130: Music Never Dies or “All farewells should be sudden, when forever”

The last 2 Sacre Noir live shows were a joy to take part in; firstly showing off our stripped-back duo set at The Monarch Bar in Dunfermline then ripping it up at The Safari Lounge in Edinburgh with a full-on electro/rock showcase which featured Phil on guitar.

We’ve had a blast over the years playing with many wonderful live musicians in many wonderful venues across the UK & Europe and these are experiences we’ll never forget.
From our first live performance at Tam Dean Burn’s Politikal Manifesto night back in 2008 at the beautiful Tron Theatre in Glasgow to supporting Chrysta Bell this summer at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms and all the other crazy shows in Paris, Berlin, London, Liverpool, Gateshead, Glasgow and many more locations… it’s all been amazing!

The 2017 tour video will be online soon but in the meantime you can look back at all our other adventures via this playlist on YouTube.

One of the highlights of this year’s tour was playing in Paris – you can now watch our 2017 arrangement of Everything We’re Running Away From (Sinking Into Darkness 2012 – Savage Recordings) live at La Cave Cafe in Montmartre, on our YouTube channel.

Another Paris highlight was being able to perform something from our E.P. with Canadian artist D.Soul the Soulsamurai (our good friend and label buddy at Dejine:Rec). We’ve had some amazing feedback from this release and it’s something that both Alexis & I were super keen to make happen during our final year writing and recording as Sacre Noir. So when we were invited to be the featured artist at Paris Lit Up at Culture Rapide, we decided it would be a perfect opportunity to arrange a performance of ‘Stories Begin‘ from Scattershot.

We’ve got a lot to thank the good folks at Dejine:Rec for – they really believed in us at the very start of our journey and it was a privilege to have our music featured alongside some of our favourite music makers (James P. Honey, Asthmatic Astronaut and Marco Donnarumma to name just a few).

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Over the next few months we’ll have some more videos from this year’s tour, some behind the scenes from our final video shoot (Rebels & Loners – Nothing Falls Apart 2016 – Savage Recordings) and a few other surprises… keep an eye out for new posts on our YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

 

“All farewells should be sudden, when forever.”
―Lord Byron

129: The Final Sacre Noir Shows

Marilyn Carino
Her saga began in the form of Mudville, a duo that produced three critically-acclaimed albums. As the singing and songwriting half, Marilyn inflamed and stunned, praised as “Nina Simone coming back from the dead to front Morcheeba.” Her song “Wicked” won a 2008 Independent Music Award, and it has continued to be a signature song as she moved on from Mudville to her 2011 solo album, Little Genius and 2015’sLeaves, Sadness, Science. Her music is sexy and thick, her voice an affecting instrument with an elegant grittiness, soaring above violent organs and chunky beats. As a solo artist, Carino does all the recording, mixing, producing and plays all the instruments herself, her personality imbued in the smoky-dark production, expressive singing and themes that dig for hope. “I think happiness is about a person freeing themselves, and that’s the idea I’m interested in. We’ve got to feel free to fall down and be a mess, maybe fuck the wrong people. We can fail 99 times and keep coming back to get it right on the 100th. The solution to the hardening of the world around us is personal human revolution.”

We’ll be providing our usual brand of electronica fuelled by lo-fi aspirations and a non-conformist attitude.
The Dunfermline show at The Monarch Bar (06/10/2017) will feature a duo guitar / vocal set with samples and ambient atmospherics plus layered vocal parts to produce dark haunting soundscapes.
The Edinburgh show at The Safari Lounge (08/10/2017) will be our final trio set (Phil will be back on guitar duties for one last time) – a full on rock-electronica set featuring tracks from the current LP and more.

128: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival

19th August 2017 & 26th August 2017

Performing live at SIPS Pop Up Bar, Edinburgh as part of the Pressure Valve night.
These were gigs in the tent on Niddry Street so entry was free and the live music started at 7pm.
We played a mixture of acoustic guitar / vocal tracks (originals and a few choice covers) and also some tracks with loops and KP3+ samples and beats… this was a little different for the SIPS crowd but I think everyone enjoyed the show.

We’ve loved being part of the Pressure Valve artists featured at this year’s event and look forward to bringing our new musical projects to their events in the near future.

NEXT UP:
2 Shows in October 2017 supporting Marilyn Carino

127: Last gig in London

Monday 14^th August 2017: Gig at SINK (Blueberry Bar, Shoreditch)
We had a lovely morning / afternoon of good eats and coffee before the final ever Sacre Noir showcase in London.
We went to our favourite place to eat (222 Veggie Vegan) on the North End Road for a buffet lunch of salad and curries then onto Brownie Box on Old Brompton Road for amazing Brownies / Blondies before waddling back to the hotel to collect our musical stuff for tonight’s show. Kensington really is a great area for us and we are making the most of our time here in West London.

We’ve played at Plugged In Switched On nights before but not for a few years so we were looking forward to catching up with the promoter Iain and seeing the talent.

As always with open mic events it was a mixed bag of artists who took to the stage, from a young singer-songwriter who was clearly very nervous to a superb duo who had just flown in from Canada for a few weeks playing shows in the UK (Jo Jo & The Woods).
The featured act were called State Wild, an indie rock outfit from London, who managed to break the snare stand halfway through their set and were unable to continue… we were up next.

We played a short set of tracks with guitar / vocal  / loops then chatted with some of the other acts and audience members before heading back to the hotel for the evening.
It almost seemed sad that this was the last showcase in London and that The Dublin Castle was our last “proper gig” in this city that we have grown so fond of – we’ll have to make plans to return on holiday at some point soon (if not with a new musical project).

Tuesday 15^th August 2017: Last full day in London
For our final full day in the city, we revisited some of our favourite spots discovered on previous tours.
Coffee at Bar Italia, which was superb as always then lunch at the Wild Food Café where the menu had changed and the food was not as “amazing” as remembered; the little café seemed to have gone a bit ‘corporate’ and the waiting staff were not on particularly good form but the setting was great and the ethos of having a ‘fresh plant based menu’ is still a plus.

Hanging out in London is one of life’s great joys; you can’t buy the atmosphere and individuality that comes from every nook & cranny of this ancient and wonderful city.

Wednesday 16^th August 2017: Time to go back to Scotland
One last breakfast at the hotel before making our way to Kings Cross in time to catch the 11:30am train home to Edinburgh.

I feel like I’m ready for some home comforts after 5 nights in one of the smallest hotel rooms we’ve ever stayed in.
Boarding with no delays, we found ourselves sitting at the same table as a lovely couple who were also going all the way to Edinburgh; I always think this is good on long journeys as it means we can all get settled and relax for the duration.

Keeping up to date with social media accounts and email inboxes whilst on tour is difficult; we are always too busy ‘doing’ and never find enough time to reflect / document events as we’re going along. Having this blog will be a wonderful reminder in years to come of the adventures we’ve had during the life of Sacre Noir… it’s always good to reflect and remember the good time & there have certainly been plenty of those.

NEXT UP:
Sacre Noir @ The Edinburgh Fringe Festival (SIPS pop up bar)
Saturday 19th & 26th August 2017

 

125: Paris Radio Session

Thursday 10^th August 2017: RKC session and interview with Jerome

There is a wonderful band of synchronicity running through this final Sacre Noir tour and today is really the culmination of old and new connections coming together.
We have been very lucky over the last few years to have gained support from a few online radio stations, this in turn has helped us grow our audience and has opened us up to a whole new audience who many have otherwise never have heard our music.
A few of these online legends have been based on our home-turf (Scotland’s very on Donald Strachan and a very clever Jack Russell who writes for Ralph’s Life blog) and we’re just lucky that these folk have a great online following and are truly dedicated to promoting new and underground music.
From our connection with Ralph’s Life we made friends with others at Radio Kaoss Caribou and the man behind it all (Jerome) came to our show at BDA loved what he saw and invited us out to the RKC studios for a live session and interview – of course we said “yes”.

RKC is a non-profit organization and are fully unsponsored which both Alexis and I really appreciate. It suggests that the DJs and producers of shows are really genuine in their playlist choices; it’s music they love and want to share, not music that they are being paid to promote.
You can listen to our interview here:
https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioKC/sacrenoir-radiokc-paris-interview-2017/

Friday 11^th August 2017: Last full day in Paris

We spent our last full day in Paris shopping and eating in the famous side-streets and soaking up the Parisian atmosphere before heading back to the apartment and packing our bags ready for our return to London.

We made a pit-stop at Eric Kayser’s boulangerie on Rue Monge to sample the delights of this world famous baker.
“The Maison Kayser story began at 8 Rue Monge on Friday the 13th, September 1996. It was the natural conclusion of its young founder’s journey. “

I got the classic Lemon Tart and Alexis got a fruit crumble – both were fantastic.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

124: Follow That Muse / Open Secret, Paris

For our next two shows in Paris we were being hosted at events curated by poet a musician David Leo Sirois.
We met David last year when collaborating with Antonia Alexandra Klimenko as they are both involved with the Spoken Work Paris community. This year David has been a great connection and has been responsible for arranging these shows for us in two fantastic basement venues.

Tuesday 8th AUGUST Follow That Muse @ Le Cave Cafe
The first of our shows for David was hosted in the fantastic Cave Cafe in Montmatre, Paris.
Moments away from the iconic Sacre Coure, run by an American music fan and frequented by the artists and art-fans of today, this superbly cool bistro, bar and venue was exactly the kind of place we’d be hanging out in if we stayed in Paris.

We played two different sets during the evening; one filled with acoustic songs, readings and some spoken word, the other was our loops and beats electronica set. Everything was great apart from the electricity blowing a fuse half way through the final song in our electronica set (which we had chosen to play first due to the set up of the evening and other acts booked to play).

This was a great night; filled with love and laughter, friendships old & new and a feeling that we may have finally found the ‘core of the Paris scene’.

Wednesday 9th AUGUST Open Secret @ Le Bistrot des Artistes
In the second of our two shows for David we found ourselves in the uber-trendy BDA (Le Bistrot des Artistes) alongside some of the cities best new and established jazz poets and blues singers, beat-poets and acoustic artists. The drinks were flowing upstairs with the house mojito getting a lot of love from the crowd.  Downstairs the vibe was reminiscent of the speakeasy joints you see in Hollywood movies (a cave filled with moody lighting and a few tables with bench style seating).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was an intense show – people cried and not just because we were swimming in an excess of spilt beer and mojitos, but because there was a closeness in the room that all who entered were dragged into. Each act and audience member focused intently on the performances; giving 100% attention to the content and absorbing the emotions.
At the end of the evening a bunch of us stood outside chatting about “the state of the world” and other topics that had been raised by the theme of the night (which we were honored to have been ‘Rebels & Loners’ inspired by our current single). We’ve met some great people on this trip to Paris, some of whom I’m sure we’ll never see again, but others I’m sure we will stay connected to for many years to come.

NEXT UP
10/08/2017: Radio Kaoss Caribou – Interview and live recording session

123: A day off in Paris

Monday 7^th August 2017
We started the day with coffee at Culture Rapide and then made our way to Saint-Cloud for a day away from the cities busy streets.
We got the metro to La Motte-Picquet – Grenelle, an area we’ve visited a couple of time in the past (the Albert Khan Gardens and Parc André Citroën are close by) and walked across the Seine to the small suburb of Saint-Cloud. With Le Château & a vast parkland (classified as a Historic Monument and includes Marie Antoinette’s rose garden) this small area to the west of Paris is a hidden gem.

Saint-Cloud offers a lovely view over Paris as it sits above the Seine and with everyone settling into ‘holiday mode’ the town centre seemed very sleepy and relaxed.
We had a lovely day in the sunshine and enjoyed seeing a different area of Paris.

In the evening we ate at le mezze du chef on Rue Ménilmontoant; a bijou but busy veggie bistro with a few set menu offers and a great range of authentic Turkish treats.

NEXT UP: 8th August (Follow That Muse) & 9th August (Open Secret)

122: Paris Lit Up

Thursday 3rd August 2017: Featured artist at Paris Lit Up
Sacre Noir live at Paris Lit Up Open Mic / Culture Rapide

We had a wonderful time at PLU; playing at the historic home of French Slam poetry, Culture Rapide, drinking with friends and making new fans – this is what touring is all about.
“Paris Lit Up is a non-profit community organisation that aims to intensify collaborative artistic practices through community events, performance and publication. Our principle objective is to stimulate creativity through the cultivation of common spaces such as local platforms connected through transnational networks for artists living in and passing through the City of Light.
With emphasis on transnational writers, artists and musicians, Paris Lit Up promotes the importance of artistic synergy through transparent, democratic, consensus-based decision making. Artistic autonomy, group collaboration and open sharing are the foundation of our operative ethos.
Through our ethical transparency and democratic modus operandi, Paris Lit Up strives to foster a horizontally-minded community inspired by the desire for social cooperation and cultural diversity. In recognizing the social origin and function of the arts, we hope to encourage broad participation and facilitate personal and collective growth through grassroots artistic activism.” – http://www.parislitup.com

Friday 4th August 2017: A day in the Marais
Saturday 5th August 2017: A meal with friends
One of the lovelist things about being away from home is catching up with friends that live in these wonderful cities we visit & when we don’t get to see each other often it’s lovely to make time, so that is just what we did.

A wonderful day wandering through the city was followed by a lovely evening with friends and a home cooked meal; Que peux tu demander de plus?

Sunday 6th August 2017: To Play Or Not To Play
We started the day with news that our show tonight may have to be moved or cancelled (ah Paris you are a wonder) so headed out to meet friends at one of our favourite spots for brunch in the city, Cafe Martin, which sits beside Pere Lachaise and is always a little slice of peaceful Paris.
After a few hours of sunshine and catching up with friends we headed back to our appartment to discover that despite the promoters best efforts, everyone in Paris is on ‘vacances’ and we would be best to cancel the show and have a night off.
Great!
I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever get used to the laissez faire attitudes of the French. Everything is relaxed and that’s just what we need sometimes.
We had a lovely evening at the Plages with friends chatting about food and politics and the cute animals in our lives – Très Bien!

COMING UP
8th AUGUST Follow That Muse @ Le Cave Cafe
9th AUGUST Open Secret @ Le Bistrot des Artistes

120: Back at The Dublin Castle, London

Saturday 29^th July 2017: Gig 4: The Dublin Castle, London
with JD Kelleher | Head of Light Entertainment | The Lunar Effect

A new day in London dawns and we headed to Café du Coin on Earl’s Court Road for coffees and breakfast.
We journeyed over to Camden for lunch, stopping at the fantastic Mildred’s on Jamestown Road. Superb menu full of various cuisines, all veggie / vegan and with super quick service. We then headed over to Kentish Town to meet our good friends Bob and Lisa Duncan who were coming up from Hemel Hempstead specially to see the show tonight. We met with Bob and Lisa at The Abbey Tavern where we had played in 2016 – a great bar with lots of different rooms and areas outside.

Some things are meant to be…
Exactly 4 years ago we played at The Dublin Castle for the first time; tonight we return to support the fantastic JD Kelleher (who shares his birthday with Alexis)… this final tour is full of synchronicity!

“The Dublin Castle is a legendary pub and music venue located 2 minutes away from Camden Town tube station. It has been ran by the same family for over 28 years and features 4 live bands every night as well as a great selection of beers, ciders and wines.
But what is it that makes the Dublin Castle the long-standing centre of the indie rock universe? Is it because it’s Madness’ birthplace? Because its stage has been graced by everyone from Blur, through Coldplay, Supergrass, The Killers, The Arctic Monkeys, Billy Bragg, etc? Is it because it was no surprise to see Amy Winehouse behind the bar serving costumers? Or Suggs? (who, mind you, tended to ignore costumers and serve himself)
Or is it because far from being just another Camden venue it has established itself as an indie rock institution?”

For us The Dublin Castle is an amazing ‘fair play’ venue with friendly locals, uber-cool staff and one of the best sound engineers in the city. We owe a huge ‘thank you’ to Tony at BugBear for supporting us and stepping in to help when one of our other London dates was cancelled due to the venue losing it’s licence (noise complaints from neighbours – boo).

Back in 2013 we played a great show at The Dublin Castle alongside the mighty dressmaker and The Oceans Above and on arrival we were pleased to see that little had changed in this classic venue. Bugbear promotions always put together a great line-up and so we were pleased to kick things off with our set mixing acoustic numbers with tracks featuring bass and beat loops from the KP3+. Once again it was great to have good friends in the audience to cheer us on and the rest of the viewing public enjoyed our sounds too.

Second on the bill were The Lunar Effect who drew inspiration from the 70s sounds of Led Zeppelin and the 13^th Floor Elevators – excellent vibes and kudos to their singer for wearing a leather jacket throughout on what is one of the hottest stages in London.

Next up were Head of Light Entertainment – a quirky group featuring male and female vocals plus guitar, keys, bass and electronic drums. They had come down from Teesside for this show and demonstrated their individual sound extremely well.

Headliners for the evening were JD Kelleher and band – an amazing frontman and vocalist, JD has put together a great band around him and has some great original numbers. His cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart was his first release, and went down a storm within the set.

Homeward bound and loving life!

COMING UP
3rd AUGUST Sacre Noir live at Paris Lit Up Open Mic / Culture Rapide
6th AUGUST Unite & Take Over @ Le Bistrot des Artistes
8th AUGUST Follow That Muse @ Le Cave Cafe
9th AUGUST Open Secret @ Le Bistrot des Artistes

118: summer in the city

Tuesday 25^th July 2017
London part 1 (cont.)

As with our last stay in London, we have haulled up in Earls Court for our first stint in London this year. We loved the area last year and with so may great spots on the door step we knew this was the perfect area for us to come back to.
The hotel we’re in this year is a stones throw from The Troubadour (great venue we played in last year), Brompton Cemetery (final resting place of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst) and one of my favourite sweet spots in the city Brownie Box (I can’t say enough good things about their red velvet blondie); so that was our first stop on Tuesday morning. We had coffee and soaked up the sugary sweet smells permiating the tiny cafe and made plans for the day.
We headed into Shoreditch for a wander round Spittalfields Market and spent ages chatting to the artists and vendours about their wears. One trader had amazing tile coasters; some inspired by lovingly restored Parisian sheet music cover pages and others in a PopArt style. Another told us all about his t-shirts; Warhol prints with secret messages / Hunter S. Thompson quotes inside Fear & Loathing screen shots – it was all beautiful and really not that expensive. We ate curry on Brick Lane cause that’s what we always do – it’s always wonderful and with so much choice we are happy to just see where the smells take us.

After lunch we popped over to Camden for a spot of shopping and again spent a while talking to the stall holders and archway vendors about thier art. This is one of the many reasons we both adore this city; people are friendly, creative and genuinelly original in their outlook on life, the universe and everything.

A quite evening was spent catching up with emails and tour promotion before an episode of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.
(The novel is a blend of Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology)

Wednesday 26^th July 2017
Woke up to our new video’s premiere on GigSlutz going live alongside a  wonderful review of the track and video.

“Inspired by a desire to drive forward their visual work, ‘Rebels and Loners’ is delicate in all its elements. With lyrics stemming from stories of people affected by Alzheimers, and the inevitable pain, suffering and confusion that goes with such stories, ‘Rebels and Loners’ is handled with true grace. Visual metaphors accompanying the track’s heart-wrenching vocals, ‘Rebels and Loners’ is a track that sees Sacre Noir push themselves – and achieve incredible results.” – Melissa Svensen

It was a rainly day so we went as far as Fulham (bumped into some Edinburgers & had a quick blether about how we must have brought the weather with us, music and  more), stumbled upon a wonderful coffee shop (Gianlucas Coffee Cult) and stoped their for some shelter and a spot of people watching to go alongside our wonderful rich coffees and superb sandwiches. War of the Planet of the Apes was showing at the nearby cinema, so we figured that would be a nuce way to spend a lazy day… we weren’t wrong. Film was great on the big screen; humanity and explosions with a Gollum-esque ape character bringing a little light humour when needed. I’m a sucker for a big budget Hollywood movie with tears and big landscapes. If you liked the other two movies in this series go see the third – it won’t disappoint.

In the evening we wandered along to our favouried vegan resaurant 222 on the North End Road…

COMING UP
27^TH JULY NXI presents Red Tape Riot live at The New Cross Inn
29^TH JULY BugBear Promotions presents JD Kelleher live at The Dublin Castle