{"id":28576,"date":"2026-06-08T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=28576"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T10:59:12","slug":"the-virginmarys-idestroy-hyde-park-book-club-leeds-31st-may-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=28576","title":{"rendered":"The Virginmarys\/iDestroy – Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds – 31st May 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Macclesfield\u2019s finest export, The Virginmarys, follow up their 2024 album \u2018The House Beyond The Fires\u2019 with a companion album \u2018Beyond The House Of Fires\u2019, a piano-led re-working where the songs have been stripped back and reimagined. Chords and structures have been changed, words have been rewritten, and it\u2019s very much a different album sonically. To promote it, singer\/songwriter Ally Dickaty and drummer Danny Dolan now take the show on the road for some intimate MTV unplugged-style shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First up are Bristol band iDestroy. Bec on guitar and Nic on bass haven\u2019t done acoustic shows before, but they embrace the format. Bec gets a bit of a rapport going, some crowd participation, and they have some great tunes. \u201cAll My Friends Are Plastic\u201d and \u201cHeadphones\u201d are particularly memorable. There\u2019s a bit of Brit Pop and a smattering of Grunge going on, Elastica meets Hole could be a good starting point. They go down well and warm things up nicely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stage is set, iridescent candles shimmer, and pink LEDs draped across the amps glow as The Virginmarys take to the stage of an already hot n\u2019 sweaty room. With guitarist and songwriter Ally taking on keyboards for this tour, The Virginmarys are joined by guitarist Gareth Price to boost the band to a 3-piece for this tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing I like most about this new album is that some songs that maybe didn\u2019t stand out on the original album now come into their own. One such song opens the show tonight. Stripped of the jagged riffs and regimental beats, \u2018My Nettle\u2019 takes on a new lease of life, emotive and cinematic, it just hits in the feels. We watch in silence as Ally fingers a lush piano melody. Danny does not take his eyes off his musical partner’s fingers either, as he matches the raw and emotional vocal with a rousing beat. You could hear a pin drop for the entirety, and that\u2019s not the only time that happens tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2018Dance to the City\u2019 follows, with its rousing chorus screaming the album title. It\u2019s over in a flash.\u00a0The songs flow by quickly, too quickly, they seem shorter somehow. \u2018There Ain\u2019t No Future\u2019 still sounds as powerful without the killer power chords,\u00a0\u00a0and \u2018When The Lights Go Down\u2019 is simply stunning, Gareth\u2019s effect-ridden guitars adding a touch of Pink Floyd to proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Urban Seagull\u2019 is another that benefits from the reworking. Ally plays a lush arpeggio while Danny plays a regimental but subtle beat. A song that was made to be played in this setting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The set is mainly these new songs, none of the usual hits is to be heard in this format, but they fill it out with a few obscurities, just Ally solo. A cover of Leonard Cohen’s\u00a0\u00a0\u2018Everybody Knows\u2019 fits the bill, \u2018Sleep\u2019 and \u2018Cast The First Stone\u2019 are heartfelt and beautiful and will make you want to revisit those early EPs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They capture that magical unplugged, laid-back vibe well, the intimate dark room helps magnify the cinematic, ethereal feel of these new reworked songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only time the pace picks up is on the penultimate song, \u2018Veteran Soldier\u2019, an older song that was originally recorded acoustically and has been given the opposite treatment. The atmospheric intro leads into an almost Tarantino-esque spaghetti western vibe. A song of gratitude and undying friendship, it\u2019s an album highlight and a gig highlight as well. But the best has been kept for last. \u2018White Knuckle Riding\u2019 for me is the kingpin of the whole album. Ally’s unfaltering vocals are sublime over the tinkling of the ivories, it builds with Danny\u2019s gentle, regimented beats, just enough to accentuate things. Unsurprisingly, the emotive lyrics with the Northern references hit home in this intimate Leeds venue, and it\u2019s a stunning end to a masterful set. No encores, no returns\u2026job done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The idea with this project was to recapture that 90\u2019s MTV Unplugged vibe, and with both album and tour, The Virginmarys have succeeded. While this is more of a between-album project and not a new direction for the band, it was one of the most magical gigs I have seen them do.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Ben Hughes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Macclesfield\u2019s finest export, The Virginmarys, follow up their 2024 album \u2018The House Beyond The Fires\u2019 with a companion album \u2018Beyond The House Of Fires\u2019, a piano-led re-working where the songs have been stripped back and reimagined. Chords and structures have been changed, words have been rewritten, and it\u2019s very much a different album sonically. To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[726,819],"class_list":["post-28576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-review","tag-ben-hughes","tag-the-virginmarys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28581,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28576\/revisions\/28581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}