All good things must some to an end…

I’ve decided to leave March of Dimes.

It’s been an extroardinary few years, and I’m very thankful for the time I got to spend with them, but it’s time to move on and do something new-but-I’m-not-sure-what with music and videos and things Thanks to everyone who’s been a part of it.

Right. Now what happens?

Hello!

So, the Foxes and Convicts Christmas Special went out last week, and the acts were all brilliant! As a special thank you to everyone who’s listened in over the past year, here’s a special video version of the show – all the Christmassy songs in glorious high definition

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Both thursdays in the run up to Christmas, at 7pm, the Foxes and Convicts Christmas Special will be live on Leeds Indie Radio!

Featuring:

Gary Stewart

Martin Plock

Silky

Steph Stephenson

and

Tag Team Preacher’s Steve Ward

Also, in a first for Foxes, we’ll be releasing a YouTube playlist of 5 featured songs from the show too, so you can see the Christmassy magic. It’ll be out on Friday.

Till then, enjoy this wee preview trailer for the show!

Merry christmas! Xx

Hello!

Don’t worry, I’m not doing a half marathon or anything. I’m no @JoMurricane or @Bangsandabun.

But lanky musician @LewisSleeman (aka Samuel Foxton Wells) is! His extra long legs mean he has fewer strides to do to make it the whole way around, and his athletic prowess means that he can SING while running!

He’s running the Leeds Half Marathon and has written this wee tune to help raise some much needed cash for McMillian Cancer Research.

So, listen to it, buy it (it’s only £3!) and maybe it will inspire YOU to start running… Or at the very least write a blog post about someone else running. Like I just did! Right now!

When I was putting together the list for [intlink id="7187" type="post"]Foxes and Convicts[/intlink] I stumbled across this fella on Leeds Music Forum called Daniel Pearson. He’s been recording at the fast-becoming-legendary Soundmill studios in Leeds with one of the cleverest producers working in Leeds right now, Ed Heaton. If you haven’t heard of Ed before, you’ve probably heard of some of his work recently, producing Hannah Trigwell, Secret Sirens, and a few more including The Finnlys… But I digress.

Daniel is right up my street – So much so I was rather stunned I hadn’t heard of him before. Anyway, if you like your sweeping soundscapes to be anthemic and heartfelt, get involved.

Daniel’s on Facebook here, and Twitter here.

He has a new single – Wishing Well – out now.

Over Christmas our beloved Hope House studios flooded, so we had to shift to the room next door. The silver lining with this was a great new studio for us to practice in, and record live sessions.

Photos by Louise Distrass

I’ve been running a Podcast with Jon from the Dimes, called Foxes and Convicts, for a while now. We’ve been bringing various different acts in to Hope House to record some sessions and have a bit of a chat, and we’ve been putting them out on podcasts. If I’m honest I have no idea how many people have actually been listening to them cos I screwed up a setting on the tracking software, but that’s by the by. Lots of people tell me they listen and like it, and that’s good enough for me.

To celebrate re-opening our studio, we got some of the finest acts we have worked with on the Foxes and Convicts night to all pop down on Saturday afternoon and record some songs for a brand new version of the podcast which will be premiered exclusively on Leeds Indie Radio. It’s a great privilige to turn our daft larking around into a proper show for LIR, who are celebrating a year doing amazing things for local music. Having heard the early mixes this will be a great part of their lineup.

So – coming soon to LIR, a brand new series of Foxes and Convicts, featuring:

March of Dimes - Photo by Louise Distrass

• Daniel Pearson
• Charlie Barnes
• Louise Distrass
• March of Dimes
• Tag Team Preacher
• Secret Sirens

…and many more! I’ll post up when they’re finished and scheduled in!

Depending on how the various life-changing events pan out I’ll be looking to record the next series in the late Autumn… Keep in touch if you’d like to be part of it and get your live set on Leeds Indie Radio!

In all the kerfuffle of the last week (birthdays, gigs, life altering announcements etc)  I forgot to mention that I’ve recently launched a new website for my band, March of Dimes.

You can see it at http://www.marchofdimesmusic.com

It’s got videos, gig listings, and our album and EP in full to listen to (and buy, if you haven’t already!)

If you like it, it would be great if you could pass on the address to your chums. Just a wee facebook post, or tweet, or anything to share what we do.

Also, if you know of any promoters or bands that might want to work with us, put them in touch with me

For those who are wondering, I built it in WordPress (my favourite CMS!) with a metric boatload of plugins. Every single part of the site – from the base system, to the music store, to the email system) is free to set up. In fact, apart from a bit of commission we pay to Bandcamp for the sales, it’s free to run as well! Brilliant! Gotta love ya some open source. If anyone wants to know what plugins I used for any part of it, just ask and I’ll let you know.

So… go forth and share… please!

Guestblog from @JoMurricane

The opening of Fazenda injected warmth and and vibrancy to an icy cold winter night in Leeds. The gas torches on entry were a welcoming sight to the guests as they arrived, and the restaurant itself is beautifully decorated, mixing brickwork with dark wood panelling, red carpets and candles together with vibrant music, you feel both comfortable and energised at once.

The Brazilian restaurant offers a new and exciting dining concept for Leeds, and it’s one that works exceptionally well. Fazenda uses the ‘all you can eat’ idea, in that diners pay a set fee to cover their meal, but they do it with such class and style. There is a salad bar, which offers an extensive range of delicious foods including gourmet salads, asparagus, sun blushed tomatoes, stuffed peppers, cured meats, and an impressive collection of cheeses. The selection is magnificent, so there’s definitely something for everyone.

However, the truly distinctive element of this restaurant is the meat. There is a selection of 15 cuts, which are carved and served from the kebab skewer at your table. I wasn’t sure how this would work in practice, and whether I would find it interruptive, but it was a really exciting way to dine, and allows you to take time over your food, and sample an incredible selection of meats, which are all cooked to perfection. The star of the show for me was the fillet mignon. It was cooked exceptionally well, and was perfectly tender. I also tried the rump steak, chicken thighs and cured sausages, which were all amazing, and there were all set off by the explosive chimichurri sauce that you find on every table.

The gaucho chefs roast the cuts of beef, pork, lamb and chicken using traditional techniques that have been used for centuries, and this restaurant is a fantastic way to share these with us. A simple method of having a card showing red or green tells the chefs whether you’d like to be served or not, so they never disturb you if you have enough and would like to be left to dine in peace. The staff members were all terrifically welcoming and friendly, providing such a great atmosphere that I didn’t to leave at the end of the night.

Fazenda is definitely a meat lover’s dream. There are even outlines of animals on the ceiling showing where the different cuts of meat come from. I think this is brilliant, and for me the way they respect and celebrate meat is fantastic, but I would warn vegetarians that this probably isn’t a restaurant for them!

Fazenda’s opening night was an exceptional success. All the guests seemed to be having a brilliant time, and the chatter and laughter in the room was a clear sign that the owners had struck exactly the right tone with this new venture. Fazenda has brought some Brazilian tradition and warmth to Leeds, and this new dining experience is one not to be missed.

Can you honestly say your weekend was better than… THIS?

From the Hope and Social Snowball

My BettaKultcha presentation has been uploaded!

If you’re having trouble seeing the slides, here they are, just click on the right hand side of them every 15 seconds!!