Category: BPreviews

On Monday 13^th April, Young Kato perform at The Rainbow in Digbeth – with support from Peasant’s King, Only Shadows, The Young.

Presented by Birmingham Promoters, doors open at 7pm with tickets priced at £8 (advance). For more gig info & tickets click here.

Forming in 2011, the Cheltenham born six piece (with the exception of one Brummie, Joe lever, on bass) released their debut and self titled Young Kato EP in August 2012 – through the Manchester based LAB Records. Upfront, Indie, Pop; the young Young Kato went on to support bands such as Peace, Swim Deep, Bastile and You Me at Six, building a solid grass roots fan base from a busy gig schedule.

After their signature track, ‘Drink, Dance, Play’, got picked up by the producers of Made in Chelsea and featured during series 4 of the show, Young Kato’s momentum reached the national radio stations and wider broadcasters. Young Kato were invited to appear on Made in Chelsea during series five, with their subsequent 2013 tour, in support of their single ‘Something Real, piquing further national broadcast interest.

Then in late 2013, the band began working with producer Dan Grech (Hurts, Tom Odell, Keane) to remix ‘Drink, Dance, Play’ and steer their subsequent Sunshine EP along a more mid 90’s Balearic House route. The new Young Kato sound was well received, enjoying airplay and support from Radio 1 and XFM and settling at No58 in the Alternative UK Airplay Chart.

Another national tour, the band’s ‘biggest tour to date’, took the six piece back across the UK to promote the re-released ‘Drink, Dance, Play’ – whilst Dan Grech was sequestered to work on Young Kato’s debut album, Don’t Wait ‘til Tomorrow.

Young Kato come to The Rainbow in Digbeth, Birmingham as part of their UK tour promoting Don’t Wait ‘til Tomorrow, which is set for release on May 3^rd. To watch the official video for ‘Sunshine’, the title track for Young Kato’s latest EP, click here or on the image/link below:

‘Sunshine’ – Young Kato

Young Kato perform at The Rainbow in Digbeth on Monday 13^th April, with support from Peasant’s King, Only Shadows, The Young. For more gig info & tickets, visit http://birminghampromoters.com/Events/young-kato-2/

For more form Young Kato, visit http://www.youngkato.com/

For more from The Rainbow Venues, visit http://www.therainbowvenues.co.uk/

For more from Birmingham Promoters, visit http://birminghampromoters.com/

Pics courtesy of Electric Swing Circus, Katie Foulkes / KFD Photography  & Carlie Ann-Hare

On Saturday 11^th April, Hot Club De Swing returns to the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath for their Swingamajig Warm Up Show.

Doors open from 9pm, with tickets priced at £5 (early bird) and £7 (standard) + booking fee. For further gig info & tickets click here.

Hot Club De Swing is the side project and playground of Electric Swing Circus (ESC) – the beaus and belles who have underpinned the Electric Swing scene in Birmingham since… well, since they started it here.

Unashamedly ‘show’, ESC have been promulgating their heady mix of 1920’s swing and electronica though fervent live performances and Hot Club nights – carving out a significant chunk of popular pie through venues and festival across Europe.

One of the more imaginative, and committed, bands to come out of Birmingham – ESC turned their attentions to their own festival, Swingamajig, in 2013. Organised with Ragtime Records, the Swingamajig Festival debut was a quick sell out, with each subsequent year nudging the boundaries of what this one day extravaganza would deliver. Now with four arenas/stages to play in, Swingamjig 2015 comes to Birmingham on Sunday 3^rd May; venue TBA.

But not before a chance to dust of your flapper headband an practice your Lindy Hop in more intimate setting – as Hot Club De Swing comes back to the Hare & Hounds for the official Swingamajig 2015 warm up.

Playing at Hot Club De Swing on 11^th April will be a selection of acts also booked on the Swingamajig bill, including the ‘unprotected Sax, smooth clarinet and jazz piano’ of Midnight Magpie and a DJ set from Ragtime Records founder, C@ in the H@.

Headlining Hot Club De Swing will be The Rin Tins, whose ‘Folk filled Jazz Jive Boogie’ was de rigueur at last year’s Shambala Festival. And if we can’t trust 10,000 Moseleyites and Bristolians getting mashed in field, then what hope do we have. Braces & boas ’til dawn.

But for some more direct evidence of this ‘ere thing they call Swing (in an Electric Circus type way), check out the official video for Swingamajig 2014 – it’s like Hot Club, only bigger, sassier, and with possibly more feathers.

Swingamajig Festival 2014

To read previous Hot Club De Swings getting a Birmingham Review, click here for the Festival Tea Party in June 2013, click here for the Xmas Spectacular in Dec 2013, and click here for our last visit to Hot Club in Mar 2014

Hot Club De Swing returns to the Hare & Hounds (Kings Heath) for its Swingamajig Warm Up Show on Saturday 11^th April. For further gig details & tickets, visit http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/event-listings/event/?eventID=10035431

For more on Hot Club De Swing, visit https://www.facebook.com/hotclubdeswing

For more from The Rin Tins, visit http://www.therintins.com/

For more from Midnight Magpie, https://soundcloud.com/midnightmagpie

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For more on Swingamajig, visit http://swingamajig.co.uk/

For more from Electric Swing Circus, visit http://electricswingcircus.com/

For more from Ragtime Records, visit http://ragtime-records.com/

For more from the Hare & Hounds, visit http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/

On Saturday 11^th April, Ekkah return to The Sunflower Lounge in Birmingham for another headline show – supported by Chartreuse.

Doors open at 7:30pm, with tickets at £5, as presented by Birmingham Promoters. For further gig info & tickets click here.

Ekkah, aka Rebecca Wilson (vocals, guitar) and Rebekah Pennington (keyboard/saxophone), formed in 2103 – after splitting from their original band, the five piece Indie Rockers The Arcadian Kicks.  

Although now producing material more reminiscent of American lounge House, from US imprints such as Naked and Wave, Ekkah’s move to a mellower dance floor/club sound was not so premeditatied, as Wilson told Alice Vincent from The Telegraph: “We never sat down and decided what sound we wanted,” Wilson explains, “it just came out as a bit of a mishmash. A bit of a good accident.”

Ekkah’s debut Last Chance to Dance EP was released last November, with the title track produced by Adam Jaffrey – the man behind Unwound Recordings, who has worked with acts from Bloc Party to Lady Leshur.

Confidently low fi and encouragingly summer, Ekkah’s Last Chance to Dance EP also contains three self produced tracks – ‘Ex-change’, ‘Only U 4 Me’ and ‘Holiday Blues’, recorded by the duo in their Birmingham studio.

Since becoming a duo, Ekkah have been steadily performing across the country – playing another headline date at The Sunflower Lounge on Saturday 11^th April, before heading up the M6 to play a free show at Manchester’s Fallow Café on the 16^th.

Ekkah are also booked to play several UK festivals this summer, including Bestival and The Great Escape.

To watch the official video to Ekkah’s ‘Last Chance to Dance’, click here or on the image below:

Ekkah return to The Sunflower Lounge on Saturday 11^th April – with support from Chartreuse. For further gig details and tickets, visit http://birminghampromoters.com/Events/ekkah-2/

For more from Ekkah, visit  https://soundcloud.com/ekkah

For more from Chartreuse, visit https://soundcloud.com/chartreuse-uk

For more from The Sunflower Lounge, visit http://www.thesunflowerlounge.com/

For more from Birmingham Promoters, visit http://birminghampromoters.com/

On Wed 8th April, Bipolar Sunshine performs at the Birmingham Institute in Digbeth, with support from Cape Cub & Shatter Effect – as presented by Birmingham Promoters.

Doors open at 7:00pm with tickets at £10 (advance), for further gig info & tickets click here.

N.B. This gig was originally scheduled for 8^th October 2014, with all previously purchased tickets still valid for the 8^th April event.

Formally a vocalist/frontman for Kid British – the six member Ska/Indie Rock band from Manchester, Adio Marchant began his solo endeavour in December 2012 under the name Bipolar Sunshine – with ‘his fresh, idiosyncratic sound and conversational vocals’.

Although since releasing his debut Aesthetics EP through Polydor/The Aesthetic Recordings in 2013, Bipolar Sunshine has been arguably a genre crossing complexity to some – with the man himself citing influences including “Prince, Michael Jackson, Kanye, The Smiths, Alex Turner.” The Guardian’s Paul Lester settled on a ‘rapping, singing indie-rocker with a penchant for gospel, soul and pop kind of guy’ in his New Band of the Day column.

However challenging to label, not always bad thing, Marchant’s solo balloon has continued to rise. Following the release of his second EP, Drowning Butterflies, Bipolar Sunshine was invited to collaborate with Rudimental for the first Bacardi Beginnings project – writing and producing an original track, ‘Distance’, in only 24hours.

Bipolar Sunshine’s third EP, Where Did the Love Go, was released in 2014, with his latest single, ‘Daydreamer’ released in January 2015.

Bipolar Sunshine’s next single, ‘Deckchairs on the Moon’, is set for release on 6^th July 2015 – with input from musician/songwriters Kid Harpoon (Florence and the Machine, Jessie Ware), Fraser T Smith (Adele, Lily Allen) and producer Jazz Purple. Bipolar Sunshine is ‘nearing completion’ on his debut album but no release data has yet been set.

Bipolar Sunshine is also booked to play at Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party and the Reading & Leeds festivals this summer.

Bipolar Sunshine comes to the Birmingham Institute on 8^th April, with support from Cape Cub & Shatter Effect. For more gig info & tickets, visit http://theinstitutebirmingham.com/listings/upcoming-events/16598/bipolar-sunshine-2/

For more on Bipolar Sunshine, visit http://bipolarsunshine.com/

For more from the Institute, visit http://theinstitutebirmingham.com/

For more from Birmingham Promoters, visit http://birminghampromoters.com/