Warsaw Radio initially made waves with their debut single ‘After Eve’ which debuted on BBC 6 Music in 2017. Their debut album, Midnight Broadcast has made an even bigger splash. Taking the likes of The Hot House Flowers, The Waterboys and Wilco as touchstones, the ten-track effort is a string-driven, sometimes tear-stained opus, heaving with songs that have stadium-filling potential. McNamara’s impassioned baritone on the likes of ‘Whispers’ and the monstrous ‘Midnight Broadcast’ could put goosebumps on your goosebumps.
"One of those bands that you discover and you wish you'd known them longer" - Chris Hawkins, BBC 6 Music
“Ones to watch” - Dan Hegarty RTE 2FM
"After Eve is a perfectly weighted rock song that swells the heart" - Hot Press Magazine
"Exceptional songwriting" - BBC Introducing
The band have toured extensively in the UK & Ireland including head-line shows at Ronnie Scott’s London, Notting Hill Arts Club, Whelans Dublin, The Belfast Empire, Electric Picnic, The Great Escape Festival in Brighton and The Beautiful Days Festival in Devon. They have appeared on the same line-up and as special guest support to artists such as Van Morrison, Imelda May, Jason Isbell, The Waterboys and The Lone Bellow, all bands/artists that have inspired their sound.
Warsaw Radio formed in 2013 in Brighton when Nikki (violin & vocals) answered an ad posted online by Brían Mc (vocals & guitar) looking for musicians to start a band. Brían had recently moved from Limerick, Ireland to Brighton to be closer to the London music scene. Prior to moving to Brighton McNamara honed his craft playing solo in venues and busking in New York’s Greenwich village and San Francisco. Nikki Bates moved to Brighton from Barcelona around the same time as Brían. Hailing from the North of England, as a musician she had worked with the likes of Sting, EMI studios, Cinematic Sinfonia and London Philharmonic Orchestra.
According to McNamara the name of the band came about when he was reading a history book and there was a couple of paragraphs about the siege of Warsaw in 1939. “During the siege they had a live orchestra performing on air to help with peoples morale…. the musicians on Warsaw Radio kept going until their transmitter was hit by a shell. It was a pretty incredible story and it reminded me of the famous quartet on the Titanic who kept on playing as the ship sank. I liked the message of defiance and we were looking for a band name so that's where it began".
Bates & McNamara performed as a duo initially and played with a variety of line-ups on the Brighton and London music scenes. The duo attracted attention due to the unique blend of McNamara’s baritone vocals and Bate’s soaring strings. Laurence Bridge joined the band full time in 2014 on bass. Bridge had previously worked with a number of indie rock acts in Brighton and the likes of Tom Odell and Lucie Barat. Paul Lennox (drums) and Edd Mann (lead guitar) completed the W.R touring line-up.
In the autumn of 2016 McNamara approached Mercury nominated producer Jag Jago (The Maccabees, Florence Welch) at Brighton Electric Studios with demo tracks and this led to the release in Feb 2017 of their debut single 'After Eve'. The single was picked up BBC Introducing and debuted on BBC Northern Ireland’s – Across the line show. This was followed by support from BBC Radio 6 Music D.J Chris Hawkins and Dan Hegarty on RTE 2 FM in Ireland.
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