Back in May 2012, PinDrop Performances pulled off a rather wonderful coup and presented an Oxford date in a Trembling Bells/Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy tour, which took place to mark the release of their album The Marble Downs. The gig, at The Bullingdon on Oxford’s Cowley Road, has now been released as a live album.

The Bonnie Bells Of Oxford is an eleven-track collection recorded at the 4 May 2012 gig, featuring Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – aka Will Oldham – on vocals, melodica and kazoo, and the Trembling Bells group: Lavinia Blackwell (vocals, keyboard, guitar), Mike Hastings (guitar, vocals), Alex Neilson (drums, vocals) and Simon Shaw (bass, vocals). It’s available to stream online for free, or can be purchased as a download for £7:

Alex Neilson says of the album: “Bonnie Bells Of Oxford was recorded in one of my favourite cities on Earth. I have drawn immeasurable inspiration from frequent visits to my girlfriend’s family there, and find it a place of hallucinatory splendor. To tread past the same ornate, sandstone buildings as Turner, Philip Larkin, Paul Nash, Jane Morris and more, crumbling gold and ochre against the morning sun, is profoundly stirring. I was glad to include it in the tour schedule.”

In July this year, Trembling Bells will head out on the road with Mike Heron of The Incredible String Band for the ‘Circle Is Unbroken’ tour, which coincides with the release of Live At Fillmore East, 1968 by The Incredible String Band. The tour arrives in Oxford on 30 July with a gig at St John The Evangelist Church in Oxford, and will see Trembling Bells and Mike Heron playing a selection of ISB material from their first four albums.