Chart topping twins Ward Thomas announce the release of ‘Boomerang’, the fourth single to be taken from their record breaking number one album ‘Cartwheels’. ‘Boomerang’, their 4th straight Radio 2 A-listed single, is out February 3rd on Sony/WTW Music.
A complete feel-good moment on the album, ‘Boomerang’ is classic Ward Thomas – combining irresistible melodies and harmonies with quick-witted, perceptive lyrics. The track is, “about trying to move on from someone. But every time you try, something happens that takes you right back to square one!” Lizzy and Catherine penned the song in London along with Helen Boulding and Shridhar Solanki.
Ward Thomas had an incredible 2016, reaching number one with their sophomore album ‘Cartwheels’. The girls said, “What an incredible year that’s come and gone! We’ve had lots to celebrate and now we’re looking forward to 2017 as already there is so much ahead of us!”
The girls played a run of 16 completely sold out UK dates in October last year, and crowned off their live schedule with a spectacular sold out show at the Brooklyn Bowl in December for the Christmas Country 2 Country Social. Following an appearance at Eurosonic in January and a trip to Australia where they play the CMC Rocks festival, Ward Thomas return to the UK live circuit in April to kick off easily their biggest tour to date, including Shepherds Bush Empire on May 10th.
Ward Thomas play:
April
Fri 28th GUILDFORD, G Live
Sat 29th BIRMINGHAM, O2 Birmingham Institute
Sun 30th EDINBURGH, Queens Hall
May
Tue 2nd YORK, York Barbican
Wed 3rd SHEFFIELD, The Plug
Thu 4th LEEDS, Church
Fri 5th NORWICH, Open
Sat 6th OXFORD, O2 Academy
Tue 9th LEICESTER, De Montfort Hall
Wed 10th LONDON, O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
Thu 11th WORTHING, Pavilion Theatre
Fri 12th PORTSMOUTH, Pyramids Centre
Tue 16th BATH, Komedia
Wed 17th CARDIFF, Tramshed
Thu 18th EXETER, Lemon Grove
Fri 19th FALMOUTH, Princess Pavilion
Tue 23rd NORTHAMPTON, The Roadmender
Wed 24th MANCHESTER, O2 Ritz
Thu 25th LINCOLN, Engine Shed
Sat 27th ABERDEEN, The Lemon Tree – SOLD OUT
Mon 29th GATESHEAD, The Sage
Tue 30th CAMBRIDGE, Junction
Fronted by the Reid brothers Jim and William, The Jesus And Mary Chain first reformed to play the Coachella festival back in 2007. Despite regular touring – most notably a 2015 world tour which revisited their landmark album ‘Psychocandy’ – it took some time before they could agree on a plan to record a much-mooted seventh album.
“We started to – can you believe? – listen to each other a bit more,” explains Jim. “In the last couple of years, we’ve buried the hatchet to some degree, and thankfully not into each other. Most people who know us would say that we haven’t mellowed that much. I think it was to do with the fact, dare I say it, that wisdom comes with age. Let’s live and let live, and let’s take each other’s opinions into account.”
Work on ‘Damage and Joy’ (a reference to the English translation of schadenfreude) began in September 2015, with producer Youth also contributing bass and diplomacy to proceedings during sessions in London, Dublin and Granada, Spain. Alan McGee first confirmed that a new JAMC album was on the way by telling Canada’s CBC Music: “They’ve made another album! It’s a big deal! It’s kinda enormous.”
The album commences with ‘Amputation’, in which waves of distorted guitar and Jim’s insouciant vocal delivery collide to create a hypnotic track which addresses his feelings of “being edited out of the whole music business… I felt like a rock ‘n’ roll amputation.” The track is available now.
Other highlights include a refined and re-energised new version of ‘All Things Must Pass’ which previously featured in the TV show ‘Heroes’ and then on ‘Upside Down: The Best of The Jesus and Mary Chain’; the raw garage-rock of ‘Facing Up To The Facts’ which offers the revealing lyric: “I hate my brother and he hates me / That’s the way it’s supposed to be”’; and the jagged power-pop that simmers in ‘The Two of Us’.
The album also features performances from the band’s touring drummer Brian Young as well as former Lush bassist Phil King.
“The interesting thing about this record is what comes out of the speakers,” declares Jim. “To make a good record is an achievement if you’re twenty-two, but to do it in your fifties, the way we are, I think is a minor miracle.”
The touring line-up is completed by Scott Von Ryper (guitar), Mark Crozer (bass) and Brian Young (drums).
The 25-year-old wordsmith and philosophy graduate has always managed to combine his love of words and music to inspire people to break free from their own limitations. After the success of his video ‘Carry me’ (premiered by Complex), Joshua dropped a track alongside a powerful video for National Suicide Awareness Day with Samaritans and in October released another visual poem for Anti-Slavery Day in support of charities A21 and Love146. Joshua was also involved in a collaborative track for World Aids Day (in partnership with HIV and sexual health charity, Terrence Higgins Trustwith) with singer Laura Riganti early December.
With everything that has happened in 2016, Joshua wants to use his voice and his art to ‘cut through the chaos’ and speak ‘hope and freedom’. His new song ‘Heart Of Man’ deals with a timely subject – he explains “This last year has been mad, unsettling and distressing at times. We feel divided, isolated and at war with our neighbour. This song is both a lament and moment of reflection. A call to lay down the stones, gripped in our palms, readied to throw at the first person who speaks against us, our tribe or belief. We shape the world around us by shaping the world inside of us, everything flows from the heart. My hope is this song helps to slow us down, to help us step into this year fully here, present, with hearts full and ready to love.”
The video was orchestrated in collaboration with Dominic Doring, a filmmaker who never fails to communicate visually what Joshua is saying with words. Joshua Luke Smith will be heading out on his first UK tour in January The Becoming Human Tour (January 21-27 tickets available at joshualukesmith.com) to promote the release of his new record Your Beauty Deluxe Edition (Out 21st January).
JAN 21 SAT Marwood Cafe Brighton
JAN 22 SUN Zigfrid von Underbelly London
JAN 23 MON The Louisiana Bristol
JAN 25 WED LS6 Cafe Leeds
JAN 26 THU Root Coffee Liverpool
JAN 27 FRI Anchor Coffee Manchester
Having received 103 applications from female talent from across the North of England all keen to play at the event, the Festival, which was recently announced as York’s Outstanding Festival of the Year, spent three weeks whittling the numbers down to six acts. Ellen Cole the Curator of the festival says: “This mini-fest is probably one of the most exciting that we have ever done – we’ve tailored it to showcase the work of female talent and the sheer amount of talent that applied has been incredible. Our event is running alongside the York International Women’s Festival, which we’re incredibly proud to be a part of.”
Heather Findlay (Photo from powerofprog.wordpress.com)
This unique event will feature Gracie Falls, a country and folk performer, who recently won UK Unsigned Songwriter of the Year, alternative Celtic, gypsy band Leather’o, which will feature a one-off full female line-up, folk and blues harpist Sarah Dean, acoustic singer-songwriter Rachel Croft, folk musician Holly Taymar from the band The Bronze and renowned prog-rock folk performer Heather Findlay, who fronted the well-known band Mostly Autumn.
Gracie Falls (Photocredit: Frank Roper Photography)Sarah Dean
Entry into the event is free of charge, however a suggested donation of £5 to the Kyra Women’s Project – a local charity which supports women to overcome challenge and make changes in their lives – would be greatly appreciated.
This one-off Girl Power event will take place on Saturday 4th March at the Black Swan Inn (Peasholm Green, York) from 3pm-9pm (doors open 2.45pm).
Holly Taymar from The Bronze
York’s Little Festival of Live Music will be staging their annual festival at the York Food and Drink Festival on Parliament Street from 22nd September- 1st October and submissions from musicians wishing to apply to be part of the event will open on Sunday 5th March.
Released in September on Lost Map Records with distribution courtesy of Caroline International, Future Echoes earned ★★★★ reviews from MOJO, Uncut, Clash and The Scotsman among others. Accompanied by his friends James Yorkston and Dan Willson AKA Withered Hand, Pictish Trail will play a full-band headline date at Celtic Connections in Glasgow in January before a short tour of the UK later in the year.
A twisted polyrhythmic psychedelic disco opus reflecting on reincarnation and life lived on repeat with a chorus sung in a Jimmy Somerville-worthy falsetto, ‘After Life’ is the latest single to be taken from Pictish Trail AKA Scottish singer-songwriter Johnny Lynch’s third long player.
Something of a sonic hermit, Pictish Trail has spent large parts of the past few years tucked away in his caravan on the Hebridean isle of Eigg, feverishly working on the follow up to Secret Soundz Vol. 1&2, his critically-acclaimed double album of DIY electronic folk-tinged croft pop, released in 2014. Future Echoes is the mesmerising result. Written in remote seclusion but recorded in the bustling heart of London, it reunites Pictish Trail with Adem Ilhan, who produces the majority of the record. Johnny and Adem previously wrote music together in 2010 under the name Silver Columns, releasing the hugely well received album Yes And Dance via London taste-makers Moshi Moshi. Future Echoes features additional production and mixing from Rob Jones (Sweet Baboo, Slow Club) and drumming from Alex Thomas (Fridge, Squarepusher, Air, Bat For Lashes) and was mastered by Guy Davie at Electric Mastering.
Throughout his career Pictish Trail has resolutely furrowed his own path, steadily creating a unique catalogue of recordings and performances through his own labels (Lost Map / Fence Records) while eschewing the blueprint of the predictable singer-songwriter in favour of something untidily intriguing. Born out of a compulsion to make infectious, melody driven music from a treasure trove of secret sounds, Pictish Trail’s spectral songs are filtered through a sun-warped pop lens, where heart-pumping guitar shriek-outs collide with sampled gurgles and fractured lyrics figure-skate over sine-waves of glacial synth.
A very personal musing on mortality, the death of friendships and the finality of things, Future Echoes represents the most confident, cohesive and pop-savvy collection of music Pictish Trail has written to date. The album’s opener and first single ‘Far Gone (Don’t Leave)’ takes its cues both musically and thematically from the Coen brothers’ Fargo, adding a tongue-in-cheek hip-hop beat, raspy Casio keyboard bassline and echo-slathered vocal over the top of a queasy sample based on that film’s theme tune. ‘Dead Connection’ is a dizzying and very danceable dispatch of ghostly electro all about attempted discourse with the dead and accepting that what is gone is gone. ‘Half Life’ slows things down at the album’s half way stage for a by-turns shuddering and twinkling take on decaying and yet somehow still interminable relationships. Its companion-piece ‘After Life’ brings Future Echoes to a head-spinning conclusion.
Transformer, a new series of live music events brought to you by the Victoria Warehouse in Manchester, has announced the addition of four hugely talented acts to an already impressive line up, for its debut event on Bank Holiday Sunday, 28th May. Suuns, Sex Swing, Little Annie (Crass) and JC Flowers join a line up that already includes Swans, This Is Not This Heat – both who play their first Manchester show in 30 years; The Fall, Royal Trux, Loop, and Mueran Humanos. Transformer pays homage to Lou Reed whose visionary approach to rock, both in the Velvet Underground and on albums like Metal Machine Music, is reflected in the event line up. Across two rooms of music, Transformer will bring an indoor festival vibe to the expansive Victoria Warehouse, and will include a record fair, food stalls, a cinema, and more. With DJs to be announced, Transformer seems certain to make an immediate impact. Tickets for just £22 + bf are on sale via Skiddle http://bit.ly/Transformer-Tickets .
Transformer is curated by the in-house team at the iconic, Victoria Warehouse, previously host to events for the likes of BBC6 Music, Live Nation and SJM Concerts. The lineup showcases the best avant-garde and post-rock, in an indoor festival environment designed by Victoria Warehouse to engage with the unique culture of this music scene. Transformer boasts a full programme of activity, but of course, the music is central to everything.
Canadian 4-piece, Suuns, are heading for Manchester and will surely excite the Transformer masses. Since forming in 2007, Suuns have directed rock music down a new and unventured path, creating a sound with stark juxtapositions; rock coloured by electronics. The release of their third studio album last year, ‘Hold / Still’ saw Suuns embark on a relentless tour schedule honing their live skills yet further. Transformer is in for something very special when Suuns hit the stage.
Suuns (photo credit Nick Helderman)
Also newly confirmed are British, underground supergroup, Sex Swing, whose debut album Karnak drew serious praise from all areas and landed them in The Guardian’s ‘Future 50’ list of rising stars to watch at the end of last year. The psych genre can often mean everything from jangling ‘60’s revivalists to bedroom laptop alchemists. Sex Swing operate at the brutal end, combining heinous volume, brute rhythmic throb and a devotion to twisted concave noise. These masters of their craft have gained a phenomenal live reputation and deliver deeply seedy music you can dance to.
Sex Swing (credit: Steve Gullick)
Another treat announced on the Transformer line up is Little Annie. Some punk aficionados may remember her as Annie Anxiety from Crass, but her career has taken in a range of eclectic sounds and projects, starting with Frank Zappa name-checking her as ‘the real thing’ after seeing her perform aged 16 in New York. Painter, poet and performer, Mojo described her as ‘the female counterpart to the Lou Reed of 1982’s Blue Mask – a voice full of pickled New York wisdom.” Annie is a creative tour de force and arrives at Transformer off the back off a major European tour supporting Swans.
Little Annie
Also set to grace the Transformer stage is JC Flowers. These five Londoners formed the band in 2014, immediately causing a stir with a set of 4-track demo’s betraying a love of the Velvets, Replacements, Shoes and dBs. Their debut album ‘Driving Excitement And The Pleasure Of Ownership’ was released last year and planted them firmly on the ‘ones to watch’ list. Recent support slots on TOY’s UK tour have seen their star continue to rise. Catch them at Transformer before they blow up in a big way.
JC Flowers
James Cohen, owner at the Victoria Warehouse commented,
“The first ever Transformer event just keeps getting better. We will be working hard to use the superb space we have here at the Victoria Warehouse to create an indoor festival vibe good enough to match the amazing line up. We have programmed film screenings, a record fair and much more. Transformer is going to be something very special.”
Earlybird tickets for Transformer have sold out, but second tier tickets are still available at just £22 + bf from www.skiddle.com/e/12859771 making this event exceptional value for money. With prices increasing over the coming months, buy now for the best price.
Further announcements are yet to made, including info released about the event’s cinema programme and record fair. Keep an eye on the Facebook page for all the latest news and updates https://www.facebook.com/transformerevents
Event Details
Swans
The Fall
Royal Trux
This Is Not This Heat
Loop
Mueran Humanos
Suuns
Sex Swing
Little Annie
JC Flowers
Event info:
Venue: Victoria Warehouse, Trafford Wharf Road, Manchester M17 1AB
Date: Bank Holiday Sunday 28 May 2017
Doors: 3pm – 1am
Age: 18+
Tickets:
Earlybird Tier 1 – £20 + bf SOLD OUT/ Tier 2 – £22.50 + bf/ Tier 3 – £25 + bf / Final Tier £27.50 + bf
Available from www.skiddle.com/e/12859771
Drawing from this expansive and impressive catalogue that spans some 40 years, the Stranglers will enthral audiences with an exciting mix of material, all bearing the distinctive signature style of this most enduring of British bands; driving rhythms, anthemic melodies, quirky time signatures and occasional dark humour, held together by those trademark rumbling bass lines and swirling keyboards.
One of the UK’s most exciting, credible and influential British groups, the Stranglers are riding high on the crest of a resurgent wave of popularity. They continue to out-rock many on the live circuit, including much younger bands, and their existing large and loyal fan base has swelled in recent years as new converts join the ranks. With record-breaking, sell-out shows and festival appearances throughout the UK and the rest of the world, public demand to hear and see the group has never been so high; true testament to their considerable musical talent and the enduring quality of their songs. The legendary Ruts DC promise to deliver a memorable addition to the tour as special guests.
MARCH 2017
Tuesday 07 Lincoln Engine Shed
Thursday 09 Aberdeen Beach Ballroom
Friday 10 Dunfermline Alhambra
Saturday 11 Glasgow O2 Academy
Monday 13 Nottingham Rock City
Tuesday 14 Reading Hexagon
Thursday 16 Newcastle O2 Academy
Friday 17 Leeds O2 Academy
Saturday 18 Birmingham O2 Academy
Monday 20 Southampton O2 Guildhall
Tuesday 21 Guildford G Live
Thursday 23 Southend Cliffs Pavilion
Friday 24 London O2 Academy Brixton
Saturday 25 Cambridge Corn Exchange
Monday 27 Cardiff University Y Plas
Tuesday 28 Brighton Dome
Thursday 30 Bristol O2 Academy
Friday 31 Liverpool O2 Academy
APRIL 2017
Saturday 01 Manchester O2 Apollo
A stalwart of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Now Show’ for more than a decade, Mitch has also presented many radio specials. Following on from the success of ‘Mitch Benn Is The 37th Beatle’, a further three specials on music icons Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Elvis have been broadcast – ‘The Freewheelin’ Mitch Benn’, ‘Mitch Benn Is The Fat Pink Duke’ and ‘Mitch Benn Has Left The Building’. He also co-presented with Harry Shearer BBC Radio 2’s ‘Anatomy Of A Guitar’ and presented ‘Spank The Plank’ for BBC Radio 4. Most recently, in December 2016, he appeared on (and won) BBC1 television’s ‘Celebrity Mastermind’!
Mitch is the author of two novels, ‘Terra’ and ‘Terra’s World’ both published by Gollancz and co-author with Jon Holmes of ‘The Twitter History Of The World’ the paperback edition of which was published by Prion Books in September 2015.
2 HAVANT The Spring
3 DURHAM Gala Theatre
4 NEWBURY Corn Exchange
17 BANBURY Mill Hill Arts Centre
18 FIREBUG Leicester
24 WIMBORNE Tivoli
25 LEEDS Carriageworks
26 SWINDON Arts Centre
March dates
3 LONDON Bloomsbury
4 LONDON Bloomsbury
8 TEWKESBURY Roses Theatre
10 HEMEL HEMPSTEAD Old Town Hall
11 MAIDSTONE Hazlit Theatre
16 MAIDENHEAD Norden Farm
17 DERBY Guildhall Theatre
18 SELBY Town Hall
24 CAMBRIDGE Junction
30 READING South Street
April dates
8 LUTON Hat Factory
15 BATH Rondo
20 DEAL The Astor
26 LEAMINGTON SPA Royal Spa Centre
“Stranger is about being hopeful” explains the band, continuing “about realising that sometimes you don’t get what you need but you’ll keep moving on regardless. At it’s root, Stranger is about how it’s worth suffering for your art. It’s about reconnecting with the thing you love most and remembering that nothing that’s worth having comes easy.”
Speaking about the album the band had to say “We have always believed in evolution as a band. Not reinvention so much as taking what’s already there and making it better. As students in Nottingham, we would sit and say “we’ll be the band we want to be by the 4th album”. Somewhere along the way, we forgot that evolution takes time. We forgot that any new experience has a learning curve.
“The new album trims the fat from our previous music, and get down to the bare bones of the songs. We’re songwriters, and where 5AM was a collection of songs written in our youth, these new songs are, for us, a timely response to more recent experiences.”
Also on the album is track “Haze”, which doubles as an instant download for pre-ordering the record early. You can listen to this now via Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/amberrunofficial/haze
You can check out Amber Run on the following UK dates below in February:
8th – Waterfront Studio, Norwich
10th – Rock City, Nottingham
11th – The Institute, Birmingham
13th – Phoenix, Exeter
14th – Engine Rooms, Southampton
16th – O2 Academy, Newcastle
17th – QMU, Glasgow
18th – Plug, Sheffield
19th – Welly, Hull
22nd – Stylus, Leeds
23rd – Academy 2, Manchester
24th – SWX, Bristol
25th – Forum, London
Singalonga Productions’ latest film show to come to The Civic is based on the Campest Cult Classic of all time.
Made in 1975 with Tim Curry as Frank ‘n’ Furter, Susan Sarandon as Janet, Richard O’Brien as Riff Raff and Meatloaf as Eddie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the craziest, not to say weirdest, movie ever made.
It’s packed full of terrific numbers including ‘Sweet Transvestite’, ‘Whatever Happened To Saturday Night?’, ‘Science Fiction Double Feature’, ‘Toucha Toucha Touch Me’ and, most memorably, ‘The Time Warp’.
Now at long last The Rocky Horror Picture Show gets what it’s been SCREAMING for – the full Sing-a-long-a treatment that has wowed audiences around the world. Following on from the original phenomenon, Sing-a-long-a Sound of Music (now in its fifth year in London), the unique interactive format, where the audience are the stars, has been used for Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Fiddler on the Roof, Moulin Rouge, Annie and The Wizard of Oz. Sing-a-long-a Abba, the first live show to use the format, played to sell-out audiences at The Whitehall Theatre in London’s West End in 2003.
The fun-filled show starts with a vocal warm-up led by the evening’s host, who also takes the audience through their complimentary ‘magic moments fun pack’, containing various props to be used at strategic points throughout the film. This is followed by a fancy-dress competition in which everyone who has come in costume is invited onto the stage to show off their imaginative creations. The audience then settles down to sing its heart out with on-screen lyrics so everyone can join in.
In the case of Sing-a-long-a Rocky Horror, expect the howling to go on all night!
Fancy dress not obligatory but highly recommended.
Sing-a-long-a Rocky Horror is at The Civic on Friday 3 February at 7.30pm. Tickets are £15.
For more information and to book visit www.barnsleycivic.co.uk or call the Box Office on 01226 327000
