Tuesday 9 July 2013

At least 12 young people die of sudden cardiac death each week in theUK. In 2005, Kate's daughter Alex was one of them

Watch this. This is a brilliant documentary made by young, British film maker Ellie Swinton, which explains the facts about sudden death syndrome and cardiac risk in the young. It includes stories from family and friends, input from CRY and the Oliver King Foundation and highlights the crucial need for awareness and action to prevent the tragic loss of too many young lives.






On July 16th, it will be eight years since I lost my beautiful daughter Alex to sudden cardiac death. She was 13 years old and we thought she had her whole life ahead of her. I said goodnight, and wished her sweet dreams, but I didn’t tell her I loved her, the night she died. It haunts me. Tell your kids you love them, tell them every day! Then go get their hearts tested, or make a donation to Cardiac Risk in the Young, to help raise awareness and funds for screening programmes. If I had known, if someone had told me, and I had had Alex tested, she might still be alive today.
If you are aged between 14 and 35, get your own heart tested. There are lots of free screening sessions coming up in the next few months. Upcoming locations include: Cwmparc, Derry, Redcar, Isle of Man, Coleraine, Leek, Sandhurst and Belfast. Visit the Test My Heart website for more information:
www.testmyheart.org

Everyone needs to know about sudden death syndrome and Cardiac Risk in the Young, and ALL young people should be screened. No young person should lose their life to a preventable or treatable condition, the way my beautiful, beautiful Alex did. Share this. Get your childrens’ hearts tested, tell your friends to get their hearts tested. Lives depend on it.
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Wednesday 3 July 2013

To be near the sea at sunset.This is why we love living in Herne Bay


Reculver Towers at sunset


Reculver beach at sunset


Sunset over the sea in Herne Bay

To be near the sea at sunset.
This is why we love living in Herne Bay.

Saturday 29 June 2013

Tuesday 25 June 2013

Cray Festival, July 6th


We’re really looking forward to playing this cosy community event. There’s loads of great local music, dance, art, craft and all sorts of entertainment, all for free. It’s going to be a lovely day.

http://www.thecrayfestival.co.uk/

Saturday 22 June 2013

What a joy it was to hear Holly Taymar and Christopher Bilton…

What a joy it was to hear Holly Taymar and Christopher Bilton play live last night at Folking Live. Being English they write songs about the weather (so do we) and we loved this song. Check them out, we love their songs, we think you might, too.

We had a wonderful time playing at Artree Music’s Folking…

We had a wonderful time playing at Artree Music’s Folking Live at the Southhill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell last night. Playing support for Laveer was a privilege and a very great pleasure. We particularly liked this song. Check out their songs, they’re beautiful.

Monday 17 June 2013

Folking Live



This Saturday (22nd June)

Tickets £8: http://www.southhillpark.org.uk/?lid=11781#buytickets

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Folking Live Bracknell is the monthly roots music event taking place every forth Saturday of the month in the intimate setting of The Cellar Bar, part of South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell, Berkshire. Each night of music will offer the best in English Folk, Country, Bluegrass, Americana and World Music from performers both local and further afield.
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Holly Taymar and Christopher Bilton are two Yorkshire-bred twenty-somethings with a talent for writing and arranging beautiful acoustic originals, featuring a multitude of genres: acoustic, folk, country, jazz, doo-wop and a hint of hip hop.
http://www.hollytaymar.com
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Laveer are four, tea spilling musicians who favour acoustic instruments and like making songs together. They began when Dan Adsley and Stephen Moyse began playing their guitars at each other. The resulting noise was pleasing but needed a voice – step forward Aimee Herbert who added singing, more guitar and lots more songs. To fill in the gaping holes in the lower register was James Gaydon and his firm-but-gentle bass hands.
http://www.laveer.net/
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DaylightSaving is a songwriting duo with a sound that combines elements of jazz, pop, folk and Latin and features soft acoustic guitar, folksy vocals, flute, penny whistle and melodica. Having been told they weren’t ‘pure jazz enough’ by a UK radio station that shall remain nameless, Richard and Kate delight in describing themselves as ‘mongrel dogs of jazz-pop fusion and proud of it’. That half of their songs sound more like contemporary folk than either pop or jazz is neither here nor there.
http://www.daysave.co.uk/

Friday 14 June 2013

Stephen Fry shared this on Twitter, we love it

(I’d advise you to read it slowly, while thinking of someone you love, friend, child, parent, lover…)

Of the terrible doubt of appearances,
Of the uncertainty after all, that we may be deluded,
That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all,
That may-be identity beyond the grave is a beautiful fable only,
May-be the things I perceive, the animals, plants, men, hills,
shining and flowing waters,
The skies of day and night, colors, densities, forms, may-be these
are (as doubtless they are) only apparitions, and the real
something has yet to be known,
(How often they dart out of themselves as if to confound me and mock me!
How often I think neither I know, nor any man knows, aught of them,)
May-be seeming to me what they are (as doubtless they indeed but seem)
as from my present point of view, and might prove (as of course they
would) nought of what they appear, or nought anyhow, from entirely
changed points of view;
To me these and the like of these are curiously answer’d by my
lovers, my dear friends,
When he whom I love travels with me or sits a long while holding me
by the hand,
When the subtle air, the impalpable, the sense that words and reason
hold not, surround us and pervade us,
Then I am charged with untold and untellable wisdom, I am silent, I
require nothing further,
I cannot answer the question of appearances or that of identity
beyond the grave,
But I walk or sit indifferent, I am satisfied,
He ahold of my hand has completely satisfied me.

“Of the terrible doubt of appearances” — Walt Whitman (via stephen-fry-me)

Wednesday 12 June 2013

New Myspace

Yikes! It looks as if classic Myspace has gone, and all accounts have been transferred to the new Myspace. Interesting times…


myspace.com/daylight_saving

Thursday 6 June 2013

Daylight Saving jazz/pop/folk/blues from Kent | GUBIC Blog

If sunshine is a state of mind then this is the music to blow the clouds away, even when the songs are melancholy or bittersweet.”


Lovely review of us and our music by Olli from GUBIC Unsigned Bands Blog


Daylight Saving jazz/pop/folk/blues from Kent | GUBIC Blog

Red Bird Sky - music by and for grown-ups

We love this :)

Tuesday 28 May 2013

Unfest 2013: Remembering Alex

Our most recent gig this weekend was very, very important to us.

12 otherwise fit and healthy young people in the UK die each week, of treatable, undiagnosed heart conditions. Kate’s beautiful 13 year-old daughter Alex was one of them.

The Acoustic Valium Project and The Bedford in Tunbridge Wells  teamed up to put on a weekend music festival to raise funds for CRY in Alex’s memory. The event took place on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th of May, was officially part of Unfest 2013 and had a Pirate Party theme. Headlined by RICKY AND THE HATS on Saturday evening, it was huge fun.It was a fantastic weekend of live music, with 25 acts playing live all giving up their time and skills for free, to raise over £600 for Cardiac Risk in the Young. Huge thanks and big love to Dan Littlechild of The Acoustic Valium Project and to the landlord of The Bedford Pub, Tunbridge Wells for all their effort and kindness. Huge thanks also to everyone who donated raffle prizes and bought tickets or otherwise contributed. We are so very grateful. We love you all. x

AVP Big Weekender for CRY_UK Sat 25th Sun 26th May 2013



Acoustic Valium Project fundraiser for Cardiac Risk in the Young



Our most recent gig this weekend was very, very important to us.

12 otherwise fit and healthy young people in the UK die each week, of treatable, undiagnosed heart conditions. Kate’s beautiful 13 year-old daughter Alex was one of them.

The Acoustic Valium Project and The Bedford in Tunbridge Wells  teamed up to put on a weekend music festival to raise funds for CRY in Alex’s memory. The event took place on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th of May, was officially part of Unfest 2013 and had a Pirate Party theme. Headlined by RICKY AND THE HATS on Saturday evening, it was huge fun.It was a fantastic weekend of live music, with 25 acts playing live all giving up their time and skills for free, to raise over £600 for Cardiac Risk in the Young. Huge thanks and big love to Dan Littlechild of The Acoustic Valium Project and to the landlord of The Bedford Pub, Tunbridge Wells for all their effort and kindness. Huge thanks also to everyone who donated raffle prizes and bought tickets or otherwise contributed. We are so very grateful. We love you all. x
Ricky and the Hats

Ricky and the Hats

Recording with Doug Sides


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Recording Feb 2013, a set on Flickr.

Spring 2013

We’ve been doing some recording, with Doug Sides on drums and Henry Willard on Double Bass. We’re working on an album. We’ll tell you more when there’s more to tell….

Folkestone Artworks Public Gallery Launch


We were delighted to be invited to play some tunes to help celebrate the launch of Folkestone Artworks at the Quarterhouse Theatre on Friday 3rd May.

Folkestone Artworks Launch

Songwriter's Den on the road to Sweeps' Festival



We had a wonderful time, playing songs in the sunshine at Songwriters Den on the Road @ Sweeps Festival in aid of Hospital Radio Medway on Monday 6th May. We heard some great music by the other acts playing and oh, my gosh, we have never looked finer than we did in our Songwriters’ Den teeshirts :)