Kidnap Alice have been awarded an Arts Council England Grant to support our Spring UK Tour!
The tour is being produced and promoted by Two For Joy Music (formerly The Magpie’s Nest ) and Global Local, based on the reciprocal touring model. Many of the shows on our tour have been organised by bands and promoters from across the country, who all feed back into Two For Joy and Global Local events and festivals. On this tour, we welcome a host of bands who’ve helped us arrange shows on our national tour back to London, to play at the Two For Joy All Day Festival on 7th May at the Old Queen’s Head.
We hope to see you all soon at one of our shows.
Two men shy, but still packing a punch in this clip of Lonesome Road Blues, on the main stage from last Saturday’s OneFest in Wiltshire.
Check us out on the BBC Introducing Stage at One Fest on the 14th April in Wiltshire (details on our Upcoming Gigs page). We’ve been getting some radio play ahead of our National Tour – so let the radio stations know there is a stonkin’ band coming to a venue near them soon… We’d love to do some more live sessions too! x
‘Astonishingly brilliant’ Max Reinhardt, Radio 2 presenter
Kidnap Alice are going on a nationwide tour to promote their debut Album!
We could not be more excited to be saddling up The Hackney Stud* and setting off into the spring sunshine with our instruments, our album and our cider. Not only will we be picking up new friends in new places, but bringing bands from across the country back to London, courtesy of our friends at Two For Joy (The Magpie’s Nest Collective).
Please check out our Upcoming Gig page for details of all these tour dates – that will take us from Dorset (Square and Compass) to Sheffield (Opus Acouctics). Our 15 dates over 3 weeks will let us share our first album with new friends – who we hope will join us at our many UK festival dates later on this summer.
Check out below some of the reviews we have collected so far!
‘Kidnap Alice are among the happy crop of UK-based bluegrass bands that would add spirit to any festival or club bill. In condensed CD form, there is ample evidence of intelligent songwriting, brooding smoky ballads and both sensitive and butane-propelled instrumental playing (FITS). Alice Ballantine’s potent husky tones lend élan to proceedings whilst the likes of Joe Hymas’s mandolin and Jerry Bloom’s fiddle emit steam. Check ‘em out.’
FRoots Magazine Album review, Jan/Feb 2012
‘Kidnap Alice play soulful, beautiful songs and channel the oldest and newest in their own celebratory style. The musicianship wipes the floor with anything else you’d see in our fad-driven music industry and Alice’s voice blows me away. Their version of Dink’s song makes me cry. The album is stunning’
Album review, Johnny Flynn, Musician
*The Hackney Stud = Our new (ish) tour bus 
Hippy Joe says: “Get down to Woodburner tonight man. The cider’s good!”
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Some lovely pics from our gig in Nottingham last weekend,
courtesy of Daniel Whiston
More pics on our Photo page
We’re sorry to announce that Felix, our esteemed powerhouse double bassist, has left the band and is going off to become an amazingly successful jazz musician. Felix’s driving slap-style bass has motored us through many gigs and is immortalised on our CD and we’re going to miss her and her playing. The unenviable task of filling her shoes falls to “Thin” James Reid who we dragged out of the Bayou swamps of Dalston for just this Herculean task. So, many thanks and much love to Felix and Welcome to Thin!
The Bell of Bath have give us a nice write-up ahead of our gig down their way next Monday
Seriously one of my favourite bands of last year. Acoustic bluegrass/country framing the truly soulful voice of Ms. Alice herself backed by some of the most in-demand players on the circuit (you’ll have seen them before). Come with enough money to buy the album, it’s fab.
West Countriers are spoilt as we’re also playing at the Prince Albert in Stroud on the following Tuesday.
Londoners, you’ll have to put up with just one choice, but it’s an exciting one, at the famous Power’s Bar, Kilburn, next Sunday, for the launch of their new bluegrass night, Down In The Woods.
All three gigs are free entry.
