Visitors looking to cement their place

The Visitors

OLDHAM indie blues rockers The Visitors are inviting other local bands to get involved with their exciting new project: The Brick Laying Sessions.

Vocals/bassist Jack Bottomley-Clift and lead guitarist Charles Cotton say the chiefly acoustic sessions - which they hope to start by the end of the summer - will partly help to promote their own and other bands’ new material.

Jack explained: “We bought a new recorder ideal for acoustics. We’ll record our own tunes on it but the new project is about filming different sessions and maybe putting them out on a YouTube channel. We’re hoping to get other local bands involved too.

“There isn’t that much footage of us on the internet to be honest, so we’re hoping that if this idea takes off it will show our variety. It will be good for all bands that get involved we think.”

Keep in touch with the band through their Twitter and Facebook pages.

Meanwhile The Visitors continue to play gigs both locally and in London, and are recording a new EP.

The band — which also features rhythm guitarist Greg Higham and drummer Conor Mather — has recorded “Rain Check”, “White Woman” and “Born In The Thick Of It’ at the Animal Farm studios in London, and its release is due soon.

Jack added: “‘Rain Check’ is an early tune of ours, but the other two we’ve only put together quite recently. They’ve all got different feels: ‘White Woman’ has a rock n’ roll and country vibe and ‘Born In The Thick Of It’ is a lot heavier.”

Despite the lack of a release date, the Visitors will showcase the EP tracks at the Spice of Life in Soho on August 29. It’s a night Charlie is clearly relishing.

“Last time we went to London we were invited to a similar showcase night at the same venue, and it was just class. Everyone was loving it.”

Closer to home, the band is also excited to be a main feature at a special Oldham Meets Madchester night at the famous old Candlelight Club on September 25. Promoter Carl H Spiers has invited the lads to join Oldham music legend Clint Boon, following the success of a similar recent gig.

Charlie said: “It was a definite yes from us. Clint’s great, he’s done so much and when we played together last time he said he liked our songs. To hear that from somebody with so much experience was brilliant.

LISTEN to my exclusive interview with Jack and Charlie here: