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...
Interview: Hamilton Loomis. Texas Star.
If you made a Venn Diagram that had rings with Blues, Rock, Soul, Funk, Pop and Jazz on it, there would be precious little room in the middle – but one of very few names that could occupy the space would be Hamilton Loomis. Loomis, who hails from Galveston, Texas,...
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...
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...
Live: Virgil & The Accelerators @ 100 Club.
Following the Autumn 2014 release of their critically acclaimed second studio album Army Of Three, there are few bands in the blues-rock arena that are currently stirring up as much interest as Virgil And The Accelerators. Support slots with veteran acts such as Uriah...
Live: Republica @ Under The Bridge.
Techno punk rockers Republica returned to the stage at South West London’s Under The Bridge venue, situated under Chelsea FC’s famous Stamford Bridge ground, to play a set of hits, fan favourites and new material. Huge during the mid to late 1990s Britpop scene, the...
Live: Ben Poole @ The Maltings.
Last month I was lucky enough to photograph the Ben Poole band in the expansive surroundings of London’s Shepherds Bush Empire. Ben was the support act on the UK leg of Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s spring tour. I say ‘photograph’ and not ‘see’ because the ‘three songs and...
Interview: Saffron.
Republica Are Go!
Formed in 1994 from the emergence of Acid House and Rave and with a striking techno punk rock sound, Republica were a huge part of the iconic ‘90s Britpop movement
Live: Masters Of Reality @ The Garage
On the road since 1981, the Masters Of Reality swapped the city of New York for the desert. Chris settled in Joshua Tree, California, becoming the "Godfather of Desert Rock", but he doesn't want to take all the credits to himself, as he stated in a recent...
Live: Larry Miller @The Borderline.
Larry Miller once played guitar in my front room. Around 20 years ago, he answered an ad in Melody Maker (for anybody under the age of 30, an ‘ad in Melody Maker’ was something that existed before the Internet) for a guitar I was selling and had come round to check it...
Live: Skinny Lister @ Academy Islington
English folk/pop/punk outfit Skinny Lister released their second album Down On Deptford Broadway in late April. The band, who are a staple ingredient at a number of UK festivals and who have picked up airplay on both 6Music and XFM, have been touring the UK in support...
Live: Beth Hart @ The Barbican.
I have arrived a bit late to the phenomenon of Beth Hart. For me, that’s a shame because after tonight, I'm hooked and I feel like I've missed out. Tonight's performance felt like a proper journey through life experiences, heartaches, families, love won, love lost and...
Live: King King @ Jazz Cafe
Glasgow based King King released their third album Reaching For The Light on 4th May. If a bulging trophy cabinet were their only measure of success, you’d be forgiven for wondering why they bothered. With best band, best album (for 2013’s Standing In The Shadows),...
Live: Social Distortion @ Empire Shepherds Bush.
Al Capone is in town.... No, wait a minute, its Social Distortion, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the 1990’s self-titled album, on the last day of their European tour. The night promised a revival for those who lived in the nineties, mohawks, jackets and beaten...
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...
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