NORTHERN LIGHTS

Just 5 days till the tour and I'm excited about getting out of warm sunny London for a while and seeing ENGLAND! It isn’t so different from London, but it is totally different...

People come to London to work hard and play hard. Most don’t have serious intentions to spend their lives here. If you don’t have a need to be directly connected to the arts culture offered here, I find that you are likely to do the sensible thing eventually and move to a different place...

A place that isn’t so expensive, polluted, crime ridden and generally stressed out. Actually it seems to me there are not a lot of great bands that germinate from London or big cities like New York and LA. Most classic bands come from outside of these major music industry big cities because it is so hard to find time in London to do anything but pay bills...

So I am gonna give a sigh of relief as soon as we hit that M1 carriageway leading to the Northern lights. Away from a town were people appear to look like they are in a magazine or on smack. Peoples' complexions look clearer to me who live away from big cities...

But we will be going to some big cities. One big place I’ve never been is Scotland. We are playing Glasgow! That feels like a different country. Probably because it is...

First is Newcastle this Sunday Nov 14th at The Tyne. Sounds like an intimate pub like venue. I haven’t seen Newcastle for 20 years, and I have been told it’s gone from grimey industrial to modern metropolis! It used to be a deadly beautiful grey is my memory...

Then Glasgow at the Halt Bar Nov 15th. I feel like I know exactly how Scotland will smell - very psychedelic...

Then the big gig at Manchester’s Night & Day Nov 16th. This is Manchester’s hottest spot so we are excited about playing there...

Then to Liverpool at Melo Melo Nov 17th. I have family in Liverpool who I haven’t connected with in 5 years, and they say they are coming!

Then back South for The Gladstone in London on Nov 18th. This is truly coming home cause I live around the corner. It is the best music bar in the world!

A couple of days off and we are playing in Birmingham Nov 21st. We are playing at the Chaos Acoustic Club The Old Moseley Arms. We have played in Brum a few times, but never have I seen Moseley, which is supposed to be the hip part of town...

Then on Nov 22nd we finish in Oxford at Far From The Madding Crowd. A very cool town to finish in. And I think my daughter Naomi will be there...

Hope you will too.

Art x

You can find all the venue details and other info on the tour here. Most of the shows are free entry!

PINK TOES

Pink Toes, the musical theatre piece based around songs I have written, is a fragile masterpiece staring Alicia Cubells and written by David Ncube...

We are filming a 'secret' performance of it this Monday, November 8th in London at The 12 Bar Club on Denmark St WC2 8NL This will also be somewhat of a warm up gig for the coming DAVID GARSIDE/ART TERRY UK TOUR which begins on November 14th... http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=148984358475404

I wrote in an earlier blog that the best songs often tend to be the sad ones. Pink Toes investigates this phenomenon via music and performance. Afro Dave Ncube’s insight into the music (which is mainly taken from the Anutha Kinda Brotha album) is poignant. His script follows a relationship and how it is disconnected and connected not only from and to the songs but what is actually surrounding us in our singular and shared relationships...

Pink Toes explores the dreams of couples, male and female, rich, not so rich and poor, sexual and non-sexual, sane and mentally ill, promiscuous and platonic, co-habiting and living apart, married and un-married, present, past and future...

It asks the question of us all - Can we find away to be together? Since this is what everyone secretly or openly truly wants...

I have tried to write this song over and over. It took Alicia and David to bring it to life.

ORANGE TREE, RIVER PEOPLE, THE BLACK BOHEMIAN & SEX MADNESS!

Wow, looking at FRIZZ TV’s latest Episode brings back good memories of the last UK tour and really makes me look forward to the November UK Tour. Hope we can try some of the new songs that we have been working on in the recording studio...

We record at Gizzard Recording (www.gizzardrecording.net) which is an analogue tape studio. That means we don’t record digitally, instead we get that warm sound of tape that all those records had before computers started taking over...

You can really hear the difference. Ed Deegan is the engineer there, and he really knows what he’s doing. Raphael Mann is in the producer's chair, so we can’t loose...

We are actually recording 4 albums right now. I love writing songs, and have stopped counting how many I have in my drawer. So we have taken 30 of them that fitted in with the different albums' concepts...

There is the RIVER PEOPLE album, which I think is gonna be the most passionate of the 4 LP’s. It is all about people who live near water, and rivers in particular - which happens to include most cities. Isn’t it interesting that almost any major city you think of has a river in it...

The second LP we are doing is titled ORANGE TREE. The idea behind this record is to fill it with playful songs and beautiful childlike melodies. I love songs that contrast sweet melodies with profound often dark lyrics. This record is my personal favorite...

Then THE BLACK BOHEMIAN album deals with ideas and myths about culture- Black culture in particular. This album is the furthest along, and likely to be finished first...

But our next album will be the SEX MADNESS record. It will include the track most people say is their favorite of mine “Cant Get No P****”
It is due out in 2011. I hope the others can be released very soon as well...

A Song For You

Still. Were the Temptations the baddest or what?

I just watched a clip of Dennis Edwards singing Leon Russell's A Song For You. Dennis Edwards sang lead for the Temptations after David Ruffin left. And as great as Ruffin was, Dennis Edwards and co didn't let his departure stop them from making some awesome albums, including the psychedelic soul classics Cloud Nine, Puzzle People, Psychedelic Shack, and Masterpiece.

The last great album they made was titled A Song For You. It had Richard Street (who sang with the group before the were called the Temptations) taking leads on the eloquent song Firefly ("Even when I have to lie, I shouldn't have to lie, to make the world seem alright.") and the stylised signifying Hey Girl. Ultimate modern soul template.

But when Dennis Edwards takes back the mic to sing A Song For You. No one can touch him. He is the souliest Soul Brotha to have his feet on the planet. He takes a great sentimental ballad and flips it into a provocative declaration of heartfelt present moment manifestation. He brings the past to the present. He brings the future to the present. All time and space is in his rendition of this song.

But the greatest astoundment is the BV's (backing vocals). When the Temps themselves all pick up their mics you can't believe what you hear. You think this must be a record. No! They sound that great singing together live. It is not a record. The Temps pull out their experienced Doo Wop chops and hit us with harmonies so in tune that they climb out of your toes.

The band that accompanied them is super bad too. They smooth the ballad into a funk chill. Even though the recorded sound quality here isn't technically pristine, it still is there to bare witness to the Temptations phenomenon.

Ladies and Gentlemen. Treat yourself to this viewing and prepare to be hit with frank glory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE18boJIVrY&feature=related

SOUL MEME

A meme is a unit of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes, in that they self-replicate and respond to selective pressures.

The British scientist Richard Dawkins coined the word "meme" in The Selfish Gene. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases, beliefs (notably religious beliefs), clothing fashion, and the technology of building arches.

The sad songs are the best ones. This is often said. Whether we are talking about 'Yesterday', all the Burt Bacharach classics, 'Lilac Wine', Dylan's coveted tunes, there is an endless list of sad tracks that support the irony that a miserable subject can invoke a lovely joy. Sad songs tend to be the best. Seem to have the most profound sentiments. Or is this just a learned reaction? A belief? Something I picked up from my upbringing on classic Soul? Is this my Meme?

The Delfonics, Stylistics, Blue Magic, all come from the underrated producer Thom Bell. He specialised in Orchestrated Soul. But listening to it, you can hear it's other-worldliness. The arrangements are executed perfectly by some of the greatest musicians this planet has known. But all the lyrics are about Love that AIN'T happening like it could be.

James Brown screams in Love Pain, for the loss of his mother. Curtis recites line after line about "how should I tell her - that it's over now?". Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes give words to Teddy Pendergras such as "To Be True, is such a hard thing to do, it's hard when each time you look around, someones saying 'Hey you, you looking for something to do?'"

I love these songs, I woke up to those songs during the formative years of my life. They seduced me to life. To love, to the challenge of life and love. To sadness, because they made sadness seem so cool! So beautiful.

So now whenever I am in a relationship, where things are going good, I don't know what song to sing. I only feel passion for the sad songs!

Are we what our genes are? Or are we what we believe we are?

The David Garside song 'Mr Wise', is so profound, because he resolves it by saying "now I see myself through my own eyes". He seems to be saying we are what we believe we are.

And this is the thing, no matter how desperate or desolate the song's situation, you can still find some sense of redemption in the song. You can still find some sense in those classic soul songs that they, and you, can rise above the worst situation. If nowhere else, you can usually hear it in the bass drum's heart beat.

And nothing we know of, is worst than the loss of love.

June 12 we begin the 2010 Art Terry/David Garside UK Tour, at Matsu Gallery in London. It will be a very special performance that brings the spirit of those soul classics to life. NOT TO BE MISSED. NOT TO BE REPEATED.

Black Ivory sing "Man forsakes his love, and love escapes from man, like a spinning wheel spins, always beginning where it lands, searching for a melody where he might touch completely. Wo-ah-ah-o,  Love is a magic moment, Love has no sense of time..."

She decided to be a Playa

Sometimes people wonder where the text for a song like Playa from my 'Anutha Kinda Brotha' album comes from. Sometimes I wonder if I’m so twisted that I imagine lyrics that way.

Then something happens that helps me realize that life is weirder than any of my songs portray.

I was sittin' on the top of  a double decker near Liverpool Street station the other day and overheard this conversation behind me. It was a girl on the bus who was speaking about how she would meet older men and game on them in petty ways:

 "I’ve been doing it since I was 16. My parents know how I get my money. I don’t fuck some big old man. They just come to me, this one guy, he took me and my friends out to eat and we built up a bill. The bill was £37 and he paid for it. I was talkin' on the phone and this Indian man was staring at me and I said what you staring at, then I said I’ll take your phone, and he said that wouldn’t be very nice. I said I’ll take your phone. Then I said give me your phone number. And I kept calling him. I made him go down to the chicken and chip shop and bring me something, I met him in the street. I didn’t let him go to my house. Sometime I take my brother, my parents know how I get my money. They asked me to stop, but I keep on doing it. My brother has a alias. I have an alias to, my alias is Samantha."

Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters

I'm gonna go off on a tangent now. I know I'm supposed to be the Alternative Soul Man, but I got to do a thang for Elton now. Can't help myself. Perhaps he is not the most obvious artist in need of props now, but Elton John is really something, and I ain't gonna wait till he dies to speak out and say it.
 
I have been helping the band Lucky Soul with ideas for their video, and their guitarist Ivor pointed out Robert Downey's video version on Elton's I Want Love. I vaguely remember the song being released 5 or 10 years ago, and thinking this is a kind of back to basics for Elton. Instead of all the digital beats and synth pads, he was hitting the piano and drums a la Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band.
 
But I left it at that. Then to be reminded of this song via the Robert Downey video blew my mind. I sat there intending to study the video and put up with the accompaning track, cause though I love the early Elton/Bernie Taupin stuff, I have not taken Elton seriously for twenty years. But when the video finished, I said to myself "thats a pretty good song". Then I went about some other web searches, but ten minutes later, I just couldn't get that song out of my mind - so I played the video again and realised I really like that song, that's a fucking great song!
 
Tonight I couldn't sleep , so I stumbled on it again. And then I played his song Friends, and I got to say to ya'll "I'm feeling Elton"!
 
What exactly is Elton doin in his music. He seems to have created a lasting character called Elton John. This character 'Elton John' appears to be some sort of mythical masculine sailor of the post modern woodland. Like some type of unemployed lumber jack who now works on an oil rig off the cost of North Korea 3 months a year. In other words, his voice, his piano playin and his song writing seem to be the vision of the last hero of the pacific imagination.

Here sings a man about the toils of vulnerability in strength. A man who is truly capable of love, but can never sustain the connection into a permanent relationship. I mean Elton never really gets the girl in the songs he inhabits. He never says we are now inseparable in our union.
 
No in the Elton John songs where we see his myth develop, he is quite alone. The piano man playing the last bar in Milwaukee, giving the regulars one more tune to soak their forfeits in.

Really who can play piano like Elton? It is obvious that he has studied and borrowed modern gospel piano stylings and put them on a wild moor pony from Cornwall. His voice as well evokes an Americana fragrance that is not available in an essential oil burner.
 
Yellow Brick Road is the master piece LP. But Captain Fantastic is worth mentioning with Someone Saved My Life taking on zenith proportions.
 
I leave you with this - Elton says "if your friends are there then everything's alright". There says everything you need to know.

Love,

Art

Welcome and Last nite Ike saved my life

Welcome to my Blog, and welcome to our springtime here in London! It is March 20th and though it was damp it was not cold. The winter is over and where are you? Last night I was at Shunt Lounge jamming on acoustic piano with Anna Frisch. Shunt Lounge for those of you who have never been there is literally underground in a dis-used part of London Bridge Tube Station. It is a very big dis-used part of London Bridge. DJ Anna was droping what she loves the best - John Zorn and Marc Ribot tracks. I was over-dubbing live on to them. It was a Funky Arts affair, with everyone screaming "turn it up". But that is the point of Shunt Lounge. It ain't supposed to be a traditional rave club, it is offering something diffrent than just loud drum and bass.

It is so chilled out there since they re-opened. Before, if you were doin performance art in there, you had to integrate the loud boom boom boom of the DJs into your audio soundtrack. Now the DJs dont start to get live before midnight.

Then we danced. Oh yea, I got down with Jean Genie with some Nutbush City Limits. One of the hardest dance floor joints to ever hit! Ike (and Tina) Turner, was a bad man in more ways than one. A girl I was dancing with earlier asked me, 'who this was'. It was a cover of The Beatles' Come Together, and it was pretty freaky. Didn't sound exactly like no one you could put your finger on. Like The Fall backing Dinah Washington on a cell phone cussing her 6th husband. I guessed Ike and Tina, but the sista didn't believe me. So I asked DJ Anna and sure enuff it was! Bad Ass...........