Write Me Stories...

Too many bands to list in the top header bit, so here they are listed alphabetically. Start from the bottom of the 'blog' and read upwards to read them all in chronological order if you wish. Actually, you may have to click the names of the individual stories from years gone back, as I'm not sure how to have them all shown/readable easily!
149 stories, 10 years, and (slowly) counting.. A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Adem, Amina/Amiina, Antarctica Takes It!,The Arcade Fire, Andrew Bird, Benni Hemm Hemm, Breathe Owl Breathe, Calexico, Bodies Of Water, Braids, Choir Of Young Believers, Adrian Crowley, Chris T-T, Clem Snide, Darren Hayman, Dear Reader, Dillon, The Divine Comedy, Dresden Dolls, Eels, Efterklang, Eleanoora Rosenholm, Explosions In The Sky, The Flaming Lips, Fog, Fol Chen, Ben Folds, Fujiya & Miyagi, George Thomas And The Owls, Get Well Soon, Laura Gibson, Gemma Hayes, Hjaltalín, Hope Of The States, Hymns From Nineveh, Ichi, I'm From Barcelona, Denis Jones, Jens Lekman, Jack Lewis, Jeffrey Lewis, Little Scream, Loney Dear, The Magnetic Fields, Jo Mango, Laura J Martin,Misty's Big Adventure, Anaïs Mitchell, The Moldy Peaches, Musée Mécanique, Neverest Songs, Linn Öberg, Ohbijou, Owen Pallett, The Polyphonic Spree, Ramona Cordova, The Real Tuesday Weld, Seabear, Shearwater, The Silent League, Sleep Party People, St. Thomas, St. Vincent, DM Stith, Sufjan Stevens, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, Thinguma*jigsaw, Shugo Tokumaru, tUnE-yArDs, Tunng, Stuart Warwick, Why?, Windmill, Woodpecker Wooliams, The Young Republic.

 

Gemma Hayes

Bush Hall, London, December 1st 2012

It's been a month shy of 11 years from when I bought her first ep (from the old defunct (I assume) shop MVC), and I've finally gotten around to seeing her live.  Must be some kind of record for me.  Her first album was always on repeat in 2002, and so is her new one this year, although I somehow skipped the inbetween albums. A beautiful gig.

 

Jo Mango

Union Chapel, London, November 25th 2012

A story to snort at!
 

 

Jo Mango

Union Chapel, London, November 25th 2012

Lovely Daylight Session set from Miss Mango. & a phone call from Adem whilst she was on stage as well.

 

Dillon
Hoxton Bar & Grill, London, October 21st 2012

Was very pleased to see her after not being able to see her gig in May - and she was great, even with her voice disappearing at points. She asked if the story could be short, and I said that it could be very short. I then gushed my love for her music and went on my way.

 

Linn Öberg

12 Bar Club, London, 11th October 2012

Popped along to see Linn do an early support set at the 12 Bar Club, and was one of only 6 (it swelled to 8 by the end!) people to watch her lovely set. She didn't seem to confident in writing a story in English, so I said that Swedish was fine. Just need to decipher it now...

Ichi

Northampton Square Bandstand, London, September 9th 2012

I have no idea how to describe this Japanese chap. He comes on stage on stilts playing his music, uses one of his stilts as a banjo thing, uses a ping pong ball and bat, steel drum with ping pong ball and water, traffic cone, alarm clock, and a blown-up balloon to deflate and play a trumpet... After I asked him to write a story, he thought for a bit and wrote his sentence, then apologised and said that his English wasn't very good, and so stopped there. Not that he needed to say anything else!

Woodpecker Wooliams - Gemma Williams

Northampton Square Bandstand, London, September 9th 2012

Lovely story! Poignant with a nice funny twist at the end! (maybe not funny for grandma though)

 

 

Woodpecker Wooliams - Gemma Williams

Northampton Square Bandstand, London, September 9th 2012

My first story in almost a year! After quickly checking whether it should be fictional or real, Miss W wrote this story.

tUnE-yArDs - Merrill Garbus

Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London, September 16th 2011

This lady is just so awesome live. Lovely relatively small gig for them too. She was also one of those strange people who weren't perturbed at a story request, and afterwards when she handed it to me she said 'That is a weird story', and then kindly asked my name! Simple pleasures for me.

Sleep Party People - Brian Batz

Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London, September 14th 2011

Interesting exciting tidbit - just before their gig tonight, Sleep Party People were in near heartbreak as they were about to go on stage, but they didn't have their bunny masks (and have never done a gig without them). The masks had been left at last night's venue, but a cab had been sent to hopefully retrieve them.
The bunny masks arrived with minutes to spare, as they were setting up their instruments on stage. It could almost be made into a movie!





Sleep Party People - Brian Batz

Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London, September 14th 2011

This was a story collection of many parts! After having loved Sleep Party People for almost a year, they finally came over from Denmark to the UK. I saw them at the Lexington two nights before this gig, and asked for a story afterwards, but Brian was still selling cds after, and asked if I could wait - I said that I'd come back the next day as I would be at that gig too. So the next day/gig at Brixton Windmill came, but the story was misplaced, but written. But I finally collected the story at the third SPP gig tonight. Huzzah!

Little Scream - Laurel Sprengelmeyer

Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London, September 14th 2011

I am pretty sure I've seen Deliverance, although truth be told, I mostly only remember the piss-take of it in Father Ted...
Nice story!




Little Scream - Laurel Sprengelmeyer

Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London, September 14th 2011

Little Scream are pretty cool! Lovely album, and really great live show, but more rocky (no piano/twinkly bits) than their album. I caught Laurel after their set, she asked my name, then set off on her story'ness!

Laura J Martin

Union Chapel, London, September 3rd 2011

I'm pretty certain that Laura's the only person that has responded to my story request with the words/exclamation 'Holy Moses!'. It will probably remain that way.





Laura J Martin

Union Chapel, London, September 3rd 2011

Like Stuart, Laura did some cool music loopery on stage. Good ol' loops. Although she also did some cool flute tooting, with some awesome music backing it up.

Stuart Warwick

Union Chapel, London, September 3rd 2011

After a couple of months break, some more stories! Today's free Daylight Music gig was a day of discovery for me - two new acts for me to discover and love, and one new act who I only realised shortly beforehand was a band that I already loved under a different name (Function, now called Outshine Family) - although unfortunately I didn't get to see him afterwards.
Anyway, Stuart Warwick was very impressive. & quite amusing too - announcing the next song, he said: "It would be inappropriate to dedicate this next song to God, so I won't. It's called 'Man With A Pussy'" & some more Goddery in his story too. I bought the album at the same time as getting a story, and am very much enjoying it!

Breathe Owl Breathe - Trevor Hobbs

La Flèche d'or, Paris, June 25th 2011

& now this awesome story! It was Trevor's birthday on the day of the gig, and I gave him the card to write his story after their performance, and he came back with this detailed drawing not too long later.
I just need to add again how ace all three of the band were, and fingers crossed they'll make it over to the UK some day soon! Utterly amazing live band too.

Breathe Owl Breathe - Micah Middaugh

La Flèche d'or, Paris, June 25th 2011

and here's the setlist! Mostly. They played Run Off as the second song (woo!), so I'm not sure what the original second song/drawing is meant to be though. I don't think they played Boat (which I assume the boat drawing is there for), but I do remember them playing Parrots In The Tropical Trees, but I was having too much fun to really remember.




Breathe Owl Breathe - Micah Middaugh

La Flèche d'or, Paris, June 25th 2011

More cool drawing'age! Micah popped over to see me again whilst the band before them were playing, and said that he was still writing the story and was also writing/drawing a setlist on the other side too. I then asked whether they would be playing (or could play) Run Off, as it was my first song of theirs that I loved, and perhaps a contender for my favourite song. He said that they hadn't played it in quite a while, and he would have to remember how it went - and then he popped off to go get Trevor and his guitar, and disappeared elsewhere, presumably to practise the song!

Breathe Owl Breathe - Andréa Moreno-Beals

La Flèche d'or, Paris, June 25th 2011

I spoke to the band before they played, and asked for stories, and Andréa and Micah both took a card each, to come back with me later. This picture/story is just stunning!




Breathe Owl Breathe - Andréa Moreno-Beals

La Flèche d'or, Paris, June 25th 2011

Breathe Owl Breathe announced a few random dates in Ireland and Europe a few weeks ago, but none in the UK. Seeing as I never thought they'd come over this way at all, I decided to travel from London to Paris just to see them (via coach - which was nice and cheap, but so so long!). It was definitely worth it, and they were super lovely folk!

Eleanoora Rosenholm - Noora Tommila

The Lexington, London, May 26th 2011

The Lexington continues its story-haul! My 300th gig (according to Songkick anyhow), and the 1st London gig for the Finnish band Eleanoora Rosenholm. Noora is a cool looking pixie-esque character, and looked at me in a confused 'are you sure?' type manner after I asked for a story (more people should do this!), and then asked if it should be in English, but I said she could write it in Finnish if she preferred. She then gave me one funny final perculiar look before writing the story, and voila!

Braids - Raphaelle Standell-Preston

The Lexington, London, May 24th 2011

Fact fans: Only the second story to be written on two different pieces of card (instead of the reverse side of the same card). Fascinating... In other fascinating news, I'm quite happily looking forward to seeing them live again the next time they come back!





Braids - Raphaelle Standell-Preston

The Lexington, London, May 24th 2011

Managed to ask Raphaelle for a story after their gig finished, and so she sat down on the stage and wrote away! She seemed very lovely in person and in voice!

Hymns From Nineveh - Jonas H. Petersen

The Lexington, London, April 28th 2011

Hymns From Nineveh were very good (they're from Denmark, which is always a good start!), and whilst on stage you could tell that the main chap, Jonas, seemed utterly pleased that they were playing in London - lovely to watch!




Hymns From Nineveh - Jonas H. Petersen

The Lexington, London, April 28th 2011

Wow, I'm a story ahead of my story-a-month-challenge now!
Was a strange/fun start to this gig, on account of me winning a wedding cake in a competition for it, and then posing for various photos. But all very good, thank you Ja Ja Ja folk!

Shugo Tokumaru

Cafe Oto, London, April 6th 2011

My lightning pace of a story a month continues!
It was a great gig by Shugo and his band, and I eventually managed to catch him after the gig, although sort of expecting him to not really understand my request in English, but he seemed quite fine with it! I also said that he could write it in Japanese if he preferred. He took the card, and started writing a story, using the piano as a table. But then other pesky fans came along and interrupted him from his important story writing. This went on for a while, and he seemed to forget about the story and started packing up his stuff, so I slunk over the piano and picked up the story card, which had a line of Japanese characters written on it. I expected that I would leave it at that, but decided to go over to him again when he was alone later, and asked if the story was finished or if it just said something like 'Once Upon A Time', to which he laughed and said it did say 'Once Upon A Time' (is this truee??), and then he scribbled his name and the date down too. He was a super lovely chap!

Darren Hayman

Nettleford Hall, London, March 19th 2011


I managed to catch Darren downstairs after his set at the Read And Shout save libraries gig day, and asked him for a story. He said sure, but he was about to go on stage to sing a song with A Little Orchestra, and so he took the card and said that he'd try to write it later. Previous experience of such story promises from other folk didn't leave me too hopeful, but later on I went back downstairs to get some drinks and as luck would have it Darren came walking the other direction and spotted me and said 'Was it you?', I said yes, he then pulled out the story from an inside pocket and handed it to me and carried on walking on his way without missing a beat! I was quite pleased to say the least.
and whilst I'm here, here's a Darren song/video written and recorded in January - I'm the dancing pig (although my favourite is the little kid at 3 minutes 14): http://vimeo.com/18602649

Owen Pallett

Muziekgebouw, Eindhoven, February 18th 2011

I travelled over to The Netherlands by train to see three of the Cross-Linx festivals. The line-up of The National, Efterklang, and Owen Pallett was too hard to resist. Owen was stunning, and definitely someone I could watch for nights on end without getting bored. I caught him after all the bands had finished, told him how much I loved his set, and then asked for a story, to which he agreed without batting an eyelid. Hope he comes back to London again soon.

Anaïs Mitchell

The Slaughtered Lamb, London, January 23rd 2011

This wasn't a proper gig as such, but a Q&A event where folk asked Anais about Hadestown, plus she then sung some songs in between as well. The full band version of Hadestown will be at Union Chapel in two days time, which I am eagerly awaiting.
Anyhow, I waited for all the other folk to get their signatures out of the way, so as to not hold anyone up, then went asked for my story. She asked me my name, and then started writing. At one point she paused and looked up and at smiled at me, so I then quickly looked away so that she could continue her undressing me with her eyes (probably). Although she was obviously just undressing my soul.




Anaïs Mitchell

The Slaughtered Lamb, London, January 23rd 2011

Continuing my frequent story collection, here is my first one in a fair few months. But a better way of looking at it is that I've got a story every single month of this year so far...

Antarctica Takes It!- Maria Schoettler

The Luminaire, London, July 21st 2010

Tis a nice story! Maria is surely almost at the ancient age of 25 now, if lucky. Ancient!





Antarctica Takes It!- Maria Schoettler

The Luminaire, London, July 21st 2010

Maria also came along whilst Dylan was writing, and so I pounced on her too.





Antarctica Takes It!- Tyler Martin

The Luminaire, London, July 21st 2010

It's always good not getting killed. Especially if you can get to bop about on stage very happily and have longer hair than me.





Antarctica Takes It!- Tyler Martin

The Luminaire, London, July 21st 2010

Tyler came over as Dylan was writing, and when asked for a story he asked if he could write about a traffic accident he was in. & so!





Antarctica Takes It!- Dylan McKeever

The Luminaire, London, July 21st 2010

ATI! are sort of my only vague impression on the music industry type world - a few years ago I requested Ian to play a song of theirs at his How Does It Feel night. He really liked, and then signed them and released their album in the UK! So it meant that I could finally get and own their first album, after having just played 4 songs of theirs repeatedly that I had downloaded from the interweb.
Dylan, the main chap of Antarctica, was another one of those strange oddities who was willing to write something straight away without any explanation.

Neverest Songs- Luke Twyman

Union Chapel, London, July 10th 2010

My first story in 2010. Maybe it's time for me to retire soon!
Was looking forward to this gig as I've been enjoying his album very much for the past few months, and a daytime gig in Union Chapel is always good (and surprisingly cool inside, despite the immense heat outside). Lovely gig and nice story too.

Musée Mécanique- Sean Ogilvie

The Luminaire, London, November 26th 2009

Sean was very nice and approachable/willing in doing a story. But I think it must easily rank as the story that took the longest to write (other than maybe St Thomas, who disappeared for a while upstairs at The Spitz to compile his)- plus the care it took to write it how he remembered it/routinely going back and amending/crossing out what had been written ten minutes ago. It was truly fascinating!
Ooh, and whilst Sean was writing my story, Laura Gibson spied me (and the story-writing) and recognised me and said hello and gave me a hug! Which was quite nice! The LG and MM combo were great!





Musée Mécanique- Sean Ogilvie

The Luminaire, London, November 26th 2009

First heard these chappies earlier this year, and was very pleased to see they'd be touring as support and backing band for Laura Gibson. As enjoyable live as they are on record. The same couldn't be said about my pen, which died before it could do two lines.

Laura Gibson

End Of The Road Festival, Dorset/Wiltshire, September 12th 2009

Another lovely singer! She was at a bit of a loss of what to write, and had someone trying to drag her off after her set (presumably to go see Alela Diane play I think) who I'm sure roller her eyes in despair that I was asking for a story! My new Danish chum came by also, and invited me to visit him in Denmark, and posed for a photo with me. He seemed to pop up when I collect stories, but I didn't get any more that weekend to test the theory. Two stories/instances probably isn't enough to base a correlation on though.

Ohbijou- Casey Mecija

End Of The Road Festival, Dorset/Wiltshire, September 12th 2009

Such a lovely voice! I didn't get a chance to get a story after their gig with The Acorn and Fanfarlo on the Tuesday, or after their EOTR set on Friday, but whilst sat down watching Darren Hayman on the Saturday she walked by, and I pounced! Although just as she finished her story, a Danish guy came by and started asking me about my Slaraffenland t-shirt and if I knew what the name meant in Danish. I would see him again later.

Fol Chen- Melissa Thorne

Brixton Windmill, London, 6th September 2009

I had only first heard Fol Chen just under a month before the gig, but was glad I went, as they were pretty cool. It felt a shame that there was only about 20-30 people watching them, but obviously better than the previous night's gig which seemed to be at some random venue/club night thingum. The 'Part one:' bit is a reference to the album of the part-same name, and not in reference to a follow-up story- the lead-singer chap said escaped from writing one, hohumm! Will hopefully see them live again the next time they're here.

Dear Reader- Cheri MacNeil

229, London, 23rd July 2009

Was another great gig from this lovely little band, whom I think have made my favourite album of the year so far. But there was this stupid moron drunk fan there, which was a bit of a shame, as he clearly liked them and knew the words and names of the band members and such, but stupid moron drunk fan best describes him- shouting out 'Amazing', 'Beautiful', 'Awwweessome' between every song, or during a song, or whenever really; despite Cheri's hints of saying that he was going to lose his voice/get bored, and my favourite: that he was an embarrassment to her and South African people! And his singing, oh gosh his singing...
The best bit was that whilst Cheri was writing the story after the gig, mr moron came along pestering her, whilst she just told him bluntly to just wait, whilst continuing to write the story about him, oh ho!!

DM Stith

Crawdaddy, Dublin, 23rd May 2009

Oh dear, it's my first story I've collected in 2009, tut!
D(avid)M Stith was a nice chap, quite willing to write a story if taken aback! Superb live set from him and his band. I was a bit disappointed that a two week holiday in Ireland would've meant missing his/their London gig, but was very pleased that I could tie the Dublin gig in. Must see again.

Get Well Soon- Konstantin Gropper

Forum, London, 11th October 2008

A great line-up for a gig. We managed to get to the front to see Bodies Of Water and then Get Well Soon, and then slunk in to the background for Calexico (who are also great). I lurked off to the side, by the door that leads to the backstage area (learnt from my Polyphonic Spree stage 'invading' days), and during Calexico's second song Konstantin came out, and so I pounced. I got my story, and then slunk off again to let him enjoy Calexico. Makes up for the last two times I saw Get Well Soon (Bush Hall and the Luminaire), and wasn't able to get a story.

Bodies Of Water- Meredith Metcalf

Hoxton Bar and Grill, London, October 2nd 2008

My first, and I fear only, story from a lady in a leotard.



Bodies Of Water- Meredith Metcalf

Hoxton Bar and Grill, London, October 2nd 2008

Ooh, they were fun. Their first gig out of North America apparently, which was cool.
After their performance, I asked Meredith if she could write me a story, she said she didn't know any stories, but her hands quickly went to the paper/pen whilst her mouth proclaimed a possible no. The hands knew better!

Choir Of Young Believers- Jannis Noya Makrigiannis

Hoxton Bar and Grill, London, September 29th 2008

I caught Jannis before their first gig in London, although I think he wasn't sure about writing a story in English, so I said that Danish was fine. He then asked my name, I said Paul, he said 'Do I know you from.. myspace?' I said yeah (had previously messaged about gigs/their album) and he then said 'the viking!' (which is my photo there) which was kinda surreal, but cool. I then left him to write his story, and went in to the gig. He brought it over to me and then introduced me to Christian, the Tigerspring label guy, who last year had been super kind and posted me the Choir... ep for free, so that was cool. & then i was finally able to buy the album that's seemed to take ages to come round (but probably didn't really).
As for the story, I am guessing that it is a story of him leaving Denmark that morning, and something about something that probably isn't muesli, meeting Christian, and then me asking for a story? Something like that maybe! It's another story to add to my list of ones to translate.

Shearwater- Jonathan Meiburg

Rough Trade East, September 18th 2008

Anyhow, the instore performance was great, as they played the whole of Rook in order, which suited us to the ground as it is their only album that we have. & it made up for us not managing to watch all of their set at End Of The Road.




Shearwater- Jonathan Meiburg

Rough Trade East, September 18th 2008

Jonathan was another strange willing story writer- saying yes straight away, and just checking if he had to write about anything in particular. & then he goes and writes quickly and continuously on two sides this story about an Argenine airplane. I also have to say that he seemed like a very nice chap!