Mental Elf, The Trades 2012
Jan 4

Mental Elf – New Year at Hebden Bridge Trades Club

New Year’s Eve 2012. I asked var­i­ous peo­ple how they intend­ed to cel­e­brate. Most­ly, it seemed, this was to be the year of the “qui­et night in”. How bor­ing, I thought. I need to go out and do some danc­ing, maybe rolling back home as dawn creeps in. I’ve always been drawn to The Trades,


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Sadie and the Hotheads, Earls Court 2012
Nov 28

Review: Lady Cora of Downton at The Troubadour

The Trou­ba­dour at Earls Court. Upstairs is the quirky cof­fee house and restau­rant which I don’t think has changed in appear­ance since I first vis­it­ed it in the 70s. Down­stairs is a venue at the heart of Lon­don’s music scene, a cramped cel­lar which has seen the likes of Bob Dylan grace its stage. Last night


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richard hawley
Nov 23

The big sound of Little Noise – King Charles, First Aid Kit, Richard Hawley

  The Lit­tle Noise Ses­sions in aid of Men­cap are now into their sev­enth year. Curat­ed by Jo Whiley, the gigs take place over six or so nights, with a choice of line­ups designed to please most music lovers. The artists give their time free to the Men­cap char­i­ty, which is strug­gling with the gov­ern­men­t’s fur­ther cuts


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Painted Black vintage shop Crouch End
Nov 12

The beginning of “The End” – a music festival for Crouch End

This week’s post is a bit dif­fer­ent, but there’s some­thing excit­ing hap­pen­ing next week­end in my neigh­bour­hood so I’d like to give it a heads up. It’s a mini music fes­ti­val called The End, and its hap­pen­ing in Crouch End, north Lon­don. The End takes place Fri­day 16th and Sat­ur­day 17th Novem­ber, start­ing at 7pm


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Big Chill festival 2008
Oct 25

Music Festivals – what’s on the horizon?

2012 has not been an easy year for fes­ti­vals. The eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion and the depress­ing wet weath­er took their toll. The sea­son kicked off with a dis­as­trous­ly sod­den Isle of Wight, fol­lowed by sim­i­lar prob­lems at Cream­fields dance week­ender, and Wake­stock in Wales. Even Mor­risons, the super­mar­ket chain, was due to get in on the


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Richard Hawley singing at 02 Brixton
Oct 5

Richard Hawley at 02 Academy Brixton

Some artists bob around on the fringes of your radar for ages, and so it has been the case with Richard Haw­ley. Those love­ly bal­lads, the choco­latey voice, the Pulp con­nec­tion – yet he’s remained a bit niche some­how. But things have gath­ered apace, and Sep­tem­ber 8 this year saw the Radio BBC 6Music collaboration


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alabama 3 at the Jazz Cafe Camden
Sep 15

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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Spooky Men's Chorale Spooky Men
Sep 3

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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The Green Man burning at Green Man festival 2012
Aug 25

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 singing at Somerset House, 2012
Jul 20

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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