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Diary Dates
Baskery – Wednesday 6 November
The Musician
Baskery is a Swedish blues / Southern rock band made up of three sisters. They started off ‘playing cover songs for drunk people’ and have created their own roots x Americana influenced style with a straightforward punk edge.
Bellowhead – Thursday 7 November
De Montfort Hall
Since their formation in 2004 Bellowhead have occupied a unique place in Britain’s musical landscape. Wild, joyous, perverse, bold, crazy, full-blooded, intricate, fearless, funny, epic and mostly BIG, the mighty 11-piece Bellowhead blend folk, jazz, classical, disco and world music influences with English music and cabaret to stunning effect.
Bare James – Friday 8 November
International Arts Centre
Bare Jams are an upbeat, fun lovin’ seven-piece collective. Self described as ‘Poppy-Funk with a sneaky bit of Reggae and Ska’. Their fun rhythms involve catchy lyrics about twists on day-to-day life, parties, their pet gnome and the Hokey-Cokey sometimes even some politics and other meaningful stuff. They’ll have you chillin’, then get you skankin’, even put a smile on your face. Organic and freshly brewed party vibes, which really shouldn’t be missed.
The Frank & Walters – Saturday 9 November
Firebug
The alternative pop band from Cork are back. It’s been a long, strange, beautiful journey for The Franks, who in the 90s flirted with the charts on this continent and others, but no-one can deny they made their mark. Hell, there’s even an all-girl Japanese Franks tribute band! Sing along to After All, Fashion Crisis Hits New York, This Is Not A Song and Happy Busman.
Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Saturday 9 November
The International
Benjamin Francis Leftwich is a singer/songwriter from York who has the sort of voice, delivery and material that tiptoes in to your soul, makes a big old comfy featherbed and refuses to leave. He has drawn comparisons to Damien Rice and José González, though he cites Arcade Fire, Ryan Adams, and Bruce Springsteen as his inspirations.
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PREVIEW: ELECTRIC SIX COMING TO LEICESTER
Danger Danger! Electric Six will be back in Leicester for a headline show this December.
Following the roaring success of last year’s comeback record ‘Turquoise’, the Detroit renegades will be back to perform fresh cuts and immortal classics at a run of Academy shows in November. Dates and details can be found below.
Mixing garage rock, disco, punk, new wave, and metal into cleverly dumb, in-your-face songs celebrating hedonism in multiple forms, Electric Six found international success through a relentless touring and recording schedule and an unerring commitment to their over-the-top style, delivering energy and absurdity in equal measure.
After winning a local following as the Wildbunch, Electric Six scored a major hit in the U.K. in 2003 with the song “Danger! High Voltage“, and their debut album ‘Fire’, released the same year, earned them a major cult following with tunes like “Dance Commander” and “Gay Bar“. From then on, musicians would come and go from the Electric Six line. The proportions of electronics to guitars would shift back and forth from album to album, but their essential formula of dance-friendly rock brimming with bombast and lunacy would never change. From 2005 onward, not a year would go by without a new E6 album and a string of shows in which Dick Valentine and co. would whip their fans into a frenzy.
While the COVID-19 pandemic put them on pause for a while, 2021’s covers set, ‘Streets of Gold’, put them back on their unstoppable schedule, and 2023’s ‘Turquoise’, a set of originals, presented them in high-spirited and irresponsible form.
Electric Six. The band that released an album a year for what seemed like 666 years. The most reliable act in show business, there was simply no question that each year would bring another E6 record on Metropolis Records. Mayans based their calendar on Electric Six. Flocks of migrating birds used the new Electric Six record as a homing device. Small-time criminals were sentenced to four to seven E6 albums with time off for wonderful behaviour. In a business so fickle, unreliable, and difficult to navigate…the only constant was Electric Six. There was always an album a year…….until there wasn’t.
Behold ‘Turquoise’ is here, the long-awaited studio album return of Electric Six! Perhaps the catchiest, brightest album in their catalogue, Electric Six reminds you how profoundly fun they can be, hitting you over the head with fourteen pop explosions guaranteed to burrow their way into your dance hole.
Electric Six are returning to Leicester as part of their Academy tour and will be at O2 Academy Leicester on Monday 2 December. Tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster.
Playlist
Not listened to Electric Six since their Gay Bar days? Take a listen to them on this week’s playlist and then grab yourself ticket to their upcoming tour.