News archive from vespa.org.uk

Read our exclusive interview with the new management of The King Lud pub in Ryde, Isle of Wight - gearing themselves up for the next rally in 2010.

Clarks are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the desert boot by creating six unique new designs for men and women. Each come with a souvenir booklet and key ring (made from the same material as the boot). http://www.clarks.co.uk/Originals/Desert-Boot-60th

You can also visit the link below (click the boot in the picture) to enter a competition to win a Vespa.

The wonderful news is that the Half Moon in Putney has been saved! It took a tremendous effort from the owners, staff, bands and fans to persuade the brewery where their best interests are, so enormous thanks to all of you who bombarded Young's Brewey with indignant emails! For once, we've been listened to - if only the government would do the same.... The Moon will make some changes, have a revamp, and will soon be back to its former glory as one of the UK's best live music venues.

Half Moon

Hot Gig News! - Friend of vespa.org.uk Terry Shaughnessy and his band The Universal have been confirmed as the support for Ocean Colour Scene at their intimate tour warm-up gig in their home town of Birmingham on Monday January 25th. Well worth checking them out if you're the type that normally stays in the bar until the main act comes on .

A great historic live music venue faces closure

Half Moon

The Half Moon in Putney, one of London's last independent venues, may have to call time on almost 50 years of hosting live music.

Due to market forces, the current economic climate and other circumstances beyond their control, The Half Moon will not be able to carry on as a music venue after 31st January 2010.

You may already know that The Half Moon is a beautiful welcoming pub and an exciting atmospheric venue, but it possibly holds even greater value to the bands that play there.

The Half Moon has been hosting live music regularly since 1963. Since that time it has seen performances by, among others, The Rolling Stones, The Small Faces, and countless more.

As well as still catering for touring bands and artists The Half Moon has, more recently, been an important stepping stone for artists such as Kasabian and The Wombats.

When bands are making the transition from playing in the corner of a pub to much bigger venues, they need that stepping stone. Places like The Half Moon fill that niche.

Current tenant James Harris says "We are at the grass roots of live music and The Half Moon is an engine room for rising bands throughout the UK, who are now running out of quality venues to play."

Band member, sound engineer and host of Half Moon Unplugged - Red Bailey says "It will be a sad day when The Half Moon closes. I can’t think of many venues I've been to who can cater for professional touring bands and rising unsigned bands and are willing to treat the two no differently. Speaking as a band member I'd say I haven't played at any 200 capacity venue that offers as good sound/lighting production, atmosphere and door deal."

Without the right measures being taken The Half Moon could easily join a growing list of music venues that have closed in recent months/years. It would be another blow to music and culture in London if The Half Moon disappears as well.

Even if you’ve never visited the Half Moon but feel strongly about the continuation of live music, please feel free to express your feelings to the
brewery in control of the decision to close the venue at:
feedback@youngs.co.uk

You can help save The Half Moon. Please vote with your feet and come for a drink, or come to one of our nightly live music shows. To see what's on visit the gig guide at http://www.halfmoon.co.uk. If you can't make it down in person then visit our forum and show us some love
for all to see.

Warm regards,

James Harris
Halfmoon, Putney
020 8780 9383

www.halfmoon.co.uk

DC FONTANA release their debut single December 1st...

DC Fontana

A double A-sided single, "THE CONTESSA"/"SNAKE CHARMER" will be available from all the usual sites including iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Play.com, HMV, Tesco etc, or as a 7" limited collectors' edition record available from www.dcfontana.com
The album will follow sometime early in 2010 (dates to be announced) either as downloads or a CD complete with a deluxe booklet.

"Six Against Eight" features 14 original tunes and includes collaborations with members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra together with classical composer Christian Badzura and the brilliant Indian virtuoso Surinder Sandhu.

Nov 09

Sorry you missed the Sixties

"There was life before The Beatles and Swingin' London and living it was Philip Townsend"
Andrew Loog Oldham, the original manager and genius of The Rolling Stones.

The Philip Townsend Archive, a collection of photographs taken by celebrated 60s photographer Philip Townsend, documenting Sixties London in full swing and capturing some of the most iconic faces of the era, made a rare public appearance at a pop up gallery just off Carnaby Street in June to coincide with Carnaby Streets 60s celebrations.

Townsend's unique collection of shots includes rock stars, society darlings, models and the political movers and shakers of the day. The rescued works, hidden for forty years, are now being sought by institutions like the National Portrait Gallery and serious print collectors alike. The reason is simple: Philip Townsend's pictures are the Sixties.

While other photographers took portraits, often closely cropped, Townsend instinctively widened his frame to include backgrounds, landscapes and the sheer feel of the period. A fine example is his portfolio of the fledgling Rolling Stones, including their first ever photo sessions in March 1963, when they were broke and hungry, without a recording contract: a band not yet on the run. Townsend bought the young band barbecued chicken and set about fostering the semi-delinquent image which they still cultivate today: through his percipient lens, we see the Stones slouching in an underpass, unsmiling and menacingly backlit, or tilted at a surreal angle against a wall, or inhabiting beer benches outside a pub in Earls Court.

As the Sixties swung and Britain subverted the old order, Townsend continued to record all the prime people of the time. He moved effortlessly into this nascent world, photographing the Beatles many times, most memorably their first encounter with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1967. He documented the peacock gear they wore, the sleek cars they drove, and the aeroplanes that flew them to fresh horizons.

At the age of 20, based in the South of France, Townsend photographed the beautiful people who wintered and watered on the Riviera: Prince Rainier and his Hollywood wife, Princess Grace; a rare photo of Sir Winston Churchill with Aristotle Onassis; Marlon Brando and Joan Fontaine. Years later, when the sixties were losing their swing, he returned to capture a memorable shot of a visibly out-of-love Richard Burton at a party with Elizabeth Taylor. Other celebrities of the era who received the Townsend treatment were Twiggy, then a very young ingenue model in the hands of her manager and boyfriend Justin de Villeneuve; Charlotte Rampling, cool and miniskirted; Princess Alexandra dancing with Marlon Brando; comedian Frankie Howard on a skateboard, and Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space.

The exhibition of limited edition silver gelatin prints was also timed to coincide with the release of Townsend's first published book, 'Sorry You Missed the Sixties: A Collection of Limited Edition Photographs from The Philip Townsend Archive 1960 - 1970'. The book chronicles much of Townsend's archive, and is an impressive reflection of not just his work but an observation on the 60's pioneering optimism.

"A treasure trove of rock history" The London Times | "An amazing archive of evocative images that have been hidden for 40 years" Sunday Express | "One of the World's most celebrated showbiz photographers" The Daily Mirror | "Philip Townsend, one of the era's most acclaimed photographers" Yorkshire Post | "Philip Townsend, world class portrait photographer" GQ

"All UK Armed Service Personnel, e it Royal Navy, Army or Royal Air Force, will no longer be required to pay into any UK Scooter events run by the Scooter Collective known as VFM*. Production of military ID will be necessary as proof of service. This will be the case for at least 2010 but will probably run indefinately. More of a token of our respect than a massive financial saving. But as they say, every penny counts.

News Archive 2010

2010