Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert's Xmas Show + Carla J. Easton

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! And in the old
tradition, Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert invites you to gather round the
fire for Ghost Stories for Christmas.

These are the ghosts of
love, haunting happy homes and fairy-lit bars; these are the ghosts of
memory, of haunted mirrors, pagan festivities, and unforgettable
friends. As with this year’s critically acclaimed debut album, Here Lies
The Body, Moffat’s quiet, pensive storytelling finds a perfect partner
in Hubbert’s intimately intricate, flamenco-flavoured guitar. Across
eight new original compositions and two deftly executed covers, here
they offer an alternative view on the Season To Be Jolly.

The
album began with an idea for a song – forthcoming single A Ghost Story
for Christmas. Originally intended as a one-off, seasonal release, it
proved such fun to write that soon they had enough songs for an EP.
‘Then, on a nice, sunny, summer morning, I phoned Hubby and suggested we
just do a whole album,’ says Moffat. ‘We were really enjoying it –
there’s something pleasantly perverse about recording Christmas songs in
summer clothes – so we just kept going.’ There followed an intense few
weeks of writing and research, with Moffat taking lyrical inspiration as
always from the life around him, but which also found him adapting a
classic Hans Christian Andersen fairytale and an essay by the king of
modern Christmas himself, Charles Dickens. The album also features their
cover of Yazoo’s synth classic Only You – a favourite from their youth
and one of Moffat’s oft-tweeted late-night comfort hits, and already a
popular number in their live show (and, of course, a Christmas Number
One for The Flying Pickets in 1983) – and the set was topped off with a
sombre rendition of Mud’s 1974 hit, Lonely This Christmas. ‘There really
wasn’t any other song it could have been,’ Hubbert says of this choice.
‘It sums up the album well!’

The album also finds the duo
expanding and experimenting with their sound, with eerie bowed guitars,
dreamscape doo-wop, and a piano-led tale of a looking-glass ghost. ‘I
had some words that I felt would suit a piano backing, so I challenged
Hubby to write something for piano and he spent two weeks on YouTube
learning to play it,’ says Moffat. Joining them for the first time on
violin and vocals is Jenny Reeve, a long-time Moffat collaborator, most
recently with Arab Strap and his Where You’re Meant To Be project;
ex-Delgado and longtime friend of the duo Emma Pollock on choral duties;
and the band’s live drummer, David Jeans, also of Arab Strap and many
more. Returning to augment the sound is John Burgess on clarinet and
flute, while a young family member waits to offer a final seasonal
message.

So come close and gather round! Pour a drink and take a
seat! The fire is roaring, the chestnuts are roasting, the children are
laughing – and it’s time to tell Ghost Stories for Christmas. To
celebrate their seasonal release, Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert will be
playing special Christmas shows, including this date at Soup Kitchen.

Special guest is Carla J. Easton. Carla J. Easton is the indomitable princess
of DIY pop with a post-punk ethos, fast emerging as one of Scotland’s
significant voices and prolific writers from Glasgow’s rich musical
landscape. Producing wondrous, synth-soaked and uncompromising symphonic
pop, Easton started out writing in the now cult-like Myspace kids
Futuristic Retro Champions before founding the Spector-esque wunderkind
girl-group TeenCanteen. A productive 2016 saw the release of two
critically acclaimed albums: TeenCanteen’s Say It All With A Kiss
(longlisted for the Scottish Album of The Year 2017); and her debut solo
album Homemade Lemonade, released under the alias ETTE (Bandcamp’s #4
Album of 2016). Championed by BBC 6 Music’s Marc Riley, Easton has
performed across many key festivals and showcases both in the UK and
internationally including The Great Escape, Kendal Calling, Xpo North,
Festival No. 6, Indietracks, Wickerman, T in The Park, Electric Fields,
POP! Montreal (Canada) and Indiefjord (Norway).

Price: £14 adv
Info/tickets: https://www.heymanchester.com/aidan-moffat-rm-hubbert-2