Album review: Little Fish, Baffled and Beat
‘Baffled and Beat’, Little Fish (Custard) On Monday 16th August 2010 Oxfordshire’s Little Fish released their long-awaited début album, ‘Baffled and Beat’. And where did Little Fish choose to have this album released? Las Vegas? New York? Abbey Road studios? No, Rapture Records, Witney, Oxfordshire. Despite the lead singer... [Read More..]
Gig review: The Wheatsheaf, Oxford, Wednesday 11th August 2010
This wasn’t your usual kind of gig, oh no. This evening’s display of musical entertainment was booked, arranged and produced by the headlining Quadrophobe, with all proceeds going to Sobell House Hospice, in memory of the late and very much missed radio presenter, Ali Booker. The Wheatsheaf is one of those deceptive venues, of which Oxford... [Read More..]
Album review: War Tapes, The Continental Divide
Do me a favour? Try to imagine, for a few moments, that you are a music reviewer in 1968. And a package lands on your desk with ‘review this please, 500 words’ written on the cover in pencil. Because post-it notes haven’t been invented yet. You slipped the 45rpm disc out of its sleeve, carefully placed it on your Dansette record player, put the... [Read More..]
Film review: Twilight Eclipse
by Elizabeth Bennett After the cinematic trauma that was inflicted on the fee-paying public by the toe-curlingly awful ‘New Moon’, I approached the third film in the Twilight series in exactly the same way as if I had a bad case of the runs and the only vacant toilet was the one that’s just been vacated by someone who ate Chicken Biryani for breakfast,... [Read More..]
Review: Night Noise Team
Listen up! 17th May 2010 sees the launch of Night Noise Team’s new single ‘You Won’. But I don’t want to go there yet, let’s leave the forthcoming release of ‘You Won’ alone for a few minutes. First, let’s hit up the basics. Night Noise Team make music. Night Noise Team make excellent music. So that’s Night Noise Team,... [Read More..]
Review: Only In The Mornings
One of the happiest atmospheric audio discoveries I’ve made in this life is the sound of rain falling on to the weatherproof coating of my tent as I lie, huddled in my sleeping bag, breathing shallowly and listening (in the otherwise total silence) to the near/far, soft/intense liquid sounds, hoping that they stop soon, whilst hoping they will never... [Read More..]
Review: Delphic
Once upon a time the Polydor record label used to be a Colossus, someone we’d sit up and take notice of when they made pronouncements. When Polydor signed a band it was almost an instant guarantee of success with the record-buyers. When Polydor said ‘This is good!’ we’d nod madly like demented parcel-shelf dogs in the back of our dad’s Ford... [Read More..]
Review: Billy Connolly
I don’t know when the epiphany happened but once upon a time I didn’t find Billy Connolly funny in the least. In fact whenever I saw him on the television he instilled in me an acute feeling of deep, personal embarrassment. One enduring, but very early, memory of Billy Connolly is of him standing on-stage, playing an acoustic guitar whilst wearing,... [Read More..]
Review: Muse in Munchen
Munich’s Olympiahalle is a 75,000-seat, oval-shaped auditorium with a massive pit in front of the stage. On Friday 20th November 2009 the stadium was almost at maximum capacity. The few seats that weren’t occupied were those that were directly behind the stage. The pit held around 3,500 people who mostly bopped, waved, shouted, screamed... [Read More..]
Film review: New Moon
New Moon is the second film visit to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight vampire quartet. Although the plot turns accepted folklore on its head (Vampires are bad for you, yeah, we knew that; but Werewolves are good for you, they only exist to protect us pink meat from Vampires. You didn’t know that, didja? And also, being out in the daylight doesn’t... [Read More..]
