Mark Vennis & Different Place return with their new album Goodbye to All That, a record the band uses to assess Britain, past and present, through their punchy alt-rock attitude. Formed in 2009, the band have built a reputation for dynamic live shows across the UK and Europe.
The album’s release follows teaser singles in 2025, ‘Empire Road’ and ‘The Beating of the Drum’, and sees the Petersfield outfit continue to explore the questions of national identity that continue to feel pertinent. The tensions between grand ideas of public duty and fair play are addressed, but they don’t shy away from the darker legacies of empire, militarism, division and inequality. There are sharp edges, intentional intensity and reflective storytelling, drawing from literary inspirations of 1984 and the wartime memoirs of Robert Graves.
On the release, frontman Vennis explains, “It is an album about how we got here and what it means to be British, particularly pertinent given what is going on at the moment. The album’s title, ‘Goodbye to All That’, is a nod to Graves’ autobiography, which paints a haunting, darkly humorous picture of an officer’s experience on the frontline of World War I. A lot of these songs are about the cost of the empire on ordinary people, people who had nothing to gain from the riches pillaged from other countries. Our history casts a long shadow. The empire, British nativism, white supremacy, have we really said goodbye to all that?”