BLOW UP BLOG

Blow Up Easter Special 2011

Following February's sell-out HMV Next Big Thing night, Blow Up returns to its one-off events with an Easter Special at Madame JoJo's on Thursday 21st April. This will be the first of several larger club events for 2011 in the UK and abroad featuring special live guests.

Playing live: THE BONGOLIAN who will be releasing his 4th album 'Bongos For Beatniks' in May and SILVERY who's recent single 'Two Halves Of The Same Boy' has been going down a storm on 6music. Plus, just addeded SPECIAL NEEDS return after a five year hiatus and will be joining the bill for the Easter Special.

Plus resident Blow Up DJs Paul Tunkin & Ian Jackson will also be spinning their trademark mix of Orgasmic Pop / 60s Mod & Soul / New Wave. Expect to hear a selection of British Pop from Beatles to Bowie to Blur alongside 60s Soul, Garage, Ska, Beat, Latin Soul, Swinging Soundtracks, YeYe and Psychedelic Pop Electronique.

Event info: BLOWUPCLUB.COM • FACEBOOK.COM/BLOWUP • FACEBOOK EVENT • Madame JoJo's

Advance Tickets: stargreen.com • gigantic.com • wegottickets.com • seetickets.com • ticketweb.co.uk • hmvtickets
In person: Stargreen Box Office 20/21A Argyll Street London W1F 7TT (Oxford Circus)
Sister Ray 34-35 Berwick Street, London W1F 8RP (Oxford Circus / Piccadilly Circus)

The Bongolian 'Bongos For Beatniks' THE BONGOLIAN blends elements of Funk, Soul and Jazz with grinding percussion and heavy Bongo rhythms, resulting in dirty percussive bongo driven Funk and Spaced-out Latin Soul. His releases have become recordbox essentials for DJs, finding a wide appeal from Dance and Hip-Hop to rare groove and funky 45s fans, and to date The Bongolian and his band have toured USA, UK and Europe. The Bongolian releases his 4th album 'Bongos For Beatniks' on May 9th, and the first single 'The Riviera Affair' was a recent Lunchtime Love on Nemone's BBC 6music show. "Nasser Bouzida is a man with talent to spare. A Latin-flavoured jazz-funk odyssey" Q Magazine "Forget your preconceptions, this is the REAL incredible bongo band" CLASH "Mightily funky. Part mod, part Sergio Mendes, very swingin" TIME OUT

Special Needs Just added to bill! SPECIAL NEEDS. Special Needs return after a five year hiatus and will be joining the bill for the Blow Up Easter Special. On January 1st 2011, the band announced via Facebook that they had reformed with Nicholas Bukowski (formerly of The Rocks) replacing Neil Allan on drums, and after playing several London shows this year they will now be playing at Blow Up's Easter Special. The band played Blow up promoted shows at The Metro Club back in 2002, and during the mid-noughties recorded for Alan McGee's Poptones label and signed to Mercury Records. "Pure-bred pop class" ★ ★ ★ ★ NME "Very special indeed" What's On in London 'Album Of The Week' - 4 out of 4 "Mixing shambolic indie-rock with dashes of doo-wop harmonies and girl-group backchat, they sound alternately like wide-eyed and legless dreamers, and impassioned, vainglorious self-believers" The Independent On Sunday "Full of punk self-belief, angular guitars and most remarkably, a perfect pop sensibility" The Sun 3.5 out of 5

Silvery 'Railway Architecture' SILVERY are an eccentric London four-piece whose music has been described as anything from Artrock, to Glam to Britpop. Lead singer and songwriter James Orman immerses us in a unmistakeably English world of Victoriana and wit. This show follows a headline spot at Club NME @ Koko in January, and comes just before the release of their new single 'Two Halves Of The Same Boy'. Playlisted on BBC 6Music (15/1/2011) the third from their critically acclaimed second album 'RailwayArchitecture'. SILVERYTHEBAND.COM "Exhilarating art-pop from band bordering on greatness" ★ ★ ★ ★ UNCUT "Hunt down this album" ★ ★ ★ ★ Artrocker "Genius twisted pop. A truly original pop masterpiece" ★ ★ ★ ★ BIG CHEESE "Stylish, literate and witty but properly hook-aware" TIME OUT

We're pleased to announce that Blow Up will be hosting a night at Upstairs @ The Garage as part of the second year of HMV's Next Big Thing festival. Spread over 6 London venues (plus one in Birmingham and Edinburgh) and running between 4th - 13th February 2011, the festival's aim is to showcase and celebrate the very best new and emerging talent drawn from all genres of music tipped to breakthrough in 2011.  The Blow Up night is the first date of the festival on Friday 4th February, and Blow Up Records' artists Baltic Fleet, Silvery and The Bongolian will be playing live, following by the Blow Up club at 11pm until 3am with DJs Paul Tunkin & Ian Jackson bringing you the classic Blow Up mix of Orgasmic Pop, Psych, 60s Mod Soul and New Wave Glam action. Expect to hear a  selection ranging from The Beatles to Bowie to Blur mixed with 60s moves and grooves (Soul, Boogaloo, Garage, Ska, Beat and Swinging Soundtracks). Entry to all events for the festival will be for the bargain price of a flat £10 (incl. b/f), whoever the artist and whichever the venue. Tix here

14/1/2011 UPDATE - BIG BOSS MAN ADDED TO THE BILL - playing a late night show as part of the Blow Up clubnight that follows.

Baltic FleetPhoto: Adam Banister

BALTIC FLEET is the work of Warrington based artist Paul Fleming. Influenced by artists such as Eno, The Doves, NEU!, Sigur Ros and DJ Shadow, his 2008 eponymous debut (written and recorded whilst on a World Tour playing keyboards for Echo & the Bunnymen), was picked by Rough Trade Shop for their monthly Record Club, and went on to be placed in their Top 50 Albums of 2008 (and also in Piccadilly Records' Albums of 2008). His first show since 2008, Paul will showcasing material from his second album, due for release mid-2011. "BUNNYMAN HAS FUN ON THE AUTOBAHN - Sombre, Sigur Ros-like post-rock, fuzzy bass grooves [and] energising NEU!-style motorik" UNCUT "A faultless piece of instumental music that captures the spirit of Eno, NEU! all the way through to modern post rock and chamber music" ROUGH TRADE "A thirteen-track industrial drive along roads of ambient melodies . Skin pricklingly authentic" CLASH

Long-time supporter of the band Steve Lamacq has reviewed Silvery's new album 'Railway Architecture' on his official blog this week. Silvery also played last week at the first night of his new club night at the Bull & Gate (Lamacq's write up here):

"SILVERY whose debut album was a minor work of crazed genius, are back with a second LP which really ups the maverick ante" Steve Lamacq on his Blog (read full review here)

SILVERYTHEBAND.COM

Following the release of their critically acclaimed 2nd album 'Railway Architecture' this August, London artrockers Silvery play two intimate shows at Blow Up on Saturday 21st August and Saturday 11th September. Silvery founder and singer-songwriter James Orman is still immersed in Bowie, Blur, XTC and all things eccentrically English, The Silvery sound is based around an amalgamation of non fiction, childhood memories, love of historic machinery, 70′s TV detective-isms and a musical philosophy of 'anything goes'. From the glam rock assault of previous single 'Devil In The Detail', New Wave blast of debut 'Horrors', neo Bond theme drama of 'Will Self', through brief snatches of ska to music hall and spoken word, there is very little left untouched in between.

Silvery 'Railway Architecture' (Blow Up) - Out Now

Silvery release the follow up to their 2008 debut Thunderer & Excelsior with their 2nd album Railway Architecture - out today and available from Rough Trade, Fopp, Norman, Piccadilly, Townsend, Juno, Amazon, Play.com, iTunes, eMusic, Napster, Amazon Digital and more

Railway Architecture sees Silvery to continue their creative brainstorming, and Railway Architecture which sees bands singer/songwriter James Orman continuing his journey into the very English and eccentric world of the mad, bizarre and absurd. With a doff of a stove-pipe hat to Blur, Bowie, XTC and Sparks, their sound is an eclectic but commercial proposition. The album expertly blends post-punk, Britpop (for want of a better word), music hall and 60′s pop into this year's most exciting release yet, and recently described as:

"Exhilarating art-pop from band bordering on greatness" 4 STARS - UNCUT

"Hunt down this album" 4 STARS - Artrocker

"Delicious and daringly at odds with almost everything else out there" 4 STARS - Clash

"Genius twisted pop" 4 STARS - Big Cheese

SILVERYTHEBAND.COM  

Silvery will be doing an exclusive live in-store at Rough Trade East next Friday 6th August - get down early to buy a copy of their new album 'Railway Architecture'.

SILVERY have been invited to open up for long time supporter STEVE LAMACQ's new monthly club night 'GOING DEAF FOR A LIVING' at The Bull & Gate (London) this Thursday ahead of the release of 2nd album 'RAILWAY ARCHITECTURE'. Facebook Event