Yard Act: rock band who can claim Elton John and Cillian Murphy as fans dedicate song to Blackpool

Leeds based rock band Yard Act, whose first album proved so popular back in 2022 that it nearly made the top spot on the UK albums chart, are preparing for the release of their second album which they surely hope will do one better.

Although the band hail from Yorkshire, their upcoming album pays a special nod to the county’s historical rival Lancashire- with one track of the upcoming album being titled ‘Blackpool Illuminations’.

Who are Yard Act?

Formed in 2019, Yard Act are a British rock band which currently consists of James Smith on vocals, Sam Shjipstone on guitar, Ryan Needham on bass and Jay Russelld on drums.

Their first album ‘The Overload’ was released in January 2022 and went to number two in the UK Album’s charts- as well as number one in Scotland- whilst the band were named as  "one to watch" in the BBC's Sound of 2022 shortlist.

In July 2019, Yard Act also released a song in collaboration with Elton John- who can be cited as one of the band’s fans alongside Irish actor Cillian Murphy.

What’s their new album?

Called Where's My Utopia?, it is due for release on Friday, March 1 and is preceded by four singles.

Yard Act will be promoting the new album via a tour across the UK, Europe and North America In March 2024.

Where’s My Utopia? Features 11 songs, the tenth of which is called ‘Blackpool Illuminations’.

Why have the band called a song ‘Blackpool Illuminations’?

The 7 minutes, 28 seconds long song has been revealed  as part of the album’s track listings but the lyrics have not yet been released.

Therefore we can not hypothesize about the meaning of the song quite yet- we will save that until March 1.

The band has also not spoken publicly about why they have dedicated a song to the Blackpool Illuminations however we have now asked them ourselves personally and will provide an update in due course.

This is not the first time that Yard Act have been connected with Blackpool though, as in 2022 they supported fellow rock band The Foals during the Blackpool leg of their tour.