Posts Tagged ‘review’

Small But Massive…

Read it again. That’s Glasgowbury. Not to be confused with Michael Eavis’ Worthy Farm extravaganza – this is Glasgowbury, and it’s got nothing to do with anything in Scotland. Glasgowbury is Northern Ireland’s premier independent festival which showcases almost universally home-grown talent.

As the brainchild of Irish singer-songwriter Paddy Glasgow (now the name makes sense!) the non-profit event has gone from strength to strength. Starting in his back garden with a hundred people in attendance, this year it shouted “Happy tenth birthday!” from the top of the Sperrin mountains to thousands of music lovers.

Coming from the same school of nu-folk/soul artists such as Adele, Kate Nash and Laura Marling, Peggy Sue have a lot to live up to. Formerly known as ‘Peggy Sue and The Pirates, a more quirkier name you have to agree, the band have been around the scene for a few years now. Doing shows and releasing singles and EPs just as a double act. The two lead female vocalists, Rosa and Katy, both sing harmoniously with each other and create a very deep and soulful presence. Dark and haunting at times but also remain quite pastiche in their approach. Now joined by drummer, Olly, and also the inclusion of electric guitars has certainly made this band a more complete creative force. It’s been 3 years since this writer has waited for an album release from Peggy Sue, I just hope it lives up to my expectations.

Glorious, joyous and frivolous are just three simple words I can think of to describe, what some critics are calling, the perfect pop album. Topic of discussion is the wonderful ‘Odd Blood’ by Yeasayer. Think back to those awkward moments when you were a teenager and life was just full of idiosyncrasies. It was a dream world of discovery at times and for me, ‘Odd Blood’ would have been the perfect soundtrack to my adolescent days capturing an innocence and a magical sense of well-being assuring that  ‘everything is gonna be ok’.

13/11/2009

Anyone who says “grunge is dead” is wrong on general principle. Alice In Chains demonstrated exactly why tonight at the O2 Academy in Birmingham.
Taking their first record in fourteen years on the road, tragically devoid of their late frontman Layne Staley, the Seattle survivors made their second stop on the UK leg of the tour.

For a band that’s been going since the late eighties, the audience tonight doesn’t even slightly tread into AC/DC territory: whose pre-historic loyalists would gawk blankly at the mention of La Roux, Spotify or Twitter. Middle-aged Gen-X-ers who’ve dusted off the flannel mingle with coming of age grunge kids who grumble about having two ‘Alice In Chains’ artists on their iPods: Alice in Chains / Alice In Chains. Don’t you just hate when that happens?

However diverse the crowd, tonight’s support act couldn’t have been more out of place if it was Timbaland’s name in the liner notes of a Chris Cornell album. Oh wait. Indie two-piece Little Fish showed plenty of promise. They kept the banter to a minimum but were tireless onstage in an attempt to win over the angry mob. In spite of their best efforts, however, this was a public execution. The guillotine arrived in the form of a torrent of unwarranted heckling. Credit to Little Fish; they soldiered on to the end of their short set, displaying a lot of technical prowess and kept a brave face whilst never choking under the pressure.

After a year of relative quiet from Scottish rock trio Biffy Clyro following last summers stopgap single ‘Mountains’, Biffy’s new single ‘That Golden Rule’ spearheads their hugely anticipated fifth album, ‘Only Revolutions’, and it doesn’t disappoint.