Please Please You: UPCOMING SHOWS

Pom Poko

Wednesday 16th October, 7.30pm

Pom Poko return with their third album Champion released by Bella Union this summer.Pom Poko are growing up. On Champion, a monumental slice of reflective and life-affirming post-punk, vocalist/lyricist Ragnhild Fangel Jamtveit, bassist Jonas Krøvel, guitarist Martin Miguel Almagro Tonne, and drummer Ola Djupvik are the closest they’ve ever been, both personally and in terms of their hermetically tight four-piece rock instrumentation. When most bands call each other “family”, it’s a bit of a cliché—but with Pom Poko, after years of touring the four corners of the world and instituting a stringently democratic songwriting process, they really have evolved into one highly-synchronized unit, whose mission is to stay as true to their artistic values as possible while continuing to explore the farthest reaches of their slightly chaotic, always exhilarating sound.

Listen here!
“It feels like we’re maturing and growing up together,” explains Ragnhild. “By the time this album comes out, we’ll have been a band for eight years. It’s like we’re evolving. When you’re not grinding with the band all the time, you gain an appreciation for what you’ve built. It's like a very weird and really lovely little gang to hang out in. I almost feel like we’re superheroes—it’s like being a part of Powerpuff Girls.”Champion is Pom Poko’s third LP, after their blistering debut Birthday in 2019, and 2021’s critically acclaimed Cheater. Both albums served to cement the band’s sound: Ragnhild’s high-pitched yet crystal clear voice punctuating the rest of the band’s ferocious onslaught of noise, which fluctuates from post-punk to math-rock and everything in between.“We made Birthday during insane amounts of touring where we were giving every bit of our life to the band,” says Ola. “For practical reasons, we’ve recently had to take a break from regular interactions with each other. Martin became a Dad so we obviously couldn’t rehearse for a while. It sounds kind of cheesy, but you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. I just assumed that the feeling I had playing with Pom Poko was just what it’s like playing in bands—but it’s what it’s like playing in our band.”This growing appreciation for playing together translates directly to the music. While Pom Poko still maintain their razor-sharp edge, there is a new-found maturity that bleeds through the slashes of acerbic guitar blasts and elastic basslines. Champion has more space than their previous records, more room to experiment. “It's a bit less cluttered,” says Martin. “You maybe wouldn’t put it on at the spa or something, but it's not as quick-firing as a lot of our other stuff has been—songwriting-wise and production-wise, it’s more to the point.”

Tickets for this show are £15 in advance.

You can get tickets online from here.

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Divorce

Oscar Browne
The Crescent, York

Thursday 17th October, 7.30pm

Divorce share new single 'Gears', their first music of the year, which is produced by Catherine Marks (boygenius, Foals, Wolf Alice). Also announced is news of their biggest UK headline show to date at London’s Islington Assembly Hall in October, and two very special hometown headline shows at Nottingham’s Bodega, all of which follow a packed Spring and Summer live schedule that includes SXSW, a UK tour with Everything Everything, and a raft of international festivals.

Finding themselves on the lips of many tastemakers heading into 2024, drawing international media support and becoming fixtures on the BBC 6 Music playlist, Divorce have already been out on the road in support of both Bombay Bicycle Club and The Vaccines this year, on the heels of 2023’s acclaimed EP Heady Metal.

Lauded as a striking portrait of insecurity upon release, it marched through everything from nervy and fluttering meditations on learning to be comfortable in your own skin, to wracked documents on the bubbling frustration that comes with the flaws we know we possess but cannot fix.

A restless band by nature, new single ‘Gears’ is about juggling identities and responsibilities, and the emotional cost of trying to be all things to all people. Fitting then that ‘Gears’ itself reveals two sides, initially all soft and melodic before transforming into something jittery and intense on top of which singer/guitarist Felix Mackenzie-Barrow contemplates “I don’t remember when the gears got stuck”, while it surges to its dramatic crescendo. Of the new single, he offers: “Gears was written when I’d just moved to London and was working very long hours whilst trying to keep up with increasing band commitments for Divorce. I was spending all of my time working or playing shows and couldn’t maintain any kind of social life or keep up with the spending a social life felt like it would cost. The song came out of those frustrations.

”With ‘Gears’, Divorce once again prove themselves to be greater than the sum of their parts, with a theatricality, drama, poise and undeniable talent for gripping composition.'Their music might come firmly from the tangled depths of the heart, but they’re also relishing every win they can whilst putting it all out there."

'Awash with satisfying harmonies, their country-chamber-pop exudes familiarity and sophistication to soften that irreverent, punchy lyricism.''Their knack for theatricality, ambition, passion for their craft and unique storytelling ability have allowed them to experience a lightning rise.''Genre-mingling instrumentation that boasts a sweet blend of country and indie-folk.'

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Press:

'Their music might come firmly from the tangled depths of the heart, but they’re also relishing every win they can whilst putting it all out there.'
DIY

'Awash with satisfying harmonies, their country-chamber-pop exudes familiarity and sophistication to soften that irreverent, punchy lyricism.'
The Independent

'Their knack for theatricality, ambition, passion for their craft and unique storytelling ability have allowed them to experience a lightning rise.'
The Line of Best Fit

'Genre-mingling instrumentation that boasts a sweet blend of country and indie-folk.'
So Young

Tickets for this show are £13 in advance.

You can get tickets online from here

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The Lovely Eggs

Violet Malice + British Birds

The Welly, Hull
Saturday 19th October, 7.30pm

The Crescent, York
Sunday 20th October, 7.30pm

*This show is now sold out*

For The Lovely Eggs being in a band is a way of life. It’s about art. It’s about creativity and expression. It’s about following your own path and doing things your own way. Holly and David operate on their terms, spewing out music, records, art and television shows before piling in the van and tearing round the country to perform a load of live sold out shows.Their wild and wilful independence sets themselves apart from other bands and despite having no management, booking agent, record label or publisher their album “I am Moron” shot to Number One in the Official UK Independent Charts and they continue to sell out shows across the country. “I am Moron” bears the fruit of their second collaboration with Grammy award winning producer Dave Fridmann, their latest being new album “Eggsistentialism” which was released in May 2024 to critical acclaim and bagged a Top 10 spot in the Official UK Physical sales and Independent albums charts.

/ / / 'The Lovely Eggs are not just surviving, they’re thriving''Bleak truths with giddy Popsike, bubbling defiance''Their best album yet''The sound of a band who’ve put heir whole lives into their art'⭐⭐⭐⭐ MOJO ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ LOUDER THAN WAR ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ HI-FI CHOICE ⭐⭐⭐⭐ SHINDIG ⭐⭐⭐⭐ FAR OUT ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ NARC ⭐⭐⭐⭐ THE PUNK SITE ⭐⭐⭐⭐ LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE ⭐⭐⭐⭐ XS NOIZE 8/10 UNCUTThe band’s two recent singles “Nothing Everything” and “My Mood Wave” both reached Top 40 in the UK Official singles sales charts, with “Nothing/Everything” reaching number 2 in the UK vinyl charts. It was accompanied by a music video from internationally acclaimed artists Wood and Harri-son.The pair have collaborated with Godfather of Punk Iggy Pop on single “I, Moron” which swiped the number one slot in both the Official U.K. Physical and Vinyl charts. Iggy Pop is a fan of the band and dedicated one of his BBC 6 Music shows to The Lovely Eggs’ work.Holly and David have also released their own TV show: EGGS TV, embarking on a televisual odyssey through alternative art, music, spoken word and underground culture. Teaming up with artist Casey Raymond, the 6 part YouTube series sucks you spiralling down the plughole into The Lovely Eggs’ distinctly off the wall universe, featuring guests Ian Mackaye, Gruff Rhys, Stewart Lee, John Grant, Cate le Bon, Maxine Peake, John Cooper Clarke, and loads more.With releases across the world, The Lovely Eggs have played hundreds of gigs around the UK, USA & EU. They have produced 7 albums & recorded more than 10 live sessions for BBC 6 Music & Radio 1.With observational and often surreal lyrics, The Lovely Eggs have a powerful raw sound that creates the sonic illusion of a band twice their size. They have become known for their ferocious yet joyous live performances. Operating in a world when true authenticity is hard to find, The Lovely Eggs are one of the most exciting, innovative and genuine bands around. Welcome to their world. Welcome to Eggland.

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Tickets for this show are £18 in advance.

You can get tickets for Hull here & York here.

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John Francis Flynn

Kevin Fowley

The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge

Monday 21st October, 7.30pm

The Crescent, York

Tuesday 22nd October, 7.30pm

The release of his second album Look Over the Wall, See the Sky last The November kicked off a huge start to the year for Dubliner John Francis Flynn.

John masterfully unpicks traditional songs and rearranges them with an emotional force. They float in a surreal space between the past and the present, the analog and the digital, between love and tragedy..The unconventional use of instruments and jagged arrangements gives the work a magnetism by drawing you into its curious orbit of experimental folk.

Look Over The Wall, See The Sky is a re-imagining of traditional Irish music: powerful, hopeful and free. John Francis Flynn is a singer and multi-instrumentalist who creates contemporary music using traditional and folk material. His debut album “I Would Not Live Always” was released on Rough Trade imprint River Lea Records in 2020, earning rave reviews and winning 2 awards at the RTE Folk Awards.

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Kevin Fowley

Growing up, Kevin Fowley split his time between living in France and Ireland. He listened to French lullabies sung by his mother in one room, while his father would be playing Donegal tunes on the fiddle in another. His upbringing is apparent in his upcoming record À Feu Doux. Seamlessly gliding across folk, jazz, and a rich yet shimmering in between sound.

Real night time music.

'Four simple songs have rarely generated such a transformative collection the way À Feu Doux does. Rather than a series of children’s lullabies, Kevin Fowley has developed a set of sounds for a much more adult audience. Understanding the power of music, these sounds are perhaps the most evocative and revolutionary music you will hear all year. These are lullabies for the child residing inside each adult.'

KLOF Magazine

Listen to the gorgeous

Tickets for this show are £16 in advance.

You can get tickets for Hebden Bridge here & York here.

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Oisín Leech

Neve Cariad

Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds

Thursday 24th October, 7.30pm

We're very pleased to be working with Oisín Leech for the first time as we take him to the very intimate surroundings of the Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds in October. Half of Irish duo The Lost Brothers, Oisín focused on some solo material during lockdown and realised it in Donegal with friend and collaborator Steve Gunn at the controls. It's a beaut record.

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Beside Trawbreaga Bay, in Co. Donegal, on the north coast of Ireland, in an old schoolhouse, with a suitcase full of hired recording gear, Oisin Leech strums gently on an acoustic guitar and watches the tide pull the water away from this ancient inlet. The thickness of Oisin’s voice soothes the old world room as the sound waves bounce around in the land where his ancestors still live and still wander.

This is a scene from the makings of Oisin Leech’s first solo album Cold Sea. After a musical history that led Leech from the street punk bands of yesteryear through an ongoing seven-album stint with folk duo The Lost Brothers, he found himself for the first time working on songs to sing alone.

The thought of performing songs with no accompanying harmony and minimal arrangement led Leech to soul-search for new expressions and ways of playing. Throughout the great pause of the pandemic, after his family had gone to bed, Leech sat by the fireplace experimenting with open tunings. The poems of Seamus Heaney and Leech’s own history as a studied playwright inspired the words. In his mind, the songs became imagined vignette films playing behind closed, guitar eyes. After writing nearly 40 new songs in this fashion Leech wrote “October Sun” which would become the foundation for Cold Sea.

“All of a sudden I had a collection of songs that told a complete story. Looking back I see I had created a new world.”

Seeking a producer for the record, Leech made a list of several people he’d like to work with. The first was guitarist and songwriter Steve Gunn, who happily accepted after hearing a demo of 'October Sun'. Leech was sitting on a dream of making the record in Donegal Ireland, a county significant to Leech because it is the place from where his ancestors come from. Pitching this idea to Gunn sparked the first of several serendipities circling the Cold Sea sessions - Gunn had always wanted to visit Donegal to connect with his own familial roots in the region.

Oisin and Steve have just met up and begun their odyssey through the Irish countryside to the coastal school house they intend to convert into a recording studio for a five-day session. On the first night of the journey, they make a stop off in Downings, Ireland where Steve’s grandmother had lived before emigrating to America. They pay a visit to the Olde Glen Bar where Steve’s great-grandparents met. They soon jump in on a traditional pub jam, sharing songs and drinks into the night. Some of Steve’s distant cousins happen to be at the bar that evening. The synchronicity of the journey continues further as someone recommends Oisin and Steve visit a local music historian of sorts named Billy Robinson. Billy has worked with artists like Clannad and John Lee Hooker in the past and happily lends the two total strangers some vintage recording gear, including a ’70s U87 microphone that winds up contributing greatly to the sound of the record.

One of the first things the listener may notice about the Cold Sea album is its tremendous warmth. Each song was recorded effortlessly in just a few takes and adorned gently with synthesizers and guitar from Gunn. Several songs feature contributions on the upright bass by current Bob Dylan band stalwart Tony Garnier. M. Ward plays guitar on “October Sun” and there are strings by stellar Irish fiddler Roisín McGrory and bouzouki by Irish folk legend Dónal Lunny throughout. It is a friendship record but even at its most collaborative, Cold Sea remains centered around the humble acoustic guitar and woollen blanket vocals of Leech.

“Music is a feeling for me. If music makes you feel a certain way, that’s what matters”. Oisin exclaimed to no one, on a pier-side, watching the sun change on the open water.

Leech read Bruce Chatwin’s Songlines while dreaming up the songs on Cold Sea. The book tells of the Aboriginal Outback tradition of songs as maps; they had the belief that the land was ‘sung’ into existence. The album acts in this fashion to express the landscape and atmosphere of where it was made. Intellectually the songs are about many things, including the healing power of the ocean, but in essence they come from deep within their songwriter. “Every time I sing each of these songs a very very clear film starts in my head”, says Oisin. The album's opener “October Sun” plays like a colourful landscape painting rich with sadness just beyond understanding.

The song “Colour of the Rain”, with its odd guitar tuning and carefully scored bass part from Garnier, poetically traces chapters of Leech’s life that unfold in a flash of the northern lights, often visible from Donegal. Leech spent months finding the words to express these feelings.

The song “Trawbreaga Bay” originally had 20 verses before Leech trimmed it down to an easy 3. On the album's instrumental explorations, one can easily smell the air of the northern coast -particularly the song “Maritime Radio” which embodies the region while finding poetry in a radio shipping forecast. With this firm sense of setting, Cold Sea carries a somber and comforting tone that rolls over the listener in healing waves.

Both Oisin and Steve do not hesitate to use the word 'magic' when describing both what happened in Donegal and the music that resulted. There is no other way to put it.

here.

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Stick In The Wheel
The Crescent, York
Monday 28th October, 7.30pm

The radical East London duo are known for their intense live shows exploring the raw holler of folk, synths, spoken word and intricate rustic dobro guitar.

Full-force reworkings of centuries-old work-songs speak to contemporary issues of class, using multi-layered sonic palettes to deeply reflect hidden histories, told with a razor-sharp authenticity.

Stick In The Wheel have created their own London vernacular, a contemporary roots music that celebrates the collective stories and traditions of the city - conjuring the past to point toward the future.

Watch / Watch / Watch

'Combinations of sound that are unexpected and completely unique, discordant interludes and ragged-edged drones: these aren’t the things you might expect to find on a folk album. But we live in accelerated times, and if music doesn’t change, it will die out. No one recognises that fact quite so keenly as Stick In The Wheel, who continue to be one of the most groundbreaking and unpredictable acts in any of the countless genres they move between.'
KLOF Magazine

'Tonebeds For Poetry demonstrates their liberating lack of preciousness, offering a full force reworking of sources, seeking to unroll lost threads and find new forms. Wonderful stuff.'
The Quietus

Tickets for this show are £16 in advance.

You can get online from See Tickets here.

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The Howl & The Hum

Eleanor Moss

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Tom Robinson Band
The Crescent, York
Sunday 17th November, 6.30pm

*This show has been rescheduled from Friday 1st November - all original ticket purchases remain valid but refunds are also available from your point of purchase*

The first Tom Robinson Band emerged amid the turmoil of late 70s Britain - in a time of punk rock, political unrest and economic gloom. TRB became known for the hit single 2-4- 6-8 Motorway, their vocal support of Rock Against Racism and for the anthem Sing If You're Glad To Be Gay, which made the Top Twenty despite a ban by BBC Radio 1.

The original TRB consisted of Robinson on bass and vocals, drummer Dolphin Taylor, keyboardist Mark Ambler and their incendiary guitarist Danny Kustow - who died early in 2019 at the age of 63. They made just two albums - Power In The Darkness and TRB TWO and ended - like the Seventies - just as Margaret Thatcher swept to power.

The current Tom Robinson Band will play a 23 date tour in October/November 2024 showcasing those first two albums, in tribute to the original band members. The setlist has been chosen by fans via an online poll, and will include some album tracks from the era that have never previously been performed live.

Alongside Robinson on bass, the band features Faithless drummer Andy Treacey, guitarist Adam Phillips from the Richard Ashcroft Band, keyboard virtuoso Jim Simmons and Northern soul singer Lee Forsyth Griffiths on acoustic guitar.

"45 years on," says Tom "some of the original TRB lyrics - about division, injustice and uncertainty - still feel depressingly relevant in a world of Trump, Farage & Suella Braverman. I also owe a huge amount to the musicianship of Mark, Dolphin, and Danny back in the day. We're hoping to do that early band - and the songs - full justice this Autumn.”

Tickets for this show are £25 in advance.

You can get tickets online from here.

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Erland Cooper

National Centre For Early Music, York

Wednesday 20th November, 7pm

A treat for us as we're able to bring classically trained Orkney singer-songwriter Erland Cooper to York for the first time for a super intimate show at the NCEM.

*This show is now sold out*

'Nature’s songwriter' – The Guardian

Erland Cooper is a Scottish composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist originally from Stromness, Orkney. As a solo artist, he has released five acclaimed studio albums, including a trilogy of work inspired by his childhood home, as well as themes of nature, people, place and time. His work combines field recordings with traditional orchestration and contemporary electronic elements. Through music, words and cinematography he explores landscape, memory and identity. He develops these themes further by partnering with other artists, writers and poets. Cooper also works across mixed media projects including installation art, theatre and film. He’s widely known for burying the only existing copy of the master tape of his first classical album in Scotland, deleting all digital files and leaving only a treasure hunt of clues for anyone to seek it. The tape was found in 2023 and the album will be released, exactly as it sounds from the earth, this year along with its world premiere of the completed score.

Press:

'One of the most unique, consistently engaging composers of his generation.'
CLASH

'Exploring the place where electronic and classical music can co-habit.'
The Quietus

'Cooper’s project serves as a commentary on the disposable nature of music and the immediacy in which it is delivered.'
The Times

*This show is now sold out*

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The Hanging Stars

The Lending Room, Leeds

Saturday 23rd November, 7.30pm

*This show has been rescheduled. All original tickets remain valid.*

On A Golden Shore arrives as The Hanging Stars reflect on a year of triumphs. With an Americana Music Association Bob Harris - sanctioned award and a Nashville sell-out in Third Man’s Blue Room with Jack White approvingly looking on, they’re a leading light in the UK Cosmic Americana cohort.

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Their standing has allowed them to pay less attention to any preconceptions of what they are ‘supposed to be’. On A Golden Shore - their fifth album and their second for the pioneering Loose Music, following 2022’s Hollow Heart - finds them definitively themselves and presents a set of disparate songs whose fundamental linkage is the band that made them.

On A Golden Shore was recorded at Edwyn Collins’ Clashnarrow Studios with Sean Read producing. Singer/guitarist Richard Olson, drummer Paulie Cobra, multi-instrumentalist Patrick Ralla, plus freshman bassist Paul Milne – laid down the album’s backbone over eight days. Mostly recorded live, even the solos done as a piece. Much is first take because trying better, it never worked as well. Pedal-steel player Joe Harvey-Whyte created and added his parts at his London studio bringing ‘shimmery psychedelic goodness’.

Smartly sequenced On A Golden Shore proceeds in clusters of songs; commencing with the free and easy choogle of ‘Let Me Dream Of You’, encompassing the sunny glam of ‘Sweet Light’, the baggy Balearic waft of ‘Happiness Is A Bird’, the pan pipes and bongos of the exotic ‘Golden Shore’, through to the rolling banjo of ‘No Way Spell’ and the celestial cascades of ‘Heart In A Box’. Fashioned instinctively On A Golden Shore is ultimately an album of sensation as much as thought, filled with fleeting moments of blissful excess, and stumbling, rushing flutters of sound; its evanescent psychedelia, divine choruses, and shards of strings combine into an infectious, compelling Cosmic Heartbreak Boogie.

Tickets for this show are £14 in advance.

You can get tickets online from here.

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The Folk Implosion

Lending Room, Leeds

Sunday 24th November, 7.30pm

“How the fuck are we going to turn this into a song?” That’s the question Lou Barlow and John Davis have asked themselves since co-founding the Folk Implosion in the early 1990s. Beginning with improvised jams featuring Barlow on bass and Davis on drums, the duo develop their beat-driven pop collages from the ground up. It’s the process they used on their debut cassette, Walk Through This World with the Folk Implosion, and one they’ve returned to 30 years later on their spellbinding, self-referencing reunion, Walk Thru Me.

Separated from their homes in Massachusetts and North Carolina, Barlow and Davis collaborated remotely, flashing back to their early friendship as penpals. A sweaty bass and drums session went down in Barlow’s attic, before they booked studio time with producer Scott Solter (St. Vincent, Spoon, The Mountain Goats).

Contrasts and comparisons are the keys to unlocking Walk Thru Me, and the Folk Implosion as a whole. Beyond the audible differences between Barlow’s soft voice and Davis’s urgent, reedy proclamations, their approaches to songwriting are strikingly distinct. While Barlow approached his lyrics from a protective paternal perspective (“My Little Lamb”), Davis paid tribute to his late father, shining a light on their complicated relationship (“The Day You Died”).
Finally, Davis’s Persian music studies in weekly Zoom lessons inspired him to integrate traditional Middle Eastern instruments such as the setar, oud, saz, and tombak.

“Because we’re so separate, part of this album is me desperately trying to telepathically communicate to John and Scott, who are 700 miles away from me,” Barlow concludes. “A big part of what I consider to be the Folk Implosion is taking disparate things and turning them into pop.”

Listen / Listen

Tickets for this show are £20 in advance.

You can get tickets online from here.

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Pip Blom

Tom Sharkett

The Crescent, York

Thursday 5th December, 7.30pm

Bobbie saw the Amsterdam 3-piece make a bold and successful sideways musical leap and while admitting to the cliché of a guitar-orientated band “grabbing the synths” for album three, their new direction had a real and genuine draw for Blom. Foremost in their mind was cult 2010s English pop band Micachu and the Shapes, led by the effervescent Mica Levi. Across four studio albums and several artist monikers, Levi’s band made colourful and vivacious pop music that burst outwards from a grounding in indie music. On Bobbie, Blom made similar jumps which blew their own musical landscape wide open.

The album saw Pip Blom reach new heights and audiences and the campaign was capped recently when they scooped a prestigious Edison Award in their native Holland. One of the oldest music awards in the world, first presented in 1960 at the inaugural Grand Gala du Disque, the award itself is a bronze replica of a statuette of Thomas Edison, designed by the Dutch sculptor Pieter d'Hont and the prize is recognised as one of the most respected in world music.

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Press for 'Bobbie'!:

'Filled back to back with dance worthy bangers, the collection welcomes us into a new era of the band: one that's carefree, light-hearted, and unapologetically synth-heavy.'
Dork Magazine ★★★★

'Bobbie boosts their sharp, lyrically intriguing indie-pop songs to fulsome, dance-floor friendly dimensions without masking their character, to which songwriter Blom's Nina Personn-ish tones lend a soulfully reflective edge.'
Uncut Magazine

'Kiss Me By The Candlelight has her interweaving husky vocals with IRL partner Willem Smit from fellow Dutch band Personal Trainer, the whole thing drenched in Moloko-style electronica, while Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos sounds truly debauched on the urgent, vocodered disco of 'Is This Love?.'
Mojo Magazine

'A strong departure from their tried-and-tested punk-infused sound to deliver a more well-rounded baker’s dozen of electro-infused lush cuts .'
The Line of Best Fit

here.

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Mick Head & The Red Elastic Band

Paul Molloy (The Coral)

The Crescent, York

Tuesday 10th December, 7.30pm

Michael Head (Pale Fountains, Shack, The Strands) & The Red Elastic Band return to York this December. His new, Bill Ryder-Jones produced album Loophole, promises to be a creative milestone document for the much-fitted Liverpool songwriter, performing live here with his great band, right on the top of their game.

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Static-fuzz seventies guitar riffs, cowbell and bursts of brass herald the imminent arrival of Michael Head and The Elastic Band’s latest album as they release the glammed-up, Bowie and Ronson-indebted rush of The Human Race. Aptly evoking the renewed artistic vitality of the cherished songwriter, who this year celebrated the 40th anniversary of the release of his first album with The Pale Fountains, the track comes ahead of the release of the 12-track, Loophole album, released on Fri 17 May 2024 on Modern Sky.

As much matter-of-fact documentarian of life as it passes in front of him as he is a poet and healthy, new world-conjuring fantasist, Head’s work rate has accelerated to provide fans with an unprecedented two albums inside two years. With a catalogue of well-documented missteps and blameless, release-delaying mishaps dotted through his life with not only The Pale Fountains but also later, feted bands Shack and The Strands, a sense of personal and artistic equilibrium arrives at the same time as his timely suite of beautiful new songs.

Having already revealed the evocative song sung from his own cradle, Ciao Ciao Bambino, the ‘Toxteth Ghost Story’ that is Shirl’s Ghost, a forbidden romance in Connemara, the vivid picture-painting, 90’s tour story of Ambrosia and straight-up, from-the-heart Tout Suite, the latest track released from Loophole adds another level of expressive Bill Ryder-Jones-produced musicality cut with evocative lyricism.

Head says of the track: ““The human race is from the perspective of someone who’s not from our world. Sent from the Gods to see how civilisation is baring up.”

After passing through major UK cities on a recent domestic tour to bring some of Loophole’s songs to the stage before they have arrived in fans’ homes or added to playlists, Head and his band continue to announce live dates that make special events of each appearance. While announcing a series of special SOLD-OUT album shows at St Michael-in-the-Hamlet Church in South Liverpool at the end of this month, Head looks ahead to the year-ending, career-defining high of a night at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on Fri 13 December 2024.

With more live dates rumoured, fans are also still held in suspense as to what may lie in store between the covers of Head’s autobiography. Although delayed by a year, Head continues to delve into his storied past to finish the chapters of Ciao Ciao Bambino: A Magical Memoir, to be published by Nine Eight Books on Thu 14 August 2025. Inevitably beginning in his 1960’s childhood in inner-city Liverpool and traversing decades of observation as music, fashion, film and more found and fell out of trends, the book promises a tour through seven decades of British popular culture as it does a hand-held stroll into every important moment of the songwriter’s life and career.

Loophole was recorded at the celebrated YAWN Studios in West Kirby in the company of Ryder-Jones, and features all of The Red Elastic Band’s gifted musicians, Phil Murphy (drums), Tom Powell (bass), Nathaniel Cummings (guitars/backing vocals) and Martin Smith (trumpet).

9/10 – UNCUT
★ ★ ★ ★ – MOJO
★ ★ ★ ★★ – Record Collector
★ ★ ★ ★ – Classic Pop

Tickets for this show are £25 in advance.

You can get tickets online from here.

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The Magic Numbers

The Citadel, York

Wednesday 11th December, 7.30pm

*This show is now sold out*

The Magic Numbers are an UK-based four piece comprising two pairs of siblings (Romeo and Michele Stodart, Sean and Angela Gannon) who are known for their unique harmonies, melodic hooks, songwriting craftsmanship and timeless sound.

Their Mercury Prize-nominated self-titled debut album was released in 2005 to outstanding critical acclaim, and contained top ten hit singles such as 'Forever Lost', 'Love Me Like You' and 'Love is a Game'. It went on to sell over a million copies worldwide, making them one of the nation’s best-loved bands. They have earned a reputation for their exciting and uplifting live performances, leading them to tour the world, building a loyal fan base, as well as supporting the likes of Neil Young, Brian Wilson, Radiohead, The Flaming Lips, The Who, U2, Elbow and Bright Eyes amongst many others. The Magic Numbers have released five successful albums to date, and are currently working on new music.

The band have also become known for their collaborations with a diverse range of artists over the years - from Romeo writing and producing songs for the late Jane Birkin, Natalie Imbruglia, Ren Harvieu to co- writing ‘Close your eyes’ with the Chemical Brothers for their Grammy-Award-winning album ‘Push The Button’, and producing Billy Bragg’s most recent album. His sister, Michele Stodart has released three critically acclaimed solo albums, and is also an award-winning artist and collaborator.

The Magic Numbers' outstanding musicianship, blood harmonies and skilfully crafted songs, make them a truly unique, exciting and unmissable live band. They continue to tour the world building their audiences and explore new ground in the studio together producing albums.

Tickets for this show are £25 in advance.

*This show is now sold out*

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Katherine Priddy

Pocklington Arts Centre

Wednesday 26th February, 7.30pm

*This show is now sold out*

Since Richard Thompson chose Priddy as “The Best Thing I’ve Heard All Year” in Mojo Magazine on the strength of her 2018 “Wolf” EP, her star has risen exponentially. Winning fans from Guy Garvey, Mark Radcliffe, Stuart Maconie and the late Janice Long and garnering glowing press reviews across the board for The Eternal Rocks Beneath including The Observer, The Sun, Uncut, Songlines, Folk Radio UK and more, Priddy crossed genres, charting at number 1 in The Official UK Folk Chart and number 5 in the Official UK Americana Chart, and rounded off 2021 on Mojo’s Folk Albums of the Year list.

She is in demand as a performer and collaborator, playing Cambridge Folk Festival (where she won the prestigious Christian Raphael Prize), Glastonbury (where she appeared on the coveted BBC2 TV coverage), Green Man, End Of The Road, Beautiful Days and the BBC Proms. As well as sell out headline tours, Priddy has been chosen to support world class artists including Richard Thompson, The Chieftains, Loudon Wainwright III and Vashti Bunyan.

In 2022, she took her music worldwide with a series of shows in Australia, including a performance at Port Fairy Folk Festival, plus a showcase in Kansas City USA as part of Folk Alliance International. 2023 saw no sign of her momentum slowing; highlights included a new single on Chrysalis Records as part of a Double LP of Nick Drake covers from artists such as Self Esteem, Aldous Harding, John Grant, Bombay Bicycle Club and more, as well as a show supporting Guy Garvey at The Roundhouse.

Now, Feb 2024 saw the release of her eagerly awaited second albums: The Pendulum Swing. Once again recorded in Birmingham by producer Simon J Weaver, guest musicians comprise John Smith (lead guitar), Harry Fausing Smith (strings), Marcus Hamblett (brass/double bass), George Boomsma (guitar, backing vocals, co-writer on track “Ready To Go”), Polly Virr (cello) and even a brief appearance from Priddy’s family members right at the end of the album, in keeping with its themes.

The Pendulum Swing was greeted with critical acclaim in the press as it landed at #1 in the official UK Folk Charts. It saw the likes of Iggy Pop, Guy Garvey, Craig Charles, Mark Radcliffe and Gideon Coe giving it a spin whilst RTE in Ireland added tracks to their recommendations list for 3 weeks running. With her biggest headline tour to date selling out most cities and her reputation growing, she was asked to perform on the legendary Later with Jools Holland (aired 25th May).

She now returns for the final run of The Pendulum Swing Tour in March 2025.

Press:

'Utterly brilliant…one of my favourite voices in contemporary music.'
Guy Garvey

'One of The Albums of the year'
★★★★★ - SONGLINES

'Deserves a Grammy'
★★★★★ - MAIL ON SUNDAY

'simply brilliant'
★★★★ - MOJO

'a rich, poised second album'
★★★★ - THE OSBERVER

'One of the most exciting Singer songwriters in the UK'
THE IRISH TIMES

Tickets for this show are £18 in advance.

You can get tickets online from here.

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Nadia Reid
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Wednesday 12th March, 7.30pm

There is a photograph that Nadia Reid still keeps, taken ten years ago now on an old iPhone 4. It shows the singer at just twenty two, standing in a backyard in Auckland, her face obscured by a bright bloom of sparkler flame. “It was just a throwaway photo, but I clung to that image through the years,” she says. “You have those points in life that when you look back you see were a time of almost cellular change. And that was one of those points; all my cells were changing.”

Reid was drawn to this image once again in the making of her fourth album, details of which are to follow soon. This was the obvious choice for the artwork for her first single 'Changed Unchained'. Her first new music for four years and first for new label Chrysalis Records.

Much had changed since Out of My Province, the album she released in early March 2020, just as the Covid pandemic sent the world into lockdown. In her native New Zealand, restrictions were some of the toughest in the world, the country’s borders remaining closed for over two years. Reid toured the record as best she could, she put on hold her plans to move to the UK, attended to the steady rhythms of living. In July of 2021, she gave birth to her first daughter, Elliotte; her second, Goldie, arrived this past Spring.

On the new single, Reid moves away from her earlier folk inclinations. “I still feel uncomfortable about the word folk and being a folk singer. It makes me sort of cringe. It’s too confining.” Reid expands on her new fuller sound. "’Changed Unchained’ is a great example of me bringing lyrics and a melody into the studio, then Tom (Healy, producer) and the band letting the mojo/muse/spirit do its thing in the room. That was a really freeing feeling for me. The song begun in this delicate introspective way and formed into something quite powerful."

Aswell as a taste of what's to come next, ‘Changed Unchained’ closes a chapter on her first three records as something like a trilogy; music that belonged to a time before everything changed.

Tickets for this show are £16.50 in advance.

You can get tickets online from here.

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The Delines

City Varieties,

The Delines return to tour the UK and EU in support of their 4th album out February 2024. The album was just mastered and bring more of their country-soul.The debut record, COLFAX, appeared in 2014 and surprised fans and critics alike.

Evoking a beat-up Dusty Springfield or a weary Rickie Lee Jones, COLFAX made over a dozen top ten year end lists. It was a four-year wait until their sophomore effort, THE IMPERIAL was released. Singer, Amy Boone spent much of that time in hospital beds recovering from serious injuries sustained in a car accident in Austin, Texas. When she was just strong enough to stand she finished THE IMPERIAL, a record that spent two weeks on top of the UK official Americana charts with the band playing sold out shows across the UK and Europe.

The band returned with their cinematic third album THE SEA DRIFT which Americana UK and BBC6 Gideon Coe both made their ‘Album of the Year’. Penned by guitarist and songwriter Willy Vlautin with arrangements by keyboardist Cory Gray and the rhythm section of Sean Oldham and Freddy Trujillo. Vlautin is no stranger to critical acclaim, enjoying cult success and rave reviews from the likes of the New York Times, Washington Post, Uncut, Rolling Stone and Mojo, both as a novelist with seven books under his belt (two of his books have become major films with Lean On Pete currently being made into a Netfilx movie out 2025).

Willy, Oldham and Trujillo also lead the alt-country outfit Richmond Fontaine whom released over ten albums before breaking up in 2016. 2022/23 saw The Delines performing at EU festivals plus releasing two more singles plus a soundtrack, the band will be playing songs from including past classics.

Tickets for this show are £26 in advance.

You can get tickets online from here.

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Lambrini Girls
The Crescent, York

Monday 7th April, 7.30pm

After a busy summer of playing Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds Festivals, Green Man, End Of The Road, and supporting Amyl and the Sniffers around the US, the ferocious Brighton-based noise-punk duo Lambrini Girls show no signs of slowing down with new single ‘Company Culture’.

Elsewhere in 2024 the pair released the singles ‘God’s Country’ and ‘Body Of Mine’, both of which were BBC6 Music Playlisted. The two piece are Phoebe Lunny (Vocals/Guitar - she/they) and Lilly Macieira (Bass - she/they), augmented live by drummer Banksy.The band have made a name for themselves through unforgettable live performances and support from the likes of Variety Magazine, BBC Radio 1, NME, The Line Of Best Fit, KEXP, Consequence, Evening Standard, CLASH, So Young, and covered Kerrang! Magazine alongside Sleater-Kinney, bagged a nomination for Rolling Stone UK’s Rising Stars Award, and even Iggy Pop is a fan.

Press:

'…you see the sense of community they can foster in just 30 minutes.'
Rolling Stone UK (Wide Awake Festival)

'Lambrini Girls were built for a place like Glastonbury.'
DORK (Glastonbury Festival)

'They don’t yet have an album to their name, but believe us when we say Lambrini Girls are a festival must-watch.'
Kerrang! Magazine (Reading Festival)

'Lambrini Girls’ draw an enormous Far Out crowd with their razor-sharp punk and impassioned inter-song speeches.'
CLASH Magazine (Green Man)

'an as-expected riotous late-night show'
DIY (End Of The Road)

'Lambrini Girls aren’t afraid to piss people off'
Variety Magazine

Tickets for this show are £12 in advance.

You can get tickets online from here.

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