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ABOUT

"Catchy pop folkies from Great Yarmouth"

 

​Knotted are a  pop/folk band consisting of Steve Farrell, Will Allinson, Robbie Birtwell, Lennon Price-Morris, Richard Bennett and Josh Rowe.  Formed in 2009, the group have now released nine studio albums aswell as gigged across the UK on a regular basis. In the sound it is clear they have had an influence from the likes of Squeeze, The Beautiful South, Oasis and Ocean Colour Scene, with a mix of catchy guitar riffs and sharp lyrics reflecting every day life.  

 

At first Knotted were simply a youtube project when Farrell started to write with guitarist John Nottage.  Farrell and Nottage were joined by Simon Kippen in January 2010 as they recorded and released their debut album 'Good Night Out'.  After a big debut gig at Arch 1 in West Ham, they then played at various venues across the UK although were hit with the news that John Nottage was moving on.  Farrell and Kippen continued as a duo and in 2012 released 'St Georges Road', an album of songs they had been working on for nearly two years. 

 

By 2013 Simons younger brother Ben Kippen had joined and contributed to 'Barkleys Adventure' making Knotted a three piece once again.  Then with 2014 marking five years, the group released 'Selfies' which was followed with another trip around the UK to play live.  It was around this time when the band had a new sound live when they added Hej Jones on Cajon at the majority of gigs.

 

During 2015, Ben Kippen and Hej Jones left the group which left Steve and Simon to do a number of acoustic gigs as a duo.  In November 2015 the duo went back through old songs and recorded 'Another Good Night Out: Our Best So Far' which was released in December at the end of the 2015 tour.  This album marked the band finally going digital with the release on sites such as iTunes, Amazon and Spotify.

 

In 2016 they recruited Tom Radcliffe on cajon who assisted with the 'Barking Mad' album.  Max Harrison who had played in the band during 2013 after meeting through song writing workshops filled in during some shows in March and April but was replaced with Tom Tonks. The band played a number of gigs across the UK during the first part of the year with a highlight being supporting Nick Harper in London. During the summer months they played some festivals with a full line up which was boosted by the return of Ben Kippen on bass guitar.  This marked a new chapter for Knotted as they were then finally able to do shows as either a full 5 member band or as an acoustic trio which was demonstrated when Farrell, Kippen and Tonks played a number of low key local acoustic shows as a 3 piece.   

2017 was the end of an era as Steve Farrell had to set up a complete new line up of the band after fellow original member Simon Kippen left near the end of the April Northern Tour.  Kippen could no longer commit to music after getting a break in the pro wrestling industry so played his last show in Blackburn during the tour.  Joe Burns was brought in to replace him and Will Allinson (who had previously stepped in during 2016) joined the group as a second guitarist after Tom Tonks left earlier in the year to focus on solo work.  Dave Carter came on board to play a number of live shows and help the band work on their sixth studio album Roadstead which was released on the 11th November 2017.  After many line up changes over the previous year, 2017 was stable in the set up of Farrell, Burns and Allinson. 

In 2019 the band celebrated their 10 year anniversary with a mini UK tour along with a number of other shows up and down the country.  One of the highlights was a big show at St Georges Theatre in Great Yarmouth where they were joined on stage by former members Simon and Ben Kippen.  Robbie Birtwell joined the line up early in the year to add percussion making Knotted a 4 piece band once again for larger shows.  For some bigger shows, Andy Marr who had stepped in on cajon during the 2019 tour, also added some additional cajon.  The ten year anniversary year was capped with the release of Knotted's 7th studio album 'Modification' in September 2019, followed by some launch shows.  

Despite 2020 being a bad year for music in general due to the pandemic, Knotted were still able to do a mini summer tour with Farrell, Allinson and Birtwell performing stripped down acoustic shows.  This was followed up in 2021 with the release of the 8th studio album 'The Weekender'.  At the end of the summer, Lennon Price-Morris joined as a new guitarist to replace Joe Burns and Richard Bennett also joined to become the bands first ever keyboard player.  The new 5 piece line up recorded the 'Left in the Dark' album later in 2021 and the album was released in early 2022 where it was promoted with theatre shows in Norwich and Great Yarmouth.  Young lead guitarist Josh Rowe joined the line up to add a bigger sound during summer 2022 for the summer festivals and the 6 piece then did a mini northern tour in September.   

 

The band have played at both big and small venues and appeared on BBC Radio Norfolk on several occasions.  With this has come alot of positive feedback from both fans and peers such as Dean Johnson (writer of Bullets and Daffodils) and Alan Fletcher (Dr. Karl Kennedy in Neighbours).  In 2013, Steve Farrell even got to share the stage with Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze in Norwich to perform a version of 'Up the Junction' who was full of praise.  The band also supported Nick Harper in London 2016 and in 2021 the Weekender album scored a glowing review from Divide and Conquer. 

 

 

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