SOLD OUT
Thursday 22 FebruaryEnglish TeacherUK + SprintsIRL
Dublin based garagepunk outfit
Note: SPRINTS will play FIRST tonight! Start: 20:45
Formed in late 2019 SPRINTS have barely paused for breath since. Early releases and EPs immediately landed the Garage-Punk Dublin outfit a fan in BBC 6 Music legend Steve Lamacq and, as the year played out, early support from the likes of DIY, NME, So Young and more. Cemented by the reception to the ‘Manifesto EP’ and ‘A Modern Job EP’, it’s allowed them to dig even deeper into their policy of honesty.
Everything that goes into the band’s cathartic punk battle-cries can be seen as something of a call-to-arms: an attempt to silence the internal doubting voices and to fight against the outdated social tropes that box in individuality. Now, more confident in their opinions and identities than ever, Sprints have signed to the iconic label, City Slang, and racked up sold-out shows across Ireland, the UK, and Europe, as well as a string of shows at SXSW in Austin, Texas – cementing themselves as one of the most ferocious and exciting emerging live acts.
The strangeness of the pandemic meant English Teacher made a swift and unusual rise to popularity. How many other Leeds’ bands could say their first ever show was a filmed DIY Big Bank Holiday Weekender in Hackney Wick?
Building on this early success, the group spent a week bunkered in Eastbourne with producer Theo Verney to track what would become their acclaimed debut EP Polyawkward. Lighter in mood than the singles preceding it, the 5 song set unloads a treasure trove of songwriting smarts, swirling instrumentals and gunpowder jams, each struck in a sequence of handsomely spun kitchen-sink yarns.
Drawing inspiration from Orwell’s dystopian fiction, the social commentaries of John Cooper Clark and the comic writing of Phoebe Waller Bridge and Rob Auton, English Teacher’s lyrics weave the personal with the political, the poignant with the pretty and the humorous with the heavy.