ZOO are a Penzance born combo who’ve been together for just a few weeks, showcased only one song – and already have 500 You Tube hits to their name.

Lead singer Joe Gardner joined forces with poet and guitarist Sean Scott in February.

The duo uploaded their demo ‘Chalk’ a ‘Beach House/Strokes kind of thing’ according to Joe, to You Tube only a week ago.

So far the track has an impressive 517 hits and Joe says he’s been ‘flattered’ by an influx of appreciative messages from music fans across the country.

The 23 year old explained: “I’ve been playing out solo since I was about 16, solo acoustic guitary stuff, and then I met Sean when I was about 18 or 19. I knew him when we were much younger but we met again around this time.

“Sean’s a poet and I started reading through his stuff and really loved it all, so although he couldn’t play back then we were still trying to write songs.

“Sean started getting into spoken word and there’s some on the forthcoming EP.”

Joe’s a Penzance boy through and through: He grew up in Penalverne Crescent with his mum Sarah Jane Morris.

The guitarist went to Mounts Bay school and started making music with poet Sean, who went to Cape Cornwall, at the age of around 19.

Sean. also a local lad, grew up out in Newbridge with his mum Sarah Ellery Scott.

Sean’s brother Beau Scott has been enlisted to do the bands photography.

Joe went on: “It’s only really now we feel we’ve got a strong enough direction to make the EP.

“The way we do things, we’re not the best musicians really, but we just love music and have a lot of fun making songs.

“As soon as the EPs out we’ll let everyone know. But for now if people just want to subscribe on You Tube that’s the best way of following the band.

The duo aren’t sure about whether to start gigging in Cornwall or play out further afield.
Joe said: “I think Cornwall’s got a difficult reputation: although Jackie Stringer’s Dirty Sundays StudioBar’s got into NME recently.

“We’re all over the place but we’d play anywhere: my old man lives up in Scotland so maybe work our way there, stop for tea and make our way back.

“I don’t know who our 500 fans are but I’ve had loads of messages from people I don’t know recently saying they like the track which is nice of them”

“I couldn’t explain what Sean writes about, he’d have to tell you. so here’s an example of his work”

If Is The Issue
By Sean Scott
If I had wings I’d fly
Go up to where its cold and cut my wings like strings and float like a feather out of the sky
Grab a handful of stars on the way down and make a phone call or two to say goodbye
Resting on a cloud with frozen tears in my eyes thinking about hitting the ground
And all my fears I’ve covered with lies I spit out with sound.
To keep tabs on Zoo and check out their EP when it comes out either subscribe to their You Tube or friend JR Gardner on Facebook.

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The trio broke away from hit South West Gypsy Thumpers Zen Hussies, in 2008 and tour Cornwall as often as they can.

This Friday they packed out St Austell’s Eden Cafe

CCN caught up with them there.

Seb explained: “At first we were playing Gypsy Jazz in the streets and then Charlotte joined.

“We started out busking in he street in Bath with it being a tourist town.

“Then we started writing songs and playing out.”

The 36 year old grew up in the French countryside amidst a tradition of classic Gypsy Jazz.

He told us: “In traditional Gypsy Jazz you get two duelling guitars, like Django Reinhardt had two rhythm guitars behind him.

“We have a bass and a horn: some guy at a gig lately said – that was brilliant – on paper, it should never work. Which we thought was nice.”

“I grew up in a tiny village called Beaulieu in the Dordogne and it was great playing there.

“I would play Gypsy guitar in the town square alongside old men playing Boules.

“But it wasn’t all that romantic: I used to work in the Bonne Maman jam factory in the daytime: after a days work there you needed to chill out and play the guitar.”

Seb met the rest of the band when he moved to Britain and out to the South West.

Charlotte is a classically trained musician from St George’s in Bristol who chose an unusual instrument to hone her skills in.

The 32 year old said: I ended up studying Recorder at the Royal College of Music.

“I just loved Recorder as a kid and carried on. It was such a challenge: most other instruments it’s very easy to show off.

“The recorder is very limited – whereas posers like Seb and Tom just show off on their easy string instruments.”

Tom also enjoyed a classical training – from years sat at home in Bath finely tuned to the dulcet tones of 80s New Metal Overlords Iron Maiden.

The 34 year old explained: “I learned bass guitar from the age of about 13 – basically because I wanted to be Steve Harris from Iron Maiden.

“Time went on and about eight years ago I got an acoustic double Bass: it’s much more difficult than an electric.

“It was probably Nina Simone that got me into it.”

Gypsy Jazz has been popular for some years now but the band say it’s a fashion that caught up with them.

Seb explained: “We kind of came before that and I wouldn’t call myself a Gypsy Jazz player.

“It’s more like Swing, what we do. A lot of our tracks aren’t gypsy or folk based at all.”

Tom added: “We don’t like Electro Swing – it’s just unimaginative. It is a bit of an outrage, if you like the greats like Django, it’s a bit much.

“Taking a Billy Harlow song and destroying it – it’s to get students into clubs. If you talk to people that do Electro, they’ll tell us it’s all really badly done.”

“It’s all a bit of an insult to real Gypsy Jazz.”

Django Reinhardt was the musical genius who single handedly invented the Gypsy Jazz phenomenon in the 1930s and 40s.

Seb explained: “Django was originally a banjo player. He played traditional Eastern Folk Music and when he encountered Jazz he fell in love with the scene.

“So he created a whole new style – because they did a string quintet, which had never existed before.

“Two different sides emerged on the two sides of the Atlantic. In the US it was the Big Bands and in Europe it was Gypsy Jazz.

“For Gypsies, music was a way of life, and a way of earning a living.

“It was very wild – and that tradition has come around and become fashionable. But it’s not all that surprising: remember in its time Gypsy Jazz was huge.”

“In France now the music scene is saturated with Gypsy Jazz. It’s all cyclical.”

Bartoune play out in Cornwall as often as they can and are hoping for a slot at Falmouth’s Miss Peapods.

Watch their space!

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Blink-182, one of the biggest pop punk bands of all time, have been confirmed to headline an Eden Session on Sunday July 8.

The Californian three-piece come to Eden following the release of their acclaimed sixth studio album Neighborhoods last September.

Tickets went on sale today and are already selling fast.

Blink 182 split in 2005 but are back with a new sound after regrouping a couple of years ago.

Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker, are probably best known for turn of the Century anthology Enema of the State, a smash hit in 1999.

The album sold 15m copies and spawned perhaps the band’s best known singles: All the Small Things, What’s My Age Again and Adam’s Song.

Enema of the State was Blink-182’s third studio album, following 1994’s Cheshire Cat and 1996’s Dude Ranch.

It came before 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and their self-titled fifth studio album.

The band split in 2005 but reformed in 2009.

The new album Neighborhoods is a much more grown up offering

Blink-182 have sold more than 27 million albums in their long career.

Eden marketing man Martin Williams: “Blink-182 are a great coup for the Eden Sessions.

“The band defined the pop-punk sound of the late nineties and early noughties, mixing catchy guitar hooks with lyrics that tackle serious issues in a humorous way.

“We’re really excited to be part of Blink’s return to the top and can’t wait to hear them perform songs from their long-awaited new album at Eden.”

Blink-182 are the second announcement for the 2012 Eden Sessions.

UK soul and hip-hop star Plan B will headline a show on Friday July 6. More acts will be announced soon.

The Eden Sessions enter their eleventh year in 2012.

Last year Brandon Flowers, Pendulum, the Smashing Pumpkins and the legendary Primal Scream all played.

Oasis, Kasabian, Mumford & Sons, Florence and the Machine, Muse and awesome Kanda Bongo Man have all graced the Eden mainstage dome.

Eden have a scheme called Inside Track which you can join to make sure you get first refusal on tickets for this years gigs.

Tickets to the Blink-182 Eden Session cost £35 plus booking fee and are on sale now (Tuesday).

To snap up a ticket well in advance, phone the Eden Box Office on 01726 811972 or visit Eden Sessions at their homepage.

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Backbeat Sound System play funk, ska, reggae, pop and dub and have shared bills with Cypress Hill, Dreadzone and Dub Pistols.

Eden Café Manager Dan Ball said: “Backbeat Sound System are a great group to get the party started and get everyone in the festive mood.”

Doors open at 8pm and the gig lasts til midnight. Tickets are £5, £4 concessions or bought in advance from the café.

You can buy locally made drinks all through the night and Bread, dips and chickpea and pumpkin curry are on until 9:30pm.

To find out more about the Eden Café in White River Place, go to Eden Cafe

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Dueling Kazoos is a group of people doing what they love, setting up regular gigs for the artists they rate in Cornwall.

Since the summer of 2008 the non-profit organisation have put on gigs for the likes of: Pulled Apart by Horses, Tubelord, Tall Ships, Three Trapped Tigers, Crazy Arm, Turbowolf, Sharks, The Computers, Bangers, Crocus and Goodtime Boys.

As well as the venues you’d expect like Toast (Falmouth) and Live Bar (Truro) they have recently staged gigs at more obscure venues.

The Kazoos Frank Pellow said: “I’m hoping to build up a regular following in Falmouth so that I can put on more gigs and try to do some more ambitious stuff.

Hopefully we’ll get more chances to put on unusual gigs like our recent ones in Truro Library and the Harbour Lights Fish and Chip shop.”

These examples go to show that Dueling Kazoos love what they are doing and are passionate about music in Cornwall.

Mr Pellow said; “We cover a lot of musical styles. In Truro it’s mainly punk and more alternative stuff. In Falmouth we tend to showcase the acts coming out of the University so it’s more pop and folky.

Really we put on the best acts available to us so if there were suddenly an explosion of talented spoken word artists then we’d look at doing stuff along those lines.”

The group work closely with University College Falmouth to unearth talent and are using this as a basis for growth.

“I’d hope anyone attending a Dueling Kazoos’ gig would enjoy the music as we book a lot of really fantastic acts.

“We’d like to think there’s a friendly atmosphere and that we’re inclusive. A big part of what I am hoping to achieve is to introduce people to each other.

“A lot of the acts we book are second year students on the popular music course and obviously they all know each other but I hope by involving first year music students, local acts, poets and other students we’ll help towards build a healthy music community in Falmouth.

If a really healthy and sizeable music community develops in Falmouth then I’d be able to get down more touring bands and do some really exciting stuff in the future.”

For more up to the date info on local bands and pop culture just click through to Tom’s website HERE .

(Image shows promotional poster for a Thom Weeks headlining gig on Friday, 9th December at Toast in Falmouth. Poster created by Max K – www.maxkdesign.co.uk and Hannah Tolson’s Harbour Lights poster)

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Cornwall will be holding its first indoor live music festival early in December and all the money raised will be going to a good cause.

The Bucca Fest is an indoor live music festival held over 3 days in Newquay, with the best of Cornish music putting on an almighty show this gig is set to pave the way for live music festivals through the winter.

The venue for the festival is Tall trees night club in Newquay which will be offering different live bands through out its three floors from midday to 2am on the Saturday and midday to 6pm on Sunday.

The band line up over Saturday and Sunday consists of The Raise, Kola, The Blue Bottles, Hold the Sun, Poppy Raid, Ben Sutcliff and many more.

The Raise are a new Cornish based riff rock band fronted by Rob Elton (formerly or Rootjoose) along with Roger Luxton, Darren Roberts and Jamie Graham. The band will be launching their new album “In Another Life” at the festival.

Colin Stephens from the Bucca fest said “We want to show off what Newquay and Cornwall have to offer with its huge pool of talent of live bands, DJ’s, Cornish Ale and local food. We see this as the start for the Bucca fest and expect a lot of people to come and stay in local accommodation for the weekend as well as plenty of locals”.

The Friday night funky club “Pirates party” is being sponsored by Captain Morgan’s spiced rum and will see all the door money donated to the Joe Way Appeal. Doors will open at 9pm – 2am on Friday 2nd December

Joe Way, who was born with a rare genetic condition, was labelled a ‘miracle boy’ after surviving meningitis, a potentially deadly skin reaction, and numerous superbugs as well as complete organ failure. He died three years ago, after a rapid deterioration in health.

His website has been set up to tell his story, raise awareness of his conditions and help raise money for over 20 charities, mainly at the now annual Joe Way paddle for life.

This is a great idea to bring some of the best music Cornwall has to offer under one roof and we are really stoked to be involved.

Joe’s story has touched so many people and when we are shown this kind of support we feel very proud to be his parents and that his story has such a positive effect.

The event has great support from Skinners Ales, Healeys Cornish cider farm, Captain Morgan’s rum, Trevornick Holiday Park, salt rock, Hawkins motors, Perranporth signs and Tanktra ultimate driving experience.

There will also be a prize draw running all weekend with some great prizes donated by local businesses.

The money raised for the Joe Way Appeal will be going to Cornish Hospice care and the Precious Lives appeal.

To read about Newquay toddler Joe go to Joe Way , to find out more about the festival email HERE .

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A Cornish balladeer won this week’s ‘Kan ran Kernow’ competition to represent the Duchy in a global song contest.

Benjad , aka Benjamin Larham from St Austell, will be heading to Ireland to compete in the PanCeltic song contest.

He beat off seven quality competitors including alt folk rockers Hanterhir, the Bolingey Troyl Band and songwriter Andrew Bate.

His winning track was ‘Mordid Bewnans’, meaning ‘Life’s Tide’.

Judges Pete Berryman, Rob Reynolds and Anne Kennedy-Truscott awarded the talented 18 year old top place.

He’ll go on to fly St Piran’s flag against Welsh, Breton, Manx, Irish and Scots Gaelic acts in Carlow in Ireland.

The contest was organised by Cornish Language devotees and experts Maga Kernow .

To find out more about the Pan Celtic Festival just click HERE .

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