Vinny Peculiar

0	BIRMINGHAM: Kitchen Garden Cafe
P	Thursday 23rd November, 2023
N	7:30pm

BIRMINGHAM: Kitchen Garden Cafe

Thursday 23rd November, 2023

7:30pm

Event information

Vinny Peculiar (aka Alan Wilkes) grew up in Worcestershire and trained as a nurse before signing to Manchester cult label Ugly Man records (former home to Elbow). He’s since put out thirteen albums of literate autobiographical pop music over a twenty-year career and has regularly toured band, solo and duo shows. He has been variously described as “an under sung national treasure” (UNCUT), “a warm hearted Morrissey” (Q Magazine) and “the missing link between Jarvis Cocker and Roger McGough” (Irish Times).

Previous work associations include Bill Drummond (KLF), Luke Haines (the Auteurs), Jah Wobble (PIL) and his various bands have included ex members of The Smiths, OASIS, Aztec Camera & The Fall. He’s also written and recorded as Parlour Flames, the band he formed in 2013 with ex OASIS rhythm guitarist Bonehead.

New album 'How I Learned to Love the Freaks' drops Sept 2023

“If Tony Hancock had made pop records, they’d have sounded like this” Uncut).

“Part Pulp, part Kinks, and very much part Peculiar, this is observational, punk-tinged songwriting at its best” (Hot Press).

“Wildly witty with abject sadness and pathos in swathes, like a warm-hearted Morrissey no less’ (Independent).

“The missing link between Jarvis Cocker and poet Roger McGough and some of the wittiest lyrics this side of Wreckless Eric” (Irish Times).

“A strange brave captivating album, matched by fascination, dark humor and warmth” (Daily Mirror).

“This fifteen-track album from the Salford based singer songwriter is frankly, unmissable. A real joy” (Americana-UK).

“Crashing poppily through Vinny's world of nostalgia and insight every song stuffed to the gills with melody and eccentricity, clever, funny and wonderfully weird” (R2 Magazine).

“A well-measured introduction to an under sung national treasure” (Uncut).

Opening the show will be William William Rodgers, from Birmingham, a clever and distinctive writer. His style fits no current template and he sounds like no-one other than himself. His songs grow with listening, their airy, apparently effortless style underpinned with a strong understanding of bleak realities. There is an element of an English Bill Callahan about his music: acutely aware, deeply felt songs, but written with a sense of humour. His first album is a minor triumph, and many people who hear it will be devotees for life.