Shuffle Programme

FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Thursday July 11 2019 to Sunday July 14 2019

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W

elcome to the 13th year running of The Swindon Shuffle, a free entry event that was conceived and founded in 2007 by a group of independent music promoters and was initially plotted out on the back of a literal fag packet during a beer or two at The Victoria.

The idea was simple and was inspired by already established city centre music festivals like the Camden Crawl, The Great Escape and the Oxford Punt; the crowd was to “Shuffle” between a couple of music venues on one particular night to watch a variety of acts performing.

This, of course, quickly expanded before the first event had been run, to be a four-day event across even more venues, with the audience “Shuffle” giving the event its now familiar name. The inaugural festival was held Thursday 19th to Sunday 22nd July 2007 using The Victoria, The Furnace, The Rolleston, 12 Bar, and The Beehive as venues with an opening and fringe night held at Swindon Town Football Club’s Winners Lounge on the Thursday.

In the following years venues and organisers have come and gone, supported charities have changed and of course the music and musicians involved has been an ever-fluid story. Two things have remained

constant however: the overall ethos and aim of the event; to bring together the community to showcase a thriving local music scene remains as solid as ever, and of course, The Beehive as a venue, our only ever-present physical component.

We still principally strive to highlight the wonderful original musical talent on our doorstep, although we do on occasion like to mix this up with some of the best grassroots artists from further afield.

In the last 12 years many artists have gone on from playing the Shuffle to make their mark on the wider national scene, artists including out of towner acts like Stornoway, The Volt and Bleech as well as Swindon’s own success stories, acts like Gaz Brookfield, Beatbullyz, Colour The Atlas, The Alfonz and The Dead Lay Waiting. More recent years have seen this tradition continue with bands like Yves and Getrz gaining national recognition having partly cut their teeth at the Shuffle.

The festival is strongly rooted in the Old Town community and seeks to continually promote and highlight the area. This year you will find us at shuffle stalwart The Victoria as well as relative newcomer The Tuppenny and brand-new venue The Hop as well as ever-present The Beehive. Come on down and enjoy the music!

So far, the event has raised in excess of £12,000 for local charities, with the current beneficiaries being the Swindon and Gloucester branch of Mind, the mental health charity, an organisation we have been proud to support for several years now, as we have seen many famous and local musicians sadly succumb to their own mental demons in the most terminal of ways. We will have collection buckets at each session, or you can donate directly to the branch via text with the following codes:

To donate £1 text SGMIND to 70201 To donate £3 text SGMIND to 70331 To donate £5 text SGMIND to 70970 To donate £10 text SGMIND to 70191 To find out more about Mind’s work locally visit www.sgmind.org.uk If you feel you need help or support from Mind then please call them on 01793 432031. *Line up subject to change. Terms and conditions apply Please see website for full details All venues 18+ except The Tuppenny on Saturday and Sunday

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T THE BEEHIVE H E

As one of the oldest pubs in Swindon it has a unique character all of its own, with its twisting, four level layout. It is also the only venue to have been an ‘ever present’ on the Shuffle. The pub has always been a supporter of the arts whether that’s local, national, and international music acts to poetry nights, art exhibitions, and more. Tucked away behind Regents Circus in Prospect Place it could be one of Swindon’s best kept secrets.

THE VICTORIA

A stalwart of the live music scene since the end of the 90s, It has also been involved in 12 of the 13 Shuffles to take place.The impressive roster of local, national, and international artists have played there (including Ed Sheeran!) The size of the Victoria Road venue, stage and PA system mean this is definitely a place to check out some of the bigger and louder acts playing this year’s festival.

V E N THE HOP INN U E S BAILA COFFEE & VINYL

The Hop originally opened on Devizes Road in the early 2010s in a small building creating a unique small bar serving craft beer and lager. Thanks to its huge popularity The Hop moved earlier this year to a bigger premises a couple of doors down. With the new venue The Hop will be hosting Friday and Saturday evening sessions. The bigger venue means they can now offer a far larger selection of rotating craft beers and lagers, so everyone’s a winner!

Having opened in 2014, Victoria Road’s Baila was one of the early entrants into Swindon’s small bar culture serving coffee by day and cocktails by evening. It has a real cosmopolitan city feeling and has become a real hidden gem on the Swindon scene. Baila has been involved in the music community and the Shuffle since it first opened, and in recent years it has become the place to party to some brilliant DJs after the live music is dying down for another night.

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THE TUPPENNY

The Tuppenny opened in late 2016 on Devizes Road and very quickly became one of the best independent bars in Swindon, with a large range of craft beer, craft spirits, cocktails and wine. It has a unique and cosy feel with its own quirky decor, up-cycled furniture and even a bar top made from two pence coins! With brilliant hot food provided by Helen Browning’s Chop House around the corner . The Tuppenny is also a big supporter of original music in Swindon, putting on stripped back bands and singer-songwriters.

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WEDNESDAY JULY 10

7.30pm - Swindon Shuffle Music Quiz at The Beehive

JULY 11

T H U R S D A Y

THE TUPPENNY

9.45pm - No Side Effects

No Side Effects are all about contradictions and gentle sonic conflict. On the one hand their synth driven sound is as futuristic and clinical as it comes but it is the dreamy ambience they fashion from those digital building blocks that provides the balance; a haunting and ethereal vibe that neatly subverts expectations.

9pm - Chloe Hepburn Chloe plays with a sound that wanders between modern indie-pop cool and the echoes of a more drifting, ambient dream-pop past.

The result is music that is full of accessible hooks and emotive soundscapes, which is wonderfully forward thinking and yet slightly nostalgic.

8.15pm - Jamin Sun

The perfect example of the postgenre world, Jamin Sun seems to encompass everything from infectious dance beats, ambient electronica, pop melodics and strange indie otherness. Throw into that sunshine grooves, exotic vocal samples and a joyous overall vibe and you really have something for everyone. (Except perhaps goths!)

7.30pm - Noella Usborne

With her debut single, Unrequited, proving popular with pop-pickers and critics alike, Noella is the sound of cutting edge pop at its most fresh and addictive.

Singer-songwriter ethics, contagious back beats and a wonderful indie pop vibe, Noella writes songs that tick all the right boxes in both mainstream and underground circles, which are simultaneously cultish and commercial‌how cool is that?

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THE VICTORIA

JULY 11

10.15pm - Gaz Brookfield and the Company of Thieves

If ever there was a local boy made good it is this fellow. Years of hard work have made him a festival favourite and stalwart of the national circuit and it isn’t hard to see the attraction. Addictive songs packed with wit and wisdom, intimate insides and relatable stories all put to upbeat guitar and a joyous groove, and then delivered via a high-octane live performance. That’s how it’s done.

9.30pm - Chris Webb Often found playing in some of the most exciting acoustic acts on the national circuit, it is as a solo performer that you best appreciate Chris’ deft and dexterous musical style. Blending mesmerising, upbeat, fingerstyle guitar with clever, poetic and sometimes whimsical lyrics, his sets are always as fun to hear as they are fascinating to watch.

8.45pm - Black Sheep Apprentice

Black Sheep Apprentice make music woven from intricate strands of country, punk, spaghetti western scores, high octane bluegrass and more besides.

Then when they dial it down you get to appreciate those songs boiled down to their brooding essence.

Redemption and solitude lie at the core but this is anything but melancholic and even they retain their rich and anthemic qualities

T H U R S D A Y

8pm - Jim Blair

Away from his usual seat at the front of Hip Route, Jim manages to maintain a similar level of energy even when it is just him and his trusty guitars. Funky, bluesy and ultimately groovesome tunes that take in slide, lap and more regular guitar styles, add to that a whiskey soaked vocal and bag of great tunes and you have the sort of music that can only be made where the Mason-Dixon Line meets the M4 corridor.

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CLASH FI Thursday 11 July The Victoria

The Tuppenny

Friday 12 July The Victoria

The Hop

The Tu

13:00 14:00

1 Richard

15:00

1 Aman

16:00

1 Callu

1

17:00

1 D

18:00

1 W

19:00

19:30 Noella Usborne 20:00 Jim Blair

20:00 21:00

20:45 Black Sheep Apprentice

22:00 23:00

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21:30 Chris Webb

22:15 Gaz Brookfield

20:15 Jamin Sun 21:00 Chloe Hepburn 21:45 No Side Effects

19:30 Spunking Octochoke 20:20 Street Outlaws 21:10 Cobalt Fire 22:00 The Oxymora

19:15 Sarah C Ryan Band 20:00 Abstraction Engine 20:45 Stay Lunar 21:30 Basement Club 22:15 Wyldest

22:45 Raze*Rebuild

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SH FINDER Saturday 13 July The Tuppenny

The Beehive

Sunday 14 July The Hop

The Tuppenny

The Beehive

13:15 Paul Jones 14:00 Jol Rose 14:45 Richard Wileman

14:45 Sean Amor

15:30 Amanda Codea

15:30 The Bone Chapel

16:15 Callum McLean

16:30 Tamsin Quin Band

17:00 S’Go

17:15 Will Lawton & Weasel Howlett

17:45 Dreuw 18:30 Wilding

Band

18:00 Hip Route

19:00 The Dirty Levis 19:45 The Empty Chairs

gine

20:30 Oscillator

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21:15 Illustrations

ub 22:00 Fake Walnut Dash

19:15 Redbull Junkies 20:00 Grasslands 20:45 Ravetank 21:30 Atari Pilot

18:45 Mark Harrison 19:30 The Shudders 20:15 The Astral Ponies

BAILA DJ SETS FRIDAY 12 JULY

22:15 Flour Babies

9pm til late DJ John Stapleton

SATURDAY 13 JULY 9pm til late DJ Matt Baila

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THE HOP INN 10.15pm - Wyldest JULY 12

F R I D A Y

9.30pm - Basement Club

Definitely one of the rising stars of the local, and now not so local, young indie scene, Basement Club make accessible, textured and fluid music based around funky grooves and nuanced guitar work. It’s indie-pop meets underground rock and it is this mix of hook and weight, jangling riffs and danceability that are ensuring an ever growing following near and far.

It has been a pleasure to watch Zoe Mead grow from a singer-songwriter clutching an acoustic guitar into the driving force behind one of the country’s most exciting bands. Making music at the point where blissful shoegaze meets infectious pop, Wyldest are soundscapers in the truest sense of the word, juggling lush electronic washes, dark minimalism, quirky grooves and futuristic dreamscapes.

Gorgeous is not a powerful enough word but it will have to do until we come up with a better one to encapsulate the Wyldest sound.

8.45pm - Stay Lunar

The clever thing about Stay Lunar is that whilst they have remained true to all the essential pop ingredients, infectiousness and accessibility, they also play with rock’s groove and drive and even then they still find time to hop generic demarcations and plunder from other genres to build a new sound for the current market of pop-pickers, indie kids and alt-rock aficionados alike.

8pm - Abstraction Engine

With influences ranging from 80s chart toppers to 90s shoegaze, Abstraction Engine’s set currently includes the best song Duran Duran never wrote and at least one moment of noise pop perfection.

7.15pm - Sarah C Ryan Band

With hints of country and folk running through her music, Sarah writes gorgeous modern pop songs in the tradition of classic writers such as Suzanne Vega and Amy McDonald. A mix of delicacy and drive she spins graceful narratives that both lay easy on the ear but have the hook and melody that ensures that you are still humming them the next day, and the day after, and…

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THE VICTORIA JULY 12

10.45pm - Raze*Rebuild

Taking the same “ex-punks explore the sound of the American heartland” path as trodden by the likes of The Gaslight Anthem and Chuck Ragan, this is music built from huge riffs, big choruses and a heart on sleeve honesty that will easily blur the lines between cult favourites and commercial success.

10pm - The Oxymora 9.10pm - Cobalt Fire Alt-rock is a broad term but in the case of this band it stands for a dark vibe, dynamical shifting songs, brooding interludes and soaring, searing crescendos.

There is an honesty in the lyrics that seems to be missing in the genre today, an inner searching and intimacy but when they chose to rock out it feels like they could take your head clean off. Best of both worlds? We think so.

In a unique clash of earthy folk elegance, post-punk energy and grunge’s dark demeanour, Cobalt Fire are as impossible to categorise as they are engaging to experience live. A clash of old versus new, masculine versus feminine and logic versus desire, but it is these very contrary forces that make them a most unique experience.

8.20pm - Street Outlaws Delivering pie and mash, terrace anthem punk your favourite gang of hooligan guitar-slingers return to the festival. Not for the faint hearted, they deliver short, sharp and shocking sonic blows in quick succession. Oi Oi!

7.30pm - Spunking Octochoke With such a chosen moniker you know that this isn’t going to be the usual musical experience. A strange blend of confrontational lyrics, raw and raucous punk urges and hypnotic no-wave left-field thinking. If noise, dissonance and atonality are your thing then this is the party that you have been looking for.

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F R I D A Y

BAILA 9pm til late DJ John Stapleton

Bristol-based DJ whose 30-year DJ career has included gigs all over the world, promoting and running some of Bristol’s most-loved club nights, and compiling albums for the React and Harmless labels. He was DJ on the Jazz/World stage (now West Holts) for many years at Glastonbury Festival, and is a WOMAD resident, as well as promoting the ‘Jus’ Begun’and ‘Easton Standard Time’ nights in Bristol.

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THE TUPPENNY 6.30pm - Wilding JULY 13

S A T U R D A Y

Playing the role of romantic street poet, George’s songs are filled with lost loves, missed opportunities and good guys coming last, all wrapped up in a wonderful mythical language and delivered via upbeat acoustica, humour and poignant lyricism. Not bad for someone who looks like Nick Drake’s drug dealer!

5.45pm - Dreuw

5pm - SGO

4.15pm - Callum McLean

3.30pm - Richard Wileman

In a world governed by the adage “less is more” Dreuw is the most. He not so much writes delicate and ethereal songs as cocoons atmosphere and expectation in words and music, the result being intangible, chilled, beautiful in equal measure.

Sad boy with a guitar Callum McLean writes songs about what’s going on in his head.

Often bleak, blunt and honest his simplistic acoustic songwriting is open, vulnerable and naive covering mental health, heart break, addiction and adolescence.

Making only the rarest of outings on to the live circuit these days, SGO is a wonderfully raggletaggle collection of traditional folk, blues and country sounds. Their songs are built from washes of melodeon, soaring violin, resonating harmonica and chirpy ukulele.

Although best known for making complex genre-hopping music as Karda Estra, Richard has decided to channel broad artistic vision into something he can play in the corner of a pub.

This stripped down take is no less mercurial, graceful, mysterious and utterly gorgeous.

2.45pm - Amanda Codea

Amanda is one of our artists for the future, a 15 year old poppy singer/songwriter from Swindon.

THE BEEHIVE

10pm - Fake Walnut Dash

Back after far too long away, Fake Walnut Dash are back in the fold. A bunch of funky as hell, blues groovers and the most entertaining Shoop-Shoop harmony section you will see this side of 60’s Detroit.

9.15pm - Illustrations

8.30pm - Oscillator

7.45pm - The Empty Chairs

7pm - The Dirty Levis

Having been described as “The Beach Boys on acid” The Illustrations blend dreamy, 60s infused psych-pop with a more modern indie vibe. The music is jaunty, jangling, occasionally jarring, always joyous but above all it’s … err…great. (Can’t think of another ‘j’ word.)

Built from varying measures of rock n roll, country, blues and swing, The Empty Chairs prove that these timeless genres are as fun and relevant today.

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Revelling in post-punk influences and indie with a side order of punk, new wave and garage rock, Oscillator tick boxes not only with 80’s kids who remember the decade wasn’t all leg warmers but also with today’s kids looking for indie music with a bit of meat on the bone.

The Dirty Levis like to keep it simple with a blend of punked up skiffle and blues.

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THE HOP INN 10.15pm - Flour Babies

Some bands are easy to pigeon-hole but to say Flour Babies make music that is an intricate weave of mercurial art-indie-progalternative-avant garde is only half the story.

If you are a fan of post-punk sonic explorers such as Talking Heads or the proggy-jazz stance taken by King Crimson then you will find a lot to like here. It’s great when bands are both creative and confusing, right?

9.30pm - Atari Pilot

It’s great to see Atari Pilot back on the local scene again and even better to have them playing The Shuffle. They walk fine lines between rock and pop, indie and dance via songs that soar and sooth in equal measure.

Dance songs in an indie-pop package… whatever will they think of next?

JULY 13

8.45pm - Rave Tank

Even in the world of alternative singer-songwriters, Ravetank is the alternative. Musically he is a location of raw, fuzzy and distorted guitar sounds and lyrically he turns the more mundane aspects of modern life into epic, philosophical rants. If you look up the term “lo-fi music” in the dictionary there is a picture of him next to the entry…wondering how he got here.

8pm - Grasslands

A singer songwriter who builds strange, electronic soundscapes around his trusty acoustic guitar and who often veers off into a sort of Q&A ecological TED talk and occasionally alternative theatre..no really. No two gigs are the same but you are guaranteed that it will be a memorable experience. Keep Swindon weird!

7.15pm - Red Bull Junkies

In an effort to balance out the fact that most of the Shuffle features people armed with guitars, Red Bull Junkies are here to break that convention. Funky, dance driven, slick and sassy, modern dance music at its most contagious. Break out the moves, you know it makes sense.

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S A T U R D A Y

BAILA 9pm til late DJ Matt Baila

Legendary local 45 spinner Baila is resident vibe-maker at his eponymous bar Baila where he entertains the late night crowd with storming vinyl mixes of soul, funk, jazz, rare groove and more. A Swindon institution?

Very much so.

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THE TUPPENNY 3.30pm - The Bone Chapel JULY 14

S U N D A Y

Two stalwarts of the scene combine their, not insignificant, talents and head off down a snarling, stripped back, cosmic blues adventure. Expect broken guitars, a sonic junkyard of shamanic percussion with a whisky soaked voice singing about everyday despair, redemption and apocalyptic philosophy. And then some….

2.45pm - Sean Amor

With one foot in the folk traditions of this country and the other planted in the roots and alternative sound of America, the ex-Bateleurs co-writer’s songs resonate with tradition whilst moving things forward. Modern BritishAmericana at its finest.

2pm - Jol Rose

Tipping his hat, possibly a fedora worn at a jaunty angle, to American roots and folk styles, there is a raw honesty and everyday charm to Jol’s songs. Imagine a shattered Americana sound that exists somewhere between Dylan’s balladry and Lou Reed’s solo soul-searching.

1.15pm - Paul Jones

A local singer songwriter who is new to the scene and hopes to use The Shuffle as a springboard for greater things.

THE BEEHIVE

8.15pm - The Astral Ponies

These splendid fellows make a wonderful blend of Victorian music hall, Americana, psychedelia and folky tunes. But it is their quintessentially English eccentricities which mark them out from the crowd. Cravats are encouraged but not mandatory. Free entry if you bring custard cremes, or similar.

7.30pm - The Shudders

6.45pm - Mark Harrison

6pm - Hip Route

5.15pm - Will Lawton & Weasel Howlett

Combining luscious vocal harmonies, soaring and hook-laden guitar, acoustica and a rhythm section these scene stalwarts weave a tapestry of noise which could be described as a lo-fi folky take on Crazy Horse via some of Wilco’s more progressive elements.

A trio made up of some of the best players on the circuit delivering the funkiest of blues, boogie beats and melodic bass lines all delivered with charisma, energy and aplomb.

Mark’s sound is certainly rooted in the blues tradition but he takes those sounds and reworks them into music for the modern audience. Not only deft and dexterous blues picking but songs that prove the things that concerned the folk a century ago are the same as they are today.

Indie melodics, rock weight and progressive meanderings all add poise and power to Will and Weasel’s sound. Their richly textured and layer music contains much more besides. A must.

4.30pm - Tamsin Quin Band

We all remember Tamsin as the area’s favourite rootsy pop pixie, a wonderful blend of cheek and charm, of dulcet ballads and energetic acoustica. Well, she is still all of those things but now she has a band with her.

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Lifestyle and Culture Magazine Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire

No: 155 May 2019

Free

THE OCELOT FESTIVAL GUIDE

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Photo by Andrew Allcoack

What's on Ocelot 155 May edition.indd 1

/ STYLE / EATS / BREWS / SCREEN / COMMENT 24/04/2019 17:03

A monthly magazine that tells you all you need to know www.theocelot.co.uk

owlett

l and er music

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THE MAP Regents Circus The Beehive

Baila

The Victoria

Bath Road

Victoria Road

The Tuppenny

Drove Road

Old Town The Hop Inn

Devizes Road image courtesy of Google

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