A YEAR GONE BY, AND SO IT BEGINS AGAIN...

Dear all

It has been quite a year for us Drapes. We started 2009 freezing our arses off in a derelict pub squat in Camberwell, London writing and rehearsing our first songs. It was in this dilapidated Victorian public house that we created the melancholic, thoughtful sound of Red Drapes. In March we recorded our first demos ‘Reflection’, ‘Hush Now The Dockyard’ and ‘Dirty Windows’. They were recorded at Helicon Studios, Greenwich, London and produced by Laurie Latham.

During late spring/early summer we booked our first live show together. We supported The Boxer Rebellion at Southampton Joiners on 15^th May 2009.  Since then, we have continued to play regular live shows at several great venues in London and South England. Over the year we have supported O. Children on their ‘Dead Disco Dancer’ single launch, played with White Rose Movement at ‘Queen Of Hoxton’, been on a bill with The Chapman Family at ‘The Watershed’ for John Kennedy’s XFM night and headlined 93 Feet East… to name but a few highlights for us.

The move to our new rehearsal space in South London came after we were turfed out of our beloved old pub in late summer. But the move to our beautiful ‘Red Room’ rehearsal space has helped us hone our sound as well as write some important new songs like ‘Suffer In Silence’ and ‘Slow Dance’. As well as a great comment from Artrocker magazine featured as their ‘favourite new band’ which we have blogged about earlier,  XFM’s John Kennedy gave us a fantastic write up in January’s edition of Dazed & Confused magazine entitled 'John Kennedy looks to 2010 for Inspiration'. (Read the full article in blog below…)

After playing the XFM night on 6^th Nov at The Watershed, John Kennedy has been playing 'Reflection' on his radio show ‘X-posure’, and has expressed his liking of us. It is wonderful to have his support and very kind words. Also this year, we have had a great photo shoot with photographer Dan Wilton (we will be posting up another photograph from that shoot soon!) and ‘Reflection’ is featured in Artrocker’s ‘Top 100 Records Of 2009’, which is great for our first demo!

So looking to 2010, we have new songs to play, there will be plenty of writing, rehearsing and gigging and we will be going back into the studio to record some more demos, of which will be available on an E.P later in the year but more about that another time... Finally, we are currently in the middle of organizing a small German tour in March, with the possibility of other European dates, which we are all very much looking forward to!

All in all, it’s been a busy 2009 for us, we have come a long way from the damp, peeling walls of our first home in London... Before we go, here is a photo from a gig we had in Brighton at ‘Jam’ late November. Twas a cold, windy old night by the sea, but I feel our mood was well captured under the dark red lights of the club…

Thank you all very dearly for your support this year, and Happy New Year… 

R.D 
Thomas 

DAZED & CONFUSED MAGAZINE 'JOHN KENNEDY XFM LOOKS TO 2010 FOR INSPIRATION'

Dear all
 
Firstly we hope a very Merry Christmas was had by all.

We played a gig for John Kennedy of XFM Radio X-posure a short while ago and after the set he had some very nice things to say to us when meeting him for the first time. It was a great night supporting The Chapman Family who were really good, thoroughly nice chaps.

After playing the gig he has been playing 'Reflection' on his show which is amazing and has expressed his liking for us which is great to have his support and kind words. This was then strengthened yet again in this months edition (January) of Dazed & Confused Magazine. He has written a section placed in the back titled 'John Kennedy looks to 2010 for Inspiration'. 

Dazed & Confused - Magazine, Jan 2010
 
"Red Drapes take a more contemplative approach. Their considered, thoughtful sounds recalls Interpol, Editors and their forebears Joy Division, Echo & The Bunnymen et al. But in Adam Heron they have a distinctive vocalist of their own with Thomas Walker's lead guitar lines chiming out in a mesmerising fashion."   

John Kennedy - XFM Radio X-posure

This came as quite a Christmas Gift as until someone notified us that he had written about us we didn't know. The manner in which he has written about us with such kind words and that he sees us as being an Inspiration for 2010 brought much smiling to our faces. If you have not yet seen it go get a copy.

R.D

Adam

PHOTO SHOOT WITH DAN WILTON..

Photograph by Dan Wilton                   
www.danwilton.co.uk/

We are fresh faced from doing a photo shoot with a very talented young photographer Dan Wilton. Here is one early above for your eyes to see and is a taste of more to come from the photo shoot so more coming very soon! There are some new live shots up too on our myspace and facebook, follow links below!

Since we last spoke we have been working hard in our rehearsal place alongside the gigs on new material which we are really excited about. From some intense writing sessions from merely going over some initial ideas we have got some ridiculously exciting songs to show and will hopefully demo them before the Christmas tree gets put up! We have 2 NEW tracks just shy of being finished in the studio, fear not they are just around the corner and will meet everyone's ears very soon! From all this the idea is to do a limited to 200 ish Winter EP, handmade by us!

In the meantime keep checking the page, add the songs to your profiles and if you haven't already get our daily updates by becoming a fan on Facebook, and tweets from Twitter. We now have a Blogger which we update all the time with news and pics e.t.c so you call follow that also. 

Just click on all the links below..

Follow us..

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

BLOGGER

Love

R.D

x

'THE RED ROOM'

Dear all again..

We have recently moved into our lovely rehearsal space which is going to be our home for the forseable future. Our lovely 'red room' is in an old Victorian pub with beautiful bare floorboards and is where we write and rehearse new material.

Keep checking our myspace page for live rehearsal clips and studio demos of new tracks by following the link 
below...

      www.myspace.com/reddrapes

Love...

R.D

x

ARTROCKER 'NEW FAVOURITE BAND' ARTICLE...Read what they had to say

 

Dear all..

We are pleased to say.. last week were in a feature by Artrocker in their 'New Favourite Band' section.

Artrocker..

"Here’s a great bit of classic 80s indie pop from Red Drapes. It’s very Psychedelic Furs - but unlike a lot bands that plough this particular furrow, the tunes don’t get lost in histrionics. Red Drapes don’t try too hard, and get everything just right as a consequence."

See full article here: http://www.artrocker.com/node/17206

This is our first real taste of some press and we are really happy as

its a really nice thing to say and to the point. Since the post we have 

had a ridiculous amount of myspace attention so it was well received indeed.

'Reflection' is available as a limited time only download so follow the link and get it now before it comes down!

R.D

x