My New Band Believe LIVE at The White Hotel: Fresh Sounds in Salford

If you cut the head off a Hydra, two more will grow in its place. Similarly, when Black Midi,

powerhouse of British experimental rock, split in 2024, two sensational projects from lead

singers and multi instrumentalists Cameron Picton and Geordie Greep have sprung up to fill the

void. For Greep the reaction was immediate, with the new sound of solo album The New Sound

released only a few months later. For Picton the process was slower, with the development of a

new band over the next couple of years- the aptly named My New Band Believe.

The venue is the small and smoke-filled White Hotel, tucked back in between the warehouses

and concrete wastelands of Salford in Greater Manchester. I’m standing on the left side of the

stage, giving me a unique angle not provided by more traditional front-facing stages; Cameron

Picton steps out closest to my area of the audience, joined by the rest of the band in a relatively

casual formation. It’s not long until they begin with the first of many complex compositions from

their newly released, self-titled debut album.

It’s almost miraculous that each song is playable with only four musicians, really; the album itself

is the fruit of the labours of many, with a contribution list more reminiscent of the credits of a

blockbuster film. These credits include seven of the eight members of contemporary band

Caroline, whose concert in Liverpool was one of the best I have attended this year, and one

Charlie Wayne of Black Country, New Road. This performance, in fact, was preceded by the captivating solo performance of the Greater Manchester-born musician Kiran Leonard, yet

another contributor to the album.

During the first song of the show I realise Picton’s guitar has snapped a string; rather than a

pause in the music, the rest of the band decide to keep riffing in increasingly complex

improvisations as the frontman fixes the issue backstage. This, really, sets the tone for the rest

of the performance, a sequence of both tightly rehearsed songs and semi-improvisation, joined

by Picton’s awkward but intriguing vocals and broken only on sporadic occasions by rapturous

applause.

This is an early performance in a tour that will take Picton and Co. to London, Bristol,

Cambridge and Oxford, before heading to North America at the end of May and back to Europe

in the autumn. From what I have seen so far, the wait for a second post- Black Midi project has

been a worthwhile one; there are bright things in the future for fans of the Windmill scene,

especially as Picton’s vision is a definite sonic departure for his earlier work, and is wholly a

different- but not unwelcome- direction to the ones his former bandmates have taken. For me

personally, at least, in this new band I believe.