Out now, on Don Giovanni Records, The Big Freeze is the long-awaited fifth album by New York-based songwriter Laura Stevenson. In support of the new album, Stevenson will be touring Europe and the UK this June.

PURCHASE “THE BIG FREEZE”

Recorded in her childhood home during the dead of winter, The Big Freeze represents a pivotal step for Stevenson. Despite her pedigree in the punk and indie rock scenes, and the occasional inclusion of a backing band (like the sprightly, C86-inspired pop track “Dermatillomania”), for the first time on record Stevenson’s voice and guitar are in clear and highlighted focus. It is a natural aesthetic choice for the musician, who has often toured as a solo act and who pulls influence from the great American songbook, and a choice that plays to the core strength and organic beauty of her writing. And though it is easily the darkest and most emotionally-devastating album of Stevenson’s career, it is also without a doubt her most powerful.

Stevenson builds on her own private worlds with choruses of multi-tracked voices, swarms of cellos, French horns and violins; orchestration that blooms and swells throughout each intimate performance. Exploring thematic ideas of distance and misconnection; worlds pulling apart, aching loneliness, and attempts to drive out hibernating dormant demons.

Live Dates:

June 20th – Camden Assembly, London
June 21st – Patterns, Brighton
June 22nd – The Cavern, Exeter
June 23rd – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
June 25th – Broadcast, Glasgow
June 26th – Night People, Manchester
June 27th – The Exchange, Bristol
July 3rd – Whelan’s, Dublin, Ireland

Nick Lowe’s Quality Rock and Roll Revue will be headlining the acoustic stage at this year’s Glastonbury festival. But if you have missed out on Glastonbury tickets do not worry as Nick Lowe’s Quality Rock and Roll Revue is coming to Pocklington Arts Centre (PAC) just three days before the festival!

As a silver-haired, tender-hearted but sharp-tongued singer-songwriter, Nick Lowe has no equal. Starting with 1995’s ‘The Impossible Bird’ through to 2011’s ‘The Old Magic’, Lowe has turned out a fantastic string of albums, each one devised in his West London home, and recorded with a core of musicians who possess the same veteran savvy.

Now he is bringing his ‘Quality Rock and Roll Revue’, starring Los Straitjackets complete with their trademark Lucha Libre Mexican wrestling masks, to Pocklington Arts Centre (PAC) on Tuesday 25 June, 8pm.

Lowe’s new four-song EP “Tokyo Bay” features Los Straitjackets as his backing band.
Los Straitjackets are the leading practitioners of the lost art of the guitar instrumental.
Using the music of the Ventures, The Shadows, and with Link Wray and Dick Dale as a jumping off point, the band has taken their unique, high-energy brand of original rock & roll around the world.

Clad in their trademark Lucha Libre Mexican wrestling masks, the “Jackets” have delivered their trademark guitar licks to 16 albums, thousands of concerts and dozens of films and TV shows.

Their most recent album ‘What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace Love & Los Straitjackets’ consists of instrumental covers of Nick Lowe Songs.

Nick Lowe’s Quality Rock and Roll Revue starring Los Straitjackets comes to PAC on Tuesday 25 June, 8pm. Tickets are £35 each, available now at www.pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk or call the Box Office on 01759 301547.

Shakespears Sister have today announced their official reunion as a band, twenty-six years after they originally disbanded.

Shakespears Sister will release a Singles Collection, Singles Party on 19th July. The album features two new tracks ‘All The Queen’s Horses’ and ‘C U Next Tuesday’, as well as classic hits from the duo’s back catalogue. They embark on the Shakespears Sister Ride Again tour this October and November playing an extensive run of UK shows, including a night at The London Palladium. Full tour dates are listed below. Pre-order the album and gain access to the tour pre-sale at https://shakespearssister.tmstor.es. General sale for the tour begins 9am Friday 10th May at https://www.aegpresents.co.uk/events/detail/shakespears-sister.

UK tour dates:

31/10/19 – Royal Concert Hall – Nottingham
01/11/19 – New Theatre – Oxford
02/11/19 – Empire – Liverpool
04/11/19 – City Hall – Sheffield
05/11/19 – Palladium – London
08/11/19 – Royal Concert Hall – Glasgow
09/11/19 – The Sage – Gateshead
11/11/19 – Bridgewater Hall – Manchester
13/11/19 – Pavilion Theatre – Bournemouth
14/11/19 – The Forum – Bath
15/11/19 – Regent Theatre – Ipswich
17/11/19 – Cliffs Pavilion – Southend
19/11/19 – Symphony Hall – Birmingham
20/11/19 – Dome Concert Hall – Brighton

Speaking about the reunion, Siobhan and Marcy said:

Siobhan: “Neither of us wanted to go into it if there was anything apart from friendship and unity. We did not want a repeat of 1992. Life’s too short. So I think we just explored it slowly. I realised what a perfect writing partner she is for me…there’s some sort of weird fusion of energies that feels fated. It’s like this third entity exists that is neither me nor her, it’s the two of us”

Marcy: “There was no stopping this. It was like this snowball that just kept on gathering more and more speed. I think we’ve come to a point where we respect and understand each other more than we ever could have back then. That’s the simplest way to put it. We’ve come to a mutual understanding of and respect for who each other are. It’s just about acceptance – acceptance of who we both are, for each other and to each other”

As well as the new tracks ‘All The Queen’s Horses’ and ‘C U Next Tuesday’, Singles Party is made up of classic Shakespears Sister singles, including ‘Stay’, ‘You’re History’, ‘Hello (Turn Your Radio On)’, and ‘I Don’t Care’. The deluxe version of the album features another unreleased track ‘Cat Worship’ and remixes of ‘You’re History’ and ‘You Made Me Come To This’ remixed by Catz ‘n Dogz and HMD Pulsatron respectively.

Shakespears Sister’s debut album, 1989’s Sacred Heart was a top ten record and spawned the band’s first hit single, ‘You’re History’, which also went top ten. Even greater success followed with a second album, Hormonally Yours, in 1992; amongst its hit singles ‘I Don’t Care’, ‘Hello (Turn Your Radio On)’ and ‘Stay’, which remained at number one for eight weeks. The triumphs and accolades piled up: over a million albums sold, a Brit award for best video for ‘Stay’ and an Ivor Novello award for Outstanding Collection of Songs for the band’s second album, 1992’s Hormonally Yours. The pair went onto headline the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury in 1992 and supported Prince at Celtic Park at Prince’s personal request.

Singles Party is released through London Records on 19th July.

Singles Party tracklist:

1 – Break My Heart (remastered)

2 – Heroine (remastered)

3 – You’re History (remastered)

4 – Run Silent (remastered)

5 – Dirty Mind (remastered)

6 – Stay (remastered)

7 – I Don’t Care (remastered)

8 – Goodbye Cruel World (remastered)

9 – Hello (Turn Your Radio On) (remastered

10 – My 16th Apology (remastered)

11 – I Can Drive (remastered)

12 – Bitter Pill (remastered)

13 – Pulsatron (remastered)

14 – Bad Blood (remastered)

15 – It’s A Trip (remastered)

16 – All The Queen’s Horses

17 – C U Next Tuesday

18 – Stay (acoustic version) (remastered)

CD2 (Deluxe Only):

1 – Cat Worship

2 – You’re History (Catz ‘n Dogz Remix)

3 – You Made Me Come To This (HMD Pulsatron Mix)

4 – Pretty Boy (Remastered)

5 – Mr Wrong (Remastered)

6 – Remember My Name (Remastered)

7 – Do I Scare You? (Remastered)

8 – Excuse Me John (Remastered)

9 – Singles Party (Remastered)

10 – Heroine (Heavenly Mix) (Remastered)

11 – Black Sky (The Black Dub) (Remastered)

12 – Break My Heart (Shep Pettibone Dub) (Remastered)

13 – Goodbye Cruel World (BTO Remix) (Remastered)

14 – You’re History (Brothers In Rhythm Remix) (Remastered)

FOR MORE INFORMATION

w/ https://shakespearssister.tmstor.es

As The Amazons release their new album ‘Future Dust’, the follow-up to their 2017 Top 10 debut on May 24th via Fiction Records, the band have announced a string of live in-stores and record signings.

The instores include:

Sheffield’s Bear Tree Records @ 1pm on 24th May
Leeds’ Crash Records @ 8pm on 24th May

Check out the new single Doubt It here

Lead singer Matthew Thomson says, “Doubt It is about being on the edge of making a potentially stupid decision due to lust-induced blindness. It addresses the lingering doubts, the residue of morals and succumbing to the temptations.”

he band will be playing a homecoming Reading gig at Reading University on 27th May as well as a host of festivals over the summer, including the recently announced Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Middlesborough.

11/05/19 The Great Escape Brighton, UK
25/05/19 Neighbourhood Festival Manchester, UK
26/05/19 Radio 1’s Big Weekend Middlesbrough, UK
27/05/19 Reading University Reading, UK
06/06/19 MTV Plymouth Plymouth, UK
30/06/19 Community Festival London, UK
14/07/19 TRNSMT Festival Glasgow, UK
23/08/19 Leeds Festival Leeds, UK
25/08/19 Reading Festival Reading, UK

The band have also released a new single ‘JOY’  – LISTEN HERE

Doom Days, Bastille’s grippingly confident third album, is a record of hope for turbulent times. Made by Dan Smith with bandmates Kyle Simmons, Will Farquarson and Chris ‘Woody’ Wood, and producer Mark Crew, it sees the Grammy nominated, Brit winning four-piece stretch out and open up like never before.

Doom Days marks something of a shift in perception from its widely acclaimed No.1 predecessor ‘Wild World’, which confronted the world and the actions of those in power. Recorded throughout 2018 at the band’s South London studio, “One Eyed Jacks”, the new album captures the need to temporarily switch off and escape whilst taking the listener on a big night out in search of distraction from the surrounding apocalypse; be that screaming along to the radio in the back of an Uber careering through the city (the electric Quarter Past Midnight), getting loved up in the company of good friends (future classic 4AM), a casual hook-up (Another Place) or the end-of-night longing to be with somebody (the captivating Those Nights). It revels in the bad decisions we make both personally in our relationships and collectively on a macro scale (Bad Decisions), tells a relatable tale of being cornered into a deep discussion about the world’s problems when all you want to do is have a good time (Million Pieces), and wryly confronts modern anxieties, taking side-swipes at phone addiction, porn addiction, fake news and climate change denial (the uncompromising Doom Days).

Doom Days finds Bastille at their most lyrically provocative, most accomplished, and most vital. It taps into globally felt worries whilst also working on a much more intimate level. Setting the album over the course of one night allows the band to hold a mirror up to the world using personal, relatable situations.

Bastille’s unique sound – that cinematic, ever changing odd pop that masks the unusual subject matters and sometimes bleak realities reflected in their lyrics – has connected with audiences across the globe like no other British band in recent memory. Having sold over 8 million albums and with accumulated global streams reaching over 6.5 billion, the band continue to be one of Spotify’s top 40 most listened to artists in the world. Their previous albums both debuted at No.1 in the U.K. and charted top 10 in the U.S. Recent single “Happier”, now certified platinum in the UK, spent a full 6 months in the top 10 of the US Hot 100 chart.

As you’d expect of a band that have always cared little about genre, their third album finds them still evolving and pushing things forward. Doom Days bustles with energy and ideas. Its diverse sound takes in gospel, house music and R&B to name a few, and incorporates instrumentation inspired by their much-acclaimed Re-Orchestrated tour. The album is at times introspective, intimate, political and also perhaps their most danceable yet, with tracks like Million Piecesand Nocturnal Creaturesbuilt on 90s breakbeats and UK garage hooks. Clever pop culture references, mood-setting dialogue clips and a rolling cast of backing vocalists add textures and voices to this night out and help elevate many of the album’s special moments.

Doom Days is a record that celebrates real human connections and urges us to keep searching for moments of elation. It’s an album that starts in the middle of an Uber ride through the city streets and ends waking on the kitchen floor with the healing sounds of euphoric new single Joy, which sees the demons of life’s hangovers dispelled by a simple phone call from someone special. “That glimmer of hope at the end of the album says everything,” says Dan. “The smallest human gesture can pull you back from the brink.”

To mark the release of “Doom Days” the band are excited to announce a run of 9 intimate dates throughout the UK supporting local venues in towns and cities away from the usual touring route. These unique shows will give fans the opportunity to experience an ‘apocalyptic party’ club night, warming them up with DJ sets before taking them on a journey through the narrative of the album, which the band will play live from start to finish. For tickets go to https://www.bastillebastille.com/live/

Dates are as follows

Friday 29 Nov 2019 – Coventry – Warwick Arts Centre
Sat 30 Nov 2019 – Carlisle – The Sands Centre
Sun 01 Dec 2019 – Aberdeen – Music Hall
Tue 03 Dec 2019 – Bradford – St. George’s Hall
Wed 04 Dec 2019 – Grimsby – Auditorium
Thu 05 Dec 2019 – Llandudno – Venue Cymru Theatre
Sat 07 Dec 2019 – Torquay – The Foundry
Sun 08 Dec 2019 – Portsmouth – Pyramids Centre
Mon 09 Dec 2019 – Margate – Winter Gardens