Friday Live
Friday Live: Matthew Frederick & The Hindsights + support from Ofelia
Doors open 8pm
£6 early bird / £8 on the door
MATTHEW FREDERICK fuses an early love of classic singer-songwriters with more recent influences to create a distinctive and timeless blend of acoustic pop, indie folk, ballads and blues, with a touch of Cymrucana and contemporary classical thrown in for good measure.
With headline shows in the UK, US and Europe under his belt, as well as fronting BBC Introducing favourites Climbing Trees, the Rhondda Valley musician has released five albums, two EPs and fourteen singles to date across a number of projects since his 2012 debut EP ‘Venus & Mars’, with tracks being used by Netflix, Sky and ITV, among others.
Alongside numerous festival (Green Man, The Hay Festival), television (BBC, S4C) and radio (BBC Radio 1, 6 Music) appearances, Frederick has also recorded at London’s iconic Maida Vale Studios, performed with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and was shortlisted for the Welsh Music Prize following the release of the Trees’ much-anticipated and critically-acclaimed ‘Borders’.
Playing each and every instrument across recent debut solo studio album ‘Fragments’, the record has so far spawned four releases in the form of country-tinged lead single ‘Tell Me’, playlisted by the BBC as well as gaining airplay from Amazing Radio, the late-summer haze of ‘Hay-on-Wye’, which quickly became Frederick’s most-streamed track on Spotify, the delicate nostalgia of piano-led ‘Pink Blossom Snow’, plus latest offering and long-time live favourite ‘Laura Jones’, ahead of fifth and final single ‘Leave The Light On’, set for an Autumn 2020 release via Staylittle Music.
“Matthew Frederick should now be recognised as one of Wales’ finest songwriters and performers” - New Sound Wales
“A cross between Bob Dylan’s 1960’s storytelling and Bruce Springsteen’s 1970’s rabble rousers” -Buzz Magazine
“As I sit back listening to Fragments, I am transported to another world ...this is a real guitar-playing showcase” -Fresh On The Net
“It’s like the first rays of spring sunshine that’s endured a lot over the winter months” -Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales
Friday Live: The People Versus
Tickets £6 adv/£8 on the door
Doors 8PM
Friday Live: Gitta de Ridder
Doors 8pm
“Feathers is a holistic singer-songwriting performance of the highest order, gentle, simple yet ultimately stunning” - R2 Magazine
Friday Live: Honey And The Bear
Tickets £5 adv/£7 OTD
Doors 8PM
"Accomplished, easy-on-the-ear acoustic folk-pop for grown-ups” - fRoots Magazine.
British folk and roots duo, Honey & the Bear, combine delicately interweaving vocal harmonies with emotive and evocative songwriting.
“Lucy and Jon have quickly established themselves a must-see acoustic duo” - Stephen Foster, BBC Radio Suffolk.
With a diverse range of sounds and textures, and rhythms that flow from the fast and furious to gentle ballads, their live performances are spirited and dynamic. Conjuring stories in song, they tell tales of Suffolk folklore, courage, passion and heartbreak.
The multi instrumentalist pair have played at many revered venues and festivals, toured extensively across the UK as support for Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys, and travelled across the channel for their first European tour.
“Beautiful harmonies and charisma from both aside, they were very obviously enjoying each other’s company which enhanced the atmosphere of the evening ... their lyrics were significant without being contrived, and were enhanced by their storytelling and communication with the audience in between numbers”. - Ellie-Jane Arden, John Peel
Friday Live: The Meadows + Paul Lloyd Nicholas
Tickets £6 adv/£8 OTD
Doors 8PM
The Meadows are a vibrant multi-instrumentalist Celtic-Crossover folk band, all drawn from one family. Bringing cutting-edge techniques and an exciting, contemporary vibe to every show, the band perform original works which weave between foot stomping reels to rich vocal harmonies, taking their audiences on a spellbinding journey.
"Such a beautiful recording, from such an unaffected band. And hugely, luminously talented too, of course... Don't let anyone change or spoil you. I imagine that is the last thing anyone could do... Transfixingly beautiful!” - Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales
The band has been showcased by Fatea Magazine as one of the best emerging U.K. Folk bands. Force of the Tide has been awarded the ‘Debut Album of the Year’ in Fatea’s Annual Awards 2019 and was nominated for the 2019 Sound Board Magazine Awards among the top four artists from Wales in the ‘Best Album’ category.
“Beautiful, absolutely gorgeous!”- Frank Hennessy, Celtic Heartbeat, BBC Radio Wales
After finishing the E.P. ‘Through the Fayre’, they toured theatres and concert venues across Great Britain with a self-produced original show, Celtic Journey, alongside the international soprano Kristyn Murphy who joined them from Maine. During the tour, they performed live on television networks and BBC Radio Wales where listeners contacted the station to ask whether their performance really had been live.
The Meadows have twice played at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections, the International Music Eisteddfod in Llangollen, the Fishguard Folk Festival, How the Light Gets In, The Little Big Gig, Cardiff’s WMC and many other festivals and events along with regular airplay on national and international radio and T.V. networks. A number of their works have debuted on BBC radio.
Paul Lloyd Nicholas is a South Wales singer/songwriter whose albums 'Ariel' and 'Hold the Line' have been released to high critical acclaim. Paul has performed at Cardiff's Millennium Centre, the National Museum of Wales and at festivals and folk clubs across the UK and Europe. His songs are regularly played on radio stations as far afield as Australia and the USA and, of course, on the BBC.
‘I thoroughly enjoy Paul’s approach to lyric storytelling.'- Harvey Andrews
Keith James: Concert of a Changing World
Tickets £10 adv / £12 OTD
Doors 8pm
Unique and timeless songs of vision, question and change performed by Keith James
Words that reverberate with the tenacity of human spirit in these current times of brooding disquiet, fractured societies and civil unrest. Songs that have changed history and moved millions of people to do things they never thought possible. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, Nina Simone and Leonard Cohen. For this concert, the original living writers of each song have been asked to compose powerful brand new verses that stand proud in the 21st century against this current wave of crises.
Keith, a life-long devotee of emotional performance, approaches each song with fresh courage and passion and includes all of the new verses – chilling to listen to!
"James clearly sees the danger of living in a post-truth, self-serving society, but sees hope too." - Folking.com
Find more of Keith's work here
Listen here
Friday Live: Old Sea Legs
Tickets £8 / £10 OTD
Doors 8pm
Crawling with vivid imagery and colourful characters, a timeless tangle of tongue-twisting, brain-burrowing lyrics that can swing from a breathless barrage to a lilting lament – at times without a moments notice – ’Old Sea Legs’ is more than just a nom de guerre for Dublin songwriter and performer Ian Bermingham; it is a window into a world entirely of his own creation.
Best known for his time as frontman of Dublin quintet ‘The Eskies’, Bermingham has wasted no time in stepping into new, uncharted waters as a solo performer since the group’s sad demise in the latter half of 2019.
Displaying all of the storytelling nous and craft of the quintessential folk troubadour, the melodic ear of a pop pioneer and the lyrical largesse that has become so synonymous with Ian’s songwriting, ‘Old Sea Legs’ see’s the Dubliner push himself to new and exciting territories.