Doors 7.30
SOLD OUT
TICKETS AND GUEST LIST ONLY

Doors 7.30
£8 via WeGotTickets
£10 door

Doors 7.30
£9 door

8.00 The Peryls (30)
8.45 Marching Band (40)
9.45 The Clientele (60)

The Clientele are a four piece who formed in Hampshire in 1997, with a sound combining the melody of 60s pop-psych heroes The Monkees, Love and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and the later, magical strangeness of Felt, Television and Galaxie 500. They immediately set about releasing 7-inch singles through different labels in the UK, Spain, Japan and USA, compiling these to produce the cinematic, soft-focus beauty of their debut album 'Suburban Light', released in 2000. The NME was quick to say that "those who like their art-pop espresso laced with gentle Surrealism will swoon to the sounds of the Clientele". This release saw them sign a deal with Merge Records in the USA, where they quickly gained a cult following.

The follow up, 'The Violet Hour' was released two years later to rave reviews, described by Uncut Magazine as "one of the most magical pop albums of 2003". But the latest album 'Strange Geometry' was their breakthrough in the USA and Europe, produced by Brian O'Shaughnessy (My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream), and with string arrangements by the legendary El records artiste Louis Philippe. At this point Hollywood began to take notice, and one of the loveliest songs from the record scores the opening scenes of the Keanu Reeves / Sandra Bullock weepie 'The Lake House'.

Sold out tours of the USA and Europe followed, along with UK support slots with Lambchop and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. The band have just returned from Nashville, Tennessee where they made a record with producer Mark Nevers (Candi Statton, Lambchop, Bonnie Prince Billy). They are currently previewing songs from this album, which will be entitled 'God Save the Clientele'.

Doors 7.30
SOLD OUT.
TICKETS AND GUEST LIST ONLY

8.20 Pocketbooks
9.10 Help Stamp Out Loneliness
10.00 The Ballet
11.00 Music Is My Boyfriend DJs

HDIF have been fans of NYC's The Ballet ever since they picked up their 'Mattachine!' album in 2006 so they're very very pleased to be putting on the group's debut UK show. A self-proclaimed "sissy pop band", the foursome marry the unbridled euphoria of the Hidden Cameras with the wry poeticism of Magnetic Fields to create literate, infectious pop gems. Members of the Aislers Set and Voxtrot appeared on 'Mattachine!'s stand out track, 'I Hate The War', and The Ballet have played with everyone from Casiotone For The Painfully Alone to Final Fantasy.

Time Out New York: "Recalling Holiday-era Magnetic Fields, these songs bop with heady buoyancy, yet are underpinned by complicated but universal themes: self-deception, infidelity without shame, war fatigue and finding love in a world of online hookups."

This is The Ballet's only London show.

Featuring Colm and Bentley from indie popsters Language Of Flowers, Help Stamp Out Loneliness - named after a Nancy Sinatra song, of course - are, in their own words, "a lounge-gaze-krautpop band". We hear Yo La Tengo, Stereolab, and St Etienne in their swoonsome songs.

Pocketbooks are a pop band from London, combining melodic boy/girl harmonies, spiralling guitars and delicate piano lines. Expect a sprinkling of dazzling 60s soul alongside some sparkling indiepop charm!

DJs between the bands and afterwards until 2am:

Music Is My Boyfriend
Neil (m.d.g.) & Jonny. Two music loving, beer drinking, table top dancing DJs playing electro -- dance -- indie -- old school -- trash pop -- alternative.

Doors 8.30 - 02.00
£6 advance via WeGotTickets
£6 Raison D'Etre concession list
£6 Students with card at the door
£9 others at the door

Click here for a flyer for the show.

Raison d'Etre is the definitive event to celebrate music and dance in London, and London can't get enough of this highly recommended event! These fantastic sessions promote new music yet treasure vintage music. "London's finest Arty Collective" (Metro), Raison d'Etre artist collective and event promotion has been created by Healer Selecta (Musician, DJ, Promoter) and is supported by two godfathers and one godmother: music legends Spanky Wilson, Wanda Jackson and Bo Diddley (RIP)

Healer Selecta, DJ/Guitarman who pioneered the eclectic Style of Vintage Party Music Mix, is also the official DJ for the Music Legends and the real stars such as Chuck Berry, Eartha Kitt, Bo Diddley, Ike Turner, Wanda Jackson, Dick Dale, The Trashmen, Question Mark and the Mysterians etc

It is not surprising that he is been dubbed as the DJ who has made London swing again. On the other hand, Healer Selecta created the Raison D'Etre Collective who help young musicians get signed and gain wide exposure. He is the one who discovered Portico Quartet, Size 9, Natty, Charlie Winston, Noisettes, Miranda Barber, Jamie Woon and you can understand now why all these muscians and music lovers come to him.

"Hero with a record box" (Time Out)

"Elusive, poetic imagery. Bleak, but utterly compulsive." (Q)

'The Ax and The Oak' is "Ben Weaver's 6th album at the ripe old age of 29; it is by far his most adventurous to date. Produced by Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine), the album juxtaposes electronic musical sounds with warm acoustic instruments with textural results that defy the usual expectations of the singer/songwriter genre. It's hard to argue with the results - evocative, hushed songs that illuminate Ben's affinity for the natural world of birds, phone booths, empty parking lots, strangers in the checkout line, plastic bags stuck in trees and whatever else typically goes unnoticed in the sidewalk cracks.

"Country-rooted Americana full of weary determination and aphoristic clarity, somewhere between the Band and Tom Waits." (New York Times)

"Weaver's voice - which makes Lee Marvin sound like Aled Jones - lends biblical portent to the most mundane detail. A one-man Brothers Grimm with no happy endings. Enjoy." (Uncut, ****)

A former Casket Company warehouse is Weaver's current world headquarters. Multitudinous organs, synthesizers, guitars, a sampler, a piano, a dog, Polaroid cameras, sketch books, New Yorker back issues, boxes of CDs and a PowerBook mark the territory. There is an air of controlled chaos and the musty smell of old tube amps. Weaver writes continuously, a process perhaps more akin to breathing than composing, "I have always identified with those people who make art because they have to, that sense of necessity and urgency. That is why I make art, to fulfill that need within myself and to connect with the people of the world who also cannot live without it." "Musical postcards that recall a rural Tom Waits, or Greg Brown in his dark, bluesy moments. He's like that spooky old guy who lives in a trailer but tells amazing stories." (Utne Reader)

"Ben Weaver is the most exciting young songwriter I've come across, an American original whose voice and guitar are matched only by the power of his words. His songs are an incredible, haunting gift of music." Author Larry Brown (1951-2004)

"...strange, skin-prickling tales picked up from the Moebius strip of a lost highway he's been compelled to travel on.... like a hillbilly Leonard Cohen." (Mojo)

"Weaver remains a riveting lyricist and A-level student of the Tom Waits School of Gutter Bum Poetry." (Twin Cities Metromix)

Doors 7.30 
£9 cash door

8.00 Birdengine (30)
8.45 The Left Outsides (40)
9.45 Damon & Naomi (60) 

Galaxie 500's  Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang with a rare London show.

"Like real water in a world of soda pop." -- Robert Wyatt

"One of the Twenty Most Overlooked Psychedelic Albums" -- Harp

"An album of stark, frail beauty." -- Q

"A tour de force of lush romanticism... deliciously melancholic." -- SF Bay Guardian

Doors 7.45
£5 concessions
£6 via WeGotTickets and TicketWeb
£7 door

Hailing from Portsmouth in Hampshire, The Visitors are a 5-piece Acoustic/Americana band.

Their music consists of rich melodies and strong hooks and has been compared to Counting Crows, Whiskeytown and Wilco. In supporting acts such as Nizlopi, Ocean Colour Scene, Ed Harcourt, Phil Campbell, Frank Turner & The Bees they have established a large and loyal fan-base which continues to grow.

Just last year the band saw success having their music used by Sony Computer Entertainment for the launch of the PS3, with their latest recordings added to PS3 demo units and distributed worldwide.

With their highly anticipated new full-length album 'Travelling' released in November 2008, The Visitors are definitely a breakthrough act to look out for in 2009.

Peter Conway supports.

Doors 7.30
£8 door

Consisting of three brothers and two drifters, Rogues combine new wave atmospherics with upbeat dance grooves to create original, ethereal pop music. Formed in the summer of '08, Rogues' pivotal debut shows have generated a storm of interest and established an ever growing legion of followers.

The band have already been played on radio by Zane Lowe, Steve Lamacq (whom they recently did a live Radio 1 session for ), John Kennedy and Huw Stephens.

Rogues' first release is 'Not So Pretty' a limited 300 copies release on 50 Bones (Little Boots, We Have Band, The Virgins etc) in early March 2009.

"Strutting on to the live scene with undeniable flair, there's something alluring, seductive, enthralling and self assured about this band and The Fly will most definitely be coming back for second helpings." (The Fly)

"Like Foals but with more hooks, A&R interest continues to heat up for these Harrow locals whose live show is getting better everytime." (Music Week)

"In these times of don't-give-a-toss ignorance, Rogues, like fellow youth rockers Caimbo, show a daring level of musicianship that belies their years." (London Tour Dates)

"A real mastery of '80s influences and a real vision of doing something very accessible but still very exciting in the guitar pop genre." (Steve Lamacq)

"Tipped for big things from the people in the know…the band name that you need to remember is Rogues." (Huw Stephens)

Duologue and Momeraths support.

Whilst 2008 has seen East Coast bands plundering the sounds of Graceland appropriated afrobeat, Still Flyin's sound comes from somewhere entirely different. Theirs is a sound that mixes the melodies and DIY aesthetic of West Coast indie-pop with the loose grooves of 1960s rocksteady and has converted even the most cynical of hipsters. Released on Moshi Moshi, debut single Good Thing It's a Ghost Town Around Here is like Quincy Jones producing The Lovin' Spoonful. A much needed shot in the arm of unabashed West Coast sunshine and joy. 
The flip-side Rope Burn is no less life affirming: the band's hybrid of rocksteady and indie comes together to create something new, like a Lee Perry inspired Flaming Lips. 

What might have begun as a lighthearted nod to good times soon became a juggernaut that no one in the band expected, and before long the group had become a San Francisco phenomenon. The band's joyfully chaotic and infectious live shows have been more like huge parties than traditional gigs as their own numbers have swelled and they've been joined on stage by the likes of Jens Lekman and various members of Architecture In Helsinki. The band's debut record, Never Gonna Touch The Ground, is due to be released early 2009. 

"Chaotically, inspiringly brilliant… like a particularly frantic Black Kids, full of choppy, funky guitar riffs, massed group vocals and joyous, singalong choruses… so danceable that you'll be hard-pressed to stay still just listening to them." (MusicOMH) 

Born with a broken heart The Grave Architects have picked themselves up, dusted themselves down and written their way to the top, garnering praise from the NME, plays on BBC Radio Nottingham and a mention on the local council website along the way. Since forming in 2005 The Grave Architects are now seasoned hands at the pulling heart strings out, stretching them once around the funny bone and plucking them to the wet crash of tiny tears. Think a hopped-up Jonathan Richman, or maybe the kookier elements of Pavement or Pulp with a dash of Ween and The Moldy Peaches. A bit folk, a bit country, a bit indiepop, the Grave Architects make fun pop. A double A-sided single featuring Highway be True and Love TBC is due out on 7" single on Fortuna POP! in the new year, with an album to follow. 

"Meet the Coen Brothers of rock – off the wall, touching and very, very funny… From Johnny Cash-esque country jangles to strangely credible old-school raps, whatever genre the Architects dabble in, entertainment remains the blueprint." (New Noise) 

How can you not adore a group called Brontosaurus Chorus? Featuring Pop-Art mastermind Scooby Dom, t'Chorus have a host of instantly lovable songs - traces of B&S, Hidden Cameras, the runaway day-glo pop of Tullycraft, and the sense that here's a band that knows how to leave you smiling. Appearances at Ireland's Electric Picnic festival and a trip to Berlin were followed by a debut single, and they're hard at work on an album for release in March.

"London's Brontosaurus Chorus are purveyors of Technicolor dream pop. They come off not unlike a less mental Los Campesinos jumping around with Arcade Fire's bubblegum pop playing cousins in a parallel universe..." God Is In The TV Zine

7.30 doors
8.15 The Bowmans (40)
9.15 Anais Mitchell (90)

We're very, very pleased to welcome Anais Mitchell to The Luminiare, one of our favourite acts of 2008, and no doubt 2009. At the time of writing she's touring Europe as support to Bon Iver and moving straight on to supporting her label boss, Ani DiFranco

Watch Anais, recorded live in Amsterdam, here.

"Fearlessly emotive, a songwriter of startling clarity and depth. Like Dylan, Cohen, and Welch, Mitchell weaves her stories into an effortlessly beautiful and cohesive tapestry with the skill of an artisan's carpenter, showing no seams." (Acoustic Guitar)

At a time when the music industry is playing the role of the slickest of defense attorneys, using flash and dazzle campaigns to distract us from the fact that their clients are terrible, Mitchell is an artist who grew up on a sheep farm. She makes small-sounding, big-thinking folk albums that play like a front-porch serenade. If she feels in a bit of a time warp, you can't blame her.

"The earthiness of Shawn Colvin, the child-like bite of Joanna Newsom, and the urban jumpiness of Ani DiFranco..." (All Music Guide)

Listening to this 25-year-old singer/songwriter perform her meticulously written songs, fervently singing them in a distinctive, almost childlike voice, you'd think it was her life mission to rouse the hearts and minds of her listeners with an acoustic guitar. But Mitchell wasn't always committed to the idea - "I used to tell people I wanted to be a journalist. There is a lonely egotism and self-composure to journalists. Not unlike artists, they're always traveling, always writing, loving their loneliness, feeling somehow that they have their finger on the pulse – worshiping the truth and trying to render it legible."

"In Mitchell's universe, there is no light between the personal and the political, the venerable and the radical... her canary soprano and puckish melodies can obscure the bravery of her vision. (Boston Globe)

Despite her journalistic leanings, Mitchell started writing songs at age 17 and eventually started performing them live during her school days, which were punctuated by a remarkable amount of traveling. In a short period of time, Anaïs made several trips to the Middle East, and also spent time in Europe and Latin America, studying languages and world politics. This stunning, troubadour-like experience seeped into her music, and she became adept at fusing her passion for literature and journalism in her lyrics.

"Her lyrics are sprinkled with rosy similes while they simultaneously touch on everything from politics to literature to mythology. These elements, as disparate as they might seem, come together as nicely as cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg." (All Music Guide)

With a clutch of quiet, ambitious songs in her arsenal, Mitchell recorded her now out-of-print debut, The Song They Sang When Rome Fell (2002), in a single afternoon in Austin. It was also in Texas where Anaïs discovered the Kerrville Folk Festival, which honored her with the prestigious New Folk Award in 2003. Soon thereafter, with the help of Michael Chorney and Chicago-based Waterbug Records, Anaïs released her second album, Hymns For The Exiled, in 2004. The stirring collection of guitar and voice cemented Mitchell's status as a folksinger to watch, and the record eventually reached the ears of Ani DiFranco, a songwriter whose fusion of personal and political themes was a formative influence on a teenaged Mitchell. After seeing a few of Anaïs' captivating concerts, DiFranco signed the artist to her label, Righteous Babe Records.

Spilling over with worldly metaphors, intense emotions and unshakable reverence to the art of song, Mitchell's new album, 'The Brightness', shimmers with creative spark.

Between shows she is currently working on plans to stage her original folk-opera, Hadestown, based on the myth of Hades and Eurydice, as she continues to tour and do what she does best: pluck heartstrings and sing.

She brilliantly intertwines the mundane and the profound, singing with the same intimacy about a carefree night on the town and wandering the warring towns of Israel. Her vivid snapshots of sweetly ordinary moments spin suddenly outward to bemoan the eternal woes of poverty and militarism. Evoking weary hobos, wayward trains, and the mythic power of ancient folk songs, she views the past with wistful longing." (Boston Globe)

£10 via WeGotTickets

Doors 7.45
Arch M  8.40
Serafina Steer  9. 20
David Grubbs  10.10

In David Grubbs's own words:

"I've been making records since 1982, when I was a freshman in high school in Louisville, Kentucky. I've made ten solo records, played in a number of groups (Squirrel Bait, Bastro, Gastr del Sol, Red Krayola, Wingdale Community Singers), and get a kick out of working with folks from far-flung fields: Stephen Prina, Cosima von Bonin, Angela Bulloch, Anthony McCall, Susan Howe, Kenneth Goldsmith, and many others. Libération once called me "le plus Français des Américains."

I'm an assistant professor of Radio and Sound Art at Brooklyn College, CUNY, and director of Brooklyn College's graduate programs in Performance and Interactive Media Arts (www.interactivearts.org)."

+

£5 concessions
£6 advance, via WeGotTickets and Ticketweb
at ICMP reception at 1a Dyne Road, London NW6 7XG
£7 door

7.45 doors
8.25 Kat and The Half Step Uncles (25)
9.05 The Ark People (30)
9.50 City Reverb (30)
10.35 Hjaltalín (45)

Hjaltalín are Iceland's newest export. Having been nominated for five of 2008's Icelandic Music Awards they went on to win Best Songwriter - Högni Egilsson - and The Brightest Hope.

Hjaltalín are from Reykjavik, a band as promising as any of the other beautiful and eclectic artists the country has thrown up. With eight members, it's difficult to know whether to call them a small orchestra, a mutated and overgrown rock band or something else entirely. Besides the regular guitar, bass and drums, the band also comprises piano, accordion, bassoon, clarinet, cello and a violin, complementing the exquisite lilt of Högni and Sigga's vocals.

The band are currently topping the charts in Iceland with 'Thu komst vid hjartad í mér', and their debut album 'Sleepdrunk Seasons', released to great acclaim in Iceland last December, was produced by Benni Hemm Hemm and Gunni Tynes of múm. In Iceland Hjaltalín have played with artist such Jens Lekman, Akron/Family, Danielson, Annuals and Bloc Party.

This unique group of instrumentalists form an allegiance which already has a very solid fan base amongst both critics and the public on home ground. The rest of the world lies in wait and will surely be theirs in due course...

"Euphoric chamber pop" – NME

"Hjaltalín purvey melodic indie rock with a conspicuous bassoon, cello, three part brass section and usual rhythm section allowing them to alternate between full bloodied rock basslines and the soaring appeal of Sufjan Steven's heraldic approach. Epic promise." - Clash Magazine On 'Sleepdrunk Seasons'

"What makes Hjaltalin ooze with potential, and more importantly, sound nothing like any of their revered countrymen at all is their unflinching knack at being able to craft both winsome pop tunes alongside audaciously experimental arrangements with seemingly effortless ease." – Drowned in Sound.

"This is pure pop brilliance." – New-Noise.net

"The Icelandic collective's UK debut is cheeky and breezy - like fresh air in London, like the sound of the morning thaw" – Plan B

8.00 Doors
8.30 Birds of Delay (45)
9.30 Pain Jerk (30)
10.15 Emaralds (45)

Emeralds is Mark McGuire, John Elliott & Steve Hauschildt. They are currently based in and around Cleveland, Ohio. Direct descendants of the history of adventurous punk, post-punk, whatever music spilling out of Ohio the last 35 years or so from Pere Ubu, Devo, Rocket From The Tombs, The Raspberries, The Cramps, Dead Boys, Great Plains, Fuzzhead, et al.

Emeralds is the sound of exploration of space/time conundrums utilizing vintage synthesizer beauty and guitar experimentation. Unfolding sweet-leaf shifts and gorgeous curves of kosmiche abandon are played with devotion and desire. With a palpitating discography of cassettes, cdrs etc both self-released and on righteous labels (Hanson, Gods Of Tundra, American Tapes, Chondritic Sound) Emeralds have already distinguished themselves as new yet timeless, young yet ageless.

Pain Jerk, a one-man sound project founded by the Tokyo-based Kohei Gomi (1963-) at the beginning of the 1990s, is one of the most esteemed names of the ultra-energetic second/third wave Japanese noise music that was highly prominent in the 1990s. His music is a skilfully crafted, ecstatically mechanistic electronic storm that irresistibly pulls the listener into its colour-saturated flow. Over the years, Pain Jerk has released dozens of tapes (mostly on his own label AMP) and a sprinkling of more official releases on vinyl and CD.

One of them, his 1997 'Gallon Gravy CD' (Creativeman Disc) is one of the milestones of the genre. During recent years, Pain Jerk has released new music at rather long intervals, but has meanwhile kept performing in his home country on a regular basis. Pain Jerk gave his first performance outside Japan in May 2007 at the No Fun Fest in New York. He is now also becoming more active on the recording front: a number of new releases are expected shortly, and enthusiasts of the genre are eagerly awaiting the retrospective CD-box compiled from his vast and increasingly rare tape releases. Like no other music in this planet.

Opening up are Birds of Delay, the London/Berlin-based noise duo.

Doors 7.30
£10 cash on the door

8.00 The Hot Seats (40)
8.50 Piney (15)
9.20 The Wilders (80)

"They play their wooden instruments like they're trying to set 'em on fire. They've always emphasized rampaging rhythms and a hellbent attitude, but on their upcoming album 'Throw Down' they mature into a can't-be-denied group that relies on virtuosity and tight ferocity more than on novelty." [Nashville Scene]

The Wilders, from Kansas City, Missouri, renowned as the "hillbilly hurricane", in full, unstoppable flight blow everyone away. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe favourites are back to thrill crowds again following sell-out shows both here and in the UK. Since this white-hot band first tore Doc Watson's MerleFest apart in North Carolina in 2004, they have been invited back each year to build on their reputation there as event show-stealers.

Returning to the UK for a big main stage appearance at Glasgow's Celtic Connections in mid January, this will be the band's first ever appearance in London. Reviews are every bit as whiz-bang as the band themselves.

'They generate the kind of tunes that should by rights leave vapour trails,' said one enthusiastic writer.

'If this were old Salem, they'd be burned at the stake,' said another – 'They play like they're possessed.'

"Hard-rocking bluegrass that'll have you stumbling home by the time they're through with you. The Wilders live up to their name with some serious fiddle tunes." (About.com)

Don't be surprised if tickets for this one end up changing hands for silly money on eBay!

Supporting this evening are The Hot Seats.

When you hurtle down the musical helter skelter as these guys do, friction burns become a hazard of the job. It is fitting, then, that performances have frequently been described as "white hot".

In the summer of 2008, when formerly known as Special Ed & The Shortbus, they tore the biggest festival in the world - Edinburgh Fringe - apart, and won a coveted Herald Angel, the Festival's equivalent of an Oscar, for their outstanding contribution to the event. The Herald, Scotland's best-read broadsheet, described them as "sensational". The hot seats that time around were in the front row for each of the nightly shows at the prestigious Famous Spiegeltent.

So, the name may have changed but the content remains just as potent and entertaining as ever. Stablemates The Wilders, call them "crazy bluegrass scientists." Others have attempted to pin them down as a "bubbling fountain of virtuosic insanity" and "bonkers but brilliant." Maverick magazine said: "Great musicianship aside, it's near impossible to explain what makes them so fantabulous as the show is so stuffed full of multi-faceted delicacies."

The band has been together for seven years, fine-tuning their skills on the redneck bar and college club circuit where they experimented with a suitcase-full of assorted toys to supplement the guitar/mandolin/banjo/fiddle/bass line-up, employing everything from kazoo and jawharp to washboard, tin can percussion and Chinese blocks. It's an irresistible combination with elements of jug band, Vaudeville, country blues, old-time - and even Zappa - all brought to sizzling point by five very fine musicians.

They were the "fave rave" act at Leicester's Summer Sundae Festival and stand-out crowd pleasers at Maverick magazine's first big summer bash in Suffolk.

 £7 via WeGotTickets

8.00 Doors
8.40 A Grave With No Name 
9.20 Crystal Antlers 
10.20 Lucky Dragons 

£7 via WeGotTickets

Gregor Samsa started as a project eight years ago by Champ and Nikki. A year or so later they grew into a proper band - the first of many transformations (little did they know their namesake would take on such a literal meaning). In their infancy they took on many shapes and sizes, most of which were utterly awkward and embarrassing, yet one could say they were still admirable in some way.

Over the years, more than thirty people have come and gone from the line-up, including, but not limited to, members of Spokane, Labradford, Kayo Dot, Ghastly City Sleep and Engine Down. Today, Champ and Nikki remain the only original members.

Imagine an incredibly beautiful cross between Low and Hammock, and that would go somewhere to describing Gregor Samsa's sound.

The Sleeping Years is the new project from Dale Grundle, formerly of the Catchers.  Now signed to French label Talitres Records (Walkmen, Swell, etc) and UK label Rocketgirl (A place to bury strangers, Robin Guthrie, etc), the debut album "We're becoming Islands One by One", is a gorgeous exploration of melody and melancholy.  A gifted lyricist, Dale's exquisitely crafted songs tell of people trying to stay connected in a world seemingly designed to keep them apart.  He is heavily influenced by the language and culture of his home in Ireland, providing a distinct character to this highly personal collection of songs.

Evi Vine is a singer/songwriter emerging from the UK's underground music scene. Inspired by such diverse artists as Leonard Cohen, the Cocteau Twins, Arvo Part and Nine Inch Nails, Raw and emotive, EVI's powerful, but minimalist narrative style is very much her own. Her voice is variously described as haunting and other-worldly; her lyrics tell of isolation, sex, death and alienation, but it is her potent and mesmerising performances that really draw you in. Few performers can consistently deliver such an impassioned, emotional and hypnotic show as Evi Vine.

£7 via WeGotTickets
£8 door

Doors 8.00
10.00 Talc (75)
11.15 DJs until close

Talc - the band described by Bill Brewster as "the bastard offspring of the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band and Steely Dan caught in a love clinch at the Oasis Swimming Baths with Joan Collins circa 1975" - play their debut gig at The Luminaire on the back of the release of their second, critically acclaimed concept album 'Licensed Premises Lifestyle' (Wah Wah 45s) which was featured in The Guardian's 'Top Albums of the Year by Hot Artists' this month.

Doors 7.30
£7 door

"If Arcade Fire wrote tracks for Snow Patrol the results would be something like this. At once romantic, mournful, grandiose and imaginative. Could it be we've found the antidote to Keane?" (Rock Sound)

New Adventures return to their spiritual home for a new year party, hot off the back of their first EP release 'Accidents'.

With support from Draygo's Guilt and Foreign Slippers.