Events

Date changed due to exceptional personal circumstances. Tickets for the old date are valid for this new one. We apologise for any disappointment or inconvenience caused.

Sons of Joy is Daniel Merrill and Matt Simpkins - a foot stomping, string snapping, hollering juggernaut, 100% free from commercial ambition or delusions of success. They are joined by ethereal folk / baroque of MacGillivray, and a stripped back set of folk-noir from Michael Plater.

SONS OF JOY
Sons of Joy arrived with a couple of out-of-tune violins and a manifesto to reclaim folk music for joy. They played music to feed the spirit, music with the immediacy of an Alan Lomax field recording and the earnest intensity of the pre-war gospel pioneers. They created records of extremes, from delicate 9th century plainchant to raw gospel foot-stompers saturated by feedback, the microphone overloaded by the bestial holler of Matt Simpkins, as he channelled righteous fury like some jackleg street preacher from the 1930s.

After one EP and two albums, Simpkins retired from music to spend three years in post-graduate study in Cuddesdon, Oxford, training to become an Anglican priest. He is now Rev’d Matthew Simpkins, Priest-in-Charge at St. Leonard’s in Lexden, Colchester. Bandmate Merrill is now in Rehab*.

“It is indeed folk music. But it’s screeching, sawing, tortured folk music of the best kind. Of the kind, in fact, that would happily tear the still-beating heart from the shattered ribcage of the jelly-spined folk pop which sullies the name these days, and eat it in front of its grieving family. Awesome.” – Song by Toad blog

* Al Rehab, on the outskirts of Cairo. He continues to perform with Dead Rat Orchestra and KaddalMerrill.

MACGILLIVRAY
MacGillivray has walked in a straight line with a dead wolf on her shoulders through the back streets of Vegas into the Nevada desert, eaten broken chandelier glass in a derelict East German shopping mall, headbanged in gold medieval stocks in Birmingham allotments, burnt on a sunbed wearing conquistador armour in Edinburgh’s underground city, breast-fed a Highland swan in Oxford and regurgitated red roses in Greenland. She remains clan chief . . .

MacGillivray is the highland name of Scottish writer, performance artist and musician Kirsten Norrie, reflecting her matrilineal highland heritage. MacGillivray has released eight albums, authored two poetry collections and provided music for the soundtracks to two major British films.

She has worked with The Fall, Thurston Moore, Arlo Guthrie, Arthur Brown, Shirley Collins, Laura Cannell, Dead Rat Orchestra, Jem Finer (The Pogues), Hauschka, Trembling Bells, Olivia Chaney, Current 93, Gallon Drunk and Vic Godard and the Subway Sect.

Her solo work had been aired on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, The Verb and Radio Wales. She has provided film soundtracks for ‘Swandown’ and for ‘By Our Selves’, in which she also appeared. alongside graphic novelist Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta ) and Toby Jones (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Harry Potter and The Hunger Games).

MICHAEL PLATER
... is an Australian singer/songwriter currently based in the U.K. Taking in various indie, gothic folk, psych, experimental and “noir” influences, his albums “Exit Keys” (2012) and “Mythologies” (2016) have received worldwide critical acclaim.

“Mythologies” was recently re-released in the U.K through cult British folk/psych/drone label Reverb Worship and his songs have featured on releases by Woodford Halse (U.K), Laily Recordings (U.K), More Than Folk Records (France), Do What Thou Wilt Records (Greece) and At Sea Compilations (Germany). Michael also plays in the U.K-based dark folk ensemble GhostShips (with members of cult U.K act The Doomed Bird of Providence), as well as in such acts as Cornish Wreckers, Ghosts of Electricity and the Exit Keys.

He has played shows with such acts as Trappist Afterland, Hugo Race (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), Sproatly Smith, The Doomed Bird of Providence, The Diamond Family Archive and Alex Monk. He regularly tours internationally, playing acclaimed shows in England, Berlin, Budapest, Australia, Amsterdam, France, and Italy.

“Beautiful and timeless...Music that breaks your heart,” (Peek-a-Boo Magazine, Belgium)
“One of the most absorbing and arresting players around,” (B-Side Magazine, Australia)
“Late-night indie rock 'n' roll, dark folk influences, woozy dreampop atmospherics, and a
generous helping of Gothic Americana,” (Bliss Aquamarine, U.K)
"His seemingly sweet music approaches you almost tenderly, then comes the deep, deep voice... A voice that carries a real melancholy...exciting, rock and roll and lyrical," (New Box Magazine, France)

http://michaelplater.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/michaelplatersolo
www.michaelaplater.wixsite.com/michaelplater

Tickets £7 / £6 concessions.
Doors open 7.30pm.