Calista Kazuko - Lene Lovich

Calista Kazuko - Press Stop & Rewind / Sweet Jailbird.

‘Press Stop & Rewind’ and ‘Sweet Jailbird’ were written by Calista and long-term collaborator Elliott James Frisby. The songs were recorded at London’s Smokehouse Studios. Nuno Fernandes (Bryan Adams, Jeff Lynne) and Dennis Weinreich (Queen, Supertramp) feature as producers.

The beautifully shot videos – dark, sensuous vignettes with deadly narratives, were made with filmmaker Philip Reinking and depict Calista’s sordid fantasies, murderous moments, subsequent incarceration and dreams of escape.

“I could not be more delighted to be releasing these two songs,” says Calista. “Their fun, OTT extravagance perfectly punctuate this creative chapter before the campaign for my new album, ‘Empress’, starts in January. It was an honour working with such a musical dream-team as producers Nuno Fernandes and Dennis Weinreich – and creating visuals with filmmaker Philip Reinking was the icing on the cake.”

Calista Kazuko is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for her cinematic genre-bending and controversial boundary-pushing. After studying at London’s Royal Academy of Music, specialising in classical/jazz piano and composition, Calista – daughter of the late renowned violinist Paul Robertson – has been performing and winning fans across the world with her dynamic voice and captivating songs. Her EP 'Project: Love Me' was released in 2017 to critical acclaim and Calista is now recording her debut solo album ‘Empress’. She founded and recently launched charity-based arts collective Voice of Aiko and is also penning her first piece of music-theatre, Mary Quake, with playwright Stephanie Martin. WEBSITE.

'Press Stop & Rewind' has a seductive Jazz vibe that exudes both mischief and just a little menace. The theme continues with 'Sweet Jailbird' where the distinct rhythm alongside some refined piano are only half the story. On both tracks the vocals are sublime and on the latter the background vocals are just so cool, this really is just so good...



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Lene Lovich - Lucky Number.

March 2019 sees the Lene Lovich Band taking to the road to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Lene's classic debut album Stateless. Containing the smash hit "Lucky Number" and other perennial Lene favourites including "Home", "Say When", "I Think We're Alone Now" and the celebrated ballad "Too Tender to Touch", Stateless was an immediate success when it was first released by cult post-punk label Stiff Records, and has held it's place in fans' affections for four decades. Lene Lovich’s work spent over four and a half months in the Top 40 charts after the release of her debut album in 1978 in the UK and 1979 in the US.

The tour will be fans' only chance to catch Stateless performed in it's entirety. The show also includes other Lene favourites, such as the Thomas Dolby-penned hit "New Toy", as well as a handful of songs from Lene's highly regarded second album Flex.

“It is incredibly flattering to know that people are still interested in Stateless after all these years. And it is always humbling to learn what it has meant to people on a personal level. We all have music which becomes the soundtrack to our lives, and to know that people are still listening is the highest compliment that you can ever be paid as an artist and a performer.

Far from being near nostalgia, taking the album out on the road for its anniversary year is a way of saying thank you, both to the fans who have appreciated it for so long, and also to the songs themselves, which have meant so very much to me and gave me such a wonderful start on this journey.” - Lene Lovich, November 2018. TICKETS.

March 2019 Tour Dates:
Friday 8th – Riverside, Newcastle
Saturday 9th – G2, Glasgow
Sunday 10th – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Friday 15th – O2 Institute, Birmingham
Saturday 16th – Club Academy, Manchester
Sunday 17th – The Waterfront, Norwich
Thursday 21st – The Garage, London
Friday 22nd – Concorde 2, Brighton
Saturday 23rd – O2 Academy, Oxford.

It's not often a we feature forty year old songs on Beehive Candy, but some new anniversary tour dates and the fact it's 'Lucky Number' from Lene Lovich is more than enough reason & I get to be a little nostalgic for a while.


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Lene Lovich - Malibu 1983

This is Lene Lovich live in Malibu back in 1983. Lene Lovich was born Lili-Marlene Premilovich in Detroit, Michigan, to an English mother and a Serbian father. After her father had health problems, her mother took her and her three siblings to live in Hull, England. Lovich was 13 years old at the time.

She met the guitarist/songwriter Les Chappell when they were teenagers, and he became her longtime collaborator and life partner. In autumn 1968, they went to London, England to attend art school. It was there that Lovich first tied her hair into the plaits that later became a visual trademark, though at first she did it to keep her hair out of the clay when studying sculpture.

In 1975, Lovich joined The Diversions, a funk group that put out five singles and an album on Polydor Records without success. In 1976 she released a 7" 3-track "maxi-single" in the UK under her own name, aimed at the Christmas market: "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus/The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)/Happy Christmas" (Polydor 2058 812)

In 1977, Lene Lovich, along with recording engineer Alain Wisniak, provided lyrics for "Supernature", a song featuring music composed by French percussionist and disco music performer Cerrone. The song, with its surreal lyrics describing a world in which nature has risen to fight against desecration and destruction by humanity, is indicative of Lovich's interest in animal rights issues. In 1978, disc jockey and author Charlie Gillett presented her recording of "I Think We're Alone Now", a cover version of a song originally performed by Tommy James and the Shondells, to Stiff Records boss, Dave Robinson. Robinson immediately proposed to release it as a single on Stiff, for which Lovich and Chappell had to write and record a B-side at short notice. They came up with "Lucky Number", which was then released as an A-side and became a Top 3 hit in the UK.

Invited by Robinson to participate in the forthcoming Be Stiff Route 78 Tour in 1978, Lovich quickly recorded her first album for Stiff, Stateless, which contained "Lucky Number" and another Top 20 hit, "Say When". Lovich's musical style combined her own quirky inventions with contemporary punk rock and new wave styles. She then recorded the albums Flex and No-Man's-Land for Stiff over the next few years, as well as an EP titled New Toy, the title cut penned by touring band member Thomas Dolby, and a cover of the Devo song Be Stiff. She also recorded vocals for 'Picnic Boy' by The Residents as "Sandy Sandwich".

Lene Lovich co-wrote with Chappell and Chris Judge Smith and performed Mata Hari, a play/musical at the Lyric Hammersmith, London, October/November 1982. During this time she was having disputes with Stiff. The success of the show and pressure from Epic, her US label, persuaded Stiff to release and promote No Man's Land. Following her departure from Stiff, Lovich released "Don't Kill The Animals," a single with Nina Hagen, with whom she had previously appeared in Cha Cha, a film that also starred Herman Brood; together, the three created the film's soundtrack.

Source: FM broadcast.

Sound Quality: Good stereo mp3@128kbps

Genre: New Wave.

Set: Full set.

Set List:

1. Savages
2. Sister Video
3. Joan
4. It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerz)
5. Maria
6. Say When
7. New Toy
8. Blue Hotel
9. Lucky Nuber
10. Angels
11. Rocky Road

Website: MySpace HERE.

Download link in comments below.