Newsflash: Your chance to record King Creosote

Santa may not have got round to pressing his gigantic red pantalons yet, but UtR’s mind is already getting giddy at the prospect of next year’s Homegame.

The annual Fence Records spectacular takes place in and around the quaint Fife seaside town of Anstruther on 12 – 14 March 2010.

Sure, it’s months away, but, with a roster that always guarantees an exquisite selection of tasty tunesters, tickets sell quicker than hot cakes on a frosty day in fat camp.

And, just to make sure you put Homegame tickets on your crimbo list, those relentless teases at Fence have dropped one humdinger of a pre-Xmas news nugget.

King Creosote, also known as fence luminary Kenny Anderson, will be playing his newest, as yet unreleased, album My Nth Bit Of Strange In Umpteen Years in its entirety at the Fence bash.

‘So what?’, we hear you holler. Well kids, Mister Anderson is allowing punters at Homegame 7 to record the entire show. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it PirateBay.

Anderson says: “Since the release of Flick The Vs in April I’ve written ten new songs for an album that, for various reasons, I’d rather not record and release in the usual way. Instead I’ve come up with this idea of a live album, and together with Fence drummer Captain Geeko, I performed My First Bit Of Strange In 13 Years in its entirety at the Fence Hallowe’en weekend in front of an invited audience. The members of this audience were asked to record the show for themselves on battery powered equipment, and at my behest these recordings have since been passed around in the hope that they present a poor substitute for the show itself.”



Apparently, Anderson will be playing the 'album' set a shattering seven times due to microscopic venue sizes. The shows will be the only King Creosote ‘gig’ over the weekend and ticket holders will be alloted a specific show to attend.

One interesting stipulation is that each person has to have a recording device of some sort on their personage to access the show. What constitutes a ‘recording device’ in this day and age is anyone’s guess, but if you’ve got one of those web-browsers that also masquerade as a mobile phone we reckon you’re okay.

“This new album will naturally evolve over time, and My Second/Third/Fourth ... Eighth Bits Of Strange In 14 Years will all be performed at Fence Homegame7 by King Creosote with various special guests.” Anderson explains. “That’s seven performances for 40 people at a time over the course of three days. And if recording the show for yourself scares you, we might well have a fortifying wee dram for you during the interval.”

We’re not quite sure how it’s going to work, but the concept of having fans (and, more interestingly perhaps, non-fans) record his album is certainly typical of Anderson’s songsmithery-for-all ethos. And for that, you really do have to admire the man.

Words: Billy Hamilton

Homegame runs from 12 – 14 March 2010. Weekend tickets are £75 and go on sale at Noon on Tuesday 1 December 1, 2009. The full line up will be announced nearer the time. For more news click here