Category Archives: Hovercraft

The Ramsgate Hovercraft album launch

Posted by kitjolly on

Random Numbers Radio, the latest album from The Ramsgate Hovercraft, will be launched with a special gig at Ramsgate Music Hall on Saturday 18th January 2020, continuing the band’s space rock adventure. Issued as a 12″ LP and audio CD set containing a total of nearly two hours of new, original material, Random Numbers Radio features experimental music, poetry, unexpected noises and space rock.

Album cover art

Album cover art

Visit the band’s Bandcamp page to listen online and purchase the album (download code included).

Watch the album trailer

See the band playing tracks from the album at Ramsgate Music Hall. Copies of Random Numbers Radio and the band’s earlier albums will be on sale.

The Ramsgate Hovercraft releases smartphone app

Posted by kitjolly on

The new Hovercraft app creates a unique personal musical experience by tracking your GPS location. The app contains around nine hours of new, original Hovercraft loops. Each loop is tagged with a location somewhere in Ramsgate so that as you approach it becomes louder and as you get further away it becomes quieter and disappears – so as you walk around Ramsgate you are accompanied by a brand-new, ever-changing Hovercraft mix.

For the next week the app is free in celebration of the Ramsgate Festival of Sound. Currently only available for Android, you can find it on Amazon Appstore. An iPhone version of the app is expected to be ready in two to three months.

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Record Collector magazine loves The Hovercraft’s Cinéma Vérité

Posted by kitjolly on

Record Collector magazine has given four stars to The Ramsgate Hovercraft’s new album Cinéma Vérité in a review in the current edition, describing it as “a sumptuous feast that not only soundtracks the deepest layers of the human condition, but serves as a wonderful reminder that music can take you places you’d never even dared imagine”. Read the full review here. Buy the album here.

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The Ramsgate Hovercraft: new album released

Posted by kitjolly on

The Ramsgate Hovercraft have released their new album Cinéma Vérité, containing nearly 100 minutes of new music in the unique Hovercraft style and presented in a classic gatefold sleeve holding one 12″ LP, one full-length CD and original art inserts including a hand-printed photograph by internationally acclaimed photographer Jason Evans. The package is available now on Bandcamp, where you can also listen to tracks from the album, and digital and streaming editions will be available on 1st March 2015. And don’t forget that the Hovercraft will be performing live at the album launch party on 28th February at Ramsgate Music Hall, where they will play tracks from the new album as well as favourites from their debut album, Arcane Empire (also available at Bandcamp)  – tickets available now.

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The Ramsgate Hovercraft – photoshoot with Jason Evans

Posted by kitjolly on

On Sunday the weather, the tide and the light were good for the Hovercraft to spend the afternoon in the company of renowned photographer Jason Evans who took us out in Pegwell Bay for a photoshoot. It’s a beautiful, tranquil spot (now that there are no actual hovercraft), favoured by Jason for its light, reflections and skies – something that J M W Turner also famously remarked on. It also has the kind of mud that’ll suck the boots right off your feet – unless, like Jason, you choose to go barefoot. Here are a couple of photos of the shoot in progress (thanks Susan Kennedy).

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Arcane Empire

Posted by kitjolly on

It’s not just about mucking around with hovercraft – mainly what happens here is making music. So here’s an announcement: the album will be called Arcane Empire and it will be out later this year. It’s going to be a big fat double album on vinyl (but also available for download) in a beautiful gatefold sleeve. We’ve put together a short taste of what to expect, but keep watching for more teasers.

Paper Model of SR.N4 Hovercraft

Posted by kitjolly on

Bank holiday weekend is the perfect time to make a paper model of an SR.N4 hovercraft. Actually this is a prototype for a model we’d like to include with the new album, as long as it doesn’t push the cost up too much. We have acquired through eBay an original 1970’s paper model, presumably sold by HoverSpeed as a souvenir of travelling by hovercraft. This is supplied as two sheets of foolscap card pre-cut and scored and a sheet of instructions. We scanned these and adapted them to fit on a single 12″ square to go inside a record sleeve. The prototype was printed onto A4 inkjet photo paper which meant that it is rather smaller than the 12″ version. It also turns out that this type of paper is rather too soft for a small model. The original looks to be big enough and the card stiff enough that it can keep itself together with only tabs and slots but the prototype required strategic use of sticky tape and glue. Nevertheless the idea behind the original works quite well.

The original kit

The original kit

The 12" version

The 12″ version

The completed prototype

The completed prototype

 

Ramsgate International Hoverport

Posted by kitjolly on

On a freezing, grey February morning, the derelict Ramsgate International Hoverport is particularly bleak and atmospheric. A salutary reminder of the hubris of the era of the white heat of technology, this massive concrete construction was thrust into what is now a National Nature Reserve, recognizing its importance for waders, wildfowl and sea shore flora. In the 1970’s mighty SR.N4 hovercraft roared into and out of the port, carrying cars and passengers to and from Calais. The terminal and other buildings have been removed but there seems to be no sign of any attempt to return the site to nature or any kind of remediation, although I understand that during the construction of the Thanet Wind Farm, Vattenfall paid for work to stop tar leeching into the sea from the hoverport.

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