We were introduced to NGOD by our good friend Mickey Dale ( Talk To Angels ). He has a close eye on the young up and coming bands in and around Yorkshire and more specifically Bradford. He had heard some of NGOD’s recent stuff – specifically the single Bait Head / Probably Not. So he invited them down to his studio to see if they could record some new material. The outcome of that was this track ‘ Better Man ‘

We were sent the track and then asked if we could film something for them. So after a curry and a few beers plans were put in place and a date set for filming.

We filmed over two days at The Hub  in Leeds. The Holbeck Underground Ballroom (The HUB) is housed in 5 railway arches on Bath Road in Holbeck, South Leeds. It is a shared space- a place where artists and companies can spend time developing work and ideas. The HUB has a host of facilities that may be useful to artists; rehearsal space, exhibition areas.

NGOD were ace and put their heart and sole into the day. Playback was really loud  and at one point we thought we may have knackered the PA system. Below are some behind the scenes shots.

A few details about the single:

NGOD

Sam Augustine – Vocals / Guitar
Luke Fielding – Guitar
Lewis Dutton- Bass
Alex Dutton- Drums
Produced by Mickey Dale & Roni Szpakowski
Engineered & mixed by Roni Szpakowski at Peak Studios.

www.facebook.com/ngodband
www.ngod.bandcamp.com
www.twitter.com/ngodband

Hope & Social were joined in The Crypt for the second round of #cryptcovers by ‘ She Makes War ‘ aka Laura Kidd. The idea behind the #cryptcovers is to attempt to record a cover track, chosen by the fans and the dreaded ‘Wheel Of Doom’ in just one day.

The track chosen this time; Dress You Up – Madonna.

During the day there was live blogging of the shenanigans via ‘ Cover It Live ‘
You can see all the tweets / pictures & videos that were put up during the days event by going the Hope & Social blog page below.

http://www.hopeandsocial.com/2012/04/30/crypt-covers-she-makes-war

Also check out the gallery of stills we managed to take during the day below

She Makes War:

Laura Kidd

http://shemakeswar.com/

Hope & Social are:

Simon Wainwright – Vocals/Guitars/Piano
Rich Huxley – Guitars/Vocals/Piano/Rhodes
Ed Waring – Keyboards
Gary Stewart – Drums
James Hamilton – Brass
Simon Goff – Bass

http://hopeandsocial.com

Also look out for the new H&S acoustic album ” Cotton Wool and Knotted Wood” which is released today
http://www.hopeandsocial.com/2012/03/23/cotton-wool-and-knotted-wood-released/

You can download the single here at www.rupertstroudforaruk.com and ALL profits go the charity.  A new MP3 to your collection and helping a very worthy charity?  What more do you need?

The Centre Stage 2012 competition started in ernest this week with 4 nights of heats taking place at The Wardrobe. Each night had 8 bands playing for the chance to appear in the final at the O2 Academy in Leeds coming up in July. The winner of the final goes onto to play at Leeds & Reading festivals this summer.

This is the 3rd year of Centre Stage which is a fundraising initiative conceived by Martin House Children’s Hospice. Matin House cares for children and young people facing terminal illness, providing nursing, practical and emotional support. To run Martin House needs almost £5 Million a year and only receive approx 12% from Government sources – the rest is raised by the kindness of the great British public.

There are some amazing people from the music industry who are behind and support Centre Stage. Melvin Benn who is the managing director of Festival Republic and offered the amazing prize of playing at Leeds & Reading. Also Melvin is one of the judges for the finals at the O2. Talking of judges they had such a tough task over the 4  nights. Mike Heaton ( Embrace ), Isaac Heywood ( UK Rock School ), Phil Weller ( Bang The Drum ), Michelle Dalgety ( Yorkshire Music Collective ), Mickey Dale ( Embrace ).

Also we need to give a big shout out to Sarah Smith who is the mastermind behind Centre Stage and has put on an amazing show for everyone involved .

The standard of performance was really high as we captured each of the bands playing their 3 songs and you can see the images for each nights heats on our Facebook Page. On Saturday the 12 bands that are playing in the final were announced and they are listed below in no particular order.

INLAZE  ( From Thursday nights heat )

DISTORTED SKY ( From Wednesday nights heat )

EUTHEMIA  ( From Monday Nights Heat )

GLASSBODY ( From Wednesday nights heat )

INDECISIVE CRISIS ( From Thursday nights heat )

BRITISH DAYLIGHT ( From Monday Nights Heat )

PAPERPLANE ( From Thursday nights heat )

THE ARTISTS ( From Thursday nights heat )

SEAS OF GREEN ( From Monday Nights Heat )

THE SCANDAL ( From Thursday nights heat )

ANOTHER LIFE ( From Tuesday Nights Heat )

TRAFFIC WIRE ( From Monday Nights Heat )

Our involvement also includes making a little documentary of the heats and final. The heats one will be available soon so watch this space. Also there is the little matter of making a performance video for the overall winners which we will find out on 17th July. To give the last 12 an idea of what they are going to get we worked with the 2010 winners ‘Penguin‘ and made them a video for one of  their tracks called ‘ SFORZANDO’.

You can check that video below.

Finally we want to wish all the bands that have made the final the best of luck and get practicing and keep the fundraising efforts going.

Tomorrow we shoot a new video for the NGOD boys. They have a fantastic new track which is coming out next month and can’t wait to share what we are going to do with them. In the meantime check out some of the portraits we did if the band members last week.

NGOD are :

Sam Augustine
Luke Fielding
Lewis Dutton-Taylor
Alex Dutton-Taylor

Checkout their current EP’s on Bandcamp : All tracks are currently available as a free download.

In October 2011, Talk To Angels performed some songs from their forthcoming album “This Broken Home” in a stripped back acoustic format, with a string section. As well as their own songs, they played a few songs by some of their favourite bands. The video here is the track by Biffy Clyro | The Captain. It is one of 9 tracks recorded that night.

Huge thanks goes to Soundworks studios where we filmed and for allowing us to do pretty much what we wanted.  The amazing string players were Simon Goff, Aimee Ingham, Victoria Strudwick and Luke Mowbray. The guy who came up with the idea for this night was Jamie Miller.

Recorded by Will, Paul and Ollie, mixed by Mickey. Strings arranged by Mickey.

We hope you enjoy this footage and share it with your friends. Look out for further videos from the evening to come.

Talk To Angels.

Craig Kaye – Vocals & Guitar
Mickey Dale – Keyboards and Guitar
Lee Waud – Bass Guitar
George Riley – Drums

www.facebook.com/talktoangels

PR – James Lloyd – james@carrythe4.com

Hope & Social were joined in The Crypt by the simple marvelous Ellen and The Escapades. The idea behind the #cryptcovers is to attempt to record a cover track, chosen by the fans, in just one day.

A short list of tracks was drawn up and then with the help of the ‘Wheel of Doom’ the lucky track was chosen; Addicted To Love – Robert Palmer.

During the day there was live blogging of the shenanigans via ‘ Cover It Live ‘
You can see all the tweets / pictures & videos that were put up during the days event by going the Hope & Social blog page below.
http://www.hopeandsocial.com/2012/03/18/crypt-covers-ellen/

Also check out the gallery of stills we managed to take during the day below

Ellen & The Escapades are:

Ellen Smith
Chris Quick
Jeff Schneider
James Warrender

http://www.ellenandtheescapades.com

Hope & Social are:

Simon Wainwright – Vocals/Guitars/Piano
Rich Huxley – Guitars/Vocals/Piano/Rhodes
Ed Waring – Keyboards
Gary Stewart – Drums
James Hamilton – Brass
Simon Goff – Bass

http://hopeandsocial.com

Also look out for the new H&S acoustic album ” Cotton Wool and Knotted Wood” which is released today
http://www.hopeandsocial.com/2012/03/23/cotton-wool-and-knotted-wood-released/