Live: Rosanne Cash @ Union Chapel
I first heard Rosanne Cash years ago, on a video recording of a show from sometime in the 1990s, featuring Cash with country/folk peers Nanci Griffith and Mary Chapin Carpenter. The three songwriters were sitting around in a semi-circle, each with a guitar, a...
Live: The Drums @ Koko
There was a lot of hype surrounding The Drums a few years ago, but having watched them tonight they are the epitome of New York cool. Even the way they interact on stage has a certain something about it. Frontman Jonny Pierce, every inch the extrovert dressed in a...
Live: Hamilton Loomis @ 100 Club
I really like the 100 Club. I like the history that’s embedded in its DNA. I like that you can practically touch the ceiling. I like that there are tables dotted around the periphery looking less trustworthy under load than the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. I even like there...
Live: Blissfields 2015 Review
It never rains at Blissfields is quite a boast given this year’s event comes just a week after a notoriously changeable Glastonbury. But it held true, and despite huge thunderstorms soaking most of the South East of England, this corner of a Hampshire farm a few miles...
The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson. London Film Premiere.
The last three years of Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson’s life have been well documented: Terminal cancer diagnosis, farewell tour, rapidly recorded Gold selling album Going Back Home with Roger Daltrey, intervention from cancer specialist and music photographer...
Live: Love Supreme Festival.
Expansive & Cutting Edge Greenfield Experience.
Jazz FM’s Love Supreme Festival returned for a third triumphant year this weekend, and as a reveller at all three I’m bold enough to declare it just keeps getting bigger and better. Former lineups have featured Gregory Porter, Chic featuring Nile Rodgers and De la...
Live: Mavis Staples @ Clapham Grand
If ever there was a singer who could take a rock song and make it her own it has to be Mavis Staples. With her tight as tight band she put her distinctive mark on a few songs that you would not usually associate with cover versions. Of course the opening song had to...
Live: Tristan MacKay @ St Pancras Old Church.
This is the second time I’ve seen Tristan Mackay; the first was in support of Dan Patlansky at the Borderline a few months ago, and I recall thinking how easily he managed to silence what was a fairly raucous crowd. The songs and their lyrics are poetry in their own...
Live: Suzanne Vega @ The Anvil.
Hammersmith Odeon. Wembley Arena. Wasn’t it nice when these venues could just be called what they’re called without being obligated to have the name of a multinational conglomerate inelegantly crowbarred into their title? I mention these places not out of nostalgic...
Live: The Wave Pictures @ The Dome.
One of the best things about The Wave Pictures, besides their impressive output (15 studio albums and countless EPs and singles in their 10+ years together) is David Tattersall’s distinctive voice. It will remind you of other bands while being utterly unique; a bit...
Live: L7 @ Electric Ballroom.
Camden's Electric Ballroom was the venue for L7's triumphant return to London. With shows at Download festival and Glasgow already under their belts (the latter being their only other UK headline gig), the Californian four-piece grunge punk pioneers hit the stage in...
Live: Death Cab For Cutie @ The Empire
Pacific Northwestern alternative rockers Death Cab for Cutie played the first of a trio of sold-out shows at West London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire in support of eighth studio album Kintsugi, which refers to the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using precious...
Review: 32 Londoners. Don Letts on Joe Strummer.
Nicola Greenbrook took a captivating trip on the Coca-Cola London Eye to hear Don Letts open his mind (and heart) about the iconic Joe Strummer. Music for the people by the people. I’m ashamed to admit a mild fear of heights. On a supposedly ordinary Tuesday evening,...
Live: The Replacements @ Roundhouse
The Replacements took to the stage at London's Roundhouse for the first of two reunion shows - their first UK performances in more than two decades. The band were in fine form, kicking things off with the Ramones-inspired surf-rocker Takin' A Ride then segueing into...
Live: The Rifles @ Electric Ballroom.
“I’ve got Joel’s autograph tattooed on my bum” is one of the strangest openings to a conversation I’ve had from within the photo pit. However, it’s this devotion and loyalty in their fans that sums up why The Rifles can sell out the Electric Ballroom three nights in a...
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