ARTISTS — #CC14 — FRI 20 & SAT 21 JUNE 2014

“Every era has a great orator or song writer to capture the current mood of the proletariat, the working man on the street, the less fortunate and the underprivileged. Will Varley could be today’s equivalent”

Contact Music

Will Varley is a folksinger, poet, storyteller and novelist from London. He has been a stalwart of the Acoustic/Folk scene since his early teens, playing literally hundreds of gigs in England and Ireland and supporting some huge names along the way. In 2010 Varley moved to Deal, Kent and there along with a number of musicians helped to set up Smugglers Records, a collective of independent bands and musicians. In 2011 Varley famously walk 130 miles, playing impromptu performances along the way, to promote his debut album ‘Advert Soundtracks’ with Smugglers. His live performances have become more and more anarchic over the years as he will just as quickly deliver a melancholic and heartbreaking ballad or a fiery protest song as he will a shaggy dog story or an amusing talking blues. After self-publishing his first novel ‘Sketch of A Last Day’ (Reaching No.1 in Kindle’s Political Fiction category) and almost two years of relentless gigging, 11 new songs were recorded in the basement of an old smugglers cottage in Deal for ‘As The Crow Flies’ released at the end of last year. Though still littered with his trademark humour, the album is a darker, more mature and which sees Varley’s poetry take centre stage.