MANCHESTER: Hey! Manchester @ Central Methodist Hall

Wednesday 13th November, 2013

7:30pm

Event information

Lau are modern folk music’s most innovative band. Brilliant musicians, thrilling performers and free-thinking visionaries. Their latest album, Race The Loser (Reveal Records), was recorded in Scotland through the spring of 2012 with American producer Tucker Martine (Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists, R.E.M., Laura Veirs). The album has become Lau’s best-selling and most acclaimed release to date. Accolades include five stars from the Guardian, who also listed it in their Best Albums of the Year poll, and a shortlist nomination for Scottish Album of the Year 2013. Following its release in October 2012, Lau were invited to perform on prestigious BBC music TV show Later… with Jools Holland, performing Torsa and Throwing Pennies. In February 2013 Lau won the award for Best Group at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards for a fourth time.

Their 2007 debut album Lightweights and Gentlemen mixed original tunes with inspired arrangements of traditional material and rocketed Lau to the fore of the burgeoning new-folk scene. This was followed by the much-loved Live album just a year later. In 2009 came the equally acclaimed Arc Light, with a grander setting that produced a heavily played single Winter Moon, and an invitation from Mojo Magazine to cover The Beatles’ Dear Prudence for their White Album celebrations.

As Lau’s reputation has grown so too has their desire to collaborate with other artists. Following successful international touring, a proud catalogue of major festival appearances, side projects and solo recordings, came a string of intriguing collaborations that took place leading up to the release of Race The Loser. In 2012 Lau were invited by Jack Bruce (Cream) to take part in a BBC documentary about his life and music. The chemistry was so strong that Jack subsequently featured Lau in a live show celebrating his back catalogue. Lau have released two collaborative EPs with Karine Polwart and Adem, and wrote and performed a vast orchestral work Strange Attractors with composer Brian Irvine and Northern Sinfonia.

Solo works outside Lau have continued to appear at regular intervals: Martin Green wrote and performed a new commission for Opera North entitled ‘Crow’s Bones’ (featuring Becky Unthank and Inge Thomson); Kris Drever released an acclaimed new album, Storymap, with Éamonn Coyne in February; and Aidan O’Rourke has his third solo album (Hotline) released by Reveal in July 2013.

The band will release a new EP featuring remixes by Matthew Herbert, Claro Intelecto, Silver Columns (Adem), Andreas Lust (Frightened Rabbit), Sei-A and Haiku Salut. The future for Lau looks brighter still with more collaborations, Lau-Land festival events and major touring.

Central Methodist Hall is a two-tier, fully seated venue on Oldham Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Our last show there was King Creosote & Jon Hopkins, while Panda Bear, Bill Callahan and Low have all played there too. Alcohol is not allowed in the hall, but soft drinks will be available to purchase.

PLEASE NOTE: All tickets are 'Unreserved seating'.

4 Central Buildings
Oldham Street
Manchester
M1 1JQ

www.heymanchester.com