Kassidy – Hope St. (10th Anniversary Edition)

Hope St. is a timeless, inspired 12 song collection, drawing from many corners of the musical universe – the early R&B of Howlin’ Wolf, the funk and disco of Sly & The Family Stone, the 21st century blues of The Black Keys and the Laurel Canyon vibes of Crosby, Nash, Stills and Young. An infectious, energetic and graceful piece of work from a band who were still in their early twenties, it’s loaded with optimism and melancholy in equal measure.

“Making Hope St. was an incredibly special period of time for the four of us,” says Lewis today. “When we went in to record, we would just go non-stop, all day and pretty much all night. Often someone would be sleeping in the corner of the studio and woken when it was time for them to record their bit. Thinking back to that time, we didn’t have anything else that mattered more to us than music. When we couldn’t record, we’d be writing, practicing harmonies or rehearsing for shows. It was everything to us and Hope St. is the perfect snapshot of that time in our lives.”

“It’s a lovely feeling coming back to Hope St. after 10 years,” says Hamish. “Listening back now after all this time it really does feel like a bit of a classic album. I hear the songs as one and I can enjoy it as all our fans who were so good to us did back then. I’m over-the-moon to have this coming out on vinyl as we weren’t an old enough band to put out vinyl or new enough either! We got the gatefold designed by Luke Boyce who has become a close friend and was an original Kassidy fan from back in the day. It's a beautiful piece of art he has created full of all our photos and personal memories inside it.”

As an extra special treat, the band have dusted off a never-before-released song from the archives, a classic slice of Kassidy rootsiness called Don’t Worry, which will be available on streaming services on Monday 22nd March.

“We didn’t see each other for quite a while over the years,” Hamish adds, “so we thought it would be nice for this release to celebrate with a new song we always loved but never finished called Don’t Worry. It sounds like the Kassidy we all loved and would fit perfectly onto Hope St.”

“Of course, we need to celebrate this properly with a reunion show Kassidy-style this Christmas. We’ve had some rehearsals and somehow everything came naturally and we remember all our parts. I’m aiming to top my favourite gig I’ve ever played which was of course The Barrowlands with Kassidy.”