Chris Johnson has spent much of the last 12 months working with  the very talented Heather Findlay, both with a full band and as an acoustic duo. In September they staged a tiny one off gig in a cafe where the 30 attendees were treated to wine, song, silliness and nibbles in return for being a brilliant audience. The performance was recorded and is now available as the CD album Live at The Cafe 68.

It features songs from the pair's collected back catalogue, stripped down to their vulnerable, naked, quivering cores and perfomed with great intimacy and affection. Sounds filthy, doesn't it?

It's a wonderful record of a magical evening and will be available shortly from this website. Hurray!

 halo BLIND! had a wonderful time at the Isle of Wight festival last weekend. Check out the photos opposite. We were well looked after and spent much of the time schmoozing around the backstage bar. We were on the Garden Stage with the likes of The Pierces, The Charlatans and Roachford, and had a great slot on the Friday when the sun was still shining! We played hard and soulful and had attracted a sizeable crowd by the end of the set who all cheered heartily even though hardly any of them would have known the tunes. That's a great result! We made friends with the stage manager who said he thought we were the best band of the weekend on his stage!! Cheers Uri! Rich (our fearless tour manager) managed to blag a private campsite for us with hot showers that we were locked out of when they turned out to be Tom Jones dressing room. Chris F rocked so hard that he actually fell asleep on his feet in the crowd during the Foo Fighters set with everyone going nuts around him.  Andrea Corr nicked Chris' keyboard stand but he says he doesn't mind as long as she brings it back personally. Everybody took the piss out of Chris Js bright red waterproof trousers until Sunday when they all got soaking wet and he stayed nice and dry (Ha! In your FACE Farrell!) All in all a fast, fun, rocking weekend! Woo Hoo!

 halo [blind] are playing a warm up gig next Wednesday 8th June in Kennedys Bar in York to showcase their set for the Isle of Wight Festival. Yet to make this intimate and special appearance all the more awesome, Heather Findlay will also be appearing, performing material from her debut solo release "The Phoenix Suite" alongside other tracks from her impressive back catalogue of gorgeous songs.  She'll be playing acoustic versions of her songs with our very own Chris Johnson. This is a rare opportunity to see Heather playing her new tracks. And its ONLY A DAMN FIVER ON THE DOOR!!! (we need petrol money to get all the way to the Isle of Wight). Be well, but be there! You'll be kicking yourself if you don't....

You can buy Heather's brilliant "Phoenix Suite' from heatherfindlay.net

 Halo Blind will be playing a low key warm up gig to get ready for their appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival next week. The gig will be at Kennedys Bar in Swinegate, York on Wednesday 8th June. 

 

Thrillingly. THRILLINGLY. halo blind are appearing at the Isle of Wight Festival on Friday 10 June 2011.

We will be playing on the Garden Stage at 17.30. 

I am completely beside myself as you can imagine. The Isle of Wight is a legendary festival, this year headlined by Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon and Kasabian,  and we are very VERY fortunate to have been invited to play. We have a full 30 minutes to blast out a zinging, kicking, thunderous, hardball, nuclear, seismic, sizzling kit kat chunky of a set to hopefully win over some new fans.

If you are going, please come see us play!! We desperately need you in the audience as not many people are like to have heard of us. We need to whoops and cheers from the hardcore!

Chris J. x

 
Paddy's a new dad and can't work with us right now but happily we have a tremendous new bass dude in Stuart Fletcher. Stuart is world class. He's best known as the bass player from The Seahorses and The Yards (who Chris Farrell played with as well). He also toured as bass player for the Happy Mondays, St Etienne and The Calling. He's a powerful player. I cannot wait to hear Gav and Stuart pounding the Isle of Wight to mush! If you can, BE THERE

 Halo Blind won an Award! We were declared BEST NEW BAND at the Classic Rock Society award ceremony on 14th March (though we won it under the name Parade). Chris was climbing in the Himlayas at the time but Anne Marie accepted the award for us with her customary charm and grace. Everyone here is thrilled to receive such recognition so to anyone who helped us to get the award, including everyone that has bought The Fabric or been to a gig, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

On the same night Gavin won the Award for Best Drummer because he is so tremendously talented. He's better known for working with Mostly Autumn and Panic Room but we still feel really chuffed to have an award-winning drummer playing with us. Nice one Gav!

AND...Anne Marie won the award for CRS Personality ( I think they made it up for her! ). Well done Anne - its because you're such a sparkly star face. We love you too!