Monday, September 28, 2009

Band Debut & Faith Album Launch


Hi friends, I just wanted to let you know about two exciting events that are coming up in October.

Firstly I am very excited to announce that I am putting together a small band to play at Frog Morris Presents on the 8th October. The band will consist of my brother Haydn Callow on drums, Edward Kaye on Bass and myself on acoustic and (shock! horror!) electric guitar, also performing with us will be Wayne Myers of Fit & The Conniptions on guitar and, hopefully, Martin White on accordion. I'm particularly excited about the chance to play with my brother again, he's played with many bands including, but certainly not limited to, Honeytunnel, Damien McCabe and The Barron Knights as well as many shows, and his own jazz trio. He's also taught at Drumtech and written for Drummer and Rhythm magazine - so he certainly knows his flam from his para-diddle!

We will be playing for about 40 minutes and the set will include solo numbers, full band numbers and one or two surprises. If you can make it down then please do, it should be an excellent evening. Martin White is also doing a set and I'm sure Frog will be doing a turn or two as well. I'm hoping to video our set too, so that I can share bits on YouTube, but please do come along if you can.

You can find the Montague Arms at 289 Queens Rd, London, SE14 5JN it's very near Queens Road Peckham station and not far from New Cross. Here is a map.



The second event I want to draw your attention to is the Faith Album which is launched on the 24th October and will be available to buy from the 26th October in aid of Cystic Fibrosis. I have recorded a special, full band version of Lightkeeper for this project. The recording again features Haydn on drums and Paul Tkachenko on bass, and will only be available on this album - it will not be released in this form via any other media.

The album, signature song ‘FAITH!’ will be performed by 15 year old singer / songwriter Luke Jackson who co-wrote the song with Charlie Mason in the USA. Charlie has co-written with some of the best stars around including "Hit 'N' Run" single, Billiam the UK supernova boy band with "The Beautiful Ones” their first top 40 hit single. Charlie has also scored co-writes with, among others, PJ Bianco (who hit No. 1 with the Jonas Bros.), Aussie hit maker Hayden Bell, Johan Aberg (of Christina Aguilera fame) and Westlife producer Niklas Jarl.

The other fantastic artists featured on the album are: The Dunnos (Germany), Anders Fransson (USA), Anglo Saxon (UK), Charlie Savigar (UK), Dan Cropper (UK), Billy Page (USA), Eddy Johns (UK), Johan Nokland Lund (Norway) Unfolds (UK), Kayley Weller (UK), Mike Hirst (USA) and 11 year old Jordan Jansen (Australia).

The album will be mastered right here in the UK by Ian Thompson of White Wolf Recording, Newcastle. Ian has over 25 years experience in the music/recording industry and has recorded artists including Erasure, The New London Symphonic, Floyd2 and many chart hit artists.

Sounds pretty exciting doesn't it? The album is available for pre-order on CD already and you can do this here:

http://www.faithalbumlaunch.co.uk/

All the money raised is going to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and it's only £9.99 plus an extra £1.50 for those outside the UK. So what are you waiting for? Go order a copy or two now! Those of you on Facebook can also join the Group for the album here.

If you are in the UK, you can also come to the launch night on October 24th at the Lido in Margate, tickets are on sale now, and can also be bought from the website above. Many of the acts on the album are playing, plus some special guests and it should be a really fun evening. I can't wait - will you be there?

And as if that wasn't enough I also have many acoustic gigs coming up in London, and hopefully some full band gigs soon too. Check out all my gigs here:

29th September 2009, 8pm
Liquid Nation, 161-165 Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill, London, W10 6HJ

1st October 2009
Nine Bar, 146 Tanner Street, London, SE1 2HG

8th October 2009
Frog Morris Presents:
DAREN CALLOW + FRIENDS @ The Montague Arms, 289 Queens Rd, London, SE14 5JN

11th October 2009, 8pm
The Phoenix, 37 Cavendish Square, London, W1G 0PP

18th October 2009, 8pm
15 Minute Club @ Prohibition, St Katherine's Docks, East Smithfield, E1W 1AA

24th October 2009
Faith! Cystic Fibrosis charity album launch - limited tickets BOOK NOW
The Lido, Ethelbert Terrace, Margate, CT9 1RX

1st November 2009, 8pm
15 Minute Club @ Prohibition, St Katherine's Docks, East Smithfield, E1W 1AA

I'm also going to be hosting some nights for 15 Minute Club in Hoxton, so stay tuned for more news on all this.

See you very soon, better go prepare for tonight's gig now! Although since it's actually tomorrow (29th) I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, that's how excited I am!!

Daren
xxx

P.S. More updates on the band and all gigs on Twitter.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

This Happy Band


Yesterday I was playing as part of This Happy Band an art project / pub crawl arranged by Daniel Lehan as part of the Nunhead Festival. It was certainly a fun and slightly surreal experience. We all gathered outside the Old Nun's Head pub near Nunhead Green and what a motley crew we were. There were pirates, musicians, a human percussion instrument (also known as Calum F Kerr), a laughing bear, a pantomime horse, a poet or two and a man dressed head to toe in camouflage as a kind of latter day Greene Manne. We collectively clattered and strummed our way around three pubs performing as we went. Frog Morris chipped in with a poem or two (mostly about beer), I performed a few songs as did Tim, and Mr Solo. There were many highlights to the day, but the performances in the Nunhead Community centre, and our impromptu appearance on the festival stage certainly topped it off. There is a small video clip of this on YouTube: the saxophone player is Viv and the ukelele is played by Tim.

We all ended up in the Man Of Kent for one more performance in front of the bemused locals. My version of Do You Want To Dance? was nearly drowned out by miscellaneous percussive noises. We all performed a final item and then relaxed with a few well deserved beers.

I'm just about recovered now and doing some practice before tomorrow's gig at the Camden Head - if you are free come along from 9pm - 100 Camden High Street.

Daren
xxx

Friday, September 18, 2009

All The Way There And Back Again



It's been an emotional and creative roller-coaster for the past month, and it's been way too long since my last confession. I've been up north to Edinburgh, out east to Thetford(ish) and played and watched a whole variety of interesting performances. Here's some highlights:



Edinburgh Fringe
================
Where to start?! It was an amazing few days, lots of flyering on the Royal Mile (mostly in the rain) - late nights with friends, acquaintances and even the odd celebrity (failing to flyer Marcus Brigstock for example). Lots of good shows: I chiefly enjoyed Short Intention Span (especially all dressed up as Wally, and the creepy guy returning the condom), Moon Chavs, extremely sexy poetry with Richard Tyrone Jones & friends @ Utter, Robin Ince losing his mind onstage (downstairs at Negociants where I first played the Edinburgh Fringe in 1994), a mesmeric and intimate performance from Edwyn Collins, the filthy penis-obsessed Kunt & The Gang and, of course, the seminal, unforgettable, unexplainable and utterly unfathamable A Young Man Dressed As A Gorilla Dressed As An Old Man Sits In A Rocking Chair For 56 Minutes (about which plenty has been said already).

I must also mention TWINLESS by Charlotte Young - which was, after all, the reason why I was up there in the first place. Charlotte's piece was a combination of video and performance that certainly wasn't to everyone's taste. It concerned the death of her twin sister in a hideous tandom bicycle accident and how she dealt with the loss of a sibling and comedic partner. The performances all took place in the Crypt (very apt) below the Jekyll and Hyde pub in Hanover Street, after the comedy and before the eclectic A-Band. It was good to have a late evening slot as the subject matter was quite dark. Despite our efforts to warn people (my flyering technique of "It's about death, it's very funny" seemed to go down quite well) kind of, it was clear that the few people who had come expecting stand-up comedy or the like were to be very bemused as Charlotte shuffled in in her pyjamas and stood mostly in silence whilst the video ran. Those of us that got the humour though, found it utterly hilarious and wonderful, and this encouraged an initially nervous Charlotte to add extra lines during her raffle sections. The, totally ad-libbed, line of "It's that time again" spoken dead-pan made me laugh so much I nearly had an injury. The quietest night (just three people) was also excellent as they all won a prize and it was the only time that Charlotte almost lost it with laughter on stage... priceless.

It was with great sadness that I was unable to complete the run due to a family illness, but I just want to say many thanks for Richard Soames for stepping in to complete the run. It was a fabulous experience and it only remains for me to say THANK YOU and CONGRATULATIONS to Charlotte for a fantastic first Edinburgh Fringe run... may there be many more.

Oh, and also there are still t-shirts available for £7 if anyone would like one (pictured above).

After spending time with my family, I slowly managed to get back into playing and seeing shows. I fitted in a short performance at the Kiss Of A Lifetime (by Mike Chavez Dawson et al) and a trip to the Tate to see a Pil & Galia performance. Next stop:

Frogstock
=========

Frogstock is one of those sublime english traditions that has survived in various formats for many years now. Last year I played at the acoustic, cut-down version and was regaled by Frog and Victoria with stories of fields full of stages, giant campfires, stalls selling all kinds of wonderous things, and young love (ah sigh). Frog swept his arm in front of him describing a marvellous field with a trailor mounted main stage, dance tent and many other wonders... ah how I envied experiencing these hedonistic delights...

...fast forward a year and there I was, walking into just such and arena of dreams (am I building this up enough yet?). This year the Swan pub in Coney Weston took up the mantle and lo! there was the main stage, lo! there was the acoustic / comedy stage, lot! there was the dance tent, bouncy castle, giant bonfire, stalls, food vans, t-shirt stand, impromptu performances, REAL ALE BY THE BARREL-LOAD and glorious english sunshine to cap it all.

It was a day about which only good things will be remembered. Young Henry playing on both the acoustic and main-stage, all the t-shirts selling out by mid-afternoon, impromptu Saxa-boom jamming, the Blo' Boys back to their best (pictured below), glasses of beer with friends in a field... what could be better? My own performance (at about 5pm on the mainstage) could not even be mired by a few sound glitches in the first song, or my glasses nearly falling off due to sweat (the stage faced directly into the setting sun). It was nice to revive All I Want Is Stu for another year, and songs like Lightkeeper were made for a festival atmosphere.

I even got the train back home after Deference Engine's performance, so was able to cap the whole experience by sleeping in my own bed rather than in a tent. Roll on next year, when I'm hoping I will have a band to perform with!



Well that's the major round up, off to catch up with a few Blogs now. Make sure you check out some of my up-and-coming gigs below and I hope to see you soon.

Daren
xxx

19th September 2009, 2 - 5pm
Nunhead Festival, Nunhead

21st September 2009, 9pm
RAW GEMS @ The Camden Head, 100 Camden High Street, NW1 0UL

28th September 2009, 8pm
Liquid Nation, 161-165 Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill, London, W10 6HJ

1st October 2009, TBC
Nine Bar, 146 Tanner Street, London, SE1 2HG

8th October 2009
Frog Morris Presents:
DAREN CALLOW + FRIENDS @ The Montague Arms, 289 Queens Rd, London, SE14 5JN

11th October 2009, 8pm
The Phoenix, 37 Cavendish Square, London, W1G 0PP

18th October 2009, 8pm
15 Minute Club @ Prohibition, St Katherine's Docks, East Smithfield, E1W 1AA

24th October 2009
Faith! charity album launch - limited tickets BOOK NOW
The Lido, Ethelbert Terrace, Margate, CT9 1RX

1st November 2009, 8pm
15 Minute Club @ Prohibition, St Katherine's Docks, East Smithfield, E1W 1AA