KITTEN PYRAMID PRESENT NEW TRACK AUNTY MABEL
out OCTOBER 10 2020 via Flip Flop Records
Christopher Biggins stars as Aunty Mabel in the video for the new single released on World Mental Health Day, with profits going to Age UK
Experimental UK pop-proggers Kitten Pyramid are pleased to announce second single Aunty Mabel, released on World Mental Health Day, October 10, and featuring the UK’s best-loved Grand Dame, Christopher Biggins, in their video as Aunty Mabel. This is the second single from the Burton-Upon-Trent band’s upcoming album KOOZY!!, due at the end of this year.
Aunty Mabel highlights the chaos and confusion that older people can feel in the modern
world, and particularly during this pandemic. Information overload and social distancing can
add to isolation, loneliness and mental stress. Recognising this, Kitten Pyramid will donate
50 per cent of profits from the sale of Aunty Mabel to Age UK, as well as fundraising via Just
Giving [www.justgiving.com/fundraising/auntymabel]
“She can’t hear music when it starts/With all the complicated noises in her heart”
The track starts punk-rock raucously, with metaphorical escaped zoo animals attacking each
other while Mabel trots to the shops blissfully unaware, then settles into a lullaby of calm
and relief when she arrives home to put the kettle on.
The video – filmed by Kitten Pyramid frontman Scott Milligan in a socially distant fashion in
Victoria Park, Hackney – features the larger-than-life talents of actor-comedian and former
I’m A Celebrity winner Christopher Biggins as Aunty Mabel, stalked by a drone and
interrupted by passers-by glued to their phones along with other bizarre distractions as she
tries to go about her day.
“Aunty Mabel raises the subject of mental health for the older generation,” says Milligan.
“As a result of the alarming suicide rates with young men, raising ‘awareness’ is often
directed their way, but I wanted to pay attention to the Aunty Mabels of this world, people
who still use a ‘telephone’ and visit the post office. This generation realise they are in the
departure lounge of life, and if they’re depressed about it they’ll probably keep it to
themselves. During the early stages of the pandemic, I saw so many Aunty Mabels defiantly
walking to the shops following the ‘Keep Calm And Carry On’ mantra because that’s how
their generation dealt with a crisis, but they couldn’t see the danger they were in with
Covid. Now they’re told to ‘download an app’ when they often don’t even have a mobile.”
“I really enjoyed working with Scott and crew on the video,” says Christopher Biggins, also
former Celebrity Ambassador with Age UK, “and I loved representing the sometimes
seemingly invisible generation who struggle with technology and are now even more
isolated than before. Where the younger generations can communicate from anywhere, the
elderly are having to be brought rapidly up to speed on the wonders of Zoom and social
media to engage with their loved ones.”
To help support Aunty Mabel’s everywhere, Kitten Pyramid are running a prize draw and
store selling Aunty Mabel-themed items including Biggins’ Aunty Mabel glasses, signed
artwork by Biggins, the band, artist Josh Jameson and the legendary Rockfield Studios
crew, and more. Find out more here: [Scott to supply a dedicated link for items here] or
donate to the KP Age UK fundraiser: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/auntymabel
Bio: Kitten Pyramid began as a collective in 2010, the brainchild of singer-songwriter Scott
Milligan and initially ranged from two to 20 members. In 2013 they released their debut
album Uh-Oh!, followed by the EP High Five Scuba Dive, with Procol Harum’s late guitarist
Dave Ball featuring on both releases (and as the Grim Reaper in the video for English Rosa).
In 2015 they’d caught the ear of 6Music presenter and performer Tom Robinson, who took
them out on his UK tour. Kitten Pyramid launched Uh-Oh! with a tour of psychiatric
hospitals (they were followed by The Guardian for two days), and have featured in MOJO,
Classic Rock and Prog magazines, been Sunday Brunch’s Single Of The Week on Channel 4
and were termed “fittingly barking” and “Hunky Dory with a dash of Syd” for their
marvellously left-of-field progressive pop. Second album KOOZY!! is due at the end of this
year and was recorded in Konk, Rockfield Studios, Leeders Vale and a farmhouse in Leek.
The band features members of The Leisure Society.
“An XTC-Beatles-Beefheart hybrid one minute, a moodily blue Pink Floyd the next” Prog
“If British psychedelia is your bag, this is your new favourite band” The Independent
“Picasso could have been at the controls” The Guardian
Aunty Mabel will be available on all digital and streaming outlets on World Mental Health
Day 2020, October 10, via Flip Flop Records and is produced by Nick Brine (Oasis, Stone
Roses, Ash, Teenage Fanclub, The Darkness) and Christian Hardy and Nick Hemming of The
Leisure Society. Aunty Mabel’s artwork has been created by celebrated skateboard artist
Josh Jameson, who is illustrating every track on KOOZY!!.
For more info, contact the marvellous Ben Pester…
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