Marseille Figs


		Marseille Figs are a London-based experimental pop band: Tom Chant, Dorian McFarland & J. Maizlish.

The Dirty Canon is the Figs’ first full length album. Produced in Hamburg by Jem Finer and DM Bob, and finished in London with Brian O’Shaughnessy, The Dirty Canon has big booming piledrivers, lost soul singalongs, flophouse ballads, epic screeching skronking songs, monkey grunts, thunder and lightning.

"The Figs roll. The Figs rock. The Figs take it to the bridge, over the bridge, across the ridge on the other side of the bridge, and onto that ledge on the horizon. You will believe a guitar strumming, sweet talkin’, tub thumping three piece can fly. I wanna be in the Figs." Sean O’Hagan

Original press-kit stuff for The Dirty Canon is on this page.

Memories are made of this.

Hamburg, February 2006

Not So Very Long Ago:

The Figs supported the Pogues on their
Xmas 2009 UK tour:
Wed 09 Dec: Newcastle Academy
Thu 10 Dec: Glasgow Academy
Sat 12 Dec: Sheffield Academy
Sun 13 Dec: Manchester Apollo
Mon 14 Dec: Leeds Academy
Wed 16 Dec: Birmingham Academy
Fri 18 & Sat 19 Dec: Brixton Academy

The JUMBO LAUNCH PARTY:
Tue 6 Oct. 2009. Doors @ 8, Band @ 10. The Iambic, 40 Pitfield St., London N1. With guests Andrew Ranken, John Edwards and Jem Finer. Admission Free. Flyer is here.

Two U.S. East Coast dates:

15 Mar 09. The Parkside Lounge, New York. 317 E. Houston (btw. Aves. B & C)

16 Mar 09. The 9:30 Club, Washington DC. Supporting the Pogues.
Parkside Lounge, 15 March 2009

11 Dec 08. The Black Gardenia,
London. 3 Sets, and the debut of Jumbo.

13 Dec 08. The George Tavern,
London. Shore Leave. Great fun. Flyer is here.

The Figs’ first U.S. Shows, mid-March ’08:

18 Mar 08. Parkside Lounge, New York. Nice joint. Two Sets. A grand time.

2 Shows supporting the Pogues:
13 Mar 08. Electric Factory, Philadelphia.
15 Mar 08. Roseland, New York.

29 Feb 08. White Trash, Berlin. DJs Silke Thoss & Vicious Vroni. The flyer is here.

Viva Cake, Saturday the 26th of May 2007, at the St. Aloysius Social Club, London. Bake off, rollergirls, dance lessons, the works.

Click to Enlarge.

The Figs played The Black Gardenia on Saturday the 19th of May 2007. 93 Dean Street, London. Thanks to Denna and Zimon. Jolly nice place.

White Trash, Berlin, Saturday the 2nd of June 2007. €5 on the door. Figs played all night. It was a gas.

Stranger Than Paradise, Sun 4 September 2005. Drinking, dancing and carousing. Magic tricks too. Click to enlarge.

Barden's Boudoir, 11 June 2005

Barden’s Boudoir, Sat 11 June 2005
38-44 Stoke Newington Road, London
With Little Wet Horse. 10pm / £5.

Clärchen’s Ballhaus, Auguststr. 24,
Berlin Mitte. 10 April 2005. Doors @ 9. Clärchen’s Ballhaus is a splendid, big, boxy, old local ballroom in Mitte.

On the 18th of June 2004 Marseille Figs provided musical accompaniment to Marcia Farquhar’s To the Power of Ten performance in the Camberwell Leisure Center swimming pool in London. There’s more of this on Page 2.

Marseille Figs have played in front rooms, back rooms, ballrooms, speakeasies and saloons, as well as museums, swimming pools, town halls, theatres, barn dances, holiday camps, working man’s clubs and public parks.

Llanrwst, Wales, July 2005

Their arrangements include guitars, vocals, accordions, saxophones, pianos, organs, flugelhorns, trombones, trumpets, ukeleles, melodicas, banjos, bass clarinets, blues harps, jews harps, a broken Big Muff box, a Yamaha Portasound and an old Roland Space Echo machine.

Marseille Figs is an international contingency. Boom Boom.

Berlin, 5 November 2004

There are downloads, live stills and videos available on page 2. Some Figs miscellany and biographical information, as well as links and photographs, can be found on page 3.

London, February 2005

Full resolution images, PDFs and other such press-kit material are available for download from a separate page here.

A complete list of downloadable mp3s is available here.

Marseille Figs can be reached at:
.

Updated November 2011.

Me and My Monkey

Listen up! NEW FIGS EP is OUT NOW:

A.   1. Jumbo  at 45 rpm
B.   2. My Latest Mistake
B.   3. Bad Bad Baby
B.   4. The Human Tragedy
B.   5. The Long Goodbye  at 331/3 rpm

Distributed by Cargo UK.

More information is here.

Right Now:

Out now, Wild Weeds is a booklet of lyrics by the Figs’ singer and songwriter J. Maizlish.

The book was launched with a party and performance on 26 February 2011. Details are here.

Fuck the details, why not just buy one right now?

Come and Gone:

The Figs played the Gypsy Hotel at its new location The Woodstore on Saturday 20 November 2010, with the Figs big band, including Andrew Ranken, Jem Finer and John Edwards.

Two Bon Voyage Berlin Gigs:

Tue 18 May 2010. S.I.N. (aka The Mandy Bar)
Schoenleinstr. 6, Kreuzberg, Berlin. 8 til late.

Wed 19 May 2010. Kaffee Burger
Torstr. 60, Mitte, Berlin. 8pm doors. €7.

The Dirty Canon was released in the UK in November ’07. It’s distributed by Cargo and can be got from all good UK record shops. Ask for it in Rough Trade, for instance. It can also be ordered directly from Cargo, or Stateside from Tower Records or CD Baby. Or you can download it from eMusic or iTunes:

Low Low Thing [3Mb]

Caesar’s Revenge [4.6Mb]

Honey How You Like Your Eggs

Loser’s Delight

Boxcar Charlie

Cradle Song

Eh Joe

Skin & Bones

Where the Night Begins

Dirty Little Monkey

Good Year [5.1Mb]

Don’t Fall Asleep at the Wheel

Figs of London FOL 1

UK Distribution through Cargo UK.

Some good reviews can be found at The Financial Times and eMusic, and at The Line of Best Fit, Room Thirteen and Boing Boing.

Oh, shit! Lovely Figs shirts are now available in Mens’, Womens’ and Children’s sizes. Get them here.

This Just In:

19 October 09: John Kennedy’s made Jumbo his Record Of The Week on XFM London this week. Thank you, John.

18 February 08: A jolly good review of the TDC launch is in today’s FT.

February 08: The Dirty Canon Late Launch Party will take place on Friday the 15th of February 2008, 8pm till late. Upstairs at The George Tavern, London. With guests Jem Finer, Andrew Ranken & John Edwards.

Click to Enlarge.

01 October 07. Yes, the Figs have a Myspace page too, it’s on this link.

01 June 07. There’s a good write up of the Figs in Die Tageszeitung here, for those who read German.

08 June 06. Tom Chant has a new website at www.tomchant.com, and a very good one it is too.

11 September 05. A nice review of the Figs’ September ’05 Stranger Than Paradise gig appeared in the Independent on Sunday.

03 June 05. Huw Stephens at Radio1 put the Figs on his playlist this week. And they put one of the Boum Boum tracks up on their site too. Thanks, fellas.
Hugo's Speaker Palace, 6 January 2005

23 March 05. Six new demos, recorded in London in January, are available on a 9 song cd. Ordering instructions are available on this page.

The CD also features a live Funiculi Funicula, and our Staggerlee from last year. The tracks are available for download. But the CD is nicer, and it comes in a handsome see-through carrying case.
As of January 2007, this CD is sold out.

Come & Gone:

20 Nov 10: Gypsy Hotel @ The Woodstore
07 Aug 10: Galerie S.E, Bergen,
with guest bassist Alex Grieg
19 May 10: Kaffee Burger, Berlin,
with guest bassist Clayton Thomas
18 May 10: Mandy bar, Berlin
20 Feb 10: Gypsy Hotel @ Barden’s Boudoir

Xmas 2009 Pogues Tour (Support); with Pete Fraser, John Edwards, Jem Finer & the JJ Horns:
09 Dec 09: Newcastle Academy
10 Dec 09: Glasgow Academy
12 Dec 09: Sheffield Academy
13 Dec 09: Manchester Apollo
14 Dec 09: Leeds Academy
16 Dec 09: Birmingham Academy
18 Dec 09: Brixton Academy
19 Dec 09: Brixton Academy

19 Oct 09: John Kennedy’s "Xposure", XFM,
     London; Jumbo is Record of the Week
06 Oct 09: Jumbo EP Launch Party, The
     Iambic Bar, London, with full big band
05 Oct 09: Jumbo EP release
04 Oct 09: Marcia Farquhar’s 12 Shooters
     book launch, The Horse Hospital, London
02 Oct 09: "Sound Out", Resonance FM
25 Jul 09: VannFest, Surrey, England
May/Jun 09: Finishing the Jumbo EP,
     Cowshed & Bark Studios, London.
25 Apr 09: Mandy Bar, Berlin
15 Mar 09: Parkside Lounge, NYC
16 Mar 09: 9:30 Club, Washington DC
     Supporting the Pogues.
06 Mar 09: Roberta, Berlin
Feb/Mar 09: Sessions for the Jumbo EP and
     The Bee Sting, Cowshed, London
31 Jan 09: Mandy Bar, Berlin
13 Dec 08: The George Tavern, London
12 Dec 08: "Sound Out", Resonance FM
11 Dec 08: The Black Gardenia, London
30 Jul 08: Salle des Fêtes, St Aulaye, France
26 Jul 08: Magdalene College, Cambridge
18 Mar 08: Parkside Lounge, NYC
15 Mar 08: Roseland, NYC,
     Supporting the Pogues.
13 Mar 08: Electric Factory, Philadelphia
     Supporting the Pogues.
29 Feb 08: White Trash, Berlin
20 Feb 08: Bang Bang Club, Berlin
15 Feb 08: The Dirty Canon Launch Party,
     The George Tavern, London, with John
     Edwards, Jem Finer & Andrew Ranken
13 Feb 08: The Black Gardenia, London,
     with Jem Finer
31 Dec 07: New Year’s Eve @ The George
     Tavern, London, with Jem Finer
19 Nov 07: The Dirty Canon CD release
02 Jun 07: White Trash, Berlin
26 May 07: Viva Cake, London
19 May 07: The Black Gardenia, London
May 07: Further recording & mixing for
     The Dirty Canon, Bark Studios, London
12 Jan 07: White Trash, Berlin
31 Aug 06: Gaz’s Rockin Blues, Wardour St.
31 Aug 06: "Sound Out", Resonance FM
27 Aug 06: Stranger Than Paradise, Favela
     Chic, Old Street
02 Jul 06: Waterlow Park, Highgate
01 Jul 06: East Dulwich Constitutional Club
Feb 06: Sessions for The Dirty Canon,
     The Art Store, St. Pauli, Hamburg
04 Sep 05: Stranger Than Paradise, South
     London Pacific, Kennington
31 Aug 05: Biddle Bros, Hackney
26 Aug 05: Victoria & Albert Museum
30 Jul 05: Owen & Lizzy’s, Llanrwst, Wales
26 Jul 05: Biddle Bros, Hackney
22 Jul 05: Bethnal Green Workingman’s Club
12 Jun 05: Stoke Newington Festival
11 Jun 05: Barden’s Boudoir, Dalston
10 Jun 05: Camberwell Leisure Center; in
     Marcia Farquhar’s Pool of Fun & Games
10 Apr 05: Clärchen’s Ballhaus, Berlin
07 Feb 05: Cargo, Shoreditch
07 Jan 05: Hugo’s Speaker Palace, Hackney
05 Dec 04: King Kong Klub, Berlin
02 Dec 04: Zentralberlin, Berlin
09 Oct 04: Hugo’s Speaker Palace, Hackney
28 Aug 04: Colonie de vacances de St
     Gervais, La Rippe, Switzerland
18 Jun 04: Hugo’s Speaker Palace, Hackney
18 Jun 04: Camberwell Leisure Center; in
     Marcia Farquhar’s To the Power of Ten
Mar 04: Recording for Milo Waterfield’s
     short film Stagger Lee, LMC Studios
May 03: Resonance FM/Clear Spot CD release
15 Jan 03: Martin King’s, 53 Cross St.
07 Dec 02: Dorkbot, Limehouse Town Hall
09 Sep 02: "Clear Spot", Resonance FM
14 Jan 02: Twelve Bar Club, Denmark Pl.
14 Jan 02: BBC London Live
13 Jul 01: Reception, Cremer St.
14 Jan 01: Twelve Bar Club, Denmark Pl.
06 Jan 01: Martin King’s, 53 Cross St.
29 Jul 00: Martin King’s, 53 Cross St.
11 Jan 00: The Clinic, Gerard St.
08 Nov 99: The Clinic, Gerard St.
All venues are in London, except as noted.

You can see some stills or stream a clip of Milo Waterfield’s work in progress film of Stagger Lee here:
Milo Waterfield's Stagger Lee

Or you could download the Figs’ version here:
Staggerlee - Mar 04
(Trad., arr. Maizlish-Mole/Marseille Figs) ... 3.9Mb / mp3

Marseille Figs produced a CD of a radio show they did on Resonance FM in September 2002. They’re for sale here, and there are downloads there too:
Resonance FM 9 September 2002

This site and its contents are © 1999-2011 J. Maizlish Mole/Marseille Figs. The content of this website and all downloads from it are owned
directly by the artists or indirectly through their affiliates unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved. Marseille Figs is an unlimited endeavor.