The Miserable Rich + Anna Kashfi + Dan Whitehouse

  • Tuesday | 08.06.10
  • 7.30pm
  • Band on the Wall, Manchester
  • £10 General...

The Miserable Rich’s name was inspired by an experience they had playing at the wedding of two ultra-rich aristocrats in Rome. Cellist/pianist William Calderbank and debonair singer/percussionist James de Malplaquet formed the string-based band intending to produce ‘unusual acoustic modern music’. They steadfastly adhere to their original plan of using the cello and violin (Mike Siddell, ex-Hope Of The States) as the lead instruments, which has allowed them to mould a unique sound. The line up is completed by Jim Briffett (ex-Clearlake) on guitar and Rhys Lovell on double bass.

Brighton’s baroque indie quintet have been regular visitors to Manchester over the last two years, racking up three sessions for Marc Riley and countless sessions for Mog’s peerless Saturday morning AllFM show. The last single, Somerhill, was recently Piccadilly Records’ Record of the Week (“pristine slices of chamber-pop“), an accolade to file alongside iTunes Single of the Week for “Boat Song” and BBC 6Music Album of the day for “Twelve Ways To Count”.

Two years on from Twelve Ways To Count, The Miserable Rich have announced the release of their second album, packed with tales of escapism and excess. From the opening track, Pegasus, and its story of the destructive nature of desire through to the closing vignette, Hungover, Of Flight & Fury maps the story of a maturing band; where their debut involved numerous musicians from the Brighton band’s circle of friends, the new album was written, arranged, performed and recorded entirely by the five band members. A richer, fuller sound is the result, with a final gloss added by mix engineer Al Scott (Eliza Carthy, Asian Dub Foundation).

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