The man who once told us he loved us from the bottom of his pencil case, Beautiful South co-founder Dave Hemingway is in York this Friday with his new band Sunbirds.

The group, featuring South colleague, guitarist/songwriter Phil Barton, new discovery singer/violinist Laura Wilcockson and drummer Marc Parnell, will be at The Crescent from 8pm.

Their album ‘Cool To Be Kind’ was released in November 2020, on the independent label Nectar Records.

Although born and bred in England, the band’s sound predominantly features the instrumentation of traditional American roots music combined with the occasional outburst of guitar heavy melody more associated with Seattle in the late 80’s/early 90’s.

But Dave said: "Although a lot of the songs have an Americana feel. They're still about life in England. You’re going to feel a bit daft singing about pick-up trucks and low down honky-tonks when you live in Yorkshire.”

Their debut album produced by cult producer Teo Miller, captures truthful, open-hearted, funny and sometimes painfully honest songs, turning the page to a new chapter for Dave Hemingway and The Beautiful South story.

‘Cool To Be Kind’ is the result of a few transitional years in Dave and Phil’s individual personal worlds. It tells tales that cover contemporary themes as well as age-old matters of the heart and soul - all viewed through the bottom of a recently drained pint glass.

Phil said: “Now we’re Sunbirds we’re free to dig a little deeper into ourselves having said that, there’s no exact science here, we’re just enjoying ourselves and expressing whatever we want whether it’s about love, longing, depression or Gary Lineker’s crisp adverts”.