News
many of the older links won’t work anymore…!
THERE MIGHT BE MORE | ||||||||
(2024) | ||||||||
There might be a new PERSIL release. Hold your breath! 🙂 | ||||||||
PERSIL MEMORIES OF WEDDING PRESENT GIGS | ||||||||
(October 2023) | ||||||||
No new music, but some stories for two books featuring The Wedding Present. We put some sweet memories about supporting The Wedding Present on tour, and about covering “Kennedy” in writing for the books by Richard Houghton. “All The Songs Sound The Same” with our contribution is available here. Scroll down this page to read the Persil contributions.
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GET PERSIL MUSIC ! 🙂 | ||||||||
(April 2018) | ||||||||
It’s been a while since last release, but you can check out our music on: | ||||||||
AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA | ||||||||
(July 2010) | ||||||||
We will be playing at the At the Edge of the Sea Festival in Brighton (UK) on August 28th, 2010. Also playing are The Wedding Present, Cinerama, The Ukrainians, Terry de Castro, Darren Hayman, Klee, Sharks, The Half Sisters and Rose Leaf Miner. | ||||||||
ARM WRESTLING | ||||||||
(April 2010) | ||||||||
You can hear "Arm Wrestling", one of our new songs, in Peter Nelson’s podcast. It starts at about 37 minutes into the show (although we hope you will listen to the whole podcast). Enjoy! | ||||||||
SESSION ONLINE | ||||||||
(January 2010) | ||||||||
A session
we recorded for Peter Nelson’s show two years ago is now
up for download, including a cover version of The Fall’s "Life
Just Bounces". | ||||||||
DEAR SANTA… | ||||||||
(December 2009) | ||||||||
We have written and recorded our first ever Christmas song.
It’s called Dear Santa and has just been released on
the Cherryade X-mas compilation cd. Click
here to order A Very Cherry Christmas volume 5.
Click here for a quick listen. Please be careful when you buy from iTunes, as they have mixed up the tracks on the comp and the one labeled "Persil" isn’t actually ours. You can also hear the track on Rachael Neiman’s Christmas show for Dandelion Radio at http://www.dandelionradio.com. (Click here for the broadcasting schedule.) A festive video for Dear Santa will follow shortly! | ||||||||
FIELD TRIP*VIDEO/MP3 | ||||||||
(May 2009) | ||||||||
We have a video for a song called "Field Trip" and you can see it (youtubed) here: fieldtripdownloadMake sure you press the HQ button after starting the video, you’ll be rewarded with much better sound and image (if your connection permits). That same web page also contains a link to download the song, so yes, go ahead and download it! And please do not hesitate to send the link to neighbours and friends! | ||||||||
OCCII | ||||||||
(April 2009) | ||||||||
Well the tryout went pretty smooth, next gig is @ occii amsterdam, may 4. That gig is not private, in fact you’re very welcome, and we’ll play new tunes!! More 2009 gigs t.b.a.! + We’re ready for offers :-). mail us! | ||||||||
TRYOUT | ||||||||
(February 2009) | ||||||||
We’ll be back on stage in march 2009, trying out some new stuff! This will be a private gig, for… err… duckheads. All we can say. We like ducks, so should be good. | ||||||||
HAPPY ROBOTS | ||||||||
(September 2008) | ||||||||
It’s been a while, we know! We’re not asleep though. There’s proof in a track on the new album from our Scottish friends Cruiser. We fiddled a bit with basslines and vocals in a song called "You + Me + Ever", but boy, there are lots of brrrilliant songs on that disc. The album’s called "Happy Robots : Smiling People" and it is available from .coms like KFMRECORDS.COM, PLAY.COM, HMV.COM, TOWER.COM, TESCO.COM, ITUNES, NAPSTER etc! etc! For more info on cruiser see myspace.com/cruiserland. | ||||||||
DANDELION RADIO | ||||||||
(February 2008) | ||||||||
This month: Persil session in Peter Nelson’s show on Dandelion Radio. Click here for the February schedule. | ||||||||
HAPPY NEW YEAR | ||||||||
(January 2008) | ||||||||
Happy new year everybody! | ||||||||
TWO BEATS ONE | ||||||||
(September 2007) | ||||||||
Get ready for two John Peel Days at Occii,
Amsterdam. | ||||||||
JULY UK DATES | ||||||||
(June 2007) | ||||||||
There are two Persil UK dates coming up in July, both not to be missed: Friday 27 July, Buffalo Bar, London (with Bearsuit!) We hope to see you there! . | ||||||||
INTERVIEW | ||||||||
(March 2007) | ||||||||
Hey we’re back from our latest UK tour! Click here to read an interview with Newcastle-based Cuckoo Press magazine. | ||||||||
BBC LIVE SESSION | ||||||||
(January 2007) | ||||||||
The live session we recorded at Maida Vale, London for Huw Stephens’ BBC Radio 1 show was broadcast on Thursday January 18th and will be on line for the next week. It’s four songs, plus an encore in the show’s podcast (also on line for a week). In the same show, which features Transformed Dreams as label of the week, are live sessions from our friends and labelmates Zea plus a live recording of Das Wanderlust‘s Eurosonic show. All the more reason to listen! | ||||||||
GIGS | ||||||||
(January 2007) | ||||||||
Some of the finest, finest British bands are
coming over to play with us at the Paradiso, Amsterdam on Monday
15 January.
Other gigs in January: | ||||||||
WATCH HIT THE NORTH | ||||||||
(November 2006) | ||||||||
A video impression of the Hit the North Festival (28 October 2006 at Poppodium Romein, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands) is available here. Starring/music by Le Tetsuo, Chips For The Poor,
Persil, Look Look (Dancing Boys), Malorix, The Suicidal Birds,
Two Dogs, Das Wanderlust, The Lovely Eggs & Zea. | ||||||||
UK TOUR DIARY | ||||||||
(November 2006) | ||||||||
A late but big, BIG thank you to everyone who came to see us and/or played with us and/or was nice to us during our October UK tour. A tour diary with some pictures is here. (It’s all in Dutch, except for the pictures.) We’ll be back in the UK in February when the new BBC session has been broadcast. We hope to see you then! | ||||||||
LIVING IS EASY | ||||||||
(October 2006) | ||||||||
A
brand-new Persil song called Living is Easy is available
on an LP called Ammehoelahop. | ||||||||
HIT THE NORTH | ||||||||
(September 2006) | ||||||||
**NOT TO BE MISSED!!**
Chips For The Poor – Das Wanderlust – Malorix – Persil – Zea – Le Tetsuo
– Two Dogs – The Lovely Eggs – The Suicidal Birds – Look Look (Dancing
Boys)
All at the Hit
The North Festival on Sat. 28 October at Poppodium Romein,
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands | ||||||||
JOHN PEEL DAY 2006 | ||||||||
(September 2006) | ||||||||
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DIGITALLY YOURS? | ||||||||
(August 2006) | ||||||||
We hereby announce the availability of our recent album ‘Comfort Noise’ on i-Tunes (and other legal MP3 download sites). We acknowledge the convenience of downloading music but also regret that the artwork does not fit these downloads. To work around this problem we’ve developed a special iPod version of the Comfort Noise wrapper. It will fit neatly around your iPod, to make the Comfort Noise experience more complete. Click here to download the template. Happy downloading! | ||||||||
IS THIS MUSIC? | ||||||||
(July 2006) | ||||||||
The current issue of Is This Music? (an independent music magazine from Scotland) has a full-page interview with Persil in it. We talk about touring, bass players, the new album and lots of other interesting things. Go buy it! Our gigs for this summer: | ||||||||
REVIEWS ETC. | ||||||||
(June 2006) | ||||||||
Our new album Comfort Noise was released in Holland on May 15. Click here to read the first reviews. We also gave a song-by-song explanation of the album to MusicFrom.nl. Click here to read it (in Dutch). | ||||||||
LIVE VIDEO | ||||||||
(May 2006) | ||||||||
You
can watch the live video of ‘Light up my
Life’, the first track on our new album Comfort Noise. | ||||||||
COMFORT NOISE | ||||||||
(May 2006) | ||||||||
Our new album Comfort Noise is in the shops in Holland now! (UK release date: June 19) Curious to find out what the new songs sound like? Click here to download ‘Light Up My Life’ or listen to some tracks on our sounds page. | ||||||||
UK TOUR APRIL/MAY | ||||||||
(May 2006) | ||||||||
We are back from the UK. We planned to do 16 gigs in 17 days, we ended up doing 17 gigs in 17 days. What better way to spend a day off than by doing a gig.. And it was sunny too! A big, big thank you to everyone who helped us organize things, played with us, came to see us, let us sleep on their couches, cooked for us and/or made us delicious sandwiches. We’ll be back in the UK real soon! | ||||||||
NEW ALBUM, NEW MP3 | ||||||||
(May 2006) | ||||||||
Big news! Our second album ‘Comfort Noise’ will be released on 15 May (NL) / 19 June (UK). Click here to download ‘Light Up My Life’. We’re celebrating the release of our new album with a gig at Amsterdam’s Paradiso on Wednesday 17 May (midnight show), right after our UK tour. We hope to see you all somewhere soon! | ||||||||
UK TOUR | ||||||||
(March 2006) | ||||||||
More news about the upcoming album will be here *soon*. | ||||||||
BBC RADIO 1@EUROSONIC | ||||||||
(January 2006) | ||||||||
BBC
Radio 1’s One World visited the Transformed Dreams night
at the Eurosonic Festival. The Eurosonic special was broadcast
on Monday 30 Jan. | ||||||||
RING RING | ||||||||
(January 2006) | ||||||||
Happy new year everybody! And thank you everyone who attended the Transformed Dreams label nights in Amsterdam and Groningen, a great start of the new year! If you’re interested in a Persil ringtone, visit The Ringtone Society. We’re on MySpace too: www.myspace.com/ | ||||||||
PARADISO+EUROSONIC | ||||||||
(December 2005) | ||||||||
There is a new Persil interview on wobly.nl
(in Dutch).
Dutch dates for early 2006: Both Dutch dates are Transformed Dreams label nights, where we’ll be playing together with Zea, The Suicidal Birds and Zoppo. Come see us to hear a whole lot of new songs from the upcoming album. | ||||||||
TOUR DATES | ||||||||
(November 2005) | ||||||||
We’re off to the UK again. Dates: | ||||||||
JOHN PEEL DAY | ||||||||
(October 2005) | ||||||||
Oct
13th: John
Peel Day | ||||||||
BAILRIGG SESSION ONLINE | ||||||||
(July 2005) | ||||||||
Three tracks of our March session for Lancaster’s Bailrigg FM are now on line from their website. Download them from http://radio.lancs.ac.uk/music/live/ |
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BRAND-NEW SESSION TRACK | ||||||||
(June 2005) | ||||||||
On our recent UK trip we were invited to record a session for Lancaster’s Bailrigg FM. We were feeling rather unwell at the time, but were still able to put down 4 tracks, which were broadcast on The Rachael Neiman Experience on May 24th. Thanks again to Rachael and all the other lovely people at Bailrigg FM for inviting us! One of the songs we recorded was a brand-new track called Arkadelphia. Click here to listen (MP3).
11 June in Occii, Amsterdam (NL)
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TUNE-UP EP RELEASED | ||||||||
(April 2005) | ||||||||
Our new Tune-up ep will be available in shops in the UK and the Netherlands this month. Dutch release date 18 April, UK release date 25 April. The ep is also available in the Transformed Dreams webshop. You can listen to samples of the four Tune-Up songs on the sounds-page, or read some reviews on the reviews page. | ||||||||
UK TOUR DIARY | ||||||||
(March 2005) | ||||||||
Click
here to read our tour diary (in Dutch) on the VPRO 3voor12
website. | ||||||||
UK TOUR REPORT | ||||||||
(March 2005) | ||||||||
We are back from the UK and had the time of our lives! (despite getting sick) A big thank you plus hugs and kisses to The Wedding Present and Melys for being so kind to let us support them on so many dates! We will be supporting The Wedding Present on two Dutch dates
as well: Thank you Feedback in Lancaster for giving us the opportunity to headline a show
ourselves. Thank you Skif & Jenny, Fraser, Dave, Huw,
Secession Books, Aleksy, Coed-y-Celyn
Hall, Bernie, Gareth and Will for your hospitality. And
finally, thanks to all the bands that played with us and everybody
who came to see our shows. | ||||||||
TUNE-UP! | ||||||||
(February 2005) | ||||||||
We’ve
had a busy couple of weeks.. Not only have we rehearsed
our bums off for the upcoming
three week UK tour (nine dates with the Wedding Present
as a three-piece band, then six or seven (most with Melys) as
a duo), but we’ve also finished a new EP. It’s called ‘Tune-up’
and it’s got four guitarry poptunes on it: ‘Happy’, ‘She Cuts
a Dash’, ‘Mellow’ and ‘Sofa Adventures’. The official release
dates for the ep are 18 April (NL) and 25 April (UK). If you cannot wait that
long come get it at one
of our shows! | ||||||||
PERFECT? | ||||||||
(February 2005) | ||||||||
If
any of you are wondering what Persil HQ is like (but why would
you?), get your hands on the DVD version of the Wedding Present’s
new single ‘I’m from further north than you’. Track 3, ‘Perfect
Blue’, is an acoustic version David Gedge & Simon Cleave
played at the Transformed Dreams label night in Paradiso in
February 2004 (which was also our cd release party!). These
images (shot by us!) are intertwined with fragments of
headquarter places like the bathroom and the kitchen. Interesting
huh? | ||||||||
WEDDING PRESENT + MELYS UK DATES | ||||||||
(January 2005) | ||||||||
Happy new year everyone! We’re off to a great start as we
have been invited to join The Wedding Present on the first
part of their 2005 UK tour. From 20-28 February we’ll play Liverpool,
Manchester, Colchester, Portsmouth, Brighton, Oxford, Sheffield,
Bristol and Birmingham. See the gigs page
for more info. | ||||||||
JOHN PEEL 1939- 2004 | ||||||||
(November 2004) | ||||||||
As you all know John Peel died last month. We feel very lucky that we finally got our chance to meet him in September. Thank you John for all your support and your brilliant radio shows. | ||||||||
OCTOBER US TOUR | ||||||||
(October 2004) | ||||||||
For the second time this year we’re travelling
to the US. Details are on the gigs
page. We’re a little sad to miss the Bearsuit
gig in Amsterdam on Oct 13th though. |
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UK TOUR REPORT | ||||||||
(September 2004) | ||||||||
We’re
back from the UK and it was goood! A big thumbs up to everybody
who came to our gigs (especially the guy who travelled 4 hours
from Leeds to Glasgow to see us!) and to Is This Music? magazine
for putting balloons on stage at the mad Dunfermline gig. This time we finally met John Peel. A tour diary should be on line soon (in Dutch). Like last time, photographer stillben came to see us, his Norwich pics are here. After the tour we came home to give ourselves a good scrub and then flew right back to Manchester for a showcase at the In The City festival. Thank you everybody who came to that gig too, and no thanks to the EasyJet people who ruined our drum machine. |
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SEPTEMBER UK TOUR | ||||||||
(August 2004) | ||||||||
We
had such a wonderful time in May that we started planning another
UK tour straightaway! The new tour will also bring us to Scotland,
for four dates. See the gigs
page for more info.
These UK dates will be the first gigs with our new bass player George, as Kasper left the band this summer to focus on his own projects. Right after the UK tour we’ll play in Nijmegen. Then we’ll rush back to the UK to play a showcase at the In The City Music Conference in Manchester on Sept. 18th. |
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PERSIL MEETS BLONDIE PART 2 | ||||||||
(June / July 2004) | ||||||||
We
gave Debbie our cd & took a picture when we met her
in New York in April and now we will support BLONDIE
on stage on 29 June in 013,
Tilburg! (their only gig in the Netherlands) Hopefully we’ll
get a chance to take a better picture than the one we made then!
Update: We did
take a better picture..! |
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UK TOUR | ||||||||
(May 2004) | ||||||||
Thanks to all the nice people who came to see us in the UK! We had a wonderful time, even got sunburnt. Even more thanks to the people who let us stay in their homes. And to Zea, who played with us on five nights. A tour diary is available at musicfrom.nl
(in Dutch). Pics of the Leamington Spa & Oxford shows are
at
stillben.co.uk.
And there’s a review with some pics of the Purr night
@ Bath here. (Yes,
the keyboard stopped working. But it worked fine the next
few nights. Strange these things..) We are planning to return to the UK in September. Yes we will! |
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Our third BBC Radio 1 Peel session will be broadcast on Tuesday
11 May, right before
the start of our UK tour with Zea.
The tour begins on Saturday 15 May in London’s Buffalo Bar and
will take us to places such as Leamington Spa, Oxford,
London (again), Bath and Hull. And we’ll be back in september!
See the gigs
page for more info. The new Peel session was recorded on 15 April. We had a great day, despite the City of Westminster’s attempt to ruin it by giving our car a wheelclamp. Zea‘s Arnold came with us to play guitar and we recorded a Status Quo cover… | ||||||||
US TOUR | ||||||||
(April 2004) | ||||||||
We spent the last 3 weeks in the USA and had a great time. Thanks to everyone who let us stay in their house, came to our show and/or played with us! And a big hug for Freezepop and all Swirlies. We kept a US
tour diary for the VPRO 3voor12 website (in Dutch). We also
found some
photos of the Washington DC show (with Marumari,
EBSK and Greg Davis). |
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BUY! | ||||||||
(March
2004) |
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Our new album Duotone is available in good record shops in the Netherlands and the UK (also at Kim’s, 6 St. Mark’s Place, New York City) . We are touring the USA from March 20th (starting at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas) until April 5th. Follow the US tour diary on VPRO’s 3voor12 website (in Dutch). A UK tour with Zea
will follow in May (dates will be posted on the gigs
page when they are confirmed). |
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REVIEWS | ||||||||
(February 2004) | ||||||||
The first Duotone reviews are in. Read them here. Catch up with John
Peel’s shows on BBC Radio 1. |
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ALBUM PRESENTATION | ||||||||
(February
2004) |
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The Duotone album will be presented in Paradiso, Amsterdam on February 10th. With very special guests: David Gedge & Simon Cleave from Cinerama/The Wedding Present (doing a short acoustic set) AND Melys. Plus Cyozlab. Read the interview on musicfrom.nl (in Dutch) |
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NEW ALBUM | ||||||||
(January 2004) | ||||||||
This is what the Duotone album looks like! Release dates: February 9th in the Netherlands, March 2nd in the UK. On Transformed Dreams. Dutch release party on February 10th in Amsterdam’s Paradiso. The album contains 13.5 songs: Some of these songs were released before but all
tracks have been re-recorded for the album.
Traces of Knots is a duet with Damon of the Swirlies. |
read the story we contributed the book “Sometimes these words just don’t have to be said”
Persil have been fans and following TWP since their early days. So for us it was quite natural to try our own version of one of their most poppy bouncy songs, Kennedy. Gedge must have heard our rather primitive version on the Peel show, and apparently he liked it as some day we received an email if we’d like to support TWP on a part of their new UK tour. Nine gigs, many sold out, clearly this email was a prank from one of our friend bands?
At the risk of making fools out of ourselves we replied and, lo and behold, it was David Gedge, the real one.
For us it was an amazing experience to join them, and to see so many dedicated fans showing up at the gigs. They had quite a few diehard ones, that even we recognised after a few evenings. And quite a few started enjoying our tunes as well. TWP always had a strong fan connection.
So, looking back at it, it makes sense why we often saw Gedge checking routes shortly before a gig. What’s the fastest way to the merch desk, straight through the venue or through a backstage path? Because surely and miraculously, after each gig, with the guitars still ringing with feedback and audience in awe, Gedge could be spotted at the merchandise stall before even the first visitor turned their back to the stage to get to the exit.
Which is a warm and direct way to be in touch with the audience, who in turn, of course, rewarded the band by buying tons or merch!
They are known for not doing encores and now you know why, Gedge is already at the merch desk!
Another warm memory is when David Gedge and Simon Cleave brightened up our album release party at Paradiso in Amsterdam. We were too nervous to remember much of that. The day after we drove some extra rounds through the center of Amsterdam so Gedge could make a nice panning shot from the car of the neon lights of the Cinerama cinema, now long gone.
read the story we contributed the book “All songs sound the same”
As half of the band Persil I would say: my favorite Wedding Present song is Kennedy.
Already early in the Persil band times we wanted to play some covers, and as the Wedding Present was one of our favorite bands, it made sense to select a song from their repertoire and twist it a bit! Kennedy, with the strong guitar energy, seemed perfect for a Persil makeover.
Except there is no way I could play guitar as speedy as that, so that had to be left out. Also, no way to play bass as pumping as that, and we didn’t have a bass guitar, so it had to change too. But to make a cover song sound the same as the original makes little sense anyway, so we cherished the changes!
The bass was transformed to a basic synth line, drums replaced by some electronic noises. We aimed to keep but transform the energy, and obviously Persil vocals would become female.
To our delight Gedge got to hear it through John Peel’s show and were asked to join as support on a tour. We thought it would be a nice service to fans (or: a smart marketing move) to have some Kennedy CD-R’s (yes, it’s a while back) as a give away for fans buying our albums after the gigs. Buy an album, get a Weddo cover CD-R for free!
Sales sky rocketed way beyond expectations and we saw our big pile of home-burned disks shrink to zero around half way the 9 gig UK tour.
Either we played less good the later gigs, or it was indeed the attraction of the Kennedy-freebie…, but once this special offer came to the early end, sales became, let’s say, a bit tame… It now seemed the Wedding Present fans saw a better investment in another WP t-shirt purchase than a Persil album.
Still, despite regrets of not making more CD-R copies, Kennedy somehow made our tour, and there’s a lot of great memories from it.
We still hope Gedge doesn’t send us an invoice for royalties.