SALFORD: Hey! Manchester @ The Eagle Inn

Friday 20th May, 2016

7:30pm

Event information

American Thomas Truax is one of the most imaginative characters on the pop music fringe. He travels the world performing with his evolving ‘band’ of surreal, self-made Harry Partch-esque instruments including a motorised drum machine made of bike wheels called ‘Mother Superior’ and a pimped-up Dr. Seuss-ian Gramophone called ‘The Hornicator’, as well as guitar. UNCUT magazine says ‘Truax is shaping up nicely as one of the great rock eccentrics’ while Splendid magazine called him ‘one of the five or ten best singer/songwriters in the world that you’ve never heard of… an exceptional talent, unique and resistant to comparison’.

He crafts rich, poetically evocative songs about insects, trees, technology and a lifelong obsession with things lunar, including various reasons ‘Why Dogs Howl at The Moon’. His eight studio LPs include highly rated covers album Songs From The Films Of David Lynch. Notable supporters and collaborators include Jarvis Cocker, Duke Special, Richard Hawley, Amanda Palmer and the late author Terry Pratchett.

He has a track on the Shakespearian album Food Of Love, released in April on Autolycus Records in conjunction with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

‘It’s a mutual exchange of blood, bone, wood and metal, most of which is home grown. If you leave a Truax show without smiling somewhere in your body, you’re fucked’ – Richard Hawley

‘When he performs, it is a spectacle – the originality and seeming impossibility of what he does is much of the appeal’ – The Guardian

This double-bill also features Vinny Peculiar.

British musician and poet Vinny Peculiar (aka Alan Wilkes) has been variously described as ‘an under-sung national treasure’ (Uncut), ‘a warm-hearted Morrissey’ (Q) and ‘the missing link between Jarvis Cocker and Roger McGough’ (Irish Times). He’s released eleven albums of outsider pop music to great critical acclaim – with current album release Down The Bright Stream on his own Shadrack & Duxbury Records continuing to gain plaudits. Raised a Methodist in the north Worcestershire village of Catshill, he trained as a nurse working in long stay learning disability & mental health hospitals, a primary influence on his upcoming album, Silver Meadows, due on 6 June. Much of Vinny’s work is autobiographical: songs are candid, poignant and self effacing – you really need to hear them. He also writes occasional poems and runs workshops.

He has collaborated with KLF’s Bill Drummond as an artist in residence and on numerous house concerts. Various bands have included ex-members of The Smiths, Oasis, Aztec Camera and The Fall. He’s also the primary songwriter in Parlour Flames, a band he founded with Bonehead. Vinny’s work is often compared to the likes of Eels, John Cooper Clarke and the more pastoral elements of The Kinks. He’s played stages far and wide, opening for British Sea Power, Edwyn Collins and Luke Haines among others, and is a former compere on the Glastonbury Acoustic Stage.

19 Collier Street
Salford
M3 7DW

www.heymanchester.com