Lets make a date.

More info in the new year. You're in for a treat.

Have great Christmas and a drunken new year.

Busy Busy Busy

So much to do and so little time. At the moment I am in the middle of rehearsals for the Electrozone gig on the 16th Dec (see below).

Any one needing tickets drop me a line and I will accommodate you. I will be performing 5 songs, one of which is a synthpop version of an old Xmas classic.
As well as this I am also starting to put together the set for my charity gig in January supporting Mark Lilley. This performance will be different to my usual synthpop experience, as I plan to play some songs off my upcoming solo album. So as well as hearing the old favourites , you will also hear some brand new songs and get to see me play the guitar for once. I am really looking forward to playing these songs for you, and hopefully you will love them too.
Being as we are on the subject of the solo album, I will give you an update. The album will feature 11 songs and not a synth in sight. At the moment I have 6 songs finished and I am in the middle of trying to find time to record some additional vocals with Mark Lilley and the duet with an as yet unknown female. If all goes well the album should be out Feb 08.

Here is the track listing:

She’s out of her head
In your arms
Lost
The ballad of Billy James
Spinning
Pop love
Just of you
Getting Scared
Don’t let it drop
Rip the town up
Softly

One last thing i have also just put up a video i made for Chesterfield band Avangaad

See you on the 16th

Do me a favour

Do this for me please.
www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/tom_robinsons_introducing/recommend.shtml


Any of my sites, don’t mind.

www.myspace.com/mjohnsonuk
www.myspace.com/silverfactorysuperstars


Cheers

No Gig

The small gig that was scheduled for this Saturday has been called off due to some English and South African guys running round a pitch with an odd shaped ball.

On a brighter note the Oxjam gig is still happening, my band is still playing the Xmas gig and the Matlock gig has now been moved to Jan 08 (i will be supporting, as well as playing in the headline band).

Think thats it.

Good luck England!!!!

I hate winter

So it’s happened. Just as winter draws in, I wake up with a cold.
I really hate them, for me they always come at the worst times. It’s always when I have something planned or when it’s a quiet time at work. They never come when you want to pull a sicky or when you have nothing planned.

I blame the inconsiderate public. Why do people insist on going to work when they have a cold, all it does is spread the germ? If everyone stayed in when they got a cold the risk of infection would be less, therefore less people would eventually be off ill and the countries productivity would be higher.
Instead, I have to put up with the sneezing and coughing all the way to work on the germ incubator called a tram. Plus its not as if you can get away from them, as you get closer to town, more people with more germs get on and stand close enough to smell your armpit and then sneeze. This isn’t the worst bit. The icing on the flu cake is that when they do sneeze it goes all over everyone else because there hands are not available to cover up there face. One hand is holding a bag and the other is holding on to the rail so they don’t fall over.

I will have to invest in one of these garments:

Hopefully I will be ok by the weekend to play in a friend’s band.

Aaarrrggghhh!!!!!

Gig this weekend

This Saturday 20 Oct 2007, 20:00 - Railway Inn,120 Cowers Lane,Shottle, Belper
Don't get too excited as i am only playing keyboards for Mark lilley who is doing a short support set.

See you soon

Bouncy analogue-flavoured number that should appeal

Here is a link to a review of synthpop compilation Electraparade, which features our track Still Love.

Here

You can also buy it for Electraset's my space. just click HERE

So it's been a while !

Since our last chat I have been up to my eyes with rehearsing, recording and going to gigs.

For the past three weeks now I have been slogging away with Mark Lilley in preparation for the next stages of his rehearsals. This is when the rest of the band get involved and hopefully creating a sound that will be like angels whispers. The band will include leader of the pack Mark Lilley, bass player extraordinaire Jonathon Cundey, the voice of a generation Amy Notman and ivory tinkler me.
Our first gig is in Belper details below:

The recording of my solo album is going quite well too. I have finished a song called ‘Don’t let it drop’ (which is about the death of someone close to me), and I have almost finished a rockabilly-ish song called ‘Rip the town up’ (which like most my songs has a focus on a girl that I fancy). I have also decided to record a duet called ‘Getting Scared’ but I need a female to sing the girl parts, all interested parties send an email to mark@silverfactorysuperstars.com. To complement this I am also going to include a cover version of the Silver Factory Superstars song ‘Planetary solitude’ but the twist is I won’t be singing it, someone of the opposite sex will ( again email to mark@silverfactorysuperstars.com).
I have also started to write a country type song with a friend of mine called Sally Boylan which at the moment is called The Ballad of Billy Jones. It will be a while before I start recording this one though because time is short at the moment.


This week saw me attend two great gigs the first was the Canadian songstress Feist and the second was by indie stalwarts Kula Shaker. Both gigs left me wishing I had a band to tour my new songs with.



See you next time.

Might as well rain until September

RANT
I hate it when people say one thing, do another, then don’t admit to it. Twice this week this has happened and both times the other person involved has just looked at me blankly as if to say I’m at fault.
On top of that the Nottingham Trent-Barton bus company needs to sort out their cash saver card system and their staff too. In particular one who gentleman works at the shop in the broadmarsh centre. He needs to learn about customer relations and how to control his temper.


GIGS
On a better note, in October and November I am playing keyboards for two of Mark Lilley’s gigs. See his web page for details here.
This at the moment this is taking up most of my time, as Mark is an evil task master. Any spare time I do have is taken up with the project below.

SOLO
After much deliberation and frequent requests I have embarked on writing and recording my first solo album.
The album will be a non synth affair with an emphasis on real instruments and a band feel. At the moment I have finished 3 songs ‘She’s out of her head’, ‘Lost’ and ‘Spinning’
You can get a taster of what’s to come at www.myspace.com/mjohnsonuk .
There are 3 songs there at the moment 2 are from the album plus a demo of ‘Around this space’.

INTERVIEW
In May I played a gig in Oxford for Gappy tooth, Here is an interview I did for their Denture publication.

1.how do you feel the electro scene has evolved since you formed the band in 1994.
It seems that with the ever growing network of Myspace, a new underground Synth revolution has started. All of my gigs this year have been acquired through this site. It is a total contrast to ten years ago when you would have to employ a booking agent to seek out and find the right venues to play.
There is still a lot of animosity associated with synth bands from promoters and venues. A large percentage will not put you on unless you have a traditional line up, I thought after 25yrs of synth based music being around this would have changed but alas no. They seem to think its too risky to put rock/indie bands on the same line up as us but on the other hand are quite happy to put the likes of Goldfrapp on with a local indie band supporting.
Musically though there are a lot of great new synth bands out there that ware mixing old values with new technology. Check them out, there are a lot on my Myspace.

2. do you prefer working solo, or is it more interesting when the other guys get involved?
Working on my own are the first initial steps in anything I do, be it writing, recording or playing live (I am a bit of a control freak). I like to write on my own and then get others in to suggest things and point out ways that I could improve my songs. As far as live performances go I love having people to share the experience with, it makes the event more enjoyable. Take Gappytooth for instance, on stage will be a friend of mine called Mark Lilley who will be playing keyboards and off stage will be our video director Stephen Loynds (Pullfocus Media) who have both been involved with me for over ten years now and without them the whole live experience wouldn’t be as enjoyable.

3. any tips of other acts to look out for?
Yeah we have recently worked with some cool bands, here are a few:
Captain Dangerous
Schmoof
Starbase 109
Autons

4. what’s made you keep going all these years?
It has to be a passion for music. For as long as I can remember, everything in my life has been associated with music. My mum claims that I could sing before I could talk but I find that hard to believe. Writing/recording songs has always been a great way for me to channel all my emotions and keep myself sane. It is also the process of nurturing an idea into a song and then recording/performing it to an audience. Or it may just be the need to be loved, who knows?

5. Stegasaurus fights T Rex (the dinosaur, not the band). Who would win?
I’d have to say the Stega. If I remember correctly, it has two brains so it would easily out smart the brutish Rex.
How nerdy was that?

6. Who’s afraid of Virginia Wade?
We are, have you seen her eyebrows!!!!

Erasure Remix

Just a quick note to say i have just completed a Remix for Erasure.
The song called 'When a lover leaves you' is from there latest album
The remix was for a competition, which would be great to win but the competition is of a high standard.

If you want to hear it go here

Listen

My mixes are numbers 143&144.

If you want to vote go here

Show Your Support


I hope you enjoy them.

P.s don't forget to buy Mark Lilley's Album Here

The Attack of the Lilley pads

My good friend Mark Lilley has just released his long awaited second album.
The self titled album features many talents of the local music scene, including myself.

For more info, check out Marks web site

http://www.marklilley.info

Also keep a look out for the Silver Factory Superstars Remix of Marks song 'State of the art'.
Hopefully this might be available through Mark Lilley's site soon.

Gappy Tooth Industries Part Two. The Video

Instead of writing a lengthy blog about our Oxford gig, i thought i'd put up a video instead.

EP Superstores

You can now buy 2007's best synthpop EP from all these places:

AOL music
Apple iTunes
Bitmunk
BuyMusic
Cd Baby
MP3-Extension
MusicIsHere
Mysask
Napster
Palmares
PayPlay
Puretracks
Ruckus
Sympatico
The Great Escape
Tradebit

Gappy Tooth Industries Part One. The Pictures.

Photos Courtesy of Gappy tooth and Dave Attacks.

SFS Play Oxford

Trip to the seaside

So these last couple of weeks has been quite busy.
It started off with my self and Bob Pullfocus filming Tina again for another one of my back projections.
The visuals are for the song Alive with you, which you can see below. I have also put the visuals up for She was all.



Thanks again Tina you’re a star.


After this I spent a couple of weeks programming and rehearsing for our debut at Brighton’s Dream Sequence.

DS4
On our arrival we were greeted by the lovely EJ Norman, the promoter of the night. As we unloaded the Silver Factory Supercar it started to dawn on me what a great building the Sussex Arts Club is, a great venue for a night of electro.
Once we had unloaded we checked into our digs which were about 2 miles away. We caught the bus back into town and went and sound checked. All went well (unlike our dreadful Ditch bar experience) and the images looked great and we sounded awesome.

While we were sound checking Bob had done a quick scout of the area to find us somewhere to eat. We ended up in a quaint little Italian restaurant which served us some great pasta dishes.


The Gig itself went like a dream, although it wasn’t a big crowd the people that were there made the trip well worth it.

Here is some footage of the night. Enjoy.


See you all at Leicester on the 25th May.

Film Shoot

So, last Thursday Pullfocus Films was camped out at Nottingham train station filming one of the back projections for the Silver Factory Superstars Brighton gig.
The actress for the shoot was the delightful, funny, beautiful model Tina Fox. As the the hundreds of people got on and off trains Tina was never phased and was very professional, even though this was her first ever film shoot.

Besides being questioned by the stations security, the day went well and we got some great footage.
The video will be online after our Dream Sequence gig. Info Below:
















We have another shoot planned with Tina but at the moment the right location is proving hard to find.

In other news Silver Factory Superstars have been asked to play at a charity gig in July to raise funds for Whitstock. At the moment I need to check Mark Lilley’s availability but fingers crossed we will be there.

Photos From The Ditchbar Gig

Quick moan before the photos.
Just a gentle reminder that i have noticed recently in write ups, reviews and comments we are being referred to as The Silver Factory Superstars. Could everyone just be aware the our name is Silver Factory Superstars and therefore has no 'The'.

Have we forgot anything?

The Silver Factory Superconvoy started out from Nottingham at 3pm on Fri 23rd Feb for their 2nd gig of the year at the Ditch Bar in London. On our way to the big smoke we had to take a detour through Solihull to meet our tour driver Martin.

At this point we were still on time and still in high spirits listening to the reggae version of 'Ok computer'. As the bright lights of the city drew closer and lanes of traffic grew longer we could see that we weren’t going to make our 6.30 deadline. After about half an hour of phone calls to the bar to warn them of our late arrival and to our fan club contingent to tell them were the bar was we eventually arrived at trendy Shoreditch.

Being as we were now one hour late we hastily unpacked the tour vehicle and rushed into the bar were we was greeted with closed arms and a sneer. After a few minutes I located the sound engineer who asked me the usual questions

“What’s your line up?”

“Oh hello” I replied, “its 2 keyboards, 2 Vocals and a laptop but we will need an extra mic stand for the vocoder. Do you want us to set up around the other bands being as we are on first?”

He paused, then said “yeah, just go and set up your drum kit….” He stopped mid sentenced as he saw the confusion arrive on my face.

“Err… I don’t use live drums I’m a synthpop band, my line up is 2 keyboards, 2 Vocals and a laptop.”

“So you haven’t brought a drum kit then”
“No, isn’t that the job of the band who is on last?”

He then unfolded a piece of paper that showed the running order. He pointed to the last name on the list and said ”yeah, you are the last band on!”

As he said these words I started to laugh, which probably wasn’t a good idea as one of members of Red Badge of Courage came over to enquire what was happening.
The sound engineer then explained what the situation was and that the mix up was the fault of the promoter, Omar (who by the way wasn’t there). Red Badge bass player then turned to me and asked what Omar had organized with me. I then quoted the following email conversation to him.


Hi Omar

Just starting to sort out arrangements and E-promotion for our
forthcoming gig at the ditch bar on the 23rd March.

A few questions

What time do you want us there for setup/sound check?
Do you need to know any Technical Info?
How many bands are on?
What time will we be on (need to know for transport)?
Have you any promo posters/banners I can use for emails/Myspace etc?

Oh and finally is there anywhere to park at the club?


Looking forward to the 23rd

Mark



He replied


Hi,

Load in and sound check is at 6:30pm. Parking on street available after 7pm or carpark near petrol station down the road is available.

Free entry

3 bands total Temple and Red Badge. You guys on at 9pm for 30 minutes.

Thanks,

DiTch Bar



Once he had processed this, he then asked the sound engineer for Omar’s phone number, he said he didn’t have it (which is strange as he had just told me he was employed by Omar) and that Omar never comes to the event.
This had got the Warrington based band a bit angry as they had traveled all this way, booked hotel rooms and brought a small contingent of support with them.

While we set up our fictitious drum kit and electronic band the other two bands rapidly tried to find a spare drum kit. During this time the other band (who weren’t Temple as stated in the email) had managed to find a gig elsewhere in London that had a drum kit and Red badge decided to do a an unplugged style gig.
After our farcical sound check we sat down relaxed and enjoyed our expensive drinks and watched Red badge perform. They were really good and showed that they were a pro band by the mere fact that they can perform to a high standard under the harshest situations.

After their set I and Mark Lilley set up, line checked and proceeded to play.
As our virtual drum kit started to pump through the sound system and the bar staff started to tap their feet Red Badge packed up there gear and went, taking their small following with them. This would have been a problem if wasn’t for the Silver Factory Superfans, lead by Julia and Helen, who showed London how to party.
Just as I was getting into singing to the lightly populated bar the sound engineer started twiddling his knobs and cut the sound from the main speakers and never noticed until he took of his headphones, panicked and then turned it up so much that Glasgow could hear the distortion.


Once we had finished and the DJ hurriedly moved us of stage, we mingled, drank and then started our long journey home.

One thing that can be said for this episode is that it always pays to have a back up plan and always take your drum kit.

Roll on Brighton and the loving bosom of the Synth Community.

Just one final note, i have noticed that recently in write ups, reviews and comments we are being referred to as The Silver Factory Superstars. Could everyone just be aware the our name is Silver Factory Superstars and therefore has no 'The'.

Moan over.

Live Video

Here is a great video shot by Stephen Loynds from Pullfocus Films, of us playing live at Nu electro.

NU ELECTRO GIG

On Monday (26th Feb) Myself, Mark Lilley and filmmaker Stephen Loynds ventured out on Silver Factory Superstars first gig of the year.

After the initial lateness of my arrivals at picking them both up we drove to Manchester guided only by our wits, skill and ...er... sat nav.

When we arrived in Manchester (and drove around the venue numerous times) we parked up and proceeded to unload.
Upon walking into the venue I was shocked to be greeted by a poster of myself (still can’t get used to that).

The night itself was great and all the bands that played were of the highest caliber and they are all bands you should check out live. They were:

Starbase 109
Silver Factory Superstars
EJ Norman
Uberlaser


After gig and the mingling we set off back to the Midlands with, a feeling of fulfillment, some great new friends and …er… the sat nav.
The journey home was fine until at about 2.20am we decide to stop at Woodall services.
Once inside I decided to take out some cash from the ATM and by some food, except the machine withdrew the cash from my account and didn’t actually give me the cash. Thieving git.


I eventually got to bed at 4.30am


I would like to thank everyone who was involved in the Nu-electro night as we had a great night and made some great new friends.

If anyone has any pictures of us playing please send them to me (especially the guy I signed a picture for, you look like you got some good ones).

SFS Unplugged

Here are some images of myself and Mark Lilley performing at Junktion7.





Photos by Helen.

Rehearsal, Colds & itunes

Over the weekend a few notable things happened. Firstly I, Mark Lilley and Stephen Loynds embarked on the first part of the Silver Factory Superstars 07 mini tour preparations.(at magnet studios) (click for grainy photo)
We spent most of Saturday going through the set, so that we all knew where and when things were supposed to happen and also to get Mark up to speed on the technology he would be in charge of.
On the whole it would have been a great rehearsal except I started to get a cold which led to me eventually losing my voice. (I’ve had the cold for 6 days now)

That evening was supposed to be spent getting drunk and having a laugh in celebration of my birthday but after only 3 hours I had to bail, the evil cold gremlins had taken over.


One thing that has perked me up a bit in these dark moments of man flu (besides JLH) is my EP is now on itunes. Look.



How cool is that. Click the Itunes Logo below to go and buy this sugar coated poplove E.P now.

Blatant Advert.

So this is 07

Well what a start to year, it began assisted a friend of mine, Mark Lilley finish off his second album. We attended the mastering in Cambridge were Mark, myself and the engineer spent hours tweaking, listening, EQ-ing, listening and compiling. The finished product sounds great and should be released in the couple months.

I have also been setting up gigs for Feb, March, April and May.Some of these have yet to be confirmed so keep checking back.

26 Feb Nu-electro Manchester
23 March The DiTchbar London

3 May Dream Sequence No. 4@The Sussex Arts Club Brighton
25 May Electrotease II @ Sumo (TBC) Leicester


The EP is doing well and is now being shipped out to Internet stores for you to purchase via download. A list of the stores is below.

MP3-Extension
Napster
MusicNow
Interia Destra
BuyMusic
PayPlay
Apple iTunes
MP3tunes
Inprodicon
Daiki
YooPeDoo
Bitmunk
RuleRadio
USEN
Rhapsody
Ruckus
Tradebit
Verizon Wireless
Puretracks
Sony Connect
MusicIsHere
MusicNet
WrapFactory

Its Finished!!!!

After months of hard work my first E.P is finished.
It is out now and you can buy it from this link.
BUY ME HERE

I will post more towards the end of the week. Its all go at the moment.
Got to go and pack for a little music based trip.

Later