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the official distractions website

Welcome to the official Distractions website. We will be aiming to record the history of one of the greatest, but least heralded, of all Manchester beat groups.

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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Track list

Here's the track list from the eagerly anticipated The End Of The Pier album, The Distractions' first LP in 32 years:




Side One

I Don't Have Time
Wise
Girl Of The Year
Boots
When It Was Mine


Side Two

Too Late To Change
The Summer I Met You
Man Of The Moment
100 Times
The Last Song

Thursday, May 17, 2012

News round-up

A few of the sites that have picked up the news of the gig at the Kings Arms on 31st August.

First of all, the Cerysmatic Factory blog, hisotry and archive of Factory Records:


The Distractions live  |  End of the Pier Show


An Occultation event featuring The Distractions, Factory Star and The June Brides at the King's Arms in Salford, Manchester, on Friday 31 August 2012.

Tickets priced GBP 12.00 in advance (15.00 on the door) on sale now at kingsarmsalford.com.

The King's Arms
11 Bloom Street
Salford M3 6AN


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Paul Pledger at AllGigs:


The Distractions
British punk rock/power pop quintet from Manchester originally formed in 1975, but disbanded in 1981. They reformed in 2010.  Releases include the debut-album "Nobody's Perfect" in 1980, plus singles "Time Goes By So Slow", "It Doesn't Bother Me" and the 2010 comeback EP, "Black Velvet".

  
The Distractions, Factory Star, June Brides at The Kings Arms on Friday 31st Aug 2012 (£12.00).



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SongKick concerts site:


Friday 31 August 2012 

The Distractions


Venue:  

11 Bloom Street
Off Chapel Street
Salford  M3 6AN 


Line-up



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The Distractions live @ King's Arms Salford

The Distractions will play their first gig since the mid-Nineties on Friday 31 August 2012 at the King's Arms in Salford with Occultation Recordings label mates Factory Star and The June Brides. Original members of The Distractions Mike Finney and Steve Perrin will be joined by new recruits. A London date for Saturday 1 September is also planned. Ticket details to follow. -- The King's Arms 11 Bloom Street Salford, M3 6AN More info at distractionsnothing.


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Superglued:


The Distractions /Factory Star /The June Brides

 

Kings Arms, Salford, Salford, United Kingdom on Aug 31, 2012 7:30 PM

 

I'm going

 

Buy tickets



Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Distractions, Factory Star & The June Brides



This really is happening. The Distractions will be performing live to launch what we're pretty confident is the longest-awaited album of the year.  I mean, 26 years for a new Dexys album - why the rush, Kevin?  The Distractions released their first album, the beloved Nobody's Perfect, in 1980.  Their second, The End Of The Pier, will be released by Occultation Recordings at the end of August 2012, although the label expect to have copies available from their website a few weeks earlier.

That's not all.  In a flurry of activity, a first live date is already confirmed.  The band will be performing at the Kings Arms, Salford, Manchester, on 31st August: 




Tickets are now on sale, £12 in advance (£15 on the night, if there are any left), from TicketWeb here.  There's a possibility of a second gig but details are yet to be confirmed.

That's not all though. Not only could this be your only chance to see The Distractions (who knows what the future may bring? Even so let's be realistic...) but this'll actually be a proper Occultation event, also featuring label-mates Factory Star and The June Brides.  Quite a bill, if we say so ourselves.
 
The album will be released as a 180g vinyl edition and on CD - we'd recommend the LP as it's cut from a higher-quality source and will come with a CD thrown in anyway.  It features core Distractions Mike Finney and Steve Perrin and is produced by Nick Halliwell (The Granite Shore) who also appears along with bassist Arash Torabi (June Brides, Granite Shore) and Mike Kellie (Only Ones, Spooky Tooth, too many to mention) on drums.

More details as we get them and see you in Salford...



Thursday, April 26, 2012

The End Of The Pier

News from Occultation

26th April 2012

The Wild Swans rushed into their new album after a mere 20-odd years but The Distractions wouldn't be hurried so their new album, The End Of The Pier will come 32 years after the beloved Nobody's Perfect. Full retail release on 180g vinyl and CD is due late August although copies should be available from Occultation well before then.

We'd also like to welcome the June Brides whose first Occultation single, released jointly with Slumberland in the US, will be a double 'a' side, A January Moon / Cloud. There'll be a special 7"+CD package available exclusively from the Occultation website and the CD will feature not just the two tracks from the vinyl edition but rare and unreleased material from Mr Wilson and company. Out in June, obviously. A new Factory Star EP is due in the summer as well.

The Distractions, Factory Star and The June Brides will be playing special Occultation events together, the first confirmed date is 31st Augusts at the King's Arms, Salford, Manchester, though we're hoping to have a London date the following night. More on this, including details of where to buy tickets, soon.

Other Occultation news...

Opposite Sex
OppSexalbum1

Listeners to Marc Riley's BBC6Music programme will already be aware of the charms of Opposite Sex, the Dunedin-based trio who've made one of the most talked-about albums of recent months. Occultation Recordings just happen to be good friends with Fishrider Records, the New Zealand label responsible so, in a touching "hands-across-the-ocean" way, we've teamed up for a joint UK edition of the album out next week, thus making this post-punk-pop (enough Ps?) gem easily available in the Northern Hemisphere, though those of you closer to NZ should visit Fishrider. Click here to order the 180g LP, which comes with a CD thrown in for just £12, from the Occultation Shop, copies are now in stock. The CD is also available separately here.

If you've yet to be seduced there's a video here and more information can be found by clicking on the album sleeve above. We also have a few copies of another Fishrider release, the new album by Kiwi legends The Puddle, Secret Holiday/Victory Blues, also available here and we expect to be stocking the Shifting Sands album also just out on Fishrider very shortly. Selected Occultation releases will also be available from Fishrider over the coming weeks and months, which may be cheaper for some of you.


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Saturday, April 21, 2012

6Music

(c) 6Music.


The Distractions were featured on Thursday's Radliffe and Maconie Show on 6Music when they were joined by David Quantick.  Time Goes By So Slow was played after the group's story was told, from TJM's You're Not Going Out Dressed Like That, to FAC12 and Island's Nobody's Perfect (not forgetting the U2 story).  Mark Radcliffe reckoned this show was the first on 6Music to play The Distractions, and Stuart Maconie discussed the forthcoming gig at Paul Heaton's Kings Arms in Salford on 31st August.  The new album, The End of the Pier, was announced before the listeners were treated to the finest Factory 7" record.  Listen to the whole show here for a limited period (The Distractions are on from about 1:55:25):  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01g9dbh.


(c) 6Music.


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Friday, April 20, 2012

The Distractions live in 2012

The news that we've been looking forward to announcing for some time:  

The Distractions really will be playing live again for the first time since the mid-1990s.  In a very special Occultation evening, the original Distractions, Mike Finney and Steve Perrin will be on stage, joined by new recruits, as well as label mates, Factory Star and the June Brides.




The venue: 

The Kings Arms, Bloom Street, Salford.  Only a couple of hundred yards from Deansgate in Central Manchester, this is a fine old pub, now run by former Housemartin and Beautiful Southerner, Paul Heaton, with a fabulous venue above.

The date: 

Friday 31st August 2012.  A second date in London on Saturday 1st September is also planned.  Ticket details for both gigs will be announced soon. 


Kings Arms, Bloom Street, Salford. Upstairs venue (1951).

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Eighties

The last part of Pete Frame's take on the Manchester scene, this time it's the early '80s and The Distractions appear...

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A former cotton warehouse in Little Peter Street was converted into TJ's rehearsal studios, used by every local band from The Frantic Elevators to Joy Division to The Inadequates (with Gillian Gilbert) to The Buzzcocks.  TJM was a spin-off indie label offering The Distractions, V2, Victim and The Frantic Elevators.

In the Eighties came The Mothmen, The Distractions, A Certain Ratio, Occult Chemistry [prophetic], Crispy Ambulance, The Freshies, The Smirks, The Blue Orchids [formed by Factory Star's Martin Bramah], Any Trouble, Quando Quango (featuring Mike Pickering, later of M People), Flag of Convenience (Buzzcocks spin-off), The Inca Babies, Simply Red, James and two thirds of Swing Out Sister.

Late Eighties groups included King of the Slums, The Sun And The Moon, Turning Blue, The Waltones, The Happy Mondays, Stockholm Monsters, The High. A Man Called Gerald, Lavolta Lakota, Baby Ford, Northside (from Blackley), Easterhouse (who perversely named themselves after a council estate in Glasgow!), 808 State, Yargo, Electronic and The Stone Roses.  

The Gallery in Peter Street (where R.E.M. played in November '84) and the Portland Bar (under the Piccadilly Hotel) were the places to play.

The city's first warehouse rave was a Stone Roses gig in a British Railways arch in Fairfield Street, behind Piccadilly Station in July '85.


(c) Pete Frame's Rockin' Around Britain, Pete Frame (1999)

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