When: 7.30pm on Sunday 3 August 2014
Where: The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

We’re delighted to be welcoming back Eleanor Friedberger for a rare solo show.

At a time when most female singer-songwriters perform as alter egos, Eleanor Friedberger is simply, refreshingly herself. And that’s just the way her fans like it. Having spent the last decade fronting the indie-rock institution The Fiery Furnaces (currently on hiatus) with her brother Matthew, in 2011 she emerged as a formidable solo artist with Last Summer, a thoughtfully crafted tale of memory and place couched in the organic pop of her 1970s idols. Instantly, Friedberger established herself as a modern-day heir to the tradition of Donovan, Todd Rundgren, Ronnie Lane and their ilk: Warm, nuanced, timeless songs. No gimmicks necessary.

Eleanor returns this summer with her second solo album, Personal Record, out last summer on Merge Records. It is Eleanor at her finest; recorded in late 2012 in New York and Los Angeles, and written with musician/novelist Wesley Stace, Personal Record is full of love songs – hellos and goodbyes, infatuation, pre-occupation, loss – but not simply about romantic love. Eleanor explains, ‘They’re also love songs to music: how you feel on stage when you do something spontaneous and it works, how you feel when you hear someone sing a song for the first time, what it’s like to watch a friend perform, how you can feel close to someone you barely know because you both happen to love the same record, or playing the same song forty times in a row, not being able to rest until you own every song recorded by your favourite singer, or every version of your favourite song.’

Eleanor will be making a short stop-off in the UK to play London’s Visions Festival – and this intimate solo show.

Support comes from Tiger Lion. Before moving to Brighton then, more recently, Manchester, Clémentine Blue, aka Tiger Lion, aka superlative Michael A Grammar bassist and sometime chanteuse, was one part of French pop trio The Dancers. Tiger Lion is an experiment in musical instinct – raw, global, tribal – overlaid with Clémentine’s luscious vocals. Tiger Lion’s new video Under Water, inspired by Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, is on YouTube now.

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

Attend on: Facebook | Last.fm