Oct 2006

We're playing at the Nova Scotia on the 21st.
This gig is in memory of Leila Terrett, a wonderful singer and writer
whom we met this summer at the Big Green Gathering
when she was playing in the duo Milk Teeth with her friend Annie Macrae.
We fell in love with their music, and arranged this gig
to play with them for a second time. It's still hard to believe it
but Leila died recently of glandular fever and pneumonia.
Annie will be singing at this gig, as will Toby Wainwright Johns,
a friend of Leila and Annie's.

Please let us know if you would like to come to the gig as the room only holds 50 people.

July 2006
 
Album Really Out Now, Honest
 
Our debut album, "This is Charing Cross"
is now available to buy online at The Wraiths' Megastore.
We'll also be selling it at gigs so come and celebrate with us
at The Folk House this Sunday 30th with the lovely Rowena Dugdale
(Santa Dog) and Gull.


Mog Loves Ukelele
 
Mog has fallen in love with her ukelele and has glued it to her hands.
Its dulcet plinkiness can be heard emanating
from her house on many a summer morning.

Jon Loves Banana Skins

Jon has fallen in love with banana skins and has glued them to his feet.
 
Wraiths Go National
 
The Wraiths are now being represented by Tin Hut Promotions,
meaning that we'll now doing more gigs all over the shop. 
We venture to London for the first time in September.
 
Befriend a Wraith
 
Why not become a Wraith friend on Myspace? 
Then you can leave all sorts of rude comments
about us for everyone to read.  Hooray!

March 2006
Harbour sets out on voyage!
Spiro violinist and creative furnace Jane Harbour
will be unveiling her new music and songs at the Polish Club 
on Friday 10th March, with the aid of some of Bristol's finest musicians
including Tammy Payne of the Jukes on lead vocals, 
Pete Judge (Organelles, the Blessing) on trumpet,
Mark Bradley (Organelles) on drums,
Jon of the Wraiths on bass guitar, and a jolly fine string section. 
The gig is a warm-up for a posh show in London later in the month. 
We Wraiths will be supporting.  Miss it and weep!

February 2006
Wraiths live on the web!
 
The Wraiths go out live on a new podcast on Thursday 23rd February.  It will be a live performance from Trinity Church in Bristol.  More details to follow.
 
Harbour sets out on voyage!
 
Spiro's fab violinist Jane Harbour will be unveiling new music and songs she's written at the Polish Club on Friday 10th March, with the aid of some of Bristol's finest musicians including half of the Organelles and all of a string section, and a very special guest lead singer.  The gig is a warm-up for a posh show in London later in the month. The gorgeous Wraiths will be supporting.  More details on the gigs page.  Miss it and weep! 
 
That's all the news, now the weather, read for you tonight by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: 
 
Tonight the winds begin to rise
and roar from yonder dropping day;
the last red leaf is whirled away,
the rooks are blown about the skies;
the forest cracked, the waters curled,
the cattle huddled on the lea;
and wildly dashed on tower and tree
the sunbeam strikes along the world;
And but for fancies, which aver
that all thy motions gently pass
athwart a plane of molten glass,
I scarce could brook the strain and stir
that makes the barren branches loud;
and but for fear it is not so,
the wild unrest that lives in woe
would dote and pore on yonder cloud
that rises upward always higher,
and onward drags a labouring breast,
and topples round the dreary west,
a looming bastion fringed with fire.
 
But next week it should be a bit brighter.
 
Thanks Alfred.
 
Blessings from all at Wraiths Villas.

January 2006
We had a lovely time playing at the Folk House on Sunday 15th. The audience
were very warm and friendly, so if you were one of them, thanks! Thanks
also to Tony Hutton for inviting us to do the gig and for MC-ing, to Rich
for doing a fab job on the sound as always, and to Dave Lewis who was busy
recording the gig. Dave runs an excellent little studio called Lakeside in
Bristol, which is great for recording acoustic music. He's putting together
a CD of stuff he recorded over the 3 day festival, which you can order from
the Folk House. We're hoping that we Wraiths might be on it.
Finishing the album is proving to be hard because we keep chucking stuff
out. We've decided to record one more track, "Fair Pledges of a Frutiful
Tree", based on a poem by Robert Herrick. It's the one where Mog plays her
electric guitar with a nail. We can guarantee the guitar does not suffer
unduly in this process. Mog's designed the cover so it's getting close.....

December 05
We had a lovely time playing at Katie White's
Basement Gallery in November. Thanks to the
Sunday Painters for a dead gorgeous support set.

We had our first Podcast airplay (or is it wireplay?)
on a lovely show called threefromleith
based in Edinburgh - have a listen to a show:
www.threefromleith.blogspot.com.
The DJ, Grant, also played a track
by the lovely Bristol-based Slow on his latest show.

We were hoping the album was going to be ready
in November, but it ain't.... We can at least tell you
that it's likely to include the following goodies:

The Rooks
The Junk of Many Pearls
Time of Roses
November
Movers and Shakers of the World
The Darkness
Charing Cross
Evening Star
Silent Grove
The Curlews
Winds of Winter

Maybe we'll have it ready by our next gig, at the Folk House, Bristol, on 15th January. Who ever knows.....

Happy December, whatever you do with it.

October 05
Anybody who's been to our recent gigs might
have noticed the arrival onstage of a shiny new
cream Fender Telecaster electric guitar in the hands of Mog.
It sounds very lovely despite its buzzes, hums and hisses,
which we're having some difficulty telling apart,
being not very technically minded.
The new arrival features on some new songs,
including "Bride Slipped Away" and "She Lay as if at Play",
both based on poems by Emily Dickinson,
and a re-vamped version of "The Junk of Many Pearls",
which is still to be the title track of our album.
The album is veeerrrry nearly ready.... hopefully next month.
We Wraiths would like to play further afield
than our native Bristol, so if you know of any lovely venues
for us to visit in other towns and cities, drop us a line.
Small and intimate suits us.

We'll be playing one such small and intimate gig
in the Basement Gallery in Southville on November 11th
- the gig will feature a set from the gorgeous Sunday Painters,
a.k.a. Jem Bowden and Hannah Smith formerly of the Bay Rocks.
Happy October to one and all

September 2005

A Wraith Tale from the sea
The Wraith girl returns from the beautiful seascapes
of Pembrokeshire. Alas! without her flip flops.
And it is a great deal, for these are no ordinary flip flops.
Without them the Wraith girl is unable to sing and the
Wraith man unable to play his guitar.
Woe are the Wraiths for the Wraith girl is sure
she has lost them forever.
Until...... she hears a voice calling from the West seas.......
that a beautiful mermaid from Wales will swim
from the depths of Fresh Water West into the heart
of Bristol harbour on the night of October 1st
with a pair of red shelled flip flops in one hand and guitar
in the other. The voice tells the Wraith girl for the return
of her flip flops she must agree to let the beautiful
mermaid with her guitar perform her songs
to the people of Bristol for this one night
or she will never again see her red flip flops.
This event must take place in an intimate room
at the top of a pub by the harbour called The Nova Scotia
where the people of Bristol will hear for the first time
the beautiful voice of the mermaid, who will be called Jess.
It is only then that she will hand over the flip flops
to the Wraith girl and the spell will be broken and the Wraiths
will be free again to play their music to the people of Bristol.

Fortunately the mermaid has made a special concession
to allow the Wraiths to support Santa Dog at the Louisiana
this Saturday 10th September and Il Bordello on the 20th September.

July 2005
The Wraiths will be playing at Ashton Court Festival
Saturday 16th July Acoustic Stage 3.55pm

On Tuesday 19th July the Wraiths play at Il Bordello
'The Song Works' with Elliot Hall and Lou Bell

See gigs page for more info.

June 2005
Fresh from our triumphant tour of Berlin...

Twas a grand tour which involved the digestion of croisants coffee cakes croisants coffee cakes cakes croisants coffeee croisants and cakes but
no actual gigs unless you count the the one where Jon broke a string during the first and only song in Cafe Chagall but nobody seemed to notice anyway. Infact nobody seemed to notice us at all which we managed to be pleased about as after all we are just an apparition...We're too full of croissants to have finished the album yet Lucky the croisants in England aren't any good.

May 2005

Friday 13th May

The Wraiths' official debut gig is Friday 13th May with support from solo artist Barney Morse Brown plus Bayrocks frontman Jem Bowden will be performing with cellist Hannah Smith. Charismatic performance poet Pippin Sadler will be compering the evening.

There will also be video animation by James Jones Morris + a short film by Tom Currie

Saturday 21st May

The Wraiths are playing at the Folk House Saturday 21st May along with Whalebone Polly, Babel + poetry fromLucy English, Tom Phillips, Byron Vincent and Rosemary Dun.

Saturday 22nd May

The Wraiths play at the Tobacco Factory as part of the Southbank Arts Trail.

Thank you to everybody who came to ourdebut gig at the Crypt, St Paul's Church. We raised £190 for Amnesty International Fantastico! We had originally planned to raise money for Tsunami Appeal but they are not taking anymore donations so we thought Amnesty International would be a very good cause. So thank you all again. We thought it was gorgeous evening!