Subs Offer – Discount tickets to TQ-related fest Acid Horse 2024!
Listen to an Acid Horse 24 Playlist (Opens in a new window) here!
If you’re a subscriber to tQ you’ve probably noticed that Luke and I are doing a very bad job of keeping a very big secret under wraps. Half way through May we’re relaunching the Quietus, which means we’ll have a brand new website that actually works for the first time in our 16 year history!
To celebrate we’re throwing a family-friendly two-stage, three-day party in a beautiful canalside pub in rural Wiltshire under the Alton Barnes chalk horse and Neolithic long barrows, with some of our favourite bands, artists and DJs in attendance. And we’d like you to join us. We’re offering all tQ subscribers 10% off adult tickets and 100% off kids’ tickets (details at the foot of this email) so you can come and celebrate with Luke and I as we start the next chapter of tQ’s story.
All of the details can be found at the Acid Horse website (Opens in a new window) but here’s a quick guide to what’s on offer at the first festival of the summer.
Acid Horse is a three day music event held at The Barge Inn (Opens in a new window), Honeystreet, Wiltshire (one hour from London and 90 minutes from Bristol by rail) on the bank holiday weekend of Friday May 24 to Sunday May 26. It’s kid friendly, there’s a wide range of food available including vegan and vegetarian options, tickets include three nights camping onsite, there are glamping tents available (email acidhorsewilts@gmail.com (Opens in a new window) for details), the local area is a joy to walk around and Avebury is a Neolithic stone’s throw away. And that’s before we get to the crop circles… But don’t just take our word for how unique it is, stellar performers from last year Shovel Dance Collective (Opens in a new window) praised a “special event” set in a landscape “imbued with magic”.
This epic event essentially grew out of a lockdown 50th birthday party and now represents a highly enjoyable weird west country cultural event curated by Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor Press and myself.
The line up features the astonishingly good John Francis Flynn (Opens in a new window) who was responsible for one of our favourite albums of last year, Look Over The Wall, See The Sky – the point where ancient folk meets horizon-expanding modern psychedelia. Also headlining is beautiful soul, the Irish-based, Syrian born, Kurdish party starter Mohammad Syfkhan (Opens in a new window), who will bring his Middle Eastern wedding party music and Turkish pop to Wiltshire for the first time. Also joining us are longtime tQ favourites Teeth Of The Sea (Opens in a new window), augmented with Kath Gifford on vocals, who have promised us “something really special” as the final band of the weekend.
The mainstage headline DJ roster includes once of Acid Horse 23’s clear highlights, Sophie Coletta who launched last year’s event past the Oort Cloud and into interstellar space by mixing The Fall, Chris & Cosey and Can into a set of liquid acid techno, Balearic industrial and EBM. We’re delighted that Judith Klempner (Opens in a new window) aka Proteus is adding Pewsey, Wiltshire to a list of DJ locations that already includes Berlin, Oslo, New York and Milan. And, to be honest, we thought we were going to have trouble matching last year’s booking of Surgeon, but rounding things off on Sunday is none other than Justin Robertson (Opens in a new window) – one of the best party-friendly acid house DJs of the last three decades. And trying out his new low-bpm ambient experimental set for the first time, joining us once more is Mr Steve 'Snooker's loss is psychedelic music's gain' Davis! (Opens in a new window)
After a roof raising, joyous, kids version of Terry Riley’s In-C last year, Farmer Glitch and friends (Opens in a new window) are going to be leading us all in a mass version of ‘I Feel Love’ and anyone who brings a synth, or a glockenspiel, or a djembe, or their own vocal cords can join in. Other returning stars include Queen of New Weird Everywhere Nat Sharp (Opens in a new window); the wild-haired man of Glastonbury Tor, Kavus Torabi (Opens in a new window), just returned from a tour with Gong, playing tracks from his new LP, The Banishing; and featuring a stellar array of guest musicians Deyar Yasin, Agathe Max, Marion Andrau, Dali de St. Paul and Conny Prantera, UKAEA (Opens in a new window) bring their impossibly heart-wrenching Birds Catching Fire In The Sky to the chalky downs of Wiltshire.
We’re punching well-above our weight with sets from bucolic and beatific VÄLVE (Opens in a new window); Richard Dawson and Sally Pilkington lockdown project Bulbils (Opens in a new window); all the way from Poland with his astoundingly transportative Train Spotter sonics, Wacław Zimpel (Opens in a new window); legendary counter-cultural figure Nocturnal Emissions; north western guitar mallet minimalists Ex-Easter Island Head (Opens in a new window) and one-woman gabber mayhem assault unit, Petronn Sphene (Opens in a new window). A superb last minute addition to the bill is Constellation records’ own honey-toned blue-eyed soul singer and guitar warper Eric Chenaux (Opens in a new window), all the way from Paris.
And that’s before we mention the Welsh language languid goth elegies of Tristwch Y Fenywod (featuring members of Hawthonn and Guttersnipe); the garage rock explosion of Ubiquitous Meh!; sets of celestial synth transcendence from Action Group, Twilight Sequence, Hitliloma and Luminous Foundation; ecstatic d&b from Xylitol; Bristolian sci-fi prog action from ANTA; indefinable weirdness from Trans/Human, John Macedo and the Howling; plus youthful skronk rock action from Milkfiz and “coastal slurtronic folk” from Kemper Norton (Opens in a new window).
For early risers and night owls we have a Warhammer 40k painting sesh, a Mario Karts-tournament, films for kids, impromptu campfire gigs, loads more DJs, the mysterious, heavily bearded and torrid ‘Naked Brunch’ duo and your chance to see the greatest ceiling mural in a pub ever…
Tickets for anyone reading this message are £135 per adult, and kids under 15 for free (usual price is £150 and £10 respectively). Simply send the money to Acidhorsewilts@gmail.com (Opens in a new window) paypal and email the same address with Acid Horse TQ Offer in the subject line to let us know the names in your party. Feel free to invite any mates (if they’re not wallies) whether they subscribe to tQ or not. If you say they’re OK, they’re welcome.
John Doran, Wiltshire
