![]() He’s not only talented but he’s very together," Gerard recalls. He actually wrote one of the songs on the album and on one of the EPs while he was still a student there. One of Gerard’s recent charges at BIMM was singer-songwriter George Ezra, who scored a worldwide hit with his single ‘Budapest’ and went on to release million plus selling debut LP ‘Wanted On Voyage’ in 2014. "Partly because we’ve been setting up The Fleece (the group played an essential role in reviving the Bristol venue) and also I’m the Head of Songwriting at Bristol BIMM (British Institute of Modern Music) which is taking up quite a lot of time." "It’s probably the longest gap without anything coming out, yeah," the vocalist affirms. While the gap between ‘Welcome Stranger!’ and its predecessor has been six years, the band members have been busy in the interim. ![]() So I thought this is going to be the line-up then." It might have been for a solo thing but literally after a two or three weeks we’d written half the stuff that’s on the album. We’d come together to do a tour off an album and then when that was over I was thinking we need to write some new stuff and I couldn’t imagine sitting in a room with these people I never saw outside of rehearsal rooms. I found myself in a line-up with musicians I’d known for ages. It started out amongst people I just knew anyway. It’s been really good because it’s been like it was when it started out. "Although we’ve done a few tours, what we mainly did was write this album. It’s really good," Gerard explains over the phone from his home in Bristol. Joining Gerard in the cockpit are founder members brother John on drums, along with dancer Wojtek Dmochwski plus former Witness front man Gerard Starkie, bassist/co-owner of The Fleece venue in Bristol Chris Sharp, lead singer of I Destroy guitarist Bec Jeavons and guitarist Mike Youe.Ī group whose revolving door membership stretches towards fifty has been in place for half a decade. Elsewhere the Blue Aeroplanes have had a recent resurgence in their live profile following a personal invite to play the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival this April from guest curator Stewart Lee. A concise ten song blast, the disc states the band's founding principles in formidable style and sounds like the work of newcomers, not an outfit on their fourteenth long player. Not that they ever went away of course, but, as the title of excellent new LP ‘Welcome Stranger!’ hints at, newcomers to the group or returning fans will be delighted at how strong the new set is. At the controls throughout the years has been enigmatic permanent shades-wearing poet/singer Gerard Langley, whose sung-spoken vocals and superlative wordplay has been the band’s hallmark since their inception.įollowing their 2011 LP ‘Anti-Gravity’ which was buoyed by the warm reception that greeted the reissue of their classic 1990 LP ‘Swagger’, the group have been experiencing a steady rise in their profile. Starting out in the post-punk era, the band swerved around orthodoxy from the outset, introducing acoustic instruments, folk harmonies, off kilter tempos and possessed a stage show that bordered on unhinged due its kinetic energy. Maintaining a cult audience while making forays into the mainstream, the Bristolians have frequently been compared to Transatlantic contemporaries R.E.M., a group who readily acknowledged their influence as have Radiohead. ![]() ![]() One of the finest art rock bands to have come out of these Isles, the Blue Aeroplanes have been stalwarts of the British independent music scene since their 1984 debut album 'Bop Art'.
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