LLOYD COLE SMALL ENSEMBLE DEBUT CONCERTS JANUARY 2010

Small Ensemble Poster

The Small Ensemble:

Lloyd Cole - Vocals, guitars and banjo
Mark Schwaber - Guitars and mandolin
Matt Cullen - Guitars and banjo

BIOGRAPHY:

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions released their debut 'Rattlesnakes' in 1984 to near universal acclaim and success. A few years later it made the New Musical Express 'Top 100 Allbums of All Time' list. The band released two more albums and toured extensively before splitting in 1988. LC then moved, albeit inadvertently, to New York City and released four solo albums, which were critically well received, sold reasonably around the world, but not the return on their investment that Polygram Records had hoped, and after only one hit single - 1995's 'Like Lovers Do' - in 1998 the artist and label agreed to part company.

Since then LC has relocated to New England, releasing albums through various independent labels and continuing to garner critical favour while evading commercial radio play - his last two - 2003's Music in a Foreign Language and 2006's 'Antidepressant' were released through One Little Indian in N. America and Sanctuary in the rest of the world.

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions reformed for the month of October 2004 to mark the 20th anniversary of 'Rattlesnakes', playing sold out concerts in Glasgow, Dublin and London. LC continues to tour the world as a solo acoustic performer.

Lloyd Cole

PAST COLLABORATIONS:

These days I am a solo performer.

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions were Neil Clark (guitars), Blair Cowan (keyboards), Lawrence Donegan (bass), Stephen Irvine (drums) and myself (vocals, guitar).

My first two solo albums had an excellent studio band - Fred Maher (drums), Matthew Sweet (bass), Robert Quine (electric guitar), Blair Cowan (keys) and myself (electric and acoustic guitars and keys). In 1997, I formed a New York bar band - The Negatives. The idea being to try to get back to music being something to do for fun, not to make a living. My time with these musicians was the best I've had making music - Jill Sobule (lead and rhythm guitar, vocals), Michael Kotch (lead and rhythm guitar), Dave Derby (bass, vocals), Rafa Maciejak (drums) and myself (lead and rhythm guitar, vocals). The Negatives never disbanded, we are just on sabbatical. I played keyboards in Derby's band Brilliantine for a few years in the late '90s and early '00s.

Since the Negatives I have toured as a folksinger, occasionally with the help of Neil Clark on the guitar.

AVAILABLE FROM LLOYDCOLE.COM

CLEANING OUT THE ASHTRAYS:

a four volume collection of b-sides and rarities 1990 - 2006

"Lloyd Cole is one of the finest, and mightily talented, singer-songwriters of the past 25 years. 10/10" Americana Music Review UK

"there are swathes of great music tucked away on this 59-tracker, some inclusions as good as anything on his debut masterpiece Rattlesnakes" Record Collector

"two decades of thoughtful, literate pop . . . one of our finest songwriters" Independent on Sunday (UK)

“A fine introduction to an impressive canon of work” Q Magazine

“lovely stuff, and at it’s best . . . Cole surpasses his influences to create plangent, lyrical pop” Uncut