When: 7pm on Friday 26 April 2019
Where: YES (Basement), 38 Charles Street, Manchester M1 7DB

We’re honoured to be presenting Jo Rose‘s final show.

Jo says of this show:

I have tried a number of times to write a bio for this particular show in third person, which is something I’ve always struggled to do, even when a lack of publicist has demanded I do so. Something I have wanted to avoid is to make this gig seem too dramatic or, conversely, self-aggrandising, like that well-known pathos-heavy trope of fantasising attending your own funeral. I’d rather say in my own terms what this show is ‘about’.

I have been playing with own name as a moniker for a decade now, ever since I left the band I worked with since age thirteen, Fear of Music. It was a chance to explore new things, to put the love and influence of artists such as Elliott Smith, Townes Van Zandt, Sparklehorse, Cat Power, Bill Callahan et al., and countless others to good use. I’ve written songs I’m proud of, songs that evoke a particular place and time so far back I feel as if I’m ‘playing a part’ when I perform them, but still nonetheless love. I’ve toured Europe and Scandinavia with the generous support and faith of my friends in First Aid Kit, developed as an artist under the guidance and tutelage of Gabriel Minnikin, supported one of my all time heroes Simon Joyner in a Whalley Range back garden, shared a stage with Aldous Harding… the list of things I’ve been honoured to experience are practically innumerable so I’ll stop here, reluctantly.

I’ve made an LP (Spurs) alongside too many very talented artists to properly credit here with my friends Colin and (the sadly missed) Norman McLeod. Later on I produced an EP (the Mustanging EP) with the aid of yet more, including Cherry Ghost’s Jim Rhodes (perhaps the finest guitarist in Manchester), The Travelling Band’s Jo Dudderidge (who has had my back since day one), and Oh Man the Mountain’s Aidan Donovan, as well as Chris Hillman and Pete Marshall; all this engineered and produced by my childhood friend and all-too-hidden production wiz kid Liam Markham with little else in the way of resources but our pooled gear, my grandmother’s living room and Jim’s study.

Under this moniker (also, awkwardly, my namesake) has been the epicentre of my creative and social life for the entirety of my twenties, and the support from collaborators, friends, family, and listeners from around the world has made it all the more enjoyable and vital.

To be entirely transparent, however, I haven’t been writing much at all to add to it for a few years, in part because of circumstance, but mostly because I’m keen to step out of what my own expectations (and those of others) are when I write a “Jo Rose” song. This is neither me ditching music or disregarding the joys I’ve experienced along the way. It’s an opportunity to put these songs aside to leave room for something new, under a new moniker (think Bill Callahan, Jason Molina, etc., and their many aliases), and enjoy playing them as I have been one more time.

I want to give these songs and this style of performance, which I’ve fine-tuned to the best of my ability and will doubtless inform whatever comes next, a fond farewell and I’d love for you to join in this fine new space in Manchester at this show promoted by another long-time supporter Chris Horkan of Hey! Manchester.

For support, I’ve invited my friend Joe Edwards, who I’ve met whilst hosting open mic nights over the past few years and, lamentably, has done no shows yet. His sound betrays his strong influences Pile and Elliott Smith in their combination of structural complexity and raw, vulnerably intimate and minimal, borderline-punk aesthetic.

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

Attend on: Facebook