ANNOUNCED AS SUPPORT ACT FOR BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN SUMMER SHOW
HOTLY-TIPPED TRIO WILL PLAY BST HYDE PARK ON 8TH JULY
GEORGE EZRA AND DERMOT KENNEDY SUPPORT SLOTS ALSO CONFIRMED FOR THE BAND. TICKETS HERE.
Rising Irish indie-folk band Kingfishr have today announced that they will be joining world-famous rock legend Bruce Springsteen at his BST Hyde Park show on Saturday 8th July. The band will play British Summer Time’s (BST) 10th anniversary festival, and will appear on the line-up alongside the music icon. Speaking ahead of the show, they said: “There’s no way to describe the feeling, the scale of the whole thing is just too massive. The impact Bruce has had on music is nearly just as difficult to grasp. So to think we’ll be playing to the same crowd is totally overwhelming. We’re so grateful for the opportunity, we’re going to play our hearts out. I don’t think we’ve ever been so excited for anything in our lives”.
Kingfisher will join previously announced artists The Chicks & James Bay for the show which is the second of 2 dates (the previous on 6th July) that Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band will play. Both are part of Bruce’s forthcoming UK tour, with other shows to include BT Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on May 30 and Villa Park in Birmingham on June 16. The gigs, which are The Boss’ first with the full E Street Band since 2017, are part of an extensive world tour which recently wrapped up in the US and is due to head to Europe next month. Other acts to headline BST Hyde Park this year include P!nk (24th & 25th June), Guns N’ Roses (30th June), Take That (1st July), BLACKPINK (2nd July) & Billy Joel (7th July).
As well as Bruce Springsteen, support slots on George Ezra’s UK & Ireland tour & Dermot Kennedy’s Limerick shows at Thomond Park are also confirmed. Alongside an extensive run of festival dates that include Neighbourhood, Sea Sessions, Lytham Festival, Latitude & The Indie-pendence. They have also appeared on BBC Introducing Belfast and recently performed on The Independent’s live music session Music Box & Irish TV Series Other Voices.
ABOUT KINGFISHR:
Formed while members Eddie (vocals, guitar), McGoo (banjo), and Fitz (bass) were studying engineering at university in Limerick and taking their name from the bird that frequents the river Boro in Eddie’s home county of Wexford, Kingfishr had limited experience in music when they first got together, making their success to date all the more impressive. “I only started playing when I came to college,” Eddie recalls. “I made friends with a gang of 10 or 15 lads, and at a house party a guitar was produced and maybe 10 of them could play it. And I thought that was insane, so I picked it up off them.” His audience had, until that point, been restricted to anyone who caught him singing in the shower at home: “I knew I liked singing, but I was petrified,” he admits. “The first time the band did an open mic night, I was so nervous I couldn’t actually rest the guitar on my legs, they were shaking so much!”
Fans have found plenty of meaning in Eddie’s songwriting, which is laced through with metaphors and analogies inspired by myth and legend. “I can’t attach myself to much of modern pop music,” he says with a shrug. “It’s almost as if an alien came down and watched a load of movies, then went to write a song. That’s an imitation of the human experience, not the real thing.” Eddie writes from the soul, delving into darker, more abstract imagery even if the themes remain universal. The music is hugely cinematic, they pride themselves on deep textures and a grand sonic atmospheric nature, with influences ranging from Hanz Zimmer to Ben Howard.
Both McGoo and Fitz got their start in traditional Irish music. “It was a big part of my family’s social life,” McGoo, who hails from Tipperary, explains. “And when I met the boys, I started bringing those references into our sound. There’s a storied history to spoken word in Ireland that defines us as a culture – something of that authentic Celtic vibe that I think people are still hungry for. In some way that’s what we’re trying to get at, while keeping it fresh at the same time.”
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