The Irish giants rock Belfast three times in a day…
On December 17th And So I Watch You From Afar treated fans in Belfast to a trio of special gigs to mark the end of their headline European tour and their return to Northern Ireland for the end of the …
26/11/2010
Queercore screamo thrashpunk. Late arrivals have rarely been so extreme. I’m not talking about the headlining horses from Leeds nor openers Young Legionnaire who I’d missed, but New Yorkers Gay for Johnny Depp, who’s reputation for both anarchy and ambiguity precedes them tonight. Anyone here for a casual pint …
There’s always that question of whether material recorded in the airtight assurance of the studio can really seize what’s great about the band when they’re onstage. With the ‘Cold, Hard Walls‘ EP, The Rupture Dogs of Belfast and Newcastle, County Down have nailed a teeming, breathless assault of unapologetic rock’n’roll, …
Barely a month ago when the hotly tipped Dinosaur Pile-Up rolled through this venue the obscenely shy turnout didn’t bat an eyelid. You’d have been lucky to leave with eyelids last night after Cancer Bats came knocking on the door of Stoke’s Sugarmill.
Hibernation is not something wombats are known for, yet until last night it seemed the world’s bounciest Liver-wegian trio had been off the radar for an age. You might go as far to say things like Inbetweeners reruns have preserved The Wombats in the mainstream awareness during their time away, …
NME Breakthrough have named Halifax shoegazers The ABC Club the best unsigned band in the UK, beating hundreds of other acts through NME’s own judges and a further public vote.
Hundreds of underground bands were reduced to a final five by the NME panel after which a vote opened to …
Emerging from a supposedly restless Brighton scene are Goodluck Jonathan, surrounded by field of hushed anticipation. This obviously begs the question of whether GJ were a well-kept secret really worth keeping.
Their inventive and shifty brand of mathematical alternative certainly leaves an imprint but it is one of commotion as …
The old cliché of the greatest hits album; it’s the death knell for most musicians’ careers. Everyone knows that once the sales dry up then it’s time to repackage and restock whatever you sold in the first place and milk it like a cow producing iPads instead of dairy products. …
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 …
Taking to the sacred acres of Donington last weekend was Download 2010, the annual metal mass which this year raised hell in celebration of thirty years since the inaugural Monsters of Rock.
Rather than present you with the squeaky clean side of stage perspective most recollections are offering this review …
After seeing The Midnight Lycan Party’s gig in Stoke last month I felt like putting my iPod in a guillotine, eradicating every byte of voguish trash and instead basking in the unpretentious revival of raw performance.
The three piece from Stoke-on-Trent categorize themselves as a gothic garage band with shadings …
Welsh anarchists Lostprophets inadvertently earned themselves the detrimental “emo” tag with their last album but have returned this year to rectify their image. After three gruelling years of touring, recording, line-up and label shifts the quintet has finally readied a visionary fourth release in The Betrayed.
Review: … 
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 …
Welsh rock trio Stereophonics have announced the first official details of their seventh studio album, confirming the tentative title “Keep Calm and Carry On”, which is set to be released on the 16th November.
The album will be preceded by the lead single, “Innocent”, a subdued poppy number in the …
U2 @ Croke Dublin; flickr
“A sort of homecoming?” One might say that. For Irish rock titans U2 their long awaited return to Dublin’s Croke Park was a triumph of magnificent proportions, as more than 80,000 fans from all corners of the planet brimmed Ireland’s largest stadium.
The open-air venue …
The ceaseless solar eclipse that has fuelled Placebo’s sixth album career has finally, as their latest offerings title would suggest, ended. Battle for the Sun sees the band deviate from their recent mournful meandering with synthesizers and instead expand upon their earlier sound, but with squeaky-clean production and stadium-sized ambitions.…