It’s hard to believe, looking at the 400-strong crowd squeezing around the stage at Komedia, that all this excitement could be for a blues guitarist from Birmingham – the words ‘blues’, ‘Birmingham’, and ‘sold out’ do not seem like natural partners. But then Joanne Shaw Taylor explodes into her…
Rough Trade’s new signees, southern teenage four-piece Goat Girl, have crashed their way into the indie London scene in the past couple of months. The Brixton-based girls have been well-known to those who frequent the pubs and community spaces of South London, and have been quietly reigniting the DIY…
Music is emotive. From different genres to different renditions, music is able to create intense emotions in people. However, as I entered the Brighton Centre on Friday night I knew that what I had in store for me was not a night of introspection or heartache, or even raw…
It’s easy to forget the state of the British ‘popular’ music scene at the time that Primal Scream exploded from the underground into wider consciousness with their 1990 hit ‘Loaded’. Acid house acts such as Guru Josh may have been starting to become more mainstream, but the UK Top…
Are you a fan of dirty riffs and an overwhelming level of hardcore that sends a crowd into a hysterical frenzy of fists and ferocity? Meet Hacktivist, the Buckinghamshire band who have just blown the roof off Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar in a way never seen before.
When I heard Placebo were coming to town on their 20th anniversary world tour I knew I had to go. I remembered them bursting onto my MTV2 screen in the mid 90s with their striking style and sound. Admittedly there was nothing completely new about what they…
It was meant to be a return to the days of Red Wedge and Rock Against Racism, when musicians publicly stood up for political causes. In the case of Red Wedge, a collective of musicians spearheaded by Paul Weller, Jimmy Sommerville and Billy Bragg, the aim was to support…
One day I want to be able to create a historical map of London’s venues by documenting the cultural history of each building. The Scala in London is no anomaly to this – it once hosted the only UK show performed by Iggy & The Stooges back in 1972…
Frightened Rabbit are a band who have come an awfully long way over their career and have built up one of the most dedicated fanbases I have ever seen. Tonight’s show at Concorde 2 brings some fantastic vocals, delicate levels of trance and folk, and above all, sounds…
On record, The Boxer Rebellion are a band who excel in their field, they bring a sound which is incredibly unique and has created one of the best and most ambient albums to come out of this year. The reality, however, is that tonight’s performance has left me…