| 08 March 2010
Safely home in Cape Town... Monday morning must mean a walk through the Company Gardens to Jardine for coffee and the world's best cranberry danish on the pavement on Bree street.
Tours always leave me with a mix of elation and the blues. I'd like to send a big up to Laurie Levine, Shannon Hope, Federico Fernandez (and his merry boys and girl), Naming James and the Allan John band for sharing stages and doing what we do best, together. I'll miss all of you. Sunday at The Radium was a fitting send off. And a public thank you to my awesome management team: Sean, Maddy, Gavin, Pete and all the people who pull strings behind the scene to make all of this happen. I'll be back...
| 03 March 2010
In celebration of the start of my BIG CITY tour and the cool people at UJFM, where I'm doing an interview this afternoon, Superglue is available as a FREE DOWNLOAD for one day... yes, that's TODAY! Go to http://ianhenderson.com/ujfm.html and have a listen, grab any of the songs, or even download the whole album. And I'd really dig it if you share the love by signing up for my newsletter, on the same page.
Tour starts this evening at Kitcheners in Braamfontein. Come and enjoy some laid back tunes with Shannon Hope and Naming James.
Best, Ian
| 26 February 2010
One of the joys of owning a really old Italian car is being on first name terms with your mechanic. Tony and I were drinking cappuccino yesterday, and I’m expecting an invite to Christmas dinner this year, mostly because I will have paid for the turkey and everything in those expensive little crackers. Somehow Tony is the only person I know who has managed to get a ticket in and out of South Africa (yes, Italy) during the World Cup. You thinking what I’m thinking?
The way I’m looking at it if you’re planning on doing any flying, right now’s the time to do it. So this Tuesday I get another two hours of Kulula bad jokes on my way up to you happy jozi people. Check it out…
Wed 3 March – Kitcheners (with Shannon Hope & Naming James)
Milner Park Hotel, cnr Juta & De Beer, Braamfontein
9pm
Thurs 4 March – Café Barcelona (with Allan John)
Shop 24 Elardus Park, 570 Barnard Str. Pretoria
9pm – book table on 012 345 3602
Fri 5 March – Tanz Café (with F-Spot/Federico Fernandez & Shannon Hope)
Cnr River Rd & Bryanston Dr Riverside Mews
8.30pm – book table on 011 463 3128
Sat 6 March – Radium Beer Hall (with Laurie Levine)
282 Louis Botha Ave Orange Grove
9pm – book table on 011 728 3866
seeya there,
Ian
| 18 February 2010
While loitering in Buenos Aires for a few months at the end of last year I got a rare chance to check out Juana Molina in concert - home from one of her many international tours. She's famous for her amazing looping music... and the hype is no hot air. Check her out on youtube, but if you want to see something really silly and ultra cool look no further than this:
| 16 February 2010
The rain fell in sheets this morning. I saw the neighbourhood tomcats skulking home like drowned rats, feeling very sorry for themselves. It’s grey, moody and cool, and just right for a Lazari breakfast, but that’s not important right now. What is, is that being Cape Town and summer, it’s going to be bright and sunny by about 2pm, just in time for you to feel like going out tonight. And The Waiting Room’s the spot, where you’ll see me do a set with Lindi Suttle... the girl who definitely isn’t living in her mother’s shadow!
(pic Shanna Jones)
And speaking of rain, in two weeks I’ll be in the land of gold and mid-afternoon storms: Wed 3rd March at Kitcheners with the wonderful Shannon Hope and Naming James, Thurs 4th in Pretoria at Café Barcelona, Fri 5th at Tanz Café in Rivonia with Son of a Thousand Blues frontman Federico Fernandez, who’s launching his solo project F.Spot that night (and Shannon again), and Sat 6th at the historic Radium Beer Hall with Laurie Levine. All the details at http://www.ianhenderson.com
There’s a kind of pretty symmetry to performing with Argentine Federico on my first jozi tour of 2010, cause I’m just back from two months writing, performing and day-dreaming in Buenos Aires… city of cafés, Juana Molina and the widest main street in the world, which I once crossed like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amHV-VczU0I
But (probably somewhat disappointingly) I won’t be playing any tango, just in case you were wondering!
Seeya on the road,
Ian
| 02 February 2010
To Americans this may be old hat, but I'm not sure how well known he is outside. Check this out...!!
(Or on Youtube)
Been fiddling (actually exploring deep undersea tunnels) with loopers for my solo show and came across Andrew Bird. What a beautiful freak! And he sings like Jeff Buckley. I have to see him live. Hopefully that would have the same impact on my year that gaping at Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland in the smoky little Mercury Live bar did last year. Speaking of Mercury - we played a wonderful show with Dear Reader in the main hall on Saturday. Lovely shit.
| 18 January 2010
I sat in Depasco at the bottom of Kloof from 8-9am on Friday, drinking coffee, and counted four cars going to work. Four! It's the middle of January! That's Cape Town for you... all play and no work! Which is just as well, really, because we've been giving you something else to do. Friday was an awesome little night out at perennial favourites Zula Bar, with the lovely Louise Day and her band in support.
And coming up at the end of the month, Andy Lund and I are joining Dear Reader for a rare Cape Town performance on 30 Jan at Mercury Live. And before I get a hundred emails from THE BIG CITY complaining, here's something else: first weekend in March. Joburg. Pretoria. Happy?
| 09 December 2009
We've talked about it for ages, the enigma that is Mystery White Boy (No prizes for guessing where that came from! If blogs aren't useful for throwing one-sided insults, what are they good for?) and I. Insulting my music with his outrageous stage show. Well, it's upon us. Grand Daddy, "Yo" (I mean, c'mon?), next weekend, 18th & 19th of December in Cape Town.
Check it out on Facebook here: or on my website here, and buy tickets here (they're cheaper than pitching at the door, you lazy Capetonians). And come! Yeah, I mean it.
