MOMO CELEBRATES BOMO AT THE BIG BASH ON THE BEACH

The coolest digital networking collective is throwing its summer party and this year Meetdraw is inviting Momo:tempo to headline its biggest gathering yet, all in the name of all that’s currently creatively brilliant about Bournemouth – Thursday June 4th 2015.

With four regular events a year, south coast digital and agency talent connecter Meetdraw is well known for its great sense of occasion. Previous bashes have always been big parties celebrating innovation, clever creativity and how jolly splendid it is to get to work so close to the beach. But for the next event, it is really putting its ideas where its mouth is and taking the digital party of the summer to the beach. Almost. And Momo is joining in.

As one of the MD ‘butchers’, Momo himself, Mr Peach, has been partly responsible for a number of the shenanigans the group has become notorious for in its six year history – including last year’s summer do, Meetdraw 22: The Electric Boogaloo, an 80s themed party in the Orange Rooms that saw KITT from Knight Rider show up on the forecort for the evening.

“It was quite a bash,” says Timo. “Hell of a packed sunny evening that went on until some of us tried dancing home in the small hours. I even DJed a whole set of 80s disco dance. It was good. But this year’s, I am sad to say, will out do that. …Sad, because I’ve had nothing to do with it.”

BIG BASH ON THE BEACH
The team wanted some live entertainment for this one, a rather bigger setting in an event space popping up for the week in the Waterfront space, right beside the beach on the pier approach – all in the name of celebrating Bournemouth’s currently growing presence in national conversations about creativity. So they co-opted their colleague and his big band in to share a set, just two days before Momo is launching a brand new LP.

“It’s the Thursday before the Saturday night bash at Jalarra, ” Mr Peach explains, ” but how could I say no? I very much want Momo to be counted with all the various creative things really taking shape around Bomo, as it itself takes new shape around us.”

The seaside town made national news earlier in the year when it emerged it has the fastest growing digital economy in the country, thanks to its many agencies, start-ups and tech initiatives, as well as its significant presence in the film industry thanks to the two universities. It also, of course, recently made headlines again as its football team, AFC Bournemouth, won the league and made promotion to the Premiership, just as the town is also being described as one of the hottest spots for building development. It is all go. Even the broadband is supposed to be faster here.

“Well, yes, it all sounds rather promising here at the moment. I think the Air Festival is now listed as the best of its kind in the UK or something and, goodness, there’s all manner of good creative souls exploring art and business here. So I’m very pleased to be in the mix for Meetdraw’s big celebration of it all this summer. It’ll be a great teaser for the reveals on Saturday night just up the road.”

Tickets for Meetdraw are always free, but definitely by registration. So get yours in now.

GET YOUR TICKETS FOR MEETDRAW: THE BIG BASH ON THE BEACH >

Dirty protest vote.

Well, with no swearing at anyone, the filthy deed is done. In dappled sunshine to congenial smiles and light banter in a Victorian school hall; a very English sort of democracy. Saw a friend on the desk who rulered our names, and saw another friend on the local ballot, who I put a cross by. To all those actually trying to get stuck in, bloody good work. Because you are quietly leading by example.

We live in times more seismically shifting than we often recognise at ground level, pottering past the Tesco with the plastic lottery monolith near the windows. But we still currently live in the historically astonishing light of an actual half working democratic liberty – so the time for indulging our grumpy disaffection with a miserable scribble on a scratch card must be done. Navels go everywhere with you, so you don’t have to worry about leaving it at home. Time to get up, man up and make a mark. Join in, broken or no. You and the system. Because we need you. We need us. Now go. Or banks and oil giants and other monolithic engines of mindless profit will smother everyone’s humanity under piles of little discarded cardboard dreams. Which is bloody poetry, mate. Yeah. More empty rhet’ric.

Personally, I’m sick of tactics and the habitual cultural grind of the politico-media ‘conversation’. It’s not even poetic. It says nothing of any meaning at all. What’s needed is a serious talk – us ordinary lot. Or whatever weirdos we can find instead. What we really need, as our new century opens out, is a whole new way of seeing where we are. The real imperatives and the real opportunities – all unprecidented, and happening in our times, right now. You there. Finger. Nose. Stoppit. ..So I voted for vision.

The real challenge will be seeing what we all do AFTER we’ve voted. There’s the dirty truth. How do we each lead by example?

Bugger. ..Cup of tea?

THESPIONAGE – THE ALBUM, THE SHOW, THE VENUE

Momo finally reveals the new LP on June 6th, two days ahead of the offical release, at Bournemouth’s best new space to celebrate original creative music, Jalarra. And you can bag your tickets now.

The wait is over – at least to know what it is you’re waiting for. Thespionage is the title of the long awaited follow-up to 2010’s The Golden Age Of Exploration, Momo:tempo’s rather original, dynamic, and eclectic debut LP. And now the man from Momo is back – as you can hear for yourself, at the hottest new venue in the south coast, right in the heart of Mr Peach’s home town.

“I really can’t wait to share the LP with everyone, and especially to launch it with the first ever showcase party night at Jalarra,” says Timo. “It is really going to be show to be at.”

As the posters put it, the most original new venue in town presents the most original new album in town. So why did Momo team up with Tony, Lisa, Graham and the team at Jalarra?

“They asked me in, out of the blue, and kindly showed me around the refurbishment. It is a really vibey place that will be a fab location to share a Momo show, and a great place to celebrate together. Not least of which because it’s also Momo Maestro Mr Adkins’ 40th birthday party, and lots of amigos and chums and who knows who else will be converging on the place, so we’re planning to have a great time, long into the night” Mr Peach confirms.

And what can we imagine from the show – and the album?

“Fun.” says Timo emphatically. “What else? We’ll be sharing a number of tunes brand new to Thespionage as well as some other splendid new surprises and guests. All of us in the Electro Pops Orchestra are so damned excited about it; can’t wait. And I can’t wait to hear how people enjoy the LP afterwards over the summer. It is work I love, summed up in it’s title – a fusion of electronic music, film and theatre.”

FIRST REVIEWS
For a very first idea of what the outside world thinks, this first headline review of Thespionage from Essentially Pop gives an idea of what might be coming from reviewers. But there’s no accounting for taste.

“I’ve long learned to enjoy my work on its own terms and not for plaudits. Momo amigos and I are an elite breed in our tastes!” But, adds Momo, “For me, it’s an album about ways of seeing. Why would anyone want to stand in a spotlight? My hope is it is one of the most showbiz ways of ever asking such a question.”

RESERVE TICKETS NOW.
Tickets are £10 on the door, or £8 with an online reservation from the Eventbrite page.