Stereolab and Baxter Dury set for Deer Shed Festival 2020

After returning to the forefront of the British music scene in 2019 with a seven-album reissue campaign and accompanying live tour, British-French avant-pop band Stereolab will headline the Friday main stage line-up. Led by song-writing team Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, Stereolab’s performance promises to be “a mesmerising end to Friday evening in Baldersby Park” according to organisers.

Deer Shed Festival director Oliver Jones said: “Stereolab were the soundtrack to our 20s when my wife Kate and I worked in the music industry in London back in the ‘90s. To bring a band with such musical heritage, a band who hold such personal significance for us as a team, to our family’s home North Yorkshire truly is a dream come true.”

Fresh from releasing ‘Slumlord’ on November 19 – the first single from his upcoming album Night Chancers, due for release in March 2020 – Baxter Dury joins Stereolab as headliner, topping the main stage bill on Sunday. Dury’s sixth studio album is set to be his richest and most expansive musical palette to date, following on from Prince of Tears, which the festival team have described as “one of the best albums of 2017.”

“It may be difficult for some of us of a certain age to separate the name ‘Dury’ from that of Baxter’s father, Ian,” Jones said. “While the punk spirit and masterful poeticism of the latter lives on through the former, trading often in taboo subjects and midnight tales, there is no doubting who the 21st century belongs to, as the younger people in our team have been telling us for some time!”

Kate Tempest will also return to perform live in North Yorkshire for the first time since she headlined the Deer Shed Festival main stage in 2017, with a powerful rendition of her apocalyptic masterpiece, Let Them Eat Chaos: “One of the most poignant performances we’ve ever showcased in Baldersby Park,” according to Jones. The inspirational poet has since released another critically acclaimed album, The Books of Traps and Lessons, and will headline the festival’s In The Dock tent on Sunday night with her show ‘Telling Poems’, an intimate spoken word set.

Deer Shed has also announced a partnership with two of the best independent live music venues in Yorkshire. Taking over the festival’s In The Dock stage on Saturday, Brudenell Social Club and The Crescent will present a bill that includes Scottish post-punk band The Twilight Sad (headline), part-psych, part-krautrock outfit Snapped Ankles, and fast-rising indie newcomers Dry Cleaning, with more acts to be revealed soon.

Sudanese-American musician Ahmed Gallab, aka Sinkane, will perform on the festival’s Sunday main stage line-up. Sure to bring the feel-good vibes to Baldersby Park, the prolific artist expertly fuses elements of krautrock, prog rock, electronica, free jazz and funk with Sudanese pop music, with new material expected in the summer.

Another artist making a return to the festival for the first time since 2017 is Roddy Woomble, who toured the world as frontman of Scottish Indie giants, Idlewild. 2020 will see the release of a new EP from the artist - a spoken word and live music record, including a 15 minute long collaboration with Oliver Coates, the cellist who works with Radiohead.

Following the release of her second studio album, Pity Party, multi-instrumentalist Liz Lawrence joins the Deer Shed main stage line-up on Saturday. Lawrence is one half of pop duo Cash+David and long-time collaborator with Bombay Bicycle Club.

Deer Shed organisers suggest that Ren Harvieu is a singer they have wanted to perform in Baldersby Park since the release of her debut album Through The Night in 2012, only a year after a back injury threatened to end her career before it had even begun. Returning with her first single since that debut, ‘Teenage Mascara’, Harvieu is officially back, and the Deer Shed team have finally got their wish.

Other artists heading to the green fields of Topcliffe in July 2020 include Big Joanie, Melt Yourself Down, Native Harrow and Heidi Talbot & Boo Hewerdine. The third and final headliner for the main stage on Saturday night is set to be revealed by Deer Shed Festival in the New Year.

For tickets and more information, visit www.deershedfestival.com

Full list of artists confirmed for Deer Shed Festival 11: Stereolab (main stage headline, Friday); Baxter Dury (main stage headline, Sunday); Kate Tempest - Telling Poems (In The Dock headline, Sunday); The Twilight Sad (In The Dock headline, Saturday); Sinkane; Roddy Woomble (Lodge Stage headline, Friday); Snapped Ankles; Liz Lawrence; Ren Harvieu; Big Joanie; Melt Yourself Down; Dry Cleaning; Native Harrow; Heidi Talbot & Boo Hewerdine.