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The Castellows – Live in London

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Venue:

Islington Assembly Hall

Date: 30/07/2026

I think this was the London headline debut for the Balkcom sisters and I’m fairly sure they won’t be playing in a venue this size again any time soon. It was already moved from the 450 capacity Bush Hall to the 950 capacity Islington Assembly Hall and it was a rammed (and very hot!) sell out. The show was well paced and it was clear the band was having fun which always makes a show more enjoyable. The only low about the evening was that the sound was absolutely awful. The more delicate harmonies and instruments (particularly fiddle and slide guitar) were drowned by the drums. It did improve a bit towards the end but the best bits was when they were singing without the drums at all. The Castellows are what I know as a Spotify band as that’s the sole way I have been introduced to them. That means that all their tracks carry an equal weighting so it’s interesting when my favourites are everyone elses too. It was great that Hurricane turned out to be one of the best singalongs of the night so I wasn’t out of place singing » Continue Reading.

Esther Rose – Full Band Show

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Venue:

The Grace – Highbury Corner

Date: 24/07/2026

I’ve seen Esther Rose twice solo. Both times have been superb (despite the first time being a slight initial disappointment because I was hoping for fiddles and slide guitar!). I’m a little baffled why it wasn’t sold out but at least I wasn’t the one missing out!

So this time round, Esther had a full band and her performance seemed far far more relaxed than when I’ve seen her solo. Sadly no fiddle but she concentrated on her more recent albums which don’t have so much fiddle anyway!

Tonight was an extra special treat for me, I think my favourite instrument is the pedal steel and both the support band, and Esther’s band included one.

I was a bit concerned that I’d looked forward to this too much. But it was excellent. It was one of those nights where it’s hard to stop grinning.

There were two new songs and they couldn’t be more different. The first had a section in the middle that seemed to be inspired by The Ramones which must always be considered a recommendation! The second was solo as an encore. It certainly makes me wonder what » Continue Reading.

Barbara

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Venue:

Portland Arms – Cambridge

Date: 07/05/2026

Well that’s a band I want to see again! Great fun. Despite the fairly low turn out, the band showed great enthusiasm and the songs (even the very new ones) were all delivered slickly with tongues often firmly in cheeks.

There’s already a long list of bands that are cited in the “if you like this then try Barbara” category such as Divine Comedy and ABBA but I would add Sparks and Deaf School to the list. I think it’s probably impossible for me to dislike a band with “bop showaddy” and “oo bop” in the backing vocals along with the constant harmonies.

One major problem/gripe though. The doors opened at 7:30. The main (only) act was on stage at 8pm!!! Now I have no real problem with this but that is not convention. There was nothing on the band or venue social media (that I could find anyway) that gave any warning of this. I missed the first couple of songs. The timings showed doors open at 7:30pm, finish time was shown as 11pm. With no warning, I think even starting at 8:30pm is a little (unconventionally) early. It » Continue Reading.

Which sales techniques work on you?

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I’m talking specifically about music marketing…. What is it that makes you buy a physical copy, a download or just keep streaming? The reason I’m askng this now is that I’ve just seen a technique that I haven’t seen before and I think it’s a good one. The Molotovs, have, for the first week of release, made the download of their debut album, a ‘deluxe’ version with addition of a live set and sold it for £4.99. Sold! No thought required! It’s a technique that used to be employed in the old days (eg free single with the initial quantities of an album – or the other way round in the case of Elvis Costello!) These days I usually use Spotify and buy (or more often not buy) the physical album or download later or at a gig. What would/might tempt me to buy more downloads? Certainly the sleeve notes/lyrics etc as a PDF. Any more ideas that work on you or you think might work on you (and others)?

Esther Rose – back again so soon.

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Only 8 months after her last gig at London’s finest venue (The Lexington) and she was back on the same stage. It was yet another superb evening. Last time Esther divided her time between sitting and standing but tonight she just sat on a beer barrel stool and told stories and sang songs. She seemed far more relaxed this time round and the show was all the better for it. Of course, when you’ve just released what is destined to be one of (of not the) albums of the year, you have a wealth of riches to choose from. She hinted that the next time might be with a band but it would be great even if she just brought a fiddler along! If it’s not too late to see her on this tour then do yourself a favour.

http://www.hardcafe.co.uk/jw/estherose.jpg

Esther Rose Solo

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Venue:

Lexington, London

Date: 05/09/2024

I was only aware of Esther Rose in 2020 which was after she last played in the UK in 2019 so I’ve waited a long time for this opportunity. She didn’t disappoint. She clearly understands what an audience wants and made a point of playing a fairly even number of songs from each of her last three albums and a smattering of brand new ones from the yet to be released new album. There was a lot of inter song banter which means we learnt a little more about the songs. She played the first few songs sitting down then the rest standing which eased the straining to see! My main disappointment was that this is a solo tour. That’s fine but I do hope that next time she has a band because there’s a lot of fiddle on her recordings and I missed it. I can remember when visiting Americana acts just seemed to need to give Bobby Valentino a call!

The audience:

It’s interesting to see the wider age range than I’m used to at an Americana gig. Last week I saw Emily Nenni’s UK debut and that was the same (although » Continue Reading.

Kimmie Rhodes Solo

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Venue:

Water Rats – Kings Cross

Date: 05/05/2024

Slight admission, it’s been 16 years since I last saw Kimmie Rhodes live, that was at the now defunct Luminaire with a full band. Last night she was solo in London. The night was billed as singing songs and telling stories and that’s exactly what we got. she’s not doing many of these so grab the opportunity if you get it. Her voice, amazingly, doesn’t seem to have changed a bit. The first half was a run through some old songs with stories to go with them. With lots of the stories are about famous friends and colleagues, it could have felt like heavy duty name dropping but it never once did. The second half was a selection of tracks from the new album, her first for 9 years and the reason I got a ticket. Kimmie was relying on two things for backup, the audience, who excelled especially on the new song, album highlight, ‘No Tom Petty’, and also, for 5 or 6 songs, she was joined on Dobro by Slide royalty, BJ Cole who regularly played with Kimmie in the UK back in the early 90’s.

The audience:

A » Continue Reading.

Wayfaring Stranger – A Musical Journey in the American South by Emma John

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Author:Emma John

I know this book isn’t new but it would have passed many music fans (like me) by. I spotted it in the travel section at Waterstones and while I understand why it was there, it’s not a standard travelogue. The book follows the travails of Emma John as she immerses herself in the world of bluegrass in (and around the Appalations). We get an outsider’s view into the culture of bluegrass festivals (who knew there were so many?!) and more intimate gatherings as she tries to become an insider. There’s an interesting “History of Bluegrass” thread running through the book that I learned a lot from. I think my only gripe with the whole book was her reference to ‘vinyls’ instead of records!

Length of Read:Medium

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Country music

One thing you’ve learned

Bluegrass is a family affair

Local Knowledge

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How well do you know your neighbourhood? I’ve lived here for over 20 years and, until the first lockdown when I had to work out what the best routes for my daily perambulation, I hadn’t realised that I used the place as a base and pretty much everything I did happened at least 2 miles away and usually in another town. I’m still WFH and last week I took a slightly different route home from the Co-op in order to listen to more of my audiobook*. I walked along a gently curving road and realised that not only did I not recognise any of the street names, I had no idea which way I was going. I was less than a mile from home! When I was growing up (in a very similar type of area), I knew every street, close and alleyway because a. I helped my mum do a door to door collection, b. I went round collecting jumble for the scout jumble sale and c. Everything had to done on foot or on my bike. Am I alone?

*I have a rule to only listen to books while I’m walking as it makes me take more » Continue Reading.

Girl To City (audiobook/podcast)

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Author:Amy Rigby

As a book, this is now a year old but the self produced audio version was released in podcast form weekly over the summer…. and it’s enthralling. I’m aware Amy Rigby unaccountably flies well below most people’s radar but I’m not convinced that you need to know her songs to enjoy the book. In fact, one of the features of this ‘podcast’ over most musicians autobiographies is that this one has the music interweaved throughout. Although I’ve seen Amy numerous times, and I have all her solo albums, it’s always been solo (or with Eric), I’ve never previously been familiar with her pre-solo output. The other thing that makes it stand out, certainly above the other NY based musicians books I’ve listened to in the past 12 months (Debbie Harry & Chris Frantz), it sounds like this isn’t the first time she’s seen the words on the page! That’s not where the comparison ends either, all three books have large sections featuring the CBGB scene and it’s interesting to hear the parallels. Unfortunately Amy’s UK tour to promote the book was postponed but hearing the book has made me even keener to attend when it eventually happens. Which » Continue Reading.

Playing in reverse

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I’ve recently realised that there are many albums (especially old one) that I rarely, if ever, hear the last track of. I’ll pick an album (very often one of my favourites) to accompany me with a task and listen until I’ve finished the task. As a consequence I never get to the last track or last few tracks. Using shuffle mitigates the problem slightly but not completely. So, my latest solution is to make up some playlists for my favourite albums that play the tracks them in reverse order. Is it just me? Has anyone else employed the system and found the album more enjoyable?

From Home – The Rubinoos

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What does it sound like?:

I’m a little late to the party with this – I must have missed the Yep Roc memo back in August when it was released. Better late than never though! It’s hard to believe that anybody that doesn’t like the first two Rubinoos albums wouldn’t be as bowled over by this as I have been. The intervening albums have always had a number of good songs and they have always retained the powerpop label but they have always sounded somwhat thin compared with the two Berserkley classics. It sounds like they were having fun making the record and from what I’ve now seen and read, they were! Chuck Prophet seems to be the driving force around getting back to their fuller sound and he co-wrote all the songs and produced the album but it sounds like an Rubinoos album rather than a Chuck Prophet one…. actually, even after several listens, I still suspected that a couple of the tracks were Plimsouls covers because they’re that good! The one thing that’s different from the 70’s albums is the themes of the songs. Of course there are references to cars and girls (well women now!) but » Continue Reading.

Polite “Happy Easter” request

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I thought it must be a new ‘thing’, but I’ve done a bit of googling and people have been saying “Happy Easter’ for a number of years I’m sure I’ve never come across it before but I had an email from the BBC the other day that said it and a relative came to see us yesterday and it was the first thing they said. I feel uncomfortable enough when I get wished a merry Xmas and I’ve grown up with that. I’m not religious (more anti religion if anything!) and I’m not a child about to go on an egg hunt so what is the point in the greeting unless the intention was to make me feel uncomfortable? Just a simple hello would have been far better. Please don’t let it spread.

Stella Donnelly – Beware of the Dogs

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What does it sound like?:

As I write this, I still know nothing about Stella Donnelly that I haven’t gleaned from the album. I saw it listed on a ‘try these albums’ page (on Paste I think) and didn’t read any further partly to see if I could listen with almost no preconceptions which is something I very rarely do. Well I like it. I hope that some of the tales she alludes to in the songs haven’t all happened to her if they have then she’s had a very tough life. That said, the tunes are often quite joyous ‘Leave It Alone’ being one example. I’ve become quite a fan of this type of music. To give some context, recent examples are Anna Burch, Caroline Rose and, even more recently, Julia Jacklin. All suggestions of similar stuff gratefully recieved! She will inevitably draw comparisons with Courtney Barnett but that’s largely due to the accent she sings in. Stella has a bit of vibratto in her voice which has the odd effect of lightening the serious nature of some of her songs. This is thoroughly recommended. Right….. now I’ve written that, I’m off to find out more about her!

» Continue Reading.

David Mead Klaxon

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I know I’m not the only one round these parts to appreciate the work of David Mead (The US popwerpoppy one). I think Dudes must be my most played album over the last ten years but that was released back in 2011. This week (starting today) he’s giving away his new album (Cobra Pumps) track by track. Sometimes there’ll be bonus demo tracks as well (there is today). If you want to join the fun sign up here: https://www.davidmead.com/

https://www.davidmead.com/

Flat Worms at The Garage

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Venue:

The Garage, Highbury

Date: 08/06/2018

It’s a while since I’ve seen such an exciting band as Flatworms. There pretty much nothing original about them at all (although I can’t recall seeing a band that that sets the drum kit up in line with the bass and guitar so all members are at the front of the stage) but they combine all their influences and make them their own. I quite liked, during aural onslaught, to spot the people they seem to have nicked stuff from.. Sonic Youth, The Residents, MC5, Buzzcocks, Nirvana… it’s a long list which is probably why they end up sounding vital and fresh. It was quite short show, I think they went through the whole of the album (but that’s only about half an hour long) and a few others that I wasn’t familiar with and they were done in an hour.

The audience:

A pretty wide age range, there were teenagers there and people older than me… so probably in their 60s – the crowd surfing was exclusively done by the teenagers though! A fairly good mix of male and female as well.

It made me think..

All is not lost and not » Continue Reading.

Nothing But Flowers

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Once they’d paved paradise and put up a parking lot, it was always going to be a stretch (at least in the UK) before Talking Heads singing “This was a Pizza Hut, Now it’s all covered in Daisies” sounded like a documentary (although parts of Detroit have been moving in that direction).

I just heard the X-Ray Spex song, Warrior In Woolworths on the radio and got to thinking how many song titles mention shops that are no longer with us. In fact I couldn’t think of one that is still with us! I came up with three songs that mention ex shops directly then I carried on and came up with a few more that probably didn’t have the shops in mind! Any more?

Man at C&A – The Specials I’m In Love With The Girl On The Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk – The Freshies Warrior In Woolworths – X-Ray Spex ….and now the more dodgy connections… Sweet Dreams – Elvis Costello Halley’s Comet – Ezra Furman Tempo House – The Fall World Without Borders – Martha and the Muffins

Rubinoos Live in London

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Venue:

Venue 229, London

Date: 09/01/2017

Despite being a fan, I was at college when they last played the UK and less able to get around the country for a gig so I’d never seen them before. So here they are and we’re all a little older – it’s 37 years since they last graced these shores. There have been line-up changes over the years but this is almost the ‘classic’ line-up. After the rather good Surfing Lungs got the place warmed up (on a dark, damp January Monday evening), The Rubinoos stormed the stage… or rather ambled on one by one to set up their equipment, Jon light heartedly mumbling that he was sure that last time they had people to do that for them! The opening song was an A Cappella ‘Sandman’ which then powered into something altogether more guitar driven. They did new songs and many of the classic oldies such as the fabulous ‘I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend’ and ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’. As ever, it was a mix of originals and covers, a cover of ‘Shake Some Action’ went down particularly well. For the encore all four of them gathered round the microphone » Continue Reading.

Get Those “New” Bruce Tracks Free

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If, like me, your local library gives you 5 free MP3 downloads a week through Freegal, you may be pleased to see that the Brucie Book companion compilation is available from today and the 5 previously unreleased tracks match the weekly entitlement exactly. Result! If only they did audiobooks as well….

Home Automation

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I was surprised by the lack of responses in the Amazon Echo thread the other day and was wondering about other people’s general attitude to home automation. Most of us take for granted the heating coming on at the programed time and I suspect many of us also have timers on a light or two. But has anyone gone any further? If so, is it because of (perceived) security, convenience or maybe even a disability. I’m currently investigating skirting round the edges and putting together rather Heath Robinson solutions as anything all encompassing is going to be very expensive. Ideally, I’d like to be able to draw the curtains in the living room and switch a few lights on when I out or on holiday but, unless I go for something like the Belkin or Philips lights, I’m either stuck in the past with X10 or I have to get the lighting circuit rewired (you really need a neutral at the switch and most UK homes don’t have it). Any solutions, experiences? My current task is seeing up a raspberry pi based system that will check if there’s a connected wifi signal available in the house and automatically reboot the » Continue Reading.

Margaret Glaspy – Emotions and Math

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What does it sound like?:

I don’t know anything at all about Margaret Glaspy. The track “You & I” on the latest free ATO records summer sampler leapt out at me so I downloaded the whole album from Emusic. It’s really rather marvelous and I’m already fairly sure that it’s going to be in my best of the year list. What’s it like then? Well, there are so many influences in there that it’s hard to pinpoint anything but if you like such artists as Mary Margaret O’Hara (there’s not a lot of rock by people called Margaret so I guess they all end up sounding the same!), Belly (and of course Tanya Donelly), The Cure, Aimee Mann then I would suggest you try to hear this. There’s tunes and guitars and more tunes. If you want to get that sampler first then sign up at the website for a free download – I’m also looking forward to the release of the “Joseph” album after hearing their track on the sampler.

What does it all *mean*?

Samplers still sell records in 2016

Goes well with…

Might suit people who like…

The lead track “You & I”. If you like » Continue Reading.

Look Park – Look Park (a Fountains of Wayne side project)

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What does it sound like?:

Well, this is the first “solo” album by Chris Collingwood so, very unsurprisingly, it sounds like Fountains Of Wayne! I’ve only listened to it all the way through once (with a few odd tracks heard here and there) but that’s enough to hear the obvious quality. I thought I’d post this really to alert other FoW fans to it’s release. I’ve not spotted a stand out track yet but that’s probably no bad thing as I find songs such as Richie & Rueben from “Sky Full of Holes” is so strong (and not actually representative of the type of songs on the rest of the album) it kind of overshadows the rest of the work. These are pretty much all like more recent, slower FoW songs. While FoW quite rightly fall into the PowerPop category, this would be probably be better described as pure pop, in fact I ‘heard’ echoes of Nick Lowe in there too so it’s probably for ‘Now People’!

What does it all *mean*?

I think solo releases are fascinating to understand what the individual members presumably bring to a band. We’ve now had solo albums from Chris Collingwood and Jody » Continue Reading.

Amazing achievement

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I’ve now lost count of the number of times I’ve watched this today. It’s amazing. For some reason, today, the BBC has decided that the lineage of a jumped up vicar is more newsworthy. They are wrong. You can have pots of money but you also need some properly clever people to do this sort of thing.

Those Americans just aren’t the same as us!

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We’re on our hols in the US and In the past couple of days I’ve been to two very odd sporting events. The first was a football match. It was my very first MLS match and, due to a combination of the ticket prices, number they’d sold and snippets of MLS matches I’ve seen on television, I was expecting the standard to sit somewhere in between the bottom of the Premiership and the top of the Championship. In the end, over 60,000 people turned up to watch two fairly poor (approximately equivalent to the bottom of the Championship) teams have an occasional shot. The really weird thing was that, among those 60,000 there was no (apparent) away support. Some of the loudest booing came when a clearly offside goal was disallowed. The cheering for a ‘goal’ went on for a while when the ball had been blasted into the side netting. I always think it sounds horribly patronising when commentators say the crowd is “knowledgeable” but I’d never sat among so many people people cheering for decisions when so many of them (I should make it clear though that I don’t mean all of them) had very little idea what » Continue Reading.

Dear 6Music

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Dear 6Music,

I’m sure you had a really good time at your party in Bristol last weekend. Lots of great live music that you’d like to hear again to relive the experiences. I know some listeners came along to some of the gigs too but the size of the venues meant that the numbers were limited. The trouble is that what seemed like a great live performance when you were there, doesn’t necessarily translate into a great listening experience a few days later for the vast majority of your listeners who weren’t there. I’m more than happy to listen to live recordings on the radio (and there’s little doubt the BBC library contains some wonderful live performances) but please consider whether or not the performance lends itself to a radio audience rather than merely being a souvenir for the small coterie of attendees.

Thanks

John