VIVE LE ROCK PRESENTS ‘THE FIRST ANNUAL VIVE LE ROCK AWARDS’ with The Damned

VIVE LE ROCK PRESENTS ‘THE FIRST ANNUAL VIVE LE ROCK AWARDS’ – sponsored by AEG presents

THE DAMNED CONFIRMED TO WIN ‘BAND OF THE YEAR AWARD’ PLUS SELECT MEMBERS TO PERFORM WITH THE HOUSE BAND

March 28th London O2 Islington Academy

www.vivelerock.net

This month sees the ‘First Annual Vive Le Rock Awards’ set to take place at London’s 02 Islington Academy on Wednesday March 28^th.

 

Since launching in 2010, the magazine recently celebrated its 50^th issue and has consistently championed the true spirit of rock n’roll, from the legends that conquered the world in the 1970’s and 80’s, to the new acts who keep the spirit fresh and alive. ‘The First Annual Vive Le Rock Awards’ is a chance to celebrate the music and lifestyle and give credit to those that are long overdue.

 

Today we can announce that British punk legends The Damned, ahead of the release of their new album ‘Evil Spirits’ (out April 13^th on Search And Destroy/Spinefarm Records), will pick up a ‘Band Of The Year’ award on the night. On top of that, select members will close the event with a special performance with the house band. This follows an extremely successful tour earlier this year that saw The Damned play to over 23,000 fans across the UK, showing just how deserving they are of this award.

 

This exclusive performance will join a set by former Hanoi Rocks (and The Voice and X Factor Finland judge) Michael Monroe, who will fly in from Helsinki to play at the awards, alongside a show by the one and only Shakin’ Stevens, the biggest selling artist of the 80s.

 

These, together with the previously announced sets by post-Sex Pistols rockers The Professionals, who returned last year with a critically-acclaimed new album (voted ‘Album Of The Year’ by Vive Le Rock last December) and Adverts frontman TV Smith, make the ‘First Annual Vive Le Rock Awards’ a night not to be missed.

 

Held over the two rooms of the O2 Islington Academy (main room and the smaller room- acting as the V.I.P/photo room/aftershow party), 300 carefully invited guests and 200 paying punters will witness a sensational show with unique collaboration’s and 11 awards given away by famous presenters and our compere.

 

The Awards will be hosted by guest performer Ginger Wildheart, alongside awards presenters Steve Diggle from the Buzzcocks with many more yet to be announced.

Tickets available from: http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/1F005438F64EDFDA

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THE ANCHORESS DUET WITH THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS & PLAYING MELTDOWN

THE ANCHORESS ON HER DUET WITH THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS People talk about lifelong ambitions realised but sometimes there are things that even in your wildest dreams you couldn’t have hoped for or imagined to come true. As many of you know, the Manic Street Preachers shaped and changed the course of my early life in so many ways and I’m looking for words in my hefty thesaurus to accommodate the feeling of being asked to duet with them on their forthcoming album. There are none. So I’m thrilled to be able to announce that my duet with the Manic Street Preachers ‘Dylan & Caitlin’ is out now. The track is taken from the Manics’ forthcoming 13th studio album Resistance Is Futile and documents the stormy relationship between poet Dylan Thomas and his wife Caitlin, with The Anchoress (myself) taking vocal duties alongside James Dean Bradfield. You can stream & buy ‘Dylan & Caitlin’ on your preferred service now, or download when you preorder the album: Stream on Spotify Buy on iTunes The NME have reported on the new single release where you can also watch us perform a special live acoustic version of the track. Watch the official lyric video for ‘Dylan & Caitlin’ here by Evan Jones here: https://youtu.be/y2fGHPbkCj0 ‘Dylan & Caitlin’ – Manic Street Preachers featuring The Anchoress ON PLAYING ROBERT SMITH’S MELTDOWN In the second installment of exciting news, I was truly honoured to receive a letter from Robert Smith inviting me to play at this year’s Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre. I will be playing a full band show at the Royal Festival Hall in London on the 19th June 2018. The line-up that he has curated for this very special bill includes an incredible array of bands and artists that have left an indelible mark on my life – Nine Inch Nails, Manic Street Preachers, Deftones and many more… I’m thrilled to be playing alongside such legends. Tickets go on general sale from the Southbank Centre website today!

SIGNED ALBUMS If you’ve not yet got your hands on the stunning 2 CD and 2LP version of the album – including 5 new tracks, there are a handful of signed copies remaining now, with limited edition signed artwork postcard.  This expanded, second edition of the album has been lovingly remastered by Jon Astley, and includes 5 brand new acoustic versions of songs from the album, featuring stunning string arrangements from Gillian Wood. Official Store Bandcamp Stream iTunes

DINGUS KHAN return to The Hunter Club

We’re hugely excited to welcome back the amazing DINGUS KHAN to The Hunter Club in Bury St Edmunds this Saturday, 17th March, ahead of the release of their long-awaited sophomore album ‘Dunce Kap’.  Veterans of countless UK festivals (including legendary, celebratory packed-out annual performances at Latitude Festival), Dingus Khan are hands-down one of the finest live rock bands ever to emerge from East Anglia.  Also, this show will feature the Hunter Club debut shows by two bands formed through Queens Road Studio Rock School (SUBSTATION and THE DAZE), who run workshops for children aged 6 upwards who’re interested in making music. 

 

Here’s some blurb:

Roaring back to Bury St Edmunds Rock City on the eve of the release of their hugely anticipated second album ‘Dunce Kap’, Manningtree’s always-astonishing DINGUS KHAN will bring shouty hits both old and new for your flail-limbed pleasure. Supporting are anthem-purveying alt-rock trio BLUE MEAN EYES, skewed indie masters SAM EAGLE AND THE LEMON LIZARDS, Ipswich-based “shoepop” quintet RADIO ORWELL and the Hunter Club debuts by future rock sensations SUBSTATION and THE DAZE.

Date & Time: Saturday 17th March 2018, 6-11pm

Venue: The Hunter Club, Bury St Edmunds

Bands: DINGUS KHAN, BLUE MEAN EYES, SAM EAGLE & THE LEMON LIZARDS, RADIO ORWELL, SUBSTATION and THE DAZE

Tickets: £5 on the door, £4.40 advance from www.wegottickets.com

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1675762655778256/

All ages welcome (under-14s must be accompanied by a parent/carer)

Manic Street Preachers – ‘Dylan and Caitlin’ available from today

Manic Street Preachers  – Album track ‘Dylan and Caitlin’ available from today
Listen Here (including live acoustic version feat The Anchoress on video below) http://smarturl.it/DylanCaitlin?IQid=TW

Following the release of ‘International Blue’ at the end of 2017, and ‘Distant Colours’ in February, Manic Street Preachers have made a third track available from their forthcoming 13th studio album ‘Resistance Is Futile’.’Dylan and Caitlin’ is out today (9 March) and is a duet with The Anchoress. The band have also been confirmed as playing the 25th Meltdown Festival curated by The Cure’s Robert Smith. The band will appear at the Royal Festival Hall in London on the 19th June following their own UK tour.

The track is a “conversation between Dylan and Caitlin Thomas at the apex of their alcohol soaked relationship” James Dean Bradfield explained.  Nicky Wire added “The story itself rolls through their relationship – drinking, fighting and ended up broken by America.  The conversational nature of the lyrics lent themselves to a duet so we asked Catherine AD (aka the Anchoress) to provide the female perspective. She’s a hugely talented kindred spirit.”

‘Dylan and Caitlin’ follows in the tradition of the band working with guest vocalists which started with Tracey Lords on their debut album track ‘Little Baby Nothing’ and has taken in Ian McCulloch (‘Some Kind of Nothingness’), Nina Persson (‘Your Love Alone’) and Richard Hawley (‘Rewind The Film’).

Of their first new album since 2014’s ‘Futurology’, the band said: “The main themes of ‘Resistance is Futile’ are memory and loss; forgotten history; confused reality and art as a hiding place and inspiration.”

New track         ‘DYLAN AND CAITLIN’                      9th March 2018

New album      ‘RESISTANCE IS FUTILE’                13th April 2018

Tour Dates:

23 April     NEWCASTLE, Metro Radio Arena
25 April     GLASGOW, The SSE Hydro Arena
27 April     BIRMINGHAM, Arena
28 April     MANCHESTER, Arena
1 May      LLANDUDNO, Venue Cymru Arena
2 May      LEEDS, First Direct Arena
4 May      LONDON, The SSE Arena Wembley
5 May      CARDIFF, Motorpoint Arena

With very special guests The Coral

Festivals:

19 June   MELTDOWN, Royal Festival Hall, London
21-24 June   ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL,
21 July     PENN FESTIVAL, Buckinghamshire (headline)
27 July     Y NOT FESTIVAL, Peak District
17 August      RIZE FESTIVAL, Hyland Park, Chelmsford

Manic Street Preachers website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

Mark Fernyhough & Steven Horry’s ‘Nouveau’ FFO Suede / Art Brut

Mark Fernyhough & Steven Horry’s new single ‘Nouveau’ is released late February 2018. The music video for Nouveau was directed by Lisa Marie Lange and features a girl gang roller-skating through Berlin’s iconic cityscape.

According to PopBollox.com, “The duo, based in London and Berlin, deliver a track that spans distance and measures its cultural influences well. Stylized vocals dissolve into reverb, guitar hooks stab and dress the structure. The result is architectural, but Horry’s fret-work has a spiralling effect of an Escherian Stairwell, so familiarity with this kind of sound is also slightly (pleasingly) perverted.” (https://popbollocks.com/mark-fernyhough-steven-horry-nouveau/)

Between them the Berlin/London duo’s songs have been featured on Radio 1, 6Music & MTV, whilst their debut single ‘Fireworks’ has already garnered over 30k video plays on YouTube.

Mark Fernyhough has opened for Suede whilst Steven Horry’s graphic novel collaboration with Art Brut’s Eddie Argos has been published to acclaim by Image Comics.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.fernyhough/videos/10155928232860605/

Youtube: https://youtu.be/e8XHOpXf_mo

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3T2ykiBMd3lvq9XNGFEM6M

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-176132440/nouveau-abbey-road-master 

Buffalo Tom Announce Limited Edition 7″ Single For Record Store Day

Buffalo Tom

Announce Limited Edition 7″ Single For Record Store Day

Featuring Simon & Garfunkel’s

“The Only Living Boy In New York”

b/w The Who’s “The Seeker”

Watch video for “The Only Living Boy In New York” here 

https://youtu.be/1p_IK_y0X0c

Acclaimed new album Quiet And Peace, Out Now

“This is the golden sound of a band in their element.” – Mojo 4*s

“Buffalo Tom remain a very fine shoulder to cry on, warm, steady and strong.” – Q

“Still full of verve and vinegar.” – Record Collector

“Bracing and beautiful.“ – The Los Angeles Times

Buffalo Tom have confirmed the release of a limited edition 7″ single for Record Store Day 2018 on 21 April featuring covers of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Only Living Boy In New York” b/w The Who’s “The Seeker.” “The Only Living Boy In New York” is available on Quiet and Peace, the acclaimed new album just released by the Boston-based indie faves, with “The Seeker” added as a bonus track.

You can stream the album via Spotify here and catch Buffalo Tom’s singer-guitarist, Bill Janovitz on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast here.

Buffalo Tom have announced US shows in New York and Boston and will be coming to the UK in December.

Quiet and Peace is a compelling 11-song set that finds the trio—singer-guitarist Bill Janovitz, bassist-vocalist Chris Colbourn and drummer Tom Maginnis—simultaneously mining their best-known sonic elements while breaking new ground on emotionally resonant new tunes such as “All Be Gone,” “Roman Cars,” “Freckles” and “CatVMouse.”  Buffalo Tom’s first collection since 2011’s Skins, Quiet and Peace was mixed by John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, The Hold Steady) and marks the band’s first collaboration with producer and fellow Boston alt-rock legend David Minehan, renowned ex-leader of the Neighborhoods.

 

US Dates:

Sat 17 Mar – Brooklyn, NY, US – Music Hall of Williamsburg
Fri 20 Apr – Boston, MA, US – Paradise

Pre-Order Quiet And Peace – CD – LP – iTunes

Buffalo Tom Online – Website – Facebook – Twitter

The Lovely Eggs Release for Record Store Day

The Lovely Eggs

Announce special edition of This Is Eggland

For Record Store Day on 21 April

On special fried egg vinyl, limited to 500 copies in hand packed sleeve

Play instore at Rough Trade Nottingham

On Record Store Day, 21 April

On Tour in May with support from Mr Ben & The Bens

and comedian & poet Rob Auton

New album This Is Eggland out now

Watch video for “Wiggy Giggy” here:

https://youtu.be/H65Ifm9LzIQ

BBC 6 Music Album of the Day

“A giant leap forward.” The Independent 4*s

“Wiggy Giggy is marvellous.” The Guardian

“Exhilarating and trashy” Uncut

“Impressively focused, relentlessly brilliant and a must-go destination.” Shindig 5*s

“Not since Space Ritual-era Hawkwind has anyone so successfully combined workboot riffing with the swirling bleeps of the unexplored cosmos.” Record Collector

“It’s a hard and invigorating celebration of being an outsider.” Prog

“Each track is a successive delight amid a crackling pocket dimension of sounds and ideas.” Louder than War 9/10

“This is Eggland stacks up layers of rawness, creating the sonic illusion of a band twice their size.” The Line of Best Fit

“This is Eggland is a relentless, heartfelt statement of intent. You wouldn’t bet against them unearthing glory from the fringe for decades to come.” The Quietus

The Lovely Eggs have announced that they will be releasing their brand new mind-melting new album This Is Eggland on limited edition fried egg vinyl, especially for Record Store Day on 21 April. Limited to an eyewatering 500 copies, the LP will appear in a special hand packed sleeve, designed by the band with the giant fried egg in its own polythene display sleeve with a uniquely designed cardboard top. This is a true gem for any collector.

Having played at Huddersfield’s Vinyl Tap Records as part of their Record Store Day announcement celebrations yesterday, The Lovely Eggs will also be playing an instore on Record Store Day itself at Rough Trade in Nottingham.

With the country in the grips of Egg-mania following their sold-out tour in February, The Lovely Eggs have also announced the supports for their forthcoming May dates, with Mr Ben & The Bens returning as firm favourite of the band (and endorsed by 6 Music’s Marc Riley). Whilst Phill Jupitus as Porky The Poet graced their recent shows, this time they’ll be taking out comedian and poet Rob Auton.

This Is Eggland confounded expectations by being music industry outsiders The Lovely Eggs’ first foray in to the UK charts, with the album hitting number 9 in the UK Independent National Album Chart, it also made it to number 23 in the UK Vinyl Charts and overall they were number 136 in the UK National Album Chart – although, had they not sold the album direct to fans via their website and gig before release day, they would have been in the top 45! Their single “Wiggy Giggy” was number 8 in the Official Vinyl Singles Chart. The album CD has already been repressed twice and the vinyl once since its release a week ago. This is all without the help of management, booking agent or record label support. 2018 is set to be the year of the Egg!

 

The Lovely Eggs are one of the most unique, innovative and genuine bands on the British Underground music scene. Heavier and more in-your-face than anything they’ve done previously, Holly Ross (guitar/vocals) and David Blackwell (drums) bring together a fierce DIY ethos, surreal sense of humour and kitchen-sink realism. Working with a producer for the very first time, Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips) lends his magic dust to bring out the best of The Lovely Eggs’ explosive blend of motoric krautrock, 60s psychedelia and punk rock attitude. They create their own world and invite us to join them in Eggland.

The album title is a cheeky nod to Shane Meadows’ series, This Is England. It is a comment on the current state of modern Britain. The album is about being an outsider and doing things differently, eschewing society’s conventions as they have done. Since having their son in 2013, the pair have taken him on tour with them, racing round the UK with 2 fingers up to conventional family life firmly out of the window. They have also remained in their hometown of Lancaster, despite its cultural and geographical isolation. As Holly explains; “On this album we’re saying it’s OK to live life differently, we’re doing it and you can do it too! “Living up here in Lancaster is kind of mad. It’s a bit like the Twin Peaks of Great Britain.” The town has a rich history of the witchcraft, notoriously it was where the Pendle witches were hanged”.

For the first time ever, the pair worked with a producer on the new album, welcoming in legendary Grammy award winning engineer Dave Fridmann to their world. “We received an email from Dave Fridmann. He had got our answerphone message, listened to our stuff and wanted to work with us. It was just totally bizarre!” The album was self-recorded at Lancaster Musician’s Co-op and the Eggs’ own house. Dave Fridmann then produced it remotely. They then went out to Dave’s Studio in New York State, for mixing. The result is a gratifyingly rich sounding record, which still retains the raw energy of the band’s sound but harnesses a real power and dynamism. It’s much heavier than anything they’ve done before. As Holly says: “It’s pretty relentless. It kind of sounds like a chip shop on fire. We still write about everyday life and the stuff that goes on in our world, it’s just the new album is more fierce”.

The band have built up a cult following, selling out gigs across the UK, as well as gaining support from 6 Music and Radio One. This Is Eggland was 6 Music’s album of the day and the single “Wiggy Giggy” received a tremendous response from radio and was added to the BBC 6 Music playlist. Steve Lamacq stated, “I can’t get enough of this record at the moment,” and made it the “Lamacq livener” (where it has been played every day for a week). It went on to win Roundtable and was the most popular track on both Steve Lamacq and Marc Riley’s show on consecutive weeks. The pair played their seventh live session for Marc Riley on Tuesday 6 February.

This Is Eggland is a giant leap forward in their wild-ride of a career. The album is like listening in on The Lovely Eggs’ own secret world, with philosophical songs about the mysteries of the universe (“Hello I Am Your Sun”), to abandoning “ the grass is always greener” mentality (“Wiggy Giggy”), to being on the wrong side of society or the music industry (“I’m With You”) and several inspired by local witchcraft. Unashamed to be themselves and have fun while they’re at it, The Lovely Eggs weave an intoxicatingly magnetic magic spell and we’re helplessly and willingly falling under it.

Live Dates:
21 April – The Maze, Nottingham (Sold Out)

29 April – Ritz, Manchester (The Membranes and Friends)
24 May – Guildhall, Preston
25 May – The Exchange, Bristol
26 May – The Boiler Room, Guildford
27 May – The Printworks, Hastings
28 May – Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate
29 May – Portland Arms, Cambridge
30 May – The Hare and Hounds, Birmingham
31 May – The Hairy Dog, Derby
1 June – Picturehouse Social, Sheffield
2 June – Long Division Festival, Wakefield
3 June – Glastonwick Festival
28 Oct – The Scala, London

Watch video for “Wiggy Giggy” here:

https://youtu.be/H65Ifm9LzIQ

Watch video for “I Shouldn’t Have Said That”
Directed by Casey Raymond
https://youtu.be/-HXmAleNWBU

Pre-order This Is Eggland

 http://smarturl.it/ThisIsEgglandAppleMu
http://smarturl.it/ThisisEgglandSpotify

Tickets for Scala show

https://www.seetickets.com/event/the-lovely-eggs/scala/1198447

www.thelovelyeggs.co.uk
www.twitter.com/thelovelyeggs
www.facebook.com/thelovelyeggs
www.instagram.com/thelovelyeggs

Look Sharp! R*E*P*E*A*T Celebrates Record Store Day with Gaffa Tape Sandy and Goldblume Flexi

Look Sharp!

R*E*P*E*A*T Records to release You Flexi Thing Vol 4 on very limited edition red flexi disc for Record Store day.

R*E*P*E*A*T Records is very proud to announce the next in its series of Flexi Things. Previous records have been favourites of Record Store Day Fanatics, introducing them to bouncing new bands at a bargain price. Featuring the likes of The Baby Seals and Deep City, they have also been admired by reviewers home and away, and played on national radio.

Volume 4 is entitled ‘Look Sharp’ and features stars of NME, Glasto, 6 Music and Bury St Edmunds Rock City (© John Peel / Washing Machine Club), Gaffa Tape Sandy, paired with cathartic Cambridge-based emotional band Goldblume: for fans of cynicism, ambivalence and that one Foo Fighters song about cows.

It will be released exclusively for Record Store Day on April 21^st on Republican red flexi vinyl (with free download) and will be limited to 250 copies. It will be available from participating indie record stores, with remaining copies available from the R*E*P*E*A*T Bandcamp https://repeatfanzine.bandcamp.com/ and from the bands at gigs.

Look Sharp  – You Flexi Thing Vol 4
Track Listing

1. GAFFA TAPE SANDY : Smart Dressed Guy.

“Giddily frantic, high-octane hyper rock ‘n’ roll” NME

“Exquisitely brash garage rock from Bury St Edmunds!” -Glastonbury Festival
“Sonics-style garage with a touch of early Kinks and Who and healthy chunks of grunge, punk, hardcore and just about all of the great guitar music of the electric era. This is truly life-affirming stuff.” (B Side Music).

This is the first vinyl release for ‘Smart Dressed Guy, described by Exploding Head Syndrome as a “mashup of styles and tempo, harmonies, melodies and the high energy guitar riffs that get your best friend knocked out.”

Pic : Barnaby Cutter

http://www.gaffatapesandy.co.uk/

2. GOLDBLUME : Razor

“Excitable alt-rock from the dark heart of East Anglia” – Green Mind

“Goldblume blew away this reviewer and the rest of the audience. The guitar, bass and drum musical interplay is razor-sharp and the vocals from Jethro Steel constantly surprise… one of the hottest live bands in Cambridge” Cambridge Music Reviews

“A talent for performance, dischord and the random factor” R*E*P*E*A*T fanzine

“Razor” is an exclusive version of a track from Goldblume’s forthcoming as yet untitled debut album, available in the autumn.

Pic – Stuart Peach Photography

https://goldblumeband.bandcamp.com/

https://repeatfanzine.bandcamp.com/
http://www.repeatfanzine.co.uk

Forthcoming Gigs

Record Store Day Events

Launch in Vinyl Hunter – Bury St Edmunds
Stripped Down Acoustic sets from both bands from 1pm
https://www.facebook.com/events/191144834832938/

Followed by Goldblume at Relevant Records, Cambridge, 3pm
https://www.facebook.com/events/153587255271900/

Gaffa Tape Sandy

THU 15 MARCH The Old Blue LastLondon, UK

SAT 21 APRIL The Smokehouse, Ipswich, UK

SAT 5 MAY Live At Leeds 2018Leeds, UK

SAT 5 MAY Bury St Edmunds Fringe Festival All-Dayer 2018, Bury Saint Edmunds, UK

SUN 6 MAY Sound City Festival 2018Liverpool, UK

THU 17 MAY – SAT 19 MAY

The Great Escape 2018Brighton, UK

FRI 29 JUNE WOW Festival 2018Burston, UK

SAT 21 JULY – Truck Festival 2018

Goldblume

MON 2ND APRIL – Fiddler’s Elbow, London UK

THU 12TH APRIL – Esquires, Bedford UK

SAT 21ST APRIL – Relevant Records, Cambridge UK – Exclusive Free Afternoon Acoustic Record Store Day Show

SAT 21ST APRIL – Blue Moon, Cambridge UK

SAT 5TH MAY – Bury St Edmunds Fringe Festival All-Dayer, Bury St Edmunds UK

SUN 6TH MAY – Green Man Beer and Music Festival, Cambridge UK

SAT 2ND JUNE – Love Music Hate Racism Stage, Strawberry Fair, Cambridge UK

https://repeatfanzine.bandcamp.com/
http://www.repeatfanzine.co.uk

Sleeper announce UK Tour for Spring 2018

Sleeper announce UK Tour for Spring 2018

Following their London date at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire this December, Sleeper prepare to take their “delicious” live sounds to stages around the UK as they announce a tour in March and April 2018 of intimate venues, with tickets guaranteed to sell fast.

The Britpop movement may have only been attached to a few years in the mid-nineties, but this whirlwind of music, culture, style, attitude and icons left a lasting impression and forming in 1993 as Britpop’s cork well and truly popped, Sleeper are synonymous with that time. Britpop’s footprint can still be seen in so many bands two decades on and Sleeper’s music is as relevant today as it ever was; existing fans reliving heady indie days in discos back in the nineties and new fans getting ready to meet their new, favourite “female fronted band”.

Sleeper came together in London and in just five years they had achieved eight UK Top 40 hit singles and three UK Top 10 albums. Fronted by Louise Wener, she became one of Britpop’s biggest female stars, consistently ranking high in the music press’ polls of style symbols and icons, and adorning covers from NME to Melody Maker. Lyrically Sleeper’s songs oozed attitude and combined with a confident and catchy soundtrack, their music began to attract attention. A support slot with friends Blur and the release of hit single ‘Inbetweener’ heralded the start of an important journey for the band and their debut album Smart became one of the first albums associated with Britpop. Their second release The It Girl featured four singles and airplay chart hits ‘What Do I Do Now?’, ‘Nice Guy Eddie’, ‘Sale of the Century’ and ‘Statuesque’. Their music also featured on the soundtrack of seminal British cult movie Trainspotting and Sleeper then went on to release their third album Pleased to Meet You in 1997.

Their sold-out, headline show at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire this December follows Sleeper’s first live shows in 19 years this summer as part of Star Shaped festival which was an unmissable celebration of the Britpop genre. Alongside The Bluetones, Space, Dodgy, My Life Story and Salad, Sleeper’s performance was a triumphant return for the band playing at O2 Institute Birmingham, O2 ABC Glasgow, O2 Ritz Manchester and a sell-out show in the capital at London’s O2 Forum.

MARCH 2018

Thursday 1 – Liverpool, Arts Club*

Friday 2 – Sheffield, O2 Academy2*

Saturday 3 – Leicester, The Scholar*

Friday 9 – Bristol, The Fleece

Saturday 10 – Oxford, O2 Academy2*

Thursday 15 – Stoke, The Sugarmill

Friday 16 – Leeds, The Wardrobe

Saturday 17 – Newcastle, O2 Academy2*

APRIL 2018

Thursday 5 – Bournemouth, The Old Fire Station*

Friday 6 – Bedford, Esquires

Saturday 7 – Norwich, Norwich Arts Centre

Tickets on sale Friday 27 October 2017 at 10am

*Tickets from Ticketmaster.co.uk – £20.00 adv + STBF

Music, culture, style, attitude and icon – this is Britpop at its best.

Facebook: /Sleeperofficially Twitter: @sleeperbandtweets

Gang of Four – hear the single ‘Lucky’

ANNOUNCE NEW EP: ‘COMPLICIT’ OUT 13 APRIL 2018
RELEASE NEW SINGLE ‘LUCKY’

Gang of Four will release a new EP, ‘Complicit’ on 13 April 2018. Their first new material in three years, the release bookends a period since 2015’s critically acclaimed album ‘What Happens Next’, during which Gang of Four have been championed by artists as diverse as St Vincent, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, Pharrell Williams and Frank Ocean, the latter of which sampled the band on ‘Blonde’. Gang of Four are trailing news of the EP with the first new track to emerge from the release, ‘Lucky’ – stream here.

The new track captures producer and founding member Andy Gill advancing his writing partnership with frontman John ‘Gaoler’ Sterry, aided by the production nous of Ben Hillier (Blur, Depeche Mode). The results of the newfound approach are borne out in spades on ‘Lucky’, instantly identifiable by Gill’s serrated guitar work, with Gaolers’ ‘Gang of Four Everyman’ protagonist by alternate turns both piteous and self-aggrandising. Freighted by a taut groove from Thomas McNiece and Tobias Humble’s rhythm section, ‘Lucky’ keeps a characteristically analytical eye on the cut & thrust of the modern world, with the other firmly on the dance-floor.

Speaking about ‘Lucky’, Andy Gill says; “This track itself is a product of chance. I’d been watching a serious debate on one of those financial news channels – six white men in suits arguing about the stock markets – and it set me thinking about how limited luck can be. America’s demented ringmaster-clown claims to have bestowed fortune on the markets. He believes himself the master of luck. In reality, they are casinos. A lot of trading is anyway now done by algorithms to try to eliminate the element of chance, but luck isn’t capable of fundamentally changing the system. Even if you believe market crashes are the result of bad luck rather than layer upon layer of human and machine error, the system shudders, restarts and goes on as before.”

Gang of Four came into being in 1977 and its first phase, incorporating several changes of lineup, lasted until 1984. Their debut album Entertainment! – voted in Pitchfork’s top ten albums of the 70s & a ‘Record That Changed The World’ by MOJO, equally beloved by the likes of R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana & Rage Against The Machine – felt like a blast of ice-cold water, both in form and content. Gill and King made two more albums in the 90s and another in 2011, Content. When King left the project, a reinvigorated Gill seized the opportunity to reimagine Gang of Four from the ground up. As guitarist, composer, producer and lyric writer, he was and remains the band’s driving force.

Stream Lucky on Spotify

Stream Lucky on Soundcloud

http://gangoffour.uk/  || https://twitter.com/gangof4official || https://www.facebook.com/gangoffourofficial || https://www.instagram.com/gangoffourofficial/ || https://open.spotify.com/artist/3AmWjMXXtBJOmNGpUFSOAl