Embrace announce big homecoming show

Indie rock band Embrace are to return to their home town of Halifax for a special show at the Piece Hall.
Embrace are to play at the Piece Hall in Halifax in June 2019. Picture: Lou BarberEmbrace are to play at the Piece Hall in Halifax in June 2019. Picture: Lou Barber
Embrace are to play at the Piece Hall in Halifax in June 2019. Picture: Lou Barber

The five-piece will celebrate the 21st anniversary of their chart-topping debut album The Good Will Out by performing it in its entirety, along with their greatest hits.

The show, on Friday June 28, 2019, will feature fellow Yorkshire bands Reverend and the Makers and Hope & Social as special guests, along with reformed 90s Britpop group Sleeper.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Singer Danny McNamara said: “Since they did up the Piece Hall [in a £19m restoration] people have been talking to us about doing a gig there. Obviously it’s massive fun for us to play somewhere so big – it holds 6,000 people – so it’ll be the biggest gig we’ve done locally since we did Millennium Square in Leeds [in 2005].

“The gigs for The Good Will Out anniversary tour in March all sold out in a couple of days. Leeds, London, Manchester, Sheffield, Leamington all went really quickly. So a promoter [Futuresound] came and said, ‘Do you want to play the Piece Hall in the summer?’ and we were like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing.’

“Me and Richard were born [in Halifax] so it’s a massive honour, really, to play somewhere of that size. I remember when we played Millennium Square and I was like ‘Oh my God, we’re never going to fill this, it’s huge’ and I got the same feeling going down there [to the Piece Hall], but it’s incredible, it’s a massive honour.”

Danny adds the band still have a strong appetite for performing live. “We’ve been together as the same five people since we started. This will be the 21st anniversary of our first album but we’ve been together longer than that. We were together for about eight years before we got a record deal, so we’ve been together nearly 30 years now. Our last album I think it’s as fresh as anything we’ve ever done, so I still feel like we’ve got a lot to say, definitely.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

On its release in 1998, The Good Will Out sold more than 500,000 copies in Britain. It was the first of three UK number one albums.

Tickets for the show at the Piece Hall will go on general sale on Friday November 30 from 10am via www.seetickets.com and www.lunatickets.com. The Piece Hall will be running an exclusive pre-sale from its website on Thursday November 29 – visit www.thepiecehall.co.uk.