Just look at their faces. They know it’s all over. The clammy realisation as tiny misadventures unfold. An afternoon beset by gentle horror and micro-reversals of fortune. Just what is it about ‘Home time’?
Find out in this audio-excerpt from my new book (and album) ‘Not from above’. Beautifully read by London comedian Alison Dennison, the story is taken from the book. Pledge today to pre-order your copy, vinyl single, and digital album.
Alex x
There’s a crowdfunding campaign going on… 🙂
The new AFH album comes with a book of stories. You can back the project now on Unbound.com. Pledge and you’ll be pre-ordering either the book, the book and album, the vinyl single, and you can even commission a personalised song.
Visit unbound now to watch the promo video and support the project.
Many thanks!
Alexander x
When Upturned came out a few years back I approached a bunch of different people to re-build the track, with some delightful results. One of them was a dreamy-than-thou chillwave re-boot by Zachary Gray, another alumnus of America’s once most eclectic labels, Le Grand Magistery Records. Zach’s “Mitternacht in Koln” remix took the original’s electronica roots and dug a whole lot deeper. Other tracks on “Remixes & Reinterpretations” include Phoenix, Holobody and many other fine people.
For Apple Music subscribers you can listen now, for those on iTunes it’s still available to buy!
So while we’re waiting for the slow-moving admin of pop to grind away, I thought I’d give you, the keenly-mousing website visitor, a cheeky behind-the-curtains preview of the new AFH record.
More release details in the New Year, hopefully with some shows in winter 2018 to promote this literary beast of a record. For now here’s a quick mega-mix of what’s been brewing:
Here are some of my lovely singing friends from Chaps Choir, nailing the title track’s chorus:
Now this is a tad exciting… (indulge me). Just had a box of proofs arrive with a resounding thud. For yes, the new AFH record is also a book. A collection of mad monologues, passive aggressive board game instructions, and dictator’s memoirs.
Not from above – a literary-musical adventure if you like – will be out in the new year. Hopefully with a lovely cover once I’ve got round to figuring out quite what should be on it…
Hi all,
This Sunday, 27th August 2017, I’ll be performing at Folk in a Box in the Barbican Centre. Taking the idea of an intimate gig to its logical extreme… a single audience member gets a gig-for-one… in a box. ‘Now wait just a minute there,’ I hear you say, ‘since when did Mr AFH have any songs even passingly folk-some in nature?’ Your reservations are well taken, Madame, well taken…
Instead of Cecil Sharp-approved balladry, I’ll be reading a couple of stories from the forthcoming AFH album + book “Not from above”, with a light musical backing. How does that sound? Lovely. Hope to see you there!
More details on Folk in a Box’s Facebook page:
“Do you like drums? Great.”
“How about Latin percussion? You’re right, it is awesome!”
“… whaddabout midi-bass with quite on-the-nose compression. To die for isn’t it?”
More details to follow. Suffice to say this studio and these producers are something special and the new LP is coming along nicely sir.
Spring has sprung, a nation is convulsed, every flower-strewn path is bestrode by mediocre political hacks, their hearts black and full of empty promises… So what’s the medicine? Music and words my friends, words and music!
Come to the Tin Tabernacle
I will once again be performing music with the inestimable London wordsmith Guy Sangster-Adams, showcasing some great new compositions we’ve been collaborating on. Poems with a beat, songs with wit, call them what you will, but make sure you catch us performing them in front of a battleship inside a tin church. That’s our entertainment special pledge to you all…
So mark your diaries: Friday May 26th, from 7.30pm.
The top-notch bill also features delectable hosts (and Biba legends) Delisia and Chris, with music also from the wonderful Mike Nisbet.
Vote art! Book now!
(You can grab a ticket here)
AFH
x
“Guy Sangster-Adams combines a poet’s eye with an art rocker’s ear to offer brilliantly observed and subtly woven, lyrical and pop cultural romantic tales.”
– Murray Lachlan Young, poet, broadcaster, BBC6 Music poet-in-residence
Photo: Guy Sangster Adams and Alexander Mayor, shot by Paul Kelly
“Welcome back!” as they used to say on ITV after the adverts.
2017… bit of a mixed bag thus far, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. But let’s focus on the positives, AMIRIGHT? Hack-like comb-overs and political melt-downs notwithstanding, I’ve been in the studio finishing a bunch of songs for an exciting new AFH album that is also a book.
“Not from above”, the next Alexander’s Festival Hall album… will be 12 songs and about 33 stories, available as book, vinyl single and art print. It’s a title I liked and imagined might work as a spoof self-help book where the schtick was absolutely nothing spiritual would ever work out for you.
But that was a bit poor, a bit … obvious. That said, I really liked it as a phrase, there was something there that had a bit of a poetic gamble about it. And in the end that one phrase led to a really fun writing and recording project – a whole collection of short stories, a set of what-ifs and crazed concepts… accompanied by a 12 song album recorded with some brilliant, musical friends.
Anyway, there’ll be more details to share very soon. We’re just mixing and polishing at the moment. But here are some stills and clips fresh from the oven…
Hi everyone,
Just to announce what should be a great little show at The Horse Hospital on Tuesday 18th October. AFH will be performing some songs and telling some stories at ‘The Map is not the Territory’, featuring author Geoff Nicholson, writer/raconteur Travis Elborough, some great vinyl DJs and more. There’ll be spoken word, music, short films, DJs, maps, walking, it would be lovely to see you there! 😉
More details and ticket booking links here:Â Horse Hospital.
Yes indeedy audio-ear-content-fans! We present The Hackney Kansas Radio Hour:
The “Bloody awful! Sorry Barb, but it was atrocious” Edition
Featuring excellent musics from:
Tennis
Alvvays
Van Dyke Parks
Perfume
Barbra Streisand
Momus
… and many more…
Also including exciting feature items from our artisanal contributors:
Mike Monaghan’s View from the Drum Stool
George Terry’s History of Britpop: feat. Dodgy
Piney Gir’s Drunk Cookery: Three
“Our voyage begins at last” a nearly-sci-fi story from Alexander’s Festival Hall
Katrin Geilhausen the Hackney Kansas Weather Girl
… for the february-curious!
Yes it’s a gig with a difference… an entertainment-strewn blend of spoken word, polite punk choiring, and infectious pop music.
You’re in good hands with:
Fax Telex – the latest brainchild from pop’s whizz kid Tim Ten Yen.
Piney Gir – our good friend Piney appears, in a warm up for her US tour with Gaz Coombes of Supergrass.
AFH – our lot performing in micro-acoustic format with some story-telling thrown in the for good measure.
The Hackney Secular Singers – a choir from East London who’ll be throwning in some punky vocalising.
MC’d by Kevin Reinhardt – a celebrated wit of London’s poetry scene, and pro-bingo/karaoke doyenne.
DJing from Mr Travis Elborough – writer and film-maker
It’s all happening at Paper Dress Vintage by Hackney Central. You should be there. There are cool clothes and excellent beers too.
CONCERT NEWS UPDATE FOR YOU:
Alexander’s Festival Hall play a full band show at The Slaughtered Lamb, Clerkenwell, on Thursday 14th of January. Lovely little joint. There’s comfy seating and a contemporary drinks selection. Nothing too pricey, which will be comforting news to those who’ve had to “go large” on a Sylvanian Families Cottage and Volkswagen set for a thankless god-niece this Yuletide.
Doors at 7.30pm. Be lovely to see you there!
AFH x
Somewhat tardily, mine and Piney Gir’s podcast enters its critical second-episode all-grown-up phase!
The Hackney, Kansas Radio Hour 31.December.2015 by Radionowhere.Org on Mixcloud
Yes, it’s episode 2 of RadioNowhere’s “The Hackney, Kansas Radio Hour” – an eclectic mix of light entertainment from the imaginary borough of London that’s stuck in the middle of the American mid-West. Your hosts Piney Gir and Alex (of Alexander’s Festival Hall) take you on a spin through exotica, pop, lounge and country, intermingled with sport, cookery, and documentary shenanigans. In fact, let’s just file the whole thing under “shenanigans”…
Quand vas tu rentrer – Melody’s Echo Chamber
Prussian Blue – The Lilac Time
Supersonic – Oasis
Jacqueline Taieb – La coeur au bout des doigts
Shades of Winter – Streetplayer
Dreaming – Knower
Donut Taco Palace – Shiny Ribs
Palast Orchester mit Max Raab – Super Trouper
The Love You Save – Jackson 5
Home – Jane Birkin
AFH recently collaborated with performer/poet Guy Sangster Adams on four musical poems, short vignettes of love and loss, encompassing the grey possibilities of the seaside, fumbled first beginnings, and memories of a look that changed a life forever.
You can buy “To the Fore” on iTunes, Amazon and from many other fine electronic retailers… Many thanks to the Horse Hospital for hosting our launch party on Tuesday 1st Dec. A wonderful and supportive arts venue in the heart of London, which is of course under threat from rapacious developers. If you can support them in any way, there are details of their ongoing campaign on their website.
