Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires: Sounds Made By Humans

Join Brian Bilston and The Catenary Wires for a special, end of tour Christmas party!

As their recent single suggested, there’ll be no sleep till Herne Bay, so to help keep their eyelids open on the last stretch, the band have lined up some extra trimmings to make this one the ultimate seasonal knees-up!

Opening proceedings will be The Catenary Wires, featuring Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey of iconic pop band Heavenly, who will perform gentle, intimate, articulate pop duets, accompanied with acoustic guitar and harmonium. Their recent album ‘Birling Gap’ was played extensively on BBC6Music and won considerable plaudits. Brian Bilston will also be debuting some exclusively commissioned Christmas poems for the ears of Herne Bay. Then, we are delighted to announce a new addition to the festivities, cult indie-pop band and Riley & Coe favourites Swansea Sound will be playing an exclusive set for one night of the tour only. Described as the funny, angry, gleeful and savage past, present and future of indie, Swansea Sound delight audiences with their cleverly constructed and incredibly catchy pop-songs with an acerbic bite.

If all this wasn’t already enough, concluding the evening (and for contractual / advertising reasons) will of course be Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires, the resultant collaboration between Twitter’s poet Laureate, Brian and Heavenly Indie Icons Amelia Fletcher, Rob Pursey and Ian Button. They’ll be performing their critically acclaimed album Sounds Made By Humans.

The album isn’t a set of readings with musical backdrops: it’s a collection of songs, where words and music have become completely intertwined. There are verses, and there are choruses. There is no ‘riffing’, no improvisation. In many ways, Brian’s poems are already like pop songs: brief, direct, and witty; sometimes poignant, sometimes biting and political; but always economical, and always accessible. 



Rob took thirteen of Brian’s poems and created melodies and arrangements, which are then played by a full band, with Ian Button on drums and Fay Hallam on keyboard. Sometimes the words of the poems are sung by Amelia or Rob. Sometimes they are spoken by Brian. Sometimes both these things happen at once. This is a pop record where the poetry and the music are equal partners: sounds made by humans in perfect artistic alignment.

Bring your hats, your dancing shoes, your listening ears and your mistletoe (should you be that way inclined) to what promises to be the best 2025 Christmas party Herne Bay has to offer.

New Single:

Might Have, Might Not Have: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m7ZZZhlIC0&t=3s

Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires: Session with Riley & Coe on BBC Radio 6 Music: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002j7c2