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My house mate Alice and I met up with Sam Lee before his gig at the Turner Sims on 3rd March to ask him about his debut album Ground of its Own and what it’s like being a folk musician. Ground of its Own, your debut album, received great critical attention, not only from the folk community, as […]
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Jim Moray’s gig for Forest Live (at Fordingbridge’s Town Hall) is the only gig at which I’ve been able to buy a chilli-con-carne half way through. That may seem irrelevant, but I just wanted to point out what a quirky and great job Forest Live did in running the gig. Getting multi-folk award winning Jim […]
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As I stepped into the concert hall, I was greeted by a dimly lit stage bordered with flags and strewn with exotic instruments: a koto, tabla drums and a six stringed ukulele. I knew from first glance that it was going to be a show like no other. The lights went down, even lower, and […]
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I’m a singer-songwriter and I hate myself because of it. Ok, that’s a bit strong, but being a singer-songwriter is an intensely lonely and often excruciating experience.
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Steve Knightley’s gig at Centre Stage in Bournemouth may have seemed like a strange experience for the average gig goer. There was no mosh pit, in fact, everyone was sat. There was no support act; Knightley played two sets himself. Oh, and I was one of only five people under the age of forty there. […]
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Hope is the most beautiful of all experiences. It is the reason why we get up in the morning, and it is at the core of this book. Somewhere a Bird is Singing is a beautifully crafted collection of five short stories by young writer and Southampton graduate Tig Wallace. Each story, although seemingly melancholy […]
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Normally I listen to the songs which I review over and over, so that I can analyse them to within an inch of their life, but when I tried to do that with Taio Cruz’s ‘There She Goes’ I realised that I just wasn’t drunk enough. Because that’s the only way that anyone should listen […]
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It’s taken seven years, but Fiona Apple’s 4th album, The Idler Wheel…, is finally out. The album is much more stripped back than her previous work, but it will not disappoint the committed fans who waited patiently. The experimental piano and percussion backing that dominates the record provides a perfect canvas for Apple’s voice to […]
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The Geordie boys are back with their best album yet.
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Motion City Soundtrack were my favourite band when I was 15 (I went to see them for my birthday), so I was filled with nostalgic glee when I discovered that their fifth album, Go, was released on 12th June. When I finally got around to listening to it, the album didn’t disappoint. The 15 year […]
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It’s been 3 years since Maxïmo Park have released a single, but ‘Hips and Lips’ does not disappoint. The track takes a more techno approach than their previous efforts, but it’s just as catchy. This is the first single from their fourth album, The National Health, and it promises a new approach to their sound […]