XL Recordings

The xx News: Mercury stars

Admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:58:00 +0100

Prize win sees the xx step into the spotlight

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XL Recordings News: The XX Wins 2010 Mercury Prize

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:03:00 +0100

The XX has won the 2010 Barclaycard Mercury Prize for its debut "XX" (Young Turks/XL Recordings).

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The xx News: The xx take Mercury Music Prize

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:35:00 +0100

The xx beat favourite Paul Weller to win this year's Mercury Music Prize for their debut album xx.

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The xx News: The xx: 'We're going to build our own studio with Barclaycard Mercury Prize winners money'

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:13:00 +0100

Romy Madley Croft reveals the band's plans following win

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The xx News: The XX win Mercury Prize

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:58:00 +0100

The XX have won this year's Mercury Music Prize for their debut album xx.

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The xx News: The xx Win the Mercury Prize

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:55:00 +0100

Photo by Tim Kiernan

London goth-pop up-and-comers the xx were already on a hell of a winning streak, but now they've added a very serious notch to their belt. Today, the band took home the Barclaycard Mercury Prize.

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The xx News: The xx win Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2010

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:43:00 +0100

Band beat the likes of Paul Weller, Foals, Mumford & Sons

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Dizzee Rascal News: Dizzee on power of Mercury Prize

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:34:00 +0100

Mercury Prize nominees, including Dizzee Rascal, have arrived in London for the 2010 award ceremony.

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Dizzee Rascal News: Paul Weller, The xx, Mumford & Sons play as Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2010 kicks off

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:51:00 +0100

But Dizzee Rascal chooses to not perform live at the London ceremony

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Dizzee Rascal News: Dizzee Rascal 'Honored' to Work on Shakira's 'Loca' Single

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:00:00 +0100

Dizzee Rascal may take home his second Barclayard Mercury Prize tonight, but he's more concerned with two high-profile current projects: his U.K. talent series "Must Be the Music" and "Loca," a new collaboration with Shakira.

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The xx News: The XX, Paul Weller Lead Mercury Betting

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:25:00 +0100

The XX are back as favorites to win the Barclaycard Mercury Prize in London tonight (Sept. 7) with their debut "XX" (Young Turks/XL Recordings). Their betting odds with bookmaker William Hill are evens.

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Devendra Banhart News: BOWIE tribute is out in the USA, UK & Canada via iTunes, all digital stores!!!

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:54:00 +0100

this is a tribute i have a song in , its a charity compCheck it out here.100% of the profits go to War Child!!!

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Friendly Fires News: Bugged Out [1]

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:42:00 +0100

Hey guys,

As you can see from our last post we are releasing our Bugged Out comp this month. If you wanna get your mits on a signed copy then you can pre-order from here: http://www.recordstore.co.uk/albumofthemonth.jsp

Also in other news you can currently hear our cover of Depeche Mode’s ‘Strange Love’ on the Gucci ad for fragrance ‘Guilty’. Exciting stuff.

The ad was directed by Frank ‘Sin City’ Miller which is pretty obvious if you click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QZR67iI4vE

Pretty cool huh? A short film version will be premiered at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday so keep an eye out!

Apart from that though we hope to see you all at the Bugged Out parties where we’ll be spinning some tunes….wehey!
17th September: Manchester, Sankeys Soap
18th September: London, XOYO
8th October: Paris, Social Club

Speak soon
FF
xx

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M.I.A. News: Fever Ray Exclusive Mixtape

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:07:00 +0100

Often hidden by bizarre costumes and mysterious masks, Swedish duo The Knife made a reputation for themselves for breaking the boundaries between music and various art forms. After writing the score for the opera production, 'Tomorrow, In a Year', based on the works of Charles Darwin, the Dreijer siblings have since embarked on solo projects via Olof's Oni Ayhun and Karin's Fever Ray.
Dreijer Andersson's haunting vocals have featured in collaborations with Royksopp, to her eerie singles like 'Seven', and 'Triangle Walks' attracting remixers from all over such as Tiga and CSS, to Martyn and Crookers. After the release of Fever Ray's eponymous debut album, she has since performed spellbinding live covers of songs by legends like Nick Cave, Vashti Bunyan and Peter Gabriel whilst touring, and is now set to release a cover of the latter's 'Mercy Street'.

Dreijer Andersson’s chilling signature vocals transform the piece: "It's an interpretation. We made it more intense and faster to fit our eccentric percussionists and energetic live musicians. It is a monotone track but we worked with the dynamics trying to make it sparkle". Before Fever Ray embarks on a stunning audio-visual show in Europe, with long term collaborator Andreas Nilsson as art director this September, she works up an exclusive mixtape for Dazed Digital.

Dazed Digital: Do you feel that 'Fever Ray' is your main concern/focus now? Will The Knife return?
Karin Dreijer Andersson: I don't know, I'm happy having to do both, but it's good if it's something we don't have to agree upon together... I think it's good to have something solo going on...

DD: The working process is easier alone?
Karin Dreijer Andersson: I think it's very different, it's easier when you don't have to agree with somebody else about what you're going to do but then you have to make all the decisions yourself and I think that can be really difficult. I don't know what's easier. I have to write everything myself in the end - but it's good to have other ears listening to what you're doing.

DD: Which way do you feel your music is going? Like Olof's Oni Ayhun project is taking the turn or more electronic music but has Fever Ray liberated you from all that - think I may have read you were getting bored of all the techno stuff?
Karin Dreijer Andersson: I don't know... maybe... I think that differs a lot but it's been fun playing live, with quite a lot of organic things and working with Olaf on the opera album we were using only analogue equipment, so I don't know - at the moment, I think of my future work as more minimal, a minimal Fever Ray.

DD: So how did 'Tomorrow, In A Year', the project inspired by Charles Darwin’s The Origin Of Species, come about? Does Darwin's work particularly relate or bear significance for you?
Karin Dreijer Andersson: We were commissioned by the theatre group to write it, so it was their idea from the beginning about Darwin, and at first all we knew about him were the things we had read in school. I think it was nice to do something else, like reading. We did that for a year really, just reading the Origin of Species and other works about Darwin, so it was really nice for a change. Also applying someone's theories on music, working with text in that way was really inspiring. It's something we've talked about continuing to do.

DD: How important do you think theatrics or the stage show is compared to the recorded music? How does it translate on stage and how do you devise the shows?
Karin Dreijer Andersson: I think the live thing is more of an experiment of how to experience music. Where I am trying different endings and ideas that could happen, it's more like a playground for music, trying out ideas and seeing what happens if we dress up like this, then seeing what happens to the music. The writing and the studio work is the hard part.

DD: Do you think that the hiding part of your identity helps people to focus on the music or does it inadvertently divert people to a different talking point about 'image' anyway?
Karin Dreijer Andersson: That's always the tricky part I think, because when you try out all these costumes and masks, I think you gain so much more when doing it, when taking away the focus from some private person. It's playing with the character, a performer, like deconstructing the idea of a popstar or how a singer appears or should be on stage.

DD: Do you think where you've grown up has influenced your music? Like the darker moods in your music?
Karin Dreijer Andersson: I don't know... I think I have always liked melancholic music more than any other, but not necessarily Swedish music... we listened to a lot of African pop music when I was a kid at home, and also Eastern European music which can be really melancholic, so I don't know really about that or how the climate affects your music. Sometimes I think that if it's light or not where you are recording that affects music, but I'm not sure...

DD: As the themes in your music are quite supernatural, do you feel you relate to a sort of 'spirituality'?
Karin Dreijer Andersson: No, I don't think it's like supernatural, I think music and the ability to reach people and that you can like experience your emotions - that's the power of music. You don't have to talk about anything spiritual, humanity and nature itself has such power you don't have to explain with any religious aspects of it, I'm an atheist!

DD: You've just done a Peter Gabriel cover, do you mostly listen to older music like this?
Karin Dreijer Andersson: I'm a very old woman you know! I grew up with that track when I was a kid, it meant a lot to me then, I thought it was really beautiful. I think I was really moved how it created that kind of atmosphere, and I just wanted to try it and play it now with a live set up and percussionist and see how it works, how it sounded.

TRACKLIST

1. Khulumani - Nkata Mawewe
2. The Tale - Meredith Monk
3. Guiyome - Konono No. 1
4. Jungle Riot - Ove-Naxx
5. Ngunyuta Dance - BBC
6. Natsu Ga Kita - Afrirampo
7. Do You Be? - Meredith Monk
8. Believer - M.I.A.
9. Kuar - Olof Dreijer remix - Emmanuel Jal
10. Dread - Nate Young

Mercy Street is out now on covetable limited edition 7" and on download through Rabid Records. The 7” single will include album track ‘Dry and Dusty’. Fever Ray is playing Brixton Academy tomorrow, Wednesday 8th of September.

Photographs by Joergen Ringstrand
Costumes by Andreas Nilsson

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M.I.A. News: Fever Ray Exclusive Mixtape

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:07:00 +0100

TRACKLIST

Photographs by Joergen Ringstrand
Costumes by Andreas Nilsson

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Elvis Perkins News: Elvis on NPR's Mountain Stage

Admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:51:00 +0100

Late last year, Elvis taped a performance for the excellent NPR program Mountain Stage. An encore of that episode will air on September 10th. Air times vary by station, for a complete list of stations...

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Dizzee Rascal News: Mercury prize 2010: Live blog

Admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:35:00 +0100

Which of the 12 nominees will take home the Mercury prize? And what passes for a decent starter in the world of music these days? Follow our live blog tonight for all this and more ...

12.17am: Hello and welcome. Two years ago you may recall that I live blogged the Mercury prize. It was a momentous occasion. The New York Times, for instance, described it as "an unpredictable literary whirlwind, why hasn't this Jonze been promoted?". And most set texts regard it as a peak of modern journalism that will surely never be topped. At least I assume that's why I haven't been asked to do another one in the past two years. Anyway ... to cut a long waffle short, I'm back in business and from 6pm today you can catch me blogging my knuckles to the bone live from Grosvenor House in London. Who will win? Who will do a runner? And who will make an embarrassing fool of themselves after too much free pinot grigio? As long as the answer to the last question isn't "me", this should be a lot of fun.

Oh, and to keep you occupied up until that point, here's the list of nominees:

Biffy Clyro â€' Only Revolutions
Corinne Bailey Rae â€' The Sea
Dizzee Rascal â€' Tongue n' Cheek
Foals â€' Total Life Forever
I Am Kloot â€' Sky at Night
Kit Downes Trio â€' Golden
Laura Marling â€' I Speak Because I Can
Mumford & Sons â€' Sigh No More
Paul Weller â€' Wake Up the Nation
Villagers â€' Becoming a Jackal
Wild Beasts â€' Two Dancers
The xx â€' xx

You can remind yourselves what they sound like by watching our rather brilliant How I wrote sessions, put together with the Observer New Review team.

6.25pm: Ok, I'm in, perched on the balcony cheap seat (I've got the only seat) looking down on the posh tables. Sniff. After watching a very boring red carpet ceremony in which I did not â€' in any way, shape or form â€' sneak off for a cheeky gin and tonic in the bar, I am looking forward to some action. Rosie Swash has been on the red carpet with a tabloid reporter who confessed to not knowing a single band ("I'd rather be at the GQ awards â€' there's proper celebrities there"). What does she mean? Did she not know Tom from Wild Beasts was coming?

Talking of which, jonbeat is in the comments section here chanting for "foals, foals, foals, foals" whereas there's a general feeling (fear?) that Weller will win despite him "not deserving it". We'll find out in a second as it looks like Weller's about to take the stage ...

6.37pm: Who should win? It seems you lot can't decide. Knowles1 reckons that the xx or Wild Beasts deserve it, wheras Biffy "wouldn't be a terrible choice". I have to say that's almost exactly my thoughts too. The xx album actually sounds like it was made in the last year (unlike most of the nominees on the list) although I can't help feeling they had their moment in the sun with all the Album of the Year gongs last year. Because of that I'm joining Rosie Swash who seems to be frequenting Twitter on an hourly basis to shout "Wild Beasts WILD BEASTS" at all her followers.

6.56pm: Jools Holland is on stage! The only stage (there's three) that I can't see because I'm sat behind a bloody big speaker stack. Jools says that U2 are part of the show! Oh, "you too", sorry.

6.56pm: "Thank you Barclay card," says Jools to bizarrely wild applause that goes on for ages. Do that many people really have such affection for plastic-based credit? What are they going to be like when they announce the musicians?

7.00pm: maceasy says "What was the Speech Debelle debacle? I bought the album last year, and it is excellent." Fair point, just because few people bought it doesn't mean the result is somehow invalid. Right, Paul Weller and his haircut are on stage.

7.01pm: There's been much talk of Weller's "eccentric" and "avant garde" career revival. Personally, he just seems to be playing mod rock songs that are over in two minutes, but I'm not here to crush any myths.

Christ, Weller's gone already, that was quick. He had a great guitar - a butterscotch blonde telecaster, for fans of that kind of thing. Now it's Wild Beasts and Rosie Swash is screaming from the balcony: "WOOOOOOO!"

7.06pm: Wild Beasts on now doing Hooting and Howling. All I can hear is "WOOOOOOOO!"

7.07pm: I'd love these guys to win but they're such a Marmite band I can't see it happening. The chance of anything approaching a unanimous decision over these guys is pretty unlikely. Most people I know can't even say their name without putting on a dramatic falsetto voice.

Here's the live session they did for us, if you want to recreate the scenes here. For added authenticity, hunch over a laptop with bad WiFi connection and type until your knuckles bleed while a colleague shrieks in your left ear.

7.12pm: Without skipping a beat, the xx are on. Wild applause (although not as much as for everyone's favourite band Barclay Card) when they finish. Rumour is they're going to win, not just from bookies but from what people know already about the judge's personal tastes â€' NME editor Krissi Murison put them on the cover, Jude Rogers loves them, etc.

ENOUGH OF THIS! SIMON NEIL FROM BIFFY CLYRO IS ON STAGE WITH HIS NIPPLES OUT!!!

7.21pm: In case you're sitting there frantically hitting "refresh" after my last announcement, there is no more news. Biffy Clyro were tuning up topless. Now they have gone.

7.27pm: Biffy Clyro are on. They're playing Captain. I spent most of my time as a music journo at the NME ignoring/mocking this band but, you know what, I was wrong. Only Revolutions has more planet-sized tunes than any other nominee â€' it's basically the pop fan's choice here, even if they do dress their songs up with wiggly guitar riffs and big stadium rock dynamics. So there you go.

Anyway, they're now playing a Dizzee video because Dizzee ain't here. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that what I really need right now is a really quiet version of Bonkers.

7.32pm: Oh, Dizzee IS here. He just didn't play. He's doing a speech instead. Has he popped in from the GQ Awards?

7.33pm: There's barely a pause for breath. Laura Marling is on. The first time I Speak Because I Can has been played straight after Bonkers, I'd wager.

7.36pm: marckee has joined us to show some rather back-handed love for overlooked jazz nominees, the Kit Downes Trio. "None of the shortlisted albums really excited me. Wild Beasts and Kit Downes Trio are the pick of a polished, but unremarkable bunch. As long as the braying Mumford and Sons, the pseudish Foals and the pacified Biffy Clyro don't win, I'll be happy."

Not that I'm on commission to push our live sessions or anything, but I thought this was a rather lovely song.

7.38pm: A brief break, says Jools. Which is good because I don't think anyone really wants to read me live blogging my own bladder bursting. See you in a sec.

7.45pm: Pakistan all out for 89, Bresnan delivers a stormi ... sorry, wrong live blog. Still not much happening here. Although I can see I Am Kloot tuning up. They have a string section.

7.51pm: Maybe now is the time to have a chat about who should have been nominated but wasn't. Any suggestions commenters? Hot Chip with their best album yet, One Life Stand? These New Puritans classical/art-rock fusion Hidden? Richard Hawley's stripped back sixth album Truelove's Gutter? Any of those would have been worthy winners, let alone nominees I reckon.

7.56pm: "All the nominees are shite so who cares .....there is no great music around any more," says rsaviour. And you know what? They're dead right. I'm packing up, see you same time next year. Good night!

8.00pm: I Am Kloot have been and gone, and before I can get my act together Corinne Bailey Rae is doing her thank you speech. It means so much to her to be nominated etc. Rosie Swash's theory is that the nominees who don't think they've got a chance of winning give it their all with a Kate Winslet-style meltdown when all they really need to say is "thank you for my nomination". It backfired in 2008 when Elbow blurted their hearts out during their nominee speech and had to do it all again an hour or so later when they won. Although actually that was kinda sweet.

8.02pm: Kit Downes Trio are playing Jump, Minzi, Jump. Chatter in the room has increased ten-fold, which is pretty damn rude if you ask me. Someone shouts "shhhh". Everyone shuts up.

8.19pm: marckee says "I'd have like to have seen any of Fuck Buttons, Four Tet, Steve Mason, Male Bonding and Ikonika in there. Did the Mount Kimbie album fall into this year's nomination period? If so, that one too."

When the nominations were announced there was a lot of talk about Fuck Buttons missing out, along with rumours that they hadn't actually put their album forward. Either the band thought winning was a bit of an albatross, or they didn't want to have to make Jools Holland say "fuck" on the BBC.

Foals are on now playing Spanish Sahara, not the most immediate track from Total Life Forever I have to say.

8.24pm: Villagers are on, Villagers being a guy called Conor who looks - and sounds - like another Conor, Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst. His performance is more intimate and captivating than anything else we've had on tonight. There's an awful lot of folk (or nu-folk as I'm trying not to call it) on the list tonight, but at least Villagers play a twisted version of it.

8.25pm: Mumford and Sons. Have to say, the atmosphere is really polite this year. Polite being a polite way of saying dull.

No sooner have I spoken than there is drama - Mumford's double bass is out of action! A couple of deafening booms and now it's not making a sound. It's like the Pistols at the 100 Club or something. Can you remember where you were when Mumfords played the Mercury Prize?

8.29pm: Now I'm no Mumfords fan but you can at least see from that performance of the Cave why they're selling a gazillion records at the moment. Frenzied, uplifting pop tunes that don't mind doing their little barn dance in the middle of the road.

8.32pm: Wow, the performances are over already. No they're not! Mumfords are coming back on to do it with their bass working. In other news, Sex Pistols to perform again with no spitting while Sid Vicious buys Nick Kent a beer.

8.36pm: My good lady wife has picked up my hint earlier about Paul Weller's guitar. Christmas is coming up etc

8.38pm: Mumfords are back on. No pressure double bass guy.

8.43pm: The bands are done and the music is over. Over, I say, save for the sound of a few violins. And those violins, readers, are the soundtrack to me opening my squashed Pret Ham & Mustard sarnie and gazing forlonly at the music industry bigwigs stuffing their faces on top class nosh below.

8.57pm: I remember having a similar existential crisis two years ago when I realised I was effectively live blogging a couple of hundred suits eating a three course meal. I kept myself sane then by creating a drama and going on a mission to find out the menu but I'm not sure you'll fall for that trick again. Come on, if I tell you they're eating grilled sea bass with rosemary and lemon, will you really give a flying one?

Let's face it, unless we catch the bassist in Foals munching on a live bat, nothing of any interest is going to happen until 10pm so let's just watch the England match and I'll keep an eye on your comments.

9.07pm: Ok, ok, since (none of) you asked, here's the menu ...

Leek and roquefort tart with poached pear and walnut dressing

Pan fried sustainable cod with bubble and squeak, roast vegetables and a thyme jus

Apple tart tatin with vanilla icecream

Yes, very nice. That ham sandwich tastes all the sweeter now. By the way, we have Guardian journalist Lexy Topping to thank for this detective work. She hacked Simon Frith's voicemail or something to get that.

9.13pm: PhilJones87 says "They should have stuck Wiley on uStream to provide the entertainment during the breaks." If they did that, it would be the end of this blog.

9.26pm: Honestly, you spend two hours blogging about every single live performance to the sound of tumbleweed. Then I mention a leek and roquefort tart and the world comes alive.

"Vanilla ice cream?" asks dothebathosphere. "Thats like the vanilla of ice cream. No wonder the Merc Prize is so mainstream and we're all sat around on tenter hooks waiting for jasonaparkes to post the annual 6,000 item list of albums The Wire mumbled about last year ..."

9.30pm: Sadly, muslimlancs, we are shut off from the 'slebs on the balcony bit and so cannot infiltrate to bring you gossip. I have no idea if Laura Marling has thrown a leek and roquefort tart over Marcus Mumford. If the double bass player in Mumford has been flogged to death outside, I would be none the wiser. All I know is I'm sat in a boring room that smells of cod.

9.40pm: The depressing truth of tonight is that I really don't think there's any gossip I'm missing. It's all very civilised down there. The most exciting thing Rosie Swash has heard is that one of Foals was "more relaxed now we've done our performance." Christ, where's a Glasvegas singer going AWOL when you need one?

Admittedly, I could just take muslimlancs' advice and make it all up. But that would be showing up my profession and I just ... OMFG, IS THAT JOOLS HOLLAND WRESTLING NAKED WITH VILLAGERS BY THE PRESS AREA?

9.51pm: It's dothebathosphere again, with a question: "any altercations with photographers up there in balconyland this year?"

They are, of course, referring to the legendary 2009 live blog in which Paul MacInnes, normally the most docile of timid creatures, got into a word scrap with nearby snappers blocking his view. If I recall he slagged them all off on his live blog but one of them happened to be following it on his phone. Anyway, the exciting news is that after last year photographers are no longer invited to the balcony bit. MacInnes 1 - Photographers 0

9.59pm: The lights have gone down. And back up. And down again. You can smell the tension. Well, you could if the place didn't stink of pan-fried sustainable cod.

10.16pm: I'm guessing, judging by past Mercury blogs, that we're about ten minutes away from the moment Jools arrives with his envelope. I hope he hurries the hell up, I'm struggling to keep this live blog above water. If I tell you that a large proportion of the audience are wearing suits and shirts but no tie, will that be a new nadir in the art of minute by minute reportage? Ok, thought so ...

10.21pm: tyyorkshiretealady has had enough: "Oh FFS. *in Holy Grail-style fashion* GET ON WITH IT!!!"

They are! Jools has just told everyone to take their seats. Exciting. Kind of.

10.21pm: Here we go

10.22pm: And the winner is ... Barclay Card! A stunning album that really makes sense in these credit crunch times! *Roars from the crowd*

10.22pm: Oh I'm so funny

10.22pm: Quick recap of nominees

10.22pm: And the real winner is ... drum roll please ... the xx!

10.25pm: Hardly a shock then! The xx win it, like everyone said. But! We should celebrate. A great, great album, well deserved. One of the few on the list that actually sounds like it was made in 2010 (well, 2009 but you know what I mean).

Oliver says: "We've had the most incredible year. Every day we've woken up to something incredible we weren't expecting."

They sound humbled and thrilled.

10.26pm: As befits a rather calm night, the band receive a polite standing ovation. It dies down. They walk off looking chuffed. Then the chatter starts back up. It's not quite the shock, screams and tears that happened when "Elbow" and "Speech Debelle" were read out. But there's probably relief at Mercury Prize HQ that nobody (well, not many people) will be saying the judges ballsed it up this year.

10.30pm: If you've just joined us, The xx have just won the Mercury Prize 2010 for their debut album xx. It was our Album of the Year back in December 2009, of course. We loved the record because it recreated the melancholic feeling of London (or any big city) at 3am, and seemed to forge a completely unique sound - a minimalist indie outfit who took inspiration from R&B (Aaliyah) and dubstep (Burial). We particularly loved the "sumptuous vocal interplay between Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim". Let's hope this victory doesn't propel them towards too many coffee tables and, instead, gives them the confidence to produce an equally creative follow up.

It was the bookies favourite and a lot of people were expecting it, but it's probably the right result. Thanks so much for reading and for all your comments. I'm off to try and interview the notoriously press-shy trio. Goodnight!

Tim Jonze

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Titus Andronicus News: In Recognition of Labor Day

Admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:56:00 +0100

Courtesy of our friends at PBS

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Discovery News: Heads Up for Stephen Jones in Antwerp

Admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:10:00 +0100

From the 8th of September, the Mode Museum in Antwerp will be the new home of one of the largest collections of the delectable creations by British hatmaker, Stephen Jones. The retrospective will be celebrating his work spanning the last 30 years for the likes of fashion heavyweights from Dior to Commes des Garcons, along with a new collaboration with chocolate genius Dominique Persoone based on four of Jones' hats. The exhibition will also be looking closely at his work in film, music and photography, and his early years in the London of the New Romantics. We speak to the curator of the Dutch museum and also Mr Jones himself about the highly anticipated exhibition...

Dazed Digital: What is the concept behind the exhibition?
David Flamee: As Eddy Michiels and myself have been collecting Stephen Jones's hats since 1988 and have given them on loan to the Antwerp Fashion Museum, Kaat Debo, its director proposed me to built an exhibition around our collection. My idea was to bring more than that, to bring the visitor more " into the world of...." Stephen Jones. So after 18 Months of research and collaboration with Stephen on this project, we succeeded to bring together a lot of Stephen's history in this exhibition and the book, by means of all the hats of our collection, another big amount of hats from Stephen's archives, a lot of complete outfits with S.J. Hats from various designers as Montana, Thierry Mugler, Alaia, Comme des Garcons, Jean-Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Dior, Giles Deacon, Vivienne Westwood, Marc Jacobs and of course Walter Van Beirendonck and a fantastic selection of new and vintage fashion shoots by various well-known photographers.

DD: How did you select the pieces?
David Flamee: The only difficulty for making a selection in both the hat archives and Stephen's image archive, was that we had enough material to put together a few more exhibitions and books. So the selection needed an exact theme, wich for us became the unique situation of Stephen as a contemporary fashion designer, working very closely together with various completely different fashion houses, music icons and great movie productions. Stephen helped us a lot and was very much involved in all parts of the project, not as an intruder but as a true helping hand, to make it much easier for us to find our way in his very rich history, make us discover how his own creative process is working and who is Stephen Jones!

DD: What was Stephen's early work like?
David Flamee: I knew Stephen since very long we had met during the first years I became his customer. Since then we kept on bumping into each other here and there, during fashion shows, or on one of our trips to London or his to Antwerp. But then the moment we started working on this project, the incredible fact was that during our first work session, Stephen started by explaining us his complete background, his youth, his discovery of London, his first steps in fashion, his awesome knowledge of the millinery and fashion history, his tastes, his inspirations, and much more. It proved to me that he is a personality with a very large creative freedom, one can touch his work and he loves to take you with him in his own adventure!

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Dazed Digital: So you have a new exhibition in Antwerp, why Antwerp?
Stephen Jones: For a start, there are very few fashion museums in the world, as far s i know there's Antwerp, Chile, Kyoto. and i think that's about it. They sort of don't exist. Antwerp is probably the best one. The main reason is that - bizarrely enough it was actually through Vicki (Sarge of Erickson Beamon). She knew these people Geert Bruloot, and he was a PR who was getting together the Antwerp Six - Ann Demeulemeester, Walter van Beirendonck, etc. Vicki had met up with him and invited him to come by my collection, and Leslie who I work with now, also knew him so they started to buy my hats- selling them in his boutique in Antwerp. They didn't sell very well, because Belgian people don't really wear hats say like the Japanese, people in the US or Britain do.

But he just loved buying hats and bought them himself, and every season he came back and bought 200-250 over the years, he's quite a big collector, and so he decided to give them to the exhibition in Antwerp- so it's about his collection. The quality is extraordinary, as ours would be lent out to press or fittings but his are in perfect condition, including the one I did for Comme des Garcons, and one for Galliano from when I first started.

DD: Do you feel very much like a London label or international brand having lines like Jonesgirl exclusive in Japan etc?
Stephen Jones: When I was younger, I always felt as though I was European. To me it seemed to be crazy just to say oh yes I'm British, which is really limiting. We'd just joined the EU, and I was always looking towards Europe - and fashion is very international. Later, I was more like yes I'm a British designer.

DD: Yeah, considering you were deemed part of the punk thing at the time?
Stephen Jones: Yeah which is really English, so in a way- I know I'm not making sense here, but when I'm a fashion world I look to Europe - French, Italian, Russian, but why would you want to limit yourself to one area.

DD: Has music been a big influence say, from your partner who DJs?
Stephen Jones: Yeah he did the music for a show at Ascot this summer, music people I work with a lot. Funnily enough someone asked if I could do like a playlist - a CD, it didn't quite pan out... But my link with music is from the beginning, when I made hats with popstars. I'm actually going to Brazil for a day for a fitting with this singer called Ivete - she's like Latin America's biggest pop sensation, I'm making her hat before she plays Madison Square Garden.

DD: Do musicians have a lot of input or do you come to them with ideas?
Stephen Jones: If they're younger, often they come in with a stylist, as they don't know what they're supposed to look like. but certainly with some of the older popstars they really bring a lot to the table, they have so much experience, like if I'm working with Kylie - she's worn hats performing for 20 years or whatever. If it doesn't feel comfortable or it's not doing the right thing for her... no singer is just standing there with a mic, they'll always be dancing, moving. It needs to function in lots of different ways.

DD: Do you see hats as a practical element then?
Stephen Jones: Every hat has a practical element. Maybe it's practical element is look decorative and gorgeous, maybe tis to keep the rain off your head.

DD: As hat making is a particularly niche area in fashion, do you feel that there's a lot of competition or that it's exciting that everyone helps each other out?
Stephen Jones: A bit of both. You're aware of what other people are doing, Noel Stewert, Nasir Mazhar or Philip Treacy - and if they're doing something fantastic I think oops gotta pull my socks up. In all that group of the milliners in London, I'm 53 so older than most of them, so if they're coming up through the ranks if I can help them, I can. What, am I gonna say - they're better than me, and I can't help them? We're all into the same thing, and it is a small enough world that you can think like that. In fashion, dressmaking - you can't. It's very competitive.

DD: (Apart from the Antwerp retrospective), what have you got planned?
Stephen Jones: Doing the next collection is actually always a big achievement! Antwerp, a new fragrance with CdG. Other exhibitions like Hats: An anthology in New York next September, and a range of hats and scarves and umbrellas and gloves for Galliano is out in the shops next year.

The exhibition will run from 8 September 2010 until 13 February 2011, at the MoMuâ€'Fashion Museum in Antwerp

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