Books / The Bookshop Band
The Bookshop Band to play a magical Christmas concert at Max Minerva’s
To round off their literary event calendar for 2024, Max Minerva’s will be hosting a festive treat for patrons of the popular North Bristol bookshop.
On December 12, they will be welcoming Ben Please and Beth Porter, better known as literature-inspired musical duo, The Bookshop Band for an intimate pre-Christmas concert in the store.
Originating in central Bath in 2010, they describe the band as the results of “an artistic love-affair” between themselves and the multi-award-winning indie bookshop, Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights.
The Bookshop Band
Now, they are based in Wigtown, the officially designated the ‘national book town’ of Scotland.
They describe their oeurvre as ‘folk pop alternative’, writing songs inspired by books, and count literary giant Margaret Atwood amongst their fans.
The Bookshop Band with producer, Pete Townshend of The Who
Their live shows, mostly in bookshops, are characterised for a cinematic sound, built from a dizzying multitude of instruments, from the voice to cello, harmonium, glockenspiel, guitars and ukuleles.
As well as touring extensively in Europe, the US and the UK, The Bookshop Band have released 14 albums to date, the latest of which – Emerge, Return – was produced by Pete Townshend of The Who, who described the band as “a great discovery and inspiration”.
Emerge, Return by The Bookshop Band, produced by Pete Townshend – artwork: Stanley Donwood
With artwork from internationally renowned artist, writer and long-time Radiohead collaborator, Stanley Donwood, Emerge, Return was created in response to themes of “the oppression of bodies, free will and free speech” in books including Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Robert Macfarlane’s Underland, and Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage.
Five years in the making, it is, by their own admission, one of The Bookshop Band’s darker albums. The books were curated in part by Mr B’s, and informed also by the V&A Museum’s season of banned books, alongside the Brontë sisters exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
The Bookshop Band are at Max Minerva’s on December 12. Tickets are available at www.maxminervas.co.uk. Visit www.thebookshopband.co.uk for future news and events, or follow @bookshopband.
The new album Emerge, Return is available now on limited edition CD and vinyl.
All photos: Elly Lucas
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