Fast Forward: The World Cup Goes Indie

Fast Forward: An Indie Music Companion To World Cup 2010 [The Group Stages] Yes folks – now is the time – the time to be excited about the World Cup. Now is the time for hope, before the inevitability of England bowing out (on penalties) in the Quarter Finals, and Brazil narrowly overcoming Spain and […]
It’s the last Bank Holiday weekend of May and the Northern Quarter is buzzing with music around every corner. One wrist band guarantees you an invite to the party, so what are you gonna do expect dive in head first? Alex McCann is one of the four wise promoters we have to thank for this three-day […]

INTERVIEW: HUNGRY PIGEON’S ALEX MCCANN

INTERVIEW: SANDI THOM

Punk rocker or hippy folk singer – Sandi Thom already had a split personality when she launched herself into the public consciousness back in 2006. And it looks to have taken the young Scottish troubadour the intervening four years to find her true voice . . . and the blues. Sandi’s third album, Merchants and […]
As news agencies worldwide eagerly churn out the ‘news’ that Ricky Martin has come out and said that he’s ‘proud to be gay’, I ask myself a few questions. Firstly: ‘is anyone shocked?’ I doubt it. Although it wasn’t exactly an open secret, Barbara Walters quizzed Martin heavily about it in an interview in 2000, […]

Ricky Martin – A Reaction

INTERVIEW: THE JIM JONES REVUE

“Built to take on America” – The Jim Jones Revue   From their weird name to their attention-grabbing sounds, The Jim Jones Revue have been creating a buzz on the gigging circuit since they formed back in 2007.   With textured heavy guitars shot through with honky tonk piano and 50s rock ‘n’ roll, the […]
I’m pretty new to the reviewing game but I’ve been watching gigs for 15 years, and playing them for 10. Along the way I’ve seen shows good, great, mind-numbingly bad and all shades of in-between. However, there are some things that REALLY get my goat as a gig-goer, so I’ve complied them into a list […]

The Seven Deadly Sins Of Music Performance

INTERVIEW: OWEN STRATHERN OF GENERAL FIASCO

Imagine the scenario – you are barely out of your teens and you find yourself in an indie band that is tipped for greatness. Within a year of playing your first gig you are invited onto the line-up at the Leeds and Reading Festival and a few months later make your bow at the BBC […]
New York is in the grip of a snow storm when I catch up with the Editors’ lead guitarist Chris Urbanowicz. The Nottingham-born musician, 29, is full of apologies as our chat is punctuated by directions to the cab driver. “I’m sorry, I’m normally much more professional than this,” he explains. Chris, who is unusually polite […]

INTERVIEW: CHRIS URBANOWICZ OF THE EDITORS

WHAT A DESTRUCTIVE BUNCH WE ARE!

Thanks heavens for the qualities possessed by our country’s intrepid tabloid journalists. Without them, the fact that a football player cheated on his pop star wife might never have been brought to our attention, and I will at this point take a brief pause from typing to cross myself.  There, done. So anyway, that awful, […]
It’s 6:30pm and I’m drifting in and out of reality. I should be doing something, but instead I’m desperately trying to claw back a few hours sleep before I head out into the blistering cold. It’s the NME show tonight, and I just want to let this warm haze envelope me before the freeze fries […]

Bombay Bicycle Club Interview