Heist

the black watch and Moon Under Water

Presented by: Pennyblackmusic online music magazine

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0	LONDON: The Water Rats
P	Friday 31st March, 2023
N	7:30pm

Event information

Penny Black Music is presenting its next London gig at The Water Rats in London on Friday 31st March with Heist, the black watch and Moon Under Water.

Tickets, will be available in advance for £8 in advance from www.wegottickets.com and £10 on the door.

HEIST

2022 saw the remarkable comeback of cinematic pop act Heist.

The group, which currently consists of vocalist and guitarist Mike Targett,; additional vocalist, trumpet-player and keyboardist Allison Targett; keyboardist, bassist and accordion player Nicola Jones and drummer Anthony Oudot, played their first UK shows in eighteen years, including some Scottish dates and a show in September, which was a Penny Black Music night, on their home patch of London.

They also released in October their third album and first in almost two decades, ‘Births, Deaths and Marriages’. on their own Super 8 Recordings label. It followed on from their two acclaimed albums, ‘Friday Night at the Trabi Races’ (2004) and ‘A Shopkeeper Will Not Appear’ (2004), which combined the catchy pop sounds of the Lightning Seeds and the Pet Shop Boys with the strings-drenched orchestrations of Eastern European and 60’s spy film scores. ‘Births, Deaths and Marriages’ built on these influences, also incorporating together elements of Sparks, ‘The Soft Bulletin’-era Flaming Lips and the ghost of Mott the Hoople, and reflects upon the ways in which both family history and social history mould our destinies and the narratives of our lives.
We were so impressed with Heist that we have invited them to headline their second gig with us at The Water Rats. and are delighted they are playing another London show with us.

THE BLACK WATCH

John Andrew Fredrick has fronted the Los Angeles cult indie group, the black watch (always lower case) since 1987.

A band with a hardcore following, they have received much critical acclaim, including with both their 2020 albums ‘Brilliant Failures’ and ‘Fromthing Somethat’ winning joint Albums of the Year in the influential American music magazine, ‘The Big Takeover’. The group’s 21st album ‘Future Strangers’ will be released in early 2023 on ATOM Records, and they are also planning to release another album 'The Morning Papers Have Given Us the Vapours' on Dell Orso Records to coincide with this show.

Committed Anglophile Fredrick has also published four novels, including two books about a Los Angeles band, ‘The King of Good Intentions’ (2013) and ‘The King of Good Intentions II’ (2017).

He will be playing a short and rare UK tour in March as the black watch, accompanied by Nev and Mark Bradbury from London-based rock outfit Damn Vandals on guitars. Penny Black Music is promoting both this and also an already sold-out Edinburgh show.

MOON UNDER WATER

Basildon/Leicester/Liverpool hybrid Moon Under Water is the first band of drummer Adrian Janes since he played drums in the 1970s in punk three-piece The Outsiders, the early band of The Sound’s Adrian Borland.

Band lyricist Janes’ lyrics have like the late Borland a brooding quality, and, while they draw perhaps inevitably comparisons with The Sound, the shimmering, taut guitar lines of Elliot Wheeler and bassist Robert Eade, Janes’ sturdy drumwork and Audrey Eade’s extraordinary, ethereal vocals provide them with a clear identity of their own.

Moon Under Water have released two EPs to date, ‘First Quarter’ (2021) and ‘Fragments’ (2022) and they are now working on songs for a debut album. They also plan to make their first video this year. They play gigs only rarely, and this is their first central London show since they played a previous Penny Black Music night in January 2020.