Hen & Chicken

Comedy: Dan Tiernan & Guests
2025-05-16 20:00 - 22:30 UTC | Hen & Chicken Studio
Stand Up For The Weekend with Dan Tiernan featuring Dave Chawner & compere Meryl O’Rourke

Headliner: DAN TIERNAN
Comedian Dan Tiernan made a big impact on the UK comedy circuit back in 2022 after winning both the BBC New Comedy Award and the British Comedian Of The Year, and if this wasn’t enough he was winner of the Best Newcomer at the ISH Comedy Awards in 2023 and nominated for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Festival the same year. Since then, Dan has also been nominated for the Next Big Thing by the British Comedy Guide in 2025. With all of these accolades it does make you wonder where Dan can go from here.
Dan is hugely in demand and has performed at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Ireland, and the BBC Comedy Festival, and has appeared on various radio and TV shows including The Last Leg, Live At The Apollo, 8 Out Of 10 Cats does Countdown, and The Stand Up Sketch Show.
“Raucously entertaining” The Guardian

Jazz: Ross Hicks Trio
2025-05-15 20:00 - 22:30 | Chicken Shed
Ross Hicks is a young Cardiff based pianist who made a great impression on a short tour with saxophonist Simon Spillett in 2023 and played his debut trio gig at the Be-Bop Club in 2024.
“Hicks was a revelation, ideas emerged and developed and injected drama even as the pieces unfolded at near terminal velocity” – Mike Collins [jazzyblogman].
Presenting music from his first album ‘Three Elms’, Ross and his talented co-conspirators will play a mix of original compositions and some other contemporary tunes. The album is a series of original compositions and is the result of a wide array of influences with an original spin – “an intelligent and intriguing piece of writing” – The Jazz Mann.
Ross is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama now working as a full time freelance musician, and has formed his trio featuring two of the Be-Bop Club’s favourite players.
Nick Kacal is a bassist originally from Trinidad, but has roots in London and a presence on the Manchester but now residing in South Wales. After studying with Tony Hougham, the principle bass of the Covent Garden Opera, he moved to London and has played as a sideman on the scene playing predominantly jazz and acoustic folk, occasionally touring to places such as Cape Verde, France and Spain. He formed his own group, Guerillasound, releasing a CD in 2008 and touring successfully in Japan.
Drummer Andy Tween is one of Bristol’s busiest musicians who has in the past toured with Pee Wee Ellis and Seth Lakeman, and more recently with rock band Curved Air. He teaches at Wells Cathedral School and is also a composer who has had his work used by the BBC and the Discovery Channel.
Have a listen to their album promo here: Three Elms

Talk: The Art of Tim Burton: Exploring Dark Fantasy and Gothic Aesthetics
2025-05-14 19:30 - 21:30 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Characterised by dark, uncanny imagery and an off-beat persona, Tim Burton has cultivated a reputation as an eccentric and irreverent filmmaker. Spanning both live-action and animation, his work applies a macabre twist to everything from superhero and sci-fi films to biographical dramas and musicals. However, it is through stop-motion animation that Burton’s grotesque monsters and misfits truly come to life, allowing him to explore themes of bodily difference, disfigurement, and disassembly.
In this talk, Dr Christopher Holliday, a Senior Lecturer in Liberal Arts and Visual Cultures Education at King’s College London, examines how Burton’s fascination with unstable, conflicted bodies is enhanced by stop-motion’s inherent strangeness. We will trace his artistic beginnings at the California Institute of the Arts, his early work at Disney, and his departure to develop a gothic-inspired counter-style. By exploring Corpse Bride (2005) and Frankenweenie (2012), this talk reveals how Burton’s haunting aesthetic has shaped his legacy as a Hollywood outsider. By reflecting on Burton’s contribution to the development of animation as an art form over the last forty years, Dr Chris Holliday reveals how his haunting visual style has come to symbolise the career of a filmmaker whose identity has remained increasingly difficult to place.

Dr Christopher Holliday is Senior Lecturer in Liberal Arts and Visual Cultures Education at King’s College London. He has published widely on Hollywood cinema and animation history, and is the author of The Computer-Animated Film: Industry, Style and Genre (2018) and co-editor of Fantasy/Animation: Connections Between Media, Mediums and Genres (2018) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: New Perspectives on Production, Reception, Legacy (2021). He has written multiple book chapters and articles on animation and contemporary media culture for academic publications, as well as for Total Film, The Independent, and The Conversation, and spoken on animation around the world, including at the British Film Institute and Cinema Museum in London and recently at the Annecy Film Festival in France. He can also be found as the curator and creator of the website, blog, and podcast Fantasy/Animation.

Music: Abigail Lapell / Steph Cameron
2025-05-13 20:00 - 23:00 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Abigail Lapell
Toronto songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Abigail Lapell returns with Anniversary, an evocative collection of original love songs. The album balances upbeat earworms with elegiac ballads, ultimately emerging as an earnest celebration of commitment. Anniversary was recorded at 200-year-old St. Mark’s Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, co-produced with Great Lake Swimmers’ Tony Dekker, who helped shape the project’s spooky, resonant sound while lending his voice to a few spellbinding duets.

Steph Cameron
SPILL MAGAZINE “Steph Cameron made waves with her debut record Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady (2014), an effort that garnered its fair share of acclaim and rave reviews. Her sophomore release, Daybreak Over Jackson Street shares the same heartfelt spirit and intimacy that drew listeners in the first time around. After a great deal of touring and writing, the roots singer returns with tracks that reflect a confident songstress with maturity, experience and an empathetic eye.”
FOLK RADIO UK “It’s not unusual for artists plying an Americana trade to be likened to such names as Townes Van Zandt, John Prine and Bob Dylan, but the artists in question are usually men. It’s rare for a female singer to attract such comparisons. Vancouver’s Steph Cameron is both an exception and exceptional

Music: Firestations
2025-05-10 19:30 - 23:00 | Chicken Shed
Here Comes Midnight Presents Firestations
We’re excited to be back with one of our favourite bands, Firestations! Playing a beautiful stripped-back show from their new album and beyond, this will be warm and layered treat.
In the Chicken Shed with support from Melinda Bronstein and Andy Skellam.
————-
Many White Horses is the brand-new album by eclectic London art-pop ensemble Firestations. Set for release on Lost Map Records on limited-edition 12” vinyl and via digital services on April 25, 2025, the album is a collection of sea-soaked acoustic songs and instrumentals, interwoven with field recordings and lyrics drawn from the immediate surroundings of a sailing expedition, all brought together with warm, textured production.
Firestations are Mike Cranny, Laura Copsey, Martin Thompson (aka Bit Cloudy), Tom Hargreaves and Neil Walsh. Their music spans genres from shoegaze to alt-pop and harmony-driven psychedelia. Their second album and their debut for Lost Map, The Year Dot, released in 2018, was followed by sonic collage album Dream Home in 2020 and the Automatic Tendencies EP project in 2020-21. The latter took the form of three EPs over a six-month period, each including alternative “sunken” versions by the band as well as covers and remixes of the band’s tracks by other artists. Thick Terrain, released in 2023, saw Firestations return to album format with ten tracks ranging from hypnotic sci-fi landscapes to addictive dream-pop jangles, exploring ideas around identity, conflict, progress and sanity.
———–
Melinda Bronstein – Melinda is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, photographer and filmmaker currently living in Margate. She started as keyboardist and backing singer for Americana-tinged Absentee, before shifting to the drums for grungy Wet Paint, indie-rockers Singing Adams and many other bands in between including, in recent years, as percussionist and backing singer with The Leaf Library.
Her band Sea Glass, a collaboration with Matt from The Leaf Library, was her first outing as the main vocalist and songwriter, a situation that has opened the door to an outpouring of solo recordings. In Reverse was recorded at home between March 2020 and February 2021, a year of massive shifts, it is haunted by a very human introspection, an unease manifesting in buried loops, vocal drones and cyclical lyrics.
Purely intuitive in her approach, Melinda fully immersed herself in using improvisation to explore the voice as multi-faceted instrument, the poised hum of experimentation clear throughout the album. As she says, “I approach making music without any expectation, plan or idea of what will come out. The un-knowing is the exciting part which allows me to surprise myself. I follow a thread and keep weaving. Once a piece is finished I listen back as though it did not come from me” – a reminder that expression will find its way out by any means.
In Reverse is the eleventh release on The Leaf Library’s Objects Forever label, and is the first joint release with Detroit label Metaphysical Powers run by artist, writer and producer Kristen Gallerneaux and writer Bernie Brooks.
————————–
Andy Skellam – Andy’s music has been said to play like a surreal dreamscape, perhaps because it is the product of late nights spent hunched over a guitar beside the glowing embers of a fire whilst everyone sleeps. It has spawned from the dusty corners & dank barns of his feral childhood wedged roughly between Welsh mountains and English riverbeds.
“Andy Skellam’s Brighten Up the Place (Pear O’Legs) is a lovely, somnambulist set of songs about wayward hearts, bluebirds and bloodhounds, made intimate in every soft squeak of its chord changes, the whispery husk of Skellam’s voice, and the drawing bows of a cello.” – The Guardian

Music: The Deep Dark Woods (solo)
2025-05-09 20:00 - 23:00 | Hen & Chicken Studio
One might be tempted to think of the Deep Dark Woods as a band steeped in capital-T tradition, and that may be true, but now nearly two decades into their life as one of Canada’s finest folk-roots ensembles, that tradition is one of their own invention. The voice of founding member Ryan Boldt sits at the forefront of the band, and it doesn’t take long to reveal that he is a master of subtlety and shading, working in the lineage of iconic singers like Bob Dylan, Bert Jansch, Rick Danko, and Jason Molina. Boldt, a relentless lifelong listener of music, says “It’s all I do. When I’m not playing music, I’m listening to it, trying to find songs that make me feel an aching pain in my chest.” Accordingly, his singing is full of highly emotive nuance and an elegant, relaxed precision that makes it seem downright effortless, a perfect vehicle for the band’s particular brand of updated folk music. Fellow travellers like keyboard whiz Geoff Hilhorst, veteran drummer Mike Silverman, and Evan Cheadle round out the Deep Dark Woods unit, and they are often assisted by like-minded collaborators such as singer-songwriter Ellen Froese, Erik Nielsen, Leon Power, and the acclaimed duo Kacy & Clayton. This crew creates a powerful combination and has amassed a pile of celebrated albums, EPs, and a host of nominations from music awards outfits from across the country. Together they recall classic units like The Band, mid-period Wilco, and American Beauty-era Grateful Dead, but also legendary late ’60s UK groups like Fairport Convention, Pentangle, and Steeleye Span.
Which brings us to the Deep Dark Woods’ latest album, Broadside Ballads, Vol.III. Intertwined amongst their albums of original material, Deep Dark Woods has been steadily building up a series of releases called Broadside Ballads, focusing on traditional Irish, English, and Scottish folk songs. It’s a fitting tribute to the music that influenced Boldt’s writing and singing since first forming the band, and like their forebears, Deep Dark Woods aims to take their own experiences of traditional music and create something new and vital. The songs in this collection mine some of the more brutal depths of human experience, touching on broken hearts, love, murder, and the act of leaving. Boldt notes that “there are not too many jolly songs in there”, but the album is not a dour affair, instead benefiting from tasteful, unstated arrangements and an organic, no-frills recording sound. The songs on Vol.III generously display The Deep Dark Woods’ deep-seated links to the past while still sounding just like themselves.
A brand new album of original music recorded by David Parry (Loving, Alice Phoebe Lou) will be released on Victory Pool throughout 2025 complimented by tours of the UK, Canada, and Europe.

Jazz: Dan Newberry Quartet
2025-05-08 20:00 - 22:30 | Chicken Shed
Saxophonist Dan Newberry holds a Masters from the Royal Welsh College and is one of the brightest rising stars of the scene. He studied with sax great Iain Ballamy from an early age, and has acquired an appreciation of all styles of jazz sax, able to switch from 30s swing to the most contemporary sounds in an instant.
Tom Berge is a jazz pianist and music teacher with a 1st Class Honours (BA) in Jazz Piano (Leeds College of Music) and an MA in Composition for Film and TV (Bristol University). He plays regularly with his own trio across the UK and has tutored at the Yamaha Jazz School in Falmouth and at the Dordogne Jazz Summer School.
Bassist Henrik Jensen moved from Denmark to London in 1997 and is a graduate of the Royal Academy. He has toured the world from Tokyo to Moscow with various modern jazz projects and also as part of the band for close harmony group The Puppini Sisters. Henrik has previously appeared at the club as band leader with his quartet Followed By Thirteen
Drummer Scott Hammond has spent years touring the world with Jethro Tull, but between trips he is heard on Bristol’s jazz scene with the Hopkins Hammond Organ Trio and 1970s Herbie Hancock/Weather Report influenced funk project Jingu Bang.

Theatre: BOUNCERS
2025-05-06 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-05-06 19:30 - 21:00, 2025-05-04 14:30 - 16:00 | Chicken Shed
A hilarious comedy by John Godber
Get ready to laugh until your sides hurt at this uproarious comedy by the talented John Godber. Join us at the Hen & Chicken for a night of non-stop entertainment as we follow the antics of a group of bouncers at a local nightclub. With witty dialogue and hilarious situations, this play is sure to leave you in stitches. Don’t miss out on this unforgettable evening of laughter!

Music: The Anna Howie Band - Good For Roses Tour
2025-05-03 19:30 - 22:30 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Anna will be playing with her wonderful band, Andy Evans- guitar, Roger Nunn – drums, John Brooker – Bass
Anna worked as a session singer and backing vocalist for 25 years during which time she gigged across Europe and did live Radio 2 sessions with Brian May. Anna’s first solo EP ‘An Idiots Guide to Love’ recorded in 2019 in Nashville and produced by Grammy Award Winner Bob Britt went straight to Number 5 in the UK country charts.
In March 2022 Anna released her debut album ‘The Friday Night Club’ named after a Facebook Live Stream she started from her front room during lockdown which went on to have nearly 2 million views.
The album produced by Lukas Drinkwater at Polyphonic Studios is made up of 11 self-penned songs telling tales of lockdown loneliness and human triumph described as ‘Americana with a very British twist ‘ The Friday Night Club’ was released across all platforms on the 25th March on the Absolute Label ( Sony/Universal )
‘Angels Among Us’ the first single released from the album became song of the week across BBC the South with ’ The Friday Night Club ‘ itself becoming one of Maverick Magazines Top Picks
In 2023 Anna released 2 singles – ‘How to Stop Crying’ and ‘Searching for Christmas’
Anna was one of Black Deer Festivals Emerging Artists for 2023 and was a Pilton Stage Finalist at Glastonbury
‘Good for Roses’ was recorded with Anna’s band at Real World Studios, the home of Peter Gabriel. produced by Kris Wilkinson Hughes it is also to be released on the Absolute Label ( Sony/Universal). Out on April 18th 2025, It is a collection of songs about searching for the beauty in the everyday, the light in the dark, the roses in the shit !.
www.annahowiemusic.com

Music: Marginal Gains and special guest DJ Bernie
2025-05-02 20:00 - 23:30 | Chicken Shed
Marginal Gain returns playing a selection of 90s and early 00s rock and indie, including Ash, Arctic Monkey’s, Blur, Green Day, Nirvana, Oasis, Pulp, Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Killers, and many more.

Comedy: MC HAMMERSMITH TOUR 2025
2025-05-02 20:00 - 23:00 | Hen & Chicken Studio
MC Hammersmith is the world’s leading freestyle rapper to emerge from the ghetto of middle-class west London. He presents an evening of improvised comedy raps based on your suggestions.
Featuring brand-new routines for 2025! You’ll leave astounded at the speed of his brain, the spontaneity of his punchlines, and the stability of his upbringing. Jaw-dropping, hilarious, utterly unbelievable.

Jazz: Sexteto Gringo
2025-05-01 20:00 - 22:30 | Chicken Shed
Andy Hague – trumpet, Ben Waghorn – tenor sax, Jim Blomfield – piano, Chris Jones – bass, Lisa Cherian – congas, Mark Whitlam – drums
Trumpeter Andy Hague ran his popular salsa/jazz octet Conjunto Gringo from 2010 to 2018, and now presents a slimmed down sextet version to play rearranged versions of the Conjunto repertoire, plus lots of new ones. Aiming to please equally both the jazz and salsa audiences the set contains latin-jazz classics from Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk, combined with a few Hague originals.
The regular jazz quintet line-up is expanded to sextet for this project by the addition of Lisa Cherian on congas – a pretty much ubiquitous face in the Bristol music scene, Lisa seems to play in nearly every band that relies on a strong groove – Mankala, Jingu Bang, K’Chevere, Aji Pa’ Ti and World Government to name but a few.
Well known in Bristol’s jazz scene, in 2019 Andy Hague played for the first time with legendary UK jazz composer Mike Westbrook as part of his Uncommon Orchestra, and post-Covid the band has appeared at Cheltenham and Cambridge Jazz Festivals, the Rossini Festival in Lugo, Italy and Ronnie Scott’s 2022 and 2023.
Long-term associate saxophonist Ben Waghorn is a versatile musician who has worked in London’s West End and on many pop, TV, and film recordings. He can also be heard on recordings with Geoff Eales and Dave Stapleton [Slowly Rolling Camera]. Ben has also recently performed with the BBC Big Band and played in Singapore with the London Concert Orchestra.
Pianist Jim Blomfield has been a vital part of Bristol’s jazz scene for many years but is now gaining national recognition for his outstanding latin/salsa style playing. Besides performing with The Bristol Salsa Orchestra, Dockside Latin Orchestra and Dockside Revolutions, JIm has also played recently with salsa legend Roberto Pla at London’s Pizza Express. “Jim Blomfield is the best British pianist you’ve never heard of and is an absolute marvel” – Independent on Sunday. Bassist Chris Jones and drummer Mark Whitlam have also worked together with their own project We Are Leif, which has received a lot of air-play on Jazz FM.

Talk: Gut rot — Are ultra-processed foods the new tobacco?
2025-05-01 19:30 - 23:00 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Food entrepreneur and business owner, Charlie Bigham, and other speakers (TBC) will talk all about UPFs. We will find out why our supermarket shelves are still groaning with addictive crap that cause obesity and health problems. We will look at what can we do to stem the tide of sugar, fat and salt and how they are affecting our gut microbiome.

Talk: The Science of Magic Mushrooms with Dr David Luke
2025-04-29 19:30 - 21:30 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Unlock the mysteries of magic mushrooms – their potential to heal depression, enhance brain connectivity and much more. Followed by Q+A.

We are currently in a psychedelic renaissance and Magic Mushrooms are one of the key areas of research for scientists around the world. Recent studies have shown that psilocybin, the active ingredient in the plant, can heal depression, enhance connectivity in the brain and even result in an increase in participants’ gardening! Join Dr. David Luke as he explains the chemistry, neuroscience and psychology of Magic Mushrooms.
Doors open at 7pm, talk starts at 7.30pm – come down early to grab a bite to eat
Dr David Luke is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Greenwich. His research focuses on transpersonal experiences, anomalous phenomena and altered states of consciousness, especially via psychedelics, having published more than 100 academic papers in this area, including ten books, most recently Otherworlds: Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience. When he is not running clinical drug trials with LSD, conducting DMT field experiments or observing apparent weather control with Mexican shamans he directs the Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness salon and is a cofounder and director of Breaking Convention: International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness.

Comedy: Alun Cochrane & Guests
2025-04-26 20:00 - 22:30 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Stand Up For The Weekend with Alun Cochrane featuring Sam Picone & compere Tom Glover

Award-winning Alun Cochrane has appeared on numerous TV shows over the many, many years he has been a professional stand up comic, including his own show on BBC Radio 4, Alun Cochrane’s Fun House. He was also the co-host of The Frank Skinner Show on Absolute Radio, for which he received an Arqiva Award nomination for Best Newcomer. The show also won a Sony Award for Best Entertainment Programme.

Alun Cochrane is a master at observational comedy, an expert in storytelling and uniquely able to gather material from anywhere he wanders in mind or body.
“Cochrane’s on-stage persona is allied to a real craft and creativity in his writing, yielding results that satisfy both the comedy purists and those who simply want big belly laughs on a night out” The Guardian

Jazz: Sophie Stockham Quartet - Tribute to Lou Donaldson
2025-04-24 20:00 - 22:30 | Chicken Shed
Sophie Stockham – saxes, Adam Stokes – guitar, Ruth Hammond – organ, Matt Brown – drums
The Sophie Stockham Quartet pay tribute to the great Hard Bop saxophonist Lou Donaldson. Known for his soulful bluesy approach to the saxophone, Donaldson was one of the pioneering voices in Hard Bop during his time with Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers and Horace Silver.
Saxophonist and composer Sophie Stockham Brown (Starlings, Orphic, Dakhla, Sefrial, Cut Capers) works across a raft of musical styles as collaborator and in demand session musician. Her original projects have received national radio play and she has performed for BBC Introducing’s ‘Best of New Jazz’ at Montreal Jazz festival and The BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. Most recently Stockham has released her debut album for sax and string quintet ‘Ria’ and has composed and performed a suite of music for the Bristol Met Orchestra. Her rich tone, great feel and endlessly melodic soloing draws comparisons with the likes of Paul Desmond and Charlie Rouse.
Adam Stokes is an up-and-coming guitarist blending Jim Hall style melodic development with Thelonious Monk’s angular dissonances. He is known on the Bristol scene as the host of the Stag and Hounds jam session where he has played with the who’s who of Bristol jazz. Ruth Hammond (Hopkins Hammond Trio, Jingu Bang, Starlings, Brass Junkies) is Bristol’s top improvising multi-instrumentalist, equally at home performing at Ronnie Scott’s, The National Theatre or a Serbian Castle on all number of woodwinds and keyboards. Matt Stockham Brown (6161, ex-Run Logan Run, Sefrial, Modulusiii, Orfic) is a busy touring drummer who has performed with the likes of Gregory Porter, Pee Wee Ellis and Andy Sheppard.

Music: Niall McCabe
2025-04-24 20:00 - 22:30 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Solo performance
Acoustic / Nu-folk with a soulful twist from Irishman, Niall McCabe.
Having earned a reputation as one of Ireland’s finest singers and songwriters McCabe has performed extensively with his Folk-Soul group The Niall McCabe Band over the past decade. Born on Clare Island, Co.Mayo, McCabe grew up in the family run pub awash with strong musical influences from traditional Irish and folk to rock and soul. It is here that Niall discovered his musical appetite and developed a style and voice that are unquestionably his own.

As well as becoming an accomplished finger-stlye guitar player, more recently Niall has been lending his unique voice to Irish trad-fusion band Beoga touring Ireland, Europe and the USA while also playing support for Ed Sheeran, Foy Vance and Johnny Swim.

McCabe’s eagerly anticipated ‘Rituals’ album was release in February 2023 to critical acclaim and featured as RTE Album of the Week, while the song Rituals topped the RTE Radio airplay charts for five consecutive weeks.

RITUALS ‘…the weight of personal experience and reflection makes it a masterpiece, in the true sense of the word’ IRISH MUSIC MAGAZINE
‘A Sentimental Soulful Debut’ – 7/10 HOTPRESS Magazine
‘On my third listen of Niall McCabe’s brand new album ‘Rituals’ I continue to find new things that I like about the album. Like that movie that deserves at least two viewings before you can appreciate it for what it is.’ – FINBAR HOBAN PRESENTS
STONEMASON ‘…the strength of this song is already so clear within a few measures’ – Eliot Lipp (Alchemical Records)
‘…an incredibly talented singer-songwriter and his song ‘Stonemason’ is one of the best I’ve ever heard’ – Miriam O’Callaghan (RTE Radio 1)

Music: Mark Eitzel from American Music Club.
2025-04-22 20:00 - 23:00 | Hen & Chicken Studio
An evening, close up and personal, with songs from American Music Club and Solo, performed acoustically by this iconic artist.

Music: Sam Outlaw Plus Special Guest, Hannah Aldridge.
2025-04-21 20:00 - 23:30 | Hen & Chicken Studio
After a wonderful show in The Studio in March 2022, Sam Outlaw returns Bristol with his new album Terra Cotta
Sam Outlaw is a southern Californian based singer-songwriter steeped in the music and mythos of west coast country, absorbing the classic vibes of everything from ’60s Bakersfield honky-tonk to ’70s Laurel Canyon troubadour pop and refashioning them into a sound that’s pleasurably past, present and future tense.

Special guest Hannah Aldridge.
Hannah Aldridge grew up on the muddy banks of Muscle Shoals—her birthright is music and Alabama. A reckoning between her coming-of-age in the South and a lifetime of trying to create an identity outside of it, her songs strike a delicate balance between rebellion and self-discovery. These two themes weave through Aldridge’s gifted storytelling, making for records that soothe like a lullaby and crack like a whip. For those raised in the Bible Belt, Aldridge’s music sounds like the voice of an old friend who understands. For those not in the know, her music is an initiation to the dark side of the South, Christian fundamentalism and the struggle to forge a future in a place haunted by its past.

Sam & Hannah will be joined on stage by the wonderful Demi Marriner.

Music: Sarabeth Tucek CANCELLED
2025-04-18 20:00 - 23:00 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are sorry to announce the cancellation of this show
CRH Music, by arrangement with Outsider Artists, present …
Sarabeth Tucek
Her 2023 double album release, Joan of All has garnered impressive critical acclaim.
SBT and her music are the product of America, and whilst sounding somehow familiar is unlike anything that has come before – it is an utter rejection of pastiche.
American singer-songwriter Sarabeth Tucek returned in 2023 after a decade-long intermission with the new moniker SBT and her long-awaited third album ‘Joan Of All’, which was issued world-wide on her own imprint Ocean Omen.
After the first single “The Gift” received heavy play on BBC Radio 6 Music courtesy of Marc Riley, Gideon Coe and Cerys Matthews, anticipation for the new double-album kicked into high gear, and it did not disappoint, hailed by critics and fans alike as her masterwork.
She followed up by mounting three full-band tours of the UK which saw her perform the epic ‘Joan Of All’ in its entirety. SBT now returns to the UK and Ireland in April/May 2025 for a very special, intimate set of acoustic shows with her longtime producer Luther Russell which will cut a swath through her whole catalog, including her classic self-titled debut, the much beloved sophomore album ‘Get Well Soon’ and of course the genre-defying, ‘Joan of All’.
“A glorious peak” ––MOJO ⅘****

Comedy: Tom Lawrinson BURIED ALIVE (AND LOVING IT)
2025-04-17 20:00 - 22:30 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Everything is awful but that’s okay, argues Tom Lawrinson in his ridiculously entertaining show about family and growing up in a Spanish subterranean cave. A show for siblings who shared a rubbish childhood and comedy fans alike.
“He has an eye for the mundanely absurd which is truly unique, with an execution that is joyfully daft.” – Rolling Stone (Top 12 shows of the Edinburgh Fringe)

Jazz: Daan Temmink Trio
2025-04-17 19:30 - 22:30 | Chicken Shed
Daan Temmink – piano, Duncan Kingston – bass, Rob Brian – drums
The Daan Temmink Trio blends cinematic classical and jazz colours with sophisticated, emotive melodies and harmonies. Pianist and award-nominated film composer Daan Temmink, Grammy-winning drummer Robert Brian (Siouxsie Sioux, Loreena McKennitt), and Bristol-based bassist Duncan Kingston (Matt Owens) bring years of playing together, creating an intuitive and tightly connected sound. Moving seamlessly from whispering quiet moments to energetic Latin grooves, their performances are captivating and vibrant.

Talk: The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
2025-04-14 19:30 - 21:30 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Unravel one of history’s greatest thinkers exploring the ‘death of God’, the meaning of life, and the value of our values. Followed by Q&A.

‘God is dead’ proclaimed Nietzsche in 1882, a saying which has become world-renowned alongside his recognition as a philosopher of ‘nihilism’. Nietzsche is one of the key figures to address the decline in religion in Europe alongside increasing modernisation and what this means for life’s fundamental questions. If a higher power doesn’t exist, then what do our lives mean? Similarly in a largely post-religious society, how can we think about universal values?
Join Dr Elliott to explore Nietzsche’s key ideas. First, we will assess the importance of the famous ‘death of god’ message from Nietzsche’s The Gay Science, exploring its implications for thinking about nihilism, commonly understood as the absence of any ultimate value or meaning to life. We will also address the nuances of Nietzsche’s own position about what nihilism really is. Secondly, we will explore what tools or resources Nietzsche gives us for thinking about the meaning of our lives. We will look at the reasons for his rejection of traditional religious narratives about the meaning of life and take Nietzsche seriously about his claim to re-think the “value of our values”, and what possibilities are opened up to us in the wake of the death of God.
Doors open at 7pm, talk starts at 7:30pm – come down early to grab a good seat!
Follow us on IG @seedtalks
Dr Richard J. Elliott is Lecturer in European Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has published widely on Nietzsche and many other topics in modern European philosophy. He currently has a book under contract on the topic of Nietzsche and the Death of God with Cambridge University Press.

Comedy: Nabil Abdulrashid URBAN BATTUTA
2025-04-13 19:30 - 23:00 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Award-winning, international touring comedian Nabil Abdulrashid returns with a riotous new stand-up show.
As seen on Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News For You, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and the Last Leg. As heard on Off Menu with James Acaster and Ed Gamble and Hoovering with Jessica Fostekew.

Comedy: Stephen Grant & Guests
2025-04-12 20:00 - 22:30 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Stand Up For The Weekend with Stephen Grant featuring Funmbi Omotayo & Clint Edawrds
Headliner: STEPHEN GRANT

Stephen Grant is one of the UK’s funniest, hardest working and most respected comedians. Whether voicing animations, warming up TV audiences, presenting radio shows or hosting corporate award nights Stephen never fails to pull in the laughs.
Along with his clutch of awards and critical acclaim, it is not hard to see why Stephen is so popular, he possesses an energy and intellect which, when combined, make for dynamite comedy. His speed and dynamism create a magical energy which has audiences rapt and hanging on his every word.
“He’s famously pedantic, relentlessly logical and with the kind of comedy vision that can see round corners…” Chortle

Comedy: Rachel Fairburn - SIDE EYE
2025-04-11 20:00 - 22:30 | Hen & Chicken Studio
Rachel Fairburn, star of Live at the Apollo and co-host of All Killa No Filla, is a renowned stand up and “rock’n’roll star of British Comedy” (Rolling Stone). She’s bringing not only her “Bright, brave and bitterly enjoyable” (The Skinny) stand-up comedy out on the road but also some brand-new characters along for the ride. She is a “Huge presence in a pint-sized frame” (Chortle).
Co-host of International smash hit podcast All Killa No Filla and as seen on Live at the Apollo (BBC Two), Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled (Dave), Richard Osman’s House of Games (BBC Two) and Russell Howard Hour Life Lesson (Sky).

Comedy: MRS SMITH SEE ME!
2025-04-10 20:00 - 23:00 | Hen & Chicken Studio
EXTRA DATE DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND
Ever wondered what your teacher was thinking?
Let Facebook’s Mrs Smith enlighten you!
Following her sellout debut at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 she is stepping out from behind her mask of anonymity on tour, and is ready to tell all….
Content Warning: Please be aware that no photographs of the artist are allowed in order to preserve her anonymity.

Age restriction: 18+

Jazz: Simon Spillett
2025-04-10 20:00 - 22:30 | Chicken Shed
Our special guest soloist tonight is Simon Spillett, who over the past twenty years or so has established himself as one of the UK’s pre-eminent saxophonists. Simon is a firm advocate of straight ahead hard-swinging modern jazz, and his lack of pretention has made him a huge hit with the UK jazz audience, although he sometimes jokes online about his lack of eligibility for Arts Council grants.
Since his last visit in 2024 Simon has been busy promoting and performing the music from his big band album Dear Tubby H, featuring the cream of the UK jazz scene and dedicated to performing the arrangements of Tubby Hayes, many of which have not been heard performed live since Tubby passed away in 1973. Released in Sept 2023 the album has been immediately hailed as one of the most significant UK jazz recordings of recent years, and gained an extremely rare 5-star review in Jazzwise magazine. “Everything about this first-ever release on drummer Pete Cater’s new mister PC label exudes class. The look of the album, its design and booklet notes, the superb photography, the marvellous sound, but above all, the sheer fizzing intensity of the playing. It’s all here.” – Pete Vacher, Jazzwise.
Alongside his playing career Simon is also a jazz author and reviewer, perhaps best known for his biography of Tubby Hayes, “The Long Shadow of the Little Giant.” Both through his writing and his playing he has done a huge amount to bring the achievements of one of the UK’s most important jazz musicians to a whole new generation. Although able to sound uncannily like Tubby when he chooses to, Simon’s palette is broader than just one player and he is also highly knowledgeable about the styles of other saxophonists such as Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane.
Simon has won several awards, including the tenor saxophone category of the British Jazz Awards (2011), Jazz Journal magazine’s Critic’s Choice CD of the Year (2009) Rising Star in the BBC Jazz Awards (2007) and Services to British Jazz in the 2016 British Jazz Awards.
For tonight’s quartet performance Simon is backed by some of Bristol’s finest – Tim Funnell – piano, Will Harris – bass and Andy Hague – drums.
