RMH 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL
What better way to celebrate 10 years of Ramsgate Music Hall than welcoming back the band who helped kickstart this beautiful journey with us?
Allo Darlin’ perform their first show in almost 7 years on Friday 27th October, with support from our Canadian hero B.A. Johnston! A special occasion indeed – mark your calendars!
“This music feels special in a serious way – special like a best friend, not like a cool trend you fall for momentarily and then are embarrassed by the next summer” – Pop Matters (9/10 review)
Allo Darlin’ began as a vehicle for the solo songwriting exploits of Elizabeth Morris. Australian by birth, Morris moved to London, England in 2005, where she began making recordings under the name the Darlings. Morris would only release one disc under this name, a three-track affair called The Photo EP, which came out on the U.K.-based indie pop label WeePOP! in late 2007. Morris changed the project’s name to Allo Darlin’ the following year.
In a 2010 interview, Morris explained that she got the band name from her time working in Soho. “I used to work near the market sellers,” she said. “Every day I’d walk past and the old guys would yell out “Allo darlin'” as they ashed into their fruit bowls.” She self-released a Christmas-themed EP, Merry Christmas from Allo Darlin’, shortly before 2008 came to a close. A few months later, in early 2009, the lineup of Allo Darlin’ expanded to include two members of Hexicon, guitarist Paul Rains (who first began working with Morris when the two recorded a cover of Bruce Springsteen‘s ‘Atlantic City’) and drummer Michael Collins, along with Moustache of Insanity‘s Will Harrison on bass (though he was soon replaced by Bill Botting.)
The newly formed quartet released its first single, ‘Henry Rollins Don’t Dance’ that summer. Fortuna Pop signed the band soon after, and Allo Darlin‘ saw a couple of singles on that label in short order (2009’s ‘The Polaroid Song’ and 2010’s ‘Dreaming’, which featured a cameo by the Pipettes‘ Monster Bobby). The band’s self-titled debut full-length, produced by Simon Trought, was released on Fortuna Pop in the summer of 2010. After a fairly quiet 2011 that saw only the self-release of the ‘Darren”/”The Wu-Tang Clan’ single, the band returned with a new album in spring of 2012. Europe was released by Fortuna Pop in the U.K. and Slumberland in the U.S. They spent the next year touring before heading back into the studio to record their third album. We Come from the Same Place was released in October of 2014.
“Classic indie pop” – Pitchfork
“Sophisticated pop music at its finest” – All Music
“Between the bounce of the lighter numbers and the ache of the sweet ones, there’s all manner of winningly realistic insights veiled underneath the music” – BBC Music
