Upcoming events

This event has been rescheduled to Wednesday 23rd March 2022. All tickets remain valid.

https://www.roddywoomble.net

Roddy Woomble is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s finest songwriters.

Known for his enigmatic lyrics, warm baritone voice and consummate gift for a tune, Roddy has released five solo albums to date – ‘My Secret Is My Silence’ (2006), ‘Before The Ruin’ (2008, with Kris Drever and John McCusker), ‘The Impossible Song & Other Songs’ (2011), ‘Listen To Keep’ (2013), and ‘The Deluder’ (2017). Roddy’s first poetry collection ‘Instrumentals’ was released in 2016.

For the past two decades Roddy has also been the frontman of much loved Scottish alternative rock band Idlewild, releasing eight studio albums, and touring worldwide as a headline act, but also in support to R.E.M., Pearl Jam and U2 amongst others.

Matchbox PR x Perspective Music Presents:

Standing Like Statues headline tour, with support from Youth Illusion. 2 more supports TBA soon.

The Mardlers + support TBC

Blending harmony-heavy indie noise with a twist of Pixies dynamism, these guys have hit on a formula that makes for essential listening. They draw influence from classic 90s American indie rock like Pavement and The Breeders.

Yard Act formed in Leeds in September 2019 when Ryan Needham found himself temporarily living in James Smith’s spare bedroom. The two had been pub associates for years, but their new living circumstances served as a catalyst for their friendship and creative partnership which saw them fuse James’ interest in spoken word with Ryan’s primitive proto-punk demos using an ancient drum machine and borrowed bass guitar. They released their first material in March 2020, coinciding with you-know-what, and with just three singles (The Trapper’s Pelts, Fixer Upper and Peanuts) and three gigs to date, Yard Act have staked out a territory all their own. Setting up their own imprint Zen F.C. they released their debut 7” which can now only be found for exorbitant sums on Discogs, they’ve scored two 6music playlists, and they’ve won a growing fanbase with their coruscating, narrative driven, spoken word dance-punk. Now girding their loins for a 2021 filled with new music, new recordings, debut novels, and (fingers crossed) plenty of live shows, Yard Act have most definitely marked our cards as one of UK’s most exciting prospects.

Billie – born Isabella Sophie Tweddle – got her early start in music thanks to parents who surrounded her with the music of Nick Drake, John Martyn, Joni Mitchell, Joan Armatrading, Kate Bush, Loudon Wainwright III and northern folk artist Chris Wood (who once told a nine-year-old Billie to “go for it!”). The family lived in the pastoral rolling hills of Ripon, North Yorkshire, where Billie grew up in and around the Dales. “I feel a lot of emotion [in nature],” she says. “Like this extreme form of empathy. I find it a very comforting blanket. It cradles you, it’s always there. It’s not going away.”

Built on the minimalist acoustic folk she made a name for herself with, Billie Marten?s breath-taking new record Flora Fauna is a mature, embodied collection of songs fostered around a backbone of bass and rhythm. “When I was younger, I was quite trepidatious in my songwriting,” she reflects, while sitting in the winter sunshine in her adopted home of East London. “I concealed myself in my music. Now, I’ve gained more personal strength than I had before, I was so obsessed with what people thought of me then. Over time, you learn to care a bit less ? and you start writing about the things that really matter.”

Shonen Knife – from Osaka, Japan – formed in 1981 by sisters Naoko & Atsuko long before terms like ‘riot girrrl’ entered the lexicon, the all-female trio were happily snapping guitar strings to the sound of imported Ramones covers. Like fellow cult Japanese girl group The 5,6,7,8s, Shonen Knife have weathered decades of musical change by adhering to what they know best: belting out their own infectious brand of feelgood pop-punk.

Over the last 40 years they might not have packed out out stadiums but have been credited as a huge influence on alt rock acts from Sonic Youth to Nirvana. Despite years on the road, their enthusiasm for live
performances remains a joy to see as they delve into an extensive back catalogue ranging from solid thrash rock through to hit parade melodies.

This event has been rescheduled from Thursday 1st April 2021. All tickets remain valid.

An immersive wall of distortion envelopes the powerful fragility of frontman Kiran Roy’s vocals, while he paints a verbal landscape of introspection, despair and hope amid a sonic palette that evokes both the driving, spacious absorptivity of My Bloody Valentine and the poetic, visceral honesty of Nick Cave’s lyricism.

*This date has been rescheduled from 19th April/ 6th Dec, tickets purchased for either of those shows are valid for this date*

One of the finest bands on the Americana/Alt Folk circuit, Noble Jacks are coming to The Portland Arms, straight off the back of their sell out tour with The Dead South.

With the fiddle leading the charge, Noble Jacks are out to take no prisoners with their high-energy footstompin’ rhythms, which have taken crowds by storm across the UK.

2017 saw the release of Noble Jacks’ debut album What the Hammer to much acclaim. A fiddle driven thrill ride, the band set out to capture the raw energy of their notoriously hectic live shows. Achieving radio play internationally, including support from BBC Introducing and Radio Caroline, the riotous album has become a firm fan favourite.

Since this point Noble Jacks have been touring relentlessly, with sold out shows across the UK on their headline tours, as well as shows at major festivals including Glastonbury, Isle of Wight and Bestival, plus major European festivals. With their second album, Stay Awake, released Spring 2019, the Jacks went straight into the top 10 Official UK Americana Album Charts – with a sold out Concorde2, Brighton (650 cap) launch party.

Hailed as the finest purveyors of folk-influenced Americana, the band were invited to showcase at this years Americana Fest in Nashville where they went down a storm!

+ Supports TBA

This event has been rescheduled from Friday 16th April 2021. All tickets remain valid.

https://www.avalancheparty.com/

“The most exciting rock & roll band in the UK right now” BBC Radio 1

“A tsunami of mega riffs and eardrum-popping bass lines. Definitely don’t want to wear your Sunday best to one of their raucous gigs” NME

Avalanche Party is feral garage-punk rock & roll from the North Yorkshire Moors. Their sound is intense and immediate, so new yet so familiar, brimming with an urgency that explodes off the stage like the front lines of a war you didn’t even realise was being fought. Every note played through white knuckles, every word spat through gritted teeth.

Magic, miracles, ghosts, world leaders; these days it seems there is little left to believe in. Lies outweigh truth and even truth can be dangerous. Raising everyone’s spirits Already Dead – the fourth album and the first for nine years from Willy Mason – explores honesty and deception, anonymity in the digital age, good intentions with unexpected consequences, freedom, colonialism, love, god, and purpose because, its storyteller says, now is the time to restore some much-needed faith.

“Already Dead is a spiritual state to aspire to; it is freedom from the trappings and inhibitions of one’s ego, culture, and mythology. It is freedom and love and freedom to love in the face of death,” tells Willy of the philosophy behind the writing. “It’s about the necessary destruction of one’s mythology; mythology of species, sex, race, nation, self. It’s about the pain and tragedy that comes with such destruction, but also about the freedom, possibility and opportunity for reconciliation; reconciliation with the natural world and with each other.”

Already Dead arrives at a time when certain words must be said. It is a quest for love in a society which fears and discourages it; for truth and justice in a society which prioritises convenience and profit. “I ended up diving so deeply into this record because it felt at the time, like the only way I could hope to do some good for somebody,” Willy says. “All the concern and care I have for people, fear, frustration and sadness, all came pouring out.”

POZI come steeped in the lineage of the very best weirdo British indie pop. The trio of drummer/vocalist Burroughs, violinist/vocalist Rosa Brook and bassist/vocalist Tom Jones have a skittish, restless energy.

Despite drawing on influences such as Devo, Wire and Television, there are no guitars in POZI and the space afforded by the lack of this potentially domineering component is refreshing. Instead, there’s Brook’s violin that by turn swells and stresses, either buoying proceedings along or collapsing them into discord. Jones’ rough, scruffy basslines hold each song tightly together as all great bassists should do. Then there’s Burroughs’ sparsely-filled but frantically driven rhythmic repetition and his capital city yelp, words tumbling out as though desperately trying to get out of the way of the ones behind.

Bands TBC

West London five-piece Chubby and the Gang are balanced by two energies – a casual “f*** it” on one side, an active “f*** off” on the other. For every moment of punk imperfection, there’s an intricate flurry of detail.

Made up of musicians from across the consistently thriving and criminally overlooked UK hardcore scene (ft. The Chisel, Big Cheese and more), Chubby and the Gang marinate its characteristic speed and sick-of-it-all energy in a mixture of 50s pop sounds. The result is a prickly take on the older, more melodic genres that punk derives from, chewing them up and spitting them out into something mangled but revitalised.

Through sheer force of strength, their debut album Speed Kills pummelled its way out of the local hardcore scene and across the Atlantic, where it was met with a landslide of critical acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork and Rolling Stone.

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