The band will be showing the video of Sometimes at 9:15 and will be playing live at 9:30.

Print a copy of the flyer to get cheaper entry - click it!

Following on from the wonderful firstCityscape Presents on the 10th May, we’re delighted to announce the line-up for the second night on 21st June.

Headlining act is this time the Loungs, described by the NME as “Heart stonking trippy folk that melds your brain into a big mush of unbridled, beardy love.”

Support comes from last time’s headliners, Merchandise with Moore Marriott opening the evening.

Tickets will go quickly with the first night a sell-out so book soon - click this link to visit the Octagon website to book tickets. http://www.octagonbolton.co.uk/Cityscape2.asp

This gig is part of The MAPS Festival (Music Art Poetry & Stuff) a 3 day festival over the bank holiday weekend involving about 200artists in 14 venues in the Northern Quarter of Manchester. The band will be playing at TV21 at 6.30pm–so still time to get home for your tea! There’s 10 acts on altogether. kicks off at 3.30 & finishes at 11pm. For more festival details check out www.mapsfestival.co.uk

If you prefer we’ve also put the video on the site in quicktime (better audio) click here

Booked so far: Ist, Merchandise, Dan Melrose and Dale Meakin as compere.

Here are some biogs and photos to get you in the mood!

Ist:

Formed in 2001, the original line-up of Kenton Hall, Jack Bomb, Detroit Robbins and Flash signed to independent label Pink Box Records, releasing The Adult Tree EP. Full-length debut ‘Freudian Corduroy’ followed eighteen months later, following an extensive UK tour, spawning both the official single ´Similarly Inclined/Tonto´ and the infamous ´Boyfriend´. Reviews compared the band to Syd Barrett fronting the Beatles, and the record built up a steady following of ´istians´ around the world.

Following the departure of Jack Bomb and the tragic death of Detroit Robbins, the remaining members convened, with John McCourt on bass, to record 2005´s King Martha, which garnered them further rave reviews, a slot at the BBC 6music-sponsored Summer Sundae festival and an eight week stay at #1 in the Russian download charts.

In September 2005, Brett Richardson - who had guested on King Martha, playing bassoon - joined the band full-time for the King Martha tour.

In 2006, Kenton Hall was voted by MOJO readers as one of the top 20 ´Songwriters of Substance´ and a special edition of King Martha was released by Italian label MODA Music in March 2007.

Also in 2006, following a conversation with legendary songwriter and broadcaster Tom Robinson, work began on a follow-up album Toothpick Bridge. Looking to move their sound forward, the band recruited producer Jay ´Burzootie´ Burnett, who had started as an engineer (manning the desk for the Beastie Boys, amongst others) with Def Jam Records and gone on to be responsible for classic albums in a wide variety of styles, including work on the seminal Planet Rock and Bert Jansch´s When the Circus Comes to Town, which was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize.

Guests on the new album include Melvin Duffy (The Lilac Time, Robbie Williams), Dorie Jackson (Chris Difford, Francis Dunnery), The Swinging Laurels and a very special guest they’ve managed to Squeeze in.

Dan Melrose:

Dan Melrose is a singer-songwriter and guitar instrumentalist based in Manchester. He writes, records and performs original material that, if it had to be pigeonholed, would be called folk.

Dan featured at the 2008 Le Blues Autour du Zinc (www.zincblues.com) on both the Friday and Saturday nights, having enjoyed the Acoustic Stage previously at both the Colne and Burnley Blues Festivals. Dan has also appeared numerous times on Channel M’s ‘City Centre Social’ music show as well as at Manchester’s own music festivals. Dan gigs in a variety of venues regularly in and around the North West, and is always well received.

At the moment Dan is painstakingly recording a CD, as well as performing as often as he can. He hopes to finish the recordings soon, with a view to getting some distribution of sorts. Whereupon he will, no doubt, be gigging and promoting himself like crazy.

When performing and recording, Dan has a wealth of peers with whom to play. The core of his band consists of double bass and violin, who come along and perform at the larger gigs. The full band gigs have previously gone under the band name “The Green Tree Riot,” AKA, “The Urban Folk Collective,” though more recently, the decision was made to axe the name and continue to perform billed as a solo artist, despite the larger line-up being the same and consisting of some of the original material.

Press Quotes

“Blending the romance of folk music with the grim realities of the blues… create(s) a sound that balances the traditional with modern life… Something magical could come of this.”

– Chris Long, BBC Great Unheard.

“Well as it’s Sunday, I was under the illusion I was writing about a chilled out folk band. With the use of acoustic guitars, harmonica, double bass, fiddle and washboard I expected a sombre relaxing piece of music. What The Green Tree Riot delivered was a gutsy, raw and powerful mixture of Irish influenced blues. Singer Dan Melrose’s voice is razor sharp and he sings with a twinge of Americana in there too. On track Blood And Rust Blues, the song begins as if two cowboys are taking 5 paces ready to draw their pistols in a shootout. When Melrose hits the first roar, it’s their signal to shoot their barrels clean.”

- Ross @ http://unearthedtreasures.blogspot.com

10th May 2008: Merchandise with support from Sarah Lowes and Chris Evans.

Tickets Available from the Octagon Box Office priced £9.00 for adults, £7 for concessions and £6 for 4 or more! See www.octagonbolton.co.uk or tel 01204 520661

Not content to sit back and soak up the plaudits from critically acclaimed second album, ‘Lo-tech Solutions to Hi-tech problems’, the creative drive of Merchandise’s Brad B Wood and Conrad Astley is flowing as richly as ever and in April 08, Merchandise drop stunning new single, Sometimes/Glitterati, in our laps, and with it look set to cement their growing reputation as creators of glorious melodic-pop.

Consummate in the art of marrying luscious acoustic loveliness with all the cut n paste potential of this digital age, Merchandise have once again struck joyful, life-affirming musical gold.
The title track sounds like waking up on a sunny Sunday morning next to the warm body of a post-coital lover. Dripping with dreamy optimism, Brad B Wood’s effortless vocal floats alongside the sprightly piano before the melodic and vibrant rhythm section kicks in and takes the chorus soaring in a swirl of harmonically entwined instrumental elegance and loved-up lyrics.

Track 2, Glitterati, is a further example of Merchandise lo-fi loveliness, albeit in slightly more cynical mood. The uplifting piano is reeled in by the dark lead guitar line and world weary lyrics that Brad delivers from the regretful point of view of one recently duped or deceived; ‘you told me how the field of glitter, is only gold and silver lies. I should have seen it from the outset but I had glitter in my eyes’.

Mournful yet ultimately uplifting, Merchandise’s perfect knack of producing aural comfort means Glitterati’s lyrical content and tender vocal doesn’t quite defeat the notion that there is still light at the end of this particular tunnel.

With Sometimes/Glitterati, Merchandise have produced the perfect antidote to winter’s greys and blues, and have once again produced a familiar, yet unique cocktail of charming, disarming and seductive music.

So go on, treat yourself to a taste of the Merchandise.