Raphael Saadiq Introduces Gospeldelic To The Indigo
Just a couple of months after releasing his fifth solo studio album titled Jimmy Lee, Raphael Saadiq performs at Blues Fest London 2019 at Indigo, part of the huge O2 complex in Greenwich, some eight years after his last show in London. If you’ve followed Raphael...
Of Monsters And Men Spread Joy At Eventim Apollo
Of Monsters And Men are about so much more than songs with irresistible “la-la-la” choruses, impossibly sunny melodies, kooky lyrics about pet dragonflies and talking trees, and sudden jubilant outbursts of “hey!”. Of Monsters And Men are about spreading joy. For 90...
Ghost Unveils An Epic Ritual Experience In New Jersey
It's hard to pinpoint the rise of Ghost. Could it be the mysterious prosthetic masks, could it be the riff laden demonic rock music that they play? Could it be the musicians are anonymous and known as the Nameless Ghouls, or could it be that they hail from Sweden? One...
The Cult Build A Sonic Temple In Hammersmith
Sonic Temple isn’t just The Cult’s highest-charting album (#3 in the UK, #10 in the US). It’s the one that gave them three bonafide Top 40 hits that they still play almost every night. It’s the one that saw them double down on the all-out rock approach of predecessor...
Brocker Are Anything But Shambolic At Album Launch
Tucked away on Acton Mews E8 in a railway arch is the rather splendid Signature Brew Taproom & Venue. Selling a selection of craft beers, this is also a very cool music venue. In attendance this evening is quite a diverse selection of people including a small...
The Kris Barras Band Ignites And Lights Up Live In London
As if the Kris Barras Band wasn’t enough of a draw we also got Wille And The Bandits which was a real bonus. Wille And The Bandits certainly added to their ever increasing fan base with a short 30 minute explosive support slot which, in the main, included numbers from...
Foals Save Everything, Lose Nothing At House Of Vans Album Launch
Yannis Philippakis isn’t averse to getting into the crowd. You might say he loves it: the Foals singer has even been known to leap off the stage at such usually restrained affairs as a Rough Trade in-store performance. But as the band’s following grows and they...
Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin’ Stones: Lighting Up London
You know when you really look forward to a gig and the excitement amplifies as the week goes on? When you were introduced to a band over a year ago and their music becomes the soundtrack to your commute, work and weekend? This is how I felt when Hannah Wicklund and...
Alice Cooper Opens The Doors To His Nightmare Castle At The O2
Alice Cooper isn’t short on charisma – or experience. He could probably transfix an arena audience with acapella renditions of songs from long-forgotten album Zipper Catches Skin. All he’d need is an empty stage, some black greasepaint for his eyes, and perhaps a...
Martin Harley: Blues In The Chapel
Martin Harley is probably Woking’s third most famous guitar player. Whist Paul Weller is almost certainly taking top billing (though primarily as a result of his singer/songwriter credentials) and Rick Parfitt certainly knew how to bang out a chord, it’s Harley who...
Trixie And The Trainwrecks Live @ What’s Cookin’ & Gaz’s Rockin Blues
This review should have just been for the What’s Cookin’ show but this reviewer got his days confused so that the photographer Simon Partington showed up on the correct night and to make sure we delivered the review I went to the next night at Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues....
Wilkestock 2019 Sunday: On The First Day Of Autumn It Gets Brassy
It was a subdued Sunday morning at Wilkestock as we welcomed the first day of meteorological autumn, and an end to summer festivals. Whether they had caught the carnage of the live bands, or the frenzy of the DJ sets after hours, you got the feeling that there was a...
Drab Majesty Rise Majestically Live At Dingwalls, London
There's barely any lights on inside tonight, only at the long bar and on the red drenched stage. Perhaps it’s because tonight’s headline act, Drab Majesty from LA have quite a goth, melancholic, post-punk synth sound? Or as singer Deb Demure calls it ‘tragic wave’....
Birdeatsbaby, Hana Piranha, The Cesarians, One Last Thrill Live @ Black Heart Camden
This was the launch party for Brighton based "Prog-Goth" band Birdeatsbaby’s single Painkiller that’s on the bands 6th album The World Conspires that’s due out on 18th October from http://www.dr-music-promotion.de/ I arrived about halfway through One Last Thrill's set...
Wilkestock 2019 Saturday Raucous Rock And Drum Destruction
I was surprised at how early many on the campsite were rising, given that I had hit the airbed past 3am and those that had gone to enjoy the DJ sets seemed to be coming back even later. It was a warm Saturday morning and most of us were chilling by our tents and...
A Truly Scorching Triple Header Live at The Empire, Shepherd’s Bush
This was the London show on the current UK triple headline tour by three legendary live bands rotating who headlines, and the London show had Dan Baird and Homemade Sin in the top spot with The Kentucky Headhunters opening the evening. It’s great to have seen Dan...
Wilkestock 2019 Friday Music, Charity and Leather Sofas
On a sunny Friday afternoon, I navigated the country lanes of between Stevenage and Hertford in Hertfordshire to get to a small site for the 12th Wilkestock Festival. Wilkestock is very quirky and unique with all profits going to charity. Namely, Bloodwise Leukaemia...
Victorious Festival 2019: Sunday Night At The Seaside
Another day, another sky, deep blue from horizon to horizon. The Ambre Solaire salesman was sweating on August, but the targets came in, right at the end. Yesterday I walked seven and a half miles back and forth between the Castle and Common stages and my plates of...
Victorious Festival 2019: Saturday Night At The Seaside
If anything, the temperatures for Victorious Festival’s middle day were set to outstrip those of day one. One of the many benefits of the Victorious site is its seaside location. On offshore blast may have conspired against the festival last year, but for 2019,...
Victorious Festival 2019: Friday Night At The Seaside
Victorious is Britain’s biggest metropolitan festival. From humble beginnings a few years ago at a site in Portsmouth’s Historic Naval Dockyard, the event is now in its eighth year and has expanded to occupy a giant swathe of Southsea Common and promenade. There are a...
All The World’s A Fair: Womad 2019
Womad is a big part of our family. We’ve been going since the now grown-up kids were small, not every year but most, starting off the summer holidays on the first weekend after school broke up. Now it’s become a weekend where the whole family comes together, relaxes...
Things That Make You Go Boom: Boomtown Fair 2019
In a week when other UK festivals and events were cancelling due to severe weather warnings, Boomtown Fair, to everyone's delight continued as scheduled at the gigantic Matterley Estate, Winchester. Now in its 11th year or as titled, Chapter 11 A Radical City, 2019...
Viva La Rock With Marco Mendoza In The Underworld
Camden Town has been a mecca for live music fans for sometime and continues to offer live music just about every night of the week. There really is a wealth of emerging talent currently in the U.K. rock scene and a trip on the Northern Line to this vibrant area of...
Prophets Of Rage Bring Their Politically Charged Noise To Manchester
As I arrive at Manchester Academy, the queue of people already eager to catch the superstars of Rock / Rap already snake right down Oxford Road as far as the eye can see, it’s safe to say when Tom Morello, Chuck D, B Real and co are in town it’s kind of a big deal....
Truck Festival In Oxfordshire – Paul Gets Involved With Gaffa Tape Sandy – Day 4
We woke up to the last day of Truck to glorious sunshine again. Given the stories we had heard of other festivals during the weekend, we felt extremely Lucky in Oxfordshire. I was still in the media tent writing up day 3 when Paul went out for the annual Mr Motivator...
Truck Festival In Oxfordshire The Smaller Stages Mount A Coup – Day 3
Friday night had ended with rain cooling things down, and it rained all night, which is not great when you are under canvas, but this is the UK so we are used to it. I woke up on Saturday and the rain was still falling. The outlook did not look that good, and we...
Puddle Of Mudd Sizzle On The Hottest Of Hot Days
On the hottest day in England since records began, I had a sweaty, heavy post-grunge gig at the Islington Assembly in North London to attend, with a nice hot journey to and from the venue on the Northern ‘furnace” Line to boot. That’s the negatives out of the way....
Truck Festival In Oxfordshire Mercury Rises And Mercury Prizes – Days One & Two
The 22nd Truck Festival promised to be epic with the current Mercury Prize Winners Headlining on Friday, and originally no less than three out of the twelve nominees for 2019. This was unfortunately cut down to two as Fontaines DC had to pull out of several festivals...
A Summer Sunday At Ramblin Man Fair 2019
Sunday was always forecast as being the best day of the weekend weather-wise but I feel the line-up was slightly weaker than Saturday. Looking at some of the punters, they were perhaps a little weaker today also following Saturday’s partying. No complaints mind, as...
A Beautiful Saturday At Ramblin Man Fair 2019
The weather forecast for Saturday at Ramblin Man Fair was certainly going to be an improvement over a wet Friday but there was still a little rain around early on. The rain, however, had fizzled out before the doors opened and it was surprisingly dry underfoot. It was...