Festival performances, relentless radio play, a sweaty coach trip to Margate… this summer at Nice Swan has been a beauty. We take a retrospective and slightly smug look back on all that our bands have achieved these past few months.
Pip Blom
Pip sharpened her claws in May when she released the formidable Pussycat and not much has bypassed her since; the single became a firm favourite of Steve Lamacq, scaling the heady heights of 6 Music’s playlist’s, eventually slotting neatly in to the A-List, where she was kept company by Nine Inch Nails and Gorillaz. Bolstered by a lucrative support slot with The Breeders on their European tour over the summer, Pip has been readying herself for a busy winter; her EP, Paycheck (pre-order link here), will be released October 5th just before she embarks on a full-scale UK tour in November. You can catch her on the following dates:
14th – Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds
15th – Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh
16th – Think Tank? Underground, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
17th – Night & Day Cafe, Manchester
19th – The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham
20th – Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
21st – The Prince Albert, Brighton
22nd – The Lexington, London
24th – The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool
25th – Whelan’s, Dublin
26th – The Cookie, Leicester
27th – The Boileroom, Guildford
Tickets available here.
Sports Team
As their impending headline show at Scala approaches (tickets available here), Sports Team have been working zealously to make sure they don’t slip from anyone’s minds anytime soon. A stream of killer singles and music videos have been gathering pace since the release of their Winter Nets EP at the very start of the year with Kutcher, their homage to the Punk’d teen dream, achieving Annie Mac’s ‘Hottest Record In The World’ alongside being Radio 1’s Track of the Week (pre-order the 7″ inch here). Not to be outdone by radio play, the band took a coachful of sweaty fans and friends to Margate to celebrate the release of their following single, called, you guessed it, Margate. And if you thought all that was moderately impressive, check out their headline performance on Reading & Leeds’ BBC Introducing Stage, where Alex Rice’s crowd control is starting to reach masterful levels.
Sweaty Palms
Sweaty Palms’ debut album, Quit Now, was released in June and drew acclaim for its astute look at the mires of our society whilst providing a platter of snarling, discordant ditties that sits, legs splayed, amongst the more placid versions of guitar music that circulate. After working closely with Scotland’s prodigal son, Dale Barclay*, they caught the ears of BBC Radio Scotland’s Vic Galloway who brought them in for a session on his show before playing to a heaving Rough Trade East not long after. Standout track, The Illusionist, has just been added to Spotify’s ‘Punked‘ playlist to whet anyone’s appetite for controlled chaos.
So all in all, not a bad summer, aye? Well, there’s plenty more where that came from. Keep an eye out for some exciting new signings in the next couple of weeks and some further announcements to litter the musical stratosphere… it’s all happening, folks.
*You can donate to Dale Barclay’s brain cancer treatment here.