Live Review: Dexy’s Midnight Runners – The London Palladium, London 20.09.2023
We need to talk about Kevin. Over the four decades since forming Dexy’s Midnight Runners, frontman Kevin Rowland has always sought to innovate, refresh and radically change the direction of the band. Kevin’s chameleon like desire never to bask in past glory or get complacent has seen him (literally) wear many hats through his Dexy’s …
Live Review: Be Your Own Pet – Moth Club, London 07.06.2023
“Back from the dead!” announces Jemina Pearl as she begins the second consecutive night leading Be Your Own Pet in Hackney. Judging by the ragged band of fans before her the previous night was a suitably raucous resurrection of the Nashville punks who first started their love affair with London some 17 years ago. London …
Live Review: Goat – Electric Brixton, London 22.04.2023
Those inscrutable Swedish experimentalists Goat conclude their UK tour with this sold out London headline date celebrating their latest album Oh Death. Brixton is the setting for the latest episode of their most absorbing Scandi-drama. Seven masked figures emerge through the will-o’-the-wisp. Only the addition of an ancient yew tree would add more pagan attitude …
Live Review: The Oozes – The Underworld, London 20.04.2023
They hate the Tories, they hate the police…but The Oozes LOVE to rock! Railing against injustice and prejudice, they have no time for inequality or the patriarchy. Change is coming and The Oozes are the vanguard. Sweeping away the old with a wave of queer punk rage and charm. The Oozes are so very now. Backseat …
Live Review: We Are Scientists – Le Petit Bain, Paris 26.03.2023
I was very VERY drunk the first time I saw We Are Scientists. At their London gig way back when they were still plugging their 2005 debut album With Love And Squalor. Drunk on beer and drunk on love having embarked on a new relationship. Fast forward almost 17 years and We Are Scientists (and …
Live Review: Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra – Le Trabendo, Paris 27.03.2023
An Icelandic-Italian singer backed by a Belgian band in the French capital watched by an Englishman. Gotta love Europe. Emiliana Torrini and The Colorist Orchestra celebrate the release of new album Racing the Storm at this headline Paris show. Walking through the litter-strewn streets earlier, it felt like Paris is collectively catching a breath before …
Meet: London Post-Punks Ghum
Usually you’d expect to find second hand sofas, used motors and ‘pre-owned’ furniture but Gumtree is also responsible for creating post-punk London-based band Ghum. The band formed through the social media marketplace and have since become dark, simmering stalwarts on the London gig scene. Backseat Mafia caught up with Laura, Marina and JoJo from the …
Live Review: The Wannadies – Islington Assembly Hall, London 03.11.2022
The 1990s felt like the Swedish decade. Scandinavian style social democracy dominated politics whilst bands like The Cardigans and The Wannadies provided the songs for the CDs we so neatly stacked in all those IKEA shelf units. The Wannadies, led by cheeky, curly-haired scamp Pär Wiksten provided one of the ready assembled, rom-com songs of …
Live Review: Beth Orton – Koko, London 09.10.2022
Beth Orton made me cry. Her surprising cover of The Ronettes song I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine on her debut Trailer Park is electric with emotion and sad resignation. Beth’s trademark fragility hugged my soul and cured a bout of twenty-something gloomy angst. Beth does this. Now touring her eighth studio album – …
Live Review: HowTheLightGetsIn Festival – Kenwood House, Hampstead London 01.10.2022 – 02.10.2022
My pace quickens and acorns crunch underfoot. I’ve got the fear. Like the return of a recurring nightmare, I’m late for my lectures, again. October will always herald a new term, a new start and the anticipation of mind-expanding adventures – so welcome to the university of Hampstead aka HowTheLightGetsIn festival. My first lesson is: …