Lavinia Blackwall & Alex Rex / Jack Sharp

Name: Lavinia Blackwall & Alex Rex / Jack Sharp
Start: 2025-04-09T19:30:00+01:00
Location: What's Cookin'

Schedule

Wed, 09 Apr, 2025 at 07:30 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

What's Cookin' | Leytonstone, EN

Lavinia Blackwall trained as a singer at R.S.A.M.D Glasgow before going on to complete her Masters in Early Music with distinction at The Guildhall, London. She is well known for her work as a singer and arranger in Trembling Bells, who released seven albums, all met with critical acclaim. She has performed and toured extensively through Europe with artists such as Nick Garrie, Kaleidoscope, Mike Heron and Bonnie Prince Billy, as well as being invited to perform her own material live on several occasions at BBC 6Music and at Glastonbury Festival.
Her debut album ‘Muggington Lane End’ was universally well received, earning excellent reviews from publications as diverse as Rolling Stone France, Shindig!, RnR, The Financial Times, Uncut, Mojo, and The Scotsman. Lavinia is also a member of Wyndow who released their successful debut album to rave reviews in 2020. She continues to work on her second solo album, a rich tapestry of lyrical melodies and beautifully arranged song smithery ably accompanied by ‘Stilton’ the talents of Marco Rea ( The Wellgreen, Euros Childs) Jim McGoldrick (The Wellgreen) and Seb Jonsen (Helicon and TheTomorrow Syndicate)
Alex Rex is the 'ghost-rock' project of Alex Neilson (Trembling Bells, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Shirley Collins, Current 93 et al). Inspired by Greek Tragedy, Barbara Streisand and Alex's own internal critic, Alex Rex perform songs of love, loss and loathing that make the detestable whistleable.
Alex is set to release his fourth and final studio album, The National Trust, in March. Written in the wake of the sudden death of his younger brother, Alastair, the album is a poignant reflection on loss, love, and renewal, deeply rooted in the landscape of Carbeth—a cabin community in the Scottish countryside that Alastair called home. For Neilson, the cabin became both a physical and emotional project, a symbol of restoration and reconnection.
As with Alex's previous albums, the recording process was intentionally unpolished, with songs presented in the studio with no rehearsals and captured in just a few takes. This raw, immediate approach amplifies the emotional weight of the album, which Neilson describes as being at a “personal apex of sour self-reflection, mock misanthropy, and self-exposure.” Longtime collaborators Lavinia Blackwall, Marco Rea, and Rory Haye return, alongside guest musicians like Jill O’Sullivan (Jill Lorean) and Trembling Bells guitarist Mike Hastings, to bring Neilson’s vision to life. The result is a
deeply personal and multifaceted work, blending acid wit with haunting introspection.
“Superb” The Times
“Irreverent and playful” MOJO
“...an utterly distinctive, mental world” The Financial Times
“There’s a buoyancy to even the most lacerating lines now, a liberating relief in pressing on” Uncut