rock
The Mission, Chalk, Brighton review - the hits, delivered straight, to an enthused crowdWednesday, 13 April 2022
“Play something we can dance to,” heckles a fan. “Fuck off, we are not a dance band,” fires back Wayne Hussey, leader of The Mission. He’s right. They’re not. But still there is dancing.One especially notable aspect of this gig is the total and... Read more... |
Album: Jack White - Fear Of The DawnFriday, 08 April 2022
Jack White is still unsatisfied, and rock’n’roll still unfinished business for its most extremist exponent. His last pre-pandemic album, Boarding House Reach (2018), seemed a major blow to his career, its experiment in warped dynamics and Beat... Read more... |
Album: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Unlimited LoveFriday, 01 April 2022
Anthony Kiedis’s autobiography Scar Tissue, an extreme example of wisdom through sometimes squalid excess, explains a great deal about the Chili Peppers’ mix of priapic lust and wistful romance. The return of guitarist John Frusciante and producer... Read more... |
Dream Wife, St Lukes and the Winged Ox, Glasgow review - an exhilarating reminder of live music's powerThursday, 24 March 2022
Rakel Mjöll has a nice line in understatement. “We released this album in July 2020”, she said at one point, referring to her band’s sophomore record “So When You Gonna...” before adding, dryly, “which wasn’t the best time”. Finally, nearly two... Read more... |
Album: Placebo - Never Let Me GoTuesday, 22 March 2022
Alternative rock icons Placebo make an anticipated return in 2022 with their eighth album Never Let Me Go. Their last release was 2016’s greatest hits collection A Place For Us To Dream, and the wait has been long for the next, proper instalment... Read more... |
The Coral, Barrowland, Glasgow review - pop experimentalists prove overly smoothMonday, 21 March 2022
Even blessed with youthful confidence, when the Coral first stepped out on the Barrowland stage 21 years ago to support the late, great Joe Strummer it’s hard to imagine they could have foreseen that they’d be able to return to the same stage over... Read more... |
Album: The Shires - 10 Year PlanFriday, 11 March 2022
Seems odd now, but there was a time when many Brits found country music laughable. It was a common thing. For instance, when Keith Richards embraced country, Jagger initially thought it a joke. By the time I was coming up in the Eighties, post-punk... Read more... |
Album: Loop - SonancySaturday, 05 March 2022
Seven and a half years ago, Loop frontman Robert Hampson retired the band's back catalogue in front of a live audience. “You won’t hear these old songs again,” he told the audience at Islington’s Garage.As shocks go, it might not have been up there... Read more... |
Album: Tears For Fears - The Tipping PointThursday, 24 February 2022
Tears For Fears were an odd non-presence through their most successful years. They were right up there in the premier league of stadium rock-pop bands, but had none of the Celtic romantic bombast of U2 and Simple Minds, weren’t as weird as... Read more... |
Album: Johnny Marr - Fever Dreams Pts 1-4Saturday, 19 February 2022
Healing, ecstasy and transformation are the aims, from Johnny Marr’s Manchester counter-culture adolescence to this compendium of Covid-era EPs, released as he nears 60. Rock’s alchemising of dreams into action is Fever Dreams’ constant refrain,... Read more... |
Album: Andy Bell - FlickerFriday, 04 February 2022
Ride guitarist Andy Bell has clearly been busy since the release of his solo debut, 2020’s The View From Halfway Down. As well as getting his Space Station instrumental touring show up and running, he’s found time to record a sprawling, 18-track... Read more... |
Pam & Tommy, Disney+ review - the infamous sex tape that went globalWednesday, 02 February 2022
The transformation of Lily James, demure star of Yesterday, Cinderella and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, into smokin’ beach babe Pamela Anderson is the most memorable thing about Disney+'s uneven eight-part drama. At its core is... Read more... |
