The Untied Knot's latest stage gear

Last Wednesday’s gig got cancelled at the eleventh hour when some doddering old berk who had come to sort out the drains at Scootercaffe caused a catastrophic sewage leak. One of the gig-related complications you can’t really anticipate. Anyway, Matt and I will be re-scheduling something soon so keep ‘em peeled.
Thanks to our Andy who had possibly the shortest soundman’s shift in history and the intrepid Jason who came all the way up from Brighton. Apologies to anyone who made it to the venue only to be disappointed…

In brighter news – great news to see BBC 6 Music has a reprieve so well done all those campaigners who helped to achieve this!

Downstairs at Scootercafè
132 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, London SE1 7AE.

Doors 7pm, live music at 9pm.

Free entry

Tube: Waterloo/Lambeth North

The popularity of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s installation at The Barbican’s Curve gallery dictates a queue of at least 40 minutes length but a trifling test of your patience is a small price to pay for the delights held within.
The atmosphere of the introductory dark space with giant projections of fingers on fretboards and burbling electronic sounds is compelling enough but one is drawn quickly and magnetically to the end of this tunnel and the forewarned spectacle that awaits.

A turn of the corner reveals an almost starkly lit contrasting space consisting of pale wooden decking, tiny grass and sand dunes, and a number of raised sculptural figures. The occasional familiar clanging sound of amplified electric guitar merges with the twittering of a small host of zebra finches who are hard at work with the tasks of their daily life. The sculptural figures are a selection of electric guitars, basses and cymbals lying flat, strings upwards which act as perches for these tiny colourful creatures. As they eat, drink and attempt to nest amongst the steel strings and upturned cymbal plates an intriguing weave of sound is created.

Photography is not allowed and the welfare of the birds is strictly monitored with an authentic day and night cycle where visitors are banned from entry.

Highly recommended.

On a side-note, as I was in the area I thought I’d pop in to the Record Store Day event at Rough Trade in Brick Lane. As expected, the area was crawling with daft looking “hipsters” and the prospect of a 50 people long queue (to get into a shop!) sent me reeling off on a no doubt much more enjoyable walk home in the late afternoon sun. I later spotted this tweet from Rough Trade: “I like to say a big #rsd10 fuck you to the vile ppl selling the beatles/blur/ etc on eBay for silly money after buying it off us for £4.99 ” – well what did you expect??? A misplaced concern if ever I saw one – any berk willing to pay in excess of £4.99 for a Blur or Beatles 7″ deserves no sympathy whatsoever!

I will leave my thoughts on Record Store (shouldn’t that be Shop?) Day with the mighty Max Tundra: “Celebrate Record Store Day by buying a bunch of LPs, taping them for your mates and then returning them to the shop. #rsd10″

The Untied Knot – Westway (Promo film 2010) from The Untied Knot on Vimeo.

Promo film for track from The Untied Knot’s album “Sketches For A Lost Summer” available from www.theuntiedknot.co.uk

All footage shot by Robin Prime in 1980’s Leicestershire, edited by Nigel Bryant.

Also available on Youtube

On that note, The Untied Knot continues to be grateful to the shows which have exposed its music to a wider audience. In particular, Jeffery Davison’s  Shrunken Planet show on WFMU which has recently played “Requiem For The Thirteen” and “Pelham Street” and possibly our biggest fan outside the UK, Fernando Pérez Herrero who has spun “Low Tide” and “Spanish Pine” in the last few weeks on Cielo líquido . It’s especially nice to hear our music amongst such great company…

More airplay from Fernando (a man of exceptionally good taste) on the Cielo líquido show on Spanish radio channel canal extremadura last night, “Requiem For The Thirteeen” was played – technically on Thurs 28/1/10. See more about the show here

The Untied Knot – At The Threshold Of Perception (Promo film 2009) from The Untied Knot on Vimeo.

Also available on Youtube