Tag / hopeandsocial
-
What do you know about…
… Christmas… and Vinyl Christmas comes but once a year. Factually incorrect if you’re Belgian. It comes TWICE a year for our favourite trappist-beer loving, moules & frites pedallin’ chocoholics. We’ve been doing our homework here at H&S Towers and finding out all things culturally Belgian-related; Tin-Tin, Brel, The saxophone, Danny DeVito (Ok… not Danny…
December 9, 2019 -
How To Be An Artist Ally: Part 1
Or “7 Ways to Help The Bands You Love… …A Guide For The Enthusiastic Fan” It’s a tough ol’ business keeping an artistic career going. The constant need to feel like you’re moving forward, the increased control of the interwebz by large corporations (see this thread by Lee Parson‘s CEO of our online distributor Ditto…
October 7, 2019 -
Happier Breads (and Apple Turnovers)
Gary writes all about the food it takes to make a really great record.
September 17, 2019 -
A Change Of Scenery
They say a change is as good as a rest. Find out what happens when H&S take their album writing shenanigans to the inimitable Harewood House.
September 6, 2019 -
This is not just any old Christmas show…
This is an H&S Christmas show (at a former M&S… no less)! This Christmas, we’re super-happy to be working with Rich Warburton (Recognise this lovely face? Thought you would!) of Theatre in The Mill to bring a whole bunch of Christmas present wishes to life. What the Frock is H&S’s Secret Santa? Three things. 1)…
November 30, 2018 -
Hope and Social’s Secret Santa
in partnership with “Theatre In The Mill” Christmas is a special time for H&S. We always try and do something that’s special for us, and you… stuff like performing a singalong with 200 people on Leeds Town Hall steps and becoming a big-band, making an acoustic album and performing it as a one off set…
October 22, 2018 -
This Must Be The Place – Grassington Festival
The sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray! Hope and Social have their hats on aaaand This Must Be The Place. Ok so it doesn’t scan quite so well, but the sun has definitely been out. Gary is even more sun-kissed than his usual complexion suggests, and we’ve been busy completing our…
June 12, 2018 -
This Must Be The Place – Grassington
This Must Be The Place – Why? Do you have that one place in your hometown that when you’re there, you’re the most [insert your home town here] that you can be? The place that most speaks to you, that draws you home when you’re not home… a place and a time you shared with…
May 25, 2018 -
This Must Be The Place – R’n’D
This Must Be The Place Ah, Grassington. Lovely Grassington. Where would we all be without Grassington with your bleak moorside, chocolate box village square, dog and walker friendly country pubs and your AMAZING FESTIVAL!!! We’re working with the awesome Grassington Festival once more this year on a new project “This Must Be The Place”. We’ve…
May 4, 2018 -
FEEL Again – Oct 2017 Tour
FEEL Again Well, that was quite a night wasn’t it! All hands on deck, full steam ahead, let’s set sail for obscurity, safe in the knowledge that Hope and Social are at least forty times more strong and stable than the chuffnuts left in charge. In moments of clarity, when you come to the harrowing…
June 9, 2017 -
The Polar Excess: THIS SATURDAY!
(WARNING, CONTAINS SPOILERS. If you’ve already bought your ticket and want the day to be a surprise, then look away now) Ho Ho Ho Holy $h1tballs! … that’s rolled around quick! This coming Saturday the 10th of December is “The Polar Excess”, our Christmas dooo, our end of year bash, our bidding farewell to 2016,…
December 7, 2016 -
FEEL – a song a week #4: Dig Hard
Dig Hard The Song Si: In our original set of demos for this album there was a song which we all agreed had a lovely melody, but not necessarily one we’d want on one of our albums. It was a little too MOR, even for us. It was certainly a strong melody but it just wasn’t…
November 16, 2016 -
FEEL – The Album Tour
Dunno if we’ve mentioned it but this Friday 7th Oct, we’re putting our new album out! Not just any album either. It’s our first since 2013, and we’re putting it out on big fancy crowd-funded blue vinyl too. And as nine beautiful videos… with a worldwide premiere at Leeds’ favourite indie cinema. Plus our usual…
October 5, 2016 -
“Sunrise Laughing” Available NOW!
Our DEBUT Single “Sunrise Laughing” Ladies and Jellyspoons, we are positively brimming with excitement to give you the first taste of our forthcoming album “FEEL”, and our first ever single Sunrise Laughing!!!! For you delicious lovelies, we’re sneaking you an early listen of Sunrise Laughing as an exclusive Bandcamp stream and Free/Pay What You Want…
September 12, 2016 -
The Vinyl Countdown
A Way To Blue. . . 12″ Vinyl Wheels are in motion, cogs are whirring and spreadsheets are being filled in here at H&S HQ, readying ourselves to drop our brand spanking new album ‘FEEL‘ on your laps on Monday the 10th of October. It’s all recorded, we’re just at the stage of signing off…
August 15, 2016 -
Booking Ace
Double “O” AWESOME – introducing “Agent Leila” We’re super happy to announce that Hope and Social are to be working with the lovely people of Strada Music. Formed in July 2016, and out of the merger of the Adastra & Regent Music agencies, Strada Music work with some fantastic artists across Folk, Roots, World, Jazz…
July 27, 2016 -
Greenbelt – A Band Anyone Can Join
So… you wanna join the band… The summer is fast approaching… or we might have just had it, I can’t decide. Either way, the Hope and Social ‘Summer Festival Tour’ is most definitely upon us and on Monday 29th August we’re going to be donning our Hunter wellies and heading back to see our friends…
July 13, 2016 -
9 Videos for 9 Songs
We need YOU to make our next music video It is with great excitement that we’re putting a call out for film makers for our new album. We’ve poured heart and soul into our new record. It’s taken 3 years to get it to completion, we’ve lost and gained band members, we’ve talked and talked…
June 16, 2016 -
Festivals 2016
I’m guessing you don’t have much experience with heat Bees will buzz, aaaaand so will a worn and unraveled G-string (we’re talking guitars here people, not skimpies). You can expect to find all of the above and us, probably getting gorgeously tanned, at this summers festivals! Already this season we’ve been at York’s “The Ebor…
June 15, 2016 -
The 12 Signs of Christmas in New Yorkshire
Hello Dear Reader & a merry Yule to y’all, We’re writing to you just now to put a bit of a shout out to all those of you who like helping people at this time of year… and when we say people, we mean us! As you may know, we’ve putting on a Christmas event…
December 3, 2015 -
The Fairytale of New Yorkshire
Friday 11th December! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE! Apologies for the radio silence these past couple of weeks, but oh me my, what fun we have planned for our 2015 Christmas Doooo, “The Fairytale of New Yorkshire“… AND for that matter, what fun we’re having planning it! This is not gonna be some standard, badly…
November 20, 2015 -
Big Beautiful Brash BRASS Bash Bonanza
We love a bit of brass in Hope and Social. Other things we love include dancing, being ‘entertaining’, making loud noises and making stuff up on the spot, so when we were asked to work with New York Brass Band at Durham BRASS Festival, we jumped at the opportunity. As usual, we bit off slightly…
October 23, 2015 -
Autumn Tour 2015
I’ll Take a Tango Yessssss indeedy, after a fun-fueled, festival-tastic time over the summer (check out Jo Cox’s ace Underneath The Stars Festival pic over there on the right – jocoxphotography.co.uk), we’ve decided not to pack it all in and do something more important, but to hot-foot it around the UK one last time in…
September 10, 2015 -
“Difficult Tenth Album” Syndrome
Whoa there Horsie! ————- The good ship H&S has recently returned from a month having THE best fun at 11 shows at Grassington Festival, Oakwell Festival, Durham Brass, Scarborough Seafest and Underneath The Stars. Prior to that, I started this blog-post, to reflect on where we’re at in the making of this next Hope and…
July 31, 2015 -
July Festivals Preview
After spending the 5 hottest weeks of the year holed up underground in a natural refrigerator, we are poking our moley noses out of the soil, dusting off the blue jackets and donning the factor 50 for 10 shows at festivals this merry month. Sat. 11th July: Kirkstall Festival It all kicks off this Saturday…
July 9, 2015 -
Introducing…
Day six at the crypt, and we’re in uncharted territory in a number of senses. It’s different, as I hinted at at the start of the week, both in terms of how we’re approaching this record… and that for the first time since November 2009, we have a change in personnel. First up, we want…
June 9, 2015 -
Feel…
Well, it’s June, and that means we’re starting a new album. It’s been a long time coming this one. What with so many and varied Hope and Social projects this past year, Si and his many theatre things, and Goff being totally immersed in art in Berlin, we just haven’t been able to get a…
June 1, 2015 -
Hope and Social’s Blunder Bus!
Part of the Tour de Yorkshire Festival blunderbuss noun 1. a short large-bored gun, flared at the muzzle so as to scatter shot widely. Literally ‘thunder gun’. 2. an action or way of doing something regarded as lacking in subtlety and precision. Rain coat? Check. Stamina? Check. Vocal Cords? Check. Massive bag of fun-nuts? Check.…
April 10, 2015 -
“Connect: Resound” – A Live Lesson on Sound
… from inside your computer!!! This coming Thursday (26th March 2015) from 1:15pm to 2:15pm, schools across the county are tuning in to join Hope and Social (the musical equivalent to the interior designers’ “shabby-chic”) deliver a live lesson in sound and recording via the wondrous interwebz. This is the third event in NYMAZ’s Connect:Resound…
March 20, 2015 -
The 12 Gigs of Christmas – The Lowdown
We can’t afford big tele advertising campaign, but if we could it would go like this. [overly dramatic X-Factor voiceover, massive silver words rush towards screen] “12 GIGS” [big drum] “1 DAY” [cannon fires] “6 IDIOTS!” [fireworks] etc. It’s safe to say we’ve had some stupid ideas as a band. We just get over excited,…
December 8, 2014 -
People Say The Nicest Things
The dust has settled on The Tour Of Infinite Possibility: Weekend #1. As Simon so rightly puts it, it’s been an “incredible, exhilarating and rewarding” project. So much happened over those two days, we played six shows, with hundreds of new band members joining us on stage. All in just under 36 hours. It’s difficult…
June 19, 2014 -
Crypt Covers: Vol. 1
2 years on from our first ever Crypt Covers session, we’re releasing the first album’s worth of Crypt Covers. For the uninitiated, Crypt Covers is our one day challenge to record and video a fan-chosen cover version, with another artist, in one day. It’s been a challenging, interesting and worthwhile experience throughout. We wanted to…
April 1, 2014 -
Crypt Covers 10: Dancing Years – Saturday 4th January
UPDATE 7-1-14 Video below! Crypt covers 10 was the beautiful “I’ll Do It All Again” by Leeds own Corrine Bailey Rae suggested by @manwakesup on twitter. It’s SUCH a good song. Quite heartbreaking… The recording was one live take of the whole band and then we just overdubbed all the vocals and a teeny bit…
January 2, 2014 -
We Are “The Band Anyone Can Join”
(Short attention span? Like pictures but not words? Skip straight to the video) There’s nothing more exciting than trying to do the impossible; or at least the seemingly impossible. The stuff that feels like magic is happening, the stuff that feels that, in some small and positive way, it’s had an impact on someone’s life.…
November 26, 2013 -
Crypt Covers 9: Merz – Wed 23rd October
UPDATE 25-10-13 We had an absolutely lovely day in the Crypt on the 23rd October with the rather fantastic Merz. The song we covered was “Old Town” – an obscure track from a Phil Lynott solo album. It was a real pleasure working with Conrad. A real inspiration for us and just a joy to…
October 18, 2013 -
It’s Tour time again!!
Hello good people. Yes, it’s that time again, we are mounting our trusty red steed and coming to a town near you (hopefully), and yes….it starts on MONDAY! Amongst everything happening at the moment…a baby coming….me living out of suitcase for 8 months now…..James’ letter to Bruce….we have been a bit preoccupied so forgot to…
April 20, 2013 -
If Hope and Social Had An Office Party…
If Hope and Social had an office Christmas party, what would it look like? Help us decorate the office for our Christmas party and be in with a chance of winning a lifetime supply of Hope and Social paper clips! What makes ’em Hope and Social paper clips you ask? Well, they are blue, and…
December 7, 2012 -
How we roll
Awesome weekend so far! Galtres Festival was lovely as ever. Smiling faces all round. Best sounding stage of the festival season to date. We love Galtres! Amazing people. Great set-up. Highlights include “Olympic Jousting”, the lovely and ace “Hand Made Hands“, the scratch band who closed the night at the Firkin stage, the fantastic food…
August 26, 2012 -
Crypt Covers 1: Ellen and The Escapades
[UPDATE: 23/3/12] Here’s the finished song with video by the awesome Shot by Sodium crew. Robert Palmer – Addicted To Love, with Ellen and The Escapades, suggested by @ScottishPenguin, all completed in one busy busy busy fun fun day! You can also see a load of photos from the Shot by Sodium guys on their…
March 18, 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 -
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 -
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 -
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