Stornoway - Janice Long Session (17/06/10)

Time for some more from Stornoway. On Thursday they performed three tracks from debut album "Beachcomber's Windowsill" on Janice Long's BBC Radio 2 show. Here they are...

Download: Stornoway - Janice Long Session (17/06/10)

Tracklisting
1. Zorbing
2. Fuel Up
3. On The Rocks

Stornoway - BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (22/05/10)

Just before the release of their majestic debut album "Beachcomber's Windowsill", Stornoway took a wee trip to Bangor to play at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend. The video of their entire set can be found here, and the mp3s below.

Download: Stornoway - BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (22/05/10)

Tracklisting
1. We Are The Battery Human
2. I Saw You Blink
3. Fuel Up
4. Coldharbour Road
5. Zorbing
6. Watching Birds

Their album is available from Amazon MP3, iTunes and pretty much all the other usual places!

Stornoway - Live Lounge Session (15/05/10)

For all you Stornoway fans out there, here's yet another session. The band paid Jo Whiley a visit on Saturday at the Radio 1 Live Lounge and performed a track off their debut album "Beachcomber's Windowsill" and a belter of a cover!

Download: Stornoway - Live Lounge session (15/05/10)

Tracklisting
1. Zorbing
2. Wearing My Rolex/Casio (Wiley cover)

K&A with Stornoway

Every now-and-again a band comes along that quickly become an unhealthy obsession of mine. In recent years a lot of bands have come close but really only Broken Records have ticked all the necessary boxes. Well, they have some company now!

It's no secret that I have a bit of a soft spot for Oxford's Stornoway. In fact, going by my umpteen posts and sessions involving them, it's safe to say I can't get enough. It would appear I'm not the only one though if the amount of downloads these have had are anything to go by.

So, with this in mind, and with memories of their amazing King Tuts gig fresh in my mind, I decided to chance my arm and contact the guys to see if they fancied answering some questions about themselves, the Outer Hebrides, and their upcoming debut album "Beachcomber's Windowsill". I'm still pinching myself that they agreed! Take it away guys....

Kowalskiy: Hi guys! First of all, who are Stornoway?
Stornoway: Brian, Jon, Oli and Rob. One ornithologist, one linguist, one pseudo-vegetarian chemist, and one gap year student.

Kowalskiy: How did you all get together, and what's the story behind the name?
Stornoway: Brian and Jon met at Oxford Uni and started playing music together, Brian had already written and recorded a few tracks, all that was needed for a live outfit was bass and drums. The two advertised for these on a local website and within a few days got a response from Oli who had only recently started teaching himself the bass. Armed with a screw driver, fearing he might be walking into the clutches of serial killers, Oli went off to the first practice. After a few weeks of pleading from his younger brother Rob, Oli introduced Brian and Jon to him and the four musicians were united.
The search for a name began shortly afterwards and the first port of call was nautical charts and maps which were in tune with Brian’s obsession with the outdoors. One night whilst listening to the shipping forecast of the British Isles the name came up and just seemed to fit. A few months later, Brian attempted a treacherous journey by sail boat to the Hebridean town but had to turn back due to gails.

Kowalskiy: How would you describe yourselves and your music? Are those "posh twats" jibes Brian mentioned at King Tuts justified?
Stornoway: We’re all quite quiet people and I reckon the music reflects that somewhat, it’s not in your face and spitting but more subdued with more meaning than a lot of thrash out there these days. The twat jibes are understandable but not justified, I can see how people could see us as posh but we’re really not, we promise.

Kowalskiy: You recently finished your Scottish and Irish tour with a cracking gig at King Tuts. How did you find it? And what was it like playing Stornoway for the first time?
Stornoway: It was incredible. We were given a different bottle of the local whisky every night and so had a great time! The venue was awesome as well, really nice rowdy crowd. The gig in Stornoway was a very special one for us, we really wanted to experience the town and impress the people too, which was quite easy when you consider that we gave each member of the crowd a dram before going on for an encore and all said “slàinte” together which is “cheers” in Gaelic.

Kowalskiy: You're releasing debut album "Beachcomber's Windowsill" in May. What's the story behind the album?
Stornoway: The album is a body of work that’s been in the making for around 10 years. The writing, arranging and recording of all the songs has always been a constant thing, when we’re not gigging, we’re doing that stuff. We’ve tried to lay it out in such a way so as to allow the listener to follow a few strings of connected stories and to create their own ideas and images with those strings.

Kowalskiy: Everyone seems to know what zorbing is these days. What was the inspiration for writing a song about it? Guessing you've all had a shot of it too. Any interesting zorbing-related stories?
Stornoway: The song isn’t exactly about zorbing as such. It was meant to be a metaphor for going about your daily routine but with your head and heart in a different place altogether. We actually went zorbing in Dorset (at Zorbing South) last summer and had a…ball. There are three types you can try: the harness zorb (the ultra-speedy one which gets faster with every turn); the hydro zorb (like being trapped in a malevolent washing machine); the hydra zorb (filled with nine-headed serpents – that’s the best one).

Kowalskiy: What would Stornoway's ideal gig be?
Stornoway: It would be a one-day festival on the Isle of Lewis, featuring Euros Childs, Horace Andy, Sam Cooke, Wild Beasts, Of Montreal, The Human League, U. Srinivas, Beach House, Spacemen 3, Nico Muhly, Blink 182, Jackson C. Frank, Ry Cooder, Guillemots, John Tavener and Yoko Ono.

Kowalskiy: You were one of my tips for this year. Who would you like to see do well?
Stornoway: Thanks! Well, we’d heartily recommend Foxes! (from Brighton) and Race Horses (from Wales).

Kowalskiy: Lastly, what can we expect from Stornoway in the future? Looking forward to coming back to Scotland for Belladrum?
Stornoway: Our album "Beachcomber's Windowsill" will be released on 24th May via 4AD, which we're very very very excited about! We’re on tour and will be heading to London ULU on the 20th May. And yes, we had a whale of time during our recent Scottish tour, so we’re already looking forward to Belladrum!

Kowalskiy: Anything you'd like to add?
Stornoway: Rob used to be a professional tap-dancer as a child.

As the guys said, their debut album "Beachcomber's Windowsill" is out a week tomorrow. Can't wait! It promises to be one of the best this year.

Stornoway - Marc Riley Session (12/05/10)

Now that I'm officially Dr. Kowalskiy (yay), the blogging can start up again! Couldn't think of a better way to get going again by popping up yesterday's Marc Riley live session featuring the amazing Stornoway. Debut album "Beachcomber's Windowsill" is out on the 24th of May. Here's three tracks to whet your appetite.

Download: Stornoway - Marc Riley Session (12/05/10)
Tracklisting
1. We Are The Battery Human
2. Here Comes The Blackout
3. Boats And Trains

Stay tuned for a wee Stornoway interview going up in the next few days!

Stornoway - BBC Radio Scotland (08/04/10)

All credit for this one goes to Mr. Peenko for bringing it to my attention. Stornoway took time out from their Scottish tour to perform "Zorbing" live on BBC Radio Scotland. Be sure to catch them at King Tuts on Tuesday.

mp3: Stornoway - Zorbing (live on BBC Radio Scotland, 08/04/10)

Stornoway - BBC 6 Music Session (24/03/10)

With their new single "I Saw You Blink" released on Monday, Stornoway paid Lauren Laverne a visit this morning and performed it along with previous single "Zorbing". Here's the mp3s:

Download: Stornoway - BBC 6 Music Session (24/03/10)

Tracklisting
1. I Saw You Blink
2. Zorbing

The single is out now on Amazon and iTunes.

Ten for 2010 Revisited... Stornoway

Time to have a look at what my tips for 2010 have been getting up to.

Tip #1 was Oxford's finest, Stornoway. It's no secret that I love these guys! Back in December they'd already been longlisted for BBC's Sound of 2010 and had build up a lot of hype with singles "Zorbing" and "Unfaithful", both of which were rated 9/10 by Planet Sound (God rest its soul!).

So what's happened since? Well, Stornoway recently joined the likes of Broken Records, Camera Obscura and The National on the 4AD record label and will release their first single "I Saw You Blink" through them on Monday. I'm pretty sure had Planet Sound still been kicking about, Stornoway would've easily made it 3 outta 3! Have a swatch below...

Thankfully after its release we don't have too long to wait for the bound-to-be-amazing debut album "Beachcomber's Windowsill" on May 24th. If that is too long for you to wait, they've recorded a cover of "Planet Telex" for the Round The Bends album, a reworking of the Radiohead classic "The Bends". Celebrating 5 years of BBC Oxford Introducing... and some of the proceeds from the album will go towards Children In Need. So get yourselves over to iTunes!

And before I forget, they'll be playing a song or two on BBC 6 Music on Wednesday!

The guys are gearing up for their UK tour which even sees them stop over in their Outer Hebridean namesake. Their Scottish tour dates are as follows:

6th April - An Tobar, Mull
7th April - Fired Art, Fort William
8th April - Mad Hatters, Inverness
9th April - Woodlands, Stornoway
10th April - The Arch, Ullapool
11th April - Snafu, Aberdeen
13th April - King Tuts, Glasgow

Got my ticket for the King Tuts gig. I can't wait!

Stornoway On The Rocks

In the week that the BBC announces the winner of the Sound of 2010 I finally got around to signing up to the mailing list of the best band in the running and one of Kowalskiy's 'Ten for 2010'... Stornoway. Was glad I did when the email link to a free download of Zorbing B-Side "On The Rocks" arrived in my Inbox. Here's a wee preview and if you like what you hear then you can sign up on their MySpace.


On The Rocks

Fingers crossed for the rest of the BBC countdown!

Stornoway - Live at Zorb South (20/07/09)

Time for some more Stornoway. This time a live session they performed down at Zorb South back in July this year. Enjoy folks!

Download: Stornoway - Live at Zorb South (20/07/09)

Tracklisting
1. Fuel Up
2. I Saw You Blink
3. On The Rocks
4. Zorbing

Stornoway - BBC Oxford Introducing... Session (27/06/09)

Long before all the BBC Sound of 2010 hype, these guys were championed (and still are) by the good people over at BBC Oxford. Here's their Stornoway session from back in June. Tis cracking stuff!

Download: Stornoway - BBC Oxford Introducing... Session (27/06/09)

Tracklisting
1. End Of The Movie
2. Fuel Up

Ten for 2010... Stornoway!

A few months ago I bent my own rules and made these folkies from Oxfordshire the first non-Scottish band on my blog. To this day it's been my most popular post.... 12 whole downloads! That's almost a dozen!!

Since then Stornoway have appeared on BBC's Sound of 2010 longlist and are sure to be up there when the winner is announced at the end of the year (unless Giggs wins again). With this in mind I thought I'd put up a few bands I'm tipping to and/or I'd like to see make an impact next year. This is in no particular order but if there was then Stornoway would top it by a mile!

"Zorbing" was by far the best single released this year and "Unfaithful" was not too far behind. Is it too early to take bets on the #1 album of 2010?


Stornoway

Zorbing




So far the closest they'll be getting to Stornoway during their February 2010 tour is a stopover in Gateshead. Here's hoping they make it as far as Glasgow at least!

...Stornoway!

Ok, so they're not really Scottish but with a name like Stornoway I reckon I can make an exception. Besides... they are pretty much the best new band of 2009. I jumped on the Stornoway bandwagon after Planet Sound reviewed debut single "Zorbing" a few months ago. Needless to say it was a 9/10! Since then second single "Unfaithful" has gone on to achieve the same praise putting them up with Broken Records having their first two single receiving 9/10's.

The Oxfordshire band recorded a Maida Vale session back in July featuring an amazing version of Zorbing, which barring a miracle (or the unexpected release of "A Promise" by Broken Records) will easily be my Single of the Year!.

Tracklisting
1. Zorbing
2. Unfaithful
3. End Of The Movie
4. The Cold Harbour Road

Download: Stornoway - Maida Vale Session