Charlie Gradon 'Pain Game' Album Launch

With several dynamic sides to the English-born Northern Rivers musician, Charlie Gradon is an artist not so easily described - sage and considered as a songwriter, fervent and unrelenting in the studio, and off-the-wall on stage - and his upcoming sophomore album. Pain Game plays like a shuffled deck of memories from a relationship over time, capturing every high, low and everything in between with striking, unguarded honesty.

New single ‘Heathrow’ arrives today alongside the announcement of his second album Pain Game, out Friday 25 September via Cassell Records.

Marking a more expansive sonic direction, warbling synths sit alongside his unmistakably relatable songwriting. The track captures fleeting moments of a relationship with striking vulnerability, placing listeners inside memories of a love that never comes to pass. Anchored by the refrain, “forget about love, you gotta learn just how to be alone,” Heathrow is intimate, cinematic and quietly devastating.

"‘Heathrow’ is a song that snuck onto the album at the last minute. I had just seen Cate Le Bon and was determined to make a song like her. After many failed attempts, this fell out when I stopped trying to be her. "Each verse is a different snapshot in time of real events, and the chorus is a reminder that we must love ourselves before turning to others." - Charlie Gradon

With very special guests Beryl & Billy May