Our friends at fellow veteran indie blog www.joyzine.org are celebrating two decades of supporting new music with a series of charity gigs and a compilation series. Plus we are working together to promote each others anniversary shows, including joint promotions in Cardiff and London, see details below.
Founded by editor Paul Maps in his bedroom in 2003, DIY music blog Joyzine has been promoting new music from the UK and beyond for 20 years. In the intervening decades the site has raised more than £20,000 for a range of charities, launched the internet’s first (as far as we’re aware) music downloads Advent Calendar, organised a group of fellow blogs and promoters to host a series of online music festivals during lockdown, been recommended in The Guardian Guide, hosted our own radio show, made lots of new friends and shared our love for thousands of bands.
Advert free and run by an ever-evolving group of volunteers passionate about sharing the music, books and films they love, the site has developed a clear policy of only covering releases and events that excite us, and has developed a reputation as a trusted source of new music recommendations.
To celebrate this milestone a series of gigs and compilation releases have been organised, which will be raising money for HOPE not hate, a UK-based charity that uses research, takes action and supports community engagement to challenge mistrust and racism.
Live events include a two-stage, twelve-band August weekender at The Old Library in our spiritual home of New Cross, a co-promotion with Club Fade at The Lexington in September, and joint shows with fellow vicennial DIY institutions God Is In The TV and Rocklands at The Gate in Cardiff and The Amersham Arms in New Cross (full line up details below).
The first of these shows, our birthday weekender at The Old Library in New Cross on 19-20th August will feature an indoor main stage and a garden stage for stripped back and acoustic performances. Tickets are available now priced at £12adv/£14otd for day tickets and £20 for weekend tickets – all profits to HOPE not hate: www.wegottickets.com/f/13192
Saturday’s Main Stage line-up is headed by indie-pop chameleon Piney Gir (also part of the band for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Gaz Coombes) with politically-charged punks Deux Furieuses and dark post-punks Dead Patrons completing the bill. The Garden Stage will feature a stripped back set from alt rock favourites Hurtling (whose singer/guitarist Jen is part of the My Bloody Valentine live band), indie storyteller MJ Hibbett and punk poet Gabi Garbutt.
Sunday’s main stage is headlined by Bristolian heavy-pop outfit Masca (whose singer/guitarist Tina Maynard is IDLES’ paternity leave cover guitarist) with pop-punk scamps Breakup Haircut and mummycore riotpop kitchen punx I, Doris. Ultrasound frontman Tiny & The Tears tops the Garden Stage bill, alongside indie gent Stephen Evens (drummer for Graham Coxon) and odd-pop eccentric Garden Centre.
A series of four compilation albums will also be released over the course of the year, presented as limited edition birthday cards with a digital download code, each designed by a different musician, and will also be available as a digital download via Bandcamp. All of the 20 tracks on each album are exclusive recordings, with bands asked to submit a track on the theme of ‘joy’. The albums are accompanied by a virtual inner sleeve with commentary from the bands on their featured track.
Volume 1 features artwork by Finn Kidd (Klaxons/Hatcham Social/Tim Burgess) and is packed with exclusive tracks from influential indie experimentalists Deerhoof, Canadian garage folk troubadours The Burning Hell, cult art pop heroes David Devant & His Spirit Wife and many more (full tracklisting below). Further volumes will be released in October 2023 and March + June 2024.
More details:
South London Weekender + Vol.1 of compilation album ft. Deerhoof, The Burning Hell, David Devant & His Spirit Wife and more on 19-20th August in aid of HOPE not hate
These days, joy can be in short supply – both in and beyond the music world – and the joy that Joyzine spreads in writing about music is both crucial and rare. DIY scenes have always survived on the enthusiasm of dedicated and extremely hardworking people like Paul and his collaborators. Here’s to another 20 years!
Mathias Kom (The Burning Hell)
20 Years Of Joy Weekender
19-20/08 at The Old Library, Music Room London, 116-118 New Cross Road, London SE14 5BA
Day Tickets: £12adv/£14otd, Weekend Tickets: £20 – all profits to HOPE not hate
www.wegottickets.com/f/13192
| Saturday 19th August | Sunday 20th August | ||
| Main Stage | Garden Stage | Main Stage | Garden Stage |
| Piney Gir | Hurtling | Masca | Tiny & The Tears |
| Deux Furieuses | MJ Hibbett | Breakup Haircut | Stephen Evens |
| Dead Patrons | Gabi Garbutt | I, Doris | Garden Centre |
Joyzine & Club Fade present a Joint Birthday Bash
16/08 at The Lexington, 96-98 Pentoville Road, London N1 9JB
Tickets: £11 + optional donation to HOPE not hate – www.wegottickets.com/event/586460
The Fades / Jemma Freeman & The Cosmic Something / Hey You Guys / The Burning Feathers / Grizlee
God Is In The TV in association with Joyzine & Rocklands Present GIITV 20th Anniversary
30/09 at The Gate Arts Centre, Keppoch Street, Cardiff CF24 3JW
Tickets: £23 + collection for HOPE not hate
www.gigantic.com/giittv-20th-anniversary-tickets/cardiff-the-gate-arts-centre/2023-09-30-15-00
Adwaith / Chroma / Carwyn Ellis / The Honest Poet / Papaya Noon / Half Happy / Kaptin (DJ)
Rocklands + Joyzine in association with God Is In The TV present
26/10 at The Amersham Arms, 388 New Cross Road, London SE14 6TY
Tickets: £5 + collection for HOPE not hate – www.wegottickets.com/event/589723
Bugeye / Feral Five / Colossus + Special Guests
20 Years of Joy: Vol. 1Available at The Joyzine Weekender, 19-20/08 then via Bandcamp 21/08 – all proceeds to HOPE not hate
Deerhoof – Everybody Marvel (Happy Version)
Jemma Freeman & The Cosmic Something – Hoping for A Miracle
The May vs Nigel Firth – Stromatolite (Deep Time In The Goldilocks Zone)
Firestations – Undercover (Bit Cloudy Remix)
MJ Hibbett – What A Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong Cover)
West Midlands – Breaking The States
Pagan Wanderer Lu – Fantastic Voyage (David Bowie Cover)
David Devant & His Spirit Wife – We’re In Love (With The Sound of Our Own Voice)
The Moths – Tell Me
Hatcham Social – Lion With A Lazer Gun (Live in Hackney)
I, Doris – Do It Yourself
Stony Sleep – Delirium Tremens (Demo)
The Scaramanga Six – Jump Into The Fire
Tiny & The Tears – Honey
The Burning Hell – The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton (Mountain Goats Cover)
Deux Furieuses – Keep Your Eye On The Prize (Demo)
Dead Patrons – She’s Lost Control (Joy Division Cover)
Scrounge – Forward (Live from Cable Street)
Mike Gale – Butterball
Piney Gir – Happy Birthday Joyzine
Joyzine is at the heart of the grassroots music scene and we are so grateful for all the support they’ve given our little band, and all the other independent bands, little to big! Keep on spreading the joy x
Cassie Fox (I, Doris / LOUD WOMEN)
The underground community of venues, labels, magazines, rehearsal studios and fans supply the nutrients for the UK music scene to flower. These grassroots movers are typically people whose motivation is to promote and share the music they love. Joyzine are a prime example of this. I know what it’s like to run a night/label for twenty years and that’s a lot of love, sweat and tears. Joyzine we salute you. Music not money. Hope not hate.
Joe Murphy (Sergeant Buzfuz / Blang Records)
My first band Black Nielson did our first ever interview with Paul in the previous incarnation of Joyzine back in 2003 at Truck Festival. Since then Paul and the Joyzine crew have probably reviewed. interviewed or just generally encouraged me with every album release. Paul’s enthusiasm and support for mostly unsigned and underground music is incredible, unwavering and so important to all of the bands featured over the years. The guys at Joyzine just have a pure love of music. Long live Joyzine.
Mike Gale
Joyzine is one of the blogs that forms the glue that holds scenes together. It has been for a long time. Paul does massively important work in supporting DIY communities, and we and many, many bands like us are so grateful that he does it!
Breakup Haircut
Joyzine embody everything that’s brilliant about enthusiastic people writing about the music that they love. Their enthusiasm for giving space to new and underground talent has made them an essential part of the grassroots music community and the advent calendar is always a highlight of my year!
Paul Hawkins (The Awkward Silences)
These days, joy can be in short supply – both in and beyond the music world – and the joy that Joyzine spreads in writing about music is both crucial and rare. DIY scenes have always survived on the enthusiasm of dedicated and extremely hardworking people like Paul and his collaborators. Here’s to another 20 years!
Mathias Kom (The Burning Hell)
Paul and the rest of the Joyzine crew do such important work supporting the DIY scene, particularly in our beloved South London. Sites like this are a massively undervalued but completely vital part of the independent music ecosystem, and Joyzine is one of the best around. Thanks to everyone there for all the support they’ve given us over the years, and for asking us to be part of this compilation.
Lucy Alexander and Luke Cartledge (Scrounge)
Joyzine has been a formidable presence on the scene for a good while now. Twenty years – that’s staying power! It’s a testament to how much Paul and all the lovely guys really care about the music they cover, and realise the importance of what they do. Happy Birthday Joyzine! Here’s to twenty more?!
Neil Walsh (Firestations)
HOPE not hate exists to challenge extremism and build resilient local communities. Our work focuses on the organised far right, the communities who are susceptible to them and the issues and policies which give rise to them. We are the only organisation in the UK using a combination of research, policy, education, and deradicalisation to tackle the far right. From infiltrating far right groups, to complex investigations into the online networks and methods that far right figures use, our team have won international acclaim, have foiled terrorist plots and saved lives.
