Tickets are now on sale for Hard Working Class Heroes 2018. The development and progression of the HWCH Music Conference over the last few years has earned them the reputation for being a must-attend event for anyone working in music in Europe. This September, festival bookers, labels, managers, booking agents, music supervisors, radio folk, journalists, & tastemakers from around the world and here at home will gather in Dublin for HWCH, making it Ireland's largest gathering of the global music industry.

Music bookers from some of the world's biggest showcase festivals will descend on Dublin in search of new Irish acts including Casper Mills from SXSW, Oskar Strajn from ESNS, Ciara George-Lynch from Reeperbahn Festival, Javier Lopez from Midem, Lisa Hresko from A2IM, & Will Larnach-Jones from Iceland Airwaves.

In addition, Sarah Casey, booking agent at United Talent Agency, Anna Wester, A&R manager at PIAS, Rhys Bradley of Martian PR, Anton Teichmann, founder of Mansions & Millions, Daniel Horitz from Lex Records, & Ryan Leas, features writer at Stereogum, will all come to Dublin looking to discover their new favourite Irish artists. Lots more industry delegates will also be announced in the coming weeks.

The HWCH Music Conference delegates are funded through a See Here Award from Culture Ireland and this forms the first step of First Music Contact’s export strategy. Christine Sisk, Director of Culture Ireland commented, “We’re delighted to be once again supporting the inward travel of international delegates to Hard Working Class Heroes. Last year, Culture Ireland supported over 150 promoters and programmers to visit Ireland to see Irish artists at work. Based on outcomes, we know that this contact is critical to creating new opportunities for artists and that this year’s HWCH will be no exception”. The HWCH Music Conference is also supported by Dublin City Council Local Enterprise Office and Help Musicians UK.

The festival will take place from Thursday, September 27 to Saturday, September 29 with an opening night networking event followed by the live showcases, which will take place across Friday and Saturday night. 50 acts are currently being chosen from over 600 applications. Stay tuned for the lineup announcement in the coming weeks.

 

 

 

Yazoo (Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke) have announced details of Four Pieces, a remastered, four-piece box set, out on October 26. Four Pieces will see four vinyl discs, packaged in a premium hardback-book format, alongside four art prints, six pocket-sized photos and a reproduction double-sided poster. The new box set features both of the band’s remarkable album releases – 1982’s Upstairs at Eric’s and 1983’s You and Me Both – alongside a disc of remixes and a fourth disc featuring both of the band’s highly sought-after BBC Sessions in their entirety. Both recorded in 1982, courtesy of John Peel and David Jensen, these two outstanding sessions are collected here for the first time on vinyl.

Remixes featured on the 38-track box set include an unreleased remix of ‘Winter Kills’ by Minute Taker and rare reworkings of tracks from Richard X and Todd Terry, alongside extended versions and the orchestral mix of ‘Only You’ which featured on a recent Boots television advert.

Yazoo formed in 1982 and, over an intense 18-month period, released two albums, four iconic hit singles and toured only once before they stopped creating music together. In that time, Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet created a sonic legacy and style which sent shockwaves through the charts that still resonate. Their boundary-breaking music merged cutting-edge electronica with heartfelt, impassioned vocals. Yazoo are name-checked by artists worldwide, including LCD Soundsystem and Antony and the Johnsons, as musical inspirations.

Disbanding 35 years ago, on the eve of the release of You and Me Both, which reached Number 1 in the UK chart, Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet continued to have successful careers in their own right, Vince with Erasure and Alison as a solo performer. Both artists have recently released Top 20 albums, Moyet with her 2017 album, Other, and Clarke with 2017’s World Be Gone.

36 years after they first presented Mute’s Daniel Miller with their first track, the heart-stopping electronic ballad, 'Only You', the impact of Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet’s unique songwriting is as it was in 1982 and, in the words of Record Mirror at the time, “Whoever said synthesiser music has no feeling can start eating their hearts out now”.

FOUR PIECES TRACKLISTING

LP1 – Upstairs At Eric’s

Side A

1. Don't Go

2. Too Pieces

3. Bad Connection

4. I Before E Except After C

5. Midnight

6. In My Room

 

Side B

1. Only You

2. Goodbye 70's

3. Tuesday

4. Winter Kills

5. Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)

 

LP2 - You And Me Both

Side A

1. Nobody's Diary

2. Softly Over

3. Sweet Thing

4. Mr Blue

5. Good Times

 

Side B

1. Walk Away from Love

2. Ode to Boy

3. Unmarked

4. Anyone

5. Happy People

6. And On

 

LP3 - Eight Remixes

Side A

1. Nobody's Diary - Extended Version

2. Situation - Richard X Remix

3. Don't Go - Remix

4. Only You - Orchestral Mix

 

Side B

1. Situation - The Aggressive Attitude Mix

2. Don't Go - Tee's TNT Radio Mix

3. State Farm - Madhouse Mix Edit

4. Winter Kills - Minute Taker Remix*

 

LP4 - Two BBC Sessions

Side A – John Peel, June 1982

1. Don't Go*

2. Midnight*

3. In My Room*

4. Winter Kills*

 

Side B – David Jensen, September 1982

1. Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I)

2. In My Room

3. Situation*

4. Too Pieces*

 

* Previously unreleased.