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The Bearpit Brothers launch music CD: 30 years in the making

The big Bearpit Brothers CD launch event is at the Glad Cafe (1006A Pollokshaws Rd Glasgow G41 2HG) on Saturday 23rd November, 2013 –  7 p.m. £5 Tickets www.brownpapertickets.com/event/504033

Featuring Jimbo Simbo on beat box and special guests Elaine Reid – spoken word, and poetry from Aidan Mceoin.

The Bearpit Brothers are: Lawrence Alexander, Jim Byrne and Robert Ruthven.

““the cd is epic btw!” Corrina Cola, singer songwriter.

“a Technicolor dream of pre fab four melodrama….. pizzicato pluckings … swooning guitar lines … wonderful melancholy …a lushness that envelopes the listener … garlanded with some exquisite guitar duellings …Blue Boy is a mini melodrama story song … The guitars sound like Hank Marvin in space while the lyrics (complete with whispered monologue) are sinister and weirdly enough call to mind Graham Greene’s teen gangster, Pinky, in Brighton Rock.” Paul Kerr Blabber and Smoke

“Four compelling and original songs, showcase understated vocal and shimmering instrumental skills, to break new ground — while neatly homaging past musical masters.”
Colin MacDonald, Presenter, Folkal Point, Celtic Music Radio.

Listen to I’m at Sea – scroll down page.

Thirty years in the making, Bearpit Brothers release first EP

It’s the 1980s’s and I catch a gig – somewhere in the bowels of Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom – by a band called ‘The Creeping Charlies’. I’m completely blown away by their dissonant, angular mix of Rock ‘n’ roll, Rockabilly, Early Beatles and vocals that remind me a wee bit of Roy Orbison. I’m thinking, those guys look and sound great – they are clearly destined for big things.

Fast forward some 30 years and I’m having a coffee with Robert Ruthven in Tinderbox on Glasgow’s Byres Road. Robert is the singer of The Creeping Charles and I’m asking him when the first album will be out.

In the intervening years the Creeping Charlies music got even better – even weirder; ‘The Charlies’ sound reared up like a thing living in a world entirely of its own invention. But along the way they encountered tragedy on both a personal and professional front; if you could stack bad luck they would have needed to hire storage facilities to house it. Master tapes of completed albums were lost in studio fires and crashed hard disks, and even more tragically one band member had mental health issues that led to him taking his own life.

Band managers and producers came and went –  promises grew hope, which then evaporated with the lost tapes.

Robert just smiles at my question; he’s heard it too often and knows that whatever answer he gives will stir something uncomfortable in his psyche. I’m still looking forward to the first album; these guys are no longer doing live gigs – but they still make music, are no less great and deserve to be heard.

So we hatch a plan…

That plan is coming to fruition on 23rd November 2013 with an EP featuring myself, Robert Ruthven and Lawrence Alexander – the two remaining active members of the Creeping Charlies. We call ourselves the Bearpit Brothers. The music is a mix of the strong musical flavours that both Robert and Lawrence bring to everything they do and my  own country, rock and roots influences. Whilst clearly drawing from 1950s and early 1960s (think Richard Hawley, Roy Orbison, The Beatles, The Mavericks, pre Rock ‘n’ Roll country music) it’s new must  –  not pastiche.

Thirty years is a long time to wait for your first official release. It’s going to be a special night.

Jim Byrne

Support the brothers

The big Bearpit Brothers CD launch event

Put the date in your diary, we’d love to see you there to support the brothers: the launch even is at the Glad Cafe (1006A Pollokshaws Rd Glasgow G41 2HG) on Saturday 23rd November, 2013 – 7 p.m. £5

Jim Byrne (songwriter, musician with Bearpit Brothers)[email protected] Tel: 07810 098119

Robert Ruthven (singer, songwriter, musician with Bearpit Brothers) [email protected]

 Pat Byrne (Songwriter, Bearpit Brothers) [email protected]

Emma Taylor (Press and events organiser for Bearpit Brothers) [email protected]

Megan Curran (Press and events organiser for Bearpit Brothers) [email protected]

 Download images from www.bearpitbrothers.co.uk

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