Stu Rowe and a lot of other people:Natasha Griffiths, Andy Partridge,Julianne Bastock,Jen Olive,Cinzano Taylor,Matt Kilford, Sam Bates,Ali Maundrell,Rebecca Harrison, Gillian Stokes, Gemma Whitmarsh, Pete Rowe, Polly Strange,Mikey Rowe, Jay Ganberg, Natasha Whitmarsh,Charlie Rowe,Carrie Rossiter, Merv Carswell, Billy Jones,Barry Ganberg, Nick Warr, Bozley, Pete Cousins, Para,Brendan Hamley, Barry Andrews,
Influences
Cannonball Adderley, The Advocates, Aerosmith, Afro,Eboniq,Anaphase,Carleen Anderson,Adam and the Ants,Amorphous Androgynous,The Aphex Twin,Louis Armstrong,Barry Andrews,Dave Angel,Burt Bacharach,Nick Baker,Baluji,Lord Bamford,Band 6,Iain Banks,Basement Jaxx,Count Basie,The Beastie Boys,Beatbullyz,The Beatles,Beck,Beethoven,Big Bandit,Blondie,David Bowie,Bob Bowles,James Brown,The Carpenters,Chalk Circle,Ray Charles,The Clash,Gaz Cobain,The Commodores,Norman Cook,Alice Cooper,Sheryl Crow,Dacoit Studios,Leonardo da Vinci,Salvadore Dali,The Damned,Miles Davis,Debussy,Delta 9,Kev Dixon,The Dirty Feel,DJ Shadow,Double Six,Brian Dougans,The Edge,Duke Ellington,Brian Eno
The Escapees,Esquimaw,Bill Evans,Gil Evans,Ella Fitzgerald,The Foo Fighters,Aretha Franklin,From Eden,The Future Sound of London,Barry Gamberg,JasonGamberg,Generation X,Al Green,Peter Green,Johnny Greenwood,Hanoi Rocks,Wild Willy Harris,Bob Heath
Bernard Hermann,Jimi Hendrix,Elvis Hitler,Billie Holiday,Charlie Hunter,Iggy and the Stooges,The Isley Brothers,The Jam,Etta James,Jellyfish,Paul Jobson,Robert Johnson,Jimmy Jones,Sam Kelly,Alicia Keys,Killing Joke,The Kinks,Lenny Kravitz,Led Zeppelin,The Lipstick Killers, Liquid Stone,Gary Lucas,Massive Attack,Curtis Mayfield,Medeski Martin and Wood,The Meters,The Meteors,Charlie Mingus,Mikey Rowe,Thelonius Monk,Mott The Hoople,Mud,Sandy Nelson,The New York Dolls,Nilsson,999,Nirvana,Noma,Oasis,Ogheno,William Orbit,Charlie Parker,Joe Pass,Portishead,Prince,Queens of the Stone Age,Radiohead,Rage Against The Machine,The Ramones,The Red Hot Chilli Peppers,Lou Reed,The Rezillos,Keith Richards,Max Richter,Mick Ronson,The Ruts,Gidd Sanchez,Toots Santini,Jill Scott,The Sex Pistols
Sham 69,The Shangri-las,Siouxsie and The Banshees,RoniSize,TheSkids,Slade,Slash,Sleepcycle,Sister Beck,Phil Spector,The Sore Willies,Sparks,The Spikes,Spittin Image,Harry Stephenson,Stevie Stevens,Stiff Little Fingers,Sly Stone,Stravinsky,The Style Council,The Sweet,Cinzano Taylor,Television,Johnny Thunders,Tower of Power,T Bone Travis,Curtis Tweed,United Future Organisation,The Vindaloo Brothers
The Who,Stevie Ray Vaughan,Muddy Waters,Tim Weller
Paul Weller,Kenny Werner,The Wild Bikinis,Sonny Boy Williamson,Brian Wilson,Cassandra Wilson,Stevie Wonder,XTC,Lester Young,Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction,
Sounds Like
"Everything blown apart and then put together in ways that you haven’t heard before" Dave Franklin
“The Backward Sound of Wiltshire”- The Rowe Brothers
“The Willy Wonka of Record Production”- Holly Partridge
“ Wiltshire’s answer to Andy Warhol’s Factory” -BBC Wiltshire
“The world’s best producer- The Alfonz
"Not lame"- Jen Olive
“Trying to categorize Lighterthief is like trying to nail smoke to a wall. Not only do they resist being put into a genre, even the very nature of the band is difficult to easily describe. A one-man studio project that occasionally manifests itself as a extended band? Fluid and largely improvised songs that are formed around rigid technology and samples? Techno-grunge meets the blues? Down-beat, trip-rock? Ask twenty people what it is that Stuart Rowe’s highly original creation is and you will get twenty answers. “ Dave Franklin
“Lighterthief doesn’t venture on to the stage that often, but when it does , it is an unpredictable and wonderful work of art. The line-up is slightly different every time, as are the songs and even the arrangements. The music is a strange brew of dark, trip-rock, swamp-blues and organic sounds, which combines consummate musicianship with an outstanding technical wizardry.” - Swindon Shuffle Review
“In 2007 the album Incubation was launched on an unsuspecting audience, an album that managed to blend music without regard for genre or rules. Metal guitars vied for space with melancholy harmonicas, whilst lonely trumpets muscled their way through. Loops and strange effects seemed to wander unchallenged across the songs, magical female vocals competed for space alongside gruff, rasping male voices, and intricate basslines and hypnotic percussion cemented the whole thing together.”
“If you look up eclectic in the dictionary, it has a picture of the Lighterthief’s album, Incubation, a diverse and heady mix of grunge blues guitar, soul pounding bass, electronic loops and beats and vocals that cover such a wide range that you could fit a small African country in between them.”
“Like all of the best music, its difficult to pin down exactly what it is that they do. Underpinned by an almost Portishead-esque series of dark loops and beats, layers of seemingly incompatible genres are added, thick swamp blues guitar licks, spiralling strains of dirty saxophone, random electronica, wailing freight train harmonica, driving bass lines, off beat jazz and more besides, creating an inconceivable yet beautiful creation. Look up juxtaposition in the dictionary and it has a video of this gig.”
"More akin to falling down the rabbit hole than anything else I've ever heard"- Jo Bradley
Hey guys, check out my page and see if my work takes your fancy. Would love to do some crazy visuals for the band to go with your mental sounds! Keep me inmind for the future and hope to see you play soon!
Rob
Hi Stu - hope you are keeping well. Thanks for the input to the APE forum and look forward to the new stuff. We've finally managed to put a new one up on our site so hope you like it. Thanks again and take care.
hey stu, cheers for the add man, music's sounding good! when are you planning to release the tunes that you did with the girl on your label? by far some of your best stuff!
Hey Stu! Hope all is well in the APE world. Please see my BLOG link for... Preview song from 'Tucson Moonshine' album, produced by JD Foster & feat. Calexico members Joey Burns, John Convertino & Jacob Valenzuela plus Nick Luca. Photos by Susie Hug. Photos of Susie Hug by Joey Burns. Recorded at Wavelab Studio in Tucson, Arizona. Engineered by Chris Schultz & Mixed by Craig Schumacher [who also played harmonica].
Congratulations on your release on Andy P's Ape Label. Put your vid link as a comment on my site if you want, ok? Ask Matt if you can have a listen to a little ruff song we harmonized on...I think the voices match real nice.
Me & Ad are threatening to come frolic in the countryside your way during the 'summer's cauldron' [if we have one]....so beware! he he.
Hello Stu, Thanks for the invite to view your Maximalism video. Very cool. Seems Andy always had the affinity for the Mark Isham sound, and understandably so. The track sounds great. Freshly modern with nice manipulations of known quantities into unique permutations. Best always and play on....
Mega thank you to everyone involved in last night's concert. All three bands played fantastically. The old man of the audience thoroughly enjoyed myself. When will you be doing it again? Soon I hope.
Storming set again last night Stu - all in all a great evening - & the support bands weren't bad either(!) Left CDs behind bar for safety when JH wanted to go - hope you picked em up OK?
