Ladies and gentleman, your attention please…

I don’t know if you’re aware of the hip, hop and happening goings on at the moment but another Facebook group phenomenon has arisen, which is pretty much on the same shelf as the ‘Rage Against The Machine for Christmas No.1’ banter. So if you liked that, then this may well be your cup of tea.

A man named Wes White has started a brand spanking new group called ‘Storm The Charts’ – the aim of which is to get as many unsigned acts into the top 40 as humanly possible. Around 500 bands entered, which was then whittled down to a final 40. And lo and behold, we made it into the final 40 after being picked by a guest panellist called Steve Henwood, who very luckily for us, is involved with bookings for Glastonbury. Happy days, I hear you say.

So, that brings us to the here and now – the point at which or lovely, beautiful, legendary fans can do their bit. The final 40 songs have been uploaded to iTunes under this link: http://bit.ly/stormitunes. Show us some love and buy our track ‘Jukebox’ and help us out on our mission for making this year, The Year of the Banana. We, The Banana Sessions, salute you and offer high fives all round.

Please note, after all this has blown over, our next mission is to eliminate David Cameron and take his place at 10 Downing Street, forming a five-way coalition government that will insist on copious amounts of tea, encourage your children towards the essential consumption of their 5-a-day, and most importantly, demand free Buckfast for the masses. Stay tuned. And buy our tune. Cheers.

But while the rest of the world does their uncool thing, The Banana Sessions have their way of making Tuesdays a little bit more fruity. It’s called Tunesday. It’s like Tuesday, but with awesome Tunes.

And normally, cause folk are busy being boring on a Tuesday, only The Banana Sessions get to enjoy Tunesday. But this week, it’s Glasgow’s lucky Tuesday. We’re coming to YOU.

Details on the gigs page…

We’ve been lucky enough to work with a renowned producer from Berlin who goes by the name of Thomas Dubbel (aka T.Dub) who has been like an extra limb pressing buttons for us in the studio, working wide-eyed into the night to take the Banana Sessions into an exciting new area, fusing together more styles than ever before. Thomas is not only a renowned producer and DJ, but also a former pastry chef in a top Berlin restaurant, and when not spending hours capturing the perfect vocal take with Roberta he managed to find time to make several batches of his speciality ‘Disco Biscuits’ which seemed to have a remarkable effect of keeping the band energised, when taken with a few cups of tea.

So, without further ado, we’re pleased to be able to give you taster of our new direction exclusively here  - it’s our new single, a reworking of our track A Little Share, it’s to be released later this month and we hope it moves you.

Get down early for a seat, and you’ll be entertained by a surprise lineup of Acoustic Edinburgh’s regulars with a selection of comedy and cover numbers as well as their own material, making for a light hearted night to ease you back into the reality of the New Year, followed by a similar set from us to finish…

About Acoustic Edinburgh:

“Our aim has always been to create a unique evening of musical entertainment in a relaxed atmosphere, focussing on high quality and an eclectic mix of styles. While we regularly promote singer-songwriters, we always try to feature local bands playing full acoustic sets as a departure from their normal show.

Kind of like Edinburgh’s answer to ‘MTV Unplugged‘”

It was recorded by our long-time producer Garry Boyle at the Depot Studios and includes guest string players Emma Pethybridge (Violin) and Jenny Hill (Double Bass), all of whom we are incredibly grateful to.

You can preview it below, but sign up to our mailing list and we’ll send you a link to download it for FREE from December 14th. Don’t say we aren’t good to you…

Love and Christmas Cheers,

The Banana Sessions

The Banana Sessions Webshop

We began filming for this video mid August with our very own ‘in-house’ and extremely talented film director, Chris Thompson. It was bang in the middle of our gig-a-day (sometimes more than one-gig-a-day) banana-tastic bonanza, and it began with a bit of filming at our favourite gig venue, The Pink Bus. Chris came on board The Pink Bus with the band and he filmed us doing a wee live acoustic performance of the medley (a small part of which appears in the video), before all the inebriated madness took place. As you can maybe see from the video, we were aiming to create a parody of the ‘Firestarter’ video first of all, with the whole headbutting the camera in a tunnel, thing; the ‘Out of Space’ video with the crazy colour effects (technical term, clearly) that’s all like, old school rave and that; the ‘Breathe’ video – band members on either side of the wall, going pure chicken oriental; and finally, the ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ video which involves a hand-held camera, a lot of alcohol, a mild bit of violence and a tactical spew. Please, go check them out if you would like to contrast and compare.

Our first stop was the Innocent Railway Tunnel, which is situated just next to Arthur’s Seat, tucked away into a little housing area. We took with us the essentials – bits and bobs of a drum skit, a TU-BAAA, a flute, a guitar, a melodic, a tambourine, a vibra-slap, a BMX, a set of fairy lights, a video camera, a box of chalk, some suitable attire, and ourselves of course. Oh wait, and alcohol. But that goes without saying. Well, I’ve said it now.

Anyway, so we set up, played the song from start to finish (bearing in mind, the time was about 9 o’clock at night, maybe a little later) while Chris filmed us. Next up, we filmed C-Mac doing a john mental solo on his drum kit when all of a sudden the figure of a brick shithouse descends on us from the end of the tunnel. No, no, there was no light at the end of this tunnel. Instead, there was a man with massive guns of steel that were quite clearly built for destroying. And from the end of tunnel came the words that went a little something like “what the fuck do you think you’re doing? Shut the fuck up with your fucking drums, I’m trying to sleep you bunch of arseholes.” I mean, don’t quote me, but it was something like that. Well, The Banana Sessions might be alcoholics, but we’re certainly not that nails (despite the head-butting at the start…) – so the rest of the video had to be filmed in absolute silence. So, the scene where we are all standing in front of each other playing instruments under each of the tunnel lights? It’s completely mimed. Watch Calum Wood on the guitar and you’ll see.  If you’re wondering why we brought the BMX, it was for the head-butting shots and any of the scenes that zoom in to be honest, so many thanks to Mr Chris for cycling about 3 miles while he filmed us in the tunnel. What a legend. A very fit, multi-tasking legend at that.

Next up, we went to the almost-one-half-of-the-Banana-..Sessions’ flat – The Brunswick Palace down in Leith. Here we filmed our parody of the ‘Breathe’ video which speaks for itself really. We decided to create some comedy value by going a bit radge and flicking the light switches on and off in one room, and having a nice cup of tea and a sit down in the other room. Basically, because we’re funny like that. And yes, the ironing board is supposed to be there. Basically, because we’re funny like that. We couldn’t find a crocodile that would agree to star in the video though, much to our dismay. Oh, and the bit where Calum Wood’s big scary face comes right up to the camera was supposed to be a bit like when Keith and Maxim kind of slow motion into the camera lense, but all we had was wooden floorboards and a blanket on the floor for Calum to slide along on. What can I say, we tried.

Last but not least, the ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ parody was filmed after a very, very, very drunken gig at the Edinburgh Book Festival (they were giving out free Highland Park whiskey, for God’s sake) – a bit of which is featured in the ‘Out of Space’ part of the medley. We decided to make our very merry way along to our usual haunt, The Jazz Bar to cause a bit of havoc and debauchery. A big thanks to Federation of the Disco Pimp (the dude with the bass guitar quite near the end) for starring in our music video and letting us try to touch up his bass guitar. And also, thanks to Luke, the previous manager of The Jazz Bar, who taught us how to create a liquid that looked convincingly like sick. Half Pepsi and half milk, apparently. Who knew? I didn’t. (N.B. see vomit at end of video for details.)

It has to be said, this is without a diggity doubt our most favouritest music video so far and a big massive high five to all the total winners who were involved. I’d also like to take a little moment to say how fucking awesome we think The Prodigy are. Awesome tunes, awesome music videos. This entire thing was done with the utmost respect for the dudes. So, if Liam, Keith or Maxim ever happen to read this: legends, we salute you!
Mr Chris, we’d also like to take this opportunity to say: we salute you and all! What a hero. A bottle of Buckfast is in the post for you, sir. With banana love.

Pea suit,
The Banana Sessions

The Prodigy Medley

The Banana Sessions’ first Edinburgh gig in over 2 months, and our last for 2009 (their first of 2010 being at midnight on Jan 1st as part of Departure Lounge‘s Hogmanay bash, but that’s another story…)

The beautiful Bowery basement is the setting, with pretty things on walls and gin in teacups… There’ll be new songs, and even some Christmas banter. You have been warned.

Our special guests for the evening are Edinburgh’s Small Feet Little Toes, a three piece with a serious cake obsession and a guitar-weilding Mr Andy Moore, aka Freemoore.

Tickets £5 on the door… See you there. x