The AutistiX band update and news! February 2019
 
Our band
The AutistiX are a unique indie rock band, together since 2010. What makes us unique? We have 6 band members including three musicians who have autism. We make great songs and this, with our quirky stage performance, sets us apart from the many forgettable bands that come and go. We have two missions: to create and perform quality music, while illustrating the talent of musicians with autism. We promote social inclusion and valuing diversity. We’re proud to include musicians with autism – hence our name!
Band members
Saul Zur-Szpiro - drums
Jack Beaven-Duggan - electric guitar,
Graham Spragg - bass player
Jim Connelly - lead singer & band ‘mentor’ (community musician with 20 years experience with autism)
John Duggan – electric guitar (Jack’s dad)
Michael Zur-Szpiro - harmonica.
News
We have some very exciting news. A film was shown about us, that was made by film maker Simon Weitzman about the talent of our musicians with autism and Rick Jupp, the amazing drummer, from the world famous band Elbow. The film was shown on the BBC’s The One Show on 9th January and we also played live in the studio, which was amazing. The show was seen by 6 million people! We have had wonderful responses by many of the viewers who were inspired by us, loved our band and our songs!
Now we have new songs in process including one about autism!
Highlights of 2018:

• performing a short tour in Liverpool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOhlTDnmqOM during World Autism Awareness Week,
• performing in Constanta, Romania as part of the Music for Autism charity in April,
• We also had another film made about us for BBC3’s Amazing Humans https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06677gc
• many gigs in London and beyond
• introducing a semi acoustic version of our songs for performances that are less ‘rocky’

Our performances
The AutistiX stage presence is lively with witty banter, quick repartee and an infectious energy. We’ve performed at legendary UK music venues (The Monarch, The Barfly, the Bull and Gate, Proud Camden, O2 Academy Islington, Star & Garter, The White Rock Hastings, Brighton Dome, and at the iconic and wonderful Cavern Club in Liverpool, to name a few. We regularly appear at summer and winter festivals, and perform at fundraising gigs on behalf of charities and autism/disability organisations. We play at schools and universities, seeking to educate, inspire and to entertain audiences of all ages. Another highlight was a few years ago we performed with Sir Tom Jones, in front of an audience of over 1200,  and received a standing ovation. We’ve also performed in Spain, Switzerland, Guernsey and Romania.
http://www.theautistix.com, FB, @theautistix itunes, soundcloud, youtube, etc.
 
Contact:
Susan Zur-Szpiro, Band Manager, +44 7973835102 susanzs231@gmail.com theautistix@gmail.com

​The AutistiX band bio update 24th December 2018
The AutistiX are having a break for the end of year holidays and wish you all a Happy New Year for 2019.
We’ve had a busy season performing some autumn local festival gigs – one in pouring rain at East Finchley where we were the highlight act despite freezing and soaking wet weather. We also played another gig at the Crouch End Winter Festival (having played at their summer festival for the past three years). That gig was threatened with awful weather but we were lucky during our set with almost dry conditions and a crowd that grew nicely during our set! We also performed at a special school in Kent where the music teacher had seen us perform earlier in the summer at Festability. The students and staff really enjoyed hearing our short presentation about the band then greatly enjoyed our performance. We were invited back to play at the Arsenal again for the seasonal celebration party of their social community project. This was played as an acoustic set as our drummer was out of town and not available so we took the opportunity to play our music in less of a rock style, which was really successful. It is great to know that we are so versatile in how we play our music and covers and can manage well without our full line up.
We will kick off the New Year with a number of gigs, the first of which will be at our drummer’s old school. He can’t wait to visit and play with his much loved band The AutistiX. Actually we played one of our very first gigs there, back in 2013, and with our original, smaller line up. It’s great how we’ve gone from strength to strength, writing numerous new, original songs, and also adding to our repertoire of covers, building our musical ability, our performing skills, and increasing our following on social media, playing a wide range of gigs in different settings in the UK and abroad. 2019 is already looking like it will be a further successful year for us. We have a new song that is in process. We can’t wait to reveal the song when it is ready as it is about a subject very close to our heart – autism! We also have several other new songs that we can’t wait to start creating, as soon as our newest song is complete!
We have been waiting for a fantastic new piece about The AutistiX to be aired on the BBC (we can’t say yet which programme it is!). We have been promised that the broadcast will finally happen early in the new year. As soon as it gets confirmed we will let you know, so you can tune in!
Our band
We’re a unique rock band, together since 2010. What makes us unique? The three young men at the centre of the band all have autism. This gives us our talent and notable creativity. Our mission is to create and perform quality music, to illustrate the talent of musicians with autism (hence the name), and to promote social inclusion. We’re proud to include musicians with autism!
Our performances
The AutistiX stage presence is lively, to say the least; we are super charged with witty banter, quick repartee and an infectious energy. We’ve performed at legendary UK venues (The Monarch, The Barfly, the Bull and Gate, Proud Camden, O2 Academy Islington, Star & Garter, The White Rock Hastings, Brighton Dome, and at the iconic and wonderful Cavern Club in Liverpool, to name a few). We regularly appear at summer festivals, and perform at fundraising gigs on behalf of the National Autistic Society and other charities. A few years ago, in front of an audience of over 1200, our performance with Sir Tom Jones, resulted in a rousing standing ovation. We’ve also mini-toured Spain, Switzerland, Guernsey and Romania.
The AutistiX band members:
Jack Beaven-Duggan (electric guitar/backing vocals); Saul Zur-Szpiro (drums/ backing vocals); Graham Spragg (bass guitar/backing vocals); Jim Connelly (lead singer); John Duggan, Jack's father (electric guitar) & Michael Zur-Szpiro, Saul's father (harmonica). 
Susan Zur-Szpiro, Band Manager, +44 7973835102 susanzs231@gmail.com http://www.theautistix.com, FB, @theautistix itunes, soundcloud, youtube, etc.

​The AutistiX had a very busy Spring and Summer season with many gigs - one or more almost every weekend! We played at many summer festivals in London and beyond this year. We were even told by some people that the reason they came to a particular festival was specifically to see The AutistiX perform!
Then we celebrated Saul's 25th birthday including a gig at home. Saul's choice of birthday song was 'Oh What a Night' by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, playing 'Dancing in the Dark' by Bruce Springsteen (last year's choice) and our first public performance of '21 Guns' by Green Day which was Jack's choice for his birthday back in May. We have also started working on Graham's choice for his birthday which was last week (Happy Birthday Graham!) which is 'All My Life' by Foo Fighters. 
Now we are having a short break until early September when we will all be back in town. We will continue to work on 'All My Life' plus new songs that we have in the pipeline.
We have a TV piece that should be aired in the Autumn plus some gigs already in the diary. Check in, in a few weeks for more news from The AutistiX!
We hope that everyone has been having a good summer, enjoying the mostly great weather and hopefully a bit of a break from the daily routine!
Best wishes
​The AutistiX

The AutistiX gig past couple of week was a great success! There were hundreds of people of all ages, watching us and loving us. Some people said it was their favourite gig of the day which was really a big compliment as the music was particularly great this year. Someone said that they liked us best because we 'sang from the heart' and that is certainly true as our band is a deeply personal experience for us and our songs are about the challenges that we face - some being ones that all people face but our lives are that much more compromised by having autism, but also it adds to making us truly special. 

We have yet another summer festival this coming Sunday, 24th June at South End Green Festival. We will be playing our 4th gig there and are delighted to be invited back. This is a well established large community festival for all the family with fun fair kiddy rides at one end, lots of food stands and merchandise stalls lining both sides of the road and a big stage at the Pond Street end with lots of seating and standing room. Several 1000's of people come to this very popular fair. This year we've been given a nice long set of an hour, so we hope you will come to hear our set which will include a good mixture of our own songs and popular covers! Watch this space to see our exact gig time which will start at 3.45-4.45pm. We look forward to seeing lots of familiar faces and hopefully plenty of new followers as well.  

​

The AutistiX band bio update 1st May 2018

News!
Our next 2 upcoming gigs will be this weekend on the 5th and 6th May. The first is part of the Camden Rocks Presents gigs in preparation for the Camden Rocks Festival. It will be at The Lounge, Nightclub Kolis, 1 Archway Rd, London, United Kingdom N19 3TD. Doors open at 6pm, Gig at 6.45pm.Please get your tickets early to get cheap entry and to let the organisers know how many people are coming for The AutistiX. (What's more, if you get your tickets in advance, and especially if you bring your friends, colleagues, family, we will treat you to a drink - come collect your voucher from us!) Tickets available here: http://po.st/CamdenRocksTix

Our 2nd gig will be at Beatles 1Day at the Turks Head, at 4-5pm in Twickenham, London. Tickets here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1941993916130300/

PLEASE COME TO ONE OR BOTH OF THESE GIGS!

We were filmed recently by the BBC for an episode about The AutistiX that will be televised this coming Saturday 5thMay. It’s a programme on BBC 3 tv (online) in a series called ‘Amazing Humans’ (go to 0.56 of the attached clip to see the ‘teaser’ about the upcoming episode about The AutistiX). We will send the link as soon as we get it after Saturday otherwize look up BBC 3 on Saturday. Please give us your feedback!
We had an incredible time last week when amazing and lovely drummer Rick Jupp (ex Elbow) came to our band rehearsal with his gorgeous son Dylan. We had a wonderful time being filmed, chatting together and playing for Rick and Dylan! We are working together on a piece for The One Show that will be released some time in the Summer!

We have several other gigs in the pipeline. The next one is the following weekend, Saturday 12th May at a new festival called Festability in Birchington, Kent. Details to follow!

We’ve recently released our new EP, ‘The Meadow Sunshine’ with four tracks: Positive; Not the Same; My Future Life; Heaven that we launched recently at nour favourite local venue, The Monarch, Camden Town. Recently, at the start of ‘Worldwide Autism Awareness Week 2018, we performed 2 gigs in Liverpool at the ‘Cavern Club’ followed by our first ever acoustic sets at the Hard Day’s Night Hotel and the Beatles Story Museum.  We flew to Romania as few days later where we were invited to perform, also as part of WAAW, at the Doors Club in Constanta, Romania. A few days after that, we headed down to perform our 6th gig at Beatles Day Hastings.

The AutistiX band members:
Jack Beaven-Duggan (electric guitar/backing vocals); Saul Zur-Szpiro (drums/ backing vocals); Graham Spragg (bass guitar/backing vocals); Jim Connelly (lead singer); John Duggan, Jack's father (electric guitar) & Michael Zur-Szpiro, Saul's father (harmonica).

More about The AutistiX:
Susan Zur-Szpiro, Band Manager, +44 7973835102 susanzs231@gmail.com http://www.theautistix.com, FB,@theautistix itunes, soundcloud, youtube, etc.

The AutistiX - news and bio update April 2018

We are excited to tell you about all the great things going on that have kept us very busy in the past few months!

New Music!
The big news is that we recently released our new EP called ‘The Meadow Sunshine’ and features 4 new songs: 1. ‘Positive’ 2. ‘Not the Same’ 3. 'My Future Life' and 4. ‘Heaven’. We can't wait for you all to hear it! https://soundcloud.com/theautistix

We were commissioned to write a unique song to promote a special watch for people with autism in Canada, that we have just recorded in the studio. It’s called ‘Olliwatch’ and we will start to publicise and perform it once the watch is launched!

Gigs!
Our first gig of the year will be our EP launch gig on the afternoon of Sunday 11th March taking place at The Monarch our favourite venue in Camden Town!
The event will be 4-6pm and we will be taking to the stage at 5pm with a support act (to be announced shortly) This will be a family friendly, all ages, gig and we can't wait to perform our new songs for you all!

We recently came back from an incredible tour of 4 gigs in 3 days in Liverpool (26-28th March) at the world renowned ‘Cavern Club’, Hard Day’s Night Hotel and Beatles Story Museum. It was at the start of World Autism Awareness Week, on behalf of the National Autistic Society. Check out one (of many) of our recent performances at the Cavern Club here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOhlTDnmqOM

Then we flew to Romania a couple of days later to perform a gig in Constanta, also on behalf of World Autism Awareness Week (Monday 2nd April). It was incredible to play there. People loved us and also were influenced in their perception of autism as we show the talent of musicians with autism, rather than being a disability band!

Just a couple of days later, we’ve just come back from our 6th gig at Beatles Day, an all day festival in Hastings in aid of MacMillan Nurses. It was yet again a wonderful gig and special day watching performers all playing Beatles music. Then we’ll be playing at 3pm on Sunday 6th May at the Turks Head in Twickenham. We can't wait to return! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-beatles-1day-tickets-44231915851
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/beatles-1day

But the day before we have a local gig being put on by Camden Rocks Presents at a new venue for us. It’s on Saturday 5th May and our gig will kick off the evening, at a very convenient time: 6.45pm! We hope that as many of you as possible will come along to see us perform songs from our EP plus old favourites and covers! We need your support! It’s at: Nightclub Kolis (The Lounge)  http://www.facebook.com/pg/thelounge666

We have a number of gigs coming up at the local summer festivals including at Crouch End Festival, Alma Street Festival plus others. More details to follow soon about these events!

We’re in the news!
We’ve been filmed recently for a tv programme for BBC3, which is an online station, called ‘Amazing Humans’. It will be televised very soon so check out our social media for an update on its release date! ww.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/category/amazing-humans

We’re also being included in a documentary film about Beatles Fans called ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ being made by Simon Weitzman @bad_halo.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7100354/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTLQEjylu0A​
We have a further incredible TV show featuring us coming up but it’s a bit too early to talk about it. Keep checking our social media to hear more about it!

THE AUTISTIX ARE:
Jack Beaven Duggan (electric guitar/backing vocals)
Saul Zur-Szpiro (drums and backing vocals)
Graham Spragg (bass guitar and backing vocals)
Jim Connelly (lead singer)
John Duggan (electric guitar)
Michael (harmonica)

‘The AutistiX’ are keen to be recognised for our musical talent. We are proud to include musicians with autism. We aim to increase the inclusion of musicians with disabilities, but we are not a ‘disability band’. We write and perform our own music.
​
For more information please contact:
Susan Zur-Szpiro – Band Manager
07973 835 102

The AutistiX social media contacts:
www.theautistix.com
Facebook: / theautistix
Twitter: @theautistix
Instagram: @theautistix

Our EP launch gig at the Monarch Bar is over! We had a very good turn out despite Mother's Day and flu doing the rounds. It was great seeing loyal fans - family, friends, colleagues and a number of people taking pictures and video. This including crew from BBC3 who were filming our gig as part of a programme that will be out soon as part of their series called 'Amazing Humans'. Check the BBC3 website or check back here for the release date. However, we aren't resting on our laurels as now we are getting ready for our upcoming short tour to Liverpool! We've been invited to play at the world famous Cavern Club where the Beatles performed nearly 60 years ago! We're going to play a couple of gigs there at the start of World Autism Awareness Week on behalf of the National Autistic Society plus a pop up acoustic gig (our first ever!) at the Hard Day's Night Hotel where we will be staying and maybe a further acoustic gig (to be announced). We hope you will make it there and tell all your contacts who live in Liverpool or nearby. We'll be playing the Cavern Club on the evening of Monday 26th March at 6pm and daytime on Tuesday 27th March at 1.30pm and at the HDNH at 6.30pm the same day! https://www.cavernclub.org/events/event/the-autistix/?date=2018-03-26
https://www.cavernclub.org/events/event/the-autistix-2/?date=2018-03-27

We also hope you will consider helping to support us by donating to our funding campaign https://www.gofundme.com/the-autistix-are-playing-liverpool
​

The AutistiX Bio update February 2018
 
Happy New Year for 2018 from The AutistiX!
 
It’s a new year and well overdue for an update from the band. We are excited to tell you about all the great things going on that have kept us very busy in the past few months!
 
The big news is that we have just released our new EP called ‘The Meadow Sunshine’. (Click on the EP name to connect to our store on itunes). We’re very happy with our newest EP! It features 4 new songs: 1. ‘Positive’ 2. ‘Not the Same’ 3. 'My Future Life' and 4. ‘Heaven’.
 
Our first gig of the year will be our launch gig on the afternoon of Sunday 11th March, for our new EP The Meadow Sunshine. It will be at the Monarch at our favourite launch gig venue in Chalk Farm, https://monarchbar.com/. The event will be 4-6pm. We will start at 4pm with a support act (to be announced) and we will be on stage promptly at 5pm so we hope that you will come along in good time to see us performing our new songs! This will be a family friendly, all ages, gig! We will send a gig poster very soon.
 
Before that we are being filmed for a tv programme for BBC3, which is an online station, called ‘Amazing Humans’. We are being interviewed and filmed this week! We will let you know when the show will be available online!
 
After that, we have a really exciting trip coming up: we’re going to perform a couple of gigs in Liverpool at the world renowned ‘Cavern Club’ at the start of Autism Awareness Week, on Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th March on behalf of the National Autistic Society. Just in case you don’t know, this is where the Beatles started out over 50 years ago! We will be performing lots of Beatles songs and plenty of our own songs too. It will be a chance for those from ‘up North’ to come along to see us. It’s also in aid of the NAS (National Autistic Society). It’s being organized by our friend Simon Weitzman, whom we met last year at our gig at the Beatles 1Day Festival in London. Simon is making a Beatles fan film ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ that will include The AutistiX. It is due out at the end of the summer 2018 so we will keep you informed about that as the year progresses.
 
Then we are going to perform at the Beatles 1Day festival in London for our second year in May, which will be in Twickenham this year.  Then later in May we have a new gig in Birchington, Kent at the Feasibility Festival, promoting people with disabilities. We will be headlining at this event!
 
To recap on 2017: it was a busy year for us! We played several gigs at ‘Involve’ in Essex, Soda Beats at Hoodoos Lounge in Croydon, our 5th year at Beatles Day in Hastings, and a new gig at Beatles One Day in Chiswick London, a few local summer festivals including South End Green in Hampstead, the UK’s first ever Disability Pride event in Brighton. Our drummer Saul was pictured in a BBC news article dancing with one of his college peers from St John’s College, a special college that Saul attends part of the academic week. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-40542288.
The AutistiX were interviewed for the Weekend programme on the BBC World Service, which was broadcasted at the beginning of January.
 
Brief band history and mission
We are a unique rock band creating our own songs. We have been together since April 2010.
We are especially original as our 3 youngest members have autism, making our music even more special, plus we have 2 dads and sons in the band:
 
Jack Beaven Duggan (electric guitar/backing vocals)
Saul Zur-Szpiro (drums and backing vocals)
Graham Spragg (bass guitar)
Jim Connelly (lead singer)
John Duggan, Jack's father, John (electric guitar)
Michael, Saul's father,  (harmonica)
 
‘The AutistiX’ are keen to be recognised for our musical talent. We are proud to include musicians with autism. We aim to increase the inclusion of musicians with disabilities, but we are not a ‘disability band’.  We write and perform our own music.
 
The band performs at well known London music venues, local festivals, and charity gigs including playing for over 1100 people who gave us a standing ovation, especially following our impromptu performance of the Beatles’ Help! together with Sir Tom Jones!!!
 
Our music video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2qFEcpPEX0 shows a rough recording of one of our new songs on the EP, ‘My Future Life’. One of our older videos is 'Just The Same' is on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilytN26eI1Q
Our minidoc, The AutistiX, is called ‘Autism Rocks - The AutistiX’ is on the Guardian website: http://www.theguardian.com/news/video/2015/aug/10/autism-rocks-meet-the-boys-from-the-autistix-video or on vimeo, where it is a ‘staff pick’: www.vimeo.com/135851503
A Munich TV station, Galileo TV/Prosieben TV made a programme about The AutistiX and autism: http://www.galileo.tv/life/the-autistix-eine-rockband-mit-einer-unglaublichen-geschichte/
Shawn Hammond from USA magazine Premier Guitar wrote about The AutistiX: http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/23522-the-autistix-butterflies-demons.  Our interview with Nick March at the BBC (last 5 minutes!) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172vsq7rvkf9dp. We were also featured in an article in a Brazilian publication to inspire young people about developing their talents and achieving their dreams http://superspectro.com.br/noticia/conheca-the-autistix-a-banda-de-rock-britanica-formada-por-jovens-com-autismo
 
Here’s a sample from our gig at this year’s Beatles Day:
https://youtu.be/z5XaD9k3gcE ‘Gimme Some Truth’ and ‘You Can’t Do That’
 
For more information, contact Susan Zur-Szpiro, Band Manager on 07973835102. Check out our social media: www.theautistix.com, www.facebook.com/theautistix, www.twitter.com/theautistix.
We’re on itunes, soundcloud, spotify, youtube, vimeo. etc