Live: Wilko Johnson @ Shepherds Bush Empire
I first saw Wilko Johnson play guitar when I was 16 years old. He was guest on a BBC show called *Rockschool that taught impressionable teenagers such as myself how to play in a band. The programme aired in the mid 1980s – long after the peak of interest had waned in...
Live: Dan Patlansky @ The Borderline.
South African born blues guitarist Dan Patlansky is comparatively unknown in the UK, although he has an extensive back catalogue of material and has certainly attracted the attention of music critics worldwide. His latest recording Dear Silence Thieves was voted...
Live: Brooke Fraser @ Dingwalls.
Kiwi singer-songwriter Brooke Fraser played the only UK date of the European leg of her Brutal Romantic tour at Camden’s Dingwalls venue in support of her fourth studio album of the same name. And while her music has been touted as New Zealand pop, that’s where any...
Live: The Wombats @ Brixton Academy.
The Wombats released their long-awaited new album Glitterbug on 13 April. To celebrate they held a party in Brixton and invited 5000 people to it. The band, who met at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, might not be particularly prolific writers (Glitterbug...
Live: Kenny Wayne Shepherd @ The Empire.
It’s a balmy, unseasonably warm night in west London. Shirtsleeves abound on Shepherds Bush Green but at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire across the street, the temperature outside won’t match that in the auditorium. The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band is in town and headlining...
Live: Sweet Billy Pilgrim @ Hoxton Bar & Kitchen.
Coming from the roots of a self-starting band, experimental folk-rockers Sweet Billy Pilgrim didn’t begin recording in studios until third album Crown and Treaty in 2012, with everything preceding that famously recorded in a garden shed, including 2009 Mercury...
Live: Daniel Lanois @ Islington Assembly Hall
Whilst Daniel Lanois is an accomplished musician in his own right, he is certainly best known for his music production credits. Lanois has collaborated extensively with Brian Eno and has produced albums for artists as disparate as Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, U2 and...
Live: Courtney Barnett @ Electric Ballroom
“Sorry about that, I just needed a lie down” Courtney Barnett declares after playing the end of a song lying on her back for a couple minutes. Tonight is the second of two headline shows at Electric Ballroom, a considerable feat for a musician that just became known...
Live: Ian Siegal @ The Jazz Cafe.
Ian Siegal could well be the most accomplished blues musician you might possibly have never heard of. Born in Fareham in 1971, it’s been said that if Siegal had been performing and recording in the 1960s, his name would likely now resonate alongside such luminaries as...
Live: Lucy Rose @ Dingwalls.
Just over two years on from releasing her well-received debut album Like I Used To, Warwickshire folkster Lucy Rose Parton is back with follow up Work It Out, due out in July. In anticipation of her forthcoming release, Rose and her band have hit the road this month...
Live: We Were Promised Jetpacks @ The Garage
Following a pre-release tour of the UK and Ireland in late 2014 which teased tracks from their forthcoming third studio record Unravelling, Glasgow-based indie-rockers We Were Promised Jetpacks have hit the road once more in 2015 with a string UK and European dates...
Live: The Unthanks @ Roundhouse.
In a pop-rock world where the introduction of folk elements is seen as somewhat gimmicky and often contradicts the real origins of bands, there lies the true folk music subculture that continues to progress forward. And none is a better reflection of the genre’s...
Live: Kid Creole & The Coconuts @ Clapham Grand
First there was a party and then there was a party! Kid Creole & the Coconuts stopped by at the historic newly refurbished Clapham Grand in South London to bring some, samba, rumba, salsa and glamour to this intimate venue. August Darnell (Kid Creole) bought his...
Live: Grant Nicholas @ Bush Hall.
For any band to continue full steam ahead for twenty years producing album after album every couple of years is rare. But Welsh rockers Feeder made it through eight studio albums before taking a break. However, the band’s front man and sole songwriter Grant Nicholas...
Live: Fields Of The Nephilim @ The Empire.
Fields Of Nephilim celebrated 30 years of goth darkness with two sold-out shows at London's Shepherds Bush Empire at the end of December 2014. Not at all what I expected. In fact they delivered one of the shows of that year. Carl McCoy has developed a Hollywood...
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