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New Town Kings Celebrating a mates’ birthday we went to see New Town Kings at the River Lodge in Colchester. Having seen the band at the Arts Centre in 2008 I knew they were highly accomplished and, a year on, I swore that I was there simply to enjoy myself. Of course mid-way through the opening track, witnessing the immediate and enormous reaction from a maniacal army of fans, I was determined to cover the gig. On a quest for a professional picture I pursued photographer Jonathan Doyle into a seriously raucous mosh-pit from where we enjoyed ‘The Kings’. Many music fans I know seem unsure about Ska or Ska/Reggae. It is often met with a level of snobbery. Live, I have always found it enthralling and rather carnivalesque and this band, winners of the 2007 O’Neill’s Undiscovered Live grand final held at Islington Academy, affirm that for me. After securing a distribution deal with Do The Dog Records their self financed album Sound Of The Newtown affords the massive nine piece plenty of original material as well as some tastily executed covers from the Ska, Punk and Two Tone era. Slick brass sections and funky bass did battle with slicing guitar and all was capped by the superb vocals of singer Chris. A cantankerous little pit-dweller came elbowing and nudging; the image of his thunderous face turned to hysterical laughter as we picked him up and passed him along the crowd for a surf, warms me still. Words > Ben Wood |
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Peter Doherty On the eve of the release of his first solo record, and his birthday, Pete Doherty is playing solo to a semi sold out show at the Norwich UEA. After two docile sets from support bands, The Thirst and Dot Allison, the crowd erupted from their once quiet state into a football chant cry of “Pete, Pete, Pete” until the man/the legend/the addict took the stage. After opening with a new track off his forthcoming record he quickly whips out The Libertines’ classic ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’, prompting the crowd to turn in to a riot of chorus singing, with plastic beer cups being propelled into the air. He carries on through a set full of classic Libs favourites like ‘Don’t Look Back’ and ‘what Katie did’, alongside tracks off his current solo offering, Grace/Wastelands. After such a long career of controversy and intense live shows, an acoustic show on such a large scale is an incredibly refreshing change. While not having the same effect that he would have had in his previous bands, the set still held its own. The fans injected the intimate space with the atmosphere of a full band show, and Pete projected the unforgiving energy of The Libertines in their glory days and the punkier edge of the Babyshambles. Typically he stayed on stage for an hour and a half longer than allowed, downing a bottle of Spiced Gold rum from the start of the chaotic set, but the fans were still left screaming for more. Words > Matthew 'Dungeon' Bunkell |
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Wild Beasts
Support tonight begins with Midlands lads and In An Emergency Dial favourites Science vs Romance who play a tight yet fairly average Indie-emo set. The one-man-treasure-chest-of-sounds that is Napoleon IIIrd then multiplies the amount of bodies in the hall, wowing them with everything from his deep voice to the tape reels and synths he uses as key instruments in his set. Headliners tonight, Wild Beasts come from Leeds yet sound like they could have lumbered straight out of Nashville’s roughest bars with a new Indie Blues twist for the modern Kings Of Leon loving listeners. The gruff vocals of the rolled up shirt wearing shared front men mean they could easily be mistaken for Followill family members as they combine rhythm and blues stripped guitars with gentler keyboards in their complex intertwining instrumentation.
Highlight of the set is Steve Lamacq favourite, ‘Brave Bulging Bouyant’, which picks the crowd up with its jerking wood-block rhythm and catchy vocal melody. Wild Beasts precise set is polished furthermore by their clear enjoyment for what they’re doing; the bassist winds his feet across the stage floor whilst falsetto notes are stretched with passion. The impact of this grabs the audiences, creating their emotions; ‘His Grinning Skull’ rolls out a sense of melancholy and intrigue, the repetition of “heave ho” sways the entire venue. With a national tour, festival dates including several suitably at SXSW, and fans from the likes of BBC 6 music and the NME, it seems that, despite it being two years since they were “tipped for the top” by the music press, interest in the band is growing. With more killer tracks such as those found on their debut album, ‘Limbo, Panto’, we can expect to see Wild Beasts filling out bigger venues soon.
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Ipso Facto
In the heart of Liverpool city centre, East London doom-pop four-piece Ipso Facto are ready to take to the petite confines of the Korova. Having recently toured with legendary post-punk band Magazine on their reunion tour, tonight Ipso Facto are destined to prove they are worthy of the top spot. Ipso Facto take to the stage, with their sleek bobs and all black outfits the girls look like they have just stepped off an Yves Saint Laurent catwalk. The band’s persona throughout the set reflects their sound; slightly gothic and moody but without the pretension. Rosalie Cunningham has a truly captivating stage presence, with her haunting voice and sultry charcoaled eyes piercing the crowd. Bassist Samantha Valentine spends a lot of the set casually leaned up against the wall, making the performance look effortless. After beginning the set with new song ‘Hunt’, which featured an amazing drum break by Smith, ‘You don’t owe me’ a cover song originally by Lesley Gore showed a softer side to Cunningham’s voice and contrasted well with the other tracks, proving Ipso Facto aren’t one trick ponies. The gig had a very relaxed and intimate feel to it, with no arena show lighting and barriers it was all about the talent of the band and the quality of the songs. After playing the Reading Introducing stage last year, hopefully Ipso Facto will be returning to the festival this year but to a larger and very well deserved crowd. Words > Louisa Shanks |
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Patrick Wolf
Patrick Wolf sweeps onto the stage dressed like an anaemic vampire in black cape and peroxide mop, to pulsing strobe lighting and massive screams. Bangra-tinged folk tale Barghest opens the set, which moves swiftly into Battle, a Rammstein-esque death metal number from forthcoming album, The Bachelor. Wolf then whips off his cape to reveal a porcupine-spiked suede jacket; his theatrically eccentric costumes would undermine and upstage a lesser performer, but he radiates mystical, other-worldly charisma to such an extent that he would somehow look more out of place in converses and skinny jeans. Wolf demonstrates his multi-instrumental talents by accompanying the next songs on an accordion; he opts not to play violin at this gig, but the session strings are constantly present, weaving in and out of heavily synthetic backing tracks to create Wolf’s trademark bewitching musical style. The highlight of the night comes from an energetic performance of Tristan, followed by The Magic Position, a sparkly, beautiful pop song to make you live, learn and love in the major key. “I’ll be doing this in two years, but I’ll get better” he shouts before exiting the stage. It’s hard to imagine how he can improve on tonight, but without a doubt, he deserves to be performing this beautiful, invigorating music for many years to come. Words > Anna Dobbie |
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Bangers & Mash Present: Akira
The cobbled floor vibrated with a pre-gig energy and, coupled with the two hanging jellyfish optics, provided a touch of electricity to the main room at Proud Galleries, Camden. I waited, and drank in anticipation, for Akira; the musical beast with three heads. The band; Gbenga, Sarah and Joel took to the stage and what ensued was huge, cutting, upbeat, cross-breed pop. They create a driving, euphoric sound, which you sense does not take itself seriously yet is worthy of the attributed respect. For a three piece their music is a broad, enthralling, panoramic assault complete with devastating drums, authoritative, crunching bass fused to gliding synth and warm, melody-conscious guitar. It’s jovial and a touch funky in an epic fashion and is delivered with a playful jab set to an intense tempo. All members provide vocals and switch instrumental duties. With each of these shifts in musical assignment, the different playing styles of each of Akira gave the illusion of a different band playing each track. The bands songs and music evolve with their group dynamic. It is, perhaps, to this variety that Akira owe their full, well rounded sound and live performance. Their set was engaging and was over before I had even had a chance to categorize this strange species, to pinpoint and get my head around the bright organism whose makeup was constantly changing as the audience looked on. Mystery Jets were supposed to be playing a DJ set later that evening though, after Akira, I left satisfied. Words > Ben Wood |
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Micachu & The Shapes
The metal thrashes out of the speakers rattling the racks of CDs in Rough Trade East. This is not Micachu & The Shapes of course, but the mix tape playing in the store. This strange musical onslaught juxtaposes oddly with the small but growing crowd; a sip at a strong cocktail of multi-coloured scarves, woolen bags and hatred. The band man their stations. Their music is disheveled, fidgety and raucous. Micachu cradles her guitar high and, with a pained expression, sweeps pick and chops her way furiously into the opening track, attacking the strings to fire up feedback. Her cheap looking classical is modified with a duct tape pre-amp arrangement. The signal is bright and cutting, like a kalashnikov going off. The drummer is accomplished throwing in the odd interesting change in time signature and heavy bass lines resonate in the stomach. There is a robust quality to this band and their music, coupled with innocence as they suffer a few false starts apologetically restarting the number. ‘Curly Teeth’ boasts a poppy lead line and crooning vocals. ‘Vulture’ is an intriguingly dark track and ‘Guts’ appears an almost Dylan-esque ballad. Their finale involves a vacuum cleaner, sweeping, raspy vocal effects and completes this short showcase of their new album, Jewellery (out now, Rough Trade Records). It is a din that Micachu & The Shapes make; a chaotic, warped, high frequency demonstration of youthful, raw music. Their sound is a touch out of key and, at times, seems course, though the delivery is clinical and stark. Words > Ben Wood |
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Hollies
Sitting back in my chair, I purveyed my surroundings. To the left of me, to the right of me, front and back, I’m surrounded by people who could easily be my grandparents. The setting was very calm while the lights were down. This was going to be a no thrills event but a nostalgic tour of memory lane. The Hollies have come to town, and after the death of singer Carl Wayne, Peter Howarth has stepped in to fill his place as front man to the legendry 60’s band. Having thrown away their psychedelic appearance - no more brightly colour shirts for these guys - The Hollies stride out on to the stage, dressed in dapper suits and the lights swing up to reveal them. They start their set with the classic ‘Here I Go Again’, Howarth croons over the top of the sugary sweet pop tune while charming the whole crowd with his movements and in-between song banter, talking about good times gone past. The first few songs automatically get crowd participation in to full swing, in a mass of handclaps and singing-a-long. They mix up all their songs from different eras of the band’s back catalogue. Tony Hicks then grabs his lush electric sitar for an enchanting sitar interlude as the spotlights flood him in white light. No one knows quite what to expect next until the first riff of ‘The Baby’ kicks in. Having, now, no original members you would have thought that this would have hindered their performance, but no, not at all. The group power through the set including an acoustic cover of ‘Sandy’ by Springsteen in which Howarth takes the helm completely, occasionally backed by the string synths. The group also whip out their cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowing in the Wind’, amending the song to fit their own British 60’s style of pop rock. They round of their set with three classics, including ‘He Ain’t Heavy’. While not being old enough to appreciate The Hollies when they were charming audience’s decades ago, this show has shown how sometimes the older groups just do it better. The seated setting made the event feel a bit slow and airy but the performance was spot on to everything you could hope for. Words > Matthew 'Dungeon' Bunkell |
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Young Knives Having dropped their 'The' in favour of a shorter, sharper pseudonym, the young knaves are gracing Colchester with their shouty, crowd- pleasing indie-pop. Opening the set with recent single and odds-on 2009 festival anthem Terra Firma, they chant nonsensically about a 'Fake Rabbit Real Snake', before moving swiftly into The Decision, in which perma-blinking Henry Darnell and Jim Broadbent-alike House of Lords, share lead vocals and bah-ba-dahs over prominent percussion. They drop in a few new tracks from the forthcoming album, including a jumpy pogo in six-eight time, some screechy guitars and an Oh My God inspired number that amazingly causes a testosterone-fuelled mini mosh pit; isn't it ironic that plump, preppy men in tweed suits and paisley ties seem so adept at making music to unite the louty topman-cardigan-and-trilby masses? Reproduction sees the stage tech attempt to play bongos with drum sticks while discordant guitars jangle and House of Lords attacks a glockenspiel. ‘Up All Night’ cranks up the punk a notch with Mr Of Lords testing out some cringey dad-rock dance moves, and there is a definite sense that, given the right exposure, the Young Knives have the potential to be a much bigger name to the record-buying public. Rounding off the gig is haunting ‘Current of the River’, which sinisterly creeps along on the audience's handclaps to a massive, crashing chorus. The band exit stage right but the lights stay down, and everyone in the audience anticipates the inevitable encore. ‘Weekends and Bleak Days’ (Hot Summer)'s awesomely tricky live intro induces frenetic dance spasms and ‘She's Attracted To’ brings us to a satisfying sing-along climax. Words > Anna Dobbie |
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Delta Spirit If Delta Spirit are worn out, man do they hide it well! They have been in the UK about a week and have endured such places as Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds and still have jetlag. Now, if I had been thrown into those places without having had prior warning, I would have turned to drink – maybe they have – I’m not here to judge…OK, I am here to judge but only on how well they can rock the ICA on a Thursday night…in an indie – shoegazing, too cool for school kinda way. I wasn’t sure what to expect – though some of the record is a little rowdy, there is also a delicacy, which made me unsure how it would transpose live. But you know what? I needn’t have worried, the band, led by an impish whirling dervish Matthew Vasquez are in full on ‘let’s bring the roof crashing in’ mood – rocking up the comparatively laid back (at least on record) Strange Vine before ploughing straight into the immense People C’mon, battering the up for it audience into a sweaty, complicit submission over the course of nearly an hour taking in many of the songs from the album including a blistering Dylan like Children, a highlight, along with the crowd favourite Trashcan; which multi instrumentalist Kelly Winrich takes centre stage playing the – er – Trashcan. Say what you see… They have been touring non stop since the records release last year in the USA and if they are jaded and tired of playing the same set for so long they don’t let on. This is a definite strength, they have had the time to get a tight set meticulously rehearsed, having supported Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Cold War Kids. Singer Vasquez goes flat out to entertain, singing his voice hoarse; going far beyond the realms of what is expected of an indie band. In fact, the whole band are on fire; even bass player Jon Jameson stomps and spins as if his shoes are on fire, this is just not on! Bass players are not allowed to have personalities and frankly it’s confusing. Still, it’s good to be confused once in a while so we’ll go along with it. Live, they turn everything up to eleven and are right to do so. They give the audience exactly what they want and then some. They are here to make a mark and impress, and impress they do. Even when they throw in a couple of new songs back to back, the crowd embrace and cheer rather than saunter off to the bar and that’s possibly the biggest compliment I could pay. It is testament to the magnetic charm and prowess the band have over their audience and believe me, judged on tonight’s showing, Delta Spirit will be massive. Ode to Sunshine is out now on Rounder Records Words & Photos > Stuart Hogben |
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