Real World

On Monday 27th July Charlie Winston will perform an special gig at Rough Trade to celebrate the exclusive release of the special 7" vinyl version of his debut UK single 'In Your Hands'. The Rough Trade in-store set will follow Charlie's performance at Womad on 26th July and precede his concert as part of the iTunes Festival at London's Roundhouse on 28th July.

Having topped the French charts with 'Like A Hobo', France's best-selling single so far this year, and already selling more than 250,000 copies of his album 'Hobo', Charlie is being tipped to be the biggest selling artist in France in 2009. These unique London shows will be unmissable.

Entrance to Rough Trade will be wristband only (wristband collection 1 hour prior to gig, first-come-first-served basis- one per person.)

Tickets for the iTunes Festival are available via iTunes EU Facebook page.

The Green Man Festival will be screening Dengue Fever's documentary 'Sleepwalking Through The Mekong' as part of the 7 Inch Cinema film-tent programme on Friday 21 August at 7pm.

The DVD and CD soundtrack bundle is currently available from Womadshop.com. Visit the the catalogue page for further details.

We are sad to announce that Mongrel have had to cancel their performance at WOMAD Charlton Park 2009. A spokesman for Mongrel gave the following statement:

It is with regret that Mongel have had to pull out of Womad Festival 2009 due to circumstances beyond our collective control

The Black Swan Effect will replace Mongrel and perform at WOMAD Charlton Park 2009 on Saturday 25th July at 5pm. Come and enjoy their music!

Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour and his band Super Etoile de Dakar will descend on WOMAD on Sunday, intent on wowing the festival with their infectious urban mbalax rhythms and irresistible Afro-pop dance grooves. A statesman and social commentator, N'Dour is one of the most celebrated African musicians in history. The Super Etoile are probably the most popular African band in the world. Together they are simply incredible.

You may have heard Peter talking in his most recent video update about some inspirational images featuring objects that can be seen as faces. Peter knew the images from one of his favourite books, then came face to face with them in the Pentagram offices.

The images are by by Jean Edouard Robert, who worked in their London office on 'Pentagram Papers 4: Face to Face', which was designed by John McConnell and published in 1977

You can now see some of the images over on the Pentagram site.

This years line-up includes two of the acts that made the shortlist of the 2008 Mercury Music Prize.

Portico Quartet are four young musicians from London who sound like nothing you've ever heard before. Their strange, beautiful sound was honed busking at the South Bank in London and playing in unusual spaces; churches, galleries and chill-out zones. The band, who all live together in East London, describe their ethos as like an Indy band that plays post-jazz and their unique, hooky sound has won them fans from Gilles Peterson to Radio 4 as well as catching the ear of Real World Records head honcho Peter Gabriel. Their debut album Knee-Deep In The North Sea (Babel/Vortex records) was named Time Out's Jazz, Folk and World music album of the year for 2007 and was one of the Nationwide Mercury Prize albums of the year for 2008

Portico Quartet signed to Real World Records in February 2009 and will record their eagerly anticipated second album and label debut with producer John Leckie (Doves, Radiohead, The Stone Roses) at the helm at Abbey Road in May followed by mixing at Real World.

"We are delighted to be releasing Portico Quartet on Real World Records. They create environments with their own world of sounds, that are as stimulating as they are soulful " Peter Gabriel

Rachel Unthank and The Winterset are forging links between folk worlds old, new and other. They have blown a bracing north-easterly gale through traditional English song, casting it in an endlessly inventive and playful new mould. Transcendent and grounded music folds around unsentimental old, new and imaginatively borrowed stories of booze, brawls, abuse, loss, fear, infantile death, depravity and sorrow

Described as "a bewitching, dream-like, down-to-earth masterpiece" in the Observer Music Magazine's Top 50 Albums of the 2007, The Bairns is already a classic in it's own lifetime, featuring as either the top or only folk album in every 2007 end-of-year poll it featured in. Dancing down the leftfield and singing in their own lilting Geordie accents, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset are the "inheritors, curators and gleeful distorters" (Ian MacMillan) of Tyneside's traditions.

Friday 24th brings two chances to see Dub Colossus at WOMAD Charlton Park. Their new EP is now available in our store in CD, MP3 and Apple Lossless formats, and they all come with an exclusive MP3 of 'Blue Taxi'.

This project is the vision of Dub Colossus - Dubulah - aka Nick Page. Composer, guitarist, bass player and programmer Nick started his music career with Michael Riley (Steel Pulse) and has since worked with a long list of notable artists and eccentrics. In 1990 he formed Trans-Global Underground with Tim Whelan and Hammid Man-Tu, produced-wrote-played six albums before leaving in 1997 to form Temple of Sound with Neil Sparkes.

Dub Colossus was inspired by meeting, writing and working with Ethiopian singers and musicians in Addis Ababa in August 2006. The collaboration covers Azmari and traditional styles as well as the popular singing styles of the 60s and 70s.

The Zawose Theatre in the town of Bagamoyo in Tanzania was a vital focus and centre for the cultural life of the town. It was devastated by fire some years ago but now, finally ,construction to rebuild this hub of music and dance began last week! John Simpson who has worked with the Zawose family for many years travelled out from London to help get the process going. He was able to take with him significant funds from Real World royalty payments due to the Zawose family following the death of the great Hukwe and his young nephew Charles. Here is John's latest report and pictures:

Consulting local builders and the family we managed to settle for the attached plans. A large Makute roof with a stage, workshop and rehearsal space - very simple but if you know how these roofs look it will be quite spectacular. The construction will be done in two phases. The first being until I leave on the 7th July when the frame will be built for the roof and the decking and concrete foundations for the stage as well as digging a trench and laying the electrical cable. In September in the second and final stage we will roof the structure with the Makute (traditional thatch roof), finish the staging and carve the wooden trunk's that hold the structure up.

On Sunday 24th May we had a 'breaking the ground ceremony'. We invited another two music groups from the village 'Chiivane' and 'Gendaeka band' to play sets on the plot where the theatre will be. After the performances representatives of the family (Julius, Esteli, Sara, Simon, Msafiri and Ndahani) each shoveled dirt into the air to break the ground. After this we then cooked two goats and drank 120 sodas and 30 beers beside the bonfire as Chiivane played into the night. Photos to follow...

On Monday a flat-bed truck arrived in Bagamoyo with tonnes of wood (about a third of the total needed just for the structure). We got the wood from a governement wood store in Dar which means it is supposed to be from sustainably cut forests, they even provided a certificate so lets hope that is true. We have employed a Masai security guard to ensure nobody steals from the site during the construction. The workers are now busy each morning digging the foundations and we are confident that the first trunks of wood will be slotted into the ground today or tomorrow, changing the Zawoses plot of land for good. Some of the Zawoses are helping with the builders and the girls are cooking breakfast and lunch for everyone to keep them going."

The wonderful documentary film made by John Simpson is now showing on Link TV in the USA this month

Peter Gabriel will be performing on Saturday 25th July at WOMAD Charlton Park. A limited number of day tickets are now available.

"This will be my only show in Europe this year, and I am delighted it will be for Witness.org. I had no plans to play in the UK but when Festival Director, Chris Smith, heard I was looking for a suitable event, he generously offered the Saturday at WOMAD. We are trying to raise £100,000 for Witness." (Peter Gabriel on his performance at WOMAD 2009)

Support Witness by coming to see Peter Gabriel. Day and Weekend tickets for the event, which includes a mesmerising line-up of performers, playing, singing, cooking, dancing and entertaining, bringing the English countryside alive in myriad ways, are available.