Being a devoted Eels fan can be pretty hard on the heart. The bitter, lonesome, near-despairing End Times was the eighth album in Mark Oliver Everett’s discography, and bore witness to the tearing of sinew and bone that comes at…
FFS New Bands Panel: The Paper Shades
There is nothing complicated about the Paper Shades, a duo in which both Sarah Dollar and Jon Rixon sing and play guitar, but from this simple formula, our panel found some great results. Shaun McCoy: The Paper Shades have created…
Quick! Help us name our Christmas album
FFS is producing a Christmas album for Charity. More details will be announced very soon, but right now we’re stuck on a name. And we need one to tell our supertalented designer so he can set about making the coverart.…
Interview: Bellowhead
As an 11-piece outfit, you’d be forgiven for thinking Bellowhead were a travelling orchestra rather than a folk band. Currently touring their third studio album, Hedonism, they took a break to talk numbers, Abbey Road, awards and residencies with FFS.…
FFS New Bands Panel: Francis Neve
Essex singer-songwriter Francis Neve uses a huge array of different sounds on his debut mini-album, The Second Time We First Met. Folk is but one of them, but it was enough of an excuse for the panel to take a…
Live: The Mariner’s Children & Tristram @ The Cellar, Oxford
“Hi there, big empty room,” announces Benedict Rubenstein, lead singer and guitarist (and banjo and mandolin player) of The Mariner’s Children, as the seven-strong group carefully position themselves on The Cellar’s relatively small stage. Indeed, the previous three bands of…