Green Man and dragon
Aug 23

Green Man festival 2017 review

This year was the 15th anniver­sary of Green Man, the bucol­ic fes­ti­val set in the Bre­con Bea­cons. It is – since the demise of Big Chill – my favourite fes­ti­val venue, with its lush moun­tain­ous set­ting and main stage framed dra­mat­i­cal­ly by the Black Moun­tains. For those short of stature (like myself), you’ll always have…

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Jul 12

Review: Leftfield at Bluedot festival

Review of Left­field ‘Left­ism’ at Blue­dot fes­ti­val, by Nicholas Mai “Come on Tom, let’s go and see some prop­er music”. And so the uncer­tain eight-year(ish) old boy duti­ful­ly fol­lows his father into the tent where Left­field are warm­ing up the crowd nice­ly as the first of the big name open­ing Fri­day acts at this year’s Bluedot…

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Jun 28

True Faith: Manchester Art Gallery

Joy Divi­sion and New Order have had a pro­found effect on the cre­ative arts, inspir­ing not only musi­cians but artists, writ­ers, illus­tra­tors and film mak­ers. Their visu­al lega­cy is now being doc­u­ment­ed in a new exhi­bi­tion open­ing in Man­ches­ter as part of the Man­ches­ter Inter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val (MIF17). Tak­ing place at Man­ches­ter Art Gallery from 30th…

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Jun 10

Music Day at Crouch End Festival

Announc­ing a whole day of music on two stages – Crouch End Fes­ti­val’s Music Day on the 11th June on the green out­side Hornsey Town Hall. And there’s an extra Music Night on Thurs­day 15th in the Sup­per Room in Hornsey Town Hall. The event is organ­ised by Crouch End Fes­ti­val and Gourmet Gigs and…

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Jun 5

Space 36: the Brexit issue

Wait­ing to Exhale: a cre­ative explo­ration in response to Brex­it A sub­ur­ban house turned into an exper­i­men­tal and beau­ti­ful space for the cre­ation of project-based art, this is the essence of Space 36, in Fins­bury Park, north Lon­don. In 2016, the own­ers of the house, Ahmed Farooqui and Alan Swann, held an exhi­bi­tion which they chose…

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Dreadzone finish with fireworks 2017
Jun 1

Review: Bearded Theory festival birthday bash

Beard­ed The­o­ry Spring Gath­er­ing or “fes­ti­val” as it is usu­al­ly called, has reached an impor­tant mile­stone – its tenth birth­day. The hairy-faced con­trib­u­tor to the fes­ti­val world has grown and blos­somed, from bum fluff through design­er stub­ble to full beard. The cel­e­bra­tions opened on a per­fect sun­ny Thurs­day after­noon with a sur­pris­ing­ly large crowd, per­haps due to the line­up being stuffed…

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May 11

Amber Arcades review: The Trades and The Finsbury

At the Heav­en­ly Week­ender at The Trades in Heb­den Bridge back in Jan­u­ary, Amber Arcades’ half-hour ear­ly evening set was the most engag­ing of the three days (young Hal­i­fax band The Orielles were the oth­er stand-out act). The focal pres­ence on stage is Amber Arcades’ mas­ter­mind, the very cool Annelotte De Graaf, vocal­ist, gui­tarist, song­writer. Amber Arcades…

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Port Eliot dusk at the bar
May 3

More festival recommends and news

Fes­ti­val sea­son is approach­ing fast – only five weeks till some of us will be sleep­ing, or at least try­ing to, in our tents. Here are a few more events to whet your appetite, and some fes­ti­val news too. Some fes­ti­vals are get­ting low on tick­ets, so don’t pon­der for too long. And if you’re a foodie,…

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British Sea Power at Shepherds Bush
Apr 18

British Sea Power at Shepherd’s Bush Empire

You know you’re at a British Sea Pow­er gig when there’s some slight­ly weird stuff at the merch stall and the stage is full of foliage.  The band’s new March release Let The Dancers Inher­it the Par­ty has had pos­i­tive reac­tion from fans – it’s a tri­umphant, upbeat and play­ful col­lec­tion, designed to give us hope in these dark times,…

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