Saturday 4 January 2025, 7.30pm
A very welcome return to OTO for mercurial singer-songwriter Simon Finn. A lone wolf troubadour from the mid-’60s UK scene, he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Bert Jansch, before seamlessly re-appearing on the UK scene in 2003 after a gap of some decades, and has since gone from strength to strength.
Simon Finn has been given another crack at the troubled profession of singer/songwriter, his story the stuff of legend: A lone wolf troubadour from the mid-’60s U.K. scene, he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Bert Jansch. The powerful Pass the Distance, released to critical acclaim, seemingly lost for- ever... Since, a new record has surfaced – capturing the past and the present, a seamless transition despite the quarter century Simon Finn has won over fans worldwide – including Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and ex-Blur gui- tarist Graham Coxon – with his passion, his wit and his soul-shaking music.
Aside from his solo shows Simon also plays guitar in a band called Current 93, which were the cover story of the July Wire. In 2006 his original album, Pass the Distance, was made in 1969, with David Toop (author of The Rap Attack and Oceans of Sound) and Paul Burwell. It was produced by Vic Keary who ran Mushroom records at the time.
His 2007 release, Accidental Life, has also been recorded and mastered by Vic Keary. Playing on it are: Joolie Woods, David Toop, Karl Blake (Lemon Kittens) Keith Godman, with backing vocals from Danielle Dax and Rose McDowall (Strawberry Switchblade).
“Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.” The Sprigs, bursting from the cold damp earth and into the light for a short while. Slap-dash free-folk from south of the river Thames with one CD-r released via Infant Tree in early 2021, and not much else to show or tell. Characterised by Time is Away as a ‘Beautifully scrappy meeting point between diaristic real-world clatter and a particular strain of folk-pop romanticism’.
