The Aristocrats are a rock supergroup formed in 2011. The instrumental power trio consists of Guthrie Govan, Bryan Beller, and Marco Minnemann. The group name is inspired by the Aristocrats joke and consequently the song titles on their debut namesake album – a progressive rock compilation – are rife with salacious double-entendres.

8+. U14s accompanied by an adult (BALCONY SEATING ONLY).

The Aristocrats

Gigs

London

O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

LEGENDARY SCORPIONS DRUMMER HERMAN RAREBELL  brings a new Shine to his SCORPIONS SONGS! LIVE on tour !!!

Herman Rarebell was the drummer of the SCORPIONS for 19 Years (1977 – 1996)! The so called “golden-era” of the band! SCORPIONS have sold over 100 million records to date! Now, the time has come to present the songs afresh with THE HURRICANE ORCHESTRA. New arrangements for the band with an orchestra! Most of the songs performed were co-written by Rock-Legend HERMAN RAREBELL e.g. DON’T STOP AT THE TOP, PASSION RULES THE GAME, to name a couple...and of course, the masterpiece, ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICANE.

Now the fans in England, Germany, Poland and Czech Republic get to hear the Drum-Legend one more time, and see him LIVE! More countries to come. Never have the songs of the SCORPIONS been performed in Europe in such a beautifully orchestral way!

 Of course you are going to hear one or two stories about life on the road and backstage shenanigans... or about the SCORPIONS first visit to Russia and the Kremlin, speaking with former President Mikhail Gorbachev about the “wind of change” before it even happened...

The walls of concert halls will shake when Herman hits his double-bass drum-pedals, like the philharmonic halls of Poland or the prestigious Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany! The Tour will also take-in Saarbrücken, Saarland, the place where Herman was born on 18th November 1949. Herman Rarebell is convinced that this is a great new musical experience that will cross all borders!!! In addition to the tour, an album has been released on Piosenka Plus Records, distributed by SONY Music worldwide.

 8+. U14s accompanied by an adult (BALCONY SEATING ONLY).

SCORPION’S SONGS SYMPHONIC



This is an 8+ event (Under 14s must be always accompanied by an adult over 18 years old and seated in balconies only).

Indigo Girls

Closer to Fine

Yasmin Williams

Gang of Four was formed in Leeds in 1976 by bassist Dave Allen, drummer Hugo Burnham, guitarist Andy Gill, and singer Jon King. The band pioneered a style of music that inverted punk’s blunt and explosive energies — favoring tense rhythms, percussive guitars, and lyrics that traded in Marxist theory and situationism. They put every element of the traditional “rock band” format to question, from notions of harmony and rhythm to presentation and performance.

This original lineup of the band released two monumental albums, Entertainment! (1979) and Solid Gold (1981). A third, Songs of the Free (1982), was recorded with bassist Sara Lee replacing Dave Allen. After Songs Of The Free, Burnham departed the band and Andy Gill and Jon King continued on to release Hard in 1983. After this release, the band broke up. In 2004, the original quartet reformed for tour dates and released Return The Gift (2005).

Gill’s untimely death in February 2020 was cause for many to once again re-examine the group’s catalog and the legacy of these early releases was widely cited. Not only did Gang of Four’s music speak to the generation of musicians, activists, writers, and visual artists that emerged in the group’s immediate wake, but the generation after that. And the generation after that, even.

In 2021 the band teamed up with indie label super force Matador to release a deluxe, Grammy nominated boxset “Gang of Four 77-81” – a comprehensive and exhaustingly detailed history of the band’s music, politics and influence over the period that cemented the band’s iconic status.

In 2022, the band reformed with original members King and Burnham joined by former bassist Sara Lee and Slint guitarist David Pajo, for a hugely successful North American tour playing songs from the critically acclaimed period between 1977 – 1983. With more touring planned in 2023 - the gang are back and are ready for more.

This is an 8+ event. U14s with 18+ in the balcony

CLUB.THE.MAMMOTH.

Gang of Four

Damaged Goods

Miki Berenyi Trio  (Lush / Piroshka)



This is an 8+ event (under 14s with 18+ in the balcony)

Black Country, New Road

Black Country, New Road - Science Fair

Extra date added due to phenomenal demand.

This is an 8+ event (under 14s must be in the balcony with an adult)

Bird On The Wire

Ane Brun celebrates her 20th anniversary as an artist with a major European tour - also releasing several collections and new material in 2023

Ane Brun's steadily growing audience around the world has a lot to look forward to next year. In 2023, Ane celebrates 20 years as an artist, and it is celebrated with a large European tour that includes London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Saturday 14th October 2023. During the year, several collections will also be released on different themes and there are also hints of new material.

Ane Brun about the anniversary:

"I'm celebrating 20 years as an artist in 2023! What a journey it has been! My debut album 'Spending Time with Morgan' came out in May 2003. Since then I have released a total of 84 albums, singles and compilations on my own label Balloon Ranger Recordings. I want to celebrate this in a grand way. Starting in September next year, I will go with my fantastic musicians on the 20th Anniversary Tour. We will play my best songs from my entire career. I hope to see you out there on the roads!”

In 2003, Ane Brun released the debut album "Spending Time with Morgan", which was praised by critics and presented the Norwegian-Swedish artist as a unique and personal singer-songwriter voice. A voice that with each subsequent record has increasingly taken the turns musically and won a steadily growing audience, also internationally. Last week she released the album "Nærmere" with translations of her English material into Norwegian.

This is an 8+ event (Anyone under 14 must be with an adult over 18 at all times and seated in the balcony).

Ane Brun

Mac Ayres is a self-taught singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist from LongIsland, NY. He takes inspiration from the great singer-songwriters of our time, such as StevieWonder, Marvin Gaye & Amy Winehouse. His previous albums have received attention fromVogue, Billboard, Complex, Highsnobiety, the BBC and more. His debut track, "Easy," hasamassed over 150 million plays on Spotify. Mac is an independent artist and will release his nextalbum, Comfortable Enough, in early 2023.

This is an 8+ event (U14 accompanied with an adult Under 14’s must also be seated in the balcony)

Mac Ayres

Mac Ayres - Easy

Thee Sacred Souls

Fired by his ongoing battle with mental illness, Shortly After Takeoff is the final, and finest, chapter of what Christinzio calls his “Manchester Trilogy”, following 2015’s “How To Die In The North” and 2018’s “Deportation Blues”. All three albums were created after the native Philadelphian had moved to Manchester. Like Deportation Blues, Shortly After Takeoff spans singer-songwriter classicism, gnarly synth-pop and ‘50s rock’n’roll, with Christinzio’s similarly distinctive, flexible vocal carrying a fearless approach to lyrical introspection, but the new album is a major leap forward in songwriting sophistication and lyrical communication.

“It’s important to stress that this isn’t a redemption story,” he says. “I'm a guy who maybe lives a little hard and I’m in the thick of some heavy stuff. But as a result, I think I've made my best record.”

The “heavy stuff” has come thick and fast for Christinzio. Just days before How To Die In The North was released, he was deported and banned from the UK because of visa issues. Estranged from his new home, his girlfriend and his dog, unable to promote his album and back home with his parents, Christinzio sunk deep into the dark. An Italian passport, care of his grandparents, eventually allowed him to re-settle in Manchester, but then just days before Deportation Blues was released, his father Angelo unexpectedly died.

“I went into a spiral that was worse than any time since my twenties,” he recalls. Hence the title Shortly After Takeoff: the feeling of being suddenly thwarted by what life throws at you. Making matters worse was a neurological disorder that returned after years in remission: “I see TV static, and it messes with how my brain interprets everything from sound to my own feelings.”

One way to process tragedy is comedy, which elevates Shortly After Takeoff to a heightened plateau, from grief-stricken vulnerability to armoured bravado, from the black dog of depression to gallows humour.

Bleak comedy is evident from the album’s first song. ‘I Only Drink When I’m Drunk’ features Christinzio’s trademark ‘keep you on your toes’ style. ‘Ghosthunting’ similarly changes tack, between serene melody, classical harps, and pounding passages. Though the Nilsson-esque ‘I Want To Be In the Mafia’ (Christinzio’s favourite lyric on the album) and the elegantly sombre ‘Arms Around Your Sadness’ are less changeable, the way ‘Back To Work’ trades dreamy AOR and robotic funk, “sums up this record perfectly,” Christinzio feels. “The verse seems to make sense, then out of nowhere, boom boom…just when you think you have it figured out… It’s the never-ending cycle of mental illness.”

Christinzio says his love of stylistic shifts is also linked to a, “pretty low attention span. I’m always stirring the pot, I never let it settle.” His personal life is similarly restless. Few might risk everything and abscond from the safety of home in Philadelphia, where he had released two albums, occasionally played live with local faves The War On Drugs - whose current members Dave Hartley and Robbie Bennett were part of the original BC Camplight live band - and guested on Sharon van Etten’s Epic album. “If I’d stayed, I’d be dead. Period,” he once mused, and what was Philly’s loss became Manchester’s gain.

There, Christinzio has his friends, and his band. On record, Shortly After Takeoff is “95 percent” Christinzio, plus Adam Dawson (drums) and Francesca Pidgeon (backing vocals, sax, clarinet) and guests on cello and violin. Dawson and Pidgeon are also members of the current live BC Camplight, alongside Tom Bellini (guitar), Stephen Mutch (bass) and Luke Barton (synths, acoustic guitar).

Christinzio couldn’t tour How To Die In The North because of his deportation, but the shows following Deportation Blues played to increasingly larger audiences. Christinzio’s bombastic and intense live performances have earned him an ever-growing legion of devotees (and a recent nomination for Best Live Act by the Independent Music Awards) that see Brian as an “anti-rockstar”, an unfiltered talent.

“I’m pretty sure the BC Camplight live experience isn’t something you can find elsewhere,” he declares. “It is a journey every night. One moment, I’m basically doing a stand-up routine and the next, the band and I are playing like we plan on dying that evening, giving our everything.” One regret is that his father never saw Christinzio experience any level of success. “I wish he could have seen what I’ve started to do here,” he says. “I certainly gave that guy more grey hairs than he deserved. He would have liked to see this.”

Shortly After Takeoff ends with the gorgeously tender 93-second ‘Angelo’, “a little fleeting moment for my dad. I wanted his name on the album, and something that sounded like a goodbye. It ends with the drums, like a heartbeat stopping…” That’s Christinzio and Shortly After Takeoff: his best, most honest, open and frequently heartbreaking record.

This is a 14+ event.

O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

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