This month we feature London-based recording artists RAY, plus NN1's own JUST FONTAINE. Your host and DJ for the evening: yours truly, PAT FISH.

Masters of Budvar present

-at-

The Labour Club Corner of Earl & Charles Northampton NN1

-on-

Friday 6th July 2007

Your headliners RAY

Superb melancholy quartet from London who combine the world-weary longing of Leonard Cohen or Nick Drake with the awesome sonic authority of Echo & The Bunnymen, Mercury Rev, or even - whisper this - Pink Floyd. A year ago Ray gave one of the most memorable shows that Masters of Budvar have hosted in four years. With a new album ready for release, they are unmissable.

New RAY single Great Strange Dream out now. This new single follows the release of their last two albums - Daylight in the Darkroom (Aug 2006) and Deep Blue Happy (Nov 2005). It was produced by regular band cohort John Rivers, - whose credits include The Specials (Ghost Town), Felt & Ocean Colour Scene. John was also at the production helm for their previous LPs. These LPs (along with their 2001 Rough Trade debut First Light) have seen the London-based band reinforce their reputation for epic, emotive British guitar pop - having been hailed in some quarters as the missing link between House of Love, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Chameleons and Tindersticks

The line up of songwriting brothers Nev and Mark Bradford (vocals and guitar respectively) and drummer Chris Lowe, have now been joined by Martin Tisdall on bass after the departure of Jenni Tarma to LA

Young Masters Mojo

Almost flawless - Ray's touch is breathtaking Q

Guitar notes hang in the air. Words are weighted then dispersed in the ether... but acutely present undercurrents of hostility, give the songs a serrated edge NME

Loveliness galore for those lugubrious nights of the soul. A Ray of delight, if you will Rocksound

RAY have tapped into the wonderful musical nostalgia of a bygone sonic age, but mixed it with enough contemporary panache to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end msn.co.uk

Sublimely Melodic The Guardian

Artist Website: www.raytheband.com

Artist Website: www.myspace.com

Your opening entertainers

Just Fontaine

>From the new Barcelona, NN1, these sharp-tongued men in sharp suits pursue their unsavoury but ultimately redemptive agenda somewhere on the other side of this life. A stately limo driven through the heart of darkness, Just Fontaine find grace under pressure in the strangest of places and work their way effortlessly into the listener's heart. They don't really do happy.

Artist Website: www.myspace.com

Plus your cheapskate superstar DJ

Pat Fish

The man who "discovered" the Spacemen 3 discovers that he has a virgin copy of "It's So Funny (How We Don't Talk Any More)" by Sir Lord Cliff Richard in his record bag. Slowly and methodically he prepares himself for ritual suicide right here in the Labour Club, pausing only to cue up "Rock Me Amadeus" by the all-conquering Falco as the blood begins to spray over hapless, shrieking alternative-rock fans who thought (God bless!) that this might have been the happening place to be - rather than this brutal charnel house of forcibly collided beats, ill-matched pads, warring riffs and spine-warping howls of unsatisfied desire. Oh, well.

Artist Website: www.myspace.com

It's free to get in. The music is always really cool.

Why would you think it was not for you?
Credit: pat