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LOCAL & LIVE - THANKS - Monday August 25th 2008

I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who came along to watch my set at Local and Live this weekend and an especially massive thank you to the organiser, Paul Dunton, who deserves a knighthood for working so damn hard to make this completely free festival such a success in every way. Also thanks to Sam Nesbitt, who has done such a stunning job with the sound and everyone else involved in putting Local & Live on (Alan and everyone else at Insafe particularly). I had a great time, and once again, Mr Dunton rapped at the aftershow party - this time with some pre-written dreadful rhymes and cracking crowd interaction (bounce! bounce!). Some other highlights for me were Origami Dinosaur's unbelievably good set, Steve Spall (The Violet Jive) showing all of us who thought we could how to actually play the guitar (mate, you are a legend), Paul Dunton's set on Saturday evening (best I've ever heard you play my friend), The Rox on Friday (those harmonies are stunning), Tom Williams, Chris Pope's excellent set, Hoath, the wonderfully gifted Zoe Nicol, the fact that my listening demographic appears to be aging (sold a CD to an 84 year old) and the ultimate cheese dished up by both the bands at Sunday night's party. I noticed even the very coolest people were singing along to "Living on a Prayer". Just about to pop down and watch the closing few bands of the weekend right now in fact... Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. See you there again next year!

THANKS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR - Monday December 31st 2007

Thanks to everyone who came down to The Grey Lady last night for the Christmas show. Lovely to see so many of you down there - the busiest I've seen it. I particularly enjoyed playing new song "Spies". 2008 promises to be a fun year for me personally. I'll be coming out of my semi-hibernation with a new record out in the spring. Thanks for all your support during 2007. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

SHOW - Sunday December 30th 2007

Special Xmas show. From 8pm, 5 acts. Get away from your elderly relatives and come down to the Grey Lady, T.Wells, for an evening of cracking live music. I promise I won't play any carols.

SHOW - Sunday October 7th 2007

I have a show at the Grey Lady on Sunday 7th October. On at 9pm. Hope to see you there.

THANKS - August 29th 2007

Thanks to those of you who made it down to the Local and Live event over the weekend. Really enjoyed my set on Sunday, and the sets of many of the other bands - the whole event was brilliantly organised and executed by Mr Paul Dunton and a whole bunch of other people who chipped in helping. Then in the evening I continued to thoroughly enjoy myself (as anyone who saw me during the latter stages of the night will testify to) watching the mighty Original Sinners, who are quite simply awesome, and the fantastic "Tehillah Commission", who did a brilliant set and then put up with a lot of rather drunk people (including me - sorry guys) singing along at the top of their voices and managed about 20 encores to our collective delight. The highlight was undoubtedly Paul Dunton's rapping however. Never thought I'd see it. Probably never will again. Snoop Doggy Dunton.

LOCAL AND LIVE - Sunday August 26th 2007. 4pm.

I'm performing as part of the Local and Live festival in Tunbridge Wells this weekend. I'm on at 4pm on Sunday 26th. The weather's going to be good, I promise and guarantee 100% definitely.

SHOW - Sunday July 29th 2007

I have a show at the Forum on Sunday 29th July, with Lach and Tom Williams. Hope to see you there.

THANKS - July 5th 2007

Thanks to everyone who came along to my show last night at The Grey Lady. It was one of my most enjoyable shows for ages - really great audience, fantastic atmosphere, great sound from Ollie and all the other acts were top quality.

SHOW - Wednesday July 4th 2007

I have a gig this Wednesday (4th July) as part of the Paul Dunton and Guests night at The Grey Lady in Tunbridge Wells. The venue is in the Pantiles. Entry is £4.00 and the night starts just after 8pm. I should be on some time after 9.00pm. Hopefully see you there.

SHOW - June 14th 2007

I have a show this Thursday (14th) at the Listen Acoustic night at The Rooms in St. Leonards with Paul Dunton & Zoe Konez. 33-35 Western Road, St. Leonards. Click here for a location map

SHOW COMING UP - May 6th 2007

I have a free entry show at The Bull on Frant Road on May 6th. Be great to see you there.

THANKS - April 19th 2007

Thanks to everyone who came along to both my show last night at The Grey Lady. Lovely audience - thanks for all the nice comments.

THANKS - March 15th 2007

Thanks to everyone who came along to both my March shows (Paul Dunton's album launch at Holmewood House School and last night's string-breaking extravaganza at The Grey Lady).

SHOW - January 3rd 2007

I'm doing my first show of 2007 at The Grey Lady as part of the Paul Dunton & Guests night. I'm on at 8.45. The night starts at 8.15. Hopefully I'll see you there...

THANKS - December 18th 2006

Thanks very much to those of you who came to my show at The Bull last night. Lovely venue. Lovely people. Really enjoyed the show. I'll be back there early in 2007.

SHOW - December 17th 2006

I'm doing a last minute show at The Bull on Frant Road, Tunbridge Wells on Sunday 17th December. It's a non-smoking show and will be my last of 2006. See you there...

THANKS - December 1st 2006

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Bean show last Sunday. It was a real success and I'm glad there was such a good response for a new event. Hopefully there'll be another one next year some time. Thanks to Martin Winter for his photography - much appreciated. I have no more shows planned now as I just want to concentrate on getting my next record finished and planning for it's release. It's taken me a lot longer than I'd hoped, but I'm being a bit of a perfectionist and I'd rather wait until it's right than rush out something I'm not 100% with.

Apologies to anyone who turned up to the Grey Lady to find I wasn't playing on Wednesday 29th (although I had a great time hosting the evening). The last 6 weeks I've been knocked down by this flu bug that's going round and I think Wednesday was one gig too many unfortunately. I tried rehearsing on Tuesday night and it was embarrassing, so I saved those of you who did come down from half an hour of unpleasantness! Hopefully you enjoyed my replacement on the bill, Zoe Nicol - she was excellent, as always.

Thanks also to Max from the Forum for the sound and the great live recording he did for me on Sunday evening.

Anyway - see you all next year. Have a great Christmas. Ian.

NEXT GIGS - November 26th & 29th 2006

I'm playing the following 3 shows at the end of November:

26th November (afternoon) @ Bean, Camden Rd. in Tunbridge Wells. FREE ENTRY. This is an afternoon show which I'm organising and starts at 2pm. Also on the bill are Zoe Nicol, Stagecoach and Paul Dunton.

26th November (evening) @ The Forum, Tunbridge Wells. Also on the bill is Paul Dunton amongst others. Starts at 8pm.

29th November @ The Grey Lady in the Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells. I'll be hosting the evening in the abscence of usual host & organiser Paul Dunton and I'll be performing as well. Starts at 8pm. £4 entry.

NEW LYRICS - Sept 13th 2006

2 new tracks on the lyrics page. "Everybody's Crazy" and "I Know How it Feels". I'm having a productive week! I'm really pleased with the music for both these too - looking forward to recording them.

THANKS - Sept 12th 2006

Thanks to everyone who came to my show at the Grey Lady last week (Sept 6th). Great show. Great audience (really quiet during the songs - thanks). No shows for a while now - finally getting this next record finished off. If anyone's around on Wednesday 13th Sept. then head back to the Grey Lady for 8pm to watch my friend Zoe Nicol who is on at 8.15. She has a cracking voice and is well worth coming down to watch. Cheers.

THANKS - 27th August 2006

Okay - it's 5am. I can't sleep at all so I thought I do this now... Thanks to everyone who came down to the Tunbridge Wells Pantiles for yesterday's all day show. It was a cracking day and I really enjoyed my set, especially the track where I left the capo too high up the fretboard by accident and suddenly realised I was going to have to skip a whole section of the song because I couldn't sing that high... A special thanks to Paul Dunton, for organising the day, and Ollie Nicholls for doing such a good job with the sound. I hope everyone who came along enjoyed themselves as much as I did. Next show is on Sept 6th at The Grey Lady in T.Wells.

GUITAR CHORDS, NEW PHOTOS - 26th August 2006

Check out the chords for "Caribou" (at the foot of the lyrics page). Eventually I'll get everything up there but it's one of those things I keep meaning to do and never get round to it. There's also a few new photos on the site from some shows I did this summer and an old polaroid of me looking slightly nervous (and a bit unwell) before the KEXP show I did last year.

GIG TOMORROW - 25th August 2006

Playing tomorrow (26th August) on the bandstand in Tunbridge Wells as part of the Paul Dunton and Guests Bandstand 400 to celebrate 400 years of Tunbridge Wells. Loads of acts playing (Tom Williams, Paul Dunton, The Diaries, Simon Leeves etc...) - starts at 12.30. I'm on at 5.30. Should be great. See you there.

REVIEW - 1st May 2006

A rather nice review of the last show I did at the Tunbridge Wells Forum has appeared online in the May issue of Blam. Here's a little bit of it:

"Tunes? Give any of them 10 seconds and they feel like not just friends you've known your whole life, but lovers...such is their beauty, passion and power. And the voice, oh my fucking God, the voice!...Knapp writes songs of instant, devastating clout. Trust me, you'd kill to create tunes like this, caress those melodies with even a fraction of his sublime confidence, or write lyrics of such intelligent, humbling poignancy: love, fear, hope, the human spirit and frustrated cynicism borne from observing its failings. Try to better the black humour of "If The Aliens Came" if you want uncomfortable truths rubbed in your face, or the political venom of "Caribou" to hear how a statement can be made without sounding pious or right-on. You won't. Simple as....This man isn't just a rare and exquisite performer, he's a poet who can make you feel intensely alive: 'This world's overflowing with beauty, yet most of it passes us by, when was the last time you looked up and noticed the sky?'. Need I say more?"

Click here for the May issue of Blam online with the whole review in...

THANKS - 14th April 2006

I'm writing this eating a fine scrambled eggs breakfast - damn it tastes good. Thank you so much to everyone (especially Stuart who organised the whole thing) for last night's show at the Forum. For me personally it was one of the most enjoyable nights I've been involved in.

Tom Williams, who I had never heard before, gave an absolutely stunning performance. Check him out - he's a proper songwriter with great lyrics. Chris T-T was equally superb, the standout "When the huntsman comes to call" is lyrically one of the best tracks I've heard for a long time. Lovely bloke too.

And a massive thankyou to my friend Karina Berry - it was lovely to finally meet you Karina! Oh and happy birthday to my buddy Sam of Sojourner Fleet.

Last night was recorded live so expect some more freebies when I've had a chance to mp3 it.

THANKS - 30th March 2006

Thanks to everyone who showed up at The Grey Lady show last night and thanks to Paul Dunton for organising the evening. A lovely venue. I enjoyed myself a great deal and even got to play "Shelter From The Storm" by Dylan (which was my first ever cover). Thank you - I'm looking forward to going back there later in the year.

17th March - KEXP SONG OF THE DAY!

"Into These Oceans" was KEXP's podcast "Song of the Day", which was very cool.

SPRING 2006 SHOWS

12th March - The Prince Albert, Brighton w/ Jont
29th March - The Grey Lady, Tunbridge Wells w/ Paul Dunton
13th April - The Forum, Tunbridge Wells w/ Chris TT

THANKS: Monday 20th February 2006

Thank you to everyone who made it down to the Forum on Saturday for part IV of the fundraiser. It was a pretty eclectic night with loads of great music. It was great to see those of you who made it down and to catch up (and all in such a good cause). Thanks.

NEXT SHOW: Sunday March 12th @ The Brighton Albert w/ JONT

I'll be doing a show with Jont at The Albert in Brighton on March 12th. Tickets are £6.00 and there'll be a load of new songs from me so hopefully I'll see you there...

NEW LYRICS: 25th January 2006

New lyrics for the track "Coward at my door" and a slight rewrite for "a friend" on the lyrics page.

NEWS: CDReviews.com Best of 2005 List: 8th January 2006

"Into These Oceans" came in at number 17 in CDReviews.com's "Best of 2005" list, which obviously made me very happy indeed. Thank you Ben Montgomery. Click here to see the whole list...

NEWS: 2nd January 2006

Happy 2006! Lyrics posted for 2 new tracks (one as yet untitled, the other is called "Give me a Sign") on the lyrics page. Check them out by clicking here...

I've started recording the next record but am still undecided as to whether it'll be a full album or an E.P / mini album...anyway, we'll see. Should be out later this year whatever format it takes and some more US shows to coincide with that release. Take care. Ian.

REVIEW: 16th November 2005

75orless.com have posted a nice review of Into These Oceans (in 75 words or less). Click here to read it now...

THANKS: 16th November 2005

Thanks to those of you who made it to last night's show at The Street and thanks also to Stuart for putting the night on, Tim Williams and Zoe Nicol for their wonderful sets.

30th October 2005 - Photos Page, New mp3s

I've added a photos page to the site - click here to visit it - and I've also added 2 new free mp3 downloads:

1. The Last Time You Noticed The Sky
2. Jesus Christ and Talk Shows

Both these tracks are rough acoustic demos of songs which should appear on my next record, which will be out in 2006. I hope you enjoy them! If you listen to one of the songs and visit the photos page at the same time, it's almost like being at one of my shows.

26th October 2005 - KEXP Live Session Now Online

You can listen to my entire session from KEXP last month by visiting: http://www.kexp.org/aspnet_client/KEXPViewMediaGroup.aspx?rID=2745&pID=528&fID=1105&date=1105.

THANKS: 10th October 2005

So, thanks to everyone who came to my show at The Sanctuary Cafe in Brighton. Nice people, good audience, well organised by the lovely team at Brighton Live. Thanks Erica!

THANKS: 14th September 2005

Thank you everyone who came to see me in Seattle. I met some fantastic people and had a great time. Thank you especially to the lovely Shannon, John Richards, Cheryl Waters, Kevin Suggs & Michele Myers from KEXP and also to Pete @ Loveless and Tom Brosseau. You guys made me feel so welcome - I appreciate it. Thanks also to Jodie who I sat with at Hatties and to Jim for the sound at the Crocodile - it was the best I've had. I also appreciate the number of people who offered to show me around Seattle - I'm sorry I didn't call any of you in the end but I ran out of time. Take care....I'll be back to see you all again soon.

NEXT GIGS: Summer/Autumn 2005

4th October - 8pm. Sanctuary Cafe. Part of the Brighton Live festival.

REVIEW: 31st August 2005

Another very positive review of "Into These Oceans" from CDReviews.com by Ben Montgomery. Click here to read it now...

THANKS: 1st August 2005

Thank you to all of you who came down to see me play the ambient picnic in Guilford. Thanks also to the sound guys, the promoter of the acoustic stage (Adam) and all the organisers of the Ambient Picnic. Cheers for a great event.

THANKS: 29th June 2005

The 3 shows I did with Tim Williams are now over. Thanks to everyone who turned up to support both Tim and myself and thanks especially to Erica at Rockstarhelper for all her help in organising the shows. Thanks to all the venues & promoters (Simon in Eastbourne, Simon in Tunbridge Wells and Omar in London for putting us on).

LIVE SHOWS: June 2005

25th June - Eastbourne Maxims
26th June - Tunbridge Wells Forum
28th June - London Underbelly, 11 Hoxton Square, N1 6NU (Old Street tube, Northern Line) - click here for a flyer

NEW SONG: 24th May 2005

A live acoustic version of a new song "The Last Time You Noticed The Sky" is now on the songs page - Click here to visit the page and download it now...

REVIEW: 30th April 2005

"Into These Oceans" has had a great review in the - Manila Standard - writer Mondo Castro said some very nice things. Click here to read the review now...

REVIEW: 22nd April 2005

A very nice review has just surfaced on Shotgun Reviews - click here to read Kyrby Raine's review of "Into These Oceans".

MASSIVE THANKS: 18th April 2005

Thank you to all of you who were in the audience at last night's show at The Forum in Tunbridge Wells. You were without doubt one of the best audiences I've played to. Thank you - I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. The set was recorded (thanks Max!) so expect a couple of new free mp3s up here soon. Thanks to Max & Simon for the night and the sound. All the other artists were top quality - I'll be putting some links up soon.

NEXT GIG: 17th April 2005 - Tunbridge Wells Forum

Next show is at The Tunbridge Wells Forum on Sunday 17th April - on stage around 8.45pm. Doors at 8pm. Hopefully see you there.

THANKS: 25th March 2005

Thank you to everyone who came to last night's show at The Sound Cafe in London's Leicester Square. It was good to see you all, including a few old friends I hadn't seen for a long time.

NEWS: 13th March 2005

Flier for the show at the Sound Cafe in Leicester Square on 24th March is available to print off by clicking here.

NEWS: Show rearranged

The show at Leicester Square's Sound Cafe has been rearranged and is now on Thursday 24th March - on stage at 8.30pm.

REVIEW: 16th February 2005

Another review has popped up on Reviewcentre.com, also giving the album 10/10, which put a smile on my face. Click here to read what they said...

REVIEW: 10th February 2005

Whisperin & Hollerin have reviewed "Into These Oceans" and gave it 10/10. This is part of what they said...

"Singer-songwriter IAN KNAPP should be raved constantly about in the NME right now. With a voice that erupts in raw passion, Knapp's vocal skills alone is a keen instrument, sharp as saber tooth"

Click here to read the full review now.

NEWS: 19th January 2005

After quite a few requests, I've uploaded the guitar chords for "If the Aliens Came" as a Word document. Click here to download it. There are also some new lyrics up on the lyrics page.

NEWS: 16th January 2005

The free download of "Caribou" has been removed now after 1 month on the site, as promised. But...

...I've replaced it with "Into These Oceans", the title track from the album, which will stay up there permanently. Click here to visit the songs page and get it now.

NEWS: 12th January 2005

KEXP Radio in Seattle have picked up on the album and giving it some great airplay. John Richards' Morning Show has played tracks from the album every day so far this week. This is what he said:

"Incredible stuff. He’s your 'New Favourite Artist'. He’s my new favourite artist, I’ll tell you that right now......I’m going to play another song from him, 'cos that is just too good."

Check out www.kexp.org for more.

NEWS: 12th January 2005

American site CD Baby (www.cdbaby.com/ianknapp) are listing "Into These Oceans" for sale now, with reductions for bulk orders. Tower Records will have it listed with their site in the next few weeks.

NEWS: 10th January 2005

January sale - in the spirit of general New Year goodwill, I've lowered the price of "Into These Oceans" to a mere £5.99 (about $11.00) so what are you waiting for? Click here to order it now...

NEWS: 17th December 2004

New free track "Caribou" available for download until for 1 month only. Click here to get it now. Think of it as a Christmas gift.

RELEASE: 6th December 2004

"Into These Oceans", is out now Worldwide.

Click here to buy online now...

NEWS: 25th October 2004

Thanks to everyone who came to last night's show at The Forum. The audience was fantastic and I met some cool people. Thanks Simon. I enjoyed the other bands too.

NEWS: 14th October 2004

I was chosen as the "Editor's Choice" by Download.com and featured on the front page alongside Kristin Hersh (Throwing Muses etc). This is what they wrote:

"London-based singer-songwriter Ian Knapp is armed with equal parts melody and passion. His lyrics are astute and delivered with an urgent, wavering falsetto and his ability to turn a phrase is truly unique. With so many lesser talents being hailed as the new Dylan, Knapp is the only one with the intellect to back it up."

Rather nice of them I thought.