BY STUART GLOSSOP
There is a photograph that Nadia Reid keeps, taken ten years ago now on an old iPhone 4. It shows the singer at just twenty-two, standing in a backyard in Auckland, her face obscured by a bright bloom of sparkler flame. “It was just a throwaway photo, but I clung to that image through the years,” she says. “You have those points in life that when you look back you see were a time of almost cellular change. And that was one of those points; all my cells were changing.”
Reid was drawn to this image once again in the making of her fourth album, details of which are to follow soon. This was the obvious choice for the artwork for her first single ‘Changed Unchained’. Her first new music for four years and first for new label Chrysalis Records. Brudenell Wednesday 12th March
The Brains has never been a band to follow the rules. In fact they have made it a point to utterly and completely destroy every single one of them with each album they release and every show they play. These hardworking road-warriors have brought their astonishing live show to the four corners of the world; playing packed houses throughout Europe, Canada and the US alongside acts like Mad Sin, The Offspring, The Reverend Horton Heat, The Creepshow and many more. Brudenell Thursday 13th March
The Mary Wallopers have also released a brand-new EP ahead of a summer festival season that includes massive shows at Glastonbury, Isle of Wight, TRNSMT and Latitude. After returning home from sold out tours of the UK, North America and Australia and recent appearances on Later With Jools Holland, Radio 2’s Jo Whiley Show and Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, the band decided to record an EP with regular producer David Noonan in Dublin on a rare weekend off. Home Boys Home includes the title track (a song made famous in 1964 by the Dubliners who recorded it for their first album) as well as versions of the trad song Bonnie Ship The Diamond and a glorious version of The Pogues classic The Broad Majestic Shannon. O2 Academy Sunday 16th March
Dilettante is the brainchild of longtime BC Camplight member Francesca Pidgeon. Live shows are a genre-phobic loop-fest, featuring everything from fuzzy guitar licks to 5-part saxophone harmonies. Francesca and band have sold out headline shows in Manchester, Leeds, Halifax, London, Hull and Liverpool, supported the likes of Self Esteem, Caribou, Graham Coxon (Blur) and Philip Selway (Radiohead) and played festivals including Kendal Calling, Live at Leeds, Manchester Jazz Festival, Focus Wales, NXNE and The Great Escape. Her debut album ‘Tantrum’ was self-released in October 2022, followed by a one off single ‘Stone’ in September 2023. She has been invited to record two sessions for BBC 6 Music and getting support from Gideon Coe, Marc Riley, Steve Lamacq alongside Big Issue in the North. Brudenell Friday 21st March
Lauren Mayberry, celebrated as the lead singer of the acclaimed electro-pop band CHVRCHES, has announced a highly anticipated UK tour for March 2025 to support her debut solo album, Vicious Creature. Vicious Creature marks a striking new chapter for Mayberry, shaped by two decades of band life. Through its songs, she explores themes of sexuality and empowerment with an intensely personal voice, drawing inspiration from the icons of her youth—Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey, and Kathleen Hanna—as well as the ‘90s British girl groups, like All Saints and Sugababes, who profoundly influenced her formative years. Brudenell Tuesday 25th March
Born of a cross-pollination between Totnes and Sheffield, Pale Blue Eyes have been steadily grafting over a number of years to exact their modernist pop vision. At the ship’s helm, Matt and Lucy Board are a genuine marriage of two stylistic perspectives, each bringing unique sonic tropes to the table. It is the pair’s fascination with DIY ethic, retro synths and reminiscence that truly fuels their sound world, calling upon nostalgia and a captivating optimism. The third part of the Pale Blue Eyes triad arrived when Matt and Lucy met bassist Aubrey Simpson at South Devon’s Sea Change festival. Together they have made two albums, with several tracks from both the albums playlisted at BBC Radio 6 Music. O2 Academy Friday 4th April
