Catfish and the Bottlemen @ The Forum
Llandudno-based indie rockers Catfish and the Bottlemen have had a great couple of years. From releasing debut album The Balcony in 2014 to winning British Breakthrough Act at this year’s BRIT Awards. Next month sees the launch of follow-up LP The Ride, and to...
Cage The Elephant Interview: From Bowling Green to Nashville via Leyton.
Cage The Elephant returned to London for an explosive show at The Forum, in support of their latest album Tell Me I’m Pretty. Having transplanted to London for a spell at the start of their career, playing to a packed venue in the city with songs from their fourth...
Live: Sunset Sons @ Koko
Surf and snow bums beware, if you’re hanging out playing some live shows in your local bar, you could just end up in a mega explosive rock band. That’s the dream right? And for Hossegor, France-based Anglo-Australian four-piece Sunset Sons, it just became a reality....
Live: Weezer @ Brixton Academy
Los Angeles-based rockers Weezer made their live UK return with two dates, hitting up Manchester’s Academy venue followed by London’s Brixton Academy almost five years since their last time in London, on the very same stage. Famed for their interspersion of...
Interview: Federal Charm, Generating Headlines.
Federal Charm are a four-piece blues-edged rock band from Stockport, Greater Manchester. Both their eponymous debut album released in 2013 and the sophomore Across The Divide have received strong critical acclaim, and the band are set to commence their first headline...
Live: Stoneghost @ Barfly, Camden Town.
I’ve got a soft spot for the Barfly. A few years ago, I did my first practice shoot for a live music gig there, and for me it always sums up the epitome of a hard core rock club where bands and audience alike can get up close and personal and basically let their hair...
Live: Låpsley @ Heaven
Holly Lapsley Fletcher, better known simply as Låpsley, is about to make bigger waves than she already has if Wednesday’s Heaven show in London is anything to go by. The Southport, Merseyside native released her debut album Long Way Home just a few weeks ago and was...
Live: Tracer @ The Talking Heads, Southampton.
Tracer Live at The Talking Heads Most of the time I head out to gigs, I’ve a reasonable idea what I’m going to get – it stands to reason that you check out the stuff that would ordinarily fall under the radar. Occasionally however, it’s nice to take a punt on...
Interview: Shuggie Otis, This Charming Man.
Shuggie Otis Interview Once there was a man who, while really no more than a boy, took the world of blues and soul by storm. That was in late 1960s and early 1970s. He made three great albums with some of the hottest musicians around and then disappeared from view....
Live: James Bay @ Hammersmith Apollo
English singer-songwriter and guitarist James Bay has had an incredible couple of years. From being signed to Republic Records and releasing his first EPs in 2013 and selling out his first UK headline tour just a year later, to releasing his chart-topping debut album...
Live: The Orielles @ Tooting Tram and Social
Halifax's finest The Orielles travelled to South London for a headline show on Saturday night at SW17's Tooting Tram and Social. The band are made up of Sidonie Hand-Halford on drums, her sister Esme on bass and vocals and guitarist Henry Carlyle-Wade, whom the...
Live: Simple Plan @ Bristol Academy
When people think about the pioneers and major influencers of pop punk, they think Blink 182, New Found Glory, Good Charlotte and rightly so. But there is another inclusion and more often than not the Canadian 5 piece Simple Plan are missed off that list. They have...
Live: Half Moon Run @ Roundhouse
Playing their biggest headline show to date, Montréal-based indie rockers Half Moon Run returned to Camden, albeit the Chalk Farm end, just a few months after their explosive Koko show following the release of their second studio album Sun Leads Me On. Yes, I went...
Live: DIIV @ Heaven in London.
DIIV at Heaven, London “Thanks for writing our setlist tonight”. Such is the introduction to DIIV’s final song tonight night from their enigmatic frontman Zachary Cole Smith, and having spent the second part of tonight’s set watching from the mixing desk, this...
Feature: PopShot – A Year In Pop
I love rock music. And I love shooting rock shows. Let me get that out of the way first. I’ve been a gig-goer for twenty years but have only been photographing gigs since around 2009, and as a rock music fan I mostly went to rock and guitar-band shows. But I always...
Live: Paves @ The Pipeline
Paves: The Pipeline Bar, London Despite only being a stone’s throw from some serious city money, walking into the Pipeline is like walking into your favourite student bar. Upstairs there’s pool tables and pinball, but in the downstairs cellar there’s a seriously good...
Live: Chairlift @ Scala
Brooklyn-based synth-pop duo Chairlift are back with their third studio album Moth, a good four years since 2012’s Something. And following an outing of the new album at Hackney’s Oslo venue in December, the group were back in London for one of only two European...
Live: Mack Hofberg @ The Wedgewood Rooms
When you spend your time photographing and reviewing live music, it stands to reason you try to chase the biggest acts you can possibly find; there’s something particularly exciting about snapping a major artist in the throes of performance. But, the thrill of...
Live: Twenty One Pilots @ Portsmouth Guildhall
Creating an image around a band can be a blessing or a curse. For Twenty One Pilots its definitely the former, with the red, black and grey of their latest album Blurryface, being carried through to everything in tonight’s show. From the backdrops, to the...
Live: The Hunna @ Boston Music Room
I’m at Boston Music Room in Tufnell Park, attending the first of three sell-out shows by Hertfordshire four-piece The Hunna. Although not a venue that’s about to win any awards for its appearance, the slightly decrepit, run-down nature of the place sits well with the...
Live: Silversun Pickups @ Islington Academy
Los Angeles-based alternative rock outfit Silversun Pickups are back with their fourth studio album. And ahead of their upcoming festival appearances, including Indio, California’s dual-weekend Coachella festival next month alongside Foals, Chvrches and Guns N’ Roses...
Live: The Japanese House @ Dingwalls
Singer, producer and guitarist Amber Bain – aka The Japanese House – had an incredible 2015. From hooking up with drummer George Daniel and frontman Matt Healy from chart-topping alt. rockers The 1975 to produce her music to releasing well-received first EP Pools To...
Live: Turin Brakes @ The Brook, Southampton.
Situated on the edge of a trading estate, The Brook is one of the more eclectically situated venues in the south of England and not one where you’d necessarily expect a Mercury nominated band to play. However the lack of local parking spaces, and a steady stream of...
Feature: Shuggie Otis. Sweet Like Sugar.
A Shuggie Otis feature, Sweet like Sugar. It was a chilly Sunday night in North London and my thoughts probably should have been focused on the working week ahead. Fortunately instead I was surrounded by the rouge walls and pendent chandeliers of Camden’s historic...
Live: Coldplay @ The IndigO2
They played the Super Bowl 50 halftime show in Santa Clara, California at the start of the month alongside Beyoncé, Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson to a televised audience of some 200 million. They won the NME Godlike Genius Award at last week’s NME awards and played a...
Live Review: Hinds @ KOKO Camden
Live: Hinds @ KOKO Camden They can’t sing, can barely play, and their debut album Leave Me Alone sounds like it was recorded down a phone line. And yet, Madrid based all female four-piece Hinds, are currently darlings of the mainstream music press and were nominated...
Interview: The Rebirth of Kula Shaker
Has it really been 20 years since Kula Shaker released their debut album, K? At the time it was the fastest selling debut since Oasis’s Definitely Maybe, and went on to shift more than 1m copies. Follow up albums performed well and solidified a hardcore fan base, but...
Live: Jess Glynne @ Brixton Academy
English soul-influenced popstress Jess Glynne played the second of two sold-out shows at London’s Brixton Academy in support of her debut album I Laugh When I Cry, both 5,000-strong shows reassuringly sold out. Bursting onto the scene in 2014 with hit single Right...
Live: Kula Shaker @ The Roundhouse
Live: Kula Shaker @ The Roundhouse Kula Shaker were to the nineties what Franz Ferdinand became in the noughties: a band with a wildly successful debut album followed by over-saturated press coverage followed by descent into obscurity - whilst everybody wondered...
Live: Poliça @ Village Underground
Poliça Live Review @ Village Underground American band Poliça are back with their third studio album United Crushers due out next month. And to ease themselves back into the live circuit, they hit up Shoreditch venue Village Underground for their only announced UK...
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