ARRIVÉE/DEPART – THE GARE DU NORD AUTUMN AWAYBREAK

Event Information

Arrivée/Depart – The Gare du Nord Autumn Awaybreak feat.
ALEX HIGHTON, JOHN HOWARD, RALEGH LONG, ROTIFER, MEL MAYR, PAPERNUT CAMBRIDGE

Venue: Servant Jazz Quarters, 10A Bradbury St, London N16 8JN

Gare du Nord Records, the record label that has one foot in Kent and one on the continent (plus one in London, imagine it as a tripod kind of a label) presents a two nights live residency at Dalston's Servant Jazz Quarters.

Having put on a number of successful live nights over the last year-and-a-half, this will be the label's first mini-festival featuring six GdN and GdN-affiliated bands/artists from all, well, three corners of Europe, while also doubling as the launch of two brand new albums by John Howard and Alex Highton.

Tuesday November 25:
Alex Highton, Ralegh Long, Papernut Cambridge
Wednesday November 26:
Rotifer, John Howard, Mel Mayr

On each night, the first 50 passengers will receive a complimentary copy of the Gare du Nord Ebbsfleet International label compilation CD.

TUESDAY (OUT):

ALEX HIGHTON
A recent addition to the Gare du Nord roster, born Liverpudlian Alex Highton is anything but an unknown quantity. He received lots of highly deserved praise from the press as well as 6music airplay with his 2012 debut, that simultaneously romantic and acerbic tribute to the new-found thrills of Cambridgeshire village life called “Woodditton Wives Club”. On his follow-up “Nobody Knows Anything” Highton applies the same wit, finger-picking light-footedness and flair for unusual time signatures to the exploration of profound existential themes (no, really). His music flits between comfortingly trad elements and unexpected curve-ball chord changes, the arrangements easily transcending a singer-songwriter's usual sonic palette. At this album launch Alex Highton will perform his new songs with a newly assembled full backing band featuring Claire Hollocks on piano and cello, Robert Rotifer on electric guitar, Jonathan Czerwik on drums and David Dobson on bass.

RALEGH LONG:

Performing songs from his debut album "Beginning the World" due out in Spring of next year, Gare Du Nord co-founder Long will be bringing his chordally inventive, luscious songs, as well as his five-piece band (Will Lamport on drums, Jack Hayter on pedal steel, Richard Ellis on bass and Ed Ellis on piano) along to the SJQ. 'Like drinking a wine none of us can responsibly afford, this is just...classy' GoldFlakePaint

PAPERNUT CAMBRIDGE

This imaginary band first appeared a few years ago in a dream dreamt by Ian Button. Recognising the Papernut mission, the former Death in Vegas guitarist, who is also the South-East's most musically promiscuous drummer, engineer and producer (Darren Hayman, Mary Epworth, Rotifer, Wreckless Eric, David Cronenberg's Wife, Deep Cut etc.), has since channelled two acclaimed albums' worth of dreamily eccentric songs into the waking world in the shape of “Cambridge Nutflake” (2013) and the new triple-7”-release “There's No Underground”, due out on Gare du Nord Records October 13.Onstage Papernut Cambridge are represented by Button and an ever-changing cast of musical friends including two Ex-Hefners (Darren Hayman and Jack Hayter), Ralegh Long, Robert Rotifer, Robert Halcrow (of Picturebox), Citizen Helene and many others.

WEDNESDAY (RETURN):

ROTIFER:

One year on from the release of their well-received, politically charged last album “The Cavalry Never Showed Up”, this Robert Wyatt- and Edwyn Collins-endorsed three-piece around Canterbury-based, Vienna-born songwriter Robert Rotifer featuring Mike Stone (Television Personalities) on bass and Ian Button (Papernut Cambridge) on drums, see their first full London show in six months as a welcome chance to try out some new, unheard material. “The temptation, faced with a band who have so dramatically upped their game, is to wonder where they can possibly go from here,” Benjamin Howarth wrote last year on PennyBlackMusic. We shall see...

JOHN HOWARD:

When Gare du Nord invited this British songwriting legend over from his Spanish exile to play at Servant Jazz Quarters one year ago, he had just released his twelfth album “Storeys”, which would become his most successful release to date. An unusual turn of events for an artist whose debut single “Goodbye Suzie” came out 40 years ago, followed by the album “Kid in a Big World”, which was at first shamefully overlooked but over ensuing decades became recognised as a lost classic on the crate-diggers' scene before finally being re-released to belated plaudits in 2003. Since his rediscovery Howard has enjoyed an enormously productive second wind, recording a string of great albums, the newest of which (“Hello, my name is”) will be unveiled at this rare UK appearance. Much like last year's gig, a recording of which was subsequently turned into a live album, John will be joined by Ian Button on drums, Robert Rotifer on guitar and Andy Lewis (Paul Weller, Acid Jazz) on bass.

MEL MAYR:

In her Austrian home country as well as neighbouring Germany, Mel Mayr from Salzburg has been a much-reviewed, award-winning and radio-playlisted artist for years. She made a name for herself with a remarkably strong pair of lungs and her unfailing ear for a tune, as amply showcased on her self-recorded first EP “Changing” (2008), her debut album “Escape the Cold” (2010) and the follow-up “King Street” (2012), named after the address of the Old Synagogue in Canterbury, where the album was recorded and produced by Gare du Nord co-founder Ian Button (you're welcome to join the dots). On her just-released new album “Go or Run”, Mel Mayr has gone back to the idea of self-producing and in the process created some of her rawest and most dynamic music yet. Thanks to support from the Austrian Cultural Forum, this will be her first live show in the UK.