Starsailor’s current elpee is 2024s Where The Wild Things Grow, but when not working with the band, frontman James Walsh has cultivated a nice career as a solo singer-songwriter and written with artists including the superb Suzanne Vega, Professor Green, Eliza Doolittle and Melanie C.

With Starsailor, James Walsh supported artists including The Rolling Stones, The Police, The Killers and U2.

Not content to leave it there, this powerhouse of creativity has turned his hand to movie soundtracks, and his most recent solo long-player, Coming Good, was released in 2023.

A couple of years back the band marked the 20th anniversary of their second, lauded Gold-certified album, Silence is Easy, which spawned singles including the title track and Four To The Floor.

Want a pop fact, pop-pickers? Silence is Easy was also the last album produced by Phil Spector. Well, he worked on a couple of numbers, at least.

James will kickstart July’s SBD Promotions dates at The Black Prince this month – catch him on July 4, with support coming from ’fampton fella Chris Watson, guitarist with The Moons.

Hull quartet BDRMM will help Picky New Promotions celebrate their second anniversary at The Black Prince, by playing on July 11.

The band issued the album Microtonic a couple of months ago, and frontman Ryan Smith had this to say about the disc, their third, which is a definite departure from previous offerings: “I felt very constrained writing a certain type of music to fit the genre (we were known for) but something lifted and I felt more free to create what I want,” says Ryan. “And what I seem to be doing at the moment is a lot of electronic music – taking influence from different spans of electronica, from dance music to ambient and more experimental sources.

“I think we’ve gone from people saying that we sound like other bands to hopefully people saying: this is what bdrmm sounds like. It’s a true expression of who we are.”

Northampton’s shoegaze/grunge givers Thistle will no doubt offer a thorny set in support, and London shoegazers The Youth Play will open the event.

The Varukers (July 18) will punk it up plenty, and if any mob knows how to, it’s these Brit stalwarts who have been bringing the noise for more than four decades, with only the slightest of splits at the late ’80s.

Part of the whole UK82 trend, they sat alongside fellow genre leaders including The Exploited and Discharge, and their no-holds-barred bruising material will continue for as long as you want it to: ‘…as long as wild, spirited people out there want to throw themselves into the pit, play it loud and continue to support the band,’ is their promise.

Up in support, Northampton/MK straddlers Crash Induction, and YT-1300, who will bring Star Wars Geek Punk to the party.
If you’d rather a spot of Dickensian Gothic Metal, and we all do at some time or another (eh?!), then Tellers Scribe will bring it (July 26) when they top a four-band line-up at the venue.

‘Hear our tales via the medium of Dickensian and Victoriana metal, with elements of rock and doom, we are theatrical to the core,’ they tease.
Also playing, groove metallers Lowdown will please fans of Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society, Firefall bring melodic metal from Bedfordshire, and the cheerfully monikered Buried on Sunday will make you shake your heads.

Moving on to the Twinfest Alldayer which sees our town joining musos from the twinned towns of Marburg in German and Poitiers in France for a four-day multi-venue festival, which includes The Black Prince on July 27.

Scenesters, UDC, La Riviere Nochalante, Supercobra, Fleisch, Freya Rose, Sleepwalk, and Fall will all take turns on the stage.

> For more information tap to sbdpromotions.com and
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