Billy Childish Album Launch
ROD WEBB
Hot on the heels of Sister Suzie’s Preview Album launch at the Henry Ward Hall (See HIP Issue 263, Sister Suzie Honesty in Mid-Life) comes the launch of two LPs from Billy Childish at the same venue on 23 November, Cape Trafalgar and The Speech of Karatakus.
Billy Childish is a painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. He has had a prolific output in each area since the 1970s, releasing more than 100 albums on the musical side. Clash magazine describes his live performances as “a force of nature” from “someone who has distilled garage punk down to a fine essence across a seemingly endless parade of terrific albums”.
Before performing in Hastings last year, he acknowledged, in an interview with Hastings OnLine Times: “I’m playing in five groups and releasing something in the order of six LP records a year (we did 21 LP records over lockdown)”, and then commented: “it gets a bit strange listing what I do as it seems too much.”
ETERNAL ANACHRONISM
The launch gig is billed as an evening of poetry, folk and blues, and Billy Childish will be accompanied by The Chatham Singers and The North Kent Folkways Revival, who perform with him on both albums. Their previous single, Medway Wheelers, is unique: not so much a folk revival, more of an overheard, very local, conversation. The existential angst of This Wound’rous Day is thoroughly contemporary, full of ironic quasi-tragedy – ‘to the gods of the air, I declare my love of despair’). The idea of ‘The Chatham Singers’ on the other hand may put you in mind of a local choir but, fronted by Childish, they are in fact a kind of post-punk blues outfit. Childish is described on the damaged goods website as ‘an anachronism who is forever influencing the world of contemporary art and music’, and the new album is pretty sure to reflect this description.
The Hastings album launch is preceded by one at Medway Little Theatre six days earlier. That one is already sold out, so you’d better grab your tickets for the Hastings gig while you can on ticketsource.co.uk – free A4 stamped and signed poster with your ticket! This promises to be a great evening of music and poetry ‘distilled’ to its fine essence.
Cape Trafalgar and The Speech of Karatakus will be released on Hangman Records on 18 November 2024 and thereafter available to purchase online from L-13.org
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