CALL OF DISTRESS!

Calling all of you wonderful people who are still following me from the Sal Army and the new members of Cat's Army! I want you to be a part of something special! I want you all to appear in the new music video for my next single 'Call of Distress'.

To tell you a little more...

The Story

Waking up in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there, Cat having suffered massive head trauma starts experiencing unexplainable powers which can old be described as Super-human. The more she believes, the more she begins to express her latent super-abilities. To keep her secret, Cat creates an alter ego known as Nancy Neuron and uses her powers to save humanity from the evil Dr Lukas Vent and his Army of Robots.

The Music Video

In the song 'Call Of Distress' Cat becomes Nancy and introduces us to her army of the people, you!

You will be caricatures of ordinary people i.e shop workers, hairstylists, musicians, business men/women, tradesmen, skateboarders, street performers etc Colourful and exaggerated.

The song will be a choreographed colourful scene filmed through City Streets leading to a large outdoor location.

Cat as Nancy will be joined by a core group of dancers as she dances through the streets and makes her way towards the final destination, who will be scattered on pavements, against walls, coming out of cars, shops etc and joining her.  The rest of the cast will be at a large venue which will be all ready for a flash mob type scene.

Think 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' Kids from 'Fame', Michael Jackson, Fun Fun Fun and very 80s!

If you can act, dance, play a musical instrument, excellent then you can try out for the main roles!  

If not, no fear! I want everyone involved!

Are you up for it? 

Send me a message if you're interested at catsouthall@gmail.com and Spread the Word!!!!!!

Let's have some fun!
As soon as I have everyone's names. I'll set up an area for us to discuss it further. Woop Woop!

Happy New Year

Hello Cat's Army,

I hope 2014 is going great for you so far.

2013 was a very busy year and an exciting time for me, as I had the chance to bring my concept album to life. I couldn't have been more happy with how many people turned up to my gig at Clwb Ifor Bach, I certainly didn't expect a complete sell out with people queuing round the corner! With a cracking band Steve O Jones, Mitch Cassey, Lego Man and James Kennedy, the amazing Vulcan String Quartet who agreed to be painted like cyborgs and you, my Army of supporters, the night was bound to be a success. Thanks to those of you who joined me on my journey in your steam robot masks of metallic gold and silver created by the creative and talented Caitlin Twin Murphy and her family who have an eye for detail. It was such an experience for me to hear you all chanting the words back at me.

I then took it another step by creating a themed night at Porters, Dan Porter allowed me to take over his awesome venue to create my idea. This one was about bringing the characters to life a little more, so the idea was that everyone stepped back in time to the 1950s as soon as they walked through the door. This did require that everyone arrived in costume though so that you were all part of the story, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that you came through once again Cat's Army.
On arrival you were greeted by roller skating popcorn girls serving fabulous french cake created by the talented Laurian Veaudour of Cocorico Patisserie. As this was all about telling more of the story, I brought my angels with me, because you'll discover as you learn more about Nancy Neuron, my alter ego, her fabulous angels go with her everywhere. The beautiful Arielle Tye, Kylie Ann Smith, Teifi Emerald and Aniko Zoltai brought the mischievous angels to life, but you can't have a story without a narrator, so Dr Bernard Kane (the narrator on the actual album) did a wonderful job on the night. The little cinema (yes this place has its own cinema!) showcased my music video for 'One Day At A Time' and a showreel by Dayana Del Puerto, and popcorn was served as you entered.

Polly Homjakina took some wonderful photos from the evening which you can see here

Other things in 2013. I was selected as BBC Radio Wales Artist Of The Week! which meant that you could all hear 'One Day At A Time' on all the shows on Radio Wales for a whole week. I must admit, it was very exciting to here my music as I turned the radio on. I was also invited onto the lovely Louise Elliott's show, Mitch and Lego came along and we had a great time there playing 'One Day At A Time' and 'Call Of Distress' Live on air and an interview. You can see some photos here .
Following this I was added to the BBC Wales playlist! so you can still hear me.

Radio Cardiff invited me in for a session too, so thank you so much to them. I got to perform 3 songs, and I was lucky that James Kennedy came to accompany me on guitar and backing vocals. We had a great time! I'll be uploading both shows for you shortly.

In between all this were promotional campaigns, a Halloween gig at Ebbw Vale Institute, a Christmas gig at Gwdihw and actually completing the album (which isn't quite there yet)

I'm now very lucky to working with some more brilliant musicians Dorian Adkins on Drums who you would have seen play with me the second half of the year. He learned the songs at record speed and has been amazing. Matt Warr (Bass) and Rhys Jones (Drums) are learning the material as we speak. I'm also holding guitarist auditions this week!! Woop Woop!

If there's anyone out there interested in joining Cat Southall, then I'm putting together a pool of musicians, it's always hard with everyone working to make sure everyone's available to gig, so I thought this would be the best way.

Mitch Cassey is still on board on bass and Bv's and going along with any of my strange ideas, and has been amazing since day one of this crazy and colourful project, thanks Mitch!
and James Kennedy, what can I say.... I couldn't have done this without you! Always listening to me ideas, giving your advice and joining the band when you have enough going on with your own (Check them out here people)  Right this is turning into an Oscar's Speach. So 2014? what does the rest of this year have in store. Well...

The album is now in its last week of production. Producer Lee 'Noog' Lavis is probably tearing his hair out as we speak with all the last minute changes I'm throwing in! I went round there Sunday and he is doing an absolutely AMAZING job mixing this beast. Very very lucky to have such a patient producer and friend. The songs are sounding SO good and the interludes are coming together so we're both really excited. I've decided to write one more interlude, which I have to do today. Oh ohhhhhhhh :) then by Sunday the whole thing will be sent to the excellent Ed Woods for mastering. So.. 4 days left to get it all done. Phew!

I'll be posting a message about the album artwork, because I would LOVE for you to be involved, any artists, photographers to capture the story through images.

Check my Cat Southall website for any more updates about gigs and interesting happenings.

Love, Peace and Rock and Roll

Cat x

The New Project

Hello Sal Army. I hope you're all well and happy in 2013

Even though we've split up as a band for now, that isn't the end of the musical journey. Oh no no no. So... what the devil is going on you ask? Well, my friends, I shall tell you. In 2012 I used the extra time I had from the lack of Sal rehearsals to write a solo album! Woot Woot! It's being recorded and produced with the help of the faithful boys from Sal, my dear friends Noog (producer, guitarist, songwriter, musical genius) and Saunders (kick arse bass player) along with James Kennedy (rock god, singer, songwriter of kyshera.com) and Richard Holley (songwriter, keyboard player extraordinaire) and the voice of Dr Bernard Kane (composer, viola player extraordinaire) and Burning Red (Creative problem solvers).
I don't have an album sleeve yet, so I'd like to say my thank you's to these guys here, because without them I couldn't have made my vision a reality, and thanks to everyone else helping me along the way.

Now for more exciting news. Last week I found a band to make the album a live experience! Yay! They're truly awesome, and I will introduce them to you very soon. We jammed for the second time last weekend and the songs are sounding HUGE already. I'm going to be booking live dates for March and a bit of a showcase of the new material, which is going to RAWK!
As fans of Sal I'm hoping you'll like the new tunes and will come and join 'Cat's Army' and become a part of my story.
Check out the tunes on acatsouthallproduct.com
Join me on Twitter here
And if you like what you hear. Like me Facebook Group here
I'm looking forward to seeing you all soon at a gig near you :o)

Peace, Love and Rock and Roll
Cat
x

The Story Begins

Hello lovely people,
I just wanted to reassure you that I haven't forgotten you. Oh no no no, on the contrary..
Now the last thing you were told is that I am working on a Solo album, well this is indeed true ;)
I am actually working on an exciting concoction for you to get your teeth into :) a wonderful colourful concept along with my partner in crime and producer extraordinaire Noog. Now I'm not quite ready to share any detail with you at the moment, but in the very near future you can expect regular updates on how the project is coming along, a new website will be set up along with new facebook and twitter pages so you can keep in the loop. There will be plenty of sneaky snippets from the work going on. I'm working with an exciting team of artists to make this concept a reality, so it's going to be ex.....ci........ting.
Loads of love
Cat x

Update

The last time I updated you all it was all good news about writing the 3rd album, but unfortunately this update is a less happy one (assuming if you like us.... and if you don't, why are you reading our blog?!).
So here it is... Due to many pressures inside and outside of the band we've decided to put the album writing on hold, and ultimately Sal. This isn't a "we're splitting up" notice, although at the moment it's difficult to see a situation where it would be worth us getting back together.
So I'd just like to say a HOOOOOOOOOOOOOGE thank you to everyone who's supported and helped us over our many years of existence.
We salute you!
This doesn't mean we've all died, and will probably work on other projects so we'll keep you updated when these things happen.... Like Cat's solo album she's currently writing!!!!
Yep, you can't keep our Catrin Wyn down and she's penning a concept album which is very excited about... and it's sounding pretty awesome if I do say so myself.
More details will follow when we have them.
Noog

Happy new year from SAL

So what can you expect this year from SAL? 2010 was a quiet year for us as a band due to all sorts of "life" things happening (don't you hate it when life get's in the way of your music?), but Cat certainly made up for our collective "lack of anything" with work on the Manic's new album and appearances on numerous TV shows.
Well the SAL news is we're about 6 songs deep into our 3rd album, and it's already sounding a bit special.
"Yeah, you would say that" I hear you say? Well maybe you're right, but in this instance, I shit you not, these songs are the best songs we've written EVER!
We'll keep you informed of our progress, but until then have a brill beginning to 2011!
Noog x

New Live Music Videos

Woo hoo! We have some new Sal live footage up on our youtube channel
Courtesy of our friends Chris Phillips and Dai Hill of DogDay Films who did an awesome job of
capturing the live show and editing it.
A big thank you to our friend Craig Chapman who hasworked his magic and uploaded the
separate tracks for us.
Enjoy!
X