Forty years have passed since the summer of 1976, that long, hot summer when punk’s adrenaline rush threatened to sweep away anything and everything that threatened to get in its way. The Sex Pistols were punk rock’s leading lights and singer Johnny Rotten was punk’s poster boy, although whether the band were a credible threat […]
Nikki Lane’s 2014 album All Or Nothin’ fused country songwriting with Spectoresque Be My Baby drums, glam rock handclaps and Muscle Shoals electric piano. Tonight, there are no drums, no piano; just Nikki and her Fender acoustic with back up from special guest Jonathan Tyler on guitar and harmonica but Lane’s rock and roll attitude […]
It is not unusual for a band to start off as one thing and end up being an entirely different beast. The Beatles went from lovable mop tops to hairy psychedelicists , and don’t we love them for it. When Steve Hackett left Genesis, it seemed unlikely that massive queues of people would line up […]
Spizzenergi are remembered principally for two things: their 1979 single Where’s Captain Kirk?; the first single to top the UK indie chart where it remained at number one for seven weeks, and their tendency to change names at the drop of a hat. Starting as Spizzoil, lead singer Spizz went on to lead a variety […]
Craig and Charlie Reid have come along way since they signed off the dole in a bleak benefit office on Edinburgh’s west side and signed onto the government’s Enterprise Allowance Scheme, with which they helped to fund the first six months of their musical career as The Proclaimers . Ten albums, a musical and a […]
Last night 89 people lost their lives because they went to a rock concert in Paris. Tonight, I’m at a rock concert and my thoughts, along with everyone in the audience, I suspect, are with that Bataclan audience and their families and loved ones. Nils Lofgren has opened his shows on this tour with Too […]
The last time I saw Richard Thomson in concert, a member of the audience shouted: “Where’s Linda tonight Richard?” Thompson replied that she was in hospital giving birth. Linda gave birth to a daughter, Kami, who as one half of The Rails is opening tonight’s show. The other half of The Rails is Kami’s husband, […]
King Crimson gigs are, it would seem, like buses – you wait 35 years for one and then 2 come along at once. I’m happy to say that I was able to attend both of their recent Edinburgh shows.
BluesFest Director Leo Green has confirmed that multi-million-selling singer and pianist Jamie Cullum has joined the bill for this year’s Prudential BluesFest and will perform at indigO2 on Sunday November 8th. Backed by his usual band plus a 12-piece big band, Cullum will draw on music from his extensive back catalogue, including from 2014’s Interlude. Jamie […]
The O2 will host its first ever blues festival next month as Prudential BluesFest arrives at the world’s number one music and entertainment venue for three days of incredible music featuring performances from over forty acts. Alongside a stellar line-up of ticketed evening shows, which include Grammy-winning blues-rock group Tedeschi Trucks Band, a superstar double bill from Van Morrison […]
John Otway used to base much of his act around being a one-hit-wonder. Until he became a two-hit-wonder. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
“Iconic” is a much overused word but when it comes to Tubular Bells, its use is entirely justified. From its cover art to its multi tracked instrumentation, the album embodies the early seventies just as Sergeant Pepper did for the late sixties a few years earlier and Never Mind The Bollocks would do for the […]