Pretty grim round here due to Gitika losing her mum and we are all very sad. Here is our new video that we did actually finish 2 months ago but been too raw to post. So now it’s posted everywhere in the crazy social media flurry you have to do, so sorry if you have been slightly bombarded. But if you have then THANK YOU for being everywhere – its a good thing and feels lovely from over here.
Its nice and quiet round here..Some days no-one passes by at all. No slamming of car doors in the night, no-one trying to double park, or in their car with all the winders open talking to Aunt Maud about the state of their marriage. There is a lot to be said for days when no-one drives by…Not to be sneezed at at all. Here is a snippet of our new song that Gitika filmed on a particularly wet day.
We have done a limited run of 200 and they are going well. You can buy off the website HERE for £10 and that includes postage for anywhere in the world. We have kept it small and eco and all the details of the CD will be on the website very soon.
I am a proud bunny and my heart is full. Bob Karper filmed our very informal end of term sharing for our friends and family and The Bishopsgate Singers sung our self penned song and I am bursting with love.
2 AMAZING things are happening tonight..Sunday Night/ Monday Morning 18th 19th March 2018
A new radio station begins TONIGHT HERE IS THE LINK champions of singer songwriters and great music, Alex Huskisson has played many of our tracks when the show was a Sunday night thing and now its a 24/7 radio show and is going to be fantastic. Not only new music but legendary shows will be aired again….it starts at 10pm tonight…And we ..thats 3 Bucket Jones are having our first airplay on Radio 6 on the BBC INTRODUCING SHOW at 2am which is completely wonderful and all came about from replying to a tweet from Tom Robinson who is another champion . It is on a podcast with all the info HERE so you can listen later too. I am thrilled that the track that was chosen was strangely written and recorded in my cave/bedroom in London and I mixed produced it all on my own…funny turn of events really.
What is one of the most exciting and joined up thing that is happening is Gitika arranging 3 Bucket Songs for her choirs. This term The Bishopsgate Singers are trying Single Sky and The Tubthumpers are doing You will be Mine and2 Steps Forward. Gitika is so stoked at the generosity of her singers and feels like her creative journey all working. Her tribe/singing-community linking with her own compositions she has written with Andy.The circle is complete!
Our APRIL SINGLE 2017 is now available to listen to on band camp..you can listen 3 times and then if you are still listening you might like to buy it…you can also hear us performing the single live at the Conway Hall in London .
It is a lush mixture of layered vocals tenor guitar, gitika and andrew on vocals and piano and glockenspiel.
We are planning to release a single a month for the next year and here is the first! available on all download places but the best place if you want to support us financially is bandcamp…. where you can listen first too x
Just want to thank all the people who helped make the tour so special. Bruce Knapp of course on guitar, mandolin and dobro!!! To many people to thank but we can start with, the sound engineers, Fester Duncan and the venue people, Ali Orbaum, Wendy Sergeant , Val Regan and Kirsty Martin for saying yes – rallying singers to come and join us – Thank you to Fiona, Stacey, Caroline, Angie, Maureen in Sheffield, Dave Julia, Tom, Fran, Wendy Liz and Sian Jane Pearl, and Reuben Tourettes for supporting so beautifully in Monmouth and Lesley for singing. The Bishopsgate Singers and Tubthumping Chorus and Gregory in London. The Sing for Water Scratch choir, Roaring Troman and Barley Rye Choir ( plus mum) in Bristol. Hullabaloo, Kate Su and Em in Brighton. Sean, Brendan, Allyn, Kerry and Matt from the Tredegar Town band for gigs in Monmouth and Bristol. Matt for helping Paul with Sound in Monmouth at the last minute and Bob Karper for filming in London Bristol and Monmouth. Sheena for squeezebox in London. Shula and Elizabeth for camera holding. Siggy for helping with merchandise and travelling games in the car in the middle of the night. Everyone who came to watch and listen. All forgotten people will be added as the brain comes back after more sleep….
Celebrating william shakespeare, roy orbison, gitika’s birthday with a new video which gitika edited and we shot on a lovely day yup a hill in shropshire for a giggle….goes well with the song which will be on our new album TAKE THESE GHOSTS on 8th July
We are going again and are playing 6 songs live for broadcast on Friday 11th at 7pm on Jason Ross ‘Bound in Music’. we did the show in October 2014.. wow how time flies!
If you missed the last live radio show with Jason you can hear it through this link and its the third click on the page! The studio is now bigger so I will be able to fit my massive keyboard in..watch out there are recorders and kazzoos, guitars with 4 strings and six strings and keyboards and only 4 hands!
We had a good radio week for an broken-band ( !) band . ON Sunday night on Severn FM we heard Dave Gilmore ‘In any Tongue’ segueway into the 3 Bucket Jones’ track ‘Gravity ‘ which will be on the impending second album. On Friday night on Croydon Radio we heard a track from 3 Bucket Jones’ first album, ‘Mended’ segueway into Kate Bush’s ‘This Woman’s Work’…A nice link…. three of us?
Tonight we are on Severn Fm.. On the Mystery Train.vA brilliant show overseen by Alex Huskisson – a track I should say between 10pm and midnight…Never might we be real celebrity like The Count..but just to be brushing shoulders in the super furry highway that is the internet firmament . Who knows. Some of his celebrity may rub off on us.
Have a sneek listen to one of the tracks from the new album starring the Tredegar Town Band
We are on Severn FM again tonight and C.A.S retweeted one of my tweets. Here he is in Monnow Valley Recording studio with me – on my t-shirt- the legend that is Count Arthur Strong.
I hear he plays the trombone, so if the Tredegar Town Band need a deputy I shall see if he will oblige. Imagine what that would do for our profile. I wonder if he would be in our next video…I shall ask…Probably will not have time, what with him being such a doyen of light entertainment and all. …if he is to busy I shall ask the lady with the lovely hat.
About 2 weeks ago, we were listening to one of the tracks for the new album and Gitika wistfully remarked how she would love to hear a Brass band at the end. Well one thing lead to another and two weeks later an octet from the magnificent Tredegar Town Band arrived at Monnow valley and played on sections of 4 of the track for album number 2. Snippets of video of the band in the studio conducted by Gitika….when the album is released you will be able to name those tunes ! A really exciting session day.
Alex Huskisson presents a great radio show on Severn FM on a Sunday Night called Mystery Train and the last 2 sunday nights has played tracks of ours, last week it was our new track ‘Love Called You Home’ and this week an acapella cover of Dylan’s “Make You Feel my Love’. The show this Sunday 24th may was a Bob Dylan Birthday special so were on the bill with some fantastic Bob Dylan track s and some amazing cover that included Diana Krall, Patti Smith, Jimmy Hendrix Roxy Music to name but a few…what an honour. Here are the links and the track lists for both shows if you fancy catching up!
So we went back to Monnow Valey Valley Studios for the last three days of March and wrote and recorded 4 new songs. One is a melancholic lullaby about letting go of a dying parent. The title was inspired by a Peggy Seeger song, Love Call Me Home, at the moment the working title for this song is ‘Love Called You Home’. Would love you to have a listen.
Tomorrow we are going to the Bloomsbury Theatre in the afternoon to hear the legend that is Gary Katz, who produced the most important era of Steely Dan in conversation. The London Song Company has chosen 6 songs that Gary and Julian are going to critique, and one of our very newest demos has been chosen. Wow!
Hi! This is Official Guest Blogger Curtis ElVidge. I’m the assistant engineer at Monnow Valley Studio, the place where 3 Bucket Jones began, and the place they’re at right now, writing and recording. I’m here to give you the lowdown on what Gitika, Andy and Garry are up to.
The Author and the Artists at Work
The band have been in the studio since sunday, composing and recording together all day every day. In the first four days they have written five songs almost entirely from scratch, ranging from unfinished ambient sketches to victorian horror movie themes – all via psychedelic folk of course.
I’ve been impressed by the variety of instruments they’ve taken with them as well – a lot of which fall in the “cruel and unusual” category. We’ve got electronic tampuras, fretted violins and a hurdy-gurdy. Even better is they actually know how to play them. Garry also has an impressive set of software synths and it’s great to see a band so rooted in folk so happy with the electronics.
But that’s far from the only trick Garry has up his sleeves. The guy is also a pretty fearsome chef, with my highlight being the local sausage and parma ham toad-in-the-hole. A fresh twist on an old classic!
Andy and I really enjoyed the programme…squeezed into the small but perfectly formed Croydon Radio studio with DJ Jason Ross who was warm and relaxed. We played 6 songs, 4 from the album ( tracks 1, 2, 7 , 8 ) and two new tracks . Jason played the last track of the album. Bring it on Radio 6 and 2!
31st August is the one year anniversary of 3 Bucket Jones meeting as a writing team at a BASCA songwriting retreat! It is the one year anniversary of the first track of the album ‘Goodbye to Forever’ to be written.
So here we are, a year later owning a cyber song shop full of wares. At the moment, it feels a bit like the equivalent of a stall at the local farmers’ market, but it is open all hours. Yesterday Gitika sat in the shop all day eating ginger nuts and swigging Yorkshire tea, and the first and last customer did not arrive until 11pm! This was great,better than no customers at all, but Gitika may have to start a little sideline, like knitting cup cakes, or reading vintage telephone directories. Every faith that trade will pick up when people start spreading the word!
We met, we wrote and recorded the first version of this song almost as strangers in one day of a songwriters’ retreat run by BASCA at Monnow Valley Recording Studio, near Monmouth Wales, and in the next 24 hours decided to form a band and make an album, which is so nearly done.
This is the first track on the album, as it was the first one we wrote together.
Hallo and welcome to the world that is 3 Bucket Jones. We met at a songwriting retreat organised by BASCA at the end of August 2013…wrote one song together and knew we had more…We have created an album of 10 songs and there are so many more waiting in the wings already. It is nearly June 2014 and the album is being mastered and pressed, and the Cd cover is being designed as we speak.