Poppin all over the world! Jack DJ’s the planet

Or London anyway… Just a quick heads up to tell you about a couple of really awesome events I’m spinning a few hits at next week. So if you’re free on Tuesday and Thursday and about town – do pop down!

Firstly, Tuesday sees the excellent magazine ‘Ballad Of’ putting on a cute little show at BARDENS BOUDOIR!! They have set out to create Ballad Of… a community of emerging and exciting artists with the shared goal of collaborating to produce outstanding work for publication and portfolios.

This is awesome, and it features Nadine Shah and The Duloks – if you fancy it, give us a yell and I’ll snare some cheap tickets for you. Oh yes I will xxx

Secondly, it’s my old pal Galbo – a soldier of a gent, who is launching his epic multi-media creation ‘Operation Concrete’ at Vibe Bar next Thursday. I shall be a-spinning once more as well as reading an excerpt… Nerves…

Most excitingly though, Ross from My First Tooth (you know him, handsome lad) is playing a bit of a solo spot as he is one of the many collaborators for the book. There are more details over at the facebook group – and the poster resides hungrily below. Somehow, he’s managed to keep the party free entry, which is rather impressive. So do pop on down and get involved…

It’s like an art exhibition, gig and literary party all in one – and I guarantee your senses will be lit up with every moment you spend nearby. True story.

Alcopopping Xmas party @The Social, W1: Tellison, Stagecoach, My First Tooth and Aspen Sails!

MONDAY 14th DECEMBER in London town!!!

Christmas time again – what joy! So we thought that it was probably our duty to throw a nice festive bash in London town – and make it as damn sweaty as we can! So we invited 4 of the finest bands this good nation has to offer, grabbed a piece of intimate venue (The Social, W1) and prepared some pretty tasty goodie bags for the first 20 people through the door.

Expect snow, Christmas decorations and general loveliness too – as well as a lush 7 track Alcopop sampler free for every person who comes through the door. 

Where else do you get all this for a fiver?



(Father) Tellison – need no introduction! And this is their only London show of what remains of 2009…. Indie pop deliciousness from utter legends! 



(Rudolph the red nosed) Stagecoach – Seminal popstars from deep within the Surrey hills, and even deeper in the Alcopop heart. Imagine Americana pop lavished in melody, harmony and rock n roll sensibilities.

(We wish you a merry) My First Tooth – Prettier than a whole barrel of peaches and dearest siblings of Team PoP, My First Tooth will treat your heart to its biggest workout since Bambi. Folk-kissed indie pop you will literally die for. 



(Frosty the) Aspen Sails – Newest kids on the block, Aspen Sails are a lush duo who pedal lovingly crafted folk pop, ideally enjoyed with a sherry or two. 



Plus Alcopop DJs will be battling excellent online music boys The 405… Expect bombs dropped from all sides!

Would be delicious to see you… You can pre-order tickets (that will be a smidgen cheaper than on the door) here! It’s gonna be a cracker! Tellison have rocked up already see!

Stagecoach and Alcopop to part company?!?

Ah – who says good things can last forever! It is with great sadness that I must announce the departure of Alcopop Records and Stagecoach, due to a significant change of direction. You see, in love as we are with these charming Americana indie gents from the rolling hills of surrey, we just couldn’t commit to releasing their new single – which their drummer, Matt, dropped on our doorstep today (video can be seen by clicking here, still below), before flexing a sinewy bicep and thrusting himself powerfully away.

We loved a bit of dub-step, acoustic was awesome with us, and pop is of course much loved in the Alco quarters… But the ‘sexy fun’ direction they had taken just didn’t quite lay entirely in tune with our current roster.

In better news however, The Coach have signed up with former early 90’s dance star, and one-time muso Ray Slijngaard, formerly of 2 Unlimited, and failed record label owner Kevin Campbell, and are working on a disco/ R&B album of anthems. A change in direction perhaps, but expect it to be topping the charts pretty soon….

ps: Hehe Back in real life, look for a new release from Stagecoach a-coming (albeit with less biceps and more guitars) muy, muy soon… You’re seriously going to love it!

Spam dunk with the Red Cross??

I try not to write about spam, partly because Kev does it so well – but obviously sick of offering me cuts of obscene fortunes if I simply email them my red hot Alcopoppin’ deets, I’ve had this glorious new piece of junkmail today – inexplicably inviting me to a Red Cross conference on the Global Economy and Human Welfare…. It’s OK though, because they found me on “The Google website.”

Brilliant.

I wonder what they searched to pick Alcopop as prime entrants for this one. ‘Essential Reggae’, ‘race horse alcopop videos’ and ‘tom selleck mustache‘ (sic) have generated their own hits today – so who can deny the fact that I’ll be kicking it with “prominent speakers of the humanitarian industry”.

Fear not the down-trodden and victimized masses of the World – Alcopop is here to help! Ole…

In all seriousness though, it’s all sorts of unimpressive that spammers have taken to piggy-backing the name of one of the world’s genuinely worth organizations in order to try to thieve a little bit more money from the ignorant pocket. Weak…

Go get ‘em G. Amwel Jones!

Andrew WK does the weather…

Every now and then, you’re sitting in a little music venue, and between bands the conversation will turn to Andrew WK. “Have you seen that ‘destroy, build, destroy’ trailer” someone will say – which will be replied immediately with something like “no, but how about that piano battle set up via video in the interview”, or maybe “did you see him vomit at that Queens College show the other day”.

Well here’s another BRILLIANT Andrew WK moment – this time, settling once and for all the age old, ‘who would win in a weather off – WK or Michael Fish’ debate… Move over Mickey, Andrew’s got it down!

Note to self: Summery mini albums FTW

Just remembered I wrote this for the latest edition of the very ace – A Short Fanzine About Rockin’… Way back when the air was warm and the skys were a dramatic blue. I think it’s still relevant though A little bit anyway..

I’m not one to whinge generally, but sitting alone at home suffering with the dreaded swine flu haplessly trying to direct my haplessly drunk girlfriend, via mobile phone, to a tent she can’t find at a festival I would desperately love to be at makes my rarely seen pessimistic side think that – at times summer-life can be a big bag of shit….

On the other hand I muse, with the Wire series 5 stuffed into my DVD player, and life otherwise resembling something like that awesome late 90s indie episode of TOTP which featured Gay Dad, The Sebadoh and The Offspring (come on, it was ace at the time and Lou Barlow is always cool) – it’s not all bad. And that’s mainly down to the way we soundtrack it…

What I think we’re missing though is enough massive raw powerpop 5-8 track EP/mini-albums that oh so often blasted out through youthful summers with the kind of rattling enthusiasm that could provide accompaniment for a whole summer of drunken fun. I’m talking Alcopop by Midget, Captain by Idlewild, All Hail Urusei Yatsura and, to get a little more contemporary about things, hell, A Modern Education by goFASTER>>.

So my rallying cry for this summer and every summer beyond is that, as a nation’s youth (ish in some cases) we should seize upon some classic nugget of a mini-album, and play the fuck out of it – and make sure everyone in remote proximity is, willingly or not, exposed to late night parties, sun-drenched sessions and general whatever else with that particular soundtrack firmly at hand, so in years future everyone can recall the summer of ‘insert ace mini-album here’.

I had a mate once who spent the entire summer of 98 blasting One Day at a Time by Symposium out of his window whilst smoking weed and playing ISS Pro… British summers may be short, but he owned that one!

Stagecoach EP out now.. Now… NOW!

Plucked from the Surrey Hills, 5 piece Stagecoach write powerpop for BMX kids about the usual things – hot dogs, girls and cars… But gosh don’t they do it well. Harmonious, balls out indie rock with more hooks than an octopus said we, and We Got Tazers EP is out on Alcopop Records now!

Ole! say some.. Eat My Goal say others.. All are pretty set on one thing though, and that’s that the EP’s bloody ace. The first 100 all come with a lovely extra bonus disc of the EP too… It’s in black and white rather than vinyl look, but it’s there so that you can pass on the EP to your most musically competent pal – and share the love of Stagecoach around…

Brilliant times! Brilliant Stagecoach times that have been shared by some epic blogs as well – We always love Come Pick Me Up, they don’t come much more handsome than Rock Midgets, Musos Guide pwn, Winston’s Zen is literally the finest blog this side of Rumania, Another Form of Relief (kiss kiss kiss) and Belfast Calling are ace too.

In other less brilliant news though, I must apologise to anyone who hasn’t received their pre-order yet. They are now in the post but went out a couple of days late due to Jack PoP being temporarily homeless, and Kev being busier than a barrel load of monkeys who have just been set to a treadmill with not a moments rest for their tiny little monkey pins.

Many apologies xx

Excellent poppers part 6: Mixmaster Henry – our dub overlord

Tell your friends, rouse the neighbours – the most irregular feature ever to grace the side of a blog is back, and this time it’s in stereo. For you see excellent poppers, this is excellent poppers – where we look at some of the brilliant folk who help us, buy from us – or are just generally around the lovely world of Alcopop.

Today – we meet Henry, who’s mashed together two fine mixes for goFASTER>> and latterly Stagecoach… Normally you might think out paths would not cross… Alcopop would be drinking merrily in a dimly lit indie dance club, whilst Henry would be wedged in-between 2 fire engine-sized speakers at a smoky dub session – you’d be wrong though.

Now tell us….

1.) You are Henry and we’ve heard your face is magnificent… How do you plead? That’s a compliment indeed from the glowing visage of Alcopop – this is actually my “game face”, I have a barn full of alternative faces which I interchange for various purposes. I’m like a Worzel Gummidge for the E4+1 generation. I can’t get E4 round our way, reception’s shite.

2.) As a ‘mixmaster extraordinaire’ who recently put together a magnificent re-imagining of stagecoach’s ‘We Got Tazers’… What was your inspiration behind the mix? It was the result of a horrific cultural car-crash involving too many robot movies, the deconstruction of various words and phrases in the lyrics, a bloody-minded determination to crowbar a vocoder in at any opportunity, a creeping sense of impending apocalypse, and too much red wine. The short answer is- I got a bit carried away….

3.) And where else do you ply your musical trade? I work as a DJ in merry olde Oxford, occasionally London “and surrounding”, skipping between the overpriced corporate cocktail-sucking swanky places and the slightly hipper dives, such as the Po Na Na in Oxford. For it is there I play fortnightly Friday’s, which is a lovely mix of old and new indie, electro and eclectic beataroonies of many persuasions. Truthfully though, I’m at my happiest sitting for days on end in front of my funky old PC making beats and getting amazing and freaky sounds out of my lovely machines. They’re me bezzie mates they are.

Part 2, tomorrow…. Where we talk Collapsed Lung, Milli Vanilli and the possibility of a free phat Henry track… Ole!

We need your face!

There’s a man called Dave who presses our records at DMS (can’t recommend highly enough) who’s very patient, lovely – and often feeds us booze. He’s kindly offered to do a whole run of Alcopop samplers for us, and we want to use it to show off everyone involved in the handsome Alcopop community (aka you).

Therefore, we’ve got a team of top designers (aka the lovely Gem) to put together a cover featuring all the faces of everyone involved on all sides of Alcopop. If you want your visage to be featured – just send us a pic via info@ilovealcopop.co.uk, and we’ll put you on the cover baby.

Don’t be shy – you’ll be in fine company! And we’d be delighted… Plus then you can give a copy to your mum for Christmas, and she’ll be so proud….

Bought this – it is absolutely ridiculous….

Cheers Sainsburys…. FML….