It’s The War on Drugs’ second and final performance at 02 Academy Brixton. The venue is freezing cold and audience members are swathed in coats and gloves. After an impressive set by New York trio Amen Dunes, The War on Drugs take their place on the stage, Adam Granduciel’s personal front-of-stage territory delineated by a Turkish rug. Under the Pressure from Lost…
Read More
With each album and with each collaboration, Mark Lanegan’s star ascends another notch into the firmament. He’s a man with an impeccable rock backstory, American bad boy incarnate, equally at home as a character from Butcher’s Crossing to Twin Peaks; his is a world seen from the wrong side of the tracks. His voice is raspy, capable of wistfulness…
Read More
The Trades has been buzzing all weekend with one sell-out gig after another and by now the Heavenly merchandise table is looking fairly depleted, but fortunately the beers are still flowing.
Read More
REPOSTING FROM 2015! Heavenly Records are celebrating their 25th anniversary by taking over the Trades Club for the weekend with a packed programme of shows. In order to cram it all in, they’re adding matinee performances as well as the usual evening ones. It feels slightly odd and indulgent to leave the snow, busy shops and cafes…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More