Live Review
Introducing: Bang Bang Romeo
When was the last time you were surprised to hear a genuinely good rock band? One that you couldn’t help but be compellingly drawn towards and impressed by. A band that grabbed your attention regardless of whether you were willing to offer it or not. It’s been years since I encountered a band like that, …
Live: I Set the Sea on Fire. The Leadmill 08/03/2014
It’s Saturday and I’m at The Leadmill, a venue I’ve not been to for at least five years. I’m here to see I Set the Sea on Fire, a hotly tipped five piece from right here in Sheffield. They’ve been making waves recently with a couple of singles, the best of which, “Monsters”, is a …
Live Review: Little Comets at Leadmill, Sheffield 12.02.2014
Marking the midpoint in a 14-date tour, the Little Comets came to Sheffield to show the locals how to party. Catfish and the Bottlemen proved to be a great supporting act, working the crowd until everyone could feel the music in their hearts and in their breath. Wednesday nights are difficult to work with in …
Live: London Grammar, Say Lou Lou & Kyan. O2 Academy Sheffield. 08/02/2014
It’s Saturday night, there’s a relentless squall of rain and me and my girlfriend are stood in an optimistic and good-natured queue that stretches down to High Street. Of course, if that row of shops on Arundel Gate hadn’t provided appropriate shelter, we’d probably all be considerably less good natured, but the majority of the …
Live: Darlia – Leadmill, Sheffield, 24.01.2014
Darlia – Leadmill, Sheffield, 24 January 2014. Thankfully, the highly amusing if somewhat, over enthusiastic member of the audience that had entertained us, whilst distracting support act LSA, had crashed, burned and left the building well before Dick Dale’s Misirlou came over the PA, as we welcomed Darlia to the stage. Right from the …
Live Review: Megan Nicole – Manchester Academy 21.01.2014
Embarking on her European tour, Megan Nicole played her first full headlining show in the UK last night at Manchester academy. Providing a show length of 75 full minutes (which is more than a lot of gigs I’ve seen recently) Megan proved that she was the great musician and performer that her legions of UK …
Live: Secret Cinema presents Laura Marling – Cardinal Pole Lower School, Hackney, London
ON A WEEKEND in which some of her fellow folk revivalists were busy dividing opinion at Worthy Farm, Laura Marling was finishing a run of unique, ‘immersive’ nights in a world far removed from the easy, egalitarian vibes of Glastonbury. Marling, now LA-resident, is ploughing a furrow very much independent of the likes of the …
Tift Merritt and Simone Dinnerstein: Live at the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre
Tonight I’m at the Purcell Room in London to see Tift Merritt and Simone Dinnerstein playing their 2013 album “Night” (plus some additional tracks that we were lucky enough to hear). I don’t know that there’s a duff arts venue in the whole of the Southbank Centre. The BFI quickly became the only place I …
Say Psych: Live – Besnard Lakes, Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 25th May 2013
I have found that every so often in my life I have reached a musical turning point. A moment when I have heard something that has opened a completely new front in terms of what I listen to. I find this exciting because all of a sudden there are a whole raft of new bands …
Live: Ghostpoet / Typesun, Queens Social Club
Ghostpoet arrived in Sheffield last week, on his tour in support of second album ‘Some say I so I say light’, which following on from his debut the 2011 debut ‘Peanut butter blues and melancholy jam’ which earned him some sort of fame as well as a mercury nomination. Certainly a large crowd had gathered …