LATEST NEWS

Bath Festival Party in the City - May 13th
 We've played Party in the City for 6 years now in various venues across Bath as part of the opening night of the Bath Festival.  The whole of Bath is full of performances, and we were very lucky to have found a wonderful venue happy to have us at BRLSI (Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution) in Queens Square https://bityl.co/BzQC    The performances started at 5pm with the wonderful 4-man singing troupe Now and Then  with The Fridges playing at 6pm!   David Punter, Bristol poet, introduced the bands as well as reading some of his work.  And, very exciting to be invited back next year.   Can't wait, it's a great gig in our band calendar.  Watch some videos from our performance here

Welcoming our new percussionist Harry to the band!
We are very lucky to have bumped into Harry Bone while searching for a percussionist for our band.   We were particularly looking for someone with an orchestral/classical background to add percussive atmospheres and shape to our songs, and Harry completely fits the bill, which is very exciting!  Harry will be playing with us for the first time in Bath on May 13th at the Party in the City.   A warm welcome to Harry.   You can read about him here.

A great night on Sunday 27th March at Bristol Fringe, Clifton.
There is something really friendly and welcoming about the Bristol Fringe club, which runs regular Open Mic and Songwriter evenings.   Tucked away behind the bar and easy to miss, with informal chairs and tables and a small stage able to present 4 or 5 musicians.  These evenings are run by Stev e Parkhouse of Jelli Records.  He has a really unobtrusive, hands-off way of doing things that always makes performing there very enjoyable.  Unbelievably, this was our first gig in over 2 years;  since our last gig at the Kino in December 2019, in fact!  So, I think we were all a tad nervous.  And it was also the first gig with us for Nina, our singer.  Once on stage, the  band, Richard Godfrey on guitars, Kevan Attridge on sax, Nina Lifely, vocals, and Barry Lane, guitar and vocals, relaxed and did two sets of 3 songs.   Unluckily, our bass player Jon was ill and unable to join us. 

Here is a video of one of our songs from the evening, 'Leaving Home', written by Barry, sung by Nina Lifely and accompanied by Rich and Kevan.

I Wish I Had Written That - a new Podcast  

This is an occasional podcast where songwriters can talk about what inspires them to create music and lyrics. Barry Lane has been writing songs for many years and would like to share his curiosity about musical creativity.

Resilience CD launched! (May 1st 2020)

 Some screenshots of the wallet artwork from our latest CD Resilience, published early 2020.   Featuring musicians from the Fridge Mechanics band, as well as guest musicians.  Click on the images below to see more details.  

The CD was recorded in November 2019 at J&J Studios in Easton, Bristol in the excellent hands of engineer Patrick Philips, and mastered by Pete Maher in London.  It is being sold for £5 at all our gigs (all postponed for now due to the virus, but whenever they are rescheduled) or by sending £5 to Paypal (have credit/debit card ready.  £1 will be added to cover postage, please contact enquiries@barry-lane-songwriter.org.uk to enquire about posting overseas)   

The CD is also available for streaming from Google Play here.   and 

<<CLICK IMAGES FOR LARGER  VERSION >>

 Here are some sample tracks:  Books about Death followed by Nailhouse from the CD;    

 Thanks to all the musicians, engineers and friends who contributed toward making this CD possible, not least of all all of you who support our music at gigs.   

Watch!
Why not visit our new Watch section to see some more videos of the band performing at various festivals and clubs. Including, some older sessions of 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, videos of the band performing at Keynsham Music Festival 2019 and our Kino sessions Xmas Bash 2019.  

What gigs 2020/21?
We were looking forward to some of our favourite gigs in 2020/21, but we all know what happened next.  It's hard to believe our last gig was Dec 7th 2019 at the Cafe Kino in North Bristol.  It's been tough for all performers in all genres;  we have all missed rehearsing and performing, the energy and community, so much.  For the Fridges, we have managed to keep the band spirit alive with a few snatched rehearsals between lockdowns in Autumn 2020,  otherwise sharing MP3 files of new songs, new ideas for parts and the occasional zoom call.  We will be ok for later in 2021, but the old saying is true;  you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.  We have all I think emerged from the 'lost year' of 2020 really valuing eachother more as musicians, and really valuing our common creative energy.

A new CD in 2022?
Creating music and lyrics is always an amazing experience and new songs have continued to arrive over the past few years, despite lockdown .  Our last CD was Resilience made in November 2019, and we are looking toward recording another CD in October/November  2022 at J&J Studios, Bristol, in the sure hands of master-engineer Patrick Philips.  We hope to invite  our usual musical suspects, plus some special guests.  Really looking forward to it, and more news as it unfolds.  Watch this space!

Animations and Videos

 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  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 but 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. 

 

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