Shelf Life, live in Tokyo in 2010

Flyer by D1 Designs

I'm thrilled to announce that after two years since our last live show together, Shelf Life will finally be playing live again in less than 10 days. Back in the old haunt, we'll be playing Rubber Soul again during my forthcoming trip to Japan, on Sunday September 5th.

As usual, entry is free and we'll be on stage from about 7PM. We'll be playing a familiar set (to regular attenders) of material from the 'Best Before End' album and a splendid time should be guaranteed for all. Click the above link for a map of getting to the venue.

We'll look forward to seeing you down the front, and in the meantime, here's 'Louie Louie' to get you in the mood:

Archive clip: Shelf Life - 'With Or Without You'

Getting back on track with the trawl through the archives for publishable content, I finally managed to get this one up over the weekend - Shelf Life's cover of 'With Or Without You'. The clip comes from 2005, and it's quite hard to believe that that's now five years ago. As it was shot with a small camera from the audience, the quality of the video is a little shaky.

We often used to end a show with this track. It was always a fun one to end on as the audience got into the ballad at the beginning, then it really sped up towards the end. Despite not being a major fan of U2 by any shot, I did always like this particular song and it was great fun to play.

I'm also pleased to say that when I return to Tokyo at the end of the summer, Shelf Life will once again be playing together at Rubber Soul (Sunday September 5th). Tokyoites - if you're in town that night, come on down. You heard it here first folks!

Oh, and I hope that regular readers like the new design for this blog. Still much more to do on it, but the look seems much more in keeping with the Web of now than the one of four years ago, when this blog began.

This was Afrobeat!

I had the immense pleasure of seeing this man live tonight - Mr Tony Allen, the co-founder of Afrobeat and Fela Kuti's former drummer. Although I arrived late to the show, the rhythms got me grooving immediately and the strains of the week fell off like scales. An incredible drummer that made it all look so effortless, Allen was a congenial host, the atmosphere was so warm and welcoming, and the music was just fantastic. My feet kept moving for a long time afterwards.

It was my first concert at Brighton Dome, which was a little funny after all the years I spent going to gigs in Brighton. Made it to the Budokan before I set foot in a major venue in my own town. Brian Eno's curating this year's Brighton Festival and had brought Allen to town as part of his programme.

When I lived in Brighton during the 90's, I participated very little in the festival. Now I'm back in town have been determined to take greater advantage of England's biggest arts festival going on for a month on my doorstep. However, with the DELTA hurtling towards a conclusion (of sorts) and the demands of work not leaving me with a great deal of time to kick around town watching the world go by, I've had to let a lot of this year's events pass. Still, every now and again, something happens that you have to just drop things for and just go and do. Tony Allen was just one of them.

Next stop, The Brighton Beach Boys!

Archive clip: Shelf Life - 'Oh! Darling'

Here comes another video clip from the Shelf Life archive, this time a 2006 cover of The Beatles 'Oh! Darling', from 'Abbey Road'. The quality is similar to the other archive clips I've been posting, but should be enough to hear how we did.

We only played the song live once, and it came as we were starting to phase out cover versions for our own material. It was a gutsy song to sing, and Cheryo did a great job on guitar, as ever.

I do rather miss those Rubber Soul days sometimes, but hey, things move on!

Shelf Life to play at Ebisu book launch party

Shelf Life will be giving our debut Central Tokyo performance on Sunday October 7th. It will be our first show outside of Kokubunji's Rubber Soul bar, the venue where we formed in 2004 and grew to be what we are now.

The event is a launch party for a new Printed Matter Press title, 'Jungle Crows', an anthology of Tokyo-based expat writers. The collection featured well-known writers such as the esteemed Donald Richie, contributing editor Hillel Wright and Kyoto Journal fiction editor Leza Lowitz. Selected authors will be giving readings at the event. Tarantula (featuring Tara Solheim) will also perform live.

It also includes a little something from me. I contributed the piece 'My Life And Bushido Ghosts', which to my great surprise has ended up as the preface to the collection! It's my first appearance in a book, so I'm very excited about it. Should also end up being a pretty weird night in some ways too, as I'll be an author at the event and the singer in the band. Back in 2000, I performed in two bands on the same night (support and headline acts), but this will be another story altogether as I'll have two distinctly different hats on.

The 'Jungle Crows' launch party will be held at What The Dickens! British pub in Ebisu. Doors open at 16:00, with readings set to begin at about 16:45. Live music begins from around 20:00.

Shelf Life will be performing a set of original material from our forthcoming mini-LP 'Best Before End', due out in December. The following day, we have a video shoot with a well-know J-Pop music video director. I'll be recording the vocal tracks for the album a week later and then the following week I'm off to Argentina for a wedding.

It's shaping up to be a most unusual month!