Okay, we know nobody's reading - but wish all a merry yuletide, should somebody stumble in here - no doubt lost or drunk. The MySpace site holds all the up to date news and views. So click the link, Popkids!

xxx

Season's Greetings Groovers!

Here comes a busy week!!

It's been a few months since we last came out to play, but we're ready to emerge from our subterranean lair.

As we limped into Autumn our happy routine found itself getting a bit muddled and full line-up rehearsals were thin on the ground. All sorts of real-life interruptions kept at least one member at a time away from the rehearsal cellar. This didn't stop our creative flow, however. In fact it actually meant that songs were being written and arranged with a different emphasis for each session. Something without a guitar element grew as a more keyboard driven piece - but then when it was played next time with guitar, a whole new set of herbs and spices were mixed into our sonic stir-fry! New things that have been created just wouldn't have otherwise happened.

Our seasonal gigs have finally arrived! On Wednesday December 16th we make a return visit to The HIVE, in Shrewsbury. We have just been informed that this four band special is to be recorded by BBC Shropshire for the 'Friday Night Gerbil' radio show, to be broadcast between 7:30 - 9:00pm on December 18th. It will remain on the BBC iPlayer for about a week after. Come along – make a funny noise and see if you can hear yourself in the background on the radio!!

Hopefully the prospect of sitting in on a Friday night, listening to us on the radio won't deter folk from venturing out to Shropshire's hidden delight The Horseshoe Inn where we'll be playing all night, without a support act! That means around two hours of everything we can remember - and stuff we probably can't! It's all live. And contains a whole lot of improvised elements, too.

Live at The HIVE
16/12/2009 19:30 Also playing: Brentlee, Someone Else, Glenn Mann & The Yipes
Belmont Road, Shrewsbury, Midlands SY1 1SZ
Cost: £4.00 Christmas Special! Nice soft sofas!

New Video

This is a rare studio recording. Using his own facilities, Stuart got a few members of the band along to record parts over his own recorded and programmed parts. This reimagined version of our popular live song is excellent!

Glastonbury?

Okay, so the chance is a zillion to one. And that's despite the fact we're only up against about twenty other bands, as I type. There's a competition on for up-and-coming bands to play at next year's big Somerset shindig:

More bands are latching onto this window of opportunity - so our chances plummeting from a zillion to a tring-quintillion. Still, that link looks impressive, doesn't it?

PHOENIX

Recorded live Shropshire, 2009.

Neotopia are Laura Higgs: Vocals | Nick Raybould: Drum Kit | Stuart Thomas: Guitar | Dr. Beatnick: Keyboards & Synths | Chris Pitts: Bass Guitar

Footage compiled and edited from Bearded Theory Festival, The Horseshoe Inn at Bridges, our big party at Wistanstow, Shropshire and nice days out, Summer 2009. Filmed and photographed by Richard Foot, Rebecca Moore, Helen Foot and Neotopia.

Haven't posted for a while, but nothing much to say, really. Rehearsals are currently sporadic - with at least one member missing each time. The absentee can vary from one week to the next: Stuart studying for a degree, Laura surfing in Portugal or Dr. Beatnick running around or resting.

However, work is being done. New songs like 'Henhouse Blues', the autobiographical dub throbber 'Neotopia' or the lovers' rock tinged 'Quiet Times' are progressing but a complete full line-up performance or recording evades us. Early working versions, as ever, are being added to the MySpace place, every now and then. Despite this period of reduced activity we can gleefully report that Chris has a new bass rig and has graduated to 5-string bass - and that Stuart also has a new toy; a guitar synth. Nick's new tom-tom heads sound fantastic but being eBay bargains don't really generate the collective excitement in quite the same way.

There are rumblings of a couple of nice gigs and even some small Summer festivals to raise some optimism, however!! Hopefully we can report something more substantial soon.

We're very excited to have been invited to play live on the BBC Hereford & Worcester programme 'The Friday Session' - and are already in debate over which songs to perform. Do you have any preferences?

Here's a new movie clip for 'Feline Eyes'. The music was recorded live during the August 18th, 2009 Sonic Cellar Session. Band images were shot and filmed by Richard Foot at The Horseshoe Inn, Bridges, Shropshire, September, 2009. Other images and editing by Neotopia.

A seasonal return visit to Shropshire's hidden delight The Horseshoe Inn is also on the cards, following a truly sublime evening which saw us performing two sets from our expanding repertoire of delicious grooves. The return date is set for Friday 18th December! Stick it on your calendar or diary immediately, as you'll only go and agree to some rubbish seasonal drinks thingy after work, with somebody from the boring accounts department. And then, when you realise your oversight, will feel guilty about trying to get out of it, as he doesn't have any other friends. - And don't think for a minute about bringing him along with you to see us!

And, just a few nights before that on December 16th we make a return visit, (this time with Stuart & Laura) to The HIVE, in Shrewsbury.

The Horseshoe Inn, Bridges, Shropshire, September 6th, 2009
Despite the intrusion of an enormous hornet at the beginning of our second set - and the power cutouts caused by engineers repairing wires nibbled by nearby sheep, our recent gig at The Horseshoe Inn at Bridges in the most remote corner of Shropshire proved a massive success.

Friends, fans and family all converged on Shropshire's worst kept secret for a night of our kind of music. Whatever our kind of music, actually is. We thinks it's jazz, but then it's also reggae, funk, blues, psychedelic hip hop and even Afrobeat. Here's what we played:
Paris
5 More Minutes
We Can Be Together
Phoenix
Klezmik
Frankly, My Dear...
Freefall Fireball
Feline Eyes
Break
Coming Over
Overwhelmed By Stimuli
The Real Deal
Turkish Delight
Zombie Empire
High Ideas
Driver
Extra: Freefall Fireball (Again)



The venue was packed and we think everyone went home with a smile!

Some of the standout moments of the evening for us included the relief that our newer songs like 'Paris', Turkish Delight' and 'High Ideas' were so well received. In fact, the latter brought a silent reverence down on the gathered audience. That really was a special moment.

Let us not end here without showing some appreciation to friends who contributed to our own efforts in making this such a lovely evening: Rob Dunsford (a very talented singer/songwriter in his own right) for sound supervision and hornet wrestling(!), Mo & Bob for not only giving us a chance - but also asking back to do it all again, Richard Foot and Jamila Walker for capturing key aspects for posterity with their crackshot photography - And of course, all those people who despite their SatNav's advice to "Turn around when possible" endured cattlegrids, badgers and buzzards to find Neotopia.

Respect

xx

A quick update, popcats!

We've just been invited to play live on the weekly BBC Hereford & Worcester programme 'The Friday Session' on December 11th. As we confirm this, we'' keep you posted.

Also, as an update to our previous post about our gig at Bridges, we just thought you might be interested yo hear that Stuart's new toy will making its first public appearance with us. It's a guitar synthesizer, which can morph the sounds from his strings into any number of weird and wonderful voices.

We're working on a couple of new songs to include in our set for our forthcoming September gig. 'High Ideas' and Ooh hoO' have both been hanging around waiting for our undiverted attention for a few months, but gigs have meant we needed to keep other songs sharpened up.

It'll be nice to finally play a set so close to home, before lots of friends who may not have seen us for a while. There are rumours of some of our newer friends, who've recently joined from further afield making long journeys for this gig are being batted about, again.

Overwhelmed By Stimuli

Another video created by digital video artist London Penda / Ray T. This time to a rehearsal recording of our popular live song 'Overwhelmed By Stimuli'.

SONIC ROCK SOLSTICE '09

We're playing at the SONIC ROCK SOLSTICE Festival! It does exactly what it says on the tin: Music by legends of spacerock and psychedelic underground on the bill include Alan Davey’s Gunslinger, Earthling Society, Litmus, MOAD featuring Ron Tree (ex Hawkwind), Harvey Bainbridge (ex Hawkwind), Earthlab - featuring Jerry Richards (ex Hawkwind), Anubis (ex Budgie)... Plus late addition to the bill; the legendary former Hawkwind sax player Nik Turner and his band! - AND OF COURSE, US!!!

This promises to be something of a Psychedelic Summer!

Freefall Fireball Video

Here's a lovely piece of fluid psychedelic animation created for our recent live in the cellar recording of 'Freefall Fireball'. It was programmed and melded by popular YouTube digital artist Ray T. - and on its initial release rose to 87th most discussed music video on YouTube!!! Not bad for a bunch of unknowns from out in the sticks somewhere, eh? A big hearty hats off to Ray, for his splendid work.

Platform: Shrewsbury

On May 7th 2009 we played at Shrewsbury's regular Platform evening. This is a monthly arts night where local artists' of all media get a platform on which to publicly do what they do. This, in the past, has included poetry, burlesque, monologues and performance art. Fine art works are projected onto a huge screen for a regular competition and of course there is plenty of live music.

The team of volunteer organisers clearly have a passion for making every Platform night the best it can possibly be. We had played for them before (details can be found in our MySpace blogs). This time round though, we airing all new songs and introducing the new line-up.



As before, however, we were cooking. All our songs were well received, despite our concerns that we can flit from music genres with each song. New regular favourites such as 'Overwhelmed By Stimuli' and 'Frankly, My Dear...' which have more danceable beats were as popular as jazzier musical songs like 'Klezmik' and 'Five More Minutes'.

Following our set, it was so flattering that so many people were eager to find out about future gigs in the pipeline - as many wanted to bring friends along to see us, next time. The new Shropshire fanzine 'Feral Shrew' conducted a short, but lighthearted interview with us before we played - and we'd like to use this opportunity to wish them the very best for its success.

Photos: Richard Foot

Start Here

Despite having a slightly off-kilter idea of what constitutes music, we seem to be quite extraordinarily blessed to have a rich seam of creative people in our part of the world. We call it Neotopia.

And this collective originally formed at the end of 2007. The original fledgling line-up were gigging within just a few weeks. With members being based as far apart as Worcestershire, mid Wales and Shropshire meant that the first few gigs played were semi-improvised and exciting affairs to say the least. The songs were strong and grounded in rich melody - the band's performances were solid, confident and competent, bolstering and exploring some nice grooves. Audiences were immediately carried along by these infectious pieces that drifted from lovely lilting dub reggae to skronk electonica and to chilled broken beat jazz.

Throughout 2008, as word spread, we played several big parties, then pubs, bars and clubs such as Shrewsbury’s Hive and the Buffalo Bar in Cardiff, before being invited to join the bills for some larger open-air shindigs including Nozstock Festival in Herefordshire and the Groe Gathering in Rhayader. However, at the end of summer 2008 our original guitarist and singer were both sadly forced to leave by the unwelcome intrusion of real life. Bummer.

Enter guitarist Stuart Thomas and then barely four weeks later jazz singer Laura Higgs. We had again tapped into that rich seam that Neotopia thrives upon. Again we have a strong line-up. Each member collaborating new ideas that just wouldn't work in many other bands. Each contributing in equal share to this band's new eclectic playground of colourful moods and sounds.

For 2009, the entire set has been replaced by a whole new fresh crop of songs, feverishly written between this enthusiastic group of people in our rehearsal cellar. The ideas continually coming thick and fast, taking their form as anything from groovy nu-jazz, electronic pop, hip-hop or spacey 'krautrock'. The songs just coming out as they come out. - Almost independent of our preconceived guidance in terms of style and perhaps steered by a quirky left-field approach! What's important to us is that our live audiences 'get it'. They always look a little surprised, at first, but they do get it none the less.

Recent appearances at The Llama Lounge in Worcester and The Old Post Office in Shrewsbury quickly reassured us of that.

An audience member at the Bearded Theory Festival in Derbyshire was heard to shout "You're weird - But, I like you!". Further confirming that we were flying against expectation and remaining true to ourselves, rather than following any formula. Integrity. It's a nice word, isn't it? -
That was an odd festival to play, though. Rain and heavy winds came in unrelenting waves. The skies just looked wrong, the whole time. We initially put it down to some new visual effect headliners Hawkwind were trying out for their set. Even in the brief moments when the sun was breaking through things just seemed uneasy in the sky. And sure enough, two stages were utterly destroyed by a tornado on the second day!

Please give us a listen. We're all (clearly) very excited about what we've got, here!

Welcome to Neotopia

Having solely existed online as a MySpace band for a while, we've decided to branch out to a few other popular networking URLs. Facebook was a recent experiment, but that has a lot of limitations still, despite its popularity with the general public. It's not like MySpace, in that we can't customise the page's appearance - or make our music readily available on it. Well, not until we embedded the ReverbNation 3rd party MP3 player to stream our recordings.

Our MySpace site can be found at
http://www.myspace.com/jazzydubfunk

Blogger, on the other hand is already quite established within musical circles of artistes and enthusiasts as a source of forgotten recordings by established bands - and indeed as a source for newer breaking acts. Members of Neotopia have been enjoying Blogger sites as a source of classic reggae, jazz and rock music for a while. We want to use this portal now as a repository for our own ongoing content and adventures.

We've been in existence as Neotopia for about eighteen months (as I type this, in early June, 2009) and really quite like the idea of sharing it all. Afterall, we're a live band - and that's what we do! The whole idea of travelling to play to audiences is to share what we think is pretty good music and vibes.

Our back story will unfold here, as we build it up with subsequent visits. There is a huge digital library of excellent photography to illustrate it all, as we're unfairly blessed in having several professional portrait and fine art photographers among our growing army of followers and groupies. However, it is the ongoing exploits of the present and hopes for the future that are most in our minds. So, let's see how this site evolves. I must warn you that due to time contstraints - and a bit of laziness, there will inevitably be some duplication from the MySpace site. Well, the copy and paste facility is just too convenient to be restisted, isn't it.

Welcome to Neotopia.

Nick Raybould
June 5th, 2009