There has been a lot of speculation about the strength, or lack of it, of the music scene in Leeds: Venues such as The Cockpit and Carpe Diem closing have predicted doom and gloom: However, it is not all bad news. Take the launch of a new initiative.
Come Play With Me is a brand new vinyl singles club – releasing split 7” vinyl aiming to showcase the most exciting artists from the Leeds City Region alongside a few surprises along the way. With a mix of the new and more established across all genres, the label will be demonstrating the awesome diversity of great music coming out of this part of the world. The singles themselves will also come in beautifully designed sleeves, packaged to look as well as sound great.
Even better – Come Play With Me has been set up as a Community Interest Company, a social enterprise that reinvests all profits to identify ever more exciting talent from this part of Yorkshire and help them on the road to getting their music out to a wider audience. The first split single for release out 6th November comes from Cinerama and Harkin.
With similar members across both bands, Cinerama has co-existed alongside The Wedding Present for nearly two decades and earlier this year took the novel step of ’re-imagining’ the Wedding Present’s last studio album (‘Valentina’) in a cinematic, lounge-pop style to some great reviews. At a special concert at the O2 Academy, Islington on 6th June 2015, the band performed with a string quartet and additional instrumentation and have generously given up the track ‘The Girl From The DDR (live) ‘recorded at that gig for Come Play With Me. Frontman David Gedge says “Having been born in Leeds the city is always going to have a special place in my heart even without its rich musical heritage. When Cinerama were invited to contribute to the singles club I was keen to be involved, especially since we’re going to be on the first release. If I’m honest it’s also very flattering that the club is named after one of The Wedding Present’s ‘Hit Parade’ singles. Maybe that’s the cyclical nature of pop culture! Anyway…it’s great to be releasing something alongside our friend Harkin.”
Harkin, well known as part of Sky Larkin, recently took time out of her incredibly busy schedule to record a cover of one of her favourite songs: ‘National Anthem of Nowhere’, originally recorded by Canada’s Spanish-infused indie rock darlings Apostle Of Hustle. The track was produced by Jeff T. Smith of Juffage.
Having been touring since her teens, Katie Harkin’s reputation as an in-demand multi-instrumentalist has seen her pass through 30 countries, whilst writing and releasing three critically-acclaimed records with her own band Sky Larkin. Her work garnered the attention of friends and fellow former Leeds dwellers Wild Beasts, with whom she worked across their Smother tour, and reverberated across the pond to urgent cult trio Sleater-Kinney, who recruited her as a touring member upon their triumphant return to the live stage. Harkin’s portion of the proceeds from the single will be going to Sensory Leeds, an organisation set up to offer high quality sensory experiences for people with disabilities
Singles and associated merchandise for Come Play With Me can be purchased from PledgeMusic:
www.pledgemusic.com/projects/come-play-with-me
