Scott Lavene Brighton

Scott Lavene plays Brighton at The Hope & Ruin on Saturday 1st November 2025. Get tickets with only a £1 booking fee above, or from Seetickets.

Scott Lavene is as English as pork pies and pasties, dunked biscuits in Yorkshire tea. Last year’s album Disneyland in Dagenham was full of Essex, East End poetry, and classic English post punk. Following extensive touring including many sold-out shows, Scott is back with another album entitled, Cars, Buses, Bedsits and Shops out 22nd August on Nothing Fancy. An album bursting with more dark humour, snapshots of squalor and cheek, and Scott’s unique love songs. Lavene has also announced a 22 date tour around the UK as well as festival appearances at this year’s Glastonbury, End of the Road, Lakefest and Boia festivals.

Produced by Stew Jackson, who’s worked with Massive Attack, Black Crowes, Tom Waits and Nick Cave, the record shines with Scott’s presence, alongside Ryan Rogers of Mumble Tide, co-producing and playing organs, synths and mellotron. The album came together quickly, in a five-day wonder, in Bristol, September 2024. Scott’s longer story-based songs have taken a backseat on this record with more singing than before and a higher percentage of ballads, sincere, wistful and tender. They evoke the lyrics and feelings set down by Daniel Johnston and The Magnetic Fields, Evan Dando and the immense David Berman. But a few ratty stories still remain.

Scott explains “On tour, I’d become used to playing the story based songs, the spoken word ones. But fans kept asking me why I didn’t sing anymore, which surprised me. So over the course of a month I wrote a dozen proper songs, alongside “Cars” which wassomething I already had, a piece of writing that went into Bits and Bobs, my short poetry book I was selling at gigs. I knew I wanted to make something more classic and polished, and when I bumped into Stew at the Bristol show he told me we should make analbum and it quickly got organised. I’d been used to playing most of the instruments on the last two albums but Stew can play everything really well so he plays drums and guitars, let alone lap steel, and I just put down basic tracks and watched him and Ryan build the songs, while I sat on the sofa in the studio.”

Cars, Buses, Bedsits and Shops is fit to burst with colour, a slight change in the wacky production of old, the album is polished like a classic 70’s American singer songwriter album, an ode toWings, to yacht rock and Neil Young. Like if Wilco and Bruce Springsteen’s baby was raised in Basildon. The combination of wry observation, humble wisdom, unguarded vulnerability and unpredictable humour makes Scott unique in today’s expansive world of artists. https://scottlavene.bandcamp.com

+ LC Pumpkin: LC Pumpkin is a low-fidelity one-man band playing fuzz banjo while hitting pads of a sampler with a cork on the end of a metal arm clamped to the banjo. His self-released, no-budget home-recordings have been played on national radio by Tom Ravenscroft, Jarvis Cocker, Stuart Maconie and Gideon Coe. https://www.lcpumpkin.co.uk

“Warping keyboards, fuzz-banjo, blown-out drum machine beats and extremely catchy songwriting.”
Upset the Rhythm

“Lo-fi Brilliance.” – Brighton Noise

“Impulsive, eccentric and melodic… the crowd loved it.”
Brighton’s Finest

Upcoming Love Thy Neighbour shows:
01082025 – Chris Cohen. Green Door Store
27082025 – The Burning Hell. Komedia
01092025 – Ducks Ltd. Dust
06092025 – Throwing Muses. Chalk
12092025 – Fortitude Valley. Hope & Ruin
19092025 – Nic Cage Against The Machine. Patterns
19092025 – Bridhde Chaimbeul. Komedia
20092025 – Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan. Dust
21092025 – Lawn Chair. The Prince Albert
27092025 – The Beths, Chalk
28092025 – Chris Wood. Lewes Con Club
30092025 – The Wants. Green Door Store
01102025 – Quade. Prince Albert
08102025 – Martha Tilston. Komedia
11102025 – Jah Wobble & The Invaders of the Heart. Lewes Con Club
12102025 – Martin Carthy. Lewes Con Club
12102025 – Naima Bock. West Hill Hall
13102025 – Gwenifer Raymond. Komedia
13102025 – Welly. Chalk
15102025 – MF Tomlinson. Folklore Rooms
17102025 – The Utopia Strong. Hope & Ruin
26102025 – The Lovely Eggs. Brighton
29102025 – Mumble Tide. The Prince Albert
31102025 – Lack of Afro. Patterns
01112025 – Scott Lavene. Hope & Ruin
02112025 – Search Results. Prince Albert
05112025 – CIEL. Patterns
05112025 – ROIS. Green Door Store
09112025 – Lonnie Holley. Lewes Constitutional Club
13112025 – The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Concorde 2
14112025 – Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip. Lewes Constitutional Club
15112025 – Stick in the Wheel. Lewes Constitutional Club
15112025 – Niall McNamee. Alphabet
24112025 – The Belair Lip Bombs. Volks
28112025 – mclusky. Chalk
28112025 – Ozric Tentacles + System 7. Concorde 2
06122025 – Chainska Brassika. Alphabet
13122025 – Cubzoa. Alphabet
13122025 – John Otway & his band. Lewes Constitutional Club
01052026 – Love. Concorde 2

Accessibility: The venue is only accessible via a flight of stairs however they can offer access via a back door at street level to the venue if mobility is an issue or you use a wheelchair. There are 3 large steps via this route so assistance to gain access and to exit the venue would be required. We can arrange this if you contact us in advance of a show. Please bear in mind that they can only allow access in between bands due to sound issues. Two disabled toilets upstairs, both gender neutral. 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. They can provide chairs in the venue although if the event is very busy this will impede visibility. If you wish to make use of a chair to view a gig, we advise arriving early to secure a position. They are happy to accommodate assistance dogs.

Scott Lavene Brighton

Scott Lavene Brighton