One of Canada’s most successful alt-rock bands, Arkells, will be making a pit stop at Arkell’s Brewery in Swindon on Friday (April 27), half-way through their current UK tour, supporting Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls.
The five-member band from Hamilton, Ontario, have built a reputation as a high-energy, live-rock band. They plan to play a short acoustic set in the brewery’s new Grape & Grain store, at 1pm.
Arkells recently embarked on the 16-date tour, which started in Manchester earlier this month and takes in cities including including Edinburgh, Liverpool, Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford. The tour completes in London with a sold-out headline date at Dingwalls May 12.
Arkell’s Brewery and Arkells the band have been aware of each other via social media for years. Head brewer, Alex Arkell, was delighted to be contacted by the band’s team and invited them to the brewery when he heard they had a day off between their Exeter and Cambridge gigs.
He said: “With social media being a global phenomenon, we’ve been following Arkells at a distance for years. Now, it turns out that they’ve been following us too, and we’re thrilled to meet them in our special 175th anniversary year.”
Arkell’s Brewery does have historic links with Canada. The brewery’s founder, John Arkell, emigrated to Canada for a short time in 1830, travelling there with a group of friends, including his cousin Thomas. They settled in the Canadian wilderness and began building a new settlement there, but love proved too strong for John and he returned three years’ later to marry his true love, Elizabeth. In 1843 he began brewing in Swindon. There doesn’t appear to be any link between the band and the brewery, other than their shared name.
