When: 7.30pm on Thursday 16 May 2024
Where: The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

We’re delighted to be working with Robbie Cavanagh once again – with special guest St. Catherine’s Child!

Award-winning artist Robbie Cavanagh released Tough Love – his much-anticipated third record – in May 2023, and in the months since has been touring prolifically as a headline artist, as well as in support of American trio The Wood Brothers.

Tough Love has seen Robbie perform at The Long Road Festival, The British Country Music Festival, Celtic Connections, Your Roots are Showing and as an official showcase artist at Folk Alliance International in Kansas City.

2024 continues to look positive for Robbie as he embarks on more UK headline dates including a live album recording at London’s prestigious Pizza Express Live venue.

Whereas Robbie’s previous record To Leave/To Be Left (2017) grappled with emotions of loss and self-pity from leaving or being left behind, Tough Love comes as an invigorating reality check. It’s a grittier and stronger-minded letter to himself and to anybody else who may be in need of a heavy dose of tough love. Written over the course of the past give years, each track explores a new perspective on the record’s overarching theme and documents Robbie’s own journey of self-reflection and maturity, both as a person and as a songwriter.

Whispering Bob Harris selected Robbie as his Emerging Artist Award at the Americana Music Association UK Awards, describing him as ‘one of my absolute favourite grass roots artists’.

Robbie’s live performances have been well received from fans and critics alike, with W21 describing Robbie’s performance as ‘definitely a superior country sound’ and Music Talkers mentioning his ‘outstanding performance’. The record itself was described as ‘a slick, mature and intense foray into the murky world of human emotions’ and ‘an album designed for late nights and whiskey’.

Special guest is St. Catherine’s Child. St. Catherine’s Child is the pet project of transatlantic singer-songwriter Ilana Zsigmond. Born in England to musical parents, Ilana spent the majority of her childhood in New Haven, Connecticut, bouncing back and forth between continents as her parents toured.

After settling back in the UK in 2015, she has formed a band that reflects the Americana aesthetic that surrounded her throughout her childhood with the articulation and dry-wit of her British sensibilities. Named for the patron saint of eloquent women, her vocal strength and poetic songwriting shines at the heart of St. Catherine’s Child.

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When: 7pm on Thursday 23 May 2024
Where: Low Four Studio, Deansgate Mews, Great Northern, Manchester M3 4EN

We’re excited to be working with Memorial for the first time!

Memorial is a project rooted in friendship, one fuelled by unflinching honesty. Ollie Spalding and Jack Watts were friends first, and songwriting partners second, and this quality sets them apart. They’re marked by that peculiar alchemy when two voices become one, a special sense of human connection wrought through harmony and emboldened with experience. New album Redsetter is their coming-of-age moment – gilded indie-folk with an optimistic sense of maturity, it dares to look towards the light.

“We had literally no idea what was gonna happen!” Ollie gasps when looking back on the pair’s self-titled debut album. Sculpted over the pandemic and released on Real Kind Records – the boutique Communion imprint chaired by Lucy Rose – the record displayed their core values. “The emotion has to be right,” says Oliver. “When we record songs, we want to stay true to the emotion – as though those songs had just been written seconds before they were recorded.”

It’s this facet that sparked ideas for Memorial’s second album. The success of their debut brought fresh experiences – writing with Flyte, collaborating with everyone from Matthew & The Atlas and Victoria Canal to Talos and Olafur Arnalds – but also new challenges. New LP Redsetter takes them from their base in Brighton to a remote part of Texas (and back again); it’s a record that’s driven by a special kind of determination, dealing with intimate bonds, familial connections, and a quiet sense of renewal.

Pushing themselves harder than ever before, the band doggedly hunted down the perfect producer, flying across the Atlantic in the process. The band found a way to take control by letting go, putting aside their struggles with perfectionism and self-doubt to bring their dream to life through sacrifice and plain hard work. “On this album, we wanted something raw,” Ollie asserts. “We wanted to feel uncomfortable. It’s this raw part of ourselves, that we’re normally scared to share with people.”

The pair binged Texas artist Lomelda’s outstanding album Hannah over lockdown, recognising instinctively that it contained the sound they wanted for their own songwriting. Hunting down the record’s producer – Lomelda’s brother, studio guru Tommy Read – they sent email after email, phone call after phone call, in order to get him to open up to their vision. Ollie agreed to step up as co-producer, an unfamiliar role that pushed him far out of his comfort zone. Flying thousands of miles to the producer’s home studio base in Silsbee, rural Texas, they drove for hours past vast ranches, colossal fields of cattle fringed by hills dotted with tall pines. “It was this pocket of beautiful energy,” says Ollie. “He has a sound that I’ve never heard anywhere else. It feels as though you’re in the room with us.”

Tasked with completing the record in just 18 days, Memorial balked at the compact timescale. “That included flying to America, to a place we’d never been to before, living with humans we’d only met online, and actualising the arrangements that lived in our minds for so long, with musicians we’d never played with before,” explains Jack. Laughing, he adds: “That was probably the toughest part, but it gave the record this added vulnerability.”

It opens with ‘White Campion’, a true slow burner that illustrates how Memorial have blossomed. Ratcheting up the ambitions of their debut, it’s a widescreen return, one that dares to embrace hope. “I think sob stories are outdated,” says Ollie, “and this record at its core is about healing, self-worth, creative freedom and celebrating the everyday, beautiful little things in life.”

The opening song is paired with ‘Corduroy’, a track that beams sunshine, radiance, and positivity. Crafted during those long days in Texas, it’s redolent of two musicians grappling with new obstacles, overcoming fresh challenges, and pushing themselves to the limit. Jacks says: “The way we recorded the album matches up with our self-belief, and a general trust in vulnerability we would have never been able to commit to a few years back. To be able to trust our songwriting to break through and still hit you in the right way.”

The album deals with the push and pull of new challenges, and fresh commitments. Ollie was set to become a father for the first time a few months after recording, something he tackles in-depth on heart-swelling new song ‘River’. It’s a double-edged sword, though: recording in Texas took him away from his pregnant partner. Jack, too, has his own circle of support – he works in the mental health sector which often includes overnight shifts with vulnerable people. “Managing the new responsibilities in our lives has been challenging,” say the duo. “When co-existing and planning a future – kids, marriage and buying a house – it completely changes the foundations of why this is important to us and the drive required to make it work.”

The beautifully pointed ‘Silver’ deals with toxic friendships, but also offers a note of support. “It’s about giving your life to a group,” says Jack. “When you have that stripped away from you, it can be incredibly hurtful… and it takes a long time to find yourself again as a person.” The profoundly affecting ‘Guardian’ meanwhile is “an ode to small man syndrome,” laughs Jack. “I’m very open, and I’m very trusting of people… which can often lead to people taking advantage. It’s a song of forgiveness, but also accountability.”

Even the album’s title is a reference to growth, and maturation: ‘Redsetter’ is named after a breed of dog that takes longer to mature than most. “We chose to view this creatively rather than personally, despite it being accurate either way,” the group comment. “When the album was complete it felt like we’d returned to our bodies with a new understanding.”

Memorial’s stripped back approach finds each different part speaking its own truth. Initially, they wanted to include a host of guests, before becoming something pared back, minimalist, and profound. The quiet joy exuded by ‘Redsetter’ was mirrored in those Texas recording sessions, long days and longer nights fuelled by Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and a masterclass in brisket when Tommy’s extended family came round to visit. “We felt like part of his family as soon as we go there,” Jack says. “That communal, familial vibe adds to the record,” adds Oliver. “It made us feel so comfortable.”

Looking for perfect moments within our imperfect lives, Memorial have displayed extraordinary sense of character to drive themselves forwards. “We’ve let go of trying to make everything sound perfect,” says Jack. “Being vulnerable in that way means that the end product is truer to you than it ever could be. There’s a realness to it.” Memorial have taken true ownership of their lives, pushing through enormous challenges to unlock new aspects of their artistry, and actualise their dreams.

Local support comes from Alf Whitby. Sad pop alternative artist Alf Whitby returns with his new release, I Hope You Find Your Way — a jazz-infused folk-rock ballad that explores influences from Big Thief, Laura Marling and Bon Iver. The London-born musician, now settled in Manchester, called on collaborators from across both cities to come together to create this eclectic soundscape, recorded amidst the industrial charm of Pear Mill studios.

In this melodic journey, Whitby extends a heartfelt plea to the protagonist, urging them to break free from the shackles of introspection and find their way out to the light at the end of the tunnel – to get back to basics in life with a nostalgic nod to days gone by.

Opening the show is Hannah Ashcroft. Hailing from somewhere between Manchester and Liverpool, with a brief stint in Melbourne, Hannah Ashcroft is a self-producing singer, songwriter and guitarist. Nowadays, she can be found wandering between and occasionally nose diving into the realms of indie, psych and folk, with wonky guitar riffs, distinctive vocals and offbeat lyrics.

Her releases have attracted the attention of tastemakers at BBC 6 Music, Amazing Radio and Clash magazine, with her latest EP HUSK earning her a spot on the Glastonbury Emerging Artist list. Fresh from the tour bus, she has spent the past year playing shows across the UK & EU with critically acclaimed US artist Lissie and has previously collaborated with Mercury nominated artist Beth Orton.

This show takes place at Low Four – a recording studio situated on Deansgate Mews in the Great Northern warehouse. This intimate venue features a fully stocked Cloudwater bar.

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

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When: 7.30pm on Thursday 23 May 2024
Where: Night & Day Cafe, 26 Oldham St, Manchester, M1 1JN

We’re delighted to welcome His Lordship back – this time, to Night & Day Cafe!

His Lordship, one of the most explosive and exciting live acts to emerge from the UK in years, announce a fresh set of explosive UK live dates for May. This comes hot off the back of the release of their debut self-titled album – produced by David Wrench and Tchad Blake (Arctic Monkeys, Black Keys).

His Lordship will embark on 11 shows across the UK, bringing their frenetic, frenzied, rapturous brand of garage rock to the masses. The band sold out their debut UK tour in July, and then joined Jason Isbell on a sell out European tour culminating with a roof raising show at London’s Eventim Apollo.

A maximum rock ’n’ roll trio conceived during lockdown to blow the cobwebs away and remind us of what music has been missing, the band are made up of the powerhouse duo of James Walbourne (The Pretenders, The Pogues, The Rails) and Kristoffer Sonne (Chrissie Hynde, Willie Nelson). Their debut self-titled album was branded ‘a sonic assault, dripping with bad-boy attitude’ by Uncut, with MOJO describing it as ‘a riot of edge-of-insanity vocals, percussive battery and ferocious guitars’.

The band’s first single All Cranked Up hit the 6 Music B-List, and then saw the release of its follow up Buzzkill – an angular, twisted ear worm, as well as the monster garage rock anthem Jackie Works For The NHS.

These shows are not to be missed!

Local support comes from Dead Stilettos. Dead Stilettos are a four-piece band based in Manchester. Since first appearing in November 2022, they have developed a reputation for high octane live performances and their own distinct brand of punk. Dead Stilettos are on a mission to bring authenticity and fun back to live music and give a voice to the disillusioned. They play fast paced rock n roll and are entirely DIY in their approach to writing, recording and producing, and evoke classic punk pioneers but with their own frenetic modern twist, the perfect soundtrack for a disenfranchised UK.

This show is a co-promotion with DHP Family.

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When: 7.30pm on Thursday 23 May 2024
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

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

Florry are a Philadelphia-based country rock outfit led by Francie Medosch and featuring a cast of the most daring and tasteful players of the underground. Francie’s songwriting is pointed, personal and current, yet arranged with a keen ear toward the canon of late 20th Century outlaw country and rock n’roll.

‘Philadelphia singer-songwriter Francie Medosch’s band combines the weepy twang of old-school country with the cozy intimacy of DIY rock’ – Pitchfork

Local support comes from Tragicomics. Tragicomics are an alt-country collective from the north west of the UK, and self-professed purveyors of sharply crafted pop songs, sweeping melancholy and doomed romanticism. Since 2017 Tragicomics have been writing, recording and releasing what the Quietus described as ‘widescreen English Americana’. In 2021 Tragicomics released their second album Book of Want, drawing favourable reviews and comparisons to My Morning Jacket, Wilco and Blitzen Trapper.

At the end of 2023 the band released the double single Hopeless Romantic/Stranger Things, featuring artwork by award-winning painter Jude Wainwright, and were named UK Artist of the Month by the Vinyl District. Now the five-piece return with new single Dinosaur. Like previous releases before it, Dinosaur continues to highlight the band’s versatility and their refusal to be easily defined. Across its six minutes the track encompasses haunting acoustic ruminations, melodramatic strings, spoken word poetry and a searing electric guitar breakdown, all shot through with a self-eviscerating lyric about time, age and expectation.

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When: 7.30pm on Tuesday 28 May 2024
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to be working with Bad Bad Hats for the first time!

Bad Bad Hats are an indie rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kerry Alexander and Chris Hoge met in college and formed the band in 2012. In the 10 years of BBH, they have toured the country several times in their trusty minivan, sampling the best local cuisine along the way.

BBH has toured with The Beths, Margaret Glaspy, The Front Bottoms, Hippo Campus and Michelle Branch, among many others. Their new album, Bad Bad Hats, is out 12 April 2024 via Don Giovanni Records.

Special guests are Pys Melyn. Pys Melyn are Ceiri, Sion, Owain, Owain and Jac from Pen Llyn, North Wales. Gigging since 2014, Pys Melyn’s first singles were released in 2018. They formed Ski-Whiff records the following year and released their first album, Bywyd Llonydd (Still Life), in 2021, which drew on a variety of global influences and was nominated for a Welsh Music Prize. They released their second album Bolmynydd in August 2023, which draws on a more traditional range of 60’s/70’s influences.

After releasing Bolmynydd, they toured around the UK and Brittany, playing venues like the Garage in London and Rough Trade Bristol. In 2024 they have recorded a BBC 6 Music session for Riley and Coe, supported Gruff Rhys on the Sadness Sets Me Free tour and are looking forward to supporting Spiritualized at Focus Wales in May, as well as a host of festivals and gigs across the UK in the summer. They’re looking forward to releasing new music in 2024 with a third album on the way.

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When: 7pm on Wednesday 29 May 2024
Where: SOUP, 31-33 Spear St, Manchester M1 1DF

We’re delighted to be welcoming Dana Gavanski back to Manchester!

Following the release of 2022’s When It Comes, Dana Gavanski returns with her third album Late Slap, due for release 5 April 2024. Streaming now is the album opener, How To Feel Uncomfortable, which is matched perfectly with a disturbing and visually stunning video, directed by Ella Margolin.

There’s a party in Dana Gavanski’s head and everyone’s invited – well, kind of. Late Slap gives voice to the highs and lows of the mindscape in all its joys and terrors, injecting some much-needed playfulness into the process of writing about emotionally hard things. ‘The album holds together the seemingly disparate aspects of my character that I have sometimes tried to repress,’ says Dana. ‘With this album I’m letting them into the room, celebrating them for all their strangeness – a strangeness which I think we all, on some level, share.’

Having (literally) lost her voice during the writing of her previous album, When It Comes, Late Slap finds Dana in magisterial mode, displaying a newfound confidence and energy — in both her writing and singing — borne, paradoxically, from embracing feelings of discomfort. ‘I realised,’ says Dana, ‘that in order to become stronger I needed to get used to being uncomfortable.’ It’s appropriate, then, that the album opens with How to Feel Uncomfortable, a quick sonic punch of a song, which bemoans the growing distances between people in the digital landscapes where we spend so much time wandering aimlessly: ‘Stand too close, face in your phone/ it’s scrambling your mind/ tired of your zombie glow/soaking up your eyes.’ The song attests to the difficulty of sitting with yourself, in boredom, insecurity and indecision — and the important emotional and spiritual rewards of doing so. Or, as Susan Sontag, a major influence on the album, puts it in Regarding the Pain of Others: ‘It is passivity that dulls feeling. The states described as apathy, moral or emotional anaesthesia, are full of feelings; the feelings are rage and frustration…’

In the writing of Late Slap, Gavanski swapped out the familiar for the new, training herself to use Logic Pro rather than just her usual guitar-and-voice approach. If composing somewhat neo-Luddite anthems on a Macbook seems a little contradictory, well, that’s kind of the point: ’21st century life is so full of contradictions and headfucks that it can be hard to do anything with conviction — you could cynic your way out of doing or believing anything.’ Initially overwhelmed by its seemingly limitless possibilities, Dana began to create demos and collages of small sound worlds across various influences, at times orchestral pop, art rock and new wave, again embracing difference and variety. ‘Whenever I’m stuck in a certain way of working, it helps to try something new, to challenge myself in a different way. Like when you learn a new instrument: you’re excited by it and less concerned with perfection.’

Gavanski fleshed out the demos with her band before taking the album — and the band — to Mike Lindsay (Tunng, LUMP) at MESS, the producer’s studio in Margate. The five-piece, which includes Gavanski’s fellow co-producer James Howard (Rozi Plain, Alabaster dePlume), tracked the record over five days. ‘I knew Mike could help me find the range of sound I was looking for; he has an amazing attention to sonic detail and we’ve worked well together on previous records.’ Lindsay acquired a Yamaha DX7 synth at Dana’s request just for the album, and they used it to conjure an atmosphere of digital warmth that recalls the Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s meditative masterpiece Keyboard Fantasies.

But the Gavanski mind-party has a varied playlist. Ears Were Growing, for example, encapsulates the eighties zeal of Talking Heads or Klaus Nomi, pitching fantasy against reality through a playful lyric about negative self-talk, the domestic interior, and their way of creating a kind of Stockholm Syndrome equal parts comfort and fear. The line ‘take me to the cinema/ I want to inhabit the actress!’ testifies to Dana’s appreciation for the theatrical and the cinematic. She cites the influence of golden age Hollywood star Gena Rowlands, whose portrayal of an ageing theatre actor in Opening Night leads to a frightening loss of self and a dark, sobering transformation: ‘Gena manages to express so many feelings just through her face. She’s strikingly beautiful in a classic Hollywood way but she’s not scared to look silly and childish. She makes me laugh and cry at the same time — there’s something transformative in going over the top.’

Some tracks take a less in-your-face approach (it takes all sorts to make a memorable party). Ribbon, a tender song about the recent loss of a childhood friend, looks at the world through the lens of grief, marvelling at the way the familiar suddenly loses its meaning and shape: ‘To face the rays all saddled in silence/How do I rearrange my room/ the walls are a shell/That’s opened too soon/ I can’t manage it from here.’ The gently propulsive Song for Rachel approaches the same subject matter from another angle, finding release in the simple, straight-to-the-point chorus refrain of ‘Cause you’re gone/ it’s just that I’m lost/ and I don’t know how to feel.’ Not knowing how to feel, Gavanski shows us, is as valid and important a feeling as any other.

Late Slap’s unsettling artwork places the album themes in plain sight, Gavanski’s ambiguous, animated expression and screened-out black eyes bearing witness to what might be a revolving exhibition of contradictory images: cute play-fighting kittens giving way to pictures of suffering and war, golden hours dissolving into lost hours never to be reclaimed. But Late Slap is also what its title suggests — a sudden jolt, a shock to the system that seeks to reconnect with the messy flesh-and-thought humanity of simply being human. The album’s tension between cynicism and trust, openness and despair, melodrama and silliness, ultimately invites the listeners in (throw your coat on the bed over there, stranger). It welcomes you at the door and beckons you to find tenderness in a world doing its best to desensitise us.

Tour support comes from Bingo Fury. Bingo Fury’s noirish, furiously inventive music – marrying Scott Walker-esque balladry, poised jazz and agitated no-wave – has marked him amongst the UK avant-garde’s most exciting young voices. The multi-instrumentalist and madcap producer’s debut album Bats Feet For A Widow was released in February via The state51 Conspiracy.

Bats Feet For A Widow was recorded in a local church in Bristol, inspired by Fury’s tangled feelings towards his strong religious upbringing. We hear the old building everywhere, amidst the rich jazz performances of his band: Meg Jenkins (bass), Henry Terrett (drums), Harry Furniss (cornet) and Rafi Cohen (guitar, glockenspiel, piano). We also hear tossed house keys, wine glasses and strange acousmatic experiments: all channelled into a powerfully cinematic, deeply romantic album. At its heart is Fury’s crooning bass vocal, lending a vivid and slyly humorous voice to universal themes of love and pain.

Buy tickets now.

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When: 7.30pm on Friday 31 May 2024
Where: Hallé at St Michael’s, 36-38 George Leigh Street, Ancoats, Manchester M4 5DG

We’re delighted to be helping Caoilfhionn Rose launch her new album – with special guests Lemoncello!

With her third Gondwana album, Constellation, Manchester’s Caoilfhionn Rose has come of age as an artist, digging deep to find experimental new ways of expressing her wonder at nature’s beauty, her love of music in all its diversity, and her belief in the restorative powers that both afford in the troubled post-covid world.

Vigorous, searching and ever-curious, Caoilfhionn (say ‘Keelin’) has found a voice at once ancient and modern, intrepidly exploring contemporary technology to transform traditional songcraft for the mid-2020s.

The ten tracks on Constellation feel rooted in a knowledge of folk, jazz and all the twentieth century’s classic tunesmiths, and yet they seem to create a magical, otherworldly space of her own imagining, blending Caoilfhionn’s core piano with synths, and pitting a live rhythm section and saxophone embellishments against ambient samples and future-facing production techniques.

Confident, exploratory and often jaw-droppingly sublime, this incredible album properly announces Caoilfhionn Rose’s arrival as a fresh creative force for 2024.

Caoilfhionn has always pursued music with a fierce commitment. When a period of illness in her late teens caused a delay in starting a Music degree at Newcastle University she used the time constructively. She took a diploma in Music Production and Audio Engineering at Manchester Midi School (now School of Electronic Music), which leant heavily towards electronic music, imbuing her with a progressive outlook towards sound manipulation. ‘It was the best decision,’ she says, ‘because I got to learn how to use Logic, from the very basics into exploration, and some live sound recording as well. It was a course for DJs really, but I started to try melding electronics with my background in more folky, traditional stuff.’

Studying music at university in Newcastle, she’d mess around making sound experiments and field recordings, posting tracks online under the alias Audrey Daydreamer, and eventually an EP, under her own name on Soundcloud and Bandcamp. ‘That was how I got involved with Gondwana,’ she explains, ‘because Matthew [Halsall, label boss] found the EP, and realised I was now based in Didsbury near where he lives. He came to see me play at a café called The Art of Tea, and afterwards he asked if I’d like to record for Gondwana.’

Constellation features contributions from Matthew Halsall’s rhythm section, drummer Alan Taylor and bassist Gavin Barras, as well as Jordan Smart from Mammal Hands, whose supple sax exquisitely colours the fringes of most of its songs. Also guesting: John Ellis, former member of The Cinematic Orchestra, beatifically tinkling the ivories at the end of Fall Into Place, and producer Aaron Wood via a raft of ambient samples adding textured loveliness throughout Rainfall.

‘I love being open to collaboration,’ Rose enthuses, ‘and the record’s a collage, knitting together all these influences, sounds and players, and just really going for it with the experimentation in the production.’

For this outing, Rose herself returned to her first instrument, the piano, weaving numerous catchy melodies through the mix. Again, loathing to see time wasted, she deployed some dead weeks of covid lockdown isolation on a Masters degree at the Royal Northern College of Music, much of it obviously carried out online.

Constellation sees her broaden the range of her singing, from the pure natural expression of her earlier records, to using it more as an instrument, sometimes more as abstract sound than as conventional verbal delivery. ‘It’s all playful and experimental,’ she summarises, ‘seeing what we could come up with that’s imaginative.’ And she has learnt to use ‘her artistic license just to let the words be as they are’, to write in a momentary, impressionistic, almost painterly way. One example was how the word ‘constellation’ just fell into her head – ‘like, out of the cosmos’ – while recording that song, so in it went. It also seemed emblematic of many aspects of the album – the theme of connectedness, her little cluster of Gondwana family musicians, and a pervasive feel of stargazing awe in the music. It obviously made a fitting album title, too.

And so, Caoilfhionn Rose’s collage of differing influences and inspirations, players and processes, cohered into a miraculous and quietly powerful body of work, which stands as a testament to artistic adventure, to both improvisation and hard work, to trusting our connection to nature, other people and music itself. As such, Constellation surely deserves to put her on a much bigger stage by the year’s end.

Special guests are Lemoncello. Laura Quirke and Claire Kinsella’s collaboration charms audiences into a world of intimate observations and uncomfortable questions with irresistible chemistry, charisma, and humour. ‘Why are all the good men, too old, taken or dead?’

The rare alchemy of the duo’s voices together cuts through a minimal and dramatic soundscape; coloured by the warmth and grit of Kinsella’s Cello, and distinctly underpinned by Quirke’s cyclical, trance-like guitar playing. While embedded in Irish and Folk roots, Lemoncello’s sound embraces the freedom of carving out its own song structures, entwined with a love of off-kilter Indie Pop, Jazz extemporisation and Romantic and Contemporary Classical music.

‘They write like Wet Leg and sing like Laura Marling’ – Joshua Burnside

This will be one of the first public concerts in St Michael’s since its recent re-opening, having been closed since 2004. The Roman Catholic church was founded in 1859 and became the heart of the Little Italy Community in Ancoats.

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

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Attend on: Facebook

When: 7pm on Saturday 1 June 2024
Where: New Century, Mayes Street, Manchester M60 4ES

We’re excited to welcome The Lovely Eggs back – this time, to New Century, with guests Loose Articles and !

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.

The band recently returned with new single My Mood Wave – their first new music in nearly four years. Four long years since the release of their Number 1 Independent Chart topper, I Am Moron. But it’s not like they’ve been lazy, oh no. They made their own TV series EGGS TV and hosted it on YouTube, they dueted with Iggy Pop, piled into their van and played a load of sold-out gigs and festivals, spent two years fighting to save Lancaster Music Co-Op (a community rehearsal rooms and recording studio where they live), and then they got their heads down and wrote a new album.

My Mood Wave, with its contemporary, yet haunted West Coast retro vibe, was an instant smash across the airwaves of 6 Music, Radio X etc and gave us the first whiff of what to expect from Eggsistentialism – the brand-new album from The Lovely Eggs, due 17 May via Egg Records.

‘The new album is really a reflection on what has been happening to us these last couple of years, stewing up in Eggland in our own juices,’ explains Holly. ‘It’s about loss and strength. On this album you’ll hear us at our lowest and most vulnerable. Daily life is hard. Realising everything you grew up with and loved is never coming back, alongside the responsibilities of caring for others is sometimes hard to take. The album is about life and death. Eggsistentialism. It’s about dragging yourself through all the shit to get to the other side.’

Once again, the album was recorded by the band at home in Lancaster with production work from Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann. They flew to America in December 2023 to mix the album in Fridmann’s studio in upstate New York and the results are without doubt the most expansive, mind-melting ten songs the band have delivered yet. From the twisted, sneering punk rock of opening track Death Grip Kids, to the wistful, stark seven-minute psychedelic beauty of Nothing/Everything, Eggsistentialism sees The Lovely Eggs running the full gauntlet of emotions and sounds.

‘It’s a bit of a “wilderness years” album,’ continues Holly. ‘We haven’t released a new record since 2020 and in the meantime, we’ve been here fighting shit and trying to defend a right to a lifestyle that we’ve enjoyed here in this town for the last 30+ years- as working musicians who refuse to get a “normal” job and tow the line. It’s about believing in something and not letting go. But that unwillingness to give in ultimately takes its toll. It does start to destroy you and the album is kind of a documentation of that destruction and collapse as well as the strength we’ve got to get through it all. Ultimately, this is a hopeful record about survival.’

Eggsistentialism will be released on ltd edition ‘mind green’ 12” vinyl and CD with more breathtaking/mind-boggling artwork by illustrator Casey Raymond. All orders made direct through the band’s website will come with a limited edition signed print of the album artwork, with the first 500 LP copies hand numbered and signed by the band.

There will also be an additional 1,000 LPs pressed on transparent blue vinyl with ‘coffee’ splatter exclusively available in independent record shops.

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.

Spoken word support comes from Ramsgate-based performance poet Violet Malice. Violet Malice is more than just a bra full of tits. Performer, writer, comedy, poetry, bad videos, dancer, prancer and blitzen.

Opening the show are Loose Articles. Specialising in discordant, hypnotic repetition, tales of boozy nights out, and radical politics, Loose Articles are a punk quartet from Manchester with plenty to say. Their music speaks to all those determined to get through the age of austerity with tongue in cheek, pint in hand, and two feet firmly on the dance floor.

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

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When: 7pm on Friday 7 June 2024
Where: Low Four Studio, Deansgate Mews, Great Northern, Manchester M3 4EN

We’re excited to be presenting an intimate show for James Yorkston!

James Yorkston, the gentleman-songwriter of the East Neuk of Fife, has released (with or without The Athletes) a series of albums of tenderness and melody, insight and empathy. His eye for the details in life and the richness of his brogue make a Yorkston song instantly recognisable.

Tour support comes from Viking Moses. Viking Moses, AKA Brendon Massei, achieves a special balance of warmth and command, with familiar melodies that draw listeners in and oblige them to stay. Strongly lyrical songs are played out through tunes that flirt with pop, soul and Americana, all strung together with a unique pulsing guitar, and by Massei’s robust voice, which ebbs from delicate whispers to throaty howls. 20 years and counting, Massei has won over fans and critics with the delicate melodies of his songs, and through his versatility as a performer. The lore of Massei’s outsider lifestyle has won him interest and praise.

This show takes place at Low Four – a recording studio situated on Deansgate Mews in the Great Northern warehouse. This intimate venue features a fully stocked Cloudwater bar.

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

Buy tickets now.

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When: 7.30pm on Sunday 16 June 2024
Where: Night & Day Cafe, 26 Oldham St, Manchester, M1 1JN

We’re delighted to be welcoming Paisley Underground legends Rain Parade to Manchester!

Rain Parade are set to return with their first UK and European dates since disbanding in 1986, hitting nine countries including a stop-off in Manchester at Night & Day Cafe.

Rain Parade are a band founded in Los Angeles, California in 1981 that quickly gained notoriety as a leading member of LA’s fabled Paisley Underground music scene. The band’s signature sound combines hypnotic, melodic songwriting and 60s psychedelia-inspired instrumentation — chiming guitars, eastern-inflected motifs, multi-part vocal harmonies — with 70s punk influences and a darker lyrical approach fully informed by late 20th and early 21st century themes.

The Rain Parade’s debut album, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, (Enigma Records US/Demon Records UK), featuring the songwriting, vocal, and instrumental talents of founding members Matt Piucci, Steven Roback, and David Roback in equal measure, was released in 1983 and is internationally recognised as a masterpiece. Rain Parade’s second album, Explosions In The Glass Palace (Enigma Records/US, Demon Records/UK), recorded after David Roback’s departure, received the same high praise as their debut, with the band’s reputation growing ever since.

Sid Griffin, leader of The Long Ryders has said: “We were in the Paisley Underground with Rain Parade back in the 1980s… Explosions In The Glass Palace is and will forever be the BEST recording from a Paisley Underground band, be it us, The Dream Syndicate, The Bangles, The Three O’Clock or whomever.”

Both records directly influenced bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Ride, The Stone Rose, Teenage Fanclub, Charlatans and naturally Creation boss Alan McGee. And Rain Parade songs have been covered by The Bluetones, Buffalo Tom, Bangles and a host of others. During the mid 80s, the band toured the UK and Europe extensively, and made multiple appearances on the BBC Whistle Test TV shows. “Rain Parade was the one that changed me like an explosion in my mind, I saw them perform ‘No Easy Way Down’ on TV, and it was like, ‘Here is something I can fully get behind.’ It’s just incredible, and I have to say would have been pretty influential on the early Ride sound for sure” Andy Bell of Ride

Guitarist John Thoman joined Piucci and Roback in 1984 and went on to record on the band’s third and fourth LPs, Crashing Dream and Beyond The Sunset – Live in Japan (Island Records 1985/86) before the band broke up the following year.

Since then, the band’s reputation and diehard following has only grown, which led them to reuniting in the US for several well-received one-off shows in California, Atlanta, and Austin, and eventually recording 3 songs for the 3×4 album (Yep Roc 2018) with their friends The Bangles, The Dream Syndicate and The Three O’Clock. And most recently recording this year’s new album, Last Rays Of A Dying Sun, which manages to sound both like a lost classic and the groundbreaking work of unknown new artist, emerging from their secret lair with a record ready to change the world. As MOJO puts it, “there’s little rain on their new parade.”

Wrapping sweet nuggets of pop confection in swirling clouds of interstellar psychedelia, Last Rays Of A Dying Sun is a record at once eminently engaging and delightfully ornate. Everything old is new again, and it’s very easy to see the line that runs from the Summer of Love and the chiming tones of Jangle Pop to mid-eighties SoCal Paisley Underground of which Rain Parade was a pivotal component, through to the late-90’s Elephant 6 Collective, straight to the neo-psych indie rock of today.

Last Rays Of A Dying Sun features the original 80s members Piucci, Roback and Thoman alongside guitarist Derek See (the Gentle Cycle / Dean & Britta (Galaxy 500) / Chocolate Watchband), drummer Stephan Junca (The Hellenes, Billy Talbot, Boatclub), with vocalists Debbi and Vicki Peterson (The Bangles). Last Rays Of A Dying Sun is out on Flatiron Recordings, on their imprint Label 51. Flatiron Recordings.

Tour support comes from Ella Raphael. Ella Raphael is blessed with an amazing voice; a woozy, bluesy, euphoric sound that’s filled with warmth and emotion. Brought up on Elvis, Ella Fitzgerald and Edith Piaf her travels in the UK, US, Australia and Spain have refined that eclectic mix, adding The Shirelles, Julee Cruise, Love, Serge Gainsbourg, Karen Dalton (to whom her lilting vocal occasionally recalls), ESG, Broadcast, Vashti Bunyan, Catherine Ribeiro and Alpes, the original masters of Tropicalia, exotic 50s guitars and the more esoteric sounds of The Beatles.

This show is a co-promotion with Please Please You and Brudenell Presents.

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