Hey! Manchester presents

Vinny Peculiar

Singer-songwriter and poet Vinny Peculiar (aka Alan Wilkes) grew up in Worcestershire and trained as a nurse before signing to Manchester cult label Ugly Man records (former home to Elbow). He’s since put out twelve albums of literate autobiographical pop music over a twenty-year career and has regularly toured band, solo and duo shows.

Variously described as ‘an under sung national treasure’ (Uncut), ‘a warm hearted Morrissey’ (Q) and ‘the missing link between Jarvis Cocker and Roger McGough’ (Irish Times), his past work associations include Bill Drummond (KLF), Luke Haines and Jah Wobble (PIL), and his various bands have included ex-members of The Smiths, Oasis, Aztec Camera and The Fall. He’s also written and recorded as Parlour Flames, the band he formed in 2013 with ex-Oasis rhythm guitarist Bonehead.

Current ‘concept’ album Silver Meadows is set in a 1980s long-stay psychiatric hospital, and is also in development as a musical stage play. New album Return of the Native, a Worcestershire-inspired collection of songs, comes out in May 2018.

‘Part Pulp, part Kinks, and very much part Peculiar, this is observational, punk-tinged songwriting at its best’ – Hot Press

‘A well-measured introduction to an under sung national treasure’ – Uncut

Main support comes from Reid Anderson, a singer-songwriter from Liverpool. He writes dark, mesmerising, sweeping sounds; lyrical vessels, reminiscent of sea shanties, traveller’s songs and folk myth. Imagine The Wicker Man soundtrack written by Nick Cave, or an episode of The Twilight Zone soundtracked by Leonard Cohen and Johnny Cash.

Opening the show is Steven P Taylor. Starting out as a promoter/compere in the North West in the early 1980s at the start of ‘alternative’ comedy, Steven P Taylor worked alongside the likes of Harry Enfield, Jenny Eclair and Phil Cool. After a break in the 1990s he returned with a new comedy club in 2000, which featured among others Peter Kay, Lucy Porter and Dave Spikey. Having written poetry since school it is only over the last few years that he has started performing poetry sets around pubs and folk clubs. He organises open mic nights to encourage new original talent. His style varies from the heavily nostalgic Lancashire lifestyle to silly comic poems and contemporary commentary. His influences include John Cooper Clarke, Hovis Presley and Spike Milligan. His first book, Reflections, is due out later this year. He lives in Ramsbottom, Bury and has a leak on his flat roof.