Four miles from Land’s End in Cornwall and set on a granite outcrop looking out to sea, is the open-air Minack Theatre, one of England’s most stunning live venues. It has been a stage for many great artists over the years, and in May last year, This Is The Kit, the group led by Paris-based songwriter Kate Stables, delivered a stunning live performance. From today, you can all enjoy their first live album, Live at The Minack Theatre, which is available now on all DSPs here.
The live album was first released in April as a UK-only Record Store Day limited edition vinyl and has been getting plenty of visits to my turntable. It was recorded on May 19, 2023 (mastered by Nick Cooke) when This Is The Kit played a doubleheader at the Minack Theatre. Featuring tracks from critically acclaimed albums Careful of Your Keepers, Off Off On and Moonshine Freeze, the album sees the band (including a three-piece horn section) in top form, as testified by the response of an enthusiastic audience.
This Is The Kit are sharing a video of their performance of the song ‘Hotter Colder’ at The Minack Theatre today (also our Song of the Day), and will be rolling out new performance videos of each track on the album daily through June 19th.
Kate Stables said of the show, “Our friend Will had the slightly ambitious idea of booking us at the Minack Theatre. It’s an amazing open air amphitheatre on the edge of a Cornish cliff face overlooking the sea and so it seemd like a pretty fun idea to do a gig there. It resulted in quite an epic day of music in a very epic setting, which we somehow had the foresight to record.”
In case you missed it, Kate Stables was one of our ‘Off the Shelf’ guests in May last year, in which she shared her love for tambourines and Alan Bennett, revealing where their band name may come from…and more.
The band’s latest album, Careful of Your Keepers, was produced by labelmate Gruff Rhys and released on Rough Trade last June. This Is The Kit will appear at Glastonbury later this month and play select UK dates with The National in July. All upcoming tour dates are below.
Live At The Minack Theatre Track Listing:
Slider
Take You to Sleep
Goodbye Bite
Inside Outside
Stuck in a Room
Scabby Head and Legs
More Change
Moonshine Freeze
Careful of Your Keepers
Doomed or More Doomed
Hotter Colder
https://thisisthekit.rtrecs.co/liveatminack
This Is The Kit Tour Dates:
Jun 25 – Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, UK
Jun 26-30 – Glastonbury Festival, Pilton, UK
Jul 02 – Eden Project, Cornwall, UK w/ the National
Jul 04 – Castlefield Bowl, Manchester, UK w/ The National
Jul 05 – Crystal Palace Park, London, UK w/ The National
Aug 05 – Scene Ella Fitzgerald Geneva, CH
Aug 10 – The Court House, Bangor NI, UK w/ Rozi Plain
Aug 11 – An Taibhdhearc, Galway, IE w/ Rozi Plain
Aug 12 – Levis Corner House, Balleydehob, IE w/ Rozi Plain
Aug 14 – Kilkenny Arts Festival, IE, Kilkenny
Aug 16 – Green Man Festival, UK Brecon Beacons
Aug 17 – Cheese & Grain, Frome, UK
Aug 18 – Beautiful Days, Devon, UK
Tickets: https://titk.cargo.site/#live