Mansion Harlots release début album 'All Around a Fairground' with catchy single 'Panda Eyes'

Mansion Harlots formed in England at the start of 1997, recording two demo tapes and perfoming one proper show before disbanding. Over the years, the band members chartered seperate journeys but are now together again, having toured in Europe and recorded their début album 'All Around A Fairground' released on Magic Cat Records.

Guitarist/Singer/Songwriter, Baz Francis tells us a bit more about himself, the band, and their music.

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You probably weren’t going for this but when we first heard your songs we sensed a bit of a cross between the Beatles and Cheap Trick. Who are your real influences?

The Beatles and Cheap Trick! I’m so happy you heard that as I love both bands! My biggest influences on the record though were probably Manic Street Preachers, Everclear, Teenage Fanclub and early Foo Fighters.

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What brought you out to the US from the UK? Where are you based in the States?

I fell in love with California as a teenager and my wife and I finally made LA home in 2017. We have temporarily moved over to Albuquerque, New Mexico for my wife’s work but we are due to move home to California in the New Year.

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You seem to have several different things going on - your solo work, The Mansion Harlots and Magic Eight Ball. Can you give us some insight into where are you are focusing your time these days.

I’m actually recording a stand-alone solo single as I write this, and I’m promoting the Mansion Harlots album and sessions single at the same time as you can see. After doing a radio show with Magic Eight Ball in the UK back in January, my next plan is to start work on the 4th Magic Eight Ball album here in the US later this year.

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Not sure if you have songwriting credit with Mansion Harlots but, if so, tell us about the inspiration for the Fairground tracks.

I wrote ten of the songs on the album and Will Gray wrote the other two, ‘Meet Me In The Shadows’ and ‘Deepest Sleep’. Mansion Harlots had reunited 18 years after we broke up in the late ‘90s, and the inspiration for my songs was to take incomplete tunes and fragmented ideas from the band we were twenty years ago and turn them into what I wished I could have done then. I then wrote four completely new tracks with a vision of where I also felt the sound of Mansion Harlots should go two decades on. It’s a celebration of our old and remaining influences from back in the day, along with a few new inspirations that I have accumulated in the meantime.