HOT PRESS.

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IMPORTANT *** BULLETIN *** IMPORTANT *** BULLETIN

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SORRY, BUT THE SHOP’S CHECK-OUT MECHANISM IS CURRENTLY KAPUT. NOT WORKING. GREMLINS IN THE MIX etc.

NO-ONE CAN CHECK-OUT ONCE THEY HAVE SHOPPED.
THE BOFFINS ARE WORKING ON A SOLUTION RIGHT NOW.

MEANTIMES, ALL THE WIRE-SOUND / MAGAZINE / DAVE FORMULA / NOKO PRODUCT IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON, OR AT OUR eBAY STORE (CLICK HERE)

HAPPY HUNTING…

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MARY BYKER & NOKO present AM I DEAD YET?

The new musical project from Pop Will Eat Itself & Gaye Bykers On Acid frontman, Mary Byker, and Apollo 440 founder-member, Magazine guitarist & long-time collaborator, Noko.

The soundscape is wide-screen retro-cinematic. The mood is distinctly glass-half-empty, with songs lamenting the failure of technology to save us from ourselves.

For the first time, Mary sings over a lush David Lynchian laptop orchestra, replete with the sweet vocal harmonies and the sumptuous twang of Noko’s vintage Gretsch ‘White Falcon’, buried deep in a canyon of spring reverb. Like you’ve never quite heard them before…

The 11 track collection will be released on April 26 as a CD (inc. digital download) or as a stand alone digital download. Get yours here…

Ashka Kedziora has directed two videos for ‘Leaving Me Behind ‘ & ‘Futuristic Paranoia’. They can be viewed here & here. Watch the videos. Buy the album.

Title : Am I Dead Yet?
Artist : Am I Dead Yet?
Format : CD / DL
Label : Wire-Sound
Cat # : WIRED 48
Release Date : 26 April 2019

For up-to-the-minute, up-to-the-mark information about Am I Dead Yet?, audio, video, show dates & more go to www.amideadyet.co.uk

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THE THIRD FEDERAL CHARM ALBUM.

Federal Charm, release their third album, ‘Passenger’, worldwide, on the Wire–Sound label come 14 September 2018.

Available in the ever-popular CD format, as a digital download, and as a limited edition vinyl LP. You can pre-order now from all the usual suspects.

The lead-off track,‘Choke’, will be released as a digital single on 29 June, followed by ‘Swing Sinner’ later in September.

After the 2016 Planet Rock Roadstars co-headline tour with SIMO & Aaron Keylock, Federal Charm amicably parted ways with vocalist & guitarist, Nick Bowden and drummer, Danny Rigg. Founder members, Paul Bowe (guitar) and LD Morawski (bass), then recruited new vocalist & frontman Tom Guyer and drummer Josh Zahler.

Federal Charm’s new heavy blues-rock musical direction and style has organically evolved since the band’s second album, ‘Across The Divide’. Tom Guyer’s powerful and characterful voice led to immediate chemistry as he joined Paul & LD in writing this third album. His wide vocal range opened up new creative possibilities and added an exciting and new dynamic that complements Federal Charm’s exhilarating sound. New drummer, Josh Zahler, adds his own distinctive drumming style and grooves to the band’s pulsating rhythm section.

In 2018, ‘Passenger’ will be supported by another Planet Rock sponsored UK tour in the Autumn, featuring Federal Charm and The Bad Flowers, followed by further dates with Molly Hatchett.

Title : Passenger
Artist : Federal Charm
Format : CD / DD
Label : Wire-Sound
Cat # : WIRED 43
Release Date : 14 September 2018

Click here to order the CD or here to order your vinyl LP. Alternatively, go to iTunes or Amazon for your digital versions.

For up-to-the-minute, up-to-the-mark information about the band, audio and video, tour dates and more visit www.federalcharm.com

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THE EVER CONTINUING OLD WORLD CHARM OF MAGAZINE.

Yes! That’s right. ‘Welcome, ladies & gentlemen, to the genuine old world charm of Magazine’…

Following on from last year’s ‘Once @ The Academy’ RSD 12” vinyl release, Magazine issue a sister release for Record Store Day 2017.

The 6-track ‘Old World Charm’ vinyl EP is limited to 1000 pressings and contains broadcast mixes from the live recordings from the 2009 BBC Electric Proms performance @ The Roundhouse in Camden Town, London.

Magazine played a 45-minute set featuring selected A & B sides of their previous single releases. Half of the set is captured here revolving at 33 and 1/3 times per minute.

Tracks included are ‘Shot By Both Sides’, ‘Rhythm Of Cruelty’, ‘A Song From Under The Floorboards’, ‘Feed The Enemy’, ‘Sweetheart Contract’ and ‘I Love You, You Big Dummy’.

Title : ‘Old World Charm’
Artist : Magazine
Format : 12” vinyl @ 33RPM (plus free download code)
Label : Wire-Sound
Cat # : WIRED 42
Release Date : Record Store Day 2017 / Saturday 22 April

As we have only pressed up 1000 copies, it’d be best to take Fred Pontin’s advice and “book early”… OFFICIAL!

http://recordstoreday.co.uk

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FEDERAL CHARM – ‘CROSSED WIRES’. THE ACOUSTIC RECORDINGS.

Federal Charm release a limited edition acoustic mini-album – entitled ‘Crossed Wires’ – on the ever-popular CD format, featuring re-recordings of 8 tracks from their first two albums, ‘Federal Charm’ & ‘Across The Divide’. CLICK HERE to purchase your copy now. Only £8 for 8 tracks. A quid a track.

“Elegant beauty” – Blues Doodles

Tracklisting :
1. Guess What
2. The Stray
3. Push
4. These Four Walls
5. Silhouette
6. Come On Down
7. Somebody Help Me
8. Master Plan

The album is also available digitally as a stand-alone purchase for £7.99 at iTunes, Amazon and wherever you buy your digital music
from. Or as a £11.99 bundle if you purchase Federal Charm’s highly acclaimed second album, ‘Across The Divide’, at the same time.

Federal Charm rounded off 2016 with the Planet Rock sponsored ‘Roadstars’ package tour that featured themselves along with Aaron Keylock and Simo on a triple bill of rock-blues-rock rotating headliners.The tour started in November at Southampton and concluded 17 shows later at the Islington O2 Academy having visited all four corners of England, Scotland and Wales, including rolling into the Planet Rockstock festival in December.

“In the immortal words of Frankie Valli, ‘Oh, what a night’. Three terrific bands in a hot, sweaty and very crowded bar playing balls-to-the-wall rock and blues. I cannot imagine a place I would rather have been. Very loud and no space to move but I left happy and exhausted” – Music News

Title : ‘Crossed Wires’
Artist : Federal Charm
Format : CD / DD
Label : Wire-Sound
Cat # : WIRED 41
Release Date : 17 February 2017

For up-to-the-minute, up-to-the-mark information about the band, audio and video, the tour and more visit www.federalcharm.com

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THE SECOND FEDERAL CHARM ALBUM.

FEDERAL CHARM – ‘ACROSS THE DIVIDE’
NEW ALBUM. OUT 2 OCTOBER 2015
IN STOCK NOW. CLICK RIGHT HERE.

“Federal Charm invest swaggering riffs, sleazy flourishes and cinder-raw vocals with a confidence that is utterly winning”
– Classic Rock

The Manchester quartet, Federal Charm, release their second album, ‘Across The Divide’, on the Wire–Sound label on 2 October 2015. Available, through Cargo Distribution, in the ever-popular CD format, as a Digital Download (DD), from all the usual suspects.

The band released their debut album to critical acclaim in the summer of 2013. “Jaw-dropping. 8 out of 10″, said Classic Rock. High profile opening slots for, amongst others, Michael Schenker, UFO, Black Star Riders, Ian Hunter and Rich Robinson cemented the buzz and promptly realised an nowadays impressive 5000 sales.

Federal Charm will be extensively promoting ‘Across The Divide’ throughout the Autumn of 2015 and on into 2016. Initially, in September and October, as special guests on the Planet Rock sponsored Joanne Shaw Taylor UK outing. 30 plus dates culminating in two sold-out shows at The Jazz Café, London.

The blistering lead-off track, ‘Hercules’, will lead the charge and is to be released as a Digital Download only come 14 September 2015. Available from iTunes or wherever MP3s live. The self-penned 11 track album follows, mid-tour, in October.

Drawing from a deep well, spanning the classic rock curve from the Allman Brothers to Zeppelin, stopping off on the way to pay a call to Thin Lizzy. That, and with the indie blues of The Black Keys and the contemporary bluster of Rival Sons, Federal Charm are full of melodic twin-guitar twists and stop-start rhythms. Their fresh direction has turned many an industry head, describing the band as having the most cutting-edge sound in recent years.

But hey! Don’t just take our word for it. This is what they say…

“You need big balls to do this stuff justice, and there are four XXL pairs here” – Blues & Soul

“Great riffs. Fantastic musicianship. Phenomenal vocals. Really good songs. Their big sound cannot be restrained” – Amazon

“Federal Charm raid the Delta masters, apply Seventies chest hair and frog march the result into the 21st Century” – Classic Blues

“Probably the hottest nu-blues outfit to have come out of the UK in the last 20 years’“– BBC Radio 2

Title : ‘Across The Divide’
Artist : Federal Charm
Format : CD / DD
Label : Wire-Sound
Cat # : WIRED 35
Release Date : 2 October 2015

For up-to-the-minute, up-to-the-mark information about the band, audio and video, the tour and more visit www.federalcharm.com

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MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT.

Enduringly credible, Magazine have always been the connoisseur’s choice and frequently name checked by some of the most gifted musicians of recent years including Radiohead, Morrissey, Jarvis Cocker, U2 and Maximo Park. NME.com even went as far as to include Magazine in a poll as one of the most influential bands of all time. And quite right too.

Magazine’s front man, Howard Devoto co-formed Buzzcocks with Pete Shelley after the pair had seen the Sex Pistols in early 1976 and promoted the now legendary Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall gigs. Devoto left in 1977, after the seminal ‘Spiral Scratch’ EP had been released, and created Magazine. Their first record was the post-punk anthem ‘Shot By Both Sides’.

Four ground breaking albums later and the band had parted company, leaving behind an influential body of work which was re-released by Virgin EMI in 2007.

In February 2009 original members Howard Devoto, Barry Adamson, John Doyle and Dave Formula, were joined on guitar by former Luxuria collaborator Noko to play a handful of concerts across the UK. It was the first time Magazine had played live together since 1980. These ‘Real Life + Thereafter’ shows quickly sold out and received widespread critical acclaim.

The Manchester show of these dates is now released as a brand new limited edition live DVD and CD – ‘Real Life + Thereafter : Live at Manchester Academy 17.02.09′ – available through the Wire–Sound website.

In the summer of 2009, Magazine played ‘The Soap Show : Episode 2009′ at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank and selected European festivals, including Benicassim (Spain), Latitude (UK) and the Electric Picnic (Ireland), with a set culled from the ‘Real Life + Thereafter’ tour.

Come 2011, the band recorded and released their first new material in almost 30 years. ‘No Thyself’, was the band’s fifth studio album. 10 tracks from the very top drawer released worldwide on 24 October 2011 on the Wire–Sound label. Available, through Cargo Distribution, in the ever-popular CD format, Digital Download and as a limited edition 180gm LP vinyl edition. Magazine toured the UK to coincide with the album’s release.

“Devoto, let’s just say, for the hell of it because the story has to start somewhere, with a bang, or a legendary punk gig, was the man who changed Manchester because he had an idea about what needed to happen at just the right time in just the right place. He arranged for the Sex Pistols to play in Manchester before the rest of the country had caught up with the idea that there was any such thing as a Sex Pistol. In the audience for the shows were Mark E Smith, Ian Curtis, Morrissey and Devoto himself, four of the greatest rock singers of all time, directly challenged to take things on.” Paul Morley / The Observer / 2006

“Magazine are the most criminally underrated band in the past 25 years of British pop in my view. Howard Devoto was a total pop genius, but he was a slightly misshaped pop star and I think nobody really got him. Simple Minds should not have been big, but Magazine should have – someone made a clerical mistake somewhere.” Jeremy Vine / The Daily Telegraph / 2007

“mmm… not bad, for New Wave.” Bob Harris / The Old Grey Whistle Test / 1978

“Saying that Devoto has a cult following is like saying that King Kong was a big hairy gorilla: it’s superfically accurate but doesn’t really convey the full scale picture. On that ‘So It Goes’ he came on with the most powerful presence I’d seen since the first time I clapped eyes on Johnny Rotten… the kind of guy who’s going to get a big hoopla but who deserves it” Charles Shaar Murray / NME / 1978

“Magazine!!!!” Paul Morley / The Observer Music Monthly / 2008

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FINK FUNK.

It’s that Mod aesthetic. Once it bites, it bites down hard and it bites down deep. It just keeps going. It just don’t ever leave you alone. One such kid who got bitten was Dave Formula. Then going by his actual, more earthbound, surname ‘Tomlinson’.

Back in Manchester 1966, dressing snappily, adoring R&B music and with a 27” waist, our young protagonist stormed out of the electrical appliances at Kendal’s Department Store, never to return to regular employment, shouting back to his now ex-boss, “That’s it! I quit. I’m off. See you on Top Of The Pops…”

A youthful arrogant boast maybe, but, remarkably, within two weeks he darn well was. Dave, freshly installed on keyboards with his latest beat group ‘St. Louis Union’, was tearing up the hit parade with a workout of The Beatles’ ‘Girl’.

Flip the 45 and you’d discover a barn-storming 2 minutes 8 seconds retread of Otis Redding’s ‘Respect’. Tamla Motown was all well a good, but for those that knew, Stax / Volt was where it was at. It finally stalled at #11, but by that time St. Louis Union had become the in-house band at the now fabled ‘Twisted Wheel’ soul club in Manchester, and rivalled The Small Faces as the Mod band. While Dave changed his surname to Formula and went to receive critical acclaim for his work with ground breaking post-punk pioneers ‘Magazine’, and later commercial success with New Romantic figureheads ‘Visage’.

But like I say, it bites down hard and it bites down deep. Dave, right now, for the sheer hell of it, has returned to those halcyon regulation ½” turn-up days, with a new, Hammond organ led, beat combo, ‘The Finks’. It’s yer classic groove-organ outfit. Stylish, snappy psychedelic soul with a sharp-eyed dash of funk… where the Meters of New Orleans meet Booker T. in Memphis with a touch of Jimmy Smith thrown in for good measure.

The Finks are currently up and at ‘em right now, and are out on their own going around the towns, waking the people, and ever so once in a while with the mighty Dr. John Cooper Clarke – no stranger himself to the pulling power of the mod aesthetic, then a Twisted Wheel regular and today still with a 27” waist.

Their debut musical biscuit, ‘Live Fink Funk’, is 10 tracks in all including ‘Cissy Strut’; ‘The Liquidator’; ‘The Cat’; ‘Time Is Tight’; ‘Little Old Money Maker’; ‘Funky Folks Cha-Cha’; ‘Funky Miracle’; ‘One Mint Julep’; ‘Pungee’; ‘Chicken Pox’. Only £6. That’s less than a dollar a track. Bonus!

Played and recorded live in one take, and produced with a minimum of overdubs by The Finks themselves in Fink-O-Phonic Sound. It’s your new favourite record. So buy one. Buy two! Impress your friends.

“Da Finks? Da business!” – Dr. John Cooper Clarke