On July 12th whilst all eyes are on London’s 2012 Olympics. I ’ve decided to cycle as far as I can in the opposite direction! I will be setting off from Bristol, on my trusty bicycle, with a trailer carrying my amp and guitar and heading North. My aim, is in a month to reach Edinburgh to play on the streets during August’s Fringe Festival. On route I will endeavour to busk in every town that I pass through. Most of the gigs will be street performances along with a few pre organised indoor venues, soon to be confirmed.

I will be writing a blog interspersed with photos and videos which is going to be brrilliant so make sure you don’t miss it!  http://cecilyintotheworld.wordpress.com/  I am doing this to raise money for a tree planting project in a heavily deforested area in Malawi the charity are called TEMWA http://www.temwa.org/treesforlife/

 If you’d like to sponsor me I’d love it!  http://www.justgiving.com/cecilyontour

Here is the full version of  ’Dear Prudence’ especially rearranged and deranged for the epic Beatles project the rest of which can be found at www.thebeatlescompleteonukulelee.com. There’s a new track by a different artist released every Tuesday and we are no. 167!

You can listen to it right here, just click on Dear Prudence THE ONE IN LIGHT BROWN  just beneath this!!!

Dear Prudence

Words and Music:  Lennon and McCartney

Vocals, guitar, ukulelee, zithers, arrangements:  Cecily

Double bass, guitar, vocal harmonies arrangements and recording:  Ben Pollock

Percussion  and Produced by:   Brian Hargreaves

As it’s the season of giving, we’ve decided to give away 2 tracks from our recent recording session at Bristol’s fantastic Toybox studios,  I hope you enjoy them!

I’d just like to alert your attention to my facebook page if you’re not already aware of it, which is also regularly updated with gigs and other info, but I like to think it’s a little bit more personal a bit like an intimate solo gig in cosy familiar surroundings in which we all look at each other’s photos and have a chat during the interval!

All you have to do is click the link at the right hand corner of this page…and then when you’ve had a look perhaps you could ‘like’ me..how about that!?

To be ‘liked’ is the kind of validation us insecure performing arty types can’t live without…akin to air and water really so you know all I’m saying is if you don’t ‘like’ me I may well wither away and droop into my little terracota pot on the windowsill and I think that may be more than anyone’s conscience could bare, so really it’s just easier to press the like button!

Also if you press the ‘like’ button at the top of this post it’ll show you ‘like’ this website and then maybe your friends will have a look too and maybe they’ll ‘like’ it and before we know it there’ll be a whole lot of liking going on, and let’s face it folks, that’s what this music business is all about these days!

Thank you!

Cecilyx

Hello folks,

Well it’s been a busy few weeks, starting with a recording session at the fantastic Toybox studios in Bristol in which myself and Tom recorded some new songs in our new stripped down acoustic fashion.  They’re  sounding lovely and I’ll be making one or two of them available as a free download very soon.

We then went on to film in a shed in Clevedon. It’s a particularly special shed  full of nik naks and curiosities and has also picked up alot of interest from all sorts of people such as Whispering Bob Harris and Steve Levine.  Every week the shed’s owner Jon posts a new video of a band or individual performing in his shed on his website and ours  should be turning up there any week now.  I’ll be sure to inform you as soon as that happens!

We then returned to Clevedon last week for a photo shoot with our friend Ben who took some rather classy black and white  shots of us sitting on various benches,  leaning on walls looking pensively out to sea,  spying on fishermen and gazing into coffee cups in wood panelled cafes.. can’t think of a better way to spend a day really!  These will of course be finding their way into the photos section of this site.

Cheers ears and happy Gun powder plot night!!

Next Tuesday (26th July) myself and fabulous guitarist  Tom will be debuting some new songs which we’ve been working on in our new studio..they have never before been played in public so it’s quite excting (at least for us!), they are a little different in mood and sound to the stuff we’ve done before and we’d be really inetersted to get people’s feedback. We’ll be doing half an hour at The Golden Lion, Glos Rd, Bristol next Tuesday some time between 9 and 11pm  as part of a night I’m guest hosting called the Lion’s Den.  My other guests will be singer songstress Molly Samson who plays the darker side of folk, and spoken word artistes Sammy Digger telling tales of love, laughter and charity shop lock ins!

It’s going to be a great night and it’s absolutely free!

Please do..have a look at the new photos I’ve uploaded from two of our cabaret nights (salon cabaret page) and our performance on the sensation seekers stage at Glastonbury last summer (Gallery page).. happy days!

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. “— Ferris Bueller

This winter I was forced by powers stronger than my own to follow my gypsy heart,  the need to travel had grown too heavy a burden to ignore. After a hectic year of gigs, festivals and cabaret organising it was time for a pause for reflection on this old life, on what I’m doing here and how to proceed…

So what finer way to mark the beginning of 2011 with an adventure to India!  On new year’s day, shivering in the snow at Heathrow in our hoodies and jeans waving off the lovely Gideon who drove us there, we skipped into the warmth of the airport and soon boarded a plane to Mumbai. Our 3 month journey through this endlessly intriguing, magical country took us from Mumbai, down to Goa, through Karnataka, Kerala, hill stations, steam trains and an Ashram in Tamil Nadu, on to Chennai from where we travelled on to the Andaman Islands; a tropical paradise of white sands and turquoise seas with tribal folk, elephants, crocodiles and an endless supply of mangoes and coconuts..literally falling off the trees! After a blissful month on one of these tropical islands away from internet, newspapers and mobile phones we returned to the mainland firstly to Calcutta, then up to Dharjeeling, Varanasi and finally back to Mumbai just in time to watch the cricket semi finals India vs Pakistan in a bar on our last night and witness the ensuing maddness in Colaba when India beat their ultimate rival before going on to win the world cup.

I have so much more to tell you about India, but where to begin!? For now suffice to say, the period for reflection that I craved was fulfilled.  I return feeling rejuvenated, inspired and energised to continue now on my musical journey with a clearer and calmer head to carry me.

Right now I’m working on a body of new material started in India, with continued writing and recordings planned for this summer, which will be ready to launch later this year starting with a new EP in the autumn. Due to this period of underground activity and creativity, we are not as a band planning to do as many live gigs this summer as we would normally and the Salon nights will also be taking a break until the autumn. I will keep you posted as to how it’s all going but believe me things are going..to happen! and I, am very excited about it!

Speak soon

Cx

So Christmas is drawing near..like it or not we must deal with it the best we can, so here’s a card to bring you some cheer from us..

I will be heading overseas in the new year for 3 months but rest assured I will return to the mother land for more gigs and cabarets in April. This Thursday 16th December therefore will be our last gig as a full band for quite some time so do come and join us at The Golden Lion, Glos Rd, Bristol from 9-11pm it’s absolutely free as well! what’s not to like??