ISSUE 12 24 JULY - 30 JULY 2018
LIVE & ALBUM REVIEWS MUSIC NEWS
OUR GIRL Brighton s musical chameleons
GIG LISTINGS OUT OF TOWN
ISSUE 12
CONTENTS OUR GIRL
Ahead of the release of Our Girl’s inaugural record, Stranger Today, Jeff Hemmings spoke to Soph Nathan about the recording process, touring with The Big Moon and much more
5 LISTINGS
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Our recommended listings and previews of this week’s gigs
LIVE REVIEWS Brainchild Festival, Oh Sees and Breathe Panel all feature in this week’s reviews
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BRINGING THE ARTISTS CLOSER TO YOU... CEO: Frank Sansom EDITOR: Daniel White PRODUCTION: Adam Kidd, Jonski Mason COVER SHOT: Hollie Fernando CONTRIBUTORS: Jamie MacMillan, Jeff Hemmings, Iain Lauder, Ben Noble, Liam McMillen, Ben Walker, Christian Middleton, Kelly Westlake, Paul Hill, Chloe Hashemi, Dan Whitehouse, Annie Roberts press@brightonsfinest.com advertising@brightonsfinest.com
ALBUMS
OUT OF TOWN
Check out the latest album releases
Our favourite upcoming gigs outside of Brighton
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NEWS
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Bexhill-on-Sea beckons for Brighton-born band The Kooks, who will be performing at the De La Warr Pavilion, 10th September. The show is part of a short UK tour in support of their forthcoming new album, Let’s Go Sunshine, which comes out 31st August 2018.
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The rising Aussie indie-rockers Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have just released the single ‘Time In Common’ from their Hope Downs album, as well as announcing their biggest headline tour to date, including a date in Brighton at Concorde 2, 23rd October 2018.
Rick Wakeman aims to build on the success of his 2017 album, Piano Portraits, with a follow-up tour and album, Piano Odyssey, out 14th September. He’ll be performing at Worthing’s Pavilion Theatre, 1st November, and De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhillon-Sea, 8th December.
GIG LISTINGS The Hope & Ruin
PREVIEWS The Prince Albert
Parliament Of Trees Thursday 26th July Tickets: £5 OTD Presented by Albion Awake
Charley Crockett Wednesday 25th July Tickets: £12.38 Presented by One Inch Badge
Town Of Cats Friday 27th July Tickets: £5.50 Presented by Town Of Cats
Stephen Evens Saturday 28th July Tickets: £6.60
Vinyl Staircase Saturday 28th July Tickets: £4.40 Presented by Acid Box The Burning Hell Tuesday 31st July Tickets: £11 Presented by Love Thy Neighbour Tequila Mockingbird Wednesday 1st August Tickets: £7.70
Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar Employed To Serve Wednesday 25th July Tickets: £8.50 Presented by Lout Promotions The Mystery Lights Thursday 26th July Tickets: £10 Presented by Acid Box Promotions Great Pagans Friday 27th July Tickets: £3.85 Presented by Brighton Noise Beige Palace Saturday 28th July Tickets: £3.30 Presented by Yeah Go On Then Puppy Tuesday 7th August Tickets: £9.20 Presented by One Inch Badge Stone Cold Fiction Thursday 9th August Tickets: £3.30
Komedia Steven Page Monday 6th August Tickets: £22 Presented by One Inch Badge
The Brunswick Birdeatsbaby Saturday 28th July Tickets: £7.70
Matthew Ryan Wednesday 1st August Tickets: £11.50
Green Door Store Even As We Speak Wednesday 25th July Tickets: £11 Presented by Sarah Records The Kut Sunday 29th July Tickets: £5.75 Presented by The Kut Atlas Wynd Friday 27th July Tickets: FREE Presented by Green Door Store The Pleasure Routine Sunday 5th August Tickets: FREE Presented by Green Door Store
The Haunt Earthless Wednesday 1st August Tickets: £16.50 Presented by Tidal Concerts Sam Outlaw Friday 3rd August Tickets: £17.60
Queen Kwong – The Hope & Ruin – Wednesday 25th July 2018 Having recently released her second LP, Love Me To Death, praised for its strength and genre-defying diversity, Carré Kwong Callaway publicly announced a Cystic Fibrosis diagnosis around the same time as the album launch. This painful debilitating condition comes with a travel warning, so fans of the band should really make the effort to see this tour. Sadly it could be the last time we get to see the band in England for some time.
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Natalie Merchant – St. George’s Church, Kemptown – Friday 27th July Natalie Merchant’s A Summer Evening With... UK tour is taking in 12 cities beginning in St. Ives, and ending in Oxford. She’s stopping off in Brighton to perform in the beautiful setting of St. George’s Church, Kemptown on 17th July. Celebrating her illustrious solo career since leaving 10,000 Maniacs, Natalie will be backed on the tour by guitarist Erik Della Penna, who she’s been working live and in the studio with for the last 20 years.
Bishop Nehru Wednesday 8th August Tickets: £14 Presented by One Inch Badge
Preston Park LoveBN1 Sunday 5th August Tickets: £27.50
Concorde 2 Tiffany Wednesday 1st August Tickets: £20 Presented by Lout Promotions Chaka Demus & Pliers Sunday 5th August Tickets: £27
The Rock House Festival – Green Door Store – Saturday 28th July Brighton’s most inclusive all-day festival returns at the height of summer. Rock House presents a mixed bill of diverse acts, drawing from a range of genres and staging learning disabled bands alongside established and upcoming groups from Brighton, including Fragile Creatures, Beat Express, Projector, Too Hot For Candy, Other States, Electric Fire, Fuzzbomb Flash Band, Witching Waves, Louis Walkden and grasshopper.
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LIVE REVIEWS
ALBUM REVIEWS Breathe Panel – Breathe Panel Out: 29th June 2018
Breathe Panel is a glistening, glowing and sophisticated record that constructs an expansive outlook on life yet with an introspective monologue. Overall, it’s a beautifully warm listen throughout and, unlike many Brighton bands who play a heavier iteration of indie-rock, Breathe Panel have almost perfected a sound and run with it superbly. The best Brighton album of the year? It certainly could be.
David Longstreth, the creative visionary behind Dirty Projectors, returns with a new album, Lamp Lit Prose, adding to a wildly varied catalogue. There are missteps along the way but, where his musical quirks have often come across as calculated, here they come off as spontaneous and lively improvisations, with all manner of musical paraphernalia and instrumentation employed liberally and seemingly randomly.
Dirty Projectors – Lamp Lit Prose Out: 13th July 2018
A band that has changed alias seven times, the main constant in any of John Dwyer’s outfits is the epic ability for an almighty live show. This sweaty Brighton Dome gig by Oh Sees was no different, with fiery riffs and energetic moshpits making it one of the best shows to have come through our city this year.
Three days of positivity, community and sunshine at Brainchild Festival gave an incredible stage for music, spoken word, comedy, talks, workshops, film and theatre, with highlights coming from 30/70 and Sons of Kemet.
After releasing a brilliant self-titled debut album, Breathe Panel treated fans to an intimate acoustic set at Resident, with atendees recieving a homemade scented candle and a screen print with their copy of the album.
Read the full reviews at Brightonsfinest.com/live
Read the full reviews at Brightonsfinest.com/albums
NIGHTLIFE
OUT OF TOWN
Bladerunner Friday 27th July Patterns 11pm - 4am
Leftwing & Kody Friday 27th July Hideout 11pm - 5am
Benin City Tuesday 24th July O2 Forum Kentish Town, London 7pm
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Thursday 26th July O2 Forum Kentish Town, London, 7pm
The Brighton Soul Train Friday 27th July Concorde 2 11pm - 4am
Dino Audio Showcase Friday 27th July Green Door Store 11pm - 4am
The Men They Couldn’t Hang Friday 27th July Ropetackle, Shoreham-bySea, 8pm
Norman Jay MBE Friday 27th July Camden Market, London 6pm
DJ Zinc / Jamie Duggan Friday 27th July The Arch 11pm - 3am
Chaos In The CBD Saturday 28th July Patterns 11pm - 4am
The Yes Mess Saturday 28th July The Harrison, London 7pm
Let’s Rock Festival 2018 Saturday 28 July Clapham Common, London 11am
Todd Edwards Saturday 28th July Hideout 11pm - 5am
The Freestylers Saturday 28th July Volks 11pm - 7am
Standon Calling Thursday 26th - Sunday 29th July Standon, Hertfordshire
George Ezra Wednesday 1st August Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher, 4pm
Full event listings at Brightonsfinest.com/listings
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OUR GIRL
Jeff Hemmings caught up with Our Girl’s Soph Nathan to talk about their debut album, The Big Moon and studying in Brighton Our Girl – Stranger Today What is it about Brighton, and its fertile music landscape? Surely, there must be more musicians per head of population than anywhere else. Every other person is in a band it seems. Certainly BIMM has been a major factor, but so has The Great Escape, and Brighton’s cultural history, a place invariably viewed as one to go to for the purposes of pleasure and entertainment. In particular, guitar-orientated music has been fruitful of late. Bands such as Tigercub, Black Honey, The Magic Gang, and Dream Wife all started here, a springboard to bigger things. There is definitely something in the water down here. The same applies to Our Girl, the threepiece fronted by singer, songwriter and guitarist Soph Nathan who, along with bassist Josh Tyler and drummer Lauren Wilson, have been making waves with their guitar-based indie-garage-pop-grunge music. They’ve been bubbling underneath the surface for awhile, but with the release of debut album Stranger Today in mid-August, that’s about to change. Soph Nathan will be familiar to some, as the guitarist with The Big Moon, who were themselves catapulted forwards with the release of their stunning debut album last year, Love in the 4th Dimension, an album that garnered a well-deserved Mercury Music Prize nomination. However, while The Big Moon is primarily the vehicle for Juliette ‘Jules’ Jackson’s songs, Our Girl revolves around the songwriting of Soph Nathan. “Our Girl started just before The Big Moon,” says Soph, who now lives in London following a three year stint here in Brighton, where the band formed. “But then I started focussing on The Big Moon, making the record and touring, with Our Girl playing and recording all the while. Jules is
writing the second album, and now its Our Girl’s turn to release one. The whole time I’ve been doing The Big Moon stuff, Our Girl has been running alongside it. Like recording demos on the road and doing things on email. Lauren, who plays drums, has a full time job, and Josh is in another band, Breathe Panel. We’re all heavy on the organisation. So, even when The Big Moon do the next album I’ll still be doing shows, and writing for Our Girl. You’ve just got to make it work, and it does for the most part.” With their management based in Brighton, as well as the independent label Cannibal Hymns (also home to Tigercub and Dream Wife releases), which is home to Our Girl’s music, the band’s roots here are deep and wide. “I went to study in Brighton. It’s where I met Josh. The best thing about it (studying) was being in Brighton and meeting people there and playing with people. I was in a house of five people and everyone was in a band, and we played in each other’s bands. We had a basement, which was called ‘the dungeon’, and people who didn’t even live there would come and rehearse. Someone might have a song idea, and they would go down and play it, and figure it out. That was a really good environment to give us the confidence to go for it, with everyone being encouraging.”
“The best thing about (studying) was being in Brighton and playing with people. That was a really good environment to give us the confidence to go for it, with everyone being encouraging.”
Out: 17th August 2018 With a number of singles and an EP under their belt, Our Girl went into the studio with The Corals’ Bill Ryder-Jones to record their album. How was that experience? “His touch made a big difference on the album. We had a try-out day with him at his studio in West Kirby in Liverpool, to make sure there wouldn’t be any glaring problems, and after that we went in for 12 days with him. We stayed at his flat the night before we started recording, which is kinda funny: us staying in this guy’s house, like a sleepover. But it was good, we got to know him a bit. “He’s a really good songwriter and an amazing guitarist. He added a lot of drony sounds to the songs and a lot of guitar lines. He’s got a really good ear, he got our sound. We went in thinking we were going to record everything as we play it live. But actually a lot of the songs were transformed more than we thought they would be because he made a big difference. There are a lot of guitars layered on there!” What inspired you to make music? “My mum was super into (Jimi) Hendrix and Elvis Costello, and my dad liked a lot of Motown stuff. When I started learning guitar I wanted to learn all his (Hendrix’s) songs. ‘Crosstown Traffic’ was one I did when I was little, playing really badly. And Warpaint was a band that I found really inspiring, the way they were a unit, and the way they performed together. They were the kind of band that made me think I’d love to be in a band, and not just to play music.” To read the full interview visit Brightonsfinest.com/OurGirl
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