Late Transmissions – A new group reuniting DAVID BALFE (Teardrop Explodes, Zoo & Food Records) with DAVID HUGHES (Dalek I Love You, Film and TV Soundtracks) and starring fresh name EVE QUARTERMAIN on vocals.
A singer stands at the microphone in a dingy backroom club in North West England, her voice illuminating the gloom despite the darkness of which she sings. Tales of the cruelties with which life assails us, of the endurance needed for the battles we fight alone, of the many dreadful shades of heartache and the tragic passage of time. She sings to those trapped in this world’s shadowy dead ends, to the many for whom love is more often a source of misery than happiness. To all of us that hurt. Her voice makes plain that she herself has lived out such tales too often. This is Eve Quartermain – late of London and New York before finding herself back in Liverpool where it all started.
The Heart Wants What It Wants is that rare thing – a collection of songs that drip with sorrow and anger. Each track a scar born of damage and broken hopes, each defeat providing fuel for the fire that’s burning within. An intimate glimpse into a soul who has taken all that life has thrown at her to emerge bruised but unbeaten. A woman who rises despite it all.
Behind Late Transmissions are David Balfe and David Hughes – two friends who last played together in the Merseyside post-punk scene. Balfe, playing with Big In Japan and The Teardrop Explodes, went on to be a producer, publisher and founder of both Zoo Records and Food Records (signing Blur and Echo & The Bunnymen among many others). He reunited with Hughes, his former band mate in proto-synth act Dalek I Love You, out of a shared love for the orchestra-led classic pop of the likes of Scott Walker, John Barry, Shirley Bassey and Dusty Springfield. Hughes’ work post-Dalek included playing with OMD before transitioning into a highly successful long-term career scoring TV and film, including Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, skills upon which he has drawn for Late Transmissions’ technicolor film sound.
The undoubted star of this album, however, is the incredible vocal talent of sensational discovery Eve Quartermain. This torch-singing femme fatale combines angry power with cracked vulnerability and a noirish fatalism – hers is the pounding heart of the album.
The lush cinematic arrangements that define the sound of Late Transmissions paint a landscape of longing and loss, but it is the plaintive rawness and sombre depths in Eve’s delivery that carries the weight of this record. This is an album for those who understand that no matter how bleak life may become there is consolation, redemption even, to be had from singing your truth, loudly and proudly.
The Heart Wants What It Wants will be released via Music Saves on 1 May 2026 on limited edition hand-numbered red vinyl with A4 lyric booklet including a signed A5 numbered art print – one of five random designs – as well as jewel case CD with 12 page lyric booklet and on all digital platforms.
Album pre-order: https://musicsaves.co.uk/product/theheartwantswhatitwants/
Spotify pre-save: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/evequartermain/the-heart-wants-what-it-wants
Late Transmissions and Eve Quartermain will present an exclusive and intimate album launch performance at LIVERPOOL JACARANDA on THURSDAY 30 APRIL. Tickets available here:
https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Liverpool/The-Jacaranda-Club/Late-Transmissions-starring-Eve-Quartermain-Album-Signing–QA/41782591/
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