West Side Cowboy

Early praise for Westside Cowboy

“come for the urgent, wistful guitars, and stay for the heart-wrenching harmonies” Stereogum

“the four-piece trade as much in affecting, multi-layer harmonies as they do serious slacker-rock shredding” DIY

“one of the new acts heralding a gloriously ramshackle new era of ’90s-styled slacker rock” NME
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APRIL 29 - Following it's premiere by Huw Stephens on BBC 6 Music,  Manchester quartet Westside Cowboy release new single ‘Shells’ via Nice Swan Recordings / Heist or Hit - the track was produced by Lewis Whiting of 2024 Mercury Prize winners English Teacher. The release follows their announcement as winners of this year’s Glastonbury Festival’s Emerging Talent Competition and precedes a huge run of live dates, including support tours with Black Country, New Road and Blondshell.

‘Shells’ is an exhibition in dynamic command. Reuben Haycocks and Aoife Anson O’Connell’s hushed vocals dissolve into each other from the opening seconds; after a minute the calm is broken as drummer Paddy Murphy practically bursts his foot through the kick drum, whilst Jimmy Bradbury’s guitar stabs run hot.

On the new single, the band say:

“‘Shells’ is broadly about acceptance. Whether it is the acknowledgment of what you have, or the acknowledgment that change is inevitable. The song is loosely based on a film, in which the character masters this. We have yet to reach this point though.

I suppose it’s a little more earnest, and it starts slow, but it kicks in soon enough.”

This confluence of each member is central to Westside Cowboy’s infectious magic - each player has their distinct style and personality, a call-back to classic 60s groups, yet together they’re elevated into a timeless flow state. All four members sing  and it’s via their harmonies, and competing lead melodies which battle before combining, that the true connection is witnessed, especially live.   

It’s in this setting that the quartet are truly turning heads - a three run date of small oversubscribed sell-outs this March (two at Gullivers in their native Manchester, one at the iconic Windmill, Briton) are already taking on a mythic quality, and they've received personal invites onto support slots by English Teacher, Blondshell, mary in the junkyard and more. Evangelising by the likes of Black Country, New Road and Ezra Furman have augmented the ‘artist’s artist’ tag as well.


‘Shells’ follows the lighting-in-a-bottle debut single ‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You)’ which was released on 7” and landed in the Top 10 Vinyl records chart, the only emerging artist amongst the biggest of hitters. One single in, the band has earned a slew of eager champions from the get-go, including Stereogum, NME, DIY, DORK, So Young at press, and regular BBC 6 Music plays.

Sprouting from unserious jams in their drummer Paddy Murphy’s bedroom, what initially began as an inside joke as a welcome distraction from mediocre employment and higher education for Westside Cowboy has quickly gotten out of hand, resulting in a quite gargantuan live plot for the rest of the year.

Sonically riding a thrilling lo-fi boxcar tuned to the melodic precision of fuzzy alt-rock and held together with slacker cool, for most bands this would be enough, but not for Westside Cowboy. Just when you think you have them pinned, they career the entire thing into a brick wall of country, trad and early harmony-coated, major-key rock’n’roll. They call this process ‘Britainicana’.

Westside Cowboy’s ‘Shells’ is out now via Nice Swan Recordings / Heist or Hit and available on all digital platforms.

Westside Cowboy is Reuben Haycocks (guitar, vocals), James (Jimmy) Bradbury (guitar, vocals), Aoife Anson O’Connell (bass guitar, vocals), Paddy Murphy (drums)