Lael Neale

Event information

Lael Neale’s minimalist drone pop draws inspiration from the Transcendentalists, the high lonesome sound of primitive American gospel music & the alienation of modern life.

Since signing with Sub Pop in 2020, she has split her time between rural Virginia and Los Angeles in addition to extensive touring throughout Europe and select shows in the US.

In collaboration with producer and accompanist Guy Blakeslee, Neale has created two internationally acclaimed home-recorded albums. They have recently completed a third, which is slated for release in 2025.

‘A unique, boldly weird proposition, and one that proudly carries the faint hint of tractor grease. Half of it comes on like cult 70s folk artist Karen Dalton hanging out with the Velvet Underground and Suicide, while the rest offers somewhat more modern balladry, placing her more in the world of Angel Olsen and Cat Power‘ – the Guardian

Tour support comes from Entrance. Emerging from the pre-internet post-hardcore scene of the late 90’s, Entrance (born Guy Blakeslee) began singing his lysergic blues and mystic troubadour folk in the underground venues of Baltimore and Chicago in 2002. The early 2000’s saw him touring extensively in the US, the UK and Europe, supporting like-minded artists such as Devendra Banhart, Cat Power, Will Oldham and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Inspired in equal measure by the eerie falsetto of Skip James and the acid edged poetry of ’66 Dylan (and frizzy haired disciples like Buckley, Bolan & Barrett), Entrance was an integral voice at the vanguard of what became known as ‘freak folk,’ or ‘the New Weird America’. The first two Entrance albums The Kingdom of Heaven Must Be Taken By Storm and Honey Moan were made in collaboration with producer Chris Coady. Originally released by Tiger Style, both are now receiving an archival reboot from the Numero Group.

Since the early days of Entrance, Blakeslee has explored a surprisingly vast array of musical identities, from the cosmic blues of 2004’s Wandering Stranger (Fat Possum) and the 2006 heavily electrified concept album Prayer Of Death, to serving for a decade as frontman for Los Angeles psych-rock legends The Entrance Band. Book of Changes (Thrill Jockey, 2017) channeled the ghosts of Roy Orbison and Leonard Cohen, and landed him onstage in support of Spiritualized and Father John Misty. Further solo albums (as Guy Blakeslee) include 2021’s Postcards From the Edge and 2024’s ambient opus EXTRAVISION, which emerged in the wake of a life altering brain injury during a prolonged period of self-healing through sound and music.

PLEASE NOTE: The ticket price includes a 50p venue levy.