Final installment in the blog-post series; I'll keep the introductory waffle to a minimum this time, promise.

5. Hope & Social

The support slot is a wonderful thing; I've discovered many a fantastic band because they were playing second fiddle to the act I actually bought the ticket for (the Ragamuffins, who I blogged about all those months ago, are ( Read more... )

“All music is folk music; I ain't never heard no horse sing...” - Louis Armstrong

When talking of folk music in Britain, the image of the 'folkie' is never far from one's mind. We all know the stereotype, if not the people behind it; the curly hair and scraggly beard, the Aran sweater stained with the smell of sweat and ale, the sturdy boots that ( Read more... )

This took... slightly longer than I intended. Suffice to say, I started writing it back in October; it's now December. My intention of finishing this before seeing these guys on November 4th proved to be just a teensy bit optimistic...

4. Louis Barabbas & The Bedlam Six

I know a ludicrous amount of talented people. Quite apart from the breadth of ( Read more... )

Sorry, give me a moment while I blow the dust off this thing... If it's any consolation for the few spambots who might actually give an Average Wow about this place if they were actually sentient, the past two months have flown by.

Anyway, on with my Intermittent Self-Indulgent Blog Series (TM). We're up to the Difficult Third Installment...

3. Rose ( Read more... )

It's that time of year again - the nights are drawing in, the Go! Team are no longer seasonally appropriate listening, recent graduates are realising they actually have to get a job, and the Barclaycard Mercury Prize is due to be announced tonight.

The Mercury nominations always seem to elicit different emotions each year; sometimes excitement, ( Read more... )

I brought my old laptop out of semi-retirement this afternoon, for two reasons; first, because I needed to use MS Office and haven't yet got round to forking out for an Apple-compatible version for the new machine, and second, because I'd acquired a host of new music to add to the old lappy's substantial library.

I haven't actually got round to ( Read more... )

So yes, back to my intermittent not-supposed-to-be-as-preachy-as-it-probably-is blog series on bands I think are awesome that no-one else has heard of. Except from me, and I'm not sure that really counts.

The first post (which you should definitely read if you haven't already) was on Windmill Explosion, three mates who happened to form a great band ( Read more... )

You may note that this update is not my promised blog about random bands who've inspired me (though that is coming, I promise); I realise it's terribly bad form to split my posting series like this (I think maybe when I finish it I'll see if I can re-jig it so it still runs in order), but I felt I had to get my thoughts down about something I've ( Read more... )

 There's something hubristic about starting a series on your third blog post, especially after you've failed to update for two months (in my defence on this last point, I've spent most of that time finishing my degree, and helping other people finish theirs. In a non-plagiaristic way, you understand). This particular series even has a clichéd ABBA ( Read more... )

I'd love to tell you I'm writing this entry whilst listening to my shiny new purchases from Record Store Day, but unfortunately I can't because I'm currently writing this update in the library whilst procrastinating over my final assignment.

I love independent record shops. I love vinyl records. You may not be surprised to discover, then, that I ( Read more... )