MUSIC lovers heading for this weekend’s annual Tockholesbury Festival will get the chance to see an East Lancashire acoustic duo who have made remarkable progress in the last 12 months.

Bad Cardigan — 19-year-olds Jack Anwyl and Tom Randell — will be headlining the acoustic stage at the festival on Saturday. The duo, who only started gigging 18 months ago, have become a regular support act for The Levellers at some of the country’s larger venues and next month have secured two slots at the prestigious Beautiful Days Festival.

Jack, from Great Harwood, and Tom, from Whalley, have been gigging tirelessly for the past 12 months.

“We’re well into the nineties in terms of gigs,” said Johnny. “We both believe that you have to keep gigging to develop and that’s certainly what has worked for us. We have been writing constantly and we probably have an album worth of songs but we just need to get into the studio and record them as we want them, hopefully by the end of the year.”

“We have supported the Levellers seven or eight times now,” said Tom. “Whenever they play dates in the north they tend to offer us a support slot, which is fantastic. They are such a great bunch of people and always have time to talk to us.”

With their own brand of indie folk with attitude, Bad Cardigan are beginning to attract a lot of attention in the music world.

“We are constantly changing what we do,” said Jack. “Some of our most recent stuff has had quite a punky feel to it but then our latest songs have concentrated on harmonies.

“Because we have been playing live so much we are now really confident in front of an audience and feel that as a duo we can entertain a crowd far more than if we were in a band, as we don’t have the same constraints.

“Some of our best shows have been in front of relatively small crowds. We genuinely don’t bother about where we are playing on a line-up. But what does annoy us is the presumption that some people have that as we’re an acoustic duo we can go on first for 20 minutes and sing a few covers.

“That is not what we are about.”

At Tockholesbury — billed as the only day-and-a-half festival — Bad Cardigan headline the acoustic stage at 8.30pm tomorrow.

The line-up, on two stages around the Royal Arms in the village, includes some of East Lancashire’s leading bands, with Saturday night’s headliners including R.Y.A.N., Rime Suspex, India Mill and The Wagon Wheels. There will be a selection of food stalls and a beer tent on Saturday and entry is free.

Tomorrow
(from 5pm)
Jones Street Aces
Luva Gunk
Sons
Dan The Thief
Falter
Today They Are Older
SATURDAY
(from 1pm)
Main stage
R.Y.A.N.
Rime Suspex
India Mill
The Wagon Wheels
Pigwitch
Fire in the Empire
Riders in the Ska
The Slydes
Cassini Club
A New Line
Bitter Harvest
Acoustic stage
Bad Cardigan
New York Tourists
Alex Buckley
Tony Sharples
The Dead Romantics
The Walrus
Nicky Bauer