Blog de Luke: VO et VF

Ce topic sera destiné à recevoir les différents posts de Luke sur son blog (que vous pouvez trouver sur le MySpace de Nizlopi), avec leur traduction effectuée, selon les jours, par Mylène, Amandine, Ramla, ou moi-même!

Pour vos réactions sur leurs messages, c'est direction le topic "Blog de Luke: vos réactions"

Post du 26 septembre

Citation :

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Luke's Blog - 26th September


(FROM THIS WEEK ONWARDS, BOTH LUKE AND JOHN'S BLOGS WILL BE HOSTED HERE ON THEIR MYSPACE, IF YOU FANCY CATCHING UP WITH LUKE'S BLOGS UP TO NOW YOU CAN READ THE FIRST FIVE ON WWW.PUREVOLUME.COM/NIZLOPI)



22/09/06



Hello Y'all



We have completed a hardcore summer of gigs and our tour and I am now decompressing! We play our friend's wedding tomorrow, after which point we won't be playing again live till November.



What a tour! Thankyou so much to all of you who turned up or wished us well, played with us, drank with us, inspired and helped us on this tour. It has been incredible and I felt very emotional and empty by the end. Such great Craic going round the country with John (the Parker O' Bass), Katie (tour manager), Bradley (instrument tech, roadie, occasional band mate), Ash (sound), and Josh (driver). We had some great laughs with Declan O'Rourke (check him out!). Who opened the show each night, and Dereck his tour manager/driver/RAGA MC!!!!!!!!



Wow. It culminated in Cardiff at The Point where we raved on stage with Declan and the whole crew. Ash ripped the place apart with his drumming. Ryan's beat boxing! Katie's cool moves! And then back to the hotel for a session and a few drinks with VJ Kishore playing his heart out (CHECK HIM OUT!). BEAUTIFUL! It rocked.



It's been a tempestous one. Some gigs have been incendiary, totally on fire, at the top of our game as they say in the US of A. Some gigs fractured, difficult and full of us trying to make it through together. We need some rest, we need to let the fields lay fallow for a while. I love making music with and being friends with that crazy motherfucker John Parker. I love it. We can go very high, far and deep together. And to the Journalists that don't get this shit we do, and write cynical small minded crap about us, and celebrate the kind of un-ambitious unchallenging pap the mainstream loves, FUCK Y'ALL, WE'RE FROM LEAMINGTON SPA AND WE'RE GONNA KEEP MAKING HONEST, FROM THE HEART, HARDCORE MUSIC THAT YOU CAN JAM UP YOUR BUM!



Thanks again to all of y'all and to my Kate for putting up with me being away or constantly tired and lost! Much love Peace and all to you guys.



Luke

Traduction by Mylène!(merci!!!)

Citation :

A partir de cette semaine, les blogs de Luke et John seront publiés ici, sur leur Myspace, si ça vous dit de lire ou de relire les blogs de Luke publiés avant, vous pouvez lire les 5 premiers à cette adresse:
www.PUREVOLUME.COM/NIZLOPI


22/09/06



Salut à tous!



Nous venons de finir un été de folie, notre tournée et plein de concerts, et maintenant, je décompresse. Nous jouons au mariage d’un de nos amis demain, et après ça, nous ne jouerons plus en live jusqu’en novembre.



Quelle tournée ! Merci à vous tous, d’être venus, de nous avoir encouragés, d’avoir joué avec nous, bu avec nous, de nous avoir inspirés et aidés sur cette tournée. Ca a été incroyable, et je me suis senti très nostalgique et vide quand ça s’est terminé. C’est tellement génial de faire le tour du pays avec John (the Parker O' Bass), Katie (tour manager), Bradley (qui s’occupe de nos instruments, Roadie, et quelquefois musicien avec nous), Ash (sono), and Josh (chauffeur). Nous avons eu de grandes parties de rigolade avec Declan O'Rourke (venez le découvrir ici!!) qui a fait notre première partie tous les soirs, et Dereck son tour manager/chauffeur/RAGA MC!!!!!!!!



Wow. Le point culminant a été à Cardiff à “The Point” où nous avons déliré sur scène avec Declan et toute la bande. Ash tout déchiré à la batterie ! La beat box de Ryan ! Katie en danseuse super cool! Et ensuite le retour à l’hôtel pour une soirée session et quelques verres avec VJ Kishore qui a joué de tout son cœur (Allez le voir !!). MAGNIFIQUE !! Ca déchire!



Ce fut un tour quelquefois orageux. Certains concerts ont totalement mis le feu, notre jeu au top du top comme ils disent aux USA. Certains plus laborieux, difficiles et où nous essayions désespérément de s’en sortir tous ensemble.
Nous avons besoin de repos, nous avons besoin de laisser les champs en jachère pour un moment. J’adore faire de la musique et être ami avec cette espèce de taré de John Parker. Vraiment j’adore. Nous pouvons aller très loin, monter très haut, ou être très profonds quand nous sommes ensemble. Et pour les journalistes qui n’y comprennent décidément jamais rien a cette “merde” que nous faisons, et qui écrivent des misérables articles pleins de cynisme et de petitesse sur nous, et qui célèbrent toute cette soupe dont les interprètes ne connaissent ni le défi ni l’ambition, mais que les foules adorent, ALLEZ TOUS VOUS FAIRE FOUTRE, NOUS VENONS DE LEAMINGTON SPA, ET NOUS ALLONS CONTINUER A FAIRE NOTRE MUSIQUE, INCONDITIONNELLEMENT, HONNETEMENT, DU FOND DU CŒUR, SUR LAQUELLE VOUS POURREZ BOUGER VOTRE CUL !

Merci encore à vous tous et à ma Kate d’accepter que je sois loin, ou toujours fatigue et perdu!
Je vous embrasse, love, peace à vous tous !


Luke

Post du 1er Novembre

Citation :

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Luke's Blog 7 - 01/11/2007


Rock my blog . 1/11/06



Hello ya'll



I'm writing this in the midst of preparing to depart for our tour of Europe with Jamie Cullum. I have the nuts, banana chips, Propolis throat sweets, CDs, books, and practice materials all packed! We have only done a few shows in Europe, and never what could be called a tour, so getting to play to thousands of new people a night will be fookin awesome.



So. Apologies for not blogging since the end of September, we had two weeks off after the September tour. And it was great. I worked on a farm in Cumbria called 'Sprint Mill', and had a great time with Edward and Romolla on their beautiful small holding. Swimming in the river each morning, and eating the produce of the land we were working. It's a scheme called WOOF (search for it from google!) you become a member for £15 a year, and you are sent a book full of the Organic farms of the UK with a description of what the place is like and what they do there. You book yourself in at the farm you like the sound of, and off you go to work 4-6 hours a day and learn how to farm organically, with other nice folks, in beautiful places. In return for your labour the farm gives you full (usually delicious home grown and cooked) board. And educates you. It's really worthwhile doing it. You contribute to the local place and people, get fitter, and have a great time, and make friends.



Then I went up to my friend Adam's tree house in Fife and met Kate. We hung there for 5 wonderful chilled out glorious delicious laughing days. Learned some nice dancing, and that life can be wonderful. And came home.



John and me have spent the last weeks writing songs and developing existing songs for the next album. Two of the weeks were in Wales in a friend's house. It is great fun to work these songs and to deepen them. To craft them and feel them and have a laugh. We had a great time whilst we were there. Its good some times to be isolated and to focus on the art.



And we have been doing a lot of sorting stuff out at the label here. How do we want to proceed as an indie that in the last year has been in the mainstream? How are we gonna do this stuff in a way that is true, to us, to the music?



Oh and Merrick's (artist responsible for 'Half these song…' art work and 'Extraordinary' - along with Anna-) band came and played in our living room here. Rock N roll! Beautiful music. Great vibes rockin the place. Funny, Poignant, riotous.



And now we are off to Europe with our mate Jamie and his merry band. Seeing new places, laughing together, making people rock, and sharpening our songs and our playing.



Love to ya,



Luke



PS: I'll blog again on a fortnightly basis from now. My next blog will be posted week commencing: Nov 12th

Traduction by Ramla

Citation :

Salut à tous!

J'écris ceci au milieu des préparatifs pour notre départ pour la tournée européenne avec Jamie Cullum. J'ai les noix, les chips de bananes, les bonbons pour la gorge au Propolis, les CD, les livres, et tous les instruments sont empaquetés! Nous avons fait peu de spectacles en Europe, et nous n'y avons jamais réalisé une véritable tournée, donc aller jouer devant des milliers de nouvelles personnes par nuit va être sacrément impressionnant.

Soit. Mes excuses pour ne pas avoir mis mon blog à jour depuis fin Septembre, nous avons eu deux semaines de repos après la
tournée de Septembre. Et ce fut vraiment bien. J'ai travaillé dans une ferme à Cumbria appelée "Sprint Mill" [NDLT : Mill = le moulin, Sprint = un sprint, donc traduisez le nom de la ferme si vous y trouvez un sens...] et j'ai passé un bon moment avec Edward et Romolla dans leur jolie petite propriété. Nager dans la rivière tous les matins, et manger les produits de
la terre que nous cultivions... C'est un projet appelé WOOF (cherchez ce que c'est sur Google!) : tu deviens membre pour 15£ par an, et tu reçois un annuaire avec les fermes biologiques du Royaume-Uni et une description de ce à quoi elles ressemblent et ce qui y est fait. Tu réserves toi même dans la ferme qui te plait, et tu y travailles 4 à 6 heures par jour et apprends comment cultiver biologiquement, avec d'autres gentilles personnes, dans de beaux endroits. En échange de ton travail, la
ferme te fournit la pension complète (en général de la délicieuse nourriture cultivée sur place et cuisinée maison). Et elle t'éduque. Cela vaut vraiment la peine de le faire. Tu contribues à la vie locale, tu te sens mieux, tu passes de bons moments, et tu te fais des amis.

Après ça, je suis allé dans la maison-arbre de mon ami Adam à Fife et j'ai retrouvé Kate. Nous sommes restés là-bas pendant 5 jours magnifiques, détendus, délicieux et plein de rires. J'ai appris quelques jolies dances, et cette vie peut être merveilleuse. Et je suis rentré à la maison.

John et moi avons passé les dernières semaines à écrire des chansons et à développer les chansons existantes pour le prochain album. Deux de ces semaines se sont passées au Pays de Galles dans la maison d'un ami. C'est très chouette de travailler ces chansons et de les approfondir. Les façonner, les ressentir, et rire. Nous avons passé de bons moments là-bas. C'est bien parfois d'être isolé et de se concentrer sur l'art.

Nous avons aussi fait pas mal de tri au label. Comment allons-nous continuer en tant qu'indépendants jetés dans le bain l'an dernier? Quelle manière de faire serait fidèle à notre musique et à nous-mêmes?

Oh, et le groupe de Merrick (l'artiste responsable de la pochette de "Half these songs are about you" et de "Extraordinary" - en collaboration avec Anna) est venu et a joué dans notre salon. Rock'N'Roll! De la belle musique. De bonnes vibrations ont secoué l'endroit. Drôle, poignant, tapageur.

Et maintenant, nous parcourons l'Europe avec notre copain Jamie et son joyeux groupe. Nous voyons de nouveaux endroits, nous rions ensemble, nous faisons bouger les gens, et nous aiguisons nos chansons et notre jeu.

Bisous à tous,

Luke

PS : à partir de maintenant, je posterai tous les 15 jours. Ma prochaine mise à jour sera donc faite la semaine du 12 Novembre.

Post du 22 Novembre

Citation :

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Luke's Tour Blog 22/11/06


(ELLO, BIT LATE WITH THIS ONE FOLKS, SOZ, SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES)



Luke's Feckin Blog!!! 14/11/06



Yo people of the world! Wherever you are; in Asia, Europe, the Americas Australasia, Africa, Antarctica, or Oceania. Hello from Marseille! We are back stage after a KICKING gig opening for Jamie Cullum and the lads. It's been a great night. And actually, a great tour so far.



Stand out points thus far: writing a kicking new song and going out to a full house in Lisbon (2800 people) and opening with it. Playing one of the best shows this year and meeting Mariza afterwards! (Fado singer par excellence). The night before was spent in a Fado Restaurant in Lisbon. We ate the best food I have ever eaten. Heard wonderful Fado (It means 'Fate' in Portuguese and is a beautiful and often tragic folk music (like tango, but totally of its own world) and hung out with a great singer, sister to the world's most famous Fado singer. Her name was Celeste Rodriguez and she sang soul music for sure. I sang them 'The parting glass' an Irish folk song that their music bought out of me. I gave it some welly for my Granddad Terry, and Ryan's Granddad Harman. It was a wonderful night. And incredible luck to chance upon a place and a people like that. Actually it was my incredible girlfriend's incredible singing great uncle that twigged us off that we were to eat at this restaurant.



To go back to the beginning: two weeks ago (for this is a fortnightly blog) we were taking a few days to prepare for the tour. Oh it was nice to have the time and space to prepare in a reet good way. Kate was home from her family trip, and we spent the day in Oxford getting bits for the tour. I contemplated getting a collapsible bike to wang in the back of the van, but I figured that walking would be just as good this time. They are good for train journeys and the like though! We met Phil Brown (a producer and very funny man) on the 1st and had the Craic with him and started planning the next record. WHICH IS GOING TO BE MAD GOOD! Then with everything packed and organized and sorted we hit the road. Josh Starkey: driver par excellence-with dry humour and indomitable spirit to keep knocking out the miles at the helm.



Musically we have been pushing ourselves. Generally we have written an intro for each gig before we go on and these have been great. The one in Paris felt good. We gave it some 'Nous sommes Nizlopi, Bonsoir Paris' just before the beat kicked in and the crowd went mad. It's great to stay constantly creative like this. It means we are constantly on that edge where the fresh wild beautiful things come from. And there's been plenty of them coming and dancing on stage with us. And that song we wrote in Lisbon is going out and rocking the hearts in the room each night.



We are going to get up and do Freedom with Jamie one of these nights soon, maybe tomorrow, and probably have a bass off. John has been scaring all of us on the road by getting up going for an hour run and then going in to the venues at 11am and practicing for 6 hours before we sound check. Jamie's band went pale when I told them. So he's shaking us all up with his passion and commitment. And I think it's wonderful. I'm repaying him by doing his quota of drinking, staying out, eating cakes and raving. But seriously, we seem to be striking a good balance between fun, relaxation, hard work, inspiration, and serving these people God Darn Soul music. I'm very inspired by what we're doing right now. By Nizlopi, FDM and the world. Our dreams are longing to become actual! All our dreams. Your dreams. Don't compromise on anything less than what you really deeply want! Go make it happen now! I love the fact that we are free to do and be what we want in this set up. And we will work hard to keep pushing ourselves and this music and the way we put it out there to serving ya'll.



It's wonderful to wander the streets of these old cities feeling the history and the present all mixed up together. With friends, my love, and music. Eating local wonderful food, communicating well (we are a wee clan on the road together, we look after each other) and reflecting and planning for the future. We want to be righteous and brave with this music, and with our business. To be a part (however small) of the solution to the worlds current state of chaotic environmental and military/economic crisis. Just stick to your guns and do what you do in a way that is accountable, ethical, and of service to what the world needs. And have a laugh.



As a last thing I just read George Monbiot's 'Heat'. To summarize: at the current rate at which us human beings release carbon dioxide (by heating and lighting our homes/business, driving our cars, flying and buying goods etc) we will fuse the planet's ability to deal with these emissions in around 25 years. Beyond which point, run away, deeply chaotic and damaging climate change starts to spiral out of control. The vast majority of the world's scientists who are not being paid by the petroleum industry agree that man made climate change is happening. This involves problems on a never before seen scale, massive food shortages, flooding of huge population areas. Extinctions of plant and wild life on a massive scale. Basically VERY BAD STUFF, AND LOTS! So I guess we have this chance now to act. To make it very costly for our governments to carry on sounding as if they will act to stop catastrophic climate change whilst actually doing very little. Monbiot's book shows that we can keep the planet cool enough to avoid catastrophe with very little real impact on the quality of life in the western world.



This as far as I can see is THE ISSUE now. We need to stop this needless destruction of life. But the only people who tend to really change anything are people like you! Go to http://www.monbiot.com and order his book 'Heat', it is well researched, well thought out and inspiring. It gives great arguments for how and why we can and should act now. Go to http://www.stopclimatechaos.org and google organizations like Greenpeace, Friends of the earth etc. Any organisation campaigning for change, and applying real political pressure. Join them and find out how you can help. Also: talk about it with your friends. Get them to watch Al Gore's new film 'An Inconvenient Truth'. The truth of the matter is you are needed now, to stand up for sanity, and the sanctity of life. Marching peacefully does make a difference. Those 2 million People in London in 2003 really showed the government that the Iraq war was not in our name. That the government is not representing the people. Make it too politically costly for them not to act on climate change! But let's please act! Massive changes need to be set in motion. Have you guys got any ideas on these counts? What can we do?



Peace



and keep it real ale.

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Luke

Post du 26 Novembre

Citation :

Blog. Sunday 26th November 2006.



Hello ya'll



Yo, rock on around the world. We are driving to Luxembourg after playing in Offenbach last night. Tired, achy, and in need of exercise! It's been three and a half weeks on the road now. And we are loving it. There must however be some method of keeping yourselves fit, rested, and inspired on these long hauls! All apologies about the late posting of my last blog. There was some confusion arising from the fact that my blog got lost in cyberspace. Hopefully this one arrives on time!



So what's been happening? Well, I last wrote from Marseille, which was a great show and it's been a busy few weeks since then, of travel, playing, business, and sight seeing. Generally the sights have been restaurants and hotels as there isn't bags of time in the schedule. But what a sight this Europe is, bleary eyed waking and coming out in to the Berlin sunshine, or down the main drag in Freiberg listening to all the fantastic street musicians. There are a lot of great street musicians in Freiberg and Strasbourg. A button accordion player playing Beethoven, a Klezma funk band giving their all in Freiberg. A gypsy trio in Strasbourg, two accordions and a trumpet. The trumpet player's mute was an adapted plastic cup. Great spirit in this street music! And the tram system in Stuttgart is incredible. So good to ride the rails listening to Ben Harper's new album on this clean, cheap, efficient public transport. I fell in love with it!!!!!!!!!



Europe feels pretty healthy. Especially these pedestrianised towns with music on the streets and independent cafés. And beautiful well-used architecture everywhere. And in most places there's been a real respect for and love of music. The Spanish and Portuguese audiences seemed to want to improvise with us. The Basque are cool. The French were down with the 'F^*k Le Pen' lyric, and very kind. And the German audiences are so warm receptive and up for it. It's quite incredible to feel the depth of history in these places. All of these European cathedrals that have taken, in some cases, hundreds of years to build. There's hospitality, kindness, and interest in most of the places we've been.



We admire the Jamie Cullum Crew. I mentioned to them last night that it was like a Napoleonic vessel. To which Jamie replied 'you saying I'm short?'. I was referring to the fact that they have travelled the world, in 2 coaches, and a lorry. All their catering, sound, lighting, management and crew. And that they operate as a hard working, supportive, humorous bunch. Who, like family, come through any adversity and make it happen night after night. We are most impressed with the catering! Healthy delicious stuff, good soul music and great women who love their food. And of course the band, who after 16 months of intense touring show little sign of letting up on their ability to kill shows. As in: giving a wonderful evening to their audience every night. Jamie has a great relaxed way about him, sitting playing piano and singing in the corridor, or catching our show, or chatting away with any one and everyone on the crew. He is very much himself, and is as full of joy off stage as he is on. And gives so much to the audience. We salute ya'll.



We have been asked to open show for Christina Aguilera at Wembley Arena next week. We are doing it. Opening show on the 29th and 30th of Nov. Now, Christina isn't normally my bag, though I haven't heard her latest record so I don't know what she's doing these days. But we are well up for rocking Wembley and showing people our out-there soul music, and having a good time. It will be an interesting one. 'Hello Wembley'. Our feeling is that when there's a chance to play our music and do our thing for a load of new people, we should take it.



Musicians: we were contacted by a friend of a friend who is organizing a gig to help a 7 year old boy in Brighton called Keiton Knight who is very sick with a rare form of cancer. Emma Gomez in Brighton is raising money by getting jams and gigs going around the country, she says:



As a trial ... I recently put on a live jam with some excellent local musicians here in Brighton ... it was very last minute, I had 48 hours to organise it. Some of the musicians had never played together before the jam, it was a mix of their own sets, improv and divine intervention... everyone walked away asking when we are putting on the next one.



The energy was high and it turned out to be a magical night ... we raised £770 within a few hours. The venue, the sound engineer, the musicians, the decorators, and the printers, in fact every single person involved in pulling it together, including me, worked for free and at very short notice.... It really touched my heart and I was very grateful to Keiton for giving me an opportunity to see people at their very best.



See www.keitonknight.com to find out more. If ya'll want to put on a Jam to help a sick boy, please do. We could get more gigs' going as an ongoing way to help people who need help. And let's face it, we all need help.



The music me and John have been making has been great. We have been giving people a damn good time. Everything that we've got. JOHN style="mso-spacerun: yes" And playing some incredible bass. High runs with the bow. And we've both been very creative writing new things every night. Look forward to playing for you soon. Once we get back we are preparing for our second Album, and then enjoying a good break with loved ones at Christmas.



Keep on rocking Ya'll, and remember to sod Christmas presents, and just chill with your loved ones and eat good scram and have a sing and a walk.



Love from Luxembourg



Luke xxx

Citation :

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Luke's Blog - 12th December 2006


Hello to y'all this cold night.



Hey, we're actually getin some God Damn Weather here now. As in it's cold, and Im glad of it. I don't like this crazy feeling of it being December and there having been no hard frosts yet, the climate has gone weird.



So what has been going on? Well, Holy-Moly, in the last two weeks we have played gigs with Jamie Cullum, Christina Aguilera and Billy Bragg. Been to an old friend's wedding, written new music and planned next year. It's been full on as ever.



So yes, we finished the Jamie tour which was emotional. It's good to feel that community on the road. And we miss all of our ship mates from the tour and that feeling of walking out in to another fresh European city each evening. So…yes a great tour and we went out there each night and kicked the arse of those gigs. Gave it all our heart and soul, and represented Leamington bad-style. Then Back to England to rock Wembley Arena.



'We're rocking with Christina

At the Wembley indoor arena

We're excited that we've been invited

And we wanna hear you screama'



That was the bridge we put in to 'Start Beginning' and it rocked it up, with much screaming happening for the love of this strange Nizlopi-Aguilera collision. It was great fun and the whole FDM clan was there to help and support and we had a good little meet before the first gig, the vibe being: 'lets go rock Wembley'.



We then came back here and a good Nizlopi reflection and plan on: What do we want to become? Where are we going? And it was great to sit with my brother and oldest mate JP and dream up together what exactly this thing means to us. What it's about and what we are trying to create. We basically want to rock great music, and represent community and change (social, spiritual, political) in that, whilst having a good time!



We wrote and rehearsed last week, and though we are tired it has been great to be getting all of these songs out of cupboards they have been sat in too long and sharpening them up. We got some good ones now. And we know a lot of AMAZING ones in the future. We just got to write them. But first get these ones right, wonderful, and happening. And record them in February. We did some writing on Thursday, a good song, we try writing quickly sometimes so that it's raw, immediate and from the heart. 'Worry' (Track 11 on our first album 'Half These Songs Are About You') came like that.



Then Kate and I went down to be part of a workshop in London run by mates of ours called 'The Art of Hosting Meaningful Convocations'. It was a really good weekend. It was about 'How do you get people together to talk about the shit that most matters?' To talk about the change we want to see happen in ourselves and in the world. It was great, very inspiring to work with people making a difference in their communities by helping people get shared visions of what they want to be, conflict resolution etc. I came away feeling that it's important to represent what you are really passionate about in the world. To stand up for what you love!



And then to Hackney to rehearse with Billy Bragg. What a man! He's so himself, and such a mixture of being on it, knowledgeable, engaged, passionate and inspiring. With a good dollop of being chilled loose, up for a laugh, and loving singing for people. It was wicked to play alongside someone who has the roots deep in English radical culture and history. ROCK ON BILLY!



And here we are in our final week of Niz-ing of 06. We are tying it up this week, doing a few demos and getting together with the label here in Leam, getting our thoughts together on 'How can we make what we are doing really rock in 07?'. It's been a great year; full on coming off the back of all that intense action that was happening this time last year with JCB. But we have grown as a team at FDM And as a band. Met and played with our heros! Played some wicked gigs. Released a fine CD ('ExtraOrdinary') and made good friends with each other and the people we've been touring with: Declan O'Rourke (check out his 'Christmas Wine' single on MySpace), Gary Dunne (new Album being recorded now, wicked songs! Very real, very raw, very funky) Alastair McIntosh (baby on the way, constant force of 'Love and Revolution' being daily played out in the world by this wonderful soul), Rory McLeod (touring again from next spring, go and buy all his albums now at rorymcleod.com), Chantelle Pike (keep up with her online, fit cellist) Jamie Cullum, (writing a new album next spring, send him loving vibes for inspiration, and send him e-mails demanding he only writes very political songs!), Christina ('Thankyou for making me stronger', fine tune), and Billy Bragg (touring now, go check him out live solo, it's so worth it). These advertisements have been bought to you by the letters L U K and E



With so much love to ya'll, spend time with those ya love and write those songs. Peace, and build what is right!



Love Luke

Citation :

Happy New Year to you all! Peace, health and joy for the future and I hope you had a good time over Christmas.



So what's been going on? Well my first sentence has to be about my friend Rory McLeod. The man is a one-man righteous soul music explosion and I owe him a feck of a lot in terms of his inspiring example. If you click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO_xCvYGtxY you will get a video of 'Farewell wellfare', from the album 'Angry Love'. There are two other videos of his too. This is the kind of radical, edgy, real, relevant, engaged, funky music we need, best music video I've seen, and the best live act I've seen.



So what's been happening? Well after we finished doing Niz stuff in December we had a couple of parties. One at me and Kate's (a nice wee rave) and one where all of us at Folk'n'Deadly music went bowling (where I proved to be the worst but most passionate bowler in the world, screaming as I hurled the bowling balls in to oblivion). Then to a restaurant and on to a local bar. Upon arriving at said bar we were all quite excited, we commandeered the stereo and proceeded to play only 'Prince's Greatest Hits whilst dancing like nutters and singing in falsetto. At first the local clientele looked shocked and appalled, but then slowly the mesmeric tribal rhythm of the FDM funk team got the whole place up raving with us. It was beautiful.



After the festivities we came back and met up with Mr Phil Brown. Phil will be recording our forthcoming album, which will be out in July. HOOOOORAHHH. We are recording it at a studio in Brixton next month. Phil is a great skilled, chilled guy, and we are really looking forward to making this album with him. We had a good chat about the songs and got some ideas for instrumentation for them. John and I then spent a week working on our songs. Deepening them, trying different feels, writing new sections, and grooving them. IT IS SO GOOD TO BE PUTTING TIME IN TO MUSIC LIKE THIS! I can't tell you. It's great to be in it. I have gone back to my three teachers: Rob Forbes for singing, Chris Jones for guitar, and Mark Freeth's great Leamington Yoga class. That is another great thing to be doing. We are going to make these songs rock for you!



I've been listening to the new 'Roots' Album 'Game theory'; it's a fine creative kinetic piece of work, which starts with the quote 'I don't believe old men should promote wars for young men to fight'. I read Suzie Gablik's 'The Re-enchantment Of Art' over Christmas. An incredible work that shows that much of modern art has been self-serving, egotistical, cynical and nihilistic. And that a new art is emerging out of the need we see in a world within thirty years of runaway climate change and facing so many issues of global justice. Art that engages with the world, that helps people, that serves the soil and the soul. It's extremely compelling and makes me feel like 'we have one life, is it not worth using it to help create life love joy and justice? To shine a light. I'm lovin it lovin it lovin it'. I highly recommend it.



Coming up this year; we play the Borderline on the first of February to premier our new songs with a wicked percussionist and perhaps some other musos who will be on the album. Check http://www.nizlopi.com for more details and if you're not signed up to the mailing list please do so via the icon on the homepage. We will then keep you informed of future gigs news, new songs/videos and releases. We are recording in Feb and maybe into March! We are then wrapping it up by doing a few bits and then breaking for 2 months! I'm so excited about this, I have been longing for the last 7 years to take my little backpack off and have a mad adventure. A vision quest. A following of what Alastair McIntosh calls 'the Faerie trail', the chance encounters out in the big wild world that lead you to magical places and people. So mad journey will commence mid March to Mid May. I'm thinking of training, hitching, hiking, and busing my way to ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Senegal to play with local musicians and maybe do some music work with street kids. Rock'n roll! I'm doing this to follow a deep urge, and to get some great material for songs and to build solidarity.



Then we come back and prepare the album for launching and gig for the rest of the year. So book some time off to come to some nice festivals in the summer, and we should be playing your local venue in the autumn/Winter. Have a fantastic year and be sure to do your thing and live every moment.



Love Luke

Citation :

07 févr. 2007, 00:00

Luke's Blog - 7th February 2007


Blog like an Egyptian

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Hello!



We are on route to The Borderline for our first gig in a few months. We are seizing this opportunity to take a gig offered to us by Tom Robinson just before we go in to record our second album on Monday. We felt that the chance to play these new songs with Martin Barker - who will be playing percussion and drums on our album - was to good to miss. So first Nizlopi gig with three band members for about 5 years!



So today's blog: I feel like writing about why we are on our own independent record label. Why not sign to a bigger label that has more power and influence, and who could get us more exposure and success? Well myself I'm inspired by the independent minded artists that we see making revolutionary music in the world today. Any readers of this blog will have heard me bang on about the passion integrity and brilliance of people like Rory McLeod, Ani Di Franco, and Immortal Technique. People whose art is part of a local and global movement for social and ecological justice. People who make damn good art and put that above being celebrities with wealth and power. Basically we want to make good music that helps and isn't compromised by the interests of a major record label. We want to be true to our art. We want to build from our community with our mates here who help us so much! Work in a way that's sustainable: We sell organic fair trade made t-shirts, print our CD cases and post cards etc on recycled card with water based inks (inspired by Kate Higginbottom my girl) and minimise the amount we fly and drive. And we want to have the freedom to build something different and more life giving than the mainstream.



Like Ani Di Franco and Immortal Technique we licence our music to other labels overseas. This means we get to play our music to other people in other countries, which we love. It also means that we get to produce our own art without interference and get it out internationally. I'm grateful to all the people in our community who help us, particularly our parents who have supported us all these years and not made money from it. And grateful to the examples I listed of musicians trying to make something new that lasts for future generations. Art that serves the people and planet, rather than the bank accounts of corporate shareholders. All these independents do need your help, check out their (and our!) music and shows and if you love it tell your mates. Get in touch and find out how you can help. The same goes for anything you care about



http://www.stopclimatechaos.org



http://www.globalrising.org/



http://www.monbiot.com



check out the http://www.galgael.org in Govan where

http://www.alastairmcintosh.com works.



Ani Difranco at http://www.righteousbabe.com/



http://www.rorymcleod.com



http://www.myspace.com/immortaltechnique



Anyway, that was a good old rant. Go well you guys and keep singing your song and being brave. Love Luke x

Citation :

(Soz for the weird HTML at the beginning of the blog :-/ - FDM)



Yo people, how's the form?

..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Hello from ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Morocco where I am having the trip of my life. These are sweet incredible people. Kind, gentle and loving. I'm at the beginning of my 2nd of seven weeks travelling to and from Senegal over land by bus, and hitch, and train. I wanted to go on a real adventure. To see Africa and hear its incredible music (Senegal being a hub of beauteous music). To be inspired and have solidarity with different peoples, and see if I can be of any use whilst here. And to travel in as low carbon a way as possible (greenhouse gas). So no flights allowed! I want to tell you everything but I have a short time so I'll be brief.



We recorded and mixed our new album over the course of 6 weeks in Feb / March. It was an incredible experience. We all worked damn hard. And recorded our joyful, righteous music as live and full of life as we could. It all sounds great and we are very happy. We worked at The Dairy in Brixton with Phil Brown producing, and Martyn Barker on percussion. We had a great time and Martyn, Phil, my Da, and Chris, Davida and John (exceptional engineers all) contributed massively to us getting something that made us all say 'YES'. We invited many of our great muso mates to come and play in the record with us. And a gospel choir from Croyden. And strings from the great Harvey (of 'and the Wallbangers'). It was fun being in the bustle of Brixton, we all laughed and gave ourselves to the record. PEACE to everyone who worked on it and inspired it.



And yes, now I'm on my pilgrimage. I would love to recount it all but every day is so rich, I will tell you a story from Tangiers train station that I wrote to Kate last night.



"feeling like I'm in 'The Alchemist" drinking sweet mint tea from glasses. Last night was spent with two new friends in Tangiers station. We got a jam session going and soon the whole crammed station was alight with beautiful international music. A German scout master with wind-burnt skin playing a 1st world war tin mug. 4 Moroccan boys playing and singing Arabic / Flamenco, Spaniards playin Galician. Children getting up close. Joy, aural community, shining faces. Us English / Irish travellers right in the heart playing guitar, spoons, and singing. I looked around and thought how much killing and fundamentalism every race had been through, and yet there was this quite incredible creative spirit of beauty amongst us. We were all in love and full of love and dancing"



I fully recommend going out on a limb and going on your adventure, my heart is singing with it.



And when we return we will be playing the festivals (please recommend us to any new festi you want to see us at), our own gigs, and bringing songs to you. Old and new. So sign up to the mailing list on Nizlopi.com and keep abreast of gigs. Book a ticket and tell all your friends please. SPREAD THE WORD, HEAR YE HEAR YE



Stay strong mo'fo's



Salam Alaikum



Love Luke

Citation :

Luke's Blog - 19th June 2007


(Note: We keep getting some weird code in these blogs when we submit them, not sure why, will sort as soon as poss)



Blogging all over the world. 19/6/07. ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 />..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 />Leamington Spa.

..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O />..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O />



Hello y'all.




Sorry for the long absence. From mid-March to mid-May I was on a most incredible trip from Leamington Spa (home of FDM records) to Dakar in Senegal via public transport overland. Since returning we've been busy sorting out FDM and Nizlopi for the forthcoming months of festivals, getting our new album ready, and touring in the autumn. I'm in the process of writing up my trip at the moment, with photographs, song recordings and hopefully video. This will take a while. So I may not be blogging again for some time. But to whet your appetite here is a song recorded in Dakar with some wonderful friends I made there.




http://www.nizlopi.m6.net/understand.mp3



(right click and 'Save target as')




I went on the trip to play music with local musicians, get inspired and build solidarity with the people I met. This is a song I wrote with my friend Titi Yoro, a great Rapper, singer, guitarist, and dancer. In Senegal many of the musicians I met identified themselves as 'revolution singers', for them fighting for social justice in music was totally natural. You're a weirdo there if you're not a revolutionary. The song is about understanding each other; we were people from different cultures. Different worlds! Making friends and learning. Check out the quality of all the musicians, singers and rappers! It was all recorded very quickly and we all danced laughed and applauded each other's takes in to the early hours of the morning.




A photo of Titi with his neighbours kid.



>



The trip and time out was really inspiring for both me and John boy, and we are excited about what Nizlopi will be now.




See you soon: See the gigs section, and sign up to the mailing list on http://www.Nizlopi.com to be kept up to date with where we are playing. We need to see you there dancing and singing. And if you haven't ordered your copy of ExtraOrdinary yet you're a damned nincompoop.




Love and rock n roll




Luke x

Citation :

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Luke’s Blog - 30th January 2008


Blog. 28/1/08




Hello, I hope this finds you very well, and happy new year to you all. We have not been blogging for a little while, but this is the first of a weekly (ish) Nizlopi blog. One week JP (Mr Double bass beat box himself), the next Me, Luke, (singer, guitarist, gobshite). In my last blog I explained that I am writing up the trip I made to Senegal last spring. This is still a work in progress, which is coming soon!




It's busy, hard, and challenging the independent music way, but I want to tell you about the exciting things that are coming up. And that we will be making music and magic happen throughout the coming year near you.




This independent music lark is bloody hard! We've been working as family and friends in Leamington Spa for the last 7 years. My mother said back then that she wanted to invest in our music because she believed in it. And my Da has always helped us so much. We've played in bands and sessions with him over the years and he was always up for giving us a lift, or some support and encouragement, and-for the last seven years -management. We've loved and been inspired by doing this independently of signing to a big label. Sure we have less power, but more freedom. We decide what to put into the music, how we make it, what we do with it, and how it's promoted. It's human scale, a small beautiful team working away to put out music and put on gigs that are great craic, celebratory, empowering, community building, real, and rootsy. Songs that engage with the personal, political, and spiritual matters we face now. GREAT. That's what I love. But it's hard damn it! Our team of hard working friends here have, and continue to, put all they have in to it. They could probably make more money elsewhere, and have less stress. We are all faced with the problem of getting music across to new people. When generally radio, TV, and the press dedicate 99.9% of their space to acts on big labels whose big budgets, connections, woman / manpower etc gives them a monopoly. So is it possible to make great, real, passionate, independent music and be successful now?




Yes is what we think. That's why we are calling this album 'Make It Happen', and why against all the odds we are still here making our music and getting ready for our biggest tour to date beginning this April. We're taking this album to radio, (Colin Murray thank you for playing us the other night and for your support!) TV, and the press. We are releasing a series of beautiful animations from BDH and Mustashrik. And some live videos we made with Oxford film maker Dave Motion. These will be released at fortnightly intervals in the run up to the album release which is on the 31st of March. Two of these are already out. Please if you know someone who would like these videos and songs pass them on to them. We are relying on the grapevine for distribution!


Also, on our first single release (17/Feb/08) 'Start Beginning' (See Mustashriks short animation at http://www.nizlopi.com/watchithappen

Look out for remixes by Jimmy Davis and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. Oh, and coming soon look out for a re-mix of 'England Uprise' from our friends Achanak, Birmingham's favourite Bhangra sons.

We are also getting ready to write and record an iTunes session with Damien Dempsey (one of the finest singer / songwriters ever) and Soweto Kinch (a wonderful jazz musician and brilliant rapper). This will be available later in the year.


On the Make It Happen tour (go to www.nizlopi.com/live

to see all the English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh cities we are playing and to book your tickets) we will be playing new songs, playing the best we have ever played ( I pray!) and playing alongside some serious talent including Jimmy Davis, Kajali Kayote (Senegalese Kora player and singer with his fantastic band.) and Tom Richards Big Band. These and other musicians will be getting up with us, and I cannot wait! If you feel like you can bring some serious joy to the occasion with us, then bring your sax / trumpet / voice / lyrics / dance / poetics / Jembe / digereedoo / polemical rant against cruelty and injustice / breakdance skills, and hold your hands up in the air when I ask 'are there any singers or musicians who are gonna get up with us?'. Let's make some seriously beautiful magic happen.




So yes we are still here. And we will continue to play like our hair is on fire, and put out the most honest, great music we can. Folk'n'Deadly music is not dead, Nizlopi are Alive! GET UP! Come to some gigs. Spread the word. Come and have a chat after the gigs and help me out with some song ideas! If you like our music request it on radio shows, e-mail us about street teaming (hand out flyers and sign people up to the mailing list and you get a free t-shirt and free entry to that gig! admin@finestorytotell.com ) at gigs. We want to rock. We will be giving our sweat and blood and celestial music at a venue near you soon. Stay positive and remember:




Native American rules for happiness


1) Don't sweat the small stuff.

2) Everything is small stuff.




Much love to you. And keep rocking in your projects, and visions.




Luke x

Citation :

20 févr. 2008, 08:00

Luke’s Blog - 20th February 2007


It's late and John and Katie sit in the front of the van as we drive through the night towards home. They talk, relaxed and supportive. We have just played BBC Radio Wales on The Evening show with Alan Thompson. We are tired from the intense focus and delirium of live radio performances. We've all been talking about relationships and life and trying to coach each other a little.




We were in meetings earlier on. We have one day in the office a week to communicate with our team at Folk'N'Deadly Music Mansions. There's a lot happening, we have sorted out the artwork and packaging for Make It Happen. A fantastically talented friend of my girl's called Louise Yates (who's first children's book 'A Very Small Surprise' will be out in 2009) has done an incredible job. She may have out done the music! We have been getting the videos finished that we have been working on with Mustashrik. We did some stop motion photography with him in Hyde Park the other day that he is including in his full-length animation for Start Beginning. We've also been trying to sort out this iTunes gig because our big brother Damien Dempsey can't do it this time! He's gotta do The Late Late show in Ireland with U2 on the date we are recording instead. Fair play to him. Look out for that show because the man is one beautiful legend of a warrior.




Also Kate - My girl friend - has had some surgery. She is a fine dancer, and hiker of mountains. She hurt her knee this summer, so she had surgery 2 weeks ago. But due to some bad advice from some nurses (to keep the ole tuba grip on all the time and at night while she slept) she developed a blood clot in her calf. So it's been scary lately wondering how we are going to cope with Kate being laid up and ill and me being away sometimes and busy. So John and I have been rehearsing at Kate and my house and I have been at home more. It's been shit scary the worry of this clot!




We have been speaking with a filmmaker from New York about the possibility of writing a sound track and score to her film. It could be a wonderful challenge to make art like that in a place where we could get some real inspiration. Also our friends in Toronto who licence our music for Canada are talking about getting us over to Canada and the States to make this music happen over there. My Nana left a message with me tonight. She had just heard Start Beginning on Chris Evans BBC Radio 2 show (Stuart Maconie was presenting tonight). Apparently they judged it a hit. So thankyou to everyone who texted and phoned in, and to Stuart and the show for playing us. Nan was very proud. Please text, phone, and e-mail radio stations to get them to play Start Beginning, it really helps.




So what's goin on with the feckin government? Brown says; Yes to Nuclear, Yes to the extra runway and terminal at Heathrow, and they are expanding the roads to deal with increased volume and the Olympics. I'm sorry but does any one else feel like this is feckin ridiculous? I honestly don't feel that any one in an institutional position of power - like being in government - will truly make changes that serve life. Changes that make life a sustainable growing possibility on this earth. Nuclear waste takes 250 million years to become safe and stable. And providing more energy for us to carry on consuming and living these fast ridiculous lives is no solution. The planned expansion in aviation breaks all commitments the government have made to decrease carbon emissions. Which is why we have to fight the people in power. Non-violently. They will keep providing a sepulchral framework for economic growth and environmental, social, and spiritual death. And we must keep providing life. Giving our very souls to each other. Our gorgeousness. Our beauty. Our strength, vision, support and empathy. Building and weaving the love between us so that it is something real, tangible and formidable. It's not very easy but what other choice do we have?




Rant over. Check out this extraordinary video from Jimmy Z that my Colleague and Cuz Finn showed me. I laugh in my sleep about this one.




Jimmy Z Vid




Nuff Love Luke x

Citation :

Luke’s Blog - 13th March 2008


Hello you lot.

I hope you’re well. We have been working hard here. Each week we: Do one business day at FDM (Folk’n’Deadly music), Meetings, planning, discussing, communicating. This week we had an interview with Acoustic magazine about the new album, I’m guessing it will be the April edition. 2 days of rehearsal, and writing. One day of practice and lessons, and one day of doing office work from home. It’s a good ideal for a working week that tends to be knocked about a bit by the realities of life. We tend to need to do some more meetings and showcases and the like at different times. Last week we did our performance at the iTunes festival in collaboration with Soweto Kinch. He is very talented. And it was a joy to write songs with him. He has gifts galore. Great experimental expressive Jazz, great freestyle wild MC-ing, good band leader, composer. Representing Birmingham! We wrote 2 songs/jams in 2 hrs and they are available as live performances on iTunes. We will at some point record and release more finished versions of these songs too! Forgive the looseness.

Jimmy Davis also got up with us. Jimmy toured with us in October on the ’Up Rise’ tour. And this blog is dedicated to him. I really, really, really, rate Jimmy Davis. HE FUCKING ROCKS! Skillful, humorous, revolutionary, poetic, hot excellence. He is a hard working, struggling MC from Birmingham. He produces, raps, sings, and performs. Katie (our tour manager and all round warrior princess) first played me his music on the way back from a gig in London last summer. He’s got soul. I was struck by the acoustic roots/hip-hop feel of the music and the conversational brilliance of his lyrics and obvious commitment and drive toward musical excellence. That song was ’My path’. The next tune pure blew me away. It was ’ApathyX’ A fantastically powerful attack on our collective march over the edge of the cliff of catastrophic climate change. Peppered with samples of scientists and ecologists speaking about what lays ahead if we don’t all act. I had been wanting to write a great climate change awareness song and Jimmy had already done it brilliantly. I was hooked!

We met up the following week and did a duet together at our after show party at the Jug and Jester in Leamington on our ’Bringing It Home’ Tour. He was fantastic live, bold and on fire with new songs. And it was great to sing with him. So later in the summer I went over to his place in Birmingham and sang on a song of his (a link to which you will find at the end of this blog.) I love music that’s immersed in reality. Singing in his flat the 2 of us having a laugh and getting good work done is one of the best recording experiences I’ve had. It makes me realise what strangely sterile places big pro studios are, there’s not much laughter in those places. Or not enough any way! Any how go check out Jimmy at www.myspace.com/littlejimmydavis. Order a copy of his Brilliant album ’The Variety Show’, sign his mailing list and go see a gig. He will be opening the show at the Bristol, Newcastle, and Oxford gigs on our ’Make It Happen’ tour in April. And Getting up with us On ’England Uprise’ at those shows.

I see Artists like Jimmy Struggling all over. My friend Gary Dunne ( www.garydunne.com ) is releasing his new record ’Simple Truth’ next month (go get it!) he is working hard and having to sustain his career by doing everything, all the business, promotion, and recording, himself. Chantelle Pike, Ros Davis, Acute Coach, Amplifico, Rory Mcleod, people fighting to get their beautiful music heard, sweating tears to get to sing their song for people. And it’s not easy, sometimes I feel like the character in ’Little Miss Sunshine’ trying to sell his 12 step to success program which is failing. I’m here saying ’Make it Happen’; that which you want to see, that which your heart believes in, that which moves you and makes you sing. Friendship, justice, beauty. But I don’t know how to do it myself. And fail every day. But I wont give up! Never. Louise who did the artwork for this new album said that she didn’t like ’Make It Happen’ as a title because it sounded smug and didactic, it’s hard to make good shit happen. But I just feel that the songs and the feeling of this time of life are saying just that. Make that love happen. Make those political changes that only you can make, the wonderful power and responsibility of being who you are, and standing for what you most deeply feel. If not here, where? If not us, who? If not now, when? So you do everything you can to make that happen, and maybe if you fail, you actually don’t, you make the ground for others to try, if you open one door just a little isn’t that good?

In the coming week we are doing a session on Smooth radio (1 song of ours, and then we choose songs we love from their play list). Rehearsing to get ready for the tour, finalising the tour t-shirt designs. And generally doing the highland fling round Leamington naked. Tell your amigos to book their tickets for our April/May tour of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, at www.nizlopi.com/live . We are going to kill it. And you can see the fantastic other acts we are getting to play, and come get your super duper fly new album and t-shirt.

Thankyou for reading and responding to these blogs. I have a very limited amount of time at the moment, so sorry for not responding to your responses yet. Go well.

Love Luke x

JIMMY DAVIS - WORLD AT UR FEET (please be patient for it to load, might take a sec)

Citation :

Luke’s blog - 28th March 2008


Hello All

In the van, full of cold. We had a meeting on the ferry planning the coming week. I’m moving house, Kate’s still unwell, and things are getting frantic for the release of this album. Wo baby but it doesn’t rain, 3 come at once.

We are over in Ireland ready for our performance tomorrow night on the Late Late Show. Great, I love this show, profoundly brilliant institution in Ireland, and great craic at the after show party. We are a bit bothered by the fact they want us to mime with a live vocal! We love playing live, and making something happen in the moment. So apologies for the lack of live music. We are doing a load of other Irish stuff next week and playing live on TV and Radio so that’s all good.

Steven Merchant Radio 6 Music this Sunday will be hosting us at 4pm. We have all been having big ole debates about what we will play. I really believe in this song of ours called England Up rise, It’s passionate, deep, and it rocks. But everyone on our team seems to not like it or think it wont work on his show! It’s a song about standing up for your beliefs, telling the people of England and the world to up rise for all they love! The future is being destroyed by the rich and the ruling classes and the way we are living, we can stop this! But maybe it’s a wack song with an unclear message? I don’t know, what do you do when you deeply believe something, and all those around you whom you trust think you’re bonkers?!

Anyway. Have a good week, and I will see you at these gigs in April. Tell your friends, family, and all you know. Please, it really helps us a lot if you pass the word that we’re playing, and we promise we will give them a good time.

Be bold, and as my mate Rachel’s book says ’Live this year as your last’

Love Luke x

Citation :

07 mai 2008, 08:00

Luke’s blog - 7th May 2008


Dear ones




How are ya? We just finished The UK leg of the tour. You people who came to the shows are wonderful! You were dancing, singing and loving like bedlamites! It was such an incredible tour. Every night was great for different reasons. We loved playing in Wales: Wrexham and Cardiff rocked. We loved playing in the east: Cambridge, Norwich and Nottingham were wonderful nights. The North!: Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, go well you crazy bad girls and bois. Scotland: Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh radio, thank you. And the south: Portsmouth, oxford, Brighton and London. We had a great reception everywhere we went, such hospitality! It was definitely the most tiring tour of our lives. I had moved house at the beginning of the tour. My voice was going by the fourth gig in. When not on stage, not moving/sound checking/working/on the phone to lawyers and estate agents about my new home, I was snatching sleep in every place I could. There were some great moments of improvising: John was giving a lot, Bradley was playing drums on 'Feel Inside', people were requesting all the songs from ExtraOrdinary, Drew got up with us and played Mandolin on 'Yesterday' at 3 venues, Joe Driscoll and Pete Box incinerated the gig in Nottingham when they got up with us and free styled/scratched/beat boxed like angels. Union Chapel was great, and very challenging, apologies to any of you who suffered with bad sound early in the gig. We had never played a venue of that type and our instrumentation and our team were pushed to the limits by the space, beat box and double bass present a unique challenge for a sound man, and so does a huge echoey church. Apologies to anyone whose enjoyment was impaired at all during the show. We were all giving you everything we had. The 3-part harmony was great.




I did a fair bit of preaching on this tour. In Cambridge the energy at the gig felt a little slow, people didn't seem to be having a wild time. During Feel Inside my intuition said I should preach! I asked the question 'What can we do about how dark the future currently seems'? How can we deal with how much suffering is happening, and is about to happen, and how do we serve the needs of others and not just collapse in to apathy and numbness? You are so powerful, so mighty, and you have a huge responsibility, we can't let the world go to hell in a hand basket. We have to act now. NOW! YOU! Direct action to stop them digging up fossil fuels, direct action to stop them sending more arms to the Gulf, go to the camp for climate action. That kind of ranting. And if your heart's engaged and you're saying what you really feel, people hear it, and in Cambridge people seemed to go 'Wo' and open up and start having a good time as if there was some meaning here now. It's not just musicians making nice music, there's some honesty here.





But equally I'm very aware that this sort of thing can just be really annoying, that you can be another self-important f%^ing singer. But I feel it's immensely important that we start to talk, that we say what we really feel regardless of cynicism or close mindedness. We all need to be talking about these issues and organising and addressing them now. It doesn't make you popular with the media, it's not very marketable, my girlfriend thinks it's embarrassing, but f*%k it. Speak about what you love! Speak about your love for the world. Don't let it all go under cos you're scared of being called a hippy!




PREACH!





We are in Ireland getting ready for our last three shows of this tour. Come down! IRELAND UP RISE!




May will be quiet. In the Summer;: festivals and maybe recording a few new songs. In the Autumn; another big ole tour of the UK and Ireland, start telling your friends, look out for updates, sign up to the mailing list on nizlopi.com, and get hitting the demand button on our my space if you want us to come somewhere off the beaten track.




LOVE Luke x

Citation :

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Special message from Luke

Dear all righteous gorgeous people of England and the whole world. The date for the camp for climate action is the 3rd to the 11th of August. Check it out http://www.climatecamp.org.uk I will be there for at least the first three days so come down and lets write some songs, make some friends, and love the summer whilst stopping coal fired power stations destroying life. Come ON!

Love Luke x

Citation :

Luke's Blog and Poem - 9th March 2009
Category: Blogging

Hello All
As you may know we are off on Sabbatical this year. We are both going through big changes, and have wanted a lot of things about our artistic/professional/and private lives to change for some time. John and I will be meeting up in January 2010 to decide what our work together in the future will be, and we will post an item on all of our web sites telling you our plans as soon as we know. We will also send this to our mailing list. In the mean time I was reflecting the other day about all the things I am thankful for about what we have done as Nizlopi. And what came to me strongly are the high times of writing, rehearsing, feeling a song come, traveling with my friend/friends, and the very high times of playing gigs. I wrote this poem about that high place:


We knew from early on
From watching our heroes
That god helps musicians light fires in the darkness
Old fires and new fires that warm your very core
From an ancient beautiful place

When you are up there and the whole world is flowing through you
When everyone is connected and singing
John on fire with giving
The great chasm opening at your feet
Vertigo like Bono said

When you are giving your story to a room and a place and a time
And the stars seem to be glistening on the streets of the town:
The dreams we all have
The love of loving
The voice from the heart

And when you feel the courage to say what you most want to:
“I love you, we should be standing up for the poor, and for what we believe in”
When the whole river of soul is awash amongst you
Your friend, God, and the community of that place

And you then, spent from a life of giving
Are born away by the singing crowd to be kissed by beautiful women
Then you know you’re singing folk hip-hop.




Love Luke x

Citation :

15th october 2009 : Luke Detained in Israel

FDM wanted to pass along part of Luke’s adventures from his current travels. Recently he [and his Brazilian friend Valentine] were detained for 8 hours by Israeli security as they tried to cross the border. He told us that he plans to return to the UK at the end of October for a few days. Then he goes to the farm house in Normandy to “finish up these travelling songs" We’re just glad he’s safe . . . here's the extract . . .

Tine and I sang our way across the Syrian Boarder. Loved Alepo and Damascus. And then sang our way through The Israeli boarder. All though this particular crossing took around 8 hours! We got off the bus on arrival at the Israeli boarder and I gave the big fella with a machine gun a big smile. He frowned for a second and then smiled right back. A guy came from behind him wearing a secret service style ear piece and said 'im the head of security please come with me' (Was it the smile I had given?) I put my hand out to shake his which he reluctantly took. They ushered Tine and I in to 2 different areas where we could not see each other. And I was questioned by 2 different Security guys. Whilst waiting between questionings the Big machine gun guy came in and said 'I was trying to look all tough with my gun but you broke me with your smile, you and your friend are very special!' Then they took me to a booth where I was searched. They took our luggage to another area to be searched. While the rock hard security guard standing with me explained that we had been unlucky today and this would take time!

All our possessions were searched twice and swabbed. Whilst this was going on some staff asked me to play and it felt good to sing in the cold, tense atmosphere of the boarder. The security had a smile, the cleaners too. Then in to a room to be questioned by a lady who wouldn't tell me her name or job title. I was watched and occasionally cross examined by her colegue. They Wanted to know everything, every place I had stayed on my trip, who I knew in the country, why I paused before answering X question! etc etc etc.
Then Tine was questioned. Then different offices with our passports. Me praying they let us in. Questioned by another guy! And then miracle we were in!

The soldiers are all 18ish and very bored. And whilst we waited for our bus they asked us for a song. We belted out some new songs and soon had a session going. A circle of Arab Taxi drivers and Israeli soldiers! Singing together. It was quite a first experience of Israel/Palestine.

And Here In the Holy land I have been: Picking olives with Palestinian farmers in the west Bank as part of an international presence when they pick in areas near setlements-In these areas they are at risk of violent attack from Settlers and the army-But with Internationals their it is much less likely. It's Great to be with good activists in the reality and sweetness of Palestine. Writing a song with A hebrew rapper. And Looking round the old city.