Bingo Records news
News from the label and its community.
Hi all,
Sorry I’m late! Although I guess I did always say it would be irregular.
We’re back to being really busy again. We’re preparing for forthcoming Bingo stuff, celebrating recent releases, booking gigs and doing all the side stuff we do as well which actually pays our bills (coffee, production, potting, books, music venue trust stuff, have been dominating our non-label lives).
I’m not going to prattle on too much in the intro this time round. I had a bit of a spiel around value/scarcity and the selling of catalogues to faceless corporate organisations, and why that might be happening a lot at the moment, but I reread it and decided I seemed like a tinfoil hatter and needed to think a bit longer and do a bit more research. So that can be parked for a bit. Here’s what’s actually happening.
New Release
Good News - Small Forms
The big news this month is Good News. We released their debut album, ‘Small Forms’ on September 13th. It’s a fantastic album, really up my wonky post-punk witty-lyrics street, rhythmic but not short on pop as well.
It really felt like getting back to Bingo basics with this one. A band from the city we’re all based in, recording in an attic converted into a studio with our Zac. Ben did the artwork and we worked together to make the newspaper-style liner notes. It was a lot of fun to be doing things as a cottage industry again.
You can still order it from our website, or get it from them on tour. It’ll make it’s way to shops as well at some point - just waiting on the distributors on that front.
Coming up…
We’ve got some new bits on the way before the year is up, including a new signing (you may well turn out recognising them as they played a few of our events recently) and some more stuff from an artist we’ve already released. Maybe more, but these are the two that are lined up, as certain as we ever can be. Maybe I’ll do that Tony Wilson thing where I list the CAT numbers and the names before full announcement and give you no more info. Top secret, subscriber only stuff. How exciting.
BINGO054 - The Butterfly / Alexandra Park
BINGO055 - Universe Expanded
More on these things soon, as well as our plans for next year which are already formulating.
Live
Gigs are coming thick and fast now we’re approaching Autumn. Loads of folks within our community are putting stuff on and touring. Here’s some listings (mostly Yorkshire and Lancashire I’m afraid, but so are we and so are lots of you, so hopefully still helpful for many).
Saturday 5 October - Sheffield - Delicious Clam - Autocamper / Rowan and Friends / Vehicle (Charlie and Lauren putting this on)
Thursday 24 October - Sheffield - Delicious Clam - Jim E Brown / Jeuce (Tom’s running this)
Saturday 26 October - Chorley - Traders - British Birds / Adam Hopper (British Birds running this themselves)
Saturday 2 November - Sheffield - Sidney and Matilda - Pys Melin / Adam Hopper (Jarred Up Presents)
Friday 22 November - Clitheroe - St Mary Magdalene C Of E Church - Shovel Dance Collective (So It Goes presents)
And there’s the Good News tour of course:
Tickets are all findable via google. Here’s a direct link to all the tour tickets for Good News:
Books
News, by me!
Some people may know, I also write books. I’ve long held the ambition to establish Bingo Books as a side thing to the label, and I’m working on that at the moment. But for now, I’ve got my second one coming out next year via small indie publishing house Hick Wap Press. All the design is done (hence the existence of a mockup) and the text is just being gone over and over to try and iron out any remaining issues. It’s due to be published by Spring 2025.
This book was partly written ages ago when I spent a freezing cold winter in Canada. Then I got too wrapped up in Bingo and shelved it, then I did more, then I got too busy again, and then last year I polished it off. Topics covered include hotels, local newspaper obituaries, pubs, writing, lying, job satisfaction, takeaways, double-glazing conferences, mega-churches. It’s quite short, because I was mainly reading short Japanese and Russian books when I wrote it and I realised I preferred things that said what they had to say pretty quickly.
If you’re remotely interested, you can preorder it from the publisher’s website below.
Music recommendation
Not particularly current this time, I’m afraid. But good. I got recommended this by my friend Phil, who runs JT Soar, and I think it’s great. FFO Wire, and that kind of thing.
An unrelated, interesting thing
I’m a big fan of Simon Roper over on youtube. He’s somehow a neuroscientist and a linguist and an archeologist. Here’s a video where he dissects various theories about human consciousness which I found fascinating. Maybe you will too.
That’s all, cheers!