What: A festival in Falmouth
When: 9th April 2022
Where: Falmouth
Tickets: See here
The orchestra will be taking a trip to Falmouth to play in this exciting festival!
Tag Archives: past
Bowie Party
What: A return of our celebrated Bowie party!
When: Friday, 25 February 2022, 19:30 (Rescheduled!)
Where: St Michael’s on the Mount Without
Tickets: £10 adv (early bird) or £15 on the door
Once again it’s time for us to celebrate all that is weird, wonderful and Bowie with Bristol’s own 60 piece Fantasy Orchestra!
Bowie fashion, costumes, lights, extravagance will abound aplenty. The Orchestra, with a full choir, in full regalia, will be bringing to life a multitude of Bowie classics and lesser known gems.
Come dressed as your favourite Bowie and bring the spirit of the many incarnations of DB! (there will be facepainters available as well).
For those musically inclined, we’ll be starting the proceedings with a David Bowie open mic session. People from all musical walks encouraged! Please get in touch with chef d’orch, Jesse, at bowie@fantasyorchestra.org for more information and if you would like to take part.
Tickets are £12 in advance or £15 at the door.
Age restriction is 14+
See also the Facebook event
Christmas Gig
What: The fantasy orchestra christmas concert
When: Friday 17th December, 19:30
Where: St Stephen’s Church
Tickets: (coming soon)
Details coming soon!
Sun Ra and Moondog
What: An evening of music by visionary composers Sun Ra and Moondog
When: Wednesday December 1st, 19:30
Where: Bristol Beacon
Tickets: (coming soon)
The Fantasy Orchestra perform a selection of music by two cosmic artists: Sun Ra and Moondog.
Sun Ra, who claimed to have been born on the planet Saturn led a free jazz big band known for its innovative instrumentation and the theatricality of its performances. His widely eclectic and avant-garde music echoed the entire history of jazz, from ragtime and early New Orleans hot jazz, to swing music, bebop, free jazz and fusion. His compositions ranged from keyboard solos to works for big bands of over 30 musicians, along with electronic excursions, songs, chants, percussion pieces, and anthems.
Moondog was an American musician, composer, theoretician, poet and inventor. He is well known for his Viking costume playing home-made instruments on the streets of New York and respected by the likes of Charlie Parker and Stravisnsky. Largely self-taught as a composer, his work drew inspiration from jazz, Classical, native American music, and was strongly rhythmic and contrapuntal, in some ways anticipating the minimalism of Steve Reich and Philip Glass.
This will be at the newly re-opened (and renamed) Bristol Beacon!
For more information see the the Facebook event.
Humankind
What: Our first gig in ages!
When: Sunday 15 August 2021, 7pm
Where: St George’s Bristol
Tickets: £10, £12 on the door
For more information see the St George’s website
Bicycle Tour in Normandy
What: A tour around France with instruments on bikes
When: 7-16 August
Where: Various locations around Normandy
Tickets: –
This event is happening in a reduced form, but may not be accessible to the public.
The orchestra’s annual bike tour will this year take in the sights of Normandy/Brittany. There will be lots of small gigs along the way.
A Moon Shaped Paris
What: Radiohead’s Moon Shaped Pool in Paris!
When: Please note this is postponed until further notice (Was Saturday 18th April)
Where: La Marberie, Paris
Tickets: TBC
It’s the Paris orchestra’s turn to play Radiohead! Possibly featuring musicians from Bristol too.
Mini album-launch at Rough Trade
What: Playing in a record shop
When: Monday 2nd March, 7.30pm
Where: Rough Trade, Nelson Street, Bristol
Tickets: Free / info here
In celebration of our recently released debut album, The Bear and Other Stories, the orchestra will be playing a short gig at Rough Trade, a record shop in Bristol. Entry is free but you are enthusiastically encouraged to buy the album while you’re there! See the Rough Trade website or the Facebook event for more information.
Album Launch – London
What: Gig for the FO album release, in London
When: Saturday 15th February, 8pm
Where: The Old Baths, Hackney, 80 Eastway, E95JH London
Tickets: £8 Early Bird / £10 Late Bird / £15 Door Birds
Following on from last year’s successful album launch at St George’s in Bristol, the orchestra will be playing at the Hackney Old Baths in London ahead of the album’s release.
The album ‘The Bear’ features an eclectic mix of music by diverse artists such as Sun Ra and Caetano Veloso, folk musician Richard Dawson, Brooklyn-based post punk duo Buke and Gase and electronic composer Disasterpeace, as well as local composers. Tickets are available from Fatsoma
Here is the music video for the album’s first single, Empty Boat:
From the Bristol album launch:
Album Launch – Paris
What: Gig for the FO album release, in Paris
When: Saturday 8th February, 7pm
Where: La Marbrerie, 21 rue Alexis Lepère, 93100 Montreuil, Ile-De-France, France
Tickets: 8.49€ Early Bird / £12.49€ Other birds
As well as the London launch, the Fantasy Orchestra’s first album, ‘The Bear’, is being launched near-simultaneously in Paris, by the Paris Fantasy Orchestra – in collaboration with guests from the Bristol orchestra.
Tickets for this special event are avilable here
Here is the music video for the album’s first single, Empty Boat:
From the Bristol album launch: