So how is it in full ?

It is helpful ! thanx

kinda what i was expecting. All piano + voice + few strings.

I guess the next one, if there ever is one, will be heavy metal

Jarvis is performing at Rough Trade East on 21st March along with a Q+A & Signing. Ticket with pre-order of CD or Vinyl from Rough Trade website.

There's another song available to listen to:
youtu.be/Po1_gDcjaIw

There was also an interview in German magazine SPEX that's very interesting. If anyone wants scans or a rough translation I'd be happy to oblige.

I don't, which proved a little difficult in translating the thing! It's really a pretty rough translation but there were only a few places where I didn't understand what was being said, the majority of it is readable.

 

I've just gone ahead & put everything in a google drive folder, the most recent interview is in the folder called "SPEX":

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B48d4JafV7v9UzFWRkZKdVdUZ0k

-- Edited by iwatch-thebees on Friday 24th of February 2017 09:28:43 PM

I can't attend the Rough Trade signing, please, please could someone ask Jarvis if there will be a 3rd 'solo' album.
It's not often we get to ask him directly, thank you in advance!

Let's hope he does a proper tour

Paris show was at a venue where venue members get tickets first and the rest have to fight to get the few remaining tickets.

I hate that elitist shit.

*Some listens later* The title track is genius. Looking forward to the rest of the album now. Is no one else?!

Most of the songs have that rather sparse backing.

Hehe thanx, yeah i had an alert and got tickets !

It's good he's doing a larger venue. Should be good coz this a brand new venue and the sound is amazing there.

As for the record itself, they dont leak early anymore it seems ? Cant find any "preview" anywhere :(

Hehe yea well excitement isn't as high as it was 20 years ago when the only way to get a record was to go to a record store. I had the chance to listen to TIH a few days in advance in the store and i stood for an hour with headphones on whilst people were minding their own business. Pretty special.

Now i buy them online coz the prices in store are pretty stupid, otherwise i would still go.

I dont think this album is gonna sell much.

Almost no promo and a few gigs. I guess it's a very small release and hope Jarvis has a "real" record coming up in the next few months or next year. Something to make TIH's 20th anniversary maybe ?

I'm sure i'll enjoy this one, but i will surely miss the guitars, drums... etc

Yeah, was just expecting to see some articles/interviews in the UK press about it and some social media activity to promote it.

Eamonn wrote:

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Yeah, was just expecting to see some articles/interviews in the UK press about it and some social media activity to promote it.

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He's on Steve Lamacq's Round Table tonight on Radio 6, must have an album out or summat. No doubt Common People will have just got into the final of Lamacq's 90s anthems world cup thingy by then (again). Currently leading 53% to 47% against Smells Like Teen Spirit in the semi on Twitter. 

https://twitter.com/BBClamacqshow/status/839534470638223362

 

Very interesting interview in the Guardian here (I suppose it's strictly the Observer as it's Sunday). Love the photo too.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/12/room-29-jarvis-cocker-people-fall-in-love-illusion-chateau-marmont-chilly-gonzales?CMP=share_btn_tw

Maybe not, the last quotes give hope.

First album review I could find: www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/cd-jarvis-cocker-chilly-gonzales-room-29

two days away from new material in 8 years, yaay

superchob wrote:

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Whew, thank God I'm not a fanatical Brett Anderson buy-it-all. £35 for his solo work on CD? £55 on vinyl! Brett Anderson?! Solo?! It was bad enough when Butler left Suede, and that still left five of them...

-- Edited by superchob on Tuesday 14th of March 2017 08:04:49 PM

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 I've been revisiting his solo work recently and I don't think it's as bad as I did first time round. However, I still wouldn't pay that even if it means getting extra tracks and a DVD.

Judging by Twitter, the publicity is ramping up now. Jarv was on Radio 6 music news today as well, talking to Matt Everitt. The interview was on Shaun Keaveny this morning, in 2 parts, and on Radcliffe and Maconie this afternoon if you want to go looking.

 

Here's a live video of Tearjerker filmed in a posh hotel in Paris.

https://www.nowness.com/story/jarvis-cocker-chilly-gonzales-garth-jennings?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=desktop&utm_campaign=share

 

And another one of one of the songs that hasn't been released yet on a German website.

http://www.zeit.de/video/2017-03/5359256750001/rekorder-jarvis-cocker-und-chilly-gonzales-spielen-belle-boy?

 

So when I went back on Twitter this evening for the links I saw earlier to post here, I found another article from the Guardian gathering steam, about Jarvis publishing a book about Creativity - also includes a Brett Anderson book for those of you who are also fans of him:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/mar/15/london-book-fair-deal-for-jarvis-cocker-publishers-chase-britpop-stars

-- Edited by Fran on Wednesday 15th of March 2017 06:37:25 PM

thanx for the links Fran

So jarvis is the bimbo of the duo ? His pose on the piano is kinda weird :D

So far the songs sound quite good and would have sounded huge with an orchestra. It says somewhere on the guardian itw that Jarvis only wrote the lyrics, but the melodies are very jarvis. I dont buy that.

the record will probably be "available" tomorrow, cant wait !

-- Edited by andy on Wednesday 15th of March 2017 06:46:37 PM

Fran wrote:

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And another one of one of the songs that hasn't been released yet on a German website.

http://www.zeit.de/video/2017-03/5359256750001/rekorder-jarvis-cocker-und-chilly-gonzales-spielen-belle-boy?

 

---

Cheers for this, keeping my anticipation simmering nicely.

There seem to be as many cliches as successful puns nowadays, but the tracks we have just seem to work. His delivery is great. This certainly feels like the culmination of something. The 'Duck-Diving' tendency reared it's head in tracks like Quiet Revolution (though obviously there's always been a fondness for the spoken-word) and this seems to trace its geneology (somehow, for me) through Hold Still and Leftovers. I think it's working better than in Likely Stories, though I really liked the mushroom one on the flip-side (had there actually been enough of the 7" records left to purchase one.)

Liked the (possible) reference to Gainsbourg's "L'Hotel Particuleur", where the guy asks for room 44 (the 'Cleopatra'). Wonder how many more hotel references from popular culture will make it into the mix? (Room 237...?)

Not quite sure what to make of that Bellboy song and performance. Is Jarvis living out some life-long cabaret dream?!

Good to see him full of enthusiasm I guess...

-- Edited by Eamonn on Wednesday 15th of March 2017 11:46:15 PM

Spotify in a few hours. Calmez-vous!

In case anyone is in East London early today there was only about 10 people getting wristbands for Tuesday so there should still be plenty left for the next few hours.

Glad I didn't get tickets for the Barbican now.

Agree with all this. Side 1 is better but it's a really strong record. Bell Boy has a 'Professional' vibe.

thomas_bland wrote:

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Agree with all this. Side 1 is better but it's a really strong record. Bell Boy has a 'Professional' vibe.

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Most of those songs (well reduced to 12 songs) with a proper orchestra would have made a HUGE record. Something like Fin de Siecle by Divine Comedy, and a song like Sweden for Bell Boy.

I like its low key sound, but something inside of me wish for a "non" naked version. 

*Mind you, it's obviously not strictly-speaking "solo"...

Overall I like it but some of it is a little bland, for my tastes, shall we say. I'm sure that's fine for some but I really found some of it drifting past me and failing to hold my attention. I think the record really picks up in the 2nd half. When the strings glide in on Salome it was a glorious moment, like the sun re-emerging from behind the clouds on a spring day. It made me really wish that the whole record had been scored with a small string trio or quartet. Jarvis voice is really upfront in the mix, like he's stood next to you whispering into your ear. Some of the lyrics are a little gauche in places but it wasn't a big issue. Some of the lyrics are quite straightforward when they could have been dealt with a little more impressionistically perhaps. For example, I would rather that Jarvis had attempted to articulate David Thomson's thoughts in his spoken word pieces as lyrics, especially the Howard Hughes track. I had become concerned in recent years that Jarvis had actually lost confidence in his ability to sing but on the evidence of this record it seems alright. However, I feel I can still sense an element of fear in his singing occasionally but maybe that's just me.

Real standouts for me were Salome, Daddy, You're Not Watching Me & The Other Side.

They're on Front Row on Radio 4 tonight. 

https://twitter.com/SamiraAhmedUK/status/844185924271575041

Sorry saw, I find it really hard to verbalise my response to music beyond the bland type of I'm really enjoying it, but it will need to marinate for quite a while longer before I have any chance of saying anything more meaningful. I've always been very drawn to any kind of music with strong narrative and picture-painting elements, so it fits that in a big way. 

It's continuing to blow me away too. What's really starting to get me is the extent it works as a concept album... it's the first I've really engaged with and the first for me that has lived up to this title. (Bowie doesn't belong in the same category - he himself was part of the concept & the performance worked to such a mind-bending degree you can't think of him in purely musical terms).

The more you make out and absorb the lyrics, the more the subtle links between songs unfold and the songs nuance one another. The themes all interlink, and you can sense that there's an indistinct knot at the centre of it all. Even down to the emphasis on the drug-dusted piano in Room 29, and the dominance of that instrument across the whole record. It's as though his encounter with 'himself' and the empty room with its fetishised relics (the 'other side' of Hollywood mythology) have given rise to the rest of the songs, chiming with and reverberating with his (or the narrator's) memories. Perhaps he is coming to realise just how empty glamour is when shorn of mystery, and how so many aspects of life this sombre revelation might apply to.

My current game is trying to suss out if the 'head in the box' is literally Cocker on TV during the Britpop years, going off the rails ('out of his box') when fame took over. The shock of seeing yourself 'glamourised' - having your self-image taken and re-presented in ways you don't necessarily identify with - must be pretty shocking. The 'box' could also be the packaging around the product. I think that might be what Salome personifies: the sprinkling of stardust (hence shaking her alluring tamborine above the 'head in a box' and drawing people and cash towards it).

'Break down or break through': what other choices were there? But there are other things that make me think that this may be a far more personal recording than we are used to from Jarvis.

Gutted not to be at Rough Trade tonight - gutted too that the Barbican is sold out. I might be tempted to approach the touts on Saturday.

-- Edited by superchob on Tuesday 21st of March 2017 08:36:23 PM

I wonder if Jarvis is gonna do only Room 29 songs or also a few pulp / solo tunes.

If not it will be a very short set, 50 minutes at most...

That Chilly Gonzalez looks like a very tough guy :D from the pics ive seen of him, it shows ! Piano players are weird people generally. 

Id love I never said i was deep. It fits the theme of the album and it's one of my fav song ever. This is Hardcore would fit too

I highly doubt they charge so much money for a set that 50 minutes set, even with film clips inbetween. I guess the wait isn't that long, Barbican is happening soon.

-- Edited by andy on Wednesday 22nd of March 2017 12:13:41 PM

I found what VU song Salomé reminded me off

It's Stephanie Says

 

You forgot

5. The Other Side

You're right, what a great opener with the Starbursts :)

Jarvis' voice sounded great, better than on record arguably. It was a real treat to see him perform in such an intimate surrounding. Short of in-stores, I guess the closest you'd get to see him play live at such a small venue since he became a star would probably have been the Pulp fan shows in '99/2000?

Also, the thought struck me again, that even if you weren't a fan of his music, his showmanship is just unparalleled for humour and entertainment. Just a pity he only tours every few years now.

Went for a pint with Panther of this parish once we saw how big the signing-queue was but we came back just before they were letting people back in and we decided to queue. Was worth it for the brief chat and personalised signing from both men. Panther quizzed Jarvis on the whereabouts of his velvet jacket from Babies and Razz videos (his girlfriend has the jacket, the trousers split but apparently still exists), I told him not to wait 8 years to make another record and warmly shook his hand. Third time lucky meeting him, previous times I was far too awkward.. Chilly was very friendly too.

Looking forward to the concert very much now notwithstanding possible extra security checks.

-- Edited by Eamonn on Wednesday 22nd of March 2017 11:20:36 PM

If you were having a pint at the outside area to the left of RT you were probably right next t me. Totally agree on the showman and comedy. Absolutely world class.

Bit annoying isn't it? Ah well at least it isn't new music forcing an additional purchase.

hehe cutcopy thanx for that

Jarvis a Batman tv series fan, now that's something new !

I love how he still comes accross as a misfit and kind of a loner although he's Jarvis. Respect.

"If I feel really lonely I can go and stand outside an indie record shop and hopefully somebody will recognise me if I stand there for long enough." That's Gold :D

I'd like to say though that's it's definitely not a headphones record

I've had a listen that way and the mix was pretty weird. It's not like they have that many tracks to mix, but it sounded kinda weird. Especially the few backing vox.

 Just saw this on Jarvis' instagram - a livestream tonight of part of a Paris show of Room 29. I assume he means BST not GMT for UK viewers as it's an hour behind the Paris time.

jarvisbransoncockerShameless Self Promotion: tomorrow night (Friday) we are presenting Room 29 at the Gaïte Lyrique in Paris. Part of the show will be livecast on the internet - v modern.
The link is here:Livestream link: bit.ly/ACF17 
Time: 9:40pm Paris time (CEST) - 8:40pm GMT - 3:40pm New York time - 12:40pm LA time (PDT)

Thank you so much for posting this here! By "part of the show" it turned out that they meant - the *entire* show, just minus the encore... wow!

I thought it came out really well as a filmed show... now I'm hoping they'll consider releasing a video of the performance to compliment the album. The slideshow of hotel images towards the start was completely different to the ones they presented at the Barbican in London, though the rest of the show was the same.

Has anyone else thought that this show/album is really... well... Pulpy?! It's like the film/theatre/music extravaganza that Pulp would have loved to present in the mid-80s, fully realised with a budget to match their ambition

Ooh look!, There's a recorded version. I was out last night, so couldn't watch the live stream. I can't see anything saying if it expires after some amount of time.

 

http://concert.arte.tv/fr/jarvis-cocker-chilly-gonzales-presentent-room-29-arte-concert-festival

I finally managed to watch it properly myself, with the laptop plugged into the telly, and really enjoyed the whole thing. I totally get what they were saying in interviews about how they didn't know initially what format of thing they were even working on, then worked towards this type of performance, with the album itself being like a soundtrack of this stage production, rather than this being a concert of an album. With the theme of movies being by definition so visual, this is the perfect way to bring it to life. Jarvis is getting quite a taste for this soundtracking approach, also the Likely Stories themes and the Big Melt, which was driven by the images in the first place, and has obviously always had a strong interest in film and visual imagery.

I've got one coming, a mate bought it for me as I couldn't face queueing.

Hi All, I've just spend an hour reading all the posts on here from the last 2 or 3 months, as I have been AWOL for a while, and it's been really interesting reading.

I totally agree with the comments saying that an orchestrally accompanied version of Room 29, which I love anyway as it is, and the show of which I went to see twice, could be absolutely fantastic. Yes, there are echoes of TIH in it, definitely, and you can see the thread of Jarvis's favourite themes running all the way through from IT in 1983 to Room 29 in 2017.

Re the Room 29 preview night at Rough Trade: as Eamonn mentioned earlier in this thread, after a beer or two the idea of joining a massive queue to ask Jarvis about some of his old outfits seemed brilliant to me. Ha-ha! I think he (Jarvis) thought I was mad to want to know what became of his famous old black velvet suit (as seen in Eamonn's fab avatar) but he would be the first to agree that clothing has to matter if you are to be a pop-star. And besides, I have got through a lot of velvet in my time, long before I'd heard of JC, so I care!

Recently, I have been spending time up in Sheffield (for the snooker) and got talking to someone about the city in the 1970s/1980s, (which I did visit myself then), and I was struck by how his description fitted so well with the mood of Freaks, mentioned in another thread on BI. I love that album precisely because the atmosphere it conjures up is so dark and weird. And even though Sheffield is beautiful now, it seems to me that all the wonderful strangeness of places is being homogenised out of the world and it will eventually be one great big theme park.

I recently started playing the piano and finally found the envy to dig into Chilly Gonzales's work.

And... wow, he's got some very interesting records. His best ones are his "solo piano" records which sounds like preludes to Room 29. There's even an instrumental version of "Clara" called "Armellodie" on his record "Chambers".

For people who enjoyed Room 29 i highly recommend his solo piano records, they are fantastic and not at all boring for instrumentals. And i mostly hate instrumental records.

Eamonn wrote:

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Yes, have you tried playing Tearjerker on piano, Andy? The sheet music is available, it's one of my favourite pieces to play. I'm crap at playing by ear but can read music ok. I was hoping he'd do a songbook of Room 29 with all the sheet music (would love to have a go at "Belle Boy") as he's published piano-sheet books for a lot of his songs and records.

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Not yet, but i figured out "Clara" which is my favorite song from the record. Really cool to play too.

I'm a bit the opposite. I cant read music so its youtube tutorial for me where people film themselves playing and i go from there and figure out the notes if the tutorial isn't great or too hard. 

I'll try tearjerker next :) 

i'd love to play "Ice Cream" too. So many songs to learn. I've been playing guitar for 25 years but this is so different. You brain has to work differently right ?