In search of pig and cider at the Sunrise Festival

Posted: June 18th, 2011

It was fantastic to be back at the Sunrise festival at the beginning of June after having such a great time last year. This year we bagged a prime slot at the Bimble Inn, playing to a great crowd late on Friday night after a day of glorious sunshine:

Huge thanks to Mike and the Bimble crew – especially sound engineer Sonk – and to everyone who came and danced like loonies. We had an amazing time, even if we didn’t manage to get any of the hog roast this year. See you next year!

More pics etc over on Kat’s blog

Pics from our gig at the Old Queen’s Head

Posted: May 18th, 2011

Yesterday we played at the “Road to Standon” Battle of the Bands competition at the Old Queen’s Head in islington, vying with 3 other bands in competition for a coveted slot at the Standon Calling festival in August. Or at least that’s what it said on the posters…

We didn’t win, though we played an absolute blinder despite a slightly dodgy soundcheck and being the first act on stage. And wtf was it with them turning the warmup music off? It’s no fun going on stage to deathly silence and an atmosphere akin to the moon.

Huge thanks to everyone who came down to support us, dance like it’s going out of fashion, wear our stickers and whoop for cookies. Props also go to Miss Scarlett -  the band on after us – who similarly kicked it out of the park.

Never mind, eh? There’s always next time. Here are a few pics from the night.

Mary rocks the pink jumpsuit:

Action shot!

Some kind of bizarre harp/guitar hybrid going on here:

Choc-chip fudge cookies, made specially for everyone who came to see us. They were particularly good this time:

Kat

Simple Things – Bristol: 1st May

Posted: May 1st, 2011

I had a brilliant time on Sunday playing with the Shadow Orchestra at the Simple Things all-dayer in Bristol. It was an incredible lineup, and we were thrilled to be sharing the bill with some awesome bands.

Highlights for me were our gig (of course!), Gonjasufi, Nova Robotics and Jon Hopkins. I’m gutted I missed seeing Daedelus as he was just amazing when we supported him at the Luminaire a couple of years back. But it was late, I was exhausted, and the crowd was getting a wee bit too wasted for my liking.

Here are some pics I took during the day:

Shadow Orchestra and Revere at the Tabernacle

Posted: November 20th, 2010

The Shadow Orchestra were thrilled to be invited to support epic 9-piece orchestral pop outfit Revere at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill last Thursday, rounding off a fantastic year of gigs.

We’re heading into our secret underground recording bunker to finish off our upcoming album for the next few months, so we won’t be gigging again till the Spring.

But what a way to go out! The Tabernacle is an amazing venue – a converted church with great acoustics (and proper dressing rooms!). We played one of our best ever gigs to a fantastically attentive crowd, and had a great time.

Revere also played a blinder, including two (two!) toy pianos, a harp (actually belonging to our own KatShadow – their harpist Camilla borrowed it), more guitars and keyboards than we could count, a string section, and a massive bass drum. It all added up to a fantastic and epic sound.

Check out this video of one of our new tracks, Folkstep, filmed at the gig.

Folkstep – live at the Tabernacle on Youtube

And a couple of snaps from backstage. We were amused by the runnig order for a previous night pinned on the back of the dressing room door – the concept of a singing gynaecologist is intriguing…

Nick Shadow, hanging around backstage:

Shadow Orchestra play Belleruche launch party

Posted: October 16th, 2010

We were thrilled to be asked to play at the launch party for Belleruche’s third album – 270 Stories (Tru Thoughts) – at the Bloomsbury Ballrooms a week ago.
The venue looked amazing. Tim from Belleruche had spent weeks creating massive cut-out ravens, and the whole place was packed with fairy lights and projections – to say nothing of the gorgeous sexy lady ravens fluttering about in their corsets, feathers and hotpants…

We were really lucky with the sound, and played a great gig to a lovely warm crowd – thanks to everyone who came down!

Sadly, the sound for the rest of the night wasn’t so great. The Correspondents’ set was a bit quiet, and Belleruche were dogged by sound problems (although it did sort itself out towards the end of the night).

Anyway, we had a great time. Here are some pics from the night.

Stage Manager Kirsty and DJ Fancygirl:

MaryShadow plays cello for the Belleruche track 3Amp Fuse

Belleruche doing their thing:

KatShadow made a cameo appearance on the typewriter

Kirsty with Ian  from the Correspondents:

The Shadow Orchestra posse:

Cheeky backstage shot of the ravens beautifying themselves:

Were you there? What did you think? Did you have fun? And did you get tickled by a raven?!

Shadow Orchestra at Bestival

Posted: September 14th, 2010

What a great way to top off a fantastic summer of gigs – playing at Bestival down on the Isle of Wight. We had a great time, including getting to ride round the site in the back of a flat-bed truck, and played to a wonderfully enthusiastic crowd.

Huge thanks to everyone who came to see us, and especially to everyone who snapped up copies of our new EP. Here are a few pics from the weekend.

The Shady Ladies mess their hair up on the ferry:

Getting driven round the festival in style on the back of a truck:

Nick enjoys being on the truck a little too much:

Killing time before the gig:

The magic fairytale castle:

Bestival mainstage – maybe we’ll be there next year?

On the billing at the Bimble Inn:

Mary rocks the “sexy vet” look:

Shadow Orchestra play Big Chill House

Posted: September 3rd, 2010

We kicked off our big Bank Holiday weekend of gigs with a set at the Big Chill House in King’s Cross – courtesy of Nick Luscombe’s Flomotion night – and went down a storm to a lively, up-for-it crowd who turned up to dance despite the rain.

The House isn’t really designed as a venue for live music, but the sound engineer did a pretty good job with our complex set-up and it was a great night. It was also a chance to sell our new EP – Chris just received the first shipment of physical CDs that day.

All in all, a good night, and a promising warm-up for the weekend ahead. Huge thanks to Nick Luscombe for inviting us along, and to Ginny Terry at Beat Unique for fixing it all up.

Shadow Orchestra featured on Music Like Dirt

Posted: August 23rd, 2010

Back in the mists of time, the Music Like Dirt blog covered our gig at the Luminaire, supporting the amazing Daedelus.  And now they’ve covered us again, giving us a lovely writeup about the new Remaker EP.

Here’s what they say:

“Sweet As A Nut” was one of my favourites from the first LP and its been given an epic makeover for the new EP. If this isn’t the soundtrack to many a sports montage over the coming months I’ll be surprised.

The addition of vocalist Mary Erskine moves the Shadow Orchestra more into Zero 7′s territory, and at first I wasn’t really keen on the new found slickness. “Time & Distance” is based on “Creaking & Bowing” from their first release, and its a stand out here. Its a joy to hear the subtle sounds of the harp on a song, and that complimented by Bang’s Cello provide the perfect backdrop for Erskine’s gentle vocal.

The EP’s currently available from Bandcamp on a pay-what-you-want basis, so go and download it now.

Shadow Orchestra Remaker EP featured on Holeytonal

Posted: August 15th, 2010

Ryan at the wonderful Holeytonal music blog has given the new Shadow Orchestra EP, Remaker, a lovely writeup – despite his misgivings about classical music influences… Here’s a quick taster:

“Remaker still has plenty of hints towards the experimental electronica of Aphex Twin or even composer Jonathan Harvey. But with the added forces you can appreciate some exquisitely performed instrumental layers which have been crafted together to make ethereal soundscapes, whilst [singer Mary] Esrkine’s vocals float elegantly above.”

Read more on Holeytonal.

And you can get our EP on a pay-what-you-want basis from Bandcamp right now. Go on – buy buy buy! Our drummer needs to eat, you know…

Top secret recording

Posted: August 13th, 2010

Last Monday we were in the studio, recording a very special track to be released later this year. (In case you can’t wait, our new EP, Remaker, is out now!)

At the moment, it’s all top secret but we’ll reveal more very soon.

In the meantime, here are a couple of pics from the studio, and a reminder of our upcoming gigs for the rest of the summer:

• FloMotion Live, Big Chill House – Thursday 26th August
• Festinho, Bedfordshire – Friday 27th August
• Greenbelt, Cheltenham – Monday 30th August
• Bestival, Isle of White – tbc but likely to be Friday 10th September

Watch this space for details of a really fantastic gig on Friday 8th October – again, we can’t reveal the secret yet (hmm, might this possibly be connected to our secret new tune?) but it’s going to be amazing. Put it in your diary now!