Rating: The album cover is very telling, harking back to the kind of graphic design that graced the covers of artists of the late ’60s and early ’70s on record labels such as Cadet, Sussex and Fantasy. That was an era when…
Rating: Feeder’s brand of romper-room rock sold like burgers at a football match. This much we know. It fattened its members’ bank accounts to such an extent that its leader Grant Nicholas decamped, grew his hair and bought himself much-needed…
It was nice to see in the fourth Thursday night of the month at Chalk Farm Folk at The Monarch. It was a mixed crowd of people (including ex Aston Villa and Crawley Town manager John Gregory) who’d come for…
Rating: This is Ringo Starr‘s 18th studio release, so you might expect him now to be in a wholesome creative space; a man fired by inspiration, his expression unfettered and distilled and, crucially, informed. But he isn’t. Postcards From Paradise,…
Rating: A simple and effective album if you like your blues white rather than black, and with an unexpected emotional depth: Roy’s Gang: Served with sidewinder distortion and reverb, this opener is a straight-ahead six-minute 12-bar slide blues work out,…
It was a time when the flush-with-cash public were keen to hear tales of home so that it could put them up against their own and make comparisons. And also ask, how far have we come? In this healthy climate…
Way over across the black river, the Canary Wharf spires’ lights winked through the murk of cloud, turning the sky into a boiling sump of bilge. Northern weather had arrived with the northern posse, and Alias Kid were playing the…
Rating: Brand Gallagher gives you what you want, just don’t go expecting too much: Riverman: Here comes the same clipped acoustic riff of old and it’s as if he never left 1995, trapped in a warp of time, imitating himself, treading…
Rating: ‘Glory Days’ as the opener to Carl Barat‘s latest LP, Let It Reign, is reminiscent of the blues of The Rolling Stones, coupled with an impassioned delivery á la Strummer. Barat is proud of this assault on your eardrums, you…
Rating: It’s a bitter, late January wind that blows down Brick Lane but the window panes fronting Rough Trade, a record shop that nestles in the abdomen of the old Truman Brewery, reveal a big city enthusiasm that cannot be…