Angus and Julia Stone regional press pack

ANGUS AND JULIA STONE JANUARY 2011 CONTENTS: • Features • Tour Editorial • Live Reviews

Momentum PR 39 – 41 North Rd, London, N7 9DP – tel: 020-77000 275

FEATURES

247 Magazine South West December ‘10

Banter Magazine Scotland December ‘10

Brighton Argus 2nd December ‘10

West Briton 2nd December ‘10

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Western Morning News 26th November ‘10

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XYZ Magazine Brighton December â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;10

YORKSHIRE POST FRIDAY DECEMBER 3 2010

6 MUSIC

BRIEFLY

Forest date for Simple Minds

Culture

yorkshirepost.co.uk

How the realities of life on the road left the Stones cold

THE Forestry Commission has announced that rock legends Simple Minds will be playing an outdoor gig at Dalby Forest next year on June 24.

The band are going to follow in the footsteps of Paul Weller and The Beautiful South, who have both played in the woodland near Pickering, in recent years. The gig will see a temporary auditiorium erected in the forest to allow an audience of 5,000 to attend.

Tickets for next year’s concert go on sale this morning at 9am, on 03000 680400.

Rethink time for McFly BOYBAND McFly return to arena tours next year to launch their fifth album Above the Noise.

The tour is the band’s first largescale tour in two years, having played more intimate venues in recent years. The boys will be stopping off in Sheffield on March 18 and the tickets go on sale tomorrow morning at 9am.

Fans should expect something a little different – singer Tom Fletcher says: “We’ve learnt to completely rethink what McFly might be.”

Tickets for the gig are available on 0114 256 5656.

CHARTS Singles X Factor Finalists, Heros (Syco) Ellie Goulding, Your Song (Polydor) JLS, Love You More (Epic) Olly Murs, Thinking of Me (Epic/Syco) Rihanna, Only Girl in the World (Def Jam) 6 Take That, The Flood (Polydor) 7 Far East Movement, Like A G 6 (Interscope) 8 Katy Perry, Firework (Virgin) 9 Adele, Make You Feel My Love (X1 Recordings) 10 Rihanna, What’s My Name (feat Drake) (Def Jam) 1 2 3 4 5

Albums Take That, Progress (Polydor) JLS, Out Of This World (Epic) Westlife, Gravity (Syco) Susan Boyle, The Gift (Syco) Rihanna, Loud (Def Jam) Andre Rieu & Johann Strauss Orchestra, Moonlight Serenade (Decca) 7 Bon Jovi, Hits (Mercury) 8 Kings of Leon, Come Around Sundown (Hand Me Down) 9 Pink, Greatest Hits So Far (Laface) 10 Michael Buble, Crazy Love (Reprise) 1 2 3 4 5 6

INTERVIEW Their�rstalbumwasamajorhit,sowhydid AngusandJuliaStonealmostdecideneverto returntothestudio?Sarah Freeman�ndsout.

WHEN Julia Stone had her first taste of life as a professional musician she wasn’t sure she liked it. Her brother Angus was equally unconvinced.

The brother and sister, who grew up in Australia playing open mic sessions at local bars liked the fact the record company paid for them to live in London for a while.

They were flattered when their first album, the folkinspired A Book Like This, released in 2009, found fans across Europe and America, but they weren’t blind to the downsides.

They’d loved each and every one of their gigs, but living in a tour bus for the best part of two years took its toll.

So much so that despite being deluged by critical plaudits, when they were asked to record a second album they very nearly said no. “We’d written all the songs while we were out on tour with A Book Like This and the album was ready to go,” says Julia, speaking

from New York, where she recently recorded her first solo venture. “The problem was we didn’t know whether it was the right life for us. Everything had happened so quickly and it was just such a contrast to what had gone before. We were tired of living on top of each other.”

A self-enforced break from the touring circus helped clarify their thoughts and much to their record company’s relief, A Book Like This turned out not to be both debut and swansong.

Instead came Down the Way, an album arguably more accessible than the first and which produced stand out track Big Jet Plane.

“We took seven months out and during that time we changed the way we thought about what we were doing,” says Julia. “If anything, it’s even more crazy and hectic than it was before, but not many people get the opportunity to do what me and Angus do, so we just decided to look at

NEW START: Siblings Angus and Julia Stone found success with their debut album A Book Like This, but needed time out from touring it.

everything more positively.”

Both siblings have recorded solo albums which gave each of them much needed space and for Julia the experience of going into a studio without the supportive arm of Angus, was terrifying, but ultimately rewarding.

In The Memory Machine has been described as a “paean to

Doing the solo album gave me a lot more selfcon�dence. It made me grow up.

lost love from simpler times” and emerged as a perfect showcase for Julia’s strippedback, haunting vocals.

“I really respect Angus as a musician and when he says something about a recording you know there’s no point arguing with him because he’s always right,” she says.

“But if I’m honest I think I had become a little too reliant on him. Doing the solo album gave me a lot more selfconfidence. It made me grow up a lot.”

Now 25, Julia and 22-yearold Angus got back together earlier this year for a tour to promote their second album, ending with a sell-out show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire and are currently on a second string of UK dates. “I love festivals because there’s a

Yorkshire Post 3rd December ‘10

distinct buzz from a crowd who have made a conscious decision to escape reality for a weekend,” says Julia.

“I definitely think we give a more energetic performance at festivals, but we probably play better at quieter, more intimate gigs.”

Much has changed for the Stone siblings, but one thing which remains the same is their love of recording music which makes them happy.

“I’m told a lot of radio stations won’t play our stuff.

I’m cool with that,” says Julia.

“You can’t please everyone.

Our manager is the one driving the ship. If she tells us we’re playing Czechoslovakia then great, to us they’re just people who like our music.”

After the latest tour comes to an end on Dec 11, Angus is planning a snowboarding trip to Canada, while Julia is hanging around in the UK for a while before they both head back to Australia for an important date.

“Our mother is getting married and we’ve got three weeks off, which feels like an incredible luxury,” she says.

“It will be good for a while just to do some normal stuff with mum.”

■ Angus and Julia Stone, The Wardrobe, Leeds, Dec 5. 0113 244 3446, www.lunatickets.co.uk.

TOUR EDITORIAL

247 Magazine December â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;10

Falmouth Packet 21st July â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;10

Oxford Times 9th July â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;10

The Herald 4th December â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;10

LIVE REVIEWS

Eastern Daily Press 16th July â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;10

Leeds Guide 7th December â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;10

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Culture

Angus and Julia Stone The Wardrobe, Leeds

Sunday 19 December 2010

by Susan Darlington

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It would be wrong to take pleasure in someone else's ill health and the fact that Angus Stone had a cold and was losing his voice meant his older sister was left to dominate the set.

And that, from purely a musical perspective, was a very good thing.

With the look of an Australian beach bum, Angus injected a slacker aesthetic to '70sinfluenced country rock. Pleasant enough on tracks such as Mango Tree and Bella, but it's doubtful anyone would have taken any notice of his output if he hadn't shared disc space with Julia.

The weak link across the duo's two albums, he nonetheless plays more than just a supporting role.

The pair complement each other on trumpet, mandolin and keyboards and occasionally swap harmonies and Angus shouldn't get overly worried that his sister recently released a solo album.

In an act of sisterly solidarity, she only plays set closer Where Does The Love Go? from it.

In possession of a more varied catalogue than her brother, she moves from slinky, filmic rock on Private Lawns, brittle folk on I Believe in Love and I'm Not Yours to The Wedding Song where she exhibits a generally restrained proclivity towards schmaltz.

But her real weapon is her voice - a raw, passionate instrument that's pitched somewhere between a more childlike Lou Rhodes and Martha Wainwright in helium delivery mode.

Its tenor brings a vulnerability to everything she sings, perfectly demonstrated on her cover of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Stripped of all sense of hope, it turns into a desolate plea for dreams over reality as Angus's electric guitar spars with the violinist in a nightmarish dissonance.

There's similar heartbreak in her own numbers, which detail the minutiae of love with an honesty exemplified by her disconcerting habit of staring straight at the audience when singing.

There's also a certain steeliness in the material and the duo's humorous banter between songs arrested the descent into self-pity.

For You, written on Garageband for an ex-lover with whom Julia wanted to be reconciled, is a beautifully constructed track that would melt the hardest hearts.

Yet the recipient responded with a "tape of hip-hop beats that sounded like they were put together in minutes."

There was no fairytale ending, but the experience at least provided a rich seam of inspiration to be mined.

The material might have been non-confrontational - as the tasselled lamps and fairy lights on stage suggested - but it had an honesty powerful enough to keep the audience hushed for 90 minutes.

Morning Star 19th December â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;10

Yorkshire Post 9th December â&#x20AC;&#x2122;10

JULIA STONE ALBUM REVIEWS

Sunday Mail 28th November ‘10

The Skinny November ‘10