Set to take 2017 by storm, British newcomer Tom Walker will play a set of headline dates in January and February.
With Tom Walker it is all about the voice. He has released two brilliant tracks to date, the soulful, ‘Fly Away With Me’ and his latest the stirring ‘Play Dead’, as well as collaborations with Kojey Radical and Avelino. With its stripped back production, Tom releases an acoustic version of ‘Just You & I’ in December displaying Tom’s softer side.
Tom is Scottish born, Manchester bred, and spent the past few years honing his sound, landing in a house-share with twelve other musicians (including members of Whilk & Misky), jamming together in their home-built, soundproof studio.
This year has seen Tom finding critical acclaim from tastemakers everywhere including Pigeons & Planes and Clash as well as BBC Radio1, BBC 1Xtra and Beats1.
Live, Tom played a sold out show at the Waiting Room in September and had a packed summer playing festivals including British Summer Time in Hyde Park, Secret Garden Party, The Great Escape and Live At Leeds.
Tom Walker and his band play:
January
Wed 25th LONDON, Camden Assembley
Tue 31st BRISTOL, The Louisiana
February
Wed 1st BIRMINGHAM, Sunflower Lounge
Thu 2nd GLASGOW, The Garage (Attic Bar)
Fri 3rd MANCHESTER, Fallow Café
After playing countless live shows with a duo called Bones for a couple of years, Arro has taken the year off from playing live and spent all his time writing and producing loads of new music.
His debut single ‘Fever’ came out in October and the debut EP ‘Middle of the Night’ was released on December 7th.
Arro says ‘It is just the start of a series of releases, which will follow shortly after. Next year I am going to start gigging the music and do some tours. This EP is a slight departure from anything I’ve released before as it includes electronic elements’.
Arro is originally from Huddersfield, and now based in Manchester.
I’d heard that Chantel McGregor was one of those performers who is a pleasure to interview, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. Friendly, down to earth and very patient with all my predictable questions she was a real delight to talk to.
In response to my question about how she likes her sound to be described, Chantel told me ‘I always answer that as ‘Chantel music’ – which is rock, progressive and singer songwriter, and very based around the electric and acoustic guitar.’
Chantel came from a family that was into guitar music – and remembers listening to Fleetwood Mac, Free and Led Zeppelin in her parents car, from a very early age.
‘My dad played guitar and when I was three he got me a half sized guitar, and tried to teach me how to play it and then he got me lessons at 7. I was always practicing and when I was 12 my parents were taking me to jam sessions in the Bradford area and was turning up at school looking tired …’
Being at a school which didn’t offer music on the curriculum for either GCSEs or A levels, Chantel decided that she would probably become an English teacher. At 16, she says she knuckled down to study for exams and music went onto a back burner for a bit. However her passion for music won over from any thoughts of English teaching and she opted for a degree in music at Leeds College of Music and became the first student in the college’s history, to achieve a 100% pass mark, with 18 distinctions. Chantel left with a First Class Honours degree in Popular Music and a coveted prize, for outstanding musicianship.
It was while she was doing her degree that Chantel put her band together. ‘I was multi-tasking, studying and also gigging locally places like Harrogate, because I didn’t want to travel too far away from my course. We developed a following round Yorkshire, and it meant that when I finished my degree I could properly launch my career and start to do festivals.’
In 2014 Chantel was voted Guitarist of the Year in the British Blues Awards, for the second consecutive year. She was the first female artist to win this prestigious award.
Chantel says that whilst most people are ‘lovely’ and other performers treat her with respect, she still encounters some who are really surprised because they expect girls to be ‘rubbish’ when they play guitar. ‘Would they say that to a guy!’ Chantel laughs with a tolerance I find remarkable. ‘There’s also the thing about going into guitar shops with my dad when the staff try to explain what a plectrum is – because they think girls won’t understand.. And I’m like hello I’m the one buying this…
Overall Chantel is remarkable robust in her response to sexism in the industry. ‘Whether you’re in an office or being a musician you come up against sexism and stereotypes,’ she says. ‘But for me it pushes me to be stronger and push myself further and harder. It’s a shame that we have to put up with this, but I hope in years to come when other females come through it will be easier.’
At 30, Chantel says that music takes up her entire life. ‘I feel ancient on days like this!’ she tells me, sounding remarkably enthusiastic and lively for someone who claims to be so worn out.
‘Music is definitely not a 9-5 job. I run a record label as well as performing, so my days starts with answering emails, running press and advertising and sending out publicity CDs. There’s a lot to cope with and a lot to do.’
At the Brudenell gig Chantel will be mainly performing from her 2nd album ‘Losing Control’, which she released in October 2015. ‘That album was inspired by the southern gothic scene. I did a lot of research, looking at different authors, imagery and artwork. Films and tv series. A lot of watching of True Detective – and True Blood featured heavily – it was a great excuse to watch tv. And I was listening to other musicians who had delved into that topic I’ve always been into the dark side of things that captures my imagination. There was a lot of guilt, religion, sin and the devil. Really interesting delving into that and expanding on it. Interesting – wanted to get the feeling of the deep south and how it was written and recorded and played and how it was written in the lyrics. In a way that people could associate with – with it being fiction, so it doesn’t sound phony.’
There will also be some new material performed on the 14th. ‘We’ve got an instrumental song we change every time – which varies a lot at every gig. Every gig people say have you recorded it, where can we find it … but at every gig it has a different name taking inspiration from the room or what’s happened to me during the day. Makes it hard for people to find it on You Tube,’ Chantel says
Chantel has performed at Brudenell before and loves to play in her home area of Yorkshire. ‘I want my audiences to come away feeling educated and having a great time. And absolutely aware of what women are capable of as musicians…’
In the new year Chantel will be doing some solo acoustic shows.She will be playing Korks, Otley on 24th February.
Rory Graham (aka Rag’n’Bone Man) will embark on his biggest headline tour to date next April – including 22nd April O2 Ritz, Manchester.
Headline UK 2017 Tour Dates:
April
Tuesday 18 O2 Academy, Bristol
Wednesday 19 O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Thursday 20 O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Saturday 22 O2 Ritz, Manchester
Sunday 23 O2 ABC, Glasgow
Monday 24 O2 Institute, Birmingham
Last week, Rag’n’Bone Man announced the release of his highly anticipated debut album Human, out on February 10 on Columbia Records / Best Laid Plans. News of the album came as Rory was shortlisted for the prestigious 2017 BRITs Critics’ Choice Award alongside Dua Lipa and Anne-Marie. Having previously been won by the likes of Adele, Sam Smith and Emilie Sande, the winner will be announced on Thursday December 8.
His single Human has now been certified Gold in 7 countries, streamed 45 million times and hit the number 1 spot on iTunes in 25 countries. Having been added to all the major radio playlists here in the UK Human is this week’s number 1 trending track in the UK and is currently sitting at number 2 on the iTunes chart.
The phenomenal success of his single Human around the globe follows years of relentless performing for Rory. At the age of just 15 he started rapping in his hometown of Uckfield and then at 19, encouraged by his father, started singing at local blues nights. His combined love for blues and rap soon developed into something bigger, when he joined Brighton’s hip-hop crew The Rum Committee, regularly travelling up to London to play hip-hop nights in Brixton. The releases of his Blues Town, Wolves and Disfigured EPs earned him huge crowds across the country, firming a dedicated fan base incredibly early on in his career.
Cult husband and wife duo The Handsome Family will follow the release of their much studio album release Unseen, with a tour of the UK and Europe, in February and March 2017.
The band have released a video for their recent single ‘Back In my Day’, the second single from ‘Unseen’. The video is a fantastically surrealist visual to accompany the tracks’ celebration of years past, which sees the band harking back to a time where we could “drink from the river”, had “mile-high glaciers”, when “the birds were always watching” and “There were monsters in the sea”.
“‘Back in My Day’ grew out of my frustration at the new street lights put up around our house in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It no longer gets dark here. We get a half-twilight orange dusk for a few hours and then the sun comes up again. I miss the dark night. I miss the stars and the calm that comes from looking out into black space. In this darkness-deprived state I can’t be held responsible for whatever false memories pop into my head, but I truly do remember playing music on rings of ice. I remember trying to fold a map. I remember feeling the entire forest watching me as I wandered off into the pines. Brett says all the instruments used to record this song were actually made from ice. He still wears a wristwatch. It may not be removable. He has seen monsters in the sea.” — Rennie Sparks, The Handsome Family
Tour dates
18 Feb – CARDIFF, The Globe
19 Feb – LEAMINGTON SPA, Assembly
21 Feb – NORWICH, Arts Centre
22 Feb – MANCHESTER, RNCM Concert Hall
23 Feb – GLASGOW, St Luke’s
24 Feb – EDINBURGH, The Caves
25 Feb – GATESHEAD, Sage 2
27 Feb – LEEDS, Brudenell Social Club
28 Feb – BRISTOL, St George’s
2 Mar – LONDON, Union Chapel
3 Mar – BRIGHTON, Concorde 2
4 Mar – FOLKESTONE, Quarterhouse
Following the triumphant sold-out show at the Birmingham Genting Arena earlier this year, Kennedy Street and Kilimanjaro are pleased to announce Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow will be returning to tour the UK in June 2017. The very special opening night will see them headlining the second annual Stone Free Festival at The O2, London, which will be Blackmore’s first London show since 1995 with further shows in Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham.
JUNE 2017
Sat 17th June – London The O2 – Stone Free Festival
Thurs 22nd June – Manchester Arena (Canceled see this post)
Sun 25th June – Glasgow The SSE Hydro
Wed 28th June – Birmingham Genting Arena
Playing classics from both Rainbow and Deep Purple’s anthemic catalogue, the legendary guitarist needs no introduction and is universally acknowledged as a singular and visionary talent, one who has helped shape and define the landscape of rock music and the evolution of the guitar at its core. With a background immersed in classical and r’n’b he was a founding member and driving force of Deep Purple, going on to form Rainbow in 1973, who sold in excess of 28 million albums.
The Ritchie Blackmore Rainbow tour promises to be an unmissable event, not only for Deep Purple and Rainbow fans, but also those who want to soak up the electrifying genius of the legendary guitarist live and to revel in the unforgettable songs he crafted with two of music’s most celebrated bands. Blackmore will also be joined by former stalwart Meister Bob on bass, Blackmore Nights’ drummer David Keith, Stratovarius’s keyboardist Jens Johansson and singer, Ronnie Romero from Santiago, Chile who Blackmore describes as, “a cross between Ronnie James Dio meets Freddie Mercury.”
Starting the UK tour at The O2 in London, promoters Kilimanjaro & The O2 are delighted to be able to announce Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow will be the headline act for the 2017 Stone Free Festival.
Following the hugely successful and highly acclaimed inaugural Stone Free Festival in June this year – which featured electrifying performances from the likes of Alice Cooper, Rick Wakeman, The Darkness, Marillion and many more – the festival returns with even more stages next year, utilising the full array of facilities at The O2 including the Brooklyn Bowl. It will again feature a full line-up of artists and events such as the Speakeasy Lounge and the vinyl fair, alongside special acoustic performances, cinema screenings and exclusive after parties.
Further details regarding the line-up of Stone Free Festival 2017 will be revealed in due course.
Following the success of his ‘People Help The People’ DIY charity show, in support of the Macclesfield foodbank ‘Silklife’ last September, Ally Dickaty, vocalist/guitarist with The Virginmarys, is playing a run of solo acoustic gigs in support of various foodbanks and homeless charities all over the UK – including The Roadhouse Dewsbury on 8th December.
Last month, Ally released a series of videos on The Virginmarys facebook, asking fans if they would like to host an event to support foodbank and homeless charities in their local community; Ally offered to travel and play these events for free, all with the intention of raising much needed funds and food.
These video announcements swiftly resulted in a 7-date UK tour, plus an extra date in Ireland too. The response and support from fans has been unprecedented! Folk have actively promoted and hosted all shows, as well as provided Ally with a couch to crash on across all dates.
Explains Dickaty: “I was amazed by the response of the event I put on in our hometown in September and decided to put it to our fans to help organise a UK tour, getting people actively involved. It’s a situation that’s continually getting worse and showing no signs of improvement, homelessness in Manchester has increased by 80% in the last 6 years. I want to feel like I’m actively doing something and not just talking about how bad things are getting. I wanted to do something great this Christmas.”
Obtain your ticket for any of the remaining dates by offering a bag of shopping or a donation. More details can be found on the The Virginmarys facebook page: www.facebook.com/TheVirginmarysOfficial
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have announced the release on DVD and Blu-ray of ‘One More Time With Feeling’ – the feature film about the making of their acclaimed album ‘Skeleton Tree’ directed by Andrew Dominik (Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford).
Visually unique, One More Time With Feeling is a stark, fragile and raw documentary. Shot in 3D, colour and black & white, the film probes the deeply personal circumstances surrounding the making of ‘Skeleton Tree’ (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ 16th studio album) and features live performances by the band in the studio.
Originally conceived as a one-night-only global screening event taking place in 950 cinemas across 30 countries simultaneously on 8th September 2016, One More Time With Feeling extended its initial run over several days as cinemas sold out around the world. Due to overwhelming demand, this extraordinary film has returned to the big screen for its final run and is playing now in cinemas worldwide.
‘One More Time With Feeling’ is the first ever non-animated B&W film shot in 3D. On 3rd March 2017, this filmic milestone will be released on DVD, Blu-ray and a Limited Edition 3D Blu-ray. All formats of One More Time With Feeling will come as two-disc editions with previously unseen footage.
Formats as follows:
One More Time With Feeling 2 Disc DVD
BS011DVD
This 2 disc DVD edition includes 3 exclusive short films from Andrew Dominik.
Disc 1:
One More Time With Feeling (2D Film)
Disc 2:
Boredom
Do You Pray?
Snowman
(2D Extras)
One More Time With Feeling 2 Disc 2D Blu-Ray
BS011DVD
This 2 disc 2D Blu-Ray edition includes 3 exclusive short films from Andrew Dominik.
Disc 1:
One More Time With Feeling (2D Film)
Disc 2:
Boredom
Do You Pray?
Snowman
(2D Extras)
One More Time With Feeling 2 Disc 3D Blu-Ray
BS011BLURAY3D
This 2 disc 3D Blu-Ray edition includes 3 exclusive short films from Andrew Dominik.
Disc 1:
One More Time With Feeling (3D Blu-ray Film)
Disc 2:
Boredom
Do You Pray?
Snowman
(3D Blu-ray Extras)
Amber Run have come back with a brand new song “Stranger”. The four-piece are also readying to release their sophomore album, ‘For A Moment, I Was Lost’, a 12-track chronicle of their interval between the last, packed with moments of expansive beauty & full-blooded raw emotion. They’re also announcing a February tour to coincide with the album’s launch.
“Stranger is about being hopeful” explain 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 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
Fun Lovin’ Criminals burst onto the music scene in 1996, gate crashing the euphoric Brit-pop party with unforgettable finesse. Heralded for their generation defining blend of styles and effortless New York cool, FLC’s refreshing cocktail of rock n’ roll, funk, blues, soul, hip hop, jazz and latin, gave the Crims a unique timelessness that is still apparent three decades on.
Frontman turned Sony Award winning BBC radio broadcaster Huey Morgan explains; “FLC always bring a mucho grande style. In my half Irish, half Puerto Rican vernacular, this means we goin’ BIG. Of course we want everybody to come along for the ride, we wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for the fans. Bigger the party the better, so come join us!”
The Lower East side trio, consisting of founding partner Brian ‘Fast’ Leiser on bass, trumpet and samples and the groups longest-standing drummer Frank ‘The Rhythm Master’ Benbini, will be hitting the UK for a 12 date UK/IRE tour for, as the FLC song of the same name states; a Big Night Out.
Testament to the Crims critical and cultural importance, 2016 also marked the year that the worlds most esteemed lexicographers officially added the term ‘Scooby Snacks’ to the Oxford English Dictionary, citing the famous lyrics to the global FLC hit single of the same name in the new edition. So there you have it, smart people dig FLC, so y’all should too.
Fun Lovin’ Criminals – UK TOUR
3rd Feb ABERDEEN The Garage
4th Feb EDINBURGH Queens Hall
9th Feb SHEFFIELD The Plug
10th Feb BRISTOL 02 Academy
11th Feb SOUTHAMPTON Engine Rooms
16th Feb LINCOLN Engine Shed
17th Feb CAMBRIDGE The Junction
18th Feb LEAMINGTON SPA Assembly
2nd Mar LONDON Electric Brixton
3rd Mar NOTTINGHAM Rock City
4th Mar MANCHESTER Albert Hall
It was while she was doing her degree that Chantel put her band together. ‘I was multi-tasking, studying and also gigging locally places like Harrogate, because I didn’t want to travel too far away from my course. We developed a following round Yorkshire, and it meant that when I finished my degree I could properly launch my career and start to do festivals.’
