Oh silly cat – you’ve forgotten your headphones… Simply must be the first take out of this picture, and if you are (or manage/ are agent for) a Cat DJ – we all know that this can be a key problem. Sure those little champs look great behind the decks, but without a big whack of phone on their ears – no dice when it comes to the spinning… We have the same problem with Alcokitten ALL the time.
So, our good pals at Littlewoods.com (seriously, we hang out all the time – they buy the drinks) have given us some of these rad Dr Dre headphones range which they insist must be given away to one of you fine poppers. This is cool, and heartily acceptable to us – because it’s always nice to give you things for free when so often we’re all like ‘buy this vinyl’, or ‘come to our party’.
So to get your hands on these quite frankly awesome headphones from Littlewoods and us – just let us know what you’d call this cat below either in the comments box below, on the pOp facebook or drop us a tweet with #AlcoCat in it. A simple name will do, feel free to give him/ her a backstory too if you’re feeling creative
So, as members of AIM (Association of Independent Music) we’ve been asked to nominate an ‘Indie Champion’ this year for the ‘Indie Champion Award’ (funny that) – and although we’ve got some ideas of people who have been epic to us… We thought that in the spirit of the Alcopop! family and all, we should make this a communal vote – and all choose together.
From wonderful radio DJs to magazine people who make everything live – to those people who put out rad records, if there is anyone you’d like to suggest through Alcopop! – let us know, and whoever picks up the most votes will take our nomination….
To help you choose, here’s 5 people who continually make our lives lovelier, but feel free to go with anyone else you feel. We, you are, Team POP! *yeah*
Ben Patashnik: His name’s a bitch to spell, but get beyond that and he’s an absolute champ. Rock Sound have always been so supportive of us from the start, and we could nominate any of their staff really – especially Andy Ritchie. Very handsome.
Dave Summers: Owner of DMS and absolute legend, putting all our CDs and vinyl together beautifully in pretty timely fashion. Also, supports Plymouth so probably deserves a sympathy vote
John Kennedy: True supporter of the underground and pioneer of XFM – with his X-Posure shows and sessions, John has been incredible to us for a long time, and so many other labels like it. Went in earlier this year, and when chatting to him I realised just how genuine he was. Lovely.
Alex Baker: We’ve had support from loads of brilliant DJs this year which we’re super grateful for (Jen Long, Ally McCrae, Huw, Zane, Ian Camfield + all the ace guys at Amazing), but never have I known anything like Alex… He truly does champion stuff on his show, not just for one or two weeks, but for an extended playlist amount of time. Kerrang Radio is ace.
Stephen Ackroyd: Naturally pretty quiet, except when supporting Man Utd – Stephen is a massive champion of the underground, and with Emma (and later assembled huge team), has turned a bedroom operation into one of the most important magazines/websites in the indie world with DIY. This guy works ridiculously hard – and has a love for Bis only matched by me (Jack).
Loads of Indie Heros, and definitely a load more I’ve missed, but drop us a tweet or email to jack@ilovealcopop.co.uk – and let us know who you’d like the PoP vote to go to. Ta!
So… Another interview from one of our roving columnists, and this time it’s Alcopop! regular (and all round lovely chap) Josh – who’s speaking to the lovely Lucy & the Caterpillar, who we worked with back in 2007 (genuinely that long ago). Back then we were blow away by her delicious songs and penchant for red wine… But what’s she doing now? Here’s Josh>>>>
I first discovered Lucy & the Caterpillar when Jack sent over “I don’t want your stupid crisps” (taken from the Kings Cross E.P) with one of my purchases. I was drawn in by Lucy’s soft voice and sweet lyrics. Wanting to hear more I bought the “Kings Cross” E.P I enjoyed every bit from the cute mini disc to Lucy’s delightful songs. “Kings Cross” is like a short story of sorts ranging from the nervousness and excitement of meeting someone new featured in the song “Kings Cross” before moving onto the familiar “I don’t want your stupid crisps”. Second to last is the adventure tale of “Pirates! Pirates! Pirates!” before finishing with the excellently titled “Let’s mess about” which is a nice little keyboard solo. Wondering what she was up to now I emailed Lucy to catch up.
Josh: Hi Lucy, how are you?
Lucy: Hello Josh, I am rather good thank you. Really busy which I can’t complain about
Josh: Glad to hear it, how long have you been making music?
Lucy: I have been making music for about 12 years. I never knew I could sing until I was bought a guitar, I got more into the songwriting side of music before playing any instrument.
J: Who are some of your influences?
L: When I was 14 I loved The Smiths, they kind of influenced me melodically. I then discovered bands like The White Stripes, really loved the heavy guitars but kind of simple songs. I listen to The Beatles a lot & I love old 1970s folk music like The Roches, Karen Dalton, Stone Poneys & Laura Nyro. I’m not really a modern music fan, I find most modern music sounds like older music so why not listen to the original thing. Although, my most favourite songwriter is Feist. I also love anything by Iron & Wine and also Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. I do think music is getting better which is really nice to know, haha.
J: How was your time on Alcopop?
L: It was great, quite a long time ago now. I did my single launch at The Social & we released these super cute E.Ps. Tiny!
J: What have you done musically since Alcopop?
L: After Alcopop I did loads of festivals, Latitude, Leeds ect… then decided to take a break & work on something else, I find if you’re really passionate about something you need to protect it & treat it nice, so my musicalness, needed a break. I do however write loads of songs & am wanting to start a fresh, release an album, do some lovely gigs & enjoy myself more.
J: I noticed you also run a boutique in Hebden Bridge, how long have you been making dresses and such and how long has the Boutique itself been going?
L: I have had the shop for 7 years now. It started as a hobby & has become a proper business. I find clothes fascinating, the way they are made so I decided to learn how to dress make. When I wore my frocks, people asked me where I got it from so I thought it was a good idea to start a collection of classic dresses. They sell really well & I’ve now started making wedding dresses! Never did I think I would be doing that!
J: If it’s not too personal, why did you leave Alcopop?
L: I think I kind of became a recluse up north, my management changed and taking time out was the answer, it was only a single release anyway so nothing too serious, I probably really annoyed them too, haha <Jack’s note: She totally didn’t >
J: Where does the “caterpillar” come from?
L: It “was” my little guitar (which I still have) I am now under my actual name ‘Lucy Elizabeth” & I’ve kept the shop my old stage name which I think is important as I had lovely memories.
J: Can we expect a new album or EP soon?
L: YES! I have a whole collection of new songs that we are wanting to show to the world soon, we want to take our time to make sure it’s perfect. I’m so excited, I feel like my music has grown & people will hopefully see the real me instead of singing songs about sweets & being drunk… which of course, I don’t do anymore (NOT!)
Check out Lucy’s debut single ‘Red Red Wine’ here:
One of the things we often get asked in our day to day Alcopop! lives is… What the fuck are johnny foreigner doing? Where are they?
To which the answer is, normally, in a practice room surrounded by clouds of smoke and excellent new hits. Our intrepid champ Aaron had a word >>>
You guys have been gone for what seems like forever, but you’re back to rock this earth with a huge Euro tour, visiting countries I thought were made up like Czech Republic and Slovakia, my friend also mentioned you guys may be heading to Malta if all goes to plan. Can you explain more about this tour and where you have been these past few month’s young man:
We’ve been gone like 2 months! We’ve been writing new songs and designing more arts and complaining about tories on the internet. The crazyass Eurotour stems from us realising there’s waaay too many places we’ve never been to, wheras Malta, these kids just called us up and asked if they could put us on. I wish everyone was so proactive.
What do bands like Johnny Foreigner miss the most about the UK when touring the world? Do you guys take a bag full of Yorkshire puddings around with you, or what?
nothing really? Orange lucozade mayhaps. And I guess, being able to speak the language, or rather, not being ashamed at having to conduct conversations in english. Mostly tho, we’re total tourists; anything that’s worse than back home gets a reprieve cos it’s foreign and strange and new. Cf; every gas station sandwich ever..
Will you guys be gracing us in the UK with your live shows at any point this year?
Yeh, no proper tour till autumn, but the usual festival circuit and a few odd shows scattered around.
One of the first things that drawn me to Johnny Foreigner was the close knit relationship with your fans, what’s it like sinking beers with fans and seeing your lyrics or the Johnny Foreigner ghost tattooed onto them?
The tattoos etc are flattering, but more importantly, kinda prove to us that we’re doing something that matters. Right, in our heads we have this possibly wrong, probably naive idea that mutal love of the same music equates with social compatability. That conciet is like, our religion. Sometimes I talk to dudes in other bands and they’re like, how do you have such a mental fanbase? And I think it’s sad cos the base level is us not treating people like “fans”; these are people who share the same record collection / shoes / hair / whatever as us; they’d be our friends if we lived there but as it is they just paid 8 quid to watch us, so the least we can do, as Good Humans, is go say hi thanks how are you. So to answer yr question, its the same as drinking with my friends, only I forget their names more often.
Anything else you would like to add for the readers of the Alcopop! blog before I leave you be?
BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER.
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