HOME

REVIEWS

- RSS Feed

SoundsXP Presents

tba

On Our iPod

Weird Dreams - Choreography (album)

Crocodiles - Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9) 7”

The Hairs - I’ve Been Working Out 7”

King Creosote and Jon Hopkins - Third Swan single

Cate Le Bon - Cyrk (album)

Tashaki Miyaki - sings the Everly Brothers 7”

Antony Harding - The Birds Sing Goodnight To You And Me (album)

Veronica Falls - My Heart Beats 7”

Latest Forum Posts

News

Eye, eye: Robyn Hitchcock revisits 1990 album in London Town

Article written by Ged M - Nov 23, 2011

There are two Hitchcocks who are, or ought to be national treasures. Alfred (dead) is one, Robyn (very much alive) is the other. Psychedelic pop, jangly college-rock and acid-folk have been his forte over the years, and he’s collaborated more recently with people like Peter Buck, Colin Meloy, Gillian Welch, John Paul Jones and Johnny Marr. He's just released a download-only best-of album, Chronolology, and has a few events coming up:

On 26 November at St. Leonard's Church in Shoreditch, Robyn will perform his version of his 1990 acoustic album 'Eye' with string accompaniment. It's often cited as one of Robyn's career-defining albums and it's been released with several different tracklistings over time. This show is Robyn's "Director's Cut" of the album, the way he always meant for it to be heard. The show is being promoted by The Local.

About this record, quoth Robyn: “Along with America, I had discovered San Francisco, perched precariously on a rock in the fog and fleeting sunlight. My 1967 compass drew me to the Haight area - to the bemusement of my new local pals - and I began to visit outside of touring hours. Relationships blossomed and withered. The snow-globe of a world where 'Trains' had gestated by the English coast was shattered, replaced by the tight stomachs and harsh light of departure lounges and arrival gates. Everybody between 15 and 25 who dressed a certain way seemed to know who I was, or at least who I appeared to be. For a while, my life became a storm and I was in the eye of it. So what better place than San Francisco to go, alone, and record this chapter of my existence?”

The second show is on 1 December at the Purcell Rooms at the South Bank Centre. Robyn and legendary record producer Joe Boyd will perform Chinese White Bicycles for the first time in the UK. This is a very special evening of songs and stories, melding musical performances with Boyd’s own reminiscences of his collaborations with such iconic artists as Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, and Jimi Hendrix.

Robyn says of Joe Boyd and his productions: "…over toxic lager in the flourescent-lit kitchen of Livingstone studios, and thereafter at chance meetings over the next 20 years, Joe told me about the momentum years of 1965 to 1970: him stage-managing Dylan at Newport, meeting and nurturing The ISB, Fairport, Pink Floyd, and Nick Drake; starting and finishing the matrix of the London ‘underground’ scene – the UFO Club; working on the Jimi Hendrix movie and more. Eventually, he wrote it all down and published it in his memoir – White Bicycles. As that era has now crystallized into the golden age of pop/rock, Joe and I have been drawn together by our perspective on how it shaped our lives: his as a young man, mine in teenage limbo. Joe had a hand in creating a world that revolutionised mine. If he is Dr Frankenstein, then I’m his monster. Or one of them..."

He's also playing at Jeff Magnum's ATP (rescheduled to March) and he'll have some of his paintings exhibited in Gaye Advert's "Punk and Beyond" Exhibition at the Signal Gallery in Clerkenwell 25 Nov – 17 Dec 2011.

Links:
http://www.robynhitchcock.com/
http://www.myspace.com/robynhitchcock