Every Record Tells A Story
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Strangeways Here We Come: The Story of Scotland’s Greatest American Rock Band
I think the moment that I realised that the beard-and-brown-brogue-infested East London was no longer the hotbed of cooldom (yes, that is a word) I had always assumed it to be was when a friend told me he had been drinking in two well-known bars* in Hoxton and Shoreditch at 2am whilst the DJs played Atomic Kitten,…
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An Alternative Record Store Day at the Post Office That’s Also A Record Shop…
Life doesn’t always go to plan. Take Julius Caesar, for example. No sooner had he come up with that deathless couplet around borrowing the lugholes of various Friends, Romans and Countrymen, his best mate Brutus was rudely sticking a sharp knife in between his ribs and cackling over his dying frame. A similar Roman Tragedy…
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Everything You Need For Record Store Day 2015
Judging from the looks on the faces of most of my work colleagues when I mentioned Record Store Day to them this week (even more blank than normal. It would be uncharitable to say that for some this is no mean feat) there remains great swathes of the population who remain bafflingly untouched by the…
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Sweet Billy Pilgrim Reveal Brilliant New Songs. Audience Breathes Collective Sigh Of Relief.
Sweet Billy Pilgrim, as regular readers will attest, are a band worthy of much attention, but are – unfathomably – not yet at the stage where stadia and arenas sponsored by phone companies and chewing gum manufacturers are pleading them to play a week-long residency. In response to this lamentable – and hard to…
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Why You Should Hear Drenge’s New Album, Undertow
It’s easy to get complacent sometimes. It starts with a War On Drugs album. It has a bit of guitar, you’re a little uncomfortable that it sounds a lot like that Don Henley record from the eighties or Dire Straits, but you let it go. Then you find yourself tuning in to Absolute Radio. You…
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Why Sticky Fingers on Vinyl Isn’t Always A Bad Thing…
Ten reasons why The Rolling Stones’ Classic Sticky Fingers should be in your record collection Classic Rock Magazine this month is a particularly excellent read as it is a “Vinyl Special”. They have some things that regular readers of Every Record Tells A Story will find reassuringly familiar (a “vinyl challenge” where they give cash…
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Noel Gallagher Joined By Choir At Royal Albert Hall – Review
On last night’s evidence, it looks like we can now quantify how difficult it is to get along with Liam Gallagher, as his brother Noel preferred to play with thirty other people at once – the 23 person strong Crouch End Choir, a three man horn section and four piece band – rather than play…
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The Who and Wilko Johnson: Live at The Royal Albert Hall
The Teenage Cancer Trust concerts have become a much loved staple of London’s live scene for over a decade. A week long series of gigs, including one comedy night, curated by Roger Daltrey, all to raise money for an organisation that helps teenagers who have been diagnosed with cancer. The cause is…
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Why You Should Hear The New Courtney Barnett LP…
2015 looks like being a big year for Australian singer songwriter Courtney Barnett, with her laconic, grungy, stream-of-consciousness style attracting strong reviews with debut album “Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit”. Barnett brought a three piece band to Rough Trade last night to launch the album. Barnett has built a good…
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Irrefutable Facts About Two Piece Bands – Plus Hear Two New Songs By Drenge
Adding a third person to a two-piece isn’t always a smooth transition. The day Brad Pitt tentatively sidled up to Jennifer Aniston and suggested that the addition of Angelina Jolie might, in some ways, add to the fun they were already having was probably not his most successful negotiation, although some of us can understand…
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Want To Host A Gig At Your Home? Sweet Billy Pilgrim Can Make It Happen With New Album
The music industry might be on it’s last legs, resembling something that has been dragged backwards through a hedge in a particularly unsavoury part of town, but it isn’t all bad news. If there is a silver lining, it is the increasing opportunities for fans to interact with their favourite musicians. A few years…
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The Best Records of 2015 So Far #3: Natalie Prass
Rock n roll may never die, but there’s a time and a place for the more extreme varieties. Not every wedding party dance floor, to take one example, would find itself filled were a DJ to “drop” Slayer’s “Angel of Death” in between the more traditional fare of Abba’s “Dancing Queen” and S Club 7’s…
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Is He Having An Affair? Or Is It Just Record Store Day Anxiety…
There are a number of warning signs that you can look out for to see if your middle aged husband is having an affair….** These include: a) increased irritability, b) mind often elsewhere, c) regularly distracted, d) increased covert use of smart phone. However, be careful before you unleash hell and take his philandering record…
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The Best Records of 2015 So Far #2: Ash – Cocoon
Here at ERTAS Towers, the ’96 Dom Perignon* has been rested on ice and the chubbiest of our calves is now looking distinctly regretful about having that extra bag of oats, whilst the other, thinner, calves frolic around the field with gay abandon, keeping the weight off. The reason for all this celebration is that…
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New Ray Davies Biography: A Complicated Life by Johnny Rogan
Kinks fans have been spoiled of late with a number of books about the band, particularly as for many years there was no definitive Kinks bio. Both Davies brothers penned their own versions of the tale with Ray’s X-Ray and Dave’s Kink, but, naturally, they only tell the tale from their own perspectives. “God Save The…
Every record tells a story 