... remember, remember

Thanks to all who came to the gig on Friday night and were treated to a taster of our new material. I'm sure you'll agree it was a big success and we had a great time.

Remember the Good Voodoo "indoor festival" at the Halfmoon Putney is on 30th January which this coming Sunday. Doors open at 1pm in the afternoon and the music finishes at 11pm. There will be 18 of the best of the previous years Monday night Good Voodoo (formerly Halfmoon Unplugged) bands and artists and a sprinkle of newcomers too. It's ONLY £2.50 to watch the whole day of music inside the venue. Families are welcome in the daytime but after 7pm it will be over 18s only

Just a quick reminder...

We're playing at The Rose Hill Tavern in Brighton tomorrow night. Entry is free and we're looking forward to seeing you there.

A little gem I came across recently

Wow! Just had to share this amazing print by our new friend Tamara at Ink and Stylus. You can see more of her work (and buy it!) here. These illustrations are so detailed that Tamara uses a magnifying glass to draw through - an impressive lady and an impressive image.

Good Voodoo

We mentioned last week that we would be playing at the Halfmoon Putney on the 30th January and now we can confirm all the details and hopefully tempt you to come along to a FANTASTIC all day indoor festival of music.  

Doors open at 1pm in the afternoon and the music finishes at 11pm. There will be 18 of the best of the previous years Monday night Good Voodoo (formerly Halfmoon Unplugged) bands and artists and a sprinkle of newcomers too.

It's ONLY £2.50 to watch the whole day of music inside the venue. Families are welcome in the daytime but after 7pm it will be over 18s only. G
et your tickets on the door or in advance from http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?ion=gb_london&query=detail&event=412067&interface=halfmoon

So you're probably wondering who else is on the bill? Well you a have a treat in store (incredible when you consider the tiny price of the ticket). Here's the line up...

1030 Will Heard http://www.myspace.com/willjheard

1000 Andy Twyman http://www.myspace.com/andytwyman

930 Little Sister Blue http://www.myspace.com/littlesisterblue

900 The Lotus Project http://www.myspace.com/theofficiallotusproject

830 Gallery 47 http://www.myspace.com/gallery47

800 Newrising http://www.myspace.com/newrisinguk

730 Tess and Jibs http://www.myspace.com/tessandjibs

700 Orchard Tales http://www.myspace.com/orchardtales

630 George Frakes http://www.myspace.com/georgefrakes

600 Caleb http://www.myspace.com/calebband

530 Dan Korn http://www.myspace.com/danielkorn

500 The Hall of Mirrors http://www.myspace.com/thehallofmirrorsmusic

430 Natalie Ross http://www.natalieross.co.uk/

400 Joseph Watkin http://www.myspace.com/josephwatkinmusic

330 Anoushka Lucas http://www.anoushkalucas.com/

300 Rosie http://www.myspace.com/rosiesingssomesongs

230 Jack Garratt http://www.myspace.com/jackgarratt

200 Kiki Atnas http://www.myspace.com/kikiatnasmusic

130 Redvers Bailey http://www.theyareone.com/

The Rose Hill Tavern in Brighton on Friday 21st January

We've just been confirmed to play at The Rose Hill Tavern in Brighton this Friday night. Jay Leighton is headlining and it will be a fantastic night. The fun starts at 8pm and it won't cost you a bean to come along as entry is free. We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Grey days and a taste of what's to come

Just thought I'd pop in to say hello. What an oppressively grey day it's been today. Christmas seems eons ago, New Years resolutions are beginning to fall by the wayside and the sky is heavy, dark and foreboding which does little to alleviate the January blues. On the plus side, during a cold, windy walk to the studio yesterday morning I noticed the teeny, tiny beginnings of green buds on the trees so you see it can't be that long til spring. Luckily for us we are going to be working hard on some new material this week - friends, music, inspiration and ideas are just the thing we need to get us through these dark days.

We will be playing at Halfmoon Putney on 30 January at 7pm

Yes, we've booked our first gig of 2011, at the brilliant Halfmoon Putney no less, and we can't wait. So put the 30 January in your nice new diary and we'll see you at 7pm.

Lullaby

Have you all got your newsletters? Remember you can sign up to our mailing list for all the latest Orchard news by emailing us at info@orchardtales.com or our management company at info@justartistmanagement.com. Anyway, I digressed from this weeks hot topic yesterday but today we're back on track with more information about our new songs.

"Lullaby" has a darker, more ethereal sound than "Edward" and "Firewood". We've tried to capture the idea of the hinterland between experience and belief, knowledge and courage. It's in this space between the objective and the subjective that creativity, soul and your sense of self grow yet it is often a place where battles of heart and mind take place. I think of this place as a dreamlike, enriching world fraught with pitfalls and danger and yet at the same time alive with beauty and possibility. What do you think?

Newsletter out today

If you are already on our mailing list you will receive our latest newsletter today. If you are not on the mailing list but would like to receive a monthly update on upcoming gigs, new recordings, launches and general Orchard goings on please email info@orchardtales.com.

Carpe diem Alice

In the second installment of my "introduction to our new song series" (note to self: must think of catchier titles) I thought I'd give you the low down on “Firewood”.

Well, this is more of an upbeat track but it's story is one that is never far from my mind. It is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking of the future and forgetting to live in the present, of thinking how things should be in order to have a good life and not realising that life is good right now.

It's a bit like Alice in Wonderland when you think about it. We spend all our time thinking about the exciting, wonderful or heart wrenching things that may be behind the door labelled "FUTURE". We hope we will have become the person we always dreamt of being and have the life we always wanted or we worry that we will still be sad. But we are always too big or too small to fit through the door, no matter what we do we just can't sneak a peek so we just carry on daydreaming. And all the while, the world continues to turn, we continue to breathe, and love, and sing never realising that things are good just the way they are.

Cast adrift on a new song

So, I thought it would be good to kick off this blog with a little bit about our music. I'm sure we'll be rambling on about our influences and so on at some point but to start with I just wanted to chat about our new tracks. I always love hearing about where ideas for songs come from so i thought some of you might be interested too.

Life has a horrible habit of letting you down. One day you're sailing along in utter bliss thinking that everything is on course, even if somewhere in the depths of your heart something is not quite right you are sure that you are doing exactly what you want to do. You're happy, the world is in order and you know exactly where you're going and then all of a sudden a gust of wind rips your map from your hands and capsizes your boat. All seems lost, you free fall through the water certain that everything is over. Then a pure, perfect calm descends, time seems to slow and you realise you can swim. Eventually you find yourself wading ashore somewhere better than where you ever intended to be. It was with this feeling in mind that "Edward" was written: sometimes not getting what you want can be the best thing that ever happened to you.

Well I'll leave you with that thought for today. So go and listen to "Edward" and let me know your thoughts on it.

Until tomorrow...

Busy bees and other news





Welcome to the Orchard Tales blog, a place full of the random, creative and beautiful thoughts that cross our minds each day. Although our number one love is music and we will be talking about our band a lot of the time, we also wanted a space to explore all our other influences; bands and books we enjoy, pockets of intense beauty in our grimy cities, art, nature and general musings on life.

Our friend McKenzie Ditter's illustration sums up our current frame of mind perfectly. We've been very busy bees over the last few months: writing new material, recording and preparing for a new year of gigs. You can listen to our four new tracks on our myspace page, let us know what you think.