Dispatch: The Way to Happiness

Summer is upon us, and here at WPHQ we’re hard at work at a new album for release at some point in 2012. But one can’t spend all their time inside, so here’s a handful of special summer one-offs shows (with more to come shortly) to keep fingers nimble and nerves steely. Also: a new song recorded in Newcastle this past January with Beth Jeans Houghton on heavenly harmonies. The lyrics come from a stack of writing by Marie Cecilia Ryan, found in a Newcastle vintage shop. The poem ‘The Way to Happiness’ was left un-dated, but some of the other materials were dated to the 1930s and 1940s — so right during wartime. Amazing to read something so hopeful from a time so dark.

• The Way to Happiness

SUMMER/FALL DATES:
18 June 2011 BANDSTAND BUSKING @ MELTDOWN FESTIVAL London, UK {:
25 June 2011 PEACOCK CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART Aberdeen, Scotland *&
27 June 2011 PILRIG ST. PAUL’S CHURCH HALL Edinburgh, Scotland *&
28 June 2011 DULCIMER Manchester, UK *&
02 July 2011 THE BARBICAN London, UK =!#$
07 July 2011 HUISKAMER (SECRET HERO) Gent, BE +
14 July 2011 SWAMP Freiburg, DE
25 August 2011 THE QUEEN’S HALL Edinburgh, SCT ^*
26 August 2011 WASSERTURM KREUZBERG Berlin, DE
05 September 2011 MELKWEG Amsterdam, NL %
06 September 2011 DOORNROOSJE Nijmegen, NL %
07 September 2011 SOUND CONTROL Manchester, UK %
08 September 2011 THE BLACK BOX / LIMELIGHT Belfast, UK %
09 September 2011 WHELANS Dublin, IE %
10 September 2011 THE GATE Cardiff, UK %

{ w/ She Keeps Bees
: w/ Guillemots
* w/ Eagleowl
& w/ Rob St. John
= w/ The Hidden Cameras
! w/ Chilly Gonzalez
# w/ Devon Sproule
$ w/ Sandro Perri
+ w/ Chantal Acda
^ w/ Withered Hand
% w/ Junip