Neotopia, as far as I know, are no more.

Workhouse 2010

Neotopia will be playing the big Workhouse Party at Llanfyllin, Powys, Wales! It runs from July 9th - 11th. So get your camping gear down out of the attic!

We have been invited to join the line-up for a special event at the regular Workhouse Festival site. It's their big 7th birthday bash, along with some top festival favourites. There'll be more pop, rock, jazz and dance outfits than you can shake a stick at!! And if you don't believe us, come along and make sure you bring your best shaking stick.

As this is a one off exclusive event, membership subscription is required. But once you've got that sorted the three day party is FREE! Just click this

NEOTOPIA Sound Awesome!

This is a sort of MySpace kinda forum for musicians and listeners to join up to. And what's really nice about it is that it's a lot smaller and intimate than those big unwieldly networking sites most of us use. This one has been designed by a few enthusiasts who occasionally get their favourite bands from the site together for little festivals. Because it's still fairly new you can be more sure to be heard by some of the promoters who're already members.

There's a bit of a space rock and psychedelic electronica bias to it, but they're a nice open minded bunch. This will really suit many of the musicians who we're associated with already. So, we've just signed up to it, built a profile and loaded some new tunes up.

Each band or listener can have their own site and gallery space (much like MySpace) which they can decorate how they like - Also, there's a radio feed, which plays a continuous random mix of all the music the bands have put up on their own profile's player. It plays through iTunes as a stream, really smoothly. I quite like it.

You don't have to be a musician, though. Just be a listener, if you want.

Into The Future...

Neotopia is changing

We have, for the last few years been a five piece band, based in south Shropshire. The line-up has fluctuated a few times, due to the geographic spread of its members - and the availability of each to rehearse or get to gigs.

Original guitarist Gareth Kirk and vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Carolina, both of whom from mid Wales, had to leave the band at the end of 2008, for this very reason.

Vocalist Laura Higgs and jazz guitarist Stuart Thomas soon took their place. However, even with this new team, many writing sessions have often had an absence of members of even this regular group. And now that Gareth is making appearances in sessions, once more, we have decided that Neotopia will become more of a musical collective, than being regular group. This means that gigs and sessions may or may not feature all or most of this pool of musicians. Some songs familiar to you here might not be played at certain gigs, whereas other gems, you haven't heard before, will.

Welcome back, Gareth. Sort of.

The Horseshoe Inn: April 24th

Well, due to real-life getting in the way even more than the Christmas build-up, rehearsals as a full band were indeed very thin on the ground as we approached our late April gig. Rather than doing a bit of quick thinking and rope in a support act, we stuck to our guns of playing the full evening, with an intermission.

We'd managed a very loose run through of the first set about five weeks before - and then not managing to all meet again until the very week before for a stumble through what was to form the second collection of songs. Rehearsals in other reduced versions of the line-up had been encouraging, in the weeks between, however - well, actually, very good, in fact.

So, to the gig itself. We were a little shambolic. As ever there are always fluffs, here and there. It's live music. And almost every song has at least some element of improvisation going on. But the new songs; 'A Minute With You', 'Quiet Times' and especially 'You'll Never Get To Heaven Alive' were really good and very well received!

Quiet Times

This is a new video, put to the song recorded during recent rehearsals.



Neotopia: Quiet Times
Music recorded live from The Sonic Cellar, Shropshire.
Images courtesy of The Hive Arts Centre, Shrewsbury. With still images by Richard Foot, The Snige & Jamilla Walker.

31 Days: Shropshire

Designer, filmmaker and journalist Chris Wroe's piece advertising our forthcoming Bridges gig:

A Minute With You

You're fascinating
- That's what I reckon,
A minute with you
Would be gone in a second.

I've noticed you don't bow to convention
The reins slip through your fingers -
A sense of euphoria lingers.

Floating like a butterfly
On the breeze of my mind
hanging in my memory
You've been there some time.
- I want you to be mine.

I'm climbing my tree
As you're climbing yours.
Decisions are branches
We're climbing through doors.

We're on different bows
We're moving apart,
Further away
than we were at the start.

As paths meet and cross
Maybe make a new friend,
Some twigs become brittle
And abruptly they end.

We reach for the sunlight
And bend with the breeze,
We show off our flowers
As we cast off our leaves.

As a new Summer comes
We advance with fresh shoots,
We continue to grow
Forgetting our roots.

Springtime in Shropshire

We're returning to the Bridges to play again. Saturday, April 24th. This little pub in the middle of nowhere is very local to the Neotopia Sonic Cellar rehearsal base and it is here that we have played some of our best gigs in recent months.

Sat beside a brook between the Long Mynd hills and Stiperstones, out of sight from the nearby main road The Horseshoe Inn commands a much envied respect in pub-goers for many miles around. It's chief selling point? Good live music. Nowhere near can offer the array of bands and performers that loyally return to play here.

Good local ales and accommodation don't harm the reputation, either. Come and enjoy an evening with us, hosted by genial and lovely Landlords Mo and Bob.

We Started here

Neotopia were originally formed at the end of 2007. Original guitarist Gareth Kirk and sax playing vocalist Carolina Howells managed to keep turning up at rehearsals and gigs for around nine months before the real life inconveniences got the better of them. They both lived some forty or so miles away - and simply couldn't keep making the arduous journeys back and forth from Mid Wales.

Here, for them, for us and for those who managed to see this formative version of Neotopia up close and personal at our excellent gigs is a website, built to contain some cherished moments. Go to www.myspace.com/neotopiaone

We did it!

We've just played a gig in Rushbury, Shropshire. The set up, as mentioned in our previous installment below, came off a treat. The unknown quantity 2CV turned out to be a very capable jazz quartet - and thoroughly nice chaps to boot. Other guests included our old friends and former bandmates Des Seal, Chris Cordwell and Dick Russell doing one single three song set of bonkers Capt. Beefheart type noodling. They call themselves Corky's All Day Breakfast, now.

Skewwhiff, as suspected have been getting tighter than ever before in the bars and venues of Worcester, since we last met and gave everybody a nice surprise. Local covers band Vlaadka also turned in a succession of creditable three song sets in rotation with everyone.



The bar ran dry of Woods rather tempting ales, as the audience became disorientated by the continual rotation of bands playing to them from various corners through the night. We managed four sets of three songs at a time. Each triptych showing more of the styles and genres our music comes in.

Door takings raised over £1000 for the school funds. Further cash was raised by a raffle in aid of the Haiti earthquake appeal.


Amazingly this evening was completely free of any prerecorded music, whatsoever! No in between bands records played. Not even an intro tape!

Next up for Neotopia will be a charity fund raising gig, featuring four other bands at Rushbury Village Hall, in Shropshire, on Saturday, January 30th. Each act, using their own PA system and stage lights, will take turns playing from their corner. Just three songs before allowing the next band to do their three. Around the room it goes - the audience getting entertainment from all directions! Yes, it's a bit like the BBC TV show 'Later With Jools Holland'.

Our good friends from Worcester Skewwhiff are already confirmed to be playing with us once again! Other bands and muzos will be turning up and pitching in. There'll be a bar - and tickets are a fiver each. These must be bought in advance only. - They're available from the bands or from the school. See poster for details... blah, blah, blah.

Live BBC Friday Session

We've kicked off 2010 with a live BBC radio session! We had a tricky time getting to the Worcester studios as the weather in the British midlands has been so dreadful. Heavy snow has caused road accidents for both Nick our drummer and keys geek Dr. Beatnick - whose car remains abandoned in an icy Worcestershire lane, where nobody can currently reach it. Still, despite the better advice of many folk we braved some very slippery roads and successfully arrived at the BBC studios to play live on the BBC Hereford & Worcester programme 'The Friday Session'.


We performed four songs; 'Phoenix', We Can Be Together', 'High Ideas' and 'Zombie Empire'. There were two breaks for interviews and a bit of banter, where listeners' messages were aired to great amusement. Amazingly, this local arm of BBC radio managed to reach Newfoundland, New York, L. A. Norway, and more locally; Cornwall, Scotland, Manchester and Birmingham! isn't the internet marvelous?

The BBC show 'Friday Night Session' is part of the fantastic 'Introducing' initiative that champions and brings exposure to lots of unsung musical talents. Tune into yours, wherever you are!