The Slow Readers Club Tickets

With melodies and melancholia that nod to the musical history of their home of Manchester, The Slow Readers Club meanwhile continue to reinvent their take on indie rock.

The Slow Readers Club emerged in Manchester in the early 2010s out of the ashes of the band Omerta, after James Ryan and Aaron Starkie continued to write together under a new project. They released their debut, self-titled album in 2011, which included the singles ‘Sirens’, ‘Block Out The Sun’ and ‘Feet On Fire’, and heralded their melancholic and brooding brand of guitar-lead indie rock which struck a chord with many at the turn of the decade. 

Around the release of their debut, The Slow Readers Club line-up was still changing, but in 2013, the same year they released the single ‘Forever In Your Debt, the band settled its membership with Aaron Starkie on vocals, Kurtis Starkie on guitar and backing vocals David Whitworth on drums and James Ryan on bass. Though initially released as a stand-alone, ‘Forever In Your Debt’ would appear on the band’s second full-length album, Cavalcade, which was released in 2015 and marked a step up for the band. Featuring synth-lead tracks such as ‘Plant The Seed’ and ‘Grace of God’, Cavalcade earned comparisons to the likes of Erasure and Depeche Mode, receiving significant radio airplay and catching the attention of fellow Mancunians James, who invited the band to support them on their Girl at the End of the World tour in 2016. All while maintaining jobs, the band managed to sell out bigger nationwide venues and play higher up the festival bills; after a sold out gig at The Ritz, The Manchester Evening News wrote that “The Slow Readers Club are currently one of the most exciting sounds coming out of our fair city.”

In 2018, The Slow Readers Club released their third album, Build a Tower, their first after being signed to Modern Sky Records. Including the dark pulsing single ‘Lunatic’, it was their first to land in the UK Album Charts Top 20, peaking at No.18. Louder Than War noted that the album “should see them propelled into the indie mainstream with their dark and sophisticated anthems.”

Recent years have proved prolific for the Manchester band, releasing two albums – The Joy Of The Return and 91 Days In Isolation – in 2020 alone. The former has been their most successful release so far, reaching No.9 in the UK charts. These two lockdown projects were followed by 2023’s Knowledge Freedom Power, which, alongside a string of recent singles including ‘Boy So Blue’ and ‘Animal’s, captures Slow Readers Club at their rhythmic and atmospheric best.