We are excited to be coming to the Netherlands, to play at the Muziek Gebouw Fritz Philips, in Eindhoven, on July 3rd 2013.
Tickets are on sale now
www.muziekgebouweindhoven.nl
Exciting news! Penguin Cafe will be playing at the Bowie weekender, on friday night, as part of the V&A's most popular exhibition ever, 'David Bowie is'.
The V&A Lates event begins at 6.30pm, and we will be performing in the garden at 8pm.
Come down and see us!
Its FREE entry, and there is all manner of brilliant Bowie inspired events happening around the museum including live performances, cutting-edge fashion, debates, one-off displays and installations, special guests, bar and food, guest DJs, and late-night exhibition opening.
full details:
V&A website
Come and see us live at Folk East festival of Folk and World Music over the weekend of 23-25th August 2013, at Glemham Hall, Suffolk.
For full information visit: folkeast.co.uk
The new album is coming along nicely so we are going to play at Cecil Sharp House in the new year to experiment with music both new and old over two intimate evenings of workshop style performances.
If you would like to join us, limited tickets are available now for the two nights, 17th jan and 3rd Feb 2013.
Go to LIVE for details...
The Japan Tour was completely amazing. We are humbled by the lovely fans out there and the really lovely team who were looking after us. Thank you everyone!
We've got some footage from the concerts and a bunch of photos which we'll post as soon as we've got them organised... If you'd like to see them you can also sign up for our newsletter at the top of the page...
So now we're back in the studio looking at our plans for next year - which will be the 40th anniversary of the Penguin Cafe's inception... We've got a lot of stuff to get on with...
This week the Sundog album - 'INSOFAR' - goes on full general release. And then on Wednesday we pack up all our gear and head to Japan for the 2012 Japanese tour... can't wait this is going to be amazing!
check out Arthur's new Sundog album INSOFAR...
available now exclusively here at penguincafe.com on limited run pre-release...
visit our SHOP now
We had a lot of fun - thank you all who came down...
Now we're in preparation for the Japanese tour in October and some very cool stuff we can't talk about yet that's happening in San Fransisco in September...
Have a great August!
Gearing up for the London 2012 BT River Of Music show tomorrow... going to be a lot of fun!
Out today on iTunes and Spotify! We'll have the CD's out on September 3rd for the physical release but in the mean time...
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/light-on-stone/id541876765?i=541876766
Confirmed - The tickets have totally sold out for the Penguin Cafe/Fyfe Dangerfield concert at Somerset House on July 21st.
BUT tickets are still available for the special collaboration between The Barons of Tang and Sundog at Greenwich Old Royal Naval College on Sun 22 July as part of BT River of Music www.btriverofmusic.com
Also Sundog will be doing a Special Performance at the Vortex(http://www.wegottickets.com/event/172099) to celebrate the digital launch of the new album SUNDOG - INSOFAR... Full physical release will be on 3rd September....
In further news Arthur just got back from Japan where he's been doing press ahead of the Japanese Tour in October... we're really looking forward to this one - it will be 30 years exactly since the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra toured there in 1982.
FREE tickets for Penguin Cafe and Fyfe Dangerfield at Somerset House as part of BT River of Music on Sat 21 July will be available at 9am on Tuesday 18th June from www.ticketmaster.co.uk
They will go fast!
For more information visit www.btriverofmusic.com
More details coming soon...=>
Penguin Cafe are playing Applecart Festival on Sunday June 3rd 2012 at Victoria Park.
If you haven't already done so, book your tickets now at a special rate of £25 this weekend only and come and see us live plus lots of other brilliant acts including Scritti Politti, Martin Creed, Jamie N Commons, Kid Creole, Gilles Peterson, Josh T Pearson and Stornoway.
www.seetickets.com/r/applecartresidentoffer
The Snake and the Lotus (The Pond) from Signs of Life...
Amazing track =>
our new Sundog website went up today - check it out...
Cool news on its way for Penguins in 2012/13...
Slowly getting over the jetlag but we're back from what was for us an amazingly successful tour of Australia. We'll be putting up loads of photos and video as we can find the time at the penguin cafe table. lots of fun was had by all -
we did two Sundog gigs as well as 5 Penguin Cafe ones - we had Andy, Vince and Pete join Arthur to do a special band-within-a-band Australian Sundog and it worked really well (up until now Sundog has just been Arthur on piano and Oli Langford on vilolin). We'll have to see how that goes forward. It certainly works as a sort of research wing of the Penguin Cafe project...
Here are some more video's from Sydney and Womadelaide:
Last hours before we go - wondering what to pack...
Happy to announce that we're off to Antwerp almost immediately after we get back from Australia...
We've never been there before - this year shaping up to be very cool. Hope to announce some more overseas adventures soon.
1
3 events in total
One day in the early 1970's, English composer Simon Jeffes was in the South of France, suffering from a terrible bout of food poisoning. He had a series of feverish waking dreams featuring a dystopian view of the near future, where all was grey and concrete.
People lived in huge grey blocks and one could see into the windows. In one room a couple was making love soundlessly and lovelessly. In another someone was simply sat staring at a screen. In a third room a musician sat working at an array of electronic equipment but he was wearing headphones and the room was totally silent. In the top corner of each room a camera watched all that happened like a malevolent eye.
This world was de-humanised and crushing for the heart... but one could reject it and look further afield. If you looked down the road a certain distance you could see a ramshackle building with noise and light and chaotic music bursting out of doors in to the night. This was the Penguin Cafe. Inside it was an Ekonomiyaki bar, with long tables where everyone sits together. There was sawdust on the floors and when you were feeling tired the glasses made themselves lighter to help you. In the back there was always a band playing music. Without knowing where, one always felt that one had heard the music before. This was the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
On waking, the words of a poem came to him. It began: "I am the proprietor of the Penguin Cafe. I will tell you things at random...".
From this was borne the inspiration to write the music that would be played by the musicians in the back of the Penguin Cafe. Jeffes did this with great success with a number of very talented musicians over the next 30 years until his untimely death in 1997.
13 years on from Simon Jeffes' death, his son, Arthur, started playing this music again. Under the name Penguin Cafe, Arthur and a group of new musicians are re-visiting the music; starting a new chapter in the story of this unique and strange creative world.
From left to right:
Photography
Steve Gullick 2010
| 23 July 2012 | The Times (pdf) |
| 23 July 2012 | The Guardian (pdf) |
| 16 July 2012 | The Telegraph (link) |
| 08 June 2012 | Radio 3 (BBC) IN TUNE (link) |
| 03 May 2012 | The Arts Desk (link) |
| 02 March 2012 | The Australian (link) |
| 09 July 2011 | Hackney Empire (link) |
| 24 May 2011 | Salisbury May 2011 (pdf) |
| 24 February 2011 | The Scotsman... Edinburgh (link) |
| 22 February 2011 | Scottish Herald (link) |
| 22 February 2011 | The Arts Desk - review of Edinburgh (link) |
| 21 February 2011 | The Quietus (link) |
| 17 February 2011 | ThisIsLancashire.Co.Uk (link) |
| 17 February 2011 | The Jazz Man... Warwick (link) |
| 12 February 2011 | Classical Source (link) |
| 11 February 2011 | Allgigs.co.uk (link) |
| 11 February 2011 | AAA Music (link) |
| 08 February 2011 | Guardian (link) |
| 06 February 2011 | Times (pdf) |
| 05 February 2011 | Indie (pdf) |
| 05 February 2011 | Guardian (pdf) |
| 31 January 2011 | Basingstoke Gazette (pdf) |
| 31 January 2011 | Newbury Weekly News (pdf) |
| 29 January 2011 | FT review Matter of Life (link) |
| 15 November 2010 | Nihon Keizai Newspaper (Japan) |
| 15 September 2010 | Guardian Music review (link) |
| 15 December 2009 | Times from 2009 (link) |
| 12 September 2009 | The Arts Desk (link) |
| 12 September 2009 | Robert Sandall - 2009 - The Arts Desk (link) |
General Enquiries: message@penguincafe.com
Booking Agent: serious.org.uk
Press Contact: Sally Reeves - sallyreeves@btinternet.com
