Chris Talks Music – Détails, épisodes et analyse

We’ve met the Reverend and now here’s one of the Makers, Ed Cosens returns to the fray as a solo artist once more with his sophomore album, Somewhere Between Dark and Light, releasing on Friday (24th May, 2024) alongside a gig at the much-loved city venue, The Leadmill.

Ahead of his headline show at The Leadmill this Friday, Ed Cosens took a little time out of his hectic schedule to speak to me about going it alone (again), life and naturally his music — both new and old.

You can still buy tickets to see Ed Cosens at The Leadmill on Friday, 24 May, 2024. Book your tickets here: https://leadmill.co.uk/event/ed-cosens/

Somewhere Between Dark and Light will be released this Friday also, and will be available on CD and Vinyl from 1984 Recordings — as well as all of your usual streaming platforms.

Sam Lee joins me this time around to discuss his latest album, his upcoming Sheffield show at the Crookes Social Club, and the importance of nature.

It's a wide-ranging conversation discussing ecological disaster, respecting, revering and treasuring nature... and also a little about the amazing Right to Roam, an ancient custom that allows anyone to wander in open countryside (read more: https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/).

His fourth-album, ‘songdreaming’, represents the latest stage in the development of Sam Lee’s music, from its roots in traditional folk song to a new way of imagining and performing these old songs, making them relevant for a modern audience.

Sam Lee will be performing at Crookes Social Club, Sheffield, on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Doors open before 7pm.

You can buy tickets from: ⁠https://samleesong.co.uk/live/⁠

Sam Lee’s new album, ‘songdreaming’ is out now and was released by Cooking Vinyl on 15th March, 2024, on Vinyl Album, CD, and digital download from: ⁠https://samleesong.co.uk/⁠ 

In this week's episode of Chris Talks Music, Sean Cooney from The Young'uns - one of UK folk music's best-loved acts - joins me for a chat about maintaining a bit of the North East feel living in the Steel City and how Paige Hunter's handwritten messages of hope tied to the railings of Sunderland's Wearmouth Bridge inspired arguably the most evocative body of work released yet from the Teeside trio.

Tiny Notes is a bold, profound, empathetic album, which showcases the ever growing talents of ‘premier league songwriter’ Sean Cooney, who says writing songs about real, ordinary heroes has become ‘a personal passion’.

It also helps that Sean is a wonderfully grounded, full of humour, and incredibly insightful with his ability to encapsulate such tragic stories which recall victims of war and terrorism and heroes of the hour, turning the spotlight on injustice and ultimately celebrating love, tolerance and the indomitable human spirit — In short, he's a lovely chap.

The Young'uns will be performing at Sheffield's Firth Hall on 21st April, 2023. Tickets are available here: https://www.theyounguns.co.uk/live

Global folk band Mishra have formed a new collaboration with international fusion-vocalist Deepa Sri Shakthi and are touring venues in the UK this April. Ahead of their return to Sheffield's The Greystones for their penultimate show, I spent some time speaking to Kate Griffin (also of The Magpies) and Ford Collier (also of The Drystones) about this delightful project, justified the spending a small fortune on a new computer, and also had a little bit of a laugh along the way.

Mishra will be performing at The Greystones, Sheffield, on April 15th, 2023. Tickets are available from: http://www.mishramusic.co.uk/gigs

Opening song: 9 Questions

Closing song: Reclaim

They were the 90s Sheffield band that should have made it, headlining The Leadmill and with record companies fawning for their attentions, Freezer recorded “Syd Barrett’s Icelandic Girlfriend” as a single in 1996 for Divine Records. But Divine Records went straight to heaven and the single fell into an aural vortex.

26-years later and Freezer are back!

After wowing their invited audience at The Dorothy Pax, who came to see the launch of the long lost single, "Syd Barrett's Icelandic Girlfriend", Freezer have decided to do it properly and they'll be performing a couple of shows over the coming months.

Singer-songwriter, Dean Bargh popped in for a chat about the formation of the band, lost years, rediscovering (once thought) lost music and much more besides.

Buy tickets to their Friday 24th March, 2023: https://www.wegottickets.com/event/570654/

Find out more about the Dorothy Pax GoFundMe to keep Pax in the Park free for all, here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/freepaxpark

In this week's episode, I spend a little time talking to the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Winner Lucy Farrell. 

The incredibly talented and renowned, multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and songwriter takes us on a journey through her creative process, how motherhood impacted her music and outlook on life, and so much more. 

Lucy will be performing a sold-out show at Bishop's House, Sheffield, on 19 March, 2023, as part of her UK tour ahead of the release of her long-awaited debut album, We Are Sound. Find out more about Lucy Farrell's tour and support her music here: https://lucyfarrellmusic.com/

And as always, thank you for listening.

Babybird has announced a new ‘The Bad Old Man’ UK tour for this Winter, beginning later this month and coming to the Steel City on 2nd December. The Sheffield-formed band will be bringing a wealth of music to UK audiences and ahead of the tour starting, writer and singer Stephen Jones sat down for a chat about how that Johnny Depp opportunity came about, being heckled with his own song lyrics and plenty more besides. As always, I hope you enjoy.

On this week's episode, Chris talks to Cork-native and electro-pop queen LYRA ahead of her supporting slot with Westlife at Sheffield's Utilita Arena. We discuss all manner of things like how lockdown put a pause on her leap to superstardom, why she is a fashion icon in waiting, the important message behind her recent single 29 Box, her surprise at hearing her music featured on Grey's Anatomy and Love Island, and generally just have a brilliant craic about all sorts. Enjoy.

The first time I ever saw Millie Manders and The Shutup was on a bitterly cold Friday evening back in November 2021 at the O2 Academy2 in Sheffield. What followed was an emotional Punk-Pop musical powerhouse of a performance from a spectacular band. Almost a year later I sat down once more to speak to Millie Manders about their musical journey to date, artistic growth, accountability and so much more. Enjoy!

Legendary Dutch DJ and producer Ferry Corsten has been consistently at the top of his game since his sophomore album under the System F alias 'Out of The Blue' charted in the UK Top 20 singles chart in 1999, with remix credits for acts such as U2, Moby, Faithless, Duran Duran and Public Enemy soon after. On November 26, 2022, Ferry is bringing his 'What The F...' a journey into the evolving sounds of Ferry to CODE Sheffield for its final night, naturally we had to sit down and talk about all things music and all things Ferry too.