The Metronome Sessions: Q&A with Simon Raymonde (Bella Union/Cocteau Twins)

Tuesday 2 March 2021

6:00 pm : Online

16+

Tickets

General Admission: £5.00

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*This live interactive Q&A will take place in a private Zoom meeting. Ticket holders will receive a link to the Zoom meeting. You will have the chance to ask a question*

How to be in a seminal band, then release a dozen more on your own label

In this conversation Simon Raymonde (Bella Union/Cocteau Twins) and BBC Introducing’s Dean Jackson will discuss the journey through the music business, as an artist and as a record label founder, thoughts on the future of music, as well as sharing invaluable advice for the next generation of musical talent.

Simon Raymonde owns and runs the independent label Bella Union. Prior to its creation in 1997, Simon was in a band called Cocteau Twins from 1983 to 1997. He was a core writer in the band until its untimely end. As well as his work with the Cocteau Twins, he also contributed to the first two albums by This Mortal Coil.

Raymonde runs the Bella Union record label, and has signed artists like Flaming Lips, M Ward, Spiritualized, Mercury Rev, Ezra Furman, Beach House, Fleet Foxes, The Walkmen, Explosions in the Sky, Midlake, I Break Horses, John Grant, Laura Veirs, Laura Groves, Van Dyke Parks, Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith, Dirty Three, The Low Anthem, Veronica Falls, Vetiver, Andrew Bird, Father John Misty, Jonathan Wilson, Radiohead’s Philip Selway, BC Camplight, Pom Poko and many more

The label has won the coveted Independent Record Label of The Year in UK in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 as awarded by Music Week (UK’s Billboard) and as voted by the UK independent retailers.

Raymonde has acted as Record Producer and mixer on many records, including Clearlake’s ‘Cedars’, James Yorkston’s ‘Moving Up Country’, both on top UK indie Domino Records, the first two albums by John Grant’s first band The Czars, The Duke Spirit’s ‘Cuts Across The Land’ & The Open’s ‘Silent Hours’ (both for Universal) and co-produced the posthumous album from Billy Mackenzie of The Associates. He also mixed the Fionn Regan album ‘The End of History’, which was nominated for the 2007 Mercury Music Prize.  He was Music Supervisor on Jonathan Caouette’s documentary ‘Walk Away Renee’ which was accepted for the Cannes Film Festival in 2012. He also appeared in Scott Walker’s 30th Century Man and co-curated the BBC Proms for Scott Walker in 2017.

He hosted his own radio show on Monday evenings on Amazing Radio for four years before leaving to start his new band Lost Horizons. Their second LP is due out next month.

He also recently released two double albums of music by his father Ivor Raymonde, as featured on longer form interviews with Lauren Laverne and Tom Robinson both on 6Music.

He is (and isn’t everyone) currently writing a book.

 

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The Metronome Sessions: Q&A with Simon Raymonde (Bella Union/Cocteau Twins)

*This live interactive Q&A will take place in a private Zoom meeting. Ticket holders will receive a link to the Zoom meeting. You will have the chance to ask a question*

How to be in a seminal band, then release a dozen more on your own label

In this conversation Simon Raymonde (Bella Union/Cocteau Twins) and BBC Introducing’s Dean Jackson will discuss the journey through the music business, as an artist and as a record label founder, thoughts on the future of music, as well as sharing invaluable advice for the next generation of musical talent.

Simon Raymonde owns and runs the independent label Bella Union. Prior to its creation in 1997, Simon was in a band called Cocteau Twins from 1983 to 1997. He was a core writer in the band until its untimely end. As well as his work with the Cocteau Twins, he also contributed to the first two albums by This Mortal Coil.

Raymonde runs the Bella Union record label, and has signed artists like Flaming Lips, M Ward, Spiritualized, Mercury Rev, Ezra Furman, Beach House, Fleet Foxes, The Walkmen, Explosions in the Sky, Midlake, I Break Horses, John Grant, Laura Veirs, Laura Groves, Van Dyke Parks, Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith, Dirty Three, The Low Anthem, Veronica Falls, Vetiver, Andrew Bird, Father John Misty, Jonathan Wilson, Radiohead’s Philip Selway, BC Camplight, Pom Poko and many more

The label has won the coveted Independent Record Label of The Year in UK in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 as awarded by Music Week (UK’s Billboard) and as voted by the UK independent retailers.

Raymonde has acted as Record Producer and mixer on many records, including Clearlake’s ‘Cedars’, James Yorkston’s ‘Moving Up Country’, both on top UK indie Domino Records, the first two albums by John Grant’s first band The Czars, The Duke Spirit’s ‘Cuts Across The Land’ & The Open’s ‘Silent Hours’ (both for Universal) and co-produced the posthumous album from Billy Mackenzie of The Associates. He also mixed the Fionn Regan album ‘The End of History’, which was nominated for the 2007 Mercury Music Prize.  He was Music Supervisor on Jonathan Caouette’s documentary ‘Walk Away Renee’ which was accepted for the Cannes Film Festival in 2012. He also appeared in Scott Walker’s 30th Century Man and co-curated the BBC Proms for Scott Walker in 2017.

He hosted his own radio show on Monday evenings on Amazing Radio for four years before leaving to start his new band Lost Horizons. Their second LP is due out next month.

He also recently released two double albums of music by his father Ivor Raymonde, as featured on longer form interviews with Lauren Laverne and Tom Robinson both on 6Music.

He is (and isn’t everyone) currently writing a book.

 

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