Category Archives: Music

Sounds from the Other City – Salford St Philip’s Church

As someone who associates the festival circuit with camping fields, lush greenery, damp tents and mud-caked marquees, I struggled to get my head around Greater Manchester’s latest sell-out ‘celebration of new music, performance and art’. But on the evidence of … Continue reading

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Behold the Stone Foundation – the Neil Sheasby interview

US broadcaster David Brinkley is quoted as saying, ‘A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her’. And Neil Sheasby knows a fair bit about all that. For … Continue reading

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Spirit of ’77 – All Around the World with Russell Hastings and From The Jam

It was a cheap shot, but when I called Russell Hastings back seven hours after rescheduling our initial 10am date due to a dodgy signal, I couldn’t help but ask him, ‘So, Just Who is the Five o’clock Hero?’ “Ha! I … Continue reading

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Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker – Preston, The Continental

“The fun’s over. Strap yourself in, it’s gonna be a miserable ride”. After upbeat sets from opening acts Tom Hyatt and Sweeney Astray, Josienne Clarke suggested a change of mood was on the cards at this happening River Ribble watering … Continue reading

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Valley high – back in touch with Public Service Broadcasting’s J. Willgoose Esq.

Commercial success doesn’t seem to have changed the pseudonymous J.Wilgoose Esq. Unless of course his excuse of not picking up his phone straight away as he was ‘carrying a cup of tea into the studio’ is shorthand for some rock’n’roll … Continue reading

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Boo Hewerdine / The Huers – Wigan Parish Church

I’ve encountered some impressive live music settings over the years, and All Saints’ Church, Wigan, must be up there with the best, however unlikely a venue. It was clearly an odd call for Boo Hewerdine too, this Cambridgeshire-based singer-songwriter up … Continue reading

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Banishing with love – in praise of Laura Marling’s Semper Femina

If expectation carries a weight, it doesn’t seem to concern Laura Marling, six LPs into a somewhat understated yet still stellar career, this super-talented artiste gracefully rising above genre labels amid major music press analysis and hyperbole. I tried to … Continue reading

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Lloyd Cole – Preston Guild Hall

We were two songs in on Monday night before our special guest deigned to talk to us, fixing us with something of a 1,000-yard stare while sussing out his audience before announcing, ‘You’re not getting any younger either’. It was … Continue reading

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The continuing adventures of the Magic Band, the Mothers of Invention, and the Muffin Men – the Denny Walley interview

Do you know the Muffin Men (‘the Muffin Men?’ I hear you ask. Yes, the Muffin Men), presumably based in Liverpool’s Drury Lane or Mulberry Place? Chances are that you might. They’ve been doing the rounds for more than a … Continue reading

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Life beyond The Waves – the Katrina Leskanich interview

When Katrina Leskanich told me down the telephone line, ‘The sun is shining, finally’ in London, I took it with a pinch of salt, not least as earlier that day I revisited a grainy mid-‘80s promo video in which she … Continue reading

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