The Cluny Tenth Anniversary Weekender: Minotaurs / The Lake Poets

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Biography

This event is free entry and there are no tickets available in advance. Doors open at 8pm and entry will be on a first come, first served basis. We expect demand to be high so we advise getting down for doors opening to guarantee entry.

The Cluny's four-day Tenth Anniversary celebration starts with a free, co-headline gig featuring Minotaurs and The Lake Poets.
South Shields’ Minotaurs released their critically acclaimed debut album Eat Yr Hate in September 2011, but have been on extended hiatus recently as members concentrate on other projects. This will be their first full gig anywhere in over a year.
Sunderland’s The Lake Poets, led by Martin Longstaff, won The Head Of Steam Limited’s battle of the bands competition North East Unsigned in March 2011 at The Cluny, and have since gone from strength to strength, most recently selling out The Sage Gateshead’s Hall 2.

Minotaurs
Originally birthing in 2006, South Shields sextet Minotaurs have been all too quiet for the past year or so. Luckily the bulk of that time has been spent writing, honing and recording their long-awaited debut album 'Eat yr Hate' in deepest Northumberland with Woodpigeon producer, Arran Fisher. Giving weight to their choice of name, as performances by the band became less frequent their mythology s
eemed to grow. A live performance being treat with a similar reverence as the sniffing out of a truffle. In 2007 The Guardian writer, Laura Barton, dedicated an entire column to the band after stumbling upon them on a whim and its only recently they've thankfully started gigging again, supporting Twilight Sad in October last year.

Despite being preoccupied by the darker side of human nature, Minotaurs are far from cynical gloom peddlers. Their music is loaded with two things rare in contemporary British guitar music; sincerity and substance. They find the lust behind sentiment, the worm in the apple, shards of glass in the glitter and make lifes ugly truths both beautiful and haunting. Old Hollywood images of red-dress clad women being carried into the sun are contrasted with the uncomfortable reality of relationships red in tooth and claw. Intricate arrangements and striking melodies take the edge away from lyrics dealing with loss, co-dependence, the stifling and occasionally recuperative nature of home.

Each song on 'Eat Yr Hate' is like a contemporary ghost story loaded with snapshots of regret, stagnation and missed opportunity but amongst there lies one important quality, hope. That hope is achieved through escapism and tenderness. While Sarah's pitch-perfect vocals soar, Andrew's crack and falter striking a heartbreaking dichotomy. While Belle and Sebastian, Fairport Convention and even Prefrab Sprout have been used as reference points Minotaurs are that rare thing; a band that sound more like themselves than anyone else. In an age dominated by cynicism, careerism, imitation and artifice they're something to cling to.'
Andrew Richardson, January 2010

http://minotaurs.bandcamp.com/

The Lake Poets
The Lake Poets is the music of one man from Sunderland called Martin Longstaff, whose honest and hauntingly emotive blend of acoustic indie and folk has been stunning audiences across the country since April 2010.

Martin quickly established himself as one of the region’s brightest young songwriters and has already shared stages with some of the most revered names in alternative folk and indie mu
sic including Willy Mason, Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly, Ben Howard, Withered Hand, Hyde & Beast, Cattle & Cane and The Futureheads. His live shows are truly special events, often accompanied by only a delicately finger-picked guitar and his other-worldly vocal, The Lake Poets could melt even the iciest of hearts with his poignant odes including ‘Windowsill’ and ‘Bluebell’.

In 2011, Martin embarked on a UK wide tour which stopped off in London, Liverpool and Glasgow, often recruiting his friends and fellow musicians to help him out along the way. The summer saw him perform at a string of UK festivals including Kendal Calling, Evolution and Glastonbury before returning to his native Sunderland to find a packed out tent full of Lake Poets fans at Split Festival. The rapturous applause from a legion of fans, new and old, cemented Martin’s position as a genuine star in the making.

Martin has a unique knack for crafting subtle, beautiful melodies, deeply ingrained with vibrant imagery, tales of storm weathered coastal cities and soulful Northern grit. His music has the rare quality of being able to evoke feelings of euphoria and melancholy all at once.

Having recently signed a single deal with Tiny Lights Records, the launch show for Martin’s debut single, ‘City By The Sea’, at The Sage Gateshead sold out an amazing three months in advance. That coupled with confirmed slots at the Willowman summer solstice festival alongside Hyde & Beast, Stockton Calling and opening the Main Stage at the Evolution Festival in Newcastle means 2012 is already blossoming into another exciting year for The Lake Poets.

http://www.thelakepoets.com/