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The Grey Lady Music Lounge, Wednesday 20th April 2011

Headline Act: Burning Shapes

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Sounding like Fleet Foxes got into a jam session with Kasabian and Paul Weller, Burning Shapes formed playing acoustic sessions at parties around their home towns in Kent. Catching the attention of electronica producers Bombay Monkey whilst playing out under the acoustic-electronica guise Sound Sanctuary, the collaborations went on to produced a series of EPs before releasing the Dust LP in 2007 racking up critical acclaim from DJs like Nick Luscombe and Lynn Parsons and airtime on Xfm, BBC Radio and SkyTV. In the process of touring as Sound Sanctuary live drums were introduced to replace some of the sampled drum loops and the bands live sound began to evolve a whole new layer of energy. When the studio beckoned again the band decided a name change was in order to fit with the new sound they were going to lay down and Burning Shapes was born. In late 2010 the band returned to the live scene supporting Mumford & Sons and The Stranglers to 10,000 people at Triumph Live and have been gigging regularly around the south east since. Early preview tracks from the album have already been finding their way onto BBC Radio's Introducing programs and internet stations with one song picked up for the soundtrack to the £2m British feature film Lucid coming out next year. Their brand new single entitled ‘Silence Amplified’ is released on Monday 24th October and will be available through all good online digital retailers. www.burningshapes.com

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Frances Yonge & The Freeze

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Originally a solo performer, songwriter Frances Yonge is now in collaboration with singer Kristina Warren. Frances Yonge & The Freeze take you on a deep and unpredictable musical journey, telling stories of courage, hope, fear, beauty, sadness, and love. The powerful mix of piano and two voices brings an intensity and energy to their music which captivates the audience. Frances and Kristina hope to add new layers to their project by collaborating with other musicians and exploring new musical landscapes.

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Mystery Clarke Band

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Tunbridge Wells based singer / songwriter Mystery Clarke has established himself as one of the most captivating and charismatic soloists on the local music scene. He has been performing at The Grey Lady for many years now and he has recently been working with a host of top local musicians to form one of the most unusual bands in the area. A veritable super-group of experts in the fields of funk, folk and electronica - The Mystery Clarke Band are well worth investigating. You can find them on YouTube, FaceBook, SoundCloud and their own website. Influences include the phases of the moon and the changing of the seasons. And what is the mystery? See if you can find out! 

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KP and Squizz

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A conveniently timed simultaneous purchase of guitars at the age of 15 by best friends Katie Perfect and Amy Squirrell could only mean one thing – overzealous music making. The Kent based acoustic duo is built around many things: a mutual love of all things eccentric; the desire to make and promote their own music; countless in-jokes, but most of all a shared compulsion to create coupled with the inability to control their own musical enthusiasm.

The wonderful world of KP and Squizz is inhabited by Squizz’s acoustic guitar, cello, keyboard, ukulele, stylophone, kazoo and shakey egg, and KP’s basses, trumpet and tambourine. This magical collection of instruments creates a sound world roughly described the band and admirers alike as alternative indie folk, “harmonious and pleasing, downright enjoyable music.” Being both classically trained from a young age the girls also like to inject their love for good old-fashioned traditional music into their songs, as well as taking influence from all areas of the musical spectrum with favourite genres being folk, blues, rock ‘n’ roll and even ska, but to name a few, all while retaining their distinct ‘home-grown’ sound. KP and Squizz are both songwriters who combine the reckless fumbling of adolescence with the more sophisticated pursuits of adulthood to create their unique sound, both in their painstakingly honest lyrics and their music, which can be both toe-tapping and heart-wrenching. Neither of the two is ashamed to declare their love for Fleetwood Mac.

The band’s humble beginnings occurred in their music practice rooms at school, where with a lot of determination and a good few Greenday covers with which to get started, KP and Squizz established their guitar skills and quickly developed a passion for writing songs of their own. In their youth, the band spent many months recording interpretations of favourite songs and of their own music in KP’s study, with nothing but a webcam microphone and free recording software, and in bedrooms of friends alike – a beautiful disarray of background noise and feedback, but nevertheless the precursor to exciting things to come. As far as performing was concerned, the Tunbridge Wells Forum provided much opportunity, and the band gained a great deal of their experience thanks to this wonderful venue. As time went on they managed to branch out across West Kent performing in bars and pubs. KP and Squizz have been known to collaborate with old friends and members of the Kent-based dance-rock alternative post-blues indie-jazz pop band ZIGO to further enhance their onstage experience to form the imaginatively named KP and Squizz and Friends. Look out for the motley collective in the Christmas, Easter and summer university breaks, when things really start to get exciting!

Nowadays KP lives and studies ancient history and archaeology in Leicester, whilst Squizz works towards her music degree in Brighton. Writing songs is a continuous pursuit for both members of the band, and they have begun to perform in both cities as regularly as they can. Now all that remains is to break London very soon!

The band happily signed with Sevenoaks-based label Blizzard Records in the spring of 2010, and is hoping to make it big within the next year and a half or so to avoid the fiscal crush of tuition fees. They released their debut EP (modestly titled, ‘KP and Squizz EP’) with Blizzard in October 2010, available for purchase at any time from the band, Blizzard Records (see link), at live shows or from Amazon, iTunes and many other good eTailers. They are currently in and out of the studio like busy bees recording their debut album, set to be released in the summer of 2011.

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