CAMBRIDGE: The Blue Moon

Friday 28th September, 2018

8:00pm

Event information

Then: a simpler time known as August 2008, the pop music group Model Village played their first ever gig, in the city of Cambridge.

Now: 10 years, one month, and 22 days later the group still exist, and will acknowledge 10 years of adequate rocking with a live music concert in the self same city.

In the intervening decade Model Village have churned through a bunch of members, recorded and released 2 albums, a bunch of EPs, and a couple of split singles, and are all still on speaking terms. Whilst not the most road-hardened of outfits they’ve also managed to squeeze in a respectable number of gigs around the UK. From a primary school PTA quiz night to the main stage of first-rate DIY festival Indietracks, via a rural barn, a comic shop basement, an ex-fruit & veg warehouse and Islington’s enormous Union Chapel (with a 12-piece orchestra), the group have played some pretty nice gigs including supporting The Lemonheads, Half Man Half Biscuit, and Allo Darlin’, amongst others.

Whilst spectacularly managing to avoid success and any serious critical impact, an elite niche of discerning listeners are true believers in Model Village’s upbeat downcast tunes, and have totally clocked that they are all about the kind of unassumingly clever pop peddled by the likes of R.E.M., Prefab Sprout, Teenage Fanclub, Camera Obscura, and The Sundays, though really they just want to be Steely Dan. They were once compared to Mumford & Sons, something about which they are still fuming.

2018 has possibly been the band’s slackest to date, with only a single gig thus far, but they have at least started to (very slowly) record a new album. So, provided they can actually find any time when they can all get the the same rehearsal room simultaneously, this will be something of a select occasion.

Model Village will be joined by very special guests whose live outings are even rarer. The Pony Collaboration will be pulling out all the stops to play their first gig in about 5 years. Releasing a new album, "Everything Was Ages Ago", earlier in 2018 was not enough to raise them from their live slumber, but for such an occasion they have vowed to assemble and deliver a solid set of suave glum-pop. Groovy Roger McGuinn-enthusiasts Violet Woods realised their jangly eponymous debut at the end of 2015, but have been pretty quiet for much of the intervening time due to “real life” getting in the way. They’ll be dusting off the organ and the 12-string to delight the masses, and maybe that’ll get their cogs whirring again.

In what could be interpreted as clever planning, both The Pony Collaboration and Violet Woods will feature members who have, at one time, been members of Model Village. It's so thematic.

Join us all at the Blue Moon as we all wonder where the time has gone, and just how much of our lives we’ve wasted. There’ll probably be cake, or something.

2 Norfolk St
Cambridge
CB1 2LF

www.facebook.com/bluemooncambridge

01223500238