“The Bookshop Band is not just good but achingly good" The New York Times
“I am enchanted, such variation and delicacy… such latent power, really great work. It reminded me of my days listening to Sandy Denny and Fairport [Convention] and The Incredible String Band… - a great discovery and inspiration.” Pete Townshend
The Bookshop Band are the musical offspring of an artistic love-affair between a group of award winning folk songwriters, Beth Porter and Ben Please, and an independent bookshop in the UK, Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. The songs are the musical outpouring of the band’s own response to books they have read, curated by the bookshop.
After hearing the band's previous albums, Pete Townshend reached out and offered to produce their next record, and ended up playing on every track too. EMERGE, RETURN came out in June 2024. ​ It features songs inspired by books by authors including Philip Pullman, Margaret Atwood, Shaun Bythell, Yann Martel, Carol Birch, Barney Norris, Robert Macfarlane, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, and Aldous Huxley. The cover art is by Stanley Donwood, and it was mixed by Nick Drake's recording engineer, John Wood.
The band are now releasing their latest collaboration with Pete, in the form of a three-song EP, Oz Sucks. Three songs about Oz magazine - the underground publication that sparked Britain's longest obscenity trial. Produced by Pete Townshend. Released as a free 24-page magazine designed by Richard Adams, who designed the original Oz. We wrote them after rummaging through the V&A's archive. Take one, share one, leave one on a train.
