Here's your ticket to a French mind holiday....

With love, 
Fuzzy x

Bonjour mon velo ancien!

Riding through the pylons,
I can see,
the mirror of the canal smiling back at me....

Well June has been and gone. I've spent plenty of time on my bike, in between intermittent showers and brisk weather! We had a great gig supporting Wakefield Community Gospel choir, entered the Green Man Rising (more votes needed please ow.ly/mhFxX) and now I have entered us into the UK Songwriting competition. Woh! Just keeping on, keeping on. I have also been working some music videos and doing some editing for the first time. They will be coming to a screen near you very soon. And the new mixes of our Funk tunes are seriously filthy! Watch this space for those too.

Thanks for all your support out there in the ethereal world! It really means a lot to us luddites.

Let's hope Murray wins this match eh!

Wednesday jukebox...

A telegram from 1971...

You may recall a little over two months ago we began our endeavour to find our way back home to the 21st century after a strange occurrence struck our studio, leaving us stranded in 1971. Thanks to the likes of Stuart Maconie we made a short return to 2013. However, with analogue equipment being like it is - volatile! - we have once again been thrown through the decades by an 'interdecadel' time warp and spat out the other side of 1971. I mean I shouldn't complain really, it's very pleasant; less cars, less media bombardment, better music, but aside from this, it's not where we belong. Therefore I am now on my second mission to contact everyone I know of, in the BBC, via Post Office telegram. (see fig. 1) Hopefully someone there will have the reversal formula.

fig. 1

Please VOTE for us to open the Green Man Festival! 

Just simply click on the image below to take you through the portal. It's very quick and painless. All you do is 'like' us and we get a vote. Voting closes on Thursday 18th July. Please tell your friends from Crouch End to Timbuktu! Tell them to tell their camels too; every vote counts! Onwards Love of the Brave, onwards!

The start of the 'Morning Pages'

Goodness, it's been awhile. Wow, over a month. Sorry folks, I haven't been feeling myself for sometime, but I'm back in the saddle now and will be blogging once a week from now on, on a Wednesday. 

I hope you've managed to get a little bit of sun and life is treating you well. I wanted to tell you about a book that I have started reading. It's called 'The Artist's Way'. For the past year or so I have been experiencing quite bad writers block. I start a song, I keep at it, but I just can't finish it. I felt utterly frustrated until one morning, this book arrived on my doorstep; sent by a friend who knew how I was struggling. I'm only in the early parts of the book, but the most useful thing so far has been writing my 'Morning Pages'. It's three pages of whatever comes into your head; mostly utter nonsense and ranting, but I already feel better, freer and less afraid to approach my notebook. If you too are struggling to write or create, I suggest doing this every morning. It's great! Has anyone out there felt the same as me? Have you read this book? If so please get in touch. I'd love to hear what you think about it all. 

Ciao for now!

I googled myself today...

I know I've been feeling a bit shabby lately, but come on. I am rather partial to the occasional cowboy fantasy though. Fuzzy on a horse! Yeehaa!

By Fuzzy Jones (not that one)

Letters from 1971.

Last night we were played on BBC 6 Music - Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone. Click on the parcels below to listen. About 55.30mins in.

Neil is back in the studio this week, doing what he does best...

 

and David is back on the balcony.

The Pink Ballroom
The night before I did a gig with my lovely little friend, the marvelous, Laura J Martin, I had the strangest dream. Never before had I seen The Brudenell Social Club in such vivid colour. A room full of lavish ball gowns and ostentatious attire, huge tables covered in silk and a stage fronted with Psychedelic candied fruit. The importance of the occasion unnerved me somewhat, especially when I realised the zip on my dress was undone. Like an uncanny Cinderella scenario, in the depths of Yorkshire, this midnight un-wedding was showing my innermost anxiety and all because the lady was having trouble placing her harmonies. Wake up Fuzz, it will all be alright!

Well you will be pleased to know it all turned out ok in the end; a few beers later and the anxiety subsided. Little pixie Martin, you were magnificent and Mélanie Pain (Nouvelle Vague) you were rather flipping cool. Mais bien sur!

Laura J Martin, the night before, at ATA Studios

Post by Fuzzy Jones

Ps. I think I'll join a gospel choir next week.

Today, Fuzzy will mostly be listening to Lou Reed's Satellite of Love, on repeat, to ease the injury in her shoulder caused by, would you believe it, Dj-ing! Hope your Wednesday is not so blue..... 

The Demo Tapes 

Some new demos from our studio. Please click below to listen. "Oh, who goes there with the purple faces?"

 

The best things in life are FREE DOWNLOADS!

Dear friends and lovers, we have a NEW FREE single to download wherever you are. Just click on the hexagon above.

Can anyone help?! We seem to have got ourselves stuck in 1971 after a strange occurrence in our studio. I believe it may have been due to a chemical reaction from the combination of salvaged BBC tape and ex Soviet Microphones. It seems to have created some sort of 'interdecadel' timewarp. Does anyone know the reversal procedure? I have started to contact members of the BBC, as it suggests in our BBC survival guide. I am using a typewriter to communicate from this room. 

Please see letters below...

The journey of a letter, from a room, somewhere in 1971...

Nothing can kill the beast....

It turns out that to stop a hammond from working you have to grind it to a pulp. My C3 has been in a fire and has the scars to prove it. With a little aloe vera, surgical scissors and a sterilised pin to burst its blisters, the beast is fully working just got to hook up t'leslie and we are off! by Neil Innes 

Found this old film down the back of my sofa today....

 

Yesterday afternoon you weren't so grey....

After a walk along the promenade with Dusty Springfield and Burt Bacharach, I must say 'Tree Frog' is coming along nicely. Whilst Fuzzy lay down some vocals, Neil switched off all the lights, except one lamp (Fuzzy is afraid of the dark) to get his vocalist in the mood. The control room took on the appearance of some sort of 1960's spaceship and, all was well. With the track now lavish in horns, vibes, piano and soon to be strings, it bares all the hallmarks of one of Love of the Brave's greatest inspirations, Burt Bacharach.

Sometimes bizarre things happen when you're recording. The song is set on a beachfront and without meaning to, the sound of seagulls appeared in the track; either we imagined them there or more likely an incidental occurrence occurred from the mixture of instruments, but they are truly there!

Coincidence is a old funny thing.... 

Sunday afternoon in the studio with Joosty and Neil. Got the drums down....nice work Mr. Hendrickx. You driving me a like train! Choo, choo down the line!

Song for the day....oh Venus the sky is shockingly blue today!

Progress on album number two is slow, but beautiful.....see below.

The strings for 'Tree Frog' have been written. The horns are complete. Vocals role on....

Project 'Love of the Brave' 
Stage 1
The first stage of Project Lot - B was completed last year with the release of our debut album. It is still available to download for FREE on our bandcamp page here. We can also send you a lovely Digipak CD for a very small price with lots of love.

 










If you need tempting, here's some kind words from others ~
 
‘Love of the Brave are quite simply one of the best things to appear in Yorkshire since the flat cap’. Ivan Mack (The Housekeeping Society)

"Strange and beautiful songs make up this impressive and other worldly debut. Rachael's (Fuzzy) voice is like something you heard in a dream, truly original." Corinne Bailey Rae

Stage 2

Stage 2 has begun! If you already have our debut album you will be pleased to know that we have now started to record our second album. We will keep you updated on our progress over the next few months. One of the first songs recorded, 'Swans' has just been shortlisted for a film. You can listen to it here ~ http://www.50kissesfilm.com/music-challenge/

Nice talking to you!

Welcome to our new blog! It's cold outside so I'm staying in and writing this. My name, for those who don't know, is Fuzzy Jones. I am the melody and lyric maker for 'Love of the Brave', a UK based nervous Folk/Soul band. I will be putting up bits 'n' bobs on our blog every now and again just to let you know what we're up to, while Neil Innes (the amazing music man) slaves away in a studio we built with our bare hands. I do hope he hasn't turned into an icicle yet! Our studio, called ATA (All Things Analogue) is where all our music is recorded. It sits on the outskirts of Leeds and is a sanctuary for our luddite souls. Here, I'll show you....

That's Neil!

Our beautiple badges! Free for all who want one.