DHP Family Presents:

HOTEL LUX

+ Support

Live at Oslo Hackney

 2-4-1 cocktails all night

Tickets from alt tickets. 16+ (under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)

Once contenders for the mantle of Britain’s most self-conscious band — guilty, by their own
admission, of pandering to audiences’ tastes following their move from Pompey to London — Hotel
Lux have crafted a bold and bright identity that is truly their own on their brilliant debut album ‘Hands
Across The Creek’. All it took was for their wildest dreams to be dashed.

“We always cared too much about how we were going to be perceived,” bass player Cam Sims recalls
of those early days, as Hotel Lux became entwined in South London music scene folklore. It seems
silly, now: the band’s early, clattering pub-rock singles received widespread acclaim from the offset –
their acute social commentary and raw passion greater assets, perhaps, than they gave themselves
credit for. But a sense of vulnerability endured all the while, says Cam, especially as the careers of
Brixton Windmill contemporaries like Sorry and Shame began to ignite: “there was always that little
voice in your head,” he says.

Anxieties aside, Hotel Lux — completed by acerbic lead vocalist Lewis Duffin, guitarist Sam Coburn,
drummer Craig MacVicar, and new members Max Oliver (guitar) and Dillon Home (organ; violin) —
found themselves on the path to major success in 2020 around the release of the Barstool Preaching
EP. Iggy Pop was singing their praises on the radio, and the band themselves were preparing for their
big break in America via SXSW Festival. Then, the world shut down and their Stateside debut was
cancelled. “We were gutted,” Lewis remembers. “Everything had been pretty exciting for us up until
that point.”

Hotel Lux were left stumped, says Cam: “it was the most fragile we’ve been”. Original guitarist Jake
Sewell even jumped ship, leaving the band to move to Amsterdam. But the surviving members
remained focused – opting to put the meagre funds that remained from their America budget towards
creating an album of their own. But first, they had to write some songs.