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Mar 21, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Holly Whitaker

England’s Black Country, New Road have announced a new live album, Live at Bush Hall, that follows the recently released new concert film of the same name. It features all new songs not previously released by the band, except for in the concert film. Live at Bush Hall is due out digitally this Friday and physically on May 26 via Ninja Tune. Check out the album’s tracklist and cover artwork below, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates.

When Black Country, New Road’s former frontman, Isaac Wood, announced that he was leaving the band last year only days before the February release of their sophomore album, Ants From Up There (on Ninja Tune), the band vowed to continue on and to not perform any of the material from Ants From Up There without Wood and so they wrote all new songs to perform live.

The band now consists of Lewis Evans, May Kershaw, Georgia Ellery, Luke Mark, Tyler Hyde and Charlie Wayne, with Kershaw, Evans, and Hyde sharing vocal duties.

“We didn’t want to do a studio album,” says pianist/vocalist Kershaw in a press release. “We wrote the new tracks specifically to perform live, so we thought it might be a nice idea to put out a performance.”

“It’s about capturing the moment,” adds saxophonist/vocalist Evans. “A little time capsule of these eight months that we’ve had playing these songs on the road.”

Greg Barnes directed the Live at Bush Hall film, which was mixed by John Parish. The footage was filmed over three nights at London’s Bush Hall and the film features eight songs.

“We had concerns from live sessions we’ve seen or done in the past,” says guitarist Mark. “They are very obviously clumped together visually from multiple performances. That can take you out of the performance and make it seem artificial and like it’s not actually live. So we came up with the idea to make the three nights look visually distinct from one another. To scratch the idea of trying to disguise anything. We wanted it to be very honest and let people know that we had three goes at it. This isn’t just us playing the whole thing non-stop.”

The press release explains that each of the three shows had “its own distinct theme and aesthetic inspired by amateur dramatic performances, based around school plays, a pastoral scene and a haunted pizza parlor called, yes, I Ain’t Alfredo No Ghosts. There’s even an end of school prom party.”

Evans further explains: “We came up with fake plays. And wrote a fake synopsis, dressed as the characters, and made programmes and sets for each play. It was really exciting and made it a lot more fun.”

Fans and friends were also enlisted to help with the film, which features some footage shot by fans, as well as some helping to build or paint sets. “We thought: if we’re gonna do a film, then make it personable,” says Mark. “And a lot of our fans, especially when we were putting this stuff together, played a huge part in spreading the songs which meant that people could listen to them without us putting them out in the first place. It felt good to do the film in a way that involved the people who’ve been vital to keeping the whole thing afloat.”

Ants From Up There was acclaimed and made it on our Top 100 Albums of 2022 list. Read our rave review of the album here.

Read our interview with Black Country, New Road on Ants From Up There and Wood’s departure here.

Live at Bush Hall Tracklist:

1. Up Song - Live at Bush Hall
2. The Boy - Live at Bush Hall
3. I Won’t Always Love You - Live at Bush Hall
4. Across The Pond Friend - Live at Bush Hall
5. Laughing Song - Live at Bush Hall
6. The Wrong Trousers - Live at Bush Hall
7. Turbines/Pigs - Live at Bush Hall
8. Dancers - Live at Bush Hall
9. Up Song (Reprise) - Live at Bush Hall

Black Country, New Road Tour Dates:

Tue Apr 4 - Club Quattro - Nagoya, JP
Wed Apr 5 - Umeda Club Quattro - Osaka, JP
Thu Apr 6 - O-East - Tokyo, JP
Apr 13-15 - Motel Mozaïque Festival - Rotterdam, NL
Tue May 2- 1865 - Southampton, UK (SOLD OUT)
Wed May 3 - Leeds Irish Centre - Leeds, UK (SOLD OUT)
Fri May 5 - 3Olympia - Dublin, IE (SOLD OUT)
Sun May 7 - Newcastle University, S.U - Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Mon May 8 - Old Fruitmarket - Glasgow, UK (SOLD OUT)
Tue May 9- Manchester New Century Hall - Manchester, UK (SOLD OUT)
Thu May 11 - Waterfront - Norwich, UK
Fri May 12 - The Crossing - Birmingham, UK (SOLD OUT)
Sat May 13 - The Marble Factory - Bristol, UK (SOLD OUT)
Mon May 15 - J1, Cambridge Junction - Cambridge, UK (SOLD OUT)
Sat May 20 - c6 Fest - Rio De Janiero, BR
Sun May 21 - c6 Fest - Sao Paulo, BR
Sat May 27 - Wide Awake! - London, UK
Tue May 30 - Primavera In The City - Barcelona, ES
Thu Jun 1 - Primavera Sound Festival - Barcelona, ES
Mon Jun 5 - Primavera In The City - Madrid, ES
Thu Jun 8 - Primavera Sound Festival - Arganda del Rey, ES
Sat Jun 10 - Best Kept Secret - Holland, NL
Sun Jun 25 - Glastonbury - West Holts - Glastonbury, UK
Thurs Jun 13 - Super Bock Super Rock - Lisbon, PR
Fri Jul 21 - bluedot - Macclesfield, UK
Sat Aug 26 - Thing Festival - Washington, US
Tue Oct 10 - Shepherd’s Bush Empire - London, UK

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