1. T-SHIRT FRENZY – STEWART LEE “I DON’T THINK THAT’ T-SHIRTS

WAX FACE return to the crowded official Stewart Lee t-shirt marketplace with their most self-consciously cool design yet, cynically targeted at the ageing indie-hipster audience that make up Stewart’s delusional following.

“I don’t think that. I think the opposite of that.“, is Stewart’s philosophy of comedy boiled down to one zen-sized nugget, serving as a chest-sized signal to other secret adepts, and offering protection against psychic attack.

‘I Don’t Think That, I Think The Opposite Of That’ is the Stewart Lee T-Shirt available on Pre-Order now via https://wax-face.com/stewart-lee

The T-Shirt available in two colourways.
Silk Screened and hand printed on Anthem Organic t-shirts. Shipping starts on April 21st

2. TV SNOWFLAKE TORNADO

Snowflake and Tornado are both on the BBC iplayer now.

Snowflake is here. & Tornado is here.

2. BASIC LEE

The new stand-up show, BASIC LEE hits the road and the Royal Festival Hall.

April 2023

Thursday 13th April 2023 – Theatre Royal, Newcastle Upon Tyne – TICKETS
Friday 14th April 2023 – Theatre Royal, Newcastle Upon Tyne – TICKETS
Saturday 15th April 2023 – Theatre Royal, Newcastle Upon Tyne – TICKETS
Tuesday 18th April 2023 – Forum Theatre, Malvern – TICKETS
Wednesday 19th April 2023 – Forum Theatre, Malvern – TICKETS
Thursday 20th April 2023 – Westlands, Yeovil – TICKETS
Wednesday 26th April 2023 – Brighton Dome, Brighton – TICKETS
Thursday 27th April 2023 – Brighton Dome, Brighton – TICKETS
Friday 28th April 2023 – Brighton Dome, Brighton – TICKETS
Saturday 29th April 2023 – Brighton Dome, Brighton – TICKETS
Sunday 30th April 2023 – Brighton Dome, Brighton – TICKETS

May 2023

Tuesday 2nd May 2023 – Mercury Theatre, Colchester – TICKETS
Wednesday 3rd May 2023 – Mercury Theatre, Colchester – TICKETS
Thursday 4th May 2023 – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford – TICKETS
Friday 5th May 2023 – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford – TICKETS
Saturday 6th May 2023 – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford – TICKETS
Friday 26th May 2023 – Playhouse, Nottingham – TICKETS
Saturday 27th May 2023 – Playhouse, Nottingham – TICKETS
Saturday 27th May 2023 – Playhouse, Nottingham – TICKETS
Sunday 28th May 2023 – Playhouse, Nottingham – TICKETS

June 2023

Wednesday 28th June 2023 – Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London – TICKETS
Thursday 29th June 2023 – Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London – TICKETS
Friday 30th June 2023 – Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London – TICKETS

July 2023

Saturday 1st July 2023 – Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London – TICKETS
Sunday 2nd July 2023 – Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London – TICKETS
Sunday 2nd July 2023 – Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London – TICKETS

4. EDINBLUR

I will be doing a truncated compacted 70 min version of BASIC LEE, stripped of nuance and heavy on laffs, in the Edinburgh Fringe at The Stand’s New Town Theatre from Aug 11-20th at 1.50pm

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/stewart-lee-basic-lee

Other top shows in the same space include Bridget Christie’s Who Am I?, Danny Bhoy’s Now Is Not A Good Time, the always exceptional Paul Sinha’s Pauly Bengali, Robin Ince’s Melons, and Heard It, by the mighty sin-eater of manly stand-up Seann Walsh.
And remember, because of the unique way The Stand is run, none of the less visible August acts go home financially ruined for ever.

5. JAZZ ABOUT ME

I am delighted to be the subject of a new album of improvised music which took me totally by surprise.

THE VA ALBUM SERIES.

This is a series of albums, each dedicated to and sent to a living person who has been an inspiration to those various artists who contribute to each album, hence the collective name VARIOUS ADMIRERS.

This is a non-profit venture made out of the love of music and the wish to thank the people each album is dedicated to with a collection of songs and pieces.

https://variousadmirers.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-stewart

6. I ARROGANTLY RECOMMEND SOME 2023 HAPPENINGS AND THINGS

LOVELY EGGS TV –
It’s becoming abundnatly clear, under a government that consider the BBC too left wing and Channel 4 too niche, that if we don’t make our own alternative culture we will lose it.
6 Music staples the indefatigable indie-art duo The Lovely Eggs spent lockdown making the kind of ‘80s arts coverage television series subscribers to this email will love, all under their own steam and self-financed. And they are drip-feeding them week by week to you for free.
I’m in week 2, talking about 19th c comedians in a graveyard, at the height of my lockdown unwellness.
Quentin Smires is in it, who is ace.
And so is King Rocker director Michael Cumming, doing his funny art! See the shows now before they get pulled!
https://www.thelovelyeggs.co.uk

They say…
“Never afraid to experiment, unfurl the flags and set sail into unknown territory, independent DIY psych punk duo The Lovely Eggs have done it again. This time they’ve made their own TV show: EGGS TV. Teaming up with artist Casey Raymond, Eggs TV embarks on a televisual odyssey, shining a light on alternative and underground art, music and British subculture, sucking you spiralling down the plughole into The Lovely Eggs’ distinctly odd and off the wall universe. Gruff Rhys stuck up a mountain, Stewart Lee’s tour of comedian’s graves, John Grant’s fridge magnet collection, David Shrigley’s ‘Stuff’, odd smells emanating from Katie Puckrik, Ian MacKaye waxing lyrical about a life in punk rock, Tim Presley, Cate Le Bon, Gwennifer Raymond, John Cooper Clarke, The Space Lady, Andy Votel, strange films from the minds of Quentin Smirhes, Bedwyr Williams and Michael Cummings, animation, music, poetry, bagpipes for the eyes and much much more. Sick of the pap offered by mainstream television, Eggs TV is an art/experimental TV channel featuring live performances, spoken word, art and animation. “It’s the type of show that used to exist in the deepest darkest corners of alternative TV programming, and EGGS TV is here to bring it back,” said Holly. “We’ve known Casey since we worked together on a music video over 10 years ago and became pals. The idea of making a TV series together seemed like an absolutely brilliant and ridiculous thing to do, so we just cracked on with it.”
The first episode will be released on The Lovely Eggs’ Youtube Channel on April 6th at 11am GMT.
The remaining 5 episodes will be released weekly via Youtube.

KIM NOBLE – LULLABY FOR SCAVENGERS Rend your heart and mind once again with more of Noble’s art-comedy genius
MARCH 15^TH – APRIL 8^TH London Soho Theatre

THE DAMNED/THE NIGHTINGALES 2 punk era legends of wildly differing levels of fame in one double bill.
MARCH 31^ST Cardiff Great Hall, APRIL 1^st Southend Cliffs, 4^th Nottingham Rock City, 5^th Liverpool Academy, 7^th Newcastle NX, 8^th Glasgow Academy, 10^th Leeds Academy, 11^th M’cr Albert Hall, 13^th B’ham Town Hall, 15^th Norwich Nick Rayns, 17^th Brighton Dome, 18^th S’hampton Guildhall, 20^th/21^st London Alexandra Palace,

ALASDAIR ROBERTS Songwriter re-wiring Scottish folk tradition
MARCH 28^th London Sutton House, APRIL 1^st Cambridge Blue Moon, 6^th W’chester Hyde Tavern, 7^th Oxford Florence Park Community Centre, JUNE 23^RD London West Hampstead Arts, 24^th London Barbican

ALASDAIR BECKETT-KING – The Interdimensional Alasdair Beckett-King.
I saw this sharp absurdist show in Edinburgh and it is brilliant.
APRIL 8^th Bath Rondo,
13^th Oxford Glee,
14^th Birmingham Glee,
20^th Aldershot West End,
21^st New Milton Forest Arts,
22^nd Brighton Komedia,
27^th Norwich Arts Centre,
28^th Bristol Comedy Box @ Hen & Chicken,
29^th Tiverton Community Arts Cent
MAY 5^th Maidstone Hazlitt,
6^th Cambridge Junction,
11^th Fareham Ashcroft,
12^th Winchester Arc,
13^th Swindon Arts,
16^th Newcastle Stand,
17^th Edinburgh Stand,
18^th Glasgow Stand,
19^th Belfast Limelight,
20^th Derry/Londonderry Nerve,
27^th M’cr Home,
28^th Leeds Wardrobe
JUNE 27^th London Leicester Sq Theatre

YO LA TENGO Gods of American indie APRIL 10^TH Dublin 3Olympia, 12^th M’cr New Century, 13^th Bristol SWX, 14^th London Palladium,

SHONEN KNIFE Distaff Japanese Ramones
APRIL 12^TH Guildford Boileroom, 13^th Reading Sub69, 14^th Cambridge Portland Arms, 15^th London Garage, 16^th Lewes Con Club, 18^th Nottingham Rescue Rooms, 20^th Edinburgh Summerhall, 21^st Newcastle Cluny, 22^nd Carlisle Brickyard, 23^rd Hull Adelphi, 25^th Leeds Brudenell, 26^th Cardiff Moon, 27^th B’ham Hare & Hounds, 28^th M’cr Night & Day, 29^th Bristol Exchange, 30^th Bedford Esquires

JAYHAWKS Alt country originators APRIL 14^th London Shepherd’s Bush Empire

GOAT Psychedelic Scandinavian shamans APRIL 15^TH Bristol SWX, 16^th B’ham Digneth Mill, 17^th Leeds Brudenell, 18^th Glasgow Garage, 19^th N’castle Boiler Shop, 20^th M’cr Gorilla, 21^st Brighton Chalk, 22^nd London Electric Ballroom

TONY! Tony Blair rock opera by Harry Hill and Steve Brown.
APRIL 15^TH – MAY 21^ST London Leicester Sq Theatre

BEN MOOR Various things, 18th April – 23rd May. The superbly gifted performance art comedian has two shows on the go. With Jo Neary he offers his amazing Russian Doll of a show BookTalkBookTalkBook, a sublime parody of literary events, at Machynlleth Comedy Festival on Sunday 30th April, and at The Hen and Chickens, Islington, London, on Tuesday 23rd May. I cannot recomment it enough. His current solo show Who Here’s Lost? is at The Hen and Chickens on 18th and 19th April.

TICKETS HERE

SONIC BOOM A middle class man ruins his mind so you don’t have to.
APR 19th M’cr Band On The Wall, 20th Glasgow Room 2, 22nd Leeds Brudenell, 27th London Studio 9294

IMPRESSIONS OF JOHN COLTRANE w Alan Skidmore, Dominic Lash
APRIL 21^ST London Café Oto

THE OLDEST COMEDY CLUB IN BRITAIN is a documentary about Crouch End’s DOWNSTAIRS AT THE KING’S HEAD and Londoners can see screeiningds of it at the Art House cinema there from April 29th. I am in it as usual.
TICKETS HERE

RICHARD DAWSON Genius art-folk-noise songwriter
APRIL 25^th M’cr New Century, 26^th Glasgow St Luke’s, 27^th L’pool Tung, 28^th Leeds City Varieties, MAY 3^rd Cardiff Gate, 5^th London Barbican

BLUE AEROPLANES Bristol beat poets APRIL 28^TH London Electric Ballroom

THE FALLEN WOMEN APRIL 28th – The Moon, Cardiff; 29TH – The Ill Repute, Bristol.

HAWKWIND This current Hawkwind iteration channels their classic ‘70s space rock sound unashamedly, with keyboardist Thighpaulsandra of Coil, Cope and Spiritualised clearly living out a childhood dream. APRIL 28th Manchester Academy I, 29th April – Rock City Nottingham, 30th – Northern Kin Festival Durham, JUNE 16th – Hall for Cornwall, AUGUST 28th – Castell Roc, Chepstow Castle

SWELL MAPS C21 Surviving Swell Maps augmented w celebrity guests APRIL 29^TH London Café Oto

ROSIE HOLT Satire’s Rosie Holt will be satirising the shit out of shit at the following places in 2023;
APRIL 29^th Ipswich Corn Exchange,
30^th Leeds City Varieties,
MAY 4^th & 5^th Bristol Hen & Chicken,
May 7^th Salford Lowry,
JULY 1^st Oxford Festival Marquee

ROBERT LLOYD (Nightingales), JANET BEVERIDGE BEAN (Eleventh Dream Day/Freakwater), LINDY MORRISON (Go-Betweens), MARK BEDFORD (Madness) & PETE BYRCHMORE (Membranes)
LONDON BUSH HALL, MAY 2ND
This is the event of the year in my mind – and I can’t go.
Nightingales frontman and post-punk steamroller Robert Lloyd (the star of the doc King Rocker that Michael Cumming and I made) has a long term sideline in brilliant blue collar country songs, like a Cannock Lee Hazelwood offering black country country and western.
Under lockdown he hatched a plan to document this other facet of his talent with Janet Beveridge Bean, of the legendary Chicago bands Eleventh Dream Day and Freakwater, on vocals.
And for one night only – May 2nd – they are performing this amazing soon-to-be-released set of tearjerkers at London’s Bush Hall, accompanied by a veritable Blind Faith made up of members of many of the bands I love the most in the world.

The Go-Betweens’ rightful drummer Lindy Morrison sits behind the traps with her trademark fills, Pete Byrchmore of The Membranes is on guitar, and the bass is Mark Bedford from Madness – and if you remember his playing on Robert Wyatt’s Shipbuilding you’ll know he’s adept at the sensitivity required here as he is at holding down a rocksteady rhythm.

DO NOT MISS THIS. IT CAN NEVER BE REPEATED.
Here’s a flyer. Tell your friends. 0208 222 6955. Or the Dice.fm ticket ap.

OTOBOKE BEAVER Japanese noise-girls
MAY 2^nd London Electric Ballroom,
4^th M’cr Club Academy,
5^th Glasgow St Luke’s,
7^th Belfast Empire,
8^th Dublin Button Factory,
10^th Bristol Fleece

LAUREN CONNORS & ALAN LICHT – Lucid guitar duo MAY 5^TH/6^TH London Café Oto

JOSIE LONG
The absolutely brilliant stand-up is on tour

MAY 12th Berwick-Upon-Tweed Maltings,
14th Salford Lowry,
18th Trebah Ampitheatre,
19th Ivybridge Watermark,
20th Clevedon Curzon,
27th Warwick Arts,
30th Lawrence Batley Huddersfield,
JUNE 3rd Giffnock Eastwood Park,
21st Wigan Old Courts,
22nd Halifax Square Chapel,
23rd Oxford Old Fire Station,
27th Druimfin Mull Theatre,
30th Cambridge Junction,
JULY 1st Folkestone Quarterhouse,
7th Stirling Tolbooth,
9th Exeter Phoenix
TICKETS HERE

THE FALLEN LEAVES
Gentleman mod-punks
MAY 13th Camden Dublin Castle,
SEP 9th Camden Dublin Castle.

GAVIN BRYARS never failed us yet MAY 15^TH/16^th London Café Oto

HOUSE OF ALL M’cr post-punk supergroup, a kind of 6 Music evening show Asia, hit the road.
HANLEY HANLEY GREENWAY BRAMAGH!

LONG RYDERS Alt country pioneers return, again
MAY 19^th Leamington Assembly,
20^th London 229,
21^st Leeds Brudenell,
22^nd Glasgow Oran Moor,
23^rd L’pool Cavern,
25^th Brighton Patterns

LOOP Heavy psyche survivors
MAY 20^th Dublin Wheelans, 21^st M’cr Deaf Institute, 22^nd Glasgow Room 2, 23^rd Leeds Brudenell, 25^th London Garage, 27^th Norwich UEA

CHUCK PROPHET Chisel-cheeked Alt Country guitar-slinger
MAY 31^st London Garage
JUNE 2^nd Nottingham Metronome,
4^th Oxford Bullingdon,
6^th Leeds Brudenell,
7^th Glasgow St Luke’s,
10^th N’castle Cluny,
12^th B’ham Hare & Hounds,
13^th Bristol Fleece,
14^th Southampton 1865

LAURA CANNELL Hypnotic fenland dronemadchen JUNE 17^th London King’s Place

THE CHAMELEONS Most convincing line-up for years of the always emotionally edifying Big Music should-have-beens.
JUNE 20^th Leeds Old Woollen,
21^st L’pool Hangar 34,
22^nd N’castle Riverside,
23^rd Edinburgh Liquid Room,
24^th Glasgow Garage,
26^th Aberdeen Lemon Tree,
28^th Norwich Epic,
29^th Cambridge Junction,
30^th Leamington Assembly,
JULY 1^ST London Islington Assembly,
3^rd Bristol Fleece,
4^th Brighton Chalk,
7^th Castleton Devil’s Arse,
8^th Holmfirth Picturedrome

MUSIC FROM SUMMERISLE Various artists play the Wicker Man s/track, including Magnet (!), and Alasdair Roberts JUNE 24^th London Barbican

BMX BANDITS Also-beens of classic Scottish indie JUNE 30^TH Edinburgh Voodoo Rooms

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN Another tilt at the infinite horizon from the cosmic scallies SEPT 12^TH Nottingham Royal Concert Halls, 14^th Edinburgh Usher Halls, 16^th L’pool Bank Arena, 18^th London Royal Albert Hall

BRITISH CRYPTIDS ON YOUTUBE In 1974 the producer of Hereford Wakes, David Emlyn Edwards, made a series of films about unknown animals in the United Kingdom.
The films were presumably destined to be sold to a UK broadcaster – either BBC or ITV – but they seem to only have been shown at schools and ended up languishing in public libraries.
The music for the series was written and produced by Hereford Wakes’ Thorsten Schmidt, continuing his professional collaboration with David Emlyn Edwards.
The latest restoration to be released is ‘The Woodwose of Cannock Chase’. If you enjoyed Hereford Wakes, we’re sure you’ll enjoy this too!  https://youtu.be/loZwFNT8H_s

6. IN OUR LAMENTATIONS 2023

Ruggero Deodato (Junk genius, 1939)
Kelly Monteith (Lucky pants stand-up, 1942)
Alan Rankine (Associate musician, 1958)
Darryl Hunt (Pogue bass, 1950)
Jeff Beck (He happened ten years time ago, 1944)
Jane Suck (punk chronicler, 195?)
Yukihiro Takahashi (Sadistic Mika Man, 1952)
Ronald Blythe (Akenfieldsman, 1922)
Piers Haggard (hack genius of Claw and Quatermass, 1932)
Van Connor (sturdy psychedelic tree, 1967)
David Sutherland (Bash Street basher, 1933)
David Crosby (Byrdmaniac, 1941)
Tom Verlaine (Sui generis genius Televisionary, 1949)
Burt Bacarach (Musical cheesnius, 1928)
Eugene Cheese (chucklin’ cheesenius moocher, 1944)
Betty Boothroyd (croaky speaker, 1939)
Wayne Shorter (Shorter no longer, 1933)
David Lindley (Kaleidoscopic guitarist, 1944)
Keith Johnstone (Improvisational Canadian, 1933)
Rolly Crump (West Coast Pop Artist, 1930)
Paul O’Grady (Proudly woke drag act, 1955)
Peter Usborne (Generation-spooking publisher, 1937)