If you’re ever waiting for Darren Hayman’s next project, you at least know you won’t have to wait long. Having released both Chants For Socialists and Florence last year, the tireless songwriter has a new record out next week about the so-called ‘Thankful Villages’ – the villages across Britain from which every soldier who fought in World War I returned alive. Hayman has visited all 54 of these villages to make a piece of music and produce a short film for each one, and Thankful Villages Volume 1 is the first of three records he has made from the work. The albums will combine new songs, original instrumentals inspired by the towns, interviews with local residents set to music, and local traditional songs. ‘Bradbourne’ is the closing song from the first 18-track instalment – a tune written about how, during troubled times, the local church could become a focal point for the religious and non-religious alike in a small village.
Hayman will be taking his new project on tour, with a series of dates coinciding with support slots for British Sea Power.
3 June – Maplebeck, Village Hall
4 June – London, Cafe Oto
5 June – Hebden Bridge The Trades Club (Sold Out)*
16 June – Carlisle Brickyard*
17 June – Stoke Sugarmill*
18 June – Newcastle, Mining Institute
19 June – Manchester, Gullivers
22 June – Tunbridge Wells Forum (Sold Out)*
23 June – Bournemouth Fire Station*
24 June – Exeter Phoenix*
25 June – Gloucester Guildhall*
16 July – Ramsgate, Ramsgate Music Hall
30 July – St Germans, Cornwall, Port Eliot festival
7 August – London, Caught by the River Thames festival
*Solo With British Sea Power
Other dates are Thankful Villages shows with full band