FORTUNA POP! PRESENTS
(NOT) THE TRACK AND FIELD WINTER SPRINTER

4-6 January 2011 – The Lexington, London

featuring Shrag, The Loves, Standard Fare, Comet Gain, The Loft, Veronica Falls, Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern, The Wave Pictures and The Leaf Library

For years our friends at the Track & Field Organisation ran their Winter Sprinter on the first week of the new year, an otherwise cold and barren week for live music. Now they no longer exist we've decided to step into the breach, make off with their idea, and provide three nights of the best bands around, designed to warm your cockles and bring a smile to your face in that otherwise dismal time right after new year.

OK, so a few of the bands playing are on the Fortuna POP! label as you would expect, such as The Loves (who have a new final album out in January), Comet Gain (with a new album due in April), and Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern (who have just released another fantastic album). However, as we’re friendly people, we’ve also invited some of our favourite bands to fill out the bill including the brilliant Shrag, the wonderful Wave Pictures, the incredible Standard Fare, indiepop darlings Veronica Falls, the majestic Leaf Library, and, last but not least, the stars of Creation Records past The Loft, making a rare live appearance.

Full details below:

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FORTUNA POP! PRESENTS (NOT) THE TRACK AND FIELD WINTER SPRINTER
London The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Road N1 9JB
4th-6th Jan 2011, 8pm
www.fortunapop.com

Three night Season Ticket only £20
Individual shows: Advance: £7.50 from We Got Tickets / £9 Door

Tue Jan 4th Shrag + The Loves + Standard Fare
Wed Jan 5th Comet Gain + The Loft + Veronica Falls
Thu Jan 6th Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern + The Wave Pictures + The Leaf Library

plus DJs Track & Field, Cool In A Crisis, Alex (Dream Diary) and Scared To Dance

http://www.wegottickets.com/f/2205

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Tuesday 4th January, Doors 8pm
SHRAG + THE LOVES + STANDARD FARE
Plus DJ Paul Wright (Track & Field)

SHRAG?
An exhilarating blend of dirty, distorted post-punk guitars, shouty riot grrl-style vox and fantastic pop songs, alongside nods to everyone from Le Tigre to Penetration. Their debut album garnered comparisons to Love is All, Gang of Four, B-52s, The Long Blondes and led to a UK tour supporting The Cribs, appearances at both London Popfest and Indietracks festivals, and a session for Marc Riley on BBC 6music. Their second album Life! Death! Prizes! was released on WIAWYIA Records in October and was named Album Of The Month by Artrocker.
"A spectacularly bitter indie girls-set-on-stun dual vocal attack, in what is one of the better bands to juxtapose schmindie twee and angered literary abstraction since 1990s unsung legends Prolapse." (The Guardian)?
http://www.myspace.com/shrag

THE LOVES ?
Legendary psych-pop collective from Cardiff, who fuse Nuggets-style garage pop, bubblegum fuzz, sugar sweet indiepop, and hand-clapping, hip-shaking rock'n'roll. Favourites of Marc Riley and John Peel, for whom they recorded four sessions, including one live at Peel Acres, the band are fronted by Simon Love, whose "did-he-really-just-say-that?" style of stagecraft is entertainment itself. The band’s fourth LP “…Love You” is released on Fortuna POP! in January and is the current Album Of The Month in Artrocker. The Loves will be retiring on Valentine’s Day 2011.
'A wide-eyed retro-chic indie-pop sextet that sound like The Monkees playing at being The Velvet Underground.' (NME) ?
http://www.myspace.com/lovetheloves

STANDARD FARE
Standard Fare is a three-piece indie pop/rock band from Sheffield in the U.K. Comprised of bassist/vocalist Emma Kupa, guitarist/vocalist Danny How, and drummer Andy Beswick, the group drew inspiration from both classic C-86 groups and U.K. guitar rock heroes like Orange Juice, as well as American indie rock bands of the '90s. The group released their first single, "Dancing," on Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation in 2009, then recorded the songs for “The Noyelle Beat” album in six days and released the album in 2010.
"A riot of hormones, cut-to-the-chase lyrics, bolshie girl-boy vocals and jingle-jangle propulsion...The best and most loveable aspects of indie guitar music." (The Sunday Times)
www.standardfare.co.uk/

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Wednesday 5th January, Doors 8pm
COMET GAIN + THE LOFT + VERONICA FALLS
Plus DJs Cool In A Crisis & Alex (Dream Diary)

COMET GAIN
Formed in London, England, in 1993, and influenced as much by the riot-grrrl movement as by the music of the girl-group era, Comet Gain mix punk-pop aesthetics with a more abstract northern soul sensibility. Originally signed to Wiiija Records, the original line-up split in 1997, songwriter David Feck assembling an all-new roster for the band's subsequent albums ‘Tigertown Pictures’, ‘Réalistes’ and ‘City Fallen Leaves’, released on Kill Rock Stars in the US and Track & Field in Europe. Magical, passionate and emotional, inspired in equal parts by The Go-Betweens, Godard, Irma Thomas, dance parties, Dexy's Midnight Runners, falling in love, mod and hootenannies, Comet Gain are one of the finest British bands of our time. Their new album, recorded with Edwyn Collins and Ryan Jarman of The Cribs, will be released on Fortuna POP! in 2011.
“Raw and vital records steeped in leader David Christian's actual, angry, and true poetry and the group's raw and alive sound.” – All Music Guide
http://www.myspace.com/cometgain

THE LOFT
Formed in 1980 by Peter Astor (vocals, guitar), Bill Prince (bass), Andy Strickland (guitar) and Dave Morgan (drums), The Loft signed to Alan McGee's fledgling Creation Records label, releasing their debut single "Why Does the Rain?" in 1984. The album "Up the Hill and Down the Slope" was issued the following year, earning both band and label some critical success. The band famously split up mid-song, onstage at the Hammersmith Palais, Astor and Dave Morgan going on to form a new band, The Weather Prophets, guitarist Strickland forming The Caretaker Race, and Prince forming The Wishing Stones.
http://www.myspace.com/bandtheloft

VERONICA FALLS
Sexy Kids bandmates Roxanne and Patrick teamed up with James of Your Twenties (whom they met, in true indiepop fashion, at a Comet Gain show), and their friend Marion to form Veronica Falls in 2009. Similar to Sexy Kids, Veronica Falls' pop-oriented, reverb-kissed tunes, rooted in influences like Ultra Vivid Scene and the Chills, give a nod to The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Je Suis Animal.
http://veronicafalls.com/
http://www.myspace.com/veronicafallshard

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Thursday 6 January, Doors 8pm
DARREN HAYMAN AND THE SECONDARY MODERN + THE WAVE PICTURES + THE LEAF LIBRARY
Plus DJs Scared To Dance

DARREN HAYMAN AND THE SECONDARY MODERN Darren Hayman appears with his backing band - the tight, tough, but soulful folk-rock orchestra The Secondary Modern – following the release of his new album and finest work to date “Essex Arms”. Best known as the singer-songwriter of the phenomenally successful and much-loved Hefner, Darren is now six albums into an increasingly idiosyncratic career, all the time reaffirming his credentials as one of Britain’s finest living songwriters with songs about life and love in the suburbs that showcase his eye for detail and ear for folk-pop melodies. "London's poet laureate of sexual dysfunction, discomfort, and dog-eared under-achievement… the match of Ray Davies, or any of the quintessentially English masters." (The Guardian) http://www.hefnet.com http://www.myspace.com/darrenhayman
THE WAVE PICTURES ?
The Wave Pictures are David Tattersall, Franic Rozycki and Jonny "Huddersfield" Helm. They are friends of Herman Dune, Jeffrey Lewis and Darren Hayman, which probably tells you all you need to know about both their music and their attitude to making it, and in singer/songwriter David Tattersall – memorably described by Nick Lowe as “a man who clearly harbours no ambition to be seen hobnobbing with Dido at the Met Bar" – they have one of the great guitarists of our time. Their sound is rooted in classic American music – country, blues and rock’n’roll; Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Jonathan Richman – but is made special by Tattersall’s impressionistic, elliptical and evocative songwriting.
“Only occasionally does music intoxicate like this: once every decade (he says, at random) – counting backwards, early Pavement, Galaxie 500, The Pastels… I’m sure you can make up your own reference points” (Everett True, Plan B)
http://www.thewavepictures.com
http://www.myspace.com/thewavepictures

THE LEAF LIBRARY
The Leaf Library started after the demise of guitarist Matt Ashton’s previous band, Peel-favourites Saloon. He and vocalist/keyboardist Kate Gibson were joined by bass player Gareth Jones, guitarist Ben Smith and eventually drummer Lewis Young. With influences that include buildings, stationery and the weather; the band create minimal, melodic songs with a sound that sits comfortably between Stereolab’s two chord drone rock and the stripped-down groove of late 70s Fleetwood Mac.
“Sounds that spin perfectly between electro-drone kosmiche and downy, gazing-out-of-windows indie-pop.” (Kitten Painting)
http://www.myspace.com/theleaflibrary
http://soundcloud.com/the-leaf-library