We’re honoured to announce very special guest Pugwash will be supporting the entire Woodland Echoes UK tour this summer.

24/05 Brighton, Concorde 2
25/05 London, Islington Academy
31/05 Stockton-on-Tees, ARC
01/06 Birmingham, O2 Academy
02/06 Liverpool, O2 Academy
07/06 Glasgow, Òran Mór
08/06 Sheffield, O2 Academy
15/06 Oxford, O2 Academy
21/06 Cardiff, The Globe
22/06 Sturminster Newton, The Exchange
27/06 Horsham, The Capitol Theatre
28/06 Bath, Komedia
29/06 Eastleigh, The Concorde Club
06/07 Milton Keynes, The Stables

If you’re not already familiar with the brilliance that is Thomas Walsh, perhaps you could start with one of Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) favourites, ‘It’s Nice to be Nice’ from 2005’s Jollity album. We completely agree with Popmatters on this, it’s “eleven home-made songs that arrive fully realized, a collection of small melodic masterpieces”.

Or maybe start with ‘Apples’ one of Andy Partridge of XTC’s top tracks of 2002 from Almanac. At release it was named #61 in the Hot Press top 100 Irish albums of all-time and prompted Partridge to sign Pugwash to his Ape label and co-write several songs with him.

Or explore Walsh’s Ivor Novello nominated collaboration with Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, The Duckworth Lewis Method (the world’s greatest cricket pop combo).

Or how about one of Nick’s favourite tracks from the latest album, last year’s critically acclaimed Silverlake? Recorded in LA with Jason Faulkner (former member of Jellyfish, and respected solo artist who’s worked with everyone from Air to McCartney), it’s essentially a collaboration where Walsh wrote all 11 songs, arranged them, and played acoustic guitar. Faulkner played everything else (except strings), sang backing vocals and recorded/produced. The result is a classy pop-rock feast of Walsh’s endlessly hooky melodies and Falkner’s unmistakeable sonic footprint.

Were looking forward to the tour and hope to see you there.