Every Record Tells A Story
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New Sounds From This Is The Kit: at Rough Trade East
There are many things to like about This Is The Kit. There’s the relaxed and easy way singer and songwriter Kate Stables has with the audience and her band members, typified by the way she walks onstage in a Jeremy Corbyn t-shirt, slips off her shoes, and stands there in her fawn socks, whilst wrapping…
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Ten Things We Learned At The Village Green Festival.
It’s in Essex, it’s about the size of the kid’s field at Glastonbury, and it only costs £15 to get in (take that, austerity Britain!) but this weekend 16,500 festival goers experienced a mellow, friendly atmosphere and saw some great bands at The Village Green in Chalkwell Park, near Southend on Sea. Here’s what we…
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Breaking News: It Will Be Sunny on Saturday. The Village Green Music Festival Awaits!
Ah, the British summer. As elusive as a politician’s answer. In days of yore, at the slightest sniff of a sunny weekend, the Great British Public would, in a futile attempt to keep the kids quiet for five minutes, hop into their cars and happily spend four hours in a traffic jam, overloaded with bucket,…
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King’s X: The Return of The Ultimate Cult Band
King’s X, a three piece band from Texas, are hugely influential, have a large and loyal fan base, and last night played a show in London for the first time in six years. They are, perhaps the archetypical Cult Band. But how did they get here? (and I don’t mean “by bus”)… And do they…
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Depeche Mode: Live in London – Review
Their biggest ever show. 80,000 fans. It’s a far cry from their humble origins. Leaving school in 1979, Martin Gore worked as a bank clerk for Nat West in Fenchurch Street, saving the money he earned to buy a Yamaha synth. He joined a band featuring Andy Fletcher, an insurance clerk for Sun Life, and…
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Do Helloween Get The Credit They Deserve?
When we think of thrash metal, we think of certain things. The “Big Four” of Anthrax, Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth. We may also think of album covers that feature skulls… …or demons… …lead singers who dress like monks… …albeit there were worse ways to dress in the eighties… Back in 1985 however, it wasn’t just…
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Steve Hackett Speaks Out About Refugee Crisis
We don’t always turn to the leading lights of progressive music for our daily dose of politics (see: Phil Collins 1997), so it was interesting to hear Steve Hackett’s thoughts on world events last night. This happened mid-way through his set at Southend’s Cliff’s Pavillion, introducing “Behind The Smoke”, the middle-eastern (think Led Zep’s “Kashmir”)…
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Blondie: Live At The Roundhouse – Review
In 1975, a British rock writer went to see an unsigned band called The Ramones at The Performance Studio as part of a report for the NME in on the burgeoning scene in New York’s CBGB club and the surrounding area. His piece, titled “1975: A Scuzz Odyssey” in the 8 November edition of NME…
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Now That’s What I Call Cash! Do You Have This CD Worth Over £500?
With Record Store Day this weekend, the record collecting fraternity is faced with many quandaries: a) How can I afford the 4LP Deluxe Box Set of a 1975 Bruce Springsteen concert? b) Even if I could afford it, given that I already have it on MP3, can I really justify buying it on vinyl? (Answer:…
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Kasabian Return With New Album and Rip-Roaring Live Show
Tonight is a Tuesday. Kasabian’s beloved Leicester City are being knocked out of the Champion’s League. It’s surely no coincidence that the band don’t take the stage of Kentish Town’s Forum until seconds after the final whistle… They might be forgiven for being deflated. But the energy from a large crowd in a small venue…
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New Music, New Vinyl: Four Great Bands from Sugarbush Records
By the end of this article there’s a decent chance one of these four acts will be your new favourite band…. Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent may not be the first location you think of to set up a record label, but for one man the leafy Kentish suburbs have proved ideal. For nearly thirty…
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Secondary Ticketing’s Epic Fail: Why You Are Better Off Buying From Ticket Touts
You have to hand it to the likes of Viagogo and Stub Hub. For years people have complained at rip off ticket prices from ticket touts. Here was a market that the corporates could clean up: make more reputable and fairer. And yet they’ve actually made things worse. That takes some doing. It’s the equivalent…
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The xx: Live at Brixton Academy
The xx have played a series of gigs at Brixton Academy this week which they have called “Night + Day”. As South Londoners themselves this is something of a homecoming, and Brixton is abuzz with a celebration of The xx: aftershow parties, different warm up bands every night and so on, all organised by the…
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He Wrote For Elvis And Performed The Greatest Ever Beatles Cover Version: The Story of Junior Parker
The first thing you should know about Little Junior Parker is that he wrote the song “Mystery Train”, which Elvis Presley covered and made famous. The funny thing is, as a songwriter Junior Parker wasn’t prolific. You could say he didn’t fulfil his early promise. But, to think about it another way, perhaps he fulfilled…
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A Ray of Sunshine Pop: The Junipers
Leicester has had a pretty good run of it of late. It had previously been a source of fun for Londoners being asked for directions by tourists trying to pronounce the famous London square of that name (“Can you tell me the way to Ly-sess-ter square?” we would be asked whilst stifling a smirk). Aside…
Every record tells a story 