The Gadgee's Dream of the future and the spoiled generation.

You can download The Gadgee's Dream by the following link. This was not quite the first time The Folk played it in Liam's house. I'd forgotten the words to the verse and most of the chorus but amn't I good to you serving up my uncompleted art. Expect the orchestral version on the platinum-selling album. Here's the link...

http://thefolk.serveftp.org/gadgee.mp3

Nektar of the Gods

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Nektar gig. Not the best evening of entertainment during the Fringe but pretty close. I tried a new song called People Steal Things From You on my own pretty badly and ballsed up the electric part of the set but we had a good laugh at it. Jesus, I'm not paid enough to act professionally.
Future plans include a gig in September which I'll keep you updated about and the recording of the album is about to start. The picture on the first flyer is Dock Boggs. Recorded music in the late 20's, became an alchoholic and his wife was of persuasive persuasion and convinced him to give up music during the depression. He ended up working in mines for pennies then was re-discovered during the 60's folk revival and got his music played to people before he died. Check out the compliation Country Blues on the excellent Revenant Records(founded by John Fahey). A great banjo player and singer. The picture on the second flyer is me after the set at Nektar.

Gig announcement! Bound For Glory

Tuesday 23rd August at Nektar, 253-258 Cowgate, Edinburgh.

The Folk (featuring The Gadgee)
Damon Thomson (acoustic set)
and dj set by members of Saint Jude's Infirmary.

Please come along on Tuesday. Andy from Saint Jude's will be doing a dj set and I may be doing a small stint too. Expect random mixing of The Goodies Theme at any moment in time. I'll be previewing a couple of new songs on my own too; one of which was just written last night.

The Folk website and free downloads

Link here to the uncompleted The Folk website. There are three songs for download on there at the moment -

Holy Roller
Da Vinci, Cezanne & Francis Bacon Would Approve
Patron Saint Of Saints.

These were banged out pretty quickly at a most enjoyable weekend session at Liam's. Bobby in the living room and Liam & I in the hallway. Old school (note spelling children). Bobby's drums and Liam's Rickenbacker bass sound excellent on Holy Roller. This was originally written as a piano gospel but seeing as we don't have a piano player yet, it isn't. Anyway, you'll get the idea of the banjo part and electric part of the live set we're doing at the moment.

Billy Childish Is Dead

Tigerfest - SL records night.

Thank you to everyone who came along to see us at the Wee Red Bar last Thursday. Ash from Saint Jude's Infirmary helped out on guitar and singing again. Also on the bill were The 55's and Peanut. Please support Baby Tiger as they put on a great festival last year.

The next gig will be on Tuesday 23rd August at Nektar, Edinburgh. More details to follow.

I don't want to turn this into a "proper" Blog with some sort of "right-on" agenda but I have to mention something that made me think a lot. I watched the film 'Billy Childish Is Dead' last night and it got me thinking about how much time I've wasted towing the line. The film itself was made by a fan on a normal camcorder; something that Billy himself would no doubt admit swayed his decision to allow it in the first place. Some brilliant live footage of The Buff Medways, Thee Headcoats etc. but the sheer volume of his entire artistic work was staggering. Authentic. I just want to mention that because I'm at work....

More from the Forest Cafe

A couple more photos of our infamous debut. Potentially a gig in Edinburgh during the festival. Will keep you updated. Also looking to do something special in September.
I'm off to Pittenweem for the Fence Records event next weekend. Art in peoples houses, seafood and banjos hopefully.

New Photos added

Lovely amatuer photography for your, ahem, leisure. Note how the late summer sunlight catches the state of the hall at the Forest Cafe. A beautiful building with a lot of potential for luxury flats instead of a live venue in Edinburgh. Here's a link to The Folk's first review. Was going to do a Wreckless Eric and add a review of the review but I'll let you take out of it what you will...

review by Peoples Republic of Leith

La Gente que ofrece el Gadgee

The gig at the Forest Cafe went really well. Ash from Saint Judes came up and helped us out on two songs and I was asked to sing with Saint Jude's Infirmary on 'The Church of John Coltrane'. Bobby filled in on drums for three Saint Jude's songs too. Cheers to Andy for asking us to play. The most sober I've been in front of a crowd. After a ribena overdose I realised we had about half an hour to calm the nerves so warm tins of tenents and a sneaky wee alcopop did the trick.

The Saint Jude's Infirmary album should be out around October on SL records. I'll keep you all(?) posted about any more gigs The Folk (featuring The Gadgee) have coming up.

Here's the set list for the gig -

Patron Saint of Saints
Da Vinci, Cezanne and Francis Bacon Would Approve
Hooligan Choir (Richard Manuel's Last Grand Marnier)
Holy Roller
The Gadgee's Dream.

Should be some photographs of the night up soon.

Purely to keep Nikki happy!!!!

Spent last weekend at Liam's doing some recording with Bobby in the living room and Liam & I in the hallway. Got live demo's down for 5 songs so far. We'll be looking to get some people to help record the album pretty soon so if you play any of the following, or an approximation of the following, you can contact me at this blog or Liam at The Folk -

Piano, strings, brass, woodwind, theremin or triangle!!

You just need to be able to get to Edinburgh to record and if you seem to be enjoying yourself then you may also get asked to play live.

The Model School

I've added a link to a band called The Model School from Sydney, Australia. My friend Craig plays bass for them. They've got some music downloads on the site and I think they're really good.

Got the new Sufjan Stevens album "Come On Feel The Illinoise" and been playing that a lot, especially the song Chicago. My other musical experience recently was my friends Barry and Emma's wedding a couple of weeks ago. They got 5 singers from the London Community Gospel Choir to sing during their ceremony. Amazing! I'll maybe be able to afford them for the second album. Barry and Emma are on honeymoon in Jamaica and will be hunting out the old Black Ark studio in Kingston. I believe it's now a ruin. A dredd ruin. Music eh?!

Gig announced!

Friday 23rd July at the Forest Cafe, Edinburgh -

Saint Jude's Infirmary featuring , The Golden Hedges, The Folk (feat The Gadgee), and The Last September.

Gadgee's Banjo Blues - hand-drawn sketch of my Goldtone Cripple Creek banjo. Some of the new songs have been written on this. I'm looking for some stickers to put on the skin. Not very Billy Childish.

Music Update

One new banjo tune is finally finished, lyrics, title and all and is now called "Da Vinci, Cezanne & Francis Bacon Would Approve". Part sea shanty and part artist catharsis. Eh!!?? Inspired by views from my room of the Firth of Forth and, em, Leisureland amusement arcade on the Prom.

I'll try and get the rough demos for the following up and running....

1. Patron Saint of Saints
2. Hooligan Choir (Richard Manuel's last Grand Marnier)
3. Oceola

The Gadgee's Pyrothechnics Ahoy Puggy Band!

After getting together again with Bobby and Liam looks like the live set for any gigs will consist of some acoustic three-piece songs with me on banjo, electric three-piece with me on electric guitar and hopefully some additional friends who would be willing to drag their instruments along for the sake of playing a couple of songs.

Tim Brooke-Taylor's live non-smoking non-license debut

Yes its here even before there's any music out there! After a break from my previous band I've been writing new songs and rehearsing with Bobby Jamieson (ex-Some Fine Noise) and Liam Rankin (ex-Painbirds-turned-recorder-of-music). Thank you to them for getting me to pull my finger out.

You should see all sorts of fancy shit on this site if I make friends with someone wot has got IT pure-skill. Like photos and some downloads of demos I'm working on at home. Bobby, Liam and myself have been asked to play the Forest Cafe in Edinburgh on the 23rd July with the wonderful Saint Jude's Infirmary. My favourite Edinburgh band. Andy asked us to come up with a name. A job I tried to fob off on the other two with pitiful results.

Slut Actress, Tim Brooke-Taylor, The C*nts, The F*cks, and Edinburgh Bus Drivers were all possibilites. Pathetic! It's Liam's idea to get a genuine collective of musicians playing on each others stuff. If he manages this in Edinburgh without the evil ego making its presence known amongst members this sounds like a great idea. If it's good enough for the East Neuk....

So, the collective is called 'The Folk' and the first night of live music by 'The Folk' will be 'The Folk (featuring The Gadgee)'. That's me. I'll be asking some other 'folk' to help out on the night with triangles and stuff.