Hi all,
Jp here hope you're all well and this year is going the way you all planned. As I'm sure everyone is aware nizlopi are taking a year off a sabbatical as it's called, the reason for this is varied but basically both me and Luke felt that we'd achieved all we could up to this point as Nizlopi was and as U2 so well put "we need to go away and dream it all up again" This is a time to sort our lives out, when your so busy touring, thinking it's all about you, you tend to lose all sense of who you are and why you're doing what you're doing. Music or any creative activity needs looking after and at times needs rebooting as David Gray says sometimes you should just stop, go away and get re inspired. I'd like to thank everyone who's been with us on this journey, from the first gigs to the last tour, truly without your love, support, criticism and faith in what we do, it just wouldn't have happened. I'm so grateful to all the opportunities we were given especially from the musicians, producers, tours, TV, radio, living rooms, weddings, fdm, the Concannon clan everyone who dared to come to a gig, and the many people who came to more than one, people who saw us at dormer school playing Metallica, people who came to Shepherd's bush, people who came to our last show, and people who dared like us to dream, to follow there hearts. Thank you to you all. We at Nizlopi had the pleasure to work with some of the best people, the right people, a special shout out to our touring crew, how they coped with me and Luke is nothing short of miraculous, thank you i miss you all very much.
 For me this time away is time to put the attention into the personal things that have gotten neglected and eventually rendered music for me very hard, so it's a year of pushing out away from my comfort zone, scared? Hell yes i am, it's been the toughest of year so far but i feel this has to change. What I'll do regarding music is very unclear at present, I'm practicing mainly classical music working through one classical tutor, going to see gigs have seen the Fleet Fox's, Metallica, The Toy Hearts and Imelda May in the last month already and they've all been great great gigs. Seeing friends/family and at some point I'm gonna walk across Spain but i guess the main thing is to rediscover myself and the love i had for music and the importance of friendship.
So in Jan 2010 me and Luke will get together and discuss if, when and how we wish to proceed. All that's left for me to say is have a great year, i wont get much chance to be regularly checking any of the sites but any correspondence is forwarded to me from our beautiful assistant Bradley.
May your sleep be restful.
Thank you
Jpx

Hello All
As you may know we are off on Sabbatical this year. We are both going through big changes, and have wanted a lot of things about our artistic/professional/and private lives to change for some time. John and I will be meeting up in January 2010 to decide what our work together in the future will be, and we will post an item on all of our web sites telling you our plans as soon as we know. We will also send this to our mailing list. In the mean time I was reflecting the other day about all the things I am thankful for about what we have done as Nizlopi. And what came to me strongly are the high times of writing, rehearsing, feeling a song come, traveling with my friend/friends, and the very high times of playing gigs. I wrote this poem about that high place:




Love Luke x




 

Hi all

Am trying a new way of doing my blog, am writing it straight on to the myspace, normaly i send it to finn or bradley to make sure i havn't spelt my name wrong or anything, so i apologise for the obvious spelling mistakes and lack of corect grammer

So whats been happening, well me and luke have been in the studio, the first time since make it happen was recorded, we recorded two new songs, looking for answers and sandra which will be available on at the shows along with some class remixs from our friends which span house music, hip hop and bangra, as ever always trying something different. We have also been colaborating with tori who has done some fantastic artwork for the cd.a piece called understanding love. The songs reflect differnt aspects of nizlopi "answers" is more folky no beatbox were as "sandra" a more poppy hip hop beat box all over it track can't wait for people to hear these new tracks the first for some time. Today we've been working with al on our in ear monitoring system which is sounding great, my double bass actually sounds like a double bass and i can hear all my notes, sadly even the out of tune ones, we're playing wales tomorrow and this will be the first gig trying them out, it means we can hear ourselves clearly and we don't have to have our speakers on stage really loud, also means that i will no longer go through my victor meldrew mood on stage ie unplugging the monitor and generally moaning for hours at katie our long suffering tour manager. Apart from that nizlopi have finally finished our podcast which should be uploaded by the end of this week, this was hard to make but i think catches both the sadness we feel at the mo and also the friendship and lightness between me and luke even going through this difficult period of change. The podcast trys to explain what is going to happen in the future for nizlopi, i'd like to thank dave motion for some skillful editing and kieron for some good questions and a good pep talk before we filmed. Also in the podcast is the first glimps of looking for answers which i mentioned earlier.

I have been playing with different people have a gig supporting the sugar babes with Liam bailey which should be a real laugh also been playing with tom mckean which is sounding good looks like we're off to the states to record the album out there which exciting.

also been buying lots of books from abebooks.co.uk it's wicked much better than amazon bought the rest of the a m homes books.

Albums i've been listening to contreversally is the new metallica album, i love it, has been a while i've listened to something so angry but it reminds me of there early albums and my teenage years, well done them for producing a great record.

Right thats me for now i'm going to slay some bullies, little bsrds, sorry.

All the best jpxx

*note - this blog is two weeks old, sorry for the delay in it being posted. The blogs will be much more regular from now on.*

Hey all, what a few weeks i and nizlopi have had. Sorry i missed my blog last week has been mental.

I've just got back from my good friend and double bass teachers wedding, Mr Jon Thorne who married the lovely jo jo on Saturday in beautiful sunshine on the isle of white, was one of the best paced weddings I've ever been to, where everyone mingled in the beautiful rose gardens to have a picnic and danced the night away (perhaps dangerously) to an Irish cailegh band. My hero Danny Thompson and his lovely wife were there and i have to say i could barely string a sentence together when ever we spoke, partly due to it being Danny Thompson and then also cause i drank three glass's of pimms in one go. I got a wicked picture of me, Jon Thorne and Danny together which i shall frame (such a geek).

Well apart from that Nizlopi have actually done some shows, we played a charity gig for MS at the legendary 100 club, and we rocked the show, was a wonderful night of music, with some great people there, thank you all so much for supporting us and the night, i know the money and advertising they got are in valuable to there very valuable work.

Next up was Cox's Yard in Stratford, a venue we have played since it all began for us working our way up from support act to headline over the years, i have to say that our soundman al was the star of the show, it's never sounded so good than it did that night, i was on fire and thats quite rare, had a wicked time 'cause i could hear everything so clearly, will definatly miss that gig but was great to go out on a high.

Then follows the mammoth drive to west Cumbria to play Sol fest it took us all day to get there and when we arrived it looked as if we'd been put on a little stage away from the main area, a long way to go to not be listened to, but when we got up on stage i realised that we had the ears of an awful lot of people, al (who was on a roll now) had to work his little socks off but he did and i think a combination of his hard work to get the best out of the pa and our performance made for a great gig, Solfest is a lovely festival in wonderful surroundings run by great people you must go next year.

Cleverly for me i injured myself running, i have torn my left calf muscle making running impossible, believe me I've tried and walking slightly odd looking, am very lucky thou i have a physio now at the crystal palace sports injury place in the park there and they're brilliant, warning me that drinking and irish dancing may well damage my ability to run. Will find out today if i'll be able to compete at the Dublin marathon in oct, will be gutted if i can't.

The last Nizlopi festival was Shambala and i have to say the sound was dreadful, not Al's fault he was working tirelessly as ever. In the end i unplugged my monitor and gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, a very tough gig and sad that the last one couldn't have been more joyous, saying that the audience were fantastic and i hope on performance alone we got through to you, which i think we did. Festivals are weird as a performer, have had many musical highs and lows at them over the years, i guess it's cause there's no real control over your show combined with a new audience that you think you can convert if given a good chance, Nizlopi have had a good few blinders thou, thank you to everyone who made those possible, will be strange to not be apart of them with Nizlopi.

Apart from that i saw hell boy 2 last night and loved it, the kids have been dancing indian style to an england uprise remix which anchank did for us. Hopefully soon me and luke shall be putting a podcast together and keeping you informed of all that's happened recently and why we're doing what we're doing just got to agree with each other first.

All the best please come to our last tour we promise to make it a great one playing some great venue's with some great other acts, god everythings great.

Much love jpx

Hey everyone, hope you're all well.

 

Strange and busy week: Nizlopi played their first gig in what feels like ages (hopefully didn't sound like that).  We played the Croissant Neuf Summer Party in a beautiful part of Wales.  Sadly, like most festivals in the summer, it rained and very heavily, especially when leaving the site, think it's the first time I've ever had to be towed on to a festival site.  The festival itself is lovely and next year I may well go as a spectator.  We always play the Croissant Neuf tent at Glastonbury and have a great time doing so it'll be odd to miss that next year. We played well amongst a load of crazy gremlins that were messing with our sound.

 

Am enjoying playing the bass at the mo, have opted to play lighter, i learnt that whilst recording with me and bobby the other night.  We did an all-nighter and there's something about recording music late at night, there's a peace to it and loads more space, it sometimes feels like you can hear it better, wish Nizlopi had done that more.

 

On non-Nizlopi stuff i've found myself a flat in south London which i'm very much looking forward to moving into.  I'll be living on my own for the first time in well over a year and a half, but am looking forward to the challenge.  Odd time to move just before Nizlopi's tour and before the first time in my life where I've no gigs penned in for the year ahead, to be honest am quite scared and concerned about that, but I know for the first time in my musical life I need to go out there and go get musical projects instead of waiting for them to find me, so i'll need to get a MySpace together and some business cards etc and find a good teacher in south London.

 

On that note, it's so damn hard to find one.  I need a classical teacher, am desperate to learn but don't seem to have any joy finding one.  If anyone knows any or can recommend one that'd be great.

 

Saw West Side Story at Sadlers wells with the family, and it was wicked, think every kid in school should see this work.  It's funny, it's celebrating I think 50 years and yet it's still so relevant, what with knife crime, racial intolerance, fear and the consequences of violence and having nothing for kids to do.  Oh and the music is good too, if you can get tickets it's a must.

 

Haven't really bought any music lately as my rent's about to go sky high.  I'm avoiding spending too much money, although saying that I'm awaiting the new Roots Manuva album so that'll be good fun.

 

Finally got round to replacing my bow the other day and it's been so good to play with a quality bow that picks up all the subtlety (or lack of it).

 

Anyway, that's me, Nizlopi have a busy week for a change, we're playing the 100 club tonight (Tues) for MS then Cox's yard Thurs, Solfest Friday and Shambala sunday, it'll be good to be back.

 

Hope to see you at some of the shows.

 

Jpx

Hey there, thankyou to everyone who took the time and the trouble to post on my mumbled attempt at a regular blog, much appreciated.

 

Well it's been a productive day: got 4 hours double bass practice in, which i kinda wanna do everyday if poss but never seems to be realised.  Am working on my classical side of my playing, my reading is always a wee bit scrappy so am working away at various pieces written for 10 year olds and still struggling.  But hey.  Also working on some bass parts for a group called Me and Bobby, am very excited about this album so it's been great fun trying different ideas, some not always tasteful to the song.

 

Well, in the last week i've been mostly on holiday.  Me and my lady friend went to Cornwall, the lizard point, and it was so beautiful.  Got to do loads of running up big muddy hills overlooking the sea and we were dead lucky with the weather too, almost turning my ultra pasty body a degree darker (which is still Ghostly white).  The training is going well and I seem to thrive on running up hill rather than down or on flat, i think i just like the challenge really.

 

On the Nizlopi front: well sadly Pickering folk festival was cancelled due to bad weather, which was really gutting as it would have been the first Nizlopi gig in what feels like ages.  The weather must have been real bad as we got told days in advance, normally they call it off on the day if the weather has been bad but lets hope next year for the festival will be a good one, although it will be a Nizlopi free one.

 

We've got some shows coming up: The Croissant Neuf festival on Sat, a charity show for MS at the 100 club in London on Tues and Cox's yard on the Thursday so we can't complain, be good to strut our stuff again.  God, that sounds like we're going to do Nizlopi glam rock.  Well you never know.

 

Anyway apart from holiday I baked my first apple pie which was great fun and as yet no one has died due to the eating of it.  Listening to Damien Dempsey's To Hell or Barbados which gets put on repeat when ever the kids are in the car, there's a song called Teachers and it gets sung all the time, it's great real music.

 

Apart from that there's not much else to say, Luke may well be under arrest at the climate change camp and so the forthcoming shows may be solo, god help us.

 

Hope you're all well and I look forward to hearing from ya.

 

Jpx

Hello, bonjour ola etc…

How you all doing? Am grand, my nipples are very sore but that's not as exciting as it may well sound.  I have just begun training for the Dublin marathon which takes place in October mid-way through our 'Last Nights On Tour' tour.  So anyway yes I ran 12 miles on Hampstead heath and have split both my nipples, oh the joys.

So yes, Nizlopi are stopping for a while as I'm sure you know.  We need a break and now feels the right time to take that break being as it's the end of Make It Happen.  Mixed feelings about it mainly cause I'm crap on my own and obviously you worry about lots of things like money, will I miss being so busy? Knowing me I'll be busier next year than ever, just broker.

Talking of other projects, I've been recording with the very talented Liam bailey we recorded three tracks and they sound sweet so watch out for him.  Also I've been playing with Tom McKean and The Emperors and there's even a cool video on their MySpace page filmed on top of a 5-story building in Islington, was a laugh except getting Nanny up the small, thin and  rusty ladder up to the top with a nice drop on one side and I hate heights so was an interesting tense affair. Check out www.myspace.com/tommckeanandtheemperors

At present I'm reading two books: one called "This Book Will Save Your Life" by A.M.Homes.  Only just started it but I'm already enjoying the first 50 or so pages so I recommend that.  Also a book by M.Scott Peck "A Road Less Traveled".  This is very engaging, it's a psychology book concerning relationships, upon many things and just really makes you stop and look at your life and question your behaviour or reactions to certain things.  S tough gem but then life is tough too, it's just facing up to it, accepting it and going through it.

Music wise I've bought so many records since I last blogged.  At present I'm listening to the Kronos quartet play Henryk Gorecki's String quartet no 3.  So beautifully played, but before that was listening to the Esbjorn Svensson Trio.  Very sadly Esbjorn passed away very recently, such a talent and he will be so missed, his music introduced so many people to jazz through a different door, less Charlie parker more Pearl Jam.  I saw them play a number of times and they were amazing every time , luckily me and Rebecca saw them at the Warwick Arts Centre the last time they played.  Rest in peace, Esbjorn.

Well it's almost time for me to stop typing aggressively and say goodbye but first I just want to say a big thankyou to everyone who has come to a Nizlopi show, be it right at the beginning, during the JCB success or perhaps more recently during the amazing Make It Happen tour.  Really, without you it just wouldn't have happened, please come along to our last tour and come say hi and goodbye for now, maybe we could have cake.

I'm going to be writing regularly from now on so if you want to get in touch please do and I will do my best to respond as quickly as I can.

All the best Jpx

Dear ones

How are ya?  We just finished The UK leg of the tour.  You people who came to the shows are wonderful!  You were dancing, singing and loving like bedlamites!  It was such an incredible tour.  Every night was great for different reasons.  We loved playing in Wales: Wrexham and Cardiff rocked. We loved playing in the east: Cambridge, Norwich and Nottingham were wonderful nights.  The North!: Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, go well you crazy bad girls and bois.  Scotland: Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh radio, thank you.  And the south: Portsmouth, oxford, Brighton and London. We had a great reception everywhere we went, such hospitality!  It was definitely the most tiring tour of our lives.  I had moved house at the beginning of the tour.  My voice was going by the fourth gig in.  When not on stage, not moving/sound checking/working/on the phone to lawyers and estate agents about my new home, I was snatching sleep in every place I could. There were some great moments of improvising: John was giving a lot, Bradley was playing drums on 'Feel Inside', people were requesting all the songs from ExtraOrdinary, Drew got up with us and played Mandolin on 'Yesterday' at 3 venues, Joe Driscoll and Pete Box incinerated the gig in Nottingham when they got up with us and free styled/scratched/beat boxed like angels.  Union Chapel was great, and very challenging, apologies to any of you who suffered with bad sound early in the gig. We had never played a venue of that type and our instrumentation and our team were pushed to the limits by the space, beat box and double bass present a unique challenge for a sound man, and so does a huge echoey church. Apologies to anyone whose enjoyment was impaired at all during the show. We were all giving you everything we had. The 3-part harmony was great.

I did a fair bit of preaching on this tour.  In Cambridge the energy at the gig felt a little slow, people didn't seem to be having a wild time. During Feel Inside my intuition said I should preach! I asked the question 'What can we do about how dark the future currently seems'?  How can we deal with how much suffering is happening, and is about to happen, and how do we serve the needs of others and not just collapse in to apathy and numbness?  You are so powerful, so mighty, and you have a huge responsibility, we can't let the world go to hell in a hand basket.  We have to act now.  NOW! YOU!  Direct action to stop them digging up fossil fuels, direct action to stop them sending more arms to the Gulf,  go to the camp for climate action.  That kind of ranting.  And if your heart's engaged and you're saying what you really feel, people hear it, and in Cambridge people seemed to go 'Wo' and open up and start having a good time as if there was some meaning here now.  It's not just musicians making nice music, there's some honesty here. 

But equally I'm very aware that this sort of thing can just be really annoying, that you can be another self-important f%^ing singer.  But I feel it's immensely important that we start to talk, that we say what we really feel regardless of cynicism or close mindedness.  We all need to be talking about these issues and organising and addressing them now. It doesn't make you popular with the media, it's not very marketable, my girlfriend thinks it's embarrassing, but f*%k it. Speak about what you love! Speak about your love for the world. Don't let it all go under cos you're scared of being called a hippy!

PREACH!

We are in Ireland getting ready for our last three shows of this tour. Come down! IRELAND UP RISE!

May will be quiet.  In the Summer;: festivals and maybe recording a few new songs. In the Autumn; another big ole tour of the UK and Ireland, start telling your friends, look out for updates, sign up to the mailing list on nizlopi.com,  and get hitting the demand button on our my space if you want us to come somewhere off the beaten track.

LOVE Luke x

Hello All

In the van, full of cold.  We had a meeting on the ferry planning the coming week.  I’m moving house, Kate’s still unwell, and things are getting frantic for the release of this album.  Wo baby but it doesn’t rain, 3 come at once.

We are over in Ireland ready for our performance tomorrow night on the Late Late Show. Great, I love this show, profoundly brilliant institution in Ireland, and great craic at the after show party.  We are a bit bothered by the fact they want us to mime with a live vocal!  We love playing live, and making something happen in the moment.  So apologies for the lack of live music.  We are doing a load of other Irish stuff next week and playing live on TV and Radio so that’s all good.

Steven Merchant Radio 6 Music this Sunday will be hosting us at 4pm.  We have all been having big ole debates about what we will play.  I really believe in this song of ours called England Up rise, It’s passionate, deep, and it rocks.  But everyone on our team seems to not like it or think it wont work on his show! It’s a song about standing up for your beliefs, telling the people of England and the world to up rise for all they love!  The future is being destroyed by the rich and the ruling classes and the way we are living, we can stop this!  But maybe it’s a wack song with an unclear message?  I don’t know, what do you do when you deeply believe something, and all those around you whom you trust think you’re bonkers?!

Anyway.  Have a good week, and I will see you at these gigs in April.  Tell your friends, family, and all you know.  Please, it really helps us a lot if you pass the word that we’re playing, and we promise we will give them a good time.

Be bold, and as my mate Rachel’s book says ’Live this year as your last’

Love Luke x