Eugene Chadbourne & The Girl From Al Qaida

orchestra Cubenick sorenson & Ale

Back in November the rather marvellous Qu Junktions put on musical odd ball and all round top banana Eugene Chadbourne, ably supported by The Cube Orchestra with Guest Conductor Nick Sorenson
liam and hughorchestra cube
Nick came up with an interesting score with which to improvise with, it’s not that hard to unerstand but I can’t rebothered to spend ages explaining it all, needless to say it worked in creating a piece of work that didn’t have the audience fleeing for their lives, suprising really as at certain stages bass solos, penny whistles and egg shakers were in liberal use:

Eugene Chadbourne

And then on to the maverick Eugene Chadbourne, I’m glad to say his odd ball charm won over an appreciative audience, so much so that he got his electric rake out, just check the clip out further on. I really enjoyed his first tune and especially the marvellous ‘Girl From Al Qaida’ played to the tune ‘Girl from Ipanema’ by Astrid Gilberto. He chuckled to himself whilst singing the song, one guy was guffawing throughout the gig. Anyhow enough of me, over to the man himself:


And for the encore, his electric rake:

Oh it was a good, good, night with lots of happy faces at the end. My thanks to all who came and to Mark and Chiz for putting on The Orchestra.

See you next year, Big love and Ciao for now Fresh Faced Richie Paradise Richie Paradise

Posted in Cube Orchestra, General, Qu Junckions, Richie Paradise | 1 Comment

It’s Not The Son Of God, It’s Movieoke

Movieoke
Well Novemeber saw the return of Movieoke to a new Wednesday night slot, with no Max (computer virus has meant we’ve had to send him to the computer mental home) and no Colin we soldiered (shouldered?) on with the more than capable Marcus Valentine marcus valentine and our usual human host Tom Morgan. And hey I kinda like the tag line ‘Movieoke, featuring Valentine and Paradise‘ anyway, am I right or am I right?
Anyhow, good old Liam was there also Laim to scare the hell out of us, anyhow he did a great job on the film changing.
Movieoke
Talking of good jobs, well done the medium sized and enthusiastic audience, come, come see the fruits of their labours:

Jaws, LOTR and Team America proved popular as always

team americarichie paradise plays team america

You can find a couple more clips here and here. Some very strong performances possibly enhanced by the dressing up box that we provided,
dress up at movieoke dress up a veritable assortment of wigs, coats, shirts and props for the assembled crowd to enjoy dressing into. Possibly all this dressing and undressing was why we had a much more smutty version of Movieoke than usual. The great thing about Movieoke is the way it’s a real group activity, the audience kind of bonds as the night goes on and you’re gauranteed at least one moment of wetting yourself humour, where else can you get that for £3?

Anyhoo, Hope to see more of you beautiful things in Feb,

Big Love Richie Paradise Richie Paradise

ps Thanks to Lea on sound, Ben in the bar and the rest of the Movieoke work group.

Posted in General, Movieoke, Richie Paradise | Comments Off on It’s Not The Son Of God, It’s Movieoke

Triple Xmess………..

The Cheetah Slickspoppy von tarte
Rock ‘n’ Roll Baby, You Know it makes sense. Of Course being educated people y’all know that Rock’n’Roll is an euphemism for an act of sexual congress so it makes perfect sense (to me) to put on some R’n’R with some Bawdy Burlesque moves courtesy of Miss Poppy Von Tarte, see for yourself (apologies as I recorded this sideways…).

A Great example of the Fan Dance by Poppy there. I’m glad to say we also had Local Burlesque superstar Keda Breeze there too as well as plenty of the local RockaBilly aristocracy (they exist, I said Lou was one). AND Boy can they drink (twas a good night behind the bar). Talking of RockaBilly, The Cheater Slicks played some fine greasy sounds:

Rounding off the night was The Strip Chords, who featured Go Go Dancers, and just in case you needed more sleaze, with vintage 8mm Celluloid playing in the background, SEE:

Was a great night, and to the team Cube team We salute you

Caio For Now, Richie Paradise xxx Richie Paradise

Posted in Bar, General, Music, performance, Richie Paradise | 1 Comment

Elvis Christmas Special!

greatness of the magnificence
Howdy Ma’am (er and blokes and that), saturday saw the return of Greatness Of The Magnificence, Jesse Morningstar’s night of individuals and bands playing tribute to the undisputed King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll
Elvis Aaron Presley.
you lot Anyhow a packed Cube sawlots of acts, some familiar from previous GOTM nights, such as the act who is always drunk, assorted mentalists(oops and Kate), the band who are so bad they’re almost good (sorry guys but yer not there yet!), Popstars of yesteryear, the Morningstar allstars, the Cube volunteers etc etc. Anyhow over to Jesse:

So much good stuff that I couldn’t film it all, but here’s some highlights (and lowlights), including the return of POP PARKER

Be scared by this

Quite mental this lot

For the finale Two by this lot featuring volunteers Ruth and Sarah, one here and this Sambatastic version:

They very nearly undid all the WOW factor of the Batucuda arrangement by going on too long but pulled it back at the end, well done you guys.
Then off to the bar where I jumped on the decks and kept the festive fun going
dancemy meg dancingdance

A great night had by all, praise Elvis (and Jesse and gang),

Wishing all of you Cube Log readers a very happy festive season,
Big Love Richie Paradise and Meg Paradise Richie (and Meg) Paradise xxx

ps logs for Triple Xmess, Movieoke and Eugene Chadbourne up this week I promise.

Posted in Events, General, Music, performance, Richie Paradise, Volunteers | Comments Off on Elvis Christmas Special!

Old Cube Son in Sun Shocker

Debassun

read all about it at http://www.bass-clef.blogspot.com/

[ though it does seem to look kind of funny in firefox for some reason ]

Posted in admin, General | Comments Off on Old Cube Son in Sun Shocker

Evil Kitty -The Ralfe Band on 16/12/2006

My greetings to you, the dear reader.
I introduce myself as a new blographer on the Cube’s website:
My name is Lea Pischke and I am in charge of a night’s sound technicalities when requested by the Cube’s music manager. So I was yesterday, Friday, for THE RALFE BAND, acid-folk from London.
With Eleni, my personal trainee/sound-serviant, I had the task to set up the band’s equipment.
The performance was better than anticipated by the soundcheck: a deep drumming kick sound
paired with the funk guitar playing to the stories told by the singer.
A Rembetika-reminiscent score had some attendees dance on the very pivoting chairs and what
a joy to realise that circus taught them good balance lessons. Even their hips were moving in the correct rhythm.
The performance was corrupted by the simultaneous screening of a film named “Faust”: a man
using magic to have some puppets come to live in such a way that they themselves start interfering with reality by reading the magic book – or maybe influenced by the pupeteer of whom we see nothing except his hands.
Behaviours that did not make sense at first sight: a devil-like puppet running onto the street out of the building rapped up in clothes to disguise his woodenness, going back to the building to apparently report his findings to another puppet in a theatre setting.

Odd imagery so compelling that even the band tried to watch whilst performing.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Alison Again

Cube associates on the Radio this week – hear mr_h’s computer, Bass Clef ( at the wrong rpm ) and Steveless on Hew Stephens’ show this week . . .

here

. . . and find out what Richie Paradise’s real name is . . .

here

Posted in admin, General | 1 Comment

Too Many Canadians

new wave noise jazz for the masses

Richie Paradise's Cocktail kit

Are you prevy to Bluescreen? Well it’s sheer genius, allow local film makers to turn up with 10 minutes or less of their films and let them show it, one after another. Well seeing as it was the nearly the end of the year, Steve (who once filmed a band of mine many years ago) and Chris (of Movieoke fame) foolishly asked if a band fancied playing to a selection of ‘Bluescreen’s greatest hits’, and No Wave Jazz for The Masses supergroup Skulpture (aka Sculpture) said we’d play. Actually the audience were lovely and we only subjected them to 13 minutes of our thang.
First off, and the tune you can hear here, was Too Many Canadians, a new ditty, and before upright Moose jockeys get uppity, I haven’t elaborated on what Too Many Canadians is eluding too. Anyhow hear for yourselves as the audience join in the Canadian related fun:

I will be trying to blog all the recent things I’ve born witness to and been a part of recently at The Cube (Movieoke for one) before xmas so be sure to check back real soon y’hear?

Big Love, Richie Paradise Richie Paradise

Posted in Film, General, Richie Paradise | 1 Comment

You probably weren’t there . . .

. . . at the Seven Inch Cinema night on Thursday.

Sadly, possibly because of a Qu Junktions final jaunt at the soon to be closed Seymour’s Family Club, The Cube was nearly empty for a fantastic programme of short films and musical performances put on by our like-minded Birmingham counterparts.

I managed to record most of the ubergeeky ZX Spectrum Orchestra performance which you can check below . . .



If you’re in Birmingham in February you can catch the Flatpack Festival put on by the same people which will feature a performance by my computer ( NOTE while we’re in gloriously pedantic geek mode : I say “my computer” but he’s not generally meant to be called “my computer”, he actually is  my  computer, so it’s “mr_hopkinon’s computerâ„¢”, or just “The   Computer” to you thank you ! )

Got no pics or nothing, but I feel honourable mention should be made of our own 7 inch cinema of sorts – “7s & 8s” featuring Super8 films and & 7 inch singles put on by Cube projectionist, Ali, the next day, and almost next door in Cafe Kino.

It was lovely.

And hopefully the first of more.

Posted in admin, Art, Audio, computer sings, computers, Events, Film, General, Music, Projections, Qu Junckions, Video | Comments Off on You probably weren’t there . . .

Cube Comes To Totterdown

Suzuki Boom Boom Suzuki Boom Boom
Last month Totterdown, Bristol’s answer to Montmartre in gay Paris, staged it’s seventh Arts Trail, known as Frontroom. Frontroom was the first Arts trail in Bristol and similar things now happen across the City. It’s really good for the community and it warmed the cockles of my heart to see people wandering the hills of Totterdown enjoying themselves. Anyhow for much more go to the website:

http://www.frontroom.org.uk/

For the First time I opened up my Frontroom and there was a Cube edge to what was on show in the house. Mr. Hopkinson had his superb Cutting Up My Friends and Earlier in The Bar screened on the wall and when it was dark enough on the window (so it could be seen inside and out, dig)
Cutting UpMy Friends
I had some of my Cube Blog Photos on show (some of which you can see here) so maybe you were on show too.
Richie Paradise's pictures in his hallway
I was also lucky enough to have American artist turned Bristolian Neko Griffen display her paintings.
But that was not all, My New Band Suzuki Boom Boom played on the friday night to a packed Frontroom (they were even spilling out onto the street).
Suzuki Boom BoomKris
Our spin on Contemporary Latin Jazz seemed to work with the assembled masses.
On the Sunday evening The Cube orchestra also played for an hour.
cube orchestra frontroomRichie Paradise
This was alot of fun, we played some really pretty music in a very Tortoise kinda way.
More pics of The Cube Orchestra available here from Will Iredale‘s site by the way.
This was a really great weekend, I really enjoyed meeting lots of different people and a few familiar faces too, maybe I’ll do it next year too…………..
Thanks alot everybody who came along, even if you did just enjoy the view from my window, and extra big thanks to my neighbours.

Hey getoutahere Richie Paradise Richie Paradise x

ps lighter pictures of Suzuki Boom Boom by Tom, thanks Tom

Posted in Art, Cube Orchestra, Cutting Up My Friends Project, Events, General, pretend you're more highbrow than you are, Richie Paradise | 6 Comments