The Northwestern, the new band formed by former Hope Of The States frontman Sam Herlihy and drummer Simon Jones, have announced a string of live shows to take place in August.

They will play the following dates:

August 13 Roadmender, Northampton

August 14 Barfly Cardiff, Barfly

August 22 The Royal, Derby

August 23 Fibbers, York

August 24 Moles, Bath Moles Bath

August 27 Plug and Play, Reading

Jones said: "We never set out to be a career band. I just don’t think you can expect to make the same record over and over and expect people to take you seriously. We could have bashed out another same-sounding record with Hope of the States, but that just wasn’t for us.”

“With this new band everything has become exciting again,” Herlihy added. “We just lost it for a while, but now it just sounds like us as people and represents our situation. It feels like a new lease of life.”

The band also plan to release an EP in October.