SHAMBOLICA! Presents *SPARKLEMELT*

Shambolica! art collective started officially in Jan 2010 with the exhibition/launch party "Into the Light" and the club experience "Let It Glow" (Feb 2010) and we thought after 3 years it was time again to put on a brand new show for the people of the North East.
*SPARKLEMELT* was born and took place at System Gallery, Bar Loco, Newcastle.  Opening night on 16th of March 2013 with the exhibition running for 2 weeks.

A very simple call out was placed to all areas of the region as well as Scotland for artists of all mediums to create something brand new for the show all along the simple theme of the title of the show.  A very loose guideline allowing the artist to go where they wish whilst also providing a subliminal glue to bind the exhibition together.  A chance to be creative and to be Sparklemelt!
We had a great response from a whole multitude of artists creating a variety of works from illustration, fine art, graphics, sculpture, fabric work, video, sound, installation and print work.  After much support from System Gallery the show was ready for hanging and the collective pulled together and put up a great show.  To launch the exhibiton we decided to have an opening party with some great musical acts to provide the entertainment and have a good old fashioned knees up party.

The contributing artists for the exhibition are as follows:

Dan Ash, Len Allwood, Laura McDonald, Euan Thomson, Benjamin Newell, Amy Baker, Marion Airley, Thomas F Newell, Wolf Mask, Simone Huntley, Rob Burns, Ray Favourite, Andy Playford, Mani Kambo, Chris Folwell, Laura Cartwright, Davey Miller, Lewis MacDonald, Alistair Quietsch and Toni Hamill.

A great response and contribution with a tremendous wealth of great art.

To kick off the night we had a premier live performance from WolfStig & Alan, creating a brand new live improv ambient experience right in the heart of the exhibition.  The crowd listened intently as they viewed the work and really 

absorbed themselves in the melty aura created by the trio.  The live 

performance can be heard HERE.

With the exhibition officailly open on the top floor of Bar Loco, the main entertainment started on the middle floor allowing people to flow upstairs and downstairs between art, music and bar, like a proper house party.

First up we were treated to an exclusive improv set from glasgow based solo musician Deathpodal.  Utilising electric guitar, a myriad of pedals and a large synth he carved out his unique brand of music with elements of the unknown as well as tracks from his debut EP.   Deathpodal kick started the evening nicely.

https://www.facebook.com/deathpodal

Next was STIG.  Based in Newcaslte, STIG has been creating and working as an electronic composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter for many many years.  Sparklemelt was to be his first performance live playing acoustic. A great honour for Sparklemelt as he played wonderful set of brand new songs, enrapturing the audience and taking their breath away with his beautiful playing, performing and song craft.

https://www.facebook.com/stigmusicproject

The next act in proceedings was from Shambolica!'s own performance trio of colour, light and chaos - Klaus, Baron & Tertre!

After the performance and plenty face paint and glitter being passed around the audience, the night turned up another gear with an exceptional live music performance from the most excellent of local bands, the mighty electro pop duo - THE TURING TEST.  Utilising a great mix of live instrumentation, midi controlled beats and sounds with electric drums they had the crowd moving and dancing with a visceral and sparkling performance of their great tunes.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Turing-Test

To complete the live musical performances and with the crowd in a great dancing mood came the might ROBOT DEATH MONKEY and their brand of groovy tuned stoner rock.  Ripping through a super tight knit set the crowd were bouncing and moshing in true shambo style.  After the track "Gary Dunham" was changed to "Alan Shearer" for the local crowd, the band could do no wrong and the room was bouncing.  On their last track they were joined by main event organiser Thomas F Newell on guitar with a special track created for the event.

https://www.facebook.com/RobotDeathMonkey

To bring the whole night to a triumphant close we had a great set of electro from cumbria beats master - Deaf Eric.  Mixing and mashing it up, the party atmosphere was in full flow as was the face paint and most of all the love and creative vibes.

https://soundcloud.com/deaf-eric

The whole *SPARKLEMELT* experience was incredible.  Truly touched by all the creative participation from all the artists and musicians and blown away by the support from the local people who got involved with the fun.  A greatly positive experience bringing together loads of wonderful people all in the name of being creative and being SHAMBOLICA!

Big thanks to all the artists, musicians and the people!

And massive special thanks to Egle from System Gallery and Joe Fowler for taking the photos.  

The best compliment we received we could get was - "when is the next sparklemelt?".  Enough said.

Please check out the links HERE and HERE to check out images from the event on the facebook page.  All images by Joe Fowler.

REWIND! REVIEW! SHAMBOLICA! Presents...SHIT PANTO!

Christmas is a time of giving and enjoying the company of family and friends. For Shambolica it is a time of chaos, colour and sheer unadulterated wonder!

On December 15th 2012 Tertre Rouge, Klaus and Baron punch made their way to SWG3 on Eastvale Place in Glasgow for Jimbo Crimbo, The Art School's end of term Christmas Party.

In the worn and tattered warehouse down the darkened alley of Eastvale Place Shambolica brought their rainbow vibes and colourful exuberance to the fore in the shape of a shitty panto!

Baron Punch whilst raiding through the dusty piles of scripts at Kinningpark discovered a ring binder crammed with old Christmas Panto scripts. With this Dickensian find Baron had the bright idea to perform one of these scripts at the Jimbo Crimbo and bring a Shambo twist to the festive proceedings.

In a tiny room situated at the entrance of SWG3, the 3 men of the rainbow constructed a shit set for their panto to be played out in and also with the hope of encouraging the audience to decorate the set for them.

Surprises were to be had.

The part of the evening arrived and Tertre Rouge in the main stage area obtained a microphone and bellowed to the crowd to follow him to the room of delights.  "Come and Join Us!"

Once there, the audience were to find Klaus sprawled out on the canvas floor shouting for his comrades to come! The audience looked on in delight.

Tertre Rouge skipped amongst the audience giving off rays of colour and light that he had first found in the mysterious woods of Le Mans. Tertre was looking for the set decorators to flash their brushes on the shoddy cardboard so woefully put up with crap tape and blue tac. "PAINT!" Klaus would shout, "ENJOY!" Tertre would echo, "COME ALL" Baron would seethe!

With the audience ready; Shambolica began their epic reading of Snow White - the Shitty Panto had begun!

Tertre, Klaus and Baron read off their pages with furious speed telling tales of old and falling into song most notably Somebody to Love by Queen. They run through the list of panto cliches and made the audience laugh with giddy delight.

Klaus shouted with his usual eccentricity. Tertre shook his tambourine with feverish delight. And Baron plonked his way on the double bass with ghastly glee!

And then suddenly with utter surprise SHANTA appeared! Swaggering Shanta spread Shambolica Xmas delight and plonked himself down to dish out presents of colour and light.

The naughty list was read by Baron and innocent members were thrown into the lap of SHANTA for a cuddle, a whisper and a darn good telling off!

The laughter spread and the cheering echoed throughout the room and merriment spread like wild fire. Members of the audience transported themselves back to their youth when the Christmas panto was a rights of passage and the colour of Shambolica saturated all who watched with amazement and bewilderment.

Tertre will his usual laconic stance stroked the match that lit the final denouement of the evening.  The Shambolica Orchestra rolled out a rowdy join that had become a common place amongst audiences of Glasgow and Edinburgh in the past 6 months.  The strains of COME JOIN US thralled throughout the venue! The audience shook their handmade instruments with frenzied childlike delight! Shambolica sung from the top of their heads! Klaus strode upon the chair and fell down in comic fashion. The flags began to wave! Shambolica had come! They had liberated! And with a flash they were gone off into the night and like a shooting star! 

SHAMBOLICA! Presents CINEMENTALITY

In the month of November, Klaus "The Strong Man" Clown after a boozy weekend in the pub in the ghostly town of Stonehaven was contemplating new ideas.

He was stuck. His mind stuck in a vat of toffee. He ogled over his gin thinking of movies past and present and it hit him. For he realised he didn't speak English, his mother tongue.  The common tongue of his land was that of the cinema.

Logo by Lewis MacDonald

Klaus felt an urge to do something on his own minus his brothers of colour and light, Tertre Rouge and Baron Punch.  The past few years of drowning himself in celluloid and the digital age had expanded his mind to a vast warehouse of knowledge. He needed a release of orgasmic proportions. To make way for the future of cinema.

With his mind expanded by the images and dialogue that had take him to new worlds, he sought out Marta from Little Bit of Theatre when putting the finishing touches to CHASM at Studio 41.

"Marta!" he cried! "I need your help. I need a space to exhort the cinematic ramblings in my mind." "Klaus my dear, come hither and we will host your most Shambolic of minds".

Come the 12th November 2012 in the shoddy basement of the 13th Note in Glasgow.  Klaus entered the stage caged in a gold mask to shelter the audience from the brimming, glistening wad of cinema that was crammed into his mind like a badly boxed oversized puzzle.

Accompanied by the eclectic and cataclysmic soundscapes of Tertre Rouge, Klaus let out a giant roar of fervour, passion and an accelerated version of film history and theory.

What unfolded was a frenetic contextualisation of the history of Klaus's experience in the realms of the wonder of cinema.

Klaus channeling the spirit of his master Mark Rylance, made his way from the Lumiere brothers to the Great Train Robbery of 1903 to Hitchcock to Orson Welles to Goddard and Spielberg.

Churning his mind like an overworked, overheated projector Klaus let the images flow from his mind to his tongue where they transformed into words of love and passion.

Inviting members of the audience up to the microphone to bellow out the name of their favourite actors Klaus turned his performance into a sort seance of the meaning of cinema.

Klaus baptised the end of his performance by sacrificing a copy of his favourite Swedish detective, Wallander in ode Kenneth Branagh who had been knighted that same week. The meanings are endless.

The performance concluded with Klaus transforming himself into a 1920's film camera and then running out of film before dispersing into the darkness.

Stanley Kubrick once wrote: "A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later."

Special thanks to Marta and Little Bit of Theatre and all those who were involved.  Greatly appreciated.
Soundtrack for the performance by Thomas F Newell can be heard HERE!!!

In similar related news:  The soundtracks for "Cinementality" and the performance "Cinemorgue" are related pieces and have been selected for the upcoming show "Reuse/Aloud" by Newbridge Project in collaboration with Basic FM.  More details to follow.

SHAMBOLICA! Presents...CHASM!

On October 8^th the Shambolica team led by Klaus the Clown and Baron Punch made their way to Studio 41 on West Graham Street in Glasgow to commence work on a new project entitled Shambolica presents…CHASM!

For 3 days the Shambolica team with a band of new recruits built, concocted, slapped up, ripped up, and taped up a smorgasbord of an installation that projected the “mind” of the infamous BOX OF WONDERS on to the interior of Studio 41.

In creating this brain of Shambolica the team raided the streets of Glasgow for anything they could get their paws on. Wood, road signs, cabinets, more wood, foil, old wood, rotten wood, tape, lots of tape, nails, paint, newspaper, magazines, more newspaper, and even more wood!

BANG BANG! The hammer went! Rip, tear, slap, the tape went! Woosh, wash, flash the paint went! DRILL DRILL DRILL! The drill went!  For 3 days the Shamboites went hammer and tong! Tongues thumbing out the mouth, eyes wide with artistic horniness and hands all jelly like with excitement! 

Though the box was not present its colour aura most definately was and influenced the crew immensely leading them to creative a fervour amongst the team!

With friends of the Shambolica team stopping by to indulge in the vibes of the Shambolica ethos of “all art is creation and all creation is art” Klaus and and Baron encouraged them all to be free in their expressions; the possibilities were indeed endless!

Then on the 11th October all the hard work came to a stop to prepare for the big opening where a special performance was to take place by the SHAMBO GOD!

The finished installation had the look of an old puzzle stirred into a giant pot of paint and then spewed onto the walls.  Good friends of Klaus; Robin and Zoe, had created some amazing creations for the event.  Robin had reinvigorated the famous Shambolica CRANK box and Zoe had created the now infamous SHAMBO TUNNEL!

As vistors entered the darkened gallery they were confronted with the "mind" of Shambolica. An abyss of what lay within the Shambolica mind.  A deep fissure within the artistic landscape.  A CHASM!

Projected light shone against the wall and the varying elements of materials that were used to create such a patchwork quilt took on the feel of a rubik cube. Always turning, forever evolving and never solved.  

The audience was encouraged to enter the SHAMBO TUNNEL! a symbol of the birth of Shambolica.  Audience members had to crawl to the end of the tunnel to encounter the free booze on offer and indulge in the soft porn delight that was "The Housing of the Rising Sun" whilst taking in the delightful art work of the Shamboites that decorated the walls of the tunnel.  The lights flickered, the white noise hummed and then...

"ATTENTION ATTENTION!" a voice boomed out. All crackled and worn.  

The crowd gathered round.  A groan gave out! Alas! The SHAMBO GOD had unveiled itself at the SHAMBO LECTERN!

The Shambo God then proceeded to give a monologue of tasty anecdotes about the CHASM that was the mind of Shambolica!

As a treat to the worthy folk who had braved that evenings rain the Shambo God inducted 5 new Shamboites into the Shambo Tunnel where they were coated with the credo that is "all art is creation and all creation is art" by the very hand of the Shambo God himself.  Once in the tunnel the Shambo God led the rest of the audience in a rendition of the now infamous Shambo chant and a brief song ended proceedings to the delight of the crowd. And then with a whisper the Shambo God vaporised into the Glasgow night.

Thanks to the following Shamboites for their help in the construction of the Shambolica CHASM:

Robin Burns (pineovercoat.co.uk)

Zoe Randalls (www.zoerandalls.com)

Paul Quietsch

Neil Smith

James Stephen Wright

Aimi Ferrier

Michelle Roberts

and special thanks to the Studio 41 committee (thestudio41.wordpress.com).

The soundtrack for the night, created from deep within the Chasm can be heard HERE!

Music by Thomas F Newell & Alan Travers.