John Hassall & The April Rainers

John Hassall on Miracles “it's is a London based love story, but it's also about finding the wonder and poetry in everyday life. Having dreams and chasing them gives you hope."

The video for Miracles was directed by Gary Lashmar and features an actor and actress loosely based on John and his Danish wife Line.

The new album was largely recorded at John’s home studio in Aarhus, Denmark where he has been living since 2009. And was produced by the band, with string player Clementine Brown having a big influence on the sound.

John Hassall "These 10 songs are the ones that survived, grew and took on a life of their own. There's no way of telling if a song will make it until the end. That Pale Lantern in my opinion, started off as a rank outsider and then turned into one of the strongest songs on the album. Lessons were learnt from Wheels to Idyll and a new musical development runs through it. Whereas the last album was recorded pretty much live. The new album maintains similar classic songwriting and pop sensibilities, though with more complex arrangements and production.”

Most of the songs were cowritten by John and longtime poet collaborator Steev Burgess exploring memories of school days, journeys and adventures, fading dreams, ancient empires and even somebody’s trinket collection. Burgess who has known Hassall for many years, wrote the lyrics to lead single Miracles, a sort of Ballad of John and Line. Libertines band mate Peter Doherty is also involved with a co-writing credit on Doing Time.

John Hassall and The April Rainers will be announcing UK shows shortly, in the meantime John will be appearing with his other band The Libertines at summer festivals across Europe and the UK.

John Hassall & The April Rainers is the followup to 2017's Wheels to Idyll, which picked up critical applause on its release. Uncut Magazine described the album as “a Laurel Canyon- style bucolic rock voyage, with Hassall’s hushed tenor voice cooing over CSN harmonies, wistful major-sevenths and Robbie Krieger-ish guitar explorations.” Whilst Mojo Magazine raved “a long-player of mellifluous, melody soaked psychedelic pop.Hassall’s tune-fulness rarely misfires and the homely, nostalgic charms never wear out their welcome.”

John Hassall has released Four albums with the Libertines - ‘Up The Bracket’ (2002), ‘The Libertines’ (2004), ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’ (2015) and the number one album ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ (2024). And one album with Yeti ‘The Legend of Yeti Gonzales’ (2008).

The April Rainers all live in Denmark, and are made up of:

John Hassall – Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar / Jakob Bruno – Backing Vocals, Drums / Erlend Eggestad – Backing Vocals, Bass and James Jefferys - Backing Vocals, Lead

1. Miracles

2. Doing Time

3. A 45 to 1967

4. That Pale Lantern

5. Silver Crucifixion

6. Last Lover of the Summer

7. A Land I’ll Never Know

8. Shaded Roman Eyes

9. Winter Term

10. Leaf-lined Song