After over 40 years in the music business – and with a credit list longer than both your arms – in 2009 Henry Priestman (having not sung since 1981!!) reinvented himself as a singer-songwriter, and released his debut solo CD “The Chronicles of Modern Life” (on legendary Island Records) to critical acclaim. Never one to rush things, 5 years later, in Feb 2014 Proper Records released the eagerly awaited follow-up entitled “The Last Mad Surge of Youth”, which garnered Henry the best reviews he’s had in his many years of releasing albums.

Both albums are the sound of a man who’s seen the music world explode from punk (his band Yachts supported the Sex Pistols in ’77, and The Who on European Tour in ‘79) via pop (three million albums with The Christians; a top five single for Mark Owen) through to the digital age (soundtracks for James Bond/Xbox, BBC’s Wildlife on One, Natural World), writing/production duties with the likes of singer/songwriters Amy Wadge, Lotte Mullan and 10cc’s Graham Gouldman (3 co-writes with Graham on his latest “Love and Work” album) and still has something worth singing about.

So in this age of genre’s, niches and “tribes”, where does Henry fit in? Amazon.com seem to think he’s folk (“Chronicles…” topped the Amazon “Folk and World” charts on it’s release), Radio 2’s Johnnie Walker described Henry’s new direction as “music for grumpy old men”, The Daily Mail said he is “a master of the rueful observation”, the late Robert Sandall in The Sunday Times called it “rough hewn charm“, and elsewhere the phrase “post-punk-folk-protest” has been bandied about.

Henry Priestman’s “got form,” his “previous” including Yachts (described in Gene Sculatti’s U.S. book The Catalog of Cool as “Cole Porter Punk”!), It’s Immaterial, The Christians (writing all songs on their 1987 triple-platinum debut), sharing a mic and a number one single with Paul McCartney, and composing the title song for London West End musical “Dreamboats and Petticoats”. To say nothing of a roll call of sessions for fellow North West luminaries including Lightning Seeds, Johnny Marr, Ian McCulloch, Pete Wylie, Ian McNabb and Echo & The Bunnymen, plus vocals on Jools Holland/Tom Jones’ 2004 CD.

The single to be taken from “Chronicles..” was “Grey’s The New Blond” which was playlisted at Radio 2 & featured on BBC Breakfast TV and further singles “Don’t You Love Me no More” and “He Ain’t Good Enough for You” also picked up extensive Radio 2 and independent radio airplay.

Two songs off “Surge….” have been already been covered by other artists: Aled Jones has recorded a version of “At The End of the Day” (Surge’s opening track, dedicated to Henry’s late mother) on his new album “The Heart of It All”, and Valentine Song has been used in a Ridley Scott produced short film “Kismet Diner”, which won best film in the 2014 Manhattan Short Film Festival.

Despite all the above typical trumpet-blowing biog bluster & twaddle, it’s actually since going solo that Henry feels he’s really found his feet, albeit in a cottage industry-type setting, existing virtually outside the music biz, happily releasing the odd bit of “merch”, and gigging almost constantly to a small but committed fanbase. He’s discovered a new found love of live work (mostly with his partner-in-crime “Loved- Up Les” Glover, mixing ramshackle chaos & tear-jerking poignancy in equal measures!), performs at housegigs regularly (he has over 30 housegigs booked for 2016 – watch True Believer video below, shot at a genuine housegig in early 2014), and is generally having the time of his life…as the Live DVD “Settle Down” (2015) admirably demonstrates!

Now in 2018 Henry’s celebrating not one but two recent releases: the Yachts CD Boxset, and his album with Les Glover.

Firstly Yachts. Finally those old Yachts albums are seeing the light of day having not been available since 1980. Cherry Red have released a 3CD boxset of the band (everything they ever released, plus rarities), with liner notes by uber-Yachts-fan Mark Kermode, and Les Glover.

And Henry and Les, having worked together live for the last 5 years promoting their respective solo albums, have now taken the next logical step and recorded a joint album together entitled “Six of One and Half a Dozen of the Other”. An eclectic mix, with six new songs from Les (including the poignant “Tony” and the uplifting country-tinged “Gamble With Love”), and four new songs from Hull-born Henry (including “The Ghosts of a Thousand Fishermen”, inspired by Brian W Lavery’s book “The Headscarf Revolutionaries”, about the death of Hull’s fishing trade, co-written by Mark Herman, with whom Henry wrote The Christians’ hit “Ideal World” 31 years ago). Also on the album is a re-lyriced version of Henry’s 1987 hit for The Christians, “Forgotten Town” (commissioned for Hull City of Culture 2017) now re-titled “A Place They Called ‘Forgotten Town’”, and a new take on “Love You Love You” by his late 70’s Liverpool band Yachts, featuring die-hard Yachts fan Mark Kermode (Observer Film critic/BBC5 Live radio presenter) on double bass. Other interesting guest session players include Beach Boys/Brian Wilson’s multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory, and Graham Bottley from TV’s Gogglebox!

Over the last 39 years, Les has been performing, either as a solo artist or as part of a band, both in the UK and across Europe, and has several TV and radio appearances (including BBC Cambridge, Coventry, Hull, Merseyside and Stoke) to his credit. He has played and sung with a variety of top acts, including: Henry Priestman (The Christians /It’s Immaterial/Yachts), Graham Gouldman (10cc), Pete Riley (Edwin McCain/Amy Wadge), John Reilly (Boy on a Dolphin), JJ Gilmour (The Silencers), Lotte Mullan, and Micaela Haslam (BBC singers/Synergy Vocals) and Gary Barlow, to name but a few. He has also supported artists such as Deaf School, Fisherman’s Friends, Nick Harper, Ian McNabb, Martin Stephenson and Wreckless Eric.

He has a healthy love of all styles of music, from Hank Williams to Motorhead and an unhealthy love of 70’s Pop. Les can often be heard incorporating an interesting cover or two into his live performances.

His early band days of the late 70’s/early 80’s saw him as part of the Liverpool music scene playing at the now legendary Eric’s club, supporting the likes of The Chameleons and A Flock of Seagulls.

Having a very dynamic approach to playing, Les applies his unique style to his own original compositions. His new album ‘The Love Terrorist’ contains twelve tracks, covering a variety of subjects; from bitter sweet observations with hints of poignancy and humour, to life affirming, joyous rants, aimed at people who are old of mind but young at heart, or vice versa! The title track, looks at life through the sympathetic eyes of a man in his mid fifties, trying to come to terms with the injustices of a crazy world by offering a simple solution. ‘Behind My lens’ tells a story of unrequited love and expels ‘the grass is greener’ myth, and most middle aged men will relate to that uncomfortable mid life check-up, so eloquently described in ‘Doctor Feelbad’.

Throughout the year Les will be performing, both solo and as the right hand man and sparring partner of his musical mentor/collaborator Henry Priestman, at house gigs and music venues and festivals across the UK. Their collaborative new album, ‘Six of one & half a dozen of the other’ is due for release later in the year.

Louise Connell is a Scottish singer-songwriter from Airdrie, outside Glasgow. Recording and performing under the name Reverieme, she received considerable critical acclaim for her first studio album, Straw Woman (2016), and her previous acoustic mini-LP Or Else The Light (2015). Appearing both solo and with various band line-ups, she has performed at most of the major Scottish music festivals (T In The Park, Wickerman, Belladrum, XpoNorth, Solas Fest, Butefest, etc.) as well as many gigs across the country both as a headline artist (selling out Glasgow's Glad Café at the launch of the Straw Woman album and following it up with two further headline Glasgow shows at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut and the O2 ABC2 in quick succession) and supporting the likes of Gotye, Newton Faulkner, Emmy The Great and American Idol's Haley Reinhart. She has also played very well-received solo shows in both Sweden and England, including a sold-out show at St John's Parish Hall in London in April 2017.

The Straw Woman album received support and airplay from various radio stations (BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio Scotland, Virgin Radio, Amazing Radio etc) with one song, Plankton, being chosen by Lauren Laverne as one of her coveted "Headphone Moments" on Radio 6. The album was also the featured Album Of The Week on two separate Radio Scotland programmes, The Roddy Hart Show and The Iain Anderson Show.

Louise has already garnered a considerable reputation as a songwriter whose notable skill with words is easily matched by her way with beautiful, haunting melodies. Recently her music caught the attention of the renowned artist and designer James Marsh, who designed iconic sleeves for Talk Talk and Jamiroquai, amongst many others. Having read the lyrics, James has drawn inspiration from the latest batch of songs Louise has written and created three thematically-related sleeves for the series of three EPs she will release in the coming months - Squall, Echo and Rale.