A Year At The Battle Rock Motel…
Well, if we keep this up at the Battle Rock there’s a danger that our new blog posts will become rarer even than the years we fill.
Yes friends, it’s been some time. But, and as its the very start of 2012 (and we’re still hanging on to the holiday season by our fingernails), what better time than to reflect on 2011 with a BUMPER SEASONAL SPECIAL!
It’s been a really good year at the Battle Rock Motel and here’s some of our highlights…
Singing Faces
When I placed an ad on Gumtree for people to take part in a music recording and photography project I had no idea what response I was going to get. Some folk are quite sniffy about Gumtree, but it’s only ever given and given to me, and on this occasion it was particularly generous. Mark, Hilary, Zoe, Will, Barbara, Mide, Nicolette, John and Emma, please take a bow! I invested a lot of time and energy into the project, but thanks to that fine group of people I got out much more – seven beautiful songs, seven great portrait sessions, my first work exhibited at the Strand Gallery, and, to top it all off, a fantastic exhibition and night of live music down at Native Tongue for Oxjam. Thanks for everyone who was part of that night. For those that missed it, and for those that just want to hear the performances again, thanks to the excellent Susana Garcia who did the filming, you can watch the trailer here and some of the songs below (you’ll find many more of them on YouTube too!):
Belleville and Pick Me Up
I play with Mike and Laura most weeks, and it’s something I’ve really enjoyed doing over the past couple of years. We enjoy creating songs and playing them. This year we did a bit more – we self-released our debut record (which also gave birth to Battle Rock Records!) and played a couple of select and highly enjoyable gigs to launch it – partly through hosting a set of quality live music nights (where we were joined by the likes of Hero & Leander, The First Fleet, Different Cloth and many others – one of the flyers is below).
We’re in the middle of recording a set of five lively songs which we’ll be sharing in the next month or two (to include some songs we’ve been wanting to get down for a fair while) and we’ll be recording the second album when time permits after that (the songs are ready, we just need some blocks of time!). We’re really excited about all that, and we’re also excited about our next couple of gigs – 7th of January at 93 Feet East and The Workshop on 2 February. Be great to see you then.
Photography
I’ve lost count of how many photos I’ve taken this year… Music festivals, gigs, DJ parties, Thriller dancers, family photos, portraits, burlesque performers, enchanted woodlands… Every day’s a school day and I must be making good progress now with getting my first 100,00 out the way!
A few of my favourites below…
There’s lots more I could share, but if you were part of it then you already know about it and, if I stick to my resolutions, there should be plenty more to look forward to from the Battle Rock this year so I’ll try and keep you up to date. If you fancy getting involved and doing a piece, or visiting the Battle Rock for photos, music or anything else, just drop me a line – contact@battlerock.co.uk
Have a great 2012!
