Photo credit: Rob Bridge (Redwood Photography)
After a sell-out LCM London gig at St.Pancras Old Church in 2016, we are delighted to invite the excellent multi-award wining Cambridge based The Willows to the historic Half Moon in Putney. The gig will be their London date for their third album UK tour. The band has recently added two great new members the award wiining Kat Gilmore (Gilmore & Roberts, Albion Band etc) and one of the most in-demand double bass players in the UK John Parker (Nizlopi, Paper Aeroplanes etc)
Advance tickets are £13 or £15 OTD
https://tickets.halfmoon.co.uk/events/8a3087b0-9e41-0136-d1a8-4a59e9d44dfc
The Willows are a folk band from Cambridge, UK. Their first album 'Beneath Our Humble Soil' was nominated for Best Debut in the Spiral Earth Awards 2014, and has been championed by the likes of Bob Harris and Mike Harding. The much anticipated follow-up Amidst Fiery Skies, co-produced with Sean Lakeman was released to critical aclaim, with The Telegraph hailing it "a triumph" in a 5-star review and a place in their folk albums of 2014. Fronted by the breathtaking vocals of Jade Rhiannon, supported by rich vocal harmonies and dynamic acoustic musicianship the band take influence from folk traditions on both sides of the Atlantic.
The band were formed in 2010 by husband and wife, Cliff and Jade, sister, Prue, and chance meeting via Gumtree, Ben. Following numerous gigs in folk clubs all over the the UK supporting the likes of LAU, Seth Lakeman, & Peatbog Faeries and an eponymous EP, the band released debut album Beneath Our Humble Soil in 2013. Produced by Stu Hanna (Megson, Faustus, Show of Hands), the album caught the attention of BBC Radio 2's Bob Harris who invited the band in for a live session midway through their UK tour. Maverick Magazine gave the record 4½ stars, and it was subsequently nominated for Best Debut in the Spiral Earth Awards.
Second album Amidst Fiery Skies sees the band further augment their sound with new member Evan Carson (bodhran), guest double bassist Ben Nicholls (Seth Lakeman Band, The Full English) and co-producer Sean Lakeman. For the first time the band present original, traditional and covered songs side by side, yet in many ways the record feels like their most homogenous work to date. Stories remain at the heart of the album: The banjo-driven Johnny Robson telling of a man who throws himself into the fire after an apparition of his deceased wife. The heartbreakingly tender Outward Bound (a variant on the Faithful Sailor Boy) depicting a ship’s safe return to land without the maiden’s lover aboard. Whilst, The Visitor describes a true story of arguably the most heroic lifeboat rescue in British history. The music itself is rich in power, with the band equally at home with pin-drop intimacy as they are invigorating foot-stompers.
Alongside their achievements in the studio, a hectic touring schedule has helped the band build a reputation as a compelling live act, appearing at the likes of Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, Sidmouth Folk Week, Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, Wilderness, Towersey, Broadstairs, Sark, Village Pump, Secret Garden Party, Warwick Folk Festival, Folk By The Oak, Village Pump, SommerSound (Germany), Bristol Folk Festival, Purbeck and FolkEast in recent years.
"***** - Amidst Fiery Skies is outstanding!" (The Telegraph)
"Already selected for the ‘next big thing’ from the burgeoning herds of young English folkies , their 2nd album is beautifully rendered" (Acoustic Magazine)
"...Absolutely gorgeous sound, a lovely album..." Bob Harris (BBC Radio 2)
"Beautiful... I have a lot of love for this band!" (Kerry Devine BBC Introducing)
Our special guests are the fantastic HEARD collective Daisy Chute, Cerian Holland and Hannah White + Keiron Marshall
Singer-Songwriters Daisy Chute and Cerian co-founded the collective HEARD after they first met in the studio recording vocals for Radiohead album A Moon Shaped Pool in 2016 and then singing Ilan Eshkeri’s score for the Burberry fashion show shortly after.
They quickly became friends and started performing together on the London circuit.
Both multi-instrumentalists with Celtic roots and renowned for their angelic voices, they decided to combine forces and form a new collective of female musicians who tour together, play together and support one another. The idea was born out of a desire for more female representation in the industry and was inspired by other collectives such as Nashville-based I’m With Her, British collaborations Songs of Separation, Woman to Woman and music by indie folk/pop bands like First Aid Kit and The Staves.
“So often we were finding ourselves in the studio or on a lineup as the only female voice. When we investigated further, we discovered that online magazine Pitchfork had found that only 14% of acts in American festivals in 2017 were female, and according to UK collection agency PRS only 16% of all songwriters/composers registered were female. Rather than viewing this as a competition between each other for that small space, we wanted to ‘open’ the window of opportunity, creating a collective of women not working against, but with and for each other.”
Cerian and Daisy wanted to give a stage to the female voice, and in this exciting new format they present gigs, tours and all female line-ups together as HEARD. Between them they play a dozen different instruments from classics like guitar and piano to the more unusual harp and banjo. They love creating vocal soundscapes inspired by their time as choral scholars and their subsequent musical projects; Daisy was a founding member of All Angels and Cerian has sung for the likes of U2 and Imogen Heap.
Daisy and Cerian want HEARD to be inclusive, for female creatives from singer-songwriters to instrumentalists to artists - a stage for the female voice and a community for female creatives.