Live: Marianas Trench @ KOKO
Marianas Trench's 2015 hit Pop 101 is an insider’s guide to mainstream success. Advice like “a beat you can’t ignore”, “harmony in thirds, not fourths”, and their own spin on Tom Petty’s immortal “don’t bore us, get to the chorus” are certainly worth following. But...
Live: Ward Thomas @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
In support of their sophomore album Cartwheels, twin sisters Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas brought their brand of Hampshire based Anglo-Nashville country music to the multiple-tiered beauty of the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire on Wednesday night. The new record, which...
Live: Hey Violet @ The Garage
Hey Violet’s hyperactive performance at North London's The Garage begins, and ends, with deafening screams from an equally hyperactive audience. To be fair, though, there’s a lot of screaming the whole way through. Like when singer/dynamo Rena Lovelis asks: “How’re we...
Live: Saint Leonard’s Horses @ The Borderline
With a backstory featuring Stanley Kubrick’s estate, a Los Angeles cult, William Blake’s grave, a near-death experience in the Mojave desert, Jim Morrison’s meditation chamber, and a bust-up at Father John Misty’s wedding, you’d expect Saint Leonard’s Horses’ debut...
Live: Live At Leeds Festival Turns 10
With the rise of city festivals, such as Sheffield’s Tramlines and Brighton’s The Great Escape, Live At Leeds has seen a steady growth in size over the years from a handful of bands in 2007 to 189 acts performing at 21 venues across the city on its 10-year...
Live: Geraint Watkins and the Mosquitoes @ The Sound Lounge
It's 3pm on a warm spring Bank Holiday Sunday afternoon and Tooting's newest café-come-music venue The Sound Lounge is packed to all four corners with middle-aged hipsters eager to see Geraint Watkins and the Mosquitoes play their first show in 18 months. The show's...
Live: Dan Patlansky @ Islington Academy 2
Guitarists are not unlike magicians - a lot of practice and work goes into making it look easy. But Dan Patlansky is clearly not one for cheap magic tricks. He pours so much passion and intensity into his performances that how he plays is as powerful as what he plays....
Live: Palace @ Shepherd’s Bush Empire
There was a nip in the air as I walked across Shepherds Bush Green tonight. We might be knocking on the door of summer, but momentarily talk of global warming has been suspended. This morning, I was back scraping the windscreen of the car and had icicles on my...
LIVE: THE KOOKS @ LEEDS ACADEMY
The Kooks are one of those bands that you find surprising when you realise you know more songs than you anticipate. Tonight in Leeds at a sold out Academy show they are playing the greatest hits tour, a best of – probably because they have hit that post 10 year...
Photography: Joe Bonamassa @ Royal Albert Hall
Joe Bonamassa – two-time Grammy-award nominated guitarist and vocalist – does not need an introduction. This year he is back in the UK to promote his twelfth studio album Blues Of Desperation. The album was recorded in just five days in Nashville's Grand Victorian...
Live: Katy Hurt @ The Sound Lounge
I first met Katy Hurt back in July 2014 when I got chatting to her parents at a Kacey Musgraves show at west London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire. We were all enamoured with the meteoric rise of Country Music’s popularity in the UK but the Hurts had an ace up their...
Live: You Me At Six @ Alexandra Palace
Another day, another gig. Tonight, I’m at the rather wonderful Alexandra Palace to see the continued progress of stadium rock band You Me At Six. The band, who hail from Weybridge in Surrey, released their fifth studio album Night People on 13th January and with it...
Live: The Magpie Salute @ Under The Bridge
If rock ‘n’ roll history tells us anything, it’s that brotherly love doesn’t necessarily apply between brothers. Ray and Dave Davies, Mark and David Knopfler, Liam and Noel Gallagher. If you invited them round for tea, it would be as well to give them paper...
Live: Dua Lipa @ Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Rising London pop star Dua Lipa has been making waves and setting grand expectations since bursting onto the scene back in 2015 with top 10 single Be The One. Last year saw singles Hotter Than Hell and Blow Your Mind (Mwah) continue to show promise along with not one...
Live: Erja Lyytinen @ 100 Club
Erja Lyytinen is a phenomenal guitarist. That’s a given. Not just technically brilliant – capable of playing with speed and precision, able to imbue every solo with unique character and tone – she has an edge over many other virtuosos: the ability to cram so much...
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