Alabama 3 acoustic at the Jazz Cafe

Like most height-chal­lenged peo­ple (5ft), I’ve always found stand­ing-only gigs a bit hit and miss. So the news that one of my favourite bands, the mighty Alaba­ma 3 are to do an Alaba­ma 3 acoustic, com­plete with rather ele­gant sound­ing three-course din­ner, is music to my ears. And so to the Jazz Cafe in Cam­den. Down­stairs is…

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Review: Towersey Village Festival 2012

This is a fan­tas­tic small fes­ti­val. In 2011 it fea­tured the Cor­nish folk band 3 Daft Mon­keys, and the haunt­ing­ly beau­ti­ful Salt­fish Forty. Here is a review of Tow­ersey Vil­lage Fes­ti­val 2012 by guest blog­ger Tes­sa Gordziejko. Tow­ersey Vil­lage Fes­ti­val in Oxford­shire – now in its 48th year- has some­thing spe­cial that brings peo­ple back year after year. I’ve been…

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Green Man 2012

Into this post-Olympic, rain-drenched mid sum­mer, the tenth Green Man fes­ti­val burst into life. Nes­tled in the Black Moun­tains of mid Wales, Green Man’s are­na on Fri­day is a won­der to behold; still at this point a green and pleas­ant land with its beau­ti­ful­ly posi­tioned main Moun­tain Stage – a nat­ur­al amphithe­atre, with a con­ve­nient steep…

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Paloma Faith, love and cellulite

Tues­day night was almost rain free – that’s say­ing some­thing for this washout of an Eng­lish sum­mer which has so far plunged fes­ti­vals and out­door events into a mael­strom of mud and near bank­rupt­cy. So it was a pleas­ant expe­ri­ence to sit on dry paving stones in the court­yard of Som­er­set House, drink­ing a ubiquitous…

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A new rising star called Nova Festival

    It was a long await­ed moment, but here it is, Big Chill founder Kat­ri­na Larkin with co-pro­­duc­er Vic­to­ria Burns new fes­ti­val for 2012, called Nova. Big Chill com­bined a per­fect blend of ele­ments, planned with a metic­u­lous atten­tion to detail that made the fes­ti­val such a plea­sure. Every­thing worked – the intel­li­gent mix…

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Paradise Gardens festival at London Pleasure Gardens

Well this fes­ti­val sounds promis­ing! One of my favourite bands, the mighty Alaba­ma 3 are play­ing at Par­adise Gar­dens, a free Lon­don week­end fam­i­ly fes­ti­val with lots of enter­tain­ment for all ages. Up till this year, Par­adise Gar­dens Fes­ti­val has tak­en place at leafy Vic­to­ria Park in East Lon­don. This year, the fes­ti­val is the…

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Folk fusion at the Boogaloo with Breton Girl

Took advan­tage of a rare balmy evening this sum­mer in Lon­don to mosey down to the Booga­loo near High­gate for an evening of musi­cal fusion in a rather dif­fer­ent style. Tonight’s list­ing reads: ‘Bre­ton Girl, whose roman­tic style is drawn from Celtic, Medieval and Indi­an music’. The Bre­ton Girl in ques­tion is singer-song­writer Wendy Lewis, elfin, barefoot,…

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Craig Finn, purveyor of tasty music and beer

I try to nev­er miss see­ing the sup­port. Even if I check them out on YouTube and they don’t grab me, you just nev­er real­ly know. I would have paid to see The Hold Steady back in the day but here’s Craig Finn, at The Mac­beth, Hox­ton, sup­port for The Felice Broth­ers. We start­ed with…

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Review: Field Day, Victoria Park 2012

  I’ve been to a num­ber of Wire­less and assort­ed day fes­ti­vals in Hyde Park but gen­er­al­ly not been won over. Pre­fer to wan­der around the are­na know­ing my tent, a cup of tea and a snooze on a musty sleep­ing bag are only a stroll away. But Field Day in east Lon­don’s Vic­to­ria Park was…

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Mazzy Star ate my ears

The elu­sive Mazzy Star have a new album release mid 2012, so the band are now out on the road, yay! The band played at Field Day fes­ti­val, at the same time as head­lin­ers Franz Fer­di­nand on the Eat Your Own Ears main stage. Mazzy played at the Vil­lage Men­tal­i­ty tent, and the await­ing crowd…

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