PETE BENTHAM & THE DINNER LADIES Reveal New Single ‘Is There Life In Rhyl?’ Out Now
Watch the video - https://youtu.be/_BFHtHFe5uk
Stream and share - https://petebentham.ffm.to/istherelifeinrhyl
Liverpool Art Punk Veterans’ New Album Art, Religion and Chocolate Biscuits Released 1st August 2025 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 and pleased to reveal the official video for their new single ‘Is There Life In Rhyl?’ out now.
The track is the latest to be taken from their forthcoming new album Art, Religion and Chocolate Biscuits, set for release on 1st August 2025 via fast-growing and well-respected local label 9x9 Records.
The album was recorded by Dean Tyler and Anthony Brady at Pacific Rooms, Liverpool in March 2025, except for ‘Holy Pictures’, recorded by Stephen Cole at What Studios, Liverpool.
Commenting on the single, Bentham says: “Is There Life in Rhyl?, is a song about the meaning of life. It asks all the big questions: Is there life on Mars? Is there a God? Should Nigel Farage have his thingies cut off? It’s about how everybody is looking for something. We just want pop and crisps and a day at the seaside.”
The track is the second to be taken from the new release since their acclaimed 2022 album What's on The Inside Has to Come Out, the band’s 6th studio album and first outing on new label home 9x9 Records. The band recently revealed the video for lead single ‘Art Is Shit’ which is out now on all good digital service providers.
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.”
Pete and his Dinner Ladies will be appearing at Rebellion Festival this year, with a string of other UK live dates 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 released 1st August 2025 via 9x9 Records
Live dates:
21.06.25 - Snailmania @ Future Yard - Birkenhead
12.07.25 - Society Ltd - Runcorn
26.07.25 - Buck & Bell - Southam
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
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
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.
