music
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All the shows I saw at Brighton Fringe 2024
Over on my newsletter I’ve posted links to all the Fringe, Spiegeltent, and Festival shows I went to this year. I’ve probably forgotten a couple, but this is how posterity shall remember it. I had a lovely time, and enjoyed excellent company throughout. Next year, I think I’ll take a few more risks and see… Read more
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Brighton Folk Choir: Apple Blossom Day, Stanmer Park
Last folk choir gig, we were still in wassail season: January, cold, mulled cider, and songs swathed in winter spirits and fear of darkness. Late April, and you would expect a different idiom. But it’s been a cold and damp spring, as befits our climate-uncertain times of underwater county cricket grounds and new-build estates on… Read more
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Songwriting is like welding two cars together but you don’t know where either car came from
I was going to go to an open mic tonight, and practiced three songs of mine and one cover in preparation. I then banged my head on the entrance to a medieval alley – York, knock it all down and start again – and took longer than I expected to make dinner. And lo, was… Read more
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A playlist for Martha
It’s fun making playlists. I made one for Martha, she made one for me, and now our new songs are going to sound like Bruce Springsteen and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. I wrote some notes about my playlist because I’m that guy. They’re quite personal but I’m sharing them here for completist sake. Ana Ng, They… Read more
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This Machine Kills Wasps with MJ Hibbett, The Highchurches, Jo Burke, Shelf, Selena Mersey, and Mikey Bligh Smith
I arrive early, and the sound guy is already there. Conveniently, his name is Guy. Guy, the sound guy. Sound guy Guy. Guy Guy sound. He is friendly, and Australian. We have a nice chat, and as he sets up the stage, I learn his interest in experimental rock, music theory, and production. This is… Read more
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‘I am basically Taylor Swift with Cheaper Trousers’: an interview with MJ Hibbett
Note: this interview first appeared in my newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Indiepop legend and writer of some of the most life-affirming songs, well, EVER, Mark “MJ” Hibbett, is headlining my show This Machine Kills Wasps on Thursday 8th Feb at the lovely Folklore Rooms in Brighton. To celebrate this FACT I got… Read more
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Walthamstow Wassail 2024
I have been going to the Walthamstow Wassail for so long that it has been a decade since I wrote about it for the Guardian. I have been going to the Walthamstow Wassail for so long, that when I tried to give my friend a hug, she pulled a muscle. I have been going to… Read more
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Best albums of 2023: Morning Star round-up
We are now in the era of Spotify Unwrapped. This is the zeitgeist of the streaming giant encouraging users to share which musicians they’ve not been giving their money to the most often over the past twelve months. Out there, away from the algorithms, it’s been a good year. The one overriding theme? Death, best… Read more
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Jim Bob review: Chalk, Brighton 19th November 2023
Jim Bob, former Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine frontman and professional rabble rouser, is on stage in sunglasses and a particularly sparkly jacket. This is a rearranged gig from the summer, postponed when the hotel next to the venue burned down just before showtime. The singer addresses the walrus in the room. “We were gonna… Read more
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