Raf and O

‘Cause if you think of what it’s all about, you probably find it’s about creating.

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Side One Of This Very Blog

GOODBYE TOUR ONLINE

Mission accomplished. 24 dates and one year later, Raf and O (aka Raf Mantelli and O Richard Smith) with our fans emerge from The Tour Online celebrating. Dependable, journeying together, ‘cause if you think of what it’s all about, you probably find it’s about creating.

Courageous and strong, varied and long, each show different from the next, The Metro’s newspaper featured Raf and O’s livestream shows among the best online. Punching through to the other side of the screen, interacting with the visuals we created for the shows, there were performances, tensions, drama, release, there were smiles, sounds, lots of sounds, live, smooth, edgy, dynamic. There were a lot of interactions with our fans. Intertwining interpretations of David Bowie songs (TMWSTW live video features on our previous blog) colliding with renditions, at time total revisions of the songs of Kate Bush, riding the collision through to the other side to meet Raf and O songs with a lot of the already released tracks freshly approached for the tour and a lot of the new, unheard and previewed for the eyes and the ears of the eager out there. O and I want to really say: A deep felt THANK YOU, you are the best fans and we are going to bring you more. You can find The Tour Online action shots album here

RAF AND O ‘TOMMY NEWTON’
INSPIRED BY ‘THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH

“Intoxicating, reflective, artistic and dramatic”

God Is In The TV zine

“A spellbinding lamentable love song … sublime”

Monolith Cocktail

Amongst the new Raf and O songs, one in particular is close to our hearts: ‘Tommy Newton’, which will be part of our new album is inspired by ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’, the 1976 science fiction film based on the novel by Walter Davis directed by Nicolas Roeg, starring David Bowie in the role of Thomas Jerome Newton and Candy Clark in the one of Mary-Lou. It’s a love song I’ve written from the perspective of Mary-Lou, she’s talking to Tommy, but it’s really happening in her mind, she’s talking to herself and she’s talking to us. I loved the film all my life, just as I’ve loved Bowie. Performed for the first time ever on The Tour Online, the live video of this performance has been featured by the press and now is part of this blog too!

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Raf and O – ‘Tommy Newton’ Live on The Tour Online 12 June 2021

Side Two Of This Very Blog 

Last month I published my stream of consciousness on social media. 

“Some time we take our time to figure out where we may want to head out next. There is no clear path set, only the leading light of our imagination to determine our next steps. So, with that in mind, we’re at the end of the tour online and we may yet have to define what has to come up next, under the leading light of stars, some place afar.”

Raf Mantelli (2021)

So we’ve let our imagination flow and time has clearly grown, or has it compressed?

….. On the event horizon
2022
We’re launching two projects 
INTER-PLA-NET-LIVE and CONSTELLATION CLUB

INTER-PLA-NET-LIVE 

PHASE 1 
5 shows 
one every 5 weeks 
like the points of a star
Starting January 2022

Building on the strength and success of The Tour Online, INTER-PLA-NET-LIVE will see Raf and O presenting new live shows in the ether, accessible from all parts of the world and who knows, the universe perhaps?
Reaching new territories – it’s in the DNA.

plus …..
CONSTELLATION CLUB 

Are you a star in our galaxy? 
A new club to see the birth of our NEW ALBUM.
Very excited. Details to be announced

plus …..
The return of SHARED AIR SHOWS

We have a new name for those shows in the flesh, you know, the ones where we share the same physical space as the audience. ‘Shared Air Shows’, that’s how we will refer to them from now on. Alongside INTER-PLA-NET-LIVE (our future live online shows) we are testing the atmosphere soon to be leaving the capsule. Yes we will back wherever possible, performing in the flesh too, so look out for Shared Air Shows by Raf and O from soon into the future … 

THEATRES, PROMOTERS, FESTIVALS, RAF AND O HAVE THREE EVER EXPANDING LIVE SHOWS TO BRING TO YOU!

THE SONGS OF RAF AND O
(Tommy Newton Live Video)
THE KICK INSIDE – THE SONGS OF KATE BUSH
(Babooshka Live Video)
CHILDREN OF THE BEWLAY BROTHERS
(TO DAVID BOWIE WITH LOVE)
(The Man Who Sold The World Live Video)

For bookings and more info email: info@rafando.com

plus …..
ART IS CALLING

The rekindling of another passion of mine – ART. 

After years of making music and writing songs I’m making art again, I see them working like a seesaw. Maintaining a visual connection through album artwork creation, video visions, visuals and performance, this is only a step away, or the gestures of a hand. Below a couple of portraits, you may recognise the subjects.
Watch out for work and it will take different forms, from now into the future …
Commissions are of course welcome – info@rafando.com

plus …..

There is more, but you know… it can wait for now!
2022 will see us busy …. Raf and O ❤

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