Independent Venue Week
We’re overjoyed to be welcoming a host of brilliant artists to our stage for Independent Venue Week this year. After our Covid-disrupted plans in 2021, we’re finally getting to welcome you inside to celebrate the annual IVW showcase with us.
And we’re doing it in style this time round, with the mighty Melt Yourself Down joining us for a huge show which sees BBC Radio 6 Music visit for a live broadcast on Steve Lamacq’s show (2nd February). The Independent Venue Week Closing Party brings a clutch of great artists to our stage on Saturday 5th February, with audiobooks heading the bill. All We Are return to Future Yard as part of the show along with Bleach Lab, Yammerer and more. Opus Kink are a band on the rise, and they’ll be proving why you’ll be talking about them for years when they play here on 6th February. In between all that we’ve got two great showcases of Merseyside talent: Monks’ Head-Kick Records bring a quartet of new noiskeniks who will soundtrack their upcoming releases (4th February); and we pitch two great collectives together on 3rd February as experimentalists from SPINE and Emotion Wave go head to head.
Tickets for all shows are on sale now. Come down and share the experience with us – because you never know when you might have the joy of live music taken away from you again.
Melt Yourself Down
+ MC Nelson
Steve Lamacq’s IVW Tour | 02.02.2022
We’re over the moon to be welcoming high-energy jazz-punk alchemists Melt Yourself Down to Future Yard as part of Steve Lamacq’s IVW Tour 2022, where the DJ’s show will focus on Future Yard prior to broadcasting MYD’s set live on BBC 6 Music on the night. The innovative collective, founded by sax innovator Pete Wareham and fronted by lead vocalist Kush Gaya, are working up to the release of their fourth studio album, from which they have just released the lead single Pray For Me I Don’t Fit In. It exhibits MYD’s customary pounding Nubian rhythms and a warped jazz fire. We couldn’t be happier about welcoming Melt Yourself Down to our stage after originally planning to host them for our Future Now festival in August 2021. Support on the night comes from Scouse rapper MC Nelson, who has already wowed the crowds here at Future Yard.
IVW Closing Party
audiobooks + All We Are + Bleach Lab + Yammerer + iamkyami + Remée | 05.02.2022
We’re throwing a party to round off our busy programme for Independent Venue Week 2022, and we’re stoked to be joined by some incredible artists for it. audiobooks concocted some of the most hypnotising sounds of 2021 on their album Astro Tough, and they headline this buzzing party. Slinky trio All We Are return to our stage after their delicious grooves appeared on one of our live streamed shows in 2021; and dreamy quartet Bleach Lab make their long-awaited Future Yard debut, bringing their shimmering, Mazzy Star-indebted glow.
Yammerer bring a vein-popping intensity to their performances, something that is only matched by the juddering stomp of their grot-punk sound. iamkyami only deals in positive vibes, their glitch pop positively dripping with punk attitude. And Remée‘s futuristic RnB is the sound of an artist growing into her considerable talent with extreme style.
SPINE x Emotion Wave
Lo Five + Prison Behaviour + W.H.X.R.S. + wywh | 03.02.2022
We’re hyped to be bringing some of Merseyside’s finest underground noise practitioners to our stage. This show is a collaboration between events collectives SPINE and Emotion Wave, specialists in all things ambient, industrial, experimental and electronic. For this show, both collectives are bringing some artists with them for a collaborative event, which will also see DJs from both groups share the decks alongside each other. Live performances on the night come from Lo Five, Prison Behaviour, W.H.X.R.S. and WYWH, comprising ambient electronica, industrial rock, harsh noise and downbeat techno.
Head-Kick Records Showcase
Ask Elliot + Avalyn + Kjaerra + Monks DJs | 04.02.2022
Electro-pop Scouse starlets Monks take over the building on 4th February to showcase the best that their new label Head-Kick Records has to offer. Making up the bill are your friendly neighbourhood indie band Ask Elliot, Norwegian/Liverpudlian dream pop duo Kjaerra, and Avalyn, a quartet that mixes ethereal 90s shoegazing textures with elements of 80s post-punk. Hosts and label leaders Monks will also be on hand as DJs throughout the night as we go on a journey with the current wave of Merseyside’s dreamy noisemakers.
Opus Kink
Plus J. Madden + The Mossley Hillbillies | 06.02.2022
We’re delighted to have raucous Brighton-based sextet Opus Kink rounding off our IVW activity for this year. One of the brightest prospects around in British music at the moment, Opus Kink have already won admirers from across the spectrum for their infectious, horn-driven music which fizzes at the intersection of psych and soul.
Celebrating the spirit of independence + the culture of live music
Independent Venue Week is a seven-day celebration of music venues around the country and a nod to the people that own, run and work in them, week in, week out.
These venues give artists their first experience of playing live in front of an audience. They give fans somewhere to get up close to artists that one day, may well be playing stadiums and festival main stages. They also provide those wanting a career in music, off the stage, the chance to learn their craft up close in a small venue.
Independent Venue Week is unique in that it is a nationwide initiative with a completely local feel.
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