It’s been a busy year for Sea Girls. Between the release of their latest album Midnight Butterflies, sold-out tours, and a live EP, the band hasn’t had a second to slow down. Earlier this autumn, the band played a slew of dates across Europe, the UK and Ireland and brought 1883 behind the scenes to see exactly what they get up to on the road.
Here we are in London for one of the first shows since the re-opening of O2 Academy Brixton. Our affinity with this place goes way back to when we used to come and see bands play here. We recorded our second album Homesick down the road and its sleeve art was taken around the corner. Brixton has been such a big part of our journey. Feels like our hometown when we come back and play here (photo Andrew Cooper)
Performing new songs from The Midnight Butterflies album to a packed O2 Academy Brixton was a magical experience and one we will cherish (photo Andrew Cooper)
Our fans are so cool; we love the effort they go to. It’s always a laugh if you catch some of the messages on the signs they’ve made for us (photo by Andrew Cooper)
Oli Rory and Andrew playing table football on the UK leg of The Midnight Butterflies tour between Newcastle and Manchester. Andrew normally has an easy time for himself against two of us in any scale of sport although I remember being the star when we hosted a Football Beyond Borders charity kickabout with local sponsored team AFC Muswell Hill, just want that noted (Henry). I would assume he won here and I was probably asleep as it’s daytime (photo Andrew Cooper)
We got to play Manchester Apollo on this tour. It is an incredible venue with lots of our favourite legendary artists having played there. Manchester is always a special city to play for us. I’ve lived a lot of life and been inspired in Manchester and it was one of the first cities to embrace us when we were starting out as a band. We’ll be forever grateful for our fans there.
Here’s us post-show with a few of Sea Girls OGs, the SGOGs (photo Andrew Cooper)
We spend a lot of time on the tour bus, so it’s really nice to be able to spend time in venues sound-checking and running through new songs or a cover that relates to the place we’re playing that night together. Pretty special singing Imagine at our Liverpool gig on John Lennon’s birthday. Despite rumours, we love The Beatles (photo Andrew Cooper)
We love playing in Europe, they have some of the most beautiful music venues in the world. We played the Heimathafen Neukolln in Berlin on this tour and had our German fan account covering the show (photo Tessa Paulukat)
Henry and Rory hanging out waiting for everyone else to arrive for dinner at this pub our local promoter told us about. We’ve known each other since school, so are pretty comfortable in each other’s space by now (photo Andrew Cooper)
We end up signing everything from arms to vinyl on tours. Pretty common for someone to ask us to draw a tattoo and I feel bad for the number of bad ones I’ve drawn, but I love our fans for wanting one. One of the best things for us about releasing an album is to see it pressed on vinyl. That feeling never gets old when we see it in a record store (photo Andrew Cooper)
We all love going to vintage stores when we’re on tour. It’s great to find one-off pieces to wear at the gigs. Getting up off the bus and finding a store keeps us sane. Here’s a beautiful piece Oli should have bought but didn’t. (photo Andrew Cooper)
“I want you to know you hold my heart. Hold it high…” Henry in the dressing room just before going on stage for day one of the UK leg of The Midnight Butterflies tour.
Sea Girls latest album Midnight Butterflies is out now.
