• http://www.gallondrunk.com

GALLON DRUNK, formed by James Johnston, Michael Delanian, and Joe Byfield, first erupted onto the London gig circuit in 1990 and wasted little time becoming one of the capital's most essential live propositions,with a succession of startling and abrasive singles, including the classic SOME FOOL'S MESS, all reaching the top of the independent charts.

Throughout their entire career, every single GALLON DRUNK have released has achieved Single Of The Week in either the NME or MELODY MAKER. A trio of unique and pioneering albums, YOU, THE NIGHT...AND THE MUSIC (1992), TONITE, THE SINGLES BAR(1992) and the Mercury Prize-nominated FROM THE HEART OF TOWN (1993) followed, cementing GALLON DRUNK'S burgeoning reputation as one of Britain's truly uncompromising bands.

In spring 1994, JOHNSTON was approached by NICK CAVE to play guitar for the BAD SEEDS during their Lollapalooza tour. Johnston's continuing links with Cave have saw him contribute to several songs and eventually join NICK CAVE THE BAD SEEDS in 2003.

1995 ended with the release of the TRAITOR'S GATE EP on their own GALLON DRUNK RECORDS. GALLON DRUNK commenced recording a fourth album for their new label CITY SLANG. Without tempering their incendiary approach towards creating music which first forged their reputation as a unique and daring band, IN THE LONG STILL NIGHT (1997) was their most accessible and fully realised album. Figuring highly in many music press end-of-year polls, IN THE LONG STILL NIGHT led Q's David Roberts to suggest that "the band's collision of funk, punk and skewiff jazz emerge as the perfect soundtrack for the committing of terrible crimes of passion" GALLON DRUNK'S latest album"FIRE MUSIC" was released in 2003, and 2005 saw the release of the brilliant collection "Bear Me Away", a double cd set. The band are currently recording a new LP to be released in Autumn 2011.

The current lineup is James Johnston, Terry Edwards, and Ian White.

• http://www.johnnydowd.com/

Ciarafest - raising money for neonatal intensive care.

A first for Ciarafest, we have Texan guitar-slinger and dark, musical visionary Johnny Dowd playing the first UK date of his European tour for us.

Johnny is set to release his new studio album No Regrets, a record about 'girls and women', on 2 April on his own Mother Jinx Records. The Ithaca, New York-based musician has been constantly evolving sonically since his early, lo-fi gothic Americana releases and No Regrets marks another installment for an artist who has become one of America's finest observers of life in the dark recesses of the American Dream. Recorded at The Shop, his own small recording facility and featuring the likes of Jennie Lowe Stearns, Mary B Lorson, and longtime collaborator Kim Sherwood-Case, No Regrets is one of Johnny's most personal records to date.

Dowd was almost 50 when Wrong Side of Memphis, his debut solo record of wracked country-folk-rock tunes, drew comparisons to Nick Cave in the alternative press. To a degree, that parallel was justified, as Wrong Side of Memphis devoted itself to murder songs and tales of doomed sinners. Dowd had grown up in Texas, Memphis, and Oklahoma before operating a trucking business in upstate New York, and his songs veered close to the source of American creepiness. Yet gallows humour and Dowd's crackly voice tended to undercut any traces of self-importance, while his debut album - dominated by his singing and guitar, yet featuring spooky dabs of organ and synthesiser that placed him outside of the rootsy Americana camp - immediately established Dowd as an important cult figure whose weirdness seemed to be wrought from true experience.

On his second album, 1999′s Pictures from Life's Other Side, Dowd edged slightly away from the cliff, using a full band of musicians and a female backing singer to craft a punchier and less folk-rooted sound. His singing and lyrics, however, remained nearly as disquieting as they were the first time around. Temporary Shelter, issued in early 2001, and The Pawnbroker's Wife, from the following year, were more accessible records. Cemetery Shoes followed in 2004, while A Drunkard's Masterpiece (comprised of three opuses that flaunt Dowd's patented mix of dark, mutant alt-country) arrived four years later.

'Brilliantly macabre, rib-tickling, poised and admirably raw dirty rock 'n' roll from the shaded supremo' - Daily Mirror

'A Drunkard's Masterpiece is a creative car crash of Americana, beatnik rock, poetry, prose, jazz rock, rap, screaming metal guitar, retro pop, spoken word and country noir' - MOJO

This is Johnny's first ever cambridge show

• http://www.peteroe.org/

"'Underneath the Apple Tree' is another whimsical tale, perhaps inspired musically by his work with Laura Marling or Johnny Flynn, this track signals a change in style for not only the EP, but for Pete overall. Title track 'The Merry-Go-Round' rounds up the offering and is quite simply his best song to date. The metaphor is not lost as Pete's gentle ballad describes the positive and negatives of the merry-go-round. The melody here is haunting and is hard to reference - maybe we should refer to it as Pete Roe's own style. It is a song as beautiful as the packaging of the EP, and deserving of a wide audience." Soundsxp

• http://idreamincolour.bandcamp.com/

"With a vocal as towering as city metropolis, as British as Moz and gritty like real life. Front man Richard Judge is a star built in a rock n roll mould." The Fly

"With bludgeoning beats, intricate guitar lines and soaring choruses, I Dream In Colour are a peerless live act. Add to this a vocalist in Richard Judge, whose near-operatic tones can channel messieurs Bellamy and Buckley, and you have a truly special band on your hands." Evening Standard

• http://www.pollypaulusma.com/
• http://www.sweetbillypilgrim.com/

"(Polly Paulusma is) the most literate songwriter of her generation" The Independent





"Buckinghamshire landlubbers they may be, but SBP - whose debut album is reissued following its Mercury nomination - pursue a notably nautical theme on Twice Born Men that stretches far beyond the illustration of a storm-tossed schooner which adorns its David Sylvian-designed sleeve. The trio's brooding folk-pop, intertwined with Tim Elsenburg's Guy Garveyish vocals (perhaps too Garveyish for victory, so hold on to your betting money) pitches and rolls like a ship on the waves. A dark rum pleasure." Independent

• http://www.myspace.com/lucyrosemusic

"This young singer-songwriter with the acoustic guitar who sang with Bombay Bicycle Club on 'Flaws' will inevitably draw comparisons with Laura Marling. There are similarities, but Lucy Rose is no- imitation, and a forthcoming (it's being mixed as she plays tonight) debut album and this show should go a long way towards proving it for good.

A double bill of emotive, song-focused acts begins with Blackpool's Rae Morris, down in that London to showcase the 18-year-old's solo piano-based ballads and, apparently, enjoy a luxurious Nando's at Euston Station. All shy banter, big hair and epic voice, Morris' songs are lovingly carved, but occasionally so much so that a certain spontaneity is lost.

Lucy Rose manages to combine the best of two worlds; the pop craft demonstrated by her band's subtle flecks of guitar, synth and even cello on occasion, and a natural romance and swing that engage the hips and the heart. If her voice isn't quite as adaptable and all encompassing as Marling's, then it is a shade sweeter, a sort of moreish appetiser to Marling's full-blown meal. It feels like the sound as a whole is most crucial to her, not the desire to write the perfect song, and it's that sound at its fluid and fleshed out best that sets her apart." The Fly

• http://www.facebook.com/dirtygoods

One for fans of Daft Punk, Chromeo, Prince and anything with lascivious grooves.

Touring to support Machine Music DVD, his best of retrospective.

One of the founding fathers of synth pop, Gary Numan's influence extends far beyond his lone American hit, Cars, which still stands as one of the defining new wave singles. That seminal track helped usher in the synthpop era on both sides of the Atlantic, especially his native England, where he was a genuine pop star and consistent hitmaker during the early '80s. Even after new wave had petered out, Numan's impact continued to make itself felt; his dark, paranoid vision, theatrically icy alien persona, and clinical, robotic sound were echoed strongly in the work of many goth rock and (especially) industrial artists to come. For his part, Numan just kept on recording, and by the late '90s, he'd become a hip name to drop; prominent alt-rock bands covered his hits in concert, and a goth-flavored brand of industrial dance christened darkwave looked to him as its mentor.

"With a trajectory built on buzz, a slew of EPs and signing to bastion of all things uniquely beautiful, Warp Records, The Hundred in the Hands doesn't initially appear to be mould-breaking stuff. But then, Eleanore Everdell and Jason Friedman don't seem to be playing by exactly the same rules as their Brooklyn peers.

You only need to take a quick glance at the wilfully succinct biography on their MySpace page to realise that there is a simplicity, a lack of pretention in how they go about their business that almost gives a faux sacrilegious impression of humility considering their Brooklyn heritage. Sure, they may have the friends in high places that will mean their music is automatically filters into hipster circles, but theirs is a sound far more universal than that oh-so-revered scene in which they were born into..." Drownedinsound.com

• http://m.facebook.com/thedjangos
• http://nzca-lines.com/

"... Out in front, though, is the Tarantino-theme-via-Calexico bounce of 'Life's A Beach' - as immediate an anthem as you're going to get from a band who clearly have the attention span of month-old puppies. It's an album characterised by its sharp stylistic swerves, but never feels jumbled or incoherent.

It's a dream of the psychedelic tropics, a heady explosion of colours, an album that takes what it means to be 'in an indie band' and gives it a good shake. Time to pay a visit. " NME

Anthemic lad-rock from Stoke. Expect walls of guitars and massive choruses.

• http://www.theviewareonfire.com/

Back to grace our shores again, The View are older, although probably no wiser. Expect frenetic tunes and hooks galore.

Mark Morriss was the frontman for The Bluetones and is in Cambridge playing a mix of his old Bluetones material and his newer work.

The Bluetones were an English indie rock band, whose biggest hit, "Slight Return", was released in 1996. They have achieved thirteen Top 40 singles and three Top 10 albums in the UK charts.

• http://www.myspace.com/thewildernessofmanitoba

The surprise hit of Wish You Were here 2010, WoM's set was so busy we were turning people away from the room in their droves. It's taken us a while, but we've finally got them back.

Something special happens when the four members of the Wilderness of Manitoba sing together, whether it's in the basement of the house on Delaware Avenue in Toronto, Canada where three of them live and where the band recorded their EP Hymns Of Love & Spirits or in the garage out back where they sometimes stage their own shows. In the spirit of the shows and musicians that were coming through Delaware House, Will Whitwham, Scott Bouwmeester, Stefan Banjevic and Melissa Dalton found themselves with acoustic based songs that were minimalist and full of vocal layers that would become the foundation of the new band. They would gather together on random winter nights to drink tea, record and play music. The collection of songs that makes up Hymns Of Love & Spirits was written while some of the members were experiencing real changes in their lives including the passing of Will's mother and Scott's grandfather. The songs began to take on a deeper meaning and a much greater importance to them. The recordings were the band's best attempt to capture those feelings and emotions on disc.

• http://www.myspace.com/yourdemise

"...Closer XO begins with crushing guitars, proving the superb musicianship of Your Demise. As McCrae's guttural roar comes in, he takes control of the ride, ending The Kids We Used To Be expertly; clearly, this punishing closer proves YD saved the best for last. This far into the hardcore scene, Your Demise are in no position to stop any time soon; all of their aspects have tuned up with their third record the screams are ferocious, the musicianship is concise, and the songs hit hard" absolutepunk.net

• http://www.paulkelly.com.au

Paul Kelly has recorded seventeen studio albums as well as several film soundtracks (Lantana and the Cannes 2006 highlight, Jindabyne) and live albums, in an influential career spanning more than thirty years. He was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1997.

Songs From The South, a selection of his popular songs first assembled in 1997 and expanded to a double album in 2008,contains many of his songs now lodged deep in the Australian psyche.

He continues to cross musical boundaries. Recent albums include the bluegrass-inspired Foggy Highway, the wide ranging double set, Ways & Means and Stolen Apples. The Triple J tribute album Before Too Long, released earlier this year, featuring John Butler, Missy Higgins, Megan Washington, Paul Dempsey, Ozi Batla and many others is evidence of his influence on generations of musicians.

His first work of prose, a self described 'mongrel memoir', is out now on Penguin accompanied by a CD box set of live recordings.

• http://www.martinsimpson.com

There is no doubt that after 35 years as a professional musician Martin is, right now, better than ever. Widely acknowledged as one of the finest acoustic and slide guitar players in the world, his interpretations of traditional songs are masterpieces of storytelling. His solo shows are intense, eclectic, spellbinding and deeply moving.

There is no-one who has more successfully combined the diverse elements of British, Afro-American and old-timey music than Simpson. His 15 years living in the US were well spent. In addition his own songwriting has produced some real gems, from the truck-stop epic, Love Never Dies to the profoundly moving Never Any Good and "One Day".

His career includes collaborations on stage and record with Richard Thompson, June Tabor, Kelly Joe Phelps, Jackson Browne, Danny Thompson, Danú, Martin Carthy, Cara Dillon, David Lindley, Roy Bailey, Martin Taylor, David Hidalgo, Steve Miller, Dick Gaughan and many more.

"It's often better to do your homework on a band after you listen to their record. Case in point: Smoke Fairies. They are, it turns out, two women from Chichester, but such an upbringing sounds far less romantic than the biography we'd concocted for them in our mind. Here, the pair are more spirit than flesh; they haunt mid-Western prairies at night, appearing from the ether to strum guitars at bewildered passers-by, who stand transfixed as their otherworldly harmonies emanate from high above. " NME

Robin Williamson is a pioneering and defining force in music worldwide, Robin has played just about everywhere. Founder of the hugely influential Incredible String Band in the 1960's and The Merry Band in the 1970's. In the 1980's he was at the forefront of the storytelling revival and the first to restore Celtic harp to its ancient role as spontaneous accompaniment to spoken word as well as song.

Robin and Bina Williamson This incredible duo makes a unique Indo Celtic sound, performing a variety of original, traditional, mystical and spiritual folk music from many roots. Their acoustic concerts of song story and music feature the East West harmonies of Robin and Bina's voices with harp, bowed psaltery and many other instruments.

'Pure beauty through simplicity' Robert Plant

• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wish-You-Were-Here-festival-Cambridge/114366681941816
• http://twitter.com/#!/wywhcambridge

Wish You Were Here is a multi-venue festival that so far has featured the likes of Pulled Apart By Horses, Tellison, Alessi's Ark, Johnny Foreigner, Thomas Tantrum, Big Deal, John Vanderslice and local heroes likc Pete Um and Lonely The Brave.

One wristband, all those bands and one ticket price. Win.

CURRENT LINE UP:

Brother And Bones
Fuzzy Lights
Model Village
Tom Copson
Prince Among Thieves
The Last Dinosaur
Bomb Factory

The wonderful Dry The River make their very first Cambridge appearance. Very few bands can play the Cambridge Folk Festival, but also melt your ears off with their set closing noise out. Essential

• http://www.thetravellingband.co.uk

The Travelling Band's shimmering blend of cosmic-country-pop, understated psychedelia, vocal harmonies and nu-folk has made them one of the most talked about artists to emerge from the Manchester music scene If you consider the term Mancunian Americana to be an oxymoron try listening to The Travelling Band. Brilliant. Marc Riley BBC 6 Music.

• http://www.roddywoomble.com/

"The adjustment to pipe'n'slippers family life and a settled existence away from the city's ripped backside can be a damaging one for a successful recording artist. No longer burning with the need to prove yourself or put the world to rights, no longer unhinged by a chaotic rock'n'roll lifestyle nor surrounded by ne'er-do-wells full of wild ideas, you find the music you produce has its edges smoothed off and a good part of its charm neutralised.

But family man syndrome seems to have served Roddy Woomble rather well. Sure, this second solo collection is mellow, folky and acoustic all the way, showing how far he's come from the urchinous indie-rock his band Idlewild started out playing. But the songs he's written with new acolyte Sorren Maclean and Idlewild bandmate Rod Jones are more assured than ever.

A New Day Has Begun sets the upbeat, softly celebratory theme. It's an arms-outstretched sniff of freedom's sweet air, underpinned by an insistent bass motif and tastefully decorated with mandolin and accordion. The sense of bucolic inner peace is probably no accident this record was recorded after he and his family moved from Glasgow to the Isle of Mull in 2008. These are understated songs which don't immediately promise to be lodged in your head for the next six months, but after a few listens the melodies have bedded in nicely and you find yourself playing it on repeat.

Other notable highlights include Work Like You Can, lit up by Jill O'Sullivan's beautiful swooping backing vocal, which sometimes sounds like an unidentifiable folk instrument in its own right. Elsewhere, Tangled Wire is string-tickling acoustic folk with soul-swelling harmonies, then Leaving Without Gold throws up a windswept whiff of Fleetwood Mac's seductive MOR. He even gets away with including a sax break as fat as Van Morrison on the boogie-ish Roll Along. And penultimate offering Gather the Day is another jaunty folk-pop tune full of joie de vivre, reinforcing the infectious feeling of a man thoroughly enjoying life and the music he's making." BBC Music

Kris Drever arrives as a solo artist with an impeccable folk pedigree and his first album 'Blackwater' is a significant addition to the current phase of the never ending folk revival.

Unlike others, some also scions of folk families, Kris has not burst upon the scene but has developed his talents through a process which ensures a solid foundation for a long career. His journey has taken him from Orkney where, the son of Ivan Drever of Wolfstone fame, he first began to play and sing, to the folk clubs of Edinburgh where he plied his trade as a teenager, to touring and recording with many of the brightest and best of the new folk generation.

Now it's his turn to take centre stage and he does it with a voice full of resonance and character and a judicious selection of old and new songs that, once heard, won't leave you alone.

• http://www.roybailey.net
• http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn

A witty, perceptive and thought provoking show of songs and stories. They have
performed the show across Britain at the Celtic Connections Festival, the Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival, the Purcell Rooms on the South Bank and received a standing
ovation from 9000 people at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2000.

Tony's stories recall memories and anecdotes from a lifetime at the forefront of
British politics, illuminating and extremely funny. Tony is one of this country's best loved public figures. On retiring after 50 years in the House of Commons he declared he was retiring "...in order to spend more time in politics."

Roy is a truly international artist who has appeared on stage, television and radio
around the world, from Vancouver to Sydney, Cape Town to Stockholm. In 1998 he gave a hugely successful concert at London's Royal Albert Hall celebrating 40 years as a performer. Tony considers him "The greatest socialist folksinger of his generation."

For this programme they won Best Live Act at BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2003.


Majestic. Provocative.
Quietly inspiring
~ MOJO

What comes across most strongly is their idealism, their principles, their sincerity,
their love for what they do and audiences sense this immediately. They bring politics
to life with such fire they're the hottest tickets at Celtic Connections
~ The Scotsman

The Wedding Present have had eighteen UK Top 40 hit singles not bad for a band that has, from its inception, stubbornly refused to play the record industry's game. That was back in 1985 when David Lewis Gedge boarded a National Express coach in London with 500 records packed into a pair of his mother's suitcases. In this fashion, the debut single GO OUT AND GET 'EM BOY! was collected from the pressing plant, delivered to the distribution company, and The Wedding Present was born. That pioneering spirit has been at the core of the band's philosophy ever since. From GEORGE BEST, "an unmitigated delight" [NME], the first full-length release on their own Reception Records onwards, the band has charted an appealing, if often eccentric, course of its very own.

In 1991 with characteristically twisted Wedding Present logic, was to enlist noise-mongering [and, at that point, relatively unknown] sound engineer Steve Albini's aid at a time when everyone else was releasing 'Madchester' dance mixes. The resulting SEAMONSTERS, recorded in the snowy wilds of Minnesota in just 11 days, suggested a more thoughtful Wedding Present. The Guardian newspaper noted that: "Albini has given The Wedding Present considerable weight, with Gedge's voice trickling between banks of scowling guitars". Indeed, the singing ranged from sensual whispering to feverish screams.

The band will be playing the album in its entirety, alongside of 40 minutes of other material

• http://sawdoctors.com/

The Saw Doctors are an Irish rock band. Formed in 1986 in Tuam, County Galway, they have achieved eighteen Top 30 singles in Ireland, including three number ones. Their first number one, "I Useta Lover," topped the Irish charts for nine consecutive weeks in 1990, and still holds the record for the country's all-time biggest-selling single. Renowned for their live performances, the band has a cult following, especially in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. On 15 February 2008, they received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN ALL SEATED SHOW

Steve Harley, the man behind Cockney Rebel, brings his music to Cambridge this year, after doing Bury St. Edmunds for the last few years. Expect a solid mix of his newer material mixed up with CR classics such as 'Come Up And See Me (Make Me Smile)', Mr. Soft and more.