Preview: Five bands to see at FOCUS Wales 2024

 

Oh yes! Excitement is in the air. 

Festival season is starting  to spring into life and it's time to start thinking about watching bands and artists in their natural habitat, doing what they do best. One of the key industry events before the big summer festival season is Wrexham's FOCUS Wales. More than just an industry knees-up, FOCUS has become a yearly highlight of the festival calender with artists and punters travelling from far and wide for three days of music, films and conferences. There might be a few drinks too. 

This year, the festival is headlined by the legendary Spirtualized,  local indie heroes The Royston Club and Scouse retro rockers The Mysterines with other established artists like Benefits, The Bug Club, Adwaith, Snapped Ankles and Deerhoof gracing the many different venues throughout Wrexham City Centre.

By now, if you're going you'll have done your homework on the bigger names on the bill and you'll have your must sees, but here at NNWNF we like to do things a little differently. We took a deep dive through the bill to have a look at 5 of the most exciting new acts to play the festival this year.

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1) The Family Battenberg

Self-produced four-piece garage/psych rock band based in Cardiff, South Wales. Indulging in their DIY ethos, the band delivers their brand of 70s rock and roll flavoured guitar riffs amidst a blend of driving motorik rhythms, percussive flair, and curious lyrical content. Having built a strong reputation for their sweaty and immersive performances, The Family Battenberg has formed a strong following in Cardiff and surrounding cities. They have performed sets at various festivals including Green Man, Sŵn, and Outer Town amongst others.

The Family Battenberg play Hope Street Church 9.30pm, Friday 10th May 

2) Punchlove

Quietly evolving from a bedroom project to a headlining live phenom, Punchlove is a Brooklyn-based band dedicated to pushing the envelope of experimental sonic practices, gearing up a densely layered bed of emotionally serrated pain-pop songs that coalesce around a digitally-stimulated brand of modern neo-shoegaze. Melding DIY recording and experimental sonic visions with studio quality, Punchlove trades in deeply prepared sounds and sharply-honed instrumentals, performing them as a band that knows each other all the way through. Their debut album, Channels, described as “hugely adventurous” by Norman Records, will be available on March 1st 2024 via Kanine Records.

  Punchlove play The Wynnstay Hotel, Thursday 9th May 5.40pm, The Rockin' Chair, Thursday 9th May 9.15pm and The Parish, Saturday 11th May 6.50pm.

                                                        

3) Shark School

Galway-based abstract garage band Shark School, consisiting of Nora Staunton (guitar, vocals), Peggy Ford (bass) and Ronan O’Connor Mahony (drums) formed Shark School in June of 2023 and have quickly made a name for themselves playing with celebrated Irish acts, including NewDad , The Love Buzz , Elaine Malone and many more. The group most recently played Whelan’s Ones to Watch as well as the Fall Right Into Place festival. They are known for their energetic sets, punctuated by their sarcastic wit.

Shark School play Hope Street Church 6.40pm, Saturday 11th May.

4) Joyce

Joyce started as a solo project by Jimmy Watkins (Future of the Left / The Vega Bodegas) and quickly evolved into a band featuring Gwen (Adwaith), Joe (Big Special), Tom (God Damn / The Big Hell), Phil Thornalley (The Cure / Bryan Adams/ Natalie Imbruglia), Paul (Fauxchisels) and drumming legend Allan Oakes. In the summer of 2023, after releasing a few singles, Joyce recorded their debut album in Wolverhampton with Thom Edward. The band played a packed out show in Clwb Ifor Bach at Swn festival in October 2023, and have followed that up with gigs in London and Swansea. Joyce mixes hip-hop, spoken word, acoustic pop, noise rock, punk, industrial noise, indie, goth, psych and electro. 

 Joyce play The Wynnstay Hotel 6.40pm, Saturday 11th May

5) LIINES

Post-punks LIINES are Zoe McVeigh (vocals, guitar) and Leila O’Sullivan (drums). Formed in 2014, they’ve built a reputation as one of the most exciting acts to emerge from Manchester in recent years. Their sound is an infectious, urgent and at times furious blend of post-punk, Riot Grrrl and alt-rock sounds which take in elements of their collective influences. There’s the dark angular undertones and brooding introspection of Joy Division, the high energy of The Pixies and the emotive, impassioned sound of Sleater-Kinney wrapped in catchy fast-paced riff-laden songs. Since 2019, they’ve toured with Sleaford Mods and The Wedding Present and supported Ladytron, Ash and Desperate Journalist. They’ve been handpicked by Tim Burgess for festivals and were Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition finalists. They’ve been championed by the likes of 6 Music’s Tom Robinson and Chris Hawkins as well as Radio X’s John Kennedy.

LIINES play at The Parish 7.45pm, Saturday 11th May. 

Day and Weekend Tickets for FOCUS Wales are available from HERE 

         

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