“Please allow me to introduce the band”. Thus spoke J Willgoose Esq. “It won’t take long”. Whilst there was an honourable mention for their projectionist Mr B, Public Service Broadcasting the band is...
The second annual YO1 Festival promised eleven hours of entertainment across five music stages on one big day out in York and on that pledge it firmly delivered. Having moved to its new location on the city’s...
Live at Leeds is all about making choices. Faced with a grand total of 147 acts appearing at 15 different venues, all spread out over a mile and a half diameter from the Brudenell Social Club in the north west of...
The red velvet curtains to the entrance had been drawn and a huge projector screen over Oporto’s front window rolled down. Outside’s urban night-life was all but concealed from view and despite the...
David Thomas may have shed some pounds, but thankfully not his skin. After all this time he is still operating in the twilight zone of progressive avant-rock music; out there in a parallel universe where there is...
More than 30 years ago Edwyn Collins was employed in his local Parks Department. At his own admission, he was very happy then. Much has happened in his life since that time. In the very early ‘80as he was in the...
The eve of the sixth annual Record Store Day would seem the most opportune of times in which to take a spin round the independent record shops of Leeds. In an era when up to two thousand record stores have...
It is now lunchtime on Friday the 19th of July 2013; cue a triple cause for celebration. School’s out, here comes the summer and the fourth annual Deer Shed Festival is just about to begin. Set in the tranquil...
Wearing his regulation blue Vietnam Vet-style combat helmet and decked out in a red cardigan and white T-shirt with vintage compact cassette motifs printed on the front, it is very easy to see why the words...
On the evening of Saturday 16th March 2013, Jason Molina’s body finally packed in. Drink had done for him. He would not see his 40th birthday. His will ultimately be a very small footnote in the wider history of...
Circle Sunday the 5th of May on your calendar and then set the controls for the heart of the Knavesmire in York. For that is the time and place of the second annual YO1 festival. This year it has relocated to...
This was a most rare opportunity to catch Marc Ribot - composer, musician and long-time artistic collaborator to a veritable who’s who of luminaries from Tom Waits to Susana Baca to John Zorn - performing solo...
Wilko Johnson is dying. For the man who was born John Wilkinson more than 65 years ago in Canvey Island, the end is suddenly nigh. Diagnosed with terminal cancer of the pancreas in December of last year, he was...
Almost ten years and not a word and now he is practically everywhere. First there was one single, then there were two and then before you knew it, the very next day if you will, an album. There was even some talk...
The ghost of The Smiths will forever follow Johnny Marr around. Like a spectre at every banquet where he feasts, it will constantly be there as both a blessing and a curse. What other band or artist in the last 30...