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Artangel presents Grubby Mitts and Special Guests

Part of Earth Rising: Messages from the Pale Blue Dot

Grubby Mitts

29.10.26

Status: Coming up

To mark the launch of Earth Rising: Messages from the Pale Blue Dot Volume II (release date: 24 September 2026), Artangel is holding two performances with Volume II artists this autumn.

For the first event, join us for a one-off performance with Grubby Mitts and Special Guests as we celebrate the wilfully eclectic music of this nine-piece art-rock ensemble from Bedford. Fronted by artist Andy Holden, the Grubby Mitts has expanded to include a full brass section, and combines joyful melodic pop, cinematic production and avant-garde experimentation.

Alongside the band's expansive back catalogue, the evening will feature special guest appearances and one of the first live performances of their Earth Rising Volume II track, Giving up the Ghost. Described as 'a pessimistic hymn', Giving up the Ghost creates a paradoxical repositioning of pessimism as a useful driver for future action and hope.

Event details

Event tickets

Taking place at Grand Junction, Rowington Close, London W2 5TF, on 29 October 2026.

Earth Rising: Messages from the Pale Blue Dot

A concept album in which artists, writers, poets and musicians hold a mirror to humanity.

Grubby Mitts

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Grubby Mitts

Grubby Mitts are a wilfully eclectic nine-piece art-rock ensemble from Bedford, fronted by artist Andy Holden. Expanded to include a full brass section, the band combine joyful melodic pop, cinematic production and avant-garde experimentation, moving freely between orchestral pop, classical minimalism and post-punk. Their latest releases, the Valediction EP and album Love in the Misanthropocene, explore vulnerability, hope and love amid contemporary political and ecological precarity. Guided by their manifesto, Maximum Irony! Maximum Sincerity, Grubby Mitts balance playful absurdity with genuine emotional force. Their live performances bring music, video and visual art together in what feels like an exhibition in concert form, building through shifting rhythms and emotional registers towards crescendos of cacophonous yelping. They have performed at the ICA, Hayward Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Latitude and Austria's Donaufestival, and toured UK artist-run spaces. Warm, strange and exhilarating, they create poignant songs that tread a fine line between sentiment and experimentation.

Website: https://andyholdenartist.com/grubbymitts

Instagram: @grubbymittsband

Portrait of Grubby Mitts. Photography by Eva Vermandel.