thistle. / Ain't Co-headline

Name: thistle. / Ain't Co-headline
Start: 2026-01-26T19:30:00+00:00
End: 2026-01-26T22:30:00+00:00
Location: The Sunflower Lounge

Schedule

Mon Jan 26 2026 at 07:30 pm to 10:30 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

The Sunflower Lounge | Birmingham, EN

Yampy Promotions presents thistle. & Ain’t co-headline for Independent Venue Week.
thistle.
Comprised of Cameron (lead vocals, guitar), Lewis (drums), and Judwyn (vocals, bass)— thistle. is a trio whose lo-fi, introspective yet hardcore sound, forged in a garage in Northampton, is capturing the attention of BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Radio 1 and Radio X. Elements of shoegaze, indie rock and hardcore are at the forefront for thistle. but the band draws from a broad spectrum of influences, from Pavement to Polachek.
thistle.’s Lewis and Cameron first crossed paths in a school music room in Northampton, aged just thirteen. The final piece of the puzzle, Judwyn, stepped in on bass in 2023, solidifying the lineup. Their raw energy and DIY ethos have seen them lay waste to the stages of The Windmill, The Grace, and saw them make their festival debut at Truck in 2024. Gathering solid co-signs at UK radio in Dan P Carter and Steve Lamacq (with Steve attending a show recently), the band are set to continue picking up fans with more live dates in the pipeline.
Ain’t
Bringing together the stranger side of ’90s guitar music from both sides of the Atlantic, Ain’t expertly toe the line between nostalgia and ingenuity. Comprised of George Ellerby (Guitar/Vox), Ed Randall (Guitar), Hanna Baker Darch (Vox), Joe Lockstone (Drums), and Isaac Griffiths (Bass), Ain’t’s compulsion to create seeps through with urgency and heft.
Having already played showcases for the likes of So Young, Rough Trade, The Alt Escape, and The Windmill, their first two singles, “Oar” and “Teething,” arrived last summer and marked the quintet as that rarest of things—a band with a feverish word-of-mouth reputation even before releasing a single official track. The songs delivered on that promise, earning widespread support: a digital cover with Dork and praise from the likes of Stereogum, NME, CLASH, DIY, The Line of Best Fit, and So Young, as well as radio play from BBC Radio 6 Music, Radio X, Apple Music 1, and more.
New singles “Pirouette” and “Jude” mark the band’s opening salvo for 2025, setting the tone for what’s shaping up to be another meteoric year. Recorded with Theo Verney (English Teacher, Lime Garden, Egyptian Blue), the tracks showcase Ain’t’s knack for complex dynamics—combining heavily textured, hook-driven instrumentation, subtle vocal harmonies, and a combustible rhythm section.
Support from Gill.