Year 2013 saw David Bowie and Daft Punk creating a buzz with their new albums, making the world sit up and listen. In 2014, things all seem a bit more low key – well, maybe apart from Pink Floyd’s The Endless River. It’s been more a case of having to go and seek out for yourself what’s around. There’s a…
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Alabama 3 had plenty to celebrate last Saturday night. The band were scheduled to play the final gig of their 2014 tour back on their home turf in Brixton, at the Electric. Then, for those of hardy constitution, there’s the after party at Brixton Jamm. For some reason, Alabama 3 have always stayed slightly under the radar. Not…
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There’s nothing Gourmet Gigs likes more than a combination of music accompanied by interesting culinary or alcoholic refreshment. Last Tuesday offered such an occasion, with the added mystery of a location in the heart of an industrial estate in Walthamstow. Just to rewind: The End festival in Crouch End two weeks previously had featured a band called Firestations, who caught the…
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Oslo, the new(ish) restaurant, bar and music venue is one of the latest new destinations after the avalanche of closures of grimy, characterful music venues in north, west and central London over the past few years. (Actually, make that countrywide, with Liverpool currently undergoing selfsame problems). So it’s been heartening to see a new wave of well-thought out, spruced up venues…
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If David Bowie was to tour again, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t play The Man Who Sold the World even though he reintroduced that title track on later tours. There would be a choice of tracks from The Next Day (of which I’m a huge fan), one or two nods to the past… and the rest would be the next, much…
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Dolly Parton had offered to rescue a dog found at Glastonbury, discovered cowering in a tent by the cleaner-uppers. The lurcher was too old to travel so would not have been able to be rehomed in the States – but the owners have now come forward to reclaim the poor creature. I am a bit mystified by…
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There’s so much going on over the summer at the South Bank ‑or Southbank Centre, as it’s now renamed. On this night alone there’s raw, dirty blues from The Amazing Snakeheads and a comeback set from Edwyn Collins. I’m off to see Trentemøller. The last time I saw the Danish electro multi instrumentalist was at 2am in…
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Phildel has just won Pop/Top 40 category for Moonsea in the International Songwriting Competition where she was up against over 20,000 entries. A fantastic result from a multi-talented and extremely hardworking performer. This prestigious songrwriting competition was judged this year by such luminaries as John Mayall, Black Francis (The Pixies), Robert Smith (The Cure), Tom Waits and Imagine Dragons.This is…
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St James’s Church, Piccadilly, it’s a beautiful jewel of a church designed by Christopher Wren, and like several London churches, moonlights as a music venue. Nothing of the Metallica variety, obviously. We are here to see Kurt Vile do a solo set which is more in keeping. Despite its beauty, the church’s viewing experience is only just adequate;…
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There are several funding sites out there operating in slightly different ways, but they all have the same objective; offering fans an attractive way to contribute towards a chosen artist’s creative process. This gets you, the fan, closer to the band. And it gives the musicians a chance to exercise their PR and marketing skills by dreaming up…
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