Robyn Hitchcock & Joe Boyd

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Ken Weinstein
Big Hassle Media
weinstein@bighassle.com
212-619-1360

Sean Hallarman
Big Hassle Media
sean@bighassle.com
212-619-1360

Biography

Robyn Hitchcock & Joe Boyd
Live & Direct from 1967

1967 was my psychedelic bar mitzvah. As I turned 14 that March, Pink Floyd released ‘Arnold Layne’, Jimi Hendrix put out ‘Hey Joe’, The Beatles were recording Sgt Pepper’s, and The Incredible String Band were working on the album of the year, for me: ‘The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion’. As a teenager in a mediaeval cloistered academy in the shadows of Winchester Cathedral, I experienced this music as a man behind bars might see the moon: it gave me something to aim for, something to live for. Bob Dylan had planted the seeds in my ear the previous year, as he had casually done with so many other youngsters; now other musicians that he had ‘turned on’ were doing the same to me.

When I looked at the record labels on these vinyl ambassadors, the phrase ‘Produced by Joe Boyd’ kept recurring. His name soon appeared on the Fairport Convention and Nick Drake albums at the turning of the decade. As the 1960s dissolved into the hangover of the 70′s, the seeds that Dylan had carelessly sown began to swell and split in my head, and I began to create my own dystopian psychedelia in the Soft Boys. When the subject of a producer for our first record came up, I asked for Joe Boyd – but nobody in Cambridge in 1977 had his number. We finally met in 1985, introduced by none other than Peter Buck in Wood Green, London. Peter, awestruck by Joe’s 1960′s roster, had asked him to produce REM. So, I asked Joe, what was it like working with the Incredible String Band?

Starting that night, over toxic lager in the flourescent-lit kitchen of Livingstone studios, and thereafter at chance meetings over the next 20 years, Joe told me about the momentum years of 1965 to 1970: him stage-managing Dylan at Newport, meeting and nurturing The ISB, Fairport, Pink Floyd, and Nick Drake; starting and finishing the matrix of the London ‘underground’ scene – the UFO Club; working on the Jimi Hendrix movie and more. Eventually, he wrote it all down and published it in his memoir – White Bicycles. As that era has now crystallized into the golden age of pop/rock, Joe and I have been drawn together by our perspective on how it shaped our lives: his as a young man, mine in teenage limbo. Joe had a hand in creating a world that revolutionised mine. If he is Dr Frankenstein, then I’m his monster. Or one of them…

In this show, Joe tells excerpts of his story, largely reading from ‘White Bicycles’: I sing the songs he worked on or was involved with, the songs I grew up with – I also ask him questions and interrupt, like a kid that wants to be part of the story. The story is a big part of me.

-Robyn Hitchcock

Press Releases

Jan 20 2011 ROBYN HITCHCOCK & JOE BOYD COLLABORATE FOR UNIQUE...
ROBYN HITCHCOCK & JOE BOYD COLLABORATE FOR
UNIQUE MUSIC/SPOKEN WORD TOUR;

“LIVE & DIRECT FROM 1967″ FEATURES SONGS AND STORIES
FROM BOYD’S LEGENDARY CAREER,
INCLUDING SUCH ARTISTS AS PINK FLOYD, NICK DRAKE,
BOB DYLAN, JIMI HENDRIX, AND FAIRPORT CONVENTION;

DATES BEGIN MARCH 9TH IN ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA

Psychedelic troubadour Robyn Hitchcock has announced plans to team up with legendary producer Joe Boyd for an unprecedented series of live performances. “Robyn Hitchcock & Joe Boyd – Live & Direct From 1967″ is a very special evening of songs and stories, melding musical performances with Boyd’s own reminiscences of his collaborations with such iconic artists as Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, and Jimi Hendrix.

The tour begins March 9th at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, followed by visits to New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, and North Adams, Massachusetts (full itinerary below).

“Robyn Hitchcock & Joe Boyd – Live & Direct From 1967″ will feature readings from Boyd’s acclaimed 2006 memoir, “White Bicycles – Making Music In The 1960s,” with Hitchcock adding extraordinary color via performances of classic songs from throughout the producer’s career. From stage-managing Bob Dylan’s infamous 1965 performance at the Newport Folk Festival, to co-founding The UFO Club (the epicenter of London’s groundbreaking psychedelic scene and launch pad for such bands as Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, and The Move), to his early stewardship of an array of hugely influential folk heroes – including Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, and the Incredible String Band – Boyd has been intimately involved in some of rock’s milestone moments. Simply put, Boyd’s work in the 1960s has become part of pop’s collective consciousness, inspiring generation after generation of psychedelically inclined musicians and songwriters.

“As the momentum years of 1965 to 1970 have now crystallized into the golden age of pop/rock, Joe and I have been drawn together by our perspective on how it shaped our lives: his as a young man, mine in teenage limbo,” Hitchcock explains. “Joe had a hand in creating a world that revolutionized mine. If he is Dr Frankenstein, then I’m his monster. Or one of them…”

(TOUR DATES BELOW)

“ROBYN HITCHCOCK & JOE BOYD -
LIVE & DIRECT FROM 1967″
US TOUR 2011

MARCH
9 Alexandria, VA The Birchmere
11 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge
12 North Adams, MA MASSMoCA
14 Philadelphia, PA World Café Live
18 Detroit, MI Detroit Institute of The Arts
19 Chicago, IL Old Town School of Music (Early & Late Shows)

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