Montreal singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Leif Vollebekk has announced summer festival dates and a UK headlining tour in November.

Vollebekk will be taking part in many iconic festivals such as Les Inrocks in France; Best Kept Secret in Netherlands; Hurricane & Southside in Germany; FEQ, Vancouver Folk, Calgary Folk and Osheaga in Canada and more, before headlining concerts in ten countries across Europe in November. See full listing below.

His album’Twin Solitude’ has been met with accolades from critics all over the world including NPR, The Fader, Uncut, Paste Magazine, Rolling Stone France, The Sunday Times Culture, Boston Globe, The Globe and Mail and more, plus radio play across Europe and North America, playlisting on Spotify’s New Music Friday in twelve countries as well as appearing on Spotify’s Viral Chart week of release in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Vollebekk wrote the ten-song ‘Twin Solitude’ while re-calibrating from a creatively taxing period on the road, a time where his own songs just didn’t feel right to him. He began to find beauty in the everyday vignettes that made up his life at home and on the road: finding inspiration in a bike ride, a Moog synthesizer, an untuned guitar, a Nick Drake record.

Listen/Order “Twin Solitude” online here >>
http://smarturl.it/TwinS_All

Tour Dates:

07/09/17 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute*
08/0917 – Newcastle, UK @ Cluny 2*
09/09/17 – Glasgow, UK @ CCA*
18/11/17 – Brighton, UK @ The Hope and Ruin
19/11/17 – Bristol, UK @ Louisiana
21/11/17 – London, UK @ Moth Club
22/11/17 – Birmingham, UK @ Sunflower Lounge
23/11/17 – Manchester, UK @ Gullivers
24/11/17 – Glasgow, UK @ Garage (Attic Bar)

*Supporting Margaret Glaspy

The festival’s organisers are about to finalise this year’s programme which means anyone who wants to take part in the 2017 Adopt a Gig scheme needs to sign up by midnight on Thursday 27 July.

Over 80 free gigs and events took place at the 25th Marsden Jazz Festival last year and everyone who adopts a gig for £50 receives an e-certificate and gets their name printed in the free festival brochure.

The first headliners have also been announced for this year’s festival, which takes place between Friday 6 and Sunday 8 October, including a world premier from Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year Arun Ghosh.

And six gigs will be taking place in a new headline venue – the 1920s Parochial Hall. They include a special one-off gig by three titans of the trombone – two-time Grammy award winner Michael Dease alongside jazz legends Mark Nightingale and Dennis Rollins.

Artistic Director Barney Stevenson said:

“Arun Ghosh brought us a spellbinding sell-out gig at our 2015 festival and we’re delighted he’s chosen to return to Marsden to launch his new album.

“Our Bones of Wrath gig, with jazz legends playing instruments from Honley-based Michael Rath Trombones, also promises to be something really special.

“Alongside the headliners, we’ll also have dozens of free gigs in Marsden’s pubs, clubs and cafes and on our outdoor stages.

“It’s really important to us that the majority of the gigs at the festival are free so that as many people as possible are able to experience live jazz music. We got a great response to our Adopt of Gig scheme last year and we hope festival goers will continue to support the free gigs this year.”

Clarinettist and composer Arun Ghosh will be in Marsden for the first ever live performance of his new double album – the Blue Light the Red Light – before heading off on UK tour.

Other gigs taking place in Marsden’s 19th century Mechanics Hall will include performances by international supergroup Meier-Budjana and Rene Alvarez’s eight-piece salsa band.

And other Parochial Hall gigs will include a tribute to Duke Ellington by the Tom Harrison Group featuring Cleveland Watkiss, and a performance by pianist and saxophonist duo Alcyona Mick and Tori Freestone.

More details on all this year’s gigs, as well as information on how to adopt a free gig, are available at www.marsdenjazzfestival.com or by ringing 0800 6125 649.

Ash will kick off their UK tour in style at Holmfirth’s Picturedrome on August 13th. The veteran Downpatrick trio have enjoyed a fortuitous career spanning more than two decades and are currently touring latest release ’Kablammo!’ – a high-octane return to the frontline of pop punk for an act who must be considered amongst the nation’s great guitar bands.

Guided by evergreen frontman, Tim Wheeler, Ash have released 18 Top 40 hits, a seismic No. 1 debut album and a raft of era defining singles like the unforgettable ‘Burn, Baby Burn’, ‘Shining Light’ and ‘Oh Yeah’. The band have come a long way since being signed to Infectious Records at the age of 18. After leaving school and embarking on a sold out riot around the UK, ‘Girl From Mars’ crashed into the UK Top 20, and established Wheeler as a writer of truly great pop tunes.

Recent album ‘Kablammo’ comes eight years after ‘Twilight Of The Innocents’, the album Ash vowed would be their last. The band return with renewed enthusiasm for playing together which is writ large over the album’s 12 tracks and in the ‘in your face’ quality” which has made Ash one of the UK’s best-loved bands.

Venue: Picturedrome
Address: Market Wlk, Holmfirth. HD9 7DA
Date: Sun 13 Aug 2017 (7.30pm doors)
Tickets £17.50

York’s INVISIONS announce the release of their self-released debut album ‘Never Nothing’ on 18th August. Produced by brothers Sam and Joe Graves of York’s InnerSound Studios (Asking Alexandria, Deaf Havana, Eyes Set To Kill), the title stems from the common tendency to keep up appearances, hiding inner demons and personal struggles.

“‘Never Nothing’ refers to a theme that is lyrically consistent across the album. Almost every song relates to how everybody hides behind a front but actually there’s so much more going on. People in today’s society love to pretend that they’re immune to any extreme of emotion when in reality that is never the case.”
– Alex Scott, Guitars

INVISIONS have released two singles from the record so far – the first Turn Up, an in-your-face party anthem that premiered with Rock Sound and Kerrang! Radio, and more recently Purge, which showcases a darker side to the band’s high octane, infectious breed of metalcore.

With deep roots in the York music scene from previous bands, the demise of these projects led to the formation of INVISIONS in early 2016 with a collective vision to create hard hitting, adrenaline-fuelled, heavy music. Jumping in at the deep end, the band hit the rehearsal room to craft the foundation for their sound.

Now armed with a trophy cabinet of songs to unleash on an unsuspecting world, and gearing up for a UK tour in July, INVISIONS are ones to watch.

SHOWS

3rd June – Seddfest, Bolton
14th July – Finns Bar, Weymouth
15th July – Cobblestones, Bridgewater
16th July – The Booth Hall, Hereford
20th July – Subside, Birmingham
21st July – O’Riley’s, Hull
22nd July – Temple Of Boom, Leeds
23rd July – The Sitwell Tavern, Derby

https://www.facebook.com/InVisionsOfficial/
https://twitter.com/InVisionstweets

2007 saw The Hoosiers explode upon an unsuspecting public with their debut album “The Trick To Life”, which reached the top of the album charts and spawned the indie-pop classics ‘Worried About Ray’ and ‘Goodbye Mr A’, which still pack out indie dance floors a decade later.

Never released on vinyl, the band will be selling a new limited edition vinyl pressing and expanded 2CD edition of their debut when they undertake a huge UK tour that will see them play the album in its entirety, something they’ve never done before.

The multi-platinum success of their debut album raised huge expectations for its follow-up, not least at The Hoosiers’ record label. The prophetically titled “The Illusion of Safety” was, all the band agree, a troubled project from the start. Irwin suggests, “The word ‘hit’ is substituted for ‘good’. There’s an art to writing under those conditions, but it wasn’t one that worked for us. It exacts a toll on too many writers. You give up too much if you do that.”

“The News From Nowhere”, released in 2014, was an astonishing return to form along with 2015’s “The Secret Service”, both self-released after the above troubles with labels. “Doing it on our own terms,” says Irwin, “and actually having a proper say in it, felt wonderful. We had nothing to lose, but a lot to prove.”

Tension, creativity, democracy, arguments, time apart, coming back together, and then songs. Lots of them. Gone is the self-consciousness of the dog days around their second album; gone, too, the self-doubt. In their place is a deeply rooted – and hard-won – confidence, and a determination to lock back in to the freedom and joy of the early days.

Dates

29-Sep-17 Nottingham Bodega
01-Oct-17 Milton Keynes MK11
03-Oct-17 Canterbury The Lounge
04-Oct-17 Bournemouth Old Fire Station
05-Oct-17 Guildford Boileroom
06-Oct-17 Stoke Sugarmill
07-Oct-17 Coventry Kasbah
10-Oct-17 Norwich Waterfront
11-Oct-17 Leicester O2 Academy 2
12-Oct-17 Oxford O2 Academy 2
13-Oct-17 London Scala
14-Oct-17 Derby The Venue
18-Oct-17 Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach
19-Oct-17 Stroud Subscription Rooms
20-Oct-17 Bath Komedia
21-Oct-17 Exeter Pheonix
22-Oct-17 Bristol Fleece
25-Oct-17 Manchester Club Academy
26-Oct-17 Sheffield O2 Academy 2
27-Oct-17 Chester The Live Rooms
31-Oct-17 Scunthorpe The Lincoln Imp
01-Nov-17 Newcastle O2 Academy 2
02-Nov-17 Edinburgh Potterrow
03-Nov-17 Glasgow King Tut’s
04-Nov-17 Doncaster The Diamond Lounge
05-Nov-17 Lincoln The Engine Shed
06-Nov-17 St. Albans The Horn

Fan pre-sale tickets and vinyl pre-orders available at 10years.thehoosiers.com

To mark the 40th anniversary of 2-4-6-8 Motorway in October 2017, he pays tribute to the original Tom Robinson Band by performing his entire ‘Power In The Darkness’ album at select venues across the country.

Taking in 15 dates in total, the tour will also see Tom back at London’s legendary 100 Club for a 3 night residency with a classic four piece lineup. His incendiary live quartet features Faithless drummer Andy Treacey, Richard Ashcroft guitarist Adam Phillips and keyboard virtuoso Jim Simmons plus Tom himself on bass and lead vocals. Full dates listed below.

Born in Cambridge in 1950, Tom Robinson first became known in the late 1970s as a musician and LGBT activist with the Tom Robinson Band (TRB) who were early supporters of Rock Against Racism and Amnesty International. In 1977 their Top 5 debut release 2-4-6-8 Motorway became one of the landmark singles of the UK punk era. Other hits included Glad To Be Gay, Up Against The Wall and the band’s debut album Power In The Darkness which went gold in the UK and Japan.

As a solo artist Tom had further solo hits in 1983 with War Baby and Atmospherics: Listen To The Radio, and co-wrote songs with Peter Gabriel, Elton John and Dan Hartman. His 14th studio album Only The Now was released in 2015 featuring guests such as Billy Bragg, John Grant and Ian McKellen. Recent festival dates include Latitude, Green Man and headlining the Left Field stage at Glastonbury 2016.

As a radio broadcaster Tom hosts three shows a week on BBC Radio 6 Music, is a member of the Ivor Novello Awards committee and in 2016 was awarded a fellowship of LIPA to recognition his support for new music artists through BBC Introducing.

OCTOBER TOUR 2017

10 – Cardiff, The Globe
11 – Milton Keynes, The Stables
12 – Cambridge, The Portland
13 – Bewdley Festival
14 – Nantwich, Words & Music
17 – Wakefiled, Unity Works
18 – York, The Crescent
19 – Nottingham Rescue Rooms
20 – Sheffield, Leadmill
21 – Manchester Home
24 – London 100 Club
25 – London 100 Club
26 – London 100 Club
28 – Newcastle, Riverside
29 – Glasgow, King Tut’s

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