Category: CQAF2024 Saturday 4 May

PP Arnold is the soul survivor. Her story is one of musical highs, personal lows, and that extraordinary voice.

She joined the Ike and Tina Turner Revue at the age of 17 then arrived in London in 1966 to support The Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger persuaded her to stay in London as a solo artist and the rest is history.

During a five-decade-long career, she’s worked with everyone from Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, the Small Faces, Nick Drake, and Barry Gibb to Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, the KLF, Paul Weller and Primal Scream.

Special guest for tonight’s is ireland’s First Lady of Soul, the incomparable Bronagh Gallagher.

Bronagh Gallagher 7.45pm – 8.45pm, PP Arnold 9.00pm – 10.30pm

The Handsome Family (songwriting and marriage partners Brett and Rennie Sparks) have been defining the dark end of americana for over 30 years. Brett writes the music and Rennie writes the words. Their work has been covered by many artists including Jeff Tweedy, Andrew Bird and most-recently Phoebe Bridgers.

Their song Far From Any Road was the opening theme for HBO’s True Detective season one and still receives thousands of Shazams every week from all over the world.

Handsome Family songs take place under overpasses and inside airports. Historical figures like George A. Custer and Nikola Tesla appear alongside a flying milkman and the whisper of an air conditioner against a plastic tree.

Their eleventh studio album, Hollow, delves into the natural world at the edges of the man-made. It is a record lush with leaves and shadows and echoing with occult mystery.

Asked to describe their music Brett says, “Western gothic.” It is music inspired by the abandoned strip malls of desert America where cracked pavement shimmers with heat and thorny weeds slowly reclaim the land.

Handsome Family songs may be dark, but there’s always laughter on stage. Rennie sings as well as plays banjo and bass. She often introduces songs with seemingly unrelated stories. Brett, with his deep baritone and stentorian presence, is the undeniable center of stage. The two are often joined by multi-instrumentalists Alex McMahon and Jason Toth as well as fans, new and old, some returning again and again to see them live over the decades.

“We’re astonished to be breathing,” Rennie says about the band’s longevity, “Let alone still be inspired to write songs and sing together. There’s been a lot of smashed coffee cups in our house over the years, but we’re still unable to resist the urge to make music.”

Cass McCombs’ music contains elements of folk music, americana, psychedelia, and rock. In his latest album, Tip of the Sphere, McCombs draws sounds from his predecessors, recalling Elton John-style pianos and Lou Reed vocals.

The album received much acclaim from review sites, and his live performances can be expected to showcase many of the new album’s songs, and does not disappoint in the subject of lengthy jams. McCombs has opened for recognized artists such as Modest Mouse, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, and John Cale, but his solo shows have also sold out at venues such as Lincoln Hall.

Steve Gunn is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He initially gained a reputation as a go-to musician and for his membership in GHQ, though Gunn has a varied recording and collaboration history that includes work with British legend Mike Cooper and Jack Rose.

The diversity of his approach embraces everything from American Primitive guitar to raucous, Neil Young & Crazy Horse-inspired psychedelic roots rock & roll. He has collaborated with Meg Baird, the Magik Markers, and Kurt Vile, and issued a number of well-received solo albums including Way Out Weather (2014), The Unseen In Between (2018), and Other You (2021).

“He is my guy, a musical brother. And I only f*ck with the best!” – Madlib

A colossus of the funk & soul world, Adam Gibbons (aka Lack of Afro) has been releasing music for 17 years and continues to go from strength to strength with the release of Square One this year, his eighth album under the Lack of Afro moniker.

Previously signed to Freestyle Records in London and running his own label ‘The Bastion Music Group’ since 2015, he has been responsible for some of the genre’s most important releases, not least his debut album ‘Press On’, described by iDJ as “one of the most important albums of the modern funk era” and more recently given ‘classic’ status by Future Music Magazine.

An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, producer, DJ and composer, his music has won worldwide critical acclaim and to date has gained 120+ million streams on Spotify. It has been featured on films, TV shows and adverts all over the globe, on networks including HBO, ABC, Sony Pictures, BBC, ITV, Sky TV, Fox Pictures & Warner Brothers Television, and used in multi million ad campaigns by the likes of Google, Spotify, Miller Lite and Adidas.

As a DJ and live performer, he has performed in over 20 countries worldwide and undertaken countless live sessions for radio and TV including two for the BBC at the highly revered Maida Vale Studios.

To date, he has released eight albums under the Lack of Afro moniker, three as The Unity Sextet, one under LUSTRE, one under his own name, an EP with Herbal T as The Damn Straights, albums for other artists, music for several TV shows and over 60 remixes. He has also produced 13 award winning, sample packs for Loopmasters.

Support by Gazfunk