This Project » Music

Zaru ‘Zhubat’ Jonson featuring at Voicebox

Kirsty — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 15:51:47 +0000

After kicking off 2016 in style, we’re bringing the very best of Welsh Spoken Word with:

Zaru ‘Zhubat’ Jonson!

Our (in)famous open mic kicks off at 7pm with a host of the best Spoken Word, Musicians, Comedians and more!

As always it’s £3 on the door with our picnic buffet at Un Deg Un. 8th February 2016

Zaru Jonson has been performing words regularly since being awarded the second place and audience vote prizes at Literature Wales’ John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry, 2009. Under various names, he has since read at the Edinburgh Free Fringe, Dinefwr Literature Festival, Cheltenham Poetry Festival, and two or three hundred-odd other open mics, exhibition openings, protests, hip-hop nights and miscellaneous events, often clustered around Cardiff. During 2014, he took part in the ‘Dylan Live / Dylan ar Daith’ tour in celebration of Dylan Thomas’ centenary, playing at eight universities around Wales, the Dylan In Fitzrovia Festival in London, and the PEN International Literature Festival in New York City (alongside Mr Phormula, Martin Daws and Professor Daniel Williams.)

Zaru likes dogs, believes in a god, and is incurably sincere. Recently he returned from Canada, where he avoided everything and picked hazelnuts.

Original link to post: https://voiceboxwxm.wordpress.com/voicebox-nights/

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Only Boys Aloud are Recruiting

Kirsty — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 11:24:18 +0000

Currently within the Rhyl and Wrexham area Only Boys Aloud are open again for the new year, with recruitment and rehearsals that will start this week. The choir have a very exciting year ahead, which includes a wonderful concert ‘Wales 1000′ with OBA performing a commissioned piece by Karl Jenkins at the St David’s Hall, Cardiff in June 2016.

If you know any boys who are 13-19 yrs who would be interested in joining the choir, auditions are free and there is no joining fees. If you wish to contact Only Boys Aloud please free to message them on Facebook, Twitter or their website.

Only Wrexham Boys Aloud meets every Tuesday, 6:30pm – 8:30pm.

Bamford Suite
Wrexham Racecourse Stadium
Mold Road
Wrexham
LL11 2AH

Only Rhyl Boys Aloud meets every Monday, 6:30pm – 8:30pm.

Rhyl Pavilion Theatre
East Parade
Rhyl
LL18 3AQ

Please contact obagogledd@thealoudcharity.com for further details.

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12 Days of Artists: Emmi Manteau from Baby Brave

Kirsty — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 08:36:15 +0000

Eight days in and going strong with the 12 days of artists, today’s feature is singer song writer Emmi Manteau from Baby Brave to add to our diverse range of artists.

Name: Emmi Manteau from Baby Brave

Current Location: Comfy sofa, Wrexham

Favourite place, and why? : An onsen (hot spring) in Japan – got to be THE most relaxing experience … with the most delicious food and beautiful mountains. Would love to play a festival over that side of the world.

Favourite Reindeer?: Rudolph, everyone loves an underdog (underdeer?).

Describe yourself in 5 words: An open-minded, fun-lovin’, self-doubting wordsmith.

What is your current practice and what have you been up to? Writing loads of songs! Baby Brave is a noise-pop band making new music full of guitars, beats and catchy hooks. We’ve just released our 2nd EP called ‘Tacky Birthday’ on the label Drum With Our Hands. It’s on vinyl (!!!), which is a first for us and for DWOH too. And it’s brilliant, if I’m allowed to say that…

How long have you been a practising musician for? I’ve been writing songs for about 10 years now… Time flies! Baby Brave have been playing as the four of us for about 2 years now!

At what point in your life did you know you wanted to be an musician? One specific time springs to mind… So we used to post songs up on YouTube when I was in a my first band, an acoustic duet called The Snowball Effect, ending all our videos with us playfully yelling ‘Schnooooballl!’. We got booked to play at a birthday party in Bangor, via our YouTube channel, and to our ultimate surprise, at the end of every song the whole crowd yelled, “SCHNOOOOBAAAALLL!” We had no idea it was a ‘thing’, it was so surreal, but that was it – I was hooked!

If you could buy your 10 year old self anything for Christmas what would it be? Great question. I’d stick with the purple glittery My Little Pony I got, …it was amazing!

Is there anything in particular you are looking forward to this Christmas? Playing a show with Campfire Social on December 19th at Telfords Warehouse! Then going home back to Chesterfield and being with my family. I’ve not been able to be home properly for Christmas for about 5 or 6 years, so this one will be really special!

Have you got any plans for the New Year? We’ll be touring the new EP, including playing at Focus Wales Winter Fayre (30^th January at the Stiwt Theatre in Rhos) doing some music videos and starting work on our next record! We have loads of new material too, so I’m looking forward to getting back into the studio to start jigsawwing it all together. It’s a great collaborative process. Hoping to experiment with some new techniques of creating songs this year.

If you could get anything for Christmas this year what would it be? A new guitar would be nice! A Gibson Firebird, if we’re being specific… Thanks THIS project! Hope you have a truly Tacky Christmas!

If you would like to follow other shenanigans that Emmi and Baby Brave are up to please feel free to follow them on the social media platforms below.

Official Website: www.babybrave.co.uk
BandCamp: http://babybrave.bandcamp.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/babybrave
Instagram: http://instagram.com/babybraveyeah
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BabyBraveYeah

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Sounds of Soweto return to Wrexham

Kirsty — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 12:55:34 +0000

A five-piece cappella group from South Africa, Simply Soweto Encha are set to delight audiences in Wrexham next Tuesday with their mesmerising harmonies, unique rhythms and enchanting a cappella sounds from Soweto. Invited by Wrexham Community Choir with support from the Arts Council’s Night Out Scheme, the group will perform at the Wrexham Methodist Church, Regent Street on Tuesday 6^th October at 8.00pm.

Simply Soweto Encha celebrate South African oral and dance traditions by performing Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana and Swahili songs. The members of the group are Dumi, Jabu, Morgan, Lwazi, and Sibu who all grew up in the South African township of Soweto . They have toured extensively across the UK and have received great reviews and a number of awards for performances at the Edinburgh Festival, Buxton Fringe, Brighton Fringe and the Birmingham Festival

Wendy Paintsil of Wrexham Community Choir says “ With great music, inspirational harmonies and fabulous dance, Simply Soweto Encha’s performances are irresistible and we hope people will come to the show, be dazzled by their talent and be part of a infectiously feel-good experience for all ages.”

Simply Soweto Encha will perform at the Wrexham Methodist Church, Regent Street on Tuesday 6^th October at 8pm. There is also a singing workshop at 6.30pm . Tickets are £10.00 full, £8.00 concessions, £5.00 children (including admission to the workshop) . Tickets available on the door or to book, call 01978 354706 or email info@wrexhamchoir,co.uk

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Wrexfest & Reimagine Wrecsam

mike — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 14:20:04 +0000

Wrexfest is back for the 3rd year running

Organised by Change Wrexham For Our Future, Wrexfest is a two-day music and arts community event beginning on Friday 31st, at various locations across the town centre. Covering two days there will be a wealth of performances at Rewind, Royal Oak, Saith Seren including extra stalls, workshops & activity at Llwyn Isaf and Undegun, all supported by the Arts Council of Wales.

Things get underway this Saturday July 25th at Undegun. THIS Project, working with Mikey Jones (www.mikeyjonesart.com), present Re-imagine Wrexham 2.0.

Contributing to the festival landscape local artist Mikey Jones has created a large skyline of the town, ready for local artists and the public to come and paint, draw, collage and reflect on. Come down on the Saturday from 2PM to get involved and be creative! All welcome and the event is free.

Drum With Our Hands’ very own Andy Garside will be DJing during the event with help from a very special guest. (Nice job on the posters too! see below..)

After the launch on Saturday afternoon the event will continue to transform throughout the week, until 1st August, with contributions from a variety of local artists.

From 8pm on Thursday 30th July the performances begin at the Royal Oak, High Street, Wrexham with two nights of acoustic music curated by Cygnini music.

On Friday Undegun welcome back WE//ARE//ANIMAL after a short hiatus for a special show ahead of releasing their debut album this Summer. Support comes from Rich List, Pink Killer, Jack of the Suburbs, Blood Lips and Future Exits.

Continuing on Saturday Undegun will host Hidden Charms, Baby Brave, I Am Of The Universe, Bandito Rey and Cy Humphries while Pobl Y Bryn grace the stage at Saith Seren with support from the Mexican Walking Fish, The Jackobins, The Undivided and Memory Clinic.

For more information you can find the group at facebook.com/ChangeWrexhamForOurFuture

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Interview with Seazoo

Kirsty — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 13:52:55 +0000

Seazoo are a Welsh bedroom-pop group that began in April 2013 with the release of their debut EP ‘Ken’. Ben Trow, Llinos Griffiths, Mike Smith, Steffan Owens and Dan West form the band who have been treating our ears to a number of blithesome tunes, including the self-released ‘Dog Hotel’ single from 2013 and ‘Panda Pains’ released earlier this year on Label Fandango.

THIS Project wanted to find out a little bit more about the band before they play a launch show for ‘Car Deborah’, their latest EP, at Undegun on the 5th June, with support from Castles and Heavy Petting Zoo.

Before the launch, Seazoo’s Ben Trow and Steffan Owens will be making a special appearance on Calon Fm on Wednesday 3rd June from 1pm to talk about the event, but before that THIS Project wanted to ask about the music and how they have found the past 12 months and what else they will be up to in the near future.

Thank you for agreeing to answering a couple of questions, it is always great to find out more about the bands that we have performing with us at Undegun. So over the past 12 months, what have been your highlights?

Been really busy over the past 12 months. Loved playing the summer festivals, highlights include Greenman, Festival No.6, Howlin’ Fling on Eigg, Focus Wales and SWN.

We were honoured to be asked to play a BBC session at Maida Vale in London, in the famous Studio 3! Also, we’ve played a packed out show in London for Huw Stephens which was amazing!

We’ve also recorded the EP, released a single from it, and have been fortunate to have been supported by BBC 6 Music, radio 1 and the BBC in Wales. Again, honoured to be asked to do a live session for Marc Riley on BBC 6 Music.

Was also great to be a part of the BBC/Arts Council in Wales scheme – Horizons. Got to meet lots of new people and have our music heard by lots of different audiences world wide.

A definite highlight though, was our last launch show at Undegun! Was a great atmosphere up in the small room. Love Wrexham!

With your latest release ‘Car Deborah’ we have already had the pleasure of listening to its first release ‘Martyn and Jayne’. With this song in particular there seems to be a layer of distortion over the guitars, is this a particular direction Seazoo are taking with their latest album? Or something the band are currently playing around with?

I guess the more distorted sound is a direct result of playing live as a band. Seazoo was set-up as a home recording project, and we never planned on playing live. We then formed the live band after being asked to play the Llangollen Fringe Festival, and found the fun in making the songs more distorted and loose. Live though, feedback really helps in covering mistakes as we don’t get chance to practice a lot! Our more recent recordings now reflect the live show a bit more.

For the past week you have all been back in the studio recording. How have you found it? And what else has the band been up to?

Yep. We’ve been down near Hay on Wye, recording the drums for the debut album. Very exciting! We record everything at home, and usually do the louder things when the neighbours are out. However, it’s just not possible to get through 15 drum tracks like this. So, we went to a residential studio, and took all our own gear down. 3 days, 15 drums tracks. And also got chance to record some Fender Rhodes too.

Next, we’ll finish it all off at home!

When the album is released what will the band be up to next?

Hopefully we can get the album out this year. We have a mountain of songs to work though, so guess we’ll just crack on. Hopefully be able to start recording the second album before the end of the year too, so there’s not a huge gap between the next batch of releases.

In your Facebook bio, I had noticed that it mentions another member that was briefly in the band for a short time, when the band only consisted of two humans and a teddy bear from a charity shop. What happened to the Teddy bear? Does the teddy bear have a solo career and will there ever been a reunion?

The bear is still about. He’s in the upstairs bedroom right now. Gathering dust. When we started playing with actual humans, we realised how rubbish he really was. He’s never leaving that room hahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHA.

Also check out Seazoo’s latest video Martyn and Jayne

For more information about their upcoming EP launch at Undegun please click here.

And you can listen to Seazoo on bandcamp and soundcloud and follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

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Goliath Guitar Tutorials.com Filming at Galeri 3B

Kirsty — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 13:35:16 +0000

Yesterday (12/02/2015) we had youtube guitar tutorial expert Gareth Evans filming his latest video “Love Me Like You Do” a finger-tapping guitar interpretation of the Ellie Goulding song.

Gareth is old friends with Focus Wales Director Neal Thompson, with Neal giving Gareth his very first guitar lessons back when they were at school together. Thanks Gareth for filming with us at 3B, you are welcome back any time.

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THIS Gig – Ben Barlow, Highlives & Doppelganger

Kirsty — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 14:11:12 +0000

THIS GIG is a volunteer-led event supported by THIS Project. As volunteers Kieran Brough, Hari McDermott and Luciano Morris help with day to day duties around the Undegun and Galeri 3B, which include helping with music events, setting up exhibitions and invigilating. The relationship has developed over the year and the volunteers are now embracing the opportunity to run their own music event.

The idea behind THIS GIG is to bring people musical entertainment and incorporate everyone in the community to get involved! Our aims are to get bands from all around the country to travel to Wrexham and create a fun and vibrant atmosphere. The bands we have playing are very well known and are great guys. Doppelganger and Neck Deep’s own Ben Barlow are both from the Wrexham area. We also have special guests from Bristol, Highlives.
Doppelganger are an alternative rock band, Ben Barlow is going to be playing an acoustic set for the night, and Highlives are popular for their Pop Punk sound. The night is going to be a mixture of amazing bands, we hope the people who are coming will enjoy themselves and leave with some new favourites in there music.

The event will be taking place on the 27th September 2014, at Undegun in the centre of Wrexham. Doors will be opening from 7:30pm and bands will be starting at 8:00pm. We currently have 50 tickets for advance which are available on our Facebook page to reserve: www.facebook.com/THISGig but you will be able to pay on the door. Due to the venues capacity please arrive early for better chance of entry. This event is a 14+ entry unless accompanied by an adult. We look forward to the event and seeing lots of new faces to Undegun.

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Community Music Wales come to Wrexham

mike — Wed, 21 May 2014 11:12:47 +0000

CMW will be running a community music tutor training in Bangor in June & Wrexham in July. This is a five day practical course designed to give an understanding of community music and a taste of Community Music Tutor Training. This course is useful for those who have some experience of working with groups and would like to consolidate their skills. This course is also useful to those who work with community groups and would like to explore using music activity in their work.

The course covers a range of theory and practice in community music, with practical workshops from professional community music trainers. The course is Agored Cymru accredited and costs £20 (£10 concession).

Course dates are:
Bangor – 9, 10, 16, 17, 18 June 2014
Wrexham – 7, 8, 14, 15, 16 July

You can find further details of the course and download an Application Form from our website or by contacting us for more information or an informal chat: 01286 685248 admin@communitymusicwales.org.uk

Deadline for applications is:
Bangor -2nd June
Wrexham – 1st July

http://www.communitymusicwales.co.uk/

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THIS Friday

Kirsty — Wed, 14 May 2014 13:22:44 +0000

This Friday at Undegun is a big one. Stefan Gant will be delivering a talk about his work and THIS Project and Spectrum Promotions collaborate and host an evening of guest speakers and live music celebrating Wrexham’s musical heritage.

Stefan Gant will discuss his works & ideas surrounding drawing practice through 2D, 3D and 4D processes. The Tug of War Drawing Project is an Oriel Wrecsam Off-site presentation supported by the Arts Council of Wales showing on the top floor of Undegun and Stefan is the first artist to exhibit work in this space. This event is the perfect opportunity to see this exciting work and meet the artist. The event is free and all are welcome, wine and soft drinks will be provided.

Tir Tynnu Rhaff (Tug of War Land) is a 28ft x 3ft cast in graphite and resin of the ground in Llanybidder following a National Welsh Tug of War contest. The ground, containing the remnants of heel marks, ridges and hummocks narrates the Tug of War events generated through a one day culmination of competitive activity from teams across Wales. Derived from a plaster mould taken from the location, the resulting cast realised over an eight month period is both monumental and pays homage to the event, elevated on steel pins. The foot marks embedded in the cast act as a story telling device, revealing the struggles and episodes of the days events made by teams across Wales. The cast depicts strong geological connotation whilst equally a remnant of the raw human event. The traces left by the actions when reviewed closely expand enquiry through the topography of the welsh landscape made by its communities in new visual formats.

Lloegr y.e. Cymru (England vs. Wales) Video Documentary (Slow Motion) is a multi-camera video production portraying England (Oxney Vines Cross TOW Club) against Wales (Clwb Tynnu Rhaff Llanboidy, Sir Gâr) in a National Tug of War Competition. The slow motion portrayal depicts temporal ideas concerning the past, fragmentation, tension and deep cultural rivalry. Importantly, the piece plays with the link and connectivity between these two ancient cultural adversaries and essentially the psychology of human nature. The identity of the winner is cut short, alluding to a continued questioning. The piece formed part of a year-long project travelling with Welsh teams and communities, recording and exploring the relationship between expanded notions of drawing and the activity of the tug of war contest. This video was a highlight of the project, creating new visual manifestations. The video is considered a drawing, portraying notions of line, tension, boundaries, territories, gesture, physicality and performance, re-suggesting what drawing can be. The low pitch sounds carry deep-rooted notions of masculinity in its rawest form generated through the slowing process. The sound accentuates ideas of weight and force, though also embraces agricultural sounds, inherent to many of the rural participants.

Pwyso (Weigh-In) Duration 6mins (Silent) The video installation depicts the initial ritual stage of weighing-in prior to a Tug of War contest. Teams are collectively weighed into associated weight classes and finally ‘stamped’ or ‘branded’ through an approval stamp. The video documents the context of this act whilst the process of undressing and shedding clothing presents strong, evocative and almost sacrificial elements to this ritual sport. The video is monochromatic, silent and is soley engaged in visual observation, analysis and re-presentation. Notions of drawing are expanded though the mark given by the official and leg of the receiver.

Strike A Chord is a retrospective exhibition exploring 25 years of Wrexham music in pictures. To coincide with the stunning Focus Wales festival this year THIS Project, together with Spectrum Promotions and aided with the help of many people involved with the music scene over the years, devised this exhibition and we are currently displaying a number of posters documenting 25 years of music in Wrexham Music. We would like to extend and expand the exhibition and are currently accepting submissions – if you have any posters, tshirts, records, ticket stubs or film and photography or anything else relevant to the history of Wrexham music we’ll add it to the exhibit – contact mike@thisproject.co.uk (we’ll return it to you after, of course).

Introductions begin at 8 with This Wooden Ideal taking the stage shortly with more presentations and discussion taking place between no doubt blistering sets from Lovers Open Fire and local post-punk heroes Terminal

As ever, if we have missed something or there is something coming up you think we should know about, get in touch! Please email contact@thisproject.co.uk or find us on facebook or twitter

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