Latest news with #Morcheeba
Daily Record
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Top jazz musician set for music nights at historic Stirling city centre hotel
Dom Pipkin has been signed up for the opening by the new owners of the Golden Lion venue in the city. One of the world's greatest jazz and blues musicians is to launch a series of lounge music piano nights at one of Scotland's most historic hotels. Piano player and songwriter Dom Pipkin has been signed up for the opening by the new owners of the Golden Lion in Stirling. Pipkin has been described by Blues in Britain as 'one of the world's greatest exponents of New Orleans piano' and will be performing on Wednesday July 9. Hotelier and entrepreneur Gary Atkinson said: 'We're thrilled to have a true British jazz legend tinkling the ivories as we create Cronies Piano Lounge - a new home for superb music and classic cocktails. 'My partner Ros and I have had the pleasure of seeing Dom perform initially in Ronnie Scotts in London, with Morcheeba in Cologne and, of course, in our Aberdeen hotel a few times. Once he dons that iconic hat and starts to play his unique mix of Big Easy sounds and songwriting with blues, it simply takes your breath away. 'The Golden Lion is the oldest building on King Street and has famous connections to Rabbie Burns and we hope that we can create our own piece of history and culture by introducing a vibrant music and arts scene for a modern discerning local clientele. 'We are already eagerly awaiting the appearance of Rebus creator Sir Ian Rankin at this year's Bloody Scotland crime-writing festival in September. He will be joined at the hotel by singer-songwriter James Yorkston, Mull Historical Society's Colin MacIntyre and author Natalie Jayne Clark for The Whisky Night – a late-night dram with a blend of lively banter and songs.' Gary is no stranger to the hospitality and music scene, having previously owned and ran hotels and many premium stadiums, hosting some of the greatest artists including Oasis, Harry Styles, Bruce Springsteen, and Beyonce. Pipkin studied jazz at the Royal Academy of Music and has played prestigious venues such as the acclaimed 'Piano Night' in New Orleans. He is also a touring member of Morcheeba, performs with his band The Ikos, and has played with numerous leading artists including Ray Davies and David Byrne. He has shared stages with legends such as Allen Toussaint , Dr John and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, with Grammy award winner Jon Cleary inviting him to jam whenever he's in town. Fans include Jonathan Ross, Hugh Laurie, David Arnold, and Jamie Cullum. Pipkin first discovered the New Orleans style in the early 90s and has become a regular performer in that city, with appearances that include the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festival. A fixture on the European blues and boogie-woogie festival circuit, he has played thousands of club in a career spanning nearly three decades. During the Covid lockdown he performed more than 120 broadcast shows from his home and completed his solo album 'C'mon Sunshine' - an all-original collection of songs on the subject of hope. On screen, Pipkin stars in the Netflix thriller, Black Doves, and A Thousand Blows by the creators of Peaky Blinders. Pipkin will also return later in the year and the hotel is recruiting a regular line-up of top pianists to perform Friday evenings, Saturday afternoons and evenings, and Sunday Jazz Lunch. A full entertainment and event schedule for Cronies will be released shortly. The 66-bedroom hotel is almost 240 years old and features a majestic golden lion above the entrance porch. With its central location, it has been a long-standing favourite for diners, travellers and for friends to catch up, including Burns and his Cronies. In August 1787, he and his travelling companion Willie Nicol stayed at The Golden Lion and in the evening they were joined by local businessman Christopher Bell. At the time the Castle was very rundown and this inspired Burns to write the famous 'Stirling Lines' and etched the verse on a pane of glass in his second-floor bedroom. 'Here Stuarts once in glory reign'd, And laws for Scotland's weal ordain'd ; But now unroof 'd their palace stands, Their sceptre's sway'd by other hands. The injur'd Stuart line is gone, A race outlandish fills their throne An idiot race, to honour lost : Who know them best despise them most.' Realising his lament for the deposed Stuart line and shock at the dilapidated state of the Castle had caused offence, Burns returned to the hotel in October and smashed the pane of glass with the butt of his riding crop. Gary shares: 'Our Cronies bar and restaurant was named in honour of our Burns heritage and aimed to capture that spirit of revellers getting together to put the world to rights. We are bringing in a Baby Grand Piano and aiming to attract a younger generation to chat over great cocktails, coffees, relaxed dining and enjoy the stylish ambience. 'We're proud to be part of such a great city, working with local tourism, businesses and the council to put the emphasis on superb hospitality and help promote Stirling for both local and Central Belt residents, as well as a UK and International visitor destination.'
The Herald Scotland
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
World famous jazz artist announces gig at historic Scottish hotel
Pipkin has been described as 'one of the world's greatest exponents of New Orleans piano' and will perform in Stirling next week. The event will take place on Wednesday, July 9 and hotelier Gary Atinson cannot wait to welcome him to the hotel, which has connections to Rabbie Burns and is one of the oldest buildings in the city. He said: 'We're thrilled to have a true British jazz legend tinkling the ivories as we create Cronies Piano Lounge - a new home for superb music and classic cocktails. 'My partner Ros and I have had the pleasure of seeing Dom perform initially in Ronnie Scotts in London, with Morcheeba in Cologne and, of course, in our Aberdeen hotel a few times. Once he dons that iconic hat and starts to play his unique mix of Big Easy sounds and songwriting with blues, it simply takes your breath away. 'The Golden Lion is the oldest building on King Street and has famous connections to Rabbie Burns and we hope that we can create our own piece of history and culture by introducing a vibrant music and arts scene for a modern discerning local clientele. Read More 'We are already eagerly awaiting the appearance of Rebus creator Sir Ian Rankin at this year's Bloody Scotland crime-writing festival in September. He will be joined at the hotel by singer-songwriter James Yorkston, Mull Historical Society's Colin MacIntyre and author Natalie Jayne Clark for The Whisky Night – a late-night dram with a blend of lively banter and songs.' Pipkin has played prestigious venues throughout his career and as well as being a touring member of Morcheeba as well as his own band The Ikos, he has played with artists such as Ray Davies and David Byrne. He has been performing the New Orleans style since discovering it in the 1990s and is a regular in that city. On screen, Pipkin stars in the Netflix thriller, Black Doves, and A Thousand Blows by the creators of Peaky Blinders. Pipkin will also return later in the year and the hotel is recruiting a regular line-up of top pianists to perform Friday evenings, Saturday afternoons and evenings, and Sunday Jazz Lunch. The 66-bedroom hotel is almost 240 years old and housed Rabbie Burns during a stay there in August 1787 when he wrote he even wrote the famous 'Stirling Lines' and etched the verse into a pane of glass on the second floor, which he then later destroyed. Mr Atkinson added: 'Our Cronies bar & restaurant was named in honour of our Burns heritage and aimed to capture that spirit of revellers getting together to put the world to rights. We are bringing in a Baby Grand Piano and aiming to attract a younger generation to chat over great cocktails, coffees, relaxed dining and enjoy the stylish ambience.' 'We're proud to be part of such a great city, working with local tourism, businesses and the council to put the emphasis on superb hospitality and help promote Stirling for both local & Central Belt residents, as well as a UK and International visitor destination."
Irish Times
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Skye Edwards of Morcheeba: ‘I heard that Madonna came to one of our gigs – and that Ozzy Osbourne's a big fan'
During Skye Edwards's first photo shoot with Morcheeba , one of her bandmates helped hide her baby bump with a strategically placed guitar. It was 1995, and the music industry had firm views on what made for a hot new band. The checklist did not extend to launching a trip-hop group featuring a pregnant lead vocalist – or so Morcheeba suspected. 'I was three or four months pregnant. There's a picture out there with me in an aqua-blue dress, with these sort of pink and white flowers on. I've [bandmate] Ross's beautiful guitar in front of my belly, hiding my bump. And then, when we signed the deal, I wore a baggy shirt. We're all thinking, 'Well, they won't want to sign a band with a pregnant singer.' I would basically make myself scarce when the A&R guy would come down to our studio.' All these decades later, life has come full circle for Edwards and for the downtempo dance project to which she has devoted much of her adult life. Morcheeba's new album, Escape the Chaos, is not only one of their best, showcasing Edwards's beautifully soulful vocals and Ross Godfrey's lush, chill-out production, but also features percussion by her oldest son, Jaega Mckenna-Gordon, the child she was expecting during the photo shoot 30 years ago. It is, to quote one of their biggest hits back to them, 'all part of the process'. 'He's going to be jumping ship. At the moment he's on tour with Greentea Peng,' she says, referring to the buzzy neosoul artist. 'He's just got the gig with Gorillaz. He's going to be doing that towards the end of the year. I'm awfully proud of my number-one son.' READ MORE Edwards is chatty and thoughtful, but it is immediately apparent that she has a core of steel. That streak of perseverance has stood to her during her ups and downs with Morcheeba. When she and the producer brothers Ross and Paul arrived in the late 1990s with a groove-heavy sound, the music press immediately lampooned them as a tired pastiche of the trendy trip-hop scene and artists such as Massive Attack and Portishead. To quote a review by the BBC, they were 'too slick and tasteful to function as anything more substantial than background music'. [ Portishead's Dummy: 'A dinner party album? I'd want to smash the fondue set' Opens in new window ] Such criticisms were over the top. But the detractors were correct in one respect: Morcheeba weren't cool in the least – and were self-aware enough not to pretend to be. Edwards, who is of British Jamaican heritage, grew up in East London; she studied at London College of Fashion before deciding to focus instead on music. Ross and Paul were straight from the sticks, however. Having grown up in the outer reaches of suburban Kent, they would never be as hip as the trip-hop set. That didn't bother them. To yearn for coolness is the least cool quality imaginable. Still, it made them easy targets. 'Massive Attack, Moloko and Olive, they were the cool ones. But that's just because you go by what the NME and the Melody Maker are saying. When they give you zero out of five and call you 'the devil's own lounge band' it's, like, 'Oh, we're not as cool as everybody else.' But we just keep doing our thing. And we keep doing it.' The music press might not have appreciated them, but other artists did. On one occasion they came offstage from a concert in Los Angeles to discover George Michael – a megafan – in their dressingroom. He would later record their tune Tape Loop (though it remains unreleased, tragically). Madonna also attended one of their shows. 'She didn't want to be on the guest list – there was a queue' – so she asked for her tickets to be sent to her in advance. 'We met Lenny Kravitz in New York as well. He was a big fan, too, and I've heard Ozzy Osbourne 's a big fan. We have got a few famous fans out there. Not that that means much. I guess it's nice to be recognised by other musicians, isn't it?' As with any long-term relationship, Morcheeba had their ups and downs. They were caught unawares by the huge success of their second album, Big Calm , from 1998, which includes The Sea, perhaps Morcheeba's most popular track. Two years later it was fans' turn to be alarmed, when the band released an uncharacteristically upbeat single, Rome Wasn't Built in a Day – the positive vibes of which also wrong-footed Edwards when Paul Godfrey presented her with the tune. 'I remember speaking to our A&R guy at the time and being, like, 'I just don't get it. This is not Morcheeba.' I wasn't happy about it. I grew to love it. It upset a lot of chill-out stoners. But when you're at the gig, and you get the big cheer when that song comes on at the end, you know it makes a lot of sense. It was Paul's idea. He's just kind of, like, 'I'm sick of people sitting on the floor at our gigs. I want people to stand up'.' Audiences may have been amenable to standing up. Edwards was ready for a lie down. In 2003 Morcheeba headlined the V Festival in the UK, played the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles the following day and created history as the first band to perform at Trafalgar Square in London. But the globe-trotting was exhausting, and there came the inevitable burnout. After what they have described as a Spinal Tap-style parting of the ways, it was decided that Edward would leave Morcheeba and the Godfreys carry on with a guest vocalist. Edwards dived into her solo career, releasing a string of well-regarded LPs. Then, in 2009, she bumped into Ross in London. They got talking, and she was back in the band the following year. Paul Godfrey left in 2014, saying he was 'fed up reinventing the wheel'. The trio had slimmed down to a two-piece, augmented by Edwards's son on drums, Ross's wife, Amanda Zamolo, on backing vocals, and Edwards's husband, Steve Gordon, on bass. This new version of Morcheeba has been going strong ever since. On Escape the Chaos they're taking stock, counting their blessings, acknowledging the past and celebrating the future. Much of the album is classic Morcheeba: its gauzy opening track, Call for Love, for instance, could have beamed in straight from the late 1990s, when big beat and trip-hop were the inescapable sound of youth culture. 'We can't escape it, my voice, Ross's guitar production. It's there always – it's always going to feel that way,' she says. 'I don't know that we're ever going to be able to – or even want to – veer too far from that.' Some of the material has a darker side. The gutsy How Far We've Come celebrates the ups and downs of life in music, Edwards's woozy vocal accompanied by depth-charge grooves and hazy guitar. The torrid Live and Die matches it for emotional heft, with Edwards counting her blessings, thankful to be still in a position to do so. She explains that its heavy ambience was inspired by an exchange several years ago with a doctor. 'I was quite ill at the time, getting over glandular fever. And then everything was going a bit weird with my stomach. I was getting these pains. Even drinking water was painful. They found a tiny little shadow on my liver. The doctor was going on about, 'So if it's cancer ...' 'I remember saying to Ross, 'I've written some words, but I want to change 'Live and Die', because I think that's a bit too morbid. But 'Live and Let Die ... it's a bit like a Bond-film reference. So we kept it. And of course my health has improved. The little shadow tumour thing was benign. It's all good. I'm not going to die – not yet, anyway.' With the album finished and soon to be shared with the world, Edwards is in an upbeat frame of mind. Thirty years in, she is proud of what Morcheeba have achieved and looking forward to sharing their new songs with fans. 'You never know how people are going to receive it. Someone asked, 'Are you nervous before the release?' Absolutely not. I think we've written and produced something really cool – really special. There's some real gems on there that I think will connect with everyone.' She laughs. 'I'm bigging myself up now. It's beautiful.' Embrace the Chaos is released by 100% Records on Friday, May 23rd
