It’s been a long, strange trip to Oczy Mlody for The Flaming Lips. With fifteen albums under their belt since 1986, there’s really nothing left to prove. Challenging conventions has been their methodology and they’ve gotten to be very good…
Few artists in the UK can claim to have sold as many albums as David Gray yet his first night at Cadogan Hall in support of a Best Of collection was refreshingly laced with humility and low-key delivery. Gray could…
Returning to pluck audience heartstrings as expertly his fiddle strings is Seth Lakeman, touring with the new set of folk melodies which make up his eighth album, Ballad of the Broken Few. This time around, Lakeman’s support act isn’t just…
Glenn Tilbrook likes company, this much is clear. Chris Difford is his most famous companion, the two being one of the most celebrated British songwriting partnerships – card-carrying members of the New Lennon and McCartney Club. When not writing with…
The last time I saw Lissie play it was a dreary Tuesday night in Dingwalls some three and half years ago. I was pretty disappointed about a pretty dismal gig. This Tuesday night, also in Camden (but KOKO, a much…
Twenty-five years ago Teenage Fanclub played this same Digbeth venue, days before the release of their breakthrough album Bandwagonesque. Granted, their fringes were longer and frames looser-limbed but close your eyes and not much has changed. Grunge, Britpop and lesser…
On the 25th November 2013, London-based record label and gig promoter Communion put on a gig in the basement of the Slaughtered Lamb pub, Clerkenwell. Headlining for the first time was a young man called James Bay. Tonight, three years…
The last time I saw Nathaniel Rateliff it was February the 1st 2014, at the Louisiana. He was touring in support of what would turn out to be his final full length solo release (for now at least) Falling Faster…
I first came across Rachael Yamagata a few years ago, through a Noisetrade sampler. I was into American girls with guitars at the time, so I downloaded. I listened. I deleted. “Vanilla,” I thought – there was nothing there to…
There’s a gentle revolution brewing and Will Varley is at the heart of it. With little more than a guitar and a song he’s changing the game and recreating a vocabulary that was going out of style. Kingsdown Sundown is…