Live Review: Joe Jackson – London Palladium, London 07.08.22
School was cruel. Blessed with an abundant record box of singles I had a passport to the parties but it came at a cost. Spending my paper-round money on vinyl but still clad in jumble sale garb didn’t go unnoticed by my mates, So a throwaway jibe about me being “square” stuck fast. To be …
Live Review: Les Nuits Secretees Festival – Aulnoye-Ameries, France 22.07.2022 – 24.07.2022
Going to festivals and collecting the press accreditation is like childbirth – it’s best to forget how painful the process can be otherwise you’d never attend another festival again. So here I am in the sun-bleached fields at the back of Aulnoye-Aymeries railway station in Northern France wandering around aimlessly muttering “pardon, je suis Anglais” to …
Live Review: Blood Red Shoes – The Garage, London 14.06.2022
It almost feels like stalking. I’ve certainly followed Steven Ansell and Laura-Mary Carter around over the years. From that captivating moment when I first heard Getting Boring By The Sea some fifteen years ago I was smitten by their edgy, wall of sound and the inventive spark between them. There was the Blood Red Shoes …
Live Review: Kite Festival – Kirtlington Park, Oxfordshire 10.06.2022 – 12.06.2022
The kids are alright – they’ve got Glastonbury and Reading but where do you go if you want a grown up festival? To a field situated somewhere between Bicester and Oxford apparently! Kite Festival is the brand new summer bash where you’re more likely to experience a book reading than blokes barfing. A festival that …
Live Review: Wet Leg – Electric Ballroom, London 26.04.2022
Excuse me? That joke isn’t funny anymore, huh? Well, with a debut album hitting the top of the charts packed with infectious songs aplenty and sold out gigs throughout the country – Wet Leg are certainly still laughing. The newly crowned indie disco queens continue to capitalise on the instant hit status of Chaise Long. …
Live Review: Killing Joke – Eventim Apollo, London 09.04.2022
Be afraid. Two candles flicker at the back of the stage. Those flames can never burn brightly enough to pierce the darkness and break the sense of foreboding. It’s Hammersmith outside and pure Hammer horror inside the Apollo tonight. This climax to their ‘Honour the Fire’ tour is the band’s first wanderings for three years …
Live Review: The Beths – O2 Forum Kentish Town, London 04.04.2022
After being cooped up in Auckland for a couple of years it’s appropriate that The Beths give us a lesson in ornithology halfway through this gig. Keen to promote the less flamboyant fauna of their native New Zealand we hear all about the alpine parrot and how it should really be more loved. Bit like …
Live Review: Altered Images – 229 Great Portland Street, London 18.03.2022
Blame the internet. Time is warped. Everything is now….and everything then…is now too. Without the internet, the hunger and desire to see bands from “back in the day” may not exist outside the mind of some aspic-encrusted nostalgia radio geek. All hail the global jukebox. Nobody in 1983 said “I’m just popping out, I’ve got …
Live Review: Curved Air – The 100 Club, London 16.03.2022
The sun has never set for some of those veterans from the dawning of the age of Aquarius. The hippy dream may have died as many of those flower children became accountants and acquisitive members of a fresh elite – but the music, and some bands from that era, live on. Members have come and …
Live Review: Kosheen – The Garage, London 12.03.2022
Really, all that’s missing are the glow sticks. Kosheen started the party back in 2001 and it feels like they’re still sound-tracking that noughties all-nighter. Sian Evans commands Kosheen much like Florence drives her machine but with bass heavy repetitive grooves and anthemic hooks aplenty. Pounding and intense. Like a Seat Ibiza motor has just …