Son Of The Velvet Rat is the project of Austrian songwriter Georg Altziebler and his wife Heike Binder, who spend their lives commuting between central Europe and their other home in the high desert, four hours’ drive from LA. Which shows in their music that veers between sparsely arranged Americana and the European folk noir and chanson tradition. During their 5-album career they have collaborated with members of Wilco and Lucinda Williams. Live they are augmented by a full band of musicians from Austria and Serbia. This is their first London show.

A young man from Southern Austria hanging around LA, where he recorded his first album with producer Peter Kastner, multi-instrumentalist Critical Jim has the voice of a man twice his size and age (meant as a compliment). His country-tinged songs ooze an air of experience well beyond his years.

Seamus Fogarty released his first album God Damn You Mountain on revered Scottish indie label Fence Records in 2012, hailed by the Irish Times as ‘one of the best Irish albums of recent years.’  In September 2015 a new EP ‘Ducks & Drakes’ was released on Lost Map Records.  Fogarty’s first release to feature both hs present band mates, Emma Smith and Aram Zarikian,. Gideon Coe from BBC6 Music proclaimed the title track ‘Ducks & Drakes’ to be ‘one of the songs of the summer’. Meanwhile The Guardian singled out his December show in London with Rozi Plain as one of ‘the music gigs our writers loved most in 2015’.

Vienna-born, Canterbury-based singer-songwriter, usually associated with Gare du Nord Records stalwarts Rotifer, opens the evening with a few tasters from his forthcoming solo album.