Top albums, EPs & singles of 2024

This has been an excep­tion­al year for new releas­es of all gen­res with per­haps a lean­ing towards shoegaze/­­dream-pop on this list. Bill Ryder-Jones got the year off to a great start with the inspired Iechyd Da while Father John Misty’s Mahash­mashana slipped in as a late Novem­ber clos­er and is per­haps my album of the year.…

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Bearded Theory 24 Friday photo gallery and review

Ist Ist, LIINES, Bob Vylan, Bis, Jane Weaver, Meryl Streek, Pip Blom, The Big Moon, Chameleons, Mari­ka Hack­man, The Bar Stool Preach­ers, Dexy’s and Future Islands made Fri­day a very full day of great music. All the stages opened and the weath­er was look­ing promis­ing. Man­ches­ter band Ist Ist were a high­light – Adam Houghton’s doomy…

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Bearded Theory – what’s in store for 2024

The Beard­ed The­o­ry fes­ti­val line­up has plen­ty for fans old and new this year… and (checks cal­en­dar) it’s only two months away! Plus there’s all the oth­er fun stuff that goes on dur­ing what has always been one of the most friend­ly fes­ti­vals of the sea­son.  Beard­ed The­o­ry’s old timers… Some artists make their way…

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Unique Ukraine & Scouse Supergroup to launch Liverpool’s Eurovision Party

Orches­tral Manoeu­vres in the Dark’s Andy McCluskey will join Liv­er­pool indie rock­ers Red Rum Club and psy­che­del­ic pop queen Jane Weaver as they become mem­bers of Wel­come To Euro­topia, – a super­group made up of Liv­er­pool musi­cians and Ukrain­ian artists who will take to the stage at 9:30pm on the Pier Head on 5 May…

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Fire Records Heaven on Fire at Studio 9295

In Decem­ber 2019 I attend­ed the Fire Records Christ­mas gig at Stu­dio 9295 in Hack­ney. It’s the sort of event I’d like to see more of: a selec­tion of artists with 40-ish minute sets, and all in a relaxed and friend­ly atmos­phere. So how for­tu­itous it was to dis­cov­er that the label were dish­ing up…

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Todmorden’s Golden Lion launches label

The Calder Val­ley, West York­shire is a ver­i­ta­ble hotbed of tal­ent­ed new artists. So when a well-loved venue runs into finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties, local bands ral­ly to help. Work­ing Men’s Club and W H Lung have con­tributed exclu­sive tracks to help the Gold­en Lion in Tod­mor­den. Yes, Tod­mor­den’s The Gold­en Lion has set up its own…

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Review: Festival Number 6 2016

The good, the bad and the mud­dy… On a pos­i­tive note, Fes­ti­val Num­ber 6 yet again had its moments of music, mag­ic  and dis­cov­ery.  The loca­tion is Port­meiri­on, the beau­ti­ful and quirky Ital­ian vil­lage in north Wales. And it was com­mend­able to note just how many of the artists appear­ing on Fes­ti­val No 6’s var­i­ous stages were from…

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Eight favourite albums of 2015

Here are my top rec­om­mend­ed albums of 2015 in no par­tic­u­lar order. 1  Richard Haw­ley Hol­low Mead­ows A con­fi­dent col­lec­tion of beau­ti­ful tracks, Haw­ley’s voice at its most sub­lime­ly expres­sive. My favourite track is the non-bal­lad Which Way shall I go?, sexy with a touch of men­ace. Haw­ley’s per­for­mance at The Round­house a few weeks’ ago was one…

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