I spent the most glorious day of the year so far in the sepulchral, hipster church of too-cool that is Dalston’s Boys Club - bristling with taxidermy birds, mannequins and stacks of darkly smudged oil paintings against the walls - with sunlight jealously peeping through the gothic scraps of black sheet on the windows at the camera and lights glinting in the gloom. This was how I filmed an exclusive version of Pirates And Diamonds for Spine TV’s March issue of their Stolen Moments series. Here is the film, produced and directed by Dan Canyon and assisted by Jackson Ducasse.
In March 2011 I was commissioned by the Tate Modern to write a new piece - a musical response to Richter’s “Cage Paintings”. I performed it beneath Richter’s breathtaking paintings at the Tate Modern as part of their free Visual Dialogues celebration event.
I’ve just found out I’m a semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition, chosen by judges including Peter Gabriel, Tom Waits, Regina Spektor, Adele and Robert Smith (The Cure)!… Well done to all the winners, truly worldwide.
This Friday 11th March 2011 is the UK Premiere of “Life Goes On”, the feature film I wrote some music for and have a cameo appearance in!
I wrote a song called Zindagi especially for the film, along with music by Sarod-player extraordinaire Soumik Datta and Hindi lyrics by Bollywood super-songwriter Javed Akhtar. The film is a British-Asian retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear, starring Sharmila Tagore, Om Puri and Soha Ali Khan among others, with visually stunning direction by Sangeeta Datta (Brick Lane). There are a few tickets left for the premiere at the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, London, on Friday night at 7.30 - www.empirecinemas.co.uk
Or it is being shown at selected cinemas nationwide - check your local listings LifeGoesOnFilm
23 Feb 5.30 - 6.15 - ICA - playing as part of Shunt Takeover
23 Feb 8pm - Three Blind Mice - Poetry Anthology Launch with Jo Shapcott + Declan Ryan
9 Mar 9pm - Electroacoustic Club with Brooke Sharkey @ Slaughtered Lamb
11 Mar 7.30pm - Film Premiere @ Empire Cinema Leicester Square
12 Mar 8pm - Gung Ho Down @ Hootenanny Brixton - band gig
19 Mar 1pm - Tate Modern - musical response to Richter’s John Cage Paintings
7 Apr 8pm - The Elgin - band gig
24th Apr 8pm - 606 club with Gwyneth Herbert
1 May 5.30pm - Bang Said The Gun at Camden Crawl
12 May - The Vortex, with Idiot Glee (MoshiMoshi)
26 May - The Cheltenham Underground presents The Decent Days & Nights Weekend @ Slak
17 Sep - Southsea Festival Portsmouth
Thank you so so much to everyone who came to the EP launch! Whoo, excellent times! I couldn’t have asked for anything more - wonderful vibes, the Underbelly rammed full to the gunnels, and some seriously great times.
Massive thank yous to the Samantha Whates and Gwyneth Herbert for their astonishingly beautiful music, the Underbelly, Cara (Kiki Investigates) for origami birds, fairy lights and magic twinkliness, Ruffle for doing great sound, Silke Spingies for brilliant posters and flyers, http://www.maidofgingerbread.co.uk for beautiful edible creations, and to Rosalie Bevan, Neil Luck and Billy Strachan - my band - who are all time legends and gods of music, joy and otherworldliness.
Thursday, January 20, 2011 · 7:30pm - 11:00pm
Location Underbelly, underneath Zigfrid
11 Hoxton Square, N1 6NU
London, United Kingdom
Venus Climbing presents: CD Launch Party for Fiona Bevan’s brand new EP
Come and join us for a gorgeous evening celebrating the launch of Fiona Bevan’s new four song EP - “Us And The Darkness”!
The new limited edition cd with stunning artwork by Rosie Emerson will be available on the night for the first time, before its iTunes digital release.
There will be live music from Fiona Bevan and her band, as well as beautiful songs from Samantha Whates and and the wonderful Gwyneth Herbert!
There will also be themed gingerbread (how often do you get to say that sentence?!) from the stunning Maid Of Gingerbread
There will be twinklings.
There will be shimmerings.
There will be bold flashes of light and colour slashing the dark depths of the underbelly.
This is not to be missed - See you there!
“Absolutely brilliant” Tom Robinson, BBC6Music
“Spine-tingling. Fiona Bevan completely transported me” Alex James, Blur
“Soulful and eccentric” Guardian
“A captivating new voice” London Jazz Festival 2009
“Film noir atmospheric, scorpion stinging, saccharine-coated Hell Hath No Fury ditties. Splendid stuff.” whisperinandhollerin.com
Thursday 20th January 2011 - Underbelly, Hoxton Square
7.30-11pm £3 entry
For guestlist/queries/more info, email: venusclimbing AT gmail DOT com
Buying the fabulous, super duper, triumphantly brand new –Us And The Darkness– EP!
My new EP, “Us And The Darkness”, will be on sale at the launch party, this Thursday 20th January at the Underbelly, and released digitally on Monday 24th January on iTunes and the like. Hooray!
However, if you can’t make it to this Thursday’s launch party, and you want a real life CD as opposed to a digital download, here is a Buy Now link to pre-order!
There’s an option for UK postage or international, and you can use a Paypal account or your credit/debit card.
Thanks so much as ever for your support, and enjoy the music
lots of love
Fiona x
Dial D For Denial - Live in the Broadcast2000 shed!
Here I’m playing Dial D For Denial, which is out on Jan 24th on iTunes as part of my new CD, “Us And The Darkness”, a brand new fresh EP of four songs, all recorded live with my band. Details in the post below about the launch party on 20th Jan - come! It’ll be a super night.
