Sofa Sound
I've been quiet for months, both on here and at the journal site. Hopefully I'll be getting more vocal in the next period - which will be one of quite some activity.
Exactly fifty-one years ago today VdGG were starting the famous Six Bob tour with a show at the Lyceum in London. Fifty-one years ago tomorrow we were playing at Birmingham Town Hall on that tour. So there’s a measure of synchronicity at work here: in exactly four weeks from today we’ll be back in the Town Hall, kicking off the latest leg in VdGG touring.
At times over the last two extraordinary years it’s seemed that these often rescheduled shows would never happen and that effectively that might mean the end for our group. So it’s with joy and excitement (and the usual pinch of trepidation) that we’re now in the private study stage of rehearsals, knowing that the real thing will be upon us before we know it. The UK run is a short one; in a couple of months we’ll have the long stretch through the rest of Europe to do.
It’s going to be a blast.
A new show has been added to the VdGG tour, Leuven on 25th May. Details of the full tour are up here of course.
As explained below, the Sofa Sound mail order shop has now closed and the official PH store has moved to Burningshed.com.
It's quite an emotional moment to say goodbye to this business, which has gone through so many mutations over the years. Perhaps in the coming days, when my equilibrium's somewhat restored, I'll write something about this, either here or over at the Journal pages - sadly neglected as they've been for a long while.
As and when there's any news to announce it will, of course, continue to be posted here.
Mille grazie, merci beaucoup, danke schön, duomo arigato and all the rest...this book is ended.
We've been running Sofa Sound as a mail order business for over forty years, from way back in pre-internet days. The time has now come for us to stop doing so. Inevitably, Brexit has a part to play in this but there are other factors in play as well.
The official online mail order shop for my stuff will be moving over to www.burningshed.com from the 1st July. Many of you will already know that they're a super-efficient and straightforward company and they're much better placed than we are to weather the continuing bumpy ride we're currently on.
It goes without saying how much we appreciate the loyalty and enthusiasm which so many of you have shown to and for our little operation over so many years. Thank you. It's true to say that at many times in the past I wouldn't have been able to carry on making music without the support which you've given via Sofa Sound.
Time for a change, though: onward we go.
My previous notes about inactivity here and activity elsewhere:
I've been far from diligent of late in updating news here at Sofa Sound, even if hard news is a bit thin on the ground at the moment.
Partly this is the result of my continuing commitment to maintaining an online journal - at sofasound.wordpress.com if you haven't yet come across it. (Though in fact I've been silent over on that platform for the last few months as well....) I began doing this in part because I realised that items I put up here on the latest news page have traditionally been erased and overwritten as new stuff comes in - and of course it's now some time since the newsletters ceased being my favoured form of updating news. But in turn that's meant that I've been slow to put things up here. Must try harder....but of course the dissemination of info these days is spread over a number of different channels in any case.
(And should you be interested I also have a twitter identity, @Sofa_sound. My contributions there, though, are pretty random and sporadic....)
Many moons have passed...but you may also be interested,
now, to go and check out www.peterhammill.com
where, finally, some lyric-labyrinthine adventures
await, thanks to the indefatigable labours of Adrian.
More on this anon, but it's only right to let you know
that something's been/is afoot there....
Regarding the site...
The intention here is to have a fundamentally "white
paper" place from which information rather than
entertainment (or information as entertainment) can be
gleaned. To this end the site should be under fairly
constant revision. Once again, my apologies for being
negligent in this regard over the last few months.