Scruff of the Neck presents Tom Vek at Future Yard on Saturday 5th October.
A long-time staple of the British alternative scene, the self-professed ‘cryptic funk-rock’ multi-instrumentalist returns in 2024 with brand-new EP ‘Confirm Yourself’.
Funk and soul party starters The Allergies return to Future Yard on Thursday 12th September for a hell of a good time.
The duo of DJ Moneyshot and Rackabeat have been delighting dance floors and lighting up radio airwaves since forming The Allergies and releasing their debut album in 2016. Their brand of feel-good funk and hyped-up hip-hop has seen them clock up A List status and numerous ‘Album of The Day’ gongs at BBC 6 Music, and soundtrack a whole host of international ad campaigns.
Year in, year out they’ve sharpened their skills in the studio, dropping one dynamite LP after another.
Scratch DJ collective 2 Nice Crew support.
Booking fees apply. Tickets cost more on the door. Future Yard is a cashless venue.
Future Yard host the return of folk troubadour Charlie Parr on Sunday 15th September.
The bluesman poet comes to Birkenhead once again with a 19-album-strong back catalogue that pulls closely from the sights and sounds around him, his lyrical craftsmanship built by his influences. The sounds from his working-class upbringing—including Folkways legends such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie—imbue Parr’s music with stylistic echoes of blues and folk icons of decades past.
Seafoam Green + Mike West support.
Booking fees apply. This event is part of Folk On The Coast festival and is included in the weekend pass.
Future Yard are delighted to be welcoming the legendary Euros Childs to Birkenhead, in association with promoters Seabird Prensents.
Euros Childs has been making music for over 30 years, as a solo artist and as the frontman of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. He’s released 19 solo albums to date, most of which have appeared on his own National Elf label. Since 2019 Euros has also been playing keyboards and lending his voice to Teenage Fanclub, appearing on their last two albums.
This tour will mark Euros’s return to the stage with a band for the first time in seven years. He’ll be joined by long term collaborators Stephen Black (aka Sweet Baboo) Stuart Kidd (Kidd, The Wellgreen) and Selma French (Morgonrode, Frøkedal).
Expect a show full of life, zest and humour that draws on Euros’s extensive back catalogue as well as songs from his forthcoming album Beehive Beach, due in October. With support on the night from captivating Norwegian artist Selma French.
Booking fees apply. Tickets cost more on the door. Future Yard is a cashless venue.
Change is in the air for award-winning artist Robert Vincent.
The Scouse singer/songwriter will release his much-anticipated fourth studio album through Thirty Tigers in 2024 and its music is riding the winds of change in the air. “The songs are less traditional sounding” he reveals. “I’m learning how to lower my barriers and have made a more personal album than ever before”.
It was the start of 2020 when Robert’s third LP, the critically-acclaimed In This Town You’re Owned, was released and walked straight into a worldwide pandemic. That stalled all promotional plans and tours, but the record resonated and won the prestigious Americana Music Association UK’s Album Of The Year award for 2021.
Now, Robert wants to spread his music’s prescient words: “I think there will be mixed memories for anyone who lived through that and hopefully the album was a bit of a soundtrack to those times for some folks” he says. “I had to try and take the positives as an artist. I hadn’t had any time off in many years from gigging and that gave me a bit of a reset… but I’m looking ahead to a successful year of touring and playing these new songs to people”.
The record has captured said intimacy. Robert’s core band came together and made the music live in the studio, looking into the whites of each other’s eyes. “I chose to record closer to home with my usual band of brothers and sisters” (Anna Corcoran on piano, vocals; Jim Kimberley, drums; Danny Williams, bass; Adrian Gautrey, guitar, keys) “and they assisted me beautifully as always. We’ve also got featured musicians like Joe Coombs, an amazing guitar player from the south west, and added inspired bits and mixed the record.”
Hejira is a seven piece band set up to celebrate and honour the masterpiece works of Joni Mitchell, mostly from her late ‘70s “jazz period”.
Having released the albums The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter and Mingus, Joni then toured briefly with a band formed from the crème de la crème of contemporaneous jazz musicians (Metheny, Mays, Brecker, Pastorius and Alias). The tour was recorded, producing the outstanding live album, Shadows and Light; it is from this album that the band Hejira is drawing the body of its repertoire.
Comprised of highly experienced jazz musicians, this band is fronted by the brilliant Hattie Whitehead who not only has, in her own way, assimilated the poise, power and beauty of Joni’s vocals, but also plays guitar with Joni’s stylistic mannerisms. Expect an evening of the great songs from Mitchell’s back catalogue, such as ‘Amelia’, ‘Woodstock’, ‘A Case Of You’, ’Song For Sharon’, ‘Edith And The Kingpin’ and more.
Liverpool’s Ex-Easter Island Head and specially invited guests bring their mesmeric live performance to The Tung Auditorium.
Celebrating the release of their most recent album Norther, the group and a host of collaborators from across the UK’s experimental underground present an evening of unique new configurations and musical jumping off points.
Ex-Easter Island Head are a UK-based experimental musical collective composing and performing music for solid body electric guitar, percussion and other instruments. The group plays multiple electric guitars augmented through mechanical preparations and extended techniques, creating hypnotic performances rich in repetition, shimmering drones and melodic invention through purposefully limited means.
Their records and live performances have received significant critical acclaim from the likes of The Wire, Pitchfork, the Quietus and the New York Times. Favourably compared to the likes of Steve Reich, Glenn Branca and John Cage, the groups’ music has been praised for its mixture of percussive drive, emotional warmth and playful experimentation. They have performed in venues ranging from the tiny Scottish island of Iona to a 150-year-old brewery in Berlin, with major festival appearances including ATP, Supersonic and Le Guess Who? Collaborators have included the BBC Philharmonic, composer Arnold Dreyblatt and musicians Laura Cannell, Charles Hayward and Andre Bosman in the group Whistling Arrow.
Their library music releases Mechanical Landscapes 1 & 2 released by EMI/KPM have seen the group’s work used internationally for television and radio productions, whilst the groups’ own Large Electric Ensemble projects have seen the core quartet joining forces with forward-thinking musicians to make ambitious large scale performances across the UK and EU.
“Free flowing genius” (The Guardian)
Joy, warmth and irrepressible energy. Sirocco is a great storm of music from across the world, played with heart and virtuosity. From New York to Frankfurt, its infectious spirit has audiences up on their feet and singing along.
★★★★★ “a total reset for the mind and heart” (The Times, on Manchester Collective and Abel Selaocoe)
Expect the unexpected: original South African folk, old Western classics given new life and outrageous solos from across the ensemble. Classical strings dance to the beat of African drums and electric bass guitar. Sirocco has been a fruitful collaboration between Manchester Collective and Guest Director, Abel Selaocoe. A maverick on the cello and a long-time friend of the Collective, he’s a star performer as an instrumentalist, singer, and composer. Join us and celebrate music’s power to unify us all.
Known for their experimental programming, daring collaborations and engaging performances, Manchester Collective perform a combination of cutting-edge contemporary music, classical masterpieces and staged work in spaces ranging from concert halls to warehouses, nightclubs to festivals. New music and collaboration are of vital importance to the Collective; they commission and present work by some of today’s most exciting artistic voices, crossing different genres and artforms.
Internationally award-winning saxophonist/composer Tom Thorp presents his exciting new quintet: ILUMETRIS. They play the show as part of their UK/European tour, with the release of new album Here, There be Monsters…
Thorp’s music blends melodic lyricism with complex texture and exploratory improvisations. Freely dipping into an eclectic plethora of genres from classical, jazz and world, for its inspiration. His work gently leads the listener into new territories, with subtle and intriguing style. His distinctive saxophonic voice pairs seamlessly with the unique sound of generational trumpet talent Neil Yates (best known for his albums 5 Countries, and New Origins).
A rhythm section of Andy Stamatakis-Brown (Alice Zawadski, Manchester Jazz Collective, Gypsies of Bohemia) Grant Russell (formerly of Go-Go Penguin) and John Arnesen (Ancient Infinity Orchestra) provide an endlessly creative vehicle for the vivid narratives in this engaging new album.
Here, There be Monsters… (AMP Music Records) sees ILUMETRIS bring to musical life the legendary creatures of world mythology. With ‘1001 Arabian Nights’, to Anglo-Saxon epic ‘Beowulf’, or the legends of Ancient Greece: the music bristles with rich and energetic story telling. At times dark, at times humorous or poignant, this stunning collection of new jazz pieces blends timeless folk-like melody; the intricate textures of world or classical music; with virtuosic improvisations.
“A dexterous player and an imaginative, original composer. His music and performance are sparkling jewels, that warrant serious attention” (Xpress Magazine, Australia)
After the success of African Rhapsodies, Seckou Keita returns to his roots with his new album Homeland, due to be released in October 2024 by Hudson Records.
In this upcoming opus, Seckou explores identity, sense of belonging and questions the very idea of home, influenced by his own relationship with both his adoptive UK homeland and his native country Senegal.
Always adventurous and seeking to challenge tradition through his kora playing, Seckou will surprise his audience with Homeland by taking them on a journey from past to present. Once again, he bridges musical genres, this time by blending traditional rhythms and modern compositions to create a unique sound, embracing afro-pop, urban and hip-hop.
Transitional musical poetry written and delivered by award winning poets and rap artists from the UK and Senegal will be craftily sampled and woven into the music, shaping a one of a kind live experience.
For the first time in ten years, Seckou will be playing his kora standing up, a tradition set by his uncle and mentor, the late Solo Cissokho, one of Senegal’s most famous pop stars of the nineties. Backed by an electrifying six-piece band of influential Senegalese musicians including drummer Matar N’Diongue, percussionist Kémo Cissokho, keyboardist Moussa N’Gom, guitarist Moustapha Gaye, bassist Modou Gueye, and the wonderful vocalist Korka Dieng, this promises to be an explosive live show!
This line-up, enhanced by Seckou’s magical 22-string kora and soulful vocals, is the ultimate African pop music act and brings a new colour to the genre in its most literal sense. In a blend of acoustic and electronic sounds, Homeland, the show, will certainly keep the audience on their toes!