Friday 26 December 2014


Happy New Year Bones followers....thanks thanks thanks
for supporting us last year, for all your cheers 
and all the pennies you've
spent on books and t-shirts and badges.... 
We really do appreciate it, and we only can do it if
you want us too.... 
Currently we are recording and writing new stuff to
play to you next year, with gigs planned in March and May so far
and hopefully a new album towards the end of the year!!!
New Costumes!! New Sets!! New Singer!  
(only joking!!) 
(about the singer!)

We love you all...




Bones & The Aft is a unique collaboration between 
three eccentrically complimentary individual eartists..
 They are  Admiral Lord Biscuit, 
formerly with Ivich Lives, the Doctors of Love, 
Florence Welch, Rum Shebeen and many others. 
Half accomplished multi instrumentalist and half Mad Inventor, 
he is the current holder of the  London South Bank 
Centre International Piano Scrapheap Challenge trophy. 
Guitarist Ian Mckean made his name in the 
eighties with Generation X offshoot and  
WEA signed Twenty Flight Rockers 
and later the Virgin signed Balaam and the Angel. 
Mckean provides raw yet sensitive guitarscapes 
to contain and enhance the 
passionately observational storytelling of singer 
John Bently, 
a sort of singer of sorts,
provider of words, costumes and hand painted sets.  
Bently is best known for his internationally




 collected long running series of art in book form, 
The Liver and Lights Chronicle. 
Bones and the Aft are these books brought to life, 


by three fearlessly entertaining, memorably passionate performers..

“A mythical metropolis inhabited by a teeming population of sharply drawn, 
richly detailed  characters”. Aiden Dunne. The Irish Times

a world of forlorn high streets whose junk shops 
stock records in the wrong sleeves; 
outsider schoolmates; cheap travel. 
Mining a broadly similar seam of 
Englishness to the late great Kevin Coyne, perhaps…
Stephen Drennan. Book Art Newsletter 2013

Friday 5 December 2014

bookartbookblog: A Conversation with John Bently

bookartbookblog: A Conversation with John Bently: I’ve been making books since I was 11 years old. My first books were hand made  comics and then a poetry and music fanzine at school....

Saturday 4 October 2014

Granny Mary..new song...





New song Granny Mary recorded in the summer at

our gig at Bread and Roses...Filmed by Jeff from Ian's other band

the Runner Brothers...a lovely job too...Ta Jeff xx

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Thursday 17 July 2014

Enterprise is Cancelled

This is a small post to
let you all know that
I've cancelled our upcoming show
At the Enterprise 
in Chalk Farm
that was previously advertised
to be taking place on
September 13th








In the meantime
Once again ...our most special thanks to 
Chiara Ambrosio
for taking these splendid photos of our gig last
Saturday.....
and including some great shots of 
Bird Radio,
who looked particularly at home
in front of our set, I thought...

Sunday 13 July 2014


Bread and Roses
Clapham
July 12th 2014 







 A new backdrop,,
some new songs
a new book
 a small but enthralled audience.....


A wonderful powerful
complimentary
performance
from
Bird Radio


This gig was mainly  memorable because
after our third song
the 'duty manager' asked us to turn the volume down
as we were disturbing the neighbours
who had threatened to call the police. 

The audience were wonderfully supportive of us 
as we struggled to make sense of this 
and so somehow we continued to the end
of a slightly quieter, slightly curtailed set...

Another venue we can never play in again!!
We are either too loud, too old, too young, too sweaty, too avant garde
or not avant garde enough!! We just cant win
and we dont care....

Also,
our big heartfelt thanks to those of you,
you noble souls
who chose to pay to watch us 
over the World Cup third place
play off game!!

xxxxxxxxxxx



Wednesday 9 July 2014


So....Bones & The Aft are
this Saturday launching
Liver & Lights No 52
Lord Biscuits Volvo 245 is gone
a hand printed book
only ten copies left
so get there early if you want one!!


 Also....  we will be doing some
New Material!
two new songs
at least
and we love em they're
proper emotional...


 New books,
new songs
maybe New Backdrop
if Ive painted it in time...
three days left and boy is my wrist tired!




 So its  at 
Bread and Roses
(upstairs)
68 Clapham Manor St,
Clapham Common tube
88 or 37 Bus
8pm
Fiver to get in
Support by the fabulous

Bird Radio
check him out!!


Wednesday 18 June 2014

Liver & Lights No. 52: Some Pages


 These are some pages from 
Liver & Lights No 52
Lord Biscuits Volvo 245 is Gone !
which we will be launching
on Saturday July 12th at
Bread & Roses, 
68 Clapham Manor St,
SW46DZ. 
8pm. Adm £5.00

The text has allready been made into New Music
which we will be performing for you on the night


 In case you might be interested,
each page is hand printed from a 
cut foam rubber type block  and
each page is about 6 by 4 inches 
and there are only a few left...
I made sixty or so but the plates have 
started to crumble and deteriorate
so there'll be no second edition in this form.

They're £30 and there are 11 left..
If you want one let me know asap















This last image is of a special edition of the book 
I've just made, contained in a wooden hinged slipcase and with an original
painting inside. There are only three of these and they'll
be about £300 if you want one.   I might or might not
do some more......maybe one more....




                                 

Monday 16 June 2014

Chiar Ambrosio John Bently. Liver and Lights No 23 100 books







I made this book, Liver & Lights No 23: 100 books in the mid 1990's as a personal response to various then recent acts of state tyranny against writers and other people who had criticised a government in some way...The Nigerian Ken Saro Wiwa just been  executed, among others. The project started life as a 100 word poem made in a 100 versions, with each version changed by one word, but somehow still retaining its meaning. I felt this somehow reflected my feeling that you can kill the singers but never the song, once sung. I set the poems in 100 different hand made books, this one being a giant newspaper, which Chiara Ambrosio has most kindly animated thereby bringing the work to life once more. Thanks Chiara!!

Monday 9 June 2014

Liver & Lights No 52






So...this is a bit of advance notice so's you can 
keep it free in your diary...
We are launching our new book soon!!!  at

Bread & Roses
168 Clapham Manor St,
SW46DZ. 

Sat 12th July
8pm Adm £5.00

The book is called

Liver and Lights No. 52
Lord Biscuits Volvo 245 is Gone!

A hand printed epic true story, brought 
to life in book form and the 
Primal Rock Theatre of

Bones and his Aft


As you can see from the flyer,
we are joined on the night by the wonderful
flute toting performance artist musical 
not to be missednessthat is

Bird Radio
who recently released his debut album
“The Boy and the Audience” 
shortly followed by 
the “Time to Go” Film Trilogy on 7th October 2013 
with SFE/Cherry Red Records.

He is currently composing and recording his 
second album"Oh, Happy England" based on 
poems by Walter de la Mare, due for release in 
2015. 

Bird Radio draws from primordial folk, blues and ritualistic sound 
to create powerful songs that combine the ancient art of storytelling 
with rousing and hypnotic beats and rhythms. 


He has been described as a  
"A mix of old testament preacher and Captain Beefheart..." 
 “a flute-toting, bass drum-beating sensation...” 
(Rick Pearson, Evening Standard), 
"...future medieval, as if J.G. Ballard had written 
The Wicker Man” (Steve Chandra Savale, Asian Dub Foundation) 
and “…stirring beats and complex gothic flute 
arrangments in modern Anglo-Saxon folk music style, 
Brel-inspired chanson, or Kurt Weill-sounding 
theatrical music…” (Nöjesguiden, Sweden)




Liver & Lights No 52 , 
Is a heart warming
elegy to the Human Spirit. 
The story of Lord Biscuit’s Jam Jar 
and how he stood up to the bullies and thieves. 
It is a small-edition book, very labour of lovingly 
hand printed on black laid paper.  It has been 
 turned into a song and 
available only on this night,  ( £30.00)
along with many and the usual
other hand made delights….


Sunday 1 June 2014

Parallel Cities Films


Last Thursday,
Parallel Cities show at
Safe House 1 and 2, Peckham-
a wonderfully atmospheric gig 
in an old derelict house,
turned into a gallery space.....
Lots of brilliant London themed work;




a collaboration between Graphics and Illustration 
degree students from Camberwell College of Art....
We provided a kind of musical icing on their cake...
Ian forgot his strap and had to sit down...Lord Biscuit forgot his sticks!
I forgot to wear underpants.....
but still the show went on, somehow!!



Lovely!


Thursday 29 May 2014






So
we playing tonite
at Safe House1 and 2
139 Copeland Rd
Peckham
SE15

we are on at 8
dont be late!



Thursday 22 May 2014


Bones & The Aft are playing 
a few London themed songs at this Exhibition 
next Thursday  (29th May)...  Its at  Safe Houses 1 & 2,
139 Copeland Rd, Peckham, SE15...More details on flyer,
sounds like fun!!

Sunday 4 May 2014


 Liver & Lights No 52. Page Three


John as Geno...Camberwell College of Art

April 2014  Thanks to Chiara Ambrosio for the brilliant pic

...Lord Biscuit is drumming in the background, 
seemingly embedded into the Penge backdrop, his Mythical home


Liver & Lights No 52.

Lord Biscuits Volvo 245 is gone…




The events that this book covers are a true story. They took place in late 2013 and my reasons for making them into a book are as follows:

Things get nicked - its a fact of life. Burglars are rife, their trade glamourised in literature and the populist media; are they not the last of the true outlaws, living on the edge of society, stealing from the rich to feed their poor families and their insurmountable drug habits?

In England, we glorify our thieves and demonise our men and women of genius.  William Blake is  a madman but Dick Turpin is a working class hero. Michael Foot is a donkey jacketed buffoon but Ronnie Biggs is the true champion of the underdog etc. etc.

The Metro recently reported that Herne Hill, where the events of my book begin, is currently the most burgled area of London. There is a commonly held romantic view that Burglars commit a victimless crime, their swag quickly replaced by compliant insurance companies with never an eyebrow raised, the Police cursorily notified, too busy with more important matters to even pretend to investigate. Cars too, and if you are stupid enough to leave anything in a car overnight its your own bloody fault if its nicked.

I had been thinking for some time that I needed a story that could somehow say what I really thought about stealing. That it is a depressing practice at any time or place. When you steal you are taking stuff that isn't yours in so doing you are invariably making someone else unhappy. Even in the most desperate hour of need, when stealing is the only way of surviving, the act still a desperate act, and one that needs no glamourising. These days, most  thieves are not the desperate poor of Les Mis or the starveling children of Victorian London. Nor are they the behoodled, crack ravaged  young ferals of urban myth. Most professional thieves are not glamorous, they are common bullies.  They are greedy and lazy and lack the ability to feel commonality with other humans. This is the story of some people who stood up to the bullies:

Admiral Lord Biscuit, our hero, bravely aided by Candy Tomlinson and her noble  Jason; the brave Mob.

A further note on the text and how it has been made:

Each page has been carved out of rubberised foam  (available from toyshops as a children's craft thing)  and glued onto a piece of wood, inked up and printed by hand in the book. That’s twenty pages, each page hand printed 70 odd times to make the book.  

This painstaking act of carving out the text bit by bit from a solid square, with the comprehensibility only slowly emerging, echoes Stephen Pinker’s explanation (found in his groundbreaking book ‘The Language Instinct’), of the way children learn to speak, in huge chunks, individual words slowly emerging from  blocks of abstract sound as they grow.  

The act of making something slowly by hand is an act of Love.  This to echo Lord Biscuit’s painstaking restoration of his beloved Volvo 245.  He had made it with his own hands.  No thief would ever know the deep satisfaction that brings, nor could ever steal it.

I have made 52 books in 30 years and this is my favourite so far!!
I have made about sixty copies and its been such a painstaking task that there will never be any more…..(of this edition!)

If you want copy all you need to do is send me £25.00 as a cheque made out to: Liver & Lights by the end of May 2014  (posted to:Liver & Lights, 229 Railton Rd, London SE24 0LX)  or by paypal to: hanksoake@gmail.com


Saturday 26 April 2014

Camberwell College of Art 2014


                                                                   Biscuit in red...


 Ian in mid solo....


Hester; young and lovely....
and truly funkadelic


 Washed out....


 Lost in Fog...


This is what happened at 
Camberwell College of Art last night....
a  magical night of music with 
Bones and Hester and Lost in Fog
.... a truly special night.....