Northern Irish quartet, Brand New Friend will support Rat Boy at his London Electric Ballroom show this Sunday. News of the date arrives in the midst of what is proving to be an exceptionally busy year for the band, which now also sees them nominated across three categories - Best Live Band, Best Single (for ‘Girl’) and Best Album for their debut Seatbelts For Aeroplanes (out now via Xtra Mile) - at this years Northern Irish Music Awards, at which they will also perform live. Following the Rat Boy show, Brand New Friend will go on to open for Ash, who handpicked the band to support across their string of Irish headline shows through December.

Still barely out of their teens, Brand New Friend initially formed as a brother-sister duo when guitarist Taylor Johnson - previously a music reporter on BBC Ulster’s ‘Across the Line’ show - received a guitar for passing his GCSEs, soon enlisting his younger sister, Lauren on vocal duties. After their debut American Wives EP garnered local radio support, the siblings from Castlerock hooked up with Aaron Milligan (bass) and Luke Harris (drums) to develop the huge sound and hurtling energy which powers Seatbelts For Aeroplanes.

Following their first headline tour in Ireland last year, Brand New Friend have gone on to play the BBC Introducing Stage at Hull’s BBC Big Weekend, alongside appearances at Reading & Leeds and Electric Picnic, with further support slots for the likes of Starcrawler, At The Drive-In, Feeder, Ash and Pretty Vicious as well as being personally invited to support Snow Patrol on their full Irish tour back in May. The four-piece recently released the video for ‘Why Are You So Tired?’, the latest in a string of single releases from Seatbelts For Aeroplanes which have won fans amongst Annie Mac, Phil Taggart, Huw Stephens, John Kennedy and Steve Lamacq.

UK/IRE dates

15 NOV | Limelight, Belfast (NI Music Awards show)

18 NOV | Electric Ballroom, London (w/ Rat Boy)

18 DEC | Cyprus Avenue, Cork (w/ Ash)

19 DEC | Academy, Dublin (w/ Ash)

20 DEC | Limelight, Belfast (w/ Ash)

Following their recent signing to Partisan Records and the announcement of their support slot on both the forthcoming Shame tour in the UK and Ireland, and next year’s Idles tour in the US, Dublin’s Fontaines D.C. have now shared a video for their new single ‘Too Real’. The single was premiered by Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music who called it “poetic and powerful”. Speaking about the visuals in the new accompanying video, director Hugh Mulhern, says it is made up of “low-brow visuals inspired by Buster Keaton, James Joyce, The Dubliners and Jim Henson to discuss high- brow ramblings of some stout swilling stereotypes.”The band will be releasing the single on a double A-side single including ‘Too Real’ and ‘The Cuckoo Is A Callin’’. The single will be released on December 21.

Fontaines D.C. met as a quintet in Dublin, influenced and driven in equal measure by the rich history of their hometown’s counter-culture, their response has been to make concise and immediately authentic post-punk, channeling often-unassumingly poetic lyrics with a distinctive gritty Irish brogue that has done anything but fall on deaf ears.

This month the band will be embarking on a full UK/Ire tour with Shame, and in December will play a short series of headline dates, which have already begun to sell out. They have also announced further European and UK tour dates as well as main support on the Idles US tour and a SXSW appearance for 2019 .

Tour dates:

15 NOV 2018 / UK / Bristol / SWX*

16 NOV 2018 / UK / Portsmouth / Pyramids*

17 NOV 2018 / UK / Leicester / Academy 1*

18 NOV 2018 / UK / Sheffield / The Leadmill*

20 NOV 2018 / UK / Leeds / LUU - Stylus*

21 NOV 2018 / IE / Dublin / Tivoli Variety Theatre*

22 NOV 2018 / FR / Paris / Les Inrocks Festival @ La Gaîté Lyrique

23 NOV 2018 / UK / Newcastle / Newcastle University Union*

24 NOV 2018 / UK / Glasgow / SWG3*

26 NOV 2018 / UK / Norwich / The Waterfront*

27 NOV 2018 / UK / Oxford / Academy 1*

28 NOV 2018 / UK / Birmingham / O2 Institute*

29 NOV 2019 / UK / London / The Macbeth

30 NOV 2018 / UK / London / O2 Forum Kentish Town*

05 DEC 2018 / UK / London / The Lexington – SOLD OUT

06 DEC 2018 / UK / Brighton / The Prince Albert – SOLD OUT

07 DEC 2018 / UK / Manchester / Night People – SOLD OUT

09 DEC 2018 / UK / Cardiff / The Moon Club

14 DEC 2018 / IE / Listowel / Mike the Pies

15 DEC 2018 / IE / Galway / Roisin Dubh

21 DEC 2018 / IE / Dublin / The Button Factory – SOLD OUT

12 JAN 2019 / UK / Coventry / Coventry Central Library

13 JAN 2019 / UK / Milton Keynes / The Craufurd Arms

14 JAN 2019 / UK / Southampton / The Joiners

11 APR 2019 / UK / Bristol / Thekla

12 APR 2019 / UK / Leeds / Brudenell Social Club

13 APR 2019 / UK / Manchester / Gorilla

14 APR 2019 / UK / Glasgow / King Tuts

16 APR 2019 / UK / Nottingham / Bodega

17 APR 2019 / UK / London / The Garage

18 APR 2019 / UK / Brighton / The Haunt

* = supporting Shame