Tea Tone is an independent record label, clubnight & podcast, currently based in London Town. 
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It's finally time for Tea Tone to lay down & die. Just.. you know.. consolidating. TheBed.co.uk will also merge & become part of the new page at glenstrachan.uk . Add me on Facebook if y'like, send a message first to say hi so I know to accept ya, seeya round! Glen x Wed 29th June 2016 Well here's Bleach The Chameleon, finally in shape to be officially released, 8 years after most of it was written! Expect it on Spotify & iTunes in the next few days - Tue 28th June 2016 Brand new single from Bigott, sounds bit like old Stone Roses.. And for real mental Bigott fans like me, here's the title track from the forthcoming album, live in Spain somewhere presumably - Tue 21st June 2016 7 Love Rivals is out on iTunes, Apple Music & Spotify now, and I've made a little Spotify playlist of what I consider to be my best stuff on there: Sat 18th June 2016 We've obviously 'lost' a lot of legends in music so far in 2016, but nothing has moved me quite so much as the passing of Prince Be of PM Dawn. A real outsider, a true poet, and a brave soul who eschewed hip-hop cultural cliches by expressing himself with honesty & vulnerability in an unobstructed quest for beauty. His fearlessness is apparent in every line, the disarming simplicity, the downright sincerity. "I have a love for you that nothing hides." Fri 17th June 2016 Lordy lordy, I've finally finally finished 7 Love Rivals, due for release on Sunday now. It's part of my larger work The Love Rival Collection, comprised of 8 mini albums, my tribute to the individual. Very happy with it in all, though it's hard to be objective after all this time. Just getting stuff out before I leave my studio here in West London & head out to Cyprus, got my one way ticket & a big ole' To Do List to get through. Jeeps recorded a live favourite Everything (Anymore) before we disbanded, and I'll get that out at some point before leaving, along with at least one release by my first band The Bed, primarily so I can lay claim to the name on iTunes. What else. Dunno really. Getting old & don't care a jot. Healthier than ever. Reading everything in a forty mile radius. Gardening & playing tennis. Teaching kids to play Redemption Song. Doing crossword puzzles on the train, and coming home to watch the game. Washing my tenant's dishes because it's not worth the trouble of an argument. I watched the inspiring film Babel on Netflix & concluded that it's primarily about the gun. I water the grass, and then it rains all night. Mon 13th June 2016 In 2005 I formed a band called England & The April, and though we recorded three albums in two years, I've never released any of the material officially. This week, however, I'm putting out the single The Opposite Of Space, on iTunes, Spotify & Apple Music etc. Here's the Soundcloud link - Sat 11th June 2016 So, here we are! Preparing to leave this slowly sweetening suburb of West London once again. I have many questioned the wisdom of this move, since I've done a lot of work on this place since leaving Camden last year, and with my piano & man-shed it's a really good place to write, but then there are the locals.. and people in general. At least where they're speaking another language I can convince myself that perhaps they might be pretty ok after all. I am learning Greek though, so we'll see if that illusion stands true. While continuing work on new band material for Ellen Terry Court, I wouldn't be at all surprised if an incarnation of Jeeps is forged from foreign folk, with Greek instruments & percussion. What a fitting follow up to Muster Point that would be. So who's releasing good music at the moment? Saw Laura Stevenson at The Borderline in Soho the other day, which was amazing of course. Still astounds me that she's not more popular. You've got the likes of Ho99o9 & Kagoule doing their rousing art rock routine on one hand, and a bunch of crap acoustic songwriters on the other. Still far too much sub-trashy rock & roll in the middle. Bring back Beirut, so I say. Sat 4th June 2016 Just saw a video celebrating 20 years since Euro 96, with kids born in that year watching footage of the tournament. Got me thinking about the old Swan & Bottle in Uxbridge where I spent much of that time, aged 16. See I'm always going on about how dull this new generation is, but that little clip really brought it home, those are 20 year olds behaving like 14 in my book. I'm picturing the Swan & Bottle in '96 crammed full of every outsider in a 10 mile radius. There was like 2 tables in the whole place, so everyone would either be standing or sitting on the floor in clusters, would truly be something to behold now. Even after the pub closed we'd all sit outside for hours on end, few skaters on the carpark slope, couple o'fools leaping into the canal. You'd have Stef, The Law, Alex Wood, Simon Rowe & that lot on the floor to the right as you'd go downstairs, Luke, Julia & Hannah opposite and - oh - nevermind, what's the use of painting this picture at all. Everything Must Go. In my memory of Euro '96 down the Swan & Bottle we were already fully ensconced in the place, which means I must have been a regular since aged 15, seems bizarre today. One of my students had her 18th birthday the other week and an adult took her to a bar for her first experience of London nightlife. We're talking music student here, and if I suggest going to a show or something, I'm considered a bad influence. It bugs me that everyone is so one thing or another these days, one must be either streetwise or learned. I believe in extremes, but extremes in equal measure. One cannot truly understand Beethoven or Hemingway by visiting barren cafes on cab-choked corners, thumbing through colourless pages alone. I certainly think the UK should vote to stay in Europe, but I'm also voting with my feet to get out of the UK. Cyprus will be a healthy first step, I can hardly wait to get back there, but of course life has lined up a thousand hoops for me to jump through first. Douse the hollow, spherical bastards in petrol & light a fistful of matches, lets put on a show for the gods since humanity has chosen to look the other way. Fri 3rd June 2016 How frightfully lovely, a fresh page. On the surface everything is in tatters and falling apart at the moment, but that's only because I'm letting the superficial veneer peel off under it's own volition while I, with pleasure, attend to core concerns. Edvina & I are in an incredibly productive space, healthy & happy, so ne'ertomind about the paper planes falling as confetti in our hair, like a pilot & passengerless love affair. Previous |