When: 7pm on Saturday 12 February 2022
Where: The Deaf Institute, 135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester M1 7HE

PLEASE NOTE: This show has been postponed until February 2022. All other details are the same, and original tickets remain valid. Here’s a message from the band:

‘Disappointingly, we must announce that our upcoming UK tour has once again been postponed. We had pinned our hopes on everything improving by April but as it doesn’t seem likely that gigs will be able to return to full capacity by then we have pushed our tour plans back to 2022. As a band of our size, playing in independent venues, we rely on sold out shows to make touring viable. So, here’s to 2022 when our dreams of all cramming into a sweaty, loud, sold out, local venue can be lived’

We’re delighted to be welcoming Smoke Fairies back to the Deaf Institute!

Darkness Brings the Wonders Home, Smoke Fairies’ widely acclaimed first album in four years and the first to come out on the band’s own label, Year Seven Records, was released at the start of this year and has seen some remarkable chart positions – especially for a band operating entirely under their own steam (#1 UK album in Rock and a #6 in the Independent Album Charts).

Following on from this success, a limited-edition 7” picture disc of latest single from the album, Elevator, will be released Friday 3 April. This release will sit alongside its sold-out sister single Out Of The Woods/Disconnect, which came out at the end of last year in conjunction with Rough Trade shops. Again, the picture disc has been beautifully hand drawn and designed by Manchester-based illustrator Daren Newman.

Elevator, taken from Darkness Brings the Wonders Home, was recorded with producer Phil Ek (The Black Angels, Fleet Foxes, The Shins) over the course of a rigorous month-long session in Seattle. Smoke Fairies (aka Jessica Davies and Katherine Blamire) drew their inspiration for the album from mysteries both real and imagined: sea monsters, flocks of crows taking flight in extravagant formation, and strange creatures dwelling in the mud near their new South London abode. ‘Times of darkness are when people are often the most imaginative,’ says Jessica in reflecting on the album’s title. ‘It helps you to see all the wonders of the world you hadn’t noticed before – the things you’ve been blind to because you’ve been on autopilot for so long.’

And following on from their sold-out UK shows in February, Smoke Fairies have announced further UK tour dates for later in the year – including at Manchester’s Deaf Institute.

Tour support comes from Samana. Having spent two years rebuilding a Georgian farmhouse in the wild Welsh countryside, Samana  – aka Rebecca Rose Harris and Franklin Mockett – filled their car with a refined selection of instruments and a tape machine and headed to France for a three-week residency in early 2020. However, the world had different ideas and before the end of the first week they were given a simple choice: head home immediately or stay and ride out the incoming lockdown which would force the closure of all borders indefinitely.

They decided to stay and keep working, a decision which would lead to a new record – the duo’s second full-length album following 2019’s Ascension LP, which was richly championed by Elbow’s Guy Garvey. All One Breath continues Samana’s enthralling musical journey, weaving between various musical styles and influences, from progressive folk to an experimental, transcendental take on soul, blues, and rock.

This is a 14+ show. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are available from Vinyl Exchange,  WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

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