Divine Schism

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Divine Schism

Live music, art and film Now run by Aiden Canaday and Rich Bell (2021) - get in touch!

Close friends and musicians Andrew Grillo, James Cunning and Aiden Canaday started in 2012 and have been running interesting DIY music and art nights in Oxford and London since 2012.

10/06/2026

We were truly stunned recently when we hosted Elanor Moss with Chris Brain and were excited to hear of her debut album tour - so she is coming back to Oxford in October to delight us with her magical songs, hot on the release of her debut full-length album The Knife, The Needle, out 21st August on Merge Records.

She plays for us in Oxford on Fri 9th Oct at Common Ground for an all ages, wheelchair accessible show.

Recorded live to tape over the course of two days, the album evokes the starkness of artists such as Sibylle Baier, and the poetic sensibilities of psych-folk greats before her. A strange and shadowy record of quiet epiphanies.

“Oh and the way that it feels
To know you
Oh and the way it reveals
I don’t know you”

So begins “The Way That It Feels,” the concluding track of Elanor Moss’ debut full-length album The Knife, The Needle, out August 21, 2026 on Merge Records. In two couplets, sung over birdsong and Moss’ classical guitar, she manages to capture an entire universe created in the bond between two people. The couplets mirror each other and hang, like a veil, over the rest of the song. Regardless of time, intimacy, love, tenderness, and the way those things can change a person and a relationship, there is, she asserts, an immutable fact to these things: that whatever she learns from them, there will always be something unknowable just beyond.

On sale now! https://wegottickets.com/divineschism

29/05/2026

Divine Schism have been working alongside Oxford-based charity YWMP for many years and they’ve just opened their first venue, so thought we’d say some words about our relationship and how we’re looking forward together!

Divine Schism have run shows for nearly 15 years and we’ve organically grown into a powerful grassroots-level commodity on the UK scene. We appreciate the power and privilege this has put in our hands. As promoters, we are always looking to make positive changes where we can to make our shows better for our community. One of the ways that Divine Schism has done this is through working closely with YWMP.

YWMP is an Oxford charity which provides an inclusive, supportive space for young women, trans and non-binary people to get together to make music, learn new skills, express themselves, and grow in confidence. In September 2025, YWMP opened The Nest, an independent, inclusive music space in the centre of Oxford.

Everything that happens at the Nest – including Divine Schism shows - is underpinned by YWMP’s Safer Spaces Policy. This policy was developed over a multi-year project, with procedures on how to make grassroots live music venues safer and more accessible for everyone, particularly marginalised people.

Divine Schism have been lucky to work closely with YWMP over many years to learn and improve equity and access at our gigs. There have been questions and challenges along the way, but we continue to collaborate and grow together. We’ve been so excited by the formation and realisation of The Nest, which has immediately become a brilliant space for all sorts of events.

Divine Schism’s conversations with YWMP over the years have been really important for us in many ways in thinking about how we utilise our unique platform. They've influenced the way we look at billing - we put a lot of effort into booking diverse bills, and take care over where artists are placed on our bills. YWMP have challenged our thinking about how we can make our gigs more welcoming and safer for everyone in our community – for instance in thinking about which artists our events platform and in making sure we clearly communicate expectations for both artists and audiences.

Divine Schism looks forward to continuing to be part of YWMP and the Nest’s work on safer, more inclusive spaces for live music and we're excited to take their safer spaces training and see how we can progress from that and push further forward with the way we run shows alongside keeping an ongoing communication together on any barriers or questions we face. We hope this contributes to new standards on the live music scene around the UK - every show we've had at the Nest has felt very special and everyone taken care of (from artists through to audiences) in a way we've not seen before - long may it continue. Not to mention their incredible sound system and sound engineers!

19/05/2026

Divine Schism are stoked to be working with the incredible Berlin-based wonky popsters Matching Outfits in September as we host them at Ivy House, London on Tues 15th Sept and the Library, Oxford on Weds 16th Sept as part of their first ever UK tour!

Matching Outfits are a trio of adopted Berliners whose warped, wistful take on indie pop has been compared to “a Super 8 film from the family attic”. Singer Linnea Mårtensson’s lyrics capture life’s major losses and minor inconveniences in gut-wrenching, occasionally hilarious detail, while dulcet harmonies morph into discordant freakouts and shout-along choruses. Their debut cassette ‘Band Made Out Of Sand’ caught the attention of cult radio station WFMU as well as New Jersey label Bar/None (Yo La Tengo, The Feelies), which signed the band and released their sophomore album ‘Ditch Me’ on July 25th 2025. The band does not wear matching outfits, except when they do.

https://matchingoutfitsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/ditch-me

https://wegottickets.com/divineschism

18/05/2026

New art and line-up news for July as we host the beautifully sparse, lo-fi guitar/vocal duo The Sleeves for the first time - they are joined by left-field alt-jazz trio Arcihpelago all the way from Newcastle, Oxford’s delicate Low-esque slo-fi trio iiis and another Oxford debut show for improv guitar soundscape artist Doch Allerhand aka our good friend Logan Kunaka!

The Sleeves have just released an understated beauty and we can’t wait to see it live! The Sleeves are the duo of Jack Cooper and Tara Cunningham, both likely known to you as one half of Modern Nature. Following an all-instrumental Mossy Tapes release last November, Cooper and Cunningham have recorded 10 new songs showcasing their vocal and guitar interplay with only the faintest echoes of prior efforts (individually or collectively), representing a fully realised leap forward from their largely improvised debut.

Gonna be an interesting one - get down the basement of the Library from 7.30pm on Tues 7th July to be mesmerised throughout! https://wegottickets.com/divineschism

11/05/2026

New art and line-up news for our Oxford show with Real Farmer as Top Shortage and Asterix join the bill on Weds 10th June - we have a truly stellar night ahead at the Little Bully!

Dutch pals Real Farmer hit the road next month to tour their fantastic new record Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right which came out on 1st May through Peter Doherty’s Strap Originals! We love hosting them - their energetic blend of DIY punk, angular, gritty art-rock jangle is a joy to behold - last time they were in Oxford we all melted together in the Library! Check the new record out asap if you haven’t already!

Our label loves Top Shortage join us for their first hometown show since their debut EP came out in March, the mesmerising Contre Nature! Their swelling, atmospheric multi-lingual post punk has astonished us since we first saw them in 2024 - they are one of the most exciting bands in the UK and we’re lucky to have them in Oxford!

Asterix are an ace new grunge band from Oxford who we loved when they played in March - ‘a rough sound with experimental tones over a melancholy alt-rock backbone’ - get to it Oxford. One not to be missed!

All ages (under 14s with an adult) from 7pm on Weds 10th June! https://wegottickets.com/divineschism

07/05/2026

London, hello! We have an incredible alt-punk rock bill for you as Real Farmer are joined by Rainham Sheds and Gross Misconduct at New River Studios on Weds 3rd June!

Dutch pals Real Farmer hit the road next month to tour their fantastic new record Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right which came out last week on 1st May through Peter Doherty’s Strap Originals! We love hosting them - their energetic blend of DIY punk, angular, gritty art-rock jangle is a joy to behold - last time they were in London we all melted together! Check the new record out asap if you haven’t already!

Rainham Sheds bring their all female post-punk maximum art-core chaos to the stage alongside the ace and discontented landfill punk of Gross Misconduct - hell, what a bill!

Doors 7:30pm and music soon after on Weds 3rd June at New River Studios - come join us in the pit! https://wegottickets.com/divineschism

04/05/2026

New show for you Oxford as we host ace psych-country outfit Frank Lloyd Wleft, local lo-fi slackers Spaceman and the Spaceband and wonky alt-pop duo The Unwashed Phenomnenon at the Library on Sat 13th June from 7:30pm!

Lloyd of Frank Lloyd Wleft name and fame has been living in Oxford this year, attending shows and soaking up the scene so and we’re stoked we can do a show together - will there be an Oxford-lilt to their country-infused poetic post-Americana jangles? Come find out!

What will the chameleons Spaceman and the Spaceband call themselves in June? Known to sometimes change their name for shows, they are an ever-evolving group of young Oxford musicians (feat. members of Tongue, Codia Y Môr & more) who were inspired by our screening of the Elephant 6 movie 18 months ago and borrowed my 25 year old 4-track recorder to kick off their slowfuzz journey.

The Unwashed Phenomenon also half study in Oxford and we’re excited to see their weird alt-pop songs in the wild of the Library basement.

18+ show from 7:30pm on Sat 13th June in the basement of the Library - come celebrate the scene! On sale in the skies above the clouds (bio) https://wegottickets.com/divineschism

03/05/2026

We’re back at Common Ground next Weds 6th May and are excited as hell for My New Band Believe and so are you as it’s sold out! There won’t be any tickets on the door but you could be in luck via the waiting list if anyone drops out.

Cameron Picton’s ace new project My New Band Believe are joined by another fresh new London act, PopStar who open the bill with one of their first shows outside the capital.

My New Band Believe, led by Cameron Picton, bassist and sometime frontman of black midi, with whom he practiced an explosive form of musical world-building, weaving complex storytelling through thrilling passages of controlled chaos play as a trio next week as they meet the music on its own terms, to reap the rewards of taking a flying leap into the dark. Picton leads his band so that each track forms, scatters and re-groups, the uplift of one song crashing head-long into the rush of another. Inspired by Bert Jansch’s hypnotic, hard-driving guitar, Judee Sill’s panoramic pop, and the terrifying possibility of dance music, My New Band Believe is both all-encompassing and constantly in flux.

See you there - doors 7:45pm, music soon after!

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Oxford

Website

https://www.wegottickets.com/divineschism

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