Live Review: Black Kids – The 100 Club, London 15.09.2022
A fan clutches a Black Kids colouring book. Black Kids inspire this kind of devotion. He’ll probably colour it in without going over the edges. Then again, he won’t want to spoil the pristine pages of his heroes at all. He’ll wait for the limited-edition Black Kids felt tip pens to arrive. The 100 Club …
Live Review: Yann Tiersen / Quinquis – The Roundhouse, London 08.09.2022
As the puddles form around the humdrum town and London joins the rest of this disunited kingdom to enter a new Dark Ages, a little French fun should be just the tonic. Yann Tiersen contributed much of the score for the Amelie film soundtrack back in 2001. The quirky beauty of Audrey Tautou and Yann …
Live Review: Bauhaus – Brixton Academy, London 19.08.2022
There’s soaring inflation, public sector strikes and a cost of living crisis and somewhere in Northamptonshire the band Bauhaus are taking that angst and discontent and creating a goth classic. Bauhaus – or Bauhaus 1919 (as they were initially called) recorded their classic Bela Lugosi’s Dead amidst the industrial strife and political instability of Britain …
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 …