Bull launch second album Engines Of Honey over two days at The Crescent with gigs, DJs, jamboree art fair, bingo, quiz… and curry

Bull: Two nights and a jamboree day at The Crescent to mark the release of Engines Of Honey

BULL, York’s “finest purveyors of jangling indie joy”, launch second album Engines Of Honey with a brace of home-city shows at The Crescent this weekend.

Their tour booker has sent the guitar-powered slacker pop quintet on a frankly bonkers itinerary, beginning in Brighton on March 14, where frontman Tom Beer slept on a bean bag – “a comfy, long bean bag,” he says – at his cousin’s house, followed by Bristol.

Next came Manchester on Saturday; Edinburgh on Sunday, where Tom took a restorative run up Arthur’s Seat first thing on Monday morning; Newcastle last night (20/3/2024); Glasgow tonight; then, back home to York after all that mileage, tomorrow and Saturday, before a London finale at the Windmill, Brixton, on March 28.

“Ex-tour booker,” jokes Tom in a Wednesday morning chat in the Explore York library hush of The Centre @ Burnholme.

“Rather than music, I’d been doing a lot of painting, some little doodles – one we used for the artwork for the Red Rooves single – now some bigger ones as well, though I’ve got no plans to exhibit them, but this tour has reinvigorated me massively, making me realise I do want to do more music.

“I’m now realising that life is a round thing, where you can do lots of different things. So I can do some music, some law, some painting, some gardening, some swimming pool construction.”

Playing plenty of squash and tennis too, sometimes against fellow York singer and songwriter Sam Griffiths of The Howl & The Hum. “I beat him at squash; he beats me at tennis,” says Tom.

Kai West’s cover artwork for Bull’s Engines Of Honey

We shall return to “some law” and “some swimming pool construction” later, but first the new album, Engines Of Honey, the title taken from a lyric (from Stranger), not a song title, in the tradition of the Pixies.

“Sam [Griffiths] says that when you bring something out it reminds you that you exist,” says Tom. “You can take it way too seriously, but it’s just some songs for people to listen to, and if people have like them, that’s great. The reaction to the album has been really good.”

Released on March 1, with distribution by AWAL, who did likewise for The Howl & The Hum’s Human Contact in 2020, Engines Of Honey is available via Bandcamp on CD and vinyl, and digitally too, but not at record shops.

Billed on Facebook as “our second greatest hits”, the album’s arrival has not been accompanied by the fanfare that met the alt-rock dandies’ March 2021 debut, Discover Effortless Living, after Bull became the first York band since Shed Seven to sign for a major label, fully ten years after their formation. £20,000 from EMI came their way, along with a further £5,000 backing for 2022 EP Stuck.

“Signing to EMI opened up a lot of doors in terms of the record being sold in places like HMV, which was a big deal for us, and brought us headlines. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy where people start taking you seriously,” says Tom.

Not everything went swimmingly, however. “We were going to put out another album with EMI and went down to London to meet them, but I had a bit of a burn-out after their 2022-23 tour, when I kind of realised I didn’t want to be focusing on music as much as I’d done before…so I started a new job.”

Tom had studied for a law degree at Newcastle University in earlier days. “I’m now working as a planning consultant for the gypsy and traveller community nationally, and I’m a trustee for the York Travellers Trust too. It’s about giving them stable private homes, but where they can live their traditional lifestyle,” he says.

“I’m working with lawyer Marc Willers, a leading King’s Counsellor on gypsy and traveller issues, who’s been such an inspiration to me. We met up last week when Bull were playing Brighton, and I’m considering doing a pupillage down there.”

Bull on the March tour trail: Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Glasgow, York, last stop London

Tom decided that Bull should not push for the second album with EMI. “It wasn’t the right fit, to be honest,” he reflects. “We’re a cult independent band from York, That’s what we are. We’re not going to be the next Wet Leg. We have cult appeal, a catalogue of 35 songs, and a small group of people around the world that like us, and that’s all we want.”

Twelve of those songs form Engines Of Honey, recorded by singer, guitarist and principal songwriter Tom, keyboard-playing sister Holly Beer, guitarist Dan Lucas, drummer Tom Gabbatiss and bassist Kai West with producer Remko Schouten in his Amsterdam studio, as was the case for Discover Effortless Living, with further recordings at Tom’s parents’ house in York. “Adding endless harmonies, shakers, timpani and saxophone,” as Tom puts it.

Bull are in a good place, says Tom. “It doesn’t matter that we didn’t do a second album with EMI. We’re happy where we are because you can’t make money from music unless you’re huge, and we were broke,” he says.

“I wasn’t making ends meet, so I needed to get a job. We’re not exactly business people. We tried but it kills it. I started taking things too seriously, but it’s only music. Though I feel very conflicted about it. I don’t feel I’ve quit, but I was working way too hard at it, to the point where I can’t do that any more.

“Music is much more personal than other careers; you feel it too deeply, where it would activate my ‘fight or flight’, so I had to stop doing it, but thankfully Holly and Dan and the rest of the band took over finishing the album, with Dan doing the lion’s share of the mixing.””

Bull: Playing a different set each night at The Crescent on Friday and Saturday

Bull have signed to new management; a further York live event is upcoming at the York Explore library on May 17, and recording plans are afoot already for two more albums, one with Renko Schouten at his new studio in rural Spain, the other, “super-lo-fi” in York.

“We’re trying to strike a deal with Renko to build him a guitar-shaped swimming pool on his land to cover making the next album,” says Tom. Polymath Kai is a builder among his multiple skills, should you be wondering.

Turning 30, Tom finds himself becoming more of a home bird. “I’m engaged; I want to have kids, make normal money from a job,” he says. “I had to give up on my rock’n’roll dream, which is unreal. Only Bob Dylan pulls off the never-ending tour, and I’m not sure how happy he is. I just want to be have friends around me. Be a good citizen for York.”

First up, Bull play two entirely different sets tomorrow and on Saturday with no repeats and DJ sets afterwards by Victor Alvarez, the Mexican-masked host of the Golden Ball’s Latin nights, Sophisticated Boom Boom DJs, from the Micklegate Social, DJ Dr Vic, DJ Georgie, probably Joe Coates and maybe Tom Beer too, picked from his record collection.

In between comes Saturdays’ free daytime jamboree, kicking off at 2pm with an art fair featuring Jade Blood, Harry Clowes, Kai West and Izzy Williamson and more. Ben Crosthwaite’s music quiz at 5pm will be followed by Jade Blood’s Art Bingo with prizes at 6pm.

Look out too for Bull’s homemade curry, cooked up by Kai West, and a memoraBullia exhibition with 20 Bull T-shirts down the years, posters, promotional artwork and record sleeve designs. MemoraBullia, Tom? “I came up with that!” he says.

Please Please You and Brudenell Presents present Bull at The Crescent, York, tomorrow, supported by FEET, from London, and Vehicle, from Leeds, 7.30pm. Tickets still available at thecrescentyork.com. Saturday, supported by Eugene Glorious and Fat Spatula, 7.30pm, sold out.

Album launch Saturday Daytime Jamboree, The Crescent, 2pm onwards; free entry. To buy Engines Of Honey, go to: https://bullband.bandcamp.com/album/engines-of-honey

Kai West’s poster artwork for Bull’s album launch weekender

Charles Hutchinson’s verdict on Big Ian’s A Night To Remember, York Barbican, 8/9/22

Master of ceremonies Big Ian Donaghy pays tribute to Her Majesty The Queen at the start of A Night To Remember. Picture: Karen Boyes

THE wait had been all too long. 922 days since the last blast of A Night To Remember, Big Ian Donaghy’s fundraising concerts for York charities at York Barbican.

Then, suddenly, Thursday afternoon’s focus turned northwards to Balmoral as the nation waited for updates on The Queen’s health, BBC news presenter Huw Edwards already in black tie.

Her Majesty’s passing was announced shortly after 6.30pm. “We’d had a day of chaos, setting up such a big show, uncertain what would happen,” said Big Ian post-show. “Would the show go on? Would it be pulled? Thankfully…the show must go on.”

A Night To Remember would be unthinkable without Jess Steel: Picture: Dave Kessell

Indeed it did, albeit with a few seats now empty as some ticket holders preferred to stay at home to take in the news. Out went the planned opening, a Boris Johnson satirical routine et al . Instead, a photograph of The Queen, against the backdrop of the Union Flag, filled the screen as a sombre Big Ian took to the stage to join the band, 12-strong brass section and multitude of singers.

“Right, I don’t care if you are a monarchist; I don’t care if you are an anarchist, I care that she was someone’s mam,” pronounced Ian, adding “grandmam” and “great grandmam” as he called on his conference-honed public-speaking skills to be the people’s laureate in that moment.

A minute’s silence and a spontaneous round of applause followed. Then, exit the regal elephant in the room, last respects paid, for one Queen to be succeeded so soon by another: Mercury’s Queen. What else could master of ceremonies Big Ian declaim but The Show Must Go On. Right song, right time, right note struck.

Annie Donaghy and Graham Hodge in tandem for Time After Time. Picture: David Harrison

The way these fast-moving nights work, songs are covered, if not in glory, then often spectacularly, affectionately, surprisingly, humorously, always heartily, and invariably with a wall of harmony from participants readily guesting on everyone else’s songs. As many as 30 can be performing at one time, never better than when the young players of the York Music Forum join Huge’s brass section.

In between come Big Ian’s rallying calls for donations, bonny lad bon-mots, quips and jests, and expressions of appreciation for the work of the night’s backers, Nimbuscare, and good causes, St Leonard’s Hospice, Bereaved Children Support York and Accessible Arts and Media.

Raising dementia awareness is another driving force, after the death of both Big Ian’s mother-in-law and father, his own work for this cause highlighted in a series of shorts films, two featuring women with dementia, one being introduced to playing pool, the other singing Yesterday with Ian as she was having her hair done.

Las Vegas Ken becomes York Barbican Ken. Picture: David Harrison

Later, he dug out a video clip of daughter Annie, then aged nine, paying lyrical tribute to her grandma at an earlier A Night To Remember at York Theatre Royal.

York’s very own best football commentator bar none, Guy Mowbray, popped up on screen from Old Trafford with a message of support, signing off with “dementia is a team game”. Lovely touch, Guy.

The hits kept on coming: Jess Steel, blowing away any remaining cobwebs with Ironic; Dan (Boss Caine) Lucas’s country take on Dire Straits’ Walk Of Life; Graham Hodge, Annie Donaghy and a saxophone solo for Time After Time; Big Ian leading the audience finger clicks and hand claps for Wham’s Edge Of Heaven.

Jessa Liversidge and Singing For All lap up the applause. Picture: David Harrison

First-half favourite? How about Heather Findlay, Jess Steel, Annie Donaghy and Beth McCarthy’s rendition of Abba’s Dancing Queen, the one song title of the night with resonance anew. Next, Las Vegas Ken brought the house down, as comprehensively as that Mecca Bingo demolition job across the road.

Kate Bush was an in-vogue choice after her Stranger Things resurrection, but rather than Running Up That Hill, Heather Findlay brought a shawl, fan flicks and theatricality to Babooshka. Musical director George Hall’s keyboard then brought out the crooner in Big Ian in Elton’s Your Song.

Such is the all-inclusive philosophy of these joyous concerts that performers’ ages range from 13 to 96, heralded at the start to the second half by Big Ian introducing Jessa Liversidge’s Singing For All choir, a breath of fresh air in song, with Jessa on keyboard and neighbour Gary Stewart on guitar for You’ve Got A Friend and Lean On Me.

Heather Findlay performing Babooshka. Picture: Dave Kessell

Gary, playing percussion throughout the night as he does for Hope & Social, later took the microphone with sweet-voiced swagger for Paul Simon’s 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, and Lean On Me made an unexpected comeback as George Hall’s party piece at the impromptu invitation of Big Ian.

The Y Street Band turned Shania Twain’s Man! I Feel Like A Woman on its head; Simon Snaize stepped out of the band to front Rod Stewart’s Maggie May, accompanied by Kieran O’Malley’s violin, whose beauteous impact on a song rivals The Waterboys’ Steve Wickham.

Hodge, O’Malley and The Y Street Band bonded over Stuck In The Middle With You; Findlay’s 13-year-old son, Harlan, took over the keyboard for her rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams.

Having a blast: Young musicians from York Music Forum playing in the 12-piece brass section

Into the final straight, Beth McCarthy pulled off yet another costume change for Tina Turner’s Simply The Best; Big Ian busted out his Travolta moves for Stayin’ Alive; Jess Steel celebrated seeing Diana Ross in Leeds with a supreme Chain Reaction, and Beth hurriedly found one more pink number for the Lulu part in the finale, Relight My Fire, alongside cheerleader Big Ian.

September 8 re-lit the fire for A Night To Remember in the most challenging circumstances. “How we did that, I’ve no idea. Less than an hour after The Queen’s death was announced. Making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear,” said Big Ian the next morning.

“A lifetime of standing up in front of people came to my rescue for a night to remember that no-one will ever forget.

Beth McCarthy giving it her all in Simply The Best. Picture: Dave Kessell

“I know some people love the monarchy and others do not. Yet I was given 1,400 people and a minute’s silence. I needed an angle to make it not about that.”

Big Ian found one; the audience, band and singers alike responded. The show did go on and how! Watch this space to learn the funding total raised for the three charities.   

“The only thing local about this show is the postcode,” concluded Big Ian. “The talent on stage and the generosity they show to one another is something quite unique.”

“How we did that, I’ve no idea,” reflected organiser and host Big Ian Donaghy in the aftermath of going ahead with A Night To Remember only an hour after The Queen’s passing was announced . Picture: David Harrison

To view more of David Harrison’s photographs of A Night To Remember, head to: https://dharrisonyorkphotos.smugmug.com/Music/ANTR-2022

Unforgettable York Barbican night raises £24,000. Big Ian Donaghy says Thank You

“WHEN money is at its tightest and families are struggling to make ends meet, our community and some of the finest musicians with the kindest hearts came together on September 8 at A Night To Remember to raise money for local causes,” says Big Ian.

“The final figure raised was a staggering £24,311. Not bad for a gang show and a big raffle with a group of mates!

“The night, now in its eighth year, has shone the spotlight on local causes and groups to not only provide much needed funds but also raise their profiles.

“The show featured a 30-piece house band made up of Huge, Kieran O’Malley, Gary Stewart and Simon Snaize and musicians from York Music Forum as they accompanied the likes of Jess Steel, Heather Findlay, Beth McCarthy and Graham Hodge.

“The night saw an 80-year age range of performers on stage as Singing for All -a fully inclusive singing group – had the auditorium sing with one voice.

“Who will benefit from this? St.Leonards Hospice, Bereaved Children’s Support York and Accessible Arts and Media, of which the Hands & Voices Choir are part.

“Rather than give money to larger charities, A Night To Remember supports smaller, local, bespoke projects that help people living with dementia and combatting loneliness.

“These include the gardening project York Hull Road Park Volunteers; bespoke dementia-friendly side-by- side art classes for people living with dementia and their carers, run by York artist Sue Clayton; Singing for All and Xmas Presence, giving older people who live alone a family Christmas and delivering lunches and hampers.

“We were uncertain if the show would even happen as it fell on the day the Queen died, but after having to make the official announcement, we opened with The Show Must Go On.

“This is York helping York. Thank-you to Nimbuscare for their invaluable support and to everyone on stage, back stage, front of house and in the audience.

A Night To Remember will return to York Barbican on Thursday, September 14 2023.

Today is the day to Discover Effortless Living in York as Bull release debut album

Band and the banner: Bull take to the River Ouse on the album launch day for Discover Effortless Living as the artwork hangs from Millennium Bridge, York

BAND formed: 2011. Debut album released on major label: March 26 2021. No wonder York alt-rock  dandies Bull rolled out a large banner of the cover artwork for Discover Effortless Living from Millennium Bridge today.

“It feels great. I’m really excited,” says songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Tom Beer, revelling in one of the most joyful stories in the history of York’s music scene, as the first buds of spring deliver Bull’s 13-track flourish on EMI Records, in conjunction with York promoters, producers and proponents of potent pop, Young Thugs.

“We’ve been working on bringing out the album all year [since signing to EMI last July] and it’s just exciting that it’s done and ready to go.”

Ten years to reach this zenith, and you thought elephants had a long gestation period. “We didn’t know we’d ever get to this point. We’d never bet on it,” admits Tom, after Bull became the first York act since Shed Seven in October 1993 to sign to a major label.

“It definitely feels all the more significant because it’s not only a year’s work. Everything we’ve done has been incremental, learning as we go, for years.”

Are Bull the hardest working band in York, Tom? “I’m not sure we can be called that! I’ll give that to The Howl & The Hum. Not that we haven’t worked hard, but we’ve always just done what we wanted to do. When you work at something you love, it’s not work, is it?” he says. “I’ve only just started calling it ‘work’ in recent years.”

Going Green: The artwork for Bull’s first single for EMI, a song written as long ago as 2012

Bull have hit the roof, in the best way possible. “We’ve just played a gig on the EMI roof,” reveals Tom. When? “Um…I only remember dates in the future.”

Sometime in March, anyway, as Tom, guitarist Dan Lucas, drummer Tom Gabbatiss and bass player and artist Kai West followed in the London footsteps of The Beatles in their last public performance on the Apple offices rooftop at Savile Row on January 30 1969 and U2 in a not-so-secret gig atop BBC Broadcasting House on February 27 2009 to launch their 12th album, No Line On The Horizon.

The Beatles, U2, what esteemed company Bull are keeping. “We’ve actually been called The English Beatles, which we quite liked!” says Tom.

“We had a few meetings at The Golden Ball [York’s first community co-operative pub in Cromwell Road] and came up with a few whacky ideas, and originally we thought we’d just try to play on the roof without telling EMI, just doing it on the day, maybe with the help of the janitor.”

Instead, it developed into a full-blown performance, playing all 13 tracks from Discover Effortless Living. “It will be broadcast on Jericho Keys’ BBC Music Introducing show on BBC Radio York tomorrow [27/3/2021, from 8pm],” says Tom.

“As for actually releasing it, we’re pitching it to various sources, but it will be available to watch via our Facebook site on a date to be confirmed.”

“Everything we’ve done has been incremental, learning as we go, for years,” says Bull’s Tom Beer on the day their debut album arrives

Bull made their little piece of rock’n’roll history on that rooftop. “Apparently we’re the first band to play on EMI’s offices, at the Universal Music building next to King’s Cross [Four Pancras Square, to be precise],” says Tom.

“It was insane! Like, the food that day was better than anything we’d eaten in years! The roof must be 20 storeys up. Brilliant up there, but cold. It was bracing to say the least. We even had a drone photographing us that looked as big as a helicopter! We’re editing that now.”

No fewer than seven singles were released from Michael Jackson’s 1982 album, Thriller, and Bull are on his tail with Eugene this week becoming the fifth from Discover Effortless Living, in the wake of Green, Bonzo Please, Love Goo and Disco Living.

Tom’s mini-symphony of self-flagellation spans the various stages of feeling down on yourself – from lethargy and frustration to anger – using tempo changes to “paint an audio picture”. In its brief visit of only two minutes and 38 seconds, the idiosyncratic song manages to be both melancholy and spritely at the same time.

“It’s a real kick-yourself-when-you’re-down song,” says Tom. “I wrote Eugene when I was feeling dissatisfied with what I was doing. It’s kind of a self-hate song, you know when people talk about self-love? It’s not that. I’m slating myself; it moves through the key changes and different moods, and ends in a way that mocks the sadness, another form of self-deprecation!”

One of the red apples from Bull’s animated video for new single Eugene

Recalling penning Eugene, Tom says: “I felt rubbish at the time but I did feel better for writing it. The problem is singing it for ten years, still having to revisit that apathy, but hopefully it’s preventative to getting back to that state.”

Mulling over the kick-yourself-when-you’re-down subject matter: “I used to listen to a lot of Elliott Smith [the American singer-songwriter who took his own life with a knife in 2003],” says Tom. “There’s a line in High Fidelity: ‘What comes first? The music or the misery? I had a down year when I wrote Eugene…but I think the answer might be ‘music’, though…”.

Who’s Eugene, Tom? “We used to name a lot of our songs around our original drummer Louis’s friends, such as Eddie’s Cap. We like the idea of giving the song a name, as opposed to lifting it from a lyric.

“Eugene is named after Joe G, Joseph G. Louis used to call him Gorgeous G. So Eugene. My brother Paddy’s band are called Eugene Gorgeous after this guy too.”

The video is an animated gem in a collaboration with artist friends of the band that reflects the song’s different moods. Band members Dan and Kai set the ball rolling with a burst of DIY Claymation before handing over to artists Jack Iredale, Rory Welbrock, Roxy Linklater and Tom’s sister, Holly Beer, who each tackled a different animation style.

York band Bull pictured in….Scarborough. Picture: Amy D’Agorne Craghill

“With all those key changes, the song’s a bit of a rollercoaster, and we wanted to mirror that in the visuals, splitting it into animated sections, but we also thought: ‘Does it need something to tie it together?’, so we made the arbitrary decision, or maybe not, that all the animations had to feature a red apple,” says Tom. First Adam and Eve, then Snow White, now Bull!

Summing up the album as “13 songs written and rocked on between the years 2012 and 2020”, Tom elaborates on the origin of the title: “It’s taken from the opening lyric to the final track, Disco Living. We wanted to use a lyric from the album and felt like this was a good one.

” I first saw the words Discover Effortless Living in London, written on the side of a mansion being built and thought it was funny. It also ties in with ideas around class, new beginnings, a golden era of prosperity, and hoping to have life ‘in the bag’.”

What would constitute “effortless living”, Tom? “I just think it’s a contradiction in terms. That’s what was funny about it. Effortless living? I don’t think anyone would want to discover it. Effort is surely worth the effort?” he says.

“My idea of discovering how to live is to take things slowly; finding joy in the little things; having lots of different things on the go at the same time, and not worrying about any of them too much. Maybe lockdown has been a necessary change of pace. A nice change of pace. It’s the first time I’ve had a routine since school.”

Spread out: The artwork for Bull’s debut album, Discover Effortless Living

Tom finds joy in going for walks. “I love walking in suburbia; it’s my favourite thing. I’ve always loved it. You have really good conversations on walks, and I love discovering roads and parts of communities I’ve not seen before,” he says.

Now those discoveries are as much in Scarborough as elsewhere after moving from York with girlfriend Martha – band member Dan’s sister – a year and a half ago.

“Martha is a midwife and it was either Oxford or Scarborough that she would be working in. It was time we lived together; we both liked Scarborough; it’s close, so I can go to York, rehearse all day, then get back to Scarborough.”

Tom and Martha are living in Castle Road. “We’re south-facing, so out of the window we have incredible views of the South Bay,” he says.

“In fact, Castle Road is where we made the album cover, at St Mary’s Church. We knew we wanted somewhere with beautifully green grass, the greener the better. I called the church up on the phone, to ask if we could use the churchyard [where Haworth novelist Anne Bronte is buried, by the way].

Richard Hawley pictured at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, for the album cover for Coles Corner

“I said, ‘can we have it between 10am and 5pm, if we clean up afterwards ourselves?’, and this man very kindly said ‘yes’.”

To create the cover image, Bull combined items they found on the street with “lots of flowers we picked”. “I hope they’ve grown back,” says Tom. “A bunch of people came up to ask ‘what are you  doing?’, and once we told them, they said, ‘oh, that’s nice’. Some people even sat and watched!”

And so, St Mary’s Church churchyard becomes the second Scarborough setting for a landmark album sleeve, after the Art Deco frontage of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, at the former Scarborough Odeon, graced the cover of Richard Hawley’s Coles Corner, released in September 2005.

The band portrait at the top of this interview was taken in Scarborough too by Amy D’Agorne Craghill. “There’s this amazing place on the North Bay. From the castle, you walk through the castle walls to woodland with all these orange-coloured rocks and that’s where Amy took it,” says Tom.

A further Bull image in Scarborough came about when they stumbled across 100 gnomes in a woman’s garden. Who could resist using gnomes for a picture? Not Bull. Permission was duly forthcoming.

What’s next? Bull in a china shop?

On the edge: “We didn’t know we’d ever get to this point. We’d never bet on it,” says Tom Beer of Bull’s progress to a major-label debut album

Track listing for Bull’s Discover Effortless Living: Bedroom Floor; Love Goo; Green; Shiny Bowl; Eugene; Eddie’s Cap; Serious Baby; Perfect Teeth; Find Myself A Job; Bonzo Please;
In A Jar; Smoke and Disco Living.