he Dodge Brothers – billed as cinema fans’ favourite country blues, rockabilly and skiffle playing four-piece – are a headliner act at this year’s festival.

The band, which includes film critic Mark Kermode, will be joined on stage by one of the world’s best known silent-film accompanists, Neil Brand, to provide a live soundtrack for classic 1928 silent film Beggars of Life.

The Dodge Brothers will also be taking to the city centre streets for a spot of busking on the first Saturday of the festival.

BIFF co-director Tom Vincent says: “BIFF has a long and much-enjoyed tradition of including live music as part of our annual celebration of cinema, and over the years audiences’ enthusiasm for these shows has grown and grown.

“We’re very excited to up the scale of these events in BIFF 2012 with the long-awaited first ever gig in the North of the country by the Dodge Brothers, plus the UK’s foremost piano accompanist Neil Brand.”

The Dodge Brothers will be playing guitars, harmonica, banjo, double bass and a washboard, with Brand on piano, in the Pictureville cinema on Saturday, April 21.

Neil Brand is a celebrated silent film accompanist and composer who regularly performs to screenings at London's BFI South Bank.

The Dodge Brothers features Mike Hammond on lead guitar, lead vocals and banjo, Mark Kermode on bass, harmonica and vocals, Aly Hirji on rhythm guitar, mandolin and vocals and Alex Hammond on washboard, snare drum and percussion.

Their music has an authentically American tang – frontman Mike Hammond was raised in Alabama – but with a strong British perspective from Culture Show presenter and film critic Kermode.