Darren Hayman releases a special four-track EP for Record Store Day (Saturday April 20th) entitled Four Queens, available on limited edition coloured vinyl 10" and digital. The EP follows on from his critically acclaimed album, The Violence, released on Fortuna POP! last year, which has spawned an ongoing fascination with English history.

Comprised of one track from The Violence, the outstanding ‘Henrietta Maria', plus three new compositions, the EP features (as the name suggests) songs about a quartet of English Queens. Sung from the perspective of King Charles I as he serenades his French Queen, 'Henrietta Maria' is beautiful and touching, and somehow Hayman manages to indulge in a brief history lesson without ever compromising his lyrical meter or the song’s integrity.

Henrietta Maria by Darren Hayman & The Long Parliament

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever
Its loveliness increases
it will never pass into nothingness..