Saturday September 5th – 7:30pm to 11pm
KOYO are Huw Edwards (lead vocals, guitar), Jacob Price (sampling, synthesisers), Dan Comlay (bass), Charlie Barnes (guitars) and Tom Higham (drums).
Formed in Leeds in 2015, KOYO have fast become a major factor in the city’s burgeoning music scene.
A powerful live force, KOYO create sonic spectacles through soaring layers of sound. Songs become extended improvisations, spontaneous expressions of emotion. Based on their electric live performance they were selected to open the BBC Introducing Stage at the 2017 Reading and Leeds festivals, the latter resulting in a mention in the Guardian Online review. In 2018, they followed up with critically acclaimed performances at Rockaway Beach Festival, Live at Leeds, Camden Rocks, Sheffield Tramlines and Download festival.
Their eponymous debut album was released in September 2017 to critical acclaim, receiving outstanding press reviews in Q, DORK, CLASH, Classic Rock, Planet Rock, God Is In The TV, PROG and Louder than War. The album also made the Top 25 albums of 2017 in Classic Rock, PROG and Louder than War, at #24, #19 and #21 respectively. This led to the band being featured on Steve Lamacq’s BBC Radio 6 Music show, where he interviewed them live as part of Independent Venue Week. They also as received remarkable endorsements from Killing Joke and Napalm Death.
Having successfully road-tested stunning new material on their 2018 September tour, they re-entered the studio in February 2019 with producers Tom Orrell and Mike Horner (Hot Chip, Everything Everything, Franz Ferdinand, God Damn). This resulted in stand alone single “Before”, as well as “Circles” and “Ostracised”, the first two singles taken from their sophomore album and the latter of which peaked at #7 in the Amazing Radio chart. The album, entitled “You Said It”, is due 29th May and the lead single and title track is out now.
Indie-pop quartet The Sunset Beach Hut have been rapidly gaining attention on the Birmingham gigging circuit. Taking influence from the likes of Two Door Cinema Club, The Japanese House, Bombay Bicycle Club and Fickle Friends, they have combined their efforts into creating something new. With funky bass lines, prominent guitar hooks, and pop inspired vocals, The Sunset Beach Hut are starting to win the hearts of the Midlanders and look forward to taking their music elsewhere.
Debut singles ‘Comfort’ and ‘Upside-Down’ both were awarded BBC Introducing Shropshire’s Track of the Week and their most recent single ‘Bury’ has captured over 20,000 streams on Spotify, and they look to follow this success with future releases.
2018 was filled with some incredible gigs selling out The Sunflower Lounge and supporting some of the UK’s best upcoming bands including SPINN, Stereo Honey, Peaness and The Cheap Thrills and taking their first trip down to London supporting Shields.
2019 has only given them reason to look up, kicking off the new year with a packed headline show at O2 Academy 3, supporting Calva Louise at The Sunflower Lounge as part of their ‘Rhinoceros’ tour and securing their place at international music festival FOCUS Wales 2019.
2020 has seen the release of new single ‘twenty//25\\five’ and with another single and an EP set to follow it’s looks to be a good year for the quartet.