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!!

 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

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.....

Sir Skellington Bones by Bones and the Aft

This Friday....Art School Party

Only a few tickets left.....

This Friday 25th April...were on  7.45pm

.....Support from Lost in Fog at 6.55pm  

and Arthur Bently's 

Hester  finish things off at 845...

Steve Woods made this film  a few years ago!!!

Thanks Steve!!

Hi Friends....just back from an exciting weekend supporting 

Balaam and The Angel in Lichfield and thought I'd get round to 

promoting the next chapter in the Bones & The Aft story....

We are about to attempt to revive an exciting rock and roll  tradition, 

unfortunately dwindled to almost (but not quite!!)

demise...

The Art School Dance!!!  

we have been granted permission to hold one in the wonderfull 

old Victorian oak panelled lecture theatre at 

Camberwell College of Art Wilsons Road site. 

Previous Art School parties in this wonderfully atmospheric old venue have included 

Camberwell alumni Humphrey Littleton, Syd Barret and Pink Floyd and The Clash...

The gig  will be on Friday 25th April 6-30 til 10.00pm sharp 

and will feature 

Bones and the Aft, 

Arthur Bentlys hotly tipped   (by NME!!) new band 

Hester 

and the enigmatic student sounds of 

Lost in Fog.

Its All Ticket Only and most of these will be sold to current students  

but I'm reserving twenty only for Bones fans 

so if you want to reserve one please email me now and 

I'll put you on the list  

(PS The tickets are a hand printed collectible limited edition woodblock  print!!!)

Let Me Know!!!

Love to you all

John B x

Some drawings of imaginary

post holocaust landscapes

done over the last fifteen years

....a recurring theme

So here are the gigs 

planned for 2014 so far...

Saturday March 15th

Lichfield Guildhall, Lichfield, Staffs

Supporting 

Balaam and The Angel

7.30pm doors...were on at 8...although its Sold Out

unfortunately  (sold out in  hours I think)

A hard nights work for Ian......

Friday 25th April

Wilsons Lecture Theatre

Camberwell College of Art

Supported by Arthur Bently and pals hot new band

HESTER  plus surprise guests

A wonderful victorian lecture theatre, where the Clash

performed back in 1977...the first Art School gig for nearly

ten years and its us!!!

All ticket only...limited to 200 only..

-these will be hand printed woodcuts ...let me know

if you want one and I'll reserve them..

£3.00 each only

Saturday July 12th

Bread and Roses, Clapham

Great venue...run by the Workers Beer Co 

and the Trade Union movement

This will be the Liver & Lights no 52

Book Launch Party

(Lord Biscuits Volvo 245 adventures)

Saturday 13th September

The Enterprise

opp Chalk Farm Tube

A return to North London!

The first venue ever to want us back!

(not including The half Moon and

Leigh Folk Festival)

There may be more added later!!