Stephen Jones fit and well as Babybird prepare to return to Leeds stage

Babybird are pleased to announce a trio of new shows for later this year, kicking them off in Leeds.
Babybird, playing a gig in Leeds.Babybird, playing a gig in Leeds.
Babybird, playing a gig in Leeds.

Tickets for the gig at the Brudenell Social Club on Friday November 30 went on sale this week from the official Eventbrite site here and are expecting to sell fast with it being the only date so far announced for the north.

The gig will mark a first return to the Leeds stage for Stephen Jones since he had a heart attack. He’s been to the gym for the first time. Lost a stone and a half. And is now fully hiked up on blood thinners and other drugs.

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He and the band gave birth to new gigs last December, and made it safely through, at a lovely old church in St Pancras, London. So it was a simple decision to do it again and add more, spread out across the country, have a road trip, and play some new songs. Even have the odd shandy.

Babybird is an odd one, deceptively sweet and cute in name, but happily for Stephen Jones, hides something darker growing inside the fluffy yellow. Imagine the David Lynch Blue Velvet mechanical bird.

Musical life started with the lo-fi years, consisting of five Stephen Jones solo albums released in a nine month period. This, already without even being signed to a record company, was never going to be something that was part of 1990s indie britpop world.

Then an album and single (You’re Gorgeous’) went gold, Stephen was hounded and heckled out of Manchester for being that ‘bleeding gorgeous bloke’, to settle in London.

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Then with the recent help of Johnny Depp he recorded two albums in LA and the video “Unloveable” (see it on youtube).

In the last five years he has released over 100 albums on the phenomenal site that is Bandcamp, giving him complete freedom outside of the music business, to persist and meddle. It cannot be stressed enough how extremely unusual this is.

Ever unpredictable, see for yourself at the Brudenell in November.

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