Category: Music

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Live Reviews Music

Fontaines D.C. show off their immense power

Selling out three consecutive nights at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo is a pretty good hint you’ve made it as a live act. So is having a sea of people in the stalls — sometimes surging, sometimes raging, always moving.

But the real sign is an audience that doesn’t just shout back every word; they sing along to melodies with such gusto it almost renders the musicians pointless. The Cure have Play For Today. Iron Maiden have Fear Of The Dark. On the last night of their London residency, Fontaines D.C. have A Lucid Dream and Big Shot.

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Interviews Music

Steve Louw keeps things simple

Steve Louw’s been a fixture of the South African music scene since the mid 1970s, first travelling between folk clubs in his Volkswagen Kombi to perform originals and blues covers on his 12-string Ibanez.

By 1986 he’d recorded two albums with the band All Night Radio. The first was produced by The Kinks collaborator John Rollo, secured after impressing The E Street Band’s Little Steven with a cassette of live recordings. The second was produced by Kevin Shirley, whose CV now includes Joe Bonamassa, Iron Maiden, The Black Crowes, and Led Zeppelin.

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Music Reviews

High Window are Benighted & Delighted

High Window’s debut album, Benighted & Delighted, has been a long time coming.

You could say Keith Dixon has been working towards it his whole life.

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Live Reviews Music

Beth Orton shares her masterpiece at KOKO

About 45 minutes into her performance, Beth Orton asks: “Can we have the big ball?” KOKO’s massive rose gold mirror ball starts spinning, bathing the already magnificent venue in floating specks of red light. It’s yet another reminder — from the singer’s gold-sequined frock to the fairy lights decorating her keyboard — that this is less of a gig and more of a celebration. A celebration of an artist, her determination, and the resulting masterpiece.

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Live Reviews Music

Andrew Cushin steps up at Lafayette

The last time Andrew Cushin played Lafayette, it was just him and an acoustic guitar supporting The Sheepdogs. Seven months, one EP, and three outdoor summer spectacles with Paul Weller later, he’s headlining the venue with full band in tow. And yet the emotional centrepiece of tonight’s show is a song he performs alone.

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Live Reviews Music

The Coronas make up for lost time

The Covid-19 pandemic was tough on The Coronas. A six-month world tour was cancelled, shutting their main revenue stream in an instant. The release of their album True Love Waits was delayed by a few months, with limited promotional opportunities available. And the only real way to keep the creative spirit alive during lockdowns was to write even more new songs, even if it wasn’t clear when anybody would actually get to hear them performed live.

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Live Reviews Music

The Black Crowes shake their money maker

A group of people, including assorted members of The Black Crowes, amble onto the Brixton Academy stage and assemble at a bar set up at the back. They mill about while a bartender in black bowtie and pink dinner jacket mixes drinks. One man walks over to a jukebox and presses play. Elmore James’ Shake Your Moneymaker blasts out of the speakers.

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Live Reviews Music

The Ramona Flowers blossom at Omeara

The Ramona Flowers celebrate their ongoing success with an intimate show at Omeara that’s big on their vibrant new songs.

Size isn’t always everything. Just ask The Ramona Flowers. Over the last couple of months, playing Firenze Rocks Festival in Italy and supporting Tom Grennan at his summer shows, they’ve been able to stretch their legs on sprawling open air stages. Needless to say, Omeara’s is somewhat smaller.

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Live Reviews Music

The National are all emotion at All Points East

The National aren’t your typical festival headliner. Their catalogue’s not big on rousing “wooah-oh” choruses. Their lyrics are opaque at best, often further obscured by mumbled delivery. They’re sometimes wilfully obtuse, following their most commercially successful album, 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me, with more challenging, introspective work.

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Live Reviews Music

The Prodigy light up Brixton Academy

Keith Flint’s silhouette appears above the Brixton Academy stage. That distinct looped guitar opening of The Prodigy’s Firestarter wails out. The screams of recognition are euphoric. And, as the big beats kick in, 5,000 very sweaty bodies move even more enthusiastically than they have all night. Some mimic the music video’s genre-defining posturing, rendered in lasers, with absolute joy. Others bounce or spin or jump or wave their arms in a state of wild abandon.

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