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Introducing… Keith Top Of The Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band!
After building up a stellar reputation among fellow musicians while touring Europe and the US, Keith Top Of The Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band are releasing their debut album - Fuck You! I'm Keith Top Of The Pops.
The band were formed by chance during an Art Brut show at The Knitting Factory in New York, when the support act pulled out at the last minute, and Keith and two members of the headline act joined forces to play some of Keith's songs. Since then, the band has existed in a constant state of flux, with band members often being recruited a few minutes before the show, and numbers ranging from just Keith and a drummer to 24 musicians, and a brass section, sharing the stage!
The band live by two rules - no rehearsals and no soundchecks - to ensure that every song they play sounds different every time. This novel approach is applied to the track listing on Fuck You! I'm Keith Top Of The Pops, as they were arranged based on the songs' first ever performance.
If you can't see the waveform for the album track "I Hate Your Band" below, then check it out on the ABoF SoundCloud page.
Keith Top Of The Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band - I Hate Your Band by abadgeoffriendship
Keith has also attracted a fantastic line up of musicians to record alongside him, including Dyan Valdes of The Blood Arm, Fruitbat and Jimbob from Carter USM, Keith Murray and Chris Cain from We Are Scientists and Ian Catstiltskin, Eddie Argos and Jasper Future from Art Brut. As a result, the sound is a collection of wonderfully chaotic freeform rock tunes that sound like a cross between The Fall and Half Man Half Biscuit, with more bitter and twisted undertones.
With an album tour due in September, Keith Top Of The Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band, are sure to ruffle some feathers in the UK Indie music scene over the coming months.
Fuck You! I'm Keith Top Of The Pops will be released via Corporate Records on 26th September 2011.
It will be available on CD, MP3 and Vinyl.
A Badge of Friendship Article on ‘The Beautiful Game’ for This Is Fake DIY!
With A Badge of Friendship consisting of the female/male double act of Claire and Paul, it was a no brainer that Paul would pick up the baton (or the pen) when our lovely buddies over at This Is Fake DIY needed an article on football.
'The Beautiful Game' is a series of blogs written by music industry movers and shakers who have an unhealthy interest in the murky world of football. With the season now underway it was up to Paul to write about the up and coming season for his beloved Celtic FC.
However, after the weekends results, we think that most of the nonsense written should be taken with a pinch of salt! As they say "a week is a long time in football".
You can read the article in full on the This Is Fake DIY website.
For more information about A Badge of Friendship or our PR services, please email info@abadgeoffriendship.com.
Ghostpoet to perform Last.fm pop-up session tonight!
Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize nominee, Ghostpoet (aka Obaro Ejimiwe) will perform the final Last.fm pop-up session of the summer tonight at, 8pm, The Big Chill Bar, Brick Lane, London.
This summer's partnership between Last.fm and HP, celebrating the Beats audio technology that comes with HP Premium PC, laptop and tablet devices, has already seen secret pop-up acoustic sessions from Sheffield duo Slow Club in Soho Square, and London based quartet The Boxer Rebellion on Carnaby Street - both were hosted by the Black Cab Sessions. The live sessions picked up on the essence of HP’s Beats technology by giving fans the chance to hear music exactly as the artist intended from artists handpicked by Last.fm, the leading music discovery service.
Heralded a mighty force to be reckoned with by inspirational figures such as Roots Manuva and Mike Skinner of The Streets, Ghostpoet is no flash in the pan. The softly spoken 24 year-old has already won over BBC Radio 1’s foremost tastemakers via a fistful of off-kilter, loopy electronic ditties blessed with his lazy baritone. With anticipation for his album brewing nicely, Obaro released the aptly titled Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam in February 2011 via Brownswood Recordings. Crammed with his loveably ramshackle homemade productions and instantly recognisable vocal ditties, Peanut Butter Blues… is a neat summation of the MC’s musical journey to date, but also an impressive statement of intent that won him his nomination for the Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize.
Ghostpoet's pop-up session is not a ticketed event, anyone can turn up to watch this intimate set for free at 8pm at The Big Chill Bar in East London.
Alongside the live music activations, HP will be giving its Facebook community access to exclusive content captured by Last.fm at some of the summer’s most popular music events. With access to some of the most hyped musicians of the moment, Last.fm and HP will interview these artists around the Power of Sound in their lives and will also be taking questions from the HP Facebook community to discover the influences behind their music and what drives their passion to write and perform.
Following this exciting summer of music, the partnership culminates with a large-scale live music event hosted in London – more details to follow.
For the latest information on the pop-up sessions, exclusive content and artist interviews follow HP on Twitter and Facebook.
A Badge of Friendship: News Round-Up!
Another busy week here at ABoF HQ. With a steady stream of press for our bands as ever and Last.fm's last pop-up session set for next week, here's our little round-up of what's been going down before we kick back and enjoy the weekend!Ghostpoet to perform Last.fm pop-up session!
Barclaycard Mercury Prize nominee Ghostpoet (aka Obaro Ejimiwe) is set to play Last.fm's last pop-up session of the summer on Monday, August 22nd at the Big Chill Bar on Brick Lane. Make sure you're there at 8pm to witness this much hyped, intimate set.
Our bands rock!
This month's issue of Rock Sound magazine features both The Blood Arm and Indian Red Lopez.
The Blood Arm were positively compared to not just The Strokes, but also Franz Ferdinand, whilst Indian Red Lopez were hailed for their "understated charm".
A Genuine Freakshow found their forthcoming double A-side single, Our Bodies / New Houses already picking up some good press well ahead of it's September 26th release date. AAA Music and Fame Magazine were the first to get on board and spread the news about the release and the four track sampler from their debut album Oftentimes that the band are currently giving away via their official website.
New to the roster, Keith Top of the Pop & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band have already confirmed a lead album review for their debut Fuck You! I'm Keith Top of the Pops in next month's Artrocker plus Popmatters had already said some great things about it too.
Blog love!
It's also worth keeping an eye on the ABoF blog. This week, Ed had a mini rant about chatty gig goers. We also checked in with Punk Rock Ist Nicht Tot", who made our Blog of the Week.
Get in touch!
We're always happy to receive emails about our bands or enquiries about our PR and event management services. If you'd like to get in touch, please email info@abadgeoffriendship.com.
We're also on Facebook and Twitter - make sure you find us and keep up to date with all the latest news and natterings!
Keith TOTP reviewed by PopMatters
Keith Top Of The Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band has just picked up a great review for his/their debut album - Fuck You! I'm Keith Top Of The Pops.
PopMatters reviewed the album, awarding it 8 out of ten stars, and giving their readers a pretty exhaustive breakdown of the songs on the album. Be sure to check it out.
If you can't see the waveform for the album track "I Hate Your Band" below, then check it out on the ABoF SoundCloud page.
Keith Top Of The Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band - I Hate Your Band by abadgeoffriendship
With an album tour due in September, Keith Top Of The Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band, are sure to ruffle some feathers in the UK Indie music scene over the coming months.