Matthew Ryan Thomas / Garden Centre / Animal Soup

About

Feast eyes upon our Beer Fest 2026 lineup! A whole weekend of FREE live music at The Ivy House, plus a proposterous selection of beers, ciders and ales to whet your whistles. There is literally no excuse to not have a pint in your hand. FRIDAY MAY 15th sees us welcome POP GOD Matthew Ryan Thomas for a very special headline set, with support from indie pop greats Garden Centre and Animal Soup. Establishing himself as a devout student of pop, Matthew Ryan Thomas’s commitment to dizzying showmanship and the suspension of one’s disbelief is what makes the invitation to his ‘wee world’ all the more enticing. For fans of Robyn, Troye Sivan and STEPS. A keen-eyed songwriter, half cynical, half childlike in his curiosity, Garden Centre's Max Levy plumbs surreal meaning from life’s peculiarities and regularities. He has a knack, not unlike Randy Newman, to make his listener feel affection for the characters within his songs. The train conductor, the man asleep at his desk, the kid on his dirt bike — characters who may otherwise inspire little thought from us in our real lives — here, draw out a feeling of deep connection. Marrying the arch posturing of contemporary indie and the spirit of 90s alt rock, with the trash and camp of y2k poptimism, and the harmonic language of música popular brasileira, the six-piece Animal Soup (led by London-based studio engineer and producer Joe Osborne) finds its even keel somewhere amidst London’s eclectic and genre-spanning guitar band scene.