Commercially Inviable Records

Some months ago we sent a crack squad of Commercially Inviable artists to Somerset to play some songs in a garden shed. All of the bands had a great day and one of them, World of Fox, wrote about it on his blog and we re-published it here. (LINKY)

The reason for the journey was for the bands to record sessions for Songs From The Shed, a brilliantly quirky folk music website that does exactly what it says on the tin - Bands arrive, they are filmed playing in a shed and then the videos go online.

It seemed like a perfect fit for the bands on the label and so when got in touch with Jon, the owner of the shed, we were delighted when he invited us down.

Jon has been plodding along at his own pace for a while now and has quietly gone about recording almost 60 separate sessions. However, and for reasons apparently unknown to Jon himself, it seems that this week the rest of the world has started to cotton on to the great things happening in his shed.

Earlier this week Jon mentioned on his Twitter feed that The Daily Express had written about Songs From The Shed.

This was swiftly followed by an article in The Times, which no-one can link to because of Rupert’s paywall and so therefore may or may not exist, and then there was a mention and an interview on Tony Livesey’s BBC Radio 5Live show. You can listen to Jon on the wireless by clicking on this BBC iPlayer link. The interview kicks in at 54 minutes.

With all of the press attention heading Jon’s way it’s rather lucky that we’d previously agreed this week to make the first of our four Commercially Inviable sessions available online.  We chose the marvellous folk collective Gurdan Thomas to appear first in order for their session to coincide with the release of their album, “The Fat Lady Sings”. Here’s on off the 4 videos in the session:

You can view all 4 videos over on the Songs From The Shed site.

We hope you enjoy the session. We’ll keep you posted on when each of the other 3 from World of Fox, James Summerfield and Richard Burke appear online.  We also hope to send Friends of the Starsdown to Somerset at some point in the near future to complete the Commercially Inviable set.

We were asked to contribute to an article by journalist Luke Morton for The Linc and answered a few questions via email. Luke informs us that the article is now online. Read it here

From World of Fox…

dear chums,

a couple of bits of news for you this month:

primitive painters: if you’d have asked me what my favourite song was at any point from the mid 80’s to mid 90’s. i’d have probably said this one. ‘primitive painters’ was by birmingham legends felt, in collaboration with cocteau twins’ robin guthrie and elizabeth fraser. truly a match made in heaven.

you can download my version here for free during october.

respect due: more exciting news on the respect front! we’ve agreed a release for the whole project with those lovely, lovely folks at where it’s at is where you are records. early in 2011, all the songs featured during the year - plus a few extra tracks - will be released as a cd. the plan is to have two versions: a basic cd release, featuring the tracks in a nice, simple sleeve, which will be available at a special reduced price; plus a limited edition deluxe version which will come in bespoke extra-special packaging, including hand-printed artwork by ruth green, plus the chance to win a very special prize! more news as it’s confirmed.

cheers
fox

gigs coming up:

17th october
world unlimited present a commercially inviable showcase
hare & hounds, birmingham
(i’ll be playing solo, and as one of the james summerfield  band)

7th november
the sunflower sessions
the sunflower lounge, birmingham
there’ll be plenty more gigs in the new year to promote the album…