There is an extensive interview with Paul Simpson of The Wild Swans in the latest Liverpool Confidential, which can be read here. In it Paul talks about preparing for the forthcoming two shows at Static Gallery, which are now less than three weeks away. If you're thinking of going but haven't yet booked your tickets then seriously, don't hang around; the last we heard from the Wild Swans camp was that the Friday night was fairly close to selling out – and that was before this interview in a publication with a huge circulation was published. There are still tickets left for the Thursday night, I believe but again, you'd be strongly advised to book now rather than wait. These are the only two currently scheduled performances by the band, although there are rumours of perhaps one more UK show plus one Paris show around Christmas – however we must stress that these latter aren't confirmed.
After these shows The Wild Swans will be heading into the studio to continue work on the forthcoming The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years which we (i.e. Occultation Recordings) hope to release later this year.
In other news, also relating to the events (and they will most definitely be events) at Static, there was a piece on Rebecca Joy Sharp, who will also be making a special guest appearance on 23rd and 24th July, in the Liverpool Daily Post the other day, which you can read by clicking here.
We've had quite a few enquiries about merchandising for these events so... First of all we must stress that these shows are being organised by The Wild Swans, not by Occultation (although we wouldn't miss them for the world, of course) and so we're not the ones arranging this side of things. However the information we've been given is that there will be a range of high-quality merchandise on sale on both nights. There will be t-shirts, button badges, we heard some mention of posters and there's also now talk of printed matter in the form of an account by Cmdr Simpson of his thoughts on and preparations for these, his first performances as a vocalist in two decades. Oh and he swears that he won't be wearing the jodhpurs he was threatening to sport which, by all accounts, is good news for all concerned. If there is any merchandise remaining after the shows then it'll be made available on a strictly first-come, first-served basis online and we'll try and get some for the Occultation Shop. However we can't make any promises, if we do have any then quantities will be very limited.
We'll keep you posted if there's any more news about the event over the next fortnight or so. Not long to wait now...
