Latest Updates

Please visit annosafrica.org for all the latest news about Anno's Africa, now in its 10th year ... [1 December 2013] There is going to be a gig in London on December 9th (Anno's Birthday) to celebrate and remember him and KJD. A bunch of their friends and family will be playing, including KJD's 'sister band' Carnival of Souls, who are reforming for the one-off gig. It's at the Half Moon in Putney at 8pm - entrance is £5, any proceeds of which will go to Anno's Africa. [28 July 2013] We are planning another "Bring Back the Bomb" gig in London for this November 8th - watch this space! [13 December 2010] The Anno's Africa gala evening was a HUGE success, raising over £13,000 towards next year's program! [8 November 2010] We're holding a big fund-raising gala in London on December 9th (on what would have been - unbelievably - Anno's 30th birthday) to launch the 2CD of "Who Said the Race is Over?" -- for more details, check out http://www.annosafrica.org.uk/aagalacelebration.php [5 June 2009] ANNO'S AFRICA's own website is finally up and running at annosafrica.org.uk [10 May 2009] Gus Robertson - Anno's friend and fellow musician (and the Brain behind "The Great Brain Robbery") is organising a concert/circus on Saturday May 16th at the Tabernacle, Powis Square, Notting Hill Gate - all proceeds going to Anno's Africa. With musicians: Mystery Jets, 12 Stone Toddler, Mano de Dios, Hooligan Nights & Hook and the Twin - along with Natalia, Lucy and Sophie from Bassline circus flying high - Nathan from L'O.N.G.c'est Toi walking tightrope -- plus girl with a Python, stilts, juggling and two mysterious fortune tellers -- all coming to perform for the slum kids of Nairobi so that they too can have access to the arts... Please join us! - Tickets a mere £10 (at the door) in consideration of the financial stresses we are all under - so you can all afford to come and have fun. [27 November 2008] We've finally got shot of AOL and switched to BT (there's patriotism for you!), our new email being laurenticwave@btinternet.com [25 July 2008] Only just noticed that 3 of the translations links were broken: please do let us know if you spot any other such website glitches! Hopefully Hebrew and Swahili translations will be joining the others soon... [8 June 2008] For some mysterious reason not all the green menu links work when you try to use them from the Weekly Fix page, e.g. the Song Downloads link displays an alarming "Not Found" error message. But if you click back to the Home Page it seems to work fine - just one of those glitches that creeps into the creaking bones of ancient sites like this one... [7 April 2008] Thanks to Hannah, Anno now has a page on Wikipedia. Hopefully entries for Lee and Alberto will follow... [15 January 2008] Thanks to the Welsh Wizard, the Remembrance Page has been restored to its former privacy, and will hopefully remain spam free; thanks too to Disaster Man for giving us the tools to banish any that may slip through. [1 January 2008] Until we can find a sure way of filtering the spam from the Remember Page, please use the new Remembrance Page on the Forum. A Happy New Year to all, not least our friends in Kenya who are suffering the brutal birth pangs of democracy... [17 October 2007] The art group's exhibition can be seen on YouTube (search for Anno's Africa) as well as Bee's speech, and Lulu playing with Billy and Johnny Borrell. [2 October 2007] On September 24th we held our fund-raising exhibition of the Art Group's work - and raised over £20,000! Many thanks to all who made this possible, not least the children of Majengo. A few of their paintings and monoprints are still available: check out the Art Gallery on the Anno's Africa page. [9 September 2007]: A huge thanks to Johnny Borrell and Razorlight for supporting Anno's Africa at their forcoming XFM's 10th birthday gig on September 17th. Thanks also to the Telegraph magazine who are giving Anno's Africa a 5-page spread this Saturday (September 15th) - to Dafydd the Celt for working on a new gallery for the Anno's Africa art work that will be up and running this week - and Disaster Man for sorting out the new Anno/KjD/forum. That's enough grovelling thanks for now... [24 June 2007]: The Song Downloads page has been revamped to include Anno's recordings for songs that have already appeared on the Weekly Fix (including "Ill Moon" and "Kamikaze") while disabling the songs that have yet to appear. [16 May 2007]: There are a dozen new clips of Anno on YouTube, with many more to follow. If you subscribe to Laurenticwave's channel, they'll bung you an email every time we hoist a new clip, be it Anno, KJD, Anno's Africa, whatever. Alternatively, search for "Anno Birkin" if you want to screen out the rest. And do please add your comments - and VOTE! [20 March 2007]: Bee's report/blog on our Anno's Africa pilot project is now online - just click on Anno's Africa button, then the link at the top of the page. I've added several video clips linked to her text, with many more to follow... [January 22nd 2007]: Apologies for the delay with the weekly fix, but for some misguided reason Nairobi's internet cafes are closed on Sundays - our only day off! - so Monday evening is the best I can do. The project is really getting into its stride, but as Bee will shortly post a blog on Anno's Africa page, I'll not blabber here, particularly as I'm about to be booted out... [December 23rd 2006]: Thanks to Ned and Dafydd, the KJD My-Space clone is now up and running - just go to the KJD homepage and click on the button on the blue sidebar! [December 6th 2006]: The first edition of Anno's book "Who Said the Race Is Over?" [ISBN 0954540018] is sold out, but a second edition - with minor corrections - is now available. Because it is not identical to the first edition, it legally had to be given a new ISBN number [0954540026] which has led to some confusion, in that certain retailers are telling people that the book is out of print without investigating further. Nielsen Book Data should have the new number in their system within the next week or so, but if you want the book in the meantime, doggedly inform the retailer the gist of the above... or alternatively, order direct from us on the "Buy Stuff" page. [October 16th 2006]: We've added a new page of poetry readings, thus far by family and friends, but soon to be expanded, allowing anyone to upload their own readings, as well as any other creativity inspired by Anno and/or KjD. The temporary page can be accessed by clicking on the Introduction tab at the top of the green menu bar, then scrolling down to the link. [October 1st 2006]: KJD's "Bring Back the Bomb" night was a great success, thanks to Ned, Gus and the bands. The new KJD album is on the "Buy Stuff" page, along with T-shirts and the KJD Zippo. If you'd like to listen to the BBC R4 piece "The Lost Boys", click on the red Introduction tab at the top of the green menu bar and scroll down to the link. [September 7th, 2006]: "Bring Back the Bomb" = the KjD tribute night is finally and absolutely fixed for Friday September 29th @ the Paradise Kilburn (19 Kilburn Lane, W10 4AE) from 7pm - for further details go to the INTRODUCTION page and click on the link. [September 4th, 2006]: Bishop Dante's digitally illuminated version of "Nero's New Bathroom" is now online - click on LYRICS, scroll down to the end of "Nero", and click on the link. Details of 'Anno's Africa' are also now online,,, [August 1st 2005:] Well, at last things return to normal... With Daffyd having fixed the interactive pages, and myself having updated the databases we are back up to speed, and haven't even lost anybody's comments that I am aware of. If you think that your comment is missing, drop me a line to dave-at-absolutedisaster.co.uk and I will try and fish it out of the old database. Hopefully things will remain stable for a good while now! In the process the long promised Anno's Journey has also been repaired and updated, complete with slideshow feature, so I hope everyone enjoys it. Thanks due to the ever-watchful Nao for alerting us to the unfolding disaster. On a personal note, I don't get stuck in to the comments and so forth much, but I have to say that I always find the site a rewarding experience - whenever I am feeling down a dip into the archives always turns up gold... Love & drugs, DisasterMan [July 29th 2005]: Thanks to a series of cockups by our internet server, the threee interactive pages (Remembrance, Review and Rabbit) are currently off-line.... but fret not, assures Disaster Man, nothing has been lost, and they'll be back on line asap. Meanwhile, comments can still be added to the poems/weekly fix, and thanks to DM's efforts, "Anno's Journey" is finally on line - though also suffering a few broken links thanks to the aforementioned cockups... [July 20th 2005]: "There are currently 997 enlightened subscribers" to our mailing list - which in fact we've never exploited, but have plans to do so in the near future! Become the 1,000th enlightened subscriber and receive not just a free copy of Anno's book but a limited edition to boot! [July 16th 2005:] We're hoping the KjD Night will be on Friday September 22nd @ the West One Four (aka the Orange) in London... check this space! [March 12th 2005:] Any day now (when Disaster Man gets around to it - probably while I'm away in Thailand) the three picture galleries will condense into one, simply called Anno's Journey. And as another proof that his journey is far from over, in a few weeks' time we'll be launching Anno's Africa - a charity in Anno's memory and true to his spirit, funded in part by his poetry and music. Watch this space... [November 21st 2004:] The 100th Fix comes on David's birthday - in itself the 4th anniversary of Anno's cremation in Italy. SO once again we filled the nosecone of a rocket with his ashes and fired them off over the Irish Sea. So many thanks to all who have posted messages over the years and have thereby kept Anno, Lee and Alberto alive in a very real sense, albeit not the vital one. [October 16th 2004:] As is doubtless apparent to those who check in for Anno's weekly fix, his poems are being hoisted up in approximate chronological order (as best I can guess) regardless of length, repetition or merit. I'm occasionally tempted to skip a poem on the assumption that Anno would be turning in his grave if he had one... but on that basis, few if any of his poems would have survived his censorship since he regarded most of what he'd written prior to 2001 as self-pitying self-indulgence. Another temptation has been to jump ahead to his later poems, or at least to randomize their order, thereby avoiding a repetition of themes. On the other hand, I for one am fascinated to watch the way Anno evolves though his words, however slow the journey, and can only hope that others agree. However, as it will take another nine years to reach the end of that journey at the present rate, I’m tempted to increase the pace as and when I’m afflicted with the Anno munchies. These additional fixes can easily be found on the “Past Fixes” page to those who visit once a week or less, and any complaints/alternative suggestions will be most welcomed on the Rabbit Page. [September 4th 2004:] Thanks to Ned and Dafydd, the KjD site has undergone extensive surgery. "Live @ the Sanctuary", "Live @ the West One Four" and "Method One" are all now available to download, as is the earlier Anno/Billy/Lee/Christian line-up album, "Flying Mango Attack", and there's a new page charting the progress of Hill Billy Deluxe aka Bocephus Prime. [August 2nd 2004:] All Anno's songs from 1998 onwards can now be downloaded, as well as most of KjD's output. Later this month we'll be uploading "Flying Mango Attack" complete, as well as "Live @ the Sanctuary" and "Live @ the West One Four". We are hoping to host a KjD night in London in March 2006, when "Method One" will be available on CD. Please email us at laurenticwave@aol.com if you'd like to reserve tickets and/or copies. [May 22nd 2004:] There are now over 70 poems on the "Past Fixes" page, in addition to the ones in "Who Said the Race Is Over". Disaster Man has added a sort function to the Past Fixes pages, whereby Anno's poems can be read in the order he wrote them. The "Quick Search" function automatically pulls up all Anno's originals for any particular poem. [March 8th 2004:] Four more songs have been added to the Song Downloads page, and Ned is soon to add new material to the KjD site... [February 27th 2004:] After a month's worth of songs, a return to Anno's poems - though there's no real telling when a poem might not have become a lyric. There were all just 'words' to Anno, and he revelled in them. They carry on where we left off, in September 1998 when Anno was 17... [Feb 13th 2004:] We've added two video clips of "Sacrifice & Bliss" to the Songs Download page. The first was in October 1998, the day after Anno had written the main section. The second - from a gig in May 1999 - carries the caveat that Anno had a terrible throat (despite marinating his tonsils all day in whisky), the gig was an ad hoc affair - indeed Gus, Alex and Andrew had never heard half of Anno's new songs, let alone rehearsed them; and the soundtrack is shit, recorded via the mic rather than the mixing desk. Rumour has it (hello Gus!) that a cassette from that mixing desk exists, and if ever found will be received with grovelling gratitude. In the meantime, surely this is better than nothing to the many who have voted "Sacrifice and Bliss" as among their favourites. [February 4th 2004:] In honour of Nero's second term in the White House, Anno's original acoustic version (recorded in India in March 2001) is now on the Song Downloads page.

(Saturday, 18th June, 2016)