PHOTOS: Single Mothers – Exchange, Bristol – 17/04/2025

Single Mothers’ Bandcamp bio states that they “broke up in 2009 and have been playing shows ever since.” That’s obviously referencing Drew Thompson’s notorious short fuse that saw the band’s earliest incarnations cycle through members like no one’s business, but perhaps it can be extrapolated to mean more. After all, Single Mothers have remained fairly below-ground despite continually releasing new music, with albums coming out as recently as 2023. And even with this tour celebrating 10 years of their debut full-length Negative Qualities (which, for the record, still has the biggest footprint of all their output), Bristol’s 250-capacity Exchange hardly feels like the environment for big events.

But that’s also the M.O. of Single Mothers, a punk band who’ve embraced their fractious tendencies and the volatility of adjacent hardcore to keep plugging away on their own terms. With what’s effectively a cult classic under their belts, they’ve every right to do that. It’s certainly well-cultivated in that sense, as they’re joined by PEACH and Milo’s Planes to exercise similar punk fervour. Ross Peacey headed down to get amongst the chaos and capture the whole thing.

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PEACH

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Milo’s Planes

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Single Mothers

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Photos by Ross Peacey (Instagram)