Showing posts with label Victor Rikowski. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Victor Rikowski. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Forest Roots: Venue Change - Now at the Forest Gate Hotel!


The Forest Gate Hotel

FOREST ROOTS: VENUE CHANGE – NOW AT THE FOREST GATE HOTEL!

Change of Venue: THE FOREST GATE HOTEL (Function Room)
Change of Start Time: Now starts at 8.00pm

Dear Forest Roots Folk

Thanks to everyone who turned up last month to see the amazing Acoustica. It was a great night and a real pleasure to see so many familiar faces.
This month we welcome back The Hot Strings Review featuring Martin Wheatley on guitar and ukulele and Mike Piggott www.mikepiggott.com on fiddle. They are both incredible musicians and gave us a fantastic evening last time they were at Forest Roots. If you saw them last time you will remember Martin's mesmerizing performance of The Dambusters on the ukulele (check him out on YouTube) and Mike’s amazing jazz fiddle playing. These two are definitely not to be missed.
The Flats Family Band will be there as well as surprise guests and local performers. These include the Forest Voices Choir.
If you'd like to be one of them email us @ forestroots@googlemail.com.
So that's The Hot Strings Review at Forest Roots, The Forest Gate Hotel. Godwin Road, Forest Gate, London E7 0LW
Friday 27th November.

Starts 8.00pm sharp – due to the number of performers, Forest Roots will now start at 8.00pm!

Transport: Bus – 86, 25, 330, 58, 308; Overground – Forest Gate (TfL Rail) and Wanstead Park

Stay forever young
Jenny and Caroline
Forest Root: Country, Folk, Blues and Beyond

NOTE: Victor Rikowski will be one of the performers. Ruth Rikowski will be singing with Forest Voices.

***END***
‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 
Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski
Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Saturday, March 10, 2012

'Stagnant' - by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon - A New Remix & Video






STAGNANT’ – BY COLD HANDS & QUARTER MOON – A NEW REMIX & VIDEO

“Psychology is a modern politician”

“Maximum levels of boredom
Disguised as maximum fun”

The new remix:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo

Live at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ

MySpace recording of ‘Stagnant’:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor Rikowski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
The Ockress:
http://www.theockress.com
Volumizer:
http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

'Human Herbs' - by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: A New Remix and Video






‘HUMAN HERBS’ – BY COLD HANDS & QUARTER MOON – A NEW REMIX & VIDEO

I believe in the afterlife
It starts tomorrow
When I go to work

The new remix was produced on 29th January 2011, in east London.

The new remix:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Live, original version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk

MySpace recording of ‘Human Herbs’:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor Rikowski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Friday, January 20, 2012

'The Lamb' by William Blake - set to music by Victor Rikowski





THE LAMB’ BY WILLIAM BLAKE – SET TO MUSIC BY VICTOR RIKOWSKI

Back when I was in Havering Sixth-Form College, at the age of 17/18, I remember setting this poem by Blake to my own song. Although I haven't played it since then, the tune always remains within my mind. This is a revisit to that song that I wrote 7/8 years ago now. This might not be exactly as it was then, but the opening tune is the one that stuck with me for all these years.

Victor Rikowski



Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?

Gave thee life, and bid thee feed

By the stream and o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing, woolly, bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice? Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? Little Lamb, I'll tell thee, Little Lamb, I'll tell thee:

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself a Lamb.

He is meek, and he is mild;

He became a little child.

I a child, and thou a lamb.

We are called by his name. Little Lamb, God bless thee! Little Lamb,

God bless thee!



Arrangement and performance by Victor Rikowski

It can be viewed at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Cheerful Sin - A Song by Victor Rikowski






CHEERFUL SIN – A SONG BY VICTOR RIKOWSKI

This is a song written by Victor Rikowski during his third year at Bangor University, north Wales. Says Victor:
“I’ve always wanted to do a recording of this song or a live performance or something, so now I’ve done this. Having only just bought myself a USB sound card thingy, this is my first bit of recording that I’ve done on my own for many years. This is the fruit of a sleepless night’s labour”

29th October 2011
Cheerful Sin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8
Victor Rikowski Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/VictorRikowski

‘I believe in the afterlife.
It starts tomorrow,
When I go to work’
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

‘Maximum levels of boredom
Disguised as maximum fun’
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Saturday, November 12, 2011

'Cheerful Sin' - A Song by Victor Rikowski






'CHEERFUL SIN' – A SONG BY VICTOR RIKOWSKI

This is a song written by Victor Rikowski during his third year at Bangor University, north Wales. Says Victor:

“I’ve always wanted to do a recording of this song or a live performance or something, so now I’ve done this. Having only just bought myself a USB sound card thingy, this is my first bit of recording that I’ve done on my own for many years. This is the fruit of a sleepless night’s labour”

29th October 2011

Cheerful Sin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Victor Rikowski Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/VictorRikowski

‘I believe in the afterlife.
It starts tomorrow,
When I go to work’
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

‘Maximum levels of boredom
Disguised as maximum fun’
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Creative Writing Worshop at the Idea Store - East London






CREATIVE WRITING AT THE IDEA STORE EAST LONDON

Discover the Writer within You – by taking part in our new CREATIVE WRITING Workshops!

Tuesdays, 4.00-6.00pm [11+]

Do you have a passion for writing, telling and sharing stories?

Have you ever wanted to be an author?

If so, then take part in this FREE Workshop to start your creative journey.


The Workshop will also help you to improve your IT and literacy skills, to help you along the way.

We will be covering all forms of fiction so that you can focus on what interests you: whether it is writing novels or poetry, TV and film scripts, plays, short stories, or even comic books.

Set the stories of your imagination free!

IDEA: Library Learning Information

Idea Store
Chrisp Street
1 Vesey Path
East India Dock Road
LONDON
E14 6BT
Tel: 0207 364 1506
Website: http://www.ideastore.co.uk/en/articles/libraries_your_local_idea_store_library_idea_store_chrisp_street

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com/
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Ruth Rikowski's News Updates Progression - 47th News Update






RUTH RIKOWSKI’S NEWS UPDATES PROGRESSION – 47th NEWS UPDATE

This can be found at ‘Ruth Rikowski News Updates Progression’, which came out on 2nd October 2011.

In this 47th News Update, Ruth explores the following topics, amongst others:

* Capitorg: Education and the Constitution of the Human in Contemporary Society – by Glenn Rikowski.

* School Culture and ‘Fear of a Blank Planet’ – by Dishi Phillips.

* Education and Bonus Culture – by Brianna Haberman-Lawson

* Competition and Markets in Education – by Brad Dymond

* Rage! Writers Change the World – by Victor Rikowski

* Review of ‘Libraries and Society’ – by Ruth Rikowski

See the 47th News Update at: http://ruthrikowskiupdates.blogspot.com/2011/09/hope-everyone-had-good-summer.html

Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Sunday, September 18, 2011

'Rage! How Writers Change the World' - by Victor Rikowski






RAGE! WRITERS CHANGE THE WORLD

This is an essay written by Victor Rikowski when he was a final year student in Music, Creative Writing and English Literature at Bangor University, Wales.

It was written as an assignment for the QXE3089 module, ‘Rage! How Writers Can Change the World’.

Victor’s essay can now be found at The Flow of Ideas website:

Rikowski, V. (2011) Rage! Writers Change the World, An essay written for the QXE3089 module, ‘Rage! How Writers Can Change the World’, Bangor University, Wales, April, online at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/index.php?page=articles&sub=Rage%20-%20Victor%20Rikowski


Whilst at Bangor, Victor was in Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, a post-punk folk band. For more on this, see: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Friday, January 21, 2011

Invitation to a Book Launch for 'Digitisation Perspectives'



INVITATION TO A BOOK LAUNCH FOR ‘DIGITISATION PERSPECTIVES’

Digitisation Perspectives
Edited by Ruth Rikowski
Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2011

ISBN 978-94-6091-297-9 (pbk); 978-94-6091-6 (hdbk);
978-94-6091-299-3 (e-book)
£35.00 (pbk); £75.00 (hdbk)
https://www.sensepublishers.com/product_info.php?products_id=1158&osCsid=f255a6ffa2e20417688cf96c4ae8976e

Part of Book Series:
‘Educational Futures: Rethinking Theory and Practice’
Series Editor: Michael A. Peters

Digitisation Perspectives will be launched on Wednesday 16th February 2011, 17.30 - 20.00
At: Wilkins Terrace Restaurant
University College London
Gower Street
London, WC1E 6BT, England

Digitisation Perspectives includes contributions from 22 experts worldwide.

Foreword by Simon Tanner, Director Digital Consultancy, King’s College London, who says that the book: “…seeks to address and answer some of the big questions of digitisation…It succeeds on many levels…”

Topics covered include: electronic theses, search engine technology, digitisation of ancient manuscripts, citation indexing, reference services, digitisation in Africa, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, new media and scholarly publishing. The final chapter explores virtual libraries, posing some interesting questions for possible futures.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

FOREWORD: SIMON TANNER, DIRECTOR, KING’S DIGITAL CONSULTANCY SERVICES, KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON

INTRODUCTION: RUTH RIKOWSKI

PART 1: BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW TO DIGITISATION AND DIGITAL LIBRARIES

Chapter 1: The Rise of Digitization: An Overview - Melissa M. Terras
Chapter 2: Digital Libraries and Digitisation: an overview and critique –
Ruth Rikowski
Chapter 3: Digital Knowledge Resources – M. Paul Pandian
Chapter 4: Digitisation: research, sophisticated search engines, evaluation: all that and more – Ruth Rikowski


PART 2: DIGITISATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION

Chapter 5: Improving student mental models in a new university information setting – Alan Rosling and Kathryn Chapman
Chapter 6: Electronic Theses and Dissertations: promoting ‘hidden’ research – Susan Copeland
Chapter 7: Learning Systems in Post-Statutory Education – Paul Catherall
Chapter 8: Going Digital: the transformation of scholarly communication and academic libraries – Isaac Hunter Dunlap


PART 3: DIGITISATION AND INEQUALITIES

Chapter 9: Hegemony and the Web: the Struggle for Hegemony in a Digital Age – Tony Ward
Chapter 10: Digital libraries: an opportunity for African education – Dieu Hack-Polay
Chapter 11: Critical Perspectives on Digitising Africa – by Leburn Rose


PART 4: DIGITAL LIBRARIES, REFERENCE SERVICES AND CITATION INDEXING

Chapter 12: Digital Library and Digital Reference Service: integration and mutual complementarity – Jia Liu
Chapter 13: The New Generation of Citation Indexing in the Age of Digital Libraries – Mengxiong Liu and Peggy Cabrera


PART 5: DIGITISATION OF RARE, VALUED AND SCHOLARLY WORKS

Chapter 14: Building the Virtual Scriptorium – Tatiana Nikolova-Houston and Ron Houston
Chapter 15: SPARC: creating innovative models and environments for scholarly research and communication – Heather Joseph
Chapter 16: Impacts of New Media on Scholarly Publishing – Yehuda E. Kalay


PART 6: FUTURISTIC DEVELOPMENTS OF DIGITISATION

Chapter 17: Meeting and Serving Users in Their New Work (and Play) Spaces – Tom Peters
Chapter 18: Virtual Libraries and Education in Virtual Worlds: twenty-first century library services – Lori Bell, Mary-Carol Lindbloom, Tom Peters and Kitty Pope

CONCLUSION: RUTH RIKOWSKI

Cover designed by Victor Rikowski

Refreshments provided.

Confirmed speakers at the launch include:

An Introduction by Andy Dawson, Senior Teaching Fellow and MSc Information Science Programme Director, Department of Information Studies, UCL.

Ruth Rikowski is a Freelance Editor, commissioning books for Chandos Publishing, Oxford. She is an Associate of the Higher Education Academy and a Chartered Librarian. Ruth Rikowski is the author of Globalisation, Information and Libraries (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2005) and the editor of Knowledge Management: social, cultural and theoretical perspectives (Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2007). She has also written numerous articles and given many talks; focusing in particular on the topics of globalisation, knowledge management and information technology. Ruth Rikowski is on the Editorial Board of Policy Futures in Education and Information for Social Change. The Rikowski website, ‘The Flow of Ideas’ can be found at www.flowideas.co.uk and her blog, ‘Ruth Rikowski Updates’ is at http://ruthrikowskiupdates.blogspot.com/

Paul Catherall is a librarian currently working at University of Liverpool, UK. Paul has worked in E-Learning and technical support roles over a number of years and his current role involves providing library services to students studying online. Paul also worked for several years as a college lecturer in Information Communications Technology. Paul is also undertaking a PhD within the area of E-Learning and is a graduate of Glyndŵr University, formerly the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education (B.A.) and John Moores University (M.A. Dist). Paul is also an associate of the Higher Education Academy and chartered member of Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). Paul has also been active in various CILIP affiliated groups, including the Career Development Group and is a member of the Editorial Board for the collective forum and journal Information for Social Change. Paul has authored various published journal articles and texts including a stand-alone book Delivering E-Learning for Information Services in Higher Education (Chandos 2005).

Julianne Nyhan – on behalf of Melissa Terras, who is a Senior Lecturer in Electronic Communication in the Department of Information Studies, University College London, and the Deputy Director of the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities. With a background in Classical Art History and English Literature, and Computing Science, her doctorate (University of Oxford) examined how to use advanced information engineering technologies to interpret and read the Vindolanda texts. She is a general editor of DHQ (Digital Humanities Quarterly) and Secretary of the Association of Literary and Linguistic Computing. Her research focuses on the use of computational techniques to enable research in the arts and humanities that would otherwise be impossible.

Places limited for the book launch: R.S.V.P: Rikowskigr@aol.com

Purchasing Digitisation Perspectives:

From Sense Publishers:

Paperback: https://www.sensepublishers.com/product_info.php?products_id=1158&osCsid=6db6323c10ad4cd5490353b1a892f650

Hardback: https://www.sensepublishers.com/product_info.php?products_id=1159&osCsid=6db6323c10ad4cd5490353b1a892f650

From Amazon.co.uk:

Paperback: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digitisation-Perspectives-Ruth-Rikowski/dp/9460912974/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295640711&sr=1-5

Hardback: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digitisation-Perspectives-Ruth-Rikowski/dp/9460912982/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295640711&sr=1-6

From Amazon.com:

Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Digitisation-Perspectives-Ruth-Rikowski/dp/9460912974/ref=sr_1_2_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295640919&sr=1-2

Hardback: http://www.amazon.com/Digitisation-Perspectives-Ruth-Rikowski/dp/9460912982/ref=sr_1_2_title_1_h?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295640919&sr=1-2

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon - Two New Tracks



COLD HANDS & QUARTER MOON – TWO NEW TRACKS

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon entered two new tracks on their MySpace site today.

These are ‘Stagnant’ and ‘Slaves & Masters’

You can listed to these new tracks at:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

There are various versions of ‘Stagnant’ now available:

Live at the Belle View, Bangor, north Wales:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ

Session in the basement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StqTevvSQ_k

The Cold Hands & Quarter Moon Profile is at:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/

In addition, you can see ‘Daystar’, (an excellent video and song) by Will Roberts, who also plays in Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6f_pA5XUPk

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com
Wavering on Ether:
http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Friday, March 26, 2010

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon - Now at MySpace


Cold Hands & Quarter Moon - Now at MySpace

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon are now at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

You can hear the band play, 'Human Herbs', and the quality of the recording is much better than on YouTube. The band had access to some proper recording facilities for this version of 'Human Herbs'.

For a detailed profile on Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, see: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Cold Hands and Quarter Moon


COLD HANDS AND QUARTER MOON

Introduced by Victor Rikowski

The band members:

Victor Rikowski – Guitar & Vocals
Alex Lowther-Harris – Guitar, Banjo, Accordion & Vocals
Louie Ashton-Butler – Vocals
Nicholas Frost – Violin
Jack Rennie – Bass Guitar
William J Roberts – Hand Percussion


In the autumn of 2008, Aaron Ledbury suggested to me that some kind of jam should take place between two musicians; namely, him and me. I knew he played the ukulele and he knew that I played the guitar and bass. A month or two later, Alex Lowther-Harris, who was a banjo, guitar & synthesiser extraordinaire, joined us. We began to do some general jamming, with me on the bass, Alex on banjo and Aaron on ukulele. It was around winter 2008/spring 2009 that we began to make it a regular thing. Sunday was our compulsory weekly jam. For the rest of the year we were trying to figure out what our band/music was about and what we wanted to get out of the whole thing. We recorded quite a few of our jam sessions on Dictaphone. We were working on a big repertoire of songs; songs without lyrics in a band without a singer. Most of the songs were a bunch of chords which Aaron would jam/improvise over occasionally, with Alex and me occasionally having our own time in the spotlight. In one song I played flute and Aaron played harmonica and Alex played guitar. We often swapped, switched and sometimes even modified our instruments. Our style was a kind-of bluegrass, jamming and, predominantly, blues style. But without any singer, lyrics or main melody for all of our songs we were stuck for where to go next. But we didn’t really care. We enjoyed playing music and having fun with it. Alex and Aaron wrote the songs/chords together and I wrote the baselines along with their ideas.

Late at night one day the three of us went down to the beach on the Menai Straight between Bangor and Anglesey. It was a stone beach with huge boulders and calm water. It was very dark and very cold but it was also very beautiful. We played for about half an hour before complaining about how cold our hands were. We carried on playing nonetheless. We then noticed that the moon was quarter full. It was in memory of that magical night that the band then became Cold Hands & Quarter Moon.

The academic year came to a close. Over the summer holidays I began writing songs again. I hadn’t written a song in years and it was nice to start again. I wrote them purely for my own enjoyment but when I came back to university and played a couple of them to Aaron he said he really liked them and that he wanted to work on them for the band. From then on the band had developed a whole new perspective. We were a band that did songs. The style of the songs maintained the original blues ethic, but also added in folk and even a few punk and country influences. The band line up began to change rapidly from then on. At the beginning of the year it was just me and Aaron in the band; me on guitar and vocals and Aaron on bass. Alex didn’t seem to like the new direction of the band, so then it was just me and Aaron.

However, Aaron and I both knew that we needed more musicians/singers in order to get the band to be how we wanted it to be. The next person to join the band was Nicholas Frost, who is a really good violinist and plays for the Bangor University Orchestra. He did a great job with the songs that we had. When Nick came to his first practice he brought along with him a guy known as Louie, who is a very good singer and recently (December 2009) performed a vocal solo in the Bangor University Winter Concert. I had been thinking for a week or two about finding myself another female singer but then suddenly it struck the band as obvious; why didn’t Louie join the band? We had a second singer.

Eventually Alex came back into the band playing banjo, guitar and, very brilliantly, the accordion. It was done: the band line-up was complete. Alex began to write songs too, and writing them very quickly. We began to practice regularly and for long hours of the day, much to our housemates’ annoyance. Just when we were getting pretty tight and ready to tour the pubs and open-mike’s of Bangor, disaster struck. Aaron was being thrown out of university because of his financial difficulties concerning last year’s rent. We had lost our bassist, the bassist who had learnt and written all the bass lines for the new songs by me and Alex along with the couple of cover songs we did.

We had to find a new bassist. Jack Rennie was the next person to join the band in autumn 2009 as the bassist. We began practicing again and re-learning the songs we had already done. Before too long we were performing songs in the pubs and Open-Mike’s in Bangor. First we performed in the ‘Bell Vue’ (which was my personal favourite), and the next one we did was at ‘The Underground’ or ‘The Venue’ on Bangor High Street. The next was Open-Mike at ‘The Greek’. We did a session in the recording studio soon after that, which I was using as coursework for my music degree.

For quite some time I was thinking about having a drummer and Jack Rennie had an electric drum kit. I knew how rare/difficult it is for a band to get a drummer and so this was likely to be the only opportunity of having one but, having realized that it wouldn’t suit the aesthetics of the band, I stuck with what we had. But I still wanted some percussion in the band. I went down to the shop and bought some bongos, a tambourine and an egg shaker. Soon after this William Roberts wanted to join the band as our percussionist. So now we’ve settled for the six of us and look forward to recording more songs in the studio and performing more folk/blues/country songs in pubs and open-mike sessions.

Victor Rikowski

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon

You can hear some of the band’s session on YouTube:

'Brown Shoes' composed by Alex Lowther-Harris: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5ijUrtSOzQ

'Traitor' composed by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRIP6SyI1X4

'Human Herbs' composed by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk

'Reverence' composed by Alex Lowther-Harris: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVLjpWJfHgo

'Stagnant' composed by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StqTevvSQ_k


Posted here Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com