Cold ShoulderToken FilmsArena Biennial Line-upElevator Bands at Festivals

Ditto MusicStudio Liverpoolclare makes filmsIn The Room Print Company

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CABLE #5

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Six albums in, Elevator residents Clinic are still charter-ing new territory with their sound. While many bands find what works and stick with it, the Liverpool four-piece continue to laugh in the face of convention as they ready themselves for the release of ‘Bubblegum’, the “curve-ball” album in the Clinic arsenal.

“We wanted to produce a record that flowed from beginning to end, something that was easy to listen to,” explains drum-mer Carl Turney. “Previous Clinic records have been really diverse and are sometimes quite intense to listen to, always jumping from one style to another.”

‘Bubblegum’ is a significant departure from the band’s previous offerings. In place of the trademark driving gui-tars, harpsichords, strings and dulcimers combine to cre-ate a complete reverie of an album. Pop beauty at its best, Clinic’s 13 years in the business certainly haven’t left them bereft of new ideas. The group describe the album as al-ternating between the “lost soundtracks to exploitation films”, “watery pop-psych” and “ping-pong symphonies”, certainly not the assertions of a group stuck in a creative rut.

Is the fact that the group are still willing to take the leap into the unknown the secret to Clinic’s success? “I think the key is to always try and do something different and not be afraid to change something,” Turney explains. “Early reac-tions have been good and we’ve been playing a lot of the new songs live which is a very good benchmark to judge what people think.”

Did the new sound change the way the band went about the recording process? “We haven’t worked with a producer from the outset since ‘Winchester Cathedral’ and with this

album we really thought it would be good to work with someone who could raise the bar with the recordings,” he explains. “I think John Congleton has done a great job, he works very quickly and didn’t allow us to dwell on anything. It’s very easy to get distracted by the smaller things.”

‘I’m Aware’, the first single to be lifted from the forthcom-ing album, released September 20th, features the artistic genius of the world-renowned Pete Fowler on the video. Famed for his work with Super Furry Animals, as well as other high-profile projects, Fowler brings the otherworldly charm of the song to life in the fantastical, puppet based creation. “We’ve been a fan of Pete Fowler’s work for a long time, from the early Super Furry Animal’s albums and ‘Monsterism Island’ but it was actually Domino who sug-gested approaching him to do the video,” explains Turney. “We wanted something bright and fun to reflect the sound of the record and we all agreed he would be the man for the job. For years critics of the band have missed the joke with the masks/surgeons gear so this was a way of putting across our lighter side.”

Continually cited by other bands in the city as either an influence or a firm favourite, how have Clinic managed to keep on the right side of so many with over a decade spent in the business? “It helps not being associated with any scene or hype,” says Turney. “In fact I think the good thing about Liverpool is there isn’t one particular scene, just lots of bands doing their own thing. You say hello to people around and about but we don’t tend to hang around with other musicians, although it was great to play with bands like Mugstar, Hot Club De Paris and Married To The Sea at last year’s Mass Freak-out.”

The band will spend the majority of the autumn touring ‘Bubblegum’, in both the UK and America, and when they return, it’s straight back to the studio. “We’ll be continuing with new songs, there’s always something that needs work-ing on or finishing off.”

The group have been long-term residents of Elevator, util-ising both the rehearsal space and the Studios themselves, do the group think places such as Elevator are beneficial to bands, both veteran and start-out? “It’s really handy hav-ing all your gear in one place, accessible 24 hours a day,” explains Turney. “Not only do we rehearse there but we do a lot of recording there too - everything from “Visita-tions” onwards with the exception of the drums on the new album, a bit of bass, some acoustic guitars and strings has been recorded using our own studio equipment in Elevator.”

The long-time heroes of music aficionados everywhere release forthcoming album ‘Bubblegum’ on October 4th. Catch the bands home leg of their UK tour at the Static Gallery on October 23rd.

CLINIC RETURN WITH NEW ALBUM

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Elevator’s control room.

It’s been a whirlwind year for Sound of Guns, and their summer schedule didn’t disappoint. After their debut album ‘What Came From Fire’ received acclaim from critics, the bands profile has risen sharply. The group have been fea-tured on Channel 5, and are in the throes of a love-affair with TV sports channels, new single ‘Elementary of Youth’ is frequently played on Soccer AM, Sky Sports, ESPN, every time a try gets scored at Liverpool St Helen’s rugby matches.

Festival dates included Leeds and Reading, Mallorca Rocks, Kendal Calling, Great Escape (NME show), Bing-ley Live, Middlesbrough Music Live, and not forgetting the wonderfully named Cockrock.

Catch the band on their current tour at their Liverpool date on October 1st with support from Fly With Vampires.

For more information go to: www.myspace.com/sound-ofguns

SOUND OF GUNS

ELEVATOR BANDS AT THE FESTIVALS

THE BENDAL INTERLUDE

Having just completed their forthcoming EP (recorded in Elevator with Hot Club de Paris’ Paul Rafferty at the helm), Bendal Interlude are planning a tour for later in the year. After playing with the likes of Iron Maiden, Iggy Pop, Slayer, Alice in Chains, and Alice Cooper at Sonisphere, Bendal were also featured in last Months Metal hammer, with their song Cat Spats appearing on the cover CD, ‘A Tribute to Black Sabbath’.

The band are planning a full-length release for next year. For more information on Bendal, go to www.myspace.com/thebendalinterlude

MAJOR MAJOR

BICYCLE THIEVES

After recording with Arctic Monkeys producer Mike Crossey earlier in the year, the band have been holed up in the studio writing, and recording a new set.

The band took a break from recording to play dates with British Sea Power at the Stockton Riverside Fringe Festival and with mates The Courteeners on their jaunt about the UK.

The band have also been busy with side projects. Ash Hop-kins and Tom Hammersely have joined forces with Ollie from We Came Out Like Tigers to form a new hardcore band. Ash also received funding for record label Payper Ti-ger, one of the names behind the Inside Pages Festival. The label will give away a free compilation CD at the festival.

For more information, go to: www.myspace.com/bicy-clethievesuk

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With summer festival dates which included the wonderful Jedi fest, and Nozstock festival, the band filled the rest of their time busking and creating a rather successful anti-BNP video, which can be seen on Youtube.

The band will return to the studio in November to start work

on a 5-track EP, and will be working with “a reasonably big name producer”, according to vocalist Connor Clarke. The band plan to tour the EP upon its completion.

Go to www.majormajor.com for all your pop extrovert needs.

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Ioisis founder Anna Rosser .

A veritable wet dream.

INTRODUCING... TOKEN FILMS

The second floor of Elevator is home to Token Films, the creative stomping ground of Stuart Lancely. He’s the face behind music videos for the likes of The Coral, The Zutons, Q-tip, John Squire, The Beautiful South, Glasvegas, and The Twang but to name a few, and with accolades from the BBC and a showcase at the British Film Institute already under his belt, we ask Stuart what’s next for Token Films?

Lancely attended University in Liverpool, and went on to do various video-related jobs on shows such as Hollyoaks and Brookside (before it went “tits up”, which Stuart assures had nothing to do with him!). “Part of my job was to watch every single episode and check for even the most minute glitch, misplaced pixel or continuity gaff,” he explains. “To this day I have an uncanny knack of spotting these things in TV programmes and films. I learnt a lot, both on the technical side and about what I wanted to do with myself. So I decided to take the plunge and set up as a freelance camera operator and video director, which suits me down to the ground.”

Stuart set up Token Films, a Liverpool-based video production company specialising in music videos. “I’ve always been into film, animation and video. Those are the some of the things I really loved as a kid; Morph on ‘Hartbeat’, James Bond films, Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion creatures in ‘Jason & the Argonauts’ to name but a few,” he explains. “As I grew up, I started to really enjoy music and mak-ing things, making anything really! So music videos were the obvious choice, the best of all of the things I loved, rolled into one!”

Stuart began to gain national recognition and plau-dits after completing videos for Liverpool’s Wave Machines and BBC comedians Adam and Joe. “My video for ‘The Greatest Escape We Ever Made’ was featured on Motionographer.com, selected as “Staff Pick” on Vimeo.com and also as “Video of the Week” on Nemone’s show on BBC6Music.

“Often the only feedback you get for a music video is from the band/label and the comments on YouTube, so to actually have your work featured in blogs and on websites is wonderfully ego-boosting. When the video I made for Adam & Joe’s show was picked

as runner up and then screened as part of ‘B.U.G.’ at the British Film Institute, I was absolutely over the moon!

While many film-makers make the move to London, struggling to make a creative industry living in the North, how has Stuart found staying put? “I can’t exactly say how I’ve managed to stick with it. I sup-pose it’s important to do something that you love do-ing, this will help you keep going. Taking advantage of the business advice that’s available helped too, for example David Parrish and ACME, which helps you make the most of your potential. I suppose people in the creative industries are always drawn to the big-ger cities. It’s where the money is. But I also reckon money follows the creativity, just look at Jamaica Street now. So just choose the path you want to take: head to London and wade in with the crowds, or stay up here and do your own thing.

“You’ll have to sacrifice some things, the need to do other work to earn a living can be frustrating and it’s easy to get distracted. Over the years I’ve worked on other people’s videos as a camera operator, as an animator, even as a runner. But there’s more to be gained from staying here I believe. And working for other people has allowed me to learn firsthand about making music videos from some very talented people. I also do some more corporate work from time to time to keep the wolves from the door, and I don’t regret that at all either. The corporate jobs make you appreciate the more interesting creative projects, and it also teaches you skills and self disci-pline. Besides, the experience, skills and equipment I’ve built up are easily transferrable when the need arises for me to earn a bit of dosh.

“The next project on the cards is an installation for the ‘Shops Upfront’ scheme in Liverpool City Cen-tre, working with Zoe Darnell, the creative genius behind ‘Mmm Biscuits’. We’re going to animate Zoe’s fantastic creatures and they will waddle, fly, crawl and run around in a shop window, interacting with passers-by. The location is yet to be announced, but it should take place over several weeks, after the Liverpool Biennial.

“As soon as I heard about the ‘Shops Upfront’ scheme, I made it my mission to get involved,” ex-

plains Stuart. “I have been working with projected visuals for a few years and I’ve always been inter-ested in interactive installations since I visited one at the Tate gallery when I was a teenager, so this scheme seemed like the perfect chance to produce one myself. I had pitched a similar interactive proj-ect before to a record label for a music video, I won the pitch but in the end I couldn’t secure a location so I had to do something else for the video. Thank-fully the Shops Up Front team did a lot better than I did! The scheme is a great idea. From an artist’s point of view, they are helping to provide a platform for them to show their work to a wider audience. This will hopefully mean that currently empty shops will be given a new lease of life, the installations and workshops will bring more people into the city centre and renew interest in all the exciting things that often are bubbling away just under the surface of this vibrant, creative city. It’s such a wonderful opportunity, I’m so glad and lucky to have been ac-cepted and given the support of th he Shops Upfront scheme.

“I hope that the installation will be a light-hearted, colourful and entertaining break from the norm. What was once an empty space of no importance will hopefully now add some colour and raise a smile. If it can bring a bit of play into the lives of people passing by, I feel it will have more than served its purpose. It’s family friendly too, so there should be something to be enjoyed no matter what your age.

“I’ve rented office space in Elevator buildings for years now. For me it’s a perfect mix of business and creativity. It definitely helps to have a space to concentrate on work. It’s very reasonable, so it’s definitely a good investment, but equally important, being around other creative people is always inspir-ing, not to mention the fact that there is often ‘cross-pollination’ between different businesses and artists based here. I sometimes think that you could pretty much make ANYTHING if you had the help of ev-eryone in Elevator!

For more information contact Stuart at: stuart@tokenfilms.co.uk. Search for ‘Shops Upfront’ on Facebook for more information on dates and times of forthcoming events.

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MORE SUCCESS , V I CAR?

POWER PRODUCTIONS AIR NEW DOCUMENTARYARENA UNVEIL A JAM-PACKED BIENNIAL PROGRAMME

Elevator based Arena Studios and Gallery will be a major player in this year’s Biennial, holding many exhibitions between now and November.

From film nights through to interactive concerts, the pro-gramme at Arena offers a way to get thoroughly involved while challenging the very basics of our concept of art the next week.

Currently exhibited is ‘Neither/Nor’, an exhibition which aims to rethink and redefine the task of painting through exploring the philosophical and theoretical underpinning of the artists involved’s work, drawing upon gender, otherness and inter-disciplinarity. Running until September 30th, the exhibition features the work of Maggie Ayliffe, Caroline Cleary, Brendan Fletcher, Simon Harris and Alistair Payne.

For those wishing to get a little more hands on with the ar-

tistic process, the ‘Expressive Drawing Workshop’ (October 2nd and 3rd) with Claire Ford could be for you. The work-shop will focus on the interaction between visual art and music. Day one sees participants create highly expressive graphical score drawings, which are turned back into music on day two by musicians, with the whole workshop culmi-nating in a concert showcasing the amalgamation of art and music. (To Book a free place or for more information please call; 0151 707 9879)

‘Tales from the Woods’, presents the work of Teresa Wilson (October 28th to November 14th). Wilson is an installation artist, combining sculpture, poetry and theatre to create an otherworldly trip via her macabre puppets and darkly the-

atrical and claustrophobic environments. ‘Tales from the Woods’, is a new enigmatic work by Wilson, the instal-lation looks at traditional fairy tales within the context of Elevator, the historical building in which Arena Gallery is housed.

‘Take Away Art’ takes place during the Long Night (No-vember 18th, 6 till 11pm), the late night and jam packed date in the Biennial’s calendar. Focussing on today’s con-sumerist society, attendees will choose from the ‘menu’ and receive a bespoke piece of work, created on site in front of a chip shop audience. The unique event offers art that is fast cheap and convenient. Salt and vinegar with yours?

The ‘Draw the Line’ workshop will see a vast cross-section of Liverpool life and artistic ability come together in this extremely social and fun event. Graffiti artists, profession-als and at-home doodlers all join forces to create murals,

get a little artistic therapy and social networking.

November 24th is ‘Film Night’, with popcorn and soft drinks, artists’ short films will be screened.

Arena, founded in 1982, is housed on the 1st floor of Eleva-tor, and is currently home to 24 artists. Disciplines range from illustration through to fashion design. Having provid-ed space to hundreds of artists over its 28 years, Arena was founded on the basis of “promoting excellence in the arts through affordable studio space, a collective ethos and the skills of its members”.

To book free places for either of the workshops or for more information, please call; 0151 707 9879. For full listings and to see other places artists from arena will showcase their work, go to www.arenastudiosgallery.com.

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CLARE MAKES FILMS RETURNS FROM JAPAN

Though learning a Japanese martial art may not seem the most likely method of growing as an artist, for Elevator resident Clare Brumby of clare makes films, a recent trip to the Far East did just that, as she learnt the art of Kyudo.

Literally translated as ‘the way of the bow’, the modern Japanese martial art is practiced by approximately half a million people worldwide, and is even taught in Japanese schools. Brumby, who recently completed a Masters in Fine Art at Liverpool John Moores University, won a scholarship to travel to Japan via The Susan Cotton Travel Award.

“I applied for the scholarship in January this year,” explains Clare. “Previously I had been making work that involved manipulating sound produced through repetitive yoga breathing techniques and, as a natural progression from this, I was interested in looking at other practices that involved repetition and also focused upon breathing. Also, in my first year of the MA I was really influenced by John Cage and his ideas about taking the ego out of the art-making process and letting the art ‘happen,’ so I also wanted to develop my actual art practice in this sense as well, rather than just focus upon the subject matter. I thought about how martial arts practice trains the mind and body and from there, started looking into samurai archery or Kyudo and how this prac-tice could translate to the art-making process.

“When I got the letter confirming that I had won the award, it was really exciting but still quite unbelievable. I just thought it was an amazing opportunity to drive my work forward. It was also a massive confidence boost that people on the judging panel from the likes of The Tate and the LJMU Art School believed in my ideas, so that was a bo-nus too.

“I’ve always been intrigued by Japan and always wanted to travel there based on what we see and hear about it in the West, and the way ancient traditions and customs function alongside the modern and the new. My preconceived ideas about Tokyo didn’t really prepare me for when I got there though – it was a lot more full on than I anticipated. One guide-book I read described it as an assault on the senses, and in some ways it was quite overwhelming. It’s an amaz-ing, very unique place.

“As far as archery is concerned, I’d never really thought about practicing it before this trip, I had no idea that archery could allow a person to grow in the way Kyudo does, even though I only trained for a month – it was a real eye-opener and turned out to be a very rewarding art.“I trained almost every day for 4 weeks and my sessions took place at a dojo in Nakano in West Tokyo. I would train from 2pm until 5pm each day, and got one-to-one training from the teacher or Sensei. I had 2 teachers – neither of whom spoke much English. I don’t really speak Japanese either so I was learning by watching most of the time, which was quite comical. When I was practicing the hand posi-tions on the yumi (bow) one of my teachers, who was 71, would hit my hand with an arrow and say ‘No good, no good’ or ‘good’ depending upon whether I was doing it right or not, so it was hilarious at times. He was quite a character.

“Throughout the training I was given traditional Kyudo wear which is white keiko-gi – a kind of cotton kimono style top, tied at the waist by a coloured silk belt or obi, the traditional divided skirt, hakama and split–toed socks known as tabi. When I was shooting on the bow I also had to wear yugake – a traditional, samurai, deer skin glove on my right hand.

“The teachers were absolutely amazing and even though there was a massive language barrier, I really built up a great relationship with them and the other archers and it was also a great opportunity to open up their world.

“The practice of Kyudo is such that you get to know your-self more and it’s really difficult to describe the changes that take place within yourself when you practice, even for a short time. Every practice session is an opportunity to peel off the layers of the self and cut through the ego, where your mind and body become symbiotic with the bow and ar-row. You’re essentially clearing the mind and getting rid of

the layers of the self every time you shoot. One practitioner told me that Kyudo is a mental game and because of this Westerners find it very hard to master this art but it’s also a practice that is very much about courage and the heart and there’s definitely no special treatment.

“I think what this whole experience did was it really gave me a great opportunity to grow and expand my life. Being in a different city or country is always inspiring and getting involved in an activity such as Kyudo really allowed me to look at how I work from a totally new perspective. One of the main ways in which the experience has impacted upon me is that it really showed me how I learn, and how impa-tient I can be to get from the beginning of a project, to an end piece of work.

“You could say that Kyudo really trained me to have much more patience in letting my work develop naturally, rather than forcing it. I also think that on a deep, fundamental level, something changed in me when I was practicing this archery and the Japan experience as a whole has given me a stronger sense of self belief and given me the opportunity to develop a more confident, courageous approach to the work and my business.

Despite only just finishing her Masters, Clare has already

amassed a huge wealth of work on her CV via clare makes films. How much of a challenge was it do do both? “I have to admit that it was a huge challenge to take something as massive on as the MA and try and run a business at the same time, but thankfully I have a very understanding business partner and it was important for us both to see the MA as part of the business, and not something that was separate to it. “Doing the MA, and winning the scholarship has really added value to the business because it means we are tender-ing for a lot more art-based creative work than we were previously. I just think we are really excited about where we can go now, the whole experience has allowed us both to grow so there are no limits now. “We enjoy collaborating with other people and since we’ve been at Elevator we have worked with other residents and hopefully there’ll be more opportunities to do this in the future. Both Sam, my business partner and I, recognised that Elevator was a great location to base our business when we first went into partnership last year. It was already an up and coming creative hub and we could really see that it held a lot of potential for us as a place for us to develop our business, and we were right.

For more information go to www.claremakesfilms.co.uk.

INTRODUCING... COLD SHOULDER

Formed from the ashes of Liverpool mainstays The Aero-planes and The Black Velvets, current drummer with Echo and the Bunnymen Nick Kilroe, Chris Kearney, and Andy Ashton have gone back to base level and back to basics with new outfit Cold Shoulder.

World-tours, headlining festivals and sold-out gigs every night aside, once a writer, always a writer, and through their new band, the Elevator residents have been getting busy readying their new sound and DIY approach.

“We were working together in Crash,” explains Kearney. “Nick was playing in the Bunnymen but wanted to do something which featured his own input, I’d finished what I was doing with the Aeroplanes, we both just wanted to start something as soon as possible.”

“It’s always been on the cards,” laughs Nick. “Since the Velvets split up, I’ve always been writing, as had Chris, there’s always been a lot of songs to work on. It was a case of your free, I’m free, let’s do it. It took a long time for it to happen though, because we didn’t have a bass player, and we didn’t have the belief that we could get in a room together without having that. It’s easy to sit down and say that you want to start a band but finding the right people to be in the band is probably THE most difficult thing.”

So what was it about Andy that took their fancy? “The tight trousers,” laughs Ashton. “I’ve been under the radar for about ten years, but knew Nick from when we were kids, we used to jam together when we were about 17, and we just bumped into each other one night in a bar.”

“It still wasn’t like ‘wow, this is it’ though,” explains Kil-roe. “We had our first rehearsal and then I went away on tour. But when I got back we got our own room in Elevator, got together in the room and just clicked instantly. It was beautiful. We already had a set of songs together. I had the 8-track stuff already laid down with mine, and Chris had all his, but the set that we put together wasn’t the one that we ended up using.

“It was possibly the first time any of us have made a deci-sion to fuck so many songs off,” explains Kearney, “and they were good songs too. We just got this sound one day, and everything that went before it just didn’t seem to fit anymore.”

“There’s an album which is very close to all of us, and it’s kind of the underbelly of our sound,” says Kilroe. “It’s the ‘Plastic Ono Band Vinyl’.

“We were always on about that slap-back vocal and the

space between the songs, and it being more meaningful rather than being something commercially driven and not written for a certain genre,” Kearney continues. “We just wanted to write for ourselves, it was the key inspiration.

“When we all got together in a room, we just sort of hit on a sound and decided ‘this is it’, all the songs that didn’t fit, we just left them behind. We wrote another set then, within a week of making that decision.”

“I’ve never ever been in a band where it’s been like that,” says Kilroe. “Where we can get rid of a whole set and then get another one together that quick. It’s inspiring in its own way.”

“Our sound has more balls, it’s not as sparse as the Plastic Ono band, the thing we liked about that was the attitude of the album and the rawness,” explains Ashton.

Lyrically, the Plastic Ono Band are amazing. We’re a lot harder in our approach,” explains Kilroe. “I think it’s a lot more soulful than anything we’ve ever done in previous bands.

“We both wrote for our previous bands, so there’s going to be an element of those bands in Cold Shoulder, and in the musicianship, but push ourselves a more though. We know we can do that, so there’s no point in doing that any more. “We’re trying to stay in control of it as much as we can,” says Kilroe. “If you rely on other people to drive the band it’ll go nowhere, we’re definitely driving this.

“It means more because if we’re doing it, it’s just us, it makes more sense for us to just do it ourselves and produce it ourselves, we can get our own gigs and map out what we want to do, because, at the end of the day, if it fucks up, we only got ourselves to blame. It’s more of an achievement.”“You end up with a lot more satisfaction don’t you,” says Kearney. “But it’s different at the moment as its early days. We might end up in a completely different situation next week with a team of people working for us, and we’ll com-pletely contradict ourselves!”

“We have a six week period outlined, we need to layer everything up in that time,” asserts Nick. “There’s a tour planned, and there are time constraints. That’ll happen around October. The plan is for us to put out an EP, and do it all ourselves. Obviously we want it to be heard by a lot of people, but the industry’s changed so much in the past six years, it’s completely different. There isn’t the money put into bands any more. We’re trying to do it as professionally as we can.

“To me, it doesn’t seem like there is any pressure anymore. Back then there was so much pressure, obviously because it was someone else’s money, and there was also this ele-ment of pleasing people. When we’re making music now, we want to impress ourselves. Back then, because we were younger and more naive, you’d want to write a certain song because it would get played at a club, now we’re not both-ered if we get played in clubs or not.”

“Our pressure comes from a work ethic,” says Kearney. “The pressure that you put on yourself is what makes you really good. It’s what you have to have in the beginning to pick up an instrument, and then be good at that instrument, or whatever it is that you do.

“Luck is where opportunity and preparation meet,” quotes Ashton.

“And obviously we’re putting the preparation in,” assures Kilroe. “We want the EP to be out in October to coincide with the tour, that’s part of the time constraints we’re put-ting on ourselves. We didn’t want to sit on it for too long. We don’t want anything to go stale, we want to keep on pushing forward. It would be a nice way to end the year by putting something out, it’ll be us finding our feet as a band. After being friends for years, and many parties and shenani-gans with their respective bands, are the group looking for-ward to touring together? “Well we’ve always had a laugh together which is so important,” says Kearney.

“It needs to be a lot more chilled out though,” laughs Kilroe. “When you’re younger and you go on your first tour, you just go mad, fucking crazy. It’ll be good getting in the back of a van again and just doing it.”

So will Nick still continue to play with the Bunnymen? “Of course,” says Nick. “It’s good being in the Bunnymen, if I wasn’t a writer it’d be easier, but there’s respect there, they’re a band who have managed to retain their integrity, and are renowned as one of the coolest band around. It’s awe inspiring going on tour with them and it’s a privilege to play with them.

“I’ve gained so much integrity, I’d like to say coolness too, but no-one could be as cool as Ian McCulloch. It’s exciting again, one can only hope you achieve the success that they have, but now it’s about Cold Shoulder, it’s such a creative thing.”

Is Cold Shoulder a band for musicians? “They’re not easy parts to play by any stretch if the imagination but they’re very accessible,” says Ashton. “There’s no indulgence, we play for the songs, but that doesn’t mean that the instrumen-tation side of things is simple, because, it’s not.

So will the good folk of Liverpool be treated to a few home gigs before the tour? “We don’t really want to do the usual rounds. Our inspiration for this is something that probably came from the Bunnymen,” says Kilroe. “We had a really good idea to do the bombed out church back in May, but since we’ve started it seems everyone had the same idea.

“We liked the idea of playing with no roof, so that anyone who was out on a Friday night wouldn’t be able to get away from Cold Shoulder. The gig we did in Santa Chupitos was to blow the cobwebs away. We need to announce ourselves. It’d be really easy for us to go and play the Zanzibar or the 02, but we’d rather not. We want to be a little bit different, to have some ownership over the gigs. Maybe we could play the Duckmarine, or Fred’s weather map!”

“It’s more of an event then,” continues Kearney. “We’ve played everywhere so many times with other bands, it keeps it fresh for us too.”

Why did the band choose Elevator? “There’s so much dif-ferent stuff going on in Elevator. It’s like a new scene, it’s a networking solution,” laughs Kearney. “It’s like Facebook!”

For more information, tracks and upcoming shows, go to: www.myspace.com/coldshoulderband

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IN BRIEF...

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Whitewood Studios kept up their hectic pace as they wel-comed the newly re-named Dustland (formerly Copyright) into the studio last month.

The four-piece enjoyed glowing reviews after this year’s Soundcity festival, and with a new moniker now in-tow, the Deltasonic managed group have finished recording their demos. The Elevator based studio also recorded guitars for The Red Suns, hotly tipped by Deltasonic founder Alan Wills.

Whitewood temporarily housed the talents Molly Jones for b-unique, 9 Lives, who release their forthcoming EP in De-cember, and Blues outfit 44, who laid down some tracks be-fore popping off to The Great British Rhythm & Blues Fes-tival in Colne and a live BBC broadcast. Fly With Vampires were mastered as were Elevator Metal behemoths Bendal Interlude, while a track recorded by Triphazard at White-wood was used on the Matthew Street Fringe Festival CD.

Whitewood even did their bit for the Biennial, recording Poetry readings from Eleanor Rees.

For more information on Whitewood Studios, go to: www.whitewoodrecordingstudio.com or email info@whitewood-recordingstudio.com

WHITEWOOD MIX IT UP

Elevator bands Bicycle Thieves and Owls*, and DJ’s Mr Paul and We’re Not Sorry will take place in the forthcom-ing Inside Pages Festival, taking place on October 1st and 2nd.

The event also sees acts such as The Suzukis, The Loud, Seal Cub Clubbing Club, The Cubical, Cold Ones, We Came Out Like Tigers and Fly With Vampires on the same bill.The two-day festival, housed in various venues across the city including The Static Gallery, sees Liverpool Music magazine Bido Lito!, club night Indo Silver Club and new record label Payper Tiger join forces, bringing the diverse bill of bands together for one weekend. Record label Payper Tiger, the brainchild of Bicycle Thieves guitarist Ash Hopkins and partner in crime Rich Metcalf, are currently in the process of mastering a compi-lation CD featuring bands such as Sound of Guns, as well as other acts playing at the festival, to give away completely gratis at the event.Exhibitions featuring artwork from the first five issues of Bido Lito, and the work of Horse (aka Gary McGarvey) will also take place at the festival. Probe Records will lend their support to the event in the form of the Inside Pages Record Shop.

Tickets for the event are priced at £6 for a day ticket, or £10 for a weekend wristband, and are available from Probe Re-cords or See Tickets. For more information, search for ‘In-side Pages – The Bido Lito Magazine Launch’ on Facebook.

ELEVATOR BANDS LAUNCH FESTIVAL

In The Room Print Company have moved into their new space on the 5th floor of Elevator.

The business, run by the criminally under-rated rock band Hot Club de Paris, will focus primarily on textile printing for bands, punks and small businesses.

“We’d always struggled to find printers for our band’s t-shirts who could deliver small runs at a low cost so we fig-ured we’d print them ourselves.” says Paul who plays lead bass in the band and is chief squeegee operator in the busi-ness. “Now we’ve decided to print other things for other people.”

Should you need to place an order, contact In The Room Print Company at hotclubdeparis@gmail.com.

SCREEN PRINTERS MOVE IN

Elevator is pleased to welcome Studio Liverpool, a hub for all things creative in the city. Bringing together the disci-plines of theatre, film, music, poetry, and comedy, with the added bonus of training workshops, rehearsal and per-formance space hire, as well as gallery space, Elevator’s latest addition promises to entertain!

Studio Liverpool is modelled on and a sister operation to the critically acclaimed Studio Salford, the M.E.N award winning fringe theatre and performance venue housed at The King’s Arm’s in Salford The Liverpool HQ was set up by former members of Studio Salford, which has been described in the press as ‘facilitator to the underground’, and ‘top of the fringe’. Work created and developed at the volunteer led organisation has gone on to play to critical ac-claim at The Lowry studio and The Library Theatre.

The new studio is set to launch on November 6th, with the website, which will provide full information on all Studio Liverpool will have to offer, launches on October 1st. The enterprise will begin with two in-house theatre companies initially, Falcon Productions and Trickster Theatre, but are looking to invite three more Liverpool based companies to join as in house companies, giving them the platform to develop their work with the support that studio Liverpool can provide.

The organisation has already put out its first calls for par-ticipants to take part in the highly successful ‘Embryo’, an event which started out in the Salford branch and has al-ready seen performances from hundreds of talented people.

They are looking for performers, film makers, comedians, poets, and musicians to perform on December 4th at Liver-pool’s first ‘Embryo’. The event gives participants a chance to get invaluable feedback and the opportunity to take a risk with performances of their stand-up poetry, scripts in development, bands, or short films, anything creative goes. The performer receives a ten minute slot in which to per-form. Audience feedback, whether good or bad, is always passed on, allowing the performer to develop their work in the right direction. Embryo is set to take place every six weeks.

Unsigned bands are also in the sight of Studio Liverpool. The organisation wants to play music by emerging and un-signed groups in house for free.

The venue hire aspect of the studio generates revenue and finances the work undertaken by the studio. The space will be available for rehearsals, performances, conferences or private functions, the space is multi functional and avail-able at competitive rates for everyone.

For more information, email info@studioliverpool.co.uk or visit www.studioliverpool.co.uk when the website is launched.

STUDIO LIVERPOOL

DITTO MUSIC ARRIVEElevator welcomes champions of the unsigned band Ditto music into the fold and onto the fourth floor, as they bring their own brand of justice and know-how to those without record deals in the city and beyond.

Slotting right into the mix, Ditto are a digital distribution company who specialise in supplying unsigned bands with services that were previously only available to those with label backing.

Getting your tracks up and ready to buy in stores such as Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, and Emusic is easily achieved with a little help from Ditto. They also sort out the tiny mat-ter of chart eligibility in the UK, Ireland, US and Canada, as well as claiming back royalties from Airplay, pre-release shenanigans, SMS keywords and many more essential ser-vices for any band wanting to sell their music to the great global public.

The company was founded my Matt and Lee Parsons in Birmingham, brothers whose previous endeavours in bands lead them to found Ditto. The pair made it their goal to provide unsigned bands with the same infrastructure and opportunities as signed artists to much success. Their fight and achievements have seen them draw much media atten-tion with the company being featured in The Telegraph, The Gadget Show, and Digital Music News. The company are also featured in the Guinness Book of Records after they released ‘One Off Song For The Summer’ by Essex group Koopa in 2007. This is listed in the as the first single to enter the top 40 singles chart on downloads alone.

Vice President Jay Kerr urges bands to come up and say hi, or to drop them an email. They also have special offers for Elevator bands. “To celebrate Ditto Music’s move to the Elevator building we will be offering several discounts to artists who practice here. All they have to do is drop an e-mail to support@dittomusic.com.

“Also if you have just got your release mixed and mastered and want it live on iTunes ASAP call up to our office on the 4th Floor with the CD and artwork and we will have it live whenever you want for only £15.”

For more information go to: www.dittomusic.com.

Elevator residents Ticket to New York were given the op-portunity to play on a floating stage at the world famous Matthew Street Festival after winning the Juice FM Un-signed Competiton.

Go to: www.facebook.com/tickettonewyork

TICKET TO NEW YORK