Indie pop-rock outfit Long Island to play the Polar Bear as simultaneous gigs are held across the UK
(Image: Ciaran Wilson/visualsby_cw)
A musician from Hessle is bringing his band to Hull – “one of our favourite places to play” – as part of a national celebration of grassroots music. Cameron Conner and fellow members of indie pop-rock outfit, Long Island, will be headlining at the Polar Bear with a gig that takes place early enough for football fans to get to watch England hopefully progress in the World Cup when they take on Panama on Saturday night (June 27).
Long Island recently gave a pre-match performance at Hull KR (they did the same last year for both the Robins and Hull FC ); have been regular visitors to Humber Street Sesh and Trinity Live, and just beat the onset of the heatwave earlier this week with their appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival. Former Hessle High School student Cameron, joint founder of Huddersfield-based Long Island, is studying for his PhD in music production at Huddersfield University, where he lectures some of the undergraduates.
He has been playing numerous instruments since around the age of ten, his dad teaching him the guitar, and all his endeavours since have leant towards producing or playing music. His weekends are mostly being taken up gigging across the country.
Cameron said: “We’ve got two really, really great support acts at the Polar Bear. There’s Robyn Banks, who has really strong connections with Hull and always says it’s like her second home.
“We put out a little call-out to see if someone wanted to play on the night and we’ve got an up-and-coming Hull band called Empty Banner, an entire girl group, as well. It’s unusual to have all female-fronted acts [Rhiannon Stephenson fronts Long Island on lead vocals, with Cameron on guitar and backing vocals; Paddy Spence-Lewis on bass and Jan van Beem on drums] and it’s great to be able to give them a boost; it’s really nice to be able to promote them in the way we’ve been promoted in the past.”
Cameron said: “We’ve played the Polar Bear before; we did the sesh night a couple of years ago.” With “a lot of family and friends all across Hull, from Cottingham to Keyingham”, Cameron said he always had plenty of excuses to come back on visits.
“I come back a lot to see gigs. I have friends that play the Adelphi and the Polar Bear.”
Cameron said he thought that Hull audiences were always very open and receptive. “Even if they’ve not heard of a band, they will just listen; it’s just about the music to them.”
From being unknowns less than four years ago – “we actually released an album before anyone knew who we were” – Long Island fans are now becoming familiar faces at some of their gigs, which Cameron found “amazing” as well as humbling. “We’ll get a message from someone excited that they’ve got tickets to see us and that’s great.”
They have played sets at festivals including Truck and Kendal Calling, with a headline stage slot at Tramlines. “It was something that was on all our bucket lists, playing a festival – last year we did about eight; it’s incredible.”
Long Island will pack some of their old favourites as well as new material into their 45-minute gig at Polar Bear, the whole show taking place from 6pm to 9pm. “Going forward, we want to make more music and play big shows; it just needs to be fun for us.”
The National Lottery and Music Venue Trust are partnering in the Everywhere At Once festival, with more than 2,000 artists performing across the weekend, spanning a wide range of genres and representing the diversity of the UK’s music scene. It is being held at grassroots music venues over the weekend that the Glastonbury Festival usually takes place – it is having a year off to rest the festival fields.
Cameron said he thought it was a fantastic to think “there are all these pockets of music everywhere, happening at the same time”. Tickets are still available to see Long Island and support at the Polar Bear, and can be bought at the door.
Find more information at everywherefest.com or follow on socials at @musicvenuetrust /#everywhereatonce