Holly Head

Committed and controversial, Manchester’s rising, kinetic, beat-powered punk four-piece, Holly Head, return for 2025 with their scuffed and confrontational, two-and-a-half-minute blast of incisive social commentary, Whatever Drags You Through It. Sharp, funky and rapid-fire, the band’s home city reputation spreads further this year with a run of 14 UK Tour dates, including their debut at Brixton’s Windmill next month and two, schedule Dot To Dot festival appearances.
 
Taking notoriety as a signal of connected audience sympathies and riding on the right side of history, last year’s debut release of the band’s unrelenting debut, No Gain, rushed Holly Head to the front of a proactive, politically-motivated creative community. Written in a police cell following arrest due to Britain’s protest laws, the song provided the key to their first BBC 6 Music live session last November, with the performance used to further cementing their uncompromising conviction and use Holly Head’s music to profile urgent causes.
 
Joy, abandon and collective release accompany the band on stage, setting off the incomparable rush of the off-leash “Afrobeat Curious Post-Hardgaze” in time to the band’s activist objectives. While Whatever Drags You Through It tramples oncomers with Holly Head’s fractious, electrifying and funked new-wave punk, every lyrical line retains a sense of purpose for those choosing to hear it. Fearless, the band looks inwards and outwards to challenge stereotyping, hate and delusion.

Singer, Joe, says: “When facing the massive and seemingly unchangeable task of trying to change our failing political systems, people can understandably feel totally powerless in their already struggling lives. An easier way is to shy away from it or, worse, resort to blaming migrants, trans people and climate policy for the issues that repeatedly arise in our society. This song is essentially about how people come to explain away the harm they see and do in their lives, be it economically, socially or both.”
 
Made up of Joe (vocals, guitar) Liam (bass), Oscar (drums) and Paddy (guitar), Holly Head’s emergence from the suburbs of their home city, with early shows concentrated in their bars and backrooms, is complete in the eyes of local audiences. Following a run of memorable, sold-out nights in the company of an alert, growing community of listeners, the band looks to capture further momentum via the following dates at home and further afield:

• Weds 19 Feb – Brighton, Rossi Bar 
• Thu 20 Feb – London, Brixton Windmill
• Fri 21 Feb – Oxford, Common Ground
• Sat 22 Feb – Southampton, Heartbreakers (So Young Mag Presents)
• Sat 8 Mar – Glasgow, Akoustik Anarkhy at The Flying Duck
• Fri 14 Mar - Manchester - Akoustik Anarkhy at The Star and Garter
• Sat 22 Mar – Bristol, The Old England with Klyphex
• Fri 28 Mar – Leeds, Superfrendz at Headrow House
• Fri 4 April – Halifax, The Grayston Unity
• Wed 21 May – London, The Social (DHP) for Footsteps Festival
• Sat 24 May – Bristol, DOT TO DOT
• Sun 25 May – Nottingham, DOT TO DOT

Whatever Drags You Through It was recorded in the company of producer, Seanda McPhail at Airtight Studios in Chorlton, South Manchester.