Greg Coulson to play EP release gig at Charles Bradlaugh

The singer-songwriter who has played with acts including Spiritualized, The Blockheads and The Selecter, has been on the road, playing a series of his own gigs across the country and is heading to the Northampton venue on the penultimate date of his tour.

Coulson released Live at Crescent Records Studio earlier this month.

The five-track EP follows last year’s single Skull and Crossbones and his 2018 album What’s New.

Talking about the record, Coulson said: “The idea came about early last year because I hadn't really been in the studio with a band and recorded material since about 2018 so I wanted to get back in, get a bunch of guys in a studio and record it in the most traditional way possible.”

While the first new recordings by the musician who is best known for his blend of soul, blues funk and jazz - Coulson has been a regular in his Northampton studio, producing music for other musicians.

And, while his day to day has been working with industry standard software during the recording process, for his EP, he took a deliberate different approach.

Coulson said: “Programmes like Logic give you carte blanche to do anything that you can kind of think of.

“I didn’t want to do that. I just wanted to go into the studio and record with the band to get something down quickly, that was good quality, that represented us as a band and me as an artist, how we sound on a stage and I think we captured that.

“We had it filmed as well so eventually it'll all be available on YouTube and Facebook no doubt. “It was a kind of reset of my expectations of what we can do as musicians.”

The EP features ‘Someone To Be There’, ‘Introverted Blues’, ‘Kid Charlemagne’, ‘Nick Of Time’ and ‘Why Don’t You Do Right?’.

The first two are originals by Coulson while the other three are covers of songs by Steely Dan, Bonnie Raitt and Peggy Lee.

Introverted Blues is about Coulson’s sobriety.

He said: “I'm approaching two years sober now. I wanted to write a song specifically for the EP and it was right and kind of poignant that I wrote it about something that’s a massive part of my life now and that helps with my recovery as well.”

For the recording of the EP, Coulson was joined by musicians Matt Day, John Thompson, Joel Barford and Will Wilde.

Its recording was made possible thanks to a grant from the Northamptonshire Community Foundation via the Kenneth Fund.

The money helped Coulson pay his fellow musicians, studio time and subsequent physical copies and associated PR.

He said: “Hopefully it will come full circle and enable us to use whatever profits we make to put into the next album which I’ve written about half of so far.

“I like to really take my time with my songwriting and my lyrics and the composition and arrangement.

“It’s a struggle because as much as I'd like to get in the studio and do it, there are certain things you have to take into consideration, you've got to be confident in your material to enable you to actually get in the studio in the first place and say, ‘right, this is what we're going to record’.”

While a solo artist in his own right, Coulson has played with numerous huge acts and across the world.

Influenced by the likes of Steely Dan, Dr John, BB King and John Lee Hooker, he has previously toured with the likes of The Blockheads, Morcheeba, The Selecter and Spiritualized.

Ahead of his UK tour, in January he joined acclaimed shoegaze psychedelia act Spiritualized – led by Jason Pierce – who headlined the Rockaway Beach festival.

Talking about working as a professional touring musician, Coulson said: “Basically, I left school and started playing with Danny Connors and The Ladders.

“I don’t think I’d have ended up in The Selecter had it not been for Danny’s kind of way of orchestrating things.

“I got the chance to audition when I was 19 years old and Danny said, ‘this is how you approach being a musician’. I went into the audition and basically aced it thanks to Danny’s influence.”

Having also played in the West End, in 2023 Coulson joined Spiritualized on the west coast of America when they supported rock titans Queens Of The Stone Age.

Greg Coulson headlines The Charles Bradlaugh in Northampton on Thursday, February 27. Support is by Thea Watson.

Tickets cost £15 in advance before fees and are available via https://www.seetickets.com/tour/greg-coulson-ep-release-party

Doors open at 7.30pm, music is from 8pm.

For more information, visit https://www.gregcoulson.co.uk