BIRMINGHAM: Kitchen Garden Cafe

Sunday 10th November, 2024

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 fourteen albums of literate autobiographical pop music over a twenty-year career touring band, solo and duo shows in the UK, Ireland, Europe and the US. 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), past work associations include Bill Drummond (KLF) and his various bands have included ex members of The Smiths, OASIS, Aztec Camera & The Fall. He’s 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 is available now.

PRESS

"Cracking pop/rock songs that reference pre-punk UK bands such as T. Rex and The Glitter Band, US Woodstock-era groups such as Jefferson Airplane, and garage/proto-punk acts such as The Chocolate Watchband seamlessly merge with sardonic, shrewd, storytelling lyrics. Yes, indeed – the decidedly astute Mister Peculiar has only gone and done it again.**** " (4/5 Irish Times).

"With his flat cap, florid blouse and fidgety nervous energy pitched somewhere between Andy Warhol and Jarvis Cocker, there’s an anarchic elegance to Vinny Peculiar which is both at once both thrilling and faintly unsettling. Storming through a set of oblique, tortured punk poetry, he wins over an initially skeptical crowd with his animated delivery and taut, frenetic pop hooks. Channeling all that eccentricity and barbed wit into something strangely compelling Vinny Peculiar is the sort of unlikely, heroic pop star they just don’t seem to make anymore". (****Edinburgh Festival review).

"Once again, this album reinforces the claim for Wilkes (and his alter ego) as one of the finest and most individual and literate voices in contemporary English music, a writer with an eye for the small detail as well as the big picture. “We all need a little more art in our life”, he sings. This is most definitely one to add to your collection." (Mike Davies).

"A hugely talented musician who is right up there with Elvis Costello, Ray Davies and Jarvis Cocker, Peculiar should be placed on a pedestal" (Sean Hanan, Hi Fi + Magazine).

"A well-measured introduction to an under sung national treasure" (UNCUT MAGAZINE).

"The missing link between Jarvis Cocker and poet Roger McGough and some of the wittiest lyrics this side of Wreckless Eric" (IRISH TIMES).

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

"Crashing poppily through Vinnys world of nostalgia and insight every song stuffed to the gills with melody and eccentricity, clever, funny and wonderfully weird" (R2 MAGAZINE).

"If Tony Hancock had made pop records they’d have sounded like this" (UNCUT MAGAZINE).

"Vinny Peculiar songs make you laugh and cry and think all at the same time" (TOM ROBINSON BBC 6Music).

"Vinny’s kitchen sink confessional style of writing is often described as quintessentially English – ‘homespun tunesmithery in the Robyn Hitchcock/Martin Newell vain –wry nostalgia, witty wordplay" (Rolling Stone Magazine).

"Imagine a surreal episode of My Two Dads where said fathers are Jarvis Cocker and David Bowie, who bully their child into liking them and everything they like, like glam stomp, kitchen sink vignettes, mordantly witty lyrics, nostalgia, dreams and a sneer, and you‘re ready for Vinny Peculiar, Manchester’s premier forward thinking backward looking song smith" (Whispering & Hollerin).

"Sounding like Vic Chessnut tooled up for an armed robbery" (Irish Times).

"A treasure trove of timeless pop brilliance" (The Big issue).

"Honest, witty, incomparably savvy about pop culture, Vinny’s songs make you smile and for the duration of three minutes plus, they manage to make the world a better place." (City Life).

"Vinny Peculiar is all about the words. Looking (and singing a bit) like Elvis Costello in wig and baseball cap, it’s hard to work out what’s more entertaining – the story-cum-songs or the preceding self-deprecating monologues. Clutching his guitar, he gyrates and jack-knifes round the stage like a busker desperate for 20p to get into the tube station toilets. Endearing and irreverent" (MEN LIVE reviews).

"Vinny’s songs, a beautiful blend of Americana, indie-pop and busker-punk, create an almost George Formby-like world of oddity and human frailty, and the self-deprecating veracity of his lyrics never fails to hit the intended spot" (CLASH MAGAZINE ***).