The show promises an exciting preview on the eve of the album’s official UK release the following day. About the imminent release of Romance, lead singer Grian Chatten recently told Rolling Stone: “The infrastructure, visually and sonically, feels a bit more robust, but we’re always going to have a ramshackle element. Whether we’re playing big arenas or not, there’s always going to be a sense of anarchy in what we do and the way we perform. We’re still just walking on a tight rope.”

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 After rocketing to local fame playing Dublin venues, the band caught mass attention with their debut album Dogrel, which dropped in April 2019 to critical acclaim, earning a Mercury Prize nomination and solidifying their place in the post-punk revival scene. The follow-up, A Hero’s Death, released in July 2020, further cemented their status, garnering a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album. Their third album, Skinty Fia, released in 2022, achieved number one on both the Irish and UK Albums Charts.

The band has released all the album’s singles individually, most recently sharing  “In the Modern World” with fans, a pensive orchestral track channelling more accessible guitar-pop influences as opposed to the post-punk flavour of the group’s early work. Critics quickly noted the song as emblematic of the band’s evolving sound and emotional pitch.

“It’s a nihilistic take on modern living, on how capitalism and consumption suck out all feeling — even the bad ones. The new single was penned in Los Angeles and borrows from the stylings of Lana Del Rey, two influences that couldn’t seem much further from the places and people that first influenced Fontaines on Dogrel,” wrote Elle Palmer of Far Out Magazine about “In the Modern World”.

“It makes sense, then, that ‘In the Modern World’ acts as a distillation of their changing sound and perfectly sets us up for the release of Romance,” Palmer added.

In a similar step-change, “Favourite” channels softer 2000s indie flavours, while “Starburster” shares the same theatrical orchestral ambition as “In the Modern World,” combined with punchy, empty-room percussion and wrapped vocals.

Regarding the band’s directional shift on Romance, the Guardian wrote that “Romance is more straightforwardly approachable than any Fontaines DC album to date […] but it doesn’t sacrifice any of the band’s potency in the process: thrillingly, it still carries the same grimy, careworn, aggressive qualities as their previous work.”

The popularity of tickets for the Electric Ballroom gig, despite the abrupt nature of the show’s announcement, is testament to the wave of popularity that Fontaines are riding, and this fan loyalty has proven persistent through previous stylistic course-shifts the band have offered in recent years. Now, though, with perhaps their most dramatic tonal redirection, the fast selling tickets for tomorrow’s performance is a sign that clamour for Fontaines is as strong as ever. Some remaining tickets for the intimate launch gig at Electric Ballroom can be found here.

Cementing themselves as next-gen alternative artists, the Merseyside four-piece (vocalist Holly Minto, guitarist Amy Woodall, bassist Liv Kettle and drummer Harry Breen) announced the series of shows on Instagram in November 2023, commenting: “We are doing an extremely intimate show crawl to celebrate ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’ out Feb 16th. We will be performing an acoustic set where you will be the first to hear the album’s songs…we will also be having a meet & greet with you all where we will sign your exclusive prints. All ages are welcome crawlies !!”

Kicking things off in Edinburgh, the first show will take place on February 6, with the band then travelling for subsequent performances in Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Cardiff, Nottingham, London and Brighton. Tickets for the ‘indie store crawl’ are available here.

Final celebrations for the album launch will be taking place in their hometown of Liverpool at Jacaranda Baltic on February 21, followed by a show at Pryzm in Kingston in collaboration with Banquet Records on February 22. Each venue will present the opportunity for a meet and greet, album signings and exclusive merchandise available for pre-order.

Much to their fans’ delight, the individual member cassette tapes on sale will also feature eco-friendly packaging, a ‘fun fact deck’ and ‘band info package’ exclusive to each version, as well as signed art cards personally hand-illustrated by their vocalist Holly.

If that’s not enough for you, Crawlers will be going full steam ahead as they hit the road again throughout February and March to support Canadian indie rock band Mother Mother on their hotly-anticipated UK tour.

‘The Mess We Seem To Make‘ is set to be released on February 16 and will feature 12 tracks, including ‘Would You Come To My Funeral‘, and their latest single ‘Kills Me To Be Kind‘, which now has its own official visualiser. The loop of retro-style clips adopt an intriguing new aesthetic of garage-band-meets-candle-lit-vigil. Set in a crumbling, ornate townhouse, the four northerners ooze charisma and style in what appears to be the prelude to an actual music video. Watch below:

The show will celebrate the release of Gallagher’s new live album, Knebworth 22, due to come out on 11th August 2023. The intimate performance will allow fans the opportunity to hear tracks from both his solo discography and that of Oasis, with Liam taking to Twitter to call the news of the gig “biblical.”

Beautiful people where the hell have I been answers on a wotsit anyways fuck all that curious killed the twat malarky I’m back with some BIBLICAL news 10am Humongous announcement MCFC TREBLE WINNERS LG x

— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) June 28, 2023

Liam shared the show artwork on Twitter too, which declares the show to be the “exclusive Knebworth 22 live album launch.”  

KOKO 23 pic.twitter.com/dh9B04MCxr — Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) June 28, 2023

Liam’s performance at KOKO is set to be his only indoor UK gig scheduled for 2023, though he is set to perform at various UK festivals throughout the year.

Speaking on the release of Knebworth 22, Liam said, “So we recorded the Knebworth gigs we did last year. We all sound BIBLICAL, turn it up ENJOY, LGx.” Liam played two sold-out nights at Knebworth back in June 2022, with over 170,000 fans attending the shows which were reminiscent of the iconic 1996 Oasis Knebworth performance.

Liam announced the news of the live album by sharing the live recording of an Oasis deep cut, “Roll It Over,” taken from one of his Knebworth 22 shows. The track was originally featured on Oasis’ fourth studio album, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, and had never been performed live by the band.

Pre-sale tickets for the album launch show will go on sale at 10am BST on 5th July, with an exclusive presale code being offered to all fans who pre-order a copy of Knebworth 22 before 3pm on 4th July. The code will be sent out at 5pm on the 4th. Pre-order Knebworth 22 here.

This gig announcement came shortly after Liam teased fans with the news of his plans to tour the Definitely Maybe album in its entirety to celebrate its upcoming 30th anniversary in 2024.

As it’s 30 years since DM was released nxt year I’m gonna be playing the album from start to finish in it’s original order at a few BIBLICAL venues LG x

— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) May 11, 2023

No concrete plans for this tour have been announced as of yet, though one can assume that Liam will take to Twitter as usual to keep his fans in the loop when details materialise.

Purchase tickets for the Knebworth 22 live album launch show here.

See the Knebworth 22 album track listing below:

1. “Hello”
2. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”
3. “Wall Of Glass”
4. “Shockwave”
5. “Everything’s Electric”
6. “Roll It Over”
7. “Slide Away”
8. “More Power”
9. “C’mon You Know”
10. “The River”
11. “Once”
12. “Cigarettes & Alcohol”
13. “Some Might Say”
14. “Supersonic”
15. “Wonderwall”
16. “Champagne Supernova“

The event will include a Q&A with band members Josh Franceshci (vocals), Max Helyer (guitar), Chris Miller (lead guitar), Matt Barnes (bass), and Dan Flint (drums). Furthermore, viewers will be treated to exclusive footage from their 2019 Live From Gunnersville show at Gunnersbury Park in London.

After the release of the ‘Live From Gunnersville’ EP bundles – available only from the official website – sold out, the virtual evening with You Me At Six was arranged as a “thank you” to their fans who bought it. Now that the EP bundles have all sold out, which the band said they “didn’t really think would happen”, anyone who pre-orders the new album ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ by 4pm GMT on Saturday 16th January will also gain free access.

Along with both the live footage and chat with the band, attendees will be able to watch 20-minute documentary ‘Made In Thailand’ about the process of creating the new album, shot by Amazon Music. They posted all the information to Twitter today, while Max Helyer wrote, “Thanks to everyone so far who’s pre ordered the record!! Hope you guys enjoy it as much as we had making it and can’t wait for you all to hear it finally!”

SIXERS. The Live From Gunnersville EP bundles have all sold out. Which we didn’t really think would happen! So as a thank you, we’ve decided to make A Virtual Evening with… available to anyone who orders SUCKAPUNCH from our store, before 4pm GMT on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/72mQKfreAp

— You Me At Six (@youmeatsix) January 13, 2021

As well as the live-stream, the band are holding a lock-in on Instagram tomorrow, 14th January, so that they can chat to fans as the album drops. To watch, fans must follow by 5pm GMT tomorrow as their Instagram account will be made private and sharing a sneak peak of each track from the album every half and hour until the full release at midnight. Find more details on the band’s Instagram below.

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Sea Girls wrote in the caption of a promotional video on Instagram, “This has been the craziest journey of our lives and whilst it hasn’t always been a smooth ride all of our experiences have led us to this moment and it’s an honour to share this album with you. This band has taken us to so many amazing times.”

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Well here we are! Our debut album ‘Open Up Your Head’ is finally out. We’ve played music together since we first started learning instruments (however badly) in our teens and its so humbling that it’s lead to this. This has been the craziest journey of our lives and whilst it hasn’t always been a smooth ride all of our experiences have led us to this moment and it’s an honour to share this album with you. This band has taken us to so many amazing places and given us the chance to pursue what has felt like a fevered pipe dream at times. Ultimately we’re just four guys who love music and it’s every one of you that makes this band what it is, thank you for being with us every step of the way. We’re privileged to have a community that supports us and each other and the connection we feel with you guys is truly special. So let’s turn the music up fucking loud and enter the Open Up Your Head era together.

A post shared by SEA GIRLS (@sonicseagirls) on Aug 14, 2020 at 2:00am PDT

Of the songs on the album, five were released as singles, beginning in 2019 with lead single ‘Violet’, which now has 3.5 million streams on Spotify. This was followed by ‘Ready For More’, an upbeat song about changing negative mindsets which premiered as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record on her BBC Radio 1 show. Next came ‘Do You Really Wanna Know?‘, ‘All I Want To Hear You Say’, and ‘Forever’; all the singles were shared as part of an EP prior to the album on 6th August.

Surprisingly, Sea Girls had put out a single entitled with the same name as the album, also in 2019. However, lead singer and songwriter of the band Henry Camamile said to NME that the song sparked his inspiration for the album after his mental health suffered from a band to head. He said, “I was partying too much, and I was relying on the wrong things. I was a sad post-teen.”

He went on to explain, “After that, my perspective just changed. With my writing, I was like: ‘Shit, I feel like I’m in fucking trouble’. Things had just got worse and I felt miserable. I started writing a lot more bluntly, a lot more truthfully.”

The band have also revealed that they will be embarking on an album launch UK tour at the end of the year and into 2021, assuming shows can be held safely, given the unpredictable Covid-19 pandemic. Just this week, new additional dates were added in January, and the date at Manchester’s recently rescued Gorilla venue sold out, as have gigs in Birmingham and Cardiff. Check out the full dates below and find tickets here.

12/11/2020 – Action Records – Preston Blitz Club
13/11 – Crash Records – Leeds Wardrobe (Sold Out)
14/11 – Bear Tree Records – Sheffield Foundary
17/11 – Assai Records – Dundee Fat Sams
18/11 – Assai Records – Edinburgh Liquid Rooms
20/11 – Sound Knowledge – Marlborough
24/11 – Vinilo – Southampton Engine Rooms
25/11 – Resident – Brighton Chalk
26/11 – Banquet – Kingston (Banquet Pryzm)
25/01/2021 – The Bodega – Nottingham
26/01 – The Fleece – Bristol
28/01 – Hare and Hounds – Birmingham (Sold Out) Matinee Added
29/01 – Riverside – Newcastle
30/01 – Clwb Ifor Bach – Cardiff (Sold Out) Matinee Added
31/01 – Gorilla – Manchester