Bloody Knees return with a string of free live shows

Bloody Knees at Picture House Social, Sheffield.

After over a year since their last release and headline shows, Cambridge’s Bloody Knees are finally back.

The four-piece have hit the road again in support of their new EP ‘Maybe It’s Easy’ and have taken to the road for a UK tour, but with a difference.

Most of the shows on the tour are free to attend, with fans only having to pay for gigs in Birmingham, London and Stoke, and the experience has been an interesting one for the band.

“It’s definitely been an eye opener for us because we’ve not done a big headline run of shows before but with the release of the new EP we just decided to give it a go,” said singer and guitarist Brad Griffiths ahead of their show at Picture House Social in Sheffield.

“It’s been a real mix of shows – some of the free ones have been really good and then others not so great.”

“For example, the Oxford show was free, and the venue said they had pretty much sold out, but when we got there barely anyone had turned up so that was frustrating.”

In terms of the Sheffield show, gig promotor Tariq Navarone explains the reasoning behind the free show at Picture House Social.

“In a city like Sheffield which has a lot of students you want to pull the price down a bit to get more people in,” he said.

“But for Bloody Knees they’re a band I’ve known about for a while and they’ve got good things going for them at the minute and good press surrounding them.”

“They’re also trying to build themselves back up and they’ve been around for a few years now, so they wanted some bodies in the room and a buzz around the place, and they managed to pull in a good crowd, even for a free show.”

Despite the odd misfire here and there, the risk of putting on free shows around the country seems to have paid off for the band.

But the tour itself has come at a good time for the band, after they took an unintentional break.

“It wasn’t something we planned to do it’s just the way it ended up happening,” explained Brad.

“We were working with some management and ended up parting ways because we were both heading in different directions, which is fine, but it just didn’t work out."

“Then life just got in the way a bit really with jobs, uni and stuff like that but it feels really good to be back and playing shows again.”

One thing that is for sure however, is that now they’re back, Bloody Knees are here to stay.

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