Track: The Indieannas – Flying High
I’ve been to Buxton quite a few times. It’s one of those places that, once you’re there, is beautiful with loads of history. Its Built on the River Wye, and overlooked by Axe Edge Moor, but it’s probably most famous as a spa town due to its geothermal spring, which apparently rises at a constant …
Track: Pyyramids – Do you think you’re enough
It’s not long since we wrote about the Pyyramids (in fact it’s here) but two things have become apparent since I did. a) they are brilliant, and b) they have released a new track to the public in support of their forthcoming debut album ‘Brightest Darkest Day’, which is released in the UK on the 15th April. It …
Discover – Vuvuvultures – Stay Still
I was in hospital this one time, I suppose I would have been about eight at the time, when I was told to stay still. Being in hospital was nothing new – me and my brother had bad asthma and we spent at least a couple of weeks incarcerated every winter. In some ways I …
Track: Steel Trees – Attack of the Stoner Zombie Killer Kids (plus Tour news)
Picture the scene, the Mafia family boxing day celebrations and the brethren gathered from the four corners of the earth (well, Sheffield and London). Various offspring running riot, off their heads on chocolate. All adult males asleep in armchairs with jauntily angled paper hats on. And me, fearlessly tackling my second bottle of red. It’s …
Meet: Elephant interview
I took my children to Chester Zoo once, and we spent the day looking at the animals. Some we didn’t spend long with – Camels, Zebra’s, even Seals. But Elephants, now there was something different. We watched those incredible beasts for ages, in fact I had to drag them away. There’s something mesmerizing about these …
Track: Dark Horses – Traps/Boxing Day
Benjamin Disraeli was an author, letter-writer, thinker and probably most importantly, Prime Minister. Twice. Back in a time when these sort of jobs only went to the very richest and most privileged members of society (err, hang on a minute…..) during the 19th century,Disraeli was indeed one of that ruling class, but he was also considered …
Preview: Detestival (curated by The Wet Nuns)
For me it wasThe Elephants. It was somewhere in Denmark, and they were Danish. They were (outrageously) below the bill than the band I was in, and so I wandered out to watch them, and was instantly blown away. On my return, the first things I did was buy their album, bang onto everyone I …
EP: The Planes – On Demand
If I made a list of things I knew about the coastal town of Portsmouth, it would be pretty short. That fat bloke with loads of tattoos who rings his bell at Portsmouth football club, the A3, a port……Roger Hodgson of Supertramp was born there (actually I looked that last one up on Wikipedia- i’d run …
Feature: Acid House, 25 (or so) years on, plus playlist
It’s difficult to imagine now. Not since Punk exploded a decade before had there been such an outcry, such a controversy in popular music. Like Punk, it was vilified in the press, accused of dragging ordinary teens into drug culture, and the inevitable casualties of the scene were accentuated for shock effect on front pages …
Past lives: John Lennon assassinated – December 8th, 1980
Its December 8th today, and exactly 32 years ago to the day Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon in the back four times, on the steps of his apartment building, The Dakota in New York. Doctors said no-one could have lived for more than a few minutes with the scale of injuries Lennon sustained, and …