Moseley Folk Festival

We're pleased to announce that we're on the bill of the inaugural Moseley Folk Festival which is due to take place on the first weekend of September 2006.

That's us there, on Sunday's bill.....


The event has taken some mean feats of organisation from the people involved, not least having to keep things reasonably clandestine until Birmingham City Council approved the license, which they duly did on 19th June meaning that all systems are go.

Carl from the festival is chuffed to bits with the line-up and so he should be. Having began with a 'wish-list' of artists he set about the task of getting them and with very few exceptions the line up pretty much mirrors his original list. Not bad going!

The festival takes place in the marvellous Moseley Park - a sort of 'Worst kept secret' hidden garden bang in the centre of Moseley village that boasts a beautiful lake and hundreds of unspoilt, Victorian-era trees and bushes. Come sunset, when the birds begin to settle in their roosts in the trees for the evening (making a lot of noise in the process) I think it's probably my favourite place in the entire city.

There is more information on both the festival homepage and also on their Myspace thingum

Stage times and final running order are to be confirmed at this stage, but we imagine that we'll be onstage some time in the middle of the afternoon.

All that remains now is to get yourself a ticket, tell your friends and cross your fingers for some decent weather.

See you there

Friends of the Stars
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Podcasting explained...by a Ninja

Over the last year or so the subject of a Friends of the Stars podcast has been floating around. Indeed, certain people have been actively pressing us to make one of our own and to start spitting it out over the interweb.

In truth, the subject will more than likely stay floating for the conceivable future.

There are several reasons for this. By far the most truthful is that it's highly improbable that we'd get around to creating the necessary 'content' in the first place, and far less likely still that we'd generate more of it in a timely-enough fashion to make a FotS podcast any kind of success.

This isn't an off-hand conclusion we've arrived at lightly, by the way. It stems from a deep understanding of the individual and group work ethic of those involved - and you can read into that what you will.

Besides, who's to say we'd any good at it, or indeed have anything of interest to say. Mmm? So, I think we'll stick to making Commercially Inviable tunes for the time being....

However, and for those of you who are equally curious and ignorant about the whole Podcasting thingum, why not let a Ninja take you through the rudiments of this uber modern cultural phenomenon.



If ever things change and we find ourselves in a position to start supplying Apple Pies to Whales we'll let you know

Love,
Friends of the Stars
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How we (don't) get things done...

Here's a brief pictorial interlude...

Today we bring you a rarely seen glimpse into the working processes of Friends of the Stars.

The following exchange is fairly typical. Note also the location. Many of the band's commercial and musical stategy meetings are conducted in such settings.

fig 1: Cam begins talking about drum sounds, or something.

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fig 2: Executive Producer Robson listens intently, nodding occasionally etc

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fig 3: Cam illustrates his point by listing several records from the last 30 years that contain drum sounds that are similar but not, like, the same, y'know?

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fig 4: A clearly despondent Executive Producer Robson privately begins to question his involvment in the entire 'project', shortly before telling Cam, "I'll see what I can do"

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In other news....There is further progress with mixing of Lighting & Electrical, with 5 tunes down and 7 to go we are nearing the halfway point. Grrrrr.

In addition, remixes are starting to come back and Anna reports that the long awaited TeaTowel remix sounds "Amazing". As soon as we get these final mixes back they will be made available here and on the Myspace thingum.

In other, other news the demos for the next batch of tunes are coming along very nicely indeed.....but that's another story entirely.

Ta for now,

Friends of the Stars

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