The Vatican Cellars

Bright summer days are all very jolly but it’s in the thrill of the night time that adventures really happen.



As the year starts to turn it’s time to leave behind the hey diddle diddle of cider-tinged, hanky-waving frivolity and wrap up warm with folk that’s a little bit darker, folk that’s bitten it’s lip and tasted blood, folk noir. Take our hand and come for a walk in the moonlight with The Vatican Cellars and The Same Crooked Worm.



Hailing from London and Orange County The Vatican Cellars are principal songwriters Simon Hughes and The Birthday Girl, joined by Tom Adams and Russ Wainwright. They write songs about death, loss and guilt. They write songs late at night from the bottom of a bottle of wine, songs that are sung down the phone in the early hours, songs that bring to mind Nick Drake, The Lilac Time and Tindersticks.



Simon and The Birthday Girl were brought together by melancholy. They met in Paris, where they were
playing on the same bill in a former dance-hall. They found that they had both lost someone close to them and a friendship blossomed. The Birthday Girl encouraged Simon to perform the songs he had written to help deal with his grief. Simon introduced The Birthday Girl to Dylan Thomas and the The Vatican Cellars was born.



The first single to be released is “Bitter Plans”. It’s not prophetic; the Vatican Cellars will be touring soon.



Come out and play with them on the shadowy side of the green.



The Same Crooked Worm is due out on Where It’s At Is Where You Are Records on 5 November.



Releases:
The Vatican Cellars EP (Sept. 2007)



".this is a gorgeous demo. Its acoustic, part-folky backing (all filigree guitar lines and chunky double bass, with lonely melodica on ‘Lost At The End Of The Line’) supports the sweetest melodies. There’s a wistful 60s Albion-ness about it; you could easily hear Doherty or Albarn or even Ray Davies singing ‘My Black Pearl’ in that evocative-of-olde-England way. A demo pregnant with promise. " SoundsXP (Oct. 2007)



".achingly adorable, the Vatican Cellars feature the combined talents of Piney Gir’s guitarist Mr Hughes and (admittedly previously unknown to us) shoe fetishist and multi instrumentalist the Birthday Girl. Three cuts feature here that offer up finitely drawn morsels of tear stained hurting lo-fi folk bruisers that weep and wallow their forlorn selves into your sympathetic psyche while simultaneously mesmerising you in swirls of winter swept cascades of mellowing beauty." Losingtoday.com (Oct. 2007)



you can buy advance copies of the album here: http://www.wiaiwya.com/releases.php