Biography

Chancery Blame’s first musical memory is of playing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ on his violin at the age of four and being in love with his teacher, Sally.  The son of a self taught musician, whose first band Los Manos once supported Frank Sinatra in Japan, young Phillip (as he was then known), grew up listening to Neil Diamond and Les Miserables in his dad’s car on the way to school.

 

At the age of twelve, Chancery Blame’s next major love affair was with the music of Russian composer Shostakovich.  Playing the violin was a large part of his childhood and won him a music scholarship to Winchester college where young Phillip discovered girls, guitars and acid and started listening to The Pixies, Pavement, Jane’s Addiction, Aphex Twin, Wu Tang Clan and Harry Connick Jr.

However, the violin kept Chancery Blame enamoured:
“I can’t imagine playing another instrument,” he says, “Violin has a romance and myth about it and it’s what led me to Gypsy music”.

 

Chancery Blame began fronting his band The Gadjo Club in 2007, a mishmash of musical geniuses including Dave Shulman on clarinet and saxophone, Stef Kalonaris on guitars, Garance Loius on accordion, Dave O’Brian on double bass and keyboards and Jimmy Norden on drums. A shared passion for eastern European and klezmer music was combined with a love of art-rock, swing, Americana and other world sounds and fused with Chancery Blame’s charismatic vocals, creating something truly infectious.

 

Chancery Blame & The Gadjo Club launched their first studio E.P, ‘Pretty Face’, in February 2009 and in May 2009 the lead track ‘Unzer Toirele’ was featured on compilation album ‘Waltzes, Glitches & Brass: The New Sounds of Vaudeville’, on US based EMP.  In June 2010 the same track was licensed to Green Queen records for release on ‘Mind The Brass’, a compilation of the best of the London based Balkan scene.

Chancery Blame’s latest single, a double A-side of the self-penned ‘Tokyo Oh Oh’ and a ‘spine-tingling’ cover of The Pixies’ legendary ‘Where Is My Mind?’ was released in October 2010 on Outsider! Records, picking up exceptional reviews.

 

Their incendiary live shows have led to Chancery Blame and his band becoming firm favourites at nights such as Stranger Than Paradise, Gypsy Hotel, Radio Gargarin and Balkan Beats in London.  In addition they are no stranger to festivals and have played at The Big Chill, The Secret Garden Party, Bhuddafields, Sidmouth Folk Festival, Standon Calling, and Cardiff’s Big Weekender...

No mean feat for an artist with just two singles under his belt.

A new single ‘The Last Days Of Decadence’ will be released for download in Spring 2011 and Chancery Blame is now working on his debut album ‘Come On In’ for release later in 2011.