The album features three original songs by the Grammy award-winning jazz and soul performer as well as jazz-age standards and soulful tracks from the 1960s. He mentions “In my writing, there are elements of Bill Withers, there is a song from Stevie Wonder..from Marvin Gaye”. There is also a guest performance from the American, Grammy-winning Samara Joy on Broadway songwriter Frank Loesser’s “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve”.

Listen to the album here

Following his summer stint playing three sold-out shows at “London’s Most Iconic Venue”, Royal Albert Hall this June, the singer is returning for a fourth and final performance of the year on December 13th – get tickets here (There is only standing availability on offer now). The London show will be part of his current winter tour in both the UK and internationally. 

Described as “a jazz singer of thrilling presence, a booming baritone with a gift for earthy refinement and soaring uplift”, Gregory Porter has become known for many things: his outstanding voice, his ability to bring audiences to joyful tears and ‘lo and behold’ his hat, which he wears every time he performs. 

Porter responded to curiosity about the hat, stating ‘I’ve had some surgery on my skin, so this has been my look for a little while and will continue to be for a while longer. People recognise me by it now. It is what it is.” 

Years later he added that it has become his style. He thought “Actually, this is comfortable, this is a look. I started to sing and people were like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s the guy with the hat.’ So it became a thing.” However, the vocalist reported that he would like his fans to focus on “his heart and sound” rather than the accessory. 

Porter was on ITV’s ‘This Morning’ earlier today, speaking of his first-ever festive album and also joining in some festive cooking. Whilst getting into the Christmas spirit, he showed viewers how he makes his family’s festive favourites,  sweet potato pie with crumbly shortcrust pastry.

Ex-Saturday’s singer and presenter Rochelle Humes questioned him on why he hasn’t put out a Christmas album before. Jestingly, he replied, “I wanted to start my career off with a Christmas album and they didn’t let me!…so now is the time”. He talked about elements of influence on him and his sound “Stylistically I’m using gospel, blues, soul to tell the Christmas story” 

Then on his mum’s influence, the woman who taught him how to sing, he says “There were 8 of us, 5 boys and 3 girls, she would cook food… Turkey, greens… sweet potato pie… filled the table with food. We thought we were gonna eat and we loaded it into the truck and we went around and fed the homeless people” “Then we brought the food back and we ate the leftovers…..she was teaching… she did it from her heart..that’s the kind of thing you do on Christmas day”. 

⚡NEW SHOWS ADDED ⚡
Due to the phenomenal demand that resulted in us selling out our UK tour in a day! We’ve added some new dates to the Permission to Land 20th Anniversary tour. Tickets on sale 9am this Friday 14th. Don’t miss out this time, get them here:… pic.twitter.com/95Xt0Php6t

— The Darkness (@thedarkness) July 11, 2023

The winter tour, set to begin in Belfast on December 2nd, will now see shows in four new locations, including Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds and Brighton, while the Roundhouse in London and Rock City in Nottingham will now play hosts to two dates. The addition of these new shows now means that the tour will stretch until December 22nd, a fact that will surely impress fans of the much-loved glam rock outfit.

The tour will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of The Darkness’ debut, and much loved, seminal album Permission To Land. An expanded Permission To Land deluxe album is also set to be released later this year via Warner Music especially for the anniversary, with details to be released by the band soon.

The Darkness formed in 2000 in Lowestoft with an initial line-up of Justin Hawkins (lead vocals, lead guitar) , his brother Dan Hawkins (guitar), Frankie Poullain (bass) and Ed Graham (drums). The group released their debut album, Permission To Land, in 2003 to widespread critical acclaim, with the album topping the UK Albums Chart and achieving quadruple platinum status after 1.3 million copies were sold. This album also contained the hit single “I Believe in a Thing Called Love“, by far the band’s most popular track.

Watch the music video for “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” below:

The group have gone on to release a further six albums, despite a five year hiatus, with their latest album, Motorheart, being released in 2021. Since their hiatus they have released five albums, and have even released a special Christmas beer in collaboration with brewery Signature Brew.

Watch the music video for “Motorheart” below:

See below for the updated series of tour dates:

02/12/2023 – The Telegraph Building – Belfast
03/12 – 3Olympia – Dublin
05/12 – O2 Academy – Edinburgh (new show)
07/12 – O2 City Hall – Newcastle (new show)
08/12 – UEA – Norwich
09/12 – Roundhouse – London
11/12 – Barrowland – Glasgow
12/12 – New Century Hall – Manchester
14/12 – Beacon – Bristol
15/12 – Rock City – Nottingham
16/12 – The Wulfrum At The Halls – Wolverhampton
18/12 – O2 Academy – Leeds (new show)
19/12 – Rock city – Nottingham (new show)
20/12 – Dome – Brighton (new show)
22/12 – Roundhouse – London (new show)

Tour tickets for the new shows go on sale from 9am on Friday 14th July and can be purchased here.

NOW ON SALE!!
Extra UK dates…https://t.co/f4c8lw20aI
Our entire spring tour sold out very fast so book now to avoid disappointment.
See you all soon x
pic.twitter.com/AOgHFsN830

— LANKUM (@LankumDublin) June 7, 2023

The Dublin based group will return to the UK following their last visit last month in Manchester, which in turn followed the release of the band’s most recent album, False Lankum, an LP that was released on March 24th via Rough Trade Records.

Our new album FALSE LANKUM is out today.
Massive love and thanks to all of you for the support over the last few years, and to everyone involved in the making of this album.
We're immensely proud of it.
See you along the road somewhere!
❤️x pic.twitter.com/GWT9Oxupqj

— LANKUM (@LankumDublin) March 24, 2023

The group originated as a duo, consisting of brothers Ian and Darragh Lynch, and from their shared surname came the group’s original name, Lynched. The duo released their first album, Where Did We Go Wrong?!, in 2003, before being joined by Radie Peat and Cormac MacDiarmada, forming the quartet that have since released four albums and will tour the UK this winter.

The group, still known as Lynched but now a quartet, released their second album, Cold Old Fire, in 2014 to positive acclaim. By 2016 the group had decided to change their name in a bid to rid associations with the practice of lynching, landing on Lankum, from John Reilly’s folk ballad “False Lankum”, instead.

Lankum then joined Rough Trade Records, and subsequently released their third album, Between the Earth and Sky, in 2017 to widespread critical acclaim. The album was nominated for the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Album of the Year, but the group had to wait until 2019 to claim the prize, as their fourth album, The Livelong Day, stole the show.

Listen to “Willow Garden“, a track off of Lankum’s third album, Between the Earth and Sky, below:

False Lankum is therefore the group’s fifth studio album, and fourth as a quartet, and will no doubt be doing most of the heavy lifting when the Dublin group visit the UK later this year.

Watch the music video for “Go Dig My Grave“, the lead single off of False Lankum, below:

The dates for the string of shows are as follows:

07/12/2023 – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham
09/12 – Hangar 34 – Liverpool
10/12 – Irish Centre – Leeds
12/12 – Chalk – Brighton
13/12 – Roundhouse – London
26/01/2024 – Albert Hall – Manchester
27/01 – Boiler Shop – Newcastle
01/02 – Beacon – Bristol
03/02 – Barrowlands – Glasgow

Order Lankum’s latest album, False Lankum, here.

We are pleased to announce a new UK tour! Tickets on sale Friday 10am, pre-sale tickets Wednesday 10amhttps://t.co/ibZg4VlbGX pic.twitter.com/sVsgowZDHb

— The Charlatans (@thecharlatans) June 6, 2023

Beginning in Newcastle on the 24^th November, the group will then play in Glasgow, Sheffield, Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, London, and Wolverhampton. The tour will close in Nottingham on 10^th December. Tickets will go on general sale on Friday 9^th June at 10 am BST. Click here for tickets and more information. Blonde frontman Tim Burgess joked on Twitter “Now to get us a setlist together”. He continued, “All requests considered* What’re we saying? *They stand more chance of making it if they are actually by @thecharlatans”.

Now to get us a setlist together All requests considered* What’re we saying? *They stand more chance of making it if they are actually by @thecharlatans pic.twitter.com/ZuX6FzxPXk — Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) June 6, 2023

Burgess ran a giveaway for a pair of guest list places and a signed setlist up for each date of the tour on Twitter. The randomly picked winners were announced at 9:30 AM BST on Twitter. The giveaway proved extremely popular with #TimsTicketGiveaway trending the previous evening.

Looks like #TimsTicketGiveaway is proving popular pic.twitter.com/K1i0CjP7dh

— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) June 6, 2023

Fans can also catch the band at several festivals this summer including Y Not and Victorious Festivals. The Charlatans will also be performing a one-off co-headline show at Halifax Piece Hall with fellow indie legend Johnny Marr at the end of August. For tickets see here.

With all thirteen of their studio albums charting in the top 40 in the UK, the band from the West Midlands are decade-spanning indie darlings of the UK. Their 1990 debut album, Some Friendly, reached number one in the UK upon its release and has been certified Gold by the BPI.

The current formation of The Charlatans sees Tim Burgess as lead vocalist, Mark Collins on guitar, Martin Blunt on bass, and Tony Rogers on keys. Sadly, the band’s former drummer Jon Brookes passed away back in 2014.

Different Days, the band’s last studio record, was released six years ago on BMG. The neo-psychedelia record in Chester and produced by the band and Jim Spencer (Johnny Marr, The Cribs, New Order, The Vaccines, Echo and the Bunnymen). Paul Weller, New Order’s Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris, Johnny Marr, The Verve’s Peter Salisbury, novelist Ian Rankin, and actress Sharon Horgan are just some of the creatives featured on the record.

Watch the video for the lead single from the album “Plastic Machinery” below:

Back in 2021, The Charlatans released a vinyl compilation entitled A Head Full of Ideas including back catalogue fan favourites such as “The Only One I Know”, “Weirdo”, “One to Another”, “How High”, and “North Country Boy”.

See below for all The Charlatans UK tour dates:

30/07/23 – Y Not Festival – Derbyshire
25/08 – Victorious Festival – Portsmouth
26/08 –The Piece Hall – Halifax
24/11/23 – O2 City Hall – Newcastle
25/11 – Barrowland – Glasgow
28/11 – O2 Academy – Sheffield
29/11 – O2 Academy – Bristol
01/12 – University Great Hall – Cardiff
02/12 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester
03/12 – O2 Academy – Leeds
05/12 – The Mountford Hall – Liverpool
07/12 – Troxy – London
08/12 – The Civic at The Halls – Wolverhampton
10/12 – Rock City – Nottingham

The six date American tour will follow a packed summer schedule for the space rock outfit which will see them play at a number of European venues along with a fair few festivals, and will see them return to a couple of venues they visited on their previous visit to North America in September of last year (namely, White Eagle Hall in Jersey City, NJ and Union Transfer in Philadelphia, PA).

The announcement came yesterday via the group’s twitter page and will no doubt excite their East coast American fans who will get to see the band again in such a short space of time.

Spiritualized® Live™ US
Local pre-sales from (10AM local time) 05.10.2023 – (10PM local time) 05.11.2023
General on-sale (12PM local time) 05.12.2023 https://t.co/xqiUt3Pqv4 pic.twitter.com/M5rwtBQOXf

— Spiritualized® (@officialSpzd) May 9, 2023

Spiritualized were formed in 1990 by frontman Jason Pierce (J Spaceman) following the disbanding of his previous group, Spacemen 3, after a series of fall outs with former co-frontman Peter Kember (Sonic Boom). Pierce subsequently brought with him to Spiritualized fellow Spacemen 3 members Will Carruthers, Mark Refoy and Jonny Mattock to form the new space rock outfit.

The band released its debut album, Lazer Guided Melodies, in 1992, incorporating more of a shoegaze element along with the distinctive spacey, psychedelic sound of Spacemen 3, and with their next album, Pure Phase (1995) came a slight delve into britpop, all the while maintaining a keen appetite for space rock. Their third album, Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, released in 1997, became their most successful and most well-known release, peaking at number four in the UK Albums Chart and being named NME’s Album of the Year.

Listen to “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” below:

Spiritualized have since become space rock pioneers and have amassed a huge cult following, and have released a total of nine studio albums, the latest of which, Everything Was Beautiful, was released in April 2022 on Fat Possum Records. The group’s current lineup consists of Jason Pierce (vocals, guitar), John Coxon (guitar, keyboard), Doggen Foster (guitar), James Stelfox (bass), Kevin Bales (drums) and Tom Edwards (keyboards).

See below for the US tour dates:

06/11/2023 – White Eagle Hall – New Jersey, NJ
07/11 – Asbury Hall – Buffalo, NY
08/11 – Basilica Hudson – Hudson, NY
09/11 – Mr Smalls Theatre – Millvale, PA
11/11 – Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA
12/11 – Webster Hall – New York, NY

You can purchase tour tickets from May 12th here.