This is The Tour Online, now mid voyage, come aboard! Raf and O play Underwater Blue and Bowie – The Man Who Sold The World: live videos
March 22, 2021 § Leave a comment
Six months ago we started The Tour Online and the performances brought in the press. We are very grateful
“Stunning” Pennyblackmusic
“It’s going to haunt my dreams” Joe Muggs
“Greatly strung out on heavens high as always.
Love it” Monolith Cocktail
Untrapping (can we do this?) our way out of this global overhanging shadow, with hope in sight we are still battling. Envisaging new ways to bring live shows to our fans, we embarked on one year long virtual tour, where we launched Children Of The Bewlay Brothers (to David Bowie with Love), a project to bring you renditions and interpretations of ‘the man who sang himself to Earth’ alongside The Kick Inside – The Songs of Kate Bush and the songs of Raf and O. We’ve been visually and sonically bathing in monochrome and colour hues, reticulations, guitars. and atmos, piano and upright strings and lots and lots of vocals down those internet cables, while the light of a century old moon bass drum overlooked unsuspectingly. (Continues below)
Fifteen shows down the line we have been performing live to our fans in front of the camera on the other side of the screen, a big big thank you to them, they have been exploring with us a new way we can perform. Some stills from the virtual tour are HERE , follow us on STAGEIT, the platform we use to perform.
Below, a couple of live videos showing a glimpse of The Tour Online, a peep hole, a key that you can turn, to come inside you must come on board or continue the journey with us. Each performance lasts almost an hour, always new surprises, the audience interact live with us through the power of the written word aka live chat, we, on the other hand interact with the spoken word and live sound & vision. You can find our remaining dates on our LIVE page. We are waiting for you!
Tickets are now on sale for the following shows:
Mar 27 – The Kick Inside The Songs Of Kate Bush – TICKETS
Apr 10 – The Songs Of Raf and O – TICKETS
Apr 24 – The Kick Inside The Songs Of Kate Bush – TICKETS
May 08 – Children Of The Bewlay Brothers – TICKETS
(to David Bowie with Love)
We have also relaunched our sisters FB and TWITTER pages as Raf and O play Bush & Bowie: The Kick Inside and Children Of The Bewlay Brothers. Give them a like and a follow and of course our main social media pages have journaled all stages of our tour so far – you can catch all updates HERE and HERE! See you soon on The Tour Online, in fact we’re back this Saturday with The Kick Inside – The Songs Of Kate Bush at this link. Totally looking forward to unleash some more surprises. https://stageit.com/raf-and-o/95673
With love and renewed energy
Raf and O XxX
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In Chaos, In Line, We Tour Online, We Are Raf and O, We Are The Kick Inside, We Are Children Of The Bewlay Brothers
June 24, 2020 § Leave a comment
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No other time that I’ve lived through has ever felt as sobering. We can’t be near … the underlining fear … we’re through … we’re not … in chaos yet in line … the strangest times.
Testing our sanity, a world living with coronavirus had affected everyone’s lives beyond recognition. The world had slowed down.
At Raf and O headquarters, what could have been initially perceived as a quashed creative flow, has in fact reversed its black hole effect. Engaging again, yes challenged by the events, but responding to them in different ways.
Having had to stop our physical engagements just after coming back from a show near Liverpool at West Kirby Arts Centre, a show with a thoroughly warm reception and vibe, was a sudden blow, but the gravity of the global situation was far more harrowing. Like for many other artists and musicians, performances stopped, ongoing workshops were replaced in part by online teaching and the day to day worry dampened our spirits for a while. Have things since eased a bit? Maybe, too early to say. We are though adjusting and within that, finding a renewed sense of creative energy flowing through us, helping to replenish an unattended soul garden.
So, come with us on this journey, yes, countered to this subdued introduction, I would like you to know that we are very excited, we are going on virtual tour!
Announcing:
THE TOUR ONLINE 2020 – 2021
tickets available HERE
A year-long tour, two Saturdays each month, two shows each Saturdays to allow for different time zones, the whole world is invited, we transport ourselves live into wherever you are and perform.
Check dates below, times and tickets will be announced on our social media channels and updates on this website
We are The Kick Inside – The Songs of Kate Bush
Raf and O acoustic take (vocal, piano and double bass) celebrating early Kate Bush. For info, videos and more check THE KICK INSIDE PAGE
now hosted within the Raf and O website
We are Raf and O
Four acclaimed albums to date and currently penning a new one, yes, this is happening too!! Check our releases on
RAF AND O’S BANDCAMP
We are Children Of The Bewlay Brothers
Having released interpretations of David Bowie Songs featured on three Raf and O albums, celebrated the man live on wonderful and prestigious occasions, as documented on several of these blogs and having dedicated an original song to him ‘A BOW TO BOWIE’ on latest album ‘THE SPACE BETWEEN NOTHING AND DESIRE’ , the time has come to widen the circle. Raf and O as Children Of The Bewlay Brothers take on Raf and O interpretations together with extra renditions of the man who ‘sang himself to earth’ exploring his work through a Raf and O approach and beyond! Come and discover. Launching on Saturday 14th November!
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A Special Surprise Every Show
RAF AND O AS THE KICK INSIDE – THE SONGS OF KATE BUSH (TKI)
26 September 2020
24 October 2020
28 November 2020
26 December 2020
23 January 2021
27 February 2021
27 March 2021
24 April 2021
22 May 2021
26 June 2021
24 July 2021
28 August 2021
RAF AND O
10 October 2020
12 December 2020
13 February 2021
10 April 2021
12 June 2021
14 August 2021
RAF AND O AS CHILDREN OF THE BEWLAY BROTHERS (COTBB)
14 November 2020
09 January 2021
13 March 2021
08 May 2021
10 July 2021
12 September 2021
Continues below
We made a couple of videos from the performance at Paper Dress Vintage hosted by the wonderful Mally Harpaz, multi-instrumentalist with Anna Calvi, it was a thorough pleasure to be part of that event, which now, after the whole series of events, feels like a lifetime ago! Videos were also sent in from the performances at West Kirby Arts Centre, again it was a great pleasure to join folks up there.
I’m including a couple down here. Thanks again to Mal Robinson and Margaret Stevie Baker for the footage. Enjoy!
We truly can’t wait to re-engage with you all live again and in our world of screen technology, we should all have a splendid time on THE TOUR ONLINE, details coming soon, please come join us on tour and follow us on our social media pages too, spread the word, we really need you right now!!
Much, much love from Raf and O X
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Raf and O – Your Gazing Stare Live at Paper Dress Vintage
Raf and O as The Kick Inside – The Songs Of Kate Bush – The Man With The Child In His Eyes Live at West Kirby Arts Centre
Gazing Ahead to The Space Between Nothing And Desire + Celebrating Kate Bush with The Kick Inside Launch and a Live Session on the DeXter Bentley Show
February 11, 2018 § Leave a comment
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It’s 2018 and we’re kicking off with live activities again!
Kate Bush has given music lovers something to treasure: a great musician and producer, a brilliant composer and an amazing most unique voice. This year and month marks the 40th anniversary of Kate and her debut album. Adopting their name from this album,TKI or The Kick Inside, a tribute to Kate Bush by Raf and O (see previous blog), perform tracks from her early albums fully live, elegantly and stylishly capturing the energy, excitement and fragility of Kate’s music on vocals, piano and double bass. Celebrating Kate, The Kick Inside Launch, promoted by the always excellent Kaparte, is in London at Bar & Co, the club on a boat, Temple Pier, on Sunday 25th February. It is also O Richard’s birthday and Raf, will keep celebration on hold till then.
‘We’ll be playing a full show of Kate’s beautiful songs from the early part of her career. Triple celebration. Come!’
The launch is also featured on Kate Bush News and TKI has been described as:
’Strikingly individual’ Kate Bush News
And to kick start it all off, The Kick Inside will be playing live in session on the mighty deXter Bentley Show on London’s Resonance 104.4 FM, Saturday 17th February, 12pm which is the date marking Kate’s debut album 40 years ago!
We’re now gazing ahead to … and we’re very excited to introduce ‘The Space Between Nothing And Desire’. That is the title of Raf and O’s new album and it’s set to be released later this year!
A slice from the album was aired yesterday for the very first time on the deXter Bentley Show: an edit preview of a brand new Raf and O song, ‘Your Gazing Stare’. The album will also include our version of David Bowie’s ’The London Boys’. We can’t say too much more at this stage, but keep your ears and eyes peeled, social media is always the quicker way to get fresh news!
Last November we even got to say thank you in person for the support Mike Garson had given to our version of Bowie’s Lady Grinning Soul back in 2013 after he played a magical show at the Camden Underworld!
Raf and O are now on Instagram too and we have unveiled a new logo, a moon-light reworking from our previous. Come and follow our new Instagram page here and here
See you down at THE KICK INSIDE LAUNCH. Come!
Raf and O Xx
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The Kick Inside – Kate Bush Tribute Live Outfit and Raf and O Tour in the pipeline
July 10, 2017 § Leave a comment
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The Kick Inside – Kate Bush Tribute (TKI)
Promo Shot and Still from Video – ‘Wuthering Heights’ ‘Wow’ & Teasers Live in the Warm Room
July greetings from Raf and O!
This year we’ve been very busy getting a new project off the ground:
The Kick Inside (TKI)!
This is an entirely separate music outfit, named after Kate Bush’s first album and it’s a tribute to the artist herself!
We’ve also been busy with Raf and O and you can read more on the latter part of this blog.
I’ve been doing a lot of piano playing recently on the latest and beautiful addition to the instrument roster: a lovingly converted piano keyboard by O featuring f holes!
Last May we announced it on our facebook page – As well as cracking on with writing material for our 4th album, and reinterpreting favourite artists, mainly David Bowie interpretations, I’m starting a tribute to the music of Kate Bush, where I will sing and play piano extensively, focusing on the early part of Kate’s career and this time, keeping faithful to the original pieces.
Since then we’ve got a new TKI page up and running and just over a week ago we released our very first video, recorded live in The Warm Room, which received a great reception.
Monolith Cocktail writes:
“Raf Mantelli one half of our favourite avant-garde and frayed experimentalist duo Raf and O adds her idiosyncratic, enchanting signature to the music of Kate Bush on her latest project, The Kick Inside. Concentrating on Bush’s early career, the focus being on her ‘core essence as a pianist singer songwriter’, The Kick Inside tribute band will soon be announcing dates for a number of performances. In the meantime, here’s a teaser” Monolith Cocktail
The Kick Inside, as well as the solo show, will also perform as a duo and here, O will be alongside me but in a role that may be a surprise for many amongst you.
THE KICK INSIDE LINKS
TKI page
TKI Facebook
TKI Twitter
TKI Youtube Channel
CONTINUES BELOW
In the meantime…
Raf and O will return to Italy to play a small series of shows and look forward to go back to some favourite places during the tour! We will debut some new material and there will be a few surprises along the way too! Already looking forward to seeing friends old and new and very excited about the set we will be playing!
As well as developing the TKI project we’ve been also writing material toward a new album; this has been keeping us focused in the studio, so it was lucky if you managed to catch Raf and O playing earlier this year including the legendary experimental Klinker Club and a charity show to raise awareness on mental health for Punk4MentalHealth at the UnderDog Gallery.
Our own cover interpretation of David Bowie’s ‘The London Boys’ received radio play on the latest Chaos Theory Radio Show where Kunal was joined by Alan Pride for a selection of cool tunes! It was also aired on the Dexter Bentley Show Resonance FM and our Bowie’s cover of ‘Win’ was aired, again on Dexter’s ‘The Day Before’ , a tribute to David which also featured an extract from Mary Finnigan’s book ‘Psychedelic Suburbia: David Bowie and the Beckenham Arts Lab’ plus an interview with her; we were deeply touched by Mary’s words for Raf and O who introduced us on the show. And lastly, Raf and O’s Magic from our latest album Portal that was mastered at Cage studios is included in a new free to download compilation ‘Cage 24’ by Martin Bowes from Attrition, pioneers of darker electronica.
For fresh up to date news join our Raf and O social media pages, FB and Twitter and watch this space!
Raf and O xx
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Raf and O 
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