Getting Closer...
There are only two weeks to go until our Tenth Anniversary...
Hello friends,
I’m very aware that yet another less-than-ideal period of time has passed since I last wrote to you. Lately, these newsletters have lacked the regularity I, for one, would prefer them to have, and I only have myself (and my paid-job workload) to blame. I apologise again, not for the first time this year, but I hope you won’t hold it against me. I hope you know it’s not indicative of any apathy on my part. I love you all, I truly do.
Anyway… we’re now exactly two weeks away from our Tenth Anniversary show at Wilton's Music Hall, and as I predicted last time out, we are well and truly SOLD OUT. It’s a very unusual feeling to be so far off from a show night, and to feel like the biggest stress - selling tickets - is already taken care of. It’s unusual, as I say, but also very, very welcome, and long may it continue…
What’s more, we’ve also now got a full lineup of six storytellers! As it’s our birthday, we decided we wanted to include one of our Hidden Tracks guests to incorporate one of the most joyous parts of OTM’s ten year history, and to that end, we’ve enlisted the services of the very wonderful Morgan Chalmers to bring her triumphant storytelling skills from our recent Southbank Centre show to the Wilton’s Main Stage.
If you were in the audience at the Purcell Room back in March, you’ll no doubt be as excited as we are to hear Morgan reprise her brilliant jazz-inspired story. And if you weren’t there, then you’re most certainly in for a treat.
Morgan rounds off our six-guest lineup, all of whom have also already told us what song they’re going to be talking about, which means, two-weeks out from show night, we’re better prepared than we sometimes are 24-hours ahead of curtain up. As I say, it’s a very lovely feeling, and one I could certainly get used to…
It leaves Adam and me a most welcome amount of time to fully prep for the show, to hone our script, work on our jokes and… I realise I’m now piling on unreasonable amounts of pressure on the pair of us to deliver an entirely flawless performance on the night, which is probably unhelpful. Given that we’re both also telling stories on May 20th, we’ve still got a pretty hefty amount of work to be doing between now and then, so forget everything I told you about everything being in hand. We’ll doubtless find ourselves flying by the seats of our pants, as we usually do, and no harm will come of it.
All to say, I’m very excited indeed. Thank you to all of you who’ve bought tickets. And if any of you still want to come along, do drop the Wilton’s Box Office a line to join the waitlist - there’s every chance we’ll have a few tickets available on the night.
Some other things to share with you this week:
Joe Dunthorne - one of our anniversary guests on May 20th - featured in The Guardian’s The Books Of My Life column.
Here’s a very interesting piece in Wired about how the success of last year’s most hyped band Geese might have been all a bit PR move… (One of these days I’m going to write more about the role that PR/press/marketing has on the way we enjoy/don’t enjoy certain acts. I think it’s a fascinating element in our experience of music).
I’m still on an Ambient Music fix at the moment, and got a lot of listening pleasure from this selection of 9 Albums That Will Transform A Space
I’m going on a podcast later this week to talk about my favourite use of music in films. For research, I rewatched Ana Lily Amirpour’s gloriously weird 2014 vampire film A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night yesterday. If you’ve not seen it, remedy this immediately. Here’s a little teaser about what I’m going to be talking about on the pod…
Oh, and on Friday I’m going into BBC London to chat with our old friend Robert Elms about our upcoming anniversary show. I’m on around 10:30am if you want to listen in…
Our album of the week is the debut record from London-based folk/Americana act Tenderness, who we caught at the Shake The High Road festival in Leytonstone last weekend. It’s the latest incarnation of singer-songwriter Katy Beth Young of 2010s Folk duo Peggy Sue, and it’s gorgeous - fans of Big Thief, Yo La Tengo and Patsy Cline will most certainly dig this…
Right, that’ll do… I’m off to Cannes next week for work, but I hope I’ll have time to whip off a quick missive for you on Monday before I leave. Until then though,
KB.
Anniversary Show - May 20th 2026 - Wiltons Music Hall | Tickets Here
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well i have two of the golden tickets that i would give up ... on the balcony and NOT together.