Worldview’s blog

"When All Goes Wrong" single out now & Return To Blast FM.

nobody@vox.com(Worldview) — Sat, 17 May 2008 19:37:03 +0100

Two things:

The new single from Oliver's side-project Desmond Chancer And The Long Memories, "When All Goes Wrong", is out now on Villainous Records from all good digital download services, backed by "You Are Forgotten". Available at:
HMV Tunes http://hmv.com/hmvweb/digitalProductDetails.do?ctx=-1;8;-1;-1&productId=6378897
E Music http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-When-All-Goes-Wrong-MP3-Download/11197414.html
Music Gremlin http://www.musicgremlin.com/GetNewMusic/ArtistOverview.aspx?id=237852

Also available at iTunes and Napster. And check out the great videos for each track below:

Desmond Chancer and the Long Memories "When All Goes Wrong"

Desmond Chancer and the Long Memories "You Are Forgotten"

Our Condition cover

Secondly, Oliver returns to London's Blast FM station this coming Monday (19th May) to take the hot seat once again as Damien Brogden's "Shifty Disco Show" guest, promising a slightly more slick and less piss-taking interview as he again plugs tracks from his (now I-Tunes available) "Our Condition" album as well as from Desmond Chancer and other projects, and also introduces tracks from seminal influences and from muso mates who he owes a favour. Listen in between 6pm and 8pm online at www.blastfm.co.uk, or if you are living in London having not gone into self-imposed exile after Boris Johnson's election victory, at 87.7 FM on the actual proper wireless.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

"Our Condition" album now available at I-Tunes!

nobody@vox.com(Worldview) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:07:45 +0100

Our Condition cover

Yes, owing to the wonders of the Information Superhighway and non porn-related credit card transactions, you can now purchase Worldview's "Our Condition" album online at the thing they call the I-Tunes store! It's a snip at £7.99, none of which goes to charity, or 79p per track, if you want to buy them all separately, ho ho. The download version differs from promo CDs of the album which have been circulating, as it substitutes the "Average Ben" mix of "Tourist" which is fast becoming the definitive version, featuring Ben P's catchy guitar hook as heard in Worldview's live set. Speaking of which, you can watch them perform it live here:

Tourist (Full Version) @ The Jericho Tavern

You can buy this eclectic collection of pop philosophy using the I-Tunes link in the main band info section of Worldview's Myspace profile, or if that doesn't work, follow this link instead: http://www.apple.com/uk/search/ipoditunes/?q=worldview+our+condition

And given that this digital day-and-age does not permit sleevenotes at point of sale, here is a short summary of each track:

1. ONE RULE FOR YOU: Epic opener with shades of The Beatles, Elliott Smith, and, some have said, The Lightning Seeds. Or perhaps Oasis with a laptop and more words. Oliver Shaw ruminates on mortality, death and our necessary delusions, setting out some of the album's key themes.

2. JAM TODAY: Oliver comes on like a better looking Kylie Minogue in this toe-tapping, handbag swinging disco paean to instant gratification.

3. HIGH HOPES: Sleazy lo-fi Britrock number about how consumerist totems of sex'n'success hopelessly inflate our standards and expectations. Except for Oliver himself, who will marry a supermodel.

4. DESIGNED FOR LIFE: Oliver owns up to his many failings on this downtempo trip-hoppy number, going on about how hard it is to be alive for us sensitive types and how that's a good excuse for being a work-shy artist type. Note the alarmingly George Michael-like hushed vocal croon.

5. SO FEARLESS: A simple tale of unrequited lust, stalking, and fear of sexual inadequacy. The subject of this Prince/Clash-inspired pop nugget has since contacted the police.

6. PAYBACK: Richard Hawley-influenced retro ballad about the law of Karma, or as Indian restauranteers call it, Korma.

7. ENTITLEMENT: One of Oliver's occasional sociological missives in which he castigates the lower orders for buying into vacuous consumerist hopes'n'dreams. Sounds like The Beatles with IT certificates.

8. TOURIST: New Order go on holiday somewhere and soon wish they hadn't. A would-be Ibiza anthem about a voyeuristic, moor-less tourist of people, places or situations.

9. BUY INTO IT: Oliver castigates himself for buying into vacuous consumerist hopes'n'dreams. Sounds a bit like The Rolling Stones.

10. WHAT'S YOUR POISON?: Oliver comes on like a cut-price Bono fronting an electro U2 as he preaches about Substance Abuse, and how necessary it is.

11. NO TAKERS: Sounds like Elvis Costello meets Goldfrapp, or a glamrock Depeche Mode. It's the bitter ravings of an overlooked genius, and therefore not autobiographical.

12. OUR CONDITION: Oliver puts the c*nt in country & western in this twangy, uptempo musing on the human, er, condition. Thus nicely distilling the album's themes, innit? Notable for the first outing of the banjo in Worldview's oeuvre.

So there you have it. Now run along and buy it...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Worldview in Sound & Vision!

nobody@vox.com(Worldview) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:50:33 +0000

Here is some footage of Worldview from their Oxford Jericho Tavern gig back in early February, belting out the epic "One Rule For You" (Oasis with laptops and a wider vocabulary) infront of a select audience of friends, family and random gig-goers. They began the set with this, the "Our Condition" album opener, before speeding through a selection of would-be hits, including the creepily lust-filled "So Fearless" and Ibiza-style techno toe-tapper "Tourist".

One Rule For You @ Jericho Tavern

Thanks to James T.B. for providing important documentary evidence of Oliver's ability to perform outside his bedroom studio - nice camera work and arty B&W moments befitting the song's "serious" subject manner! (I'll buy you a pint etc.)

Meanwhile, continuing this multimedia giveaway, here is Oliver's on air chat with the BBC's Tim Bearder for his Download Show on the radio the other Saturday. It was done over the phone but Oliver sensibly left out his habitual heavy breathing bit. With all this mounting exposure it can only be a matter of time before someone somewhere gives him some money for doing music...

Download Show Interview 15.3

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

On BBC's "Download Show" + TunATheDay again!

nobody@vox.com(Worldview) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:25:47 +0000

Download_listen_170

Things are picking up alarmingly for Worldview’s Mr Oliver Shaw as he finds himself featured both on online music-buff sites and on the good old-fashioned wireless. You can hear him talking about his sideline as Junkfood Jones in Desmond Chancer & The Long Memories to BBC Radio Oxford The Download Show’s Tim Bearder, then diplomatically trying to chose their demo of the week, here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2005/10/14/download_team.shtml. The show went out on Saturday 15th March at 6pm and will remain online for the rest of the week. Oliver is interrogated on his mobile at around the 30min mark. And here, in an exclusive for all Vox readers, is a recently completed Desmond Chancer track, the majestic, ethereal and rain-sodden "Chasing A Dream". Featuring O. Shaw Esq on piano, guitar and production duties:

Chasing A Dream

Meanwhile those nice folk at www.tunatheday.com have made a second Worldview track, "So Fearless", their Catch Of The Day for Monday 17th March (having featured "One Rule For You" a few weeks back). The song features on the recent "Our Condition" album which should shortly be for sale on I-Tunes, with a slightly revised tracklisting. TunA the Day’s Ade has noted a resemblance to Prince (musical rather than physical), and his choice of "So Fearless" is made all the more poignant by the fact that the lust-object who inspired it clearly no longer wants Oliver looking at her Facebook profile (sigh!). Hear the track below:

So Fearless

And he will be playing with his Worldview at Oxford’s Purple Turtle, where entry is free and the beer is almost free, this very Friday night, possibly chancing a debut rendition of the even more Prince-ly "Message 2 U"!! It’s almost too much...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

More from Oliver's "Blast FM" interview...

nobody@vox.com(Worldview) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:44:09 +0000

Logo

Here are some more choice excerpts from the show they're all still talking about (in the Shaw household)...

Intro and Oliver discussing his Our Condition CD

Oliver on Tourist

Tourist (Average Ben Mix)

Oliver on Worldview and his Desmond Chancer side project

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

"Highlights" from Worldview's Oliver on Blast FM's "Shifty Disco Show".

nobody@vox.com(Worldview) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:54:40 +0000

Oliver Headshot

Back at the end of 2007 Worldview's Oliver Shaw had the good fortune to be Damien Brogden's first Special Guest on his new "Shifty Disco Show" on London station Blast FM. This was an act of pure nepotism as Oliver and Damian are buddies from back in 'Nam (Cheltenham). Oliver introduced tracks from his current friends-and-family promo CD "Our Condition", played two songs live'n'acoustic in the studio, aired favourite tracks from seminal influences Prince, World Party and New Order, and generally philosophised about life and music, while addressing head-on the inevitable questions about his historical connection with the biggest band on the planet. Some of this banter was deemed "very funny", and copies of the now legendary show are currently circulating among the Rock cognescenti, much as Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's "Derek & Clive" bootlegs were a fixture of the Led Zeppelin tour plane in the '70s (Coldplay have all requested copies). Hear some choice excerpts, including banter and music, below:

Oliver introduces Buy Into It

Oliver talks about his slightly more famous ex-school bandmate

No Takers live at Blast FM

Back in the here and now, Oliver & co are limbering up for the first Worldview London date in over a year, at Lark In The Park, along with Oxford's fabulous soul-funk-dance ensemble The Conscripts, on Tuesday 26th Feb. Why not pop down and see what he looks like in the flesh (kind of a darker, moodier Louis Theroux infact)...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Madchester and "Must Try Harder".

nobody@vox.com(Worldview) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 12:38:30 +0000

STOP PRESS: tonight Worldview's Oliver Shaw joins host Damien Brogden on The Shifty Disco Show at www.blastfm.co.uk for a Madchester-themed evening between 8 and 10pm. They will be discussing and playing their favourite tracks from that Northern neck-of-the-woods; expect music from Joy Division, Stone Roses, Smiths + Morrissey, Happy Mondays, New Order + Electronic, and cast members from Coronation Street, possibly. Oliver will also be airing his own acid-house tribute "Must Try Harder", which didn't quite make it onto the recent "Our Condition" promo CD but is a staple of Worldview's live set. Come down and hear them play it this Thursday at Oxford's Jericho Tavern! He has also thoughtfully added it to the Worldview myspace and made it downloadable for "da fans"!!

Must Try Harder

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

"Crazy Life" featured on MIDEM Profile 08 CD.

nobody@vox.com(Worldview) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:48:04 +0000

Midem Profile 08 CD

A few months back Worldview's Oliver had a moment of darkness in which he briefly began to doubt whether the world was yet ready for a bespectacled "musical cross between Louis Theroux and Kylie Minogue" (not his words) from the posher end of Oxford, and thought he should begin to hedge his bets a bit by attempting to write the kind of well-crafted, generic ballads which the listening public might actually want to hear, as opposed to songs about prostitutes and US foreign policy. Songs, maybe, for someone slightly better looking and perhaps more female to sing, thus making him some much-needed moolah and providing a way to breach the portals of "the Industry" like an SAS member stealthily dropped behind enemy lines.

The doubts soon faded and Oliver snapped back into his delusions, but by then he had already knocked one out, so to speak, a Carole King-type ballad of endearment called "Crazy Life". While in this altered state he had sent some of these hackworks to a few publishers, going under the name Ben Elton (this last bit is untrue). And lo and behold, a few months later a publisher called Kevin rang in effusive tone to say he wanted to put Oliver's "Crazy Life" onto a compilation promo CD of other struggling tunesmiths, to be distributed at a thing called the Midem music conference in a place called France. Which can only be good news. Hear the track below:

Crazy Life

Meanwhile, back in the present, Oliver has decided he is very chuffed with the Prince/Outkast homage "Message 2 U" which features the multi-instrumental talents of Worldview sideman Ben Pritchett and a sterling old-skool rap from MC Tomohawk, who was round making the tea at the time. He has thus come up with a shorter Radio Edit (this is less fanciful than it sounds, as his mate has an internet radio show and will be forced to play it) which turns the long Parliament-style wigout into a concise slice of pop which Justin Timberlake could credibly cover, if his handlers were to let him. You can download it over at www.myspace.com/worldview. And below is an artist's impression of what Oliver and his rag-tag krew might look like when performing it live at some upcoming gigs:

Worldview Purple Turtle w.Tomohawk

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Worldview's New Year "Message 2 U"!

nobody@vox.com(Worldview) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:14:44 +0000

Worldview's Oliver has belatedly discovered the joys of collaboration, having spent years turning down lucrative offers to work with the wannabe stars-of-tomorrow (well, one or two anyway). However it's alright cos in this case it's with his mates, and his New Year's resolution is to actually enjoy himself making music with people. His Desmond Chancer side-project seems to have developed "legs",as they say, with a label lined up to release a forthcoming album and gigs aplenty. Meanwhile he has also finally allowed some outsiders into his own Worldview output; "Message 2 U", a Prince/Sly Stone/Clinton (George, not Hillary) homage, came out of a jam between Oliver (who came up with the funky guitar lick), and gigging member Ben Pritchett (who came up with everything else). Oliver then went away and penned some lyrics in which he pines for the current object of his voyeuristic lust (who should be very concerned that he knows the colour of her bedroom curtains). Then, just as he was mixing it, MC Tomohawk turned up to record with him as Desmond Chancer, and added a spur of the moment rap in a suitable vein! Hear the track below:

Message 2 U

Then in turn Adam Davy, Worldview's live knobmeister, got hold of it and put lots of other bits over the top, including his kitchen sink, thus giving birth to the aptly-named Adam D Kitchen Sync Mix, which contrasts nicely with the sparseness of the original!! Hear HIS mix below, and check out his own jazz-funk morsels at http://www.myspace.com/adamlukedavy.

Message 2 U (Adam D Kitchen Sync Mix)

And as if that wasn't enough, they will probably all share a stage to perform it at two upcoming Worldview gigs, at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford on 7th February, and London's Lark In The Park on February 26th (which is on Oliver's birthday - as far as the Industry is concerned, his 21st)!!!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

"Silent Night" single released Monday 10th December!

nobody@vox.com(Worldview) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:56:01 +0000

After nearly 10 years hawking his own effortlessly commercial music around to no avail, Oliver Shaw finally finds himself on an official single release, in his other guise as Junkfood Jones, songwriter/instrumentalist/production-meister in Desmond Chancer And The Long Memories. Here is the official press spiel from an actual proper label, Villainous Records, who are putting it out:

Desmond Chancer Promo Pic 1

"Oxford based Desmond Chancer is the sort of midnight crooner you would expect to find chainsmoking in an empty bar in the wee hours, bawling into a microphone through neglected vocal cords. Fortunately for Desmond Chancer and the Long Memories, however, these aforementioned bars are not quite so empty, and it would seem many are enchanted by his deep boomy voice, charming persona and marvellous musical accompaniment. His version of the popular Christmas carol "Silent Night" is sure to turn heads, performed with his trademark bellow, and accompanied by the Enigmatic Junkfood Jones tinkling on the black and whites and Anna Soprano providing violin and backing vocals, "Silent Night" delivers true Christmas spirit if not cheer. The b-side is the Desmond Chancer staple "Funny Side" - a bittersweet dirge about love lost and trying in vain to keep your chin up. In keeping with the charitable nature of this time of year, all of the proceeds of this release will be donated to Oxfam, the leading NGO in the delivery of aid and development work, who labour tirelessly around the world in order to alleviate poverty and suffering. Oxfam tackles a multitude of issues across the globe such as fairtrade, health, education and the delivery of aid during and after conflict and natural disaster - making it one of the widest reaching charitable organisations in the world.

"Silent Night" will be released on the 10th December 2007 and will be available to download from the Villainousrecords.com online shop, with all proceeds going to Oxfam GB.

99P FOR BOTH TRACKS."

Silent Night (Mastered)

So in the words of Saint Bob Geldof, "Give Us Your F*ckin' Money"; go and download it at www.villainousrecords.com from December 10th onwards and help Oliver's faltering music career, and one other charity.

Meanwhile, after his rib-ticklin' AND thought-provoking appearance on Blast FM's Shifty Disco Show a few weeks back, Oliver has been invited back by host Damian Brogden to turn the airwaves red (with politics) and blue (with good old smut) this coming Tuesday (11th) at 8pm. If it goes well again he may even jack in the music, eat a few more pies and reposition himself as the next Ricky Gervais. Listen in at www.blastfm.co.uk.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend