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

It's time for an update on The AutistiX. Yet again we've been very busy finishing the recordings of our 4 newest songs at Cable Street Studios, with the supremely talented Mr. Gaetano Serra, who recorded our last 2 song  'Double A Side'. We are proud of these four new tracks, each evocative and expressive of our experiences and feelings. Positive. My Future Life. Heaven. Not The Same (and different to our similarly named Just The Same). We'll be planning an EP launch once it's mastered and printed - watch this space. 

In between we have fit in a few gigs:

We played a London based Beatles festival - Beatles 1Day in Chiswick which was great. We played lots of Beatles covers and several of our own. We were approached by a film maker and Beatles mega fan Simon Weitzman of Bad Halo. He is making a Beatles Fan Film to be released in Summer 2018 and wants to include The AutistiX in the film. It's called 'Here, There and Everywhere'. http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/the-beatles-herethereandeverywhere.

Latest gigs:
South End Green Festival (after a break last year as we were already playing at another festival). It was a sunny day despite the threat of rain and we had a great 'feel good' crowd watching us and enjoying our performance. This was all the more remarkable as our drummer Saul came direct from hospital after being very ill all week. Despite pale pallor and weakness he was determined to play the gig, played with every ounce of energy he could muster, and then was taken straight home to bed to recuperate. That's dedication for you!

We played a great gig at Britain's at the first ever UK Disability Pride Festival which took place in sunny Brighton, the UK's progressive outpost by the sea. It was a fantastic fun day for everyone, while making an important point about inclusion and the talent of people with disabilities - issues, naturally, very close to our heart.

Togetherfest - a new festival in North London at the amazing Arts Depot performing arts centre. This was a true community event for all ages, all art forms with different types of performances and audiences!

Next week, Simon will be filming us for the film in our last rehearsal before for the film before taking a break in August.

We'll be back in September with new songs already in the pipeline, new gigs, our launch and many more plans underway!

Check out some photos from recent gigs plus a picture of a young fan spotted in the audience!

Wishing you all a great summer!

2017 has got off to a busy start for The AutistiX!

We started recording 4 new songs for our latest EP (watch this space for the EP name and great new songs that will appear on it) Then there will be a launch event (to be arranged).

In the meantime, we performed at Beatles Day in Hastings again - this year was our 6th year in a row! Several people stopped us to tell us that we were their absolute favourite band at Beatles Day and with 95 acts this year that is quite an achievement! Our drummer, Saul received a lot of compliments on his drumming (which he takes totally in his stride!)

Here are the links to this year's songs that we performed (on youtube):
 
https://youtu.be/z5XaD9k3gcE Gimme Some Truth and You Can’t Do That
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF8LPcPEI7A&index=2&list=PLOIj0L4ts3HJlUwnUa5al2JsEauqvJXGA All I’ve Got To Do
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8BcKInzZGs&list=PLOIj0L4ts3HJlUwnUa5al2JsEauqvJXGA&index=5 HELP!
 
https://youtu.be/jBlLnoF7Cos She Said She Said

We were particularly glad to have made it to Beatles Day, as our lead singer's partner is about to have their second child in a matter of days so it was touch and go whether we would be able to play this year!. 

For the past few weeks we have been recording with our previous producer Gaetano Serra in his much nicer new studio at Cable Street Studios in East London. He has a bigger space so it is much more comfortable and great to be able to see the musicians recording through the plate glass window while Gaetano adjusts the recording equipment and edits as he goes along. So far we have laid down drums, bass, harmonica and this week it will be the guitars, followed by lead vocals and then backing vocals. Hopefully the recording will be done by the end of April and the editing after that. So in a few months we should be ready to release and launch our latest EP, the first in over 2 years!

​We wish you all a Happy Easter and will be back in touch again soon!
 

​We are a unique rock band creating our own songs. We have been together since April 2010.
Our 3 youngest members make us particularly original, as they have autism, making our music even more special: 

Jack Beaven Duggan (electric guitar/backing vocals) 
Saul Zur-Szpiro (drums and backing vocals)
Graham Spragg (bass guitar), as they all have autism. 
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, are proud to include musicians with autism and aim to increase the inclusion of musicians with disabilities. 

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!!! 

The band’s first release was an EP ‘Butterflies and Demons’, followed by a double A side ‘Something Better’ and ‘Just The Same’ which we launched in November 2014. We are currently recording our next EP with 4 of our new songs called 'My Future Life', ‘Heaven’, ‘Positive’ and ‘Not the Same’. 

We have had a very busy few months with a short tour in Switzerland in August which was very successful, followed by recent gigs at the Dugdale Theatre in Enfield, and at VooDoos Lounge in Croydon. Our next gig will be at the beginning of April at Beatles Day in Hastings, a great day out in aid of McMillan Nurses.  It will be our 5th year there! Then we will be arranging gigs to launch our new EP!

Our music video '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

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

Getting the decibels up at JW3