ISSUE 10 10 JULY - 16 JULY 2018
LIVE & ALBUM REVIEWS MUSIC NEWS GIG LISTINGS OUT OF TOWN
L E V E L L E R S
ISSUE 10
CONTENTS LEVELLERS
Mark Chadwick talks to Jeff Hemmings about the Levellers’ new album, recording in Abbey Road and the turbulent political landscape in the UK
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BRINGING THE ARTISTS CLOSER TO YOU... CEO: Frank Sansom EDITOR: Daniel White
LISTINGS Our recommended listings and previews of this week’s gigs
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LIVE REVIEWS Orbital, Kristin Hersh and FemRock Fest all feature in this week’s reviews
OUT OF TOWN
ALBUMS
PRODUCTION: Adam Kidd, Jonski Mason COVER SHOT: Jonski Mason 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 Copyright © 2018. All rights reserved.
Our favourite upcoming gigs outside of Brighton
Check out the latest album releases
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NEWS
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With their second album, With Animals, due for release on 24th August via Heavenly Recordings, Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood have unveiled the LP’s deep and brooding title track as a single. They’ll be visiting Brighton when they play The Old Market on 3rd October.
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BC Camplight is set to release his second album for Bella Union, Deportation Blues, on 24th August. An exhilarating, dynamic document of calamity and stress relayed through bold arrangements, he’ll be playing the Green Door Store on 24th October.
Brighton four-piece Wild Cat Strike have released ‘I Feel Good’, the first track from their forthcoming debut album Rhubarb Nosatalgia, released via their hometown label, Small Pond, this autumn. The lyrics of frontman Danny Byrom focus on life, death and memory.
GIG LISTINGS Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar
PREVIEWS The Prince Albert
The Cosmic Dead Thursday 12th July Tickets: £8.80 Presented by Acid Box
Chelsea Friday 13th July Tickets: £11 Presented by FemRock
Vital Idles Friday 13th July Tickets: £6.60 Presented by Love Thy Neighbour
Reckless Intentions Sunday 15th July Tickets: £4.40 Presented by Indigo Music
The Old Market The Jalapeno Bop Saturday 14th July Tickets: £17.50 Presented by Jalapeno Records
Brighton Dome
Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys Monday 16th July Tickets: £13.75 Fur Dixon & WTFUKISHIMA! Tuesday 17th July Tickets: £9.35 Presented by Stay Sick!
Green Door Store
Oh Sees Tuesday 10th July Tickets: £25 Presented by One Inch Badge
The Contortionist Tuesday 10th July Tickets: £13.75 Presented by Green Door Store
Steve Earle & The Dukes Tuesday 17th July Tickets: £32 Presented by One Inch Badge
The Wytches Wednesday 11th July Tickets: £10 Presented by The Wytches
Jazz Re:Fest Sunday 22nd July Tickets: £7.50
The Hope & Ruin Don’t Worry Monday 16th July Tickets: £5 Presented by sugar-free Homesteads Thursday 19th July Tickets: £6 Presented by Homesteads
Concorde 2 Lucky Chops Wednesday 11th July Tickets: £22.50 Presented by One Inch Badge Amadou & Mariam Friday 20th July Tickets: £22 Presented by Melting Vinyl
Latest Music Bar The Alchemy Thursday 19th July Tickets: £4.50 Presented by Brighton Peers
Aren Drift Thursday 12th July Tickets: £5 OTD Presented by Paralytic Promotions The John Hackett Band Friday 13th July Tickets: £13.45 Almeida Saturday 14th July Tickets: £13.20 Presented by Cromstock
Thee MVPs – The Hope & Ruin – Thursday 12th July 2018 Brighton’s favourite garage rockers, Thee MVPs are back in town for their first Brighton show since the end of last year, this time at The Hope & Ruin. We’re yet to hear any new music since last year’s ‘Sesh / Fossor’, so this could be the first introduction to the next phase of Thee MVPs. The bill is stunning too: Sit Down provide the main support, while ‘antipsychers’ Ezekiel Doo will open a night of brilliant alternative music.
Preoccupations – The Haunt – Saturday 14th July 2018 Preoccupations are one of the best industrial sounding post-punk bands going. They’re full of dark and deep songs and are renowned for their live sets. Watching them bellow their set at The Haunt will be nothing short of magnificent. Their towering, brooding songs are unique to them and their sound is instantly recognisable. They tear up and command any room they enter and The Haunt is sure to be no exception.
Suzi Island Tuesday 17th July Tickets: FREE Presented by New Haven Foyer Pandora Echo Wednesday 18th July Tickets: £4 OTD Presented by Green Door Store Projector Thursday 19th July Tickets: £6 OTD Presented by Roadkill Records Animal House Friday 20th July Tickets: £5 OTD Presented by Premium Mediocre Hey Colossus Saturday 21st July Tickets: £12.10 Presented by Tatty Seaside Town
PICK OF TH E WEEK The Rock House Festival 2018 – Green Door Store – Saturday 28th July Brighton’s most inclusive all-day festival returns at the height of summer. Rockhouse 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 Let’s Eat Grandma – I’m All Ears Out: 29th June 2018
It’s immediately apparent from the atmospheric instrumental opener, that Let’s Eat Grandma’s second record is a significant step up from their debut, at least in production terms. They’ve done the work in finding a vocal approach which is extremely effective and performative, but at the same time uniquely theirs and instantly recognisable. They’ve levelled up and display the potential for a long and exciting career in music.
In The Absence Of Anything Else is a truly captivating record from start to finish: the pure ferocity, creativity and cutting edge sound exudes nothing but angst, passion and emotion which will get you beyond riled up and ready to go full riot mode. This is what modern grunge should be achieving, leaving a hint of freshness on your tongue whilst feeling like something straight off Nirvana’s Nevermind.
Loa Loa – In The Absence Of Anything Else Out: 29th June 2018
Thousands of people dancing in a field on a hot summer’s evening felt like a trip down memory lane, aided by Faithless’ DJ set and a mammoth performance from Orbital, showcasing why they are still considered pioneers of UK electronica, delivering an extremely impressive set that left no one disappointed.
Populated largely with Brighton’s femme, queer (and otherwise) creatives, FemRock Fest featured a mix of DIY punk, 00s pop-rock and fuzz during a night void of the selfindulgent nonsense churned out by male-dominated bands.
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On a sweltering Saturday night, Brighton was lucky to play host to a Kristin Hersh show at Duke of York’s Cinema that unveiled a revealing connection between performer and audience as she shared her emotions with the room.
Read the full reviews at Brightonsfinest.com/live
Read the full reviews at Brightonsfinest.com/albums
NIGHTLIFE
OUT OF TOWN
Doc Scott Friday 13th July Patterns 11pm - 4am
Tom Trago Friday 13th July Hideout 11pm - 4am
Asylums Wednesday 11th July Rough Trade East, London 6:45pm
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Friday 13th July Barbican Centre, 7:30pm
Caveman Genius Friday 13th July Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar 9pm - 3am
Krystal Klear Saturday 14th July Patterns 11pm - 4am
Quantic Friday 13th July Electric Brixton, London 7pm
Lovebox 2018 Friday 13th July – Saturday 14th July Gunnersbury Park, London
Jason Chance Saturday 14th July Patterns 11pm - 4am
Psychedelic Disco Saturday 14th July Concorde 2 11pm - 4am
De La Soul Saturday 14th July Somerset House, London 7pm
Don Letts Saturday 14th July The Con Club, Lewes 7:30pm
Tru Thoughts presents Sonic Switch Saturday 14th July Green Door Store 11pm - 4am
Kideko & George Kwali Saturday 14th July The Arch 11pm - 5am
FUR Monday 16th July The Camden Assembly 7:30pm
Pearl Jam Tuesday 17th July The O2 Arena, London 6pm
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Full event listings at Brightonsfinest.com/listings
LEVELLERS After a turbulent year for the Levellers they returned with a new album in March and, ahead of their Bexhill show this month, we caught up with frontman Mark Chadwick
“Bands are weird things, they have their ups and downs,” says Mark Chadwick, lead singer of the Levellers, Brighton’s veteran survivors of a ruthless music industry, and the most successful band to have ever come out of the city, with 11 albums under their belt (including a number one in 1995 with Zeitgeist) and 15 Top 40 singles. It has certainly been a year of mixed fortunes for the band. There was the personal tragedy suffered earlier this year which de-railed their already announced tour in support of the new album We The Collective, which was also put back. The scheduled line-up announcement for their annual Beautiful Days festival was delayed for some time to allow the dust to settle, as much as it could settle bearing in mind the circumstances. However, the Levellers are nothing if not survivors. A band who have suffered far more than their fair share of bile and criticism over the years, for deigning to be political, alternative, environmentally-conscious, and for having built up their success largely without the help of the music press, in a nascent DIY way that is much more commonplace now. Some things remain the same; a new Levellers record is largely ignored by the mainstream press. “Not a lot of PR went into it, it just did itself,” says Mark. “It sounds really honest in this day and age. That’s very rare. It’s very direct, it’s very analogue.” Inspired and produced by the semi-retired John Leckie, a man who helped shape The Bends by Radiohead, We The Collective is a collection of two new tracks and eight re-workings of songs from their back catalogue. It was recorded in the most famous studio of them all, Abbey Road, a place where Leckie started out as a tape operator in 1970. “It was John
Leckie’s idea. What we had been doing up to that point was writing a new record, very guitar-based, the poppy side of the band. He said ‘I want to do an acoustic record with you in Abbey Road’, and we went ‘Yeah, alright then’,” laughs Mark. “That’s where he did all his training, and they’d known him forever. It’s a straight recording from Studio 2 in Abbey Road, which is a brilliant sounding room, with the best microphones in the universe. There was a lot of rehearsing in The Metway (their home studio complex in Brighton) beforehand, so as not to waste time when we got there. Funnily enough they don’t get that many bands in there anymore, probably about two a year. It’s ridiculous. Everyone there was really excited to have us there. ‘Oh, look. Real musicians! Rock and rollers’.”
“They don’t get that many bands in (Abbey Road) anymore. It’s ridiculous. Everyone was really excited to have us there. ‘Oh, look. Real musicians! Rock and rollers’.” The enduring collective spirit of the band, and their continuing passion for their social and political landscape continues to inform their work. Two years on from the EU referendum, where Mark voted to remain, how does he feel about the turbulent political landscape now? “Sick to the bottom of my stomach. I really am. I’ve just been to Europe, and it’s so brilliant. They are so free. What people in this country have got very confused by is that the EU doesn’t pass laws, it just makes suggestions. In Europe they just ignore them all. They do not adhere to any of them. I don’t think they ever did. In
Belgium people are smoking in the pubs, no health and safety anywhere. They’re riding mopeds without helmets on. ‘Hang on a minute, what’s all this’? Their bananas are bendy,” laughs Mark. “It’s only our country that adheres to these things as strictures. They never did anywhere else. It’s nuts. People are concerned about immigration and all that. You know what? It’s going to happen anyway. It’s nothing to do with the EU.” Even if their hopes are receding, their collective spirit lives on, as epitomised by the cover of the album, which features everyone involved in the recording. “Yeah, it’s the collective. That was the vibe we had. Not just us, but including John, all the musicians, and all the engineers as well. They are all part of what happened. That’s the sort of thing the Levellers do. We’re a very inclusive bunch.” In the meantime it’s very much upwards for the band. There’s the upcoming acoustic tour to look forward to, Beautiful Days festival in mid-August, and work on their new album, which was put on hold to do We The Collective instead. “We’ve now got about two albums’ worth. We need to get it down, it’s starting to bug us a bit. That’s why it was important to put new stuff on the record (We The Collective), to let people know that we hadn’t stopped being completely creative. We’re looking at the first half of next year to release the new album.” So, despite all that has happened this year, you just have to keep going? “We do, we do. You have to.” To read the full interview visit Brightonsfinest.com/Levellers
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