An Evening of Music with Simon Wells, Kent Nielsen and Lorna Ough

Welcome to An Evening of Music with Simon Wells, Kent Nielsen, and Lorna Ough! Join us at The Mint House for a night of folk music and singing...tinged with punk in places and full of heart and soul. This will be an evening to remember so grab your friends and come on down to experience the magic of live performances by Simon Wells (Snuff, Southport), Kent Nielsen (Denmark - Ukele punk), and Lorna Ough (UK - solo singer) . See you there!

LORNA OUGH (UK) is a curator and artist who recently has been using her voice as part of her practice. In a recent collaborative project, Brightling Woods, Lorna has been working with artist Hazel Dowling to create songs in response to gypsum mining (British Gypsum Ltd) and woodland management in Brightling and Mountfield, East Sussex.
Lorna has a long-standing love of folk music and the wider folk tradition, singing folk songs, getting into morris dancing and exploring folklore through curatorial projects such as In Every Shadow. An exhibition at blackShed gallery in which she invited artists from across the UK to reimagine and interrogate The Green Man, its origins and possible future.
This is the first time Lorna has played a ‘proper’ gig, but is very excited to be doing so alongside Simon Wells, Kent Neilson and in the wonderful site of The Mint House, where she is also a volunteer!
Kent Nielsen

KENT NIELSEN (DK) is a Ukulele Folk Punk / Singer/Songwriter!

After the successful release of his solo debut album 'Shotgun Seat DJ' (2016), the autobiographical memoir ‘How I Didn’t Turn Out a Dancer’ (2018) and Ukes of Tomorrow’s ‘Seconds of Our Lives’ (2022), Kent Nielsen is gearing up to release his next solo album, entitled 'Too Many Train Rides.’ The new album features ten songs co-written with Stefan Kletetzka, Helge Reich (R.I.P.), Torsten 'Totti' Scharfenberg, Nik 21 and Jens C. Möller, most of whom can be heard performing on the album. Additionally, the musical appearances are rounded out by guest musicians Ginger Wade and Luise Schitteck. Five more songs are covers of tunes by Justin Townes Earle, Shelby Lynne, Kirsty MacColl, The Mekons, and Allison Moorer. Two songs were engineered by Nik 21 and one by Thorsten Luck. The remaining songs were produced by Joszi Sorokowski (who has worked with everyone from Bobby Byrd and Ukes of Tomorrow to Pressgang and many more) in his studio in Elmshorn, Northern Germany. Kent Nielsen is Danish but lives in Lübeck (Northern Germany). He’s worn an array of hats in his life: author, percussionist, shoe shop clerk, record label guy, mail order honcho, night porter and ukulele player, as only a sampling.
- Since going solo in 2016, Kent Nielsen has played literally hundreds of club shows and house concerts across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, Italy, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands, including support slots for: The Ruts DC, The Mekons, TV Smith, and Hamburg Glam Rock legends GERD.
- Festivals include (multiple) appearances at: Rebellion Blackpool (UK), Kirstyfest UK), Thinking Pink Festival (UK), Punk Rock BBQ (UK), Rebellion Amsterdam (NL), Nostalgurato Fest (DK), Sojus 7 Boat Trip (GER) and the Winterswijk Ukulele Hotspot (NL), just to name a few.
- Together with Stefan Kletetzka, he co-wrote the song ‘Day of Reckoning for Who?’ for the English documentary ‘On Resistance Street’, which is being shown at various film festivals throughout the world in 2024/2025.
- In a set developed especially for his autobiographical memoir, "How I Didn‘t Turn Out a Dancer," he mixes Danish Punk Rock classics re-arranged for the uke, together with reading excerpts from "How I Didn‘t Turn Out a Dancer“ between the songs.
“My dear friend Danny K. said the following when she heard the album teaser track: “ ‘Losing Friday’ created an image in my mind of setting off, travelling. Sitting in the car or on the train and letting the snapshots/impressions from outside have their effect on my inner self.” I thought about this sentence, and perhaps it more or less describes the whole album. At any rate, I would be very happy if that were the case!” (Kent Nielsen)
Out now: ‚Too Many Train Rides‘ (Viking Wreckchords, Cat.-No. V.W. 132)
Out now: his autobiographical memoir: 'How I didn't turn out a dancer' (A co-production between the German Ventil Publishing House and Ox-Fanzine, ISBN 978-3-95575-103-6).

Also available: ‚Shotgun Seat DJ‘ (Viking Wreckchords, Cat.-No. V.W. 130)

Topical video clip: ‚Star Wars Diaries‘: https://youtu.be/0XuKth3xkbk

Web: vikingwreckchords.de , facebook.com/kentnielsenofficial , youtube.com/vikingwreckchords

SIMON WELLS was born on the mean streets of Neasden, taught himself to play guitar aged 16, and went on to form the seminal London punk trio Snuff. The original Snuff line-up conquered the world in the 10 years between the mid 80s and mid 90s, travelling all over Europe, the US and the Far East before their split, upon which Simon fathered the loose collective Your Mum and dabbled with electronic music with Headstone Lane.

Then in 2000 came Southport, the legendary and influential mod/punk/soul three-piece, whose three LPs featured a host of scene luminaries and some sharply worded classic songs with cracking melodies.

After Southport became inactive when life got in the way, Simon began exploring a more folky acoustic sound, beginning to play small solo gigs across the country. His debut solo album Crime Of The Scene was released in 2017 to an unexpected degree of critical acclaim, and Simon’s live acoustic sets began to become the stuff of legend, featuring delicate reworkings of both classic folk tunes and surprising renderings of songs from his Snuff and Southport catalogue.

Following a successful 50-date acoustic tour of Eastern and Western Europe in the autumn of 2023, Simon released his long-awaited second solo album, Blankets, to considerable critical acclaim. So much so, that he has already recorded a new album, Perpendicular Universe, which will be out this autumn.In the meantime, Simon will be playing in Canada, the UK and Europe in autumn 2024 with sets containing music from both the current and new albums, featuring his own unique interpretations of a variety of songs (including his own) that will surprise you and which showcase his rich, rough hewn vocals and story-telling, and distinctive acoustic guitar style.

Blankets is out now on Crime Pays Recordings (CP01)Perpendicular Universe was released in autumn 2024 on Crime Pays Recordings (CP02)https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557658540014