Welcome to Sunshine - the Louis Philippe web site
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All the latest Louis Philippe news: site updates, album releases, live dates and more. You can also read old news from here. |
Latest News
7 May 2007
An awful lot to report, as Louis has devoted most of his time over the last few months to recording new material and helping some good friends of his to do the same. This burst of activity started with scoring the string arrangements for The Clientele’s new album (God Save the Clientele, which will be released by Merge Records on May the 8th – for more info, skip to www.theclientele.co.uk), and was followed by the completion of the long-awaited collaboration with Young Marble Giants leader Stuart Moxham, The Huddle House, which will be available to subscribers on this website in early May. Also available at the same time: Louis’s very own An Unknown Spring, his first studio album since The Wonder of it all, a collection of 14 tracks that is already circulating (and creating quite a stir) in the indie world. Licences have been secured for a number of countries (including, for the first time since Azure, Japan), but a limited digipack edition of this album will be offered to subscribers on Sunshine several months before the general release. Visit Sunshine regularly over the next few weeks for more information, or, even better, subscribe to Louis’s newsletter to know how you can get hold of this release.
In the meantime, you can already procure the Louis Philippe Live double-album which was released on Wonder Records earlier this year. Just visit the Sunshine shop ; for tracklist and more details info, a ‘Live’ page has been added to the discography. A dedicated myspace page has also been set up, on which you’ll be able to listen to four of the record’s 33 tracks.
Louis’s presence on the web has been greatly increased by the setting up of two community pages on myspace and virb.com, complete with blogs and streaming audio. Louis will only be too happy to add you as one of his friends on either site.
21 June 2006
Site update - a new playlist has been added.
6 April 2005
Site update - a new playlist has been added.
27 September 2005
Site update - a new playlist
has been added at last. Apologies to all from me (the webmistress), delay
was due to a very bad dose of the flu!
20 July 2005
Site update - a new playlist
has been added
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28 February 2005
Site update - we have added an interviews
section - which features the questionnaires that were on the faq page
and a new interview. Future press interviews will be added here from now
on.
We also have a new section entitled "Louis's
top 101" which is exactly that … all comments and messages
of indignation should be posted on the board.
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February 7 2005
Live date - It is now possible to book tickets
for the 22-23 April London gigs direct from Bush hall, Uxbridge Road,
London W12, by following this link
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4 January 2005
Shop updated - Several new items have been added to the
shop, some of the records on sale are rare
so will be sent out on a first come first served basis.
This month's playlist has been added
Discography updated - The Wonder
Of It All has been added to the discography
- the page includes a new MP3 and 3 excerpts.
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18 November 2004
Louis be performing in London with Stuart Moxham (ex-Young
Marble Giants) at the chickfactor extravaganza on Saturday 11 December.
The venue is the gorgeous Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Road, London W12. Tel:
020 8222 6955. Doors: 7pm, showtime 7:30. Admission: £10 per night;
weekend pass £17.
You can find line-ups for the two evenings on Gail O'Hara's website www.chickfactor.com and at www.bushhallmusic.co.uk. Tickets may be purchased here
Stuart and Louis will be performing material from their duet album 'The Huddle House', which they started recording in 1997 (!) and will finish mixing in December of this year. Expect to hear a few Young Marble Giants and The Gist classics too.
'The Wonder Of It All' has now been mastered, and will be on its way to subscribers soon (along with a bonus CD). There's still time to become a subscriber to the new album and obtain the new album before it's available in the shops, signed by Louis, along with the bonus CD which will not be available elsewhere.
Louis, Danny, and Jonathan Coe performed in The Hague, Netherlands
on 12th November as part of the "Crossing Border" literary/musical
festival. The gig was very well-received, and some more European jaunts
are planned.
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18 September 2004
Recording of 'The Wonder Of It All' - A brief
update on what's been happening at Regal Lane Studio, where Louis is currently
working with Ken Brake on his next album, 'The Wonder Of It All'.
This week should see the completion of all the rhythm tracks: Danny Manners has managed to find space in the recording booth for his double bass (not easy, that) and put down all his parts bar one, whilst drummer Andy Lymn will follow suit midweek. A couple more visits are planned, including that of Sean O'Hagan before the end of the month. The High Llamas head honcho has promised to bring his banjo along.
Nineteen tracks had be programmed for recording, of which fourteen should make the final cut (some of the outtakes will figure on the subscription-only version of the album, which we can confirm will be available no later than the end of November, and probably a few weeks before that). All of them are originals written by Louis himself, with the exception of the title track, to which novelist Jonathan Coe contributed most of the lyrics.
Almost all the guitar, keyboard, percussion and lead vocals are now in the can, and a lot of progress has been made on the backing vocals as well over the last few days: you can expect one of the most developed LP albums in that regard since Jean Renoir.
The provisional tracklist runs as follows: 'I Knew It All Along', 'The Wonder Of It All'; 'Life's Unhurried Prose'; If That Is Youth'; Songs Like These'; 'I Picked A Flower In Ispahan'; 'This Puzzle Of Mine'; 'When You Retire Into Winter'; My England'; 'Just Do What You Used To Do'; 'An Ordinary Street'; 'A Wiser Fool'; 'Soul Coat'; and 'Pictures of Anna'.
Live Performance - A reading by Jonathan Coe in The
Hague (Nethelands) accompanied by a musical performance by Louis and Danny
Manners will take place Friday 12 November 2004, and is organised by the
Cross/Border festival.
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29 August 2004
You now have the opportunity to pre-order
Louis' forthcoming album through the SUNSHINE web site. This offer
is exclusive to our visitors and subscribers.
A secure payment facility has been added to the site (using PayPal), which will enable you - wherever you are - to get the limited edition of this new album, featuring many tracks (outtakes, demos, rarities) that will be unavailable on the 'official' release and have never been - nor will be - offered as MP3 downloads on SUNSHINE.
Other items will be available to purchase from SUNSHINE in due course.
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16 July 2004
Site update - a demo track (The Wonder of it All)
from the soon to be new album is available
for download.
A new playlist has also been added.
Top of page
14 June 2004
Site update - a new playlist
is up
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23 March 2004
Site update - this month's playlist
is up.
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16 February 2004
Site update - this month's playlist
is up.
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9 January 2004 - Happy New Year!
Site udate - after a prolonged break, a new
playlist is up.
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20 August 2003
Site update - this month's playlist
is up - an eclectic selection for sunshine island listening ....
Top of page
17 August 2003
Louis will be absent from the message board
for 2 weeks whilst he relaxes in the greek sunshine ... please keep posting
Top of page
14 August 2003
Studio news - Louis was back in the studio for
two different projects over the past three weeks. First,
to record the incidental music to the dramatisation of Jonathan Coe's
best-seller "the Rotters' Club", which will be broadcast
on BBC4 in early November. Part of the job consisted in recreating the
disastrous rehearsal of Benjamin Trotter's (the book's hero) band, which
Louis did with the help of Jonathan himself...The band's name - Gandalf's
Pikestaff - should give you an indication of the decidedly un-Louis flavour
of the music...
A few days later, Louis and Sean O'Hagan got together to record
the first backings of the album they will eventually complete with the
help of Bertrand Burgalat. A total of six tunes (four songs,
two intrumentals, written in equal parts by Louis and the High Llamas
frontman) were recorded, to which BB will now add his contribution in
his Paris studio, before submitting to the London pair his own compositions.
No date has been fixed yet for the completion of this ping-pong project,
which had been in the making for over three years. Rough mixes
of these sessions will be available as MP3's on Sunshine in early September.
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7 August 2003
Site update - Apologies for the delay: Louis's June/July
playlist is now up
For those of you with slower connections, we've moved previous playlists
to an archive page. If you missed
it when it was posted to the message board, the May playlist is here.
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11th May 2003
Site update - the April playlist
is here ...
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3rd April 2003
Album news - My Favourite
Part of You the record was is in the shops both in France and
in Germany ... and will also be available in Scandinavia and Canada in
the next 3 weeks ... it is also available on the UK
Amazon site.
Top of page
Site update - March playlist
is up ...
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Two new interviews have been added to the questionnaire
section of the faq page
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5th March 2003
Site update - a little bit late, but Louis' February
playlist is here ...
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27th January 2003
Site update - the January playlist
has been added ...
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Album release - A release date has just been given for
My Favourite Part of You. Thank God
for that. My new album will be in the shops on March the 25th 2003, and
THAT IS DEFINITE. We have added a new MP3
track from the album to celebrate this long awaited news!
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31st December 2002
Site update - the December playlist
has been added ...
Sunshine wishes all of you a happy and musically satisfying 2003.
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19th October 2002
Site update - the November playlist
has been added ...
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24th October 2002
Site update - My Favourite Part of You
has been added to the discography ... further details on the release of
this album will be added as we have them
New pictures have been added to the photo
gallery
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17th October 2002
Site update - The October playlist
is up ...
Album release - My Favourite Part of You will DEFINITELY be released in January 2003 throughout Europe. List of distributors to follow!
Other news ... Martin
Newell's The Off-White album which Louis produced, and
on which he played guitar, piano, keys, and sung, and made tea,will be
re-released in November by Cherry
Red, with new liner notes by Louis.
Top of page
15th September 2002
Site update - Louis is back from holiday with September's
playlist.
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25 August 2002
Album Release - My Favourite Part of You was mastered in
Paris at the end of
last month, including re-mixes of two of the album's tracks, Cicely
and Big Bear; as the artwork was completed in record time by Louis
and Jim Phelan of Exotica
, a September release in Europe is still very much on the cards.
There is no plan to release the new CD domestically in Japan for the moment, even though the interest in Louis' music is higher than at any other time there - no less than three compilations featuring his music will be released by Japanese labels in the autumn - more details to follow.
Talking about new releases, the catalogue number of 9th
and 13th on L'Appareil Photo is bis 22, and the record is credited
to "Louis Philippe & Danny Manners" rather than Jonathan
Coe...Apparently, Japan is one of the few countries where Jon's books
have not yet been translated. And look out for an eerie version of The
Beatles' I'm Only Sleeping by Louis on a S.H.A.D.O.
Records compilation just out in Italy (The Men From O.R.G.A.N, cat.no.
SUBO 15). Louis recorded it on his own during a break in the Azure sessions
- pure Farfisa heaven! On the "live" front, Jonathan Coe and
Danny will perform a short set in Paris on the 15th of September (to be
confirmed as at the moment both Jonathan and Danny are rather exhausted),
and it is likely Louis himself will follow suit to mark My Faviourite
Part Of You's release shortly afterwards, health permitting.
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22 July 2002
Album Release - Richard Preston and I have just put the finishing
touches to My Favourite Part of You (a couple of re-mixes) and
we'll be mastering the new album later this month, in Paris. We're still
on course for a September release on XIII
bis Records, provided Jim Phelan of Exotica and myself can get the
artwork ready within the next couple of weeks. Fingers crossed...
29 June 2002
Site update - This month's playlist
has been added.
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