Category Archives: Uncategorized

Taking more Hits to the Head with Franz Ferdinand – the Bob Hardy interview

With more than 10 million albums sold, 1.2 billion streams, 14 platinum albums, Brit, Ivor Novello and Mercury Prize award wins, Grammy nominations and six million tickets sold for live shows worldwide, it’s fair to say it’s been a busy … Continue reading

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Dig your way back out with The Undertones – in conversation with Mickey Bradley

As The Undertones gear up for a run of rescheduled UK live dates this month and next, 46 years after their first shows and 22 years after reconvening with a new singer, I felt it was high time I had … Continue reading

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Altered Images / Scarlet – Manchester Academy 3

Four decades after Clare Grogan first came into my life, marking my 14th birthday with a personal greeting from north of the border (that week the first of the four their biggest hit spent in the UK top 10, with … Continue reading

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Altered Images: songs sung blue, pink and with added Mascara Streakz – the Clare Grogan feature/interview

Early ‘80s new wave pioneers Altered Images are back, a number of headline shows about to commence, with a new album, Mascara Streakz, landing this summer. Formed in 1979 as teenagers inspired by the punk scene, this Glaswegian outfit – … Continue reading

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All hail the Lakeland echo sounders – talking Sea Power with Noble

I often wonder when talking to musicians deemed to have ‘made it’ how much of a part fate played in their success. There’s more often than not plenty of toil and heartache en route before that perceived rise to a … Continue reading

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Up on the roof – scaling the heights with Brick Briscoe and the Skinny

When US singer-songwriter, filmmaker, TV and radio producer Brick Briscoe played a rooftop launch show for his latest LP in Indiana with his band last autumn, surely no one could have expected such a dramatic finale. His shows tend to … Continue reading

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The Members / Blow-Up – Preston, The Continental, Friday 4th February 2022

Two nights out in a row? What is this, 2019 or something? Well, daily figures suggest we’re far from over this damned virus, whatever those trying to save their political careers might try to spin. But there are positive signs … Continue reading

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Suggs: What a King Cnut, A Life in the Realm of Madness – Warrington, Parr Hall, Thursday February 3rd, 2022

‘It read, ‘’We missed you,” Between the lines, it said, “We’ve waited for so long, But now it’s time to keep moving along.” We were that close to missing the start of Graham ‘Suggs’ McPherson’s Warrington show, but to quote … Continue reading

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Small World, but you wouldn’t want to paint it – entering the sonic sphere of Metronomy with Joe Mount

It’s sign of the times that barely a fortnight after Metronomy shared feelgood second single, ‘Things Will Be Fine’, from their forthcoming seventh album, sole ever-present member Joe Mount  – newly returned from Paris – had been forced to temporarily … Continue reading

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Looking beyond Yesterday – in conversation with Dana Gavanski

When talented singer-songwriter but self-confessed introvert Dana Gavanski lost her voice at a key stage of her fledgling career, it was a wonder that self-doubt didn’t conspire to sink her rise to indie fame.But like the Croatian sea organ heard … Continue reading

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