Return of the mighty Urban Voodoo Machine

Back by popular demand The Urban Voodoo Machine return to the Wild Hare Club to play their final gig of the year on Friday 20^th December following a German tour and a special Halloween show at London’s Jazz Cafe.  Purveyors of what the band describe themselves as “bourbon-soaked, gypsy blues, bop ‘n’stroll”, the nine piece band have a raw energy and real edge that is all too absent from most of today’s so-called rock and roll.

Their latest album Rare Gumbo collects various recordings from over the years that give an idea of what goes into their rich musical stew - from fired-up polkas to hair raising rockabilly rave-ups, from low-slung, lascivious Stonesy raunch to slower howls that would feel very much at home on a Tom Waits record.  But really for this band it is all about the LIVE experience.

For one night only, Lyde Court will be transformed into the mysterious and transitory Gypsy Hotel, the band’s notorious London club.  Expect a carnivalesque atmosphere and some added glamour courtesy of Trixie Malicious, Canadian queen of burlesque  bump ‘n’ grind, a gal who has danced and joked her way around the world!

 Trixie by Neil Kendall

Manning the decks will be DJ Slim, the band’s accordion player, who I first encountered whooping it up with The Boothill Foot-Tappers way back when and have been bumping into at irregular intervals in various watering holes and shady music venues  ever since.  Expect anything from classic soul to klezmer and of course some cool Yule tunes to make you shake your tail feathers. Opening the show, will be Nick Marsh , once of ‘80s cult band Flesh for Lulu, who will play a short acoustic set featuring songs from his solo record ‘A Universe Between Us’.

Tickets are £15 and available now via the Lyde Court website http://www.lydecourt.com.  Doors open at 7.30, the UVM will hit the stage at 9.30 and there will be drinking and dancing until 2.00 a.m.

 

Dress with burlesque glamour and pirate swagger and in the anarchist colours of red and black.

Last time the band played The Wild Hare Club many people including friends had to be turned away on the night, so to avoid disappointment book now.

Yours ever, Richard MC of the WHC

Widescreen Americana with the Legendary Tom Russell

This message is to announce that the ever-eclectic Wild Hare Club returns to Lyde Court on Wednesday 24^th July for a rare performance by US singer-songwriter Tom Russell as part of a short UK tour.

For those unfamiliar with his work, Russell’s music is broadly in the country tradition but is imbued with elements of folk, Tex-Mex, blues and much more.  A consummate storyteller, Russell’s songs have are often cinematic in scope and populated by characters, real and imagined, as wild and vivid as the landscapes in which they’re set.   Simply put, if you wanted to choose one performer to personify what is meant by Americana, then you could do no better than by choosing Tom Russell.

 

With over twenty solo, band and collaborative albums to his name, the Tom Russell songbook has provided many rich pickings for other artists.  Johnny Cash, Nanci Griffith, Doug Sahm, Joe Ely, kd lang, and Iris Dement are just some of the musicians who have covered his songs.  Russell’s many collaborators include desert rock band, Calexico, and the cult writer, Charles Bukowski.

For this performance Tom will play two sets accompanied by Thad Beckman and there will be no support act.  Doors open at 7.30pm.  Tickets are £15 (seats not allocated).  Book early as tickets have been selling steadily even before getting the publicity out and this show is expected to sell out.

Tickets are on sale now at www.lydecourt.com

So here, to get you in the mood is a Youtube link of Tom performing The Ballad of Edward Abbey - a tribute to the author of The Monkey Wrench Gang and some other great books and one of the people who inspired Earth First.

The Spring Harequinox! Thursday 21st March

Dear All

Although it is still bitingly cold as I write this, the soil is beginning to dry out and yesterday I actually felt the sun on my back which all means it is not long until The Spring Harequinox!

To celebrate the lengthening days, Wild Hare Club favourites Morning Bride and rootsy bluegrass outfit The Fordsons will be playing for your pleasure upstairs at The Black Lion in Hereford on Thursday 21^st March @ 8.00pm.

Morning Bride will be showcasing songs from their long-awaited second album The North Sea Rising.  Created over three days in a basement studio beneath a ukelele shop on East London's Brick Lane, The North Sea Rising captures Morning Bride's natural evolution towards a warmer and more intimate sound, allowing lead singer Amity Joy Dunn's delicate, honey-dripping voice to truly shine, and Mark James Pearson's songs to breathe more deeply.  Now a streamlined three-piece, Amity and Mark's lush harmonies blend effortlessly with Pete Bennett's trademark bottleneck and slide. Variously described by other writers as gothic Americana, off-kilter folk rock, alt-country pop and most things in between.  However the thing about Morning Bride for me is that at the heart of their music are some simply glorious tunes.

 

Amity of Morning Bride

The Fordsons promise to bring a musical programme of old time and mountain music  from their  front porch in the Black Mountains.  Beautiful harmonies, gutsy guitar, banjo and joyful fiddle ... sounds like a celestial choir meets the devil at the crossroads and then they all get down for a big knees-up!  Well that’s what they told me and who’s going to say no to that?

Entrance is FREE but a hat will be passed round to cover petrol costs and, of course, copies of the new Morning Bride CD will be available for purchase. To quote the early fliers of the Carter Family 'The Programme is Morally Good'…..

So long ‘til then, Richard