As they prepare to support Haircut 100 at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, we herald news of the new single from Barbara.

It seems like only yesterday, but it was, in fact, in early April when At The Barrier’s favourite Fop Poppers, Barbara, released their last single, the barnstorming Enduring Love.

Since then, a lot has happened in Barbaraland – they played a stonking set to their “home” crowd at Brighton’s Prince Albert on 8th April and, shortly after that show, we chatted to the Band’s keyboardist and co-writer, Henry Tydeman who, shared with us a whole bundle of newsworthy nuggets, including the breathtaking news that Barbara will be supporting Haircut 100 at their sellout reunion show at the prestigious Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Friday 12th May. Barbara will be releasing their NEXT single, Pretty Straight Guy, to tie in with that gig.

Regular attendees at Barbara’s shows – Barbarettes, as vocalist John Tydeman has christened them – will already be familiar with Pretty Straight Guy; it’s been a staple of their set for quite some time now and now, at last, they’ve found the time to commit this “disco zinger” to tape. After Barbara had performed the song during their show at Gullivers in Manchester last September, we called it “a worthy 2020s successor to The Kinks’ Well Respected Man,” and, whilst that description might go some of the way towards warning impatient Barbarettes, it’s far from being the full story. Having had a few good, deep listens to our sneaky advance copy of the single, I can confidently confirm that it’s Barbara’s best yet.

Pretty Straight Guy is released on 19th May. Now, that’s not too long to wait but, if your life really won’t be complete without your next dose of Barbara – and there will, I imagine, be quite a few punters leaving the Shepherd’s Bush Empire this evening in that frame of mind – then you can hear it NOW by joining Barbara’s Patreon Page here.

And watch these pages too… We’ll be publishing our full review of the single, complete with a link to the marvelous accompanying video right after the single’s release.

Barbara Online: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Youtube

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