Mark Springer and Jimmy Galvin play Bristol charity concert
Mark Springer and Jimmy Galvin play a charity concert at The Mount Without in Bristol on November 26, 2026, benefiting the Bristol Drugs Project.
British pianists and composers Mark Springer and Jimmy Galvin play a joint charity concert at The Mount Without in Bristol on November 26, 2026, with all proceeds going to the Bristol Drugs Project. Each performs solo and with a full string orchestra from the Bristol University Music Society, and Springer gives the live debut of material from “Sleep Of Reason,” his 2025 album written with Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys and the Sacconi String Quartet, backed by a guest vocalist the promoters are keeping under wraps. Tickets for the 19:30 show are on sale now.
The bill also lists vocalist Kate Grant, performing as Isadora Vibes, among the night’s acts. Galvin, a Bristol-based composer and pianist, is also set to perform with the string orchestra and draw on his own catalogue, including his most recent album, “Spiritual Data,” released through Stoned Love Recordings.
“Sleep Of Reason” pairs Springer’s piano, string quartet and quintet arrangements with lyrics and vocals written by Tennant, developed after he read Francisco Goya’s print series “Los Caprichos” and its best-known image, “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.” The album runs in three parts: a six-track quintet section of voice and strings opening with “Phantoms And Monsters,” a three-track string-quartet set, and four solo-piano pieces to close. It was released through Sub Rosa and Exit Label in 2025.
“Looking up from my piano I see so much of the world that Neil has captured in his lyrics […] The words, Sleep of Reason, speak to the power hungry politics all around us and making this music now feels like my only rational move,” Springer said of the album. Tennant, who wrote the lyrics in response to Goya’s prints, described them as “sardonic and dreamlike, looking back to Goya’s nightmares but then reflecting on my experiences in 21st century popular culture and media.”
“Sleep Of Reason” is available as a digital album on Bandcamp, with CD and vinyl editions through Sub Rosa.
Jimmy Galvin is a Bristol-based composer, pianist and visual artist whose neo-classical music has drawn comparisons to Erik Satie, Bill Evans and Glenn Gould. He has released two solo piano albums, “A Million Seconds Make Eleven Days” and “Spiritual Data,” and performed the former live on BBC Radio 4’s “Loose Ends” in September 2018, to the show’s audience of around a million listeners. He has composed music for the BBC and Channel 4, including the independent film “Lido,” and exhibited paintings alongside artists including Peter Blake, Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Mark Wallinger, with his work auctioned through Christie’s and Bonhams for charity. “Some of the most beautiful haunting original neo-classical music you will ever hear,” The New York Times said of his work. Galvin has organized a benefit concert of his own before: in 2021, he played a solo piano fundraiser for the Bristol Drugs Project at Bristol’s 15th-century St Stephen’s Church, the same charity the November 26 concert with Springer now supports.
About Mark Springer
Mark Springer is a British pianist and composer who first came to attention as a teenager in the experimental group Rip Rig + Panic, formed in 1981 with former Pop Group members Gareth Sager and Bruce Smith alongside singer Neneh Cherry. The group released three albums, “God,” “I Am Cold” and “Attitude,” before disbanding in 1983. Springer then began a solo career with the all-piano album “Piano,” released on Virgin Records in 1984, the first entry in a catalogue that has since moved between Virgin and Exit Records.
His Exit releases include “Nature/Music/Food/The Stars and The Planets” (2000), featuring drummer Clive Deamer, and he has worked extensively in opera and installation art. In 1994, he collaborated with artist Damien Hirst on “Agongo,” an opera installation staged at St Mary’s School during the Edinburgh International Festival. He wrote the music for “Army of Lovers,” an opera with a libretto by novelist David Flusfeder, which premiered at the Castello di Potentino in Tuscany in August 2018 and was staged at London’s Playground Theatre the following year.
“Sleep Of Reason,” Springer’s collaboration with Neil Tennant and the Sacconi String Quartet, followed in 2025 through Sub Rosa and Exit Label. The Bristol concert with Jimmy Galvin on November 26 gives the album its first live performance with a full string orchestra.
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