Latest news with #Matches
Scoop
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Halfway Release Matches, The 2nd Single From Their New Album The Styx
Halfway have been a band for quarter of a century, and across that time they've made eight studio albums, each of which has received a wealth of critical acclaim. From their origins in 2000, Halfway have developed their style and songs into cinematic soundscapes, lush with pedal steel, densely layered guitars, and driving rhythms. Halfway's new album, The Styx, features the return to the fold of band co-founder Chris Dale after a six-year absence, and contributions from guests including Chris Abrahams (The Necks, Midnight Oil) and Adele Pickvance (The Go-Betweens). ' The Palace ' was the first taste of the new album and now they reveal the second single ' Matches ', written by John Busby and bassist Ben Johnson. The song creaks and shimmers to life courtesy of its gently sparkling guitars and atmospheric keys. Drums enter the fray as the music swells and expands into an evocative sound akin to the best of Mercury Rev, where musical dreams and memories coexist. " The coals of a fire are neither flame nor ash. 'Matches' sits in the space between ignition and extinction, rooted in uncertainty," says Johnson. " The stories of The Styx inhabit that uncertain ground where nothing is fully on or off, alive or gone. What begins as fire ends as cinders and lingers softly afterward." A concept album of sorts, The Styx is situated in a remote Australian coastal town during the Christmas of 1986 and explores themes of family, isolation, love, and betrayal. " Growing up, my family would spend time at Stanage Bay in Central Queensland, which is a small fishing village situated to the southeast of the Styx River. It was a remote and beautiful place," reflects Busby. He didn't know anything about Greek mythology but saw the beauty and the danger there just the same. On fishing trips with his father and a cast of characters who might have walked out of the pages of a John Steinbeck story, he must have heard a hundred times: 'People drown in here.' Seeds were planted. ' The whole Stanage Bay / Styx River area, and the people there, are a big part of this record. When some of the band and our friends started to inform the songs, I knew I had to set it at the bay,' says Busby. ' It's a place full of beauty and mystery. I had been wanting to base a story there for a long time.' There is nothing mythic about these stories of love, lust, longing, and leaving, which feel as real as an errant fishhook deep into flesh. Brothers George and Lennie are the kind of hard-bitten characters who might be found in stories by Steinbeck or Richard Flanagan, battling the elements and themselves and always with an eye out for the fishing inspectors. Just before daylight, Lennie goes to check the nets. He doesn't return. The recording of the album took on a different form for the band, who recorded themselves in Brisbane before Mark Nevers (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Lambchop, Calexico, George Jones) shaped the mix of the songs at his South Carolina studio, with Busby alongside him. ' We usually just record live in a room, but this one started quietly. Just my guitar and vocals, layering it track by track, and then recording the drums last. A weird back-to-front album, but it gave us the chance to put the story / songs first rather than concentrate on how the songs would work live.' The sound the band has concocted is one of sweeping beauty and sonic grace, both heartfelt and tragic. Guitar strings and keys wash across the speakers, like the ocean breeze and the river tide. Drawing on the influence of bands such as The Triffids and Phosphorescent, Halfway seamlessly blend alt-country and indie rock sensibilities, providing the songs with a hypnotic and compelling backdrop to these poetic tales from the Australian coastline. As in their songs, as in life. Love lost and found, the pain and the hope, the past and the landscape ever-present. Great songwriting often finds a way to make the deeply personal feel universal. Few bands navigate that path as surely as Halfway across their nine timeless albums.
Fashion Network
28-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Frasers wins control of XXL ASA, unsure if business can be saved
But the company rebuffed Frasers with its board instead opting for a rights issue that the UK company had spoken out against. Then in February, with it being clear that its offer wouldn't succeed, the British firm walked away. However, it participated in the rights issue, which took its stake above 30% and in March said it would make a mandatory offer for the rest of the shares. That brings us to today with Frasers saying acceptances of its offer mean it will end up controlling more than 92% of the share capital and 90% of the voting shares. So what about that announcement that XXL ASA might not survive? In the same stock exchange release that contained the information about its stake, Frasers said: 'Reference is made to XXL's announcement dated 26 May 2025 in respect of XXL's challenging liquidity situation and supply chain delays. Having offered to provide support to help XXL navigate its challenges over the past 18 months, and been rebuffed, this is a situation which Frasers believes could have been avoided. In the meantime, XXL has not been able to execute on its proposed turnaround plan and XXL's financial and trading position has continued to deteriorate.' It added that it's 'acquiring a business which is in significant distress. As such, all stakeholders, including but not limited to, brand partners, landlords, suppliers and partners, will need to work collaboratively with Frasers in its efforts to save the XXL business in its current form. Frasers does not currently have sufficient information to be able to determine how much of a viable proposition XXL in its current form is, and whilst its current intention is to work on stabilising the XXL business, this will be more difficult given the passage of time, and there is no guarantee that XXL can be saved in its current form or at all.' That's worrying news for the aforementioned 'brand partners, landlords, suppliers and partners' although it's unclear how much of that is a warning to encourage a co-operative attitude and how much it might mean that Frasers could shutter the business. We've already seen the UK group being prepared to close retail chains and brands that don't pull their weight — illustrated most spectacularly with its acquisition of Matches and relatively rapid ageing of the luxury webstore. We'll be watching this one very closely.
Fashion Network
01-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Is Frasers Group plotting a Matches Fashion members-only comeback?
It's Matches fashion, but not as we know it. We may not have seen the last of the luxury e-tailer even though still-new owner Frasers Group put it into administration last year. A news report said a plan to bring it back in an almost unrecognisable form is being worked on. The Times said Frasers is planning a 'members-only Matches Fashion relaunch' and it has seen an 'internal pitch deck' suggesting the luxury fashion webstore could be turned into what's been described as the 'Soho House of retail'. In fact, the newspaper said Frasers — which also owns luxe retailer Flannels — had been drawing up the plan around the time it placed the business into administration. Frasers hasn't commented on the report. The diversified retail group had acquired ailing Matches for around £50 million in late 2023 but decided it was too big a task to turn it around at the time. Yet it bought back the brand name and intellectual property for £19 million in a pre-pack administration deal last April. The report said the new proposal is being pitched to luxury brands and envisages a relaunch by the end of the year in the members-only format covering fashion and lifestyle. It would come with 'early access to exclusive products, luxury gifts and access to events in its London-based stores' on Welbeck Street and Carlos Place. As well as being members-only, that membership could be invite-only along the lines of private members clubs. The first phase would reportedly focus on womenswear with a launch for the SS26 season and with a later menswear expansion plus a move into other markets. Former CEO Nick Beighton told The Times he thought Frasers' proposition was a 'good one' but the 'fall down will be whether [it] is able to get enough brands to want to work with them' after plenty of them had been left without payment when the business went under.
Fashion Network
01-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Is Frasers Group plotting a Matches Fashion members-only comeback?
It's Matches fashion, but not as we know it. We may not have seen the last of the luxury e-tailer even though still-new owner Frasers Group put it into administration last year. A news report said a plan to bring it back in an almost unrecognisable form is being worked on. The Times said Frasers is planning a 'members-only Matches Fashion relaunch' and it has seen an 'internal pitch deck' suggesting the luxury fashion webstore could be turned into what's been described as the 'Soho House of retail'. In fact, the newspaper said Frasers — which also owns luxe retailer Flannels — had been drawing up the plan around the time it placed the business into administration. Frasers hasn't commented on the report. The diversified retail group had acquired ailing Matches for around £50 million in late 2023 but decided it was too big a task to turn it around at the time. Yet it bought back the brand name and intellectual property for £19 million in a pre-pack administration deal last April. The report said the new proposal is being pitched to luxury brands and envisages a relaunch by the end of the year in the members-only format covering fashion and lifestyle. It would come with 'early access to exclusive products, luxury gifts and access to events in its London-based stores' on Welbeck Street and Carlos Place. As well as being members-only, that membership could be invite-only along the lines of private members clubs. The first phase would reportedly focus on womenswear with a launch for the SS26 season and with a later menswear expansion plus a move into other markets. Former CEO Nick Beighton told The Times he thought Frasers' proposition was a 'good one' but the 'fall down will be whether [it] is able to get enough brands to want to work with them' after plenty of them had been left without payment when the business went under.
Fashion Network
01-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Is Frasers Group plotting a Matches Fashion members-only comeback?
It's Matches fashion, but not as we know it. We may not have seen the last of the luxury e-tailer even though still-new owner Frasers Group put it into administration last year. A news report said a plan to bring it back in an almost unrecognisable form is being worked on. The Times said Frasers is planning a 'members-only Matches Fashion relaunch' and it has seen an 'internal pitch deck' suggesting the luxury fashion webstore could be turned into what's been described as the 'Soho House of retail'. In fact, the newspaper said Frasers — which also owns luxe retailer Flannels — had been drawing up the plan around the time it placed the business into administration. Frasers hasn't commented on the report. The diversified retail group had acquired ailing Matches for around £50 million in late 2023 but decided it was too big a task to turn it around at the time. Yet it bought back the brand name and intellectual property for £19 million in a pre-pack administration deal last April. The report said the new proposal is being pitched to luxury brands and envisages a relaunch by the end of the year in the members-only format covering fashion and lifestyle. It would come with 'early access to exclusive products, luxury gifts and access to events in its London-based stores' on Welbeck Street and Carlos Place. As well as being members-only, that membership could be invite-only along the lines of private members clubs. The first phase would reportedly focus on womenswear with a launch for the SS26 season and with a later menswear expansion plus a move into other markets. Former CEO Nick Beighton told The Times he thought Frasers' proposition was a 'good one' but the 'fall down will be whether [it] is able to get enough brands to want to work with them' after plenty of them had been left without payment when the business went under.
