There Goes The Summer

So its been a while, hope you are all ok. Since last we spoke I have been engulfing my self in music. It started in July when myself and my friends went to the beautiful latitude festival, despite the showers it was a great weekend, with lots of music.

About a week later I performed on a bandstand in Belper with Amy Notman, Lucy Milford, Jonathon Cundey, Chris Preston and Mark Lilley. Despite being told that we were to play alternate sets with a local steel band, we ended up doing the whole thing as they never showed up. We were saved by the experience of Amy and Lucy and their catalogue of songs, without them we would have looked quite stupid. Although judging from the pics below (courtesy of Mark Lilley) I think I was beyond help in the looks department anyway.

Then came August and the Moseley Folk Festival This has to be one of the quaintest festivals I have ever been to. For starters it is set in a hidden private park right in the town centre.

Moseley Park is unique. Less than 2 miles from Birmingham city centre. Unaltered for a 100 years. 11 acres of peaceful parkland, a beautiful lake packed with fish and surrounded by trees.
Moseley Park is a private park. You need a key to get in! So it's not 'institutional' like many public parks can be. It's a park out of time - some parts of it, such as the Ice House, go back 200 years.
(© Copyright 2006 Moseley Park & Pool Limited)

It is also an extremely friendly, real ale & cider swilling oasis, with some of the best music around.
Besides it being almost non stop rain on the last day and myself having a major stomach upset, it was fantastic, as the pics below will testify.
Highlights: John Tams, Seth Lakeman, Ruth Notman, The Destroyers, Waterson:Carthy, Rachel Unthank & the Winterset.

John Tams

21st century gigging

Ruth Notman

Then in September I saw the Stray Cats in Brixton. What a fantastic band but what a weird audience.
Don’t get me wrong they looked great all quiffed up and gave the whole gig a sense of authenticity but they never moved. Usually when you go to see a band that plays 80% of songs at a high tempo you start to move your legs, nod your head or even bounce up an down but not this crowd. Although they were obviously enjoying it they never moved, perhaps it was the sticky beer laden floor.

(photo by hwatson78)

Finally I have started to record my first SFS song in over a year. I got inspired when I heard the Pete Hammond remix of the Alphabeat song Boyfriend. It is so 80’s that it got me in the mood to record a Stock Aitken and Waterman cheese fest.
The song at the moment is called First Kiss and I have recorded the bulk of the instrumentation but writing cheesy lyrics is proving harder than I first thought. The chorus and bridge are written its just the verses.
Anyway check out the video below for my inspiration.

First Press For Solo Album

Click Image for larger view.



Go Here for online version.


Go here to Purchase album.

Recent Gigs

Just thought I'd post some images of my recent gigs.


Connect 4, Island Bar, Birmingham, May 08
Images by Candee Photography



Rose of England, Nottingham, June 08

The Alter Ego Has Landed

It is finally out there.



My Debut solo album 'Unrequited' has now been released on Pullfocus records. You can hear a few of the songs on www.myspace.com/mjohnsonuk (including the fantastic duet with Amy Notman) plus if you like what you hear why not purchase a copy. You can buy it from itunes, Cd baby and Pullfocus shop (more digital outlets will follow). click one of the links below.




CD BABY

PULLFOCUS SHOP

It's Here

My new solo album has arrived. Purchasing details to follow.

Thursday

Just a reminder that i have a gig on the 8th May at Island bar, Birminham. (all the info is here: http://www.myspace.com/connectfournight ). Would be great to see you there.

As part of the promotion for the night SFS are featured in to excellent podcasts.

http://www.robocastradio.podomatic.com
http://www.brumcast.podomatic.com


Would love to see you all again.

A New Gig For May

Click Image for info.

Chasing the Devil

I start with bad news. Due to unforeseen circumstances the gig at The Cross on 26th March has been postponed. As of yet I don’t have a new date but keep checking back.

On a better note the solo album is nearing completion.
Last week I recorded the female parts for the duet Getting Scared and was blown away by the fantastic voice of an angel. I won’t tell you who it is yet, only that she is one of the midlands stars of the future ( I have to keep something as a surprise) .
Also I have decided to include a new song on the album which I wrote about a month ago. It is called Chasing the Devil and is an up tempo guitar -filled- orchestral voyage, you’ll love it.

This week also saw me acquire the talents of Boston (US not UK) photographer Diana Lemieux who has kindly agreed to provide the images for the albums artwork. Its looking fantastic.
Check her out:
www.flickr.com/photos/dlemieux.

So this is what is left to be done:

Mix Chasing the Devil
Sign off the artwork
Master the album
Seal it with a kiss
Post it to you.

The new track listing:

She’s out of her head
In your arms
Spinning
Pop Love (keep me a secret)
Don’t let it drop
The ballad of Billy James
Chasing the Devil
Just of you
Getting scared
Lost
Rip the town up
Softly


The release date is most likely to be the end of April, beginning of May.


Don’t forget the gig on the 26th March is postponed.

Bunkers Hill

So the weekend is over and another SFS gig bites the dust.
This time we played at Nottingham's new electro night Electrazone @ Bunkers Hill.

Sharing the stage with me this time was the excellent The Silent Age and the event organisers Electraset.

It was great to see a lot of familiar faces and some surprises. Along with the usual Silver Factory Superfans (including Loyal Stephen, Beautiful Emma and Distant fan Gary) also in attendance were Adam and Ricky of Indie pop band Captain Dangerous.

The set was something like this:

Escape you dance

Talking in maybes

She was all

Alive with you

Still love

Johnny remember me.

Adam & Stephen

SFS featuring Captain Dangerous

Next gig is on the 26th March at Connect 4 @ The Cross, Moseley

See you there

Time

So this year is just flying by. It seems most of my time is taken up with rehearsing or trying to finish of my solo album and at the moment I can’t see this pattern changing either.
Right, the album is 80% finished, I just need to finished mixing the songs, In Your Arms and The Ballad of Billy James (which I have been mixing for 4 weeks now and they still aren’t right) and then record the female vocals for the song Getting Scared. I need to have all the production finished by the end of March as Pullfocus studios will be moving in April.

I also have a gig this week ELECTRAZONE (16th Feb) at Bunkers Hill in Nottingham. Make sure you get there early as I am on at 8:45ish.

And on top of all that, it looks like I will be helping a fantastic singer/songwriter with her songs. I will have my producers hat on, so don’t expect to hear my voice. I am really looking forward to it, nothing has been finalised yet but keep your fingers crossed.


See you all on Saturday.

Photos of charity gig. Fishpond, Matlock Jan 08

The listeners


An empty stage


Running Order

A Silver Factory Superstar

A Silver Factory Superstar with Guitar


Amy Notman


Bass man Johnathan



Mark Lilley

Next Gig Feb 16th

Click poster for details.

The Big Smoke

This month doesn’t seem to be slowing down. With rehearsing, recording, and film prep for back projections and various other projects, all being at the forefront of my mind, there is still the mixing, artwork, cd duplication and mastering to get sorted for my new album.
Thankfully a respite from all this was a trip to London at the weekend.

I boarded the train on Friday afternoon, found a seat I felt would be worthy of bottom, took off my coat and sat down. As the train started to move away from the station I reached into my bag for my journey essentials: Ipod, Diet Coke and a packet of wine gums. Now that I was encased in my own musical world and safe in the knowledge that my stop was the last stop, I settled in for the 2 hour journey.
The trip down there was over really quickly even though I had managed to jot down a lot of post production ideas for the new album.

I arrived at St Pancras station at 4pm I was astounded how great its face lift looked. This was the first time I had been since its reopening.

After admiring the amazing construction my friends and I ventured to the tube so we could go and meet the rest of our party at Paddington station. We made our base for this at the Sawyers Arms and drank, chatted, drank, and waited.
After about 45 minutes the last member of our posse or that evening arrived and we made our way to the Barbican Centre.
The Barbican is a great modern building with a 1960’s style design, even though it was conceived in the 70’s and finished in 1982.

We had come here to see a live film score of the 1926 film Battleship Potemkin. The soundtrack was to be played by the BBC concert orchestra and its composers the Pet Shop Boys, while the film itself was played on a large screen above the stage.

The performance was well worth the trip and the novelty of watching a film with a live score is something I recommend to every one.

Saturday started with the arrival of two late additions to our now ever growing gang. With the sun blasting down upon us and the cold wind caressing our faces we made our way to one of the largest food markets in the world, Borough Market. This place is fantastic for all manors of home grown organic meat and produce. After some mulled wine and food we made our way pass the Golden Hind to the Tate Modern.

What a building!

Louise Bourgeois -Maman

Even if you don’t appreciate Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth installation the Turbine Hall it is situated in, is simply fantastic.

After a couple of hours walking the Tate we attempted to go out door ice skating at Somerset House but this the never happened due to the first slot being a 10:20 pm.

Being as I was the only one heading back home that day I decided to head back to St. Pancras when everyone else decided it was time (7:15pm) to go and eat.
So I said my goodbyes and made my way home.