Paul Vickers
Presents
Twonkey’s Castle
The Laughing Horse Free Fringe@ The Beehive Inn, Grassmarket, Edinburgh
(Venue 178)
August 4th-28th except Tuesdays, 6.15-7.15pm
“Think Reeves and Mortimer at their most deranged, Pink Floyd’s Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast, Ivor Cutler’s Life In A Scottish Sitting Room, Oliver Postgate's darkest imaginings, or even a long lost chapter to Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Colin Somerville, Scotland on Sunday, 4 stars
What does Frankenstein actually eat? That was Paul Vickers’ opening gambit in last years show, Twonkey’s Cottage. Vickers (of Dawn of the Replicants fame) may not have found the answer, but he did end up gargling and spitting into a fish tank containing an underwater circus. The question now is how do you follow a show like Twonkeys Cottage and an album like Fucking Stories?
“It's the only show that has actually made me cry with laughter”
Jonathan Trew’s, Fringe Round Up, The Scotsman.
The answer is a cabaret called Twonkeys Castle and an album called 0om-Pah! After last year’s shenanigans, Twonkey has outgrown her cottage, which is now haunted by the ghost of silent movie actress Lillian Gish. We find Twonkey reclining in her new hilltop home after navigating a windy mountain pass in a hot air balloon. It’s only when at the castle one can watch Percy Taffy the talking loaf go berserk.
“Vickers is just a good, honest weirdo, and very funny to boot.”
Jonny Ensall, The List.
The new album, 0om-Pah! will be available at all performances of Twonkey’s Castle, and in the shops from August 8th. After Fucking Stories, this time out it’s a 50/50 mix of songs and spoken word fairytales with music and sound effects from the show, as Paul and a myriad of collaborators wield classical guitars, clarinets and homemade oscillation units...SO LOWER THE DRAWBRIDGE AND STRIKE UP THE OOM-PAH OR ELSE ALL HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE!
For interviews, images etc, contact Paul Vickers on 07846315964 or Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
http://www.myspace.com/twonkeyscastle http://twitter.com/#!/twonkeys
A brief bio:
Paul Vickers fronted the cult rock act Dawn of the Replicants' for ten years, releasing five studio albums and recording five John Peel sessions for Radio One.
Live credits include; Glastonbury, Reading, T in the Park and South-by-South West in Austin Texas.
D.O.T.R tracks have been aired on daytime Radio One and playlisted on BBC6 music and XFM.
In 1997 the band where named most promising new act by The Times newspaper and in 1998 were nominated for an N.M.E brat award. Since these heady days Paul has kept his hand in, recording albums with new project Paul Vickers and The Leg and critical acclaim has been a constant as well as support from local and national radio. In 2009 Paul branched out into stand up comedy for the first time with his not for kids kids show Twonkeys Cottage and in 2010 he did a full run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which the press lapped up:
Press:
RELEASE OF THE WEEK:
PAUL VICKERS
FUCKING STORYS. (SL RECORDS CA LONE 75.)
4 STARS SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY.
The front man of Dawn of the Replicants successfully reinvents himself as a sculptor of the spoken word with this startling album accompanying his debut show on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Think Reeves and Mortimer at their most deranged, Pink Floyd’s Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast, Ivor Cutler’s Life In A Scotch Sitting Room, Oliver Postgate's darkest imaginings, or even a long lost chapter to Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Vickers also takes the opportunity to share his insights into the music business, the fruits of being an indie band signed to a very major label. The advice proffered is pleasingly utterly useless.
The closest to a conventional song is Lion Milking A Cow, strangely with traces of Antony and the Johnsons-but madder than a box of thinning hair.
That is the quality which makes this record, a love of nonsensical language and acrobatic dexterity with words, which engages from the opening gibberish of Frankenstein’s Liquorice Castle to the hidden track concealed in the 22nd one.
Lovestruck Malcolm sounds like a bootleg recording made on Captain Pugwash's last voyage, with DJ Mark Radcliffe on the wheels of steel.
Unhinged gems like Moosk boast Milligan-like dialogue, which twists and contorts logic in a surprisingly inclusive fashion.
DOWNLOAD: All of it.
COLIN SOMERVILLE.
THE LIST:
Just plain silly
There’s a lot to love about Paul Vickers and his not-for-kids, kids show. Ambling onstage at midday he launches into the story of Twonkey, a small, limp character perched onstage in front of a model cottage, whose love for acid house he indicates with some fierce strobe lighting.
From then on the pace slackens to an enjoyable stroll through the spoken word pieces on his latest album, Fucking Stories. Vickers specializes in surreal non-sequiturs, and finds a way to derail each of his short works by bringing in the odd unnecessary word or disconcerting phrase. His comedic set pieces are similarly daft - the best is when he tries to smoke a witch out of a toy windmill using a sparkler, and thus restore it to its proper purpose of grain production.
There’s music as well of course. Vickers is a Scottish music scene mainstay, who fronted John Peel favourites Dawn of the Replicants, and now performs with The Leg. He sings a heartfelt song about failing to get a cat from an ‘arsehole’ at an animal sanctuary and ends with a rousing number from a 1918 Broadway musical. There’s no hint of affected quirkiness throughout. Vickers is just a good, honest weirdo, and very funny to boot. THREE STARS.
JONNY ENSALL.
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY FRINGE ROUND UP:
If Pete Firman is as smooth as a car salesman, then Paul Vickers, singer with cult Scottish band The Dawn of the Replicants and the man behind the enjoyably odd Twonkey's Cottage show, is his shambolic polar opposite. Looking like Galashiels' answer to Noddy Holder, Vickers presides over his own prop-based world of underwater circuses; windmills inhabited by witches and elephant chimney sweeps. The show is a haphazard mix of Grimm’s' fairy tales, spoken-word performance and willfully duff puppetry that, should you need it, provides an antidote to the parade of slick, career-focused comics.
Vickers can't really sustain it for the full show and, if it has its own internal logic or narrative then it passed me by, but
I would still heartily recommend you drop in on Twonkey. It is part of the Laughing Horse Free Fringe and so far it's the only show that has actually made me cry with laughter.
JONATHAN TREW.
