Live with Little Sparrow

What's The Alaternative?...THIS IS! with Little Sparrow adding some other worldly vocals to Day In Day Out, before playing her own shimmering set.
The Speed Of Sound set was:
Only Everything
Chalk Circle
Checkered Land
I Can't Say
Maid Of The Grey
Girl On The Roof
Seen It All Before
Love
Day In Day Out (with Little Sparrow)
There's No One There

Bright lights and action

Live photo's from 'What's The Alternative?...THIS IS!'
With Turner playing I'm Real one of ours that hadn't had an airing for 25 years
Fantastic.
Set List:
The Changes
Sit By The River
Checkpoint Charlie
Glide On By
Maid Of The Grey
Seen It All Before
Day In Day Out
Checkered Land
Love
Girl On The Roof
I'm Real (with turner)
There's No One There

Whats The Alternative?... THIS IS! in the Manchester Evening News

The Manchester Evening News has a preview of February's What's The Alternative?... gig with Little Sparrow:

You can read it on their website here

Reject corporate pop and revel in true independence.

South Manchester's Little Sparrow has developed into a uniquely talented artist through her imaginative song writing and the captivating delivery demonstrated in her live performances.

The delicately crafted songs contained within her debut album ‘Wishing Tree’ and her new EP ’Struck Gold’ combine flawless vocals, angelic strings and tender harmonies, taking listeners on a journey from heart breaking sadness to uplifting joy.

And Manchester's The Speed Of Sound continue to ply their original music that manages to cross the Velvet Underground with The Jam and Neil Young with Siouxsie & The Banshees in their own idiosyncratic manner.

Both will play 40 minute sets.

Live from 9pm.

Little Sparrow is as captivating to watch as she is to listen to.
Her beautifully emotive use of expression mirrors the sincerity of her delivery, making her someone not to be missed.
Her delicately crafted songs are created with a combination of flawless vocals, strings, guitars, percussion and tender harmonies.

Singer-songwriter Katie Ware adopted the name Little Sparrow about four years ago as she felt it characteristic of the sound she was beginning to create and the direction in which she wished to travel.
Drawing upon influences as diverse as Kate Bush, All About Eve and PJ Harvey she creates songs that are filled with a blend of styles, woven into the colourful tapestry of her music, often with a mysterious fairy tale quality.

Her debut album ‘Wishing Tree’ features brand new tracks written for the album and also those which have become favourites through her live performances.

She recently released her new EP 'Struck Gold' which along with the title track (taken from her album) contains two previously unreleased tracks.

www.itunes.apple.com/gb/album/wishing-tree/id871212909
www.uklittlesparrow.bandcamp.com/album/struck-gold-ep

A growing amount of media attention and live appearances in 2014 culminated in her making an appearance at the beautiful Union Chapel in London.

2015 promises to be a very exciting year for Little Sparrow.
www.littlesparrow.org/
www.twitter.com/uklittlesparrow
www.facebook.com/singinglittlesparrow
www.youtube.com/user/uklittlesparrow

The Speed Of Sound

Purveyors of original independent Manchester music since 1989 with various lineup changes along the way but always retaining the same guitar/vocal combination of founder John Armstrong, Kevin Roache is the bands longest serving bass player and the pair are now joined by 18 year old powerhouse drummer Owen Deane.

"A cool mix of punk and The Byrds 5th Dimension LP" - LORD LITTER Radio DJ Berlin Germany

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hear a merger between Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and Lou Reed?... The vocals are dark and melancholy - they have an intense quality that makes me stop everything I'm doing and just listen. The music surrounding the words pulls me along like a tide, making me drift away from reality without feeling that I have an option" MUSICVSTHEWORLD BLOG

"Quite a modern folk rock feel with a definite dash of 80's post punk/alt thrown in... vocally there is a hint of Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, bit of Jagger, great sound. Musically the sound alternates between Rock; verging on heavy/psych to alt/punk with some great instrumentation along the way." MADFERRETS MUSICBLOG

http://thespeedofsounduk.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.reverbnation.com/thespeedofsound

http://thespeedofsound.bandcamp.com/

£7.00 (£4.00 concessions)

We're going to take you through the looking glass...

The video for Checkered Land:

Filmed by Music Videos Manchester, mixing live footage with John Tenniel illustrations from Alice Through The Looking Glass plus additional images by Natalie Paddick of NPME Style.
We had a lot of fun making this, MVM 'got' what we wanted to do and had some cool input too, but they still indulged us by sticking to the precise frame image placement instructions we gave them. Natalie's photographs look spectacular anyway so it was fabulous to have them to play with, I thought the 'on the table' shot would work but ...wow. Thanks to MVM and NPME. Teamwork rocks.
Watch, enjoy and spread the word. Thank you!

January What's The Alternative in The News

Manchester Evening News :
Neat.
click here to see on their website

Reject corporate pop and revel in true independence.

Salford chanteuse Turner is ear catching, eye catching and described as "One to watch" in John Robb's Louder Than War website; Turner invites you to sample her excellence in wistful melancholic joy.

Meanwhile Manchester's The Speed Of Sound continue to ply their original music that manages to cross the Velvet Underground with The Jam and Neil Young with Siouxsie & The Banshees in their own idiosyncratic manner.

Live from 9pm 

With DJ after the live music continuing til late

£7 (£4 concessions)

Turner: This is Turner... Born and bred in Audenshaw Tameside, Turner was introduced to the world with music coursing through her veins & even as a young girl was spoon-fed delicious melody's from the greats such as Dusty Springfield, Scott Walker, Blondie, The Beach Boys to name but a few!

After moving up the road to Salford & a chance meeting with Guy Garvey at a recording studio Louise was asked to appear on the Mercury Prize-winning & platinum-selling album 'The Seldom Seen Kid' with Elbow from then on Turner made many Manchester connections with even Peter Hook asking to jam sometime!

Salford-based Louise then teamed up with the successful "Art&Soul" band DC Fontana from 2012-2013 and enjoyed a busy action packed year gigging around the country, appearing at numerous venues including the 100 Club London and Euro YeYe festival in Spain and receiving fantastic reviews for the bands EP Pentagram Man which was produced by Julian Cope's Guitarist Donald Ross Skinner & working closely with 60's legend Don Fardon.

She already enjoys a successful career as an in-demand session singer...& with a string of collaborations and guest appearances on tunes featuring Primal Scream's Denise Johnson, Manc Poet and songwriter Edward Barton, Bluebird Kid Clark & The Electric Stars.

Indeed, her crystalize vocals and powerful lungs have appeared on numerous records but despite her prowess as a much sought-after studio singer this Salford Chanteuse decided to step out on her own with her debut Minin Album This Is Turner.

Turner has had an action packed 2014 building her platform and becoming the first female solo artist to sign with respected indie label Detour Records.

The 6 track album was produced by another respected Manchester face - Yves Altana (The Chameleons/I Am Kloot/Mark Burgess) and showcases the many sides of Turner, all part of her vintage charm, one minute classic Dusty, the next epic Scott Walker style ballads & just for good measure a track that could easily fit into the next Bond Film.

Ear catching, eye catching and described as 'One to watch' in John Robb's Louder Than War Turner invites you to sample her excellence in wistful melancholic joy.
www.thisisturner.com
www.facebook.com/thisisturner.com
www.youtube.com/turnerfilm
www.twitter.com/turnersalford

"Turner is one to watch out for" - LOUDER THAN WAR

"With her platinum bob, panda kohl eyes and expressive voice... Part Dusty/Part Debbie Harry, she's very adaptable to many styles and sounds" - NO OTHER PRESS

"This is Turner! And Ladies & Gentlemen, we should be glad, For here is an artist who is far more than a singer songwriter. Turner is an icon in waiting. She is totally out of step with the mass produced, unit shifting pop of today and that Music Lovers is a good thing ! Turner's songs are dripping in melody & emotion. Lyrically she can be both disturbing and mysterious, without ever losing her knack for a killer hook. Her 2013 take  on bohemian suss, make her the perfect antidote to the TV conveyor belt of shame !" - TONY SALT (Manchester Underground Scene)

The Speed Of Sound:  Purveyors of original independent Manchester music since 1989 with various lineup changes along the way but always retaining the same guitar/vocal combination of founder John Armstrong, Kevin Roache is the bands longest serving bass player and the pair are now joined by 18 year old powerhouse drummer Owen Deane.

"A cool mix of punk and The Byrds 5th Dimension LP" - LORD LITTER Radio DJ Berlin Germany

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hear a erger between Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and Lou Reed?... The vocals are dark and melancholy - they have an intense quality that makes me stop everything I'm doing and just listen. The music surrounding the words pulls me along like a tide, making me drift away from reality without feeling that I have an option" MUSICVSTHEWORLD BLOG

"Quite a modern folk rock feel with a definite dash of 80's post punk/alt thrown in... vocally there is a hint of Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, bit of Jagger, great sound. Musically the sound alternates between Rock; verging on heavy/psych to alt/punk with some great instrumentation along the way." MADFERRETS MUSICBLOG

http://www.reverbnation.com/thespeedofsound

http://thespeedofsound.bandcamp.com/

sneak-peek at the new video

Happy new calendar year and if you had seasonal festivities we hope they went well. We're getting 2015 underway with some editing; it's a change for us as its the first video we haven't done ourselves, our own technology didn't let us do what we wanted on this, so we had a chat with Music Videos Manchester, and Alistair has been very helpful. Today was the second editing session and we expect it'll be all wrapped in another one or two bursts. It's exciting to be working with Natalie Paddick from NMPE Style on this too her photographic images are really dynamic and fit superbly.
(See her website)
Here's a sneak-peek image taken this afternoon:

New Solar Year

We were still playing at midnight at Mono so could welcome in the new solar year properly, thanks to all the venues we've played over the last year, to all the bands and artists that have shared the stage with and thanks to everyone that came out to see us in 2014, bought a 7" single, or CD, or download, or badge-set, or watched a video or listened online. 2015 has some really cool stuff happening and we're really looking forward to it. Happy New Year.

Set List 20/21 December 2014:
The Changes
Only Everything
Uhrwerk
The Wargame
Checkered Land
Glide On By
Checkpoint Charlie
I Can't Say
Chalk Circle
Sit By The River
Maid Of The Grey
Girl On The Roof
Love
You've Got To Move Too
There's No One There

(and thanks to Miles Walton for these photographs, Owen was there playing too but we've not got any pics with him in - let us know if you got one)