When: 7.30pm on Thursday 7 November 2013
Where: Night & Day Cafe, 26 Oldham St, Manchester, M1 1JN

We’re excited to be working with Sweet Baboo – who has released one of the best albums of 2013 – for the first time.

A native of the North Wales countryside, Sweet Baboo, aka Stephen Black, is a single-minded, idiosyncratic singer possessing an ear for sparkling melody and a gift for a deft lyrical turn – from darkly funny to piercingly tender, twinkling boastful to deliciously self-deprecating.

Having already been shortlisted for the Welsh Music Prize in 2011 for his third album I’m A Dancer/Songs About Sleeping, Black’s evolution as a songwriter and musician is still very much in motion with the new record Ships, a concept album about the sea – and a marked step up from his earlier material that reveals his true talent is only beginning to be revealed.

Influenced by the likes of The Beach Boys, Daniel Johnston and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Black indulges his love of brass-heavy pop on Ships, which was released in April on Moshi Moshi Records.

Black’s productivity is all the more remarkable given his extra-curricular activities which have seen him working with an ever-growing array of musicians including Cate Le Bon, Slow Club and H. Hawkline. He has also performed with and produced Euros Childs, The Pictish Trail, The Voluntary Butler Scheme and Islet, and collaborated with Gruff Rhys.

Main support comes from Glasgow-based Two Wings. Based around the songwriting partnership of vocalist Hanna Tuulikki and guitarist Ben Reynolds, Two Wings are a glorious hybrid of sounds ancient and modern. On Peace-Fear, their latest single, Reynolds’ psych-rock guitar is married to the keening whoosh of Tuulikki’s words on a song about love, loss and moving on – but carefully – that has the decidedly grown-up commercial sass of Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac yet retains the edge of Neil Young.

Opening the show is Cavan Moran, who recently headlined his own Hey! Manchester show. Formerly of Manchester folk troubadours These Eyes Are Cameras, who packed bars from New York to Paris and back again, Cavan is a wandering soul, both mind and body, who recently packed up his shit and hit the road through Europe for the third time this year, stopping only to break a few hearts and win over a few more.

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

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