T.Rextasy ‘Unplugged’ brings you the songs of Marc Bolan played acoustically and sung by Danielz (lead singer and lead guitarist with T.Rextasy), accompanied by John Skelton (drummer with T.Rextasy) on congas and percussion.  Tracks that many of you would have heard the band play electrically over the years, take on a new dimension, giving the audience and musicians a more intimate and relaxed approach to the evening. 

Come along to hear how famous hit songs such as ‘20th Century Boy’, ‘Get it On’, Metal Guru, and ‘Jeepster’, and many others sound like played strictly unplugged, together with a few choice album and ‘b’ side tracks.

With his latest album nominated for no less than 4 British Blues Awards this year, Danny Bryant’s star continues to rise.

Reviews for new album ‘Just As I Am’:

“His most mature performance yet. The firestorm of guitar is carefully contoured from wistful to impassioned.” - Mojo

‘Fabulous’ - Paul Jones.

“Solid, no-bullshit blues-rock & this has tones greasier than a KFC bucket with hard-assed riffing & hearfelt soloing. Fans of Trout and Moore should try it out." - Guitarist  Magazine

“Impressive versatility & sensitivity, ever present scorching guitar licks. ….left me wanting more” - Blues in Britain

Nuff said! This is not a show you want to miss!!!
 

Blending Tarentinos movie soundtracks, White Stripes, Etta James, Queens of The Stone Age & Detroit Cobras

Gem (Rough Trade), Tristan (Gilkicker and Indie Producer) and Charlie (The Vandoos) came together in late 2009 to form Gem and The Deadheads.

Their first show was at The Garage in London main support for The Holloways.

They have since been showcasing the first half of the debut album which will follow later this year.

Imagine blending all of Quentin Tarentinos movie soundtracks, White Stripes, Etta James, Queens of The Stone Age and The Detroit Cobras!!

Featured in BBC Introducing Best of 2009 and recent national tour supports to Example and N-Dubz

When Radio 1's Big Weekend came to Swindon in 2009 there was one local band on everyone's lips.

Beatbullyz have built up a large following in their hometown, consistently selling out 700 capacity venues.

Huw Stephens started to play them on Radio 1 in the run up to the Big Weekend, which saw the Introducing tent packed out for a mass singalong.

They later recording a BBC Introducing session for Radio 1 and were one of six artists included in BBC Introducing’s Best of 2009 feature.

The band had previously taken their energetic live show to the likes of Austria's Snowbombing festival, Rotterdam's Heineken Street Parade and even Channel 4's Hollyoaks on which they performed their track 'Keys To Life' after being tipped as one of the best new live bands around by T4.

In 2009 they were main support on Example’s UK tour and in 2010 they supported N-Dubz on their nationwide tour.

They are currently working on their debut album with Jim Eliot of Kish Mauve (Ladyhawke, Kylie Minogue) and Chris Baker of Mint Royale.

Review from Salvo Magazine:

"In a world of genetically-modified clone bands, singing haircuts and serious scenesters, thankfully we're seeing a renaissance of live urban music. It's all about energy, enjoyment, upliftment and realness, taking the funk back to the floor and causing outbreaks of expressive emotion and demented dancing (don't be scared now kids).

"Beatbullyz are busting out of the gates of town, causing stampedes to the dancefloor and locking horns with audiences across the UK and Europe with their high energy fusion of hip hop, street soul, upbeat funk and urban attitude.

"While the sound is seriously slick with Disco on live drums, Philonious Funk cutting and scratching, plus Bozo bustin' the lyrical consciousness packed with party-starting prowess and empowering positivity. The Beatbullyz live experience is only complete with the anthemic choruses of frontman Bully, once of Diesel-U-Music award winners Nebulae. This fresh-faced soul boy has a voice to make the girls feel fluffy, with a directness and harmonic power that will stop you in your tracks and have you belting out hooks you've never even heard before. The quality of his song writing skills and optimistic, melodic sunny-day styles have to be heard to be believed, and if you're into sing-along urban-soul then insanely catchy tracks like 'Paranoid', 'Wham' and 'Rootz' are guaranteed to float your boat. Let your soul fly high!”

Here’s some nice things other people have written about Beatbullyz:

"They could end up being the UK answer to Black Eyed Peas" – The Guardian

Twice winners of BBC Radio 2 Folk Award (Best Duo); "the finest instrumental duo on the scene" - The Guardian

Jon Boden - winner of the Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Folk Awards 2010

Described by The Guardian as "the finest instrumental duo on the traditional scene" and twice winners of the BBC Radio 2 folk award for Best Duo, Spiers and Boden have made the genre of spontaneous, punky English folk very much their own stomping ground.

Loud, proud, and with just a few acoustic instruments, they create a multitude of textures upon which they present traditional stories and dance music which have taken them on to the main stages of major festivals.

The irrepressible performances of John Spiers and Jon Boden have ensured they are in high demand with venues and major festivals through out the world and past performances have included, in the UK, Cambridge Folk Festival, WOMAD and Larmer Tree Festival and abroad have included Roskilde Festival (Denmark), Nordsjofestivalen (Norway) and Namest Nad Oslavou (Czech Republic).

Their fifth album, Vagabond, was released on Navigator May 26th 2008. The eleven tracks on the album focus on the role of the itinerant and outsider, a theme prominent in traditional material, from 'Robin Hood' to the 'Beggar Boy'.

Winners of the Best Duo category at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in both 2004 and 2006, and a Critic's choice nomination at the BBC World Music Awards, and nominees for the same award in 2009, John & Jon are also founding members of the wildly ambitious eleven piece big-band folk phenomenon, Bellowhead (BBC Folk Awards for Best Live Act in 2005, 2007, 2008, Observer Top 20 albums of 2007).

They are currently Artist in Residence at London's Southbank as part of Bellowhead, an appointment which has led to a series of performances on The Southbank including a sold out show by Bellowhead to over 1,000 people in the Royal Festival Hall Ballroom in December 2007.

They have also enjoyed a long-term collaboration with Eliza Carthy as The Rat Catchers and performed on her Nationwide Mercury Prize nominated album Anglicana.

Jon Boden (singer, fiddle, guitar, stomp-box) follows in the footsteps of many of the great folk-singers with his theatrical style.

Born in 1977 in Chicago, he grew up in Winchester and graduated in Medieval Studies from Durham and Composition for Theatre from the London College of Music.

As well as forming half of Spiers & Boden and singing lead vocals in Bellowhead, Jon has also found time to release his own, self-penned album of contemporary indie rock songs, 'Painted Lady'.

John Spiers (melodeon, concertina) was born in Birmingham and grew up in Abingdon (home to one of the few truly traditional morris sides) with a morris dancing father.

He has a Masters degree in Natural Sciences from King's College Cambridge and has carved his own space in the folk scene with his unique blending of traditional squeezebox styles with his knowledge of contemporary dance music to create an infectious acoustic groove which provides the infectious rhythm of Spiers & Boden.

Here's some nice words other people have written about Spiers and Boden:

"Anyone who needs convincing that the current folk revival is becoming as intriguing, varied and experimental as it was back in the 1960s should check out the remarkable career of John Spiers and Jon Boden. In just a few years, they have established themselves as the finest instrumental duo on the traditional scene, and the contemporary equivalent of Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick..." - The Guardian

"Technically they stand head to head with the best of their generation... Jon Boden plays fiddle with an earthy vigour that's utterly compelling and sings in a frantic breathless manner as if the hounds of hell are taking lumps out of his backside, while John Spiers harmonises and plays urgent driving melodeon to a very high standard indeed...halfway to reinventing the style without even realising it..." - fRoots Magazine

"Dynamics, drive and passion" - BBC Radio 2 folk website

Comparisons to a punkier version of Elvis Costello and regular references to The Eels and Talking Heads

Philadelphia Grand Jury has always been two friends: Berkfinger and MC Bad Genius. Previously knowing each other for some 20 years Berkfinger hadn't seen Bad Genius for going on 6 years when one day the curious bearded fellow just strolled into one of his solo shows with a bass and plugged himself right back into the singer's life.

These two childhood buddies since had a rotating ensemble of drummers - until recently. Joining Berkfinger and MC Bad Genius is 54 year-old African American drummer Calvin, who used to session drum for US disco and funk acts like Earth Wind and Fire and bebop legend Sonny Stitt. Together they are a self-funded, self-produced, self-engineered, self-released, stage-destroying independent punk soul machine.

Recorded by band lead and producer Berkfinger (who has also worked on records for Wolfmother, The Temper Trap, Art vs Science and others) the band's recorded output displays the engrained Do-It-Yourself nature of Philadelphia Grand Jury at its best with comparisons to a punkier version of Elvis Costello and regular references to The Eels and Talking Heads.

The Philly Jays (as their fans affectionately refer to them) are exciting to watch and critics have lauded them as "a band you must see before you die". Literally explosive on stage their only secret is to write great songs and play them like it's their last show ever. Every. Single. Time.