As Patrick’s just recently made it off stage in Melbourne after what we heard was a totally epic two hour set, we thought we’d post you all a nice little summary of what he’s gotten up to during his time in Australia and Japan…

Japan

First, Patrick headed to Japan for his show at Studio Coast in Toyko on the 6th.

Before the show, he popped in to see the peeps at InterFM for an interview and a lush acoustic rendition of Hard Times – you can hear it all on presenter Guy Perryman’s blog, here. Patrick also recorded a quick video greeting for his Japanese fans, catch that here!

The show went fantastically, with Patrick’s brand new cape going down a treat – have a look at some of the pictures from the night, taken by Sin Cor

Australia

Then it was a quick – well, ten hour odd… – flight from Japan to the land of Oz for a string of dates with some dance parties and kangaroo eatin’ with the tour family in between. Kluster reviewed Patrick’s show in Sydney, you can read that here and be sure to check out some great pictures from that night, taken by Natalie LeComte. Here’s some more pics, this time from Brisbane, and a stunning shot from the star-studded Meredith Festival plus a gallery of the whole event courtesy of The Vine. Fasterlouder reviewed Patrick’s Perth show here, and you can browse two – count ‘em – galleries of fab pics on the same site here for the Perth show and here for his show at The Prince in Melbourne! Bonus – here’s a charming little review by a fan of that aforementioned epic 2 hour set in Melbourne.

Merchalicious

Quick note about merch (again) – we now have some amazing exclusives to offer you from both Fred Butler and Ada Zanditon, you can take a look at them all here. We’ve got an owl bag, a kite shirt and a bi-plane shirt by Fred, and Vulture dresses, a Vulture bag and a chopstick bag by Ada for you. Cor! The merch sale is also still on, so go and grab yourself something as a little treat.

Patrick @ Show Studio

On Thursday 17th December at 5pm, Patrick will be photographed by Nick Knight for i-D’s anniversary issue – and you can watch the shoot live as part of the Show Studio exhibition at Somerset House at this link, you little Wolf voyeurs.

That’s about it for the time being, be good till we check in with you next time!

Team Wolf x

BBC 6 Music have included Hard Times as one of their top 100 tracks for 2009… Listeners can vote for their favourite and the top 40 will be played in a count down on New Years Eve, so get voting over here!

Damaris draws near

Patrick will be releasing Damaris, his third single from The Bachelor, on December 14th - that’s less than two weeks away! Don’t forget that you can preorder your very own copy of the 7″ directly from the patrickwolf.com store over at this link. Damaris will also be available digitally for your aural pleasure from all good online outlets on the same date. Let’s remind you of the fantastic tracklisting of both formats of the single:

DIGITAL

- Damaris
- Peacock Skies
- Queen Isabella (The She-Wolf of France)
- Damaris (St. George’s Church Acoustic Mix)

7″ VINYL

A – Damaris
B – Queen Isabella (The She-Wolf of France)

Also, remember you can request that your favourite radio stations play Damaris, so get on it! You can catch the video on NME TV as well if that’s your bag.

Palladium fever

Phew. What can we really say about this show? It was phenomenal! Quite clearly Patrick’s best show to date, packed full of lush instrumentation, gorgeous choral arrangements, heart-stopping showmanship from the man himself and stunning performances from the very special guests (Gwendoline Christie, Alec Empire, and Florence Welch). But enough of what you think, we hear you cry! What about some glittering reviews or fabulous photos from people who are actual professionals? Well, ask and ye shall receive…

“… the certain amount of restraint and focus Wolf put into his performance, for the first two-thirds at least, making this one of the best performances I’ve seen him give in some time. …all these months on, his show at the Palladium found him on the cusp, suitably, of some kind of personal and artistic conquest.” Muso’s Guide

“… Wolf knew that this was his biggest gig and performed not only like a true professional but a person who was eager to shine on a famous stage. … his energy was unrivalled as was his determination. … this was a show that … will rank as a career highpoint for a man whose emergence has been long overdue.” The Musical Chairs

“Patrick Wolf will eventually be remembered as one of our generation’s true talents. Friday night’s homecoming concert at the London Palladium was simply outstanding. Wolf’s talent has always been prodigious, but the auditorium had an unmistakable air of “happening” — it was pitched as an unmissable, one-off performance, and lived up to expectations. Patrick Wolf finally had a backing worthy of his talent, expanding his touring band to include a four piece choir, full string section, and electronics setup. Oh, and collaborations beyond our wildest dreams.” Consequence of Sound

“Somehow he managed to sum himself up in just two hours … his mature delivery proved that he is on top form and ready to fly.” MusicOMH

“… this positively epic performance would silence even the most affronted music critic as Wolf’s show is flawless from start to end.” The Fly

For some fantastic visual accompaniment to the words of praise, take a gander over at Flickr - we’ve sought out the cream of the crop so you don’t have to, simply click this link and peruse to your heart’s content. The costumes, the drama, the glitter, the rotating disco ball – it’s all there!

Bebo music lesson madness

Patrick held his music lesson last Friday for the Bebo competition winners Jake Downs and Rajasri Narasimhan, and it was brilliant! Everything was filmed by the kind Rory Broadfoot and should be available for you to view on Bebo and Youtube very soon, so please wait for further news from us on a viewing link. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Jake and Rajasri for coming to the lesson and enlightening us with their wonderful talent, and also to remind you all to keep their names in mind… These two are absolute stars that are ready to shine and we think you’ll all agree with us when you get to see the video of the day’s events. The two dazzlers were also treated to a spectacular show that evening hosted by the supremely talented Florence & The Machine (and Friends!) – one friend in particular was there who we all know and love… Yes, it was Patrick! The pair belted out blinding renditions of Dog Days Are Over, plus Cosmic Love, then Patrick was back for the gorgeous encore of You’ve Got The Love.

Do you come from a land Down Under?

Well… do you? If so, you better be catching the Wolf next week! Patrick’s jetting out to Japan to play a show in Tokyo on the 6th, then it’s off to Australia for five fantastic dates, including Meredith Festival in Victoria! We’d just like to add that due to all the rushing around in Patrick’s tour schedule, he might not be able to make it out to many meet and greets but we DO have a special treat for any of you Aussie TWINners out there… Simply head to the merch stall at your show of choice and state your Bandstocks ID to get a little somethin’ somethin’ from Team Wolf.

Merchy merch

Yes, the merch sale on patrickwolf.com is in full swing and still going strong – so come on, grab these bargains while they’re still hot! Just in time for Christmas as well, spread the good cheer, even if you’re only treating yourself… We won’t tell.

That’s about it from us for now, and do excuse the title of this blog if you’re in Aus and already boiling from the Summer heat! (Lucky!)

Lots of love,

Team Wolf x

Check out Patrick’s recent session and interview over at The Quietus! Fab stuff.

Team Wolf x

Before we talk about the show timings and give you some details for the specially-designed shirts at the Palladium, we’d just like to reiterate that Marc Almond will not be performing at this event with Patrick as planned due to illness in case you missed our note about it. But – please be assured that there will be another fantastic mystery guest taking his place! We can’t say much as we don’t want to ruin the surprise but we think a fair few of you (i.e. everyone!) will be suitably excited by his – or her - appearance…

The timings for the show are as follows:

7:00pm – Doors
7:30pm – Micachu & the Shapes
8:30pm – Patrick Wolf (+ special guests)
10:30pm – Finish

Now we’ve got some more info for you about these exciting one-off designer t-shirts that you can buy at the show! Please note that prices will vary. The t-shirts in question are designed by Patrick’s very lovely and very talented friends Fred Butler and Ada Zanditon, and they had this to say about the project…

Fred Butler – BLOG / WEBSITE

“My first ever commission for Patrick Wolf was in 2006 when his stylist asked me to make a key necklace for the Magic Position album artwork photo shoot. I made a kite instead (as that is what I was in the mood for making) and it ended up on the single cover for Accident and Emergency which is an image I really love. I then made Patrick a Bi-Plane shoulder piece that I thought would be perfect for him. This appeared in i-D magazine and led Patrick to borrow some of my archive pieces for his North American Tour. On his return he then commissioned me to make the set for his finale concert at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Our latest collaboration has been on a portrait commission for a Rankin exhibition / auction and another of my archive accessories appears on the cover for The Bachelor.”

Ada Zanditon – MYSPACE / WEBSITE

“The first few times I met Patrick I have to confess that I was quite drunk and mostly always incapable of coherent speech or movement. However, despite that, Patrick asked me if I would like to create his tour wardrobe for his album “The Bachelor”. I was thrilled and by sheer coincidence was also working on a collection inspired by Vulture’s and Celtic Folklore. I created The Vulture Cape which has proved fatally popular and gone astray…. however before that unfortunate incident it has: appeared on the single cover for Vulture, been replicated in miniature by some dedicated Russian fans and graced the front page of The Observer. Other pieces that appeared in the album/single artwork/press and videos & on Patrick on stage throughout this year include: The grey white and black Union Jack Jumpsuit (live shows 2009), the wooden needles jacket and wooden block armour (Another Man Magazine/ The Bachelor artwork) the black suit with falconry and tombstone detailing and a red top featuring external shoulder pads made from human hair (Paper Magazine/ The Bachelor and Hard Times artwork respectively). The collaborative fun has continued and I recently made him a golden outfit which has appeared at many festivals this summer. Patrick can currently be seen in one of my archive pieces in a feature in Zoo Magazine.”

Patrick Wolf has been Destroyed

Not literally, but it’s just that Fred’s kindly reminded us of the fantastic piece she created for the Rankin Youth Music project, we’d like to direct your attention to the fact that the auction for said piece is open now, and you can find it and all the other commissioned work from this great project on Youth Music’s Ebay right here! Patrick’s recent performance at the exhibition went down a treat too, Spice Girls hits and all.

More more tour (how do you like it, how do you like it?)

If you’re missing Patrick’s Palladium show next Sunday for the simple reason that you’re not in the UK – don’t fret! Patrick’s coming over to Japan and Australia in December and you can see all the upcoming tour dates on both the Myspace and patrickwolf.com. So don’t forget, if you want to catch a show in your neck of the woods, now’s the time to start grabbing those tickets.

Gigography

Speaking of gigs, just another little reminder that you can add a handy little machine tag (hold on, we’ll explain) to any of your Patrick photos that you post on Flickr, and then your lovely pics will appear on patrickwolf.com! All you need to do is find the gig that you’ve attended (or are going to attend) on our gigography or events page, and simply copy and paste the given machine tag into your tags over at Flickr. Then, as if by magic, your pics will take pride of place on the site for all to see. Ooh, ahh. Ain’t technology brilliant?

That’s all for now, folks! Hope to catch plenty of you singing your hearts out at the Palladium on Sunday, see you then…

Love,

Team Wolf xx

Really quick note just to inform everyone of the timings for the upcoming Palladium show on Sunday:

7:00 – Doors
7:30 – Micachu & the Shapes
8:30 – Patrick Wolf (+ special guests)
10:30 – Finish

We also have a new special guest who we’ve not announced yet… ooh, wonder who that could be?

News on the above and more coming to you before Sunday, we promise…

Bye for now,

Team Wolf x

Get your senses ready for a feast because we are incredibly pleased to announce that the Damaris video is available for viewing NOW over on The Guardian’s site – simply click here to enjoy the rustic romance of the song and story, captured in an honest, earthy and altogether beautiful depiction that makes the most of the breathtaking scenery and stunning views that are rural England. Dreamy. You’ll be able to catch it on Patrick’s Youtube channel from tomorrow, too.

Preorder your 7″ now

To preorder your copy of the 7″ for Damaris, featuring marvellous harpsichord-driven B-side Queen Isabella, just visit this link. We’re offering a bundle of the single with a signed Vulture poster, which will cost you just £12 in total – but please be quick, as there are only 80 copies of the poster left and it’s first come, first served!

Palladium special guests

Just a short note to send our apologies – due to illness brought on by exhaustion, Marc Almond will unfortunately not be able to appear at the Palladium show with Patrick on Sunday. He has been told to rest and he hopes to return to work as soon as possible. He is very sorry to let people down, especially Patrick and his fans, and sincerely hopes that he will be able to work with Patrick again in the near future. We at Team Wolf are sending him lots and lots of get well soon vibes and we’re certain that you’re joining us on that.

There will be another unnanounced very special guest joining Patrick on stage instead, though, so don’t despair…

Merchtastic

We have a very limited amount of stock of the Palladium t-shirts left – they are available online now and whatever we have left will be available at the show, so be sure to snap one of those up if you want one, because they won’t be around for much longer.

How exciting is this? We will also have some one-off designed t-shirts available at the Palladium, all personally created, designed and made by those close to Patrick… more news on this to follow.

And for those bargain hunters out there – good news! We’ve got some early Christmas deals at patrickwolf.com in our merch sale. Get those orders in and get decked out in Wolf gear for the new year!

Bachelor vinyl

All of our signed copies are now sold out, thanks for nabbing those, but if you missed your chance just to get a vinyl copy of The Bachelor in general, we have some more vinyls in stock now, also!

Destroy Rankin

Hey! Don’t forget about the Destroy Rankin exhibition we mentioned before… Youth Music is a fantastic cause. Patrick’s performing at the launch event tonight in London at Phillips de Pury Gallery, and the auction for the piece by Patrick and Fred Butler is now open, so get bidding! More info at this link.

That’s it for now, coming soon we’ll have a round-up of what Patrick’s been up to in the press and in pictures and much more, so keep your eyes peeled…

Love,

Team Wolf x

Yes, that’s right – Patrick will be releasing Damaris as his next single on December 14th! Please note the correct date for this release, as some blogs and newsfeeds have reporting the 15th and this isn’t the case. Now! Onto those juicy details we know you love (we do too, goss-fiends that we are). Read on for info on the single itself, including how the song came to be written and in what formats you can grab it, bits and pieces about the b-sides and upcoming video, and some stuff on what Patrick’s up to now and next…

God damned Damaris, killed with last kiss…

Patrick will be releasing this powerful and beautiful ballad that has been an international stand-out live anthem, performed over countless music festivals this summer. The song is semi-autobiographical and centred on the loss of love, but was also inspired by a tale discovered by Patrick when he went to seek out his English roots after a period of heartbreak and the ending of a relationship that was documented in the song The Magic Position.

Tracing the roots of his father under the family name Apps back to a family of ferret-catchers and blacksmiths in Brede, East Sussex, Patrick stumbled across a small wooden cross engraved with the name ‘Damaris‘ among the gravestones of his ancestors…

From that moment, Patrick began to research who Damaris might be, and it came about that the wooden cross told a larger tale than anyone could have imagined. It is still unsure whether Damaris was a gypsy or a heathen, but she belonged outside of the Catholic church, who in 1880, held a very strict reign over romance and passion in such a small village. Damaris was most certainly not from the Catholic church, so when she fell in love with Lewis, the son of the Parish priest, she was denied of ever being united in marriage with him.

Patrick writes the song from the perspective of Lewis after discovering that Damaris has ‘died of a broken heart’, which, in the 19th Century was a polite term for either suicide, or a romantic notion that someone can be so heartbroken that they give up on life. The song is a musical iconisation of a true life Romeo and Juliet from Sussex. Two star-crossed lovers who were destined to be together, but were denied, due to the repression and sign of the times.

The church organ on the song, played by Patrick and the drums by Marcello Vig were both recorded in 2008 on location in St. George’s Church, the very church ground where the romance took place a hundred years before between Damaris and Lewis.

B-sides

- Peacock Skies – programmed by Patrick during the Magic Position tour of 2007 in the Californian Desert somewhere between Las Vegas and San Francisco.
- Damaris (St. George’s Church Acoustic Mix) – a special acoustic mix of Damaris, which highlights the amazing St. George’s Church Organ and Patrick Wolf/Fiona Brice string arrangements in their full glory.
- Queen Isabella (The She-Wolf of France) – a truly gothic baroque harpsichord-driven fury of a song, written from the perspective of the legendary ‘She-Wolf of France’. Isabella of France who was sworn into a marriage in her youth with King Edward the Second of England, who was reputed to be bisexual… The English people in the 16th Century branded her ‘She Wolf’. Legend has it that her ghost still haunts the gardens of St. Paul’s Cathedral, nearby to where Patrick lives.

The video

The video was directed by Patrick in collaboration with Director of Photography Rory Broadfoot. Patrick co-stars alongside the actress Gwendoline Christie, who can currently be seen playing Holly Go Lightly’s glamorous neighbour in the hit West End production of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and also in the Terry Gilliam film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The video is Patrick’s visual interpretation of the passionate romance between Damaris and Lewis, shot on location at Blackdown, West Sussex. You’ll be able to clap your peepers on it sometime in November, watch this space…

Formats, release date and preorder

DIGITAL
- Damaris
- Peacock Skies
- Queen Isabella (The She-Wolf of France)
- Damaris (St. George’s Church Acoustic Mix)

7″ VINYL
A – Damaris
B – Queen Isabella (The She-Wolf of France)

Release date: Monday 14th December, 2009
Preorder for 7″ coming soon

Upcoming bits and bobs

As you know, Patrick will be playing his big bonkers theatre production special one off (phew!) show on the 15th of November, with a string sextet and choir at the London Palladium – home of the Royal Variety Show and many a true star. Special guests on the night include Marc Almond and Alec Empire as Patrick recreates the full luscious orchestral epic (phew again!) sound of The Bachelor and selected reinvented anthems from all four of his albums for one night only. It is set to be the most wonderful Patrick Wolf performance to date. Micachu & The Shapes have been confirmed as the support act. Are you going to be there? Check out these links to buy or win some tickets:

- Buy: See Tickets
- Win: Converse Music competition
- Win: The Music Slut competition

In addition, as described in our last mailout, Patrick has contributed to the Rankin Youth Music ‘Destroy‘ Project and will perform at the launch event on Monday 9th November at Phillips de Pury Gallery, London. To be in with a chance to win tickets to this exclusive event, simply visit this link.

Following this, Patrick will take the stage at Oxford University to give a prestigious lecture and question and answer session for the Oxford Union. Previous guests include Michael Jackson and Stephen Hawking.

As if this wasn’t enough (phew phew phew!), Patrick will then be jetting off to Japan, Australia and Brazil before the end of the year for some more fantastic live shows.

Bye for now…

Team Wolf x

PS: Don’t forget you can receive news like this and much, much more by becoming a member of the official mailing list – simply visit this page to sign up!

We’ve extended the time limit for your opportunity to get the exclusive Wolf Song demo until Friday 16th October – that’s one more day left!

To get your free demo, please visit: patrickwolf.com/wolfmail

Team Wolf x

PS: To those of you who have had problems with signing up to the new list, please message us on Myspace with your email address and we will be in touch. Thanks. xx

Team Wolf are always very busy behind the scenes and in recent times there’s been no exception. For the past few months, we’ve been working on creating a brand new official mailing list, after encountering many a hiccup with the old system – we’re sure you may have noticed – but now we can finally announce the launch of Wolfmail version 2.0!

Sadly, with the way the old system works, we can’t import any information about those of you who had signed up in the past over to the new system – in short, this means that if you’d like to be on the new official Patrick Wolf mailing list, you will have to sign up again. But wait, there’s more! We’re offering those of you who switch over to the new system a free gift… We’ve rooted around and dusted off an exclusive, never-before-released demo of Wolf Song, which you will be able to download once you have fully completed the sign up process. This free gift will only be available for ONE WEEK ONLY – so please be quick if you want to grab this lovely demo.

No more mails will be sent out via the old system, so if you want to keep up to date on all the latest Wolf news, gigs, exclusive offers, interviews, reviews and the like, please consider making the move with us to the new system. It promises to be much more efficient – meaning that not only can we get all the info over to you in a timely fashion, it will all be relevant to your interests and it will be local to you, so you won’t receive info about gigs in Europe if you live in Australia, etc.

We hope that this will reduce a lot of frustration that we met when sending mails from the old system, not just on your part but on ours as well!

The new sign up link can be located here: patrickwolf.com/wolfmail

Remember, the offer of the Wolf Song demo is only available for ONE WEEK, so get registering and stay in the Wolf loop!

Love,

Team Wolf x

Few things for you this update…

Patrick has very excitedly announced two very special guests that will be sharing the stage with him at the Palladium show in November – Marc Almond and Alec Empire!

He shared his comments:

“It is a total honour that I am able to duet with the legendary singer-songwriter, Marc Almond. To me, he is one of the most genius brave and passionate renaissance artists of the last three decades, a total inspiration. He has explored music from Russian folk to Gypsy to being a complete original electronic pop star in his work with Soft Cell. I met Marc totally randomly last summer whilst finishing off “The Bachelor”, he was moving into the house next door to mine and we bumped into each other on the street, me coming home with my groceries and him moving his furniture in. We hit it off immediately and he has since been a big support and encouragement to me over the last year. With Marc’s amazing new album “Orpheus in Exile” just released and me closing “The Bachelor” album tour in the U.K at the Palladium, it seems perfect for our paths to cross now on-stage. We will be doing two songs together.. but time will tell what they may be. Hopefully one from each of our own songbooks.

The other fantastic guest will be Alec Empire, flying in from Berlin, we are still preparing our collaboration on the night but it will definitely be a live continuation of the work we have done together over the last two years, representing our co-writes and production on “The Bachelor” and perhaps one of the forthcoming songs from my next album “The Conqueror” . To me, Alec is one of the seminal revolutionary beat makers and noise makers around and as always it blows my mind to think we are working together now, when I think back to sneaking in with a fake ID to the London Astoria to see Atari Teenage Riot play, aged 14.”

In what is sure to be an exceptional evening, the Palladium date will act as the perfect celebration for Patrick and all of you, the fans, that have helped support the campaign.

Tickets can be purchased from:

www.livenation.co.uk Tel: 0844 576 5483
www.seetickets.co.uk Tel: 0844 412 4657

Now… Music is power!

Patrick will be performing a stripped down set for Youth Music in London on the 9th of November and you could be in with a chance to win some VVVIP tickets – yes, that’s right, VVVIP! – to the event… Just tell Youth Music what your power song is and why music is powerful to you, it’s that simple. Check out the competition page to enter.

Good luck!

Patrick has also been nominated twice in the UK Festival Awards! Please head on over to their online polls and vote for Patrick – he’s up for Most Memorable Moment (The Magic Position) and Virtual Festivals Critics’ Choice Award (Dot to Dot). By voting, you could be entered to win VIP passes to every winning festival listed, so get clicking and get your friends clicking!

More news coming your way incredibly soon…

Love,

Team Wolf x