Name: Will Varley live at Thekla
Start: 2025-04-02T18:30:00+01:00
Location: Thekla, The Grove, BS1 4RB Bristol, United Kingdom

Communion ONE Presents
Will Varley at
Thekla Bristol
Wednesday 2nd April 2025
19:00
14+
Off the back of three sold out shows in the Autumn and a string of support slots opening for The Libertines, English singer-songwriter Will Varley has announced a full UK tour in the Spring of next year. The tour will happen in the lead up to the release of his 7th studio album, put out alongside his new label MNRK Music Group, home to the likes of The Lumineers, Mt. Joy and Gregory Alan Isakov.
Joined by his formidable new backing band 'The Southern Rust', Varley will be showcasing material from the upcoming album as well as playing plenty of old tunes to boot.
"The crowds we’ve had these last few months absolutely blew us away and as soon as we finished in Berlin I was desperate to do it all again.” enthuses WIll, “I've been working away in the studio for almost a year now, but there's nothing like playing live. It's been a while since I did a proper UK
tour like this. I'll be playing at some of the best independent music venues in the world and I can't wait."
Inspired by his natural habitats of America’s Midwest and the coastal plains of East Kent, Will’s 7th album is laden with rich, lyrical tales that speak of hard touring, relationships on the rocks and the rebuilding of minds. Featuring some very special guest appearances, the album continues Varley’s decade long exploration of the human condition, this time focusing on society’s ever-present threat of impending apocalypse, how we marry this with the mundane and the minutiae of our everyday lives and how we can find hope.
Varleys new band, a sprawling collective of Kentish outlaws and misfits, are all loosely connected to his Smugglers record label, a rabble of artists he has been associating with since his early days. As well as Varley, between them the various members have played alongside Yndi Halder, Nuru Kane, Alabaster DePlume, Jamie T and Paul Weller to name a few.
“Dave Hatton Jr. (bass) used to run the open mic nights Tommy (keys) and I started out at and he also produced my first two solo records. His brother James (percussion/drums) gave me my first beat up electric guitar when I was 16. Stewart Hughes (drums) used to drive and sling merch for me back in the good old days and Phil Self (guitar) helped put my first music out on Smugglers.
These people are like family to me. And it just so happens they are some of the best players around. It’s an honour to have them playing on my records and to be touring with them again.”
Since self-releasing his debut album and touring the length of the south coast on foot, Will Varley’s live shows have swelled to see him selling out shows across North America and Europe in recent years.
“We all spend far too much time on our phones, or laptops or whatever. But there’s only so much all that stuff can give you. The energy of getting into a room with real people, the beads of sweat and the bar staff, the sea of eyes, everyone singing the same words together as loud as they can… it’s like nothing else on earth.”