When: 7.30pm on Friday 11 October 2024
Where: Hallé at St Michael’s, 36-38 George Leigh Street, Ancoats, Manchester M4 5DG

We’re excited to hosting an intimate show for Romeo Stodart and Ren Harvieu!

Ren and Romeo are playing some unique duo shows together. They will be playing much loved songs from their respective catalogues, new songs yet to be heard, perhaps a cheeky cover or two and are open to wherever the night takes them. If you’d like to experience the intimacy of songwriting, story telling and what it feels like to have found kindred spirits, you won’t want to miss this special show.

Romeo Stodart is the lead singer/songwriter in the much-loved London-based rock ‘n’ roll harmony group The Magic Numbers. The band, comprising of two pairs of brothers and sisters, have released five critically acclaimed albums to date, including their self-titled Mercury Prize-nominated, million-selling debut.

Outside of The Magic Numbers, Romeo has collaborated with a vast array of artists including writing songs for and with the late Jane Birkin, Edwyn Collins, Natalie Imbruglia, Kathryn Williams, Amadou & Mariam and The Chemical Brothers. He has contributed his unique guitar playing style to various projects, from Damon Albarn’s Africa Express collective since its inception, touring with Jimmy Webb & The Webb Brothers, to contributing banjo, guitar and harmonies on Spiritualized’s Sweet Heart Sweet Light album.

Anyone who believes there are no second chances needs to be re-introduced to Ren Harvieu. Seven years after Through The Night, her Top Five debut album, having overcome a life-threatening injury on the eve of its release, the darkly enigmatic Salford-born singer-songwriter returned with the critically acclaimed Revel In The Drama (Bella Union) – a brilliant, bolder and broader take on her unique pop classicism, a compelling diary of struggle, a release of pent-up tension and a celebration of liberation and survival. It should’ve been a celebration but as luck would again have it, the world went into a global pandemic on the week of release. Timing is everything but Ren Harvieu is timeless as she is inspirational.

Now in the production chair alongside her writing partner Romeo, she is creating her most brave and compelling music yet – a new album is scheduled for release in early 2025.

This show show takes place in St Michael’s – a deconsecrated former Roman Catholic church, which was founded in 1859 and became the heart of the Little Italy community in Ancoats.

This is a 14+ show. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

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When: 7.30pm on Thursday 25 July 2024
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to welcome Lightheaded to Manchester – with tour support from Mt. Misery and local support from Autocamper and Juice Pops!

Lightheaded are, simply, a great pop group. Their songs are full of melody and harmony, are bittersweet and memorable, familiar yet original. Their sound is a perfect mix of jangling guitars – featuring Sara Abdelbarry’s exquisite, tasteful, but punchy Gretsch lead played over Stephen Stec’s Rickenbacker chime – anchored to singer Cynthia Rittenbach’s Hofner Violin bass, which sounds like the bass on Michel Polnareff’s first LP.

Cynthia and Stephen write pop songs in the classic sense, and though they are young they’re already familiar with the good stuff. Cynthia wears a Gene Clark tee shirt and is a fan of Dusty Springfield, The Aislers Set and Joan Jett. Stephen worships at the altar of Big Star, The Clientele and The Go-Betweens. As with bands like The Aislers Set and Belle & Sebastian, you hear an aural kaleidoscope, the history of pop music and the best rock and roll, in the music of Lightheaded.

Lightheaded’s debut LP Combustible Gems is an LP about a band finding their sound, exploring notes, chords, and melody and making uncannily great music along the way. First single Dawn Hush Lullaby features an electric folk-pop sensibility that starts like a waltz, but goes into Greenwich Village pop time, like a sweet Norma Tanega tune. Moments Notice is a killer tune, rhythmic and catchy. It starts off like Motown or The Jam, but then Sara’s hypnotic, hooky guitar riff takes the song some place else, shooting off into soft pop heaven, like kid siblings of the Free Design. Hugging Horizons is the Sound of Young New Jersey. It’s soul music, but by experimenting and playing around, they have accidentally invented some sort of New New Pop. Because of You ends the album on a real high, featuring Johnny Marr-style guitar and some gorgeous strings. It’s poignant and sophisticated, but still eager, slightly gauche even. And as always refreshingly, wonderfully, naively sincere. Combustible Gems is a jump into the sparkling blue water, excited experimentation, exploration, finding themselves, with the effervescence of youth that makes for great debut LPs. It has the youthful urgency of Comet Gain, the wide-eyed nostalgia of early Orange Juice, the suss and anti-macho swagger of those early Pastels singles. It yearns for something, it is an exciting, stumbling, falling, laughing, charming, great pop debut.

Hartlepool’s Mt. Misery released their debut album Once Home, No Longer via Prefect Records (Ex-Void, The Tubs) in summer of 2021, alongside a long since sold-out limited edition Rough Trade Exclusive LP. An EP featuring the singles Spinning Top and The Time It Takes was released in 2022. The band’s sophomore album is due to be released in 2024.

Prefect Records label head Mark Dobson (The Field Mice): ‘I wasn’t looking for a “token” band from the same town as me, they could have been from anywhere in the world and I would still want to put their album out. I could hear elements of The Field Mice and a couple of other Sarah Records bands in there, but also early Belle and Sebastian and peak period Teenage Fanclub – to be honest, it sounds like loads of bands I like, but without really sounding specifically like any of them.’

Local support comes from Autocamper. Autocamper effortlessly retrofits the jangle pop sounds of the ‘80s without the C86 revisionism. Think Sarah Records-era The Wake fused with the shambling, melodic impulse of McCarthy and The Close Lobsters, but with one foot always firmly in the present.

Opening the show are Juice Pops. Manchester-based Juice Pops have been producing sunshine indie-pop since 2018. Starting life as a solo project of singer and multi-instrumentalist Mike, Juice Pops became a trio when songwriting partner Hannah joined on guitar and vocals, and Greg on bass. In 2021 they released their debut self-titled EP, before adding Louis on drums in early 2022. Their latest earworm-pop-hit, The Death of Anne Boleyn, was released December 2023, along with a music video that lives up to the song’s name!

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When: 7pm on Wednesday 4 September 2024
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

We’re delighted to be welcoming Jake Xerxes Fussell back to Manchester!

Reared in Georgia and now settled in North Carolina, Jake Xerxes Fussell has established himself as a devoted listener and contemplative interpreter of a vast array of so-called folk songs, lovingly sourced from a personal store of favourites. On his latest album, When I’m Called – his first LP for Fat Possum, and his first as a parent – Fussell returns to a well of music that holds lifelong sentimental meaning, loosely contemplating the passage of time and the procession of life’s unexpected offerings.

The album was produced by James Elkington and mixed by Tucker Martine. In addition to Elkington, it features the playing of Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station), Joe Westerlund (Bon Iver, Califone) and others. Blake Mills contributes guitars on several tracks. Joan Shelley and Robin Holcomb provide backing vocals.

‘Fussell is the rare contemporary to approach folk in its pure form, shunning self-penned compositions about bummer relationships to concentrate on material handed down from bygone, hardened times’ – The New Yorker

‘[Fussell] is one of the great magpies of American song, collecting forgotten, tarnished gems with a folklorist’s zeal… his renditions aren’t so much cover versions as composites’ – The Guardian

‘Maybe the leading interpreter of American folk music right now” – Ann Powers, NPR

Tour support comes from Sam Moss. Sam Moss is a songwriter and instrumentalist based in Staunton, Virginia. Shapes (2020) is the latest full length LP in his wide ranging discography, one which has been acclaimed by publications like The Boston Globe, NPR, The Wire, and Paste. He has played hundreds of shows around the country and shared bills with Joan Shelley, Diane Cluck, Doug Paisley, and others.

Moss plays violin on a duo album with guitarist Rob Noyes (Rob Noyes & Sam Moss) and can sometimes be seen accompanying singer-songwriters like Kris Delmhorst and Jackson Emmer. This summer he released a Lagniappe Session for Aquarium Drunkard.

He is also a woodworker.

Age restriction: 14+. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

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When: 7.30pm on Wednesday 11 September 2024
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to be welcoming Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman to Gullivers!

Andrew Wasylyk’s cinematic compositions have been nominated for the Scottish Album of the Year Award and been awarded BBC 6 Music’s Gideon Coe’s Album of the Year. He has collaborated with former National Poet for Scotland, Liz Lochhead, and written soundtracks for Radio 4. Tommy Perman’s work as a musician and DJ has taken him across the world, with numerous record releases under his own name and with experimental group/arts collective FOUND, alongside visual works at the Sydney Opera House and National Museum of Scotland.

The pair have orbited each other’s worlds for a number of years through audio-visual collaborations spanning record releases, films and sound installations. With their first collaborative album as a duo expected later in the year on Clay Pipe Music, the spirit of the project channels through on new single, Communal Imagination. Wasylyk’s trademark searching piano chords float above Perman’s distinct juddering rhythms, conjuring a Balaeric abstraction of Basil Kirchin. Elsewhere, saxophones and choral vocals climb above fluttering Juno synths in a unifying chorus.

An intimate, transcendental audio visual performance by two artists at the height of their creativity.

Local support comes from Modema. You can find Modema perched between the worlds of club textures and experimental pop, occupying the same space as ML Buch, Jenny Hval and Caroline Polachek. Her time working behind the counter at Piccadilly Records opened a gateway into various realms of electronic music – a rich diet of hyperpop, ambient and electronica feeding into the project’s complex futuristic sound.

Her debut single Running Back was praised by Clash magazine, who referred to the track as ‘a pirouetting piece of synth-pop abstraction’ which ‘sweeps you up in its percussive rush’. The track is a patchwork; fragments of vocals top somnambulistic synth lines and scattered drum patterns. The basslines contain multitudes, fluctuating from gentle melodies to pulsating rhythms. The result is a track as at home in the headphones as on the dancefloor.

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When: 7pm on Wednesday 11 September 2024
Where: YES Basement, 38 Charles Street, Manchester, M1 7DB

We’re excited to welcome Cat Clyde back to Manchester, having previously supported Sarah Jarosz.

Cat Clyde is a singer/songwriter based out of rural Ontario, Canada. A combination of driven, soulful blues and sweet, folk- tinged, dulcet tones that carry a particular sense of familiarity provide the structure on which she creates her unique sound. With influences ranging from Patsy Cline and Lead Belly to Karen Dalton and Bobbie Gentry, this patchwork of musical significance, when stitched to her modern approach, fits like a well-tailored, corduroy-road cloth.

Cat’s latest album Down Rounder is a wonder of deeply felt songwriting, a record that finds her marvelling at what’s around her while considering her own place within it all. Cat joined producer Tony Berg in Los Angeles’ famed Sound City studios to lay down the entirety of Down Rounder in six days flat. The record sounds both lively and lived-in, with Clyde’s malleable singing voice — spanning an appealing twang to a lovely, plaintive croon and anywhere in between — espousing an essential connection between our spiritual centre and the natural world that surrounds us. ‘The album is an exploration and expression of self, patterns in the natural and unnatural world, connecting to nature, the turning wheel of life, shedding old selves, embracing new selves, and the ever changing, expanding and contracting nature of love and life,’ Cat explains.

After racking up millions of streams across multiple platforms with previous releases, Down Rounder sounds like the work of someone who’s found themselves artistically and holistically, while extending a hand to any listener who wants to follow Clyde on her singular and thrilling path.

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When: 7.30pm on Saturday 14 September 2024
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to welcome Charlie Parr back to Gullivers!

In the music of Charlie Parr, there is a sincere conviction and earnest drive to create. The Minnesota-born guitarist, songwriter, and interpreter of traditional music has released 19 albums over two decades and has been known to perform up to 275 shows a year. Parr is a folk troubadour in the truest sense: taking to the road between shows, writing and rewriting songs as he plays, fuelled by a belief that music is eternal and cannot be claimed or adequately explained. The bluesman poet pulls closely from the sights and sounds around him, his lyrical craftsmanship built by his influences. The sounds from his working-class upbringing — including Folkways legends such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie — imbue Parr’s music with stylistic echoes of blues and folk icons of decades past. Parr sees himself merely as a continuer of a folk tradition: ‘I feel like I stand on a lot of big shoulders,’ he said in an interview. ‘I hope that I’ve brought a little bit of myself to the music.’

With a discography simultaneously transcendental in nature and grounded in roots music, Charlie Parr is the humble master of the 21st century folk tradition. Parr started recording in Duluth in 2002, where he lives today. Life in the port town on Lake Superior has a way of bleeding into his work the same way his childhood in Austin, Minnesota does. Parr self-released his debut album, Criminals and Sinners, and did the same for his sophomore album 1922 (2002). With growing popularity abroad, Parr signed with Red House Records in 2015, where he recorded break-out albums Stumpjumper (2015) and Dog (2017). Parr’s music has an overwhelming sense of being present and mindful, and his sound is timeless.

Parr’s mastery of his craft is only more apparent when contextualised within the history of folk tradition of which Parr has dedicated his practice The land and lives around and intersecting with Parr have always influenced him, from the hills and valleys of Hollandale, Minnesota to the Depression-era stories from his father. Parr strives to listen to everything: ‘I don’t see that I’d ever be capable of creating anything if it weren’t for these inspirations and influences, books and music as well as the weather and random interactions with strangers and animals. So, the well never runs dry as long as my eyes and ears are open,’ Parr said in a 2020 interview. Before he was even 10 years old Parr was rummaging through his father’s record collection — sometimes drawing dinosaurs on the vinyl sleeves — and listening to country, folk, and blues legends, many of whom are staples in the Folkways catalogue. When Parr sings and plays his resonator or 12-string, you can hear influences like Mance Lipscomb, Charley Patton, Spinder John Koerner, Rev. Gary Davis and Dock Boggs. This is especially true in his playing, when, after a diagnosis of focal dystonia, Parr turned to greats like Davis, Doc Watson, and Booker White for two-finger picking inspiration. Gifted a 1965 Gibson B-45 12-string by his father, Parr has never had a formal lesson and learned by to listening records and watching musicians he admired.

Parr’s first album with Smithsonian Folkways, Last of Better Days Head (2021), foregrounded his lyrical craftsmanship and sophisticated bluesman confidence, with spare production highlighting Parr’s mastery of guitar and elevating his poetry. Last of Better Days Ahead is a portrait of how Parr saw the world in that moment, reflecting on time and memories that have past while holding an enduring desire to be present. In his 2024 release, Little Sun, Parr weaves together stories celebrating music, community, and communing with nature. Putting forth an ambitious and raw album that exemplifies the best of Parr’s sound: a blend of the blues and folk traditions he continues to carry with him and the steadfast originality of a poet.

Local support comes from Jon Coley. Jon Coley is an acclaimed folk singer songwriter. He plays an eclectic mix of Blues, soul and folk, mixed with fresh original songwriting. He is renowned for his unique guitar playing passionate vocal performances, reminiscent of Van Morrison and Amos Lee. Jon is influenced by performers such as Nick Drake, Neil Young, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Sam Cooke, Bert Jansch, Wizz Jones, classic blues and especially the music of John Martyn. He has quickly become a legendary figure in his present home of Manchester, and his family’s native Liverpool, where his grandfather worked to book bands for the Cavern Club alongside Bobby Wooler and owner Ray McFall.

Jon has played support spots and festivals alongside John Renbourn, Blind Boy Paxton, Michael Chapman, Ralph McTell, Jon Gomm, Wizz Jones, Dylan LeBlanc, Chance McCoy, Charlie Parr, Tré Burt, Jerry Joseph and shared a stage and many more, including Foss Patterson and Danny Thompson of John Martyn’s band at venues as varied as New York’s Bitter End Club, Preservation Hall New Orleans, and Liverpool’s Echo Arena. After years of live touring, Jon released his Mercury nominated album If All I Ever Wanted Was All I Ever Needed to critical acclaim in 2021.

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When: 7.30pm on Tuesday 17 September 2024
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to welcome Mock Tudors back!

‘South Yorkshire’s answer to Buzzcocks meet The Sweet’, Mock Tudors‘ frenetic glam infused garage-punk oozed from the basement of Delicious Clam in Sheffield in January of 2022. Since then the band have released a set of EP’s alongside a bootleg LP, headline toured extensively, supported the likes of The Bug Club and The Futureheads, and played live in session twice for BBC 6 Music. With songs about everything from domestic recycling politics (Bin Day), to a PTA meeting gone awry (Nutbush Coffee Morning), Mock Tudors write it, so you don’t have to.

September 2023 saw the Tudors mini LP I AM BOZO – recorded in a matter of days in their rehearsal room and mixed by the band the week after. With nods to the best new-wave (The Shake, Distraction Alarm), sludgy garage (Two Sugars) straight up Ramones Punk (Bozo) and creep-tinged glam (No. 1 Fan) the EP explores sounds that drip with the legacy of pub rock through the ages.

With rumblings of a new album on the horizon, the band’s truly DIY approach sees them creating everything in-house, from music videos and artwork to handmade leather and ceramic merchandise. The band also act as their own private booking agent and tour manager under the guise of D.A.D. management with a long stint on the road due this September. This steam and ale fuelled outfit is a semi-professional Tudor cottage industry… just don’t tell the Lord of the manor.

Support comes from Holy Gloam. Holy Gloam are a five-piece alt rock/shoegaze band from North Wales. Formed by songwriter Julian Neale at the tail end of 2021, the band played a number of live shows around the North West in the first half of 2022 followed by the release of debut album Small Nothings. Two singles have been released since then and a Double A side, recorded at Yawn, is due out later this year on 7” via Shipwrecked Records.

Reviews of live performances have led to sound comparisons to Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr and Sugar, amongst others.

‘Holy Gloam’s dream-pop-tinged two-track cassette The Sun Has Set On My Heart is a multi-layered grower with hints of Ride after a night of excess. There is much going on in this song and, thankfully, it all comes together to create a glorious noise’ – Sun13.com

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When: 7.30pm on Thursday 19 September 2024
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to be working with Dominie Hooper for the first time!

Simmering memory and unspoken truth righteously seethe in songs with tenderness, anger and startling leaps of joy and optimism. To see it live is to truly feel it – Dominie Hooper, long-time session musician, collaborator and multi-instrumentalist, takes flight in the centre of a stage wrapped in musical alchemy with bandmate mainstays Twm Dylan, Phil Self and Dave Hamblett.

Her folk-steeped debut EP ANNO was described as ‘beautiful, challenging, fruitful… captivating’ (Liverpool Sound & Vision) and ‘confident and impressive’ (Fatea magazine), and was triumphantly celebrated with a sell-out debut headline tour.

Hooper’s latest single releases Hastings, Haul Anchor and Robin, all produced by Kate Stables (This Is The Kit) and supported by both Help Musicians and PRSF’s Women Make Music, have received a wave of media acclaim with spins on BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing, BBC Radio Scotland and more. With a sound-world edging away from her folk roots and into heavier, more distorted psych grooves and raw soaring vocals, self-knowledge with empowerment is the name of the game. Dominie and her band toured the UK this spring as main support to This Is The Kit, and this summer sees her playing major festivals.

With a debut album in the works for next year, it’s a good time to catch Dominie Hooper live – her unexpectedly joyful stage presence makes you feel in the company of an old friend, and the on-stage connection undeniable. Prepare for a hug and a punch in the gut. This exhilarating new voice is bound to make waves in the world of alt-folk and beyond.

‘Spine-tingling…and just a very real sounding, grounded piece of singing and songwriting’ – Roddy Hart, BBC Radio Scotland

‘That’s brilliant isn’t it … Absolutely beautiful’ – Shaun Keaveny, Community Garden Radio

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When: 7.30pm on Friday 20 September 2024
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to present an intimate solo show for Steve Wynn!

Steve Wynn, leader and founder of the Dream Syndicate, will be touring the UK this September in support of I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True – his debut book, a memoir for Jawbone Press – as well as Make It Right – his first solo album since 2010, to be released on Fire Records. Both the book and new record will come out on 30 August, just a few weeks ahead of the tour.

The book details the winding path from growing up a music fan and pre-teen bandleader in Los Angeles through the formation and ultimate dissolution of the Dream Syndicate at the end of their first era in 1988. There are stops along the way for tales of cross-country greyhound trips to track down Alex Chilton to wild, off-the-rails tours with U2 and R.E.M. and the epic heart-of-darkness making of the band’s controversial second album Medicine Show and plenty more.

The album is a similarly, reflective and intimately revealing collection, written and recorded in tandem with the writing of I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True.

Wynn promises a one-man show blending songs from and inspired by the book along with a narrative structure of readings from the book and storytelling, adjunctly extrapolated from those passages. Fans can expect a selection of evergreens and rarities from the Dream Syndicate’s 80s catalogue along with illuminating covers and reflective numbers from the new album as well, all adding up to one tall tale of a past revisited.

Steve says: ‘I don’t see this show as a stodgy reading or as a random selection of songs but rather a tiny play of sorts, a way of giving a flesh and blood companion to the book. I’m looking for that magic place where, say, Lenny Bruce and Spaulding Grey and Ray Davies and Bob Dylan and maybe Hedwig might meet in a dimly lit cabernet on the back streets of Hollywood. I’ve never done this kind of show before but if I can hit all those markers, I’ll be happy.’

Steve Wynn will be selling and signing copies of I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True (book) and Make It Right (CD/LP) after every show.

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When: 7.30pm on Saturday 21 September 2024
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

PLEASE NOTE: This show has now sold out! Watch this space for details of future Ryley Walker shows.

We’re delighted to present an intimate solo show for Ryley Walker!

Ryley Walker began his career in the early 2010s, after moving from Illinois’ provincial town of Rockford, and settling into Chicago’s independent scene. After a slew of cassette and vinyl releases, Tompkins Square put out his debut album in 2014, which was then followed up by the Dead Oceans released Primrose Green a year later. His most recent album, Course in Fable, was released on his own Husky Pants Recordings label in 2021.

Having toured with the likes of Richard Thompson, and with a supporting slot for Dinosaur Jr. forthcoming – as well as a tremendous Bert Jansch tribute show behind him, wherein his hero Anne Briggs called him the ‘c word’ – Walker has rubbed shoulders with the very best.

While, in the past, his desire to be as great as his influences may have dogged and hindered him from bringing his own personality to his music, now, Walker’s music is undeniably his. A mix of Twitter and sobriety may be partially responsible. ‘Music is an exciting thing I get to do because I’m alive and well. I take every opportunity I’m given very seriously; I’ve gotta pay tribute to that by staying alive and being as good to the people who love me as I can,’ he said.

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