Yippee-ki-yay, Father Christmas

The other night a pal sent me a video of a room full of people singing ‘Yippe-ki-yay, Father Christmas’ at a Die Hard panto that just about brought a tear to my eye.

The next morning, Lauren Laverne played it on 6 as part of a Christmassy people’s playlist and I got lovely tweets about it all day.

So it's been a source of warm fuzziness on the approach to The Big Day.

It’s funny thinking about this song. I had wanted to write it forever. The original idea was to make the music entirely out of that great elevator “ping” but my first attempt didn’t do much for me and the session languished in a folder for a couple of years before I heard that eagleowl were doing a Die Hard Christmas single. I congratulated Bart (from eagleowl) on beating me to it and he insisted I should give mine another go and become part of the release. Since it was fairly close to the deadline at that point, I ended up writing the whole thing in an afternoon, which is fairly rare an all the more satisfying. It's, like, one of the most... proper... songs I've ever written.

It’s now available from my bandcamp

Shout outs to:

Juletide Corrie for the use of his piano

Kath Claus and Christmas St'eve for the BVs.

Bart OwlbehomeforChristmas for lighting the fire that roasted this chestnut.

Song, by Toad Records for releasing it originally as a tree bauble snow globe containing a lego John McLane. Always nice to have another obscure release format under the belt.

And to Bec Hill, who made this incredible video for it last year.

Trapped In Amber - 4 Years On

Trapped In Amber came out 4 years ago today. Jeeezo. A lifetime. (Two lifetimes actually).

I’d like to take this opp to thank:

David Galletly for making it look so good. I feel like this art is part of me. David gifted me the original drawing and it was The Greatest Thing.

Keny Drew for burying me up to my neck in leaves irl. Haven’t seen Keny enough the last couple years but his cheeky, hands-on, in-camera attitude is still a big inspiration.

photo by Keny Drew

Matthew Young for believing in me and releasing the album. When I think of this album and Song, by Toad (RIP), among many things, I think of Matthew driving me and Peter to London and back IN ONE DAY so that we could do a 6Music session for Tom Robinson. Unreal.

And lastly but not least-ly, Peter Kelly for his impeccable booms and baps. Peter is RIDICULOUS and I still have to pinch myself sometimes when we play together.

photo by Andy Catlin

The recording of the next album has unfortunately been delayed a few times now and, while I fully expect it to eclipse TIA, these efforts by these people will never be overshadowed.

Also, to anyone who bought the thing, bless your lemon soles x

At The McManus

Delighted to announce that the work I did for The McManus last year has been pressed to vinyl.

Tommy Perman has created an absolutely gorgeous package with gatefold sleeve and booklet, plus each will contain not one, but two one-of-a-kind components in the form of a riso print and a postcard (sporting the DL code). That’s 300 prints and 300 postcards. No two the same. What a guy! Tommy has gone deep, taking elements of the McManus and my work therein to inform the artwork. I feel like I gave this project my all and Tommy has more than done me proud.

NOW, the museum is not a record label so I don’t know if they have plans to make it available beyond their gift shop and the launch events BUT I do know I’ll be able to put a wee batch of them online later in November (edit: now available here), so keep your onions peeled for that (or sign up to the mailing list).

On November 13th I’ll be presenting the album in a format akin to my Kitchen Sync shows where I broke down each track and showed why/how I did what I did, at the DCA in Dundee.

Info / tix here: www.dca.org.uk/whats-on/event/58352

My keynote should look pretty poppin on that big screen.

Good pal to the project, Sam Annand will be kicking things off with a small perfectly imperfectly formed modular set. Super excited about that. Hope I’m not too nervous to enjoy it.

- - -

I’ll also be giving the presentation at my beloved The Glad Cafe in Glasgow on Novrmber 22nd.

Tickets available now.

Here’s the poster for that show. Thanks to Siôn Parkinson for the photo. I have a feeling it’ll see some mileage.

YouTubular Bells

Jamie and I have made another CARBS album.

Well, it's an ep, but I feel like an album's worth of work went into it...

It's called YouTubular Bells.

It is out now and you can buy it from the Save As Collective bandcamp

You can also stream the whole thing here via YouTube, naturally.

(We had a good laugh filming the fake adverts to go between the songs)

We talked it through, track by track, with The Skinny, if you'd like to read our foremost thoughts about it's creation.

And we'll be celebrating the release with a couple of live shows.

Fri 8th June @ The Glad Cafe, Glasgow

Sat 9th June @ Henry's Cellar Bar, Edinburgh

Come along and embed yourself in the comments section.

Yippee-ki-yay, Mother Flipper

Some of you may remember my song about Die Hard from last Christmas, when it came out on Song, by Toad Records in the lesser employed industry format of Lego John McClane housed in a snowglobe tree bauble.

Some of you may not.

Either way, the wonderful comedian Bec Hill has breathed new life into the song by creating one of her incredible pop-up books for it.

You can experience her first rate paper-sorcery below.

Since she posted it on Thursday, it has been retweeted by the actual freaking screenwriter of Die Hard who said, and I quote "THIS IS AMAZING". His caps, not mine. Unreal.

Anyway, if you're into Christmas, I hope you have a lovely one.

Many thanks for your support this year. Hugely appreciated. It was a total belter.

See you in 2018 x

The McManus Galleries

Been having the time of my life working on a commission for The McManus Galleries in Dundee.

I'll be performing some of it from the top of their external steps on Nov 25th, bathed in beautiful projections by Biome Collective. 

Can. Not. Wait.

Had a chat with The Skinny about it, which you can read HERE

Missing Episode OST

My soundtrack to Missing Episode is now available from my bandcamp.

Working on Missing Episode was an absolute joy.

Ross sent me the featured Eastenders episode earlier this year and while he was combing it for poetic significance, I was combing it for sound.

I went through the episode scene by scene and made a little musical sketch for each, using the sounds and rhythms therein.

As a result, there is a lot of material that didn't end up being used in the final piece or developed further, but we thought it'd be fun to put it out there and illustrate part of the process.
  

'Restless' T-shirts

I ran out of some sizes way too quickly on the Restless tour so, as promised, here's a chance to get your hands on one.

Available in Grey or White, S / M / L / XL. Illustration by the wonderful David Galletly.

Pre-orders will close as soon as they reach the minimum viable number, so you may want to act quickly, and then turnaround time is approx 2 weeks.

Good luck and Ta very much!

ps. If anyone outside the UK is interested, give me a shout and I'll get you a p&p quote.

---

EDIT: Pre-orders are now closed but the rest of the run are available below. When they gone, they gone.

If you pre-ordered one, thaaaaanks!

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Jonnie Common - Restless t-shirt (inc UK P&P) : £20

colour / size

grey / small grey / large white / small white / medium

Missing Episode

Missing Episode, an amazing piece of theatre by Ross Sutherland for which I made the music, is now available to watch on the iPlayer.

It is very much the kind of work that rewards repeat viewings, so I suggest you rinse it while it's up there.

Restless video

Delighted to share the video for my new single 'Restless' (out on Song, by Toad Records 6/10/17) by Mario Cruzado. Had a pure lovely time making this. Huuuge thanks to Mario, Jo, Greg and Bridget.

You can pre-order the single HERE

Single launch shows, October 2017: 5th: EDINBURGH, Voodoo Rooms  /  6th: STIRLING, Tolbooth  /  7th: GLASGOW, Hug & Pint  /  9th: LONDON, Servant Jazz Quarters

Tickets available HERE

Restless Tour

Very happy to announce that I'll be playing a few shows in October which will coincide with the release of a single and something happening on your telly - but more news on that later.

Tickets on sale from 10am Friday 28th July. Links to follow shortly.

photo in the poster by the wonderful Andy Catlin : www.andycatlin.com

JWC2016 - Hot Dog Bin Bag

At the end of every year, I do a mix of some of my favourite tracks over the previous 12 months. I became a dad in 2016. At a few days old, my son was the colour of a hotdog and his skin was so soft, it was like touching a bin bag.

Featuring:  Paddy Steer / Glamour Muscle / Glamour Muscle / Grimes / Luke Abbott / Jon Hopkins / Concrete Antenna / Radiohead / Anderson .Paak / Romare / Machinedrum / Bill Ryder-Jones / Vinyl Williams / BADBADNOTGOOD / Lomond Campbell / Monster Rally / Adam Beattie / Kaytranada / The Shacks / Jay Rolex & MC Almond Milk.

Onward Christmas Soldier

A few bits of Christmas-related biz.

FIRSTLY, I have a track coming out on a split Christmas single with eagleowl. We have both written (very different but equally festive) songs about the film Die Hard and Song, by Toad is releasing them via Lego-John-McLean-Snow-Globe.

You can purchase those from Song, by Toad's bandcamp.

The song is also available via Shelter Scotland, on their Home For The Holidays songbook/compilation with all proceeds going to the charity.

SECONDLY, I am performing in A Christmas Carousal at Platform, Glasgow on Dec 20th alongside Kathryn Joseph, Babe (solo) and specials guests C Duncan and Tommy Reilly. I'll be tickling my guitar again and Gav Thomson will be enhancing it infinitely with synth / horn / BVs.

THIRDLY, I have a few copies of this left. The ultimate stocking filler for a special guitar-playing someone in your life.

Happy Holidays, pal. Have fun. Be kind x

C Duncan album launch

I'll be playing some new songs on my tod at C Duncan's upcoming album launch.

Stereo / Glasgow / October 8th / Tickets

Kitchen Sync

I've made an album using only sounds from my kitchen.

It's called Kitchen Sync.

JWC014 / SbTR-T006

It's out now on Song, by Toad Records.

Kitchen Sync on Bandcamp

Kitchen Sync on iTunes

As well as digitally, it's going to be available with a limited edition set of 4 hand-made fridge magnets.

You can order these directly from Song, by Toad HERE

Each one of these magnets is unique because they were all cut directly out of a stomach-churning 80s cookbook. There are no two the same. Inside each set, I have even gone to the trouble (and believe me it was painstaking) of including the name of the dish from which each magnet was taken. 

I must stress that the combinations (or menus) were chosen for what looked good together rather than what would taste good together but I did spread it out so that every set includes 4 different types of dish. The categories are: soups, salads & starters, meat dishes, poultry dishes, fish dishes, vegetable dishes, supper dishes, savouries & snacks, puddings & desserts, cakes & baking.

That said, there are a couple of special sweet tooth sets entirely comprised of puddings.

EDIT: The magnet sets have now sold out. Soz.

Here is a vid of me sitting in Toad's kitchen talking briefly about how I made each track, featuring animations from the amazing David Galletly.

I also spoke to The List about the album if you want to give that a read.

JWC013

"In summer 2014, Peter was whisked away on tour with The Kills and I had a few festival dates in the diary. Rather than have someone sit-in and try to approximate the chemistry Peter and I have built up over the last few years in a short space of time, I decided to put together an entirely different setup with some pals in an even shorter space of time."

The result was Jonnie Common and The Wheeled Warriors. We only played 4 shows but I was really happy with the "guitar band" arrangements so I'm glad we managed to capture them for posterity and your listening pleasure.

'JC and The Wheeled Warriors - live from Kyros' (JWC013) is a 9 song / 36min live recording only available for now as a homemade 18-ish page guitar tab book / zine which comes with a CD-r and a free glow-in-the-dark plectrum. The zines will also be signed and numbered.

Tracklist:

1. Shark // 2. So-called Summer // 3. Crumbs // 4. Shogun // 5. Binary 101 // 6. Hand-Hand // 7. Figurehead-Wet Wednesday // 8. Infinitea

I'll be making these to order so please allow 3-5 days for dispatch.

JWC013

inc. UK p&p £6.00 GBP inc. non-UK p&p £8.00 GBP

SAVE AS 8

Just one week to go til Save As #8

Reeeeeally looking forward to it.

TICKETS // FB EVENT

CARBS - Vic Galloway session

CARBS were in session for Vic Galloway last night.

You can listen back on the iPlayer HERE

CARBS - INFINITE AMMO

It wouldn't be a Carbs video without some form of copyright infringement. Here's the one I've made for 'Infinite Ammo'. Seems appropriate to publish it today.

The album is available to purchase from the Save As bandcamp and there are still a few of the limited physical "pizza box" editions left if you're feeling peckish.

Happy Hallowe'en! x

"Did I misspend my youth? A part of me actually feels like I've been in the rooms of Resident Evil 2."

Wes Borland Farm Shop Challenge

I can't stress how special today was. I can't stress how momentous today will come to be. We are tired. We are emotional. We are skint. But today Peter, Jamie and I completed the Wes Borland Farm Shop Challenge, taking in all 3 Westmorland Farm Shop services in the one day.