“Haunting And Compelling” Raf And O Review & Interview on Pennyblackmusic + London Live Show with Mally Harpaz and with TKI At West Kirby Arts Centre

September 18, 2019 § Leave a comment

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Raf and O Live t The Union Chapel, photo by Angelique Le Marchand at 3-Song Rule

Greetings! We have some exciting live news to announce and the latest from planet Raf and O!
Aside or probably more accurately orbiting around all current madness we’re seeking refuge in our music havens!

Raf and O are delighted to join Mally Harpaz on Tuesday September 24, an event presented by Blind Dog Studio at Paper Dress Vintage in London with Echo Wants Her Voice Back. There will also be some special guests.
Mally, multi instrumentalist with Anna Calvi, will be performing songs from her new album, Raf and O will  perform songs from the new album ‘The Space Between Nothing And Desire’ and on the bill also singer songwriter Echo. Looking forward to this very special concert! Not to be missed!
Get your TICKETS HERE!
FB EVENT

On Friday, November 8, we are heading to the northwest, precisely to West Kirby Arts Centre, where we’ll be presenting both a long set by The Kick Inside with lots of beautiful early songs by Kate Bush and a specially selected Raf and O set.
TICKETS  on sale now!

Continues below


Raf and O Live at The Union Chapel, photo by Angelique Le Marchand at 3-Song Rule


The Kick Inside – The Songs of Kate Bush at The Penny Theatre, photo by Phill Morgan

Since the release of our new album ‘The Space Between Nothing And Desire’  which garnered some fantastic reviews, (see our previous blog) we were reviewed and interviewed in Pennyblackmusic Magazine, where both O and I talked to John Clarkson about our new album, the influence of David Bowie, The Kick Inside and Kate Bush, Scott Walker, Raf and O live, where are we from? And a few other things.
Read the whole interview here

“Raf and O are a defiantly original act, one which one can listen to time over and still find something new, and with ‘The Space Between Nothing and Desire’ they have created an album that is as daring as it is compelling”
PENNYBLACKMUSIC

This year marks 50 years of the Moon landing, 50 years of Space Oddity and 50 years since David Bowie performed at the Growth Beckenham Free Festival on the bandstand that has just received its Grade II Listing, the same bandstand appearing on the cover of our second album Time Machine and where we recorded ‘Echoes’ live (featuring on our ‘Portal’ album) at MOAFF in 2014. Proud to have played this festival three times since the remake back in 2013 and of course we celebrated in our own way, by releasing  ‘A Bow To Bowie’  our song dedicated to David featuring on the new album and receiving wonderful support from the likes of Electronic Sound, God Is In The TV Zine, Joe Muggs, Monolith Cocktail, Pennyblackmusic and Adrian Specs, a big thank you! And thanks to the Soap Company for inclusion on their best albums.

Don’t miss the upcoming concerts!

Spread the news!

With love

Raf and O X

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Raf and O Celebrate David Bowie’s 70th Birthday Covering ‘The London Boys’

January 8, 2017 § Leave a comment

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Raf and O – The London Boys (David Bowie Cover)
Photo by Wendy Woo.

Today would have been David Bowie’s 70th birthday.
Last year was tough and performing at the Union Chapel in his honour felt right, even if strange. We then released ‘Win’ on our last album ‘Portal’ and by the time of Bowie’s Beckenham Oddity (The Beckenham Free Festival Remake) it was easier to smile. Always an influence, we’ve been featuring his tracks in the live sets for a few years and getting a thumb up from Mike Garson for our take on ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ was very special – so to celebrate this special day we have recorded our version of ‘The London Boys’, a Bowie gem from 1966! And leaving electronics aside, this is us at our most acoustic: I play piano and sing and O plays guitar.
Happy birthday David!

With much love.
Raf and O X
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Original press release for David Bowie’s Rubber Band/ The London Boys

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Electronic Sound Reviews Portal, Raf and O Cover Scott Walker, Bowie Reflections, Italian Summer, Live on Radio and Magic on Video, Halloween DJ’s and other outings.

December 18, 2016 § Leave a comment

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Well, this year is “almost” over and before the new one begins we thought we’d endeavour to bring you news, thoughts, collection and recollections of the last 4 months and this will include the playlist for a special dj set we did at this year’s Kaparte Oxjam. In July we launched our new album ‘PORTAL’ (available ‘HERE‘) at the wonderful St James The Less in Pimlico (see previous blog). It has now been reviewed on Electronic Sound Magazine!

“Raf and O specialise in floaty and delicate musical paintings. Raf’s dreamy vocals leading the way but more often than not melting into the instrumentation. The highlights include a track based on the words of Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 62’ and a version of David Bowie’s ‘Win’ which is almost unrecognisable and utterly charming. All in all, this is beautiful stuff.”
Push, ELECTRONIC SOUND
(See picture below for the whole review).

We also launched an EP containing two tracks from Portal and two tracks with Raf and O working alongside electronicist and Grace Jones’s collaborator Robert Logan (available HERE).

Now, the latest! Raf and O have covered the very beautiful Scott Walker’s ‘Such a Small Love’ as part of  ‘Plastic Palace People’, an exclusive streamable and downloadable album curated by God Is In The TV Zine! We’re thoroughly proud to offer this Seasonal gift, which we recorded in Florence for your festive digestive. Listen and free download below.


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The portal will lead us into 2017. 2016 has been a very strange year, a lot of crazy things happening and a lot of people left us David Bowie included. A very recent trip to the wonderful Lazarus Musical brought forward this consciousness, stirring up feelings and sadness, a shared feeling by Bowie fans across the world. But Lazarus is also a celebration of his artistry and alongside Blackstar, the inner workings of a man facing up to his own mortality. This summer we returned to Beckenham for Bowie’s Beckenham Oddity (formerly Memory Of A Free Festival and Beckenham Free Festival) and it was a complete joy/ honour to perform again as Raf and O. Huge love unified all performers musicians, organisers workers and the crowd, all celebrating the Starman. Lovely contributions by many, a real pleasure to share the stage with Maggi Ronson and the band  Jona Lewie, David Live, Clifford Slapper, Amory Kane and more. Thanks to all involved who contributed to make this day very special especially Wendy Faulkner who worked very hard in bringing this year’s festival together and it was brill catching up with Mary Finnigan again who organised the festival with Bowie in 1969. We’ve got some footage shot by the lovely Rhianna, that we’ll post soon, so watch out for that! Alongside new Raf and O material, our set included Bowie’s ‘Lady Grinning Soul’, ‘Win’ included in our last album ‘Portal’ and even a short rendition of ‘After All’.
This is us doing our thing captured beautifully by mister Gaz De Vere. Continues below.
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Raf and O Live at Bowie’s Beckenham Oddity aka Memory Of A Free Festival © Gaz De Vere
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A Starman in the sky. picture by O.

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Since the festival, we traveled to Italy to do some writing and recording including our Scott Walker cover, played a few parties and the excellent Frame Live Club In La Spezia (see press above) on the Ligurian Coast where we were warmly welcomed and throughly enjoyed playing the show to such a receptive audience. Thanks to Alan Pride for keeping things running smooth and on our return to the UK we were kept fairly busy supporting TE Morris from Her Name Is Calla at Chaos Theory’s Whispers and Hurricanes, putting together a special Dj Set (see above) for this year’s Kaparte Oxjam at the Slaughtered Lamb and we played a live session on the Dexter Bentley’s Hello Goodbye show on Resonance FM alongside The Monochrome Set.
In the words of Dexter Bentley “the original post-punk / arch-pop pioneers The Monochrome Set, plus ethereal, futuristic folk duo Raf & O”.
And Monolith Cocktail also featured ‘Portal’ in the top albums of 2016.
Here below is the podcast Raf and O live on Resonance FM and following that is our live performance of  ‘Magic’ from ‘Portal’ lovingly filmed and edited by Riff Underground and Peter Junge. Many thanks to them both and to Chaos Theory for this video.
And to bookend the year, Raf and O just performed at the Xmas edition of the one and only Scaledown in the heart of London. We have a few things brewing but for now wishing you all a peaceful, productive, engaging holiday and see you back in 2017.

Love

Raf and O X

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Bowie’s Beckenham Oddity, ‘Sonnet 62’ Official Video and Raf and O’s New Album ‘Portal’ is Out Now

August 10, 2016 § Leave a comment

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Raf and O Portal Launch Photos 1
Raf and O Portal Album Launch – soundcheck and performance. Photos 1 and 2 © Gaz De Vere, Photo 3 © Peter Tainsh

Raf and O’s new album ‘PORTAL‘ on Telephone Records is OUT NOW!!
Available on CD and Digital via Bandcamp, iTunes and all good digital stores.
Watch the Official Video for ‘Sonnet 62’ with lyrics by William Shakespeare which was premiered on God Is In The TV Zine (see above)

Latest press says:

“The sublime new album by Raf and O is called ‘Portal’. It’s very difficult to choose highlights from such a consistently winning record”
ADRIAN SPECS

“A further voyage into their adventurous musical dreams, spliced with the literary influences of William Seward Burroughs and Shakespeare.”
GOD IS IN THE TV ZINE

“Raf and O are a band of kaleidoscopic, unusual ideas, and, with ‘Portal’, they have created a remarkable record. There is a celestial, otherworldly element to them…they are totally unique”
PENNYBLACKMUSIC MAGAZINE

“Raf and O’s gothic and magical references are twisted to conjure up ominous visions, to a backing track of free-spirited avant-jazz drumming, trip-hop and contorted machine music …from esoteric Italian to plague originated nursery rhyme English, on ‘Drunk’, to channeling a smoky bar room Scott Walker vibe, on ‘Neurons’… Paying homage once again to their biggest inspiration, David Bowie, the duo transforms the original (Win from ‘Young Americans’) into a beautifully melting, strung-out plucked love recital. Brilliantly shimmering with an affectionate, ruminating and heart-aching vocal … the album cementing the partnership’s unique narratives and poetic views of a machine age and cybernetic world”
MONOLITH COCKTAIL

“If you are looking for instant gratification in a busy world, try listening to “The Deadliest Flower” or “Magic” to give you an insight into just one window pane of their diverse work”
HUMAN DYNAMICS

GET THE NEW ALBUM HERE!
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Raf and O Portal Launch Photos 2

Raf and O Portal Album Launch. Photo © Peter Tainsh

The Launch at St James The less was a wonderful experience …. performing the album in its entirety, we were able to make the journey. Tons of thanks to the brilliant Klarita Kaparte for promoting a splendid night, Robert Logan for being the ‘special’ special guest and for his excellent set, Alan Pride for tons of support, thanks to the wonderful audience for being part of the journey, for the photos, the footage and for getting the album.The Portal leads somewhere ….
Ahead of the launch we did an extensive interview with Carya Gish exclusively for Kaparte Promotions. You can read the whole thing HERE:

In January we were all shaken by the news of David Bowie’s passing . Now that we had time to adjust, cannot think of a better way to honour him this summer than to return and join the line up for the Beckenham Bandstand renamed the Bowie Bandstand. The festival is and has always been in our hearts. Originally organised by Bowie and his friends from the Beckenham Arts Lab, The UK’s first Free Festival was on 16 August, 47 years ago and it coincided with the release of his first hit single Space Oddity. This Saturday, 13th August, we will all be celebrating him, the legacy of the Beckenham Arts lab and help to raise funds again at Bowie’s Beckenham Oddity AKA Memory of A Free Festival. The line up comprises of Malcolm Doherty, Daphne Guinness, Maggi Ronson, Raf and O, Phillip Rambow, Jona Lewie, Then Jerico, Amory Kane, Boe Huntress and a few others! 
Mary Finnigan who originally organised the festival with David, will be signing copies of her recently published book Psychedelic Suburbia  and we’re honoured to have a mention “Most impressive were Raf and O, a talented avant-garde duo influenced by David Bowie but no copycat.” Mary Finnigan, Psychedelic Suburbia.   The event organiser Wendy Faulkner  says “After the devastating news of David’s death in January we felt we had to do a tribute for him — and there’s no more fitting place to do this than the bandstand where he played in 1969”. The Bowie Archive has donated another item signed by him plus other items will be available at the auction. Generously supported by DavidBowie.com , Tony Visconti and Iggy Pop.

The festival starts at 1pm, Croydon Road Recreation Ground, Beckenham.
See the whole press release/ line up as featured on David Bowie Official on our LIVE PAGE
TICKETS
FB EVENT

See you there!

Raf and O xx

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Commencing Countdown © Gaz de Vere, All rights Reserved

Bowie's Beckenham Oddity - Commencing Countdown, engines on

 

 

 

Echoes and Dreams. From Beckenham Bowie to the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Raf and O join Richard Strange & the Doctors Of Madness to celebrate William S Burroughs

September 6, 2014 § Leave a comment

Raf and O - Memory Of A Free Festival 2014 - 2Raf and O - Memory Of A Free Festival 2014 - 3

Photos from live footage by Ashley Jones AKA The Chaos Engineers and Matt Lloyd

Beckenham, 16th August 2014, 1.10pm
Raf and O get ready to play on the bandstand. No rain this year, a tentative sun breaks in and out. It’s pretty early and the people are slowly meandering in; an attentive, compact and special crowd watches as the action begins. To celebrate the return onto the bandstand we launch into a rendition of David Bowie’s ‘Cygnet Committee’. It’s the first time we’re playing it, but it ‘s the perfect place to do it. Then a new song of ours, ‘Echoes’; again a totally fresh track, followed by songs from our latest album Time Machine including ‘Lady Grinning Soul’.
Special thanks go to David Stubbs, author of the latest book on Krautrock ‘Future Days’, the legendary music journalist, who recently reviewed us in the Quietus, came down to watch and hear us play. He later wrote something quite beautiful:

“Earlier today at the Memory Of A Free Festival in Beckenham – Raf Mantelli and O Richard Smith, aka Raf And O, playing an excellent set of their tremulous, exquisitely detailed avant pop to an appreciative audience, many of whom were locals who’d never heard the like but very much liked the like. This site, this very bandstand was where David Bowie played at the Beckenham Free Festival 45 years ago to the day in 1969” David Stubbs.

It was a privilege to perform once again on the Beckenham bandstand. Big thanks to Natasha Ryzhova, Mary Finnigan, Amory & Bill, Roger Wootton of legendary Comus, thank you for your words, honoured to share the stage, along with all artists and folks helping and working hard toward the Festival. Thank you to David Bowie for donating once again to the auction, Tony Visconti, Woody Woodmansey, Holy Holy etc. Details were announced on David Bowie Official website.
And a big thank you goes to Ashley Jones AKA The Chaos Engineers and Matt Lloyd for filming us in action. Here is a live footage of ‘Echoes’. Continues below.

‘Eyes closed, wild walls, wild thoughts, visions… so that I can dream, with the dream machine’ (from ‘Dream Machine’ by Raf and O)

Shoreditch, 28th August 2014, evening time.
O and I have come down to ‘Animals In The Walls’, the latest William S Burroughs and Burroughs inspired artists exhibition of original artworks, ‘so that we can dream with the dream machine’. Having written a song about it earlier in the year, inspired by watching the ‘Flicker’ documentary, now it was the time for the direct experience. And so it was. Richard Strange came down too and took part in the ritual. Eyes were positively open as regards to the rest of the exhibition. Running till the 7th. Wonderful to discover us on the Burroughs page too (see picture below).

It’s now just over one month before Raf and O will be joining the amazing Richard Strange and the Doctors Of Madness (who will be reforming for a single one-off performance) with a bill of wonderful artists in another radical celebration of William S Burroughs ‘Language is  A Virus From Outer Space’.  The World Premiere will be at London’s prestigious Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank on October 11th 2014, and will feature musical contributions from Richard Strange, Gavin Bryars, Doctors of Madness, Bill Nelson, Audrey Riley, Sarah-Jane Morris, Raf and O, Kate St John, Anni Hogan, David Coulter and Seb Rochford, Terry Edwards, Luca Silvestrini, the young musicians ensemble We Are Chidren. Gavin Turk, Haroon Mirza, Rupert Thomson and Jeremy Reed.

We are incredibly excited to be part of this wonderful and unique event!
Get your TICKETS HERE!
FACEBOOK EVENT

Raf and O X

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Raf and O - Bowie 's Festival, Burroughs, Richard Strange, Dream Machine——–

Memory of a Free Festival 2014, Fairywood + ‘Time Machine’ is one of this year’s Best Albums on FACT

July 25, 2014 § Leave a comment

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Greetings!
It’s July and as the sun infuses its energy upon us,
may this spread positives among us all!
In our musical world it’s been a really good year so far and continues to be so.
Raf and O’s new album ‘Time Machine has been selected as one of the best album of 2014 in FACT Magazine alongside Neneh Cherry and Rocketnumbernine in the Joe Muggs’s Top 10 Album list!!
We’re wonderfully blown away and very proud of this. Get yourself a copy of the CD Album
HERE. Digital available in all good stores.

Some other wonderful news – Memory Of A Free Festival returns!
Raf and O have been invited to perform again at the re-run of the legendary Beckenham Free Festival organised by David Bowie and The Beckenham Arts Lab in 1969. On Saturday 16th August, Natasha Ryzhova Lau, with the help of some generous volunteers, is staging the event for a second year in a row, 45 years from the day and the date. Mary Finnigan, a key figure of the original festival is also involved and Roger Wootton from legendary Comus (who were playing weekly at the Arts Lab and played the Festival in ’69 ) will also take the stage. We’re thrilled to join all the artists, some of whom we met in 2013, we are opening up proceedings, see the LIVE page for full line up/flyer, location and transport details. Last year saw an audience of over 1000 people and £7000 pounds were raised towards the restoration of the Beckenham Bandstand; it was just wonderful despite a rain machine in full action; may the sun machine return safely to the Croydon Road Recreation Ground. Get there early, gates open 12.30, it’s only a fiver and there’s a beer tent this year too; we’ll be in action just after 1pm, don’t miss!

As well as the Beckenham Festival we’re really looking forward to perform at a new Festival in Brentwood, precisely Fairywood at Kelvedon Hatch, which used to be home to the secret nuclear bunker. The festival with its fairytale and thematic settings promises to be a magical gathering running on the weekend of the 9th and 10th August.
We will take the stage on the Sunday 10th, as the evening starts to fall.  More info and tickets for the whole weekend or for the one day can be found HERE

And to cap it off we’ve recently been invited by the amazing Richard Strange to partake in a unique and very special William Burroughs inspired project at the Queen Elizabeth Hall planned for October, which will also see the Doctors of Madness reforming for a one off performance after 36 years! We are delighted and very honoured!! More details will be posted here in the very near future.

Raf and O x
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Images: Beckenham Bandstand graphic courtesy of Memory Of A Free Festival.
Photos of Raf and O performing at Memory Of A Free Festival in 2013 and on ”Time Machine’ session by Luigi Altilia.

Raf and O - Memory Of A Free Festival 2014.

David Bowie Official Features Raf and O’s New Album; ‘Time Machine’ is Out Now!

April 25, 2014 § Leave a comment

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Raf and O’s new full-length second album is OUT NOW!!!
Finally, we’re so proud to present Time Machine, self-released on Telephone, available on Bandcamp, iTunes and all good digital stores.
Latest press says:
“A beguiling slice of noir-pop…a total treat.”
The Girls Are

“Tripped-out hypnotic Raf and O embody the exploratory art school/mime period Bowie from bent out of shape Air meets folkloric avant-noir to ESG and Radiohead’s Hail To The Thief”
Monolith Cocktail

A special gig was staged at the beginning of the month to celebrate its release.
“She’s a tongue twisting storm, she will sing at the show tonight…
David Bowie Official featured the launch for our new album.
We are absolutely thrilled !!!

“One of the more memorable events of the Beckenham Festival in September 2013 was RAF AND O’s haunting performance of David Bowie’s Lady Grinning Soul (http://smarturl.it/liveRAFnOlady)… Lady Grinning Soul is included on that new LP: Time Machine” David Bowie Official

The front cover captures Raf and O performing on the Beckenham Bandstand
GET IT HERE!

See picture to read in full. Continues below

Raf and O featured on David Bowie Official

The album ‘Time Machine’  was launched within the majestic setting of Shoreditch Church. And inside the dark, beautiful reverb haven, free from the outside bustle, a focused audience gave wonderful support to a special evening of songs and sonics. Also, playing solo upon the grand piano in this fantastic space, Raf gave a very rare performance of a very old song, ‘Fatzer’. Adam Donen with Roger O’Donnell and band performed beautifully not long after. 
We’d like to thank all who came down and once again Kaparte for the wonderful hosting.

More live performances are scheduled. Today we’re off to play at the ‘genuinely alternative after-office’ Scaledown. For more details, address etc, see our LIVE PAGE. Then next up is South East London in May; we shall be performing at Vinyl in Deptford. Details again will be added HERE.

Raf and O x

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Raf and O Launch of Time Machine at Shoreditch Church

Pictures by Angelique Le Marchand, Adam Donen and Lee Winter

Projecting Ahead

December 4, 2013 § Leave a comment

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Hello and December greetings!

2013 is now drawing to a closure. We look back at the highlights of the year: launching Lady Grinning Soul at Café OTO alongside Larsen & Little Annie and performing at Memory Of A Free Festival, (watch Live video), the remake of the iconic Bowie‘s Beckenham Free Festival to raise funds for the bandstand.
Kaparte Oxjam’s night, our last live outing at the Ivy House also felt special; fantastic feedback and lots of very receptive people from each side of the stage. Still cherishing some fabulous gigs.

Raf and O have taken the rest of this year off from live shows and shall return in 2014. Just been confirmed we will be playing at the fabulous Cabaret Futura in February; can’t wait! More dates will be announced soon. In the meantime, we’re working on all logistics for ‘Time Machine’. Our second album will be released in April 2014, a bit later than predicted, but the ‘Time Machine’ will be landing this time. Ahead of the album a new single in March too. We will keep you posted with details and development as they happen. Darkness finds its way in some new inspired tunes as the light reduces and the nights grow longer. New material is in process. Projecting ideas ahead, we hope to bring these fresh sounds to you in the not so distant future! This month we’re prepping something ...

Raf and O - Cinema

And lastly, we leave you with the latest live pictures from the Kaparte Oxjam gig courtesy of Angelique Le Marchand. X
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Raf and O at Kaparte Oxjam 2013 at The Ivy House a Raf and O at Kaparte Oxjam 2013 at The Ivy House b

Memory Of A Free Festival – Lady Grinning Soul Live Video – Raf and O on The Beckenham Bandstand + Kaparte Oxjam 2013

October 13, 2013 § Leave a comment

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When we wrote about our memories of the festival in our last blog , we mentioned a new video was on the way – here it is, all the way from the Beckenham bandstand!
Raf and O perform a micro rendition of David Bowie’s ‘Memory Of A Free Festival’ and ‘Lady Grinning Soul’.
Huge thanks to Luigi Altilia for filming. Further below – ‘Beckenham: Free Festival at bandstand jogs memories of a star man’s arts scene’.

Raf and O - Memory Of A Free Festival Press

Thanks goes to Wendy Woo for sending the newspaper clipping from the day above.

And from the iconic victorian bandstand to the stylish art deco settings of The Ivy House in Nunhead. Keeping it live in the South East, Raf and O will be performing next, at the excellent Kaparte Oxjam Festival- a great line up, alongside Ernesto Tomasini, Gagarin and more. Friday 18th October, a night of experimental and electronic music, avant-garde entertainment, visuals and djs. All proceedings will go to Oxfam. For details, address, tickets and FB event, please see our LIVE PAGE.

See you there!
X
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‘We Played Our Songs And Felt The London Sky …’ Memories Of Memory Of A Free Festival

September 23, 2013 § Leave a comment

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Raf and O at Memory Of A Free Festival a  photo by Dave Flynn Photography
Raf and O at Memory Of A Free Festival b photo by Luigi Altilia

‘Tons of aliens came down, did you not recognise them?’ #rain Raf and O tweet. So the rain machine came down this time, but the crowd was not afraid.
Umbrella heaven in Croydon Road Recreation Ground and we all had a fabulous time!!!
‘Memory Of A Free Festival managed to recreate the magic of the original event’ – a local newspaper reports. The Beckenham Free Festival remake to save the iconic bandstand has been supported by David Bowie who donated signed items that were auctioned on the day. Media coverage includes the Independent, Daily Telegraph, NME, several others got behind the Festival. BBC news and radio also covered the event.
Raf and O had the pleasure to play a live session/ interview for BBC Radio Kent Breakfast Show prior to the Festival.

‘We played our songs and felt the London sky …’Raf and O at Memory Of A Free Festival c photo by Dave Flynn Photography

We also had the privilege to open up proceedings on the Beckenham bandstand. After initial speeches from festival organiser Natasha Ryzhova Lau and Mary Finnigan who organised the original one with David, we took the stage; it had just started to pour down…the wind was sweeping the rain onto the bandstand, but we did not care, the audience was great, we opened with a micro rendition of ‘Memory Of A Free Festival’ then we played the rest of our set and ended with ‘Lady Grinning Soul’. I felt David’s energy up there.

It was a pleasure to share the stage with all who performed, we met some great people, performers, technicians, the audience, volunteers, people from present, past and future; Bill Liesegang, Amory Kane and Mary sharing their memories from 1969. All together at the end for a jam session joining in a longer version of ‘Memory Of A Free Festival’ – Darcy Debrett brought and played an harmonium for the occasion. This was the closure to the second chapter on the bandstand.
Then the auction …
Thanks to Mark Sparkler who compered on the day, Val on sound, big thanks to Natasha who’s done a fab job, Luigi Altilia for filming, all who took photographs, all who shared this moment. A live video from the event will be posted up soon.

Next we will be playing at the ever wonderful Kaparte Oxjam Festival – please check our LIVE PAGE for details and tickets.
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Raf and O at Memory Of A Free Festival - Newspaper clipping

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