Greetings dear Constant Readers. Does that sound a bit ‘Bridgerton’? Yes, your humble alt. music mag editor likes trashy TV, don’t we all? I realised recently that my usual opening salvo to you bears a bit of a resemblance to Lady Whistledown, which is not intended, I can assure you. Actually, fact fans, the ‘constant readers’ bit is a rip-off from one of my favourite authors, Stephen King – he addresses his fans as ‘constant reader’. Anyway… you can see from that opening bit of bollocks that I have ZERO craic this month, as I’ve basically just spent all my time at my desk, as usual. For some reason (actually –because of calendars and time), the last couple of months have been a total whirlwind when it comes to deadlines – no sooner have we finished one issue than the clock is ticking on the next, we’ve barely had three weeks to turn each of the last couple of issues around, so I must commend our amazing volunteer writers for their dedication and hard work – without them I probably really would be writing shitty gossip columns or even creating content (*shudder*)
Now then, if you have no earthly concept of what the hell I’m on about, and all that has gone completely over your head, simply turn the page and get stuck into the gigantic amount of alternative music and culture in our fair region throughout October instead!
Editor Claire Dupree
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David Saunders narcmagazineonline@gmail.com
Creative El Roboto
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Neil Ainger / Phoenix Atkinson / Tom Bailey / Matthew Brown / Jonathan Coll / Roz Cuthbert / Laura Doyle / Lee Fisher / Chloe Glover / Kev Gray / Nat Greener / Michaela Hall / Lee Hammond / Donald Jenkins / John Knox / Ben Lowes-Smith / Isabel Maria / Amy Mitchell / Lena Moss / Amelia Neri / Robert Nichols / Michael O’Neill / Niamh Poppleton / Kate Relton / Ben Robinson / Damian Robinson / Laura Rosierse / Elodie A. Roy / David Saunders / Steve Spithray / Mack Sproates / Dawn Storey / Luke Waller / Robin Webb / Jennifer Wilson / Maria Winter / Cameron Wright / Matt Young
PREVIEWS
4 HIGHLIGHTS
Some of the best events in October, plus what’s online at narcmagazine.com
6 PREVIEWS
Live shows from King Buzzo, John Grant, The Vaccines, Uniform, Talib Kweli, Divorce, Pom Poko, Savak, CM Von Hausswolff, Fucked Up, Clock DVA and more; exhibitions including Framing Fashion at Bowes Museum, Chilli Studios’ 20th anniversary at Bottle Works and Space by Luxmuralis at Durham Cathedral; theatre shows Creepy Boys at Alphabetti, Doomgate at Laurel’s, Gerry & Sewell at Theatre Royal, Bullring Techno Makeout Jams at Northern Stage and Tones: A Hip-Hop Opera at ARC among others; plus comedy from Amy Matthews at The Stand, Sarah Keyworth at Tyne Theatre & Opera House, Rob Newman at Dance City and much more!
and The
Reviews of local singles and EP releases from Hels Patterson, Ruby Kelly, OUTRI, Darren Burdis, Sam Baxter & Merle Harbron, S.K.X Funkanauts, Kirsty Hall, Breadcrumbs, Valentine Charlie, Rivkala, Nauta and Labyrinthine Oceans
Featuring new releases from Faithful Johannes & Neocia, Last of the Fallen Angels, Louse, Shovel Dance Collective, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Halina Rice, Meryl Streek, Goat, Laura Marling and many more
28 LIZZIE ESAU
Isabel Maria talks to the indie pop artist about the release of her new EP, finding comfort in anger and her incredible year so far
PREVIEWS
OCTOBER’S DIVERSIONS INCLUDE FRESH FOLK TALENT, SPACE EXPLORATION, PROTEST CULTURE, GOTHIC STORYTELLING AND MUCH MORE!
MUSIC THUR 10
THE WILDERNESS YET
The Wilderness Yet come to The Cumberland Arms with some changes; most notably, singer Rosie Hodgson and fiddler Rowan Piggot will be joined by guitarist and banjo player Ben Filmer-Sankey. They are highly regarded in the folk scene, having received accolades for their Irish and nature inspired work.
The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle www.thewildernessyet.com
MUSIC SAT 5 YMP X GRANTON YOUTH
Discover and support some incredibly promising local talent as part of a creative project created by Young Musician’s Project. This Sunderland show is part of their gig exchange with the mighty Granton Youth and showcases some fantastic artists including Rokkari, Lottie Willis, Low Tide and Drenched in Dreams, promising a night of epic original music.
Pop Recs Ltd., Sunderland www.facebook.com/ youngmusiciansprojectsunderland ART & LIT WED 9
THE HUMAN SPACESHIP: SEA OF THE EDGE
World Space Week is being explored by British-American artist Helen Schell through this unique exhibition, inspired by the challenges of 21st Century space exploration. Helen Schell has been exploring these themes since 2008, and this represents a new move in a unique project, which developed due to visits to NASA. Runs until 26th October.
Vane Gallery, Gateshead www.vane.org.uk
STAGE WED 9
#BOOMERTOBUST
Why’s life so different between the generations? BRIGHTBLACK’s immersive documentary created in Stockton investigates. Blending live performance and video game technologies, the future-glimpsing artists figure out if Gen Z’ers spend all their money on avocados and if Boomers are to blame for Gen Z never being able to move out of home... ever. Also on Thursday 10th. ARC, Stockton www.arconline.co.uk
MUSIC THUR 10 RACHAEL MCSHANE & THE CARTOGRAPHERS
Lovers of folk, get ready for The F Word, Newcastle Arts Centre’s exciting new monthly folk series. Hosted at the Black Swan Bar & Venue, each show brings amazing folk artists and fresh local talent together. Kick off the fun in October with renowned cellist, fiddle player and singer Rachael McShane and her band, The Cartographers. Black Swan Bar & Venue, Newcastle www.newcastle-arts-centre.co.uk/ the-f-word
STAGE TUE 15
RE:INCARNATION
A riot of colour and noise set against the backdrop of Lagos, Nigeria’s renowned QDance Company bring a celebration of the country’s culture and history to Newcastle. A joyful exploration of the cycle of life encompassing ancient Yoruba philosophy and Nigerian youth culture. Also on Wednesday 16th. Theatre Royal, Newcastle www.theatreroyal.co.uk
ART & LIT THUR 17
HOPE AS A RADICAL ACT
A pop-up exhibition from Paul Warrior and renowned artist Jimmy Turrell, aiming to reimagine protest culture, offering a fresh perspective on activism, creativity, collective hope and positive change. Expect contributions from photographers, graphic designers and street artists including Jimmy Turrell, Saint Sophie, Corbin Shaw, Cack Handed Kid, Anthony Burrill and more.
The CampFire, Byker www.jimmyturrell.com
Helen Schell, Worms, 2024
Image by David Hall
Hold On To Hope by Anthony Burrill
Image by Jean Couturier
OCTOBER HIGHLIGHTS
STAGE THUR 17
8 HOURS THERE AND BACK
All Things Considered Theatre’s new production is inspired by real-life testimonies of children and young people who have a parent in prison. Follow Ruby, Jake and Grace’s story fusing theatre, dance and projections as they navigate a world they shouldn’t be in and a judicial system that’s forgotten about them. The Hullabaloo, Darlington www.darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk
MUSIC
THUR 17
PEATBOG FAERIES
Thrilling audiences for over 30 years with their exhilarating live shows, Isle of Skye folk legends Peatbog Faeries are back with new material. With a refreshed seven-piece line-up, expect tons of energy, irresistible rhythms and all the lush melodic beauty you’d expect from the Celtic folk tradition. ARC, Stockton www.peatbogfaeries.com
Image by Cloe Morrison
MUSIC FRI 18
IZZIE YARDLEY
Known for seducing her audience with a lyrical blend of folk, jazz and classical influences, singer-songwriter Izzie Yardley’s is a live act not to be missed. Taking each gig as an improvisational conversation between Yardley and her band, her live shows promise something different every time.
The Engine Room, North Shields www.izzieyardley.com
MUSIC
FRI 25
THE LILACS
Hailing from the Manchester music scene, The Lilacs are a band on the verge of greatness. Coming off from a headlining performance at Stockton Calling this April, they will be coming to KU as a warm-up and promise to bring their high energy indie vibes. KU, Stockton www.upthelilacs.com
MUSIC FRI 25
STEVE KNIGHTLEY
Legendary West Country singer-songwriter
Steve Knightley, formerly the frontman of Show of Hands, is coming to the Gosforth Civic Theatre to promote his album The Winter Yards, signalling a major shift in his career’s trajectory. A veteran of the English acoustic scene, it’ll be a joy to see him in such a beautiful venue.
Through three classic ghost stories, the Book of Darkness and Light company bring all the spine-tingling thrills you could desire this Halloween. With tales of vengeance, murder and messages from beyond the grave, this gothic and chilling storytelling promises to be deliciously terrifying. Also at Arts Centre Washington on 28th November.
Issue 13 of the NARC. E-ZINE has landed! Discover exclusive playlists, videos, mini-documentaries and much more, continually updated throughout its lifespan
NARC. TV
Check out live performances and chat from North East bands and musicians on our magazine-style programmes + ALSO THIS MONTH…
FFO: WINGZ OF THE MONKEY
The Teesside alt. rockers attempt to encapsulate the sounds of their new EP using three other tracks
INTERVIEW: TONES – A HIP-HOP OPERA
David Saunders chats with Wound Up Theatre about the fusion of hip-hop, grime, drill and opera in their new production at ARC
KEEP UP WITH WHAT’S
COMEDY
AMY MATTHEWS @ THE STAND
Words: Laura Rosierse
Amy Matthews’ previously sold out tour is currently streaming on ITVX and took audiences on a deeply personal journey as she rebuilt her life after a breakdown. Matthews now returns to the stage with Commute With The Foxes, in which the critically decorated comic explores how context completely transforms meaning. The show pulls on two main threads, from observations about society to highly personal insights, and will be performed at Newcastle’s Stand Comedy Club on Saturday 19th October. She’s created a pensive and personal show that was inspired by a few odd characters, urban foxes, working and living in a city, and so much more, and a different perspective brings a refreshing taste to her brand new piece of work. Matthews is an exciting voice
in the modern comedy scene, known as an artist who doesn’t mince her words and presents the truth as it is. Commute With The Foxes will be a visual show, which Amy envisages as a cinematic stand-up show set on a train; once again, she’s pushing the boundaries of comedy to a create colourful and oddly-shaped show that is as addictive as it is hilarious. www.amymatthewscomedy.com
MUSIC CLOCK DVA @ THE LUBBER FIEND
Words: Ben Lowes-Smith
The Lubber Fiend is happily garnering a national and international reputation for expertly curating experimental and leftfield music in an inclusive, intimate DIY space. This is excellently realised on Tuesday 29th October as Clock DVA play the venue, and as auteurs of proto industrial music, they feel like
a perfect fit for the place.
Emerging out of Sheffield at the end of the 1970s, and spearheaded by Adi Newton, the sole consistent member of the group, Clock DVA have amassed a catalogue of twenty albums, initially produced with tape loops and synthesisers, with sounds expanded to incorporate aspects of musique concrete with rock instrumentation. Having collaborated with peers Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire in the 70s and 80s, Newton has continued to plough his own beautiful furrow over the decades, referring to his own artistic process as a form of research in order to gain a deeper understanding of his own relationship with technology and the philosophical questions this raises. The band’s live appearances since reforming in 2008 have been somewhat sporadic, so this will be a rare opportunity to see true pioneers of electronic and industrial music in a suitably intimate setting. www.clockdva.com
Amy Matthews by Dylan Woodley
STAGE
GERRY & SEWELL @ THEATRE ROYAL
Words: Michael O’Neill
Combining live music, puppet dogs and Wor Flags, Gerry & Sewell is a vibrant rainbow of black and white that has already taken the theatrical world by storm. Adapted from Jonathan Tulloch’s novel The Season Ticket
(which was also the basis for the iconic cult Geordie film Purely Belter), Gerry & Sewell finds the titular duo of Gateshead lads moving heaven and earth to nab a Newcastle United season ticket in the face of austerity and a myriad of other obstacles (such as local radgies and the odd madcap scrap merchant).
After sell-out runs at Whitley Bay’s Laurels and Live Theatre, this run sees the Olivier Award-winning play expand to the grand stage of Grey Street’s Theatre Royal from Wednesday 2nd-Saturday 5th October, and this expansion is a testament to the play’s enduring appeal.
The cast is also brilliant, with original cast members Dean Logan, Jack Robertson and Becky Clayburn as Gerry, Sewell and Tyneside, as well as Bill Ward (Coronation Street and Emmerdale), Michelle Heaton (Liberty X) and Project A alum Erin Mullen, starring as the McCarten family. All in all, it’s a superbly told story that wonderfully encapsulates the pride and passion that keeps this region alight. www.theatreroyal.co.uk
Image by Meg Jepson
MUSIC BRAVE EXHIBITIONS GIGS
@ VARIOUS VENUES
Words: Lee Fisher
Brave Exhibitions first sprang to life as a weekend festival taking place across both floors of The Cluny back before the Awfulness, and continuing afterwards, with the last one taking place back in 2022. Each iteration had a stellar line-up and a diverse, inclusive, adventurous ethos behind it. Brave Exhibitions lay dormant for a couple of years, but now things are stirring again. Helmed by Helen Walkinshaw (Irked, Blom, Index) and Joel Thomson (F54), this new incarnation of Brave Exhibitions has a mission simple statement: ‘to promote occasional intimate shows that celebrate the spaces and artists we love’. With that in mind, they’ve announced the first pair of shows in what will hopefully become a regular source of exciting gigs. First up is a show headlined by Liverpool’s Luce Mawdsley, an autistic non-binary composer and musician – formerly of the wonderful Mésange – who’ll be presenting music from their Northwest & Nebulous album, an example of their soi disant ‘Scouse Americana’. Taking place in the lovely Summerhill Bowling Club on Wednesday 2nd October, support comes from Watersmeet and Newcastle’s very own Dawn Terry. The second show is a return to the city for Lower Slaughter, the much-loved noise rock outfit who’ve had another line-up shake-up and
bring their latest form to the Old Coal Yard on Friday 25th October. They’re supported by local noiseniks Marginal Gains and Zilch Patrol. All this makes for a promising start to the next stage of Brave Exhibitions – long may it run. www.brave-exhibitions.co.uk
COMEDY
AMY GLEDHILL @ THE STAND
Words: Jennifer Wilson
Amy Gledhill, a talented comedian, actor and writer from Hull, is making huge waves on the UK comedy scene. Known for her sharp wit and engaging performances, Amy’s career took off after winning the Caroline Aherne Bursary in 2018.
She is also one third of the acclaimed comedy duo The Delightful Sausage, whose show Ginsters Paradise was nominated for Best Show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and she’s also popped up the telly on The Jonathan Ross Show, Pointless Celebrities and the brilliant Alma’s Not Normal.
In 2022, Amy debuted her solo show The Girl Before The Girl You Marry at the Edinburgh Fringe, earning a nomination for Best Newcomer. Her latest show, Make Me Look Fit On The Poster, won the Best Show award at the 2024 Edinburgh Comedy Awards and is currently touring the UK. With her unique style and versatility, Amy Gledhill is not one to miss. Catch her chatting about self-confidence, romance and bin bags
at The Stand in Newcastle on Monday 21st October, sure to be a comedy highlight! www.amygledhill.co.uk
MUSIC
RACHAEL LAVELLE @ THE LUBBER FIEND
Words: Maria Winter
Rachael Lavelle, a rising force in Ireland’s music scene, brings her mesmerising voice to Newcastle’s Lubber Fiend on Tuesday 15th October. Known for her unique blend of avant pop and jazz-infused minimalism, Lavelle has stunned audiences supporting acts like Lankum and CMAT.
Her debut album Big Dreams (2023), nominated for Ireland’s prestigious Choice Music Prize, explores themes of isolation, social pressure and online culture, all woven together with influences as diverse as Björk, Joni Mitchell and Debussy. The album captures the struggles of adulthood in today’s digital age, delivering a haunting yet playful sound that’s equal parts cerebral and visceral.
Big Dreams has garnered rave reviews for its bold mix of genres and emotional depth, catapulting Lavelle into the spotlight. Her voice, often described as heavenly, effortlessly carries the listener through her rich, eclectic soundscape. Whether you’re a longtime fan or new to her music, this show promises to be an immersive experience.
www.rachaellavelle.com
Luce Mawdsley by Rosie Terry Toogood
MUSIC POM POKO @ TWISTERELLA/THE CLUNY
Words: Michael O’Neill
Forgive the lazy cliché, but the unstoppable post-punk revival-revival juggernaut is so far from running out of steam. For nearly a decade
we’ve been absolutely spoiled rotten with bands from all over the world who are taking the abrasive, angular racket of the 80s and 00s and reforming them into bold, modern forms. A sterling example can be found in Norwegian quartet Pom Poko. Formed in Oslo in 2017 (and named after the iconic Studio Ghibli film) the Bella Union-signees have ridden a solid wave of critical acclaim with the release of 2019’s Birthday, 2021’s Cheater and recent LP Champion; their noisy, sugar-coated songs are as glorious as they are infectious, delivered
with wit, precision and charm. There’s a strong command of melody and splendour within their wonderfully warped sound-world, but enough unpredictable, off-kilter moments to keep your ears pricked and your brain tickled, and a refreshing avoidance of The Fall/Gang of Four sonic tropes. They’re making two stops in the region, with the band being a co-headliner of Middlesbrough’s iconic Twisterella Festival on Saturday 12th October, and then embarking on a headlining set at Newcastle’s Cluny on Tuesday 15th October. Catch them wherever
Image by Jonathan Vivaas Kise
Image by Colin Medley
MUSIC
FUCKED UP @ THE GROVE
Words: Jonathan Coll
Legendary Toronto hardcore outfit Fucked Up are showing no sign of slowing down; they’re currently sitting in the midst of a prolific run of studio releases and tour dates. Last year’s
album One Day, appropriately enough recorded separately by each member within a 24-hour period, was an excellent precursor to their latest release Another Day. It’s exactly the sort of melodic, white-knuckle ride we’ve come to expect from the band; continuing to innovate after two decades altering time and space. There’s a conceptual consistency between the two albums, with their recent release also featuring Josh Zucker playing guitar in a studio for the first time in ten years. They’ll take to the stage at Byker institution
The Grove on Tuesday 29th October, the final night of the UK leg of a tour which takes in the some of the most renowned venues in the US and Canada. It’s apt that their journey stops off in the region’s capital, with Newcastle’s hardcore scene being one of the most vibrant in the country. The North East carries exactly the sort of defiant, DIY spirit with which Fucked Up made their name, and support comes from local local radge monsters Fast Blood.
www.fuckedup.cc
ART & LIT FRAMING FASHION @ THE BOWES MUSEUM
Words: Ben Robinson
From Saturday 19th October until Sunday 2nd March, The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle will host a dazzling brand-new exhibition titled Framing Fashion: Art and Inspiration from a Private Collection of Vivienne Westwood. Drawing from the private collections of Vivienne Westwood, this exhibit showcases some treasures of the fashion world. From the iconic 1990s Westwood designs that lit up runways and supermodels worldwide, to the historical portraits that inspired Westwood’s iconic style, visitors will get an intimate look at one of the most influential fashion houses of all time. The exhibition promises to be a fusion of fashion and art, offering something for everyone to admire. Through portraits, to patterns and fabrics which provided inspiration, audiences will see the design journey Westwood went on. Peter Smithson, who curated this collection, explains further: “This exhibition has been inspired by the homage Vivienne made to the work of the Old Masters through her Portrait collection. The pieces displayed will explore Vivienne’s re-interpretation of fashion within paintings and illuminate the abstract ways in which she so wittily represented every aspect of what she observed.”
In addition, items from the Bowes Museum’s own collection which echo some of the themes and references in Westwood’s work
will also be on show, including paintings, objects and historic fashions which will add further context to the fashion icon’s work. www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk
MUSIC DIVORCE @ THE CLUNY 2
Words: Laura Rosierse
North East promoters Eastside Events bring Nottingham four-piece Divorce to The Cluny 2 on Friday 18th October for a night of unapologetic indie rock, or as the band describe themselves: “Wilco meets Abba”. Divorce formed during the pandemic and have since made a name for themselves through pensive rock tracks driven by stunning vocals, harmonies and sliding riffs. On stage, the band tries to convey their sound greater than the sum of its parts, and over the past few years they have started to achieve that.
The band themselves admit it wasn’t an easy beginning, as they struggled with low quality equipment and gaps in their knowledge, but Divorce have never stopped growing and evolving. Audiences have fallen for the band’s warm yet desperate country theatrics and are charmed by the hard-working musicians that bring such a creative and surprisingly humorous live experience. Born from a friendship and passion for music, Divorce are due to bring an enigmatic, captivating and powerful live show to Newcastle. www.divorcehq.co.uk
MUSIC
HOWAY FEST @ VARIOUS VENUES
Words: Isabel Maria
Running from Friday 27th September until Saturday 19th October, Tyneside-based extravaganza Howay Fest is bringing a myriad of musical and cultural events to venues in Newcastle and North Shields. Featuring art installations and pop-up markets, as well as 25 bands of all genres across eight different shows, the festival is an eclectic experience with something for everyone.
Venues taking part include Three Tanners Bank, Barca El Globo, The Grove and more, all chosen for their individuality and atmosphere. And to help amp those factors up are no less than 25 diverse and dynamic bands and artists, some local and some hailing from further afield.
Performers include Trampolene (Friday 11th Oct, King Street Social), Lizzie Esau (Saturday 19th Oct, Salt Market Social), Bear Park (Friday 4th Oct, The Grove) and King Nun (Saturday 28th Sept, Salt Market Social), as well as other rising stars like India Arkin (Friday 27th Sept, Barca El Globo), Dayzies (Saturday 5th Oct, The Globe), Jam Tub (Saturday 12th Oct, Three Tanners Bank) and Scrannabis (Friday 18th Oct, Little Buildings). The festival is a self-described “testament to Newcastle’s rich cultural heritage and its vibrant future” – and the line-ups are even tasty enough to swallow the programme’s somewhat cringy moniker. www.howayfest.co.uk
Divorce by Alex Evans
STAGE
TONES: A HIP-HOP OPERA @ ARC
Words: Laura Rosierse
For the love of storytelling we highlight a piece of gig theatre like no other, Tones: A Hip-Hop Opera will be coming to Stockton’s ARC on Wednesday 23rd October, bringing a
combination of gritty underground sounds teamed with the melodrama of opera to tell the story of a treacherous path to self-discovery. A slippery slope of emotion and personal development, the production is infused with the sounds of hip-hop, grime and drill, and comes from the hand of writer and performer Gerel Falconer, winner of Best Book and Lyrics at the Black British Theatre Awards 2024. Tones is a riveting exploration of the Black and mixed heritage experience, breaking boundaries and ignoring taboos, the production
promises to take audiences on a modern quest that asks questions of race and follows the pivotal moments of lead character Jerome, AKA The Professor, and his upbringing from childhood to his departure from university. Battles with identity, Black-British culture, class and belonging are discussed and exemplified and make the opera a genre-pushing piece of work that will hopefully provide a point of discussion and conversation. www.wounduptheatre.com
Image by Andrew Perry
COMEDY ROB NEWMAN @ DANCE CITY
Words: Michaela Hall
There’s rightly a lot of hype around Rob Newman and his ‘intellectually charged’ and eccentric approach to stand-up. Having gained notoriety alongside David Baddiel in the ‘90s, he’s since been the winner of two BBC Audio drama awards as well as gaining acclaim as a much-loved comedian.
His well-curated, joyful comedy brings together stories from cave paintings to car-free cities and everything in between. It’s no wonder that audiences come away wanting more.
The best bit is that his Where The Wild Things Were tour is coming to Newcastle’s Dance City on Tuesday 15th October, and returning to The Witham in Barnard Castle on Saturday 30th November. His comedy is truly unique and quirky and guarantees a night of unexpected delights that you won’t find elsewhere. If you can’t wait until then, you can also get a taster on BBC Sounds where there are a number of his episodes available that tackle topics such as therapy and philosophy with a humorous twist. It’s clear with Rob that no topic is off limits, and there’s something to explore in everything and anything. Curiosity is key and for those curious, you don’t want to miss these shows!
www.robnewman.com
MUSIC KING BUZZO & TREVOR DUNN @ THE CLUNY
Words: John Knox
Mike Patton’s independent record label Ipecac Recordings – named after a vomit-inducing tincture – has put out a monumental amount of obscure and experimental music since its formation in 1999. From King Buzzo’s own prolific Melvins output and his collaborations with Patton in Fantômas, through Patton’s own eclectic oeuvre: Tomahawk, Peeping Tom, Mr. Bungle etc. And anywhere Patton goes, pedigree bass playing virtuoso Trevor Dunn tends to follow.
So, in the mix-and-match spirit of Ipecac, this pairing of label stalwarts at The Cluny on Friday 4th October should not come as a surprise… yet it’s really intriguing. Firstly, it’s an acoustic show. Dunn will be tackling an upright concert bass, with Buzzo on vocals and acoustic guitar, but throw in some modular synthesisers too for good measure. It’s likely they will be covering material from Buzzo’s last solo album, Gift of Sacrifice. A cinematic and textural experience which successfully transmutes the signature Melvins brand of sonic sludge into the more dreamlike acoustic domain without losing any of the hypnotic propulsion. I’m not sure who this music is supposed to be for, Mike Patton’s fanbase does not want for dilettantes, but if you’ve ever genuinely gone back to a John Zorn record for a second listen then maybe you’re it. www.ipecac.com
STAGE DOOMGATE @ LAUREL’S
Words: Mack Sproates
This Halloween, Laurel’s in Whitley Bay invite you to step inside the creaking doors of Doomgate… an anthology of dark comedy plays by Carpet Time Productions. Over five nights from Tuesday 29th October-Saturday 2nd November, audiences can enjoy twisted tales creepy enough to make Vincent Price’s ears perk up, as they encounter the residents of Doomgate – a ghoulish street filled with frights and delights and where nothing is what it seems. These ghastly stories are oozing with excitement and promise to serve up characters full of secrets and suspicions, with a slice of funny and fear. Among the creators is comedy aficionado Hannah Sowerby (10 Things To Do In A Small Cumbrian Town, BBC’s Grin Up North), whose Alan Bennet meets Royston Vasey writing style is known to entertain crowds with laugh out loud moments injected with spine tingling shocks. Combined with macabre masterminds Jamie McLeish and Lynne Patrick, Doomgate promises to deliver mundane horrors, tricks, treats and trains (?) this Halloween. Dark comedy is such a rarity on stage, which makes this show all the more intriguing to see. Perfect for fans of Inside No 9 and Nighty Night, this is a must see for all dark comedy lovers. So why not celebrate the spooky holidays and pop by Doomgate? Only trouble is, you might never return… www.laurelswhitley.co.uk
Rob Newman
STAGE BULLRING
TECHNO MAKEOUT JAMZ @
NORTHERN STAGE
Words: Michael O’Neill
I remain in awe at how brilliantly the theatre industry is accommodated for throughout the region, especially within Newcastle, where the likes of Northern Stage, Live Theatre and Alphabetti continue, time and time again, to bring brilliant, fledgling talent to their floorboards. Despite what many cynics may claim, we’re seeing more and more young talent rising up to tell poignantly personal stories in brilliantly unique ways, and Nathan Queeley-Dennis‘ Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz, coming to Northern Stage from Tuesday 8th-Wednesday 9th October is certainly no exception.
The play is Nathan’s debut production (in which he also stars as lead Nathaniel) which is a love letter to Birmingham, exploring Black masculinity through Beyonce lyrics, techno raves and the deeply intimate relationship between a man and his barber. It’s a deeply unique and personal production which has garnered a wealth of acclaim, taking 2023’s Edinburgh Fringe by storm and bagging the 2022 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting. It’s refreshing to see the theatrical form being used to tell such a personal, autobiographical story, and it is clear this is a bold first step from a truly gifted storyteller and actor; and a testament to how lucky we are to have such forward-thinking theatrical venues on our doorstep!
www.northernstage.co.uk
MUSIC TALIB KWELI @ NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ UNION
Words: Kev Gray
One of the biggest names in underground hip-hop of the last 25 years hits Newcastle on Halloween night. Talib Kweli will be playing Northumbria University Students’ Union, and you can even get a £5 discount if you take advantage of the special Halloween tickets (it does mean you’ve gotta go in fancy dress though).
The Brooklyn rapper first came to prominence in the late 90s as one half of alternative rap duo Black Star, alongside the legendary Mos Def. As one of the poster boys for ‘conscious rap’ in the early 2000s, he worked alongside a host of the biggest production names in hip-hop, including Pharrell Williams, DJ Quik and Kanye West (back when that was still a positive). He’s also no stranger to controversy, known for his strong political views and activism related to subjects like police brutality.
With dozens of critically-acclaimed albums to his name, including collaborations with Madlib and his latest release alongside veteran producer J. Rawls, Kweli has no shortage of cult classics to draw from. This will be a rare chance to catch a hip-hop legend in town. www.talibkweli.com
MUSIC
JOHN GRANT @ THE FIRE STATION
Words: Cameron Wright
Although his early records may draw parallels with other biting lyricists and sardonic balladeers like Father John Misty, the evolution of John Grant is a very exciting one. Grant has built a career off his folksy vocals and vivid storytelling, often unfurling tales of heroes and heartbreak. The stories explore the prolific themes of Grant’s life and his experiences, emotion and maturity towards the subjects of sexuality and addiction are palpable. The Art Of The Lie is Grant’s next chapter. The new record explores Grant’s Methodist parents and his homosexuality. Themes of hypocrisy and doubt are rife, as well as conflicting views around the importance of family, religion and politics. It’s a fascinating dive into the human psyche, as well as a deliciously fun romp through bouncing synth pop. Throughout the record, this groovy shine gets twisted and contorted, morphing into a darker, nuanced reality, as he sheds each layer throughout the record. The anger may be there, the sass and the charm are all still intact, but the swirling instrumentals that surround them are all new. It’s a cinematic experience, a story within an album, and the storyteller himself comes to Sunderland’s Fire Station on Saturday 19th October.
www.johngrantmusic.com
Talib Kweli
MUSIC UNIFORM @ THE LUBBER FIEND
Words: Lee Fisher
Uniform are part of a tremendous wave of crushingly heavy bands to appear from the US over the last decade or so, alongside the likes of Thou, The Body and lately Chat Pile, all
finding new ways of turning the base elements of industrial, noise, doom, metal and the rest into something fresh and thrilling. Starting with the coruscating Wake In Fright, the NYC trio have released a slew of albums for Sacred Bones that have redefined what you can do with noise, but their latest, American Standard, takes things to another level. On this four-track LP, the band’s vocalist Michael Berdan explores the origins, impact and aftermath of his lifetime of harrowing, self-destructive eating disorders in a manner
BEYOND the MOOR
that’s utterly honest, deeply upsetting and unlike anything you’ve ever heard. This is no party but it does sound astonishing, with the trio augmented here by tour drummer Michael Blume for added percussive impact. They’re playing a mere three dates in the UK as part of a European tour and somehow the geniuses at The Lubber Fiend have secured one of them on Wednesday 2nd October with support from Stevenage hardcore band Bad Breeding, and it’s going to be intense. www.uniform-nyc.com
Image by Andrew Schneider
MUSIC
DONNY MCCASLIN @ THE EXCHANGE 1856
Words: John Knox
It has been said that Donny McCaslin is David Bowie’s David Bowie; a man who shaped the sound of Bowie’s latter recordings. Despite being a sought-after New York bandleader, saxophonist and composer with over a dozen albums and multiple Grammy nominations, it is his work on Bowie’s parting gift Blackstar for which he is best known.
The final opus of the Thin White Duke may not have caused every Ziggy Rebel Pretty Thing to do a Magic Dance when it came out, but it remains a profound and timeless art rock statement to this day thanks to Donny and the musicians gathered by David for those sessions.
So, join Donny with Tim LeFebvre and Jason Lindner (who performed on Blackstar) along with cutting edge musical innovator Zach Danziger for an absolutely unmissable modern jazz performance at The Exchange 1856 in North Shields on Saturday 26th October, the only other UK date outside of London – a coup de grâce for the region. Kevin Armstrong, who worked as a guitarist for Bowie in the 80’s and played alongside him at Live Aid, will be performing a support set and giving insight into his time working with Bowie and others in his career.
What’s more, Donny and Kevin will be on hand to discuss their legendary careers as well as their work with Bowie at The Engine Room in North Shields earlier that afternoon. www.donnymccaslin.com
MUSIC HARTLEPOOL FOLK FESTIVAL @ VARIOUS VENUES
Words: Claire Dupree
Hartlepool Folk Festival has an established reputation for bringing local, national and international talent together to celebrate the varied genres of folk, and the weekend-long celebration returns to venues around Hartlepool’s historic Headland from Friday 4th-Sunday 6th October.
The line-up is nicely balanced, featuring well-known and much-loved artists like revolutionary folk revival artist Peggy Seeger, Mercury Prize winning songwriter Kate Rusby, sitar player Jasdeep Singh Degun, poetic duo
The Breath and captivating trio Lady Maisery, as well as innovative performers including composer and qanan virtuoso Maya Youssef, passionately political contemporary folk star Maddie Morris and accomplished instrumentalist and clog dancer Hannah James. The North East folk contingent are also well represented, with sets from Kathryn Tickell, The Wilsons, Jez Lowe, Frankie Archer and folk legend Sandra Kerr among many others. There are also special commissions like Bold Miners: Spirit of 84, which will see a raft of the festival’s stars join forces with the Durham Miners Association Brass Band to uncover traditions around colliery brass band culture and protest songs.
A free family folk festival runs alongside the ticketed musical activities, aiming to offer everyone a taste of the programme. The outdoor event on Saturday and Sunday features
theatre performances, roaming troubadours, puppetry and plenty of live music. www.hartlepoolfolkfest.co.uk
MUSIC BEYOND THE MOOR @ GOSFORTH CIVIC THEATRE
Words: Lee Fisher
Created by local musicians Kari MacLeod and Bernard Wright, Beyond The Moor takes place for the third time on Saturday 12th October at its regular Gosforth Civic Theatre home. The festival was born from a desire to provide a focus for the burgeoning local and national folk scene, and provides a chance to see some of the best the scene has to offer on one stacked bill. This year’s bill is absolutely crammed with talent old and new: including the remarkable (and remarkably successful) duo O’Hooley & Tidow; Leveret, the trad trio featuring scene veterans Andy Cutting (Blowzabella), Robert Harbron (The Full English) and Sam Sweeney (Bellowhead); North East-based Breton trio Cri du Canard; and local experimental musician Me Lost Me; there’s also Jez Lowe, Sam Baxter, the Ouseburn Folk Choir and musicians from Newcastle University Folk Degree. The festival takes place across two stages in the theatre and starts at 2.30pm. Tickets are £35 and there’ll be plenty of food and drink available to see you through the day.
www.gosforthcivictheatre.co.uk
Cri du Canard by Elly Lucas
ART & LIT
WHERE THE LIGHT GETS IN @ THE BOTTLEWORKS
Words: Mack Sproates
Celebrating 20 years of supporting folks in mental health recovery through art, Chilli Studios is set to open a vibrant new exhibition entitled Where The Light Gets In at Newcastle’s Bottleworks gallery from Friday 4th-Tuesday 8th October. You can expect a vibrant mix of multidisciplinary art – from gorgeous watercolours and ceramics, to inventive and quirky illustrations, digital prints and mono prints to carefully crafted wood carvings and so much more.
All of the work has been made by those with lived experience of mental health issues or those at risk of social exclusion in their communities, and these themes are playfully challenged and explored in the colourful and imaginative featured works. The exhibition will
also feature art donated by renowned local artists from Newcastle, and all of the artworks are set to be sold at auction on Friday 11th October at The Toffee Factory, with all proceeds going back into the charity.
It is crucial that services like this are able to continue as they are so important to the community, especially in recent times where funding for mental health support is so sparse. It’s a fantastic milestone that Chilli Studios has reached by supporting artists to help overcome mental health in creative ways, and what a brilliant way to honour this by checking out their exhibition this October. www.chillistudios.co.uk
MUSIC
THE VACCINES @ MIDDLESBROUGH TOWN HALL
Words: Thomas Bailey The Vaccines, probably most commonly known
for their hit If You Wanna, will be stopping by Middlesborough Town Hall on Tuesday 29th October during their tour for their new album, Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations.
The Vaccines have created an established sound that blends indie rock, garage rock and post-punk, taking influences from classic rock and the likes of The Strokes, The Ramones, and The Velvet Underground, but with a modern edge. While the band haven’t strayed too far from their established sound, their musical style is clearly a winning one given their first five albums have all reached the top five in UK charts. Although their sixth is similar in style to the other five, they have mastered the sound they are known for and are still able to create really well-put-together guitar-driven, indie sing-along anthems.
In the live arena the band are known for their energetic stage show, sizzling indie anthems and catchy guitar riffs and lyrics. www.thevaccines.com
The Vaccines
EVENT UNITY FESTIVAL @ VARIOUS VENUES
Words: Michaela Hall
UNITY Festival is back for its fourth year running and it’s guaranteed to be another great one. Presented by Skimstone Arts, the festival takes place from Friday 18th–Sunday 27th October across Kirkleatham Museum in Redcar and Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle, and has something for everyone. As the title may suggest, the festival is all about coming together to celebrate humanity, nature and social action. This year’s theme is ‘hidden worlds’; think about those powerful voices we don’t normally hear or those magical bits of nature we don’t even know exist yet and you’re getting towards the heart of the event. It’s about community and life.
The bonus is that it doesn’t cost a penny, the festival is free and encourages people from all walks of life to come along and enjoy. There are a vast range of performances and exhibitions to keep you busy, you could find yourself listening to acclaimed opera singer Harkling, refugee artists Shirley & The Gang or Ghanaian musician Nil Kwarty Owoo; enjoying Turkish sand art courtesy of Bilal Kose; or visiting ‘the tree of manifestation’, built by the North East Ukrainian community, just for starters. No matter what you choose, this is without doubt one of the best events in the calendar to explore creativity and belonging, something I think we all seek in our busy day to day schedules.
www.skimstone.org.uk
COMEDY CREEPY BOYS @ ALPHABETTI THEATRE
Words: Matt Young
The Creepy Boys welcome you all to a riotous whirlwind of dark, absurd comedy at Alphabetti Theatre on Friday 25th October, guaranteed to leave audiences both bewildered and laughing out loud. This ghoulishly delightful two-hander will take viewers into the bizarre world of “loveable weirdos”; as the titular Creepy Boys – Sam Kruger and S.E. Grummet – blend their magnetic on-stage chemistry with razor-sharp wit and grotesque charm.
Audiences are invited to the strange twins’ thirteenth birthday party, which serves as merely a cliff from which to dive off as the duo’s seamless energy drives a show filled with outlandish antics, eerie soundscapes and delightfully offbeat sketches.
The narrative’s frenetic chaos leaves little time to catch your breath, but equally gives Creepy Boys its irresistible charm. There’s a lurking cleverness beneath the silliness, a satire on toxic masculinity wrapped in Halloween costumes and unnerving laughter. Macabre comedy blends the ridiculous with genius as the dynamic duo plunges us into a basement world of bizarre rituals and eccentric characters. Satirising horror tropes with wild imaginations and minimal props, the focus remains sharply on the actors’ whirlwind antics and razor-sharp dialogue due to the tight script packed with witty one-liners. It’s a must-see for anyone eager to dive into the delightfully dark corners of humour.
www.instagram.com/thecreepyboys
MUSIC MA POLAINE’S GREAT DECLINE @ CLAYPATH DELI/THE GEORGIAN THEATRE
Words: Luke Waller
Melancholic, touching and intimate, Ma Polaine’s elegant blend of jazz, blues and folk evokes a palpable and enchanting atmosphere. Harking back to the sounds of Billie Holiday with a dash of Tom Waits’ down-and-out whiskey bar grit, Ma Polaine’s Great Decline expertly capture and convey their take on classic Americana. Thirteen years, three LPs and five EPs since their inception, the Somerset-based duo are undertaking a short tour of the UK, including shows at Durham’s Claypath Deli on Saturday 12th and Stockton’s Georgian Theatre on the afternoon of Sunday 13th October.
Ma Polaine’s live show entails a duet of Beth Packer’s double bass and emotive vocals accompanied by Clinton Hough’s often caustic blues guitar. Whilst stripped-back, this arrangement invites an intimacy well-suited to the duo’s muted timbres, and still features some additional accordion and harmonica parts. In both Durham and Stockton, Ma Polaine’s Great Decline will be supported by Roswell, a folk duo comprising talented multi-instrumentalists Zoë Wren and Jasmine Watkiss, whose sound is characterised by sweet vocal harmonies. www.mapolaine.com
Creepy Boys by Nick Robertson Photography
ART & LIT
SPACE BY LUXMURALIS @ DURHAM CATHEDRAL
Words: Amy Mitchell
Want to travel through space in a Cathedral?! I know I do. So I’m excited for this year’s Luxmuralis installation at Durham Cathedral, taking place from Wednesday 9th-Sunday 13th October, and suitable for all ages.. This is
Luxmuralis’ third visit to Durham, with each year having a different theme – previous performance’s Life and Science proved to be really popular with audiences.
Space promises a dazzling light spectacle in a glorious setting, with the exciting contrast of high-tech lighting effects projected against the Cathedral’s centuries old architecture. Lights and projection take you on an intergalactic journey, and the atmosphere is elevated with a bespoke soundtrack made especially for each performance. Imagery in this year’s show will
include original footage of a rocket launch, and an image of Earth, looking back from space under a galaxy of stars. By day the Cathedral will appear as normal, then each evening installations will be projected across all areas inside the Cathedral, giving you a chance to gaze in wonder at stars and space, and reflect on our place in the cosmos. Book your tickets in advance for this one, as it’s likely to sell out, and is one not to be missed. www.durhamcathedral.co.uk
at Arts Centre Washington
Sunderland Film Club: Much Ado About Dying Thursday 24th October, 7pm, tickets £5
A moving ode to an independent spirit who lived life to the fullest up until the last minute!
Film and Fun: Hocus Pocus + Make Your Own Spooky Spider! Thursday 31st October, 1pm, tickets £6 for adults/£3 for children
Family Friendly Movies with a related arty activity.
Halloween Double Bill: The Exorcist + Hereditary Thursday 31st October, 7pm, tickets £5 (£8 for both films) Join us this Halloween for two spine chilling horror classics!
To find out more scan the QR
Space by Lux Muralis at University Church Oxford
MUSIC FRAN & FLORA @ COBALT STUDIOS
Words: Chloe Glover
Uplifting Eastern European folk melodies will bring warmth and enchantment to Cobalt Studios this month. Multi-award winning London duo Fran & Flora will hit the stage on Thursday 10th October with their experimental reworkings of Yiddish and klezmer folk songs. Following the release of this year’s critically acclaimed second album, Precious Collection, cellist Francesca Ter-Berg and violinist Flora Curzon will showcase eclectic pieces inspired by archival recordings and recovered manuscripts infused with drones, loops, free improvisation and electronics. Fran & Flora’s latest work builds on 10 years of collaboration, developed through a love of the sounds and study trips across Europe and North America. Their gig is just one of three scheduled across the country this autumn so far for the duo, whose engaging performances have included transcontinental performances at festivals such as Shambala, London Jazz and KlezKanada. Supporting the duo is Scottish fiddle talent Kate Young, an innovative composer who also crosses genre boundaries to create intriguing landscapes that knit together the traditional with the new. The night marks one of Cobalt’s celebrated regular events, Fresh Thursdays, which spotlight new music alongside a delicious, home-cooked plant-based meal, all for just over £10. An offering to cheer you soul on an autumnal night indeed. www.franandflora.com
STAGE
MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE @ ALPHABETTI THEATRE
Words: Ben Robinson
Newcastle’s Alphabetti Theatre presents a new production of My Name is Rachel Corrie. Originally written by Katharine Viner and Alan Rickman, this powerful play is now being brought to life at Alphabetti, directed by Ryan Hay and performed by Rebecca Glendenning-Laycock. The show promises an emotional and deeply personal account of events which seem a world away – yet remain greatly relevant.
The production tells the story of Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist who was tragically crushed to death in March 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer while protecting a Palestinian family’s home from illegal demolition. Her death, at just 23 years old, sparked a wave of international media attention and controversy. My Name Is Rachel Corrie transforms her story into a moving piece of theatre, using her own emails and diaries to document her path to activism, and this remarkable and locally produced production a heartfelt tribute to a story worth seeing. The show runs from Tuesday 8th-Saturday 26th October, with ticket prices ranging from £3 to £15. In addition to the production, Alphabetti’s Reaction programme will also see a commissioned piece of work created by an artist who identifies as being from an under-represented background present a short piece of theatre in reaction to the play, performed from Tuesday 22nd-Thursday 24th October.
www.alphabettitheatre.co.uk
MUSIC ISABEL MARIA @ THE CUMBERLAND ARMS
Words: Jennifer Wilson
Join Sunderland-based pop singer-songwriter Isabel Maria for a gig/Halloween party at the iconic Cumberland Arms on Saturday 26th October that will celebrate the release of her latest single Ghost, which contains themes of social anxiety and the modern curse of ‘ghosting’.
A talented writer who started penning songs at the age of 11, the now 18-year-old’s music explores themes of mental health and social injustice delivered with a unique blend of humour. Her debut EP, The Melodramatic Milers Club, released late last year, was inspired by walks taken during the pandemic. Isabel’s relatable and poignant lyrics have earned her a strong fan base and support from around the region.
Opening the night are two acoustic sets: pop rock legend Ice Road Trucker, the solo project of Sunderland songwriter Eddie Scott who draws inspiration from 90s and 00s pop punk; and gritty indie artist Melanie Baker, who has already received radio support from BBC Radio 1 and 6Music thanks to superb lyricism which explores themes like queer identity and modern anxieties.
Don’t miss this unforgettable evening of Halloween fun and music from the region’s most interesting young artists. Spooky fancy dress is encouraged… www.linktr.ee/isa6elmaria
Fran & Flora
MUSIC GENERATOR LIVE @ BOILER SHOP
Words: Claire Dupree
North East music development agency
Generator are often beavering away behind the scenes, working hard to provide opportunities for North East musicians to get ahead, and Generator Live is their opportunity to put some of the fruits of their labours directly on a stage for us all to see. Taking place at Newcastle’s
Boiler Shop on Saturday 5th October, the event showcases top regional talent from the likes of irrepressible pop artist L Devine, Boro songsmith Finn Forster, riotous alt. rockers The Peevie Wonders, the fragile sonic beauty of Maius Mollis, Look Terrified’s boisterous alt. pop, Sarah Johnsone’s soulful genre-bending sound, neo-soul artist Rivkala and poptastic noise maker Cortney Dixon. There’s also a DJ set from Alannah Lamb and a stage takeover courtesy of Nrthrn Baby featuring MCs NE-O, Dan Swift and Eyeconic. For those interested in delving deeper into the mysteries of the music industry, Generator
Live’s Conference event on Friday 4th October at The Assembly Rooms will attempt to demystify and educate. A series of well-curated panel events will include discussions from experienced members of the industry covering subject matters like mental health and wellbeing in the industry, under-represented voices in music, tech skills for the live sector, effective strategies for self-promotion, advice on how to approach record labels, how to make money from music and much more. www.generatorlive.org.uk
L Devine
King No-One
MUSIC
KING NO-ONE @ KU
Words: Matthew Brown
Rising York indie rockers King No-One are set to perform at KU in Stockton on Thursday 24th October, promising an exciting mix of new music and fan favourites at a venue known for showcasing emerging talent. This latest booking presents a rare opportunity to catch a band on the rise as they embark on a new chapter of their career, eager to reveal what they’ve been working on.
Formed out of York’s busking scene, King No-One, made up of Zach Lount (vocals), Joe Martin (guitar), James Basile (bass) and Alex Townsley (drums), have quickly become one of the most talked-about bands in the UK indie scene. Their infectious melodies, socially conscious lyrics, and electrifying live performances have earned them widespread attention. With a strong DIY ethic, the band have built a dedicated following through grassroots success.
Previous hits like Alcatraz and Antichrist have amassed millions of streams and garnered praise from several outlets. Their music is known for blending catchy indie rock with insightful social commentary. King No-One’s upcoming tour takes in some of the UK’s excellent grassroots venues, reflecting their commitment to delivering politically charged lyrics alongside heartfelt love stories, making this show at KU a must-see event for indie music fans. www.kingno-one.com
MUSIC SAVAK @ STAR & SHADOW CINEMA
Words: Matthew Brown
Indie rock supergroup SAVAK are set to perform at Newcastle’s Star & Shadow Cinema on Sunday 6th October, bringing their distinctive, guitar-driven sound to the stage. Formed in Brooklyn in 2015, SAVAK is made up of past
and present members of notable bands like Obits, Edsel, the Cops and Holy Fuck. Their sound is a dynamic blend of brawny indie rock, melodic undertones and textured instrumentation. From the raw, guitar-heavy energy of 2017’s Cut-Ups to the more expansive and detailed arrangements of 2020’s Rotting Teeth In The Horse’s Mouth, SAVAK’s music continues to evolve. Their latest album, Flavors of Paradise, sees the band embracing a poppier approach without compromising their intensity, intelligence or willingness to rock. Supporting SAVAK will be Leeds-based Señor Pink, showcasing their knack for catchy lyrical hooks and energetic performances. Also joining the bill are Newcastle’s own avant-rockers The Unit Ama, whose performances are known for their wild unpredictability and experimental edge.
With this diverse line-up of seasoned musicians and exciting new talent, the night promises to deliver a thrilling mix of rock, experimentation and energy.
www.savakband.com
STAGE INUA ELLAMS @ NORTHERN STAGE
Words: Lena Moss
Cross-disciplinary artist and playwright Inua Ellams brings Search Party, his critically acclaimed call and response show developed between artist and audience, to Newcastle on Saturday 5th October.
Brought to Northern Stage by spoken word supremos Born Lippy, Search Party is an interactive event that promises to draw ticket holders into the heart of Inua Ellams’ “futuristic and chaotic” take on storytelling through audience suggestion and open conversation. In this format, Ellams dives into his impressive archive of both known works (Barber Shop Chronicles, Three Sister, The Half God of Rainfall) and previously unheard drafted pieces promoted by words chosen by the audience. Here he’ll unearth new gems drawn from past poems, plays and essays. Don’t miss this rare
opportunity to be inspired by the work of this versatile, accomplished and charming writer and performer.
Whether you already know and love Inua Ellams’ work, or you’re a newcomer to his innovative writing, Search Party is a must see for all poetry lovers. Guaranteed to be a completely unique and spontaneous show, and likely to make you laugh along the way, get directly involved in or simply come to witness this testament to the joy of the spoken word. www.inuaellams.com
Image by Lawrence Sumulong
MUSIC BLOSSOMS @ O2 CITY HALL
Words: Dawn Storey
Has it really been nine years since Blossoms first announced their arrival on the music scene with their brilliant Blown Rose and Charlemagne singles? The melodic Stockport five-piece have come a long way since they played to a modest crowd at the Night and Day Café back in 2013 and, buoyed by their recent bank holiday show to a hometown crowd of 30,000 at Wythenshawe Park, they are about to embark on a 20 date tour of the UK and Ireland to promote their fifth album, stopping off at Newcastle’s O2 City Hall on Thursday 17th October.
Their new album, the intriguingly named Gary, was recorded live and features two tracks co-written with CMAT, it was produced by long-time collaborator James Skelly of The Coral alongside Jungle’s Josh-Lloyd Watson. A decade into their career, Tom Ogden and his besuited bandmates are still showing why their
songwriting skills and engaging performances make them one of the most exciting British acts around. And as if that wasn’t enough, they even say that Gary himself may make an appearance (depending on venue stage height).
Support for the Newcastle show comes from Red Rum Club, the Bootle-based band led by Fran Doran, whose recent album Western Approaches charted at number eight, and Newcastle is lucky enough to be the first date of the tour. www.blossomsband.co.uk
MUSIC CM VON HAUSSWOLFF & LEIF ELGGREN @ MIDDLESBROUGH TOWN
HALL
Words: Laura Doyle
Long live the Kings of Elgaland-Vargaland! It’s always nice when you meet someone on the same wavelength as you, who shares the same
hobbies and interests – it’s even better when you can team up to become dual-monarchs to your own micronation that exists on the borders between every other country. Swedish conceptual audio-visual artists CM Von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren have worked in collaboration for over two decades, and now they have the opportunity to grace the faraway land of Middlesbrough with their avant-garde performances for one night only on Monday 7th October.
CM Von Hausswolff relies on standard or everyday tech to make his eclectic noise: anything from audio recorders and cameras to sonar builds a sonic narrative that challenges the very idea of what music can be. Meanwhile Leif Elggren combines abstract audio art with subversive stage performance to tell his stories, be it an exploration of the spectral enigmas of Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVPs), or a show created entirely from his lower levels of consciousness via remembered dreams. Promoted by Teesside’s own sonic adventurer Industrial Coast, this show is already gearing up to be an unpredictable feast for the eyes and ears.
Thursday 3 October Ríoghnach Connolly and HoneyfeetThey Want What You've Got Tour
Thursday 17 October Afro Celt Sound System
Thursday 24 October From the Glasshouse x Jazz North East: Faye MacCalman, John Pope Quintet, Moonfish
Sunday 3 November An evening with Ron Sexsmith
Thursday 7 November Eddie Chacon
Saturday 9 November Jessica Pratt plus Hana Stretton
Sunday 10 November James Grant
Sunday 17 November Julian Lage
COMEDY
SARAH KEYWORTH @ TYNE THEATRE & OPERA HOUSE
Words: Matt Young
Sarah Keyworth is back on stage at Newcastle’s Tyne Theatre & Opera House on Tuesday 15th October with My Eyes Are Up Here, a brand new stand-up show that combines their signature deadpan wit with a deeply personal exploration of gender, body image and the awkwardness of everyday existence. Keyworth’s humour is sharp, understated and always delivered with an authenticity that makes their stories feel even more relatable.
In My Eyes Are Up Here, Keyworth dissects the absurdities of navigating non-binary and queer life, mixing hilarious anecdotes with thoughtful insights about identity and the way we see ourselves. Expect a blend of dry humour, self-deprecation and moments of poignancy as they tackle the expectations placed on people, both by society and by themselves. It’s also a
joyous show about family and acceptance. Keyworth’s unique comedic voice has won them many accolades over the years and this new show recently became the winner of the Most Outstanding Show at Melbourne Comedy Festival, so if that’s not enough of an exciting enough endorsement to get you booking tickets and savouring one of the best comedians currently on the circuit, as well as all over our TVs – Live at the Apollo, Mock the Week and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown – we’re not sure what is! www.sarahkeyworth.co.uk
MUSIC VIGILANCE STATE RELEASE REMAINS EP
Words: Ben Lowes-Smith Vigilance State have become one of the region’s most reliably brilliant live outfits; their dystopian synth pop is as memorable as it is unique, speaking to the sensibilities of Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire. Having released a smattering of delicious singles, their debut EP Remains is released on 4th October.
Featuring five songs of pulsating bass, dissonant synth lines and commanding vocals, Remains interweaves modern legend and ancient lore. The record is rooted in the industrial atmosphere of the North East; visceral, sinister and foreboding. Opener Llorona speaks to the sensibilities of Boy Harsher, its pulsating synth riff and skittering percussion contribute to a nocturnal soundscape. Somewhat more frenetic and kinetic is Chosen, a foot-tapper and a chin-stroker at the same time, with textures straight out of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Drips is a filthier cut, The Human League filtered through Adam Curtis documentaries and paranoia. Remain is the sparsest tune on the record, mechanical and haunting, the austere instrumentation provides stark contrast to a powerful, vulnerable vocal. EP closer Goatbones is the EP’s most ambitious track, seamlessly assimilating a range of influences to very pleasing results.
Having solidified their status as a must-watch live outfit, it’s great to now have a document of Vigilance State’s wild musical imaginations. www.vigilancestate.bandcamp.com
Sarah Keyworth by Matt Crockett
INTERVIEWS
LIZZIE ESAU
ISABEL MARIA TALKS TO THE INDIE POP ARTIST ABOUT THE RELEASE OF HER NEW EP, FINDING COMFORT IN ANGER AND HER INCREDIBLE YEAR SO FAR IMAGE BY AMELIA READ
The North East’s music scene is chock full of powerhouses, and one of the most potent right now is indie pop rock starlet Lizzie Esau. Her latest EP Spilling Out The Truth is a prime example of hard work and its payoff, showcasing exactly why she’s had such an astronomical year.
Spilling Out The Truth is aptly named to represent the open, diaristic quality it holds – and no sound or theme can be pigeonholed within it. “This EP has an overarching theme of growing up and understanding your own emotions more, as well as your relationship with the outside world.” Lizzie reveals. “It touches on relationships, the agony, anger and rage
associated with being gaslit in She’s A Scorpio, and the frustrations of having a crush and falling in love when you’re young in A Secret and Impossible + Strange.”
Seamless yet endlessly exciting, the project feels like its own little world, hidden behind gates of driving guitars and gorgeously gritty textures and melodies, flitting from theme to theme. “The beginning of the EP is very introspective, however Wait Too Late is far more political and speaks more on my views of a young woman growing and understanding the truths of the world around her. The final track on the EP also places myself in the wider world, thinking about my place in society,
MUSIC
discovering I don’t fit in or feel comfortable in new situations meeting new people that I’m convinced are way too ‘cool’ to want to know me, which I feel so many others who have been through uni – where I was when I wrote this – or similar situations have experienced.”
Spilling Out The Truth is Lizzie’s third EP, following on from two others which echo the same sensibilities, despite having been released in younger points of her effervescent career. Following her 2023 offering, Deepest Blue, Lizzie shares what she feels is special about this new body of work, in particular.
“This EP is the fiery little sister to my last one. It’s definitely even more soul-baring and at the same time even more energetic and exciting! I think the music has evolved into something that to me feels so coherent and mature but still touching on relatable topics from growing up and understanding changes around me. I think the difference with this EP is that I’ve allowed myself to be even more furious about things that have happened to me, or about the frustrations I have with myself and also with the world. It’s good to feel angry and let it out, I’m discovering.”
And what a gift that listeners get to share in that discovery, too. It’s overwhelmingly clear how much work ethic goes into Lizzie Esau’s journey as a whole. She’s seen a hell of a lot of payoff this year, and it’s both inspiring and simply lovely to hear about it all.
“A huge highlight for me this year was definitely our first Glastonbury! We were so lucky to get to play on the BBC Introducing stage as well as on the Strummerville stage, it was
I’VE
ALLOWED MYSELF TO BE EVEN MORE FURIOUS ABOUT THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED TO ME, OR ABOUT THE FRUSTRATIONS I HAVE WITH MYSELF AND ALSO WITH THE WORLD
such a big moment for us and being able to share that within the band and stay for the whole of Glastonbury felt like the perfect little holiday to really enjoy everything that’s happened. I think it’s rare you ever get to stop for a second and feel a sense of pride because you’re constantly looking towards the next thing, but that was definitely one for us.”
With so much changing throughout Lizzie’s career, it’s fascinating to see her music grow sonically in this EP, while still feeling like it shares the same heart and, as Lizzie explains, the same writing process. “My writing process remains mostly the same throughout everything I do; it starts as a very personal introspective experience of me sat on Logic late into the night messing about until something feels special. If I love it enough it then gets shared with the band and our producer, as well as manager, and we build the songs from there. But it’s nice that all of the tracks within this EP began from little moments I had spinning around in my brain that I needed to get out in some way. And then all the wonderful people I get to work with helped bring them to life.”
One of these tracks in particular is final single She’s A Scorpio, a song written a few years back and kept in a back pocket, just waiting to explode. “We have always had it in the bank of songs we love but need to find the right time for and it was only more recently, when I decided it was just too good to leave on the shelf, that I thought I’d go back and change the verses. Everyone fell in love with it all over again and it became clear that this should be the big final single before the EP is out.” The tune is a huge-sounding amalgamation of all the best bits of Lizzie’s talent, packed into a three and a half minute epic. “I’m so glad it will finally get its time in the spotlight, just in time for Scorpio season, it’s a fiery alternative pop rock track that perfectly sums up the ending of a teenage relationship where I was gaslit (before I knew what that was) and it feels so good to finally be able to spill out the truth about it all.”
Lizzie Esau releases Spilling Out The Truth on 11th October. She performs at The Cluny 2, Newcastle on Friday 4th October in support of Soft Launch, and at Salt Market Social, North Shields on Saturday 19th October. www.linktr.ee/lizzieesau
T-B, L-R: Amirtha Kidambi by Samantha Otero, Aruán Ortiz by ÅdneDyrnesli, Jeppe Zeeberg by Malthe Folke Ivarsson
NEWCASTLE FESTIVAL OF JAZZ & IMPROVISED MUSIC
NEIL AINGER DISCOVERS THE BOUNDARY-PUSHING LINE-UP FOR THIS YEAR’S ECLECTIC FESTIVAL
The Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music returns for two weekends that aim to provide the city with a diverse celebration of grassroots, boundary-pushing music across several city venues.
The festival opens on Friday 27th September in a unique and innovative style with the Friday Night Chill Out at Jesmond Swimming Pool. Faye MacCalman – bandleader of jazz art rockers Archipelago – will play a solo saxophone set while you swim, contributing to the festival’s initiative to encourage audiences into holistic spaces centred around health and wellbeing.
The guitar-sax-drums trio Taupe return to the festival to headline on Saturday 28th September at The Cumberland Arms. Mathy compositions fuse sludgy riffs with turbulent dissonance and playful improv. Also on the bill are experimental string quartet warp/weft as well as Danish pianist, composer and bandleader Jeppe Zeeberg and his band The Absolute Pinnacle of Human Achievement. On Sunday 29th, the prolific duo of saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and drummer Tom Rainey bring their acclaimed partnership to The Globe for an international collaboration with in-demand rhythm partnership Johnny Hunter and John Pope.
The following weekend’s musical delights kick off early on Thursday 3rd October in another original showcase, as the festival partners with Northern Silents to present surrealist film scores at Gosforth Civic Theatre. Celebrated soundtrack artists Alcyona Mick and Juliana Day will improvise live scores to screenings of six short Dadaist films by key figures of the movement, such as Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp and others.
On Friday 4th and Saturday 5th October settle in for two stacked days at The Lit & Phil. Get along early for a Friday lunchtime solo set from avant jazz pianist and composer Satoko Fujii, before bringing in the evening with a collaboration between Amirtha Kidambi and Manon McCoy. Flying in from the USA, Kidambi plays with abstract rhythms rooted in free-jazz and Indian Carnatic music. She will team with Sheffield-based experimental harpist McCoy, with influences
A FESTIVAL THAT IS SURE TO CHALLENGE AND CELEBRATE IN EQUAL MEASURES
from contemporary classical, British folk and free improv. Finally, a triple bill will round off the day featuring Lisbonbased Ziv Taubenfeld (bass clarinet) and London’s Olie Brice (double bass) joined by Copenhagen’s Kresten Osgood on drums for a new collaboration. Meanwhile, a solo set of free improv with loops and effects can be expected from bassist Andy Champion, while Izumi Kimura (piano) and Gerry Hemingway (drums/percussion) will blend free spontaneity with structured melodies.
Also on Saturday, Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz will get the ball rolling at 1pm, with influences ranging from contemporary classical to Cuban-Haitian and Afro-Carribean rhythms. Ziv Taubenfeld will then return as a guest of the rousing cello/ violin/melodeon/percussion ensemble Shunyata Improvisation Group before an exciting triple bill brings Saturday to a close. Annalise Lam, Julia Dos Reis and Miranda Lewis-Brown are the J.A.M. String Collective, threading classical string compositions with blues and jazz. Tara Cunningham’s film composition work inspires a captivating experience, stretching the confines of the sounds and textures her instrument is capable of in a solo guitar set. Finally, free-flowing trio The Flame mould energetic improv around poetry and spoken word.
The Catriona Bourne Quartet will be first up at The Globe on Sunday 6th October, with electric harp steering evocative compositions blending jazz, folk and classical. Clog dancer and accordion virtuoso Heather Ferrier will wow with her alt. folk solo set, and last but not least, the quintet Emma Johnson’s Gravy Boat will perform in support of their album Northern Flame, an imaginative, cinematic record which will bring the curtain down on a festival that is sure to challenge and celebrate in equal measures. www.newcastlefestivalofjazzandimprovisedmusic.co.uk
BEHIND THE MUSIC: FIELD MUSIC
COLLABORATIONS, SOLO PROJECTIONS AND LIFE’S UPS AND DOWNS MAY COME AND GO, BUT DAVID AND PETER BREWIS WILL ALWAYS RETURN TO FIELD MUSIC (AT LEAST, WE HOPE THEY WILL!) LIMITS OF LANGUAGE, RELEASED ON 11TH OCTOBER, SEES THE BREWIS BROTHERS IN AN OFTEN PLAYFULLY EXPERIMENTAL, NOSTALGIC AND, OCCASIONALLY, REFLECTIVE MOOD. HERE, DAVID AND PETER GIVE US A DEEPER INSIGHT INTO SOME OF THE TRACKS ON THE ALBUM. THEY PLAY AN INSTORE GIG AT REFLEX, NEWCASTLE ON THURSDAY 17TH OCTOBER. WWW.FIELD-MUSIC.CO.UK
WORDS: DAVID & PETER BREWIS
SIX WEEKS, NINE WELLS
I was leaning into some of the knottier harmonies I’ve been tinkering with for the past couple of years, with the chords ticking from side to side. I’d started to noodle with it but was a bit stuck – it all sounded too proggy. Then Peter poked his head round the door and hummed a rhythm part. Suddenly it all clicked and I spun it out into a little Remembrance of Things Past – half-remembered moments from six weeks holidays long-gone – woozy and contradictory just like the music.
David
I MIGHT HAVE BEEN WRONG
I’ve had the intro for this song hanging around for over ten years, originally played – drum machine and all – on a weird little electric organ we have. This is probably the song on the album which is most indebted to Avalon by Roxy Music. I find it to be really beautiful and really odd, with lots of quite-abrasive musical choices. I also hear in it a kind of yearning, for something that’s close enough to imagine but still indistinct.
David
THE WAITRESS OF ST. LOUIS’
Louis cafe was a Sunderland institution. Until it sadly closed a few years ago, it had been a bit of an ever-present in our lives; from going for milkshakes as young children with our parents on a Saturday to providing a backdrop to our band photos a few years ago. Seeing as I used write a lot of words in there while sipping their strong black coffee, I thought it was about time that I wrote a song which referenced Louis directly. The song
looks at how Louis was a place of congregation, solace and inspiration, almost church-like.
Peter
THE GUARDIAN OF SLEEP
This is me misquoting and not quite understanding a line from Guy Debord’s Society of The Spectacle and mapping it on to the RKO film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I thought there was something interesting and funny about chucking together Quasimodo’s Sanctuary and Debord’s Spectacle. I’d had the riff for ages and didn’t know what to do with it until Thomas Dolby’s Hyperactive came on the radio. I sort of mashed that up with Graceland. It didn’t come out sounding like either. There’s the advantage of a slap-dash approach!
Peter
TURN THE HOURS AWAY
This was initially a bunch of slightly funky guitar chords but after hearing Ai Ga Nakucha Ne by Akiko Yano I transferred the idea to synth marimba and slowed it down to Bennie and The Jets tempo and we ended up with this slow spacious thing. The lyrics are mainly a glance back at going to Metroland at the end of term. I always wondered if people would lose their shoes on the carousel, falling into one of the decorative water features.
Peter
Image by Andy Martinw
POLYFILLAS
DAMIAN ROBINSON CHATS WITH THE SUNDERLAND FOUR-PIECE ABOUT THEIR MODERN TAKE ON SKA, PUNK AND POP MUSIC
Looking to bridge the gap between ska, punk and melodic pop, Sunderland four-piece Polyfillas are starting to develop a name for themselves as a band looking to bring authentic voices and youthful energy into the region’s musical consciousness. Formed around the songwriting partnership of Ava and Jamie Dangerous, Polyfillas have grown from individual artists into a solid collective; piecing together their solo skills and talents into a ‘more than the sum of their individual parts’ group. “When we started we were into the folk thing,” confirms Jamie, “so still socially aware and trying to be honest with our art, but when we started to combine we really supported each other to go past the places where we were and to push ourselves even further.”
Evident in their first single, Own Youth Movement, a combination of the Ruddy-era of the Clash and the more swinger elements of two-tone, Polyfillas are an outfit who like to match the power of their music with the laser-eye focus of their lyrics; don’t let the sickly sweet rhythm section blind you from the intensity of their message – Polyfillas have something important to say. “I think we try to be honest to ourselves and to what we see,” confirms Ava, “there’s plenty of conversations in the band, and with friends, about where we are as a culture and a country and there’s important things that need to be said.”
Taken as the first track from an upcoming Rude Boys of England EP, Own Youth Movement puts a stake in the ground for the band’s sound and politics – with the promise of more coming. “Rude Boys of England is a combination of some of the songs we’ve recorded. There’s no particular theme to the EP, or a reason that we chose those songs from our collection of songs,
THERE’S PLENTY OF CONVERSATIONS IN THE BAND ABOUT WHERE WE ARE AS A CULTURE AND A COUNTRY AND THERE’S IMPORTANT THINGS THAT NEED TO BE SAID
but the very fact that we recorded those songs first is probably us thinking subconsciously that these are our best songs – or the songs which represent us best,” confirms Jamie. And there’s more coming too, according to Ava: “We have more songs written, and lots of ideas coming, but there’s different elements to these songs which represent us all. And that was important to us.”
Arriving in October, Rude Boys of England will be supported by some live dates throughout the Autumn and plans for an album in 2025. “We have plenty to say, and lots of momentum,” Jamie confirms, “but through a combination of costs and also wanting to do things in the right way, and keep things enjoyable, we’ll record and do gigs in a way which keeps us focused. We may record one of the gigs so there may be a live version of the EP out shortly – but we’ll see where we are.”
Polyfillas release Rude Boys of England on 14th October. The band play Newcastle’s Little Buildings on Friday 4th October and The Bunker, Sunderland on Friday 22nd November. www.polyfillas.bandcamp.com
Image by Isaac Lowe
QUEEN’S SCREECH
DAVID SAUNDERS DISCUSSES ROYALTY, HIERARCHY AND HISTORY WITH THE DURHAM PUNKS TURNED THEATRE MAKERS, AHEAD OF THEIR CREATIVE PRODUCTION, TYRANNY
Punk has done a decent job of keeping the ruling class in check this past 50 years but Durham-based, royal obsessed band Queen’s Screech are taking that to another level with their production, Tyranny Osla, Alex, Jamie, Wilf, Beth, Ruth and Jen came together in 2022, on Queen’s Jubilee weekend, and the name was decided a few months later. “The name Queen’s Screech stuck when the Queen died and we decided to set up a Facebook page on the day of her funeral. She’s the end of an era, and that needs marking by a creative act. The royals broadly represent those amongst us with inordinate amounts of power and influence and they have given us plenty of creative threads to pull ever since.”
This focus on social hierarchies has fueled the band and filtered down to their creative practice, they explain: “One of the main motivators as a band is to create a space which attempts to break down hierarchies of band and audience and also trying to give everyone in the band a space to be in the limelight.”
Tyranny sees the band branch out into theatre production and focus not on our current King Charles but the other two, as well as the civil war that shaped their reign. “The civil war was a pivotal moment for the history of the country and the execution of the King was a totally unprecedented break with the old power system. In these times of extreme polarisation and echo chambers of social media, we seem to be similarly pushed into political corners and there is a disillusion with power structures and political systems which mirror the dissatisfaction in the
THE ROYALS BROADLY REPRESENT THOSE AMONGST US WITH INORDINATE AMOUNTS OF POWER AND INFLUENCE AND THEY HAVE GIVEN US PLENTY OF CREATIVE THREADS TO PULL
times of the civil war. In an anarchic moment, we envisioned reenacting the execution of Charles I and from there, telling the civil war story and playing our songs all at the same time.”
The the band’s first theatre production has evolved from their live performances, and in true punk style they’re pulling out all the stops to get it completed. “Between us all there are bits of theatre, drama, dance, event and production experience. We are really stretching ourselves for this one though, having never organised anything as elaborate as this before. One of the things that defines Queen’s Screech is rotating our roles from songwriting to who is playing or singing on any given track. Consequently, we have a varied sound but it also means we need to move around swapping instruments or positions during our set. That is how our theatre department, which consists of Beth, Ruth and Jen, aka the Joy Diversion, started. They provide little skits between our tracks, sometimes relevant to the tracks, the venue or situation…Tyranny is a massive extension of this format: track, skit, track, skit, etc.”
There’s also a supernatural element to the show, which will take place in the spooky setting of Brancepeth Castle. “The event is near Halloween when the year turns and the veil between the living and dead lifts. The ultimate supernatural being – Death Herself – will make an appearance. The castle itself also dates back (in parts) to the medieval period and parts of it are rented out as apartments. Former tenants have reported plenty of supernatural activity, so you never know, we may get a few more audience members of the spectral kind, joining us for the evening.”
Queen’s Screech present Tyranny at Brancepeth Castle, Durham on Saturday 19th October. www.linktr.ee/queensscreech
Queen’s Screech by Bob from Glasgow
MUSIC
ROB HERON & THE TEA PAD ORCHESTRA
LEE FISHER CHATS TO ROB HERON ABOUT HOW A BOUT OF INSOMNIA SAW THE BAND HEADING OFF TO BERLIN TO RECORD AN ALBUM IN THE MOST AUTHENTIC STYLE POSSIBLE
Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra have been a much-loved, hard touring band for almost fifteen years now, with five albums under their belt, and it was clear they needed a change.
“We needed a new album and we’d booked Blank Studios, where we’ve recorded the last five albums,” Heron explains. “But Tom [Cronin, mandolin and harmonica player and Tea Pad co-founder] suggested trying something different this time, and he was right. I was on Instagram at about 4am, when I couldn’t sleep, and saw that a German rockabilly I know called Jason Starday had been recording at Lightning Recorders in Berlin, an all-analogue studio. And I just realised that’s what we should do. At 5am I was looking up the price of flights and accommodation in Berlin and emailed Axel at Lightning Recorders and by the morning I had a plan.”
The extra expenses associated with the flights and accommodation saw the band launch their first Crowdfunder which contributed £5k towards the project, and by early April a slightly irregular version of the band were ensconced in Lightning Recorders. Long-term bassist Ted Harbot was floored by pneumonia at the last minute, so Adam from Howlin’ Ric & The Rocketeers joined them at very short notice alongside fellow Rocketeer and now full-time Tea Pad member Ben Powling.
Heron’s enthusiasm for the Lightning Recorders set-up is palpable. “It was a great experience, very different to recording in Newcastle, in a normal modern studio. It’s all 1950s and early 60s equipment… a lot of American gear, but a lot of German stuff too. Even the preamps and the cables are original and it’s all to tape.”
With only four days studio time booked, they had to work fast. “I have a bad habit of not writing until there’s a deadline. I think six of the songs were played when we toured in February and March, the rest weren’t properly written and weren’t arranged at
A LOT OF THE SONGS ENDED UP SOUNDING VERY DIFFERENT TO HOW I THOUGHT THEY WOULD ONCE WE’D STARTED JAMMING THEM IN THE STUDIO
all – in fact, a lot of the songs ended up sounding very different to how I thought they would once we’d started jamming them in the studio. We were arranging them half an hour before we recorded. But that gave the engineer Axel the chance to mix it because there’s no post-production mixing, it’s all to one track on tape – which I didn’t realise until halfway through and asked to adjust a vocal!”
Feet First certainly sounds like a band reborn and is much more rockabilly/rhythm & blues in style than usual, with less of the country swing sound of old. The songs are also a lot shorter. “I remember when the band first started every song had to have a guitar, mandolin and accordion song so they were all five minutes long. Now I just write a song without even a lead guitar break, or only a quick couple of bars.” German baritone sax player Doc Pukey guests on half the songs and the twin-sax sound is another really exciting element on the album.
“In the end, we did it all in two and a half days, including some minimal overdubs.” Heron adds. “And it sounds so authentic, especially the way the vocals are mixed. And then we went wild in Berlin, like any young English band would!”
Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra release Feet First on the Sleazy Records label on 4th October. They play at The Witham, Barnard Castle on Saturday 23rd November and their annual Christmas show at The Cluny, Newcastle on Friday 6th December.
www.teapadorchestra.co.uk
Image by Stephan Zwickirsch
FRANKIE ARCHER
STEVE SPITHRAY TALKS TO THE NORTHUMBRIAN ELECTRO FOLK ARTIST ABOUT HER NEW EP AND KEYTAR WIELDING MONSTERS
Frankie Archer has captured the imagination of the UK electro folk scene over the last few years with music that transcends trad stereotypes while also challenging outdated social perspectives. Fresh from live dates this Autumn supporting The Last Dinner Party (who she met when appearing on the same episode of Jools Holland), she’s embarking on a full UK headline tour of her own to support new EP Pressure And Persuasion.
While her press bumf may cite the likes of Little Dragon, Hannah Peel, Björk, James Blake and electro-trad pioneer and collaborator Jim Moray as inspirations, it would be easy to pigeonhole Frankie’s vision along with a long list of names who have taken trad songs and reworked them by adding contemporary instrumentation that was not always well received by the purists. However, Frankie told me she is not concerned about all that. “I don’t play a lot of folk clubs but it happens all the time; I just use whatever I have around and feel comfortable with. I’m not trying to piss off the folk purists or modernise folk music or anything like that.” In Frankie’s case she has taken four trad songs and embellished them by blending electronic production with the centuries-old prose, creating an EP which is both reflective and explorative, challenging the listener to accept a new way of understanding these ancient fables.
The Pressure and Persuasion EP tells the stories of four women and girls from centuries past who navigate the same expectations that are put on women today. However, Frankie
MUSIC
told me this wasn’t a conscious concept but more of an organic accident. “I just had a few songs I was working on separately and they came together quite naturally. They are all trad songs but all quite different. For example, Barbara Allen is alternative music with an electronic element, Elsie Marley has more of a pop feel. I’m calling it a treacle bop, a slow flow and a bit of a palate cleanser on the EP because Fair Mabel of Wallington Hall is all doom, drone and glitch trad, and Lovely Joan has got more of a rock feel because I’m using distortion on my fiddle.”
In fact, EP opener Barbara Allen is one of the most re-told songs in the English language, one that portrays its protagonist as a cruel-hearted woman for spurning the advances of a man. “I took out the ending and added a new chorus because in the original version the man dies and then Barbara also dies of sorrow a few days later because [incredulously] that happened all the time!”
With an exciting end to the year already mapped out, Frankie was also keen to tell me her very un-trad plans for 2025. “This is my second EP (and I’ve released some singles too) so an album feels like a natural progression. I’ve actually just bought a keytar and we are developing the floral monster from the Barbara Allen video to make a brief live cameo with the keytar, I want the live shows to be very interactive and immersive. I’ve got a lot of ideas for the live shows…”
Frankie Archer releases Pressure and Persuasion EP on Friday 4th October and plays Cobalt Studios, Newcastle on the same date. She also performs at Hartlepool Folk Festival on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th October. www.frankiearchermusic.com
Image by Rob Irish
MARKETPLACE
DAVID SAUNDERS TALKS TO HARTLEPOOL’S INDIE POP OUTFIT ABOUT SONGWRITING, THE POSSIBILITY OF THEIR PRODUCER BEING AI AND LOVE ISLAND INSPIRATIONS
Winter’s coming…but thanks to Hartlepool’s indie pop outfit Marketplace the transition to the cold and darker months will be easier as they release their warm, summery debut EP, MARKETPLACE HAVE MADE AN EP! The name, which might seem to lack imagination, comes from the frustrations of people waiting a long time for its release. “We’ve been a band now for nearly seven years and this is the first body of music that we’re releasing. We just thought it was a fun little jab at ourselves.”
Despite the lack of releases in their time together, the quintet of Evie Rhodes, Joel O’Beirne, Jack Purcell, Matthew Short and Ross Dixon have been lighting up stages (and hearts) with their fun-filled, energy-packed stage presence and catchy, upbeat and melodic indie pop songs. According to the band, their songs take different form depending on who came up with the idea. “If it’s a song Evie’s brought to the table, she’ll usually come to us with the whole song and vibe already, then we’ll all jam it and write our individual parts before putting it together in the rehearsal room/Jack’s garage… Other songs are written completely from scratch with us all together in a rehearsal room. Fruit, for example, came from a riff Jack was playing, and was completely written in an afternoon. Edroom was somewhere in between. Jack had a full instrumental demo pretty fleshed out but we didn’t really know where it would go when we came to working on it together.”
Written when the band were leaving uni, the songs capture the feeling of being in your early 20s but without taking themselves too seriously. “Edroom was inspired by watching the 2022 season of Love Island. Specifically, the whole Casa Amor saga between Andrew and Tasha…I thought it was absolutely hilarious and such a good microcosm of how stupid and confusing modern relationships can be.”
The EP is crafted with foot-tapping tempos, gorgeous hooks and
THERE’LL BE LOADS OF LITTLE MISTAKES ALL OVER THE EP, BUT I THINK THAT JUST ADDS TO THE HUMANNESS OF IT
anthemic choruses, which burst from the speaker with youthful enthusiasm and infectious joy. Sonically, there are notes of eighties new wave akin to Flock Of Seagulls and The Cure, nineties indie acts such as Republica and Pulp, and contemporary bands Alvvays and Pale Waves. These influences are beautifully blended together with a spacious and vibrant mix from producer Chad Rodgers (Cape Cub). “We clicked really well with him from the start. He just immediately got the sound and vibe we were going for, but still managed to bring things to the production that surprised us. There are so many cool little sounds all over the EP that were all Chad, he just knew exactly what the songs needed. Still somehow haven’t met him in person though, for all we know he could just be AI.”
Plenty of bands have tried in vain to capture the essence of their live performance, but Marketplace seem to have nailed it with the fizzing presence of this release. “All the EP tracks are ones we’d been playing live a lot before recording them, so they kind of formed and evolved with live performances in mind. When it came to recording, we tried to recapture this energy by playing our parts in as few takes as possible… There’ll be loads of little mistakes all over the EP, but I think that just adds to the humanness of it, which is something we find cool in the music we like.”
Marketplace release MARKETPLACE HAVE MADE AN EP! on 4th October. They play Twisterella on Saturday 10th October.
www.linktr.ee/marketplaceband
Image by Megan Sidney
TWISTERELLA
MUSIC
WORDS: LAURA ROSIERSE
Multi-venue musical all-dayer Twisterella returns to Middlesbrough to highlight all manor of local and emerging artists on Saturday 12th October. Celebrating their 10th anniversary, the award-winning festival really have their fingers on the pulse when it comes to scouting out exciting artists. This year’s activities centre around Teesside University SU, Middlesbrough Town Hall Crypt, The Townhouse and Cafe Etch, plus there’s pop-up venues hosting artists including Dressed Like Wolves, Frazer Lambert, Josh Atkinson and Parissa Zarifi. The festival is also keen to give local musicians a leg up, and their (Un)Conference, which takes place at Middlesbrough Town Hall from 10.30am includes informal and relaxed round table sessions with industry experts, including BBC Introducing’s Shakk, Pippa and Sarah from Index and Runway Agency’s Matt Hanner among others. The event itself is bursting at the seams with varied and interesting sounds, here’s just a few of them... www.twisterella.co.uk
IF YOU LIKE…
A HINT OF ALTERNATIVE
Unmissable York-based alternative rock headliners The Howl & The Hum grace the top of the bill and they’ll be no strangers to Twisterella fans. Soaring alt. rock track Godmanchester Chinese Bridge and 2020 album Human Contact showcase the band’s infinite musical abilities. Local heroes Martha bring their fast-paced alternative sound rife with political ire to proceedings; while indie outfit Make Friends present their anthemic indie bops.
LOCAL FAVOURITES
Be Quiet. Shout Loud! return from a lengthy hiatus, and their eclectic and incredibly danceable disco rock sound and thrilling live performance is always a joy; Moon Wax bring a soulful touch with an incredible band and an undeniably catchy catalogue of songs; alternative outfit Marketplace bounce from pillar to post on their expansive soundscapes; and The Early Purple have gained a loyal local following who are completely hooked to their captivating indie folk. There’s also quirky and uplifting alt. rock from Melanie Baker, powerful indie sounds courtesy of The Ilfords, rising Teesside queer pop star Loren Heat and many more.
FEMALE TALENT
Amelia Coburn’s delightful storytelling and infinitely musical performance will be a joy to behold; Marina Josephina brings layered pop songs driven by her beautiful voice and mesmerising key compositions; Leeds outfit Sunflower Thieves are a force to be reckoned with as they present open-hearted stories in the form of warm and subtly addictive folk pop songs; while Liverpool’s Pet Snake confides in her audience with open-hearted, quirky and poetic lyricism that is so very hard to let go of when you have finally got the hang of it.
EXTREME THRILLS
If you like your lyrics punchy and in your face, then Newcastle’s Irked are an outfit not to miss; BBC Introducing’s Shakk presents his masterful hip-hop vibes; shoegaze rock outfit Low Girl should be high on your must-see list; and for the ultimate quirk, Perfect Chicken’s performance will be a show to hang out at. Two of the headliners push boundaries to create rollercoasters of sound, evidenced in Pom Poko’s raucous sugar-coated songs and Belfast’s CHALK, whose electro/noise combo is a winning one.
The Howl & The Hum
Chalk
Melanie Baker by Ellen Dixon
DURHAM BOOK FESTIVAL
IF YOU LIKE…
HOMEGROWN TALENT
What would the Durham Book Festival be without its showcase of brilliant local authors? The festival features North East talent like Terry Deary, whose Horrible Histories series has been a critical and commercial success. Deary, now with his first adult book A History of Britain in Ten Enemies, will speak about his impressive career, which began in the 1970s and has since seen over 38 million books sold worldwide. Joining Deary is Laura Fish, an esteemed novelist and assistant professor at Northumbria University, adding to the festival’s celebration of local talent.
A GLOBAL AFFAIR
The festival is an international celebration too. Bestselling American authors Jodi Picoult and Rebecca F. Kuang will be among the festival’s highlights, sharing insights into their incredible works. The acclaimed author Jodi Picoult, who has written 30 novels and sold over 40 million copies worldwide, will discuss her latest novel, By Any Other Name. Meanwhile, Rebecca F. Kuang, whose Yellowface became an instant #1 Sunday Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, will delve into her sharp, witty novel about the trials of journalist June Hayward. Other noteworthy authors gracing the festival include acclaimed author Pat Barker, humorist Craig Brown, and the renowned Edith Hall.
ART & LIT
WORDS: BEN ROBINSON
For book lovers like myself, the Durham Book Festival is the ultimate event. From Thursday 10th-Sunday 13th October, the city becomes a literary paradise as many celebrated writers travel to Durham for the annual festival of the written word. With over 35 events across three days, there’s something for every genre enthusiast to enjoy. Held at three venues – Gala Theatre, Clayport Library and Collected Books, plus events at Gala Theatre will also be livestreamed, ensuring no book lover is left behind. This year’s line-up features the likes of Sunderland-born Terry Deary, the author behind the iconic Horrible Histories series, as well as Helen Fielding, famed for creating the beloved ‘chick lit’ genre with her Bridget Jones novels. With dozens of talented authors, the festival is sure to captivate readers of all kinds, providing both entertainment and inspiration - all set against the backdrop of one of the region’s most beautiful cities.
www.newwritingnorth.com/durham-book-festival
WEEKEND WORKSHOPS
If you’re a writer looking to hone some skills or learn more about how to write a certain genre then there are plenty of workshops for you. Aspiring authors can learn from established writers on how to craft compelling stories, develop characters and write for specific genres. There’s a workshop dedicated to writing for middle-grade readers, while crime fiction writer Cathi Unsworth will host a session on how to create suspense-filled crime novels. For budding authors, these workshops are a golden opportunity to enhance your craft.
CELEBRATING POETRY
Durham Book Festival goes beyond novels – it’s a hub for poetry lovers too. Stand-up poet Kate Fox, known for her neurodiverse perspective, will bring her captivating poetry to the event. The festival will also host the prestigious Forward Prizes For Poetry, one of the UK’s most significant poetry awards ceremonies, where top poets from across the country are recognised. Additionally, Scottish poet Jackie Kay will present her latest collection, May Day, which reflects on major social movements, from women’s rights and gay liberation in the 1980s to today’s Black Lives Matter campaigns.
Rebecca F. Kuang by Mike Styer
Terry Deary
Jodi Picoult
RYE
THERE’S
SO MUCH LYRICAL MUSIC AND SUNG POETRY IN TRADITIONAL LITHUANIAN MUSIC AND I TRY TO REFLECT THAT
CHLOE GLOVER TALKS TO THE LITHUANIAN-BORN, NEWCASTLE BASED ARTIST ABOUT HER DEBUT EP, WRITING ABOUT HER PASSIONS AND FINDING COMMUNITY
It’s hard not to be infected by the passion for life that Lithuanian-born singer-songwriter Rye exudes when talking about some of her many interests. A linguaphile who collects her favourite words and sings in three languages, she also speaks with joy about her hangout spots, creating vegan versions of her best-loved recipes and tattoo art. So perhaps it is somewhat surprising to hear her description of her music as “melancholic with feeling”.
Her first solo EP, I Feel Everything, due for release 25th October, is an enchanting, heartfelt release via an effortlessly blended soundtrack of alternative rock, electronic music and sung poetry. In fact, it could arguably be considered cathartic and optimistic.
“I’ve a natural connection to melancholic music because I grew up with alternative rock and underground music like techno in Vilnius, which people call ‘the little Berlin’”, said Rye, whose real moniker is Rugile Deveikyte.
“I started writing my own music because I was feeling so much. They’re vulnerable and confessional but I needed to record the songs to accept and process the emotions behind them and now I’m happy to share them with others to show people that it’s OK for them to do so too.”
Rye explains that recently released single Perfect is: “about me realising I was trying to be who people wanted me to be but now I have more self acceptance and can be happy with who I am. The sound gets darker but there’s hope underlying it. Its central message is that pain is inevitable and we can’t pretend things are always good but we don’t have to be defined by this. There are beautiful things to appreciate out there; we need
MUSIC
to find those pockets of happiness when there’s a lot of sadness around us.”
One of those pockets of happiness for Rye has been the local music scene in the region she’s proud to call her home following relocating here eight years ago to study BMus (Hons) Jazz, Popular and Commercial Music at The Glasshouse. “The music scene in the North East is awesome, there’s a real creative and community vibe. I’ve always felt encouraged to perform and share my music and to talk to artists after their shows. I’ve met a lot of incredible drummers and been introduced to many more musicians through them who’ve influenced me, including the likes of Melanie Baker, Ceitidh Mac, Pigsx7 and Georgia May. It’s great to be able to link up and develop our community even more. I’ve found my people here.”
Rye’s newer influences blend effortlessly with her championing of traditional sounds from Lithuania. “There’s so much lyrical music and sung poetry in traditional Lithuanian music and I try to reflect that. There’s a lot of interesting language use, such as by Alina Orlova. Maybe it’s why I’m so interested in language and words”, she muses. “I get obsessed with the sound and meaning of words in different languages then I need to write something that incorporates them.”
Rye will perform a full band launch gig for I Feel Everything on Friday 8th November at Three Tanners Bank in North Shields, providing an opportunity to connect with the community she’s found her place in. www.ryemiss.bandcamp.com
Rye by David Hall
CLUB PARADISE
DAWN STOREY CHATS WITH THE EXCITABLE INDIE ROCKERS ABOUT THEIR NEW EP
October will be a busy month for Club Paradise. Originally formed at school back in 2011 to do a show of cover versions, they began to write their own songs soon afterwards, and now the North Shields four-piece are preparing to release their new EP, followed by a hometown headline show at Three Tanners Bank on Saturday 19th October.
“In terms of life span, we’ve been in a band together collectively almost longer than we haven’t,” says lead guitarist Jackson. “The one thing we realised back then was we all had this mad love of music. That hasn’t changed, but I think that was the reason we thought this is actually a really good idea – we should play the songs we love and we should write stuff we love even more. That’s always been the goal, just to love what we do.”
Let Me Lose and Chasing the Summer, the opening two tracks on new EP Life On TV, wouldn’t sound out of place playing in an 80s movie as the protagonists drive past neon signs in a convertible, which vocalist Ryan says was “big-time deliberate”.
“I’d describe it as something you could hear at the end of a John Hughes film for sure,” says Jackson. “Coming of age is something that a lot of us have felt a connection with in terms of becoming an adult, and what that means to us as individuals as well as a collective, considering we have been a band since we were teenagers.”
“Definitely get the Roland synths out, get the tape reels out –
MUSIC
we’re here for the 80s sunsets along the boulevard!” Says Ryan, explaining that the writing process for the band can vary. “I don’t think we do or don’t sit down to write, I don’t think it’s ever that conscious. It’s more that we’re noodling on instruments and come up with some tiny melody or catchy phrase that takes us down an avenue we end up writing from. Colette, for example, that’s an older single of ours and I remember driving to work humming the pre-chorus to that track.”
Drummer Nathan’s favourite song on the EP, What If These Days, is also the oldest and has a wistful, classic guitar style. “It has a more vulnerable feeling than the majority of work we’ve previously released,” he explains. “The tension builds from start to finish in a really nice fashion and I’m really pleased with how it turned out.”
“I think Let Me Lose has an energy at the end that we’ve rarely tapped into as a band,” says Jackson, “and the larger than life ending is something that always gets me excited.”
Ryan, meanwhile, chooses Years as his favourite. “We’ve been playing this live recently and I cannot cope with how good that feels. It’s lush.”
Speaking of playing live, what can we can expect from their EP launch show in North Shields?
“Banger after banger, with some awful mic banter sprinkled in between,” says an honest Nathan.
“Nadedja is also playing and she will probably be the best act on the night,” says Ryan. “But we cannot wait to squawk and shred.” Club Paradise release Life on TV on 11th October, they play Three Tanners Bank, North Shields on Saturday 19th October. www.thisisclubparadise.com
SAINT MAUD
Live Theatre’s exciting new production of Saint Maud stands out from the usual spooky season fare. For one, it’s an adaptation of a horror film that became a phenomenon, presented live on stage. It also features a female-focused artist collaboration that includes Rose Glass (who wrote and directed the film), acclaimed Sunderland writer Jessica Andrews (who adapted the film into a stage text) and new music by Gazelle Twin, whose adventurous and unique sound make them the ideal match for this story. Not to forget the cast of female actors portraying the three central characters that lead us through the story. For those who haven’t seen the film, which came out in 2020, director Jack McNamara describes it as “a unique chamber horror film” telling the story of a devout young nurse taking care of an ex-dancer in the last days of her life, with their relationship becoming involved, intense and obsessive. “What was so striking to me is that it really centres on an absolutely extraordinary young female performance, and it did a unique thing in the horror genre – which was to horrify us and to keep us on edge, but to do so in a very grounded way, so it looked like a social realist horror and felt like an artist’s vision.” Jack felt that the three-character focused story was “innately theatrical” and was excited by the potential for atmosphere and how it might work on stage.
The performance aims to immerse the audience with sound, lighting and staging that throw them off-kilter, Jack says: “I don’t want this to be an orthodox production in any way. The staging is all about how things affect the body, it’s a very physical production. The ultimate theme of the piece for me is the effect of life, society and illness on the body, and how we deal with that.”
Writer Jessica Andrews explores the “complexity of how bodies
I DON’T WANT THIS TO BE AN ORTHODOX PRODUCTION IN ANY WAY
respond to their environment, to trauma, to desires”; while the collaboration with Gazelle Twin came about after Jack saw her show Black Dog, which he thought was “hugely theatrical, in a quiet odd way” and started a conversation thinking that the material might spark an interest, which subsequently led to her recording sounds on an old church organ, playing with electronic sounds, organ music and hymns to create music that will feature in the performance.
The North East is another focus of the production. “Jessica’s really pinged in the script the idea of the North East and the industrial landscape and the kind of ‘ghost’ of that landscape. So that’s influenced Elizabeth [Gazelle Twin] in thinking about how industrial beats and pulses can exist in an otherwise quite religious framework.”
A wraparound programme will also feature high-profile local authors like Eliza Clark, David Almond and Matt Wesolowski reading previously unheard ghost stories before the main production. There has been a lot of interest in this production on a wider level and Jack is excited to bring audiences to Live who may previously not have considered visiting the theatre.
“It’s deeply rooted in the North East, it’s really about great performances and it’s full of crunchy themes and ideas.”
Saint Maud is at Live Theatre from Thursday 10thOctoberSaturday 2nd November. www.live.org.uk
L-R Brogan Gilbert who plays Maud, Dani Arlington who plays Amanda and Neshla Caplan who plays Carol in Saint Maud, image by Von Fox Promotions
MUSIC
LIZ CORNEY
CAMERON WRIGHT TALKS TO THE ACCOMPLISHED MUSICIAN ABOUT HER DEBUT ALBUM, THE JOY OF CREATION AND EMBRACING ABSURD MUSICAL DISCOVERIES
Liz Corney is jubilant. From the moment we started chatting, the energy radiating off her was infectious; her ideas, passion and the lust for music cuts through immediately. Any listener of The Cornshed Sisters will be familiar with Corney’s work, as will those who have seen Field Music recently on tour, as she has been an active member of the band for several years. Having found time to concentrate on her own music, she’s enlisted the help of Field Music’s David Brewis to create debut album, We Need New Eyes.
From a young age, the car radio was filled with the sounds of ABBA and Carly Simon, which ignited not only a love of music but a love of the community it builds. “Screaming my head off in the car is all I ever wanted to do, we used to drive all day, singing as loud as we could, and that’s what I wanted to capture. I wanted to make that joyful singing in the car music!” says Corney. That giddiness shines through this record of euphoric piano pop, which sprinkles in hooks and melodies that carry that same sparkle as the hits she was raised on. Think of those early memories, the first time hearing Bennie & The Jets or Vienna, and you’re close to the melodic abandon of this record. The variety of influences alternates from track to track, as discussions range from Thundercat’s These Changes to the percussive piano stylings of Fiona Apple, and from newer artists like Robyn, to the ambitious climaxes of a Bob Segar track, each seed of influence has blossomed into a new flower that decorates the myriad of opulent releases.
“I’ve been described as a very dynamic piano player, which I think is fair,” Corney admits, while discussing the idiosyncrasies of her sound. “I’ve always been drawn to a rhythm or a syncopation. I guess when I write, I start with the melody. I want to find the smile of the song and go from there. But this record has seen me grow and learn so much as a writer, I’ve done things I wouldn’t have thought possible!”
There’s so many exciting examples throughout the record of new ideas bubbling up, and you can feel the sheer childlike wonder as Bathroom Windows breaks into wild percussion or a string quartet erupts into a track. “Recording at David’s studio was crazy, they have so many things there, any idea could be realised. We would play around and bounce the most absurd ideas off the wall, and he’d know a way to make it a reality. I never thought I’d be writing string parts for a quartet, I never thought I’d be able to attach any of the bells and whistles that we did, but it’s so much fun!”
It’s that sense of fun that anchors the album, those personal flourishes that latch onto the soul. “Some songs came to me so quickly, driving down the motorway, and others took so long to craft and scrutinise. Touring with Field Music taught me to really consider the whole sonic landscape and carry all that information. That’s the special thing about music: it’s bringing something into the world that doesn’t exist yet. It’s making something only you could make.”
Liz Corney releases We Need New Eyes on 18th October, with an album launch at The Cluny 2, Newcastle on Sunday 20th October.
www.linktr.ee/lizcorney
Image by Phyllis Christopher
MARTHA HILL
AHEAD OF THE RELEASE OF HER DEBUT ALBUM, ISABEL MARIA TALKS TO NEWCASTLE-BASED POLYMATH MARTHA HILL ABOUT EXPLORATIVE SONGWRITING, THE JOYS OF INDEPENDENCE AND HER ‘TAYLOR SWIFT MOMENT’
Debut albums are often a long time coming for fans, and Football Heid by Martha Hill is no different. The Newcastlebased singer-songwriter has gained a vast amount of supporters across her impressive career, and is finally gifting them with a longform project. “It feels good to finally put a full length album out. Especially to have done it independently and on my own terms.” She says.
Martha’s album follows previous EP Dog Hearted Man and silhouettes all of its signature charm, whilst showcasing new, exciting and undoubtedly important songwriting. It comes at a time in which she has taken an active step back from the toxic expectation-based parts of the music industry, and is using this album to protest against the idea of having to sell yourself like a product to claim any form of success. This trails into the choice of Martha’s to re-record two of her previously released tracks, Right Out My Head and In My Future, and repurpose them into this album, rightfully claiming them as her own. “It was a Taylor Swift moment really. I wanted the whole album to be mine and on my own terms. The previous recordings of these singles belong to my old record label, and seeing as my music doesn’t do particularly well financially, I’m very far off owning those recordings myself. This way the whole album is mine.”
Martha wrote and produced the entirety of Football Heid herself, which is a hugely impressive feat. Every instrument was played by Martha, with the exception of longtime collaborator Ceitidh Mac on cello. “I produced it working with engineer John Martindale at Blank Studios. The whole album was done in six days. Some tracks were done live, one was done after just the first take. I wanted to capture the vibe and not overthink or overwork it.”
The rusticity of the recording process reflects the rawness of the
I
WANTED THE WHOLE ALBUM TO BE MINE AND ON MY OWN TERMS
words presented across the album; even the titles can be gutting and surprising, such as opener Everyone Is Perfect Except Me and closer I’m So Loved But It All Washes Off. Thematically the project is explorative and fascinating, and you’ll pick up on more cleverness each time you listen. “It’s mostly about loss.” Martha reveals. “Loss of dreams, loss of sense of self, or career, or people we love, the loss of carrots to carrot fly… the biggies.”
And you might be wondering what all of these delightfully articulated thoughts have to do with football… “Fitbaw Heid is a daft Scottish insult and the first single was called Football so it just happened. I’m not great at naming things.” It sounds as though the title fell just as naturally as the recording process, and it’s truly a great thing to behold. With cynical lyricism and artfully varied instrumentation which veers across guitar, cello and even trombone, there’s nothing not to love.
And if you, as I suspect, do love Football Heid, you can go and see it performed live at The Grove in Newcastle on Saturday 9th November. “It’s gonna be ace! Getting the old band back together, even my old drummer DIJI is supporting us, as well as good pal Ruth Lyon. I probably won’t be playing another gig again for a while, definitely not full band anyway, so if you’re keen to catch us while you can I’d come along!”
Martha Hill releases Football Heid on 18th October. She performs at The Grove, Newcastle on Saturday 9th November. www.linktr.ee/marthahillmusic
LISTINGS
THE BEST OF THE REST… EVEN MORE ALTERNATIVE MUSIC, THEATRE, COMEDY, ART AND FILM TAKING PLACE THROUGHOUT THE NORTH EAST THIS MONTH
TUESDAY 1ST OCTOBER
PLEASE RIGHT BACK
Combining handcrafted animation and bold storytelling, Please Right Back sweeps audiences in a magical, mischievous world, inspired by a true story. Runs until 5th October // Northern Stage, Newcastle
WEDNESDAY 2ND OCTOBER
FRIENDS OF THE CITY BATHS SCREENINGS
Two short documentary films, My Beautiful Turkish Baths, directed by Sule Nisancioglu, and The Lost and Saved Pools of Tyneside, directed by Jordan Reeve, follow the campaign to save Newcastle’s historic city pool and Turkish baths // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
THURSDAY 3RD OCTOBER
SEALIONWOMAN
Atmospheric and inventive melancholy soundscapes, torch-song transgressions and rapturous drama, supported by Lucy Valentine // Cobalt Studios, Newcastle
FRIDAY 4TH OCTOBER
COWTOWN
Leeds-based synth punk band, plus support from Fashion Tips and Fast Blood // Zerox, Newcastle
ELEVATE 22
Showcase event featuring up and coming North East artists, featuring Sophie Gordon, Central Arcade and Camel Island // Newgate Social, Newcastle
MAM UP
Mam Up from writer and stand-up comedian Catherine Scott is a show that explores the challenges of parenting in the modern age; the Insta-mams, the apps that promise relaxation and a feeling that life would be much easier if you could just get a full night’s sleep! // Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle
FEATURED // Rosie Morris
The artist is interested in the ways we interact through touch, and parallels between the gestures of care in our relationships and in making and tending to an artwork. Working in photography and sculpture, Rosie creates womb-like den spaces, and direct prints of aluminium ‘casts’ on aluminium, exploring the body as a site, and emotions relating to ‘daughtering’, memory and loss. Runs until 6th October // St John’s Church, Healey, Riding Mill
SAM DICKINSON
Soulful pop artist // The Globe, Newcastle SLALOM D
Punk rock band, supported by TBFDCAP and Black Rain // Little Buildings, Newcastle
SATURDAY 5TH OCTOBER
BURNING UP TIME
Artist Paul Harvey’s exhibition consists of a painting representing every year from the year of his birth in 1960 to 2000. Runs until 9th November // Newcastle Arts Centre
HILARITY BITES COMEDY CLUB
Featuring Rob Rouse, Matt Price, Peter Bell and Andy Fury // The Forum Music Centre, Darlington
MUNICIPAL
Not-for-profit techno night featuring a live performance from Samuel Kerridge, plus Ancient Methods // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
REAL ESTATE
The New Jersey band bring their signature dreamy fusion of indie rock sounds to Newcastle // Newcastle University Students’ Union
ROMANCE TO REALITIES: THE NORTHERN LANDSCAPE & SHIFTING IDENTITIES
Exploring over 200 years of landscape painting in the North of England and Scotland, focusing on the diverse and dramatic landscapes of the regions and how artists have depicted not only the world around us, but also our place within it. Runs until 26th April // Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle
WE SHALL OVERCOME
Raising money for local foodbanks, this show features Teesside noiseniks Werbeniuk, Loren Heat, Doug Verrill and The Jack Dash // Toft House, Middlesbrough
SUNDAY 6TH OCTOBER
REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA
In a future where organ repossessions are legal, a young woman navigates dark family secrets in a gripping rock musical filled with betrayal and survival // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
TUESDAY 8TH OCTOBER
READING FOR WELLBEING
The Co-Create Café aims to improve wellbeing through reading, hear about their initiatives and find out how to get involved // Newcastle City Library
WEDNESDAY 9TH OCTOBER
TOM VEK
The eclectic one-man electro party starter brings his winning combo of indie rock, electronica, punk, dance and grunge to Newcastle // The Cluny, Newcastle
FRIDAY 11TH OCTOBER
FLO PERLIN
Contemporary singer-songwriter from London, with Iraqi and Belarusian heritage. Her storytelling style blends contemporary folk, jazz and soul // Three Tanners Bank, North Shields
REAL FARMER
Garage punk four-piece from the Netherlands // KU, Stockton
SATURDAY 12TH OCTOBER
CULVER
Noise and experimental sounds, plus support from brb>voicecoil, Depletion, Rovellasca, SGERBWD and Gault // The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle
LEAP THEN LOOK: PLAY INTERACT EXPLORE
An interactive exhibition of large, tactile sculptural objects and colourful assemblages perfect for exploration for all ages. Runs until 27th April // Baltic, Gateshead
TEN EIGHTY TREES
Heavy vibrant rock // Zerox, Newcastle
SUNDAY 13TH OCTOBER
LOOSE ARTICLES
Punk quartet specialising in discordant, hypnotic repetition, tales of nights out and radical politics. Support from Gaydar and Bikini Body // Zerox, Newcastle
TUESDAY 15TH OCTOBER
BLED
Conjurors of eccentric goth disco, support from Tight Collar // The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle
THURSDAY 17TH OCTOBER
NECRO-NOISE
Darksynth, horrorwave and cyberpunk party-themed night, also featuring Squarms, $lick King and Jake Major // Little Buildings, Newcastle
LAURA LEXX
An effortlessly heartwarming, hilarious show about motherhood // Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle
TROY HAWKE
Everyone’s favourite 1930’s throwback greetings and compliments aficionado // Middlesbrough Town Hall
VOICES FROM THE LANDSCAPE POETRY ANTHOLOGY LAUNCH
Mark A. Carr presents a collection of poetry which takes the reader from cityscapes to seascapes, highlighting an innate connection to nature and our role within it // Bridge Hotel, Newcastle
WHITE ROOM 1ST ANNIVERSARY
Celebrating their first anniversary with great live music from Paul Adamson, Marshall Nattrass & Robin Moody, AJ Potter, Andy Fraser & Jim Bullock and Charlie McKee // The White Room, Stanley
FRIDAY 18TH OCTOBER
AMATEUR ORNITHOLOGIST
The weird pop band celebrate their birthday, with support from Belle Skies and May Days In Barcelona // The Globe, Newcastle
A TASTE OF HONEY
Part of the cinema’s Keith Partington celebration, British drama exploring a young woman’s struggles with pregnancy, race, and sexuality in 1950s Salford // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
EXPERIMENT 637
Indie/folk/electronica duo, supported by Analogue Blood // The Forum Music Centre, Darlington
MIKI BERENYI TRIO
Alt. rock fused with shoegaze // The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle
TEES LIVE
A night of North East sounds, featuring ZELA, We Tibetans, Dossers and Gone Tomorrow // Middlesbrough Empire
SATURDAY 19TH OCTOBER
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER ALL-DAYER
Grab your stakes and celebrate the slayer herself with an all-day marathon of the classic television show // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
SUNDAY 20TH OCTOBER
DANNY MELLIN
Rock ‘n’ roll for the not so serious! // Zerox, Newcastle
WEDNESDAY 23RD OCTOBER
HEARTWOOD
An exhibition of five bespoke prints created from a disc of the trunk of the felled Sycamore Gap tree, created by printmaker Shona Branigan. Runs until 26th January // Baltic, Gateshead
THURSDAY 24TH OCTOBER
CHIEDU ORAKA
With bars that can fill the dancefloor as capably as they serve as social poetry, Chiedu Oraka portrays the Black, working-class experience from the frontlines of a largely white, economically deprived region of the North // Zerox, Newcastle
FROM THE GLASSHOUSE X JAZZ NORTH EAST
Featuring performances from Faye MacCalman, John Pope Quintet and Moonfish // The Glasshouse, Gateshead
FRIDAY 25TH OCTOBER
HALLOWEEN SILENT DISCO
Dig out your best costumes and dust down your deadly dance moves for a spooky spectacular, and dance the night away under Luke Jerram’s glowing 7m diameter planet earth, Gaia // Life Science Centre, Newcastle
PENSACOLA MIST
Prepare to get spooked with synthwave knockouts Pensacola Mist, who have become known for their powerful male/ female vocal leads, captivating light shows and electrifying stage presence // The Globe, Newcastle
SATURDAY 26TH OCTOBER
ELECTRIC CIRCUS
Loud rock and rollers, supported by We Three Kings, Hivemind and Jam Tub // The Cluny 2, Newcastle
HALLOWEEN NIGHT MARKET
Showcasing the work of artists and craft makers, plus luxury food vendors and more // Newcastle Castle
MONDAY 28TH OCTOBER
FEATURED // Deterge
Noise/power electronics/industrial project of Jim Haras. Support from Natural Causes and Svartvit // Disgraceland, Middlesbrough
TUESDAY 29TH OCTOBER
TERROR ON TYNE
Horror film festival, aimed purely at showing and promoting short films made by and for horror fans // The Cluny 2, Newcastle
WEDNESDAY 30TH OCTOBER
HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE
Shoegazey indie rock // The Cluny 2, Newcastle
SIMEON WALKER & FRIENDS
Join pianist and composer Simeon Walker and a talented ensemble of musicians, as they present a new interpretation of music from the seminal 90s TV show Twin Peaks // ARC, Stockton
THURSDAY 31ST OCTOBER
HALLOWQUEER: GAYLIEN
Join Mama Rhi and Mack for a cabaret night which explores their queer chaotic universe, filled with star studded acts ranging from planetary poetry, cosmic comedy and singing supernovas // Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle
SECKOU KEITA
Renowned Kora virtuoso who stands as a luminary amongst African traditional musicians // Fire Station, Sunderland
tel: 0141 554 7633 email: sales@greencity.coop
REVIEWS
CHARLIE PARR, ELSIE FRANKLIN @ THE CLUNY 2, NEWCASTLE (12.09.24)
Words: Lee Fisher
I only caught the last couple of songs of Elsie Franklin’s set (a set-time confusion) but she seemed an apt support for Charlie Parr with her pleasingly melancholy country folk, a sweet, expressive voice and a beautiful steel guitar.
Someone else with a REALLY beautiful guitar (a custom Mule Resophonic, guitar fans) is Charlie Parr, back in Newcastle promoting his recent Little Sun album. Kicking off with a variation on Dying Crapshooter’s Blues, Parr is accompanied for this tour by washboard player/percussionist Mikal, who starts out reserved and by the end of the set is being as animated as anyone can be playing such an awkward instrument. Parr has always been a brilliant, wry, witty storyteller between songs as well as within them but he seemed a little subdued tonight, eventually revealing (after a properly heartbreaking run through dementia-themed song Remember Me If I Forget) that he recently lost his mum. But we still got digressions on Tunnocks Tea Cakes, whether crochet is a euphemism for cocaine in old blues songs, and the difference between British and American traffic (basically, less guns). And of course we got his aching, raw, deeply affecting voice and a guitar style like liquid silver or Autumn rain, all flow and motion. His songs draw deep from the well of country folk, while his lyrics tell of a hard-scrabble blue collar American life with a Willy Vlautin-vividness. Charlie Parr is an absolute treasure.
MELT-BANANA, FASHION TIPS @ THE CLUNY, NEWCASTLE (13.09.24)
Words: Lee Fisher
And once again, in the short time since I last saw them, Fashion Tips have become even greater, even more tightly focussed, even more in-yr-face. A lot of that is down to the addition of Fiona Ireland, whose electronics and beats feel ever more central to the sound and whose interjections, samples and between song patter with Esmé add some real wit and sass. Esmé is turning into a fascinating, ferocious figurehead, serving up icy Berlin disdain (except for when she can’t hide how much fun she’s having), and Liam and Jordan conjure up a brutal, Pigpile-esque storm throughout. They really might be the best band in town right now.
Cluny sound-ninja Ross described mixing Melt-Banana as “everything to 11 and all subtlety removed!”, which about covers it. Of course, it was glorious, of course it was brutally loud, of course you could feel your fillings vibrate and your internal organs shift. Melt-Banana are the anime grindcore superheroes of our wildest dreams, a sugar-rush apocalypse, the sound of an arcade blowing up. Agata is the guitar hero Eddie Van Halen wishes he could be, Yako is a beat-triggering, shape-throwing titan, charming and shy between songs, a Fury within them. It was a delight to see such a wildly diverse crowd at such a busy gig, everyone grinning gleefully as the dynamic duo ripped off their faces. A remarkable nine-song encore closed with their epic Candy Gun and then we could breathe properly again.
ART BRUT, BAKER ISLAND @ THE GROVE, NEWCASTLE (06.09.24)
Words: Lee Fisher
Somehow I’d contrived to never see Baker Island before tonight’s gig despite their fairly long existence, which might explain why I found them a bit dated somehow. There was plenty of quiet-loud indie rock dynamic and some fairly inventive song structures, but nothing that got the pulse racing beyond calling a song Robert Powell’s Moving Castle, a title that deserves a better song tbh.
It’s about 15 years since I last saw Art Brut, during which time sprechgesang titan Eddie Argos has upped and moved to Berlin, making AB activity pretty sporadic. But you wouldn’t know it from this excellent set – Argos is still one of the most brilliantly unlikely frontmen in indie rock and the band (who seem to be completely different from the 2008 vintage) were gnarly as fuck, tight and loud. With a recent careerspanning compilation on the shelves, this small tour (arranged so they could afford to support Bis a couple of days later) is very much a victory lap, so we got all the hits delivered full pelt and with that astonishing mixture of self-belief and disarming diffidence that makes Argos such a star. At one point he stood amongst us urging us to picture our favourite piece of modern art before slamming back into Modern Art Makes Me Want To Rock Out. There was also skipping, chants of ‘out demons out’ and some Morrissey gags. The whole package, basically. Not all heroes wear tasteful shirts.
Art Brut by David Wala
JEFFREY LEWIS AND THE VOLTAGE, DAVID CRONENBERG’S WIFE @ THE GEORGIAN THEATRE, STOCKTON (01.09.24)
Words: Robert Nichols
Jeffrey Lewis sings about having a disease for LPs, and clearly he is looking at sharing not caring because to the rear of a packed and enraptured Georgian Theatre is the biggest merch stand of LPs and CDs. There are also wads of comic books, t-shirts, tote bags etc., all designed by the man himself. A Jeffrey Lewis gig is a music, comic art and artisan shop emporium experience all rolled into one.
But before our favourite New Yorker comes David Cronenberg’s Wife, a London-based band playing a primitive art post-punk. Very Fall-esque, the lyrics are quirky with a tendency for the unexpected; just as unexpected as an audience member being suddenly co-opted to play keyboards. Tales about mermaids and best friend girlfriend envy ensue. Lo-fi folk punk is the order of the day from Jeffrey Lewis, with high wordage as well as high Voltage delivery. Between lovably long narratives about Back When I Was Four and Tylenol, the US equivalent to Night Nurse, Jeffrey voices his own comic book projection dramas. The instructive History of Chile follows the hilarious Cannibal Monkeys, not to mention the controversial X-rated After Dark. The material can so often be endearingly self-deprecating, but following the advice of folk singer Diane Cluck, Lewis chooses to finishes on a positive with 100 Good Things On My List. Everyone leaves the Georgian thoroughly charmed.
Pure DIY indie pop rock brilliance at its best, Future Collaborations was a dream of a festival, with a packed line-up of excellent local talents. All production elements were run by a team of neuro-diverse people who did an outstanding job. This was one of the most relaxed and accessible music events I’ve been to – I wish more events felt as calm as this one! It was especially lovely to see families enjoying the music. Kicking off this mega line-up were fantastic talents like Grace & Elise, The Frets and Ben Lunn alongside the AutismAble choir, plus a number of familiar North East names.
Highlights came in the form of Distant Listening, an incredibly talented drummer working with super emotive electronic music; Liz Corney, leading with gorgeous vocals, delivered a colourful, joyful set with her band; Idle Hands provided big noise and shoegazy alt. rock; Mt. Misery brought some gentle, poppy guitar tunes with smooth upbeat harmonies; Jodie Nicholson gave us her compelling, superb vocals and a haunting, mournful keyboard; Jeremy Warmsley was pouring with raw talent on acoustic guitar, with clever and imaginative lyrics and warm vocals; and Nano Kino delivered some nice blends of bright, dreamy indie rock. The fantastic night ended with the lovable, lederhosendressed Slug, whose fun, synth pop rock weirdness complete with bongo solos couldn’t help put a smile on your face.
Future Collaborations was a joyous feat and I couldn’t help but beam alongside the fantastic team who made it all happen; their future is certainly bright.
SLUG at Future Collaborations by Victoria Wai
JON SPENCER @ THE CLUNY, NEWCASTLE (11.09.24)
Words: Lee Fisher
Many people who fell in love with impossibly young Woodstock garage band The Bobby Lees probably came across them through Jon Spencer producing their Skin Suit album, so it’s a beautiful squaring of the circle that the Bobby Lees’ rhythm section – Macky and Kendall, “the morbidly obese siblings” – are backing Spencer for his current run of dates. And they’re remarkable – tight and hard-hitting, both of them constantly watching Spencer’s every move. Macky plays drums like Keith Moon crossed with Animal, a thudding caveman beat like all the best garage rock. And Spencer is clearly still absolutely in love with rock ’n’ roll, tearing through a set laden with songs from across his various bands with barely a breath.
We get Bellbottoms, 2 Kindsa Love, She Said and Fancy Pants, we even get a snatch of Big Black’s The Power Of Independent Trucking (requiescat, Steve Albini). Spencer shimmies and howls and testifies and throws shapes like a man half his age, one of the best showmen around but also a magnificent guitarist with riffs for days. Ain’t no party like a Jon Spencer party, ‘cos a Jon Spencer party has THE BLOOZ!
GRUFF RHYS @ KU, STOCKTON (31.08.24)
Words: Robert Nichols
Dressed in the guise of a logistics company, Gruff Rhys and his Sadness Sets You Free Band scheduled an extra tour stop over in Stockton, guaranteeing a top Saturday night at KU. A set featuring many numbers from the 2024 album release bearing the band’s name means that we are treated to the latest creative thinking of this most productive Welsh musical force.
Both the album’s title track and the superb Bad Friend suggest some inner turmoil, but the music of this exceptional band of musicians could not be further from downbeat. Driven on by the manic rhythms of former Flaming Lips sticks man Kliph Scurlock, we hear folk, psych, country and alt. rock, but everything gets rebranded GR logistics-style (as it says on the backs of their white boiler suits).
Gruff Rhys once described easy listening being dangerous territory out
there in the middle of the road – his sound may be easy on the ear but it is invigorating. And there is quantity as well as quality; the long set was also sprinkled with Gruff solo highlights, such as the enigmatic Pang! American Interior, and the wonderfully named Mausoleum of My Former Self. As the set finally draws to a close there are no Negative Vibes in the house, despite what this most uplifting song says on the tin. Gruff Rhys sets you free.
FERN BRADY, PETER BRUSH @ TYNE THEATRE & OPERA HOUSE, NEWCASTLE (15.09.24)
Words: Lee Fisher
Tonight’s (unexpected) support, Peter Brush, has a Facebook header describing himself as Professor of Logic at The University of Science, which tells you a lot about this seemingly nervous, slightly shambolic schtick. It’s only when you find out he’s been on the circuit for years that you realise how hard he leans into that persona, playing up the hesitant nerd element. His set is enjoyably awkward and goes to some surprising places – his bit about doing ketamine at a football match was a gem.
I’ve heard Fern Brady described as the poster girl for the neurodivergent, but it sounded like a diss. Fuck that. Brady is magnificent in this apparent poster girl role and she’s doing it all with a heady blend of frankness, insight and wanking gags. She hit the ground running tonight, explaining why she prefers to play Newcastle on a Sunday because everyone is WAY too pissed on Saturday, and in her hour-long set we get ruminations on taking mushrooms, meeting Miriam Margolyes after a Botox treatment, discussing euthanasia with Prue Leith on Bake Off and a dozen other unlikely and hysterical insights into her life as an unwilling, autistic celebrity. She’s indiscreet (poor Phil Wang) and gleefully filthy, but always fully in touch with who she is and where’s she’s come from. She once said: “I want to help other severely mentally ill people feel less alone” and for that alone she deserves a statue.
Jon Spencer by David Wala
DEMOS
WE WANT YOUR MUSIC!
IF YOU’RE AN UP AND COMING BAND OR MUSICIAN, AND WOULD LIKE YOUR MUSIC REVIEWED IN OUR DEMO SECTION, EMAIL A TRACK TO NARCMEDIA@GMAIL.COM AND TELL US MORE ABOUT YOURSELF!
The Flow State – Disappear
Another great band to come out of the Northern Academy of Music Education in Sunderland, who in their short time ministering to the would-be music youth of today have catapulted some fantastic talent into the public eye. The Flow State are no exception, as there is some fabulous playing on display on this track. Kicking off with a professional sounding sultry soul vocal sitting out front on a woven tapestry of gently meandering melody lines, you’ve got something very unique that builds with the entry of drums and a searing guitar solo into a beautifully constructed behemoth with a clever pop sensibility not seen or heard much since the 1990’s. It’s giving Sade, Beautiful South and Simply Red levels of musical truth and I frankly can’t wait to see what they do next. www.theflowstate.hearnow.com
George Jones – The Ever After I Dream Of
George Jones describes himself as “just a local songwriter based in Sunderland”, honing his craft around the open mic scene of the North East. This track has the dour barrelhouse vibe of an early Tom Waits demo, but with a good dose of the Mackem accent, giving a regional and folksy vibe that matches the Dylan-esque acoustic guitar and harmonica instrumental pairing. The playing doesn’t move beyond a few simple chords at first, down struck and left to ring out on the one – leaving the impression George is maybe still at the beginning of his journey with the instrument. However towards the end of the track we get a bit more fingerstyle and strumming that lifts with the intensity of the lyrics and recontextualises a somewhat lacklustre opening as a deliberate artistic choice. I’d like to hear more from this promising artist.
www.instagram.com/bumwithaguitar
Scott Bisicker – This Is Darlington
Opening with a found-sound recording of a
football chant, Scott Bisicker pitches this track as part documentary before launching into a strum-and-stutter satirical discourse on the place he’s called home for his 21 years on earth. I get echoes of George Formby as this piece of observational stand-up is contorted into the confines of a three-chord song. Syllables smash together and punchlines run over the bar, more foley is layered on top and the level of the vocal fades in and out as I struggle to make any sense of what’s being said at times. Not to come down too hard on this young songwriter, who has clearly set out just to get a few laughs and make people smile, but a comedy song with hard to understand lyrics is dead on arrival. www.instagram.com/scott.bisicker
Adam Kirkup – Keep You Warm
Adam’s voice sounds unbelievable on this track, which I’m led to believe by his Bandcamp listing was recorded on a dictaphone. It comes across as intimate, emotive and fragile in the best way. Backed only by some simply strummed strings with a ukulele kind of toppyness that might actually be guitar with a capo high up the neck. The vibe is very Juno OST and would sit
comfortably beside those songs from The Mouldy Peaches and Belle & Sebastian. Whether you’re exploring a rainy forest with a trusty hound by your side or delving into the depths of your emotional world to wrestle with your psyche, this track has got your back. www.adamkirkup.com
Lee Dwayne feat. Lady Nightmare – Slow Down
Lee has written this track for his dog Jess, who has passed, and it features his friend Lady Nightmare on vocals. It’s an unusual and very interesting vocal performance that is somewhat marred by an iffy phaser effect that reaches for an ethereal dreamlike quality but lands off-kilter and dated. Overall the track comes across very well with a juicy low end providing a nice bit of depth to the driving rhythmic bed and some trippy snippets of psychedelic ear candy to keep things interesting across all six minutes of the track’s run time. A fine ode to man’s best friend. www.facebook.com/leedwaynemusic
WORDS: JOHN KNOX DEMO
TRACKS
SAM BAXTER & MERLE HARBRON S/T EP
Words: Claire Dupree
Folk artists with considerable pedigrees, Sam Baxter and Merle Harbron’s collaborative work is full of warmth, charm and musical prowess. Utilising fiddle, drone and vocals, veering between whimsical and awe-inspiring effects, their approach breathes a new life into traditional tunes and songs. An T-Alltan (The Stream) is as evocative as its title, full of fluid strings with a propulsive cadence; Scan Tester’s is lullaby-like thanks to the duo’s twinned voices; Bobbing Joan is a jig-worthy riot of quiet-loud dynamics; and Chaunting Bonny’s high and sweet fiddle is joined by fleeting, soaring interludes. Meeting Of A Pleasant Place, the only track which includes lyrics, features a hypnotic drone and the duo’s beautifully twinned vocals. They launch their EP at The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle on Thursday 3rd October.
Released: 04.10.24
www.sambaxterandmerleharbron.bandcamp.com
HELS PATTISON BETTER PERSON
Words: Amelia Neri
Upbeat and deeply personal, Better Person is the playful, yet introspective memoir on love, life and self-development by Newcastle-based songstress Hels Pattison. Influenced by country legends such as Dolly Parton and Mary Chapin Carpenter, and peppered with the queer pop energy of Chappell Roan and Boygenius, Hels has mastered the art of making music that is campy, hard-hitting and relatable.
Melody-driven and sprinkled with Hels’ harmonious vocals, Better Person teases her upcoming self-titled project, and is a heartfelt ode on her current relationship and how it has helped her heal. Despite this, feelings of brokenness and ruminations on the fragility of contentment are weaved into the lyrics, themes that recur throughout Hels’ forthcoming EP.
Released: 04.10.24
www.facebook.com/helspattisonmusic
(PLEASE TRY TO GET IN TOUCH 8-6 WEEKS AHEAD OF THE MONTH OF RELEASE)
NAUTA OUR TIME/GOTTA SEE ABOUT A GIRL
Words: Isabel Maria
Immediately classic and exciting to fans of a good, solid jazz track comes the debut release from contemporary jazz outfit Nauta, who are exploding into the world of released music with not one, but two songs – Our Time and Gotta See About A Girl. Fans of their unique improvisatory voice have been in waiting since early 2023 to see what the band have been up to. Both tunes were recorded at Blank Studios with Luke Elgie (as part of Generator’s First Notes scheme), and each has its own unique character. Our Time is explosive, dynamic and full of contrast with an impressive rollercoaster of a four-minute span, while Gotta See About A Girl showcases another side to their unique charm and skill at a tidy six minutes.
Released: 11.10.24
www.instagram.com/nautaband
LABYRINTHINE OCEANS PINCH
Words: Nat Greener
Labyrinthine Oceans return with their third single, Pinch, ahead of their upcoming Home EP. Known for their unique blend of shoegaze, grunge and dream rock, the band continues to push boundaries both musically and thematically.
Fronted by vocalist Julia O’Neill-Walton, their latest track delves into dark themes of self-actualisation and societal pressures; ethereal vocals soar over heavier, distorted instrumentals, creating a tension between vulnerability and defiance. The haunting lyricism tackles mental health, suicide ideation and the struggle to live authentically. Pinch blends dreaminess with intensity, offering a gripping reflection on conformity and the inner turmoil that comes with breaking free. This track is an unmissable addition to the North East band’s impressive discography. Released: 09.10.24 www.labyrinthineoceans.com
Image by Mathew Harding
Image by Gracie Hall
KIRSTY HALL PAS
Words: Niamh Poppleton
Tyneside singer-songwriter Kirsty Hall’s latest track PAS is a haunting commentary on domestic abuse and female hysteria. Chronicling a child custody battle, Hall laments how “He was ours in the womb, he was mine in the morning, and the night and the afternoon; he was yours in the courtroom”.
The song sheds light on the history of the Parental Alienation Syndrome argument – a fallacious claim of manipulating a child to sway the legal case. Eerie and ethereal, expressing the tortured emotion of a grief-struck woman, Hall’s vocals echo Annie Lennox and Kate Bush. Melancholy piano keys amplify the sombre mood of the track. The tone lifts as the track concludes, however, reflecting the changing narrative as she wins the case.
Released: 18.10.24
www.linktr.ee/kirstyhallmuisc
BREADCRUMBS THE TRUE NAVIGATOR
Words: Niamh Poppleton
In a vocal fusion between the Sex Pistols and early Blur, North Tyneside band, Breadcrumbs’ latest track The True Navigator criticises our sense of moral justice in a world driven by self-centred consequentialism and our own egotistical desires.
A heavy ska beat permeates throughout, with seeds of grunge interspersing its musical composition, though the song is undeniably punk in nature. The internal conflict caused by a warped sense of virtue is displayed throughout the song, with the chorus indecisive as to whether the moral compass is pointing in the right or wrong direction. The societally-critical piece comes to a close as a repetitive guitar beat is interrupted by warped strings – the war of morals continues even after the track fades out.
Released: 07.10.24
www.breadcrumbstheband.bandcamp.com
S.K.X FUNKANAUTS
MURMURS
FROM EARTH FEAT. ANNIE J
Words: Roz Cuthbert
I like this song. I was even amused by the press release which is a very rare thing. Murmurs From Earth makes a pleasant change from the slew of guitar bands I review on a regular basis. Musically it takes the form of a ‘70s sci-fi influenced ‘80s Italo mash-up with plenty of bleepy and blippy synthesisers a la the BBC Radiophonic workshop. It’s danceable too. S.K.X Funkanauts are obviously obsessed with space and science fiction, and why not? It’s good to get out of this world now and again, isn’t it? Falsetto vocals a la Scissor Sisters accompany the instrumental with plenty of harmony. I couldn’t tell you where they are from. Actually I could. It’s the galaxy of Dynatron.
Sinner is the immense, raw and electrifying new alt. rock single by Valentine Charlie. We’re transported back to a world of witches and devils, led by warm, husky vocals and a creeping, rhythmic guitar. The rest of the instruments gently gather around to echo the Newcastle witch trial inspirations, which wouldn’t be amiss at a Nick Cave concert or on a soundtrack to a spooky, western film. What absolutely swept me off my feet was this intense, powerful and emotive instrumental towards the end, which you just can’t peel away from. If the first half of the song was black and white, this is technicolor. With haunting eerie piano and huge thumping drum fills, the track perfectly concludes with a haunting deathly bell toll. Just brilliant.
Released: 01.10.24
www.facebook.com/valentinecharlieband
RIVKALA CHESS
Words: Mack Sproates
Playful, cheeky, wrapped in soul and 1920s pizazz, Chess is a fresh new track by Rivkala. The singer’s rich, hearty vocals and talent for storytelling lands us in a jazzy cabaret bar, complete with walking double bass, colourful guitar and a punchy kit. Aided by some gorgeous trumpet solos, we’re also treated to live Foley sounds like snooker cues which are a nice touch.
Rivkala’s clever and comical lyrics are an insight into nightlife, reflecting a woman’s point of view on the unfortunate behaviours by some men. Hip-hop, soul and klezmer styles are infused in her vocals, which offer a beautiful edge to an already interesting concoction. Big swooping melodies wrestle fast-paced sections taking the overall track into some energetic, exciting new directions.
Released: 18.10.24
www.linktr.ee/rivkala
OUTRI
INFLECTION POINT
Words: Laura Rosierse
OUTRI is the new solo project of North East-based bass player Ian Paterson, his latest single release Inflection Point plays with influences taken from jazz, soul, rhythm and a hint of blues. His soundscapes are driven by groovy and layered samples and slowly build towards exciting highs. Inflection Point sounds like the soundtrack to a new computer game and builds on its intrigue, never fully giving all he’s got away just yet, Inflection Point keeps you on your toes. This take was recorded live at OUTRI’s debut gig on the Hexham Bandstand a few months ago, and to say it’s experimental is an understatement! Hopefully there’ll be more grand statements from OUTRI soon.
Released: 04.10.24 www.dodgebass.co.uk/outri
DARREN BURDIS HEARTBEATS
Words: Claire Dupree
Newcastle-based singer-songwriter Darren Burdis is making a name for himself thanks to heartfelt and introspective releases. Unafraid of laying his emotions bare, and finding inspiration in the likes of similarly brooding songwriters Elliott Smith and Badly Drawn Boy, Heartbeats is a suitably contemplative and somewhat catchy addition to his catalogue. Kicking off with a nice twangy, moody guitar line, Darren’s vocals are pleasantly rough around the edges, with just the right amount of gruffness. A skittering drum beat is understated, as the gently strummed acoustic guitar propels the song forward, while double-tracked vocals provide harmonies.
The subject matter is both sentimental and hopeful, pondering the possibilities of happiness and love after loss; something many will identify with.
Released: 04.10.24
www.darrenburdis.bandcamp.com
RUBY KELLY ST ELMO
Words: Claire Dupree
Opening with a spoken scene from cowboy film Tombstone Canyon sets the scene pretty well for this superb slice of Americana with Spaghetti Western vibes.
Based on one of America’s best preserved ghost towns, Sunderland-based Welsh songwriter Ruby Kelly’s protagonist risks life and limb for her lover in a carefully crafted and well-paced track. Excellently produced, St Elmo is awash with jaunty strumming, moody bass notes and a propulsive beat. A catchy as hell chorus shows off vocals which manage to be soulfully jazzy and powerfully resonant.
Ruby has been making her way through established and well-respected talent pipelines, including We Make Culture’s Next Steps and Generator’s First Notes programmes, and the time spent honing her craft is clearly paying off. Superb stuff.
Released: 11.10.24
www.linktr.ee/rubykelly.music
ALBUMS
/ 5
FAITHFUL JOHANNES AND NEOCIA
THE HOUSE AT NIGHT (BUTTERFLY EFFECT)
Words: Ben Lowes-Smith
“Hey Johannes, why do you always write about your childhood? Is it a subconscious distraction from your present problems?” It’s this succinct bit of fourth wall breaking on Hired Out which reveals the MO of Faithful Johannes and Neocia’s wonderful new album The House At Night. Johannes’ incredible knack for attention to detail has always been married to nostalgia, and here we are jostled through his past and present, with images and memories making ley lines between the two.
Like a Barratt Homes David Berman, Johannes is haunted by the past by means of abstraction: images of the past informing the present and the past being augmented by the present. Clutter is something to be addressed – physical, psychological, spiritual or otherwise – this is done quite literally on The Breaks, with Johannes reeling off a list of short-term ambitions, with the sad sense of futility that only so much is achievable. In the more abstract sense, lead single TV Raised Me is a bittersweet collage detailing remembered fragments of coverage of the Iraq war.
In Neocia (aka Jon Evans), Johannes (aka Tim Head) has found someone with as much attention to detail in his musicality and production as Johannes has in his lyrics and delivery. Songs flow into each other seamlessly with recurrent motifs, elevating the listening experience into something Lynchian and dreamlike; the whole record is evocative of that hinterland between sleep and consciousness, which is a perfect place for all of Johannes’ fragmented memory to live.
The music recalls a more hi-fi version of artists like Casiotone For The Painfully Alone in its plaintive piano chords and jittering beats, and its wonkiness is reminiscent of Anticon hip-hop, which as been looking over Johannes’ shoulder throughout most of his creative practice, but here, the achievements of Hymie’s Basement and cLOUDDEAD are matched in their ambition and idiosyncrasies.
An incredibly tight 14 tracks over 34 minutes or so means that ideas, both musical and lyrical are coming at you at a rate of knots, consolidating The House At Night as a testament to its creators’ musical imaginations. Surrender yourself to it, because it’s an absolute trip.
Enjoy the album in all its live glory at Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle on Saturday 19th October.
Released: 11.10.24 www.faithfuljohannes.com
ALSO OUT THIS MONTH
Caribou - Honey (City Slang, 04.10) // Pixies - The Night The Zombies Came (BMG, 25.10) // The Hard Quartet - S/T (Matador, 04.10) // Gut Health - Stiletto (Highly Contagious, 11.10) // Nice Biscuit - SOS (Bad Vibrations, 04.10) // Karl Blau - Vultures of Love (Otherly Love, 18.10) // Geordie Greep - The New Sound (Rough Trade Records, 04.10) // Chat Pile - Cool World (The Flenser, 11.10) // Hemlock Ernst - Studying Absence (Tygr Rawwk Rcrds, 16.10) // Ella Raphael - Mad Sometimes (Fire Records, 18.10) // Better Lovers - Highly Irresponsible (Sharptone Records, 25.10) // The Bug - Machine (Relapse Records, 04.10) // Michael - Nite Salad (Cracked Ankles, 18.10) // Amyl & The Sniffers - Cartoon Darkness (Rough Trade, 25.10) // Snowgoose - Descendant (Violette Records, 18.10) // MC5 - Heavy Lifting (earMusic, 18.10) // The Offspring - Supercharged (Concord Records, 11.10) // Chinese American Bear - Chinese American Bear (Moshi Moshi, 18.10) // The Eggmen Whoooooo! - Fuzzy Eggs, Please (Strangetown Records, 25.10)
LOUSE CREEP CALL (RIOT SEASON)
Words: Lee Fisher
There’s long been a strain of mean, nasty, ugly bands prostrating their wretched flesh before the trinity of The Stooges, Flipper and Brainbombs, serving up Largactil dirges in huge filthy lumps of noise. And the North East has always had more than its fair share – Drunk In Hell, Foot Hair, The Shits and now Louse. All related, all slightly different.
The debut Louse album is an excellent/horrible addition to the canon, nine tracks of weirdly compelling, grindingly propulsive riffs over which Sam Booth does his best ‘trapped at the bottom of a well, possibly being tortured’ howl. Some tracks have tougher drums (Wet Work) or more driving riffs (Camel Blue) or uglier feedback (Worm) but this is really a pill to be swallowed whole. Watch them live at Lubber Fiend in Newcastle on Saturday 26th October.
Released: 04.10.24
www.lousescum.bandcamp.com
4 / 5
THE LAST OF THE FALLEN ANGELS 2 SCORPIONS (BUTTERFLY EFFECT)
Words: Roz Cuthbert
Boutique record label Butterfly Effect are releasing a shed load of albums at the minute. They really are on fire, hotter than Satan’s armpit. And, speaking of fallen angels, Tyneside’s Last Of The Fallen Angels release their debut album on the Darlington-based label. The duo have employed a stellar production team to realise their mutual creative vision, which includes Mark Saunders, who has produced releases by the likes of Neneh Cherry, The Cure and Tricky.
The thematic album, which is a “love story about a couple yearning to escape their everyday lives by running away to live in Berlin, with dark consequences” consists of ten dream pop and trip-hop flavoured tracks. The stand out for me is Night People, which is apparently being included in a Canadian horror movie.
Released: 01.10.24
www.facebook.com/thelastofthefallenangels
Image by Amelia Read
5 / 5
CONFIDENCE MAN 3AM (LA LA LA) (CHAOS/POLYDOR)
Words: Jonathan Coll
Whether the members of Confidence Man are siblings or a couple is one of the most Googled questions about the Aussie electro pop banger merchants. Regardless, their latest LP is a love-letter to 90s rave culture, and is their best work to date.
It’s a remarkable album, befitting a group that have been consistently on the rise since they were formed in 2018. The record comes in hot, with opener Who Knows What You’ll Find tipping its hat to Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough, and it’s an absolutely joyous romp through ‘til the end. There’s even time for two-step garage tunes and even deeper house cuts as the album nears its euphoric climax. One of the best I’ve heard this year, no doubt.
Released: 18.10.24 www.confidenceman.com.au
4 / 5 4.5 / 5
DAWES OH BROTHER (DEAD RINGERS)
Words: Lee Hammond
This album follows a huge change in the Dawes’ membership after the amicable departure of two bandmates. Taylor and Griffin continue in a familiar folk rock vein; it feels more stripped back on tracks like Surprise!, but their signature sound remains, and Taylor’s vocals shine.
Opener Mister Los Angeles plays out the tongue-in-cheek stereotype of an LA man; House Parties is a relatable stand out, describing how the best things are never found on a guided tour, delving into the undergrowth to find the real sense of somewhere. Enough Already feels particularly personal, a theme that runs throughout the band’s soul-baring back catalogue. Oh Brother is just as intimate and sees Dawes navigating new paths with this change of line-up.
Released: 11.10.24
www.dawestheband.com
GOAT S/T (ROCKET)
Words: Robin Webb
Goat’s third studio outing in three years opens with One More Death, heralding the rest of the album as a continuous rebirth, reenergising what the Goat cult is all about. It grooves, it’s tribal, it’s earthly and yet spiritual, exploring folk and psychedelia to an irresistible groove. There are moments to drift though, ethereal soundscapes that emerge from the hypnosis, whispers barely discernible lead us into a familiar lush, fuzzy wah-wah action, grainy and cynical as on Dollar Bill. The closer is the epically danceable Ouroboros, channelling the funkiest Fela fire and, clocking in at over seven minutes, it’s the Goat you know and love. Get those feral masks on and shimmy away into the cosmos.
Released: 11.10.24
www.goat.bandcamp.com
3.5 / 5 4 / 5 4 / 5
SURYA BOTOFASINA ASHRAM SUN (SPIRITMUSE RECORDS)
Words: Elodie A. Roy
In the past few years, New York-based jazz keyboardist and composer Surya Botofasina has collaborated with figures such as rapper and flautist André 3000, guitarist Nate Mercereau and DJ and producer Carlos Niño. Ashram Sun, his second solo album, was produced by Niño. It is contemplative ambient jazz – carrying the spirits of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane (Botofasina once was her student). There is, too, an unresolved tension at the centre of Ashram Sun. Moments of dreaminess are interrupted by a restless undercurrent, as on the defiantly unnerving There Will Be Brighter Days (with guest vocals by Angel Bat Dawid). Ashram Sun belongs as much to the inner world as it does to the outside realm – and illuminates them both.
Released: 18.10.24 www.suryabotofasina.com
MERYL STREEK SONGS FOR THE DECEASED (VENN RECORDS)
Words: Robin Webb
There’s no doubting the intent of this album; headlining injustices and the suffering of a downtrodden Irish which equally broadcasts universally; a vitriolic clarion call to fight back, to tell everyone viscerally what the hell is happening; Meryl hides nothing.
Musically it combines unbridled verbal salvos, anarcho-punk attitude and punchy electric indie. If This Is Life is a meaningful, almost melancholic, highlight, as is Gambling Death which makes use of regional news to expose poorer regions being exploited by an exponential number of high street bookies, with the tune backed by a heavy riff serving as a fitting frame for this pernicious addiction and its escalating related suicides. “Never give up on the life you deserve” proclaims our furious host.
Released: 25.10.24
www.merylstreek.com
HALINA RICE EVOLVE (SELF-RELEASED)
Words: Matt Young
As a musical artist, Rice is genre-fluid. Her large catalogue has established her, almost cultishly, as a producer, musician and visual artist rabidly seeking new ideas at every turn. EVOLVE is the latest instalment in an already impressive body of work, and she uses it to explore many abstract corners on the likes of Pheme and Synth Sounds B, as well as straight-out dance numbers like Split and Swarm.
EVOLVE’s audio palette is a mix of organic and industrial sounds and beats that capture moments fleetingly. As the album title suggests they evolve and shift, as if watching a TV changing channels. Nothing is permanent – annoying if you lock into a groove – but also exhilarating as the buoyant energy of the sounds grab your ears’ attention, eager for your body to move.
Released: 09.10.24
www.halinarice.com
3.5 / 5
CHUBBY AND THE GANG AND THEN THERE WAS… (FLATSPOT RECORDS)
Words: Luke Waller
Their first album since a total line-up change (except for singer Charlie ‘Chubby’ Manning), And Then There Was… marks the Gang’s latest outburst of violent rage. Whether in anger at the political establishment or out of love for hardcore punk, Chubby’s abrasive voice dominates the album, marshalling an onslaught of sound reminiscent of a more fired-up incarnation of the Ramones.
From the raucous beginning of Neither The Day, Nor The Hour, a heavy metal explosion interspersed with the nihilistic musings of Werner Herzog; to the jaded end of Cocaine Sunday, a melancholic piano ballad, this release is a potent display of punk rock power. And no doubt they will bring this gritty energy with them on their European tour, including dates in London and Manchester.
LAURA MARLING PATTERNS IN REPEAT (CHRYSALIS/PARTISAN
RECORDS)
Words: Michael O’Neill
Patterns In Repeat is a staggering milestone from one of the finest songwriters of the century so far; a meditation on the overwhelming emotions and profound experience of parenthood, the album makes for a worthy follow-up to 2020’s magnificent Song For Our Daughter. Whilst that album was written for a fictional daughter, Patterns In Repeat follows the birth of Laura’s first child in 2023 and boasts a lush, vivid sound that often focuses solely on vocals and acoustic guitar. Vocal textures and elegantly restrained strings enhance the album’s soundworld without being overwrought or cluttering, recalling the singular approaches of LPs such as Joni Mitchell’s Hejira and Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie and Lowell. It’s an indisputable masterpiece. Released: 25.10.24 www.lauramarling.com
5 / 5
GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024, 28,340 DEAD (CONSTELLATION)
Words: Lee Fisher
For a band as politically engaged as GY!BE, the ongoing conflict in Gaza was always going to be the source of furious, agonised inspiration, and in keeping with the title and their heartfelt cry that “war is coming / don’t give up / pick a side / hang on / love”, this album bears witness to the 40,000+ victims through some of the band’s most powerful music yet.
From the funeral march opener Sun Is A Hole, Sun Is Vapors, the album offers six alternately melancholy and anthemic instrumental epics. Raindrops Cast In Lead is one of their most conventionally post-rock tracks yet, Pale Spectator Takes Photographs is unsettling as hell, closer Grey Rubble – Green Shoots a complex but rewarding beauty. Anger is an energy. Released: 04.10.24
www.brainwashed.com
SHOVEL DANCE COLLECTIVE THE SHOVEL DANCE (AMERICAN DREAM)
Words: Lee Fisher
Space prevents me from waxing lyrical about this astonishing collective and their place in a wildly inventive burst of creativity in the folk scene. Let this gorgeous, uplifting album tell you all you need to know. Starting with a stately – almost funereal – reworking of Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, we’re then blessed with an incredibly moving Merry Golden Tree – Mataio’s fathoms-deep voice leading the way – then a rousing O’Sullivan’s March, the delicate harp-driven The Rolling Wave, a spirited medley that incorporates a very different take on Newcastle than Lankum’s recent version, a mournful a capella of Four Loom Weaver and closer The Grey Cock, which starts out stark and melancholy and builds to a droning, aching crescendo. This, friends, is album of the year material. Unmissable, undeniable. Released: 11.10.24
www.shovel.dance
4 / 5
PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING THE LAST FLIGHT (SO RECORDINGS)
Words: Robert Nichols
PSB love to have a vision for their projects, and their latest album charts the fateful final voyage of American air ace Amelia Earhart. Rather than being doomy and depressing, the music is so often uplifting as PSB successfully capture the aspiration, inspiration, sense of wonder, adventure and above all love for life of the woman that set record after record soaring above the world. Using voice clips and stirring music we journey through the life of the pioneer.
Electra, a single pre-released from the album, is as stylish, funky, sleek and speedy as the round the world aircraft it is named after. The final track, Howland, is orchestral and is deeply moving; voice and plane ultimately lost in the mix.
Released: 04.10.24
www.publicservicebroadcasting.net
www.field-music.co.uk 5 / 5 4 / 5 5 / 5
FIELD MUSIC LIMITS OF LANGUAGE (MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES)
Words: Neil Ainger
After four years working primarily on other projects, Sunderland brothers Peter and David Brewis are back with a re-energised and sharp new record. The band’s sophisticated art pop sensibilities with progressive technical flourishes is ever-present, and their diverse range of influences continue to be clear to identify, from XTC and Talking Heads to Roxy Music and Peter Gabriel. They also channel a new wave Beatles on Turn The Hours Away, and there’s some funk rock creeping into tracks such as The Guardian of Sleep. The production is crisp and clean, resulting in powerful harmonies and melodies that pack a mighty punch. Refreshed and refocused, Limits of Language is a strong offering from a band with 20 years in the game, teasing a potential purple patch of form.
Released: 11.10.24
Courses include:
❱ Fd Audio & Music Production
❱ BA (Hons) Audio and Music Production (Top-up)
Our courses are delivered in state-of-the-art recording studios and control rooms, editing suites and venues.
We are an Avid Pro Tools Authorised Learning Partner, delivering industry standard qualifications alongside our higher education programme designed with industry in mind. Our teaching rooms are equipped with industry-standard software and hardware.
Our course team is built up of active industry professionals. Our course has been designed in collaboration with industry, with Tees Music Alliance, Middlesbrough Town Hall, The Middlesbrough Empire, ARC, KU Bar, Butterfly Effect Records and more on board to offer real work-related learning opportunities for our students!
What will I study?
Areas of study include:
❱ Music Production
❱ Live Events Production
❱ Recording and Mixing
❱ Audio for Film, TV and Games
❱ Composition and Songwriting
❱ Sound Design and Synthesis
❱ Popular and Experimental Music
❱ Career Development
❱ Pro Tools and Ableton Live
Rob Penrose (FosterSounds.co.uk)
Rob is running his own company, freelancing and working on exciting projects as a voice actor, musician and technical audio mixer. He’s already enjoyed success working on projects for CBeebies on a variety of shows including Postman Pat, The Baby Club and more recently Tinpo where he worked as the Sound Designer and Voice Director.
“The degree programme is practical and sets you up for the world of work. The tutors have industry experience and support you to fulfil your career ambitions. I had job interviews lined up before I had even handed in my final assignments!” Rob
Find out more course information and apply online today!
9 – 13 October
Wander through galaxies and outer-space with dazzling projections on Durham Cathedral’s centuries old architecture. Featuring original footage of a rocket launch and a view of Earth from space - this year’s Luxmuralis light show will be out-of-this-world!
