mari glori’s Neighborhood

Yes, its true. We are playing a festival. How very exciting!!

Greenbelt Festival is a Christian music and arts festival - established in 1973 and first held in 1974, now in its 33rd year, and, at the last festival, attracted around 19,000 festival-goers. It starts on Friday 22nd August and goes through to Monday 25th August 2008. It's location - Cheltenham Racecourse, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Hurrah!

Tickets can be found here:

http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/shop/tickets/

We have been booked to play at 19.40pm on the Underground Stage, on Saturday evening. A great slot, I'm sure you'll agree. Headliners include Jose Gonzalez, Seth Lakeman, and Emmanuel Jal, and This Morning Call (in my head, not in reality).

Although I'm mostly excited about seeing my MySpace friends, a band called Elliot Jack, who I really rate, and like me enjoy watching the odd episode of DrWho, so no doubt we'll have a nice chat about that as well.

You can find out more about the festival here: http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/lineup/

You can also check out our new song "The Observatory" at our myspace page here: www.myspace.com/thismorningcall (which our VOX profile refuses to upload for some reason. Those of you with good memories will know I had this problem some months back. But don't let that put you off listening to some new music....just change websites!!)

Here's the press release:

"Following rave reviews from the likes of Channel 4, XFM and Channel M, underground Mancunian pop artists “This Morning Call” bring their melodic yet experimental blend of rock and electronica to Greenbelt 2008. Following on from successful recent one off shows at the London Troubadour, Manchester PRIDE and the Hard Rock café, their off the wall collection of darkly uplifting tunes has been described by some as an experience similar to watching “portishead on anti-depressants”. Ben Heyworth’s soft rock vocals superbly compliment ambient landscapes, the odd glitchy beat and beautiful piano driven ballads, lyrically painting emotional landscapes and giving classic pop sensibilities a kick into the 21^st Century.

Formed in Manchester in 2007, this ongoing studio project turned live band can be compared to the likes of The Postal Service, Elbow, Coldplay and even Goldfrapp with whom they undoubtedly share a maverick streak and capacity to surprise. Indeed, recent recordings have seen them return to their indie roots, producing uptempo guitar driven rock and top ten friendly Mancunian anthems. Undoubtedly ones to watch, catch “This Morning Call” live on the Underground Stage at 19.40pm on Saturday."

Here's a gratuitous picture, I'm doing something strange with my hands again:

Ben Portraits 011

On the gig front, Molloy are one of the 9 bands selected to play the PRS New Music Stage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on 10th August, and we will be playing Broccoli's Pull up the Roots just before that on 7th August. It's at The Old Queens Head, Islington and it's FREE entry!

Chet baker documentary "Let's Get Lost". He is one of my absolute favourites...they have re-released the film. Go out and buy Chet Baker Sings....or just find a version of "Anne Oh Woderful One" have a listen and I defy you not to fall in love with the world a little bit more....

It seems like only five minutes ago I was writing a similar piece for this blog reviewing Glastonbury 2007, and I'm happy to say that this year I can give you an equally glowing report on what remains the most engaging and vital arts festival in the world.

With 3/4 of punters now arriving on site on Wednesday, the festival is now a mammoth 6 days long, and pacing is the key. Anybody waking up with a severe hangover on Thursday or Friday probably needs to calm down or you wont make it through to Monday! Entertainments proper start at about 10am on Friday but there is plenty to do an see on the Thursday, not least finding your way round a site which just seems to grow and grow each year. Although for those of us who have been a number of times before it was nice to reaquaint ourselves with familiar landmarks such as the stone circle and the tipi field.

As usual, the run up the festival involved checking every concievable weather report to see if we are going to get rain, sun or a mixture and there were a few conflicting sources that suggested it could go either way. As it turned out, we were blessed with fine weather apart from Thursday night/Friday morning when it rained and the site turned to mud. Consequently, any photos you may see of us with mud underfoot would have been taken on Friday. Saturday and Sunday were both glorious, hot days and the mud soon dried up with the improved drainage working a treat.

I'm probably the only person bothered about the drainage, so lets cut to the chase and talk about the music. There's just so much to cram into three short days that you can't possibly see everything. Trying to see it all is a fools endeavour as you probably kill youself, let alone miss all the lovely distractions along the way. Friday started with a breif set from Kate Nash who was busy doing her usual "bitter/fitter/sucking on a lemon" routine with a nice skirt on that she kept twirling around. She sat playing the piano in a giant sea shell. Then it was on the dance village to catch some "lunchtime techno" from Manchester's finest electro DJ, Riton. That certainly got the dancing feet moving and my feet (wellies at this stage) moved me over the jazz world stage where Candi Stanton was demonstrating why she has had a remarkable 40 year career as a jazz soul singer. Anyone who doesn't know Candi need look no further than the recent hit with The Source ... "Sometimes I feel like throwing ma hands up in the air/I know I just can't count on you". I was a great set and one of the highlights of the weekend.

Friday night saw me back down the dance village, to see Rosin Murphy, of Moloko fame. We had briefly caught her "pre-festival" set at the Kings Head (opposite the Other Stage) on Thursday night, but this was the real deal and she played for a good hour and a bit, with material mostly taken from her recent solo albums. It was a hot, loud and in yer face disco/house set with about four costume changes and some great repartee with the other musicians on stage, especially the backing singers who strutted their stuff with the best of them. The reception from the crowd was massive and she certainly got us going. Fat Boy Slim was supposed to be DJing after but we didn't stay for the because having been dissappointed by his set a few years ago, I could really be arsed with it. Unfortuantely about 2000 people could be arsed and it took us half an hour to get out the tent with people arriving to catch his set.

Saturday dawned and of course, when one manages to catch some sleep it can only be a good like, so I was very happy to be up and about hangover free that morning and being looked after by some very nice people camped wth us who provided bacon, sausage and beans while I went to fetch the vodka. It was a stange, slightly drunken breakfast but one that will stick in the mind. The sun was out, the mud was drying up fast and it looked like it was going to be a lovely day. Who better than Crowded House on the Pyramid Stage to get the day started.

The House played a great set of classics with a few from the new album and it was probably my favourite set of the weekend, a proper singalong job with some comedy from Neil Finn as he attempted to take the piss out of the stoney faced security guards who stood immobile at the front of the stage but getting them to crack a smile. Great entertainment for a Saturday afternoon in the sun.

As I sit typing this, I'm watching Elbow live on the Other Stage on Saturday evening thanks to the BBC iplayer on the internet. Perkins and I managed to get right to the front, hanging over the barrier, in front of Guy Garvey himself. And as the sun set gently over the campsite, Elbow didn't dissappoint, playing a set taken from their new album, displaying great confidence in their new material. If you watch the BBC footage carefully and know where to look, we are visible dancing along, me in my wax hat.

Saturday night, we rocked out to a rather dark and off the wall Massive Attack who had a bit of chip on their shoulder with the world and with guitar bands. No, I didn't go and see JayZ, but not because I've got anything against him headlining. Why not? He's a massive talent and as I understand it, was given an impressive Glasto welcome. I didn't manage to catch Amy Winehouse either, as I could be bothered with her shambolic, druggy nonsense, but apparently she got the biggest crowd of the weekend. I hope people went to hear her music and not just to see what state she was in.

Sunday morning I spent drinking herbal tea in the Green Futures field, reading the paper, and being served by a little man with a west country accent who looked like a hobbit. Then I was presented with a piece of birthday cake. It was some kid's 9th birthday that day and they were having a little party to celebrate. There were alot of kids here this year.

Sunday afternoon, and I was happy to watch Neil Diamond on the main stage and I must say, the guy looked a bit old and his voice isn't what it used to be, so I was a bit dissappointed with that. Nevertheless, the lovely Goldfrapp came .. him, and I thought they were fantastic, and probably the best I'd seen them. The new songs worked really well for Sunday evening and again, I managed to get myself right to the front which proved remarkably easy.

The festival closed with a great, gloriously uptempo set from Groove Armada who showed us why they are the best dance act on the planet. Every tune was a hit. People went crazy. I went crazy, finding that last ounce of energy to carry me through to the end. A little nip of vodka helped!

So all in all, another brilliant weekend, and I will most certainly be there again next year. It can't come soon enough.

GLASTONBURY ROCKS!

Ben

Ricardo Vargas took some sound pictures of us at Lark in The Park for The City Showcase festival.

Have a look here!

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So a lot has been happening recently. I was asked to interview Colin Murray at the London International Music Show at Excel Docklands a couple of weeks ago. When I agreed I mistakenly thought it was for a podcast or something but to my horror on arrival realised it was onstage in one of those massive hangars they have there.

Colin was a total pro and talked for the duration of the interview which meant I hardly had to ask him any questions. Brilliant !
The interview was about Radio 1's In New Music We Trust, what Colin had to say was very interesting..he mentioned that he very rarely gets any demos sent to him at Radio 1, so he was encouraging him to send stuff to him..he listens to everything he gets sent and tries to respond when he can, and plays stuff when he likes it.
He said if you just send it to Colin Murray Radio 1 London he will actually get it, a bit like Santa at the North Pole !!

After our interview was a keynote speech by Sir Ken Robinson about creativity in the school system, it was amazing..he got a standing ovation afterwards.....he had really interesting things to say.

You can check him out delivering a similar speech on You Tube here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Amazing bloke.

I have been helping one of my bands (The Lost Levels) get ready for the release of their next single too. The video is almost finished, we are at second edit. We managed to get Miranda and Raza from Spooks to star in it which was a massive favour from them and everybody had a great time filming it.

I will post a link etc when the single comes out...(4th Aug)

More news about that soon.

Then I heard a message from somewhere out in space...it was the sound of the Lost Robot...

Thanks to all the scouts and guides!

Hey peeps, I know I said yesterday but it's time to say again!

And to my shock it's actually on there it's so damn surreal. But yeah 11 tracks are now up on iTunes as our album. We hope you enjoy it, we had a lot of fun making it etc.

If you one of those people who isn't bothered about a whole album then I'd suggest Hunter & Hypertension as some good tracks to pick up.

Alongside all the others of course ;)

Here's dee linkey.

Have a good one, and stay super cool_
[auda]*xx

The Long Road Home

And here are some photos super sympas taken at Pop Art Café, Reims, by ArtEos

We'd like to thank Dorian (and his moustache, who organised everything for us), Kris, Marcelline, David and Camille from Wendycode (our new lovers! we miss them... you should go and buy their new EP by the way), Nico Larsen and Basak (the cleaner). We had a great time!

And... Catch the moustach on air!