Showing posts with label Ambrose Chappel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ambrose Chappel. Show all posts

Thursday, 1 September 2016

Musicians Against Homelessness


You can donate to Ralph's Just Giving Campaign for Musicians Against Homelessness and 
Crisis UK by clicking here - Ralph's Life Just Giving


OASIS guru Alan McGee is teaming up with local bands in St Helens as part of his new campaign against homelessness. The music mogul launched a new nationwide campaign called Musicians Against Homelessness earlier this year to raise funds for the homeless charity Crisis. It is supported by Happy Mondays legend Shaun Ryder, Irvine Welsh, Cast, The Buzzcocks, Black Grape, The Jesus & Mary Chain and hundreds more bands.
Bands in St Helens have rallied to the cause with The Boston Shakers, Stillia, Scarlet, Vukovar, The Bordellos, Titors Insignia and The Pretty Pennys as well as, Ambrose Chappel, Bloch Eyot, Graham Marshall, Museum Of Backward Hats and The Loving Memory from other parts of the UK playing Zoo Bar, Westfield Street, on Saturday 17th September from 12pm to 12am.




Alan McGee said: “I am delighted that bands of this calibre want to be part of this campaign. “The support in St Helens has been tremendous and inspiring and it’s fantastic to see so many come forward to take part.

“Although our primary concern is to combat the scourge of homelessness it is vital that the MAH gigs also give up-and-coming combos a chance to play to larger audiences.”

The St Helens event is organised by Ralph's Life who said: “We are delighted to have Stillia at our event as they’ve just signed a management contract plus a host of other local bands and others from all corners of the UK. It will be a spectacular 12 hours of music in Zoo Bar.





The event is hosted by Ralph’s Indie Show and will be transmitted live by Radio Kaos Caribou to 158 countries worldwide.

Tickets are available from Hudson Smokehouse, Bridge Street, St Helens - The Deanes House, Prescot - Pop In The Attic, 8 Commercial Street, St Helens and Stillia or online from: www.wegottickets.com/event/363936.




Sponsors of the event are


Ambrose Chappel


Southport producer Ambrose Chappel has been a long time favourite of Ralph's and his debut live performance was at the Ralph's Life event for Rethink Mental Illness in London's iconic Proud Camden.

We're delighted that Ambrose has agreed to come and kick off the proceedings in Zoo Bar on September 17th.




The Bordellos

St Helens band The Bordellos have long been a part of the local music scene and have just released their latest EP Garry Glitter (as recently reviewed on Ralph's Life) to no small amount of critical acclaim.
Ralph was of the opinion that lead track was a cross between The Fall and Joy Division, no bad thing!
We're looking forward to this all to infrequent opportunity to catch them live.



Graham Marshall


Scottish born but now resident in the North east of England, singer sonwriter Graham Marshall has had a long and varied career which included making an award winning film of his epic busking trip the length of Britain.

To quote Abel Folger of The Miami New Times - "Gravel gargling vocals that are full of pop hooks, melody and harmony accompany anthems that blast out of Graham's acoustic guitar. He's immediately infectous!"





TiTORS iNSiGNiA

St Helens band TiTORS iNSiGNiA have gone through a few line-up changes but under the stewardship of front man Stu Oggy are one of the hardest working and consistently rocking it out bands in the North West.

They also played at the Ralph's Life event for Rethink in Proud Camden and we're extremely grateful to them for agreeing to play for Musicians Against Homelessness at Zoo Bar as part of Ralph's 'get On The Wall' event to raise funds for Crisis UK.




Bloch Eyot



We're extremely privileged to have the enigmatic Bloch Eyot volunteer to come all the way from London to perform in Zoo bar for Musicians Against Homelessness. Bloch has had a career that has seen him appear on Top Of The Pops with Feeder, manage a famousrecording studio in The Lebanon and written music with people as varied as Pink Floyd's Rick Wright and Chris Difford of Squeeze.

He now performs house and barge concerts throughout Europe and the UK so this is a rare chance to catch him at Zoo Bar in St Helens!




The Loving Memory


Based in sunny Cleethorpes over on the East Coast The Loving Memory are making their way over to the North West to join the local bands playing for Musicians Against Homelessness on September 17th.

The band are fronted by the talented singer songwriter Sam Simmons who is currently at No 1 (week comencing 29.8.16) in Ralph's Top 10 blogs.





Vukovar


Local lads Vukovar are self-styled idealists, voyeurs and totalitarians who play music that John Peel would have featured on his show on a regular basis back in the day.

Ralph was heard to say in a blog about this dystopian outfit - "I may have invented the phrase Bleak Pop just for their album Emperor as it lays it's foundations in all that's good from Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground to Joy Division and The Fall."

Their live performances are a thing of legend and not to be missed!




The Pretty Pennys


A popular band on the St Helens live music scene, The Pretty Pennys always deliver a high energy, guitar driven set.

They've acquired a strong following locally and throughout the North West as they extend their gigging and last year they performed an excellent set when they supported Blossoms at Central Library, St Helens in June of 2015.





Museum Of Backward Hats


Liverpool based Museum Of Backward Hats are another band best savoured live. Always popular in Merseyside, it will be great to have the chance to see these veterans of the Scouse music scene live and loud in St Helens.

With a strong collection of material behind them, they're very much ones to stir up an audience and guaranteed to get Zoo Bar jumping.




Stillia


Prolific young band Stillia need no introduction to St Helens live music fans as they're already stalwarts of the local scene. Their star is definitely in the ascendancy though as they've just signed a management contract and are currently recording their debut album.

Next years Catfish & The Bottlemen or Blossoms maybe - only time will tell, but watch this space!

They're also another band that travelled down to play Proud Camden for Ralph's event for Rethink Mental Illness in 2014.




Scarlet


Female fronted, Liverpool based Scarlet are quickly establishing themselves on not only the North West scene but also further afield, in fact they've just performed at a music festival in Tallin!


They've long been favourites on Ralph's radio KC Indie Show and it was with with great pleasure that we were able to announce they were playing the Musicians Against Homelessness event in Zoo Bar.

They're a force of nature live, St Helens won't know what hit it!




The Boston Shakers


Ralph had this to say of Liverpool based The Boston Shakers - "They bring their own brand of in-your-face, blues infused rock 'n' roll to the table with heavy beats, a smattering of rap and no small amount of swagger."

They've enjoyed lots of radio play from BBC Merseyside and worldwide via internet radio stations including Ralph's Indie Show on Radio KC. A crowd pleaser to close out a stellar day of live music!



Tickets are available from
Hudson Smokehouse, Bridge Street, St Helens
The Deanes House, Prescot
Pop In The Attic, 8 Commercial Street, St Helens
and Stillia




Sponsors of the event are




Tickets are available from Hudson Smokehouse, Bridge Street, St Helens - The Deanes House, Prescot - Pop In The Attic, 8 Commercial Street, St Helens and Stillia or online from www.wegottickets.com/event/363936.

Thursday, 12 November 2015

Peach Trees



As an East meets West collaboration (that's Cleethorpes and Southport, not Russia and America) Peach Trees have come up with a pretty damn fine piece of get up on the floor, funky-ass disco music, made all the more listenable thanks to the soulful vocals of London-based Mr Ernie Jackson.


The release of This Is The Love by the nascent get-together of musical minds Ambrose Chappel and Dave Hubbard brings a poptastic blend of retro disco vibes and soul vocalising that would have happily blasted out of the speakers of Studio 54 (New York not Darlington) and make you want to get down with your bad self.




Ernie Jackson

As the beat builds with Ernie's soulful vocal, the sexy backbeats and dee-lightfully sensual sax will drag you onto the dancefloor. It's shades Chic or Alexander O'Neil back in the summer of '87 dragged kicking and screaming into today's musical mix by some assured production on the part of Ambrose and Dave and outstanding vocalising by the super-smooth Ernie Jackson.

It's got 12" vinyl single release written all over it and Ralph will be giving it a spin on the Radio KC Indie Show this week.





Here's hoping Ambrose (who features on the Ralph's Life CD) and Dave (of The Online Festival fame) aka Peach Trees continue to bring such funk fuelled gems to our turntables, especially with such high quality collaborators adding to the mix.

Me? I'm still polishing my disco ball...









Tuesday, 28 April 2015

Ralphstock


After the success of Ralph's All-Dayer for the charity Rethink Mental Illness in London's iconic venue Proud Camden last year in association with Radio KC who transmitted the whole day live; with 14 bands playing over 12 hours, he thought it was about time he did another but closer to home. 

So with that in mind Ralph's taking over another iconic venue on August 23rd and unleashing 11 bands on Night & Day Cafe in Manchester over 10 hours. 

Available to buy on the day will be the Ralph's Life CD to raise funds for Rethink Mental Illness.

In association with Hourglass Promo it'll be an outstanding day of live music and; as usual, Ralph's got something to say about everyone on the line-up.



Ambrose Chappel is a Southport DJ/Remixer par excellance who kicked of Ralph's Rethink All-Dayer last year. He collaborates with US Rap artist iKash Flo to produce some of the most funky ass hippety hop this side of the Big Pond. 

He creates a unique blend of Hip Hop fused with House and Electro and is always in demand for his remixing skills. His influences range from the ubiquitous Mr Oizo to Berlin based producer Siriusmo.









Mint are an East Coast (sounds better than saying Grimsby) Indie band fronted by Zak Rashid who are starting to make a name for themselves on the local music scene. 

what better time to bring them over to Manchester and spread the good word about their music which - and I quote - "makes you kiss strangers."







Pusher are a very much up and coming Barnsley band who are making a name for themselves on the live circuit and are a welcome addition to Ralphstock.


Their debut single Shoot Life was described by none other than NME as - "Hair raising slides of guitar and moody vocals make for an absorbing track."







The Loving Memory are another Grimsby band formed by Sam Simmons who performed an outstanding solo acoustic set at the Ralph's Life gig in Camden last year. 

Currently working on their first single Ralph's prediction is they're going to go on to bigger and better things whilst producing their self-proclaimed 'ethereal noise'.









The Fireflys are a highly acclaimed Runcorn band whose musical back catalogue has long been popular with Ralph's Life. Lee and Adele from the band will be performing an acoustic set which will include their recently released single Branches.

Focusing nowadays on their consumate brand of Indie Americana they've honed their music to a very fine point and are popular both locally and beyond. With a hometown gig coming up soon Ralph's glad they've found time to join him in Manchester!







The Mantells are a three piece Indie band from Manchester who have featured regularly on Ralph's Show on Radio KC thanks to their infectious brand of Alt Indie.

Their critically acclaimed debut single went straight into the iTunes Alt Chart and they've not looked back since. Thei new single Payday Playboys is released in June and they have some top gigs upcoming including the the BL9 Music Weekender which features among others The Happy Mondays and Razorlight.







Sixty Minute Man are another Manchester band that are making quite a name for themselves on the local live scene as well as some heavy radio plays.

They're a six-piece Alt Rock outfit that are just launching a new EP and will be playing the highly recommended Blackthorn Festival this year on the SOTN Stage.









The Jade Assembly from Bolton have just released a new single and are gigging fervently to appease 'The Jade Army', including a couple of the local Festivals.Their brand of guitar driven Indie is causing quite a stir in the North West, so it's great to have them on board for Ralphstock. 










Deja Vega are again from Manchester and making no small impact on that city's music scene. Described by Louder Than War as - "Manchester's best kept secret." - they're gigging relentlesly and Ralph's delighted that they've agreed to join the Night & Day line-up.

Ralph's Spinning one of their track Fun Time Jack on this Sunday's Indie Show on Radio KC.








Great Reckoning are a 5 piece Indie Rock band from Tyldesley that take no prisoners with their heavy guitar-based sound. Regulars on the Ralph's Life Indie Show on Radio KC this will be Ralph's first chance to catch their high-powered live performance. 







Culann from the West Coast of Scotland are no strangers to Ralph's Life featuring regulary on his Radio KC Sunday Show and coming all the way down to London to play at the Proud Camden charity gig for Rethink Mental Illness.

They won the Scottish Alternative Music Award Best Rock/Alternative category in 2013 and are high energy performers on stage. One not to be missed!






Duke and The Darlings are big favourites in Manchester's musical world and regularly perform sell-out shows. Their addictive brand of Alternative Indie Pop makes them a huge favourite with their 'Darlings' and Ralph's Life alike.

Such is the regard that Ralph holds them in they're the Ralphstock headliners!





So there you have it, a whole day of the best in UK Indie in Manchester and you can buy your tickets at the Early Bird price right now from the link below or the ralphslife.co.uk website - but be quick!

Come along and say hiya to Ralph!






Ticket Information

TICKET TYPEREMAININGSALES ENDPRICEFEEQUANTITY
Early Bird100 Tickets23 Aug 2015£8.00£1.13