Gig – Alexis Taylor, Burgh House, Hampstead
Alexis Taylor released a personal and private record called “Piano“. A small one-off London show was programmed at Burgh House in Hampstead, London on June 15th 2016.
Yes, Green was there too.
Scritti Politti Unplugged
Through the public facebook group Scritti Politti – Share the Love i discovered this video Scritti Politti Unplugged – Brooklin, 2006 by Tiziano Sossi. The first time i ever saw this video.
Published on May 30, 2016
This is the only acoustic gig in the north american tour of Scritti Politti during 2006 , after 26 years back on stage. I met Green in Chicago and he told me about New York gig so I was there. 150 people tight in a very small room in a record store, only small lamps as light and me siting at the top of a couch taking it. So much fun….Here 15 minutes on 42 minutes of the full lenght of the video. Cause the low light I prefered put a light cartoon effect
As this text is saying, this video was only copied to youtube on May 30 2016. This might be not true, it could be a re-upload. But you never know.
Enjoy the clip!
Gig – Festival of Voice, Tramshed in Cardiff
On 9th June 2016 Scritti Politti performed in the Tramshed in Cardiff for the Festival of Voice festival.
A promo bit about Scritti and Alexis Taylor from the festival website:
Hear two of the most distinctive voices in British music at this unbelievable Festival of Voice double bill featuring legendary pop outfit Scritti Politti and Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor.
Emerging from 1970s Camden, Scritti Politti combined punk’s raw energy and experimental gritty sounds with impenetrably obscure lyrics. Despite their founder Green Gartside’s chronic stage fright and rare live appearances, Scritti gained international stardom by the mid-1980s with four critically acclaimed albums spanning soul-pop, synth funk, reggae and hip hop. Making a triumphant comeback in 2006 with their Mercury Music Prize nominated album, White Bread, Black Beer, Scritti have collaborated in recent years with artists such as Tracey Thorn and Manic Street Preachers, featuring on their 2014 album Futurology and joining the band on several dates of their subsequent tour.
Alexis Taylor is a musician, producer and songwriter from London. After forming Hot Chip with Joe Goddard whilst at school, he went on to make five albums with the now expanded five-piece pop group. An introspective singer-songwriter who plays synthesizers, piano and guitar, he has also released solo records on the Treader and Domino labels and three acclaimed albums with improvised/non-improvised music project About Group. Taylor has collaborated with Venice Biennale Award-winning visual artists Oliver Payne and Nick Relph, as well as with German producer Justus Köhncke in the duo Fainting By Numbers. Recently, he also performed new renditions of Benjamin Britten-arranged folk songs alongside Scritti Politti singer Gartside.
Wales Online posted a short review: Hits and anecdotes at Tramshed prove a success for Cardiff’s Scritti Politti
It was a long-awaited return to the capital for Cardiff-born Green Gartside.
He’s not someone who treads the boards with any regularity, such is his chronic stage-fright – but, for the criminally small crowd who half-filled the city’s Tramshed, it was an homecoming like no other as he and his band produced a cracker of a set that featured hits and more.
First up was Alexis Taylor, the Hot Chip front man performing with the aid of just a piano and percussionist.
A friend and collaborator of Gartside’s, his solo material is far removed from his heavily synth-influenced band, playing songs from his latest album Piano and featuring a lovely chilled version of James and Bobby Purify’s R&B classic I’m Your Puppet.
But it was Scritti Politti and Gartside that the enthusiastic crowd had come to see and, on his arrival they responded with a cheer normally reserved for a Gareth Bale hat-trick.
Looking slightly nervous at first, Gartside quickly showed how pleased he was to be home with a odd fact, that his grandfather had worked at the very same venue when it was a tramshed, with his other job being a city lamp-lighter, and then effortlessly breaking into the excellent Sweetest Girl.
In between songs Gartside regaled the audience with tales about some of the songs. Sweetest Girl was written with a duet in mind including reggae singer Gregory Isaacs and German band Kraftwork.
Whilst Isaacs responded in the affirmative, the was no reply from Kraftwork.
Years later bumping into the band he asked Kraftwerk if they’d heard the song. Yes, Gartside was told, but, “We hate reggae.”
Still the anecdotes were flowing with Gartside explaining the story of one song, Brushed With Oil, Dusted With Powder.
Pursued by top music manager Peter Asher, a trip to the Hollywood Hills and a meeting found Gartside without a guitar, Asher said he would find him one and produced a guitar belonging to the great Joni Mitchell, a rather surreal moment followed by Gartside started the song, which was later finished whilst sitting above a dentist’s in Newport.
It seemed every other song was a hit with The Word Girl, Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) and Hypnotise all sounding as fresh as the day they were released, 30 years ago.
Asylums In Jerusalem, a song Gartside said had only been played once before was quite stunning with the able assistance of his seriously funky band, and, whilst not resting on his laurels, a recent song written with and performed with Tayor, Airforce 2, proved that a new Scritti Politti album would more than a match for anything previously written and on tonight’s performance, one certainly to look out for in the near future.
Some video’s recorded that evening.
Woodbeez
Woodbeez
The setlist
- The Sweetest Girl
- A Day Late and a Dollar Short
- The Word Girl
- The Boom Boom Bap
- Jacques Derrida/Come Clean (Jeru the Damaja cover)
- Oh Patti (Don’t Feel Sorry for Loverboy)
- Brushed With Oil, Dusted With Powder
- Slow Deceit
- Die Alone
- Asylums in Jerusalem
- Medley [I Wrote This Song For Today, You Don’t Love, Hair Pull, Slyday Morning, Two Years Ago, Mother Succubus, I Wrote This Song For Today (Reprise)]
- Airforce Two (with Alexis Taylor) (New song written for this gig)
- The Soldier and The Sailor (Benjamin Britten cover) (with Alexis Taylor)
- Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) (with Alexis Taylor)
- Absolute
- Encore: Petrococadollar
Moving and updating bibbly-o-tek
Bibbly-o-tek was offline for a week and a half. We discussed the hosting of this site, which was up for another yearly payment. Me, Ellen, offered to move the site to my personal hosting plan at Mediatemple. I still had enough room there to host the site. I didn’t want to see bibbly-o-tek go. The other maintainers of this currently quiet website happily agreed with me.
It took some time to move the domain to Mediatemple. Today that was finally done. I had forgotten to make a backup of the database, but i could make one at the old hosting company. Right now i’m moving all the files, the audio files and video files. And the template.
I will do some work on this website. I will change the template. The current one is made in 2006, before mobiles took over the internet. So that is the first thing i will change. Then there will be the long grueling grind of updating the video’s, most in flash flv format.
The whole process will take some time. Most should be done by the end of this week. Updating the video’s will take a bit longer.
Creatures What You Never Knew About
We just got an e-mail in from Bob, who maintains a podcast at PodOmatic.
I’ve just shared part one of a radio show I recorded with Green when he was between leaving Rough Trade and signing for a major.
http://bobcast.podomatic.comI hope this is some interest to you
I just started it up and enjoying the 1983 music! Sofar i haven’t heard Green speak a lot yet, but hey.. i’m not even halfway the podcast. As this is part one, i do expect another part soon. You can find this here: Scritti Politti (Green Gartside) Interview (Part one).
This interview is from a interesting period, between leaving Rough Trade and signing with a major company. The main part of the broadcast is music, lots of reggae passing along. It’s a bit of a shock thinking that this is recorded 31 years ago.
So, i’ll keep on listening to this interview. It’s actually really nice to listen to this young Green talking about writing songs for other people and the person who represents him in New York. It’s not an in depth interview, but it’s pleasant to listen to.
Anyways, have a listen yourself. Enjoy!
Scritti Politti among Highlights at Laugharne Festival
From Adrian Colley’s Blog:
Green Gartside’s voice, for me, is one of the wonders of the age which I never clocked back in the 80s.
A breathy, girlish, achingly tender tone, it’s a startling contrast to his between-song boom.
Not even a big fan in the Eighties, I’ve been thunderstruck by how good they are live and how close to their recorded sound they come.
Understated tunes so gentle and peaceful you want to stroke them. Phil Jupitus head-jived in his seat, Mark Ellen admired from the side and I’m still trying to work out why they are not more popular.
Here is a link to a video on YouTube! A nice conversation by Green and a live version of Brushed with Oil…
Here is a link to Adrian Colley complete blog!
We received a heads-up email from Richard Barret about Adrian Colley blog via email last week!
Thanks for passing on the info to us Richard and thanks to Adrian for writing the article and posting the media!
John
