PETE BENTHAM & THE DINNER LADIES Highlight Mental Health Benefits Of Great British ‘Shed’ On New Single
PETE BENTHAM & THE DINNER LADIES Highlight Mental Health Benefits Of Great British ‘Shed’
Watch the video - https://youtu.be/KzIcU9SicTM
Stream and share - https://petebentham.ffm.to/shed
Liverpool Art Punk Veterans’ New Album Art, Religion and Chocolate Biscuits
Out Now via 9x9 Records
Preorder - https://www.9x9records.co.uk/shop
Album Release Show @ Rough Trade Liverpool, 12.09.25
UK Tour Dates + Appearances at Rebellion Festival + More
Tickets on sale now - https://linktr.ee/pbdinnerladies
Self-proclaimed proprietors of “Kitchencore” and Merseyside artpunk legends PETE BENTHAM & THE DINNER LADIES are pleased to reveal the video for their new single ‘Shed’, which is out now on all good digital service providers.
The track is the latest to be taken from their new album Art, Religion and Chocolate Biscuits, which is also out now via fast-growing and well-respected local label 9x9 Records.
Commenting on the single, Bentham says: “My dad had a garden shed to keep him sane. These days, everybody is using medication or self-help books for their mental health. Maybe that's where we are going wrong? Bring back the humble garden shed!”
The track is the final single to be taken from the new release, their first since their acclaimed 2022 album What's on The Inside Has to Come Out, with Art, Religion & Chocolate Biscuits the band’s 6th studio album and first outing on new label home 9x9 Records.
A gloriously off-kilter yet deeply personal record that mixes absurdist punk theatre with an unexpectedly tender dive into mental health, Catholic guilt, and the surreal poetry of everyday life. The record’s title isn’t just a surrealist slogan, either. It’s a direct nod to Pete’s upbringing on a council estate in Widnes, where art felt like a world away from “people like us”, religion loomed large (and terrifying), and chocolate biscuits—particularly orange Clubs—were spiritual currency.
The band recently revealed the video for tongue-in-cheek lead single ‘Art Is Shit’ and similarly wry follow-up ‘Is There Life In Rhyl?’, with the album already praised as possibly their best to date by Louder Than War, Vive Le Rock, The Punk Site, God Is In The TV Zine and more.
Recorded by Dean Tyler and Anthony Brady at Pacific Rooms, Liverpool in March 2025, except for ‘Holy Pictures’, which was recorded by Stephen Cole at What Studios, Liverpool, the album’s launch will be celebrated with a special release show next month at Rough Trade, Liverpool on 12th September 2025.
It’s a big week for Pete and his Dinner Ladies who will be appearing at Rebellion Festival this weekend, with a late, near-headline slot on the Opera House Stage. Widely heralded as a “must see” act at the annual punk paradise, they also plan an acoustic stage slot, as well as the Dinner Ladies Disco, which has become the Dinner Ladies fans’ own social club at Rebellion.
A string of Autumn 2025 UK live dates are also on sale now—further festival appearances and live dates TBA over the coming months (see below for listings).
New album Art, Religion & Chocolate Biscuits is out now via 9x9 Records
Live dates:
07.08.25 - Rebellion Festival - Blackpool
12.09.25 - Rough Trade - Liverpool
19.09.25 - The Classic Grand Lounge - Glasgow
20.09.25 - Whistle Binkies - Edinburgh
12.10.25 - Wharf Chambers - Leeds
18.10.25 - Bank Top Tavern - Oldham
02.11.25 - The Swinging Arm - Birkenhead
16.11.25 - Star & Garter - Manchester
13.12.25 - The Station - Ashton-Under-Lyne
Tickets: https://linktr.ee/pbdinnerladies
Art, Religion & Chocolate Biscuits tracklist:
1. Shed
2. Is There Life In Rhyl?
3. Art Is Shit
4. Attention Deficit Retention
5. Mermaids In the Mersey
6. Punks Don't Jam
7. Its Okay To Be Quiet
8. Holy Pictures
9. Stand By Your Nan
10. Lie Down
Pete Bentham & The Dinner Ladies are:
Pete Bentham: Guitar & Vocals
Ladle Gaga: Bass & Vocals
Betty Spaghetti: Sax & Vocals
Tony Calzoni: Drums
Cantina Turner & Tash Potater: The Dinnerettes
Pete Bentham & The Dinner Ladies online:
https://linktr.ee/pbdinnerladies
https://www.facebook.com/dinnerladiesliverpool
https://www.instagram.com/petebenthamandthedinnerladies
More info:
Much-loved veterans of the Liverpool music community, Pete Bentham & The Dinner Ladies have been at the vanguard of the UK/EU’s DIY scene for over 15 years. To date they have released 6 studio albums and 2 EPs. Fusing the raw rock and roll of The Cramps with the invention of The Fall and the pop sensibilities of X Ray Spex to produce their own "Kitchencore" sound, their songs are witty, quirky tales of northern working class life.
Featuring goth postmen, sensitive lorry drivers, and personal heroes like Yuri Gagarin and Marcel Duchamp, Pete’s writing is always original, regularly funny, and often surprisingly poignant. Wit and humour are rife throughout their records, often belying poetic lyrics that are deep and colourful, ringing out over a backdrop that spans the very limits of the punk canon.
Renowned for the energy, vibrancy, and theatrics of their bonkers live show, the audience should expect the unexpected—maybe even some free Scouse stew dished out by drag queen backing dancers Cantina Turner and Tash Potater (aka The Dinnerettes).
With a work ethic that puts most to shame, Pete Bentham and his band have been carving up the UK and Europe on the road at hundreds of live appearances over the years—indeed, it’s rare that they are not traversing the punk provinces of the UK, taking their spectacular live show to new stages, uneven surfaces, practice rooms, pub lounge corners, patios and pavements…basically, anywhere and everywhere that will book them.
They’ve become regulars and annual festival highlights at the Blackpool punk Mecca of Rebellion Festival, as well as appearing at Bearded Theory, Sound City, Beatherder, The Great British Alternative Music Festival, and many more.
Now seven albums in, the Liverpool collective return with Art, Religion and Chocolate Biscuits—a gloriously off-kilter yet deeply personal record that mixes absurdist punk theatre with an unexpectedly tender dive into mental health, Catholic guilt, and the surreal poetry of everyday life.
“It’s more personal than the previous ones,” frontman Pete explains, “but not in a heavy way – more like Mortimer & Whitehouse than The Bell Jar”, which succinctly sums up the Dinner Ladies’ approach: taking the kitchen sink, giving it a saxophone solo, and letting it spill over with charm, wit, and a fair helping of existential unease.
The title Art, Religion and Chocolate Biscuits isn’t just a surrealist slogan. It’s a direct nod to Pete’s upbringing on a council estate in Widnes, where art felt like a world away from “people like us”, religion loomed large (and terrifying), and chocolate biscuits—particularly orange Clubs—were spiritual currency.
“These are all elements of my childhood,” Pete says. “I was the only person in my extended family to ever do anything artistic, unless you count my cousin playing David Essex on Stars In Their Eyes, and my parents, understandably, talked me out of going to art school.” That working-class scepticism of creativity looms large across the album, not as a weight, but as a muse. “There was always this feeling of ‘art is shit, you'll never make a living from that.’ But I did in the end.”
