For my dad, Graham, who's been gone too long, and for anyone missing their dad today, or any day.

Dad took us all to Italy in 1977. He borrowed John Selby's Maxi and we drove from Nannerch to Lucca. It took three or four days: three or four days of a leaky tent; little bro Danbles demanding fish 'n' chips from bemused French, Swiss and Italian waiters; me completely refusing to go to the toilet. 

It was the most exciting holiday I've ever been on. Sometimes the smell of the Tuscan hillsides comes back to me, or the feeling of absolute contentment reading my dinosaur book by candlelight in our rickety, leaking villa.

And there were scorpions and lizards... SCORPIONS AND LIZARDS!!

Love you and miss you dad.

There is a new album coming soon. This isn't on it.

Thanks for listening.

Written and played by Adam Walton
Drums by Rachel Williams (Peaness)  https://www.facebook.com/rachelwilliamsdrummer
Produced by Adam Walton & Russ Hayes
Recorded at Orange Sound Studios, Penmaenmawr by Russ Hayes.
Field recording courtesy of Eliseo Di Malto & Roberta Musillami
Artwork by Adam Walton

Adam Walton - On a Hillside (With The Fireflies)

A professional animator and graphics designer!

[For enquiries about my BBC Radio Wales music show, please email my BBC email address... you can easily guess it. Music submissions for the show should be sent via the BBC Introducing Uploader (please). I can't guarantee that I'll see messages sent via Soundcloud - thank you.]

The Immediate are a three-piece indie, power pop band from Mold in north Wales.

We release our Mold EP on Friday 3rd March 2017. The EP will be available to buy on limited edition CD and digitally via bandcamp / iTunes etc.

Mold features 4 brand new recordings, 3 of which are exclusive to the EP.

Lead track, What’s The Matter Kevin Jones?, is a song about some of the kids we went to the Alun School with, who weren’t as fortunate as us and didn’t make it into their 30’s. 

Light Dimensions is the first song we wrote when we reconvened after a long hiatus.

Manbuoy is the title track of our forthcoming debut album, however it does not feature on the album itself. It’s a mostly spoken-word piece that exaggerates all of its writer’s worst qualities.

Mold was recorded at Orange Sound Studios in Penmaenmawr, North Wales by Russ Hayes, who has worked on recordings by Peaness, Campfire Social, Kidsmoke, Catfish and the Bottlemen and Billy Bibby and the Wry Smiles.

The sleeve design was done by Paul Maurice from Wrexham. It’s a detail of Shire Hall, the brutalist former seat of Flintshire County Council that sits on a hill, above Mold town centre.

The Mold EP will be launched at a hometown gig at Theatr Clwyd, Mold on Friday, 3rd. March. We’ll be joined by our friends Campfire Social and Skellums. Tickets are £7 and available here:

https://www.theatrclwyd.com/en/whats-on/headliner-rock-night/

Mold EP tracklisting (r/d 3rd March 2017):

1.	What’s The Matter Kevin Jones?
2.	Light Dimensions
3.	Tremble
4.	Manbuoy

If you have any further enquiries, please contact:

theimmediateband@gmail.com

http://facebook.com/theimmediate
http://twitter.com/the_immediate

There is a YouTube video telling the story of the band so far, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtERsE3ihDg

We originally split in 1997 due to frustration, an argument over a mouth organ and the success of Stereophonics.

We released one single (unaccountably popular in Sweden), made every conceivable mistake in the How To Be A Successful Indie Band handbook, toured with some excellent bands (Mansun, 60ft Dolls, Dodgy) and flickered out, leaving behind the memory of some great gigs, a few fine songs, and little else.

In March 2016, we reconvened to repair friendships and renew tinnitus. New songs came much more easily than the old ones, probably because we are playing to please only ourselves - with no thoughts of success or acclaim - for the first time in our existence.

There is more truth and resonance in our songs now than ever before. And power. And invention. We write songs about hope and love in the face of the moribund, daily grind. 

You will possibly hear fragments and echoes of the following artists in our sound (The Jam, Wire, XTC, Pixies, Badfinger, REM, Dr Feelgood, Small Faces, Husker Du, The Who, Ride, Big Star, The Cure, Joy Formidable, The Go-Betweens, Teenage Fanclub), but nothing has been plagiarised or misappropriated to mask a deficiency of our own ideas.

One listen to SOHAR and you’ve opened yourself up to a dark disco, trip hop, synth drone, analogue-soaked experience that draws from intimate conversations between electronic duo Mark H Evans and Hannah Jones.

It’s a narrative in sound where each other’s musical influences have been filtered through Mark’s synthesisers and guitars to create SOHAR, an album of songs that speaks of the often dirty but ultimately beautiful human condition that makes us who we are… but with a beat.

Hannah and Mark have a long and diverse musical partnership and their friendship spans more than 30 years. From bedroom rock ‘n’ roll in a South Wales terraced house to two ethereal acoustic albums as Betty Black & The Sleeping Giants, they parted ways when the vagaries of being and family commitments took precedence.

Now reunited as Sonic Coins + Icons, they’ve joined forces to put everything they’ve learned, experienced, listened to and thought about when life got in the way to make something meaningful and melodically profound. 

That’s a big statement - but it’s a big album. 

Mark has been a member of two influential and highly regarded Welsh 90s bands (The March Hares and The Jonah Hex) and shared stages with the 60 Ft Dolls, Dub War, The Stereophonics, Shed 7, Pop Will Eat Itself, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynki, Captain Sensible and Nova Mob. 

He’s written soundtracks for film and TV and was shortlisted for a BAFTA Cymru for his work on BBC’s Codebreakers: Heroes of Bletchley Park. He also composed soundtracks to two short horror films this year (Reel Terror and End of Days).

Hannah’s a published author, broadcaster and journalist. But what she really loves doing more than anything else is be the first to hear Mark’s songs. Then be the only one to sing them.

SOHAR, their first album as a pair, was written and produced by Mark and supported by a cast of friends: Charlie Adlard (cover artwork), Joe Farr (mixing and mastering), Darryl Corner (photography and film) and Gary White (vocal recordings).

As to the album’s title? All we will say for now is that SOHAR is an acronym with clues to its meaning on the back of the album sleeve (due for vinyl release in November)… 

…and in every line of every song. 

All you have to do is listen.

Adam Walton - On a Hillside (With The Fireflies)

AdamWaltonTheImmediate