Riding high on their new album “Halo Effect” smashing straight into the UK Official Album Chart at #5 alongside giants Beyonce and Linkin Park recently, British hard rock group Kris Barras Band have been busy meeting fans at shows up and down the country.
Not so different to last year, when Kris Barras Band met fans after playing a sold-out show at Dover venue The Booking Hall whilst touring every corner of the UK. Over the following months though, while Kris Barras Band have gone from strength to strength, many independent venues have been struggling to survive more than ever.
The Booking Hall is the last remaining music venue in Dover. Housed in a Grade II listed former railway station for Dover’s historic harbour, the 280-capacity venue has welcomed the likes of Frank Turner, Dead Kennedys, and Steve Harris of Iron Maiden with his project British Lion.
Last week, The Booking Hall announced it was under threat of permanent closure, as the freehold was due to be sold for residential development opportunity, a fate that befalls many small music venues in the UK. The venue’s founder Stuart Cameron and the Music Venue Trust have joined forces in a bid to crowdfund their way into the headlines by purchasing the freehold and saving the venue from permanent closure.
Without smaller venues like The Booking Hall helping get their name out there, acts like Kris Barras Band would never even get the chance to bother the mainstream album chart and frontman Kris Barras is keen to use his new-found platform to help support The Booking Hall in return.
As a former pro-MMA fighter turned musician, Kris is no stranger to coming out swinging and not giving up without a fight.
Kris Barras Band hereby announce a one-off gig at The Booking Hall in Dover on Friday 28th June to help highlight the situation in the hope that an inevitably packed show can only help contribute to the venue’s survival.
Having seen the heartrending announcement online, Barras took action and hopes more bands might follow suit. He states simply: “Grass roots music venues need our support more than ever. I was really sad to hear the news of The Booking Hall in Dover being under threat of closure. We had a blast doing a sweaty, sell-out show there last year on the ‘My Parade’ Tour. Sooooo… we’ve decided to play a special one-off show there and help shine a light on the whole situation. I don’t want to see this place go under and I hope you don’t either, so come along and support an awesome grass-roots music venue”!
Tickets are on sale now here.
Contribute to the crowdfunder here.
Kris Barras Band then head to the Netherlands for two dates with Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth WVH, performing in Nifmegen on June 30th and Weert on July 1st, with various festivals planned for the summer and a special headline show at Chepstow Castle on August 15, 2024, with support from Stone Broken, The Hot Damn!, and Dan Byrne.
A former long-time Muay Thai and MMA fighter, Kris Barras has his fans to thank for the conception of “Halo Effect”, which was written whilst riding the crest of the crowd response that the band experienced on their 2023 UK tour. “Josiah and I set up a recording studio in the top lounge of the tour bus”, says Kris. “We were super inspired by the audiences on that tour. We performed our heaviest set to date and noticed a real change in the crowd response. People were really vibing off of the heavier riffs and jam sections. The response at the shows massively fed the creativity for ‘Halo Effect’”.
Kris concludes: “This is the album that I am the most proud of in my career. So much hard work has gone into ‘Halo Effect’: a lot of attention to detail and constant striving to make sure that I improve and deliver an album that is truly to the best of my ability as both a songwriter and musician”.
Line-up:
Kris Barras – Vocals, guitar
Josiah J. Manning – Guitar
Billy Hammett – Drums
Frazer Kerslake – Bass
Weblinks:
www.krisbarrasband.com
www.facebook.com/krisbarrasband
