Stars Of Aviation

Stars Of Aviation, Pocketbooks, Butcher Boy at Brixton The Windmill, Lambeth, Fri 09 Feb

Review by Daniel Ross

In Brixton's uncomfortable and dimly lit Windmill (though everyone always says how much they love it, I can't see it), the worn décor and fuzzy regular clientele seems somewhat disparate to the excess of twee on display this evening. And don't start getting all upset because I used the word twee. It's not derogatory...»

Brixton The Windmill

Capacity: 130

Nearest tube: Brixton

Directions: Walk up Brixton Hill (the one with the Fridge at the bottom of it) for about 10-15 minutes and turn onto Blenheim Gardens (there's a Co-op Funeral Services and a traffic light at the end of the street). Busses which go up Brixton Hill are 159, 109, 133, 59, 118.

DiS puts on regular nights here.

For some reason, this venue has two big dogs which roam about on the roof. It is certainly a venue with 'character'.

A fair mix of bands and styles, inc open mic nights, 'The People's Republic Of Disco' and the 'Twisted AM Lounge' on Sundays (mainly alt.country and off-kilter Pavement-y type rock bands). - Adie Nunn

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Stars Of Aviation

Band Members and Roles

Jonny Anstead = guitar and singing
Andy Schofield = guitar
Nathan Oxley = keyboard and singing
Tim Jaggard = drums
Louise Anstead = vocals, recorder and keyboards
Chris Snead = trumpet

Biography

Stars of Aviation met in late 1998 in their first university Russian lesson. A year later, they started playing music together the following year, and recorded their first demo in 2000, which was played by John Peel on Radio One.

They released the Greatest Disappointment EP on their own label in 2001 and their next record, Snow on Snow EP in 2003, on the wonderful lo-fi label Kitchen Records. Recorded in an oak-panelled library, the record was praised by in publications in the UK, US and Europe, described by Tangents as "a sweeping success, conjuring up notions of Galaxie 500 sucking on The Pastels, or The Clientele riding Telstar Ponies into the sunset".

Since 2003, Stars of Aviation have grown in number to seven and settled in Brighton and London. They have spent their time listening to Serge Gainsbourg and Jacques Brel, and performing with some of their favourite bands – including Herman Dune, Blanket, The Clientele and Sodastream, as well two appearances at the Truck Festival.

At the start of 2006, Stars of Aviation finally got round to recording again - this time with Brian O'Shaughnessy (Primal Scream, Clientele, The Firm). One wet February weekend in North London, they recorded 'Marie et l'accordéon', a cheery, French, bossa nova softpop track with boy-girl harmonies, la-la-la-ing, trumpet and bassoon parts and an accordion solo.

The new single is released on Kitchen Records on 21st August 2006, available on limited 7" and as a digital download.

Influences

Jim Reeves, Low, Danielson Famile, Grandaddy, Morrissey

Life Changing Albums

Danielson Famile – "Fetch the Compass Kids"
Saïan Supa Crew – "KLR"
Sidney Thompson And His Orchestra – "Latin American Fiesta: the songs of the Beatles"
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – "The Blue Trees"

Contacts:

Official Site
MySpace
Email

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Pocketbooks

Pocketbooks is (in alphabetical order!) Andy, Ben, Dan, Emma and Mark

Pocketbooks is an indiepop band from London, brought together through a shared love of tambourines, handclaps, glockenspiels, jangly guitars and boy/girl harmonies.

Listen at their myspace

Or go to their website»

Butcher Boy

Butcher Boy has existed in its current form since early 2005, but lead singer John Blain Hunt has played in various incarnations of the band since the late 1990s.

Initially, Butcher Boy didn’t have any songs; John was a resolute left-hander and could barely play guitar. But he enjoyed sending anonymous poetry to local papers under the guise of Butcher Boy in the hope of engaging the writers through their columns.

Butcher Boy was about books by George Orwell and Charles Schulz… it was about films by Bill Douglas and Robert Bresson… it was about records by Vince Guaraldi and The Smiths. Butcher Boy was about an imaginary world of woods and darkness and absolute, precise beauty. About power-cuts and candles. But Butcher Boy wasn’t really about songs. It was a little bit of sparkle between sickness and the dole.

John wrote his first proper song, called ‘Trouble And Desire’, in 1998. With John singing and playing guitar, and with Susan Vennard on piano and Andy Forrester on bass, Butcher Boy played their first show in Kilmarnock, Scotland, in December of that year. Between 1998 and 2001, John wrote over a hundred songs and played a handful of shows around Irvine in Scotland.

Towards the end of 2001, it began to feel as if Butcher Boy had served its purpose. This wasn’t through lack of ambition; there simply was never any need for ambition. Susan and Andy had moved away, and John always knew that the band had come about, and the songs had been written, out of genuine necessity. The songs had made sense of a lot of slow sadness - it was never careerism. For a while, it felt like Butcher Boy wasn’t needed any more. But with time, John realised that the songs had become friends… and it hurt to leave them. With time, it became absolutely heartbreaking to leave them.

So slowly, John put together a band to pick the songs up, and to play them as carefully and as fully and as passionately as he had always imagined them. An advert in the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama attracted Jacqui Grant and Aoife Magee. Garry Hoggan and Alison Eales came, fortuitously, through Glasgow’s National Pop League. And Basil Pieroni and Findlay Mackinnon were friends from Ayrshire days.

Butcher Boy, as it is now, rehearsed for the first time in January 2005 and played their first show together at Glasgow’s peerless Royal Air Forces Association Club on 18 February 2005. There wasn’t an immediate desire to put together a record - the main impetus was to play together, to rehearse, to create something that was worthwhile.

The band played further Glasgow shows at the Ramshorn Theatre in July 2005 where they were supported by improvisational storyteller Mike Stork, and in Glasgow’s legendary Britannia Panopticon Music Hall in September 2005, where they were supported by a magician and a Punch and Judy act. In April 2006 the band recorded four songs at CaVa Sound in Glasgow with Geoff Allan.

Briefly, they considered releasing the songs themselves as an EP. The lead song was ‘Profit In Your Poetry’, a song John had written the year before. ‘Profit In Your Poetry’ was about taking pride and sustenance from the beauty you can create, and was an attempt to encapsulate what the purpose of the band had come to be.

The band sent out copies of the songs to friends and were flattered to be asked by London club How Does It Feel To Be Loved? if one of the songs (‘Days Like These Will Be The Death Of Me’) could be included on an upcoming compilation they were curating. HDIF subsequently offered to release a full-length Butcher Boy album.

The band recorded the rest of the album with Geoff in the summer of 2006.

Butcher Boy can only write from the heart. Butcher Boy has resolute faith in pop music and pop records. And Butcher Boy finds solace knowing that cynicism and irony have no part in what they try to do.