You are all welcome to the second ever Ambridge Acoustic Revue - a gig I am hosting this weekend (which means I'll be playing and also presenting the night).

This time we have a Nashville invasion!

The gig takes place in the beautiful surrounds of St Luke's Church, Penn Rd, London N7 this Saturday 30th August 8pm. There will be a bar selling beer and wine.

We have 3 unmissable guest artists...

Julie Lee
A stunning performer and beautiful voice, all the way from Nashville - we at Ambridge are hopping with anticipation - homespun and raw, marrying together the traditional melodies of her musical roots with something new, yet warmly recognizable to the listener's ear. Julie has collaborated with the likes of Alison Krauss and slide guitar player, Colin Linden (O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack, Bruce Cockburn) - do not miss.
www.julielee.org

Aaron Roche
Beautifully dextrous acoustic pickery and tender songs from another visiting Nashvillian!! Think Iron & Wine throwing a party for Sufjan Stevens, when suddenly Nick Drake shows up with a chariot of angels.
www.myspace.com/aaronroche

Lobelia
We continue our very own team america with hook-laden adult pop with a spacial ambient sensibility reminiscent of David Sylvian, Talk Talk and The Blue Nile. Lobelia aka Lisa Lawson is originally from the US and lives and makes music in London.
www.lobelia.net

All this and more at Ambridge Acoustic Revue this Saturday 30th 8pm.

See you there
Iain

I've been getting a fair few messages from folk going something like 'I'm sure I just heard you on the telly...' or 'someone is really ripping you off on the telly...' or the like - the reason being that the good people at Friends Reunited decided to make my song a part of their friend uniting masterplan.

I wrote the tune last year and its been kicking around, so what a nice and unexpected thing for it to see a wee bit of action. So I then decided to put it up online as a one-off download.

Its not like i had some shrewd marketing plan, just that quite a few people have asked me where they can get it. Rather than put it on the new album (yes new album!!), which is something altogether standalone, I decided, in our new digital realm of instantaneous releases, to do, err, an instantaneous release!

Other pieces of news...

Hayley Hutchinson's album 'Love Songs for The Enemy' is now available. I mixed the album and co-produced it with Hayley and play banjo, guitar, organ etc. You can check out the tunes and find out how to order it here

The release of my new record is near near near! Entitled 'To The Pine Roots' it features songs I've been playing live recently including 'Songbird' (not the famous Fleetwood Mac one!), 'Streamer on A Kite' and 'The Acrobat'. An online shop at www.iainarcher.co.uk will be up an running imminently. To The Pine Roots will be available here on cd.

It is more than a week past now that the first gig I have ever 'hosted' took place. In the beautiful surrounds of St Luke's we heard some extraordinary music. It was an amazing success. I was quite nervous actually.

So I've decided that this is going to be a regular thing. Starting at the end of august (date tba) Ambridge Acoustic Revue will be taking place once a month for four months. Plans are coming together to make it a very unique event.

Keep dropping by for more info on dates, who's playing etc... who knows who you might see...

ia

Howdy!

Myself and a couple of others came up with the grand idea of an Acoustic Night in the very beautiful surrounds of St Lukes Church, Holloway.

And it has actually come off! So, hopefully the first of many, its happening this friday 13 June.

Starts at 8pm - and includes a 'house band' of the marvellous phil wilkinson, jon kensington, miriam & myself. And then special guests in the guise of:-

FOREIGN SLIPPERS (aka GABI FRODEN) - the sweet-voiced sweedish slipper from sweden. She is currently touring with BETH ROWLEY and i've also been working with her on a ep which is going to be a beauty.. You will swear you are listening to a 'vrai chanteuse'.

BURNING CODES (aka PAUL ARCHER) - the multi-voiced fenlander from Bangor and brother. Think SPACEMEN 3 crossed with a gospel quartet from deep south 1915. Again, not to be missed.

JULIE MCKEE - the jazz-voiced north londener with a new album to woo us from.

MYSELF - eejit extraordinaire.

Fiver in, wine available for small donations, "lasor" light show, new dancers, a rare opportunity to glimpse the big room that was used in Harry Potter Hogwarts, should be a really fun night. (some of that isn't necessarily true)

anyways, see you there
i

p.s. the address is ST LUKES CHURCH - corner of Hillmarton Road and Penn Road in Holloway - N7 9RE. Nearest tube is Caledonian road.

Got back this morning from the fiercest winter onslaught. Last thursday I set off for Toronto to experience, input and perform at Canadian Music Week. The place looked already fairly snowed in as I landed into Toronto's Pearson Airport, but by midday friday the predicted blizzard began in earnest. It seems in Toronto they very wisely built a system of tunnels to navigate the city in times of extreme weather - something I only discovered on my exit! Typical. But despite the winter madness I managed to see a bunch of bands and meet some very fine people.

Went to an event featuring Tommy Ramone and Seymour Stein where they were discussing the path of the Ramones as a band and pretty much recognising that the same thing couldn't happen now. Really intelligent, sincere and altogether inspiring in the sense that Mr T Ramone was revealing the core concepts that drove the band and all the thought and energy that went into it. I love all that. Sends you away believing.

Played a show on Saturday night, almost fell over and broke my head on one of the most treacherous stages ever encountered. but let that not tarnish the hospitality everyone on the bill that night received from the staff at the Hideout. Maybe the hospitality had something to do with it. The crowd were animated to say the least, and their spirits high - and these are people who have braved a blizzard to attend a gig of current Irish music.

No cabs home for love nor money so had a challenging walk at 3am with guitar and huge pedalboard-in-suitcase through about 2 miles of dirty snow to get to the hotel. Toronto the price you made me pay. It was only after this I found out about the underground tunnels!

Sunday I used my spare time before my flight home by climbing to the top of the CN Tower - apparently the tallest building in the world. When I say climbing, I mean surrogately by use of a concerningly swift elevator. Once you're on the observation deck you get stunning views of the city and the lake, and you freak out when you realise you're standing on a glass floor and there's a 1,500 foot drop beneath your feet.

After the earpopping decent I boarded my flight home and slept soundly only for an hour spent watching the new Dylan film 'I'm Not There' in which Cate Blanchett (among others) plays a stunning dylan circa Blonde on Blonde. Took me a while to figure out if i'd dreamt that up between neck-mangling plane naps.

Anyway, I'm back and the plans are emerging swiftly on all facets of this new record. Watch here for details.

Over and out. Feel like applying for the job of the new Scott of The Antarctic - have done all the training.

i

Hey! A little update on what's been going on this past while – I've been lost in music you might say (or at least Sister Sledge would). Played some wunderbar German shows with the mighty Athlete last dec – met some great people at the gigs and warmed up at Christmas markets and late bars in Berlin. Thanks to all of you german folk who left me a message or two - looking forward to putting my own tour together this year. I stayed out after the tour and went to the Schwarzwald where myself and Hayley Hutchinson finished off her wonderful record amidst treks to the top of snowy mountains and savouring the many varieties of home-made schnapps that the region has to offer!

Other than that, the main news is that I'm pleased to announce my next record is officially en route! A couple of tracks are finished and many are getting very close. Went into the studio in Jan with Phil Wilkinson on drums, Jon Kensington on double bass and Dave Lynch at the sonic helm – those generous Athlete fellas allowed me some creative freedom in their self-made studio (where they recorded their last record). Worked out marvellously!

Next week I go home to Belfast. I play and contribute at the Belfast/Nashville Songwriter's Festival (believe it or not but Belfast and Nashville are twinned cities – no great surprise eh?) Both are world famous, not necessarily for the same thing, but Belfast is the new music city – mark my words!

It also happens to be 40 years since Belfast's Van Morrison made his iconic album Astral Weeks and i'm joining others on the 21st Feb at Derryvolgie Hall in attempting an homage to the great man in the name of charity (Capetownship 2008).

I'll keep you posted on album progress. But safe to say – I am alive, and all kinds of good things are at work… and its nearly spring, big green trees, going out in a tshirt, seeing flowers – all that stuff – fantastic

i

hello ha

this tuesday sees me taking a winged bird to the tennessee heights of nashville for 2 weeks. some may think that i'm going over purely for the Country Music Awards because of my great contribution to that genre. however, this is simply a wonderful co-incidence. but i can assure you a country song or two may get written while i'm there.

also, i'm able to announce four shows with the wonderful Athlete in germany in early december:-

9 Dec Hamburg
10 Dec Berlin
12 Dec Cologne
13 Dec Munich

full details will be up on meinspace soon.

following on from these dates, the intention is to play one or two of my own shows in South Germany - if anyone happens to read this and could help add another date to the mini tour i would love to hear from you.

bis spater, and stetsons

i

Good gordon it is amazing out here! I am writing from my hotel room in Perth, stuffed on the best Thai food I've ever had. Spent the afternoon on the beach in blazing sun, ran into the sea and spent a couple of hours being battered by stupidly large waves, and keeping a keen eye for sharks.

On the way to the beach, John, our driver, told us how his good friend had been bitten in half close by. We asked someone on the beach are we safe from sharks and he said 'you should be ok', this did not fill us with confidence, but there were a few mad ozzies in the water, so we tore on in - I just kept reminding myself of that theory (which is almost certainly urban myth) that you should just punch the shark right on the nose. Kept the fists at the ready but they were thankfully not called upon! Made me wonder what could possibly be in a shark's nose that makes it such an achilles heel?? It's kidneys? It's reproductive equipment? Nitro-glycerine? Any thoughts? Maybe someone out there can shed some light...

Been listening to Loney, Dear non stop since a good friend passed the album on to me just before I came out here - its the perfect soundtrack - all ripe with melody. A must.

The shows have been going amazingly - and freakily devoid of hitches (for anyone familiar with my live shows to date!?!). Been joining Los Patrolos on a couple of tunes and Miriam's been up singin Set The Fire. They've been playing some stunning shows.

We've been sharing much laughter with the Silver Sun Pickups (who's music is very special!), who are also out here supporting the Patrol. In the airport yesterday before we boarded we were talking about old video games and came up with some classics like Moon Buggy, Double Dragon, the Star Wars video game (which blew all of our minds) and then decided we were now living in 'the future' because of video conferencing and cell phones and aeroplanes with individual tv screens on every seat. Then we boarded our plane to Sydney only to discover it was some relic from the '80s and figured we'd jinxed the future for everyone!?

In Brisbane we went to the Lone Pine Koala Reserve. We met some Kangaroos who ate from our hand, I saw a Wombat! Wanted to see a Wombat for a long time - pigdog is the only way I can describe it. Got to hug a Koala - one of the mellowest experiences I've ever had - his name was Sumo and he left me with a strange sense of peace, that is until the threat of shark attack today!

Driving south west from Sydney to Canberra (or 'Cranberry' – a name which began as Miriam's spoonerism but has now become our official name for the place) you pass places like Marulan, Bungonia, Goulburn, Yass, Gundagai, Tuggerung, Lake George – which is actually a flat plain of fields with sheep grazing – our driver says he doesn't know where the water is, boats used to sail here, now the water's gone.

The journey is four hours of tree-lined highway and if you like big trucks there are lots of the long-snouted kind. We are two gigs into the Australian tour having played Sydney Acer to a huge and happy audience and then Newcastle, where someone proposed to me at the merchandise stand. Spent the day on Bondi beach yesterday watching the kites – giant dragons, giant squids, little diamonds with streamers, all sorts - watching the surfers and walking around the cliffs. From the cliff top at the end of the bay, great pacific waves, coming from two different directions, clash and make an outrageous disturbance in the water – it starts out as a great black shadow in the water, like a terrible mouth getting wider or the rising of a giant wing, or maybe like a big scary wave just.

Phil gave me his ayepod to listen to, said I should hear this song by David Bazan of Pedro the Lion from his side project 'Headphones'. The songs called 'Shit Talker' and it is magic and I listened to it and then we had a conversation about shit talking and back biting and all the crap that comes out of everyone's mouth that gets swept under the carpet and some times you trip up on it later.

Dead kangaroo by the side of the road as we enter cranberry. Then we make a roadside stop by some young trees and beautiful purple wildflowers and see a couple of live kangaroos out in a field. They spot us and keep a close eye.

Had the most amazing seafood last night – John Dory and mussels. Got up this morning and took the subway (which is double-decker) down to Circular Quay to see the Sydney Opera House and the harbour bridge. Would never have told the Opera House was actually covered in little tiles. One hell of a job. The sun was shining and there was nothing disappointing about seeing it for real at all, in that way that famous landmarks can sometimes disappoint cos you thought they were 4 times larger or 6 and a half times brighter.

Driving into Canberra and its wet. Cherry blossom in the trees. Some weird trees that look a bit like small weeping willows with all the bark hanging off.

Yesterday we drove past a church called the Uniting Church of Gordon and a conversation ensued - god was actually called Gordon and so many phrases such as 'luck of the gordons', 'act of gordon', 'the gordons are smiling on us', 'lovegordon', 'gordonspeed' and on, and on, and on – it remained funny for quite some time. Feel free to add any new Gordon phrases below – they will continue to keep us amused for days, even weeks, years, such is the crazy life we lead on the road!?

The devil has now been named stanley but also neville. There is mileage in all this.

Got back from Berlin on Monday morning on a stupidly early flight, lamenting the fact that this was my second visit and plenty little exploration had been done so far. The Magnet Club was in the east of the city. Can't help looking around and wanting to dig behind the radiant and perfectly painted walls, the pristine window frames, the atm's, they all deceive you into thinking things were always this way. There's a forgotten history that outstayed its welcome.

Our driver was 'Busty' (that was his name, not a comment on his physical form!). He told me about the punk gigs before the wall came down. Non-government-sanctioned performances were illegal. The only place you could legally perform unregulated music was in churches so the punks took to playing shows in the sanctuary of churches, an odd place from which to give the finger to the law. Perfect somehow. His parents are still ardent socialists, and they had a pretty tough time with the changes, their whole way of life and belief system was dismantled. Busty still believes in Socialism, but not in the control.

More than other big cities, Berlin feels like a twenty sided dice, maybe forty sided. you glimpse a side and then you go.

Leave on an early flight back to London on the 'easy' jet that feels about as easy as chewing spokes, with two guitar cases taped together, a backpack and a suitcase containing a pedal board heavier than dark matter itself. But something very stupid in me likes carting my own gear around, not that there's much choice!

Got to the Proud Gallery that night (tues) to support the mighty Crimea. People crowded in for the gig - I was quite touched by the latent violence eminating from the individuals who took it upon themselves to regulate the chatter of those more interested in conversation than the performance. Nothing like a bit of inter-audience intimidation to help the show along!!? Thanks to the Crimea for having me along. Also thanks to Derek Fudge for snare removal, stage clearing assistance, and licking my face (well, thanks for the first two!).

The Crimea played an amazing set. What seemed like a catastrophe - in the 3rd song all the power went down - turned into a piece of magic. The crowd were treated to the band playing songs acoustically in the almost-dark, all of us singin every word, but just loud enough so we could still hear the men themselves, it was just magic!

Once more thanks to the aforementioned Mr Fudge, who made remark that blame for the lack of power should be laid at my door! And just loudly enough for those die-hard Crimea fans around us to be in ear-shot! Thought I was in for it.

Was good to catch up with some good pals and then go home famished and eat the remnants of the understocked fridge!