Description

For an amazing seventh year on the trot, the legendary Ian McNabb returns to the beautiful, atmospheric Cruck Barn - this time promoting another superb new album, 'Utopian'...
Robert Ian McNabb was born in Liverpool on November 3rd 1960. An only child - the son of Patricia and Robert.
He first picked up a guitar at the age of 12 after seeing Marc Bolan on Top Of The Pops.
Ian joined his first band, Young World, at the age of 15 ; They played the working men's club circuit for a couple of years before Ian joined another band City Lights. This band again gigged extensively around the North of England cabaret circuit, but Ian grew tired of playing other peoples songs and decided that cabaret was not the way forward for him.
He had always written songs for fun but now he began to take it seriously.

In 1981 Ian formed The Icicle Works with Chris Sharrock (drums), and Chris Layhe (bass and vocals).
They quickly gained a following through their debut single release, Nirvana, and extensive live performances up and down the country.

The Icicle Works became part of the Liverpool renaissance movement of the eighties, alongside acts such as Echo And The Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, WAH!, Heat, OMD, Black, Dead Or Alive, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Lotus Eaters, and China Crisis.
They signed to Beggar's Banquet records, and under the guidance of Martin Mills scored a top 20 hit with Love Is A Wonderful Colour in the U.K ; and top 40 placings in the U.S, Canada, and Europe with Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream), with their eponymous debut album.
The Icicle Works achieved top 40 placings in the UK for all four of their albums - The Icicle Works, The Small Price Of A Bicycle, If You Want To Defeat Your Enemy Sing His Songs, and Blind - until they split up in 1988.

Muff Winwood signed Ian to Epic records in 1989, paying a buy-out fee to Beggar's Banquet; but Muff's insistence on using The Icicle Works name, (with new musicians Roy Corkill and Zak Starkey) when the original band had ceased to be, caused friction, and after one disappointingly received album, Permanent Damage, Ian was dropped from Epic's roster.

Ian began a collaboration with his friend and previous Icicle Works producer, Ian Broudie - a number of songs featured on subsequent Lightning Seeds records, which became hugely successful.

Ian signed to Andrew Lauder's new imprint, This Way Up, in 1992, which yielded 3 albums : Truth And Beauty (which Ian had recorded at his own expense by remortgaging his house), Head Like A Rock, which was recorded in part with Neil Young's band Crazy Horse in L.A and subsequently nominated for a Mercury Music Prize in 1994, and Merseybeast - the latter 2 albums achieved top 30 placings; the first was heralded as 'One of the best records released in Q magazine's lifetime'.
This Way Up records ceased to be in 1997 and Ian found himself without a deal once more, so accepted an invitation to join his friend Mike Scott (The Waterboys) on bass guitar for a lengthy European and Japanese tour.

Ian self financed another record in 1998, A Party Political Broadcast On Behalf Of The Emotional Party, which featured Danny Thompson (John Martyn, Nick Drake amongst others) on upright bass. They toured together that Autumn to promote the record.
At the end of the decade Ian released the live disc Live at Life, recorded over two nights at Liverpool's Life Cafe.

Ian then joined The Waterboys on keyboards for a European tour. When this was completed, Ian accepted Ian Broudie's invitation to record on 'The Barge' - Pete Townshend's studio which Broudie was currently renting, moored next to Pete's Eel Pie complex. The resulting album - Ian McNabb - saw a return of Ian's love of guitar driven pop/rock and was released on Sanctuary Records in 2001.

Ian briefly played bass guitar in Ringo Starr's band in 2002.

Throughout the 00s Ian released a further 5 solo albums : Waifs And Strays, The Gentleman Adventurer, Before All Of This, How We Live, and Great Things - all self financed and issued on his own Fairfield Records imprint to a small, dedicated fan base.
All albums were supported by extensive touring.

In 2009 Ian unleashed his autobiography Merseybeast which has become something of a cult classic amongst the rock fraternity (Peter Buck of R.E.M contacted Ian recently to tell him that he'd only just discovered the book and loved it!) - it has since been released as an audio book, narrated by Ian himself.

So far this decade, Ian has released Little Episodes, Eclectic Warrior, and Kruggerands - harder rocking albums which both feature the band Cold Shoulder ; Respectfully Yours (a long promised album of cover versions), Star, Smile, Strong, which features collaborations with Prof. Brian Cox, a co-write with Ralph Molina (from Crazy Horse), and the unexpected return of Icicle Works drummer Chris Sharrock (who had gone on to work with The La's, World Party, Del Amitri, Dave Stewart, Mick Jagger, Robbie Williams, Oasis, and both Liam and Noel Gallagher in their solo endeavours), and most recently Our Future In Space, which once again features Cold Shoulder, and the song Aquamarine co-written with R.E.Ms Peter Buck.

Support comes from the promoters themselves - Plumhall. PLUMHALL are Michelle Plum and Nick B Hall, a feisty Yorkshire based duo whose award winning self-penned songs are already winning them plaudits from the likes of R2 Magazine (4 stars), Miles Hunt (The Wonder Stuff), Steve Knightley (Show of Hands) and many more. The pair deliver guitar and harmony driven textures of folk, Americana and pop, and have have been wowing audiences on the live acoustic circuit in the UK. Winners of the Yorkshire Gig Guide Outstanding Songwriters award 2014, PLUMHALL were recently joined on stage by Bob Dylan's legendary guitarist Larry Campbell for a performance of Senor (Tales of Yankee Power) at the BBC Radio 2 award winning folk club The Black Swan in York. PLUMHALL's debut album THUNDERCLOUD was released on 1st September 2014 through Splid Records and Proper Distribution, and is already BBC radio playlisted. The album has just been hailed one of The Guardian and Observer's Hidden Gems of 2014. Plans to tour Canada, the US and South Africa are in the pipeline.

Michelle Plum is a former member of Chumbawamba, Waking the Witch and The Accidental Tourists, and in her own right has supported Aimee Mann, Capercaillie, Ralph McTell, Nerina Pallot, Texas and Shane MacGowan to name but a few. She also provided guest vocals for Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts' UK spring 2013 tour. More recently, Michelle's other session work has taken her on tour all over Europe.

Nick B Hall has been a member of the Hall Brothers band nearly all his life, and has supported Fairport Convention, Hugh Cornwell, Show of Hands, Kate Rusby, Glenn Tilbrook plus many more. He also provided session guitar for Magna Carta on their 2010 South African tour. More recently, Nick appeared as a musician in the Christmas 2015 episodes of Coronation Street.

Together as Plumhall Michelle & Nick have supported Miles Hunt and Erica Nockalls of The Wonder Stuff, Phil Beer, Ian McNabb, John Otway, Larkin Poe, Dan Donnelly & Jon Sevink, The South, Andy White, Henry Priestman, Chas & Dave, Graham Gouldman, Albert Lee and Peter Tork of The Monkees among many others. Peter Tork even invited them onstage to perform Daydream Believer with him. A very special moment!

Recently, Michelle and Nick appeared as special guests on a pair of shows on the Al Stewart UK tour - at Manchester Bridgewater Hall and the London Palladium (where they sang a verse on one of Al's songs). Another very special moment!

Another huge excitement for Plumhall is the fact that they will be appearing in the forthcoming feature film, The Runaways (starring Mark Addy, Tara Fitzgerald and Molly Windsor), for which Nick wrote an original song and both Michelle and Nick arranged folk music for two pivotal scenes.

Description

Main Road,

Appletreewick,

North Yorkshire,

England,

BD23 6DA.