When: 7.30pm on Saturday 25 November 2023
Where: Hallé at St Michael’s, 36-38 George Leigh Street, Ancoats, Manchester M4 5DG

We’re delighted to welcome Smoke Fairies back to Manchester!

It has been over a decade since Smoke Fairies entered a recording studio to record their debut single Living with Ghosts; since then school friends Jessica Davies and Katherine Blamire have carved out an incredible body of work.

Having self-released several early singles the band were first introduced to a worldwide audience with their 7-inch Gastown/River Song, released as a Third Man Records Blue Series, which Jack White produced and played drums on. The band has toured the world with the likes of White himself, Laura Marling, Bryan Ferry, Seasick Steve, The Dead Weather, Richard Hawley, Dawes, Blitzen Trapper and Public Service Broadcasting after collaborating on the single Valentina.

Their debut album proper Through Low Light and Trees received rave reviews, MOJO giving it four stars and describing the record as ‘heartfelt and sensual… poised and elegant’. The album went on to be named one of American Songwriter’s Top 50 albums of 2011.

On the band’s follow-up release Blood Speaks Pitchfork commented that Blamire and Davies ‘don’t trade vocal duties so much as appear to sing from the same body, their voices nearly indistinguishable, shifting between smoky moans and toe-curling trills,’ their eponymously titled third album was released in 2014 of which For Folks Sake said ‘Smoke Fairies are attempting to creatively push themselves into and beyond the ether’. Wild Winter, the seasonal album, followed in 2015. Rough Trade’s record of the month, Clash noted it was less a Christmas record and more ‘mid-winter-noir’.

In February 2020 the band released what many commentators believe to be their greatest work to date. Darkness Brings The Wonders Home was recorded in Seattle with producer Phil Ek and saw the band reach the top ten UK Indie Charts, bag a number one in the UK Rock Chart and then with their single Elevator, a 7-inch picture-disc, reach number one in both the UK Indie and Physical Singles Charts. The album went on to be described as a ‘masterpiece’ by the Metro newspaper in London.

To celebrate their incredible body of work the band released a singles compilation last year and put on a one-off Singles Night live show where they performed each of their 18 single releases to date back-to-back to a sell-out crowd.

2022 also saw the release of the Sticks And Stones EP – the first three tracks to be taken from their forthcoming sixth studio album, scheduled for release in Autumn 2023.

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.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from Dice.fm, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook