12 posts tagged “gigs”
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:
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.
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:
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...
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".
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...
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:
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:
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...
Here are some more choice excerpts from the show they're all still talking about (in the Shaw household)...
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:
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)...
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:
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'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:
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.
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)!!!
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:
Oliver Shaw will be taking to the airwaves this coming Tuesday night (27th Nov) as special guest on Damien Brogden's show at London-based online radio station www.blastfm.co.uk, between 8pm and 10pm. Tracks from his latest (so far very limited) Worldview release "Our Condition" will be given a spin, along with music from some of his favourite artists and formative influences. Oliver expects to be given a tough Paxman-style grilling from old pal Damo, who will probably demand to know, among other things, why he languishes in low-grade jobs while ex-musical associates end up in Coldplay. If he survives this on-air probing he may well strum one of his best-loved songs there and then in an unplugged manner and introduce some tracks from current side-projects. Speaking of which, a few new tracks have found their way on to the Desmond Chancer myspace, www.myspace.com/desmondchancerandthelongmemories, where Oliver works under the alias "Junkfood Jones" for non-contractual reasons. One is a suitably mellow'n'wintry take on Silent Night, now downloadable for yer listening pleasure. And below is his current favourite from the Chancer sessions, featuring the melancholy lyrics and Robeson-esque croon of "Desmond", aka Tom McDonnell, "You Are Forgotten". (That's Shaw tickling the ivories, as "Junkfood Jones".)
STOP PRESS: Damien's show on Blast FM now has a Myspace, at www.myspace.com/theshiftydiscoshow.
