Issue 65 / April 2016

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Issue 65 

April 2016 

Pure Joy by John Johnson/Tim Devas 

Pure Joy 

She Drew The Gun 

Nick Ellis 

The Probes 

Record Store Day 

2016

SAT 19 MAR 7pm 

JOEY CAPE 

SAT 19 MAR 7pm SOLD OUT 

WALKING ON CARS 

SAT 26 MAR 10pm · 18+ 

GENERATE CLUB 

SUN 27 MAR 7pm 

DIIV 

SUN 3 APR 7pm 

MIKE DIGNAM 

WED 13 APR 7pm 

BRY 

THU 14 APR 7pm 

HOLY ESQUE 

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GAVIN JAMES 

WED 20 APR 7pm 

FUTURE OF 

THE LEFT 

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WE WERE PROMISED 

JETPACKS 

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NEW FACES 

TOUR 2016 

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MOOSE BLOOD 

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BOY JUMPS SHIP 

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SHONEN KNIFE 

SAT 7 MAY 7pm 

THE SPITFIRES 

SUN 15 MAY 7pm 

SEPTEMBER 

GIRLS 

WED 18 MAY 7pm 

SPRING KINGS 

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EMMA POLLOCK 

TUE 24 MAY 7pm 

WE CAME AS 

ROMANS 

& MISS MAY I 


AS IT IS 


BEN WATT BAND 

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HANDS LIKE 

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KHARMA 

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UNKNOWN MORTAL 

ORCHESTRA 

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& GLEN MITCHELL 

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SAT 1 OCT 7pm 

ELVANA - THE 

WORLD’S FINEST 

ELVIS FRONTED 

TRIBUTE TO 

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TICKETS FOR ALL SHOWS ARE AVAILABLE FROM TICKETWEB.CO.UK 

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Bido Lito! April 2016 

3 

Bido Lito! 

Issue Sixty Five / April 2016 

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Editor 

Christopher Torpey - chris@bidolito.co.uk 

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TIME MAY CHANGE ME, BUT I CAN’T TRACE TIME 

Editorial 

“I thought their music was rubbish.” Sir George Martin’s admission (on the BBC’s Arena programme in 2011) of his initial impression of The Beatles 

doesn’t quite tally with the popular view of the relationship between the producer and band. In fact, the prolific partnership almost didn’t materialise 

in the first place. The Beatles’ first recording session with Martin, in Studio 3 at Abbey Road on 6th June 1962, was beset by technical difficulties 

and Martin was unimpressed. "I remember Martin taking a quick look at them and leaving for tea," said sound engineer Ken Townsend. It wasn’t 

until a stirring rendition of Love Me Do that Martin’s interest was piqued, which led him to deliver a fabled lecture to the four young pups about 

their equipment and what they needed to do to become recording artists, which ultimately led to the sacking of drummer Pete Best. 

Thus began a working relationship that would arguably revolutionise popular music in the 20th century, and more than justify Martin’s reckoning 

that the Fabs had "the potential to make a hit record". A combined total of 69 weeks spent at the top of the charts, 23 number-one hits around the 

world (19 of which were produced or arranged by George Martin), and a legacy that seems untouchable would all point to Martin’s foresight, and 

his adopted title as ‘the fifth Beatle’. But I’m not sure even he could have predicted what was to come. 

There are further stories about the Beatles/Martin partnership that add a little more colour. For example, when recording Strawberry Fields, John 

Lennon wanted to combine the two different versions of the track they’d recorded, which Martin declared to not be possible due to the technology 

not being able to cope with them being in different tempos. Lennon didn't believe him: he had such faith in Martin as a producer he thought he 

could do anything. And, of course, Martin nailed it. There’s also the legendary story of Paul McCartney bringing Yesterday into the studio and 

laying it down with just himself on the guitar. When Martin told McCartney that he had an idea to put a string quartet on the record, McCartney 

replied, “Oh no, George, we are a rock and roll band and I don’t think it’s a good idea”. With the gentle bedside manner of a great producer, Martin 

told McCartney to give it a try, “and if it doesn’t work we won’t use it and we’ll go with your solo version". McCartney agreed, they worked on the 

arrangement the next day, and… well, Yesterday is one of the most recorded songs of all time, with Elvis, Marvin Gaye, Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles 

all putting their own spin on the classic track. 

Upon George Martin’s death on 8th March 2016, there was an outpouring of emotion that came in the form of some genuinely warm and 

revealing anecdotes about the man – and the more I read, the clearer my own understanding of George Martin became, enhanced by the various 

memories that he’d inspired. That’s the thing with memories – they make the world a richer place. We fold them up, keep them safe in our minds 

and occasionally unfurl them when we’re ready to pass them on, allowing the story to grow as someone new takes on the baton. 

Music is a great vessel for memories, allowing artists to weave their thoughts into a form that reflects themselves, and allowing us to pick 

through these recollections and interpret them in ways that mean something to our own lives. Just think of how many stories are waiting to be 

found in all the records and CDs in your nearest record shop, and about the people who’ve responded to them in their own individual ways. This 

is something I was discussing with Nick Ellis recently, when we were in St. George’s Hall taking photos to accompany the feature with him in this 

issue. As we were walking through the cells beneath the venerable old building’s Civil Courtroom, it felt as though the memories of all the people 

who’d trodden those cobbled walkways were soaked into the walls, just waiting to escape. Ellis is a man fascinated with history, and the spin 

we all put on it. It’s something that informs his own way of making music, so much so that he asked me and the two Pauls (Fitzgerald, writer and 

McCoy, photographer) as many questions about our stories as we did of him. “Music attracts obsessive people... And we need to tell their story," 

Ellis said to me, as we were sat in the courtroom drinking in its history. "Go back, look, connect." 

Christopher Torpey / @BidoLito 

Editor 

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4 


A 

quick Google search for ‘Pure Joy band’ throws up a neat 

discovery, that of a Seattle-based 80s group who took 

their name from a song by The Teardrop Explodes and 

drew inspiration from English neo-psychedelic rock. This seems 

to create somewhat of a paradox with the local band of the same 

name I’m about to talk to. Lying just across the water from Julian 

Cope’s home town is our very own PURE JOY, a trio borrowing 

influence from the psych-Americana of Smith Westerns and The 

War On Drugs. 

Having recently muscled their way into the public eye with their 

fizzingly fresh debut single Katie’s Gone Home in February, Pure 

Joy’s own brand of dreamy, lazy guitars-and-synths pop has been 

causing quite a stir. The track is a five-minute rollercoaster that 

flits between lucid, head-spinning swirls and acoustic minimalism 

before crashing head first back into a giant pool of washed-out 

psychedelia. So, yeh, it’s no wonder that they’ve already started 

raising eyebrows. 

In search of the group we traipse through the streets of 

Birkenhead North, passing crumbling brickwork of an industry 

crippled by Thatcherite apathy and harsh grey storage units 

standing like gravestones to the buildings that once were. 

Nestled cosily between a Hell’s Angels’ HQ and the local red-light 

district, lies the unlikely home of Wallasey’s finest export. Finding 

ourselves down a side street that seems to be dead, save for a 

nicotine haze which floats like mist from a pub back door, this is 

where we first encounter Pure Joy. “We like it round here. It’s nice 

being the only rockers in town, ha!” grins guitarist Pete Flynn as 

he ushers us through the door of their tucked-away studio and 

into their spectacular ‘Fresh Goods’ abode. There aren’t a huge 

number of bands that have risen 

from this neck of the woods, perhaps understandably; you have 

to look back to The Boo Radleys, and thence Half Man Half Biscuit, 

to find any artists of note to have sprung from Wirral’s eastern 

edge. Pure Joy are going to change that. 

As we enter the studio, bass player, keyboardist and producer 

Matt Freeman apologises for the clutter, but such a statement 

is unnecessary. Like a shrine to music and creativity, the room 

exudes an energy confirming its place as the fourth member of 

the band. To peer inside proves to be an insight into the band’s 

mindscape, manifesto and musical influence. Memories of Oasis’ 

infamous Knebworth gig adorn the wall in the shape of a giant 

banner placing Liam Gallagher in his rightful place as a primal 

deity. Alongside the Mancunian Messiah are pictures of Dylan, 

family photos and even a signed picture of, err, Cliff Richard… “It 

was lying outside a house with a sign saying ‘free to a good home’ 

and we just had to have it!” recalls Flynn. 

“We all grew up on a healthy diet of Oasis and hating Blur,” says 

lead singer and guitarist Lee Pennington. “We’d love to be as big 

as them to be honest.” “Yeh, then we wouldn’t have to go to work,” 

quips guitarist Flynn. A childhood spent seeing Britpop dominate 

the UK and taking control of TV, newspapers and fields across 

the country has clearly massively influenced the band. Such 

influence can be seen in track The Sex Beatles, which acts as 

something of an ode to the indie powerhouse. “Sex Beatles 

was the name the NME gave Oasis as they were like a fusion 

of The Beatles and The Sex Pistols,” Pennington explains. In 

the track the band reminisce on the glory days of chart-topping 

rock ‘n’ roll and the communal feel that it brought about. This 

is perhaps most apparent in the line “Lost in a nostalgic haze”, 

where Pennington’s childlike whine seems to almost mimic the 

warm fuzziness of home video footage of the time: an easier 

time, a more simple time. “Our songs are meant to be 

stadium rock tracks but with a twist, something that 

just puts them a little more out there.” 

However, the influence doesn’t stop abruptly 

there. More than the excess, bravado and 

attitude of the brothers Gallagher, what really made them stand 

apart was a sheer determination and drive to persevere against 

all odds to achieve their goals. This mentality has proved an 

inspiration for those behind Pure Joy, with the band setting up 

not only a rehearsal space but their own personal recording 

studio where they have recorded and produced their first 

album. “None of this would have been possible five years ago, 

y’know,” emphasises Freeman. “It’s only with the recent surge in 

technological development that we were able to not just afford 

it but actually set up the studio ourselves.” The studio may not 

be Abbey Road but it seems almost custom built for the band’s 

needs: adorned with glittery, fabric-covered sound insulation, 

the small room has a comfy sofa and a cosy production hub. 

It feels as though each wire, discarded plectrum and shred of 

paper is contributing to the overall Pure Joy story. 

Pennington delves a little further into matters: “Having 

the studio here has completely revolutionised our recording 

process. The control is just perfect for the sound we’re trying 

to create. It’s allowed us to tweak tracks over and over again 

until they’re just how we want them.” “Getting the track just 

right was dead important,” elaborates Flynn. “Playing the tracks 

continuously till we got it right could get repetitive, but 

it’s definitely been worth it.” So, you see, it’s no 

accident that Pure Joy have just happened upon 

us – it’s taken months of arduous craft to get 

them to the point where their 

glorious statement of an 

album, Bang Flower, 

has been perfected 

and primed before 

bidolito.co.uk


5 

they’ve even played a show. “Having the studio has allowed 

us to record tracks from the very moment of their creation,” 

explains Freeman. “Within minutes of a melody we were able 

to jump in the studio and start recording. I was listening to The 

Coral on the radio today and they were saying how they wish 

they had more time to play with the first tracks before playing 

them, as they have evolved with time. Having all been in bands 

beforehand we learnt this the hard way.” 

“We’re not saying that live performance isn’t important to us 

but the album will be our legacy and what we’ll be remembered 

by,” adds Pennington. “We were extremely ambitious with the 

sound of the album and didn’t feel that being a three-piece 

should hold that back.” This definitely hasn’t restrained the 

band by any means, with them being happy to use multiple 

instruments in order to create the best sound possible. Their first 

live outing, supporting Flowers at Leaf in February, showed just 

this: playing to drum samples and incorporating the live bass of 

Paul Thomson, the band seemed meatier and grew in confidence 

as they grew accustomed to the power in their own interplay. 

Unlike a lot of bands who seem to have jumped on the 

vinyl revival bandwagon with hands clasping for undeserved 

money, Pure Joy have reason to do 

so. Like Sgt. Pepper’s or Dark Side Of The Moon, their highlyanticipated 

first album, Bang Flower, is more than a set of songs 

thrown together. With such a smooth flow, the tracks seem to 

stitch together seamlessly, pushing the album out there as one 

in a minority of modern albums that work best when played 

from start to finish. Multifaceted, vibrant and full bodied, the 

composition acts as an antidote to modern existence, an escape 

from the grey, the dull and the stressful in favour of something 

more empowering and positive. 

Freeman’s rose-tinted production has been expertly used to 

make the listener really listen out for the more pertinent and 

haunting lyrics which are often shrouded 

amongst the sonic blissfulness. This 

adds further evidence to the case 

that the album demands multiple 

listens, each uncovering something 

new not heard the time before. 

“I’m not naturally a lyricist. 

Melodies come naturally 

but, no, 

words are something I really have to take time on,” offers 

Pennington, who takes on principal songwriting duties. “I 

suppose that, in some ways, my lyrics are semi-autobiographical 

in that I take things that have happened and tweak them. I think 

that music is very much a subjective art form. Everyone has their 

own perceptions of lyrics. By keeping the words knowingly 

vague, it allows the track to be more personal to the listener.” 

Though the album is radiantly bright in instrumentation, it is 

not afraid to juxtapose this lightness with thoughts tinged with 

melancholia. In Bang Flower’s final track, O’Sullivan On Song, 

amongst a sea of cymbals, synth and soaring slide guitar lie the 

words: “Love kills more people than war”. 

With the release of Bang Flower imminent and a set of 

European dates lined up for the summer, the time feels ripe 

for this band. You may not have heard, or even heard of, Pure 

Joy yet, which is understandable for a band so early in their 

career, but remember that they’ve been running with this for 

a number of months already, and we’re the ones who’ve been 

standing still. They’ve fine-tuned their statement, and now 

they’re ready to stamp its authority on us, starting with their 

launch party and an invitation into their world. One thing 

is for certain, I think, as the group set off for home over 

the four bridges through the bitter wind: they’ll never 

forget where they’re from. 

Bang Flower is released on 1st April via Fresh Goods/ 

Republic Of Music, with a launch 

show at Buyers Club on 

9th April. They also play 

Liverpool International 

Festival of Psychedelia 

over 23/24 September. 

therealpurejoy.co.uk 

Words: Matthew Hogarth 

Photography: John Johnson / johnjohnson-photography.com 

bidolito.co.uk 

Illustration: Tim Devas / timdevas.com

Words: Richard Lewis 

Photography: Keith Ainsworth / arkimages.co.uk 

Illustration: another eye / @another_eye_ 

radually swimming into sharper focus over the past 

G18 months, SHE DREW THE GUN are set to issue their 

magnificent debut album Memories Of The Future towards 

the end of April. With a clutch of SoundCloud tracks steadily 

accruing them under-the-radar praise up to this point, the band 

went overground with an acclaimed session in the hallowed 

surroundings of the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios for Steve Lamacq 

last year. The build-up is now over: She Drew The Gun are 

squarely in the crosshairs. 

Memories Of The Future is a beautifully understated collection 

of latter-day torch songs that plots a course between Portishead, 

Nina Simone and PJ Harvey, and is supported by instrumentation 

that suggests Radiohead’s mellower tracks. She Drew The Gun 

is primarily the outlet for chief gunslinger Louisa Roach, for 

whom the band was initially a way for her to realise her own solo 

ambitions. “I wanted to get something recorded, so I bought a 

decent mic and recorded at home and put something out on 

the internet. I didn’t just wanna call it ‘Louisa Roach’; it had to 

be something a bit different and something that could grow 

afterwards if you wanted it to,” Roach explains on a bustling 

evening in Tabac on Bold St. “I thought, ‘I’ll start on my own and 

see what happens’.” 

“It took me ages to think of a name,” the songwriter notes. 

“She Drew the Gun is a bit different and I thought I could do cool 

visual stuff with it – plus, I didn’t want to define things too much. 

I’ve seen quite a lot of people do it before and thought ‘I wanna 

do that rather than just use my own name’ – like Villagers: it’s 

basically him [Connor O'Brien] and he’s grown it into a band. I 

thought, ‘That’s cool, that could be the thing for me’. It’s grown 

up now, there is a band and the people in the group are really 

important, so it’s evolved into something. It started off as a little 

seed – just me – and it’s grown into something better.” 

Placing Roach’s beguiling vocals front and centre, Memories 

Of The Future combines smoky jazz-cellar ambience with 

the lyrical introspection of bedsit indie. “Probably the most 

deep-seated influences are old country songs,” Roach says of 

formative inspirations. “I first started to fall in love with singing 

when I used to sing Patsy Cline songs and stuff like that with 

my nan, when I was little. After that, I massively fell in love 

SHE DREW THE GUN 

with The Beatles and Radiohead.” Current Spotify choices, 

meanwhile, include Father John Misty, Australian duo Holy Holy 

and underrated US alt. pop singer Santigold. 

Pieced together in The Coral’s practice room and Parr Street 

Studios, the album’s production duties were helmed by James 

Skelly – who’s also releasing the LP on his own imprint, Skeleton 

Key Records. “We went into Parr Street and recorded all the 

basics and spent more time mixing and adding to it. The vocals 

and guitars took two days, then we went back and tracked a few 

different things in the practice room. The only pre-production 

was going round to James’ house and playing him the tunes 

and him saying, ‘That’s good, let’s do that one’. He’s got really 

good ears for what’s going to sound good,” Roach enthuses of 

the sessions with Skelly. “When I went to him it was just me 

playing the guitar, and me and him talking about music all the 

time, sending each other tunes. He was sending me loads of 

tunes he thought would be good for various tracks.” 

Playing their respective hands subtly, the gentle ebb of 

Pebbles and the chugging rhythm of Chains come to full bloom 

over repeated listens, while the otherworldly Billie Holidayesque 

vocal that leads What Will You Do seems to have been 

beamed in from a distant galaxy. The LP reaches its summit, 

meanwhile, on the beautifully underscored Since You Were 

Not Mine. “That song is 100% addressed to me; it was based 

on real-life experience,” Roach confesses. “It’s based on the 

experience of being in a dream and something feels so real, 

and you wake up and it’s not real anymore. Say you have a dream 

about someone who used to be close to you and when you wake 

up they’re gone, but in the dream it was so real – that’s what 

sparked off the idea for it.” 

Highlighting the influence of Abingdon’s most famous export 

meanwhile, the title of Where I End and You Begin references 

Thom Yorke & Co., albeit subconsciously. “The track was originally 

called Drunken Girl, cos it’s about me when I’m drunk,” Roach 

explains. “It’s about when I woke up the next day and people have 

been like, ‘Do you remember what you were doing last night?’ And 

I was like, ‘Err, no, I don’t remember any of it!’, and the track is a 

song to that person who was drunk that I don’t remember. When 

it came to the album, the track title fitted right in.” 

Shooting From The Hip 

Similarly, one of the disc’s standout moments – the crepuscular 

Be Mine – combines a repeated guitar figure, Mellotron strings, 

cello and Roach’s haunting vocal to stunning effect. “It’s about 

addiction,” Roach states. “The voice that’s singing ‘be mine’ 

is the thing that’s giving you pleasure, so at first the person 

in the song goes towards this voice cos it’s taking them away 

from everyone: ‘Oh sweet nothing/Please take me away/The kids 

aren’t so nice/So I don’t wanna play’ is about turning away from 

the world, cos I wanna be with this person or this thing. The 

second half of the song is about how you’ve gone too far into 

the addiction and you’ve lost touch with reality.” 

Elsewhere on the LP, the Theremin-assisted 1950s sci-fi 

garage rock cut Pit Pony points up a treasured influence in 

groundbreaking US novelist Kurt Vonnegut, with the album 

title being sourced from a line in the author’s best known work, 

satirical anti-war novel Slaughterhouse-Five. 

Roach’s fellow sharp-shooters in She Drew The Gun – drummer 

Siân Monaghan, guitarist Jack Turner and multi-instrumentalist 

Jenni Kickhefer – will be an integral part of the band’s next 

manoeuvre: that of taking the songs out of the recording room 

and delivering them to an audience. What they’ve discovered 

so far is that translating the material to a live setting sees the 

songs take on an edgier quality. “There’s the recording side and 

then there’s the live side,” Roach says of the contrast. “We’ve 

got all the elements from the album, so you can’t be too by the 

book and exactly like the album is [when playing live]. Also, 

cos we just went in the studio and recorded some of the songs 

without doing demos or anything, so they’re different when we 

play them live now as we’ve added new sections. If we recorded 

the album now we’d probably do it differently. The album’s a 

snapshot of that time, but with playing live you’ve got to do the 

right thing and not be too precious.” With their first UK headline 

tour backing up the album’s release in April, as She Drew The 

Gun take aim, you’d be a fool not to get caught in the crossfire. 

Memories Of The Future is released on 22nd April via Skeleton Key 

Records. She Drew The Gun play an album launch gig at Buyers 

Club on 29th April and they play Sound City on 29th May. 

shedrewthegun.com

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8 


As the people of Penny Lane go about 

their lives, hunkering down through the 

sheets of sleet on an unforgiving day in 

early March, NICK ELLIS watches from a nearby 

coffee shop. The people and the day, time and 

motion, lives being lived, each passing person 

a character in someone’s story, somewhere and 

at some time. 

This is a writer and performer with a hungry 

fascination for such lives, and he seeks out and 

hones in on the everyday and the extraordinary 

to create the characters for his songs, taking their 

stories, their idiosyncrasies, and weaving them 

through his own brand of folk pop. Meeting Ellis 

to talk of his experiences and discuss his music 

is truly enlightening, in the fullest sense of the 

word. His search for gaining an understanding 

of himself is fed and nurtured by his curiosity 

and capacity for gaining an understanding of the 

experiences of those who surround him. 

After 10 years as a member of well-loved and 

respected Liverpool band The Maybes?, he now 

finds himself learning to appreciate again the lack 

of the confines that being a central part of such 

an intense set-up can bring. “I felt like everything 

we’d done with The Maybes? came to a natural 

point of combustion, you know,” Ellis tells me. 

“We lived in each other’s pockets, rehearsing five 

days a week, gigs, record companies, all that. We 

wanted to stay independent, which meant we 

did everything ourselves – but everything’s got 

a longevity, a shelf life, and I think we’d just done 

what we set out to do and there wasn’t, I don’t 

think, anywhere left to go with it. It was a long 

time, 10 years, and it was full on. I think we just 

got sick of each other by the end. After all that, 

after having all that control, all those demands 

on me, it was nice to be able to step out of it and 

be just doing my own thing.” 

For Ellis at that point, a period of reflection, and even 

introspection was as deserved as it was necessary. So, armed 

with nothing but his guitar and a keen curiosity, he took to the 

road, and for a whole summer busked his way around Europe, 

sleeping rough, re-learning his craft, and in many ways, relearning 

himself. “I just needed to get out of here, get away, for 

a number of reasons,” he recounts. “It was a few months on my 

own, not knowing where I was going next or how I was going 

to get there. It was a testing ground. I wanted to learn what 

I was about to become. And I found the soul of man. People 

wanted to help, wanted to know, wanted to get you from A to 

B. I can’t really describe it, but basically, people just wanted 

to see that I was OK. I found that in every country, the soul 

of man. Communication was the same all over, and the music 

connected us. Always the music.” 

In Ellis’ mind, key to that connection is what he calls “the 

thread”, the links that bind together the music of the city, the 

ripples that form and shape the art of a city such as Liverpool, 

constantly changing, evolving and delivering new thoughts, 

new ideas. It’s partly, he feels, fed by the river. Liverpool’s port 

status, outward facing, and always inwardly welcoming. 

“Like Hamburg, Stockholm, like San Sebastian: it’s a port 

mentality, the vibe of a port town. It’s a life force,” Ellis affirms, 

clearly showing how it’s something he is passionate about. 

“Every morning and every evening, it comes in and goes out. 

It brings in, and carries away. Constantly. Nothing stops it. It 

brings air, water, people, ideas, cultures, whatever, but it never 

stops. Liverpool’s always been a transient sailor town. People 

come, some stay, some leave, but they all play their part. It’s a 

strong force, and we’re all connected to it, whether we realise 

it or not. It’s got a lot to do with the music, because it brings 

so much in. It brings sounds and thoughts, a light, a shimmer, 

a colour.” 

The ideas and shapes of songs that began their journey 

during his months in Europe, and before, are now fully realised, 

and about to be released on Mellowtone Records as Ellis’ new 

eight-track Grace And Danger EP, which he recorded in the 

old Crown Court room at St George’s Hall. An imposing and 

historical space by design and intent, with impressive grandiose 

acoustics, the room gives the sound of the EP an almost reverent 

feel, which demands the closer attention of the listener. A period 

of time that found Ellis enjoying his privacy, his time away from 

the high exposure of being in a band, was brought to a natural 

conclusion when Dave McTague of Mellowtone persuaded him 

to begin performing again when curating the live music for the 

Winter Arts Market at St. George’s Hall in 2014, and this was 

when Ellis discovered the capabilities of this most unique space. 

The history of the room fits with the dual ideas of the title, the 

grace, and the danger. 

“I wanted to create a listening experience, not just a group 

of songs, and I just knew that for these songs, that sound, and 

that interpretation of the sound could come from that space, 

that particular room,” Ellis explains. 

The EP is packed full of Ellis’ well-observed characterisations, 

the contemporary themes of urban folk, and life in the city: from 

the girl in Electric Blue High Heels, who just wants to get a 

cab home, to one man’s thoughts on his own surroundings in A 

Walk Through The City. It is a more than accomplished piece of 

work, strong and confident in its own skin, and presents Ellis in 

the light of someone finally accepting and enjoying his solitary 

status, and the control that method of working can provide. It’s 

as though he’s found a comfortable balance between his will 

to expose and develop his own thought, his own ideas, and to 

balance that with the need for collaboration when it comes to 

production and design values. 

In discussion with Nick Ellis, and on listening to Grace And 

Danger, there is an overriding feeling of contentment. Perhaps, 

in fact, a sense of contentment that the artist himself didn’t even 

know he was seeking. A sense of comfort, maybe? 

“Contentment, yeah. It’s an interesting question, a good 

point,” he answers, after again giving himself time to mull the 

point over. “The answer is in the thread. That contentment I seem 

to have found in these tunes – this record, or adventure – has 

come about through the weaving of its own thread, into each 

new patch of experience, each story, character or fragment of 

history.” Clearly, the support and influence of friends – the people 

who would appreciate the work, and would work to bring it to a 

greater audience – is also key. A support network. 

“Well, the first signs of that contentment lay in the room. The 

Courtroom itself seemed to be just right for me as a person, a 

songwriter, trying to put across a clear oration, or a guitar player 

inspired by its sound,” Ellis agrees. “This was the first patch in 

the quilt. And the second was Dave [McTague, Mellowtone], 

who basically was just my mate who had the same vibe as me 

about what the room seemed to do for the songs. After these 

initial feelings of contentment, the songs have seemed to guide 

themselves into this path, out of my hands.” 

And so, Nick Ellis is comfortable with this new-found comfort. 

Happy to be happy with this new thread, this new breath of air, 

and lightening of spirit, and the shining of this new light on an 

ever-changing career. 

“At present, I just feel contented about watching this narrative 

play out in front of me. The record has now taken on a life of 

its own, as they usually should, once recorded. I mean, in the 

sense that it’s now property of someone else’s imagination,” 

says Ellis. He then pauses, looking into space while he considers 

his final thought. “My contentment comes from experiencing 

other people experience it.” 

Grace And Danger is released on 20th April via Mellowtone 

Records, with a launch party at Leaf on the same night. 

myspace.com/nickellisworld 

bidolito.co.uk


9 

Words: Paul Fitzgerald / @NothingvilleM 

Photography: Paul McCoy / photomccoy.tumblr.com 

NICK 

ELLIS

10 


“A 

spring,” he says, “that flies out and hits you in the eye.” OK, I say. Maybe he’s 

misunderstood the question. I was asking what images would surmise THE 

PROBES if I had a pop-up book of Liverpool music, and I turned to their page. He 

– that is, Jack Greene, the closest thing to a frontman the band has – affirms his choice: “A couple 

of springs actually, and the outline of Ray’s garage. That’s where we started playing, where we 

still practise.” He’s referring back to 2009, when a group of high-school greenhorns lit the first 

sparks of a seven-year ascendency to Autonomy, their rather impressive calling card. ‘Ray’ is 

Ray Badger, son of ex-La’s member Mike. He is equally adamant their page would be a mix of 

nostalgia and cornea pain. The first part, I can get. But it’s not often an act describe themselves 

as literally eye-popping. 

The band’s latest release is certainly smooth on the ear. Made up of half a dozen suites drenched 

in the fever of their dark forefathers (Toy, Echo & The Bunnymen, a wasteland of post-punk 

scattered over the last couple of decades), Autonomy is that rare release: a collection of songs 

that demand to be heard together, start to finish, without any pause for thought. Kept abreast on 

some scintillating accents 

from drummer Elliot 

Ferguson, the mini-album Words: Joshua Potts / @joshpjpotts 

is a sinewy, lithe assault on Photography: Stuart Moulding / @oohshootstu 

the immersive psychedelic 

tradition, changing shape 

like an anaconda curling 

around a ribcage. It is 

mostly instrumental, but 

it’s a propulsive, scabrous 

smear on a familiar 

blueprint, morphing 

sometimes into a bliss akin 

to early Ninetails or, better 

yet, the Eastern-inflected 

noodles of the genre’s 

earliest haemorrhages in 

mainstream pop. It taps into 

a rich reservoir of spiritual 

mood, soaring from the 

buoyant Dream into the 

George-Harrison-esque 

fretwork of 8D, before 

dissolving into glorious 

krautrock on the two-part 

closer Komorebi. “I believe 

in a spiritual element that’s 

ambiguous,” says Ray, 

flashing the scarab-like 

ring on his finger. “People 

can easily be labelled crazy 

or something for believing 

in an abstract thing. But there’s a lot of evidence to suggest there’s a supernatural side to the 

world, one that science can’t explain. I hate people saying things can’t exist when they can.” 

We go on to talk about a theory I heard: that leaning on a wall for 10 years might, eventually, 

allow you to pass through it when the particles reach a certain alignment. It feels as if The Probes 

have their own version of this. Their history together has solidified their commitment to enter the 

Merseyside scene as a force to be reckoned with. Now that they’re breaking through – scoring a 

support slot with The Bunnymen, playing more shows, spicing up the bill of Bido Lito!’s Pretty 

Green showcase event – it’s nice to see that good, old-fashioned persistence is taking the band 

out of incubation, bringing their obvious chemistry to a wider audience that, at least on a local 

level, will hopefully treat them with the curiosity they deserve. 

“Jack deserves more credit,” says Ray with a smirk, half his hair scrunched in wax, which has 

the effect of making him look perennially dishevelled. “He’s a diamond in the rough, whereas 

I’m a diamond amidst other diamonds.” Laughter breaks around the table. Jack, for his part, 

describes his musical upbringing “in one of the least bohemian environments ever”, the discovery 

of touchstones like Bowie and The Beatles, and the handy coincidence of living next to another 

ex-La’s man, Barry Sutton. “He’s a mad bastard – he took me to see acts like The Fall, Public Image 

Limited, all sorts growing up.” Fortuitous connections to Liverpool legends has gotten the band 

to the point where they emulate confidence and a respect for the past. McCartney, Lennon et al., 

as much as they’re cliché reference points, are the inspiration for The Probes’ idea of a perfect 

career. Each of the band has limitless admiration for the studio innovations of Sgt. Pepper’s and 

Magical Mystery Tour, and maintain that the Beatles always remind them to strive that extra bit 

harder for glory. “Play to your strengths,” says Jack, “but use your weaknesses. It’s important to 

dig down deep inside of yourself and see what else is in the tank.” 

Elliot (who says that, if he were a doll, he’d go “Ohh, I do like a good worry” when I pull the string) 

comes from a family of bluegrass musicians – his grandad made folk instruments for a living, although 

Elliot himself never played them, probably leading to his fondness for tearing a drum kit apart as if 

he’s playing catch up. Whatever the reason for their collision, all of the lads (including bassist Justin 

Forman) share a bond surmised by the sheer length of time they’ve spent finding their sound. 2014’s 

Synaesthesia EP was chunkier but less freewheeling, leaning much more towards stalwart indie 

than the state of the band as it stands today. There was a muddiness to those earlier recordings 

that boded well for future projects, and crafting something as detailed as their latest release has 

been cathartic for them in realising a sense of what they can accomplish. As Elliot puts it, “Songs like 

8D were an absolute pain in the arse – we started practising that one about a year and a half ago 

– [but] playing around with 

different time signatures 

definitely helped us as 

musicians. It’s easy to forget 

that there’s a big, wide 

world outside the gridded 

area of ‘pop’ music, and it’s 

what we’ll definitely carry 

on experimenting with.” 

The reality of that 

approach will require 

their next material to be 

even more immediate; a 

band like this must thrum 

with aggression if it’s to 

in any way reach above 

the underground milieu 

of psych rock coming at 

us from all angles. “Have 

people ever not taken you 

seriously?” I ask. 

“At a young age, yeah,” 

says Jack. “The first gig we 

played was at The Zanzibar 

in 2009. A lot of people 

from our school came; half 

of those people were there 

because they thought it 

was gonna be hilarious. 

And it probably was. But 

a lot of them came out 

saying, ‘Wasn’t bad, that.’” 

“We were playing poppy music, so they would’ve thought it was alright,” Ray suggests. “As 

soon as you get onstage, you’re either a piss take or you’re real. Loads of bands came out of our 

year, so we’re proud to be the latter.” What he doesn’t realise is how much they actually do take 

the piss, to my frequent amusement. They have a shorthand with each other that’s resulted in a 

steady stream of communal rituals: hosting The Ray Show (a musical, Partridge-lite radio podcast 

full of character skits) and taking over a New Year’s Eve party with Sunshine Underground by The 

Chemical Brothers, the group’s personal anthem, spring to mind. “Yeah we timed it at midnight, 

right at the drop,” he continues. “It’s so cool how it’s in the friendship group now, cos it reminds 

me of being 13 or something, going down to Cornwall.” Jack, again, is more realistic: “Or taking 

tablets in various urban environments.” 

Whatever the associations you might have of your youth, my best bet is they involve optimism, 

courage and an ease around those you could rely on. The Probes are a strong representative of 

these central tenets. Once you reconcile their age, you get a picture of a well-kept secret building 

itself, piece by piece, to do all it can to be great. Let’s see if they manage it. 

The Probes Play The Bido Lito! Social with Pretty Green at Buyers Club on 21st April. Free tickets 

available now from the Pretty Green store on Old Manesty's Lane, L1. Autonomy is out now on 

Porcupine Records. 

theprobes.co.uk 

bidolito.co.uk

NEW GIGS 

Liverpool Philharmonic 

May – July 

KATHRYN ROBERTS 

& SEAN LAKEMAN 

Saturday 23 April 8pm 

– 

TINDERSTICKS 

The Waiting Room, Cine-Concert 

Sunday 1 May 8pm 

– 

25th Anniversary Tour 

JOHN MCCUSKER 

Wednesday 4 May 8pm 

– 

FAIRPORT 

CONVENTION 

Wednesday 11 May 8pm 

– 

TEDDY THOMPSON 

WITH SPECIAL 

GUEST KELLY JONES 

plus Sunny Ozell 

Thursday 26 May 8pm 

– 

SPIRO 

Saturday 14 May 8pm 

– 

LUKA BLOOM 

Friday 27 May 8pm 

– 

BEVERLEY KNIGHT 

Sunday 29 May 7.30pm 

SOLD OUT 

BRIAN WILSON 

PRESENTS PET 

SOUNDS 

Tuesday 31 May 7.30pm 

– 

BEN FOLDS 

WITH YMUSIC 

Support from Lera Lynn 

Wednesday 15 June 7.30pm 

– 

CHINA CRISIS 

Friday 17 June 8pm 

Saturday 18 June 8pm 

– 

GEORGE BENSON 

IN CONCERT 

Monday 20 June 7.30pm 

– 

BURT BACHARACH 

Wednesday 29 June 7.30pm 

– 

ELVIS COSTELLO 

AND THE 

IMPOSTERS 

Monday 11 July 7.30pm 

– 

MARY CHAPIN 

CARPENTER 

Wednesday 27 July 7.30pm 

SOLD OUT 

EXTRA DATE 

SOLD OUT 

Box Office 

liverpoolphil.com 

0151 709 3789 

Image Elvis Costello

Hail, Caesar!, the new Coen brothers film, has arrived. 

It’s always an occasion when the Minnesota brothers 

release their latest offering; not always a joyous 

occasion, granted, as the quality of their output has been a 

little uneven in the latter part of their career – but an occasion 

nonetheless. While it may be difficult to predict the genre or 

tone of each movie, one thing is certain – that the soundtrack 

will at least be interesting. The Coens have always prided 

themselves on collaborating with the absolute best for the job, 

which stretches right back to their first venture, Blood Simple 

(1984), when they started working with the master composer 

Carter Burwell, the very same technician who has just delivered 

an absolute killer score for Hail, Caesar! 

Music has always been a major factor in the appeal of the 

Coens’ films and even the lack of it (see No Country For Old 

Men) is cause for widespread interest. Whether using Burwell 

or second-in-command T Bone Burnett, there is always much joy 

to be drawn from their collaborative work with these incredible 

composers. Key scenes such as the dream sequence at the 

bowling alley in The Big Lebowski, or the classic Soggy Bottom 

Boys sequences in O Brother Where Art Thou, 

are the cherries on top of the richly textured 

icing of their stylish cakes, and the movies 

would be very different without them. 

They’re not just there for light relief but to 

add soul, passion and body to the films: for 

example, so important is it to the feel of the 

film that it’s almost impossible to think of 

The Dude’s Gutterballs set piece divorced 

from Kenny Rogers’ memorable version of 

I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition 

My Condition Was In). The keen sense of 

brotherhood that runs through their films 

is also helped along by such sequences. 

Clearly, being brothers themselves is a 

major factor in this, but often it is that male 

bonding that draws the best out of their 

characters. The sailor scene in Hail! Caesar 

starring Channing Tatum is a great example 

of comedy, and in addition to simply being 

a superb piece of cinema it also highlights the sentiment of 

‘Who needs a dame when you’ve got your bros?’ The high camp 

of the sequence is slightly unchartered land for the Coens, but 

works brilliantly against the glitzy backdrop of the Hollywood 

musical. This fraternal thread is explored further in Hail! Caesar 

as the close knit band of communists fight for the attention of 

George Clooney’s character from the male-dominated studio 

heads; see how he loves it. 

Carter Burwell has worked on nearly all of the Coens’ films 

and Hail, Caesar! can perhaps be seen as a culmination, almost 

a greatest hits, of his previous collaborations. The film follows 

a day in the life of a 1950s Hollywood studio fixer, Eddie Mannix 

(Josh Brolin), a man pushed to the brink of madness by a 

particularly bad day at the office. One scene short of completing 

the studio’s new biblical epic, Hail, Caesar!’s handsome lead 

Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) is kidnapped. Chuck in evil 

journalist twins (Tilda Swinton x2), a pregnant swimming starlet 

(Scarlett Johannson) and a Western star (show-stealer Alden 

Ehrenreich), thrown out of his depth with one impossible line 

in a period drama, and you have a traditional screwball comedy 

of sorts. As most reviews have attested, it is a little uneven 

and the narrative tries a little hard to stick. There are some 

incredibly lavish sequences, and Brolin manages to hold the 

movie together as the rest of the cast make little more than 

cameo appearances (Ralph Fiennes is brilliantly funny in one 

scene and then he is gone). There are some great set pieces 

– jaw dropping even – and it is undeniable that the music is 

the magic glue here that turns the film into something special 

when it could quite easily have completely nosedived. There is 

definitely more Hudsucker Proxy than Lebowski in this comedy, 

with acceptable hammy overacting being a part of the tapestry. 

The eclectic nature of the movie presents something of a 

challenge for composer Burwell as moods shift continually in 

following Brolin as he hops from one sound stage to another. 

The soundtrack to the Biblical sequence is incredible and entirely 

re-creates the spectacle and class of those epic features the 

film sets out to imitate. The cinematography by Roger Deakins 

is equally as stunning: no sooner are we settled into the swords 

and sandals vibe and we are whisked away to a tale of the Wild 

West, a period drawing-room drama or an aquatic musical in 

the style of Esther Williams, and each time Burwell steps up 

to the plate with the perfect accompaniment. Perhaps the 

highlight of the film is the On The Town-style song and dance 

number, led by Channing Tatum: a perfect tribute to Gene Kelly’s 

classic routines with a crew of sailors in a barroom, it’s difficult 

Soundtracking 

THE COEN 

BROTHERS 

Words: Del Pike / @del_pike 

Illustration: Nick Booton / bruistudio.com 

to believe that this was not shot 60 years ago. While the film 

has been met with some indifference by critics and Coen fans 

alike, there is no denying the brothers’ ability to match stunning 

images with beautiful, quirky, moving and spine-chilling scores. 

Burwell may well be revisiting familiar ground in this movie, 

resurrecting phrasings from True Grit, Fargo or Raising Arizona, 

but it is exactly right for this movie. In a recent interview with 

NPR, Burwell spoke of this challenge of hopping about, which 

felt like several films were being filmed at the same time: 

“A LOT OF FILM MUSIC IS PUTTING 

ON A HAT AND BEING LIKE AN 

ACTOR. IN THIS CASE, I HAD TO 

PUT ON LOTS OF DIFFERENT 

HATS. BUT I LOVE A CHALLENGE.” 

Carter Burwell 

In an interview with Exploitation director Larry Cohen (no 

relation), Burwell explains how working with James Brown on 

the soundtrack to 1974’s Black Caesar (also no relation!), the 

Godfather of Soul would just give Cohen long passages of music 

to stick into the film. Cohen would say, “I don’t want that much”, 

and Brown would be puzzled because he had given him more 

than he needed, so what was the problem? This is perhaps 

where the secret to the Coens’ success lies when exploring the 

marriage between image and tunes. They have never been guilty 

of taking a back seat when it comes to devising soundtracks, and 

films like O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) And Inside Llewyn 

Davis (2013) have proved that the significance of the music can 

overtake that of the film, and the Coens have always been right 

there in the mix. 

It is a fair surmise to consider that the Coens make movies 

like Hail, Caesar! to cater for musical set pieces; clearly an all-out 

hoedown would not sit too well in the gothic Western setting 

of No Country For Old Men, but their love of breaking out of 

narrative to provide these musical asides appears to be too 

much of a temptation. Their latest venture cries out for such 

scenes and subsequently satisfies. 

O Brother Where Art Thou, a true fan favourite and Clooney 

team-up that enjoyed favourable reviews, was loosely based 

on Homer’s Odyssey and followed a hapless trio of chain-gang 

escapees across the American Deep South in the 1930s. There 

is much to enjoy in the movie: razor-sharp comedy, stunning 

sepia landscapes and undoubtedly one of 

the finest soundtracks of the Coens’ career. 

The music provided by their other go-to-guy, 

former guitarist in Bob Dylan’s band, T Bone 

Burnett, is a revelation of how music and 

film can work for each other with equally 

pleasing results. The film’s prohibition-era 

setting lends itself by default to the blend of 

gospel, folk and blues that shaped a nation, 

and Burnett revels in it. In a memorable 

sequence that sees the trio enter a 

recording studio and record I Am A Man 

Of Constant Sorrow as The Soggy Bottom 

Boys (which won a Grammy award), a classic 

scene is created. Equally as mesmeric is the 

scene that finds our heroes seduced by 

three bathing sirens in a lake singing Go To 

Sleep You Little Baby. Strangely, the track – 

originally recorded by Alison Krauss, Gillian 

Welch and Emmylou Harris for the film – is 

absent from the soundtrack album. Again this is a sequence that 

stands out as a perfect example of all that is good when the 

Coens get the balance right. Burnett’s work was so successful it 

spawned a sequel project, Down From The Mountain, a live show 

at the Ryman auditorium in Nashville featuring artists from the 

movie soundtrack, extending the experience by incorporating 

a new set of songs. 

Burnett’s work on Inside Llewyn Davis was equally astounding, 

bringing the best vocally from its stars Justin Timberlake, Carey 

Mulligan and current pin-up boy Oscar Isaac (Ex-Machina, Star 

Wars: The Force Awakens), and then handing over the reins to the 

likes of Jack White, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris and Patti Smith 

for a similar spin-off project. Another Day Another Time, a filmed 

event at New York Town Hall in 2013, also became a surprise 

success as an album. Footage of the recording process sees a 

high-level studio presence from the Coens, who are seemingly 

loving every minute. It seems that Burnett can do no wrong, and 

his ridiculously brilliant recent work on TV’s True Detective seals 

that claim with a kiss. 

The back catalogue of Coen brothers’ soundtracks is well 

worth exploring, with great joy to be had from such greats 

as The Big Lebowski and Fargo, but also check out lesserknown 

works in The Man Who Wasn’t There and A Serious Man. 

Their commitment to providing perfect sound and vision is a 

masterclass to behold.

2012 seems a long time ago. Remember it? We had an Odd 

Couple coalition government that was still laughable, yet 

to become a chilling prelude to life under a Tory majority; 

we were still trying to grasp the Arab Spring; and Luis Suarez still 

lived in Formby. That was the global context. But what about 

Liverpool’s music scene? We were listening to Ninetails, The 

Sundowners, and Nadine Carina. We had MelloMello, Drop The 

Dumbbells, and Wolstenholme Creative Space, all to be closed 

within two years. But at least The Kazimier’s future was safe… 

(yeah, I know, it still hurts). 

Hang on, hold the Werther’s Originals: we still have FESTEVOL! 

Revo’s summer fixture is now in its fifth edition, and it’s back a 

little earlier this year, in May – not quite summer, admittedly, but 

it’s been winter for at least nine months now so if we’re all agreed 

we can miss out spring this year and get straight on with festival 

season, OK? Motion passed. 

As always, it’s a line-up packed with Bido Lito! regulars like 

BATHYMETRY, HOOTON TENNIS CLUB and STRANGE COLLECTIVE 

doing their bit, but there are also some choice players from 

further afield. Probably the biggest name on the bill is that of 

Hollywood star Juliette Lewis. She split with her band JULIETTE 

AND THE LICKS in 2009, reformed in 2015, and now they’re 

rolling through Liverpool as part of a European tour in support 

of new album Four On The Floor. If there’s a band whose sound 

would fill Camp and Furnace, it’s Lewis’ unabashed, swaggering 

scuzz ‘n’ rollers. Yes, Camp and Furnace. Read on, and all will be 

revealed. 

Steve Mason 

If you haven’t heard of STEVE MASON you might have heard 

of the group he founded, the Beta Band. Or King Biscuit Time. Or 

even Black Affair. Yeh, he’s a busy man, but at FestEVOL ’16 he’s 

just plain old Steve Mason whose new album Meet The Humans 

came out at the end of February. Developing himself into one of 

the UK’s best living musical craftsmen, Mason is a cut above your 

common-or-garden singer-songwriter, with a sheaf of songs that 

go deeper than his break-ups, and stay with you longer than most. 

So that’s the headliners sorted, but what you can be 

guaranteed with in a FestEVOL bill is that there’ll be a slew of 

your new favourite bands further down the bill that represent the 

bright, fizzing edge of ‘the next wave’. So, who’s popping 

into Liverpool on their way to the top? BLACK 

HONEY are very much a post-Best Coast 

band, with a streak of self-deprecation that’s 

almost charming in its slackerishness. The 

national music press (yes, it does exist) has 

been sniffing around this Brighton band, so 

this could be your chance to say you were there at the 

start. The same goes for THE DIRTY NIL, Ontario’s heaving, rock 

rebel-rousers, who create a din so teeth rattling 

that you’ll be needing a trip to the dentist after 

you’ve seen them. 

If you feel like your brain’s been 

squelching in your skull for too long, 

BABA NAGA, who make topdrawer, 

high-quality 

Words: Stuart Miles O’Hara / @ohasm1 

Illustration: Scott Duffey / scottduffey.co.uk 

sludge, are ideal chaperones for visitors to the rabbit hole’s lower 

storeys. For those with shapes just waiting to be thrown, GIRL 

FRIEND have a keen eye for style, sharp cheekbones, and visuals 

that put them on a late-80s continuum. Their videos are works of 

art – check out Stop for proof. Oh, and they’ve got the tunes too. 

And for those who like something a little smoother, Lewisham’s 

next big soulful whizz JODIE ABACUS will be present for that dash 

of Lionel Richie charm. 

There are some surprise appearances by the great and good 

of Liverpool’s music scene of yore, such as Will Sergeant project 

POLTERGEIST, and the return of the queen: Helen MARNIE of 

Ladytron fame. That’ll be a homecoming show for the electropop 

royalty, fresh from guesting on Bang Gang’s latest single, and 

it seems pretty sure that she’ll be on fat synth duty come May. 

Liverpool, though, has always looked outwards, so why not 

travel a bit without even crossing Parliament Street? Even if you 

don’t speak Korean or play the accordion, we dare you not to be 

charmed by DEAD BUTTONS. They played Sound City last year, so it 

was high time they got deeper into town. These Seoul punks are 

just waiting to be your new favourite band. For people wanting 

unique sounds, PUMAROSA are worth a punt. You’ll want to reach 

for Björk, PJ Harvey or Anthony & the Johnsons as reference points 

after hearing Priestess (check out the must-hear Shura remix), 

despite the fact they sound nothing alike. That’s what 

they’ve got in common: they sound like no-one 

else. It’s impossible to tell what Pumarosa’s 

set will be like. What better incentive to watch 

them do you need? 

There are also bands from the four corners of the UK (OK, it 

has more than four, but you know what I mean). ALIBIS peddle a 

familiar, fragile sound with shades of Julee Cruze or later Arctic 

Monkeys, but the trickier wordplay in their lyrics is all this London 

duo’s own: one for fans of Alt-J to check out. THE SHIMMER 

BAND hail from Bristol via the ninth dimension (a neglected 

dimension, I think). Simple but sprawling, they’re one of the truly 

psychedelic psych bands out there. Electro pop upstarts NIMMO 

(more Londoners) plunder death and our own existential worries 

for all of their intrigue and fold it in to a gothic, pulsing slew: not 

only are these Columbia-signees a stunning prospect, they’re on 

a trajectory for stardom too. 

Of course, FestEVOL was always a Kazimier do. This May, things are 

going to be a little different: the whole model is being transplanted 

to the Baltic Triangle, with stages in Camp (but not Furnace) and the 

Blade Factory. Refining the model of Liverpool Music Week 2015’s 

closing party, it will maintain the event’s compactness, which has 

Juliette & The Licks 

always been a FestEVOL selling point. With two stages, you can see 

as many or as few bands as you want, and you’ll probably catch most 

of them without trying too hard. None of the military planning that’s 

required for most festivals is needed here. You could walk in off the 

street, pop out for a disco nap, run to a cashpoint that won’t charge 

you at 17.5%, and still be back without seemingly breaking flow. 

FestEVOL’s feel was pretty much established at it's outset: no 

gimmicks or themes, just solid venues and a diverse line-up are all 

that’s needed to keep it fresh after four years. Of course, as with 

most of EVOL, fantastic poster art helps to stoke anticipation as it 

plasters the walls in the weeks counting down. One of FestEVOL’s 

strengths was its format of being held on two consecutive 

Saturdays. This gave you ample recovery time between parts I 

and II, a whole new roster of bands, and the warm recognition 

of fellow punters as you pass the time of day with those guys 

you stood next to at VEYU last week. This one is being billed as 

a ‘special edition’ FestEVOL, something to whet your appetite for 

the full two-day shindig to come later this summer. It’s the cosiest, 

most homegrown festival we’ve got, and it’s going to be brilliant. 

Give in to the forces of EVOL. 

FestEVOL takes place at Camp and Furnace on 1st May, and tickets 

are on sale now. 

FestEVOL by Robin Clewley / robinclewley.co.uk

16 


GIT AWARD 2016 

Words: Christopher Torpey / @CATorp 

Illustration: Valentina Gruer / valentinagruerwrk.com 

Our annual celebration of the region’s finest musical 

exports – the GIT AWARD – is once again nearly upon us. 

This year marks the award’s fifth year of shining a light 

on the cream of the city’s current artists, which puts it in the 

territory of a “Scouse Mercury Prize”, according to the NME. The 

12 acts who have been shortlisted for the 2016 award (see page 

opposite) range from nationally acclaimed recording artists 

to some lesser-known gems, showing the embarrassment of 

musical riches we have within our midst. Ahead of the final 

ceremony – set to be held at Constellations on 14th May, where 

the winner will be unveiled – we catch up with a few of the 

accolade’s national judging panel, to find out how the city’s 

current musical crop are perceived outside Merseyside. 

As I sat down at the end of 2015 to look back at my favourite 

pieces of music from local artists from the previous 12 months, 

I was astounded at just how much excellent music had been 

produced. It was pretty similar the year before, and at the rate 

things are going so far in 2016 I’m going to have double the 

amount to wade through come December. 

I’m certainly not complaining: it’s brilliant to be swamped with 

such a variety of boss music, and I enjoy the white-knuckle ride 

of constantly chasing about just trying to keep up with the pace 

and volume of creativity that our musicians churn out. They’re a 

busy bunch round here. 

By way of celebrating what has been another fine year of 

musical creativity on Merseyside, the 2016 edition of the 

GIT Award has left no stone unturned in compiling its final 

shortlist, its eclectic dirty dozen. These 12 nominees represent 

a fascinating cross-section of where our city is right now, with 

some pretty major players on an international level sitting 

comfortably alongside bright new talent whose profile hasn’t 

(yet) stretched beyond the bounds of the region. Take MUGSTAR 

and L U M E N for example: one act has just released its seventh 

album on Mogwai’s Rock Action Records, and one is in the 

embryonic stage of his career with only a handful of songs and 

shows to his name. But both acts fit within the overall picture, 

complementary to each other in the different strands they 

represent. 

That was fun, let’s compare some of the other nominees: 

CLEAN CUT KID’s sticky pop rock has seen them reach a 

fervent audience through being BBC Radio 1 playlisted, while 

STEALING SHEEP and HOOTON TENNIS CLUB both received 

plentiful support from 6Music around their respective 

Heavenly Records-released albums 

in 2015; then you have the 

massive fanbases in slightly 

less obvious genres that MIC 

LOWRY and DRAGGED INTO 

SUNLIGHT have, compared 

with the relatively niche 

followings TVAM and TRUDY 

have cultivated so far in a more 

widely supported genre. I could 

go on, but the point is already 

obvious – the GIT 

Award is a succinct 

way of reflecting 

and championing 

the broad church 

that is Merseyside 

music, with 

the current 12 nominees an exciting representation of that. 

We can get blinded, however, by constantly looking inwards 

at Liverpool music, but what does it sound like from afar? It can 

be hard for us, immersed in a city that is clearly humming and 

buzzing at its nucleus, to have a handle on where we fit into 

the bigger national picture. Nine of the 16 judges on this year’s 

GIT Award are from outside of the city – including BBC 6Music’s 

Gideon Coe, The Unsigned Guide’s Louise Dodgson, and 4AD 

label chief Rich Walker – which helps to give us local judges a bit 

of perspective. “What I really love about Liverpool is the breadth 

of talent and the variety of the artists,” says journalist, blogger 

and Amazing Radio show host Shell Zenner, one of the national 

judges who has a close affinity to Merseyside. “They don’t 

conform to what is or isn’t cool, they write and compose from 

the heart and do what they feel is right. You never know what 

you’re going to find, but you know there will be treasures. It’s the 

jewel in the North West’s crown!” This sentiment is echoed by 

Dot Levine, Communications Manager at global video giant Vevo, 

who has also reprised her role as a national judge this year: “The 

music coming out of Liverpool has evolved, not turned its back at 

all, but evolved into lots of different and eclectic sounds. There 

is a great creative buzz in Liverpool that is fuelling the music 

scene, and we are hearing some very exciting music.” 

Another returning judge is writer, journalist and Merseyside 

exile John Doran, founder of the constantly fascinating music and 

pop culture webzine The Quietus. His enthusiasm for the process 

of selecting the final 12 artists, which began in November, is 

infectious. “As always the voting process has introduced me to 

great new music including, this year, God Colony, Holy Thursday, 

TVAM and Tekla,” Doran says. “Looking at the GIT Awards I’ve 

been involved in – which is for the last four or five years, I think 

– I’ve become a lot more aware of Merseyside’s grime, EDM, 

electronica, hip hop and RnB. So I guess the award helps remind 

me about the diversity of music in the North West – not that I 

should need reminding.” 

The version of Liverpool music that is packaged and exported 

around the world undoubtedly brings a rich seam of character 

and finance to the area, but is it really representative of what’s 

happening now? John Doran would argue that, no, the idea 

of regional stereotypes in the realm of art are fast becoming 

obsolete. “I’m wary of generalisations. I think, in very very 

general terms, the Celtic character, via Irish immigration, 

has bled into the Scouse personality to a certain degree and 

because of that maybe Liverpool has tended to produce warm, 

expansive, romantic, tuneful music with a psychedelic edge: 

and that’s whether it’s Mugstar, The Beatles, OMD, The Mighty 

Wah! or Clinic. But the second you start saying ‘All Liverpool 

music is like x’ then you’re going to be ignoring certain bands. 

For example, Dragged Into Sunlight are not warm, expansive, 

romantic or tuneful. They sound like they just murdered your pet 

dog with an axe while laughing about it.” 

Regardless of who follows Loved Ones, Baltic Fleet, Forest 

Swords and All We Are to win the award, everyone on the 

shortlist – or anyone making music in Merseyside, for 

that matter – should hold a collective sense of pride, as 

the GIT Award’s diagnosis of the local scene indicates 

that it is in fine health. 

The GIT Award final ceremony takes place at 

Constellations on 14th May.


17 

CLEAN CUT KID 

The rugged, catchy pop nuggets that this quartet keep 

spitting out has had their show packed out by fans and record 

label execs, all eager for a shot of Clean Cut Kid’s Vitamin C. 

DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT 

As far as terrifying extreme black metal goes, these four 

balaclava-clad noiseniks sure know how to make a racket. 

HOOTON TENNIS CLUB 

Close friendships and swaggering, lo-fi warmth are part 

of the fabric of this quartet, whose debut LP on Heavenly 

Recordings was one of the records of 2015. 

L U M E N 

L U M E N plays his quirky electronic surf pop with a smile on 

his face, and the effect will have you grinning from ear to ear. 

MIC LOWRY 

These five teenage soul/RnB stars grew up around each other 

and they reflect this fluidity in their soulful vocal fireworks. 

MUGSTAR 

Drone Titans Mugstar have reached the pinnacle of their 13- 

year career with latest album Magnetic Seasons, which sees 

them flexing their cosmic muscles in ever more subtle ways. 

RONGORONGO 

The past 12 months have been a whirlwind for this quintet 

having really hit their stride with their own brand of moody 

post-punk thrumming. 

BILL RYDER-JONES 

The Bard of West Kirby is the kind of songwriting talent that 

comes around once every generation, with his most recent 

work raising the bar to untold heights. 

STEALING SHEEP 

Stealing Sheep took a turn towards the avant garde with 

their exotica-inspired second album Not Real, which they 

delivered with style and precision. 

TRUDY 

This dashing trio have been a real hit since they landed on 

Merseyside, combining woozy melodies with sun-flecked 

charm to great effect. 

TVAM 

Fuzz, 8-bit graphics and incessant grooves make TVAM’s VHS 

concoctions as compelling as anything else out there today. 

Buckle up. 

THE VRYLL SOCIETY 

If liquid, soulful jams are your thing then this five-piece will 

transport you to a blissful realm in no time. The Vryll Society 

are a breath of fresh air. 

bidolito.co.uk

18 


This time last year SERIOUS SAM BARRETT was looking 

forward to one of the biggest nights of his career, 

supporting country luminary Rosanna Cash in 

Leeds. For the folk and bluesman, who was born in 

West Yorkshire in 1980 and grew up surrounded 

by music, this was massive. “My Dad and my 

uncle are both great folk singers and guitar 

players, in the Bert Jansch style. I learned from 

them,” he tells me across the wires from 

a snowy Yorkshire. “Pretty much as soon 

as I could get my arm round a guitar I 

was trying to copy them. I was probably six or 

seven.” But then disaster struck: shortly before the 

Cash gig, Barrett went and broke his wrist (not for 

the first time) in three places in a skateboarding 

accident, which left him unable to play guitar 

for two months. Barrett admits to being “in a 

dark place at that time” but he philosophically 

concludes that “you can’t wrap yourself in 

cotton wool; life’s dangerous.” 

“There were always folk records being played 

in the house: The Dubliners, The Watersons, The 

Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span, Fairport 

Convention, Ewan McColl,” Barrett continues, as he 

picks up the thread of the rich musical education he 

received in his formative years. “Those records had a 

big impact on me as a child. When I was a kid I wanted to 

listen to Buddy Holly all the time. I loved the blues too. I got a 

Robert Johnson CD when I was 10 or 11. I used to just sit and try 

to play along with it all the time. I was lucky. My mum and dad 

had the raddest music taste.” 

The use of the adjective ‘raddest’ in that last sentence is not a 

misstep, and in fact alludes to one of Sam Barrett’s other great 

passions, and the root of his injury: skateboarding. “I always had 

a skateboard but skateboarding became a big part of my life 

around 1995,” he trills with enthusiasm. “Skateboarding is the 

best thing in the world. It feels amazing and it makes you forget 

everything that brings you down. It’s also allowed me to meet 

the most humble, honest and down-to-earth people all over 

the world, and it makes you break your bones. I love it.” There 

are not many aspects of Sam Barrett’s life that you could call 

stereotypical but it might be fair to say, after that response, that 

he’s a typically phlegmatic White Rose man. So, in ‘every cloud’ 

mode, the hiatus and its attendant musings led him to name his 

new album Sometimes You Got To Lose, which he is showcasing 

on his upcoming UK tour, including a date at Bold Street Coffee. 

The music Barrett makes takes in English and Celtic folk and 

American blues and country and I ask him if those trans-Atlantic 

styles sit comfortably together. “Yeh, to me they all work great 

together,” he confirms. “The English, Scottish and Irish traditions 

all have their own unique styles and I love them all. But there 

has always been a lot of crossing over between them, and they 

have a lot in common. I love the way American traditional music 

draws on all of them but also heavily on African folk music. 

That’s really what makes it so special. So many songs have 

existed in various forms in several countries and cultures. Songs 

aren’t bound by borders or language – they travel where they 

want.” The idea that songs aren’t bound by borders is translated 

into Barrett’s lyrics, which are scattered with references to his 

influences: he name checks Buddy Holly in Lullaby Of Leeds and 

Unchained Melody in Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart, and he seems able 

to take the exotic weft of his early American inspirations and 

the everyday warp of contemporary Yorkshire life and weave it 

seamlessly into something timeless. His playing is sharp and 

clean, in both his deft picking and his razor-sharp slide work. 

SERIOUS 

SAM 

BARRETT 

He plays a Stella 12-string which he picked up in Tennessee, the 

same model that Lead Belly used, and it has unquestionably 

helped to define Barrett’s sound. “I’ve played that same guitar 

since about 2006. I can’t imagine playing anything else. I love 

it,” he almost coos. I have an image of Barrett in a promo video, 

skateboarding down a gentle incline, guitar in hand, singing 

his latest release, and ask him if he’s ever tried it. “Oh no, man – 

I’ve broken so many bones, but I would never risk breaking my 

guitar.” The emphasis on ‘never’ is unequivocal. 

His musical tastes don’t stop with the traditional either. In his 

early teens he got into rock and his skateboarding obsession 

developed alongside a love of metal and the US punk of Rancid, 

Minor Threat and Bad Brains. I put it to him that urban punk and 

rural folk make strange bedfellows but he rejects the notion. 

“Country, punk, rock ‘n’ roll, blues: they’re all kind of three-chord, 

short songs. They’re not ‘out there’ in structure; it’s straight down 

the line.” 

Words: Glyn Akroyd 

Illustration: Sami Graystone / themeathook.co.uk 

“For years I preferred to play on my own because I wanted 

to prove to myself that I could pull off being a solo 

player and didn’t need anyone else,” Barrett 

continues, when prompted about the many 

collaborations he’s embarked upon over his 

career. “Eventually I opened up more to 

playing with other people; it’s taught me so 

much as a musician. I honestly love both for 

different reasons.” He’ll be doing both 

at his upcoming Bold Street Coffee 

gig, playing some numbers solo and 

others with another folk-blues player, 

David Broad. “Me and Dave met 10 years ago 

or more in a pub in Leeds called The Grove. It’s 

a really important pub for traditional music 

in Yorkshire and we were both playing a 

lot of old country blues at the time. We felt 

like nobody else was really doing it, so we 

started playing together a lot. We made a 

live album together in 2013; we share a love 

for traditional music, country and blues, and 

we’ve travelled and drunk a lot together. 

He’s a good lad.” 

The Bold Street Coffee gig will also see the launch 

of an exhibition by artist Sami Graystone, another 

long term collaborator. Graystone’s punchy, 

screen-printed illustrations adorn Barrett’s three 

albums and, in his words, “make things look rootsy and 

bold. They’re in your face. She understands the music and I 

think it’s really important to have record covers that represent 

the music and complement it. Sami does that really well.” He’s 

played Bold Street Coffee several times and explains how it was 

his other love that helped him forge that connection. “I grew 

up skateboarding in Bradford and that city has good links with 

Liverpool in terms of their skate scenes. We used to travel back 

and forth all the time to go to punk gigs at the Flea Pit and to 

skate up at New Bird Street. I absolutely love Liverpool, and Bold 

Street Coffee has a heavy contingent of Liverpool skaters with 

Yorkshire affiliations, so it’s all carried on one way or another.” 

Further afield, Barrett has toured with Alabama roots band 

Pine Hill Haints, and he’s even found time amidst this whirlwind 

of activity to run his own record label, YaDig!Records. “I do the 

label with a friend of mine who works at Jumbo Records. It’s 

worked out really well for me because I haven’t had to answer 

to anyone else or compromise in any way with my music.” The 

constant monitoring of various spinning plates would whittle 

away many people’s tether, but to Barrett it’s part of the thrill. 

Settling down is evidently not on his mind, at least not any time 

soon: I ask him if he had to give up music or skateboarding which 

one it would be, and I can almost feel his anguish on the other 

end of the phone as he mulls it over. Typically, he doesn’t sit on 

the fence, and after some deliberation he says he’d have to quit 

boarding, but only because, in the long term, “You can’t keep 

doing to your body what top end skateboarding requires... man, 

I hope I never have to make that choice.” 

I think it’s safe to say that the ‘Serious’ epithet does not 

denote a po-faced attitude but rather a ‘whatever you do, go 

for it’ sensibility. Serious Sam Barrett, to coin a skater phrase, 

lives life to the max. 

Serious Sam Barrett plays Bold Street Coffee on 31st March, 

supported by David Broad. The night also marks the launch of an 

exhibition of artist Sami Graystone’s work, which runs throughout 

April. Sometimes You Got To Lose is out now. 

serioussambarrett.bandcamp.com 

bidolito.co.uk

If you haven’t encountered the use of the term ‘vinyl revival’ over the past couple of years then 

the chances are you’ve not been paying attention or you’re more interested in downloading 

Rihanna mp3s on your smartphone. With vinyl record sales up to 1.5% of the UK’s total in 2015 

(up from 0.1% in 2007), it hardly seems noteworthy, but it’s still an upwards trend in what is 

still a relatively unpredictable and volatile industry. Given that RECORD STORE DAY – the annual 

celebration of independently owned stores held on the third Saturday of April – began in 2007, 

it’s often credited for a huge part in this so-called vinyl revival. With an increasing list of one-off, 

re-packaged and limited edition releases flooding participating stores across the world – from 

both independent and major labels – it’s become the sweet spot in the calendar for revelling 

in that curiously retro vinyl culture. 

So, all good, right? Well… maybe not. Despite the fact that the majority of the participating 

stores are packed out each year, it’s not a win-win situation for everyone. There have been 

dissenting voices in the past couple of years about the organisation of the day and the number 

of releases on the ‘official’ list, both valid points. 

We asked two independents who’ve engaged with Record Store Day in various forms to put 

forward their various opinions on its merits: here’s what they said. 

Illustration: Rebecca Currie / beckycurrieillustration.com 

Photography: Keith Ainsworth / arkimages.co.uk 

Piccadilly Records 

A Manchester institution, Piccadilly Records (on Oldham Street in Manchester’s trendy Northern 

FOR 

Quarter) is one of the biggest independent music retailers in the country. They’re also one of the 

most popular, regularly gaining recognition in the press as one of the friendliest and well-stocked 

record stores in the country. The management team of Laura Kennedy and Darryl Mottershead have 

been in charge for almost 20 years, and have been an official affiliated part of Record Store Day 

since its inception in 2007. 

Record Store Day. Three words that fill us with both dread and excitement at this time of year. 

Dread: the amount of preparation work, whether we’ll be able to get enough of the records we 

want, whether they’ll turn up on time. 

Excitement: planning the day’s events, wondering what time people will start queuing, 

wondering how big the queue will be when we arrive in the morning, loving the general buzz 

of the day. 

We’ve been involved with RSD since it started in the UK in 2007 and we’ve seen it grow from 

being just a handful of shops and labels in the first year (including Warner Music and Universal, for 

all those who moan about it being hijacked by the ‘major labels’ in recent years) to the huge event 

it is now. As soon as the new year starts, so do the internet rumours, and customers start trading 

snippets of info and trying to prise details from us before the release list is launched in March. 

For us, last year was the best yet. We had people queuing from midday on the Friday and, by 

Saturday morning, the queue was almost right around the block. And, despite the cold (at least 

it didn’t rain this time), they were all in high spirits when we opened the doors, having renewed 

past acquaintances and made new music-mad friends. As with previous years, we had DJs on 

throughout the day and the atmosphere in the shop was fantastic. We had coffee courtesy of Tim 

Peaks Diner and you could screen-print your own RSD15 poster. In previous years we’ve had all 

sorts going on in-store, from rock ‘n’ roll cupcakes to a stall selling old records turned into pieces 

of art. We’ve got something fun lined up for this year too, but we can’t reveal it just yet. 

It seemed that there were much fewer ‘Discoggers’ last year too, looking to cash in. Let’s face 

it, there must be easier ways of making a few quid than spending your Friday night queuing on a 

cold (and most likely wet) street in one of the less glamorous areas of central Manchester. 

I know some indie shops and labels have a negative view of the day, and it’s not by any means 

perfect, but you’re never going to please everyone. By definition, we’re all independent and all have 

very different views and ways of working, and it seems most of the shops that have embraced the 

day have created their own unique take on what Record Store Day should be. And, to be honest, 

I don’t think that the current ‘revival’ in vinyl (or vinyls if you’re under 30) would have happened 

without the media attention RSD has had over the last few years; and, who knows, half the shops 

that are still around might not be here now without its influence. It’s undoubtedly got people 

coming back to record buying and renewing their love for record shops, as well as bringing a whole 

new generation of music lovers into the fold too. 

Record stor 

Laura Kennedy / @piccadillyrecs 

piccadillyrecords.com 

Head to bidolito.co.uk to see an extended gallery of Keith’s shots from his travels. What’s your 

favourite record store? Tell us on Twitter: @BidoLito. 

recordstoreday.co.uk

Sonic Cathedral 

e day 2016 

The self-professed “label that celebrates itself”, Sonic Cathedral has been releasing choice cuts of 

AGAINST 

shoegaze, drone and psych since it sprang from founder Nathaniel Cramp’s London club nights. 

The independent label has racked up some impressive releases since starting in 2004, numbering 

School Of Seven Bells, Sonic Boom and Gulp among them. 

A year ago my label, Sonic Cathedral, along with Bristol agent provocateurs Howling Owl, 

frustrated at the endless delays to our releases as they crawled through the creaking pressing 

plants of the Czech Republic, decided to make a light-hearted protest against the event we thought 

was responsible for all of this in its quest to become the New Year’s Eve of record shopping. But, 

12 months on, everyone is gearing up to buy an Alan Partridge picture disc on Record Store Day. 

Our protest – to sell one copy of a 7” single, featuring Spectres and Lorelle Meets The Obsolete 

doing unmentionable things to each other’s songs, every day for a year – wasn’t really thought 

through; we didn’t even realise that 2016 was a leap year to begin with. It certainly wasn’t sensible: 

we had both previously been involved in official and unofficial RSD releases and surely anything 

that promoted our favoured format of vinyl to the outside world was potentially beneficial? Also, 

it may well have alienated us from some of our favourite places in the world: record shops. Who 

the hell were we to deny them a nice payday every April? 

But, thankfully, the reaction was largely favourable. It turned out that it wasn’t just us who 

thought this way about RSD and, after spending the last year visiting a number of record shops 

all over the UK – from garden sheds in Cambridgeshire to long-established shops in Newcastle 

and start-ups in Kent – it was apparent they also agreed with our basic point that RSD is a great 

idea, but that the organisers really need to take on board people’s criticisms and concerns. After 

all, who actually needs every Bruce Springsteen album on vinyl. Again. All on one day. 

And therein lies the problem with RSD, and indeed the whole over-priced, 180g concept of the 

vinyl revival: it’s last-gasp capitalism at its worst. After selling their souls for that all-important chunk 

of Spotify equity, the major labels are simply clawing back whatever quick profits they can from 

any physical sales. They’re so shameless that, weeks after they professed their undying love for 

independent record shops by fattening them up with firm sale represses, they’re filling the racks of 

that bastion of indie retail, Tesco, with the very same Pink Floyd platters. Never forget: they’re the 

same companies who tried to kill the format in the first place, but now they’re muscling everyone 

out of the way for one last ride on the vinyl merry-go-round. This attitude was plain to see in a blog 

that appeared on the Universal Music website last April; it launched a scathing personal attack on 

yours truly, and the unnamed Universal drone who wrote it was unable to contain their disgust for 

this David who was daring to scratch their hugely profitable vinyl Goliath. And how dare I be so nasty 

to their poor, double-barrelled sales manager who was just trying to sell Mumford & Sons records to 

indie stores because they wanted to “plough something back in”? 

Much as I despise Mumford & Sons with every fibre of my being, this isn’t about musical 

snobbery; it’s making a point about how the little guys are being squeezed out by the big boys 

while simply trying to do the very thing we’ve always done. So, when Kim Bayley, boss of RSD 

organisers the Entertainment Retailers’ Association, described our protest as “objectionable” and 

dismissed it as a publicity stunt, it was clear which side she was on. She also went on to take full 

credit for the vinyl revival, the growth in independent record shops and engaging a whole new 

generation of music fans, instead of taking on board our valid criticisms, which were echoed and 

added to by so many. If she did, perhaps we could have a RSD that actually works and encourages 

and includes everyone, not just the majors. 

We have heard that things have changed for the better this year, so maybe some of our 

complaints didn’t fall on deaf ERAs. Apparently, the release list has been vetted by a panel, and 

four out of five releases are on independent labels, so at least it might not be so easy for Sony 

to carpet-bomb the nation’s record shops with reissues. Then again, we did receive a passiveaggressive 

phone call from them saying how they didn’t want us to be put on the spot in a negative 

way, and warning us how powerful ERA’s PR can be. Still, that Alan Partridge picture disc, eh? 

Nathaniel Cramp / @soniccathedral 

recordstoredayisdying.com

"Every day with us is 

a record store day" 

3b RECORDS 

5 SLATER STREET, LIVERPOOL 

AINTREE VINYL 

114 WARBRECK MOOR, 

AINTREE 

Billy Keogh (trading 3 years): “What do I like about working here? 

Resurrecting record collections to put back on the market!” 

THE MUSICAL BOX 

457 WEST DERBY ROAD, 

LIVERPOOL 

Diane Cain (65 years): “Every day with us is a record store day. 

I have always loved music. Our customers are like our friends, 

we know them by name. We don’t mind strangers though!” 

DIG VINYL 

80 BOLD STREET, 

LIVERPOOL 

Elliot Hutchinson (2 years): “I love our range of stock. We dig out albums 

far and wide – anything from deep funk to avant garde – and this 

creates a great working environment.” 

GS VINYL 

TULKETH STREET, SOUTHPORT 

CULT VINYL 

GRAND CENTRAL, 35 RENSHAW 

STREET, LIVERPOOL 

Bob, Dave, Anthony (8 years): “We like music, meeting 

people. We’re not on [Record Store Day] yet. But we’ll 

fix it up. This year.”

You don’t have to have read High Fidelity to appreciate the rich tapestry of life that lives, breathes and is immortalised in independent record stores. Many of our cultural quirks are reflected 

in them, and they’re invariably presided over by knowledgeable custodians of the racks who can guide you through your Doors back catalogue (“no no, don’t start there, start with this one”) 

as well as spot a seasonal gift hunter at 100 paces. 

In a bid to throw a spotlight on some of these wax and polycarbonate plastic emporiums, we sent Keith Ainsworth out with his camera across Merseyside to some of our best-loved indie record 

stores – and he found some hidden gems while he was out and about. 

PROBE RECORDS 

SCHOOL LANE, LIVERPOOL 

JACARANDA RECORDS 

21-23 SLATER STREET, LIVERPOOL 

Danny Fitzgerald (1 year): “I get to spend all day 

with records – truly a dream job for any music 

fan.” 

SKELETON RECORDS 

11 OXTON ROAD, BIRKENHEAD 

John Weaver (44 years): “It’s better than a real job.” 

QUICKSILVER MUSIC 

24 MARKET STREET, SOUTHPORT 

Dave Thornley (7 years): “What do I like about 

working here? Talking music with the customers 

and enjoying new music discoveries.” 

PSYCHAMOK RECORDS 

190 LISCARD ROAD, WALLASEY 

Andrew Brown (10 years): “I only sell second-hand 

so do not get the chance to stock Record Store Day 

items. But anything that increases interest in vinyl has 

got to be good!” 

GOOD TIME 

COLLECTABLES 

182 COUNTY ROAD, LIVERPOOL 

Jeff Holmes (15 years): “Record Store Day started as a 

great indie idea but now has turned out a bit of a con. 

Shops full one day a year is not good for all-year-round 

business. Plus eBay has not helped.”

24 


APRIL IN BRIEF 

MEILYR JONES 

Ex-Horse Races man MEILYR JONES dabbles in jaunty indie pop, and Studio2 will abound with the soaring sounds of new LP 2013 in April. His debut 

album delivers a snapshot of a unique performer, bringing together art-house pop with tender balladry viewed through the prism of a truly off-beat 

artist. Jones is unlikely to bring the 30-piece orchestra featured on his debut LP to this show, but for those who appreciate the craft of fellow Welsh 

wunderkinds H. Hawkline, Gwenno and Sweet Baboo, it’s a must-see gig. 

Parr Street Studio2 / 29th April 

I/O WITH VEYU 

Moody synth saviours VEYU recently made their return with brooding new single Battlecry, and they’re backing it up by hosting their own I/O show at 

Leaf. The highly rated five-piece have won many admirers with their 80s-inflected soundscapes and introspective lyrics, and they’re teaming up with 

multimedia artist David Ogle once again for I/O’s immersive visual show. With a supporting cast of RONGORONGO, LUMEN and Bido Lito! DJs, the night 

is sure to live up to I/O’s impressive legend. 

Leaf / 2nd April 

THE STARS ALIGN FOR OYÉ 

News that DR Congo titans MBONGWANA STAR will be gracing the stage at this year’s AFRICA OYÉ has been met with due excitement. The six-piece have 

been wowing audiences worldwide by melding genres and raising awareness with their politically charged lyrics. The first wave of artists announced 

for Oyé’s annual Sefton Park celebration also includes PAT THOMAS AND THE KWASHIBU AREA BAND (Ghana) and Tanzania’s IFA BAND. And to celebrate 

it all, we’re giving away Oyé branded T-shirts and tote bags over on bidolito.co.uk. 

Sefton Park / 18th-19th June 

THE BLUETONES 

Since the massive success of their sell-out 20th Anniversary Jukebox Tour in 2015, baggy indie stars THE BLUETONES are extending the tour for a 

further series of shows this spring. Their platinum-selling debut album Expecting To Fly spawned one of Britpop’s finest moments in the single Slight 

Return, and the Hounslow-based rockers reconvened last year for one final twirl through the hits. We have two pairs of tickets to give away for the 

show too: check our Facebook and Twitter competitions to see how to win. 

Arts Club / 27th April 

BLUEDOT 

A brand new festival to take place at Cheshire observatory Jodrell Bank is looking like a truly cosmic shindig. With BLUEDOT FESTIVAL presenting the 

likes of CARIBOU (pictured), UNDERWORLD and JEAN-MICHEL JARRE playing beside the iconic Lovell Telescope, it will be celestial celebration of the best 

in music, visual art and science. The festival promises a fascinating mix of artists, speakers, scientists and performers fitting of a venue at the cutting 

edge of humanity’s quest for knowledge. Day and weekend tickets are on sale now at discoverbluedot.com. 

Jodrell Bank / 22nd-24th July 

ELASTIC FANTASTIC 

Fans of local legend Mick Head have cause to celebrate: a film documenting the former Shack and Pale Fountains leader’s special gig at St George’s 

Hall in 2014 premieres at Crosby Plaza this month. Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band - In A Wonderful Place was directed by regular Bido Lito! 

lensman Keith Ainsworth and captures the lauded songwriter in his element, back on home turf and in front of an adoring audience. A limited 

number of DVDs will be available to buy on the night so you can relive the experience. 

The Plaza Cinema, Crosby / 25th April 

SOUND STATION @ THRESHOLD 

The Merseyrail Sound Station machine is once again whirring into action, with podcasts featuring live sessions from sonic surfers The Orielles, 

disco doyens Gulf, and country songstress Eleanor Nelly already up online. The new music platform is also hosting a stage at Constellations for 

Threshold Festival at the beginning of April, featuring DAN WILSON, A LOVELY WAR, and HER’S plus many more great up-and-coming artists. Now 

in its fourth year, MSS looks to support grassroots talent from across the region with a competition, festival appearances and a multimedia 

online platform. For more information go to merseyrailsoundstation.com. 

bidolito.co.uk


25 

TREMBLING BELLS 

With a delicious swoon and sweep, Scottish folk rockers TREMBLING BELLS are stopping by in support of new album Wide Majestic Aire to sate their 

fans in the city. The minimalistic surrounds of Buyers Club will provide the perfect backdrop to the Glaswegians’ pastoral sounds, as the Stewart Leeendorsed 

quintet look to build on a solid reputation with their third LP. Trembling Bells spent a previous life providing backing to such influential acts 

as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and The Incredible String Band before going it on their own with 2013 debut Carbeth. 

Buyers Club / 7th April 

WOW FOR WRITING ON THE WALL 

The bill for Liverpool’s premier writing and literature festival WRITING ON THE WALL is shaping up nicely, with a host of household names announced 

and some fantastic events planned. ALEXEI SAYLE (pictured) will be returning home to talk about his memoir Thatcher Stole My Trousers, and Jerry 

Dammers (The Specials/The Spatial AKA Orchestra) heads up the AFROFUTURISM event at District with a guest DJ set. The Bido Lito! Social will also be 

hosting an event looking at gender inequality in the music media: YOU CAN’T BE WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE takes place at the Everyman Bistro on Thursday 

19th May, and we’ll be previewing it fully in next month’s issue. 

SOUND CITY 

The shape of this year’s SOUND CITY is coming into sharp focus with another wave of acts announced for May’s marquee event. Our very own BILL 

RYDER-JONES and the much lauded C DUNCAN (see page 46 for our review of his stellar Leaf performance last month) join the fold, along with heralded 

electronica duo MOUNT KIMBIE (pictured) who will be taking on DJ duties at Freeze’s Warehouse Baltic Stage.. The festival are also running a competition 

with Carousel PR to find budding journalists, photographers and vloggers to be part of their ultimate student festival team, who will work alongside 

the festival team to produce coverage of the event for Sound City’s website. Details of how to enter can be found at liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk. 

POSITIVE VIBRATION 

Liverpool will once again be feeling the rhythm and the rhyme as we celebrate all things Jamaica at POSITIVE VIBRATION. The annual festival takes 

over Constellations this year with two days of live music, DJs, pop-up stalls, a record fair, an international art exhibition and lots more besides. Dub 

polymath DON LETTS (pictured) headlines along with TROJAN SOUND SYSTEM and MAD PROFESSOR. Weekend advance tickets are available now for 

just £16. Start practising your bogle now. 

Constellations / 10th-11th June 

LIVERPOOL CALLING 

Due to ongoing work at the Bombed Out Church, LIVERPOOL CALLING is leaving its spiritual home for the year and setting up at Camp and Furnace for 

a day-long musical celebration. Fred McPherson’s polarising indie stars SPECTOR join anthemic rock pups COASTS (pictured) in heading-up an exciting 

line-up of national and local musical talent. Bido Lito! DJs will be spinning some discs on the day, and the Bido Lito! Social will also be hosting a special 

Liverpool Calling launch show in June. 

Camp and Furnace / 9th June 

LIVERPOOL DISCO FESTIVAL LAUNCH WITH FRANÇOIS K 

It seems as though the organisers of LIVERPOOL DISCO FESTIVAL couldn’t wait until October to get started with the party, and who can blame them. 

Performing a special extended DJ set, FRANÇOIS K headlines an intimate launch night at Blade Factory that is sure to whet the appetite of disco lovers 

and dance music aficionados alike. The iconic DJ has had a varied and multifaceted career that has seen him wow crowds in venues all round the world, 

and we could think of no better way to start it all. 

Blade Factory / 30th April 

SMITHDOWN ROAD FESTIVAL 

There is clearly only one place to be on the first bank holiday weekend of May this year and that’s Smithdown Road. The Wavertree thoroughfare 

plays host to SMITHDOWN ROAD FESTIVAL with a monster bill of artists playing across several venues. Headliners THE SUNDOWNERS (pictured) 

are joined by an impressive undercard featuring WE ARE CATCHERS, OHMNS, BEANS ON TOAST and MONO SIDEBOARDS. There’s free entry to all 

the shows and there’s also a kids' area and pop-up gallery. 

Various venues / 30th April - 2nd May 

JACARANDA RECORDS FOR RECORD STORE DAY 

Vinyl enthusiasts will be treated to a variety of special action on Saturday 16th April for the annual Record Store Day, none more so than at Jacaranda 

Records. As one of the participating RSD stores they’ll have a selection of the limited edition releases in the racks (who’s gunning for the Alan Partridge 

picture disc?), and they’ve also got a full programme of music from 2pm to 2am. As well as live music in the basement, the Jac’s in-house DJs will be 

joining Stylus for a mammoth session on the decks which will be broadcast live on the Jacaranda Record YouTube channel. Keep up to date with the 

wax wonders at jacarandarecords.tumblr.com. 

bidolito.co.uk

26 

Bido Lito! April 2016 Reviews 

Joanna Newsom (Stuart Moulding / @oohshootstu) 

JOANNA NEWSOM 

Robin Pecknold 

Harvest Sun @ Philharmonic Hall 

After the genre-defining Have One On Me 

– a three-disc litany of cryptic wordplay 

and bewitching, luxuriant performance – a 

period of creative withdrawal duly arrived 

for the enigmatic JOANNA NEWSOM. She 

married actor/comedian Andy Samberg and 

made a surprising detour into film, with an 

appearance as a flower-child-mystic in Paul 

Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice. I began 

to rue the missed opportunity of seeing a 

dizzying songstress at the peak of her career. 

But, fortunately, she returned on fine form 

last year with Divers – a profound and deeply 

affecting masterpiece, and unquestionably one 

of the albums of 2015. You can only imagine 

my delight when Harvest Sun then booked 

the virtuoso harpist for the Philharmonic Hall 

– a venue made for acoustically demanding 

timbres and sumptuously arranged material. 

“I hope you’re ready for one of the 

greatest songwriters of our time,” declares 

the evening’s eminent support, ROBIN 

PECKNOLD, in anticipation of his host. It 

must be said, the Fleet Foxes frontman cuts 

a conspicuously singular figure, road-testing 

solo material that includes a cover of The 

Five Keys’ Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind. With the 

long-awaited follow-up to Helplessness Blues 

still on hold, it’s heartening to hear Pecknold 

bring the treasures of the Fleet Foxes trove 

to the Philharmonic. Tiger Mountain Peasant 

Song draws a yelp of satisfaction from the 

increasingly attentive crowd, while Montezuma 

consolidates a performance from an inspired 

choice of opening act, his lofty melody and 

evocative lyrics perfectly priming the hall for 

the ensuing Ms Newsom. 

Under a banner of Divers artwork, instruments 

are strewn neatly across the stage; marimbas 

bidolito.co.uk

28 


Cage The Elephant (Keith Ainsworth / arkimages.co.uk) 

and all manner of strings await the band 

beneath the misty precipice. Joanna Newsom 

enters to warm applause, taking her place at 

the imposing harp. Warming the fingers with 

an abridged Bridges And Balloons from debut 

album Milk-Eyed Mender, Newsom wows from 

the off as her hands pluck in an alternating and 

mesmerising tandem. It’s abundantly clear that 

we’re witnessing a unique talent, a hugely 

accomplished virtuoso. Seamlessly, we arrive 

at Divers overture Anecdotes: the band take 

their cues – brother Pete Newsom, Have One On 

Me maestro Ryan Francesconi, and violinists 

Mirabai Peart and Veronique Serret – and add 

their voices gradually to the divine sound. 

Divers makes an impact immediately with its 

extended finger-drum intro and shimmering 

strings, and is the first track to exhibit the sheer 

elasticity of Newsom’s otherworldly warbling 

and offhand poetry. She skirts wildly from the 

melody to the periphery of her range, a trick 

that must be endlessly referenced with Kate 

Bush or Joni Mitchell. For me, I am reminded 

of David Bowie’s performance in The Elephant 

Man, her vocals masterfully contorted to the 

narrative of the performance. We are dazzled by 

Go Long and Sapokanikan, the latter a rollicking 

ragtime run through of Native American 

oppression that’s densely layered with a trail 

of clues (Shelley, Titian, Demeter) that have 

so besotted Newsom’s investigative fanbase, 

affectionately christened “the Delvers”. 

The tuning of 47 orchestral harp strings 

allows for an impromptu Q&A from her evercurious 

audience. In a light and witty exchange, 

we learn that brother Pete is single and Joanna 

is reading The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le 

Guin. We also discover her striking floor-length 

pink and ocean-blue dress is specially made for 

the tour by Michael Van der Ham. She thanks 

us for noticing before sincerely expressing, 

“I hope we can come back sooner than five 

years!” The feeling is, of course, mutual, as a 

veritably gushing ovation follows the encore 

of Good Intentions Paving Co. Joanna Newsom 

has outgrown the kooky caricature and obvious 

comparisons: she is, in fact, one of the coolest 

songwriters of our time. 

Philip Morris / @mauricedesade 

CAGE THE ELEPHANT 

Chrome Pony 

EVOL @ O2 Academy 

When a band walk on stage and the first thing 

they say is, “This is gonna be one crazy fucking 

night!”, you know you’re in for a treat. Following 

the December release of their fourth studio 

album, Tell Me I’m Pretty, CAGE THE ELEPHANT 

are in the midst of a sold-out UK and European 

tour, joined by Nashville rockers CHROME 

PONY, who have just released their new EP, 

Past Lives, on Seagreen Records. 

Chrome Pony set the scene for an already 

packed-out room. Lead singer and guitarist 

Tyler Davis warms up the crowd with his 

garage rock-tinged hooks. However, it’s bass 

player Jota Ese who steals the show with his 

luminous yellow hat and gold chains that are 

more blinding than the lighting effects. Despite 

the occasional tempo slip, the band do a solid 

job of preparing the crowd for what is going to 

be “one crazy fucking night”. 

The second Cage The Elephant launch into 

their set the crowd go wild, and lead singer 

Matt Schultz stage-dives during second tune 

In One Ear, from their self-titled debut album. 

With an eclectic mix of songs from all four 

studio albums, Too Late To Say Goodbye and 

Mess Around from their latest album really 

stand out, with Shultz really channelling his 

inner Jim Morrison and the crowd screaming 

back the lyrics. After the release of third album 

Melophobia in 2013, which was nominated for 

a Grammy, the Cage fans’ expectations for Tell 

Me I’m Pretty were sky-high. Melophobia is an 

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album where every single song is exceptional 

and there is no weak link in the track listing, 

thus leaving no room for faults in the following 

album. 

When the album finally dropped in mid- 

December 2015, the long wait proved to be 

more than worth it. Tell Me I’m Pretty is a fresh 

mix of retro rock, psychedelic undertones and 

gut-wrenching lyrics. Cage The Elephant have 

demonstrated that, whilst sticking to their alt. 

rock roots, they have not merely replicated 

the moody undertones of Melophobia, but 

advanced them to produce a more mature 

sound that unleashes a whole new dimension 

for their listeners. 

This maturity is somewhat reflected in Cage 

The Elephant’s performance. Despite the fact 

the guys are throwing signed Frisbees into the 

crowd and stage-diving, which highlights their 

immaculate stage presence and enforces their 

energy, their musical performance is faultless. 

Halfway through their set, well-known 

track Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked drives the 

worshiping crowd wild – but it's It’s Just Forever 

that steals the show. Originally, the track was 

a duet with The Kills’ Alison Mosshart: tonight 

her part is sung by touring keyboardist Mattan 

Minster, who manages to perfectly capture 

Mosshart’s vocal tone. 

The set comes to a close with a succession of 

tracks from Melophobia – Come A Little Closer, 

Cigarette Daydream and Shake Me Down – but 

it’s Sabertooth Tiger from second album Thank 

You, Happy Birthday that gets the last lashings 

of adoration from the crowd. Shultz throws 

himself at his fans, who proceed to physically 

hold him up until he is standing upright on a 

pool of eager hands, singing to the packed-out 

room of screaming fans. 

Rosa Jane 

LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL 

JAZZ FESTIVAL 

Capstone Theatre 

Now in its fourth year, LIVERPOOL 

INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL continues to 

cement its place in the local and national 

jazz calendar. Once again festival director and 

musical polymath Neil Campbell has brought 

to the Capstone a varied and mouth-watering 

line-up, which he describes as “forging an 

eclectic route through the genre”. 

In jazz (and pretty much everywhere else), 

the influence of Japanese culture has been 

hard to resist. The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s 

Jazz Impressions Of Japan was inspired by 

the group’s experiences on tour in early 

1964, but PASCAL SCHUMACHER’s take on the 

Nipponese musical heritage is refreshingly 

modern. Admittedly, splashing cymbals and 

heavy Taiko-esque drumming do appear on Left 

Tokyo Right, an album written on or inspired by 

frequent visits to the far East, but he presents 

Japan not as an alien nation but as a busy, 

contemporary society. It’s nearly a mirror image 

of our own country, so the little differences 

receive the most attention. For example, 

Ichigaya is named for one of Tokyo’s rivers, 

where at 6am (when the clubs are only just 

Sudeshna Battacharya (Glyn Akroyd) 

chucking out), suited businessmen can be seen 

quietly fishing before heading to the office. It 

opens with a spacious solo for pianist Franz 

von Chossy, every chord sending ripples across 

the keyboard like a lure sitting on still water. 

Fast-forward five minutes, and Pol Belardi 

(Bass), Jens Düppe (Drums) and Schumacher 

himself (Vibraphone) are pounding away too, 

engrossed in the business of their working life, 

four workers in four cubicles. 

Theirs is a very modern, thoroughly 

composed version of jazz, bearing the influence 

of the Esbjörn Svensson Trio and Steve Reich, 

underpinned by sophisticated rock drumming. 

But occasionally, such as in Merry Christmas, 

Mr. Lawrence, they break into something very 

60s and very French, or allow the audience a 

blurry glimpse of lounge piano in their account 

of early-hours barhopping, Matcha Desire. 

After a set of flawless playing, Schumacher 

introduces Wabi-Sabi with the following 

explanation, which is worth quoting in full: 

“It’s an idea in Japanese aesthetics of the 

beauty of imperfect things. For example, 

if a photographer takes a photograph of 

something ugly, when you see the picture, you 

might not recognise it and see it as beautiful, or 

find beauty in it. It does not work with people, 

but you get wabi-sabi in broken things, and 

often in nature.” The eponymous piece is full of 

“deliberate mistakes”, or so you’ve been led to 

believe. They say in improvisation, if you make 

a mistake you should repeat it until it doesn’t 

sound like a mistake. That’s wabi-sabi in music. 

The sheer variety of the Saturday afternoon 

showcase, hosted in conjunction with 

Milapfest and Jazz North, proves irresistible.

DOOSQPEN .. 

.. - puu,i_·toam 

. _ 

LIVE MUSIC 

2pm 

 

@JACARANDA_JECS 

JACARANDARECORDS 

. . 

 

- , 

- .. , .

Courtney Pine (Keith Ainsworth / arkimages.co.uk) 

It kicks off with a leftfield offering from sarod 

player SUDESHNA BATTACHARYA, supported 

by tabla player Koustic Sen, which is held in 

the main theatre and draws a full house. A low 

platform decked in Indian rugs and cushions, 

several attendant brass statuettes and an 

atmospherically lit backdrop of pinpoint lights 

amidst swirling dry ice sets the scene. 

The pair proceed through several 

improvisations on traditional afternoon Indian 

ragas. I confess to not having the knowledge 

to discern the jazz elements of these 

improvisations, the closest I come is to feeling 

some bluesy inflections as Battacharya’s 

fingers flows mesmerically up and down the 

neck of her resonant 19-stringed instrument. 

The music moves between slow, 

contemplative phases where each note is 

allowed time to breathe, resonating and fading 

before the next is played, and furiously complex 

bursts of passion and delight. Some members 

of the audience spend the whole performance 

with eyes meditatively closed. There are 

constant outbursts of applause, and knowing 

glances between the two performers as one 

or the other produces a particularly affecting, 

virtuoso passage. The applause is prolonged 

before the audience decant to the foyer for the 

rest of the afternoon’s performances. 

Over the course of the afternoon, individual 

members of the audience may come and go 

but the overall numbers are constant, resulting 

in standing room only throughout. Up on the 

mezzanine, people relax and begin to take in 

the trumpet, guitar and piano solos as they 

float sinuously upwards when ARTEPHIS 

get into their set. A five-piece who met at 

Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music, 

their musicianship is as good as you would 

expect given that pedigree. They begin with 

an assured cover of Herbie Hancock’s Eye Of 

The Hurricane but the rest of the set is their 

own and it certainly stands up. There are hints 

of Polar Bear and Cinematic Orchestra before 

the beautifully melodic Changes features some 

lovely, mournful bass by Alasdair Simpson and 

drummer Matt Brown’s soft as silk brushwork. 

Quinoa brings the set to a close with a soaring 

soundscape and a shuddering stop-start finale. 

Again, the applause is fulsome, with Artephis 

showing that the young guns have plenty to 

shout about. 

The bass clarinet hasn’t exactly had its day 

in the sun. It’s unwieldy and barely audible; it’s 

just not on most people’s radar. But lately… If 

you’ve heard Down Here, one of the singles off 

John Grant’s latest release, you’ve listened to 

that solo. COURTNEY PINE, the sax player who 

stands astride the last 30 years of British jazz 

like a colossus, has done his bit, too. Though 

he’s dabbled on the instrument since his 1986 

debut Journey To The Urge Within, the last 

five years have seen regular shows of solo 

repertoire since 2011’s bass clarinet feature 

album Europa. 

He’s joined by “master of the 88 keys” 

ZOE RAHMAN, whose dazzling pianism, 

almost classical at its octaves-in-both-hands 

extremes, obviously entertains him onstage as 

much as the audience with her ability to react

34 


Saul Williams (Sam Rowlands / samrowlandsphotography.tumblr.com) 

Starting with the cry of the furies – the Gildas 

players practically attack their fingerboards – 

the audience is set upon by a horrible flock of 

featherless wings. Though not an electronic 

composer, Crumb’s work does amplify the 

stringed instruments, hence the quadrophonic 

set-up. Over the hellish opening, one violinist 

breaks free for a bar or so, playing a syrupy little 

melody. It’s reminiscent of the claustrophobic 

filmmaking of Peter Strickland – after an hour 

or so of oppressive, frequently scatological 

torture, you are granted (or taunted by) a 

glimpse of the English countryside and the 

bleating of sheep. 

Black Angels is more concerned with goats, 

however. This postmodern piece tells the story 

of a soul via its fall and redemption, with 13 

titled movements full of diabolic imagery 

(Threnody, Danse Macabre, Sarabanda De La 

Muerte Oscura) and numerology that is also 

in the music, but so deeply buried it’s hard to 

identify by ear. Like in grindcore (for example), 

here the most disturbing parts of music, which 

are usually the means to an (imaginative, phobic) 

end, are left on show after dispensing with the 

obligatory structures of rhythm and melody, 

resulting in genuinely frightening sounds. 

Stuart Miles O’Hara / @ohasm1 

and respond to Pine’s wilder playing, no matter 

how deeply buried the pulse or hook might be. 

The opening number is a case in point: ask a 

punter to describe jazz and you might get 

something along the lines of this extended 

solo that positively burns, note after note 

fluttering up like sparks, keywork crackling, its 

highest harmonics screaming all the way back 

to 1959. 

After such an outré opening number, the rest 

of the set is much more accessible, riffing on 

spirituals like Go Down, Moses and Amazing 

Grace. Obviously, in a rich African-American 

tradition like jazz, those melodies carry a 

great deal of weight, but it’s interesting to 

hear them in the orchestral tones of a clarinet. 

Likewise, his interpretation of Michel Legrand’s 

Windmills Of Your Mind taps into the baggage 

of the Jewish diaspora in Europe, sobbing and 

sighing in the instrument’s upper register. For 

New Orleans, read Warsaw. 

If there’s anything wrong with this gig 

it’s that, despite his obvious mastery of the 

instrument, it never quite feels like a bass 

clarinet performance. Pine plays it like a 

saxophone, the sound is more like a saxophone 

– despite being closer to a length of plumbing – 

and one suspects the project may have started 

out of a desire to challenge himself. That said, 

it’s impossible to deny his ability to express 

himself, best summed up in a modest rendition 

of the standard A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley 

Square that starts with the mimicry of birdsong 

and ends, wistfully, with Pine at the back of the 

stage, bathed in soft red light, leaving Rahman 

the applause. 

The set gleefully overruns with A Child Is Born, 

and finishes with a passionate paean to jazz in 

the United Kingdom, a tactful putdown of an 

amateur cameraman (all it takes is a friendly “… 

is that an iPhone 6?” from someone who clearly 

takes the ephemeral nature of live music very 

seriously), and the following compliment: “Over 

years of coming to Liverpool, there’s always 

been a soulful, strong support for jazz. May it 

continue for many years. Goodnight.” 

Once again Liverpool International Jazz 

Festival has produced the goods; on this 

showing the contemporary jazz scene is as 

vital and varied as its past. 

Stuart Miles O’Hara / @ohasm1 

Glyn Akroyd 

GILDAS QUARTET 

George Crumb — Ben Hackbarth 

Open Circuit Festival @ Waterhouse Café 

This was advertised as a string quartet gig. 

So why are there gongs and tables of half-full 

wine glasses? Is that the word “quadrophonic” 

being bandied about in the lobby? Fortunately, 

this reviewer is an optimist, and can’t wait to 

hear how the various accoutrements are used. 

The first work tonight is by someone 

who, though Arizonan, lives and works on 

Merseyside. BEN HACKBARTH is head of 

composition at the University of Liverpool, and 

his Liquid Study 1 begins with the avant-garde. 

The GILDAS QUARTET are slapping and tapping 

their instruments while the composer sits at his 

laptop processing the sound in real time. It’s 

pretty out there, and almost tantric in delaying 

gratification. After five minutes they raise their 

bows, but it’s a long time until anyone plays 

a definite pitch. In the best possible way, it’s 

like being in the toilet of a train (on the move, 

of course. You’re not allowed to go when it’s 

stopped at a station). While you’re cocooned, 

dull external sounds feed through, a constant 

hum and rattle underpinning the whole 

womblike experience. 

Hackbarth describes his mixture of 

electronic and acoustic sounds as “oil and 

water. Two distinct entities which share a… 

boundary… responsive to each other, yet 

stubbornly separate and divisible.” This is 

certainly applicable as the gaps in sound get 

fewer and shorter, but there are moments 

of liquid suspension, too. This is not music 

composed in an ivory tower. In the more 

abrasive moments, the violins snarl like the 

dogs who beset Schubert’s Leiermann, and 

there’s a moment towards the end sounding 

like Johnny Greenwood (via Xenakis) as rogue 

tones slide down to earth from one long note. 

The second half of this concert is a 

performance of the suite Black Angels by 

American musician GEORGE CRUMB, one of 

David Bowie’s favourite pieces of music. This 

is where the additional instruments come in. 

SAUL WILLIAMS 

Blue Saint – Steve Duncan 

Bam!Bam!Bam @ 24 Kitchen Street 

It’s finally here. It feels like an age since this 

show was announced. Ever since word got 

around that it was happening, people have 

been talking about it as if it’s a once-in-alifetime 

occurrence. A Halley’s comet of the 

Liverpool music cosmos. 

In front of an already large and eager 

audience in 24 Kitchen Street, spoken-word 

poet STEVE DUNCAN steps up to the stage. His 

demeanour is humble and unassuming but, as 

he bursts through his first couple of poems, his 

voice and his message carry some formidable 

weight. His charisma is deeply sincere as he 

delivers heartfelt pieces relating to his family 

and the lasting impact they’ve had on his life. 

Duncan is not a poet to be lumped in with the 

rest. He stands out for all the right reasons, 

delivering a wonderful start to the show. 

Next up is rapper BLUE SAINT, and, 

unfortunately for him, this doesn’t seem to 

be his crowd. His particular brand of hip hop 

seems to lean toward a more commercialised 

style. Although he plays well, and doesn’t 

let his bravado falter for a second, it’s a tad 

awkward to stand amongst a crowd that just 

don’t quite know how to react to him. 

It seems almost unbelievable that this is 

SAUL WILLIAMS’ first headlining Liverpool 

show, but he bursts on to the stage as if he’s 

making up for lost time. He brings a unique 

bidolito.co.uk

SOUNDS FAMILIAR 

The Music Quiz and Disco @ Camp 

Friday 29th April from 7pm. 

“London’s most popular and raucous music based quiz” - TIME OUT 

Camp and Furnace are teaming up with quizmasters Sounds Familiar, to 

bring the nation’s most eclectic pop-quiz to Camp. Playing over 100 tracks, 

from every decade of the pop era, this is the disco in a pub quiz format. 

Rolling on from post-work drinks, Sounds Familiar starts at 7pm with 

The Lobby kitchen open all evening to feed your grey matter. 

For those who like to do their homework, the rounds will include 

- Feel The Power Ballad, Indie Disco, I’m No Fool - I Know My Old 

Skool, Live Forever, Couch Potato, Mash It Up and more… 

Entry is free, to register your team contact: enquiries@campandfurnace.com 

CAMP AND FURNACE I 67 GREENLAND STREET I LIVERPOOL I L1 0BY 

0151 708 2890 I CAMPANDFURNACE.COM I @CAMPANDFURNACE 

The Lobby bar at Camp and Furnace is open for food and drinks from 10am, seven days a week. 

You can find our latest menu at www.facebook.com/CampandFurnace.Liverpool

36 


Saul Williams (Sam Rowlands / samrowlandsphotography.tumblr.com) 

aura to the stage as he and his DJ rip through 

nearly every track from his new album Martyr 

Loser King, including Horn Of The Clock Bike, 

Roach Eggs and the monstrous Think Like They 

Book Say. 

Interspersed between tracks are some 

utterly captivating poems, some of which 

hark back to the Dead Emcee Scrolls years. 

He performs Untimely Meditations and Co- 

Dead Language with an electrifying honesty 

and heart-wrenching clarity. Williams’ energy 

onstage is incredible; he’s constantly jumping 

and dancing and just giving himself to the live 

expression in every way. 

He steps off stage and performs a few songs 

at the eye of the storm of people as they crowd 

around him. As he steps down, he starts to 

perform the poem Coltan As Cotton. The silence 

is a vacuum in between his words. Williams is 

a prophet urging this crowd into action and, 

as the music starts for Burundi, everyone is 

dancing and clapping. He brings the crowd 

together in unison. This is a true celebration 

of community. 

As the set draws to a close, he also treats us 

to a few songs from his other albums, which 

serves to energise the crowd even further. 

He leaves the stage sweating and exhausted. 

Never has anyone given so much to a single 

performance. The hardest task for a writer is 

to try and put into words the very things that 

LISTINGS 2016 

01.04 TELEMAN 

+ NZCA Lines 

Buyers Club 

(Hardman St) / £12 

08.04 DAN OWEN 

+ Ian Janco 

Studio 2 (Parr St) / £7 / 

w/ I Love Live Events 

08.04 JOHN JOSEPH 

BRILL + guests TBA 

The Scandinavian Church 

(Park Ln) / £7.50 

09.04 PURE JOY 

(Album Launch) 

Buyers Club (Hardman St) 

15.04 TREETOP 

FLYERS + guests TBA 

Leaf (Bold St) / £8 

20.04 TOM SPEIGHT + 

Paul Dunbar + Ali Ingle 

Studio 2 (Parr St) / £6 

29.04 MEILYR JONES 

+ guests TBA 

Studio 2 (Parr St) / £7 

30.04 GNOD 

Buyers Club (Hardman St) 

18.05 SPRING KING 

Arts Club (Seel St) 

03.06 MALCOLM 

MIDDLETON + 

guests TBA 

Leaf (Bold St) / £10 

15.06 PARQUET 

COURTS + guests TBA 

The Invisible Wind 

Factory / £12 / w/ EVOL 

16.07 FATHER JOHN 

MISTY + guests TBA 

Mountford Hall (Liverpool 

Guild of Students) / £18.50 

03.08 An Evening 

With LOW 

Epstein Theatre / £22.50 

03.09 ANIMAL 

COLLECTIVE + 

guests TBA 

o2 Academy 

Liverpool w/ EVOL 

23+24.09 LIVERPOOL 

INTERNATIONAL 

FESTIVAL OF 

PSYCHEDELIA 

Camp And Furnace + 

Blade Factory + District 

TICKETS AVAILABLE 

ONLINE FROM 

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SEETICKETS.COM 

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PROBE RECORDS 

(SCHOOL LN) AND THE 

BRINK (PARR ST) 

FACEBOOK: 

HARVEST SUN 

PROMOTIONS 

TWITTER: 

@HARVEST_SUN

38 


transcend language. This show carried so much 

weight and meaning that there just aren’t 

enough words to truly give it the description 

that it deserves. Suffice to say that it was that 

once-in-a-lifetime occurrence we hoped it 

would be. 

Christopher Carr 

ROBOCOBRA QUARTET 

JazzHands — Banana Frequency — 

Punching Swans — Cal Banda 

Yeah Buddy DIY @ Maguire’s Pizza Bar 

Maguire’s is the 90s skater dream: it exudes 

punk and the bubbles of mozzarella are just 

oh-so tempting. Entering the part-green 

room, part-gig space, past the ticket guy with 

the Hamburger Pizza, I find everyone mixing 

with ease, like we’ve been invited to watch 

the bands practise in the basement. Portraits 

of Ainsley Harriott, Barry Chuckle and other TV 

‘greats’ are littered throughout the band area: 

this is the definition of idiosyncratic. 

After a quick drag and pizza, Brummies 

CAL BANDA let rip with their hardcore punk. 

Reminiscent of American pioneers like Black 

Flag and Minor Threat, with a dark vein of metal 

running through their sound, these guys are 

going straight for the jugular. We’re right up 

in the band’s faces and it doesn’t take long 

for us to get even more intimate as members 

leap into the crowd, instruments in hand. We’re 

treated to an instrumental tune, a little slower 

and melodic, giving both audience and band a 

breather. This is Cal Banda’s last gig for a while, 

as they’re heading back into the studio for a 

new EP, so they make last tune Red Plastic Cups 

a loud one. 

Things become a little bit more refined with 

PUNCHING SWANS, despite their shaky start. 

The night’s punk theme remains but the sound 

is more thoughtful. Punching Swans wade into 

the sludgier side of punk, the bass distorted 

and centre stage. There’s a happy surprise 

when a couple call out, “We flew from the 

Isle of Man to see you!” They don’t seem your 

regular punks, but that’s the beauty of music; 

besides, Punching Swans aren’t your regular 

punk band. If you know anything about music, 

you know genre can be a little weird and there 

are few weirder than math punk. 

Tonight’s palette cleanser breaks free of the 

punk label, as BANANA FREQUENCY hits us like 

the best curve ball you ever caught. Crouched 

over the foldout chair housing his laptop, 

the one-man outfit unleashes a continuous 

stream of glitchy electronica at the audience. 

Even as JAZZHANDS set up around him, his 

face remains fixed on the screen for the full 

15-minute interlude. No introduction, no stage 

banter, just a short and sweet set; whether you 

say it’s humble or shy, it’s definitely great. 

JazzHands’ outward image is that of an 

interesting jazz outfit: two drummers, a 

pianist, bass, sax. We start off with a little 

lounge music and a shout out to Pokémon 

for reaching the big two-oh, but… something 

is wrong. The pianist is sporting a Luchadore 

mask, and suddenly he’s in among the crowd 

wielding a cowbell. With the crowd fully 

aghast, JazzHands begin their assault. The 

complicated, multi-layered sound is deliberate 

and indecipherable, each song bleeding into 

the next, if not for the pianist’s sweet playing 

between each tune. We’re told they haven’t 

played in a while, the set list made up on the 

fly, but it’s surely a façade: JazzHands are tight, 

a band in the truest sense. When the set ends, 

the whole room looks drained, a challenge to 

both play and listen to. But so worth it. 

I’m a little frightened when ROBOCOBRA 

QUARTET begin the soundcheck and I spot 

another saxophone, this time with a clarinet 

in tow. I brace myself for another round in the 

Octagon, but to my relief, it’s jazz. And really 

good jazz at that. The Belfast quartet are 

the cherry on the top of this evening’s multilayered, 

anarchic cake. When the clarinet kicks 

in, I know it’s the gig’s peak. Chris Ryan, in a 

truly surprising break from his SAS novels 

(as if), invokes Slint’s Brian McMahan for his 

spoken-word style vocals. The soulful refrains 

are matched perfectly to his bold voice, his 

story-like lyrics punctuated by emphatic 

shouts. Thankfully, they squeeze in an extra 

song just before they finish. As they’re packing 

up, I realise the smell of pizza remains – but 

not even a closed kitchen can ruin our night. 

Kieran Donnachie 

FLOWERS 

Harvest Sun @ Leaf 

It’s FLOWERS’ first time in Liverpool tonight. 

Singer and bassist Rachel Kennedy alludes to 

this fact when she expresses her gratitude to 

the Leaf crowd, which has slightly thinned out 

since the end of the local support band’s set. 

This is about the only time Kennedy addresses 

her audience in what is a very business-like 

performance from the Londoners on a cold but 

good-natured Saturday night. 

The business of Flowers is to deliver 

beautifully formed poems to love, loss and 

heartbreak over vibrant guitar riffs and 

pounding drums. Sam Ayres’ furious guitar 

provides the most interesting focal point of the 

performance. As Kennedy’s vocal soars, Ayres 

paces the stage like a caged panther while 

thrashing out jangly tunes accompanied only 

with a restrained bassline from Kennedy and 

drummer Jordan Hockley’s tub-thumping. 

The audience tonight is appreciative 

rather than overcome with adulation as the 

Londoners deliver a set of songs plucked from 

their Bernard Butler-produced debut album 

as well as newbies from Everybody’s Dying 

To Meet You, an album which arrived in record 

shops just this month. Lead single Pull My Arm 

demonstrates the band’s effective contrast of 

angelic vocals with dirty reverb-driven guitar. 

At just over two minutes, it’s pop in its purest 

form but also brings to mind the birth of that 

other troublesome genre: indie. 

Sounding and looking like various bands 

from the NME’s definitive C86 compilation, 

Flowers give the impression of yearning for a 

more innocent age. However, any twee leanings 

Flowers (Lexi Sun / @Gieesio) 

are rescued from the Cath Kidston bargain 

bin by dynamic interplay between guitar and 

drums. Flowers join Alvvays and Honeyblood as 

part of a growing army of exciting young bands 

who draw upon the likes of the Cocteau Twins 

and Throwing Muses for inspiration. 

As is traditional for the band, they finish 

tonight’s set with the closing track from 2014 

LP Do What You Want To, It’s What You Should 

Do. Stuck is arresting in its tenderness and 

minimalism – “Would I cry if you bruise me?” 

Kennedy wonders as she steadily strums a 

single bass string before the “I don’t know/why 

I’m stuck” reprise. The track silences Leaf and 

ends the set on a poignant note. To the question 

of whether a band, who will be levelled with 

charges of being stuck in the 80s, can be truly 

relevant in 2016, I’d have to say I too don’t know. 

Sam Turner / @SamTurner1984 

THEY WILL HAVE TO 

KILL US FIRST 

Picturehouse @ FACT 

While Johanna Schwartz’s superb documentary 

They Will Have To Kill Us First reveals the intricacies 

behind the current troubles blighting Mali, it is a 

very basic infringement of human rights which 

strikes a chord at FACT tonight. When groups of 

jihadi fighters mounted a takeover of territories 

in northern Mali, amongst much bloodshed and 

horrific violence, they enforced sharia law, which 

included an all-out ban on music throughout the 

province. As was explained throughout the film, 

and during the live Q&A with breakthrough Malian 

bidolito.co.uk

and and stars of the film SONGHOY BLUES after 

the screening, music is the lifeblood of the country 

and the ban hit its citizens hard, not least the 

musicians. 

As well as Songhoy Blues, the documentary 

follows artists Disco, Moussa Sidi and Khaira 

Arby after they are uprooted from their homes 

in northern Malian towns such as Timbuktu and 

look to adjust to life following the troubles. 

The film skilfully unpicks some of the political 

nuances of the upheaval while giving a number 

of personal perspectives on the plight of a 

once-stable nation. Watching They Will Have To 

Kill Us First – the name taken from a quote from 

Disco, who vows this is the only way Malian 

musicians will be prevented from doing what 

they love, making music – is an affecting and, 

at times, harrowing experience. It brings home 

the importance of what Songhoy Blues do, not 

only how vital it is that they reach audiences 

outside of their homeland but also how 

essential it is to them as musicians to express 

themselves and deliver their message. 

The post-film Q&A (hosted by Bido Lito!’s 

own Craig Pennington) delves further into the 

filmmaker’s experience of shooting the film. 

We also get to hear Songhoy Blues’ viewpoint 

on their country’s suffering and how their lives 

have changed since getting the opportunity to 

record with Nick Zinner and play their music 

to audiences around the world. The band 

stress the importance of raising awareness 

and their desire to share their culture with the 

world and, after a slew of festival appearances 

in the last couple of years and universally 

acclaimed album Music In Exile, it’s clear they 

are succeeding in their mission. 

The film will also go some way to highlight 

the problems that still exist in Mali. Schwartz 

responds to the question of how we can help 

as consumers by stressing the importance of 

getting Malian musicians heard. Buying Music 

In Exile as well as the records of Disco and 

Khaira all helps in raising both their profile and 

awareness of Mali’s troubles. 

Music is something most of us take for 

granted and, as one audience member 

expressed tonight, it is incomprehensible to 

understand what it would be like to have it one 

day taken away from us. The stars of Schwartz’s 

film have decided that, for them, such a fate is 

not an option and the results can be heard in 

the powerful sounds they produce. 

Sam Turner / @SamTurner1984 

PINK KINK 

Queen Zee & The Sasstones – 

Sexdream – Perkie – Moxie 

Pink Punk Party @ Drop The Dumbulls 

What better way to smash the bottle on the 

side of the good ship Bitchism (Liverpool’s 

Queen Zee & The Sasstones (Holly Mason / holymasonphotography.carbonmade.com)

42 


Pink Kink (Holly Mason / holymasonphotography.carbonmade.com) 

hottest new punk label and zine) than with a 

dock-off big party showcasing some of the UK’s 

hottest underground talents. The Pink Punk 

Party lives up to its name from the get-go, what 

with its donations-only entry, organic aesthetic 

and a urinal shaped like the Queen’s mouth… 

Drop The Dumbulls seems the ideal setting for 

a night of DIY fuzz and folk. 

Kicking-off proceedings for tonight is local 

group MOXIE. Their set takes listeners on 

somewhat of a rollercoaster, entwining fastpaced, 

light-hearted party tracks filled with 

xylophone and jangly guitar with emotional 

and extremely personal ballads of struggle 

and tension. 

Keeping on the theme is anti-folk starlet 

PERKIE. From a few rows back it proves 

impossible to see the artist sitting at her 

keyboard. Stripped back and raw, the minimal 

piano seems to only pull out the power of her 

delicately poignant ballads. Comparisons could 

be made with some of the major pop stars of 

today; however, what really makes PERKIE 

stand out is her ability to delve deep, with lyrics 

tackling issues such as hunting and cancer. 

As if to completely juxtapose the feeling of 

peace in the air, noisy shoegazer SEXDREAM 

plugs in. Having already wowed audiences 

with rare shows at underground gigs around 

Liverpool, the alias of Jason Taylor-Brown has 

already raised eyebrows and made eardrums 

bleed. So it is with great anticipation we 

wait to see him here tonight. Despite a few 

technical difficulties, the set proves to be just 

as loud as ever. As he thrashes at his guitar 

and peddles in a way that verges on abuse, the 

sound resonates like violent waves hitting the 

audience hard and leaving them mesmerised. 

As his set draws to a close, SEXDREAM 

metamorphoses into further schizophrenic 

alter ego Grand Master Sass and invites to 

the stage Sasstone Lil Funion, who begins to 

smash cymbals wildly. From out of the ashes 

of the moody noise expelled from SEXDREAM’s 

Fender Jaguar comes the more familiar chord 

change of Fight For Your Right. Before anyone 

has a minute to take in the drastic change in 

sound, a semi-naked Queen Zee arrives on 

stage, donning what appears to be a sailor’s 

hat. What follows proves somewhat of a blur 

of punk-induced chaos with primal screams, 

thrashing guitar and end-of-set destruction 

with mics and guitars flying everywhere. With 

a first show like this from QUEEN ZEE & THE 

SASSTONES, who knows what anarchy is to 

follow. 

With triumphant sets from ILL and THINK 

PRETTY following the mayhem of QUEEN ZEE, 

it is time to make way for PINK KINK. Having 

established themselves as one of the city’s 

hottest new live bands, the glitter-fuelled 

five-piece are perhaps the perfect act to finish 

tonight. They arrive onstage in possibly the 

most fabulous outfits of the evening, which 

sparkle under the lights; however, don’t let 

this sense of glamour make you question their 

punk rock credentials. Their animalistic shouts 

cut through the dreamy synth and guitar. 

Performing what may have been their best 

set to date, the band celebrate by lofting their 

instruments in the air, butting them against 

the roof; and singer Bridget walks off stage 

claiming, “I’m gonna barf”. What’s more punk 

rock than that, eh? 

HACKTIVIST 

Counting Days — Antihero 

Arts Club 

Matthew Hogarth 

Metal always makes sense to me live. The 

most straight-edged bands sound noisy and 

loud, but metal bands sound exactly as they 

should. I’m no metal fan, but it’s great to go 

out and stretch your ears when you can. The 

audience is as important as the guitar, bass and 

drums; if you can’t get the pit going, something 

is wrong. I don’t feel the urge to bash heads 

myself, but when I see that seething mass of 

bodies swinging fists in time to that driving 

guitar, I have to smile. 

Scouse love is shown in full force when 

ANTIHERO step into The Loft. The crowd bristle 

with excitement at what they’re about to throw 

down and, as I’m out of the loop, I’m not sure

S.J.M. CONCERTS PRESENTS 

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…a show that every Bob Dylan fan should see! Louder Than War 

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44 


Hacktivist (James Newmarch / jamesnewmarch.com) 

what to expect. They burst instantly into a 

brand of swaggering 90s alt. metal, and before 

I can even think, “Rage Against the Machine”, 

Antihero break out their cover of Testify. Their 

influences are very much on the sleeve here. 

They’re filming for their new video and we 

provide ample footage, absolutely loving it, 

metalheads turned berserkers. 

This is COUNTING DAYS’ last show with 

HACKTIVIST, and their first time in Liverpool. 

Here to drag the wheat from the chaff, kicking 

and screaming (and lots more screaming), 

Counting Days are agent-provocateur death 

metal fans who whip people into a frenzy, 

and they and the crowd go hard. They’re 

representing modern metal, doing it through 

dark and abstract themes that are melodic yet 

abrasive. In the crowd, faces split with grins 

and hair is flying in all directions. This is also 

the point of the night where I know I’m an 

outsider: it’s not for me. Counting Days are 

indisputably great at what they do, not letting 

up until the final song, but I’m relieved to have 

the opportunity to decompress once they’ve 

finished, for a bit at least. 

With the crowd settled, the lights go out 

and P. Money’s 10/10 blasts over the crowd. 

Grime isn’t something you’d associate with 

metal, yet Hactivist like to mash things up. 

“It started out as an experiment,” they admit 

about their choice of entrance song, and it’s a

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SATURDAY 9TH APRIL 

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FRIDAY 22ND APRIL 

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SATURDAY 23RD APRIL 

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SATURDAY 28TH MAY 

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+ FEROCIOUS DOG 

+ SUPPORT & DJs 

SATURDAY 29TH OCTOBER 

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FRIDAY 9TH DECEMBER 


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FRIDAY 8TH APRIL 

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TUESDAY 12TH APRIL 

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WEDNESDAY 20TH APRIL 

STEVE MASON 

SUNDAY 24TH APRIL 

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TUESDAY 26TH APRIL 

THE RAINBAND 


WE ARE SCIENTISTS 

TUESDAY 3RD MAY 

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CHARLIE SLOTH PRESENTS 

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WEDNESDAY 11TH MAY 

KING KING 

+ DAN PATLANSKY 

THURSDAY 12TH MAY 

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MONDAY 16TH MAY 

MAGNUM 

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FRIDAY 10TH JUNE 

ST. PAUL AND THE BROKEN BONES 

WEDNESDAY 22ND JUNE 

FROM THE JAM 

SATURDAY 1ST OCTOBER 

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TUESDAY 18TH OCTOBER 

ROMEO’S DAUGHTER 

SATURDAY 2ND APRIL 

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MONDAY 4TH APRIL 

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SUNDAY 17TH APRIL 

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THE SMITHS LTD 

SATURDAY 23RD APRIL 

JAKE SIMS 

THURSDAY 28TH APRIL 

CASH 


KATE VOEGELE & TYLER HILTON 


ANDY JORDAN 

THURSDAY 12TH MAY 

U2-2 


ELECTRIC 50 

TUESDAY 17TH MAY 

LUCKY CHOPS 

SATURDAY 21ST MAY 

HANDS LIKE HOUSES 

WEDNESDAY 25TH MAY 

KINGS KALEIDOSCOPE 


PINKED FLOYD 

SATURDAY 4TH JUNE 

KING PRAWN 

SATURDAY 17TH SEPTEMBER 

TONY MORTIMER & HIS BAND 

THURSDAY 22ND SEPTEMBER 

JAKE QUICKENDEN 

SATURDAY 1ST OCTOBER 

UK FOO FIGHTERS 


ELECTRIC SIX 

WEDNESDAY 23RD NOVEMBER 

BIG COUNTRY - THE SEER TOUR 

SATURDAY 3RD DECEMBER 

UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER 

WEDNESDAY 13TH APRIL 

PATENT PENDING 


KORPIKLAANI + MOONSORROW 

THURSDAY 21ST APRIL 

FLAMIN’ GROOVIES 


RALEIGH RITCHIE 


THE LONG RYDERS 


THE SUMMER SET 

TUESDAY 17TH MAY 

THE REAL POLICE 


RADIO BIRDMAN 

THURSDAY 23RD MAY 

ROYAL SOUTHERN BROTHERHOOD 

WEDNESDAY 31ST AUGUST 

SEX PISSED DOLLS 

FRIDAY 7TH OCTOBER 

THE TUBES 


PEARL JAM UK 

SATURDAY 10TH DECEMBER 

MANCHESTER ACADEMY PRESENTS 

PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT 

FRIDAY 16TH SEPTEMBER 

facebook.com/manchesteracademy @mancacademy FOR UP TO DATE LISTINGS VISIT MANChesteracademy.net

46 


C Duncan (Sam Rowlands / samrowlandsphotography.tumblr.com) 

surprising and resounding success. This isn’t 

metal influenced by grime or vice versa, it’s 

both in unison with neither diminished by the 

other. The often overly seriousness of metal is 

supported by the cheekiness of MCs J Hurley 

and Ben Marvin. These guys meet the Rakim 

standard of MC, moving the crowd, and it’s 

great to see a metalhead audience embracing 

something seemingly disparate, but the 

combination works so well it’s almost unfair to 

tar this with the rap metal brush. Their encore 

lets us give them a proper send off, as they start 

the European leg of the tour. It’s bands like 

Hacktivist that allow people to expand music 

tastes into new sounds, which is what they’ve 

achieved with me. If only for a night. 

C DUNCAN 

Tom Low 

Harvest Sun @ Leaf 

Kieran Donnachie 

Since the release of his debut LP Architect in 

July 2015, Glaswegian producer/songwriter 

C DUNCAN has been riding a wave of critical 

acclaim. The record earned him various plaudits 

including a Mercury Prize nomination, and 

since then the hype machine has been in full 

flow. Thus, tonight’s big turnout is not at all 

surprising, and to begin proceedings one of the 

brightest prospects of the current local scene, 

TOM LOW, takes to the stage. 

Modestly seated in front of his keyboard at 

centre stage, there is an air of insularity about 

Low’s demeanour that’s also apparent in his 

songwriting. Delicately crafted and beautifully 

melodic, his songs are reminiscent of the 

subtle pop of Elliot Smith, and are imbued 

with an emotional intensity that simmers 

just below the surface. The standout point in 

the set is single Origami, which showcases 

Low’s penchant for pop sensibilities as well 

as his talent for combining traditional song 

structuring with unusual aesthetic qualities. 

The single is taken from his debut EP, Phone, 

which comprises five tracks, all recorded 

on an iPhone. This seemingly simplistic 

method clearly does not translate into his live 

performances as he and his four-piece band 

handle the relatively complex demands of the 

set comfortably, and produce an impressive 

display that is sure to have created some 

new Tom Low disciples in his hometown this 

evening. 

With the room now suitably packed, C Duncan 

and his band emerge to an overtly warm 

reception. Silhouetted against a background 

of blown-up artwork from the album, they 

ease into an accomplished and immersive 

set. The tracks, though often subtle, are highly 

ambitious in scope, and each one begins on a 

soft trajectory that ultimately leads to a roaring 

climax. Built on memorable and well-thoughtout 

vocal melodies they have a definite choral 

quality that is accomplished through the 

intertwining of various vocal ranges. This means 

utilising all four members’ singing abilities and 

creates a rich sonic texture that is incredibly 

satisfying to behold. One of the highlights 

is set closer Garden, which demonstrates 

Duncan’s strengths as a composer and a 

performer. The song is an intertwining tapestry 

of ascending scales that manages to sound 

familiar yet unorthodox. Featuring clever usage 

of Duncan’s trademark lull and crescendo 

approach, it never threatens to run flat. Even 

at points where most songwriters would have 

to resort to convolution in order to maintain the 

flow, Duncan’s deft hand keeps the momentum 

steadily going. Another more memorable 

moment is Here To There, with its driving 

rhythms and falsetto harmonies proving to 

be one of the most upbeat sections of the set. 

The instrumentation is reassuringly simple 

and once again it is the vocal combinations 

that give the track its poignancy. Tonight has 

been a showcase of two artists in ascendancy: 

though both are admittedly at different stages 

of this climb, it is always infinitely rewarding 

to witness this and tonight has been no 

exception. 

Alastair Dunn 

GENTLEMAN’S DUB CLUB 

LongTingz 

Bam!Bam!Bam! @ 24 Kitchen Street 

Coming into 24 Kitchen Street you’re hit 

with the heat of the packed bodies straight 

away, like getting off an airplane in Ibiza. A 

bidolito.co.uk

48 


Gentleman's Dub Club (Aaron McManus / ampix.co.uk) 

few moans have been aired on social media 

beforehand because there’s only a DJ as 

support, but there is no way that any of those 

moans have slipped inside the venue. On the 

decks, LONGTINGZ is hammering away with a 

series of dub floor fillers, getting everything 

sweaty and sexy. It no longer feels like the 

Baltic Triangle, but rather a club in Kingston, 

with everybody getting sucked in by tunes like 

Ghetto Gal by QQ and Who Knows by Protoje. 

With no MC, it is the music doing the work 

and doing the work well. Throughout this coal 

shed on steroids, people are dancing and the 

mood is rising ready for the Liverpool return of 

GENTLEMAN’S DUB CLUB. 

Even though the venue has been full for 

a good hour, the crowd seem to swell as 

Gentleman’s Dub Club take to the stage. 

With fans squeezing past each other to get 

closer to their heroes, the gig takes on an air 

of false danger so often missing from sterile 

nights these days. With an elongated jam 

going to open up and continue the beats from 

LongTingz, lead singer Jonathan Scratchley 

swaggers to the front and takes it up about five 

notches with Music Is The Girl I Love. The crowd 

respond and bounce, arms in the air, right on 

cue. Even a woman on crutches is going wild 

for it, her dreadlocks flying around. It already 

feels like that kind of night. 

Ceremony Concerts Present 

New Dawn Fades 

A Play about Joy Division and Manchester 

The Epstein Theatre, Liverpool – 7, 8 & 9 April 2016 

Submotion Orchestra 

+ Catching Flies 

24 Kitchen Street, Liverpool - Friday 29 th April 2016 

Laura Cantrell 

The Ruby Lounge, Manchester - Saturday 14 th May 2016 

China Crisis 

The Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool – Saturday 18 th June 2016 

SECOND DATE ADDED – Friday 17 th June 2016 

Mary Chapin Carpenter 

The Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool – Wednesday 27 th July 2016 

Roddy Woomble 

Performing 'My Secret is my Silence' 

The Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool – Friday 16 th September 2016 

Heaven 17 

& British Electric Foundation 

O2 Academy, Liverpool – Thursday 20 th October 2016 

Robyn Hitchcock 

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John Law’s New 

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Even though the purpose of this night is to 

plug their most recent album, it is sufficiently 

old that the band have new material to drop 

as well. Dancing In The Breeze gets everybody 

chilling and grooving, with the beats coming 

slower, like on a Mediterranean island beach 

bar, but still the guys build the atmosphere up 

to a hard crescendo, with major dance scenes 

happening as we reach the end of the tune. 

Let A Little Love In Your Life is another new 

track and is more of a traditional ska sound 

from the band. Gentleman’s Dub Club are on 

top form and it’s a good job too, as in a venue 

like this there’s no room for hiding. The guys 

have brass, beats and a brash confidence that 

undermines the message of some of their 

songs, where politics is trumped by partying. 

Finishing on old favourite High Grade, GDC 

leave a rallying cry to those who have almost 

had too much from the night, as the smokers 

come in from outside and the fans at the bar 

give it as much as the band and the fans in the 

pit. Gentleman’s Dub Club create great tunes 

and such wonderful chaos. 

Gary Lambert / @TheGaryLambert 

FAINTEST IDEA 

The No Marks – A Fish Called Bastard 

Andrew Cream – Don Blake 

Antipop @ Maguire’s Pizza Bar 

Maguire’s atmosphere is buzzing for Antipop’s 

latest offering as Bolton’s pop punk DON 

BLAKE commence proceedings, the room filling 

quickly for their concise set of melody-driven 

punk rock. The first half of the gig feels as if 

we’re gearing up for something truly exciting. 

ANDREW CREAM then brings a refreshing 

approach to punk with his acoustic guitar, 

doling out the kind of music that makes you 

Ant Law 


Music for Two 

Pianos 


The Breath 


Phronesis 

BOX OFFICE 

0844 8000 410 

www.ticketquarter.co.uk 

TicketQuarter Handling Fee of £2.25 per order applies when paying with 

a debit/credit card. Call charges apply. There is no Handling Fee when 

buying tickets with cash from the TicketQuarter Box Office, Queens 

Square Centre, Queens Square, Liverpool L1 1RG. 

Faintest Idea (Georgia Flynn / georgiaflynn.com)

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Gareth Arrowsmith 

SOUND MATTERS 

In this monthly column, our friends at DAWSONS give expert tips and advice on how to achieve a 

great sound in the studio or in the live environment. Armed with the knowledge to solve any musical 

problem, the techy aficionados provide Bido Lito! readers with the benefit of their experience so you 

can get the sound you want. Here, Dawsons’ PA patron Harry Brown discusses what elements to 

consider when getting the perfect public address system for your needs. 

If the responsibility of finding and purchasing well be just one! The only reason for needing 

a PA system for any application has fallen to you, more speakers is to cover a broader audience area. 

then the following information will no doubt Every performer would love to have their 

come in useful! It may go without saying, but own monitor: if you’re able to provide this for 

everyone’s needs are not necessarily the same them then do it, you could massively enhance 

when it comes to acquiring a PA system. Even two their performing experience. If not, who needs a 

bands with the same number of members and monitor the most? Probably the singer/vocalists 

playing the same size venues might have different if you have them. If you don’t provide a solid 

requirements from a PA system. 

foldback mix for a singer with a decent amount of 

The first question to ask is: “How many sound their own vocal (so long as they actually want it), 

sources do I need to amplify?” This will begin to they may damage their voice and that’s an awful 

dictate which mixing console you should buy, thing to inflict on someone who has spent many 

or if you should buy a mixer at all. If you’re a DJ an hour practising. 

and only need to amplify a stereo feed, then you Do I need a subwoofer ‘bass bin’? Well, in 

could plug straight into the power amplifier for the truth, a system is only ‘full range’ if you do use a 

system, or straight into active/powered speakers. subwoofer (even if many speakers on the market 

If you do need a mixer, think about how many are advertised as ‘full range’), as it deals with the 

microphones you will need to plug into it, as for kind of frequencies that normal speakers don’t 

every microphone you will need a microphone (under 100 hZ). As a rule of thumb, a subwoofer 

preamp. This should have a three-pin XLR input, needs to be more powerful than the speakers, 

as opposed to the jack socket, which will usually as our ears are actually less sensitive to lower 

be designed to take a ‘line level’ input, unless frequencies. 

it’s a specifically high-impedance input (usually Having found a system that suits your needs, 

denoted by ‘High Z’ or ‘Inst’). So, if you have 10 it’s important to remember two elements when 

microphones then you need a desk with 10 XLR setting it up in order to get the best result out of it: 

inputs. Try not to take into account any stereo jack 1. Point the speakers directly at the audience, not 

inputs – they can often only be used for a signal anything else. It is as important to think about 

that has already been amplified to line level, such where you do not want sound as it is where 

as a keyboard. 

you do want it. If you point your speakers out 

Many mixer manufacturers advertise their horizontally over the audience, much of their 

consoles with the total number of inputs of ‘beam’ will end up on the back wall of the 

any type available, but only a certain number of venue. When the reflection comes back, it will 

those inputs might have a microphone preamp, mess with the direct sound from your PA and 

so beware! 

your mix will sound unclear as a result. 

The final aspect to consider is outputs. How 2. Help your system sound good. You can’t stop 

many different mixes will you need out of the all high-frequency reflections: there will 

mixer? If it’s for a venue, do you have a balcony inevitably be some unhelpful ones that make 

or bar area away from the stage that may need a your system sound too harsh, or ‘pokey’ in the 

slightly different mix or level than the main front mid-frequencies. Plus, all venues will have 

of house system? How many performers will need naturally resonant frequencies that will cause 

their own individual monitor mix? 

certain bass notes to sound louder than others. 

Once you have found the mixer that caters for Try and locate these frequencies as best you 

all the inputs and outputs of any description that can for each sound source on stage and notch 

you may ever feasibly need (best get this right first them out a bit with your desk EQ section. 

time!), then next up is what you need to connect it 

to: how many speakers do you need for the front You can find Dawsons at their new home at 14-16 

of house part of the system? The answer could Williamson Square. dawsons.co.uk 

wish it was summer and not a freezing cold 

night in Liverpool. 

Support acts swiftly move through sets, as 

time is of the essence. Playing their first gig 

of the year, the huge ensemble A FISH CALLED 

BASTARD fill half of the room. Vocalists Jen 

and Cait stride about in front of an electrified 

audience, right in the middle of the crowd. The 

Warrington-based ska punk ensemble work 

through a perfect mix of relentless talent, 

which makes for a tough act to follow, but THE 

NO MARKS crush it with a ballsy, no-nonsense, 

pure punk performance. 

Warmed up from an incredible line-up, 

crowds flood in for headliners FAINTEST IDEA, 

who are playing the penultimate gig of their UK 

headline tour. The rude-boy street punks from 

King’s Lynn – Dani (Bass, Vocals), Jack (Guitar), 

Bobble (Trombone) and Jack (Drums) – head it up 

without their usual bandmates in tow. Despite 

them all being horrendously ill, the vibes and 

the beers are flowing. Bobble jumps around 

the room releasing roaring sounds from the 

trombone and the crowd are fanatic: the room 

is filled with both clearly devoted fans and 

apprehensive newcomers. Circling The Drain, a 

song from their forthcoming album, Increasing 

The Minimum Rage, addresses the prominent 

issues of funding cuts, junior doctors’ contracts 

and the privatisation of the NHS: it’s a definite 

highlight of the gig and excites all of us for the 

release of the remaining videos in this trilogy. 

Sounding heavier than their previous work, 

Increasing The Minimum Rage also showcases 

Dani’s more aggressive vocal style and conspires 

to really get the crowd pumping. 

Making their way through their album and 

playing old favourites such as Bull In A China 

Shop, Faintest Idea have the whole room 

skanking in no time. An intense ska punk 

experience indeed. 

Georgia Flynn / @georgeporge13 

GRIME OF THE EARTH 2 

LING – Longie — Rugz Delete — Gully Dread 

Grime of the Earth 2 @ 24 Kitchen Street 

Faintest Idea (Georgia Flynn / georgiaflynn.com) 

Grime Of The Earth are a grime crew hailing 

from Liverpool’s L8 area. Toxteth has a long, 

gritty history, and so it seems to fit perfectly 

well that grime music would emanate from 

the area. Grime MCs have a story to tell, as do 

the people of Toxteth, so it would seem, on 

the face of it at least, to be a perfect marriage. 

Tonight is the second of their showcase 

nights, which aim to bring a platform to the 

varied talents of this oft-forgotten seam of 

Liverpool music. 

Upon arrival at the venue, we’re greeted 

with complimentary fried chicken and rum 

punch. The fried chicken, which we are reliably 

informed has been rustled up by “Ben’s Dad”, 

starts things off quite nicely. With the meet 

and greet out of the way, it’s on to the music. . 

First up on the mic are C-Two, Wavey Joe, 

Zee and Kane, all young L8 lads who spit bars 

faster than a tommy gun rattles off shots. Their 

rhymes are very reminiscent of Skinnyman, 

except that, rather than MCing about the ends, 

they’re telling their story about experiences 

growing up on the streets of L8. Perhaps the 

similarity also comes from the speed at which 

they’re rapping. 

RUGZ DELETE join the young MCs up on 

stage at several points throughout the night, 

giving them a run for their money, and GULLY 

DREAD makes his West Midlands presence 

known as he takes to the mic with a brutal 

lyrical assault. 

LING and LONGIE blow the roof off Kitchen 

Street deck-wise, with Ling playing a more 

down-tempo, grime- and dubstep-influenced 

set compared to Longie’s more up-tempo 

bassline flava, which drops it down into a 

more dubby vibe when the MCs take to the 

stage once again. 

It would’ve been nice to have seen just 

a touch more organisation in terms of who 

was playing and when, but that goes against 

the whole punk ethos of a grime night, which 

espouses chaos in its lyrics. And when it 

makes for a bouncing night with fully hyped 

energy levels, who cares? Bring on the next 

one! 

Ste Knight / @stemachine

Distribution is what we do... 

Leaflets 

Magazines 

Posters 

Bido Lito! 

0151 708 0166 

bookings@middledistance.org 

www.middledistance.org

Glyn Ackroyd 

DIGGING A LITTLE DEEPER 

with Crackle & Dust 

We’re always interested to hear what waxy gems are lurking in the depths of the record bags of the 

city’s DJs, or the kind of music they’re indulging in away from the dancefloor. This month we hear 

from Andy McLoughlin, one of the people behind Leaf’s new weekly worship at the altar of wax, 

CRACKLE & DUST. Taking place each Thursday evening, Crackle & Dust allows one guest selector to 

open up their record collections and entertain the crowds with some of their favourite cuts. Andy 

has also put together a mix to accompany this column, which you can hear now at bidolito.co.uk: 

“This mix is rooted in the leftfield, and is comfortable with being a bit weird. From 80s electro 

funk and disco punk to electronica and beyond.” 

ESG 

Moody 

Not quite disco, not quite punk, but with a fierce attitude: ESG had 

a certain rawness about them that made them stand out from the 

crowd. They became one of the most sampled acts of all time, with 

everyone from TLC and Beastie Boys to Wu Tang Clan and Gang Starr 

plundering their catalogue for samples. Moody got hammered by Larry 

Levan at The Paradise Garage and it’s easy to see why. With a thunderous bassline and a killer 

vocal, it’s sublime stuff. 

JONZUN CREW 

Lost in Space 

This is music to body-pop to, in particular lead single Pack Jam. Electro 

funk straight out of Boston, JONZUN CREW were heavily influenced 

by the spaced-out vibes of Parliament and Funkadelic, but updated 

for a futuristic world that also owes a debt to Kraftwerk and the drum 

machine. A couple of members were later responsible for helping launch 

New Kids On The Block, but don’t let that put you off. 

GINA X 

No G.D.M. 

I love the bassline on this and have started spinning this again recently 

after hearing Joe Fearon (Deltasonic) play it when we were DJing together. 

Cologne-based GINA X were pioneers of electro, mixing euro-disco synth 

pop with an arthouse sensibility. They dedicated No G.D.M. to Quentin 

Crisp, the writer and self-styled “stately homo”, the title referencing the 

unattainable ‘great dark man’ of his sexual fantasies. 

INNERZONE ORCHESTRA 

Bug in the bass bin 

Carl Craig is responsible for the some of the best music on the 

planet. INNERZONE ORCHESTRA is his freeform jazz/electronica project 

featuring himself and an assortment of musicians. This breakbeat-driven 

track is their finest hour, and first came to my attention in the mid-90s 

when I was playing a lot of drum ‘n’ bass. DJs including Goldie and 4Hero 

started spinning it at 45rpm rather than its original 33rpm speed, and a whole new era of more 

intricate drum ‘n’ bass was accidentally born. Still sounds great now, at any speed. 

Crackle & Dust takes place every Thursday at Leaf between 8pm and 11pm. They are also hosting 

a special edition between 12pm and 5pm on Record Store Day (Saturday 16th April), featuring Joe 

Fearon, Olly Buchanan and more guest DJs. 

THE FINAL SAY 

Words: Carl Emery / @digvinyl 

Each month we pass the responsibility of having the final say to a guest columnist. This issue, 

we hand the reins over to Carl Emery – one of the brains behind record store Dig Vinyl – to explain 

why they’ve chosen to celebrate Saturday 16th April as the shop’s birthday and not participate in 

any official Record Store Day activity. 

Dig Vinyl, as it is now and in its previous the supplier prices, and the current model is 

forms, has been in bed with Record Store Day moving in the direction of the music industry 

for the past five years. Like many relationships, milking and once again killing the product 

it started with wide-eyed wonder, moved into that we and other vinyl lovers refused to let 

moments of excitement and recently hit the die. As for re-issues, for many of the releases 

slightly indifferent phase. On the back of this, you can come into our shop and purchase the 

in January (RSD registration time), we took a original for half the price. There is no scarcity 

long hard look in the mirror and decided it of 808 State, Jethro Tull or Sex Pistols records, 

was time to move on. We would like to say never mind Carl Douglas! Finally, for a small 

"it’s not you, it’s me", but the truth is slightly independent shop to organise and manage 

more complicated - isn’t it always! 

the RSD ordering process is tantamount to 

From our perspective we are fundamentally planning the D-day landings. The time and 

a second-hand record shop. The driving force financial commitment are virtually impossible 

has always been to create a shop where you to meet. 

come in for a Bowie album and leave with Nothing in life stands still. When RSD 

not just a copy of Low but also an obscure started it was operating in a different land with 

Hungarian jazz funk opus and a forgotten vinyl sales and record shops on their knees. 

punk 7”. However, we have always stocked Context is everything and if RSD continues in 

a smattering of new releases, so when Dig its current form there is a danger of it doing 

opened it made sense to be a part of RSD. The the opposite of what it states it is intended to 

noise and attention that RSD created, along do – to celebrate and spread the word about 

with an (ever-decreasing) list of interesting the unique culture surrounding independent 

releases, was a timely and supportive boost record stores. By this we mean that buying a 

to establishing a new shop – and for this we record (and by that often a glossy, overpriced 

are thankful. But we have moved on; we have re-issue) becomes simply part of a ‘lifestyle’ 

grown and we have become confident in who event. This is a thin and unsustainable version 

we are and what we do. Not doing RSD has of the much thicker, inescapable itch and deep 

been a big decision for us, but it no longer fits joy the vinyl lover experiences; our aim is to 

who we are. 

support the thick version of vinyl buying and 

Part of our discomfort is due to the collecting, and we are confident that we can 

price of official RSD-affiliated releases, the pursue this without the safety net of RSD as 

preponderance of re-issues and the ordering it currently is. 

process itself. The staff of Dig have worked in 

record shops and the music business for over Dig Vinyl celebrate their birthday on Saturday 

25 years and we are of the firm opinion that 16th April with a host of guest DJs playing in 

no new ‘standard’ release should sell for more their Bold Street store throughout the day. 

than £14. We know the costs and we know digliverpool.co.uk

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LIVERPOOLSOUNDCITY.CO.UK

Issue 65 / April 2016

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