Gullivers Oldham Street Manchester

It's me! I can't keep up with all these different social media sites, but it is this one that gets neglected the most, so I'm going to try muster up a little of the force and put something down.

Last night (25/08/2012) we played a show at Gulliver's on Oldham St. in the northern quarter of Manchester's city centre. The night was organised by fledgling record label Longevity Records who are based in Manchester and offer "to get quality new music released without the usual big budget restrictions!" as their mission statement. They go on to say "we strive to give bands & artists that elusive first stepping stone to becoming a professional act, by helping them with their initial releases & videos through to the heights we all want to achieve. We work alongside a fantastic video team and Recording studio and have passion to help and promote what we believe in." , and from what I have seen they are doing just that. Thanks to Ian and his team for putting us on.

Gulliver's is a great venue, a bit like the Yorkshire House in Lancaster but without the over powering stench of piss, and the staff are excellent, from the doormen to the bar staff through to the DJ and sound engineer, all made us feel properly welcome. Cheers.

It was the usual on the night; bands play and then fuck off home, downstairs or somewhere else without sticking around to support the other acts...after enjoying the support of their successors all evening. Poor.

The Blackhearts set was excellent, as you might guess, and was watched over by a certain Manchester legend who stood in front a microphone for The Fall. Yup, Mark E Smith was in attendance along with some of the travelling faithful, a gang of French folk and a selection of Gulliver's finest. What a noise they made! I was really blown away by the way they all got involved and it drove us on to put on one of our best shows ever - at least it certainly felt that way.

So, we made some new friends, caught up with some old ones, had the best time on stage, poured with sweat for 40 glorious minutes, on a rainy evening in Manchester, and I only had one drink all night.

Thanks Gulliver's x

Turner

The Printworks Manchester

Some photos of the Blackhearts from the recent Printworks Festival in Manchester which saw over 22,000 assorted humans romped, ran, skulked, slick, slid and moonwalked on through...

She Really Goes New Single

Blackhearts released new single She Really Goes for download on iTunes et al this week. The track was recorded at West Orange Studios near Preston in Lancashire with gold disc winner Alan Gregson best known for his work with Cornershop, Badly Drawn Boy and Russell Watson.

 

The cover art is by Morecambe artist MRK

You can download it today for only 79p here at iTunes

SHE REALLY GOES by BLACKHEART AFTERGLOW



model : Rebecca Townley

Rough Beats Festival 2012

Blackheart Afterglow have been confirmed for the Rough Beats Festival 8-10 June 2012 The festival started in the early 00's in someone's back garden in Clapham, North Yorks, with about 90 people watching the owner's son's band (so we were told). Jump on nine years and the organisers are booking artists such as Pulled Apart By Horses(Friday 8th), Azealia Banks, Django Django and Super Fury Animals front man Gruff Rhys...and The Blackhearts(Friday 8th)! Amazing how things start though ain't it?

Also on the bill will be Lancaster duo The Lovely Eggs and Morecambe's Joe McCorriston as well as Red Dwarf and radio soulster Craig Charles. More acts TBA.

Weekend tickets are £65 inc camping, with day passes priced at £30.

Blackhearts The Ducie Bridge and Festivals

Saturday gone we went to The Ducie Bridge in Manchester to play a show with Dan The Thief. 153 Corporation Road is just up from Victoria Station, not far from the MEN Arena, and his one of Manchesters best live music pubs; free to get in and no pay to play for the bands. The Ducie has close association with Manchester Radio and the two compliment each other by finding new bands for gigs in the Manchester area, providing the very raw but definite sound the city breeds, along side some fantastic talent from the surrounding area. Yes, I'm talking Morecambe Bay!

We got down there, quick line check and rampaged through a set comprising of:

Pressure Drop
Crash
Battle Cry
She Really Goes
Seven Sisters
Rapture
Choke
Black Soul
Planes

The new ones went down really well especially She Really Goes which is the probably our most accessible song to date and will definitely be on the session list for our next recording session which will be at West Orange Studios in April (I think). So, a great night at The Ducie Bridge both for the music and for the top people we met there. Thanks to all.

Coming up we have a night at Jackson's Pit in Oldham with The Number and White Heath, then over to the Live Lounge in Blackburn before hitting The Printworks Festival, The Roughbeats Festival (with Pulled Apart by Horses) and The Carlisle Music Festival (with Death in Vegas).

This is the News

It's been a long time since we last posted so, where to start? The first gig on the year was the return to Ma Murphy's on Jan 14 (with support from Joe McCorriston who was fantastic), we were a bit worried (but only a little) about the turn out as it was mid month and just after the festive season...we needn't have bothered. Last time we played Ma's it was the battle of the bands competition and so it was rammed with all the support for the different bands, this time it was pretty much near the same figures on the floor. We were blown away with the turn out and with the amount of torrential noise coming back at us after the songs, Morecambe were having it proper.

We've been working on some new tracks that will be recorded hopefully late March as before that we will be shooting a video for Too Much Blood on March 15. I'll not bang on about it until it is done and stuck on YouTube. I will say though that we have a script and a story line, a great director and the camera man/tech is reputed to be excellent. I can't wait for the clatter board to snap.

We've been confirmed for the Printworks Festival on May bank holiday and have added our first date in Liverpool at the student union later this month on the 25th. We return to the Stonewell on March 3 with special guests and recently re-formed Natural Thing, plus it is Turner's birthday weekend so it should be a belter!

See you soon, Blackhearts

Blackhearts, Blooz and the Boys in Blue

The last few gigs have been amazing; we can't thank everyone who has been out to see us enough. The Stonewell in Lancaster was up first on Bonfire Night (Nov 5th) and it was probably the loudest crowd per capita we've ever witnessed. The venue holds around 250 and it was rammed; but it sounded like 500 plus, maybe it was all the excitement what with all the Catherine Wheels and roman candles earlier in the evening, whatever, we came off stage 100 feet high. Thunder Jackson and the Bandits were the support and they rocked the place with their rolling 60's R&B and blues, dressed in some lovely finery too!

The next night, sleepless and seeing things, we got up for the Bobbin Beer Festival. I must admit I was dreading it but once on stage everything just fell in and musically we felt we played better than the night before, strange days indeed. The Bobbin is a great crowd, there for the music, they listen, and they are good.

Jackson’s Pit in Oldham, wicked little cellar bar, one week later and we were still waiting to get on at 2am. Mitford Rebel were the main support, also coming from Morecambe, good luck to them in the BotB for Water Aid at Lancaster University tonight. That is all I can remember, the people said they enjoyed it. Don't drink hard until 2am and then go on unless you are Keith Richards, otherwise you end up on your knees playing guitar...and the police after you. Thanks to Sly Disorder for sorting that one.

We have had some fantastic news recently but it is all on the QT until the papers are in. Stay tuned in for the next gripping instalment, probably sometime after we rip the roof off The Ram and Shackle on Monday (21.11.2011) with The Stalagmites.