Moving down from Newcastle around the turn of the decade, Demob Happy have slowly but surely stamped their mark, with two glorious progressive grunge-pop albums, Soda Dream and Holy Doom, under their belts. More recently they’ve been out supporting the likes of Jack White, Frank Turner & The Rattlesnakes, and…
Considering herself to be an “Afro-progressive”, Traoré has made six albums, drawing on her Malian roots, but also incorporating sounds from around the globe. Bowmboï (2003) won the Critics Award category at the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music in 2004, and Tchamantché (2008) won Victoires de la Musique…
When The Specials first came to notice, they were a revelation, and for so many, an experience they were unlikely to ever experience again. Coming off the back of punk, and very integral to that profound movement, the Coventry band were of mixed race, a rare beast in…
The 1975 frontman Matt Healy is a very smart boy, albeit one caught up in the temptations of the human mind, exaggerated by the pleasures and pains of being a bit of a rock star. Yet, like all 20-somethings, he has energy, passion, and confidence in abundance. Along with…
The Vaccines’ Combat Sports was released in the spring of 2018. That it ever saw the light of day was a testament to the band’s inner belief, but a belief that had been badly dented by the departure of founding member Pete Robertson, in mid-2016, after the…
Guitar music has had a bit of a rough time of late. The 00s represented its last great heyday, when the likes of The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, The Zutons, Arctic Monkeys, and The Kooks et al, bestrode the world stage, guitars, drums and bass at its beating heart. The internet…
An unbelievable level of talent was on show at the 2018 Great Escape festival and some live shows stood out particularly, including Kojey Radical, Mahalia and Jimothy Lacoste. However, it is the big 02 Arena show that has taken the crown for me this year. Seeing King Kendrick rise out…
Another first for me, a trip to the local Love Supreme festival to see Mr Jukes, Tom Misch, Zara McFarlane, Mavis Staples, Earth, Wind & Fire, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Level 42, James Taylor Quartet, Elvis Costello and more all in one blistering hot weekend. The weather was as…
It took me some time to catch up with Elizabeth Bernholz’s alter ego Gazelle Twin in a live setting, what with her lack of home town performance dates, but she was worth every second of the wait. In a knock-out and characteristically unsettling visual spectacle, Bernholz stalked the stage and…
My favourite gig of the year goes to a show which saw one of the lowest attendances I had been to all year, the super smooth whispered Americana of the still unknown Sam Evian. Announcing himself to Brighton at this year’s The Great Escape festival, the New York-based band came…