

N It was day light when we left, the police were there, we were all in tears..

DC why did it shut?​

S We should have paid for our drinks...

Thanks, you three.

Anyone out there fancy getting involved?  artspacebarrow@gmail.com