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– – December 19th - NEWS BITS – The RADIO BALLADS are repeated on BBC Radio 2 starting on Christmas Day at 9pm (check listings)... The Bad Pennies were in the recording studio last week, working on a track called ALL IN A DREAM, a song by Steve Tilston, that will be included on a various artists compilation of Steve’s songs to be released next year. The recording was done at Studio One in Washington, County Durham with engineer Ron Angus, where Kate Bramley’s LITTLE CANAAN album was recorded earlier this year… Jez’s weekly column for the Northern Echo newspaper is once more available to read on-line, after some months in limbo. In fact you can read all of his recent bulletins together at www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/leisure/music/folk (though any UNDATED articles are NOT by him despite the by-line at the top)… Sylvia Barnes, Jez’s long-time friend and co-vocalist from the 1980’s, has just won “Scots Singer of the Year” in the Scottish Folk Music Awards! Congratulations Sylvia!…

December 11th – There are two new tracks on Jez’s MY SPACE website. They are both “live” versions of songs currently in the Bad Pennies’ stage repertoire – LATCHKEY LOVER and DOVER, DELAWARE. The former is originally from the HONESTY BOX album, which is still available, but the latter is from the 1993 album BEDE WEEPS, which is now deleted by Fellside Records. So many people have asked to hear Jez’s own version of the song, since the Canadian band The Duhks released their version last year, that it was decided to make this version available for listening only, on the MY SPACE site, which is available through from the LINKS page of this site. A "live" version of ALL TRAWL AND NO TICKLE by The Bad Pennies is still available for listening on Kate Bramley's MY SPACE site, also accessible from our LINKS page.

December 5th - Some startling recording news! According to the monthly Midnight Mail newsletter that has just been sent out by e-mail to everyone on the mailing list, a new Jez Lowe album is indeed due for release in April next year, and will be a SOLO album, his first proper release without the Bad Pennies for over fifteen years. Members of the band will be involved in the project, but it seems that Jez has chosen to include other musicians and a guest producer this time, and judging by the names being tossed around, it’s going to be quite a major departure in style. Recording starts in a studio in Devon in the West of England in January. More news as soon as we are allowed to give it. The newsletter also announces that Jez will be contributing to new albums by UK folk stalwarts Steve Tilston and Les Barker in the coming months.

December 2^nd – We start the new-look news-page with the winds of change blowing. Sad to say that Sean Taylor played his final gig with The Bad Pennies last night, at the Concordia Centre in his hometown of Cramlington, Northumberland. Sean has been with the band since April 2004, but took the decision to leave at the end of last summer, to spend more time at home with his wife Sarah and their two young sons. He decided to make Cramlington his final show, not least because the concert is part of a regular series run by his father Keith Taylor, a well-known and respected promoter in North East England. Jez and the band are very sorry to see Sean go, but his place will be taken by one of Tyneside’s top bass-players, David de la Haye, who depped with them last summer, and who is known for his work with The Shona Mooney Band. David will be with The Bad Pennies for all their forthcoming UK gigs into the New Year, starting with some club gigs next week.

NOVEMBER 27th - NEWS BITS – The RADIO BALLADS will be repeated on BBC Radio 2 on consecutive nights over the Christmas period. The January Celtic Connections performance will also be recorded by the BBC for later broadcast… The new pressing of the LIVE AT THE DAVY LAMP double CD has slightly different packaging to the original. It omits the original song notes, and the inside photographs have been replaced by a page showing the entire Tantobie Records catalogue, which includes Kate Bramley’s LITTLE CANAAN album, but omits the FIGHTING THE TIDE soundtrack album, which we must now assume has been deleted… In his Northern Echo newspaper column this week, Jez mentions that his website is due for an “overhaul” soon, and will soon include a page of links to as many North East England folk websites as care to contact him, by way of a “resource” for local folk music enthusiasts. We assume there’ll still be a page for our news column… More Youtube clips from the recent Sheffield Folk festival include footage of the band playing WILL OF THE PEOPLE. Apparently we can also expect some songs from a recent Dutch TV show to emerge soon…

November 20th - THIS JUST IN – January’s Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow have just announced their list of events for 2007. It includes THE RADIO BALLADS on January 22nd, a special live performance featuring many of the participants in the BBC series, including Jez Lowe, along with Kate Rusby, Karine Polwart, John Tams, John McCusker, Bob Fox and Andy Cutting. The first half of the show will be a selection of songs taken from the whole series, followed in the second part by a performance of BALLAD OF THE BIG SHIPS, which includes no less than SIX of Jez’s songs. Full details are at the Celtic Connections website. Concerning Jez’s RADIO BALLADS songs, there are still several that are “unaccounted for”, that is, not made available in complete demo form through Jez’s MY SPACE website. Could it be that these are being saved for the new album? Last night’s set list from Jez’s solo gig in Guisborough has been sent in by Richard Best of Whitby, and includes a new song, THE SEA AND THE DEEP BLUE DEVIL, as well as a rare outing for STEAM AND FREEDOM, and two of those “missing” RADIO BALLADS songs, THE MIAMI and TAKING ON MEN.

November 15th - All six of the BBC Radio Ballads programmes are now out on CD, and an insert included in the CD booklets announces the release of a seventh album, "The Songs of The Radio Ballads", featuring contributions from TWENTY SEVEN singers and musicians, including Jez. We can now tell you which of Jez's songs are featured - there are SIX, as promised, these being UNPROTECTED, ON HORSEBACK, GOOD DOG AND TRUE, SCHOLARS IN WINTER, OLD HAMMERHEAD and THE GREAT VOLTAIRE. Looking at the list, Jez is featured vocalist on only one - OLD HAMMERHEAD, this being a new recording of the track from 1990's BRIEFLY ON THE STREET album. The other songs are handled by Bob Fox, Kellie While, and Barry Coope. Although touted as being "Available Now", it's not certain that this is the case. We had heard a January release date mentioned. Meanwhile, there's more film of Jez on Youtube, a very brief clip from the recent Sheffield Folk festival, featuring two verses of GREEK LIGHTNING.

November 11th - CD NEWS - The Saltburn Festival album that was issued last August, featuring tracks recorded "live" at the 2005 event, actually features TWO Bad Pennies tracks, TOM TOM and ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE... Among the Jez Lowe items currently available on Ebay is a "Buy Now" copy of his 1993 album BEDE WEEPS, which is now unavailable elsewhere. The rest of the albums are available from this website, cheaper and with the occasional free gift... GIG NEWS - Two more UK festivals in for Jez next year, at Darlington, County Durham on March 17th and Skipton, Yorkshire on July 7th. American readers should note that the Bad Pennies gig at The Opera House, Belleville Ohio on April 17th has been suddenly cancelled by the promoter... A concert at Johnny D's in Somerville near Boston, one of Jez's favourite US venues, has just been added to this tour.

November 6th - NEWSBITS... There'll be about SIX Jez Lowe songs on the RADIO BALLADS "Songs Only" CD due for release in January, each one handled by a different vocalist rather than Jez himself. All the participating writers are well represented on the disc. The track-list will be announced shortly... Jez's good friend Sylvia Barnes (who provided vocal support on Jez's 1980 debut album and again on 1988's BAD PENNY LP) is up for an award in the forthcoming Scottish folk awards, as best traditional singer! Cast your votes now!!... Jez is recording again this week, we hear...

November 1st - Once again, there are two new songs on Jez's MY SPACE website. Both are RADIO BALLADS demo recordings as usual - HERE WE GO A-HUNTING from "Horn of the Hunter" and MONKEY DUNG MAN from "Ballad of the Big Ships". There's also a note on the Blog section of the site, saying that these will be the last of the RADIO BALLADS tracks to be made available, due to the impending release of the complete series on CD. It refers to the "songs only" CD that will complete the series, but mentions that it's not known if any of Jez's sogs will be included in that album.

October 30th – A set-list from Jez’s solo gig in Lewes last week – Set One – HARD LIFE FOR A ROVER / NORTHERN ECHOES / TAKING ON MEN / CRAKE IN THE MORNING / MY KEEL LAD / GALLOWAYS / FAN DANCER’S DAUGHTER / VIKINGS. Set Two – OLD BONES / GREEK LIGHTNING / GULL’S EYE / THE MIAMI / HAD AWAY GAN ON / CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU. Encore – ARMSTRONG’S ARMY (An unusual selection of songs, perhaps reflecting the “traditional folk” bias of this long-established venue)… A set list now from the Bad Pennies gig the very next night in Malvern – LATCHKEY LOVER / SUGAR WATER SUNDAY / WILL OF THE PEOPLE / LONDON DANNY / IN MY TRADE / ANOTHER MAN’S WIFE / THE WALTZER / VIKINGS / FRONTIERS / ALIBI CHILD / ANDY’S TUNES / CURSED BE THE CALLER / PROPPING. Encore – TOM TOM…

October 25th - NEWS BITS - www.radiobritfolk.com this week repeating their programme "The Best I Ever Saw" featuring Jez. He recalls the best concert he ever attended, by Irish band Planxty in the early 1970's... Some of the Bad Pennies' appearances at last summer's Canadian festivals are featured on post-event websites - Calgary Festival's website has a photo and Edmonton's has a couple of video clips... There's an interview with Jez at www.vivalewes.com to promote his solo gig at Lewes folk club on Thursday of this week... The band's last festival appearance of the year takes place at Sheffield this coming weekend. Details on the gig-list page of this site...

October 23rd - There's a rare live recording of The Bad Pennies doing ALL TRAWL AND NO TICKLE from a concert on last May's Dutch tour, now available at Kate Bramley's MY SPACE website, with a link from the homepage of this site.

October 17th – Newsbits – Those two new songs on Jez’s MY SPACE website are now readily accessible – there was some difficulty in logging on to them at first, due to a problem on the MY SPACE server… Kate Bramley’s MY SPACE site is also accessible from the homepage of THIS site, and includes music from her solo album… The UK record label Gott Discs released another two RADIO BALLADS CD’s on Monday, entitled “Horn of the Hunter” and “Swings and Roundabouts”. Both feature Jez Lowe songs, though Jez himself doesn’t appear on the latter album, which was recorded after he and the band had left for their American tour last February. Lester Simpson handles Jez’s compositions on this CD, including a song called “Building and Setting”, which is a precursor to THE WALTZER, a highlight of both the Bad Pennies’ current live set, and of Kate’s solo album LITTLE CANAAN (more at www.katebramley.com). The other new RADIO BALLADS CD features Jez throughout… Jez was indeed in the recording studio last week, working solo on demo tracks “somewhere in the South of England”. Recording proper will presumably follow in the next few weeks…

October 10th - Those two new songs on Jez's MY SPACE website have indeed appeared as promised - both from THE RADIO BALLADS programme "The Ballad of the Big Ships". and available for listening only, not download. The songs are THE GREAT VOLTAIRE and CARDS COME DOWN, both sung by Bob Fox in the original BBC broadcast.

October 8th - NEWS BITS - The Bad Pennies flew back from Germany on Friday, in time to play in Wolverhampton last night. Jez is solo in Loughborough tonight (Sunday). The word is that recording for a new CD might be starting this week, utilising the free weekdays, and then breaking for weekend live shows, and so on throughout the month, but there's no confirmation of this... The RADIO BALLADS CD "The Enemy Within", just released, has two Jez Lowe songs included, TABLETS and UNPROTECTED. The latter is sung by Bob Fox, though the sleeve notes credit it as sung by Jez himself... Meanwhile, Tantobie Records notified us that there are two new songs on Jez's MY SPACE website this week, but as of today this is not the case. It might be worth keeping an eye open on this over the next few days, via the link on the homepage of this site...

October 3rd - With Jez and the band currently on tour somewhere in Europe (Austria at this point?) there's only rumours to report. That "stage show" version of the RADIO BALLADS that was mntioned last week seems to be centred around next January's Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow. It's not clear at this point what Jez's involvement might be. Meanwhile the YOU TUBE website seems to have a bunch of Jez Lowe video available, if you can trace it. The latest we saw was a clip from last summer's Calgary Festival, from an outdoor stage, of the band playing KEEP THEM BAIRNS AWAY, along with The Mammals and Eliza Gilkinson.

September 28th - The Bad Pennies are in Germany for the next week - a full list of dates is on the GIGS page of this website. Meanwhile, the remaining four RADIO BALLADS programmes are set for imminent release by Gott records in the UK, plus a special "Songs only" disc featuring a selection of songs from the series. It's likely that several Jez Lowe songs will be included in this CD.

September 24th – NEWS BITS – With the internet site YOUTUBE currently in the news, we can report that Jez and the band have a video available for viewing on the site, an edit of YOU AND YOUR GOLDEN VANITY from the “Sight Rhymes” DVD, filmed at Bury St. Edmonds in 2004… Tantobie Records informs us that Jez’s 2000 double-CD release LIVE AT THE DAVY LAMP is due to be re-released next month. No extra tracks, and still including the original “Inter-active” track (featuring lyrics, lots of photos and a performance video of BAIT UP, a song not included in the audio portion of the disc). It is the fourth edition of the CD, and the first time it has been manufactured in the UK, having been produced in America in the past… The Bad Pennies’ acapella track ARMSTRONG’S ARMY, from “Honesty Box”, is featured on a TV documentary currently on rotation on a UK History Channel, about cross-border conflict in Northumberland in the 1700’s. It has to be noted that the programme makers have mixed up their Armstrongs! Jez’s song is about the Tyneside songwriter of the late 1800’s, not the border lord of that name from 250 years earlier… Finally, our friends at Tantobie Records insist that a new Jez Lowe album is still a possibility for early 2007. Plans should become clearer when Jez returns from Germany at the end of the month…

September 20th - The Bad Pennies were featured yesterday on American radio station W-UMB from Boston, in a repeat of their "LIVE AT NOON" performance from earlier this year - details of which we gave at the time of its original broadcast. Note there's also a nice mention for Jez in a review of the Blaydon Races Festival in the new edition of LIVING TRADITION magazine. There are also some additions to the gig list on this site for the end of this year. There's no more information on any recording plans for Jez at this point, and it's hard to see how anything will be fitted in with such a busy touring schedule over the next few months.

September 18th - Quite unexpectedly, the first two programmes from the BBC RADIO BALLADS series have been released on CD by Gott Records here in the UK. The titles are SONG OF STEEL and THE ENEMY WITHIN. Jez is only involved in the second of these, with two songs, UNPROTECTED (sung by Bob Fox) and TABLETS, sung by Jez himself. It's not known when the rest of the series will be made available, but a box set of all six, which will include an CD of additional material, is being touted. There is also talk of a stage show based around the series being planned for next year. Quite how all this affects Jez's own recording plans is not clear at this point.

September 13th - While we wait for more news on a forthcoming new album, our attention has been drawn to a CD released several months ago by Durham Education Authority, featuring a song written by Jez called "Cuna Dun", and performed by kids from a school in the village of Coundon near Durham. The CD also features a version of the song performed by Jez himself. It is likely to have been part of an ongoing role as Composer in Residence for Durham that Jez has been involved with for the last ten years! It is not on general release. Meanwhile Jez himself is doing solo gigs here in the UK, culminating in an appearance at Otley Festival in Yorkshire this weekend.

September 6th – Some sudden developments on the “new album” front. According to the Midnight Mail newsletter sent out last weekend to everyone who has signed up to his mailing list, Jez is currently getting set to record a new CD for release in the New Year. Recording should begin soon, it says, and will include several of the songs written for the RADIO BALLADS series, plus some other new songs. This is all a bit vague, but it’s the first sign that a new release might be on its way, some two and a half years after the release of DOOLALLY. Meanwhile, last weekend also saw the appearance of two new tracks on Jez’s MY SPACE website (link on the homepage of this site), again taken from the RADIO BALLADS demo-recordings, and once again, both from the “Horn of the Hunter” episode. Titles are THE HOUSE ON THE HILL (sung by Barry Coope in the radio series) and HORSEBACK (sung by Kelly While in the series). They are available for listening but not down-load. This makes eight songs so far made available from the RADIO BALLADS, though which, if any of these are being considered for any new CD is anyone’s guess.

September 2nd - SET LIST from last night's Bad Pennies concert in Oswestry, Wales - Set 1 - BACK IN DURHAM GAOL / WILL OF THE PEOPLE / SUGAR WATER SUNDAY / DOVER,DELAWARE / ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE / THE WALTZER / KEEP THEM BAIRNS AWAY / VIKINGS - Set 2 - LATCHKEY LOVER / HOI POLLOI / ALL TRAWL / ANDY'S TUNES / CALICO / FANCY GOODS / GREEK LIGHTNING / CURSED BE THE CALLER / PROPPING - Ecore 1 - HIGH PART OF THE TOWN - Encore 2 - THESE COAL TOWN DAYS - Thanks to John Frampton for sending this in. NOTE - The gig-list page on this site has been updated, with some new concerts from as early as next month.

August 30th - The Bad Pennies' appearance at last weekend's Tonder Festival in Denmark seems to have been a fine old time. As well as two formal sell-out concert spots and a solo set from Jez, there were mainstage appearances that included a fair amount of informal interaction. Jez was backed by Tim O'Brien and Darryl Scott at the Saturday songwriters forum, then the whole band were joined by Brian McNeil and percussionist Martin O'Neill at the final mass-ceilidh on Sunday afternoon to round the whole thing off. The Monday night free-for-all "volunteers concert" saw them joined on-stage by the whole of the Shona Mooney Band, Tim O'Brien, Brian McNeil and members of Hayseed Dixie! There was no following that. The band's agent Bob Gilchrist promises us photographs from the event!August 28th - The Bad Pennies are still at Tonder Festival in Denmark, where much stage-sharing and jamming has apparently been the order of the day - a full report later this week. Meanwhile, the band return for a gig in Oswestry, Wales this coming Friday, and then Kate Bramley has a solo gig at City Screen in York - a benefit for a local charity, featuring a number of local songwriters, including Edwina Hayes, who appears on Kate's LITTLE CANAAN album. Note also there's a short piece about the late John Alderson written by Jez on his MY SPACE blog page.

August 23rd - After a brief weekend respite, Jez and the band are already on their way to Tonder Festival in Denmark, where they will be appearing from Friday through Monday. They also have a track on the offical Tonder Festival CD, released to coincide with the event. Meanwhile, some great reviews from the recent North American trip are filtering though, notably from Calgary Festival. Note also that Kate's CD LITTLE CANAAN was "officially" released last MOnday, and is now available through Proper Distribution here in the UK. Overseas listeners are able to buy it only from our website at the moment. Finally, if anyone can give us information on a recent cover-version of Jez's song GALLOWAYS, somewhere in the USA, please drop us a line at jez@jezlowe.com - thanks.

August 17th - As Jez and the band head home from the USA, news reaches us that the County Durham-born actor John Alderson has died in California. He was the subject of Jez's song I SAW HANDS, and came over from Hollywood to attend the launch of Jez's HONESTY BOX album in Newcastle in 2002. Mr Alderson had appeared in films alongside the likes of John Wayne, Tom Cruise and Elvis Presley. He was 86.

August 13th - Jez and the band are at Edmonton Festival - an email from Albie Shannon of Vermillion Alberta tells us that after a great concert spot on stage one on Friday night, the band's set on Saturday morning was rudely interrupted by a freak hail storm that stopped the show and sent 50% of the audience scurrying off for shelter, Undeterred, Jez led the assembled company through a 6 minute version of "Singing in the Rain", with Show of hands, Lennie Gallant and James Keelaghan joining in! The storm over, the workshop continued. Later Jez came on stage during Keelaghan's set for s duet on MY BLOOD, their co-composition, just released on James' mew CD A FEW SIMPLE VERSES. The festival continues today.

August 9th - The Bad Pennies were at the Mill Race Festival in Cambridge Ontario last weekend, and as well as their own concert spots, there was apparently a significant amount of solo action by the various members of the band, with much collaboration with other artists to boot. A list of songs performed at the festival was sent to Lowe Life music for logging with the SOCAM performing rights society, and we snuck a look... included are BROCKIE LADS, WILL OF THE PEOPLE, Kate's CARTER'S FAIR, and TAKING ON MEN, all apparently performed by the whole band! We heard also that Jez is playing a new guitar on this tour, "a slim-lined cut-away" was how it was described to us. The Mill Race event was seemingly a much more laid-back weekend compared to both Calgary Festival, and to this weekend's Edmonton Festival, which is on a much bigger scale all round. Jez's MY SPACE blog is already proving popular, though how long he'll keep it going is difficult to say. Watch THAT space.

August 3rd - The Bad Pennies' concert in Peterborough Ontario was hit by a cyclone last night, and despite several power-outs, it continued through to a standing ovation, and a fine time for everyone. Unbeknown to us, Jez has started a sporadic "blog" report on his MYSPACE site, and you can read all about this by logging on to the site via the link on the home-page of this site. The band are in Oakville, near Toronto, tonight, with the Mill Race Festival in cambridge to follow this weekend, featuring around a dozen "workshop" appearances by the individual members of the band, plus three late night concerts over the weekend.

August 1st - As promised, the Bad Pennies' Saturday concert at Calgary Festival was recorded by CBC Radio for broadcast in the near future. Jez also contributed to a CBC series about "Best songs ever written", to be presented later this year by DJ Tom Coxworth, and another about "What Canadian Folk Songs Mean To Me", again for broadcast later this year. The Bad Pennies have already recieved some extremely favourable mentions in post-festival "blogs" and reviews. They are now doing a gig in the Rocky Mountains, before heading over to Ontario tomorrow - full details on the gig page of this site.

July 30th - Thanks to John Dillard, who has written from the Calgary Folk festival in Canada, where Jez and the band are currently appearing. John heard Jez do three songs "live" on radio station CKUA-FM on Friday night (from an outside broadcast tent at the entrance gate to the festival) with a "live" audience in attendance. The band had an hour long concert spot yesterday that included "several new songs", but for the mini-concerts/workshops stages, Jez and Sean have teamed up for the song-based sessions, while Andy and Kate have handled the instrumental ones. There was a spectacular "you can all join in" set yesterday morning, where on-the-spot collaborations between Jez and Sean, Stephen Fearing, Garnett Rogers and The Mammals produced some spectacular results, and Andy is also playing with Finnish band Frigg at many of their concerts over the weekend. The festival continues today. Thaks again John, for this truly "up to the minute" report!

July 26th - News Bits - Part of The Bad Pennies set at last weekend's Rostrevor Festival was recorded for broadcast on Colum Sands' BBC Radio Ulster folk show, and should be aired withing the next few weeks. There's also an interview with Jez and a solo studio performance of THE MIAMI, one of the highlight's of Jez's RADIO BALLADS repertoire, to be included in this show. No more news on any official RADIO BALLADS album, though demos of Jez's songs continue to pop up on his MYSPACE website... The Bad Pennies are already en route to Canada, where they are due to appear at Calgary Festival this weekend... More rave reviews and some radio coverage too for Kate's new CD...

July 21st - Another two new songs are now available on Jez's MY SPACE website - once again, both are "demo" recordings of songs from the BBC RADIO BALLADS series, both this time from the "Horn of the Hunter" episode. The songs are SABOTEUR (sung by Jez in the broadcast) and GOOD DOG AND TRUE ( sung by Bob Fox - somewhat appropriately - in the series). The recordings feature Jez solo, though double-tracked at times. They are for listening only, as usual, not for downloading. There is a direct link to them at the top of the homepage of this site. Other news - great reviews already for Kate Bramley's new LITTLE CANAAN album, available mail-order from this site, with audio samples at www.myspace.com/katebramley... The Bad Pennies are in Northern Ireland for the Rostrevor Festival this weekend, and then head off next week for their Canadian tour which starts at Calgary Festival next Thursday.

July 20th - CD News - As well as a track on the forthcoming Saltburn Festival CD, The Bad Pennies also have a track on the Tonder festival album, previewing their appearance at this year's event in late August. there's also talk of a track on a forthcoming album of "peace songs" inspired by current events in the Middle East. Note too that James Keelaghan's new album is now released in canada, featuring Jez and James dueting on MY BLOOD RUNNING.

July 17th - NEWS BITS - There'll be two NEW songs from Jez at www.myspace.com later this week, replacing the two that have been there for the last month (check them out from the link on the homepage of this site)... The Bad Pennies are rehearsing this week in Northumberland for the upcoming Canadian tour, which is preceded by a festival in Northern Ireland next weekend... Jez duetted with Kristina Olsen at Bromsgrove Festival last Saturday, joining her for her encore of BATTLEPLAN, then bringing her up for the final song of his set, YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU - the first time the pair have played together since the once-only THREE NATIONS show in Australia, at Cobargo three years ago...

July 14th - It's Woody Guthrie's birthday... and Jez's too!!! Happy Bastille Day to all our French readers, sorry about the World Cup...

July 9th - There's quite a lot of coverage of Jez and the band in the new edition of the "Classic Rock Society" magazine - it's a "folk special", and includes a great review of the band's recent gig at Wentworth's Rockingham Arms club, a nice review of DOOLALLY and a short piece written by Jez himself, about collaborating with local rock and jazz musicians, seemingly referring to the BANNERS project of 1994. Details at www.classicrocksociety.net.

July 4th – News Bits – The Saltburn Festival in Northern England are about to release a compilation CD of recordings from last year’s event, including a “live” version of TOM TOM by The Bad Pennies, from the Saturday evening concert… Fairport Convention’s 1996 version of Jez’s LONDON DANNY has just been re-released on a Fairport compilation CD "The Classic Collection"… A cover of THE OLD DURHAM ROAD has just been released by a group called Last Orders who are based on the Isle of Wight, off England’s south coast….Kate Bramley’s new album includes Jez’s song THE WALTZER, from The Radio Ballads, which is also currently featured in the band’s concert repertoire… It seems likely that more Radio Ballads material will be released by BBC Records later this year, directly from the recordings used on the radio series… There’ll soon be an archive page on this site, with links to some notable Bad Pennies past events, including film of their January 2000 appearance at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, a legendary review of THE PARISH NOTICES from the US radio show “All Things Considered” in 1998, and lots more besides…

June 30th - Some tit-bits from the newsletter just sent out by The Midnight Mail to people on the mailing-list... Kate's album is out in ten days, and can be ordered on-line or by post right now... This month's special offer for mail-order customers of ALL albums from this site is a FREE copy of the LOWE LIFE 5-track CD that was released as a promo in 1999, featuring "live" or exclusive versions of GLAD RAGS AGAIN, BAIT UP, LAST OF THE WIDOWS, BIG MEETING DAY and A LONG WALK HOME (i.e. a track from every recent album at that time). This has long been one of our own favourite little off-beat items in the Jez Lowe discography, and still gets lots and lots of air-play around the world. Also, note that Jez's solo gig in Grimsby has been moved from July 9th to July 16th, so as not to clash with the final of the World Cup.

June 28th -Some radio slots coming up - The Bad Pennies' appearance at the forthcoming Calgary Festival will be recorded for a CBC Radio show called "The Circuit", and broadcast later in the year. Kate Bramley will be interviewed on an internet station called expatsradio.com on the subject of Radio Britfolk, sometime this week. One we missed was last week's TV programme about TV newsreader Mike Neville, who is retiring from the job after 45 years. Jez wrote the song "Mike Neville Said It So It Must Be True" back in 1993, and this was heavily featured in this programme. Footage of The Bad Pennies playing the song on BBC TV in 1994 was to be included on the SIGHT RHYMES DVD, but permission was refused.

June 25th - Jez and the band leave for their festival tour of North America a month from now, and in the meantime things are pretty busy, one way or another: Jez has solo appearances in South Yorkshire and Humberside, plus a festival in Bromsgrove... Kate has a SOLO gig in Maidenhead (July 6th) and is anticipating the release of her LITTLE CANAAN solo CD.... Sean has gigs with both his bands, Los Twangeros and Diesel therapy... and Andy is at Rothbury Traditional Music festival (judging the pipe competitions), and with Simon Haworth in Cumbria in mid-July. There are two Bad Pennies gigs also, at Marlborough Jazz festival on July 8th and at Rostrevor Festival in Northern Ireland on July 23rd... then it's off to Calgary, Edmonton, Ontario and Connecticut for 3 weeks. And YES, Sean was back on bass for last Friday's Teignmouth Festival gig!

June 20th - NEWS BITS - The Bad Pennies played at last weekend's Northampton Folk In The Park Festival, and once again Dave de la Haye was on bass for the hour-long set. Dave is part of fiddler Shona Mooney's band. Sean Taylor should be back in time for next weekend's Teignmouth Festival in Devon, English folk band Isambarde's new album Barnstorming is now out, with a fine version of Jez's song OLD BONES included. Details at www.isambarde.co.uk The two new songs at www.myspace.com/jezloweandthebadpennies are proving very popular. They'll be there for about a month, before being replaced by another two. A direct link to the site from our home-page is imminent. Meanwhile at www.myspace.com/katebramley you can hear two tracks from her forthcoming LITTLE CANAAN album.

June 17th - There are two new Jez Lowe songs to be heard at www.myspace.com/jezloweandthebadpennies - both from THE RADIO BALLADS series. Original demo recordings of BOTHER AT THE HOPPINGS (sung by Bob Fox in the "Fairgrounds" episode) and STROKE CITY (written for, but never used in the "Northern Ireland" episode) are there now to listen to, but not download. In the latter case, this really is a unique chance to hear what would otherwise have been a "lost" song, as it was left out of the final runiing order of the programme. Meanwhile, Jez was last-minute stand-in for Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, who were both sick, at the Tynefolk Club in Newcastle last Thursday night. His set included MY KEEL LAD, STAIN UPON THE SNOW and STREETS OF DERRY, according to the list kindly sent in by Julie Rossiter - thanks Julie.

June 15th - There a few additions to the various Bad Pennies websites worth checking out - at www.katebramley.com you can find full details of Kate's forthcoming solo album LITTLE CANAAN, including some brief sound samples. On this site there is a further installment to the "Around the World in 40 Days" Tour Diary, concentrating on the New Zealand leg of the tour, and finally, in the next couple of days at www.myspace.com/jezlowe there will be two NEW unreleased Jez Lowe tracks to listen to. The previous two songs have been taken off the site already.

June 12th - The Bad Pennies are at Northampton "Folk in the Park" Festival next Sunday - and it's FREE entry... Meanwhile, don't forget the "Two items for the price of one-and-a-half" offer on the mail-order page of this website, which will continue to the end of June... Jez's solo gig at last week's Blaydon Races Festival was "a stunner", according to the review in the local press! "The North East's best songwriter and best kept secret", it says!

June 8th - Yesterday's Radio Newcastle appearance by Jez was a 15 minute slot, with a long-ish interview, covering the "Round The World in 40 Days" tour, this weekend's Blaydon Races Festival, and various other topics. Jez sang TAKING ON MEN from THE RADIO BALLADS "live" on air. Interviewer was popular afternoon host Julia Hankin, on who's show Jez has appeared many times before over the years. Jez appears late Saturday at the Blaydon Races gig, which runs all weekend. Meanwhile, Kate's album is finished, and will be mastered this week, with a mid-July rush-release date, according to our distribution sources. We hope to have a link direct to a special page on Kate's own website, with full tracklisting, sound-samples and the odd photo or two, as soon as we can.

June 6th - Jez is scheduled to play "live" tomorrow afternoon at 3pm UK time on BBC Radio Newcastle, to promote next weekend's "Blaydon Races Folk Festival" near Newcastle, where he appears on Saturday along with Tom McConville, Johnny Handle, Alistair Anderson and many more. The actual Blaydon Races (which have famously given names to a popular song and country dance) is a "foot-race", run for hundreds of years, and takes place on Friday, the day before the music festival. Details at www.blaydonracesfolkmusicfestival.co.uk - tickets still available.

June 2nd - More News Bits Fellside Records have just released a 3-CD set commemorating their 30 years of operating. Entitled LANDMARKS, it features a track from BRIEFLY ON THE STREET, the very first Bad Pennies album (and the only one of their releases to be issued on all three formats, LP, cassette and CD, according to the sleeve notes) and featuring Jez with Bev Sanders and Rob kay. the song is NO FUN WITHOUT FOOLS A magazine called CLASSIC ROCK will feature a review and article on Jez and the band, in its next issue, which they are devoting to the thriving UK folk scene. We think it's available by subscription only. Jez's weekly column in the Northern Echo newspaper provoked its own frontpage headline yesterday, exclaiming "Why no folk music on ITV asks Jez Lowe". We'll let you know if he gets a reply. THE RADIO BALLADS are likely to be repeated by BBC Radio 2 at some point, and there's even talk of some sort of CD release after that. But meanwhile some of Jez's songs are filtering through, with cover versions slated for albums by Bob Fox, Colin Peterson and Kate Bramley. No word on jez's own plans though

May 31st - News bits... According to the latest Midnight Mail newsletter, Jez is confirmed as the producer of Kate's new album, which is almost completed... Last weekend's gig at The Black Horse Festival in Telham, saw The Bad Pennies joined by stand-in bass-player Dave Delahaig, well-known Tyneside musician, as Sean Taylor was at the CD launch for his band Diesel Therapy in Newcastle last Saturday. Sean will be back on duty at the next band show later this month... Check out the CD page at this site, as the mail-order special offers (Two for the price of one-and-a-half) come into effect tomorrow...And don't forget to use the new guestbook!

May 27th - We at the Midnight Mail are pleased to announce the arrival of a brand new guestbook! Apologies for all the problems we've been having of late with spam on the guestbook page... hopefully the new book will help keep the page clear of uninvited guests! However, let us extend a warm invitation to all of you to drop us a line if you have seen Jez or the Bad Pennies out and about and want to send a comment, or just want to get in touch about any aspect of Lowe Life Music, Tantobie Records or Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies.

May 24th - More on Kate's solo album... apart from the rest of the Bad Pennies, there will be contributions from singer Edwina Hayes and old friend James Keelaghan, who is currently on tour in the UK. Sessions are at Studio One, the Tyneside studio where both DOOLALLY and TENTERHOOKS - THE ART EDITION were mastered. Meanwhile various Bad Pennies are also involved as session-players in music recitals at Newcastle University's Folk Music Degree Course, where the students have their finals this week. Jez is also involved in yet another BBC radio programme, details of which will surely follow.

May 19th - Kate Bramley starts work on a new solo CD next week, with Jez, Andy and Sean among those involved in the recording. We hope to have more details on this in the week ahead. Meanwhile, the band are at Wentworth tonight and Corfe Mullen tomorrow, with two festivals next weekend, The Black Horse Festival at Telham, East Sussex and the Chatham Maritime Festival in Kent, the latter of which features Jez solo over two days - details on the gig page of this site. Reviews still coming in for SIGHT RHYMES, all of which heap praise on the variety of content in the 90 minute DVD.

May 14th - A new page on this site - TOUR DIARY - features the first part of a journal from the recent "Around the World in 40 Days" tour, covering the American leg of the trip. It includes contributions from the band, and will be followed by reports on the New Zealand and Australian parts of the tour. ALSO, Tantobie Records are about to announce a "Summer Sale" of CDs through the mail-order facility of this site, which will be "two for the price one and a half", to anywhere in the world, (e.g. two CDs or a songbook and a DVD for £15 in the UK). This will last through the month of June only.

May 9th - A HOT TIP - If you log on to a web-site called www.myspace.com and search for Jez Lowe, you can hear two songs from THE RADIO BALLADS sung by Jez - THE MIAMI and UNPROTECTED, in their original "demo" format, as sent to the producers of the series. These tracks have been available for listening, but NOT for download, for several weeks apparently, but someone forgot to tell us! More tracks may follow... Meanwhile, that new Bad Pennies song, THE LAD ON THE WALTZER, is a re-working of the RADIO BALLADS song BUILDING AND SETTING, as sung by Barry Coope on the "Fairgrounds" edition of the series, and now sung by Kate Bramley... Finally check out the latest edition of the UK folk magazine LIVING TRADITION, which features an article about Fellside Records, and includes some interesting background on how Jez came to make his debut album for them all those years ago. Elsewhere in the magazine, there's also an impressive list of festivals that Jez and the band are appearing at this coming summer.

May 7th - Set list for last night's concert by The Bad Pennies at The Regal Theatre, Worksop UK - Set One - LATCHKEY LOVER / SUGAR WATER SUNDAY / FRONTIERS / LONDON DANNY / IN MY TRADE / ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE / THE LAD ON THE WALTZER / VIKINGS - Set Two - HOI POLLOI / GREEK LIGHTNING / ANDY'S TUNES / ALL TRAWL / HARD LIFE FOR A ROVER / CURSED BE THE CALLER / THE GUILTS - Encore - LAST OF THE WIDOWS.... The new song, THE LAD ON THE WALTZER, was sung by Kate and introduced as having been written for the RADIO BALLADS series. As it doesn't feature on our list of those songs, we assume it's an "unused" song from that series. Our correspondent reports that there were a lot of new arrangements included in the set, and that a fine time was had by all!

May 2nd – Jez and the band are en route from their first concerts in Northern Ireland, at last weekend’s Folk In The Park Festival near Omagh, to the start of their upcoming UK tour which kicks off at Edinburgh’s Pleasance Bar tomorrow night, then on through Ulverston, Worcester and Worksop, before their first English festival of the year at Cromer next Wednesday. There’s talk of new songs and a few surprises, so any set-lists would be appreciated.

April 26th - Jez lowe's forthcoming UK dates start this Friday when he opens for Waterson/Carthy at the Whitby Moor and Coast festival on Friday. The Bad Pennies then join him for a rare trip to Ireland for the Omagh Folk In The Park festival, and then back to mainland Britain early next week for shows in Edinburgh, followed by Ulverston, Worcester, and Worksop, the band's first English concerts of 2006.

April 22nd - Set list from Jez's solo gig at Bacca Pipes, Keighley, Yorkshire, last night - Set One: WILL OF THE PEOPLE / OLD BONES / TAKING ON MEN / SUN AND THE MOON AND ME / ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE / SPITTING COUSINS / VIKINGS. Set Two: A SKIN TOO THIN / THESE COAL TOWN DAYS / CHICK HENDERSON'S MARCH / THE MIAMI / HAD AWAY GAN ON / TENTERHOOKS / YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. Encore - PROPPING. Please note that the RADIO BALLADS can still be heard from the BBC website ( link on home page of this site) BUT this will end soon. There are no plans at present to repeat the series, or have it made available in any other way, so catch them while you can.

April 20th - A busy weekend ahead for Jez and the band, starting with two solo gigs for Jez, at Keighley's famous Bacca Pipes folk club tomorrow, then Tamworth Assembly Rooms on Saturday, as part of the recently revived Tamworth Folk Moot. A very few tickets are available for both gigs - see our gig-list page for details. Then on Sunday The Bad Pennies re-assemble for only their second UK gig of 2006, at Glenfarg Folk Festival, where the band last played about five years ago. Jez goes on solo, to play a rare local gig in County Durham on Tuesday, at Newton Aycliffe's Candlelight Club

April 19th – NEWS BITS – The Bad Pennies’ relative absence from this summer’s UK festival scene is explained by confirmation this week of their appearances at a number of overseas events throughout July and August, including Edmonton Festival, Calgary Festival, Millrace Festival (all Canada), and Tonder Festival in Denmark… The enormous amount of radio coverage for The Bad Pennies during the “Round the World” tour centred on that four-track promo entitled SIGHT RHYMES, which consisted of songs lifted from the soundtrack of the DVD, plus a few oddities, such as TOM TOM, taken from an album called “Best of Woodsongs Live”, recorded for a Kentucky-based radio programme back in 2001, and a live recording of LATCHKEY LOVER that has surfaced on several compilations, but who’s origins are obscure… No word on broadcast dates of any of the Australian concerts recorded for radio, or of the Dutch radio and TV broadcasts… SIGHT RHYMES gets a very good review in STIRRINGS, a South Yorkshire folk magazine… The new edition of FOLK ON TAP, a magazine from South East England, carries another of Jez’s regular column, titled “Geordiewatch”… As we write, Andy May is at a pipers’ convention in Germany, Kate Bramley is rehearsing for her upcoming solo album, and Sean and Jez have been spotted hanging around guitar shops in Newcastle…

April 14th - Apparently BBC Radio Two's Folk Show recently asked listeners to nominate the song that made them cry the most! The results were announced on last Wednesday's show, and guess what - top of the list was GREEK LIGHTNING by Jez Lowe! Astonishingly, they didn't play it, but played the song that came THIRD instead, which was by Kate Rusby... Strange times. Ah well. Anyway, there are a whole bunch of new photos from the recent Bad Pennies World Tour that you can see by hitting the relevant button on the home-page of this site. Meanwhile Kate Bramley's own website is being revamped, Andy May's is currently "resting" and Sean Taylor has a couple of sites worth looking at - all available from the "Links" page of this site.

April 12 - The GIG LIST page has been updated, with initial details of all confirmed gigs up to and including February 2007 - Full details of venues and contact numbers will be added in the next couple of weeks. Some dates have also been added to the list between now and the summer, including new solo dates for Jez at Blaydon, Frosterley, Grimsby and Harthill, and The Bad Pennies' appearance at Northampton's Folk In The Park. There are also some SOLO dates for Kate Bramley included for later in the year.

April 11th - The Bad Pennies have staggered back from their European tour - a Scottish Folk Website mentions today that they met up with The McCalmans on the ferry trip home from Amsterdam - though their current whereabouts are unknown. Meanwhile, that new James Keelaghan album, which includes a duet between James and Jez on their joint composition MY BLOOD RUNNING, is almost ready for release. New albums too, we hear, from both Andy May and Kate Bramley, within the next few months!

April 8th - As The Bad Pennies Dutch tour winds down, thoughts turn to upcoming UK gigs, where the band has yet to play a show in England this year!!! One addition is the Black Horse festival near Hastings on May 27th, details of which are about to be added to the gig-list on this site, along with all the other forthcoming tour-dates. Things start on April 21st with a solo gig by Jez at Keighley's Bacca Pipes Club, followed by a couple of solo festivals (Whitby and Tamworth), a band trip to Glenfarg in Scotland, after which may will see the group hitting some UK venues at last.

April 6th - Jez and the band appeared last night on a special two hour concert for Gouda Ouest TV in Holland - playing a standard set of 90 minutes, plus an interview with the presenter. The programme will be broadcast later this month. There is a chance that excerpts will be available to view from this site, once clearance is given. The soundtrack of the filming will also be broadcast as a radio programme. The band appears tonight on Texel Island, north of Amsterdam, with Pete Morton sharing the bill.

April 3rd - The six Jez lowe songs included in last night's RADIO BALLADS programme on BBC Radio 2 were - TAKING ON MEN, BLACK TRADE, MONKEY DUNG MAN (all sung by Jez), THE GREAT VOLTAIRE and CAPS AND CARDS (sung by Bob Fox). Also included was a version of OLD HAMMERHEAD sung by Jez and the collaboration between Jez and Karine Polwart, YOU CAN'T WELD A BODY, sung by Karine. There was an article in yesterday's Sunday Sun, the well-known weekly North east of England newspaper, previewing the programme, based around last week's interview with Jez. You can hear this final RADIO BALLADS show by clicking on the link on this site. Jez himself is in Amsterdam with the band.

April 2nd - News from The Bad Pennies in Holland is that the whole band were interviewed by two seperate Dutch radio stations prior to their gig in Zevenaar last night, and that both gigs so far have been recorded by the venues - seemingly standard practice at these shows. One of the recording engineers had also unearthed a stereo recording of Jez and Jake Walton from a concert in Zaandam, near Amsterdam in 1986, and passed it on to Jez! The Dutch tour continues for the rest of this week. Meanwhile full details of tomorrow night's RADIO BALLADS show can be found on the BBC website, linked to the home-page of this site. There are previews of several new Jez lowe songs, sung by Bob Fox, plus the collaboration between Jez and Karine Polwart, sung by Karine. There are none of Jez's vocal tracks included.

March 30th - The Bad Pennies are in Holland, ready to start their two week tour, their first gigs in that country for almost three years. Meanwhile, expect around FIVE new Jez Lowe songs in next Monday's RADIO BALLADS programme on BBC Radio Two. There's also a CD coming from the Saltburn Folk Festival, in Northern England, recorded at last summer's event, featuring a track by Jez and the band. Finally, a last minute's addition to the gig-list, a festival in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on April 30th, the first time the group has played over there.

March 28th - Last night's RADIO BALLADS programme on BBC Radio 2 featured TWO new Jez Lowe songs, WAS IT SOMETHING THAT I SAID?, sung by Bob Fox, and THE MIAMI, sung by Jez himself, and currently one of the highlights of his "live" set. He was backed on the song by Michael McGoldrick on flute, Andy Cutting on melodeon, Andy Seward on bass, plus Cara Dillon and John Tams on backing vocals. Quite a line-up, it has to be said! The whole show can be heard again by clicking on the RADIO BALLADS link on the homepage of this site.

March 26th - Jez made it to his solo gig in Melling near Liverpool last night, looking somewhat exhausted according to our correspondent, who tells us that his set included WILL OF THE PEOPLE, TAKING ON MEN and THE MIAMI - and that they were all introduced as being from THE RADIO BALLADS, though we're not sure about that first one. Thanks to Roy from Southport for sending that in. Meanwhile, we hear that Jez has just been interviewed for an article in the North of England paper The Sunday Sun (not related to the notorious UK daily tabloid), and that an article will be published next weekend. Finally, the Dutch tour, which starts next Friday, will include a TV appearance in Gouda (not the cheese!) on the one free day, Wednesday, in the middle of the trip. More details if we get them. (Note - The Guest Book on this site will be restored shortly)

March 24th - The Bad Pennies were last heard from in Bombay, India, en route home from their World Tour, which ended with a sell-out appearance in frematle on Tuesday. Jez is scheduled for an appearance at Melling Tythe Barn near Liverpool for a charity concert this Saturday night (with local bands Garva and Loctup together), and then the whole band is off once more to Holland early next week - see gig-list for details.

March 21st - Last night's RADIO BALLADS on BBC Radio 2 was entitled SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS, and was the carnival programme, and included THREE new Jez Lowe songs - BOTHER AT THE HOPPINGS (sung by Bob Fox), and BUILDING AND SETTING and SCHOLARS IN WINTER, both sung by Barry Coope. Jez was not heard in the show, which was presumably recorded after he left for the World Tour. Next week's edition is the Irish programme, which should include Jez singing THE MIAMI, as featured on his solo gigs last January. There's a link direct to THE RADIO BALLADS on the homepage of this site.

March 20th - Last night's Bad Pennies concert for the Adelaide Festival Fringe was recorded, for broadcast on a South Australia radio station later this month - details to follow. Meanwhile, Jez and the band have already arrived in Perth, where they played two songs "live" on ABC Radio's "Afternoon Show" today, prior to the final gig of their World Tour, at renowned venue Kulcha in Fremantle, tomorrow night. They head back to the UK later this week in time for Jez to play a charity concert on Merseyside this Saturday (see gig list for details).

March 17th - The Bad Pennies are still in South Australia, with two shows this weekend (see gig-list page for details). Meanwhile THE RADIO BALLADS continues next Monday on BBCRadio 2, with a programme about fairgrounds, which includes a duet by Jez and Bob Fox on a new Jez Lowe song, BOTHER AT THE HOPPINGS.

March 15th - A fine time was had by all accounts at last weekend's Port Fairy Festival near Melbourne, on Australia's south coast. The Bad Pennies played a "no repeats" series of sets over the four days, including some on-stage collaborations with the likes of Kristina Olsen, David Francey, Bernard Carney and Chris While, before disappearing across the parched plains to the west, where they have appeared on Radio Adelaide with Julie Cavanagh (due for broadcast this coming Saturday evening - www.radio.adelaide.edu.au), and with Carol Whitelock on ABC Radio. Meanwhile, you can catch the RADIO BALLADS at the BBC Radio 2 website, and also hear a couple of Jez's songs in their entirety. We must mention that in at least one of the recent interviews down-under, the subject of new albums came up, and it seems likely that there are moves afoot in that direction in the not too distant future.

March 12th - The Bad Pennies are in scorching Port Fairy, Australia, one of the country's biggest folk festivals, for the next few days, before heading west to Adelaide for gigs next weekend. There's still ten days or more before they complete this round-the-world trip. There's a "live" radio broadcast set for this Wednesday, with Julie Cavanagh on Radio Adelaide, plus a further ABC Radio show set for Perth next Monday as the tour reaches its close. Meanwhile The Radio Ballads on BBC radio this coming Monday has a "hunting" theme, with around SIX new Jez Lowe songs included this time.

March 7th _ Last night's RADIO BALLADS was the programme about the AIDS epidemic, with two Jez Lowe songs, UNPROTECTED, sung by Bob Fox, and TABLETS sung by Jez. The full running order of the shows is up at the BBC Radio 2 website. The reaction to the series so far has been amazing! Things could "develop", we are cautiouly informed... Meanwhile, The Bad Pennies are still in New South wales, with a show in Cobargo tomorrow, then head to Melbourne for Thursday's gig, after which it's Port Fairy Festival..

March 5th - Set List from The Bad Pennies' gig at The Harp in Sydney last night - Set One:GLAD RAGS AGAIN / DURHAM GAOL / SUGAR WATER SUNDAY / LONDON DANNY / DOVER,DELAWARE / ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE / REGINA INSIDE / VIKINGS. Set two OLD BONES / A FEW FRONTIERS / ALL TRAWL AND NO TICKLE / ANDY'S SOLO / CALICO / FANCY GOODS / GREEK LIGHTNING / PROPPING. Encores - CURSED BE THE CALLER / YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU.

March 3rd - The Bad Pennies play the first concert of the Australian leg of their world tour in Canberra tonight. Jez and Kate played a couple of songs on ABC Radio National's Late Show from Sydney last night, which you can hear from the ABC website (GREEK LIGHTNING and TAKING ON MEN), and there's a whole show of "live" performances lined up for broadcast when the band reaches Adelaide later this month. More good news - James Keelaghan and his wife Micha just had a baby boy over in Winnipeg! Congratulations!

March 1st - You can listen again via the BBC Radio Two website, to not only the first part of the RADIO BALLADS series ("The best radio I ever heard", says the review!) and to BRASSED OFF, which featured Jez talking and playing (JOHNNY COLLIER and THESE COAL TOWN DAYS), both broadcast earlier this week. You can also find a link to the BBC RADIO BALLADS website, which promises interviews, sound-clips, photos and videos to accompany the series! Meanwhile The Bad Pennies finish the New Zealand leg of their world tour tonight in Auckland, and head to Sydney tomorrow, where Jez will be involved in some local radio upon arrival...

Feb 27th - Great reports from New Zealand on the band's current tour - they managed to play both Auckland Folk Clubs lathis last weekend, with two sets of material that were almost completely different. They are now in the South island for two shows down there. Meanwhile, THE RADIO BALLADS starts tonight on BBC radio 2, and tomorrow Jez can be heard on Radio 2 in the UK at 9pm as part of the Miners Strike programme.

Feb 20th - Jez and The Bad Pennies ended the American leg of the "Around the World in 40 Days" tour last night at a packed show at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, California. A big thanks from the band to all their friends and fans in the Bay Area, and at all the concerts in the US over the past ten days, all which have been fantastic by all accounts. The band left San Francisco for New Zealand this morning, and their first show at the Hamilton gardens Festival on Thursday. Meanwhile back in the UK, the upcoming RADIO BALLADS series has been getting heavy advertising on the BBC all last weekend. First programme airs a week from today. Watch out for news of another Radio programme the day after that, including Jez, about the 10983 UK Miners' strike. Details in a few days.

Feb 18th - Jez and the band played four songs "live" yesterday on Boston's W-UMB Radio - A FEW FRONTIERS, CURSED BE THE CALLER, ALL TRAWL AND NO TICKLE and VIKINGS, as well as getting involved in some good natured banter with the lady hosting the show. Later there was some sort of link-up between W-UMB and the BBC in England, alluded to during the show, for Jez to do some interviews about the RADIO BALLADS project. The band are in Connecticut tonight, heading west to Berkeley california for tomorrow night's gig at The Freight and Salvage (tickets still available for that!) and then continue west to Auckland on Monday.Feb 16th - The Bad Pennies are LIVE on Boston's W-UMB Radio tomorrow at noon EST - www.umb.org is the net address. Also Jez is interviewed by Bruce Lemin on Canberra station 2XX this weekend. There are a bunch of New Zealand radio interviews coming up next week too - watch this space...

Feb 15th - Kate Bramley was interviewed about Radio Britfolk on BBC Radio Five Live and The World Service last Monday night/ Tuesday morning on the programme UP ALL NIGHT. The interview was done by phone from the Bad Pennies' gig at Vooheersville in upstate New York. You might still be able to catch it on the BBC website..on Radio 5 Live is at this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/shows/rpms/fivelive/uan1_tue.ram Move the pointer to 1:46:36 for the interview.

Feb 12th - The Bad Pennies' US gigs got off to a rip-roaring start in New England last Friday, only to be thwarted by a snowstorm currently blanketing the North East of America. Tonight's show in Maine is OFF. Tomorrow in New York goes ahead. We were sent a set-list from Rhode Island - including LAST OF THE WIDOWS, THE GUILTS and the new song A FEW FRONTIERS, premiered at Celtic Connections last month. No songs from THE RADIO BALLADS so far. The band plays "live at noon" EST this coming Friday at www.umb.edu for Radio W-UMB in Boston.

Feb 7th - Jez has completed his recording for THE RADIO BALLADS - a full list of songs he has written for the series will be on this page soon. The band are off to the USA, after attending the BBC Folk Awards in London last night.

Feb 2nd -Jez has been doing a series of media interviews, starting with W-VIA FM in Pennsylvania, followed by a New Jersey newspaper, and also for that OTHER BBC Radio show, about music inspired by the UK union strikes of the mid-1980's. That programme is scheduled to go out on February 28th on BBC Radio 2, the day after the first RADIO BALLADS programme on that same station. Also, regarding the World Tour, as usual there is a radio-only promo CD, this time featuring four songs from the soundtrack of the SIGHT RHYMES DVD. This is being sent out across America and Australia. Left-over copies of these promo CDs sometimes show up on the merchandise table at Bad Pennies gigs, though the last one (which included a unique recording of the otherwise unreleased WORKING DIRTY), never did appear. Jez has one more solo gig to do in the UK, as well as some final recording for THE RADIO BALLADS, while Sean mixes the new Diesel Therapy album, Kate attends writers workshops in Yorkshire and Andy is in Finland, then it's off around the world next week.

Jan 30th - The "AROUND THE WORLD IN 40 DAYS" tour is only ten days away, beginning at the Blackstone River Theatre in Rhode Island USA, weekend after next. We're hoping to have regular updates from an "inside source" throughout the trip! Meanwhile Jez has more solo gigs next weekend, plus more recording for the RADIO BALLADS series to do before he and the band heads west. Meanwhile one of the folk internet newsgroups mentions that Jez played an impromptu set in a pub in London last week, backed by a mandolin player called Terry, and playing some new songs, plus a Bob Dylan song called Abandoned Love! Any witnesses?.

Jan 28th - NEWS BITS

www.radiobritfolk.co.uk feature Jez next week in their series "The Best I Ever Saw", where he apparently cites the Irish band Planxty as the most influential concert he ever attended... Jez will also soon be interviewed on Pennsylvania radio station W-VIA as a promo to the US dates on the world tour... ANOTHER new song at Jez's solo gig in Kingswinford last night, entitled THE MIAMI, and touted as being from the Radio Ballads once again. No more info on that... .

Jan 24th - MORE on the BBC Radio Ballads - the six programmes will cover the following topics - Steel making, Ship building, Fairgrounds, Aids, Northern Ireland and Fox hunting. Jez's songs will feature in all but the first of these. As well as the rumoured twenty new songs, there is a version of 1990's OLD HAMMERHEAD included, plus two collaborative efforts, one with Kate Bramley, and one with Karine Polwart. Confirmed titles so far include UNPROTECTED, THE GREAT VOLTAIRE, BLACK TRADE, STAIN UPON THE SNOW, GOOD DOG AND TRUE, TABLETS, BOTHER AT THE HOPPINGS, WHEN YOU'RE ON HORSEBACK, MONKEY DUNG MAN and TAKING ON MEN. Apart from the opening programme on Steel-making, the only other one definitely scheduled is the Ship-building show, which will be the last to go out.

Jan 21st - More on the forthcoming RADIO BALLADS series, which begins broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Monday February 27th. Jez has indeed written "around twenty" brand new songs for the series, (there are over 60 songs by various writers to be included), and has spent quite a lot of time in the past few weeks at John Tams' studio in Derbyshire helping with the recording of the six shows. As well as Jez himself, his songs will be handled by a variety of vocalists, including Bob Fox and Chris While. Jez is involved in all but one of the programmes, as singer, writer and musician. More recording sessions are taking place over the next few weeks, prior to Jez's departure for the "Around the world in 40 days" tour with The Bad Pennies. Meanwhile, we hear he threw in more songs from the series at his gig in Berkshire last night, including a "stunner" about foxhunting called THE STAIN UPON THE SNOW (we've already had an enquiry about which album it's on - of course none of these new songs are available yet). More details of the songs and the shows as soon as we get them.

Jan 19th NEWS UPDATES - Log on to www.radiobritfolk.co.uk this week to hear part one of Jez's programme about singer-songwriter-dramatist Alex Glasgow... Set list for The Bad Pennies' Celtic Connections gig last Sunday starts with a new song - LEAP A FEW FRONTIERS, and includes the first band version of LAST OF THE WIDOWS for ten years, plus a return to THE GUILTS... Jez's current solo sets include TAKING ON MEN, FAN DANCER'S DAUGHTER and lots of other dips into rare territory... and another BBC radio appearance for Jez in February, as part of a documentary about 1984's Miners Strike, more details soon...SET LIST from SOLO gig at Locomotion, Heighington, County Durham, Jan 16th 2006 - Set One - A SKIN TOO THIN / SWEEP HORIZONS CLEAN / THEY'RE TAKING ON MEN / THE BERGEN / ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE / JAPS AND ENGLISH / FAN DANCER'S DAUGHTER / VIKINGS. Set Two - WILL OF THE PEOPLE / CHICK HENDERSON'S MARCH / TOO UP AND TOO DOWN / HAD AWAY GAN ON / GALLOWAYS / TENTERHOOKS / GREEK LIGHTNING / HIGH PART OF THE TOWN. Encore - YANKEE BOOTS

Jan 10th - Set lists from last weekend's solo gigs show Jez stretching out a little - songs include FAN DANCER'S DAUGHTER, JAPS AND ENGLISH, LONG IRON, plus two new songs - WILL OF THE PEOPLE (which has been in and out of his solo set for the last few months), and THEY'RE TAKING ON MEN, which seems to be one of the new compositions for the forthcoming BBC Radio Ballads series... Tickets selling FAST for Celtic Connections next Sunday...

Jan 5th - Jez Lowe and The Bad Pennies' first gig of the year will be at The Tron Theatre in Glasgow, as part of the Celtic Connections Festival - the band's concert at this venue at last year's festival was a sell-out, and tickets are already selling fast, so get in there quick to avoid disappointment. Jake Walton will be a special guest at this show, by the way. Meanwhile, Jez kicks off a month of UK solo shows at Westhoughton in Lancashire tomorrow night - this is also usually a sell-out, so please check with the venue before turning up - Contact numbers for both these gigs are on the gig-list page of this website.

Jan 1st 2006 - Happy New Year to you all! Plenty to look forward to in the months ahead... UK solo dates from Jez throughout January... Bad Pennies at Glasgow's Celtic Connections... US release of SIGHT RHYMES DVD and of TENTERHOOKS (street date February 14th) from Burnside Distribution... Two www.radiobritfolk.co.uk programmes from Jez entitled "The Alex Glasgow Story"... BBC Radio 2's series THE RADIO BALLADS featuring "around twenty" new Jez Lowe songs, starting late February... and AROUND THE WORLD IN FORTY DAYS - Jez Lowe and The Bad Pennies head west, with gigs in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, New Zealand, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Holland, Belgium, Liverpool!!! See you there!!