The Pleasure Dome

Bristol grunge-rock/punk trio The Pleasure Dome are delighted to announce that they have signed to Hound Gawd! Records and will release their debut album later this year.

Alongside the signing news, the band are pleased to reveal a brand new AA-side single ‘Love Is Dead’/’Insane’ which is released on 20th June 2023 on all good streaming services, with a 7” vinyl release set for 4th August 2023.

Preorder the 7" now - https://tinyurl.com/2p9f3wwj

The band recently announced a run of September/October 2023 UK headline tour dates, with tickets on sale now (see below for listings).

The first taste of new material from the band since the release of their 2022 single ‘If Meaning’, the three piece have also revealed a video for ‘Insane’ made up on fan footage taken on their UK and European tours edited by guitarist and vocalist Bobby Spender, with additional footage from photographer Josh Wood.

The video for ‘Love Is Dead’ was made using found footage of a Soviet Presidential funeral, again edited by the front man, who says “It represents the funeral of love and the grief you experience at the end of a relationship.”

Commenting on the track, Spender says: “Believe it or not I was listening to a lot of The Strokes and The Libertines first albums when I wrote this song, but also Nirvana too, so it came out a bit more heavy. The relationship I was in at the time was starting to go wrong and breakdown—we wanted different things, but we were in love and I felt like I was losing my mind. I had episodes of psychosis and schizophrenia in my 20s, something I have more of a handle on now, but I was scared I was starting to lose my mind again. This song was a bit about coming to terms with that, questioning my own sanity while a relationship breaks down. It always feels to me like a song that opens the gates of hell, a release of frustration and negativity, self deprecation; an ode to psychosis and love.”

A three piece rock band from Bristol, UK, Bobby Spender (vocals and guitar) Loz Fancourt (bass and backing vocals), and Alex ‘Bert’ Elvin (drums) formed The Pleasure Dome in July 2019. They have already toured extensively across Europe and the UK, notably headlining Supersonic in Paris earlier this year with a capacity audience queuing around the block to experience their live show.

The band’s name came to front man Bobby Spender in a fever dream about an enormous futuristic amusement arcade. “Above its doors in neon lights was written ‘The Pleasure Dome’,” he explains. “The next day I learnt that the romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was the first person to coin the phrase pleasure dome in his opium-induced poem Kubla Khan. The name stuck!”

“We’re just three friends who love to play music, really,” says Spender. “I write these songs about moments in life, things I’ve learned or don’t understand, and together we work them out. We’re loud, but we also like the delicate moments too, the calm and the thunder.”

In part influenced and inspired by the rapid success of homegrown UK talents King Krule, Wet Leg, IDLES, and Katy J Pearson, the band pull their musical direction from a wide range of artists and sounds. “The Beatles are my favourite band,” enthuses Spender. “As a songwriter, for me, it’s all there in that songbook. Nirvana are of course a huge inspiration, but I listen to all sorts of music really.”

The band’s previous standalone singles and EP releases have already netted them a host of fans at UK press, with a solid bundle of radio airplay at BBC R1 (Jack Saunders Rock Show, BBC Introducing), BBC 6Music (Lauren Laverne, Tom Robinson, Craig Charles), BBC Radio Wales (Adam Walton), and BBC Bristol (Introducing).

Stay tuned for further details of the band’s debut album to be revealed over the coming months.