Personal Trainer

Personal Trainer Brighton

Personal Trainer play Chalk, Brighton on Saturday 1st March. Get tickets from 10am on 12th July with only a £1 booking fee above, or from Seetickets.

If you like pop music to keep you on your toes, Amsterdam’s Personal Trainer provide that service fulsomely on their superb second album. Essentially the project of Willem Smit (working with co-producer / collaborator Casper van der Lans) on record and a band live, Personal Trainer showed a facility for DIY indie-pop exuberance and experiment in sync with 2022’s debut, “Big Love Blanket”. Now signed to Bella Union, Willem returns re-energised with Still Willing, a multi-faceted album of shining contrasts and spry melodies, effusive arrangements and subliminal sounds, playful lyrics and self-reflection: in short, a pop album executed with dynamism, vim and charm.

Willem is the epicentre of the band, which originated from impromptu and exhilarating live shows featuring ever-shifting members of different local bands sharing a bustling stage. The live line-up has solidified somewhat but Willem still welcomes the contrast with his recorded work: “When I make the record, it’s me calling the shots. But I can’t tell everyone exactly what to do every second when we’re on stage. There’s, like, shakers flying around or instruments being thrown all over the place, so I don’t have the capacity to control that. And that’s really exciting to me.”

Meanwhile, Still Willing arrives as a fervid expression of Willem’s home-recording and studio methods, tethered to inviting pop instincts and rich with the fertile promise of more to come. Willem doesn’t want to tell you what or how to think about the album but, he says, “It would be awesome if people like it and buy the record, so that I can make another one.” On the strength of Still Willing, he’s fit for the long distance.

Plus support.

Upcoming Love Thy Neighbour shows:
23102024 – Benefits. The Hope & Ruin
24102024 – Junior Brother. The Prince Albert
24102024 – The Tom Robinson Band. Concorde 2
25102024 – DZ Deathrays. Green Door Store
26102024 – Old Sea Brigade. Dust
26102024 – Man & The Echo. Alphabet
27102024 – Art Brut. Concorde 2
30102024 – yndi halda. Alphabet
31102024 – Astrid Sonne. Komedia
03112024 – Qlowski. The Hope & Ruin
03112024 – John Francis Flynn. Lewes Constitutional Club
05110224 – Dame Area. The Hope & Ruin
06112024 – Lack of Afro. Patterns.
13112024 – Flip Top Head. Alphabet
14112024 – The Serfs. Dust
15112024 – Joe & The Shitboys. The Hope & Ruin
16112024 – Bloody Bath. The Hope & Ruin
18112024 – Piglet. The Prince Albert
20112024 – Andy Irvine. Lewes Con Club
21112024 – Alasdair Roberts & Donald WG Lindsay. Komedia
22112024 – Getdown Services. Hope & Ruin
22112024 – BA Johnston. Hope & Ruin (Bar)
23112024 – The Orb + Ozric Tentacles. Chalk
23112024 – Desperate Journalist. Dust
23112024 – Atticomatic. Rossi Bar
24112024 – Shovel Dance Collective. Lewes Constitutional Club
28112024 – Martin Carthy. Lewes Constitutional Club
30112024 – Porridge Radio. Chalk
02122024 – Victory Lap. The Hope & Ruin
05122024 – Blood Wizard. Green Door Store
05122024 – Die Twice. The Hope & Ruin
07122024 – John Otway & his band. Lewes Constitutional Club
08122024 – Stick in the Wheel. Lewes Constitutional Club
11122024 – Hollow Hand. The Hope & Ruin
12122024 – Hard Skin. The Prince Albert
12122024 – Predeceased. The Hope & Ruin (bar)
12122024 – Francis Pig. Daltons
13122024 – Dub Pistols. Concorde 2
15122024 – Yenkee. Folklore Rooms
15012025 – Langkamer. The Prince Albert
21012025 – The Bel Air Lip Bombs. The Prince Albert
22012025 – Jim Moray. Komedia Studio
23012025 – Belako. The Hope & Ruin
02022025 – The John Martyn Project. The Old Market
21022025 – Rats on Rafts. The Prince Albert
22022025 – She Drew The Gun. Revenge
01032025 – Personal Trainer. Chalk.
09032025 – Sean Rowe. Lewes Constitutional Club
10032025 – Carter Sampson. Prince Albert
20042025 – Chat Pile. Chalk
02052025 – Henge. Concorde 2
06052025 – Soccer Mommy. Chalk
30052025 – MJ Lenderman. Chalk
01062025 – Shonen Knife. Concorde 2

Accessibility:
Fully accessible venue, disabled toilet at the back. Ask bar for assistance. Entrance for wheelchairs at the back of the venue. Toilets gender neutral on some nights. If you require a carer at the venue, please contact us at info@lovethyneighbourmusic.co.uk for guestlist, with evidence such as a blue badge or access card. If strobe lighting is an issue or if standing for long periods of time is an issue, please contact us in advance. Wheelchair area, and sofa at the side for seating, but depending on how many people are in it may affect the viewing.

Personal Trainer Brighton

Personal Trainer Brighton