HarFest: #HarFest2015

Martin Stephenson

We are deeply honoured and privileged to be able to announce that Martin Stephenson will appear at #HarFest2015.

Martin has been one of the UK’s best-loved musicians for 30 years.

New album CALIFORNIA STAR sees him reunited with The Daintees, the band he’s intermittently fronted through a string of albums – and hundreds of gigs – since his teens in the North East.

Always popular on the circuit, Stephenson’s “must see” live performances are an exuberant tour-de-force combining heart-in-your-mouth intimacy with playful humour and warm self-deprecation.
The Daintees’ critically acclaimed 1986 debut BOAT TO BOLIVIA opened up an always interesting story. It showcased Stephenson’s songwriting, poetic romanticism and spiritual depth – so marking him out as a soulful cream of the leftfield crop during the self-obsessed 1980s.

Never pandering to a particular scene, Stephenson’s lightness of touch on a varied mix of musical styles was immediately apparent. His path was destined to be a lifelong journey through the music he loved: folk, ragtime, jazz, rockabilly, show tunes, punk-pop and country.

CALIFORNIA STAR continues his tradition for eclectic roots songwriting, and is the perfect middle-age bookend on a discography now amounting to 40 albums.

Martin has a website here. You can follow him on Twitter here and Facebook here.

Men In The Sky

Men In The Sky is a British-Canadian collaboration between founder Gary Roberts and Simon Mawson, Gavin Thomas and Chad Montgomery.

The band’s 4 track EP ‘Version 1.0.1’ is borne of a borderline sick frankenstienian obsession to create the perfect fusion of new wave synthesizers and progressive rock guitar. In doing so the band has arguably spawned a whole new unique genre. The songs on the EP were written in the late 80s during the classic era of electronic music. Production began some 20 years later in 2008 and after hundreds of revisions was eventually completed in 2014.

The EP is co-produced by ex-Factory Records’ Michael Johnson credited as engineer on Blue Monday by New Order (the biggest selling 12” single of all time), and according to Bernard Sumner in his biography ‘Chapter And Verse’ Michael was instrumental in achieving the sound of the thunderous percussive beat on Blue Monday which would become the genesis of modern dance music. The sonic influence can be heard throughout the EP.

Men In The Sky have a website here. You can follow them on Twitter here and like on Facebook here.

Jay Stansfield

Multi-instrumentalist and family man Jay Stansfield has been writing, recording and forging his own unique style of music for over 15 years in various bands with some early successes including two John Peel sessions, tracks played by Steve Lamacq and TV appearances on BBC Beatroom and Channel 4.

Jay performed a full UK tour for his solo album LOVISM released by UK label WLM including a support slot with Mike & The Mechanics, a remix album titled UNWOUND featuring remixes from Martin Carr (The Boo Radleys), James Atkin (EMF) and Nigel Clark (Dodgy) amongst many others and a second album, Gobstopper which secured an Amazing Radio session for Bella Union boss Simon Raymonde and frequent airplay on the station.

Jay has been likened to The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Weezer, The Polyphonic Spree and Elliot Smith and his music receives regular airplay all over the World including stations in the USA, Australia, France and huge support from UK community radio stations.

He has crazy dedicated fans scattered across the globe who know everything about his music and with over 10,000 followers and 50,000 plays on Soundcloud, Jay has recently self-released his third solo album, Birth And Death to great critical acclaim.

Jay has a website here. You can follow him on Twitter here and like on Facebook here.

Gaunt Story

We are delighted to announce another act to perform at #HarFest2015 will be Gaunt Story from Burnley.

Comparisons with other northern troubadours such as Badly Drawn Boy are inevitable perhaps, but will be somewhat off the mark - Gaunt Story is in a class of his own, and has made himself quite comfortable there. With each Gaunt Story song there is a spark, a cheeky wink, that lets you in on Ashworth's secret. And what is that secret? That Gaunt Story has deciphered something singular within the Human condition and isolated it within the simplicity of a song.

Like Will Odham before him, Rob Ashworth has carved a new identity within Gaunt Story and the results are a welcome addition to the oft'-maligned singer songwriter oeuvre. We are left, as that other dark master of creativity Walt Disney once commanded, wanting more.

Listen to Gaunt Story on Soundcloud here. Follow on Twitter here and like on Facebook here.

Fret:64

From Clitheroe come Fret:64, five teenagers who have already gained a huge following in the Ribble Valley following their triumph in the 2013 GRAB event involving students from Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, Ribblesdale Technology College, St Augustines RC High School and Bowland High.

With influences ranging from The Who to Muse to Foo Fighters they will provide an energetic start to #HarFest2015.

And, if you're wondering what inventive way they got their band name then wonder no more. All the boys play the guitar (Fret) and they stuck a number on the end. Simples!

Fret:64 can be seen on YouTube here. You can follow them on Twitter here and like on Facebook here.

#HarFest2015 - 27 September 2015

Fret:64