James Bay Takes A Leap At The Royal Albert Hall
Following his breakthrough debut L.P. The Chaos And The Calm, released in 2014, and it’s divergent follow-up Electric Light four years later, which saw the Hitchin-hailing singer-songwriter and guitarist do away with both his signature felt Fedora hat and folksy,...
Garage Rock Icons Black Lips Return To The Riot Scene
“London! Been a minute right?” Black Lips ask their 47k Instagram followers. It’s a rhetorical question of course, and they’re not wrong. In fact, the last time Black Lips played in London the world was just one month shy of being slapped in the face by COVID-19....
Dave Okumu Shares The Black Experience In The Round
“I’ve been making records for a long time and I feel like it’s an immense privilege to do that. What are we without our stories, we’re made of them and we have to share them and I feel very lucky to be able to do that through the medium of music.” Wise, yet humble,...
The Damned Showcase DARKADELIC At Ally Pally Theatre
The Nightingales are a post-punk band hailing from Birmingham who date back to 1979, although largely inactive for the 1990s they reformed in 2004 and have since been more active than ever accruing a slew of releases, both of the single and album variety. Singer...
Black Honey Bring A Fistful Of Peaches To Koko
In a bold statement that demonstrates Black Honey aren’t here to take themselves too seriously, following a rousing opening set from Essex-based punk outfit Bad Nerves, none other than Elvis himself appears on the Koko stage. Well ok, someone other than Elvis who...
The Luka State Deliver Triumphant Rock ‘N’ Roll At Camden Assembly
“As long as we stick together, then and only then will we become. We will become More than this.” Conrad Ellis, dripping with sweat and visibly moved says as they go crunching into the final chorus of the title track from their second album, More Than This. [gallery...
Chris Shiflett At Scala: Stetsons, Sprinters, Capos & Greggs
Ahead of the upcoming release of his newest solo album, Lost At Sea due out later this year, Chris Shiflett dons the stage for the sixth and final night of his Irish and UK tour, at a sold-out Scala. [gallery type='flickr' view='photo' photo_id='52779689775'...
Wunderhorse Are Thoroughbreds At The Joiners
At the tail end of last year, a friend of mine saw Fontaines DC at The Apollo, Hammersmith. I asked them for their highlight from the night. The answer? “To have got there early enough to see the support”. The support were Wunderhorse, the new solo project of Dead...
Cassyette Makes London Go Boom At Electric Ballroom
Hard Rock is a sub-genre in its own right, itself sharding off into as many further sub-sub-genres as you can think of. It’s a massive draw to both recorded music and famously epic live shows. So when one of Hard Rock’s rising stars is announced to play BBC Radio 1’s...
The Hold Steady Host Killer Parties At Electric Ballroom
Tonight, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate. The Hold Steady have hit their 20th anniversary this year. The band are weeks away from releasing a new album. They're in the middle of their annual three-day London residency, appropriately named The Weekender (after...
Self Esteem Brings Pop Mastery To Hammersmith
“Do I look alright?” Rebecca Lucy Taylor – AKA Self Esteem – asks ironically, red lipstick smeared widely over face before scolding an audience member for raising their phone torch during a quiet spot in tonight’s set: “Don’t do that, it’s not a Coldplay show!”. She...
KT Tunstall Delivers Nut In Full At Shepherd’s Bush
“Good lord, can you believe that song is old enough to drink now?” – just one of a running stream of comedy gold nuggets offered by KT Tunstall as she celebrates the completion of her trilogy of L.P.s which kicked off with 2016’s Kin, continued with 2018’s Wax and was...
Cat Clyde Brings Down Rounder To Koko
Stratford, Ontario-based indie-folkster Cat Clyde has been on the rise since releasing debut L.P. Ivory Castanets in 2017. 2019’s Hunters Trance followed, elevating the rawness of Clyde’s songwriting and taking us deeper on her journey ahead of the release of this...
Lissie Carves Canyons At Koko
Midwestern – via a Los Angelean detour – folk artist (if I have to pick a genre) Elisabeth Maurus – aka Lissie – has been on the circuit for a while. Enough to have put out five studio albums since 2010, the latest of which – Carving Canyons – her current tour is in...
The Academic Sit Pretty At The Shepherd’s Bush Empire
This past week saw something many fans of The Academic have been waiting for for five years: Their sophomore L.P. release. The Rochfortbridge, County Westmeath-based Irish four-piece – who formed while still at high school together – put out their debut record Tales...
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