Live Review: Boogarins, Reflektor Club, Liege 01.11.2015
I spoke briefly to Rapha, the bass player of Boogarins after the gig, only long enough to ask him to describe their music in a few words if possible. He replied “Free Jazz Pop Rock”. It’s as good a phrase as any, but I would be doing a poor job, and the band a disservice …
Meet: Rod Argent of The Zombies interview
Its not often you get the chance to speak to a bona fide legend, a real one mind, not just someone to whom we bestowed that title to entice more people into reading it (actually, we don’t do that – but you know, if we did) So when we got the chance to have a …
Feature: The UK Free Festival Scene, 1986 – 1992
These days there is a plethora of festivals, from huge expensive ones (Glastonbury) to smaller more affordable ones (Green Man, Wicker Man), but I don’t know of many (if any) free festivals. The term itself conjures up images of halcyon days back in the sixties, of hippies sat in circles, nudity and free love. But …
Live Review: The Space Lady, Secret Gig, Belgium, 27.10.2015
I met a guy in a bar a few months ago, and he spoke of a clandestine venue in the region, invitation only. It was all a bit Twin Peaks, but in the end I gave him my email address and he said he’d put me on the list. Sure enough, occasional mails came in, …
Live Review: Sleaford Mods – Brussels Ancienne Belgique 20.10.2015
Much has been written about Sleaford Mods; the non-musicality jibes, the faux-chav accusations, the lazy comparisons. Serendipity allowed me to sit in on the “An audience with…” in the AB’s adjoining bar a few hours before the show, and the strokes of misperception are bolder if anything from a non-UK perspective. The host began by …
Album Review: The Zombies – Still Got That Hunger
The Zombies new album, ‘Still Got That Hunger’ is after repeated listenings, hard not to like. For a band formed in 1961, they still tour a hell of a lot, so no-one can argue with its title. It’s in places semi-autobiographical, nostalgic and as technically proficient as one would expect, from a band responsible for …
Feature: I was a Manumission Robot! Plus ’98 club anthems soundtrack
It was May, 1998. I was 34 and jobless, my girlfriend had left me, and my band of twelve years was imploding before my eyes. The dry-rot on the bedroom walls of my rented flat had reached a state where it was hazardous to sleep in there. Rock bottom had begun to sound like an …
Live Review: SWANS at The Reflektor, Liège 19.05.2015
I’ll admit, my only knowledge of SWANS is that of a friend playing them back in the eighties; an album with a dollar sign on the sleeve (‘Greed’ 1986). My frazzled memory lumped them in with that ‘Butthole Surfers’/’Big Black’ school of American nut-job noise, with a side-serving of Psychick TV cultism. Now, almost thirty …