The last blast at Bombproof, Trash My Love, photos by Brigeoo

Here is a visual selection of the memorable day we spent making our song Trash My Love come alive.
We shot everything at Bombproof (apart from the church scenes) and it was our lucky day as the studio was just about to get demolished.
As a result of that we weren't too worried about damaging the whole location in the trashing bits, and it gave us full freedom in our quest of breaking everything.
The make up, hairs and pictures have been done by Brigeoo, the outfits have been provided by Lucy, one of our lovely bridemaids, joined by Kate Ross who kindly accepted to get involved in that crazy day.
The video was directed, filmed and edited by Steve Walker, who also did our previous video Copycat.
I've presented the pictures below almost like dream sequences.
It will give an idea of the synopsis and you'll understand the mention of dream fully only once you see the video itself.
It will be up on Saturday.

(click on the pictures to see them bigger)

An afternoon with Siausiau Suzuki

Siausiau Suzuki spent a Sunday afternoon at my flat in Tufnell Park where she took my pictures for three hours as a contribution to her art project called Fiance and Concubine. You can see more of her work on that blogspot : www.fianceandconcubine.blogspot.com

There should be an exhibition happening in the futur near Shoreditch, will post the details on here when I know more about it...
Just click on the pictures to see them bigger.

Dolls and Cigarettes, Doc Martins and Lipstick, Amps and Guitars, Bed and Ashes...

Nina Courson with Siausiau Suzuki




























Quick advertisement for one of my band Healthy Junkies. Doing that gig in Brighton on the 10th of October, love the flyer...

Here it is... COPYCAT, the final version

Copycat video, behind the scenes...

Brief making of... to start with six little videos of behind the scenes.


















Pictures and videos by Brigeoo.

The story line is two ex teenagers that used to be best friends have fallen out and one of them is a Copycat.
Virginia B. Fernson has specially come from Paris, having inspired the whole video and song concept. Here is the link of her music project in Paris : www.myspace.com/skinsitive
We've always worked well together, complementary to each other; we've been in the same drama class since we were 16 so it probably showed in term of chemistry on the screen.
We used three locations; the first one was in New Cross in an ex school for girls which is now reconverted in a beauty salloon, held by mister Alberto Banana. We did some serious fighting there, throwing pillows at each others on the 'bedroom bed', like old times... ;)
Hair and make up was done at that same location by Banana of course.
I've combined all my female singers influences in that look, a mix between Nina Hagen, Courtney Love, eighties era Madonna and Cindy Lauper... with a touch of Ziggy Stardust when it comes to the lighting thanks to mister Steve Cole. My coiffure also has been called a trashy version of Marie Antoinette. Hope I won't lose my head in all this...
Virginia was more like a Siouxsie who meets Syd Vicious to give a punk emo kid, it was a very good contraste and it suited her well.
The second location was at Bombproof studios, thanks to Steevo who let us used his premises. The disaffected local gave us great spots like the brick wall for the grafittis scene and some obscures corridors gave us the chance to use some psychedelic lighting offered by Steve Cole.
We've also put art on the wall, kindly lended by Niki Chan and Sam Hamilton who both joined force to create the mister emo painting that has been a key accessory in the whole process.
A lot of driving was involved, actually there was more driving than shooting, and thanks to Steve loving Nightmares and his van it made the whole thing a lot easier. (As you noticed it I keep mentionning Steves, and that's because we had a unique team made of four Steve including the camera director...)
We ended up at mine on the top roofs of London doing some look alike scenes made possible thanks to Rocky's cloth shop Year Zero that you can find in Carnaby Street. We got granted the permission to borrow some cloth, and it was the perfect place if you were looking for trash teenagers look outfits.
We also did a memorable feather scenes, stabbing pillows and covering my whole flat of those vicious little feathers. It was an intense scene to do as we had feathers coming in our throats and blinding us madly.
It was also great to have Brigeoo on the set who provided us very cool pictures and immortalized filmed moments behind the scenes.
The last shot to do is with the whole band and we also want to include as much people as we can to make it a nice little party with 'tv eyes' on it.
Rock'n'rollers from London come together please.

On the roofs... of London !

In a mixture of thoughts and confusion
I was looking at the sky from my very high spot
On the very top roof of London
I felt like I could as well be in Paris
Writting a story under the evening sunlight
Letting the night come settling down in silence
Light a candle in the fortress of dreams
Look at the window to see the midnight walkers
You can see the world without being seen
Inaccessible in a tower of thoughts

It is a refuge made on your image
Pink lighting's been seen from the tube station
Red light district call or angel retreat
What you see in it is what you do not have


*Spring's mood mode*

Trash My Love

TRASH MY LOVE

I wanted to be the perfect girl
With unreal visions and prison of dreams
I've locked myself in my world/a room
And my body went robotic
I could only breath through despair
I couldn't feel hungry nor tired
Just this door in front of me
Blocking out the end
And putting a hold on my own life
I've trashed times and times again
I've heard the sound of the glass breaking on the floor
I've trashed my love
I've trashed fuck knows
I've created a kingdom of darkness
I'm the girl who likes to blow it
But doesn't really like it
The altercation inside of me is a big contradiction
It feels like someone close died
It feels like dying
Like a neverending fall that doesn't allow you to touch the ground
ever again
Repressed anger let go of me
I'm tired of escaping control
Making my days look all the same
Giving in abondon
Dreaming to confort myself
Trusting in my paranoias
Maybe I should try another way then
''Be brave, be strong, be free !''

Altercation launch release party @ The Purple Turtle

I look like a fucking saint on that picture !
Sorry for this opening line...
The launch went very well, we had about 100 people there, we covered our costs, sold some t-shirts and cds, it was a good night !
I was told our performence was one of the best one we've made, obviously it's not going to stop there and it's always going to get better and better, but it's nice to hear that, specially when it comes from someone like Mark Thorn, Bubblegum Screw singer, who's not the easiest person to please... ;)
I found the perfect dress for the night, about 10 pounds only, it was love at first sight when I saw it in the shop window; it's a purple cocktail dress who could belong to Cinderella as much as it could be owned by a maid of honour...

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Banana did my hair during the afternoon as well as my make up which was obviously more than useful.
Show up at the gig, Burma Guns are the first ones there, we're all waiting around and when Dave drummer from Bubblegum Screw arrives we set up everything on stage.
It was a bit of a slow start and as a result none of the bands got a soundcheck. I guess with a venue like The Purple Turtle it doesn't really matter as the p.a is one of the best I've seen.
People started arriving slowly, I was obviously stressing thinking it's going to be a big flop and that no one care about the Dress Up E.P....
I went to the backstage to re-do some of my make-up, saw Mark there and made sure he would wear the feather boa I bought him on stage, he sure did.



When I got out from the backstage I was surprisingly happy to see the venue fuller and finally coming to life.
DJ Frog was great and he put some great tunes to make people stick around for all the bands.


me with Dj Frog

Burma Guns opened the night, they had some technical problems on stage with the bass sound but in spite of it I really enjoy their set and they were the first band on so as a conscequence they were the one sounchecking for the rest of us.

We went on at 9pm. I enjoyed Paranoia like I've never did before, the set went all smooth and nicely for us, Ko attempted once again to make some jokes in the middle under my request, he made me swear to not pass him the mike ever again on stage or he will tell about some compromising secrets of mine next time I do it, I won't take this risk. ;)







some live action :



We ended our set with a jam joining with Glam Sister, it was inspiring and it felt good to have more freedom and not always follow a verse chorus bridge formula, just trusting in your instincts is sometimes very liberating.
We did that same kind of thing at The Dublin Castle just before Insomnia, I put the video of it in the Charity topic, just two blogs down this one, feed your curiosity and have a look...
Here is a video of London City, at The Purple Turtle...



Then HiroshAmour went on...
They delivered a hell of a set with jam, long instrumentals and soulful songs such as Fever and Suicide Bomber.
Hiroshamour and I did a cover of Mylene Farmer for Ethan's birthday who is a huge fan of her, we did Desenchantee. It was a new thing for me, I won't make it a habit to cover the french Madonna but always good to do once !
Here are some live pictures of them where you can see the lighting is better... Maybe because they're only three in the band so they stood in the right spots. However The Purple Turtle isn't the best venue for pictures.









After the brillant performance of Hiroshamour it was the turn of Bubblegum Screw to entertain the crowd...
They gave a very good gig, once again, Mark was great with the red feather boa on, they were all on fire, Mark showed his ass at some point just to make sure that everyone was paying attention.
Unfortunately they didn't have time to do Rock'n'roll losers as they were last on the bill and it was all running a bit late.
So they ended with their brillant song Power ( my new favourite one )...
Here they are :









We all ended the night in The Purple Palace, and I even got Mark to model for my band t-shirt :



Now Altercation is preparing for the last gig of the year as a part of the Christmas itch festival which will start on the 7th of December at The Purple Turtle, again, and Healthy Junkies will be playing that night, their first gig !
We'll only be performing five songs.
Then Altercation will be playing at The Bull and Gate on the 9th of December, check the website for more infos :

target="_blank">www.myspace.com/xmasitch

Also I just thought I'd mention it, all pictures and videos of the launch and of the charity gigs have been taken by Brigitte, she's been a dedicated fan who has supported us for quite a while now and it's always nice these days. So thanks again miss... :)

So no gig at the Proud Gallery for HiroshAmour tonight due to childish behaviour...

Until next time, and then expect a period of silence on this blog as I'm planning to go on holidays... well deserved break I should add.

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