Golden Dregs to play Falmouth Cornish bank for album launch

Formed in Falmouth in 2013 by Truro boy Benjamin Woods, the new album On Grace and Dignity released on the prestigious 4AD label is already garnering rave reviews from critics.

On Grace and Dignity is out on February 10 (Image: 4AD)

Giving it four stars in this month's Mojo music magazine, Andy Cowan praised its "bashed and bruised fireside sing-alongs spiked with yearning and melanchony."

Now based in South London the band includes former Penryn College student and Mylor Bridge resident Issie Armstrong on vocals and guitar and Davy Roderick from Truro on vocals and synth. Ben's sister Hannah also plays saxophone on the album.

The Golden Dregs Issie Armstrong, second left, Benjamin Woods and Hannah Wood, third and second right, and Davy Roderick, far right (Image: 4AD)

The appearance at the Cornish Bank on the evening of February 11 in association with Jam record shop is the only full band performance as part of a number of instore record shop appearances to promote the new album out on February 10.

In March the band are off to play the United States with headline gigs in Los Angeles and New York as well as appearing at the prestigious music industry festival SWSX in Austin, Texas followed by an appearance at the Treefort Festival in Boise, Idaho.

This will be followed by a full European Tour in April including gigs in Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Rotterdam and Scandanavia followed by a full UK tour in May.

Prior to the release of the album, The Golden Dregs have released their latest single 'Before We Fell From Grace' which is deeply rooted in Woods’ rich baritone.

The video is equally as striking, Joe Wheatley creating a richly moving black-and-white narrative on the fragility of death.

On Grace & Dignity, considers his home and what it means to be shaped by a place – in this instance, Truro, Cornwall’s capital.

In among the personal reflections on loss of innocence and inferiority, Woods spins subtly interweaving narratives about survival, desperate acts of violence, loss and the limitations of community in the face of rapacious gentrification. 

Written, recorded and produced by Woods from his South London home and childhood bedroom in Truro, it was mixed by Ali Chant (Perfume Genius, Aldous Harding) who provided additional production. 

For the album’s visuals, Woods commissioned Bristol-based model-maker Edie Lawrence to construct an HO-scale fictional Cornish town.

The model town was christened Polgras (Image: 4AD)

Christened Polgras, the 8 ft by 4 ft model features a viaduct, an estuary, a supermarket, new-build houses and industrial buildings; every song from On Grace & Dignity is represented by a scene in the town.

“There are different parts of the experience of growing up in Cornwall in there,” he says. “Some of it was from me looking at it when I was down there that winter, and some of it was me harking back to the experience of growing up there.

"It’s defined by that sense of duality, of coexisting realities. You’re geographically so far away, and it has a strong identity of its own, as well as a different landscape. It’s so rugged and bleak, but beautiful – which is what I really like in music.”