12 May 2008

Hello everyone!!

This is new Pipette Ani! I was just sitting down watching 'Homes under the hammer' eating some marmite (I love!) on toast when I suddenly thought I should maybe introduce myself as the only introduction you've had is that funny ol' pic floating around from the Bestival Bandstand gig with Mark Ronson. I could perhaps start there, it's as good a place as any ey? OK, so it is the Wednesday before the gig (which happened on the Saturday) and we get a phone call asking if we would like to do this gig. First of all we were all a bit apprehensive, the opposing factors being 1)eeeek!! scary, 2)it's in three days, 3)we're yet to debut, 4)Help!, 5)not one finished dress!! However we just thought 'WHY THE DEVIL NOT?!?!?!' We figured the main focus wouldn't be on us so in a way it would take some of the pressure off the first gig. You all have to bare in mind that us newbies have been fans of 'The Pipettes' like everyone reading this, so the thought of actually performing one of the old classics (aye it was 'Because it's not love) was pretty daunting.

So it's now the day of the gig which incidentally was an amazingly hot day. The sound check at 1pm went delightfully smooth so we were pretty darn excited though discovering about the 1am curtain call was pretty pants. The whole place was incredibly decorated in Alice in Wonderland related bits, it was like something out of an upper east side New York party scene (I can't help it, I love 'Gossip Girl'... I'm on episode 4!). The queen of hearts was walking around, a couple of cards in tow, playing croquet, there was a group of ladies dressed up as pensioners, one of which was chasing around after her 'out of control' hoover and another having trouble keeping her stockings up... it was quite the tea party! OK, so we've come to the bit about the "bunny ears" (I prefer to call them "HARE bands".... ) It was about five minutes before the show started and there was a ritual and very uplifting "hey guys, let's make this show great.." kinda thing happening when everyone noticed that we had no fancy dress (heavens, we thought our dresses would be enough!?) We were each handed these hare bands, and though slightly hesitant we put them on. The connotations of these silly old props (though regretfully) was not at the front of our minds.... it was our first gig and eeeeeeeeekkk!? I was just thinking... what is the dance?... I don't know the words...aaaaahh!. Yes, in hindsight we should have given it a second thought but really... a permanent fixture? come on guys! Anyhoo, to the important bit... the song and the singing... dare I say we did it pretty good. WINNER!

OK, so our day to day lives consist of rehearsing like absolute maniacs. We've all written a good few songs and they are sounding LUSH! We've got some dances too, in fact us girls are together making up some more today... however it is blazing outside... I've just been offered some ice cream by Anna and a glass of Pimm's has miraculously disappeared from by my side?! how very strange? ;p But really, the main objective of these rehearsals is to perfect the new songs as best we can in order to record some shiny new demos in the next few weeks. We are ridiculously excited about recording but also about getting some fresh gigs under our belt, VIVA ESPANIA! woop! We do hope you can stick around for the new album, I cannot express how delicious you will find it. There is something for everybody, some groovy tunes, some smoothies, jiving, slippin' and a slidin' songs and plenty more! Well this is me for now, I'm just off to do some dancing now but our other new lady will be back to update soon. Have a good week y'all!

Love Ani x

Outside the venue

On bloody stage

Sunshine Wan

9 May 2008

Hey, 
 
Just some more stuff for you, though instead of bombarding you with a list of stuff, here's about 45 mins worth of stuff we've been loving, plus links to videos on youtube, so it could be a bit like if we had our own music channel (which would be sweeeet).
 
Jon has been reading - Tender Is The Night (F. Scott. Fitzgerald)
 
Seb has been playing - Grand Theft Auto IV
 
Anna has been reading - From Russia With Love (Ian Flemming)
 
Gwen has been - getting drunk with Rose
 
Ani has been writing - the lyrics "ice cream for breakfast, and champagne for lunch"
 
Bobby has been - rambling in Hampstead Heath
 
Alex has been - debunking 9/11 debunking
 
Jon and Alex will - watch Ween play for three hours.

Stuff on YouTube that we like:

Ace Of Base (The Sign) 

The Glitter Band (Love in the Sun)

Mud (Tiger Feet)

S Club 7 (Bring it all back) 

Super Furry Animals (Hey Venus) 

Legend Of Zelda Theme Tune

DJ Rubbish (Armageddon Session Vol.2: Live from the Bunker)

Cassetteboy (Carry On Breathing) 

Chemise (She Can’t Love You)

Spånka Nkpg feat. Marit Bergman (She Can't Love You)

Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King (Love Come Down)

Chromeo (Bonafied Lovin')

The Spinners (Could It Be I’m Falling In Love)

Fat Larry’s Band (Zoom)

By the way we have a new t-shirt for sale: 

It's available online from mamstore.co.uk

(At last count, we think there are 16 ex-Pipettes out there)

love, 
The Pipettes

2 May 2008

It's been a tough few months for everyone involved and we got this from Sandrine in the post the other day and it really did make our day. Thank you to everyone who's been supportive, and to Sandrine in particular for the picture!

love,
The Pipettes

2 May 2008

Here’s what we've all been enjoying lately:

On the pipettes stereo (a list of all or most of the songs, albums, artists mentioned in passing in the studio and in the pub):

Boney M - 'Night Flight to Venus'
Chicago
The Backyardigans
Chic
Larry levan
Nyc Peech Boys
The Tornados - 'Telstar'
Pointer sisters
10cc
Dinosaur l
Billie the Vision and the Dancers
Robyn
T2
The Delphonics
Marit Bergman
Grace Jones
Wittyboy
Snoop Doggy Dogg

Nena - '99 Red Ballons'
'Thriller' era Michael Jackson
'My Old Piano' era Diana Ross
Chaka Khan
Scritti Politti - 'The Word Girl'
Os Mutantes

The B52s
Bootsy Collins
Kirsty MacColl
Girls Aloud
Shirley Bassey
Carl Stalling
Selda
Ivor Cutler
tATu
Dollar
Bucks Fizz

Ela e Gata - 'You Can Dance'
Candi Staton
Frankie Knuckles
Grace Jones
First Choice
Hercules and Love Affair
Sly and the Family Stone
The O'Jays

Cameo - 'Word Up'
Rick James - 'Superfreak'
The Jones Girls
The Philadelphia International All-Stars
Teddy Pendergrass
Wiley
Kylie Minogue

Prince
Whitney Houston - 'I Will Always Love You'
Kevin Blechtum's cover of 'I Will Always Love You'
The Zombies - 'Time of the Season'
ESG
Arto Lindsay and the Ambitious Lovers 'Let's Be Adult'

Liquid Liquid
Pet Shop Boys
Daniel Bedingfield 'Gotta Get Through This'
Rihanna
N-Sync
N-Trance
Shut Up and Dance - 'I'm Raving, I'm Raving'
Cilla Black - "Alfie" in particular
Funboy Three
Bananarama
Kate Bush "The Kick Inside"
ABBA, Frida's freestyling dancing at gigs
The Wiggles
Anna's sister
Jake Thackray
The Sundays
Neon Neon
Samantha Mumba
Eurobeat
Donna Summer
Eurythmics
Lykkie Li
Annie's new one, brilliant video
The Cars
The Real Heat
Stereolab

Bobby's been reading...
Patricia Highsmith (in fact, for about a year and half now i have read fiction only by patricua highsmith, graham greene and thomas mann)

Gwenno's been reading...
Oscar Wilde,The Picture Of Dorian Gray and his short stories, The Remarkable Rocket, is one of my favourites, A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man by James Joyce and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Ani's reading The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

Anna's been singing "I Will Survive" at Shabaret

18 April 2008

The Pipettes have two new members, Ani and Anna. We are demoing up 20-25 new songs, with an eye to recording a second album in the Summer. We want to tell you all about them, but we’re very much head-down working on new material at the moment.

This means that RiotBecki and Rosay have left to pursue other musical pursuits (which will be brilliant when they emerge), we wish them all the best, we’re all still great friends and news on their pursuits will be closely supported by us.

People may be confused by such a drastic change in line-up but please rest assured - if we were to be an imitation of ourselves we would stop. Plus the Pipettes has more members come and go than major labels have A&R men, it's just another day in the office for us (plus we’ve got to go one better than the Sugababes).

We refer you to the manifesto on www.thepipettes.com for a more in depth explanation on the functioning of the band; this was the natural step to take. For a more in depth series of answers, we direct you to the prepared video here.

Thanks for all the continued support over this period and we’re incredibly excited to be working toward bringing you a new album that will be unlike anything we (or anyone else) have ever done. We will also have limited edition novelty tee-shirts on sale soon, keep an eye out for them and join the growing thousands who can now claim to be ‘ex-Pipettes.’

love,
The Pipettes

Check back soon for more updates.