Down the Tiny Steps

2011 was a big year for me. Thanks for your support!!

JWC2011 - Island Fortress, Island Home by Jonnie Common on Mixcloud

Good bit of coverage in the current issue of The List magazine.

I am no.74 in ‘The Hot 100′ of 2011

The Hot 100 being defined by them as “the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about great work, and there’s enough artistic achievement here to convince even the strongest cynic of Scotland’s creative clout.”

Its been a great year for me so this is a nice wee clipping for the scrapbook. Even if they did accidentally use a photo of my pal grnr instead of me…

Also, great reviews of Hair Of The Dog and the launch show for it.

ALBUM REVIEW: “Common’s debut Master of None yields a just-as-good set of muso-buddy remixes…”

LAUNCH REVIEW: “Triumphant show from the skilled electronica musician and friends…”

Big ta to The List for having me along to play at the offical party last week.

And for this:

On monday, I went in to do a live session for Vic Galloway’s show on Radio Scotland.

L-R: grnr (trumpeteer) Greg Waddell (tromboner) Jonnie Common (dietitian) Vic Galloway (Tazmanian devil)

As Peter was away on tour with The Kills, and with the remix album having just come out, I decided to make it a bit of a remix-themed set.

Committing to bespoke work at little notice. That’s the way uh-huh uh-huh etc.

Listen again on the BBC iplayer

Vic’s Monday shows also get repeated on the Friday, so my ghost will be riding the airwaves again on the 9th at 10pm.

Big ta to Vic for having me in, and his wonderful team for looking after us.

I’m dead chuffed to announce that ‘Hair Of The Dog’ will be released on Red Deer Club at the end of the month.

To launch it, we’ve got a whole weekend of showing off lined up at MONO in Glasgow.

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1. David Galletly exhibition : Nov 25-27 : free

David is responsible for the dog on the front of ‘Master Of None’. On a routine visit to his blog, I discovered THIS. It made my week and I’ve been harassing him ever since. In ‘Hair Of The Dog’ we’ve found a way to intertwine our work further. David has created 50 screen prints and we’ll be stamping download codes onto the back of these. The run is obviously limited and it’s a bit of an experiment but we’re keeping the price low at £5 each. The tracklisting has not yet been revealed but it’s already available to pre-order over at the Red Deer Club webshop.

As part of the launch we’re holding an exhibition of David’s work (featuring pieces closely related to his work on ‘Master Of None’) at Mono from Nov 25-27.

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2. Sound installation : Nov 25-27 : free

I’ve worked closely with Zero Waste Design to produce what will hopefully be an interactive sound installation which will let you mix the elements of my album and, maybe maybe maybe, let you do so in surround sound. It doesn’t involve sitting at a computer screen or anything like that. It’s a bit more lo-fi, hands on and fun. You’ll just have to come see for yourself.

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3. Remix album launch / exhibition closing party : Nov 27 : 7.30pm

We’ll have live sets from BEN BUTLER & MOUSEPAD + DEMS + GRNR

and special guest DJ sets from FOUND + THE JAPANESE WAR EFFORT

(all of them having contributed to the remix album)

It is going to be fuuuuuuun.

TICKETS are only £4 (because I love you).

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Hope you can make it along!

That was CAPS LOCK FUN.

Listen again on the BBC iPLAYER til Tues 8th Nov

So, on Tuesday the 1st of November at 7pm I will be up to high do in the Marc Riley studio.

I am both extremely excited and extremely nervous.

Peter & I had a quick practise this afternoon just to make sure we think we know what we’re doing.

My first ‘Jonnie Common’ London show is this Sunday at Hallowe’en Music Fair

Loads of great folk playing this all-day event at Cecil Sharp House.

Really looking forward to this. Especially seeing fellow Red Deer Clubbers, Stealing Sheep for the first time and Sweet Baboo again.

The next day I’ll be doing a wee opening set for the Fence Records Hallowe’en Party at The Wilmington Arms before zipping up the road to get ready for my Marc Riley session the next night.

That’s the real scary bit!

I’ve got a few live dates coming up with my good pals The Travelling Band.

They’re in the middle of a hefty EU/UK tour and were kind enough to invite me along to support at a couple.

OCT 20 : Electric Circus : Edinburgh : TICKETS

OCT 21 : Tolbooth : Stirling : TICKETS

NOV 02 : Academy 3 : Manchester : TICKETS

Really looking forward to these dates.

I tried to grow a beard in celebration but it’s absolutely shit and is getting shaved off tomorrow.

Due to some very generous but slightly inaccurately timed promotion courtesy of the lovely Song, By Toad records, people are under the impression that Oct 3rd is a day for the diaries. So, rather than just letting that slip silently into the ‘what happened there?’ drawer, the extremely limited remaining physical copies of Deskjob are available from the Toad shop NOW.

When they’re gone, they’re gone.

Long live Toad. “Semper Bufo!”

ps. Though it features two of the bands on their roster, Deskjob isn’t actually a Song, By Toad release but Matthew is incredibly supportive of the project and we thought this would be a good way to confuse the issue even more :)