Rev
Simpkins & the
Phantom Brass Band....
Daniel
Merrill & the
Flowers of Evil....
St Martin’s
Church, West Stockwell Street, Colchester: 8pm THU 5 NOV....
....
This
Fireworks Night, St Martin’s Church in Colchester’s Dutch Quarter hosts a fiery
musical fight between good and evil as Rev Simpkins & the Phantom Brass
Band do battle against Daniel Merrill’s extraordinary new musical project, The
Flowers of Evil. The musical
combat will pit fiddle & virginal against brass band & finger picked
guitar, and promises to make even the most ambitious firework show appear a
lame excuse for excitement.....
....
Drawing on
his passion for all things decadent and all things warped, virtuosic violinist
Merrill unveils his debut album, Chants du Mal – a recording influenced by Simpsons’ theme
tune composer Danny Elfmann and Jan Tiersen who wrote the music for Amelie. Daniel Merrill is a legend of the Colchester music
scene. He is a member of
revered Free Folk pioneers the Dead Rat Orchestra, whose fearsome imagination
and unhinged melodiousness has gained them an international performing and
recording career. Dan is also the
brain behind ‘Mutebox,’ considered by many the most exciting and innovative new
music festival in Essex, and performs as part of the Rev’s backing band the
Phantom Notes. By day, Dan
inspires new generations of musicians as a course leader and lecturer at the
Colchester Institute’s School of Music.....
....
Performing
unamplified, Rev Simpkins – whose 2008 album Babbler & Crow was showered with praise from
national critics – will be backed by the brass quartet which recently completed
the recording of his second LP, LIONS described as “a hymn to post-crunch England
veering between the beautiful and the bizarre”. The Reverend’s feisty and melodic
acoustic music has been labelled ‘Fire Folk’ – a tuneful mix between Nick Drake
and Captain Beefheart. The Reverend has arranged for special pre-release copies
of LIONS to be
available to his valued hometown fans at this gig. ....
....
Rev
Simpkins commented, “St Martin’s is a beautiful church, and the sound is
absolutely fantastic. The intimate
atmosphere is perfect for unamplified concerts and with a musician as committed
and exciting as Dan, sparks should fly between us – quite literally! What better way could we pay tribute to
Guy Fawkes, perhaps the last man to enter the Houses of Parliament with honest
intentions?”....
....
Rector v
Rector takes place
in St Martin’s Church, West Stockwell Street, Colchester at 8pm on Thursday 5
November. Tickets priced £5 are now available on 01206 500900. The audience is
reminded to wear warm clothes, because St Martin’s is authentically unheated.
....