We’ve been crazy busy here at Wind Up Towers! and not had much time to update the old blog thingumme so here’s a update on a few things we’re involved in over the next few weeks and months.

First off you can listen while you read to a very recent radio show we did for the Kipper the Cat Show at Cambridge 105 radio station.

Again this year with the Shellac Collective we’ll be at Bestival and Camp Bestival over the summer with a full line up of all the best UK 78rpm DJs and some amazing bands.

We’ve been invited to some new and exciting events this year including Cartmel Races where we’ll be playing and dancing all day for their vintage race night. We’ll be there from 2pm through till after the first race at 6pm and on till the evening frivolities so if you in the Lakes make a trip to come to a unique event in the racing calender.

We’ve also been invited to play in Morecambe at the Kite festival on the 30th June which will an incredible day and You’ll be able to find us outside the wonderful Midland Hotel.

As usual we’re playing at a few amazing weddings this year and we’ll be at a couple of wedding fairs in your area so please come and check us out.

Some even better news on the DJ front is that we now have a permanent base in London with Thelonius Trunk as our southern representative. He’s packed and ready to travel so get in touch.

Other news in is after our amazing wedding last September we we’re asked by many to hire out our games and guestbook so here’s two sites to have a look at.

Vintage Guestbook

And

It’s Fun and Games 

So there you go. It’s all happening but as ever please get in touch with any ideas you for events, parties, wedding or anything else you can think of.

Lastly we did an amazing gig last week for a very special friend of ours where we provided all the music, entertainment, the guestbook table and the games which you can have a look at here.

Cheers

M&A

Love my dress book launch

 

Our travels this year have taken us all over the UK to some amazing venues, we’ve met some wonderful people with the added bonus of being able to travel round this fair isle.

We’ve worked with some great exhibitors this year for wedding fairs including Discover Vintage who also produce the Festival of Vintage in York where we’ll be at again this April plus we’ll be at their Chiswick wedding fair in February. This years festival of vintage was wet, very wet, but the crowds came out in their thousands and we had a great weekend DJing and selling of some of our vintage home and gramophone/record player collection. We we’re at the White Memoirs wedding fair and also The something old vintage wedding fair both of which we’re run fantastically well.

Our year has been punctuated by some huge gigs for us. We’ve played at Bestival and Camp Bestival with our great friends the Shellac Collective which were brilliant and we ended up sharing the stage with both Neil Innes and Three Bonzos and a piano.

In addition we had our pre-wedding shoot with James Melia a couple of the pictures you can see below.

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Other great events we played at this year included Mintfest the aptly named festival in Kendal run by a great organisation called Streets Ahead. Matt also played Mintfest with the band Calaita so just chesk out this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiqkIKX9_AY

Once every Preston Guild is a North West saying meaning not very often as it only comes around once every 20 years and this year Wayne Hemingway was hired to curate the vintage Preston Guild including a spectacular look into the past recreating a 1922 dance which we played at and the spirit of 42 ball where we also entertained the splendidly attired guests. The 1942 ball never happened in actuality but this event was massive and what a joy to be playing all those great tunes from that time on our gramophones to over 1000 people.

This year we were asked to at the The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival for a vintage event with Naomi Thomson And we also made our yearly pilgrimage down to River Cottage where finally the rain got the better of the events. On the Friday they just manged to put the show on but by Saturday the floods had got hold of Devon and there were no way to get to the venue as most if the roads had been washed out. We had a great time on the Friday and got to eat some of the best food all year.

We have played at some amazing weddings this year so thank you to all who booked us and thanks for the thanks via all the cards you’ve sent us.

In September we finally found the time and the venue to get ourselves married and you can read all about it here via the splendiferous  Love My Dress blog

Matt and Annabel get married

It was an amazing day with loads of music and lots of our good friends sharing the day with us.

So there’s a short snip-it of what we’ve been up to there we’re many other gigs and we also play in Manchester once a month at The Oast House which is a crackin family freindly boozer with good ale and great food.

We’re really looking forward to 2013 and have already got some great bookings but we’re still available so please do get in touch to discuss any ideas you have for events or weddings.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Matt and Annabel xxx

Yes folks it’s official we’re the best vintage DJs in town voted for by you guys, so a big thank you to all who voted for us.

This has been an amazing year with some memorable and amazing events including playing at the Wayne Hemingway vintage Preston Guild in both the 1922 event and the Spirit of 42 stunning big top show. We also played at both Bestival and Camp Bestival, Mintfest in Kendal, our yearly pilgrimage to “River Cottage” to play at Hugh’s summer bash, some lovely weddings and to top it all we got married and then three weeks later won this award. So hurrah for us! and we’re now looking forward to 2013 in a vintage style to take the music to more places and share with all you lovely folk.

Manchester’s vintage scene has been growing rapidly and Old Fashioned Susie took it on herself to highlight all the great things that are happening around town by running this competition. The response was stunning with thousands voting for their favorite vintage business and vintage folk.

The winners of each category are:

Best Vintage Fair- Vintage Village Stockport

Best Vintage Inspired Designer- Kalandra Jane Designs

Best Vintage Clothes Shop- J’adore Vintage Clothing

Best Vintage Furniture/Home Shop- Rose & Lee Vintage Living

Best Vintage Venue- Sugar Junction

Best Vintage DJ- Matt & Annabel: Vintage 78DJ’s

Best Vintage Night Out- The Whim Wham Club

Best Vintage Beauty/Hair- Bethany Jane Davies: The Vintage Beauty Parlour

Best Vintage Photographer- Simon Hunt: Alt Studio

Best Vintage Event Supplier- For The Love of Vintage

Best Vintage Blog- Dormouseandtheteapot.blogspot.co.uk

Best Vintage Newcomer- Vintage Twists

Every award needs a red carpet awards ceremony and Vintage Manchester really pushed the boat out by holding a wonderful evening of entertainment and vintage cocktails. The location was Matt and Phred’s Jazz Club a place close to heart of your very own DJs Matt and Annabel as it’s the place where we met. Matt being Matt of Matt and Phred’s the club he started in 1999 and ran til very recently. It was great to be back a the old homestead and standing on a stage Matt had played on in his guise of saxophonist over 1000 times.

Other people involved in making this a great event we’re  The Social Butterfly- PR and events organiser, the charismatic and amazing voiced compeer Kiki DiVille, the multi talented Anthony from JazzSwingDance and the uncanny voiced Suzie Sequin as Marilyn Monroe. Not forgetting the sponsors- Old J Rum, PinUp’s in Pinnies and Donald & Miss June Vintage. 

We had a ball.

Yes folks we’re getting married in just a little while and with the help of all our friends we’re going to have a great day.

Our venue is amazing and is the Victoria Baths in Manchester  http://www.victoriabaths.org.uk our chef is Manchester’s famous Robert Owen Brown and our photographer is the fantastic James Melia.

You can have a look here to see James and we’ll post more photos very soon http://www.jamesmelia.com/matt-annabel-engaged-bestival-festival-day-time?fb_action_ids=10151009199231896&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=246965925417366

Now we’re of to Bestival on Thursday so anyone going come and see us at Pig’s Big Ballroom

After a long winter we recently decided to take a break to the magnificent North East coastal port of Staithes situated just North of Whitby and just South of the strange purpose built Victorian holiday resort of  Saltburn-by-the-sea.

It’s a magnificent village and we were lucky enough to stay in a fantastic artists cottage just behind the Gallery.

We’d packed loads of crafting gear determined to learn to knit, make marmalade and most importantly hand print our “save the date cards” for our wedding in September. It was snowing when we set off with all our good intentions and by the time we got to Staithes even the sea had stated to freeze.

Dropping our gear off at the cottage the first thing was to take the car just out of the village at the top of the hill. This has one advantage – the Whitby Seafish wholesale store is just at one end of the car park.

http://www.whitbyseafish.co.uk/

This was the first massive bonus of the trip as this place is famous for it’s award winning oak smoked salmon made on the premises and the freshest fish.

Staithes doesn’t have a lots of shops and but whats there is of quality the butchers which is open most mornings sells local meet and again ticks all the boxes for fresh locally sourced amazing produce. The boozers are alright but could do with a bit more imagination put in, but there’s a great cafe near the beach which is worth a visit. We didn’t go to the bistro which looks nice but with all of Yorkshires finest produce knocking about you just gotta get cooking!

Next day it was full steam ahead on the crafting! That’s until over breakfast we noticed that the temperature had risen by ten degrees and so we decided to go vintage shopping. We’d had a tip off from Annabel at Love My Dress wedding blog (for all brides to be out there check this site out it’s the best) about a great vintage shop in Saltburn-by-the-sea Northern Lights Interior so off we went and – what a find; not only that but the street it’s on has some great charity shops where we got lots of vintage embroidered linen old music books and a small stash of 78s (rare charity find these days)

The other amazing, and best, vintage find in this part of the country was that same afternoon in Whitby where we met the marvelous Trudie at Dotty About Vintage 

A great shop which had only been open for a few days and well worth the trip. So good in fact we went back twice more as her stock was moving so fast you just want ot go everyday Trudie who lives in Staithes promised to help us in our knitting quest to “cast on”…. later in the pub like!

The rest of our trip was spent eating great food cooked by us, making stuff including Matt’s famous marmalade

And we did those save the date cards.

We also went to both pubs for the two pub quizzes, and spent hours hoovering beaches of driftwood and other assorted flotsam and jetsam.

We also had a great meal at the Star Inn at Harome we’ll be back here as this was an amazing meal but next time we’re going to stay in there too.

 The best Prawn Cocktail!

Staithes is an amazing place and with Whitby near and the beautiful coast line we’ll be back. Special mention must be made hear  to Staithes Gallery which is has some great works and we bought two fantastic screen prints by the Artist Ian Burke.

A Happy New Year to all!

Many thanks to all of you who booked us to play in 2011. We had a great year and travelled all over the country with our wind up gramophones playing at weddings, birthday parties, village events, corporate events and even Bestival!

This year is already proving to be a busy one with confirmed bookings for Camp Bestival, Bestival and our yearly trip down to river cottage for their summer parties in July.

And this year is also going to very special for us (Matt and Annabel) as we’re finally getting married in September!

We’d love to hear from anyone with any ideas for events or bookings so keep in touch. We’ll be keeping you updated with all that goes on and profiles of all the eccentric people we meet and cool events we play at along the way.

Recently we received a very nice email from Sophie at Bibelot in the beautiful market town of Leek in Staffordshire. Along with her sister, Liz, they were moving form their old premises into their new shop right by the market square and required our services for the afternoon

This shop is well worth a visit selling everything form vintage homeware, children’s toys and gifts and is the only registered Cath kidston outlet for some miles around.

We had a great day and even met the mayor who came to cut the ribbon and officially declare the shop open.

Matt ate too much cake and drank too much tea whilst Annabel went to the conveniently placed vintage market in the square next door and bought most of it!

Every Saturday, a fascinating Antique Market is held outdoors on the Market Place.  Whilst every Friday an intriguing Craft and Collectibles market is held in the indoor Trestle Market. For those who have not visited Leek before, these two markets form part of a rich offering for antiques and collectables.

We had a great lunch in the cafe (egg butties and more tea) in the indoor butter market which is just off the main market square.

It’s just fantastic to come to a market town that still feel like it really is just that! A market town, where it’s obviously appreciated by locals and it’s brilliant to arrive and find a thriving market square that’s not a car park.

So back to the shop to drink more tea, eat more cake, play some great tunes and check out all the goodies on offer!

The range of goods on offer is great and they have managed to get that perfect balance between the old and the new. We wish them all the best for the future.
Talking of the future they have a workroom attached to the upstairs part of the shop which we believe will be a craft and sewing workroom running courses for both adults and children so check the website and facebook to find out more.
We’ll certainly be back to Leek and to Bibelot very soon!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!

This Sunday we’ll be at Stockport Vintage Market where we’ll be DJing all day!

We’ve also had a good old clear out of the loft and have found some remarkable goodies to sell! So come on down to the covered market in Stockport this Sunday 13th November and be nosey. There’s loads of stalls and lots of nice folk trading their wares.

http://www.vintagevillagestockportmarket.co.uk/

In conjunction with the Cornerhouse Cinema and Cafe bar Manchester we are doing our second pop up dance night on November 3rd

They’ve built a new annex with a beautiful oak floor to dance on.

Tickets are priced £10 including a dance lesson! and if you don’t want the lesson come along after and the ticket will be a miserly £5

Our friend Keith McGee http://feetsofamazement.com/keith-mcgee Will be doing the teaching whilst Matt and Annabel spin the disks for the first hour and then Keith will be on hand to help all you novices to enjoy yourselves and try out your new dance moves for the rest of the evening.

The venue have requested no Stilettos so flats please Gents!

The lesson starts at 7:30pm till 8:30pm and then dancing and chillin’ till around about midnight.

For those of you who don’t want to dance this night is also for you too! The cornerhouse will be mixing up some fabulous classic cocktails and the music will take you through some of the best swing, jazz, blues and jump jive that was ever recorded.

A truly “unique” night for Manchester and they’ll be more! In fact we’re hooking up with the Cornerhouse and this great Flamenco band “Calaita” this NYE!

http://www.cornerhouse.org/food-and-drink/food-and-drink-events/jazz-on-the-corner

http://www.cornerhouse.org/food-and-drink/food-and-drink-events/new-years-eve-201112

Hi all we’ve just had a great magazine article written about our exploits by a Sheffield glossy called Profile. I’ve had to put a link to it here “Profile” Magazine feature please have a read.

Cheery Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!