writers Archives - Page 2 of 2

Iron Man Records Rehearsal Space and Recording Studio in Birmingham.

9 April 2022Mark

“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality” – The Cheshire Cat, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Iron Man Records provides a cultural outpost for Musicians, Writers, Performers and Travellers in the arts with a large purpose built Music Rehearsal Space and Recording Studio. The Record label seeks to encourage residents and travellers in the arts to gather, record and present their cultural insights and experiences. “The first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art.” Chuck Palahniuk Located outside the Clean…

Building the Iron Man Records Rehearsal Space and Recording Studio

2 February 2022Mark

Iron Man Records provides a cultural outpost for Musicians, Writers, Performers and Travellers in the arts with a large purpose built Music Rehearsal Space and Recording Studio. The Record label seeks to encourage residents and travellers in the arts to gather, record and present their cultural insights and experiences. Located outside the Clean Air Zone, in Hockley, Birmingham, the rehearsal space and recording studio offers an Embassy for the Imagine Nation committed to inspiring and promoting Independent creativity. "We had to pull down our old rehearsal space and recording studio in September 2020. The landlord had sold the building. In May 2021 we found a new place. We decided to build…

Transglobal Underground – Touring Availability 2022

25 January 2022Mark

“…a band of cosmic mutant rebels” — BBC Transglobal Underground will be touring as a five piece band featuring original members Tim Whelan, drummer Hamid Mantu and storyteller Tuup alongside percussionist Rav Nieyyar and sitar player Sheema Mukherjee. Latest album ‘Walls Have Ears’ There are few acts in the UK with as strong an influence and as complex a legacy as Transglobal Underground. For over 25 years it’s been a DJ/musical collective, one of the founders of global fusion, a working band famous for it’s scorching live shows, a techno soundsystem, a folk festival rabble rouser, a pop group, a club night, a Middle Eastern hit production team, an improvised study…

Musicians, Artists, Writers, Poets and Performers — Stay positive, keep going, and be prepared to fight where you stand.

25 January 2022Mark

“I am not what is called a civilized man, Professor. I have done with society for reasons that seem good to me. Therefore, I do not obey its laws.” — 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Jules Verne “. . . there are periods of history when the visions of madmen and dope fiends are a better guide to reality than the common-sense interpretation of data available to the so-called normal mind. This is one such period, if you haven’t noticed already.” R.A.Wilson We have all fallen for it. We have taken the easy pleasures available through the consumption of popular culture. We have become docile and content, no matter how difficult…

Transglobal Underground at The Jazz Cafe, London, on Saturday, 6th November 2021 with Natacha Atlas and the Dub Colossus Sound System.

31 October 2021Mark

World fusion pioneers Transglobal Underground will be performing live on stage for the first time since 2019. The first concert will take place at The Jazz Cafe, London, on Saturday, November 6th, 2021 with Natacha Atlas and the Dub Colossus Sound System. The concert will be held in honor of original Transglobal Underground member, bassist guitarist and producer, the late great Nick ‘Count Dubulah’ Page, who passed away earlier this year. On what would have been his birthday, Transglobal Underground will be having a special celebration with original members Natacha Atlas, Goldfinger and Larry Whelan, who will join the regular Transglobal Underground crew to celebrate his memory, and debuting onstage one…

Transglobal Underground – Walls Have Ears released 15th May 2020

14 May 2020Mark

‘WALLS HAVE EARS’ is the new album from Transglobal Underground, featuring family members from the beginning, the present and the future. If you would like a review copy of Walls Have Ears email mark@ironmanrecords.co.uk Transglobal Underground - "Walls Have Ears" released Friday 1st May 2020 Transglobal Underground have been described as "an anarchic self-built non-structure that goes it’s own way." It's probably the best record they've made. Here's a video for a track called Ruma Jhuma. The track features Natacha Atlas and Sheema Mukherjee. Transglobal Underground - Walls Have Ears You’ve gone your own idiosyncratic way since the 1990s. You’ve refused labels, moved in and out of different scenes and styles,…

Review: Transglobal Underground: Walls Have Ears — as glorious as ever.

12 May 2020Mark

With swaggering reggae beats to modern Maghrebi, the near-original line-up reunites for a new studio album. Transglobal Underground were ahead of their time. Thirty years ago they rose from the ashes of the underrated indie band Furniture as a fusion of dance and world music, the furrow they have ploughed ever since. A revolving cast of characters have come and gone — the Egyptian-British singer Natacha Atlas, whose subsequent solo albums have ranged from Cairene strings to Arabic jazz; Nick Page, known in his TGU incarnation as Count Dubulah, who went on to Syriana, Xaos and most notably Dub Colossus; Johnny Kalsi of the Dhol Foundation and Imagined Village. TGU were…

Transglobal Underground – Walls Have Ears – For today only on Bandcamp

25 April 2020Mark

‘WALLS HAVE EARS’ is the new album from Transglobal Underground, featuring family members from the beginning, the present and the future. It will be released on May 15th 2020. Transglobal Underground - "Walls Have Ears" is available today Friday 1st May 2020, for one day only on Bandcamp. Available on vinyl £15, CD £10, and digital download £8. But for 24 hours only Transglobal Underground have been described as "an anarchic self-built non-structure that goes it’s own way." Tim and Hami have just sent me through an advance promo copy of the new album. It's probably the best record they've ever made. Here's a video for a track called Ruma Jhuma…

Transglobal Underground… A history…

19 September 2019Mark

Transglobal Underground had to happen. They refused to accept that dance music had to be four to the floor house. They refused to accept that something called ‘World Music’ ever existed. They slowed down hip-hop and sped up dub. They sang in whatever language they felt like singing in. they were DJs but they played live. Their influence is all over the place, sometimes benign, sometimes joyful, sometimes beautiful and sometimes bloody dreadful. But the price of innovation is often a trail of shite left in your wake. A thousand dodgy car adverts with colourful tribespeople, colonialised blanded out ethnic samples and ten year old beats…that’s not it at all… We’re…

Transglobal Underground – EFG London Jazz Festival 22nd November 2019

18 September 2019Mark

"Full of life and heart and drama, it’s good to have that TGU ethos in the here and now" Songlines 2018 Transglobal Underground 22nd November 2019 LONDON PizzaExpress Jazz Club 10 Dean Street London W1D 3RW https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/whats-on/trans-global-underground https://efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk/events/transglobal-underground-1 So what is Transglobal Underground? Well, over 25 years it’s been a DJ/musical collective, a working band famous for it’s scorching live shows, a techno soundsystem, a folk festival rabble rouser, a pop group, a club night, a Middle Eastern hit production team, an improvised study group for Indian classical music, an Albanian brass band, a duo..or was it an octet?...a seminar, a medicine show and several things no one involved would admit…

Transglobal Underground – The Colours Started to Sing Again

14 September 2019Mark

If you see a barrier, smash it down. 'The Colours Started to Sing Again' is the first new recording by Transglobal Underground in several years. 'I Left My Sweet Homeland' is a remix from the 2009 release 'A Gathering of Strangers' Digital Album and CD released May 13, 2019 Natacha Atlas sings on 'The Colours Started to Sing Again.' Nori Kovacs sings on 'I Left My Sweet Homeland' Transglobal Underground represent something so unique it would be a travesty and blasphemy to attempt to define them in one sentence or write a encyclopedia, you are sure to miss something. Nation Records gave a platform to the band who in turn shared,…

Transglobal Underground featuring Natacha Atlas – Destination Overground

30 October 2018Mark

It’s the early 1990s. Drum and bass are two separate things. Club music and live music exist in two separate universes. Bhangra is omnipresent and unknown at one and the same time. Reggae and dub are half-forgotten sub genres. If you want to find any Arabic music in London there’s a guy with a stall at Shepherds Bush Market and that’s about it. Every music genre is parcelled up, labelled up, and kept in it’s own yard as far as possible from any other. This compilation celebrates a rebellion against the musical divisions of those days, tells the story of how it happened and what happened next. It all started with…

Iron Man Records – a Birmingham based Independent Record Label

15 July 2015Mark

Iron Man Records is a Birmingham based independent record label, founded in 1996. The label has released recordings by: P.A.I.N, Police Bastard, John Sinclair, Nightingales, Steve Fly, TC Lethbridge, Dufus, Sensa Yuma, and Last Under The Sun, amongst others. “Music has no flag, no government, no police. Nobody owns it, nobody controls it. Music crosses all borders of geography, language, culture and belief. Music brings people together.....” - Reasons Why Iron Man Records is run by a Music Promoter and Tour Manager - Mark Badger and a Script writer and Lawyer with a music background - Kevan Tidy. Mark Badger founded Birmingham Music Network, in 2000. Since 1994, Mark has organised…