BILLIE MARTEN will be heading out on the road next month, supporting Ben Howard on his anticipated “A Retrospective Tour: Celebrating 10 Years of ‘I Forget Where We Were'”.
Preceding this, she’s announced a special headline date London’s The Barbican, where she will perform with the pioneering Her Ensemble – the first UK group of its kind made up of predominantly women, non-binary, gender minority musicians.
Billie got her early start in music thanks to parents who surrounded her with the music of Nick Drake, John Martyn, Joni Mitchell, Joan Armatrading, Kate Bush, Loudon Wainwright III and northern folk artist Chris Wood. The family lived in the cathedral city Ripon, North Yorkshire, where Billie grew up in and around the Dales. Billie was then signed to Chess Club Records, an imprint of Sony. Not long afterwards, she was nominated for the BBC Sound of 2016.
Her critically acclaimed debut album, Writing of Blues and Yellows, was a diarist, open-hearted collection of quietly beautiful songs released in 2016, when she was still just 17. The following year, she moved to London, where she worked on her 2019 follow-up, Feeding Seahorses ByHand, which The Line of Best Fit declared a “gentle and reserved masterpiece”. Towards the end of 2019, Billie underwent a total overhaul, leaving Sony and choosing a new management team. She signed to Fiction records, a division of Universal, in lockdown via zoom. She then went back into the studio and reunited with producer Rich Cooper. Billie felt empowered to experiment and rediscover herself.
Since then, she has toured frequently throughout the UK and US, returning home to record her fourth record Drop Cherries. Her writing themes explore social commentary, the struggle with modernity vs tradition, nature, mental health, relationships, and a general voyeurism on the world as she sees it.
Headline Dates
Wed 2nd Oct – Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, UK
Fri 4th October – The Barbican – Performance with 24-piece Her Ensemble
Supporting Ben Howard
Sun 13th Oct – Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Mon 14th Oct – O2 Academy, Leeds
Tue 15th Oct – O2 City Hall, Newcastle
Thu 17th Oct – Brighton Centre, Brighton
Fri 18th Oct – Bournemouth International Centre, Bournemouth
Sat 19th Oct – Swansea Arena, Swansea
Mon 21st Oct – Manchester Warehouse – Aviva Studios, Manchester
Tue 22nd Oct – Eventim Apollo, London
Wed 23rd Oct – Eventim Apollo, London
Thu 31st Oct – Civic, Wolverhampton
Fri 1st Nov – Pavilions, Plymouth
Sun 3rd Nov – Eventim Apollo, London