LATEST NEWS

Bath Festival - Party in the City - Fri May 18th

The banner shows our 6-piece band Barry Lane and the Fridge Mechanics featuring Barry Lane (vox/guitar), Micko (guitar/keys), Celia Duplock (vox), Jo Boswell (vox), Glyn Owen (percussion) and Jon Attree (bass) in full flow last Friday 18th May during our Bath Festival Party in the City gig at Royal Crescent and showcasing our new harmony and lead singer Jo Boswell - a very enjoyable and harmonious gig in a wonderful venue. Thanks to everyone who supported us by being there!  Here is a video clip from our performance:

Trouble and Treason

The evening was hosted by the unforgettable performance poet Spikey Tim and opened with a very entertaining set from Poetry and Jazz collective Echoes and Edges performing prepared and improvised poetry and jazz from David Punter, Spikey Tim and Gillie Harries accompanied by singer/pianist Jake op den Brouw.

 Watch! - now including new videos from the Bath Festival 2018 gig
Visit our new Watch section to see some archive videos of the band performing at the Bath Festival Party in the City.  Also, Barry performing with various retired members of the Fridge Mechanics at the now closed Valindra Open Mic in 2015.  Some great instrumental playing from Jamie Hill and James Anderson.  Also, a video of the band performing at the Rec House, Bath in June 2017.  A lovely venue run by Chris Rogers, unfortunatley also now closed!  Hopefully, no connection between these two venues closing and the fact our band played live there!  :-)

Welcome to our new singer Jo Boswell!!
We are proud to introduce our new 2nd singer Jo Boswell to our band.  Jo has one of those lovely, natural trained voices which can really inspire harmonies and bring out the richness of our songs. Her singing seems to sit alongside Ce's really well, and we enjoyed performing alongside her in Bath on May 18th (see above).  Looking forward to other gigs with Jo this year.  You can read more about her  here

Other Gigs in 2018!
Some of our festival 'favourites' will be coming up in 2018.  The Bath Festival of Music and Literature at the Party in the City on Friday May 18th was great fun, Victoria Park Festival during the afternoon on September 15th in September, Priston Festival on September 16th, Art on the Hill on Saturday evening 6th October and at Trowbridge Apple Fair on October 13th.  Not forgetting our annual Xmas bash at the Cafe Kino on Dec 8th.  We are working on getting ourselves into some more local festivals sometime in 2018.

A new CD in 2018?
New songs continued to arrive in 2017, and I am sure some more will make their appearance in 2018!  Creating music and lyrics is always an amazing experience, and it means a lot to be able to share these with you and receive your responses.  Our last CD was Indian Ink, made in December 2014, and we are hoping to get back into the studio toward the end of 2018 to make another.  Watch this space!

 IF I HAD THAT SHIRT VIDEO - SONGSHEET #1

I have always been fascinated by the possibilities of integrating visual imagery with music and over the years have sometimes used films and slides when performing some of my songs.  Some of you will know The Shirt Song, a song I wrote about a tramp I used to see gazing longingly at a shirt in a shop window in Saville Row, London.  The song is all about dreaming and wishing and I always imagined a cartoon o r animation to bring this story to life.  In 2015, I hired an Australian animator Durand Greig http://is.gd/hG2KsV to interpret the song for us.  He did a wonderful job, there is a still from it on this page.  You can play it on this page, also here is a Youtube link to it if you want to view it full screen;  https://youtu.be/WJ8YlSxt-M8  It's a Happy New Year pressie for you, and hope you enjoy it!  Let me know?  Leave some comments on YouTube!  I like the idea of sharing songs like this, with lyrics and images combined with a recording, so this will be Songsheet #1 of a series I will publish on Youtube this year.  I will be asking some other animators to produce some more interpretations of the songs we do.

NAILHOUSE - SONGSHEET #2
Some of you will have heard a new song, Nailhouse, we performed last December at the Cafe Kino and at the Square Club in Clifton.  This song is about Chinese people who refuse to move their homes when a motorway or office block is bu ilt, s o the authorities build them around their houses, until they eventually flamethrow or bully them out.  Their homes are called Nailhouses because they are 'nailed' to the ground.  I was moved and fascinated by the images of Nailhouses on Google, so I wrote a song about it.  A film maker called Diana Taylor, in Clifton, Bristol UK http://is.gd/0Lam7K heard us performing this song, and has made a film based on the song lyrics and story of Nailhouses.  The film is an apt and powerful interpretation of the lyrics and music.  We are proud to present this song, and Diana's moving film.

 

RUBY TREADS A FINE LINE - VIDEO - SONGSHEET #3  (watch the video full screen to read the lyrics!)

Here's our the latest animation, based on the song Ruby Treads a Fine Line, featuring an animation from the superb illustrator Sarah Soncini, a very talented and imaginative animator and illustrator living in Paris.  She was wonderful to grow ideas with, so generous with her time and very patient!  More of her work can be found here:    https://vimeo.com/sarasoncini

There's something really wierd about the mix of academia, booze and celebrity which seems to happen quite a bit at Conferences I've been to.  This one, the subject of this song, was a few years ago when Ruby Wax entertained a Mindfulness Conference I was attending.  It was so surreal.  She appeared in a bright red dress, lounging on completely out of place, huge red settee, then treated us to her mix of American chat show humour which did indeed 'tread a fine line' as this song puts it. Content to have shocked most of the people in the room, she then revealed more about her own challenging mental health background which resulted in her using Mindfulness to get back on track.

I went back to my Air BnB with a real mix of emotions.  I felt inspired, shocked and even intrigued by Ruby;  anyway, this is the song which emerged that evening, almost intact as presented here now on You Tube

This performance of 'Ruby' was recorded live at Priston Festival near Bath, Somerset during our gig on the main stage in 2016.  Not the best recording in the world, but it captures the spirit of a live performance to an appreciative crowd!

The song isn't meant to be rude, or insulting, but hopefully captures the mix of admiration and intrigue and a sense of the surreal which I felt that evening.  Any of you out there who go to Conferences will recognise the territory, I am sure!

A CD of new and regular songs recorded with Dutch concert cellist Mieke de Laure in December 2014.  Sung and played by Barry Lane with guest appearances from the Fridge Mechanics band. Available as a CD or individual tracks via Paypal for £5 from the STORE (please have credit card ready)  listen to demo tracks from the CD HERE

Cover artwork by Sarah Parkinson.
Calligraphy Mollie Meagre
www.molliemeagre.co.uk

 

  DIDN'T WE DREAM
Barry Lane and the Fridge Mechanics
Available as a CD or individual tracks via Paypal for £5 from the STORE
(please have credit card ready) 
listen to demo tracks from the CD HERE

 Cover artwork conceived and designed by
Barry Lane and Sarah Parkinson.