When: 7.30pm on Thursday 31 January 2013
Where: The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

We’re excited to be working with Matthew Whitaker, the former frontman of Whiskycats.

Originally trained as a classical guitarist, Matthew Whitaker‘s lasting love affair with song writing lead him to spend six years as singer/guitarist/songwriter with cult Manchester party band Whiskycats. After the group disbanded in early 2010, he started work on a new solo project. Returning to his classical guitar roots while taking influences from early 1970s British folk and the quiet vocal style of singers like Chet Baker, he developed a crop of new songs that reflected the inevitable comedown from the riotous Whiskycats era with a new, more serious musical direction.

In late 2010 Matthew recorded a limited edition acoustic album of these songs called The Man With the Anvil Hat, which was regarded by the Manchester Evening News as ‘standout Manchester music debut of 2010‘.

In 2011 he added a full band to his set-up that included ex-Whiskycats drummer Sam Draper; long-time collaborator and guitar virtuoso Jim Wallace; and double bass mystic Grant Russell (Go Go Penguin). Armed with these new arrangements and under the expert guidance of producer Jim Spencer (Charlatans, New Order, Whiskycats), Matthew and his band have been working on their first full studio album together to be released in 2013.

Main support comes from WALK. Now Then said of them: ‘Rik Warren’s display of electric blues minimalism, manufacturing crunching grooves with the fewest of notes and giving repetition a good name. His new project with David Schlechtriemen (aka The Pickpocket Network and also of Driver drive faster and Honeyfeet) is named WALK but Stomp might be more apt given the similarity to Junior Kimbrough’s persistent riffs. The kick with WALK is the evolution to sequencer blues; leaving electric blues in the past by warping their sonic creations with 21st Century electronic gadgetry.’ Here’s their video for Please Don’t.

Opening the show will be John Ainsworth, a singer-songwriter from Manchester with a unique style ranging from heavy acoustic 12-string blues guitar to soft folky classical guitar-playing.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are also available from the bar, Common (both no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook | Last.fm