Photo: Annelie Rosencrantz

This picture, taken by Annelie Rosencrantz, features Rhys at his last London gig of the year at the 100 Club, a few weeks back.

Rhys played Masquerade, Diamond Tears, Carrying Destiny Home, Cressida Road, Downhill, Red and Comfort.

Carrying Destiny Home is a brand new song – we’ll make an acoustic version available here soon.

The show rounded off a great 2011 for Rhys. Great Falls was released in May. The first run of physical copies has sold out. These are only available at Rhys’ gigs so watch out for more dates in early 2012. The album’s also available online via iTunes and Spotify, amongst others. It’s going to be withdrawn in February in time for the full commercial release later in 2012, so hurry if you want your copy.

The commercial release of the album will be preceded by a single from the album. We’re still umm-ing and aah-ing over which one it will be. Any thoughts, get in touch. Along with the single release will be a short UK tour. We’ll announce the dates here as soon as we know them. That’s all for now. Hope you had a great Christmas. Have an amazing 2012.

Photo: Annelie Rosencrantz

Rhys will be playing material from Great Falls, as well as some brand new material.

The show is likely to be very busy, so it’s worth buying tickets in advance from Ticketweb.

Here’s an acoustic performance of Banknotes from Great Falls, in which I a) invoke Ken Livingstone and Germaine Greer b) predict the global financial crisis of 2008 and c) struggle to pronounce the word ‘mismatch’.

Here’s a live performance of Diamond Tears from Great Falls. Thanks to Sian Cross for backing vocals and Mark Ferguson for tea, biscuits and technical help. More video performances coming soon.

Here’s some footage from the recording of Great Falls, filmed and edited by Rhys.

Can anyone hear the sound of flushing?

On June 2nd, Rhys and the band will be playing at TV Nights at Ginglik in Shepherd’s Bush. Ginglik is a fabulous venue that used to be a Edwardian public convenience.

Also on the bill are:

Furnace Flowers

Oli Wennink

Harry Mundy

Abi Wade.

It’s £6 to get in. Doors open at 7pm and the night goes on till 1am (like all good nights should). See you there.

Great Falls, out May 13th 2011

So, it’s a week on from the release of Great Falls. The album’s getting tons of positive feedback, hundreds of plays on Soundcloud and we’re just waiting for the first figures back from iTunes. For people who like the album and want to know more about how it was made, we’ve created a special Making Of Great Falls section on the website. This is a series of extracts from the diary Rhys made while he was writing the album.

Rhys has also created a Spotify playlist of the tracks that inspired him to make the album. If you like it, share it!

Great Falls, out May 13th 2011

When singer-songwriter Rhys Williams was four years old, he flung himself from the top of a climbing frame at nursery, believing he could fly. For one beautiful instant, it seemed like he could. Rhys describes the moment just before his body clattered into the Tarmac as a defining one in his life. Now he’s recorded an album dedicated to the majesty of the heroic plummet. Great Falls takes a whole host of glorious, operatic disasters and celebrates them in song. It’s a joyous collection of impossibly catchy, immaculately crafted pop songs, which acknowledge a debt to thirty years of radio hits on both sides of the Atlantic. As well as featuring Williams on piano and vocals and longtime band members Sam Stopford and Mark Ferguson on drums and bass respectively, the album also features pedal steel from living legend BJ Cole and strings arranged by Paul Frith (Sufjan Stevens, Radiohead).

You can buy the record from most major online retailers, including iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, eMusic and Napster. You’ll shortly be able to buy old school physical copies from this site. Until then, the only way to get hold of your copy is to come to tonight’s gig at the 100 Club, 100 Oxford Street, London W1d 1LL. Doors open at 8pm and the band are onstage at 9pm.