The View - Live at Marble Factory, Bristol - 17th November
As has been the case for the last 18 years, the crowd need no encouragement to chant ‘The View Are On Fire.’ Indeed, the temptation to play on it in every review the band receive is palpable. It’s almost too easy.
Yet The View’s reaction to the chant borders on indifference or embarrassment. Towards the end of tonight’s set, Kyle Falconer thanks the crowd and states his appreciation, but one can’t help but wonder if it’s something of an albatross for them.
Otherwise it’s business as usual for the Dundonians. Rattling through an 18-song set in just 75 minutes, it’s a high-octane skirt through their career, from the thunderous opening shot of ‘Glass Smash’ to the whimsical ‘Typical Time’, tacked on at the very end, all delivered with a devil-may-care passion.
The band have – rightly or wrongly – acquired a reputation as ramshackle but that’s ill-informed, with a resolute tautness throughout. ‘Sunday’ (their best and most underrated song from 2011’s Bread & Circuses) includes several false endings and a rock out but no displacement.
The gig does feel as if it’s teetering on the edge of chaos, but that’s primarily due to a buoyant crowd. Earlier in the set, ‘Comin’ Down’ segues into ‘Wasted Little DJs’ seamlessly, the latter featuring one of many displays of proficiency from guitarist Pete Reilly, looking fetching in tartan trousers and leather jacket.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/11/the-view-live-marble-bristol/
Interview - Divorce
The current COVID inquiry, while unsurprising in its revelations, recalls that dark period of 2020/21 when our favourite industry very nearly ground to a halt. Tours were cancelled, albums were delayed or scrapped and many artists had to leave music for good.
Yet, for certain acts, it provoked a re-evaluation of their style. Previously operating as Megatrain, Felix Mackenzie-Barrow and Tiger Cohen-Towell took stock during the time afforded to them: “When the pandemic happened, we had a couple of years of nothing, which wasn’t a good time,” says Cohen-Towell when speaking to Clash. “But it was a useful time to be able to sit back and reflect on what we wanted Divorce to be. It was nice to have utilised that as a positive.”
The reflection is paying dividends: their exuberant, sincere indie-rock has resulted in a BBC 6 Music A-listed single (‘Scratch Your Metal’) under their belts and a new EP (Heady Metal, out now) already earning plaudits, Megatrain are not mourned. “Megatrain was the product of the two of us not really having any sort of plan or knowledge of the wider world of music… just trying to chuck stuff out,” says Felix of the project now.
https://www.clashmusic.com/next-wave/next-wave-1148-divorce/
Andy Crofts - Live at the 100 Club
Andy Crofts is quite the polymath.
The lead songwriter and singer for The Moons, Crofts was also a full-time member of Paul Weller’s band until recently, having to step back for personal reasons.
In over a decade working with the musician, he contributed to songwriting while also playing bass (among many other instruments) in the live arena. Crofts is also a noted visual artist, with prints adorning The Libertines’ hotel in Margate, and he’s even released his own photography book. Finally, he runs a record label (Colorama Records) which has released albums by Teenage Waitress and The Lunar Towers.
Yet he would surely agree that music is his day job, and in October of last year he performed a special solo show at the legendary 100 Club on Oxford Street in Central London, which was recorded for posterity. Unlike other live albums, it summons up mental images of the gig itself – whether you know the venue or if you were there – with a claustrophobic, contained sound.
With four studio albums to draw from, The Moons’ back catalogue makes up the majority of the set but the pattern remains consistent: Crofts draws inspiration from the Great English Songwriters such as Ray Davies, Paul McCartney and Weller himself. There is a pastoral, melancholy whimsy throughout.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/11/review-andy-crofts-live-100-club/
Beatowls - Marma
Do not be put off by the band name.
Accidentally topical (with their fellow Liverpudlians atop the singles chart once more), the moniker should be viewed not as puntastic, rather as the group presenting themselves as creatures of the night. Viewed through that prism it fits perfectly; these are songs of the witching hour.
Formed in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, Beatowls (vocalists Darcie Chazen and Tom Roberts, with Carl Cook on music/production duties) shroud themselves in mystery but set out to, ‘explore a delicate balance between longing and pain, the transient nature of time’: ‘It delves into the interplay of light and dark. Of nature and the city.’ If the point wasn’t clear, these are serious – and meticulously crafted – soundscapes.
The instrumental title-track’s crisp synths create a wispy, cinematic opening conveying a feeling of isolation, as many of the tracks do.
Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee - Los Angeles
It sounds like the beginning of a gag, but it’s not.
What do you get when you cross two quasi-goth drummers and one celebrated producer? One of the albums of the year. Not funny, is it? But this project – despite its many strengths – places little import on humour.
Lol Tolhurst, a founding member of The Cure and Budgie, original sticks man for Siouxsie And The Banshees have known each other for over 40 years and a few years ago formed a ‘supergroup’ along with producer Jacknife Lee and also Bauhaus drummer Kevin Haskins, who sadly had to leave for his day job.
Although intriguing as what would have appeared, one suspects that it may have been one drummer too many, so with Tolhurst and Budgie on synths and Lee on guitar and distortions (of which there are many) the project took shape.
As it is, Los Angeles is an immersive, dystopian fever dream of an album. Obviously the percussion is great, but the trio have pooled together their contacts for a fearsome supporting cast of collaborators and singers.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/11/lol-tolhurst-x-budgie-x-jacknife-lee/
Johnny Marr - Spirit Power (The Best Of)
In celebration of his 60th birthday Johnny Marr, generous man he is, is giving his fans the gifts.
Firstly the splendid coffee table book Marr’s Guitars, and last week the announcement of a 2024 tour in support of Spirit Power, his first solo Best Of collection.
Time works differently for Johnny Marr: the very fact that he’s about to enter his seventh decade recalls the awe of just how young he was when he knocked on Stephen Patrick Morrissey’s door all those years ago, a band he then left before he was 25. You’ll know the rest of the potted history by now, but as Marr approached his half-century, he put his hand to something new – a solo career.
It went remarkably well (especially for someone not renowned for singing) and here we are ten years on. Even for Marr the last decade has been a remarkably fertile period of four albums (one a double) and a smattering of stand-alone singles, all of which are collected here.
Sequenced non-chronologically, the evolution is palpable. ‘The Messenger’, the track which announced his solo career, seems comparatively basic now, all distracted synths and robust rhythms. Similarly the comforting, wistful melancholy of ‘New Town Velocity’ and the glam-pop stomp of ‘Upstarts’ didn’t especially break the mould (though both still sound great) but ‘European Me’, despite the jangling arpeggio, had a surprising melody which indicated envelopes were being pushed. Logically, he started from his comfort zone and pushed out.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/11/review-johnny-marr-spirit-power/
Black Grape - Orange Head
Shaun Ryder is making up for lost time, it seems.
Following the a handful of shows in support of this album, Happy Mondays embark on a tour with Inspiral Carpets and Stereo MCs next spring, and he’s recently announced a lengthy jaunt round the country for Q&A shows. Who would have thought he would be the most hardworking of his generation?
For all his other projects however, there is a sense that – if the Mondays are his first love – Black Grape is his most musical wife.
The surprise success of debut album It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah! in 1995 was a real fillip. While there were many chefs in the Happy Mondays kitchen, Black Grape had only two (sorry Bez), his relationship with Paul Leveridge (Kermit) seemingly one of mutual appreciation. Loaded with street smarts and musical talent, the duo make a fearsome musical combination.
As they continue to be, nearly 30 years later. Orange Head (those fruit references just keep coming) is wonkishly and gloriously off-kilter, full of chilling energy and customary brio, but contemporary.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/11/review-black-grape-orange-head/
English Teacher - Live at the Louisiana, Bristol - 27th October 2023
There are so many elements that define the trajectory of a musician’s popularity.
Firstly, obviously, the songs need to be up to scratch, and the circumstances must be right unless you can define them. And of course, there’s a lot of luck involved too.
But charm. Charm goes a long way. It can hide something else, but it’s hard to fake. Lily Fontaine – vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Leeds’ English Teacher – has charm to spare. Whether it’s chatting amiably while signing merchandise after the show or apologising for the sheer volume of new (and therefore unknown) songs performed during it, people listen.
A Bristol audience is always receptive (so we tell ourselves) and Fontaine declares her appreciation for the crowd singing the ‘older’ material. ‘The magic of having someone sing words you’ve written back to you is insane,’ the singer gleefully declares after ‘Song About Love’ which, admittedly, isn’t too tricky to catch up with (the last minute simply a chant of ‘tick-tocking love’) but the preceding hypnotic, single-note groove (think ‘Psycho Killer’) sets the foundations nicely. The song’s ragged magnificence lies in the thumping delivery, with Fontaine’s vocals substituted for shouts as the song reaches its end.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/10/review-english-teacher-louisiana/
Deadletter - Live at Dareshack, Bristol, 25th October 2023
A few weeks ago your reviewer went to see the re-released Stop Making Sense, the 1984 concert film by Jonathan Demme about Talking Heads’ tour the previous year.
Taking place over four nights, the film offers little insight other than capturing the euphoria and sheer force of a band at the top of the game, with a host of musicians working in tandem to create a whirlwind of glorious majesty.
Watching six-piece Deadletter on the first night of their UK tour is a disconcertingly similar experience. Musically the two groups overlap, even if they are separated by nearly half a century: the ragged-yet-watertight dexterity, the synchronisation of the musicians (very obviously on the same page) and the magnetic qualities of the frontman. Equally, both acts combine an eclectic mix of genres to their music.
But while David Byrne and co specialised in funk, art rock and punk, Deadletter – as a requirement of the age in which they live – must have a ‘post’ prefix attached to the latter. And while Byrne often appeared delighted, frontman Zac Lawrence possesses an intensity which belies, sadly, the more serious times of 2023. In short, he’s not much of a smiler.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/10/review-deadletter-live-dareshack/
DJ Shadow - Action Adventure
Released in late 2019, DJ Shadow’s last studio album Our Pathetic Age fell through the gaps caused by the pandemic; with touring plans for summer 2020 shelved the album, like so many others, missed the opportunity to have life breathed into it on the stage.
DJ Shadow (real name Joshua Davis) instead took the time forced upon us to make music for himself again, without the validation supplied by guest vocalists or MCs, setting himself the challenge to, ‘write music that flexed different energies’.
The iconic producer reportedly listened to previously unheard records from his 60,000(!) strong vinyl collection for inspiration while also persistently questioning which chord progressions would be the least predictable when collating songs for what would become his seventh studio album.
With that in mind, compiling any form of coherence is an impressive achievement, yet Davis has done so masterfully. Indeed, Action Adventure arguably suffers from the opposite problem: on first listen, the variations in sound or tempo can be indiscernible. It’s subtler than that, and on repeated listens both the effort and intricacy is clear, with huge variations in scope.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/10/review-dj-shadow-action-adventure/
Vega Rally - This Moment
The Spirit Of Spike Island is a truly independent label that’s building up a head of steam: Afflecks Palace have two splendid albums to their name, Pastel are being name-dropped by the likes of Ride’s Andy Bell and this latest offering promises to consolidate their position.
Vega Rally (real name Simon Hall) is a self-taught bedroom producer from Manchester (but of course) who signed to The Spirit Of Spike Island last year.
With over 100k streams and airplay from BBC Radio 6 Music and Radio X across three singles to date, the future is promising for the young man.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/10/review-vega-rally-this-moment-ep/
The Ties That Bind - Part 2
The 1988-89 season saw one of the tightest-ever battles for the First Division title, with both Arsenal and Liverpool — who happened to be playing each other — in contention on the last day of the season. Owing to its importance, the game was broadcast live on television and finished most dramatically: Arsenal needed to win by two goals to be crowned champions and, with seconds to remain, Michael Thomas scored the Gunners’ second to land them the prize.
With such drama on live TV, it showed how entertaining football could be and, more significantly, how many viewers it could bring in — untapped commercial potential. Within months, conversations between broadcasters and football chairmen about how to exploit this began and the Premier League was born, with BSkyB winning the rights to show 60 live games a season.
The Liverpool-Arsenal match was a key element of the memoir (and later film) Fever Pitch by then-upcoming writer Nick Hornby. The (sort-of) Londoner represented a hitherto low-key football fan; considered, thoughtful but no less passionate and obsessive than the stereotypical supporter. The book was a huge success and for his sophomore effort, Hornby wrote the novel High Fidelity, about an obsessive and sensitive music fan undergoing an existential crisis; a character who was likely closer to home than the author would admit.
Meanwhile, as the Premier League blossomed, music in the UK underwent one of its semi-regular changes and, arguably, the last true youth culture movement exploded circa 1992: Britpop.
The Ties That Bind - Part 1
Paul Weller (the legendary frontman of The Jam, not the former Burnley player) once said that music and football are the post-war British belief systems, superseding traditional religions. An astute observation coming from the not-particularly-football-inclined Modfather – and one that is undeniably true.
But why? On the surface level, the differences between the two are stark: music is a creative process with an untethered gestation and limitless possibilities, while football – or specifically a football match – is both tactical and spontaneous.
As the cliché goes, it only takes a second to score a goal that can affect the mood of players, coaches, and managers and may even determine a club's fate. Musicians' spontaneity, barring those that happen in the studio, is limited to the live arena and therefore cherished by a select few.
Yet the relationship between the two runs deep. Back in the early 1960s, when post-war Britain was taking shape, pop music, as we understand it, was formulating and The Beatles were conquering all before them while the two teams from their hometown of Liverpool were dominating top-flight football.
Interview - Rob Spragg, Alabama 3
Although founding members Rob Spragg and the late Jake Black met a few miles away (at a rave in Peckham, long before it was cool), the influence of one of London’s most multicultural areas goes way back to their debut album (1997’s Exile On Coldharbour Lane), named after one of Brixton’s most infamous streets. Emerging from the South London acid house squat scene of the decade before, Alabama 3’s trademark fusion of techno and soulful rock has long seen them lauded as pioneers.
Spragg still resides in Brixton and, over the course of a detailed conversation with Clash, explains what it is that makes the area so special: “I’ve lived in Brixton for 30 years now. What keeps me in the area is the same thing when I arrived. I left college in Aberystwyth and I moved to North London. I was there for about four years and I decided to move south. At the time I was – shall we say – heavily involved in the wrong kind of substances or whatever. Of all places, I moved to Brixton to sort myself out! I sorted myself out by the general buzz.”
“The Prince Albert (pub) was run by an Irish woman and all the customers were Jamaican. Then there would be a bar on the corner that was mostly Jamaicans…this is where Alabama 3 came from. I was hearing reggae versions of country and western… there was an old fella singing Hank Williams songs! For the development of Alabama 3’s concept, that was really important, to know you could amalgamate that remix or dancehall culture. If it’s a good song, it will change its genre to what you want it to be. So, we came up with country and western techno, like reggae but a bit faster. So basically, I’m ripping off a load of Jamaicans!
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/exile-on-coldharbour-lane-alabama-3-on-their-brixton-bedrock/
The Rolling Stones - Hackney Diamonds
Dear reader, thank you for taking the time to read it, but this review is largely pointless.
For The Rolling Stones are beyond reproach: an unprecedented 60+ year run, as well as lucrative tour after lucrative tour ($170mill made in 2022 alone) means that Mick, Keith and Ronnie are bulletproof, and a hugely important stitch in rock’s fabric. They don’t need the money to keep touring, but they do it because they love it. Chances are, they will outlive you and me, and their legend most definitely will. And quite right too.
But it’s fair to say that there has been indifference to their recorded output for some time, including by the band themselves. Barring 2016’s Blue & Lonesome (an album of covers), the output of new material has been sparse for 18 years, consisting of just 3 singles (2 of which were for a Best Of). Did anyone even notice? Does the world need a new Rolling Stones album in 2023?
Hackney Diamonds may not be needed, but by god the world would be a poorer place without it. It shrewdly extolls the flab that has bedraggled every album since Dirty Work (1986), but its strength lies not only in its sense of purpose, but its familiarity.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/10/review-the-rolling-stones-diamonds/
Gang Of Four - o2 Academy, Bristol - 7th October 2023
Widely lauded as one of the most influential groups of all time, who can list Franz Ferdinand, R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana in their pantheon of fans, Gang Of Four rarely get the credit that their post-punk impact deserves.
Largely unknown, they are perhaps the original ‘muso’ band but the paucity of attendees for tonight’s show sadly reflects their cult status. The venue is by no means empty but an act of such significance should be able to muster a larger crowd, yet it matters little because it’s a joyous show with smiles all round.
Warming up for the Leeds art-rockers is The Miki Berenyi Trio, with the former Lush singer on something of a renaissance in 2023, in part due to her excellent autobiography Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/10/gang-of-four-live-academy-bristol/
Genn - Unum
If it was a point that needed making, Genn gleefully thumb their nose at the concept that ‘multiculturism has failed' as the UK Home Secretary disgracefully declared this week.
Three-quarters of Genn (guitarist Janelle, bassist Leanne, and vocalist Leona) have Maltese routes, while drummer Sofia’s background is Portuguese, Jamaican, and British, with the group adopting Brighton as their new home. Although not essential ingredients for the musically diverse, intoxicating collection of songs that make up Unum, one can assume they influenced this fine debut.
Interview - James Skelly, The Coral
Given their headcount of five and their relentless creativity, it would be reasonable to assume that getting The Coral to dedicate time to a project would be akin to herding cats. Books, albums, artwork…anything can happen on Coral Island (and invariably does) but experience has given the Liverpool act the ability to harness their strengths.
Their latest creative venture comes in the form of two brand-new albums. Picking up where 2021’s sprawling-but-coherent Coral Island left off is Holy Joe’s Coral Island Medicine Show, which acts as a bridge to the more traditional Sea Of Mirrors.
“‘Holy Joe…’ is the low-budget sequel and then we used most of the budget for Sea Of Mirrors!” explains frontman James Skelly over Zoom. “We had the ‘Holy Joe’ idea floating around and I think we’re going to go in and out of the Coral Island world over the years. It’s our world.”
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/its-our-world-the-coral-interviewed/
The Coral - Sea Of Mirrors/Holy Joe’s Coral Island Medicine Show
Oh, to live on Coral Island.
Or, more specifically, how satisfying it must be to be in one of Britain’s most innovative, creative, and distinct bands. Following 2021’s Coral Island, a (double!) concept album – which just so happened to be one of the most critically acclaimed of their two-decade plus career - with two further concept albums, in today’s 30-second society, belies the confidence of only the truly liberated.
But James Skelly and co are no fools either and indeed, are having their cake and eating it. While Sea Of Mirrors is undergoing a bells and whistles campaign, Holy Joe’s Coral Island Medicine Show (to give it its full moniker) will only be released physically. Once it’s gone, it’s gone, etc. It’s also the obvious sequel to the last record, interspersed once again with running commentary from The Great Muriarty (Grandad Skelly) as DJ across a sequence of murder ballads. At only 30 minutes it’s a slight thing, albeit consisting of 17 tracks.
https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/the-coral-sea-of-mirrors-holy-joes-coral-island-medicine-show/
Public Image Limited - o2 Academy, Bristol - 28th September
It’s not revelatory to say that John Lydon is a complicated fellow. His long and storied history notwithstanding, in the last decade he has declared support for both Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and advocated for both Leave and Remain in the ‘Brexit Years’. For most, if not all, those opinions are at odds, but Lydon is able to wholly justify them to himself, if not to anyone else.
So it goes: midway through tonight’s show Lydon is barracked by an audience member which clearly infuriates him, roaring back in response: ‘Rundown lavatory of a country and you dare challenge me. You’re the cunts that ruined Britain…but I like you.’ He may be contradictory, but he is at least true to himself. His schtick is no act.
If it is, it must be exhausting. As he and the rest of Public Image Ltd, the original post-punks, walk (or, in Lydon’s case, lurch) on to the stage, clad in an oversized pinstripe jacket and tie, he takes to the mic: ‘I have one request for you this evening. Put your cell phone up your arsehole. When that light gets in my eyes, that’s when the music stops.’ Impressively, the crowd (mainly made up of greying/balding heads, barring some smatterings of youth) generally acquiesce to his demand.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2023/10/public-image-ltd-live-o2-bristol/