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...
Live Review: Cage The Elephant @ The Forum
I last saw Cage The Elephant stampede through a London venue in 2011. That time it was at The Garage. My lingering memory of this monstrously energetic show is that of singer Matt Shultz’s frenetic, wild abandon in crowd-surfing, at one point returning to the stage...
Live Review: Highly Suspect @ Our Black Heart
So a band that’s just been nominated for two Grammy Awards are playing in London. What’s your first guess on where they’re going to play? The Forum, Shepherd’s Bush Empire, or maybe Brixton? Well that’s not the Highly Suspect way of doing things, so instead they’re...
Live Review: Hozier @ Portsmouth Guildhall.
Live: Hozier @ Portsmouth Guildhall Listen to Hozier’s eponymously titled debut album a few times and you soon appreciate there’s a lot more to the 25 year-old from County Wicklow than a song that takes a pop at the Catholic Church. Andrew Hozier-Byrne is a truly...
Live: Black Stone Cherry @ Wembley Arena
US touring hard rock mini festival Carnival of Madness made its way to the UK, including a stop at London’s Wembley Arena. With the event offering a line-up of Brooklyn-based trio Highly Suspect, the Lzzy Hale-led four-piece Halestorm and Jacksonville rockers...
Feature: Anoushka Lucas. Multi-Talented Exhibitionist.
Feature on Anoushka Lucas a Multi-Talented Exhibitionist. Nicola Greenbrook went underground to the 606 Club in Chelsea, London to meet singer-songwriter Anoushka Lucas, hear about her upcoming album and watch her heat up the stage. Photography by Kalpesh Patel. The...
Live: Hunck, Life and Phobophobes @ The Old Fire Station.
Hunck, Life and Phobophobes @ The Old Fire Station. It’s a very rainy windy night in Bournemouth for the Launch gig of Hunck’s short tour to promote their new EP Never had a Dream at the Old Fire Station. This gig is also part of Independent Venue Week, a 7 day...
Live: The Temperance Movement @ Forum, London.
Live: The Temperance Movement @ The O2 Forum Kentish Town I’ve been lucky enough to have been experiencing one of Britain’s most promising new rock acts The Temperance Movement since the days when their beautiful ballad Chinese Lanterns was performed from in front of...
Live: The Libertines, O2 Arena, London.
The Libertines, O2 Arena, London. The word “great” is bestowed on a lot of bands these days, sometimes merited sometimes not. It’s certainly a word that’s been pushed in the direction of the The Libertines, although for me there’s sometimes been a sense of the...
Live: Travis @ The Lexington.
Live Review: Travis @ The Lexington. Travis are probably not the first band that springs to mind in 2016, but with their eight studio album, Everything at Once, set for release on the 29th April, the band are still exerting themselves on the music scene. This week...
Live: Nahko And Medicine For The People @ Electric Ballroom.
Live: Nahko and Medicine for The People. “Not really sure what to expect tonight” was my response to a number of people asking about the Nahko and Medicine for The People gig at the Electric Ballroom. The fact that it had been moved from a temporarily closed...
Feature: John Helps. Introduction To Handmade Festival.
An introduction to Handmade Festival, a forward-thinking and totally independent music and arts festival in Leicester curated by some of the city’s best loved venues and promoters. Nicola Greenbrook is in conversation with John Helps - one of the Festival Directors, a...
Live: Harry Pane @ Live at the Roof Gardens – Kensington, London.
Live: Harry Pane @ Live at the Roof Gardens, Kensington, London. A cold and dark January is never an easy pill to swallow. The festivities are over for another year and it’s inevitable to feel rather gloomy about the weeks stretching ahead. Unless, that is, you climb...
Feature: Bror Forsgren. Solo Narcissus.
Bror Forsgren (The Lionheart Brothers, Jaga Jazzist, Silence The Foe) is making his solo debut at the age of thirty-four and he doesn’t go easy on anything. As the title on the great art deco-inspired cover indicates at first sight, Narcissus is a grandiose and...
Interview: Frankie Lee. American Dreamer.
Frankie Lee interview: American Dreamer Reading the bio of American singer Frankie Lee can leave you feeling like you’ve just been fed a pitch from a scriptwriter: he was born on the banks of the Mississippi; aged 12, he moved to Minneapolis following the death of his...
Live: Caro Emerald @ Hammersmith Apollo
“Good evening London city!” Dutch jazz singer Caro Emerald screamed. “This is the very last show we’re going to play in the Absolutely Me tour tonight” she continued. “We’re going to make it a party, enjoy!” The Amsterdam-native brought her 18-date UK headline tour to...
Live: Lower Than Atlantis @ Roundhouse
Lower Than Atlantis at The Roundhouse Christmas is a traditional time for giving, so hats off to Lower Than Atlantis for giving us a bill with not just one, but four great bands at the Roundhouse tonight. It helped that there was plenty of Christmas cheer in the room...
Live: Lianne La Havas @ Brixton Academy
British folk-soul singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lianne La Havas closed out her UK headline tour in support of sophomore studio album Blood with the first of two massive shows at London’s Brixton Academy. “I'm going to be honest with you ladies and...
Live: Guy Garvey @ Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Sometimes it’s nice to be proved comprehensively wrong about something. The first time I saw Elbow, I was ambivalent at best. Dragged by my wife to Wembley Arena (quite possibly the worst place in London to see live music), it turned out to be one of the best gigs...
Live: Flo Morrissey @ Bush Hall
London-based singer-songwriter Flo Morrissey played a show at West London’s Bush Hall as part of her first UK headline tour following a busy year which included slots at Glastonbury, Green Man and End Of The Road festivals, in support of her debut studio album...
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