Don Blandford, Author at Backseat Mafia

Live Review: Dexy’s Midnight Runners – The London Palladium, London 20.09.2023

We need to talk about Kevin. Over the four decades since forming Dexy’s Midnight Runners, frontman Kevin Rowland has always sought to innovate, refresh and radically change the direction of…

View Post

View Post

Live Review: Be Your Own Pet – Moth Club, London 07.06.2023

“Back from the dead!” announces Jemina Pearl as she begins the second consecutive night leading Be Your Own Pet in Hackney. Judging by the ragged band of fans before her…

View Post

View Post

Live Review: Goat – Electric Brixton, London 22.04.2023

Those inscrutable Swedish experimentalists Goat conclude their UK tour with this sold out London headline date celebrating their latest album Oh Death. Brixton is the setting for the latest episode…

View Post

View Post

Live Review: The Oozes – The Underworld, London 20.04.2023

They hate the Tories, they hate the police…but The Oozes LOVE to rock! Railing against injustice and prejudice, they have no time for inequality or the patriarchy. Change is coming…

View Post

View Post

Live Review: We Are Scientists – Le Petit Bain, Paris 26.03.2023

I was very VERY drunk the first time I saw We Are Scientists. At their London gig way back when they were still plugging their 2005 debut album With Love…

View Post

View Post

Live Review: Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra – Le Trabendo, Paris 27.03.2023

An Icelandic-Italian singer backed by a Belgian band in the French capital watched by an Englishman. Gotta love Europe. Emiliana Torrini and The Colorist Orchestra celebrate the release of new…

View Post

View Post

Meet: London Post-Punks Ghum

Usually you’d expect to find second hand sofas, used motors and ‘pre-owned’ furniture but Gumtree is also responsible for creating post-punk London-based band Ghum. The band formed through the social…

View Post

View Post

Live Review: The Wannadies – Islington Assembly Hall, London 03.11.2022

The 1990s felt like the Swedish decade. Scandinavian style social democracy dominated politics whilst bands like The Cardigans and The Wannadies provided the songs for the CDs we so neatly…

View Post

View Post

Live Review: Beth Orton – Koko, London 09.10.2022

Beth Orton made me cry. Her surprising cover of The Ronettes song I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine on her debut Trailer Park is electric with emotion and sad…

View Post

View Post

Live Review: HowTheLightGetsIn Festival – Kenwood House, Hampstead London 01.10.2022 – 02.10.2022

My pace quickens and acorns crunch underfoot. I’ve got the fear. Like the return of a recurring nightmare, I’m late for my lectures, again. October will always herald a new…

View Post

Pages