Wunderhorse, English Teacher, Katy J Pearson, Lambrini Girls and more will feature on a new Opus Kink compilation album to raise money for the Music Venue Trust.
Post-punk sextet Opus Kink have arranged ‘A Hideous Collection’ – a compilation of 24 tracks to support the Music Venue Trust and the UK Touring Artists Fund.
The album will drop on CD and vinyl from September 5, via the band’s label Hideous Mink Records. It also comes in collaboration with SO Recordings – pre-order yours here. Today (July 29), Opus Kink have shared the first single from the compilation – their own track called ‘Thank You Satan’, which you can watch down below.
Along with a foreword from BBC 6 Music DJ Steve Lamacq, Big Special, Katy J Pearson, Lambrini Girls, English Teacher, Mary In The Junkyard, Wunderhorse, Honeyglaze, Luvcat, Matt Maltese, Warmduscher, TTSSFU, Hamish Hawk, Antony Szmierek, Friedberg, HotWax, Getdown Services, Gurriers, Nova Twins, cumgirl8, The Oozes, Los Bitchos and the Oracle Sisters will feature on the record.
In a press statement, Opus Kink said of the compilation: “Touring independent music venues is like this. The most passionate organisers are the ones who do it on a shoestring and are often one bad season away from crumbling.
“Support for these venues and humans is starting to glimmer in the ashes through donations and awareness and the work of groups like MVT, but as always, unfortunately, it must also take wresting a more fundamental and top – down offering from the industry to really stay the decimation of grassroots live music culture in this country.”
“In the meantime, please enjoy the sounds of some of the artists who help to keep alive the places that birthed them and please buy this record so you can do that too,” it added. “And remember to thank Satan.” Take a look at the full tracklist below:
The ‘A Hideous Collection’ compilation tracklisting is:
Vinyl One
Foreword From Steve Lamacq
Big Special – ‘Cooked Fish’
Katy J Pearson – ‘Tonight’
Luvcat – ‘He’s My Man (live in Cologne)’
Honeyglaze – ‘Turn Out Right’
Matt Maltese – ‘Please Don’t Kill Me’
Opus Kink – ‘Thank You Satan’
Lambrini Girls – ‘Big Dick Energy (live in Seattle)’
Warmduscher – ‘YAKUZA’
TTSSFU – ‘Upstairs’
Hamish Hawk – ‘Burning Up’
Wunderhorse – ‘Rain (live)’
Vinyl Two
Antony Szmierek – ‘Independent Venue Week Poem’
Friedberg – ‘Haha’
Hot Wax – ‘Chip My Teeth (live at Rough Trade East)’
Getdown Services – ‘AONB’
Gurriers – ‘Approachable (Chris. W. Ryan. version)’
Nova Twins – ‘Monsters (live)’
cumgirl8 – ‘Goblin’
The Oozes – ‘The Entertainer’
Los Bitchos – ‘Turkish Delight’
Oracle Sisters – ‘Wait For Me’
English Teacher – ‘Yorkshire Tapas’
mary in the junkyard – ‘ghost (demo)’
In a report from the beginning of this year, the Music Venue Trust shared that the UK was losing one grassroots music venue every fortnight.
As the Trust shared their findings at the Houses of Parliament in January, patron Kate Nash also said that many artists could simply not afford to tour – something she described as “a fucking disgrace”.
Combined with grassroots venues having closed at a “disastrous rate”, a “complete collapse of touring” across the UK has been afflicting small venues across the country – with the Music Venue Trust demanding a “full, long overdue reform”.
Meanwhile, Wolf Alice‘s Joff Oddie has warned that not enough progress was being made in saving venues and new artists.
“One of the things we risk is that music becomes a middle and upper class sport”, he said at a government hearing on the state of grassroots venues. “We’re already seeing that representation decline. There are all kinds of statistics showing that’s gone down of the last 15-20 years – especially for people outside the south east of England.
“It’s costly to build a career, and the build a career you need to go on the road,” he continued. “Once you get past a point, there is money to be made in the industry. Music is big business, but if we don’t fund that from the beginning then we aren’t going to get big artists.
“Unless we feed the pipeline, we’re just going to have people going to see US pop stars at Wembley.”
