April showers, part two

There's this particular method to finding musical collaborators: you hear someone perform, you like what you hear, you give them a recording of yours, time passes, they get in touch, you collaborate. Trouble is, that method never seems to work. But just this past Saturday afternoon, at the fourth of Tony Bevan's fortnightly free-jazz matinees Help Me, I'm Melting, he asks if I'd like to join for the next session. Hot damn. So, with Bevan on saxophones, Tom Bancroft on drums and Daniel Padden on whatever he fancies that afternoon, our williwaw will be back at the Old Hairdo, playing nice, free 'n' easy with others:

HELP ME I'M MELTING No. 5
Tony Bevan, Tom Bancroft, Daniel Padden & williwaw
Saturday, 16 APRIL 2016, 2 PM
The Old Hairdressers (Gallery)
27 Renfield Lane, Glasgow

April showers, part one

It's not just another very special episode of the Second Sunday Sipping Sights & Sounds Series this 10th of April, oh no.

It's Glasgow International season, and in the spirit of the visual art vanguard, we'll be presenting the five films of Ella Bergmann-Michel she made from 1931-1933. Two are advert-like silents with intertitles extolling the virtues of a new elderly home and raising funds for a soup kitchen. The other three more resemble her still work, as collages of scenes taken of street vendors, fishing and the 1932 election campaign. The last serves as a rather stark reminder that these films capture life on the verge of totalitarian collapse. The sound plan will be a touch sparse compared to the usual slabs, attempting to underline the fragile lives and ways of living on display. There's many things vying for one's attention that particular evening, including the close of the Counterflows Festival, Glasgow International installations here 'n' there, but this wee episode of the SSSS&SS will be a real treat, and a rare treat at that - these films cannae be found on a mere internet browsing spree, and the sounds, as always, will be fleeting.

a most peculiar coincidink

A williwaw, as readers of this (we)blog are no doubt aware, is indeed a thing. It's not only your favourite source for amplified 'ukulele mayhem, but a sudden, violent wind. The word has its roots in Alaska, and there are lakes, trails, schools and publishing companies there in its name. There are also a few books called Williwaw, most notably one of the first novels of Gore Vidal. But are any of these within the realm of magic realism? Perhaps it is indeed randomness, just as the word williwaw was found by our beloved comrade by randomly picking pages in a dictionary decades ago, that there is to be an anthology of short magic-realism fiction published here in Glasgow entitled Williwaw: An Anthology of the Marvellous. Truly just a coincidink? As they say in Indiana, there y'go.

second sunday sipping sounds forever

set your course for adventure, your mind on a new romance, and love...

it may be a new year, but this li'l love boat sails ever onward : williwaw's particular blend of amp'd uke mayhem continues its residency at The Old Hairdressers (27 Renfield Lane) with another electroacoustic rumpus on 11.01.2015 at 6 PM.

seeing out the end of the williwaw vicennial

it's now been over twenty years of this amp'd uke malarkey - braw!

to ring out the vicennial year as well as the usual year, williwaw has a cavalcade of sight and sound for the 14 december 2014 episode of the second sunday sipping sounds series at the old hairdo, 27 renfield lane, glasgow, starting at 6 pm. more info slowly, as if coming from a gravitational intravenous feed. Drip, drip, drop.

playing the other nine eleven

the williwaw vicennial continues with another episode of the second sunday sipping sound series at the old hairdo on the ninth of november, starting at six pm. there'll be sounds galore, and visual fodder to match. and a special guest or two to guide things merrily along. could you spend a matinee better? perhaps, but, oh, how hard pressed you'd be to do so. why not relax, sip, listen and watch the night unfold with us? oh, do!

random sound cavalcade #52

more snippets of sound-actions just previous. two internal bits of the 12th of october 2014 episode of the second sunday sipping sounds series: a coronach, a meditative set of revolving seventh chords, and the first and third (final) parts of a farewell to mister barnes, omitting the usual plagal cadence that was the second part for this go-round. enjoy.

random sound cavalcade #51

the first and second bits of last sunday's sipping sounds, comprising most-to-all of the latest williwaw chestnuts a coronach and chin down. the former is an unrelenting unspooling of chords in memoriam, the latter a diversion from a ditty developed at the home of jen and craig abell-champion in 2013, possibly based around much older ditties: the verse of "pearly white" by bale (which was itself borrowed wholesale from k. p. w. rainey), the williwaw fave "cherryvale" and the gymnopédies no. 1 vamp.

the start (and probable end) of the williwaw allotments tour

the first third of the hour-long battery-powered williwaw din within the allotment housing of Mister O'Neill on the eve of the summer solstice, 21 june 2014. if you've gotten this far, these caveats are self-evident, but nevertheless: our comrade doesn't move much, making this visual footage border on a still image and our comrade continues to play kraftwerk songs.

[williwaw at the Green Tea House (part one) and (part two)]

sipping sounds this sunday, 10.11.2013

Songs about mustard, herring, buses and trains. well, maybe not songs about them, probably not even songs by any stretch, but there will be visual counterpoints to the amp'd uke mayhem this sunday - the second sunday, but of course - at The Old Hairdressers, 27 Renfield Lane, Glasgow, starting at 8 pm. And those films will be about mustard, herring, buses and trains.

the sax-a-ma-phone episode of sipping sounds

back in the salad days of amp'd uke mayhem, williwaw would often find a brassy woodwind foil in jeffrey collins, a fellow graduate student of the School of Morrow Plots, now living in southwest Missouri. despite having too much respect for the clarinet of richard stoltzman, jeffrey could take the tritest chart given and kick it in 'n' out 'n' beyond the infinite... just a wee reminisce to mark the return of the sweet sound of the sax-a-ma-phone into the usual amp'd antics: the next second sunday sipping sounds series episode will feature the dulcet tones of rachel drury, composer of neonatal operas and fire breather. get in on it!

on the twelfth episode of the sipping sounds series

on the twelfth episode of the second sunday sipping sounds series, my true love gave to me... the same old but most beloved amplified 'ukulele mayhem of williwaw. join all the true loves on the 8th of september starting at 8 pm at the old hairdressers (27 renfield lane, glasgow) for all the raucous din, starting after din-din, finishing before night-night.

random sound cavalcade #37 : more sounds with trains

a special audio-visual edition of the random sound cavalcade (#34 for those who just love a good ol' fashioned countin') with two alive and lo-fi recorded excerpts from the Second Sunday Sipping Sounds Series, the 14 July and 11 August 2013 episodes.

first up is an awfully ad hoc if not just awful rendition of parts of the first movement of different trains (s. reich) from the 14. July 2013 episode of williwaw's Second Sundays at the Old Hairdo. this material has been previously attempted with this actual one-reel, Our Gang's Sundown Ltd. this time, there was no visual fodder during the audio festivities, but it just might work better than the previous attempts with the visual fodder which was just pasted to the audio after all was strummed 'n' done. Fodder all.

second salvo is an even looser cobbling, with the audio coming from the 11. August 2013 episode of Second Sundays, the second half of a long version - is there any other type of version with this infernal williwaw racket? - of the mister barnes theme (i.e., the plagal cadence number). the visual bits - more trains! - procured from that most procurable of places, the internet archive.

the next second sunday is extraneously special

the next episode of the second sunday sipping sounds series at the Old Hairdo, 27 Renfield Lane, will consist not only of the overlong overtures to stasis and decline one has come to know, love and yes, even expect from williwaw, but a bit of delightful duetting with comrade jamie bolland (of tut vu vu and jacob yates fame) on the heels of their work in J. Simon Van Der Walt's Why Scotland, Why East Kilbride sonic theatre adventure in July. a bit o' the air-driven organ-key tinkling to go along with the usual amp'd uke mayhem

sunday night is alright for some amp'd ukin'

Despite what Bernie Taupin might have written, it is truly Sunday night that is alright for fighting, if fighting happens to include some manner of amplified 'ukulele mayhem. Because that's what this Sunday brings to you, yes you, within the Greater Strathclyde Region. Behold!

williwaw at the old hairdo, sunday 14th july, 8 pm.

if it's the second sunday of the month, it must be williwaw

this coming sunday is the second sunday o' the month, and so that means more sonic mirth 'n' merrie at The Old Hairdressers starting at 8 pm. our beloved comrade williwaw will be playing some old chestnuts, some new peanuts and all the current pistachio nuts with a slightly reduced arsenal in preparation for the upcoming New World shows (info on upcoming events always available o'er at the williwaw showcase showdown).

that most sibilant series continues in 2013

that most sibilant of series - the Second Sunday Sipping Sounds Series - continues at the Old Hairdressers into 2013 (barring any unforeseen conflicts), so set those evenings aside on your calendars/diaries/what-not for further amp'd uke fury with your gentle host, williwaw

bearing witness for november folly

a rare spotting of the electroacoustic taro patch fiddle at the Old Hairdo on 11.11.2012:

our comrade williwaw is all lights, tumbling amps, and unresponsive strings in desperate need of replacing at the East Pollokshields Quad Festival Of Light on 16.11.2012:

the third sibilance, 09.12.2012

The third - and last o' the year - Second Sundy Sipping Sounds Series show! There'll be some sound, possibly some light, and even some resounding enlightenment. All amp'd uke, all the time, all for free, all for you.

WILLIWAW : SSSSS III

SUNDAY | 09 DECEMBER 2012 | 8 PM

THE OLD HAIRDRESSERS | 27 Renfield Lane | Glasgow

the second coming of the SSSSS

the sibilance parade continues with the second episode of the Second Sunday Sipping Sounds Series on 11. November, 2012. Same place - the Old Hairdressers, 27 Renfield Lane - at the same time - 8 pm - with the amp'd 'ukulele malarkey.