PURSON welcomes you to Desire’s Magic Theatre… a technicolour trip through the mind’s eye of songstress / vocalist / guitarist Rosalie Cunningham, whose signature approach to her craft stands boldly centre- stage, blending progressive dexterity and cabaret romp into a compelling, multi-faceted rock ‘n’ roll show.
Desire’s Magic Theatre draws inspiration from the rock operas of the late sixties and early seventies; musically, visually and lyrically, it touches on a variety of realms, including folk, prog, psychedelic, gothic & classic rock, making telling use of classical instruments and complex arrangements, and fully exploring the outer limits of reel to reel tape.
Says Cunningham: “Desire’s Magic Theatre has turned out to be everything I’d imagined and more! My world has been so consumed by it that I’ve barely been able to reflect on what it has become: a technicolour variety show, a playful display of the musical whims only briefly hinted at in our previous work; a psychedelic rock opera dedicated to our good friends Sarge Pepper and Zig Stardust.”
PURSON – Cunningham, George Hudson (guitars), Samuel Robinson (keyboards), Justin Smith (bass), Raphael Mura (drums) – have recently returned from a six-week tour of North America Special Guesting with GHOST, following on from a stint on the Kiss Kruise IV plus a sold-out Los Angeles debut at the notorious Viper Room.
Desire’s Magic Theatre is set for release on March 25th 2016 under the Spinefarm / Machine Elf banner, supported by a headline UK tour plus selected European shows; summer festivals and visits to Australia and Japan will follow.
UK HEADLINE TOUR DATES
March 09 Bristol, THE LOUISIANA
March 10 Nottingham, ROCK CITY
March 11 Norwich, WATERFRONT STUDIO
March 12 Milton Keynes, THE CRAUFURD ARMS
March 16 London, 100 CLUB
March 24 Exeter, THE CAVERN CLUB
March 25 Plymouth, THE JUNCTION
March 26 Southampton, JOINERS
March 27 Brighton, THE HOPE & RUIN
March 30 Birmingham, THE SUNFLOWER LOUNGE
March 31 Manchester, NIGHT & DAY
April 01 Glasgow, AUDIO
April 02 Leeds, THE BRUDENELL
Named after a demon and fronted by the bewitching Rosalie Cunningham, PURSON is the latest psychedelic proto-doom band with a mesmerizing female vocalist to cast a spell over everyone who hears them.
With elements of ’70s progressive and heavy rock, PURSON is in league with BLOOD CEREMONY and JEX THOTH, conjuring visions of Hammer horror and pagan rituals. What sets them apart are the incredibly catchy pop-like arrangements inspired by former bassist and founding member Ed Turner and Cunningham‘s borderline obsessive love of The Beatles. It only took a couple of songs on Soundcloud / Facebook to capture the attention of illustrious Rise Above Records and DARKTHRONE’s Fenriz, one of metal’s favorite arbiters of taste, made them band of the week!
Furthermore with a UK tour and the release of their new EP “In The Meantime” only a few weeks away, it is time for a gentle reminder… Tickets are available online through several ticket websites and most likely from the venues themselves. They are selling fast so snap them up now or regret it later!
A first taste of the EP is already available with the song ‘Danse Macabre’. Stated the band on its’ Facebook page: “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages… We proudly present to you ‘Danse Macabre’ the first track to be taken from our forthcoming Extended Player ‘In The Meantime’. We hope you all enjoy…“
British hottest Newby for all you Fuzzoholics PURSON have played a live session from the legendary Maida Vale studios on Monday, December 2nd 2013 for Marc Riley’s BBC 6 music show. During their performance, the band played some new songs ‘Mr. Howard’ and ‘I Will Be Good’ and ending with ‘Tragic Catastrophe’ – ffor all those who missed to tune in on time can listen to it on BBC iplayer here!
PURSON live on BBC 6 Radio
PURSON will start a UK tour this friday and will include the following dates:
December 06: Exchange Bristol, UK
December 07: Lennons Southampton, UK
December 08: Rescue Rooms Nottingham, UK
December 09: Broadcast Glasgow, UK
December 10: Belgrave Music Hall Leeds, UK
December 11: The Roadhouse Manchester, UK
December 12: The Lexington London, UK
Furthermore the band led by their charming chanteuse & guitarrista Rosalie Cunningham will also be appearing on the Rise Above Records 25th Anniversary party, taking place on December 27 to 28 2013 at The Garage London. PURSON will play alongside BLOOD CEREMONY, TROUBLED HORSE and more on the Saturday show. Don’t miss the chance to see PURSON perform songs of their critically acclaimed full-length debut “Circle & The Blue Door”, out since released 29th April 2013 on Rise Above Records.
After misfortune first struck for British Psychedelic Rock outlet PURSON, forcing them to cancel all continental dates on the tour with ASTRA earlier this year, now things are finally looking up again: The swinging quartette announced to be joining in on SPIRITUAL BEGGARS’ “Earth Blues Tour 2013” and thus finally be heading over from the United Kingdom. A more appropriate package almost seems out of the question, as both bands are hard to label. PURSON with their deal at Lee Dorrian’s very own Rise ABove record, on the one hand might be having a hard to time, fully pleasing expectations of the rather (Stoner) Rock and (Doom) Metal oriented group of costumers that do not disapprove the price and publication policy of the former NAPALM DEATH vokiller and CATHEDRAL mastermind. SPIRITUAL BEGGARS on the other hand have been into all of what has become a mere hype within the past few years, with names such as ORCHID, GRAVEYARD, KADAVAR and others being overwhelmingly praised for a particular direction, while the Swedes have been sounding like this, ever since they first got started in 1993! Twenty years later they are still far away from being signed by a major label – but be it as it may…
Organist Samuel Shove & Frontlady Rosalie Cunningham outshining it all
My main reason to take on what turned out to be a three and a half hour ride throughout major parts of the southern part of Germany I live in, is to watch PURSON play live – first and foremost. For sure catching up with former CARCASS member Michael Amott got its charms on me, but let’s just not get lost on this. To state the obvious again, female musicians do attract me in very intense way and one Rosalie Cunningham being in her early twenties and stunningly beautiful get attributes combined that never failed to amaze me. Besides their unique blend of colorful 60s vibe, Psychedelic infused Rock and an almost scary sense of coolness, hard to got on many a Metalhead. Strictly on time at 9pm, the current lineup featuring new members Jack Hobbs (drums) and Justin Smith (bass) along with leading lady Rosalie, George Hudson (guitars&backing vocals) and Samuel Shove (Organ, Mellotron, Wurlitzer) enter the stage of Café Central, Weinheim. The audience, hardly to my surprise, acts quite reserved and rather confused by those young Brits diving in the scanty used light, which underlines and displays their qualities even more so.
PURSON: When sound & sight become alike
The approximately 45 minutes setlist contains well-known songs from PURSONs debut record “Circle And The Blue Door” such as ‘The Contract’, ‘Spiderwood Farm’, ‘Tragic Catastrophe’ and ‘Leaning On A Bear’ – as seen in the live video above. Additionally the band fears not the present some new material like ‘I Will Be Good’. A track that gets to me right away, almost as if I heard it before. An acoustic way of coming home, if you may. And my celebratory “Wooohooo” popping out with the announcement of the new song, even puts a soft smile on Rosalie’s face. All too soon this lovely trip to a much more swining’n’grooving sphere of time and space is over again. The scarcely used interaction with the audience clearly does not stand in the way of enchanting a few newly won fans tonight and to put it this way: Great art might be well explained but the true magic each and all of us have to find within our selves through pure conception, understanding and love. Speaking for myself: I can’t wait for them to return, if I won’t catch up with them in their native England that is!
Furthermore, just two days after seeing PURSON, the nightmare continues for them, as stated as follows: “It is with great regret that we have been forced to drop off the rest of the tour with Spiritual Beggars. After our van broke down yesterday in Belgium, we found ourselves in some very awkward circumstances, being taken to a dodgy garage where they tried to force us to spend €5,000 on a whole new engine. After we refused they locked us in the compound with no food or water. 11 hours later we were rescued by the AA and made it safely back to England this morning. We would like to apologise to our fans in Holland, France and Belgium for not now being able to play for you! We really are gutted. We would also like to thank Spiritual Beggars and their crew for an awesome run of shows, and all those other new friends we have made along the way. And especially thanks to our driver Dave, for getting us safely out of a very nasty situation. Again, we are so gutted we can’t finish the tour.”
Hype, Retro wave, back to the roots – whatever one might name the ongoing tendency towards low-fi productions, vintage equipment and a pleasant way of reducing music to the essentials. Lessening their own possibilities, so to speak, many a band maybe finds a more immediate approach to its own skills. Among those PURSON seem to stick out, not so much concerning the fact that the band is led by a woman – the, both incredibly young and talented Rosalie Cunningham – but far more with their sound. Specially this kind of genre holds many female musicians and names such as BLOOD CEREMONY, JEX THOTH, JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONES, SPIDERS, ROYAL THUNDER and many more come to mind. All of those are associated with the Rock/Metal scene, while PURSON seem to inhabit their own alcove, full of 60s vibes and bright colours.
To talk about a current matter at first: You have just been on the road supporting ASTRA, but had to cancel quite a few dates, among them your participation at this years’ ROADBURN in Tilburg. Do you want to tell the reason(s) for this?
We had a wonderful time on the road with ASTRA and would have loved to have joined them on the rest of the tour but we simply couldn’t afford it. With van hire, hotels and everything, we would have lost so much money.
PURSON (l.t.r.): Samuel Shove – Organ, Mellotron, Wurlitzer, Justin Smith – Bass, Rosalie Cunningham – Vocals, Lead Guitar, Jack Hobbs – Drums, George Hudson – Guitars, Backing Vocals – Courtesy of Ester Segarra
Are there any plans so far to tour outside the UK in the near future?
We have a few things on the horizon but once again, that depends on how much we will be paid for the gigs. If we can’t cover our costs, we won’t be able to tour.
PURSON seems to be a band with a strong virtual concept – is this just my personal impression or do you actually plan in things like stage clothes, vinyl-colour ect?
We wear the same clothes on stage as we do off stage. We love to dress up, myself and Sam especially, and it’s part of the fun of being in a band for us. We get to live out our wildest wardrobe dreams as part of the job description! I think it’s important for the visual side to reflect the world we create with our music. The vinyl colour isn’t much to do with us… it’s something that Rise Above like to do.
Do you collect records and what do you think about this, let me call it, policy of Rise Above to publish things as very strictly limited editions that sell out so fast, most people won’t even be able to pre-order upcoming releases?!
I know that this policy upsets a lot of people and I have to agree, it doesn’t make much sense to me. I am not an avid collector, I have what I need. I am not concerned about having first pressings or a certain colour of vinyl. The music itself is far more important to me.
The Heavy Metal-scene has changed quite a bit during the last… I don’t know ten (?) years. There’s the heck of a lot of vintage sounding bands around right now. Do you think a band like PURSON could’ve been around ten years ago?
I was pretty much a child 10 years ago so I can’t say exactly. I have also never been involved in the heavy metal scene. I have liked certain heavy bands but have never considered myself part of any scene associated with it.
At best (or earliest) the 70s have been present in Heavy metal/hardrock music pretty much, but the 60s never seemed to be much of an issue – cept for HENDRIX – your sound (e.g. “Leaning On A Bear”) seems to have more of a 60s (pop) vibe than it’s common for bands outside the Garage-Punk-scene. How important is that period for you?
Debut album, “The Circle And The Blue Door” released 29th April 2013
This period is especially important for me in terms of songwriting. I was into 60’s pop before I was into anything heavier or prog. Bands like THE BEATLES, THE MOVE, THE SMALL FACES, THE KINKS and a lot of obscure pop psych bands are more of an influence for me and I will always appreciate a well crafted pop song more than any riff. I suppose that is what sets us apart from the other vintage sounding bands around.
There are two aspects about your music that might (judged from my experience as a record dealer) make it not that easy to sell your records to the average metal or even rock-fan; groove and female lead vocals in combination. A couple of buyers have already turned the single down when I recommended it to them. One reasoning it would be “too funky”.In my personal opinion the amount of shuffle is what makes the song cool. I love the short stop on the bass drum and hihhat during the chorus. Would you consider Purson as being “funkier” than the average metal or rock band? And did soul music or jazz have any sort of influence on any individual in the band?
Haha, I’ve never thought of us as funky but I suppose compared to classic metal we are. We like to play with a bit of swing and groove which I think is quite typical of rock music… I mean BLACK SABBATH! They definitely have a jazzy feel sometimes, especially early stuff. I think the jazz influence comes more from things like that and other jazz-rock and prog rather than jazz itself, which I don’t really listen to.
Rosie Cunningham – Courtesy of Ester Segarra
(to Rosalie) You been referring to yourself as a ‘control freak’ several times. How far do you take that? And is that habit only related to music?
I’m pretty chilled out with everything else actually. The first album was made under very difficult circumstances and I was determined for it to turn out the way I had planned and so I did become a control freak there. I don’t compromise at all with my music. I do have a tendency to want to do everything myself but I’m slowly learning that it’s not how a band works…
Thanks a lot for this Interview – if there is anything else you want to send out into the universe, feel free to do so right now!
Photo by Peter Brenchley
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