Manchester UK based band Pearl Divers is the brain child of writer, singer and guitarist Carl Lingard. His initial work under the Pearl Divers brand was the impressive EP “The Boy Who Won The World” (2009) which was a solo effort. Deciding to take his work live he formed a trio with Mike Leigh (The Fall) and John “Monty” Montague on bass, following some early rehearsals the line-up was expanded with Tony Gilbody on keyboards and Jeff Black on guitar and MIDI instruments. High profile gigs at Night and Day in Manchester, the Salford Music Festival and supporting Martin Bramah’s Factory Star, were followed by the addition of Ben “Spilla” Doherty on vocals/rap, and a more urban/soul direction away from the initial indie feel of the material. Several attempts to record an initial album, and the addition of other vocalists, including Danielle “MzDee” Carter, lead to the creative differences emerging between band members regarding the change in musical direction. Leigh left to join The Blimp, and, Black. Montague and Carter formed Positronik. Lingard put Pearl Divers on hold for a few years.

Roll onto to 2014 and Lingard decided to try again with the Pearl Divers project. He recruited Gareth Johnson on guitar and Paul Greenhow on drums and convinced Jeff Black to rejoin the band, this time on bass guitar. Lingard’s desire to work with a female vocalist was realised when Nathalie Hayley joined. Lingard had been hard at work on new material which was not released but some tracks appeared on Charity Albums for  German Shepherd Records and the band played live around Greater Manchester.

From 2019 another line-up change saw the band as a trio with Carl joined by Tony Shep on bass, Rick Kilburn on drums, and  Aleksandra Rogalska  Vocals, electronic gadgetry, keyboards and other strange noises

Pearl Divers  play a fairly diverse mix of music combining male and female lead vocals. The principle writer Carl Lingard, writes in many kinds of styles, from Indie, Pop/Jazz, Latin, football anthems, to Bond themes. Strong melodies and interesting harmonies always feature. The music released to date varies between soulful ballads with a nod to John Barry in the sultry “Smoking Gun” , and upbeat guitar led indie in “Sunshine”, and “Waterfall” all on the  bands first EP “The Past Ain’t Made to Last”  which was released by German Shepherd in September 2017.

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