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Festivals 2012
As I mentioned on Monday, 2012 was going to be a quietish year for us; we’re very glad to say that it’s not quite turning out that way. As well as this March’s acoustic tour and plotting for our forthcoming Crypt Cover days, we’ve also been booking in some summer jaunts to festivals old and…
March 14, 2012 -
March Tour Troubadouring
Folk is the new black We’ve been a bit quiet on the blog front recently, though not because we’ve been slacking. As Si recently said to our mailing list subscribers, 2012 was supposed to be a “take it a bit easy” year… though that’s proving to very much not be the case. We’ve been planning……
March 12, 2012 -
Big Red Button Night
As a rule we try not to paste the same stuffs in two places. I don’t know why, our blogs are so good that you probably want to read them twice, in two different places. It probably contravenes some well established blogging etiquette or other, and we are undoubtedly going to be digitally chastised for…
February 7, 2012 -
“He’s Been!”
We asked guests at our Winter Warmer what family traditions they would be keeping alive this Christmas. We had optimistically hoped that creating and sharing this collection might provide inspiration for some new family traditions, or at least give a much needed shot of yuletide adrenalin to any flat lining Christmas spirits. But what we didn’t…
December 15, 2011 -
Hope and Social Winter Warmer
Hello! [doffs christmas cap] On Friday the 2nd December we’re going to be having our nearest excuse this year to a christmas party. The Hope and Social Winter Warmer The Winter Warmer is going to be about the music. We’ve done some many wonderful big things this year. So many big, ridiculous, outward facing, entertaining…
November 25, 2011 -
The Hope and Social Winter Warmer!
This Hope and Social Christmas gig will take place on the 2nd of December at the amazing Georgian Theatre in Richmond. Tickets are on sale for this event NOW but due to problems beyond our control not online yet… (this is because everything at this venue is made of wood!) If you wish to purchase…
November 11, 2011 -
Viva Sh*t Vegas, Yorkshire
Hello all…a quick word from my trundling Eastcoast mainline train to shed a little light on the upcoming nonsense we’ve got planned for the Brudenell Social Club gig on the 23rd October…a week on Sunday, my goodness doesn’t time fly? It seems like the prospect of an easy-to-organise-turn-up-and-play-take-the-money-and-run show in lovely Leeds was just too…
October 13, 2011 -
Hope and Social Autumn Tour!
It’s that time again…. We’re hitting the road! Come see! Come play out… We’ve got some little crackers in here… We’ve had some amazing gigs this year already and it’s only getting better. And more tired. Much more tired. But we’ll forget the tiredness for somewhere between 45 minutes and 2 hours on each of…
October 10, 2011 -
Bring The Happy
Tonight Hope and Social are at the Northern Ballet, Leeds, with interactive arts trio Invisible Flock. Tonight’s performance of Bring The Happy is the culmination of months of work for the Invisible Flock team. It’s a gorgeous project, and they’re a proper lovely bunch to boot. In autumn 2010, Bring the Happy took over 3…
September 29, 2011 -
Sleep Sound, where you lay
When Malcolm and I were asked to help out with preparations for the #hsgardenparty, we jumped at the chance. We’re both creatives; making and designing for a living, but the Hope and Social projects we have worked on in the past haven’t just produced some of the work we are most proud of; we’ve had…
July 25, 2011 -
Garden Party – Hammock Stage Music
Acoustic music and hanging seating, a match made in heaven… OK, so you’ve heard all about the rather magnificent music line up on the garden party main stage but you know what’s missing? Hammocks, that’s what. Scientific studies have shown that a full day of string bands, swing, dancing, mahoosive choirs and overly-excited Butlins escapees…
July 22, 2011 -
Garden Party – Main Stage Music
We’re All About The Music Rich here. Well, I’m ecstatic to be able to say we’ve just about got everything confirmed up musically for the Garden Party. It’s been really tricky getting this all confirmed but as for the main stage, we’re just about there now. There’s still plenty of music to discover on the…
July 21, 2011 -
Discount Tickets for Galtres Festival
Beer Cider Music Fun Food A strong intro by anyone’s standards. Galtres Festival looks to be one of the highlights of the H&S gigging calendar this summer. We’re on at 6-30 on the Saturday 27th August, just before Chris Helme who is, in turn, just before headliners The Charlatans. So if you fancy joining us…
July 4, 2011 -
Why Kirkstall Festival Is So Great
A H&S set… …Set in The Cloisters Hope and Social are to play the lovely lovely Kirkstall Festival on Saturday 9th of July. We’ll be playing in The Cloisters (pictured above) around 2-30pm… Pretty isn’t it? A bit of background… The other week I caught up with festival stalwart and co-ordinator with Alan Crump to talk…
June 30, 2011 -
Party Food
One of the best things about doing Hope and Social events is that we get the to show off the things we love in Yorkshire.
June 29, 2011 -
Party, Party, Party! Garden Party!
So you may have caught up with this on that there Facebook, or Twitter… but for anyone who doesn’t already know…Hope and Social are bloomin’ chuffed to announce (after much deliberation, a few tears and a nervous breakdown) our next event … … the Hope and Social Garden Party (#hsgardenparty if you’re on twitter) is GO!…
June 28, 2011 -
DeerShed Festival
Hope and Social are soooper excited and privileged to be headlining the Friday night of Deer Shed Festival. A festival by the people, for the people. It’s very much down Hope and Social’s street this one. Real beer, locall, ethically sourced food from independent fooderies, and run by a team of people who are just…
June 21, 2011 -
Brasstonbury – This Weekend!
Like Glastonbury, with less bands, less mud, and in Yorkshire Going to Glastonbury this weekend? Nope? Well why not join Hope and Social for a big-band super-galactic extravaganza rivalled only by that there festival in Somerset. We are very privileged to have been asked to perform with The Anchormen ensemble for their annual extravaganza “With a Twist”.…
June 20, 2011 -
Sleep Sound track a day blog: Back to the Green
Back to the Green by Hope and Social Out of tiny acorns…thank goodness. This started as one of the worst demos we’ve ever made. I had a tiny idea on the way into the studio one day – a sort of calypso hybrid of Laid by James and I Fought the Law… We played around…
June 20, 2011 -
Sleep Sound – News, Reviews and Post Tour Blues
The Post Tour Blues – after a much needed wash Thank You It’s been an amazing and genuinely emotion few weeks for us Hope and Social lot, we’ve been genuinely moved by the response to the new record, gifts people have given us and the turnout at shows. Bandcamp No.1 Yep, thanks to you lovely…
June 3, 2011 -
Sleep Sound track a day blog: The Road Never Lies
The Road Never Lies by Hope and Social First off I think we need to give Ed a massive pat on the back for this one. He took many many tracks of “stuff”…strings, brass, keys, guitar, vocal, 2 pianos which just went on and on and on….and sculptured them into something beautiful. Ed and I…
June 2, 2011 -
Sleep Sound track a day blog: Swaddled in Dark Clouds
Swaddled in Dark Clouds by Hope and Social The verse to Swaddled came from a fragment of an idea I had and recorded into my phone months ago, and it was originally intended to be a hymn. It was really really simple and was literally the melody and those first four lines. I’d just sing…
May 31, 2011 -
Cuckoo’s fest…the end to an amazing tour!
Hello all! Just a quick one to say Thank you so much for all making this tour so amazing. The last two weeks since the release of Sleep Sound have overwhelmed us all and with the first real big stint at touring since i joined the band, i can assure you its been one not to forget.…
May 28, 2011 -
Sleep Sound track a day blog: Them Rolling Boys
Them Rolling Boys by Hope and Social This track was written so quickly at first. Literally banged out in an afternoon all from the opening riff which Rich plucked out of the air. In every writing session we always seem to write quite a lot of big guitar stuff – most of which doesn’t get…
May 24, 2011 -
Sleep Sound track a day blog: Cotton Wool
Cotton Wool by Hope and Social [Si] This started life for me as a tiny nothing of a tune I played very late one night in my kitchen and recorded into my laptop. (original demo here – I had to be quiet because everyone was in bed!) It was an irrelevance really – just one…
May 23, 2011 -
Sleep Sound track a day blog: Rolling Sideways
Rolling Sideways Rolling Sideways by Hope and Social Rolling Sideways is made of 100% jamming around. It’s a bit hazy but I seem to remember that it all came pretty easy in terms of the music at first – sections and parts just slotted into place and the feel of it was coloured by the…
May 19, 2011 -
Sleep Sound track a day blog: Family Man
Family Man by Hope and Social This track had been kicking around my guitar for a while and I’d put it down on a couple of Garageband demos just with me and an acoustic guitar (have a listen here if you’re interested) I’d thought it wasn’t really appropriate for this album after all we’d discussed…
May 18, 2011 -
Sleep Sound track a day blog: Sleep Sound
Sleep Sound has now been out a few days and we thought we’d do a track by track blog like we did for April last year. Loads of people commented on how much they’d enjoyed reading about each song, and to be honest it was a great way to put a full stop on the…
May 16, 2011 -
A little bit about Sleep Sound…
… the Album So here it is… Sleep Sound. The third Hope and Social album in as many years (actually, it’s less than two calendar years since we released “Architect…“). We’re very proud of it indeed… Over the next couple of weeks we’re going to do blog posts for each song like we did for…
May 10, 2011 -
Come Sing on Our New Record
We Need You OK, we’ve mentioned the ace Seacroft community Choir Voices of the Day, who’ll be accompanying us at our “Sleep Sound” Launch at The Brudenell Social Club… well we’re amassing a wee choir for the very last thing to go on our album this coming Monday and we’d love to have you along…
May 2, 2011 -
Our Third Album: Release Date and Launch Tour
As you may have noticed from us lot on twitter, we’ve been slogging away making the third Hope and Social studio album for the past couple of months… and being the kind of band that we are – with no lead-time between album completion and touring it – that means we’re about to release it……
April 26, 2011 -
Plague, Album Progress, Tour, T-Shirt, Swing, Other
Plague The plague has hit the Crypt. A daubed red cross adorns the door and a trough has been placed outside to wash the monies used to pay for incoming pasties. No man shall leave and no man shall enter. We have written and signed our pledge to contain the disease within these walls and…
April 15, 2011 -
One small step for man…
Note: We sent out an email to everyone on our mailing list yesterday… here’s the email, but in web-page form. “These are extraordinary times. And we face an extraordinary challenge” On May 25th, 1961 President John F Kennedy told a nation that by the end of the decade they would have safely landed a man…
March 24, 2011 -
Another quick catch-up from The Crypt
I’m knackered so this will be very short indeed! Great day down the studio today…finally pressed that big red button and started recording this album. First track up is a sort of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young type affair originally titled Cotton Wool although it’ll probably end up being called Threads (although that does remind…
March 14, 2011 -
Meet Hope and Social, The Chickens.
This Friday Hope and Social are going to Carr Green School in Brighouse to give out 48 of the 1 million books being given out free as part of World Book Night and to meet, wait for it………….. Hope and Social, the chickens! Forget Jamie’s Dream School, Carr Green is the school of your dreams. We have…
March 2, 2011 -
We write bearing gifts…
Quick update from The Crypt… just listening back to the demos of the last two months and there’s some very exciting stuff in there. Rough, really rough, and some of it just fragments but so much material and some of it in a different direction. There’s certainly some Graceland in there and we’re pushing the…
March 2, 2011 -
Is World Book Night A Good Thing To Be Part Of?
I first heard about World Book Night from Helen Harrop, Helen is one of those perpetually irritating twitterer’s who endlessly interrupts your day with links to marvelous stuff. “20,000 passionate book lovers will give away 1,000,000 books to strangers.” Something about the idea of giving a copy of your favorite book to a complete stranger instantly appealed to…
March 1, 2011 -
That tricky third album…week 3
There’s a little place that I had, of late, taken for granted. Quite a magical space where we’ve spent some of our most creative and enjoyable time over the last few years. It’s packed with the most beautiful and well used instruments you could hope to see (as well as some of the most disfunctional…
February 9, 2011 -
Snowball Week – The Chrimbo Tree
Today is Rich’s Birthday!!! Yep, it’s my birthday peeps… and I’m blogging for you this cold winter’s morn. ;) Firstly – Panorama… Snowball Week – The Final Day of Prep (Cont’d from Yesterday’s post about the ace Ho-Ho Hope and Social beer by Leeds Brewery!) On the 4th of December we held our Snowball, culminating…
December 17, 2010 -
Snowball Week – Ho-Ho Hope and Social
“Oompa oompa ooompa oompa!” Four pubs, one school, two busses, one town hall with 23 steps, 720 pints of Ho-Ho Hope and Social, 160 revellers, 6 band members, three trumpets, four saxophones, three trombones, one christmas tree (more on that tomorrow), hundreds of pom-poms, secret santa pressents, a band of merry helpers and one amazing…
December 17, 2010 -
The Snowball Keeps on Rolling
Well ladies and gentlemen The Snowball was a wonderful wonderful thing filled with Christmas joy and unending goodwill. There will be lots more stuff coming your way to make you green with envy or happy with glowing memories. We’ll be showing you how we got the marvellous Ho Ho Hope and Social beer, and our…
December 14, 2010 -
The Hope and Social “SnowBall”
It’s a Christmas Party “It’s that time of year, when the world falls in love…”, and we embark on another ill-advised day of fun, frollicks and more Christmas cheer than you can point a stick at. Hope and Social are pleased to announce that on the 4th December 2010 – from 1pm to 8pm, we will…
November 2, 2010 -
B-Sides Beside The Seaside
An amazing day made by our Hope and Social tribe On September the 4th this year, Hope and Social hired an open-top, double decker sharanang to eek that last bits of sun and warmth out of summer… and with 70 amazing people, we headed for the seaside. It was an amazing life affirming day for…
October 29, 2010 -
It’s a Masked Ball
It’s all for Charidee mate OK, This is fairly last minute, but tonight Hope and Social are playing a masked ball. It’s a fund-raiser for an ECG machine at Pontefract Hospital’s Bevan Unit. Up until last night this was a closed event, hence not advertising it up here on H&S.com but we’ve got some last minute cheap-seat…
October 29, 2010 -
James – The Video
We’ve spoken about the wonderous things that you can do with 8 pounds, a couple of B&Q lights and a borrowed lens or two over here but now, you can view the James Video in glorious technicolour. Shot by the amazing Ross McWhannell in our very own crypt, and finished in New Zealand by the…
September 30, 2010
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