January 28th 2010

We're No.1 in the Indie Top 100 chart!

The Mechanical Cabaret song 'See Her Smile' has topped a chart of songs by independent bands and artists, voted for exclusively by friends and fans on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace!!!

The song had been in the Indie Top 100 chart for several weeks, entering at number 62 the first week of January 2010 - and, as of this Monday, and contrary to our expectations, it's finally reached the coveted position of No.1!

A million thanks to all of you that voted for us, it really is fantastic news for us - it's just wonderful to know that, friends and fans alike, there's so many of you out there supporting us you've managed to vote us right to the top of this chart.

Votes still get counted for every subsequent week's polling for the Indie Top 100 chart, so if you like you can vote for us again each coming week via any or all of the online channels available, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to keep 'See Her Smile' and Mechanical Cabaret in the indie chart!! :)

The next live gig we play is tomorrow, Friday 28th Jan at The Purple Turtle in Camden, London, supporting electro-pop legend Karel Fialka! There are several other bands playing too, including Cassette Electric and The Modern, and we'll be on around 9pm.

Hope to see you there, and please cast your vote for us if you haven't already done so... or, if you have, feel free to vote for us again as often as you can!

XXX

Roi

January 20th 2010

Next live shows

Our gig at Bedsitland went really well last Saturday night. We had a great time and so did everyone there it seemed... thanks so much to Tracy for asking us to play and for looking after us so well. Special thanks also go to Clark - our one man 'road-crew', technical boffin and gentleman to the end - to Isabella, for hand-making our fantastic new onstage banner - and to the soundman Al for making sure it all sounded like it was supposed to.

The next live gig coming up is on Friday 28th Jan at The Purple Turtle supporting Karel Fialka. There are several other bands playing too, including Cassette Electric and The Modern, and we'll be on around 9pm.

 

Also, we're extremely pleased to be able to announce that, after enjoying a great gig supporting them in Hamburg only two weeks ago, we now have the opportunity to play another show with the rather wonderful Nitzer Ebb

This one will take place on Thursday 11th March in London, at the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town. Our friends Client will be performing as well, so it should be a brilliant gig all round! Hope to see some of you at either (or both) of these upcoming shows.

X Roi X

 

January 15th 2010

Next live show: tomorrow!

After our rather short-notice support slot with Nitzer Ebb last Friday in Hamburg, the next live gig is already upon us - a headline show on Saturday 16th January (tomorrow) at Bedsitland, which is an excellent electro pop club night held at The Lexington on Pentonville Road in Islington/ Kings Cross, in London.

It opens at 9pm, costs £5 to get in, and we''l be on at 10pm.

Hope to see some of you there!

X

Roi

 

December 16th 2009

New single: 'Careful Careless'

The new single 'Careful, Careless' is now available as a download, released on Major Records! So far it's available only through Amazon and Beatport, but from around January 2010 it will then be released fully worldwide.

 

The full track listing is as follows:

1. Careful Careless

2. Careful Careless - Fur Coat, No Knickers Mix

3. Nothing Special - 2009 Remake

4. GBH - Melodramatic Version

5. Pretty Fucked Up - Size Zero Mix

6. Desperate But Not Serious (Originally by Adam Ant)

 

 

A video for it is being edited and prepared at this very moment, so watch this space for news about when it's all finally spruced up and ready for consumption.

The Fur Coat, No Knickers Mix was done in the spirit of 'proper' 12" mixes, where all the different parts of the original track are broken down, exposed, solo'd and generally extended for all to hear/see. Nothing Special has been re-recorded and updated a bit - this came about because we started playing it live again, with a new arrangement which seemed to work really well, so we thought it would be a good idea to release it.

The Melodramatic Version of the previous single GBH is quite different to the other versions you may have heard. This time it's been completely re-arranged and re-recorded as an Erik Satie/Kurt Weil/Jaques Brel style 'torch song', which is closer to how I initially wrote the song in the first place when I did the original demo. Pretty Fucked Up - Size Zero Mix is a more DJ friendly extended version of the first track from the current album Damaged Goods, and is fast becoming a live favourite.

The last of the tracks on the single is a very 70's electro-disco cover version of the Adam Ant song Desperate But Not Serious. I'm a huge fan of Adam Ant and love the electronic disco throb of artists like Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk, Sylvester, Boney M and so on - so it seemed quite natural to me to put the two together. It came about because in 2003 (I think?) we were asked by Madam Stan from the Ant Liberation Front, the official Adam Ant Fanclub, to perform at the annual Adam Ant convention held here in London - the 'condition' being that we also played a cover of an Ant song for the occasion. She suggested 'Desperate' and, as it happened, I'd previously toyed with doing a cover of this song before, so it seemed the perfect choice. I'd forgotten about it until early this year when I came across a live recording of it, and decided it would be good to finish off what I'd started 5 years ago - and now, here it is, finally recorded and released for you to listen and dance along to whilst you're doing the dishes/hoovering/dusting/ironing/etc.

Anyway, that's about enough blether from me. I hope you like the new tracks, and on behalf of Steve and myself, I'd like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and an extremely happy New Year!

Io Saturnalia!

XXX

Roi

November 16th 2009

Next live show on Thursday

Our next live outing for myself, Steve, and our collection of rusting synthesizers will be this Thursday at the 02 Academy in Islington, London. We're supporting the fantastic Motor, fresh off their European tour supporting Depeche Mode, and Alec Empire, he of Atari Teenage Riot noisiness fame. Also appearing are Cryogenica, and we should be on around 7.30 or something like that, although the usual arbitrary 'live show' timing adjustments will, as per normal, need to be applied. Suffice to say, we're looking forward to it immensely!

Filming in Hamburg went really well - I can't wait to see the full 'High-Definition' results sometime soon. Tsk, modern technology eh? X-Ray vision next. Oh, wait a minute, they've got that already at the Airports now haven't they? Hmm. Must make sure I wear my best pants next time I fly...

Met up with Mesh whilst I was there, too, and watched them set up and soundcheck for the first gig of their tour. Lovely to see 'em so it was... some great new songs, Rich's new hair-do and an even more technologically super-wow type live set up (including WIDI keyboards and four screens!) means it's an even more fantastic live spectacle than before - so go and see them play if they're anywhere near you, it'll be Ace! Shame I missed Client's show there on the weekend though :(

In other news, the second Mechanical Cabaret album 'Product For Your Insecurity' is now available for download! This is the only way to (legitimately) get hold of this album now, as the CD has sold out.

Hope to see some of you at the 02 on Thursday.

x

Roi

November 9th 2009

Video making in Deutschland

I'm off to Germany today, the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down, to make the video for the next single 'Careful, Careless' which will be out soon on Major Records.

Thanks to all who made it to Slimelight last saturday for our gig - it was great to see so many friendly faces rallying for us. I escaped with only a few minor injuries - big thanks to Ozzi for bandaging my hand so expertly - and to Scott and the crew for being such helpful gentlemen all evening, too.

I'd best be off now really, early start tomorrow. One more glass of Sherry and I'll turn in for the night.

x

Roi

October 2nd 2009

Supporting Combichrist in November at Slimelight

That's right! Us, Combichrist and Slimelight, the best Industrial/Electro/Goth/Alternative/Whatever-you-want-to-call-it club night in London, all in one go!

On Saturday November 7th, 9.30pm at Slimelight in London we will be supporting Combichrist at their last UK show before they take to the road to support the almighty Rammstein on their European Tour. Over 18s only for this one, so I've been told to say...

 

September 24th 2009

Nothing Special in the Movies?

Back in 2001 I was contacted by a certain Mr Todd Stephens, who is a movie director and screen-writer from the US. A few emails, letters, parcels and trips back and forth to the Fax machine later and lo and behold, my song 'Nothing Special' ends up appearing as part of the soundtrack to the latest offering from Mr Stephens that year; a film entitled 'Gypsy 83'.

After doing a search on YouTube, I have in fact just recently found the very clip from said film, which includes 'Nothing Special' so I thought I'd share it with you. I particularly like the fact that there's dialogue and sound from the film over the top of it!

Hope you enjoy it anyway.

x

Roi

P.S. It's also on the Downloads page, outside of You Tube.

 

September 14th 2009

Night Clubbing

On Friday September 25th Steve and I will be getting our synths out and playing a live set at the DEVIANT club night, held at the Purple Turtle in Camden (nearest tube; Mornington Crescent) in London. We're on stage around 11.30pm. Earlier that evening at 7pm in the very same venue, synth maestro Steve Bellamy's band Greenhaus will also be playing live, supporting Punishment of Luxury - and I'll be playing live synthesiser for them, too, so make sure you come down early!

Our gig in Plymouth went really well and we had a great time there - huge thanks to Pete and both Rich's for looking after us so splendidly and making sure everyone had a blast! One question though; why are there no decent pubs in Plymouth? Very strange...

x Roi

 

September 11th 2009

Next live show

On Saturday September 12th we're playing an hour-long headline set at 'Dark Angels', an electronica club night in Plymouth. We'll be on stage around midnight; full details on the Live Dates page...

 

Also, there are some great photos on the Live dates page from last Sunday's gig supporting A Flock of Seagulls taken by Medwyn Jones who was positioned in front of the barrier before the stage so they're nice and close! To see them, just go to the Live dates page and scroll down a bit. Not only that, but there was also a video recording of us playing 'Desperate But Not Serious' (an Adam Ant cover). This was filmed by David Baker, and you can see it on the Mechanical Cabaret You Tube channel.

Right, I'm off. "Plymouth Hoe!"

 

August 25th 2009

Next live show

On Sunday September 6th we're supporting 80's synth-pop legends A Flock of Seagulls at the 02 Academy in Islington, London!

Come along and show your support! We're on stage at 8.30pm - hope to see many of you there...

x

Roi

July 20th 2009

German Interview

Read a recent interview I did with Dark Heart Magazine in Germany... um, which is in German however, so apologies to all non-German speakers! (They translated it, I can't speak Deutsch that well.) You have to scroll down a tiny bit...

Roi

 

July 4th 2009

Live dates and a new release

Just had confirmed some more gigs for later this year, one in Plymouth and another in London - go to the Live Dates page to find out more!

The new compilation album called Orbit Electro was released yesterday, July 3rd by Major Records, and it includes a Mechanical Cabaret cover version of a song by The Cure from 1982, Lets Go To Bed! It features backing vocals by the inimitable Susi9mm and an absolutely filthy sounding analogue synth riff - hope you like it! Watch this space for news about my forthcoming new single... coming soon to an online computer near you!

x

Roi

June 25th 2009

Next DJ date - Depeche Mode party!

I'll be DJing this Fri 26th June at a Depeche Mode party in Camden, after Seabound play their live set at Purple Turtle - details below. I'll be starting around 10pm - see you there if you can make it!

x

Roi

Mechanical Cabaret DJ Set, Depeche Mode Party, Fri 26th June @ PURPLE TURTLE

65 Crowndale Road, Camden. London. NW1 1TN 18+

11pm-3am

£6 Adv - www.flagpromotions.com/ Ticketweb 08700 600100
£5 with flyer, FREE with SEABOUND ticket

Seabound show details...

Doors 8pm £10 Adv (Includes free entry to Deviant Club 'til 3am)
www.flagpromotions.com

SEABOUND (www.myspace.com/seabound)

RBN (www.myspace.com/revolutio nbynight)

AUTO AGGRESSION (www.myspace.com/autoaggre ssion)

 

 

May 20th 2009

Live photos and a new interview too

There's some great new photos online, and a video too, from the gig we played last Saturday in London at Elektrowerkz! They're all courtesy of Mr. Medwyn Jones (thanks Med) and I think they're rather nice - I hope you like them too.

Toodle pip!

Roi

April 30th 2009

Live Headline show in London!

Here's the details for the next live gig at Elektrowerkz in London on Saturday May 16th, during which we'll be playing no less than a full hour long headline set!

Cor blimey! Innit marvellous, eh?

 

April 28th 2009

A New video for an Old song

Here's another recently 'un-earthed' video that Graeme Robertson made, this time for the track called 'Give It To Me' off my previous album 'Product For Your Insecurity' from 2006.

Graeme suggested doing a clip for this song, even though it wasn't on a single, because it's one of his favourites and he'd had the idea to do this simple-yet-bitchy kind of 'direct to camera' style treatment for it, and it's come out really well... take a look at it on You Tube anyway, I hope you agree :)

x

Roi

April 27th 2009

Me? Singing in German? With my reputation?

The current single 'GBH' includes a few different versions of the song, but notably a version called 'GBH in Deutsche' which features me singing in German! 'How is this possible?' I hear you cry! Well, I had a considerable amount of help from a good friend of mine from Germany, Connie Werner, who took my original lyrics and cleverly re-interpereted them into German.

As it's such an unusual thing to have done, I asked Connie if she'd perhaps write a few paragraphs about the work we'd done together, to put on the website, which she kindly agreed to do.

So, without any further ado, I hope you enjoy reading about Connie's experiences of working on 'GBH in Deutsche', here on the Lyrics page!

Also, don't forget, the next live show is a headline gig at Elektrowerkz in London on Saturday 16th May!

x
Roi

Pretty Fucked Up

My Sex Life

Tabloid Species

Careful, Careless

GBH

Only Ever Now

Subtract

Lost & Found

Ne Plus Ultra

In Loving Memory

GBH - Album version

GBH - Deutsch version

GBH - Real Horrorshow Remix

GBH - Real Horrorshow Remix (Radio Edit)

When Do I Get To Sing My Way? (Originally by Sparks)