Dublin Castle, Camden gig

Next weekend sees The Distractions live band return to London for the first time in at least 36 years! The band are headlining at the legendary Dublin Castle in Camden next Saturday 27th January, with several other bands providing support for what will be a long and loud night.

More details on The List, and you can buy tickets in advance, saving a couple of quid, from WeGotTickets. The gig starts at 7:30pm, and we'll try to bring you approximate stage times a bit near the time. UPDATE: Distractions about 10pm.

The Distractions

The five-piece outfit from Manchester play post punk originals. With support from Kajiki Volt, Master Thieves and Wah Wah Club.

The Distractions - One of the great lost bands of the New Wave era (Blurt magazine, USA). The Distractions in the late '70s and early '80s were very well known on the post-punk music scene. They released records on the TJM, Factory, Island and Rough Trade labels to excellent reviews, as well as sharing bills with Joy Division, Buzzcocks, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Fall, The Members, Squeeze, and many others. They played all corners of the UK and Ireland as well as doing gigs in New York before splitting up. David Hepworth described their debut album, 'Nobody's Perfect' as, "An enchanting and vaguely disturbing collection of vulnerable pop". Last year two of the original members, vocalist Mike Finney and drummer Alex Sidebottom, got together with some friends after being asked to play at a memorial gig for Manchester punk legend, Jon the Postman. It went down so well they decided to continue as a live act playing their singles as well as songs from the album 'Nobody's Perfect'.

Kajiki Volt - Post punk through a surf guitar- garage punk lens, think a more frenetic Gun Club via Magazine, shades of Gallon Drunk and the sorely missed Penthouse too. Great tunes interesting arrangements, played with conviction. 

Desert Falls - An eminantly danceable melange of of Folk, Klezmer, high life and surf played by an (sort-of) all-star indie-alt cast of  Dom Green (Penny Orchids), and featuring Caz Hellbent (Desperate Journalist, Yeah And She Has Red Lips Too), Jasper Future (Art Brut), Phil Whaite (Penny Orchids, Thee Faction), Tom Harrison (Penny Orchids), Ellie Khan & Shona Macmillan (Rebekah Delgado band), Lucy Morgan & Melissa Reardon (Thee Faction), and Andy Cooper (Cursors). 

Wah Wah Club - Good 'ol indie pop with a high melody quotient hooks a plenty, trace elements of Vaccines but pretty much their own sound, great stuff.

Manchester's best kept secret

Here we have one of the earliest pieces of Distractions history, courtesy of Stuart Murray and Mark Windsor of those other legendary Manchester post-punk groups, Fast Cars and V2. It was in Sounds in late 1978 or early '79, featuring TJM Records, Tony Davidson's famous Manchester label. 

Tony takes up the story. "The advert was in Sounds music paper and it was of the first 5 releases on the TJM label. It was a half-page advert and cost £600 plus VAT. At this stage of the record company it was all systems go, to get as much profile and sales for TJM as possible. Looking back, I was taking the profits from the rehearsal rooms and pouring them into the record label. Many thanks to Stuart Murray for the memory."

You can hear Mike, Alex and The Distractions live band belt out the EP in its entirety (and many more of the late '70s and early '80s classics!) at the live gigs coming in 2018. First stop London, and the Dublin Castle...

TJM RECORDS 

announce the inception of a Manchester based Record Company.

The label for the discerning record buyer.

TJM RECORDS

The sound of tomorrow

made for today

35 Little Peter Street

Knott Mill

Manchester

061 236 2717

Distributors: Virgin Records, Rough Trade, Small Wonder Records, Bonaparte Records, Lightning, Discount Records, Wind-up Records

Watch out for the TJM tour this spring

"Manchester's best kept secret"

MICK MIDDLES, SOUNDS OCT '78

TJM2

THE DISTRACTIONS 

"You're Not Going Out Dressed Like That"

4 tracks, Limited edition of 6000

12 inch EP, Availble Feb 1st

Spinning Top pics

December's gig at the Spinning Top in Stockport was possibly the best Distractions Live show of the year. Following a brilliant and amusing acoustic set from The Trend's Mark 'Rev' Revell, The Distractions opened with a slight false start but then followed that with a long, loud and and lovely set chock-full of all the classics.

Perhaps only 'Pillow Fight' (almost the A-side on the Factory single) and 'Sick & Tired' (the superior version is the unreleased rockabilly track on the as-yet unreleased Cargo EP) are missing from their early repertoire of classics.

A couple of old Man City chaps from back in the day actually got up to dance, while a few of the crowd enjoyed the luxury of front row seating.

Old and new fans alike enjoyed the gig, and the famous Tony Davidson of TJM popped in to see the band too. Tony had a few words to say afterwards...

"The Distractions never fail to deliver a brilliant gig. The band were on their A-game: Alex, Joe, Johnny and Chris were really tight musically. As for Mike, it's all been said about his voice, his delivery of his songs, and the interaction with the crowd was great to watch. So pleased I saw them tonight, great entertainment. The crowd loved them!"

T-shirts sporting the 'Time Goes By So Slow' artwork are now available from Alex (look him up on Facebook and message him for details), as are badges showing the Adrian Wright-inspired Parabolic Hulme arch!

T-shirts and badges will be available at the next Distractions Live show, which is a cracker, headlining at the famous Dublin Castle in Camden, London on Saturday 27th January. Get your tickets here for just 6 quid! www.wegottickets.com/event/422662.