[email protected] @NightshiftMag NightshiftMag nightshiftmag.co.uk Free every month NIGHTSHIFT Issue 238 May Oxford’s Music Magazine 2015

OXFORDOXFORD PUNTPUNT 20152015 The annual showcase of Oxford’s best new music returns

OXFORD DUPLICATION CENTRE [email protected] Also in this issue: Office: 01865 457000 Mobile: 07917 775477 Supporting Oxfordshire Bands with Affordable Professional CD Duplication

FANTASTIC BAND RATES RIDE return! ON ALL SERVICES Professional Thermal Printed CDs So do SWERVEDRIVER! Full Colour/Black & White Silver or White Discs

Introducing CASSELS Design Work Support Digital Printing plus Packaging Options All your Oxfordshire music news, previews, Fulfilment Recommended by Matchbox Recordings Ltd, Poplar Jake, Undersmile, Desert Storm, Turan Audio Ltd, Nick Cope, Prospeckt, Paul Jeffries, Alvin reviews and six pages of local gigs Roy, Pete The Temp, Evolution, Coozes, Blue Moon and many more... NIGHTSHIFT: PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU. Phone: 01865 372255 NEWS Nightshift: PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU Phone: 01865 372255 email: [email protected] Online: nightshiftmag.co.uk

THE ORIGINAL RABBIT FOOT at James’s farm near Kingham, west SPASM BAND, DREAMING Oxfordshire. The new names on SPIRES and Alphabet Backwards the bill join Paloma Faith, Groove are among the local acts announced Armada and Grandmaster Flash. TREMBLING BELLS, NECRO DEATHMORT and CHARLES for the Riverside Stage at this year’s Visit www.thebigfeastival.com for HAYWARD are among the first batch of acts to be announced for Cornbury Festival. more news and ticket details. Supernormal Festival. The artist-curated music and arts festival, which The Riverside Stage traditionally runs over the weekend of the 7th-9th August at Braziers Park, near gives local and emerging acts THE JAMES STREET TAVERN Wallingford, returns for its sixth outing this year, boasting a new audio- the chance to share a festival bill hosts four days of free live music visual stage that will provide an immersive multi-media experience. with big name acts. Tom Jones, over the May Bank Holiday Other names announced include Anonymous Bash, Arabot, Benjamin Razorlight, Roger Hodgson, weekend. Mayfest runs from Finger, A&E, Bonnacons of Doom, Blood Sport, Blown Out, Broken Martha Reeves, Lulu, Chas & Friday 1st – Monday 4th. Friday sees DC, Crying Lion, Emma Tricca, English Heretic, Father Murphy, Ghold, Dave, The Fratellis, Billy Ocean sets from this month’s Nightshift Guapo, Hirvikolari, Hoofus, Jennifer Walshe, Lower Slaughter, Mind and Blue are among the acts playing Demo of the Monthers Monkfish, Mountain, Laura Cannell & Andre Bosman, Paddy Steer, Negra Branca, the festival’s two main stages over alongside Grandma’s Hands, Rhodri Davies, Sharon Gal, Spectres, Stephen Cornford, Trash Kit, the weekend of the 10th-12th July at The Jesters, Gemma Moss and Stargazers Assistant and WTVR. Great Tew Estate. Comfort Zone. Saturday features With its adventurous approach to music bookings, and its old fashioned Other acts confirmed for the The Tom Ivey Blues Band, Tony festival vibe, Supernormal has been welcomed as one of the most exciting Riverside Stage include Larry Batey, Blackthorn, Cosmosis, and unusual events in Oxfordshire. Earlybird tickets for this year’s event Reddington, Brightworks, Dance a Bewarethisboy, Firegazers and sold out in a matter of days. Tickets are on sale now, priced £80 for adults, la Plage, King B, Lloyd Grossman & Wednesday’s Wolves. On Saturday from www.supernormalfestival.co.uk. The New Forbidden, Hope & Glory, you can see Goin’ Loud, Last Zurich, Debbie Bond, Brickwork Rites, Strike One, Pipeline, Dirty year’s Halfway To 75 mini-festival. Insiders, Ags Connolly, The Oxford Lizards, ToLiesel, Les Clochards and Valuables, The Shapes, Mad Larry, The annual one-day celebration of Gospel Choir, Great Western Tears, Slainte. and Rory Evans, while on the Americana and roots music takes The August List, Francis Pugh Tickets for Cornbury Festival are on Monday it all rounds off with String place on Saturday 25th July at the & the Whisky Singers, and My sale now from Project, The Balkan Wanderers, Isis Farmhouse. Dunlop – son Crooked Teeth. Tickets for the event www.cornburyfestival.com Beard of Destiny, The Tom Ivey of Fairport Convention’s Ashley are on sale now, priced £12, or £7 Funk band, Auralcandy, The Pink Hutchings, and who played the for under-13s, with under-7s free. DIZZEE RASCAL, Example, Diamond Revue, Reckless Sleepers young Willy Wonka in Tim Burton’s Ahead of the festival, award- Roots Manuva and Maxi Jazz have and Waterfall. We’re guessing Charlie & the Chocloate Factory winning Nashville country star JP been added to the line-up for this there’ll be loads of booze and stuff – won the Radio2 Folk Awards Harris and the Tough Choices year’s Big Feastival. The food and too, so that’s our bank holiday Horizon Award for his 2013 debut play a rare UK show at the music festival, organised by Alex sorted. album `Blight & Blossom’. He is Bullingdon on Thursday 21st May. James and Jamie Oliver, runs over joined at Halfway To 75 by a cast Visit halfwayto75.com for more the weekend of the 28th-30th August BLAIR DUNLOP headlines this of local acts, including The Long details.

RIDE returned to action with a special fanclub show at the O2 Academy on Easter Sunday. The local legends announced the show in the O2’s upstairs venue - the room where they played their first major local headline show back in 1989 when it was The Co-Op Hall - with an email to fans on the 1st April. Tickets sold out in a few hours. The band played a 90-minute set of songs drawn almost exclusively from their early EPs and first two albums, starting with `Polar Bear’, and clos- ing the set with `Chelsea Girl’ from their debut `Ride EP’. The gig was their first full show since they split in 1996, with the quartet flying out immediately aft- wards for a tour of the States. On an emotional night, other set highlights included a stunning version of `Drive Blind’ as well as fan favourites `Dreams Burn Down’ and `Seagull’. Read the full gig review on page 18. photo:Johnny Moto

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UNDERSMILE play their only community of promoters who put Oxford show of the year this month. on secret shows in intimate venues The doom metal stars play at The in over 100 cities around the world, SWERVEDRIVER play their first Oxford show since 2009 this month, Wheatsheaf on Saturday 9th May including Oxford, each gig filmed with the band out on tour to promote their fifth album, `I Wasn’t Born To with support from Essex sludge crew and edited by volunteers. They are Lose You’ – their first in 17 years. Earthmass, and gothic songsmith D looking for film makers to join the The local pioneers, who emerged from the Oxford scene at the same time Gwalia. Recent Nightshift cover stars growing community. You can get as Ride in the late-1980s, and signed to Creation Records after Ride’s Mark Undersmile released their acclaimed in contact at oxfordsofar@gmail. Gardener gave a demo of `Son Of Mustang Ford to label head Alan McGee, second album, `Anhedonia’ in com, or find out more and hear about moved to London but frontman Adam Franklin regularly returns to Oxford, March and have been touring around forthcoming gigs at and told Nightshift that he still regards the city as home. the UK and Europe, including a www.sofarsounds.com. “Oxford certainly feels like home to us,” said Adam as Swervedriver set at Roadburn Festival in The completed a tour of the States in April, “but I guess Swervedriver’s name Netherlands. Go to www.facebook. TANDEM FESTIVAL returns for isn’t quite as wrapped up in Oxford’s music history as Supergrass, Ride com/Undersmile for all your doomy a second year over the weekend or Radiohead because we all moved to London in 1989 and were based Undersmile newsie stuff. the 19th-20th June at Hill End, there when things took off. Our links here are still massively strong though; near Wytham. The two-day our old band Shake Appeal was voted best band of the year in 1988 or NON-STOP TANGO release their festival features jazz, folk, gypsy something, and Ed from Radiohead once laughed that On A Friday couldn’t new album, `Unnatural Selection’, and Afrobeat music as well as get a gig back then because they didn’t sound like us! I apologised, but this month. The band, formed by talks, workshops, films, poetry pointed out that things had worked out alright for them in the end.” While Swervedriver split in 1999, they reformed in 2008 to play Coachella members of Oxford Improvisers, and theatre, with an emphasis on Festival and made their Oxford return in 2009 with a show at the Academy including Jon Seagroatt, Malcolm environmentalism. The festival – a venue they return to on Friday 22nd May. Since then the band have toured Atkins, Sam Kidel, Chris Hills was inspired by organiser Nicholas Australia as well as America. The new album was recorded in Melbourne and singer Stavroula Kounadea, O’Brien’s five-month cycle trip and in Ray Davies’ Konk Studio in London. have imagined a journey, based on around Europe, recording over “We couldn’t be happier with the new album and feel it sort of touches on Homer’s The Odyssey, along Cowley 200 unknown acts from different ground covered in all the previous records,” says Adam. “People have said Road, from The Plain to Divinity countries. As well as having an it’s like the engine just started up again and Swervedriver condensed the Road, by Stravroula, in the company international slant to music, Tandem 17 year gap into what sounds more like two. We brought the album back to of composer Erik Satie, visiting encourages festival goers to arrive Oxford to finish, by the way: I sang the vocals round at Mark Gardener’s various east Oxford landmarks by bike. Find out more at place and Tim Turan mastered it. Back in 1989 Tim recorded the very first along the way. The band will be www.tandemfestival.com Swervedriver demo down Union Street, which Mark gave to Alan McGee.” playing music from the album at this Asked if he envisaged Swervedriver still going seven years on from their month’s Klub Kakofanney at The FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS 2008 reunion, Adam says even he is surprised it’s been such a success. Wheatsheaf on Friday 1st May. Get headline the third Yardfest, which “It’s been great because people thought they were never going to hear us your copy of `Unnatural Selection’ at takes place at the Courtyard Youth again and we also thought we were never going to play those songs again. I nonstoptango.com. Arts Centre in Bicester on Friday th would definitely say it’s exceeded expectations. We played the Jimmy Fallon 17 July. The all-ages event is show in the US when we didn’t even have a record out and debuted a new IRREGULAR FOLK host their looking for local young (under-25s) song there and then.” annual summer festival over the bands and solo acts to play. Anyone Adding to the Oxford heritage side of things, Swervedriver currently have th st weekend of the 20 -21 June at interested should email a biog and ex-Supergrass man Mick Quinn playing bass for them on tour. the Perch in Binsey. No line-up sound links to Jeremy Leggett “Mick’s stepped in because our bass player Steve George couldn’t do details as yet but it’ll be quality, at [email protected] this bout of touring. It’s been great being on the road with him; he’s from don’t you worry about that. Last Wheatley, the same as (guitarist) Jimmy Hartridge and myself and we’ve year’s event featured sets from The AS EVER, don’t forget to tune into known him since we were kids. The first band I was ever in was with Mick’s Irrepressibles, The Maybirds, You BBC Oxford Introducing every older brother Si and we used to rehearse in their basement. The first time I Are Wolf, Jess Hall and Duotone. Saturday night between 8-9pm on ever played electric guitar was down there in fact; I played the riff to `Silver Tickets are on sale now, priced £35 95.2fm. The dedicated local music Machine’! Years later Swervedriver played with the Jennifers in Amsterdam for the weekend or £20 for day show plays the best Oxford releases and then came the Supergrass phenomenon. We just finished our US tour tickets, from Wegottickets. Visit and demos as well as featuring with three sold out shows in New York and were laughing about Wheatley www.irregularfolk.co.uk for news interviews and sessions with local bringing it to NYC!” as it happens. acts. The show is available to stream Swervedriver and Ride were closely linked back in the 80s and early 90s, so Irregular Folk also have their own or download as a podcast at what did Adam think of their reunion? dedicated record rack at Blackwell’s bbc.co.uk/oxford. “I haven’t seen them, because I stayed out in New York after our tour and so Music on Broad Street, selling vinyl Regularly updated local music news missed their O2 show. And they’re currently on the west coast; they played and CDs of acts who have played is available online at last night with the band we had opening for us on our tour actually, Gateway the club, including Laura Moody, www.musicinoxford.co.uk. The site Drugs from LA. I knew their reunion was brewing; Mark was getting a who played Blackwell’s Norrington also features interactive reviews, a craving for just stamping on some pedals and making a lot of noise again and Room in April. photo gallery and gig guide. so I’m really made up for them! We’ll probably miss all their bloody shows OXFORD GIGBOT provides a again though because we always used to be on the road at the same time as SOFAR SOUNDS are looking regular local gig listing update on them back in the day, but there’s a chance we might both being playing the for film makers keen to work on Twitter (@oxgigbot), bringing you same festival later this year, so fingers crossed on that.” KIDSK ZONE | FAIRGROUND | GOURMET CATERERS | FESTIVAL SHOPS live music filming. Promoters new gigs as soon as they go live. DISCO SHED | AMAZING VIP & GLAMPING Paul Wightman and Stornoway’s They also provide a free weekly Swervedriver play the O2 Academy on Friday 22nd May. `I Wasn’t Born To Oli Steadman are part of a global listings email. Follow them. Lose You’ is out now on Cobraside Records. Sponsored by CASSELS THE GREAT `Hating Is Easy’ WESTERN TEARS (Big Scary Monsters / Idiot King) Aging music bores who go on and on about young `The Great Western RELEASED bands having nothing to say these days obviously Tears EP’ haven’t listened to Cassels, teenage brothers Jim VIENNA DITTO TUFTHUNTER and Loz Beck from Chipping Norton who were, (Self released) apparently, inspired by the boredom of living in If we have reached peak beard here in Oxford, `Circle’ `Deep Hits’ west Oxfordshire and have several large bees in can peak Americana be far behind? Where (Self released) (Self released) their collection of bonnets. once Goldrush were once sole flag-bearers for It’s either an artfully-placed sideswipe or a Pete Momtchiloff always seems to be in at least Having spent the first few months of their Shire-flavoured country, increasingly the space slightly misjudged piece of sequencing that three different bands. Most recently the Talulah existence playing in London, the pair are now between the Cotswolds and Chilterns resemble ‘Oh Josephine’, the first track on Vienna Ditto’s Gosh and Heavenly guitarist has trodden the winning a growing army of fans locally for their the Catskill mountains, log shacks replaced debut album `Circle’, is both the album’s most boards with The Would Be Goods, Les Clochards dirty, nasty mix of grunge riffs and ennui, a sense with east Oxford terraced houses. traditional track, and its weakest. and Hot Hooves, but Tufthunter is both a studio- of frustration and disgust uncoiling from each of The Great Western Tears are the latest addition In itself, it’s a fine slice of upbeat, synthy indie only affair and very much his own project, the the four songs on this new EP. of succinct snottiness and attitude here to fuel a to the local plaid army, though singer Dava rock, but this is a band that’s been one of Oxford’s sixteen tracks here (available to download for free Musically they go for the straight-down-the-line sizeable riot, and the closing paranoid line of “All Waterhouse, alongside Garry Richardson, are weirdest and most inventive over the past couple from tufthunter.co.uk) featuring no less than 18 approach, rolling riffage coming with gnarly lo- the digital clocks look like a countdown these already established faces on the local scene as of years, and so, well, it’s easy to expect more. guest vocalists, many, including Amelia Fletcher, fi shards of something unhygienic sticking out days” on `Sights For Sore Eyes’ itself feels like part of country-blues outfit Swindlestock. This Consider expectations delivered pretty much from Karen Cleave, Jessica Griffin and Ian Nixon, of every surface, somewhere between Drenge, the start of a ticking time bomb. is their full-on roots journey though, inspired, track two, ‘This Is Normal’, onwards; it kicks off drawn from his myriad other bands, while another Slaves and the more brutish side of Arctic Cassel’s strength, though, is their simplicity and apparently, by Dava’s time labouring on farms with the excellent lyric “Your smile wiped all over cast of old friends help out on anything from Monkeys, while lyrically their targets range from sense of melody, all that anger delivered in a in Australia’s Outback. It’s classic American trad, though – growling vocals and pedal steel my face,” and leads into the catchy vocal refrain Over the course of the album there are elements percussion to violin. social media hate and desensitisation (`I Swipe bottle with its cork firmly plugged in, moments leading up to Willie Nelson and Steve Earle’s “This is… fucked”. of surf guitar, early Pink Floyd-esque psychedelia, In truth often you wouldn’t guess it was a Right’), to the callous divide and conquer blame of contemplative narrative standing out against front porches, nights spent propped against While Hattie Taylor’s excellent vocals are twisted torchsong honesty, sly blues-based different singer on many of the tracks, Pete’s politics of the right (`666 Feet’, with its choice the meaty riffmongering and voices rarely raised crackly old jukeboxes in neglected bars where possibly the most important part of Vienna Ditto’s electronica and all manner of sultry glimpses polite, airy 80s indie jangle providing a lines “666 feet below our streets / Is where we’ll beyond a contemptuous snarl. they serve only sourmash and play both types sound – sounding as much like Martina Topley- into a unique world of oddity. What prevents comfortable base for so many of the guests to hide the corpses of the benefit cheats / And turn The revolution may not start here, but it’s of music – country and western. Bird circa Tricky’s `Maxinquaye’ as a drug/drink/ things falling apart is the combination of the occupy similar space. Stand-out performances their flesh to meat to feed this hardworking decanting the petrol in preparation. And it’s done with rich, authentic style, Dava’s other-influenced combination of cabaret, blues aforementioned singing voice and songcraft; and come from Lois Maffeo on album opener country”). Hardly Chomsky or Klein but plenty Ian Chesterton voice in particular, like Witney Ameripolitan and pop – the octopus-talented Nigel Firth runs a hence, `Circle’ is one of the strongest Oxford `Lit Up’, her sultry delivery reminding us of singer Ags Connolly, sounding like all of a long fiendishly close second. Previous singles ‘I Know albums in recent times. Miaow singer Cath Carroll; Would Be Goods’ guitars, sometimes onomatopoeic, as in `Eve Of life’s troubles have come to rest at the back of His Blood Will Make Me Whole’, ‘Hammer And Selfishly, one hopes Vienna Ditto will in future Jessica Griffin’s coy `Cleopatra’ very much in SEABUCKTHORN Rains’, that comes and goes like an April shower, his throat where no amount of Wild Turkey can A Nail’ and ‘Liar Liar’ – the latter as a ‘quiet’ steer clear of the trad sounds of its first track; it’d keeping with her full-time band, while Amelia or lulling waves of rhythm as in `Heavy Calm’. dislodge them. Lonesome harmonica waltzes reworking – showcase impressive chops with be nice for them to stay weird, stay special and Fletcher’s duet with Lupe Núñes-Fernández `They Haunt Most At every stage you are given the chance to just around his tales of lonely old guys and broken guitar, electronics, light and shade and good old stay ours. is quite lovely as they plan `My Future Band’. Thickly’ lie back and turn your mind into an IMAX and down pick up trucks, and of course, women are fashioned songcraft. Simon Minter The much travelled Deborah Greensmith brings transport yourself around byroads on all points a gutsier vocal performance to the driving (Self released) always gone, leaving the empty husks of men of the compass. `His Way Becomes Lost’ does behind to drink more, think too much and try to `We Fly By Night’, while Richard Ramage’s It takes patience to understand some music, or 2015, following on from a period of quiet since feel like setting off east of India without any forget via the bottom of a bottle. `Pirbright’ echoes the sepia-tinted balladry of his even play it. There is precious little of that these debut LP `Little Victories’ arrived in 2013. belongings, but always, far off on the horizon, `Bid Her Well’ in particular is a worthy Relationships work. days. `They Haunt Most Thickly’ is an aptly titled The band are chiefly renowned for pop of an there is the threat of a storm cloud, an eerie addition to the local Americana catalogue, a On the opposite end of the scale `Low Life’, collection of ten such instrumentals, recorded by impossibly shiny hue, fully designed for Gap feeling of being watched, or the notion of lost sweetheart lament with a ghost at its heart, featuring Kevin Younger, is simply awful – a local auteur Andy Cartwright, while living in Paris. adverts, whose oeuvre is ever cursed with the something left undone that we all carry. This is though `Emily’s Eyes’ is a tad country-by- tuneless, pedestrian dirge, and Jeffrey Underhill’s Apart from the obvious delicate and refined description ‘catchy ‘ – as faint praise as can ever brought to a head in the creepy, lupine or undersea numbers and lacks substance and emotional `You’re All Going to Die’ could be a student band’s musicianship on show here, there is also the cries of the title track. be damned with and the kind of note of approval punch. It makes you wonder too, if this attempt to capture some of Frank Sidebottom’s astonishing variety of sounds he can extract from As with great guitarists like John Renbourn and one’s octogenarian nan would sound. particular local sub-scene can continue to grow quirky magic and failing miserably. `Lullaby of just two instruments: an open C tuned resonator Gustavo Santaolalla before him, Seabuckthorn This is a slightly more low key release than at the rate is has over the past decade, and Fitzrovia’, with Alice Healey, is shrill in that old- guitar, and open A tuned 12 string acoustic guitar. blends atmospheric beauty, nature and the small usual and while comparisons to Scouting for if the age-old English folk sounds that have time English folk way, and Hot Hooves fella Mac’s A frame drum, which sounds like a train with pleasures of life all together, effortlessly and Girls and even S Club 7 remain unavoidable, always been a part of the local landscape will drawling, country-flavoured `Goodbye’ might have wooden wheels slowly going over points, does profoundly, like drops of ice coming to life. It’s ‘Indian Summer’ at least provides a degree of eventually secede to this more American-style better suited to Lee Marvin. appear in support on `When Those Lights Come an understated spiritual experience to sink into his melancholy that is most welcome after the cloying cousin. Overall, `Deep Hits’ is polite and polished and On For You’, but other than that it’s a masterclass music and interpret it beyond mere notes. jauntiness and handclaps of ‘Fingertips’. The Ian Chesterton video sees the band stretching out in the Devonian for all its starry contributors, brings few musical in the very finest finger picking and bowing of the Paul Carrera farmhouse in which the material was presumably surprises. Committed fans of Pete’s many other projects will find something to love here, but recorded, replete with images of handstands and a beyond so many other so-so singer-songwriters gambolling pooch; it won’t be used as inspiration everyone else would be better looking elsewhere SALVATION BILL first to hear the man at his creative best. around. ALPHABET by Lars Von Trier any time soon. Dale Kattack There are more larks on the ‘Indian Summer’ Dale Kattack `The Glamour’s Off’ BACKWARDS video with post-it notes affixed to foreheads, (Idiot King) handily placed for any stray punches – but the Most if not all of the six songs on this new EP did it for you, I did it for me / So we could live `Fingertips’ / `Indian mood is sombre and the song at times captures have already been released in some form or in harmony,” he croons in what might be the the disappointment that comes with attending other, but Idiot King are obviously looking to most macabre love song to come out of Oxford Summer’ parties as a twentysomething – it’s a long way collate the best of Salvation Bill’s songs for a since The Bigger the God split up. (Self-released) from tracks such as the well-nigh unlistenable wider new audience, and anyway it’s always Elsewhere we get the curiously mischievous Early in 1984, in an interview on London’s ‘Elton John’ – but for all its professional worth revisiting one of the more idiosyncratic satire/lullaby of `Tony Blair Extraordinaire’, Capital Radio, George Michael announced execution, doesn’t really stand out from the singer-songwriters in town. with its sombre strings and drowsy bedside a plan to release four singles throughout the crowd. One can imagine the track might stand Ollie Thomas is possessed of an enthrallingly manner, and the weary lament of `London, spring and summer of that year, aiming for all a chance of soundtracking Sky Sports’ closing untidy voice that seems to be a muddle The Big Smirk’, all the while Ollie’s decidedly to reach Number 1 in the charts. Such gimlet credits of a play-off final between Plymouth of strangulated yelp and drunken slur, lopsided take on life creating a skewed storyline eyed ambition may not have been quite matched Argyle and Bury but it’s hard to think of a venue simultaneously strung out and plaintive, like that you imagine would make for a great concept by Alphabet Backwards but with what used to in Oxford for which this is truly appropriate. Thom Yorke having a few beers and singing Tom album one day. be called a double A-side, `Fingertips’ / `Indian A move away from the zaniness of previous Waits songs in the shower. Ollie’s voice being what it is, he’s always going Summer’ forms the opening salvo of a similar bid releases is welcome but we wait to be truly Lyrically Ollie’s no less perverse, `Dead Dog’ to be a Marmite musician, loathed as much as he for stardom. For it is the band’s intention to make entranced. an oddly jaunty ode to poisoning a neighbour’s is loved, and with equal passion, but that’s one this one of three separate releases in calendar year Rob Langham noisy dog in what’s not far from musical hall. “I of the many things that lifts him above and MONDAY 4th still helming proceedings, the band playing MAYFEST: James Street Tavern – Fourth favourites from their 1970s commercial peak and final day of the Tavern’s bank holiday albums, `No Heavy Petting’, `Phenomenon’ and festival. Rounding things off are acoustic duo `Lights Out’, as well as their recent twenty-first Waterfahl, psych-folkies Reckless Sleepers, outing, `A Conspiracy of Stars’. acid-surf techno-psych duo The Pink Diamond SUNSET SONS + THE BEACH + ZIBRA: Revue, funk-rockers The Tom Ivey Funk Band, O2 Academy – BBC Sound of 2015 longlisters GIG GUIDE bluesman Beard of Destiny and eastern European Sunset Sons head out on a headline tour, the folk-pop crew Balkan Wanderers. shaggy Anglo-Australian surfer dudes’ slacker FRIDAY 1st touring his new album, `Jetstream Sunset’. Great grunge coming in somewhere between Kings of THE MIGHTY REDOX: The Wheatsheaf support from punk-pop cheerleaders Rainbow th Leon, Killers and Doves. Support from London’s TUESDAY 5 glitchy electro-rockers Zibra. th (6.30am) – May Morning gig in the Sheaf’s Reservoir and wordy Jeffrey Lewis-styled alt. JAZZ CLUB with THE HUGH TURNER Sunday 10 SWEET PINK + AMORAL COMPASS + downstairs bar with the local swamp-blues party folk storyteller Faceometer. Followed by Garage, BAND: The Bullingdon – Funky jazz from WARDENS + ALIAS: The Wheatsheaf – It’s starters for all you early bird revellers. grime and bass club night, What You Call it, Hugh Turner and band at the Bully’s long- THURSTON MAY All About the Music showcase show with lo- ROOTS RAMBLE: Various venues (6am) – botherer Mr Benn joins the Count on the decks Garage? running jazz club. fi industrial pop crew Amoral Compass, plus MOORE: O2 Academy The travelling roots ramble returns for a May for reggae party anthems into the wee small BLOODSTOCK METAL TO THE MASSES MIKE & THE MECHANICS: The New heavyweight alt.rockers Wardens, warming up A good month for musical legends in town Morning special, Francis Pugh & the Whisky hours. SEMI-FINAL I: The Bullingdon – First semi- Theatre – Sadistic Soviet-sponsored Cold for the Punt with their QOTSA-inspired rumble. but few people have changed the way music Singers, Swindlestock and Great Western Tears KLUB KAKOFANNEY with EMPTY final of the contest to win a place at this year’s War laboratory experiment designed to prove BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE: The Cellar is made or understood as Thurston Moore. bringing some rootsy Americana to various VESSELS + NON-STOP TANGO + BEAVER Bloodstock Festival. that, yes, it was possible to make music more – 80s alternative classics, new wave, disco, As guitarist and joint frontperson of Sonic hostelries and street corners around Oxford. FUEL: The Wheatsheaf – Getting May off to a BOOTLEG ZEPPELIN: O2 Academy – The unbearably vapid and soul-crushing than Phil synth-pop and glam club night. Youth, he helped revolutionise rock music Meet on the corner of Longwall Street at 6 big ol’ rocking start at Klub Kakofanney tonight long-running Led Zep tribute band recreate Collins back in the mid-80s. in ways the rest of the music world is barely before heading off to the Angel & Greyhound are Empty Vessels – big-riffed heavyweights the 70s rock titans’ classic Earl’s Court 1975 FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS: O2 th starting to comprehend 30 years on, never and the Port Mahon for beer and breakfast. kicking it out in the style of Hendrix, Led Zep concert. Academy – Suffolk’s schlocky, floppy-fringed THURSDAY 7 mind catch up with. That band’s sad demise SKYLARKIN SOUNDSYSTEM: The Cellar and Blue Cheer. They’re joined by improv SWITCH with WILKINSON: O2 Academy – death-pop crew Fearless Vampire Killers creep ARCANE ROOTS + BLACK PEAKS + in 2011, the result of the break-up of alt. – Count Skylarkin hosts a bank holiday reggae, supergroup Non-Stop Tango, launching their The London producer comes to the O2’s weekly out of their castles once again to tour second GALLERY CIRCUS: O2 Academy – Polished, dancehall and bass special. Bristol’s bass bin new album, `Unnatural Selection’, which takes house and electro club night. album `Unbreakable Hearts’. heartfelt riffmongery in a Biffy Clyro vein from rock’s golden couple, Thurston and Kim a prog/jazz/eclectronica journey down Cowley ZURICH + REDHEAD + JACK LITTLE: OPEN MIC SESSION: James Street Tavern London’s Arcane Roots, adding an anthemic Gordon, broke more hearts than the two Road, and caustic indie-punk noisemakers The Jericho Tavern – Dark, elegant stadium-pop sheen to the post-hardcore template, people at the centre of it, but following on nd 80s-inspired indie from Banbury’s Zurich, from his excellent Chelsea Light Moving Saturday 2 Beaver Fuel. WEDNESDAY 6th alongside Brighton’s similarly anthemic and BALLOON ASCENTS + AUTUMN leaning towards The National scheme of things poppy alt.rockers Black Peaks. project, Moore’s new band is recapturing UFO: O2 Academy – The heavy rock WHISKEYDICK / SAINTS + OSPREY + LES CLOCHARDS at tonight’s Strummerroom show, alongside CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford some of Sonic Youth’s magical power. He’s behemoths continue to bring the noise, with + MOGMATIC: O2 Academy – Mayday Bicester’s acoustic singer-songwriter Jack Little. Community Centre – Oxford’s longest-running aided in this by My Bloody Valentine’s Deb original members Phil Mogg and Andy Parker MOTHER CORONA / show from It’s All About the Music promotions, TELLING THE BEES + CHARLIE HENRY: and best open club night continues to showcase Googe on bass and Oxford’s own James INDICA BLUES: with rising local indie starlets Balloon Ascents, Albion Beatnik Bookstore – Album launch local singers, musicians, poets, storytellers and Sedwards on guitar, the Nought man one of with their eclectic mix of electronica, dub, show for the local folksters in the suitably rustic Sunday 3rd performance artists every week. the few guitarist who can provide Moore blues, folk-pop and alt.rock. They’re joined by and intimate setting of Jericho’s bookstore, the THE MIGHTY REDOX: The Wheatsheaf – with not just a talented foil but push him The Wheatsheaf quartet mining the traditions of local and British “We’re just a train-robbin’, gun-totin’, REM and Tom Petty-inspired Anglo-American MOBB DEEP: Free unplugged set in the downstairs bar from on to greater heights. `The Best Day’, the folk music, with its gothic storytelling, pagan dope-smokin’, guitar-pickin’, muthafuckin’ rockers Autumn Saints, funky bluesman Osprey, the veteran local swamp-rock / ska-funk crew. album which came out of those meeting of leanings and occasional psychedelic edge, to GAZ BROOKFIELD + LITTLE RED + good time band, taking hillbilly music and Francophile rock’n’roll crooners Les Clochards, O2 Academy minds (and featuring SY drummer Steve create a sumptuous and arcane sound. A darkly nihilistic masterpiece was how WATER PAGEANT: The Jericho Tavern – spreading it across the land,” is how Fort and blues-rockers Mogmatic. Shelley) won’t disappoint long-term fans, THE PETE FRYER BAND: Cricketers Arms, Mobb Deep’s now classic debut album Folky pop sounds from Water Pageant ahead of Worth, Texas duo Whiskeydick describe SHUSHIANS: The Bullingdon featuring that characteristic melding of taut, Temple Cowley – Rocking blues from the `The Infamous’ was described upon its their Punt performance, and acoustic folk from themselves, which is as good as anything MAYFEST: James Street Tavern – Opening discomforting experimentation and simple eccentric local veteran. release back in 1995, and its power hasn’t Little Red. Nightshift can conjure to describe their of the James Street Tavern’s four-day free music pop melody. Expect mass note-taking from HONOLULU COWBOYS: St Giles Church diminished in the intervening 20 years. If ISIS PRESENTS: The Cellar – Jihadi hip hop soulful blend of outlaw country and metal, fest, today featuring sets from this month’s an army of axe-wielding acolytes, and raw Nightshift Demo of the Monthers Monkfish, plus Hall (6pm) – Hawaiian tea party with traditional anything its mix of gritty, violent lyrics, club night. played by two big, bearded, heavily-tattooed devotion from everyone present. electric folk from Grandma’s Hands, acoustic tunes from Honolulu Cowboys. heavy samples and atmospheric beats OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon blokes armed with acoustic guitars and sat folk from Jesters, striking punk-inspired cabaret OXFORD ACOUSTIC CLUB: The Marsh become a template of how to write hard- ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Jude the Obscure on wooden folding chairs for the duration from Gemma Moss and country jazz swing from Harrier (1pm) – Unplugged sets from Purple edged hip hop. Since that impressive BLUES JAM: Ampleforth Arms, Risinghurst from teen metal titans The Reaper, metalcore of their shows. With deep, rich, rootsy Comfort Zone. May, Beard of Destiny, Lewis Scott, Ben Avison, opening gambit The pair – Prodigy and merchants Dead A Thousand Times in the vocals and plenty of guitar heroics, the vein of Cancer Bats and Everytime I Die, and SPECIAL KIND OF MADNESS: Fat Lil’s, Samuel Edwards and Phil & Sue. Havoc, from Queensbridge in New York – th pair – Fritz and Reverend Johnson – sound FRIDAY 8 virulent tech/hardcore newcomers Being Witney – Two Tone classics. have worked with the cream of East Coast like a cross between Pantera and David BUNTY + ESTHER JOY LANE + MARY Eugene. DISCO MUTANTES: The Library – Disco, SUNDAY 3rd hip hop, including Jay Z, Nas, Raekwon and Allan Coe, and if it’s not the kind of thing JAMES: The Bullingdon – Rearranged from BOSSAPHONIK: The Cellar – Dancefloor funk, afrobeat and acid house club night. MOBB DEEP: O2 Academy – Slice of life rap 50 Cent, who they enjoyed a Number 1 hit, you’d normally expect to see at a Buried last month: inventive and playfully oddball dub- Latin, Afrobeat, Balkan beats, global grooves from the acclaimed East Coast duo – see main `Outta Control’, with in 2005. They were In Smoke show, the fact that Whiskeydick infused electro-pop from former-Resonators and nu jazz club night, tonight with a live nd preview also sampled by Eminem on 8 Mile. As SATURDAY 2 singer Bunty at tonight’s Tigmus show, the set from 13-strong Balkan and gypsy dance have shared a stage with Honky, Weed Eater MAYFEST: James Street Tavern – Day three WHISKEYDICK + MOTHER CORONA + well as being the twentieth anniversary of singer looping her voice via assorted made-up ensemble The Destroyers, plus host Dan Ofer on and Nashville Pussy shows they can hold of the free bank holiday festival, with sets from INDICA BLUES: The Wheatsheaf – Outlaw `The Infamous’, tonight’s show will be part languages, while throwing all manner of toys, the decks. their own in the heaviest company. Which Rory Evans, r’n’b man Mad Larry, classic pop country heads down metal’s Highway to Hell in of Mobb Deep’s first UK tour in ten years synths, ukuleles and more into a summery and KAIROS 4TET: St John the Evangelist – is good since tonight’s local supports are crew The Shapes, rock’n’rollers Dirty Valuables, Whiskeydick’s acoustic heavyweight world – see and they’ll be performing that classic debut infectious mix that occasionally sounds like a Freewheeling, melodic jazz improv from the Didcot’s Super-heavyweight groove crew rockers Pipeline, punk-pop outfit Strike One, main preview in its entirety, alongside their catalogue of wonderful hybrid of Lily Allen and You Are acclaimed quartet, led by tenor and soprano Mother Corona, and new local stoner-metal metallers Last Rites and blues-rockers Goin’ MAYFEST: James Street Tavern – Second hit singles. In a good month for hip hop Wolf. Great support from new local electro saxophonist Adam Waldmann, managing to outfit Indica Blues, two bands who bring Loud. day of the free bank holiday weekend festival, greats in Oxford, tonight’s show is essential starlet Esther Joy Lane, keeping it trippy in the bridge the gap between crossover success and classic rock sounds into the modern age MOON LEOPARD + BEARD OF DESTINY today with blues from Tom Ivey’s Blues Band listening, and a lesson in the power of rap. style of Grimes. serious jazz credentials, incorporating heavy with extreme force. + RIVERSIDE VOICES + JUKEBOX: and Tony Batey, different shades of folk from INVISIBLE VEGAS: The Wheatsheaf – grooves and elements of world music into their Donnington Community Centre (6pm) – Free Blackthorn, Beware This Boy and Firegazers, Bluesy roadhouse rocking from the local band. complex but accessible sound. evening of acoustic music with Jeremy Hughes’ and Cajun-flavoured space-rock from Cosmosis. THE ONE HUNDRED + THE REAPER + MARTIN CARTHY: The Cornerstone, Didcot Moon Leopard and one-man blues army Beard THOMAS TRUAX + RAINBOW DEAD A THOUSAND TIMES + EVAVOID + – Founding father of the English folk revival of Destiny. RESERVOIR + FACEOMETER: The Cellar BEING EUGENE: The Courtyard, Bicester of the 1960s and still a leading man of UK folk ROCK SOLID + RAISED BY – Thomas Truax is once again the guest of – All-ages gig at Bicester’s Courtyard youth returns to Oxfordshire, a renowned interpreter HYPOCRITES: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Witney’s Pindrop Performances, the eccentric singer and arts centre with London’s frenetic electro-core of traditional tunes, as well as political protest pre-teen rockers – average age just 12 – launch musician well known round these parts for his crew The One Hundred, mixing alt.rock and songs. their debut EP, mixing up anthemic rock and array of bizarre, self-created instruments, like the electronica with rap, supporting Papa Roach and SACK SABBATH: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Black punk. Hornicator, and his richly poetic roots-pop, out Hacktivist on tour last year and now warming up Sabbath tribute. for this year’s Download. Local support comes dread hellcore dynamics, and gothic songsmith ebm club night with residents Doktor Joy and supporting India Electric Company here last Island Records, melding elements of Pharrell, Ed D Gwalia, whose highly atmospheric songs Bookhouse. summer. Sheeran and Jamie Woon. come in somewhere between John Cale and OPEN MIC SESSION: James Street Tavern TERRAFORMS: The Cellar – Drum&bass RED SEAS FIRE + I CRIED WOLF + Sisters of Mercy. club night with Hospital Records’ Logistics, plus DEATH REMAINS: The Wheatsheaf – Big DUB FX: O2 Academy – Hip hop, drum&bass WEDNESDAY 13th Bolo, Greencode, Vyper, Joicy and host MCs KB riffs and electronica from tech-metallers Red Sea and reggae from the Melbourne street artist and THE OXFORD PUNT: Various venues – The and Sandman. Fire, out on tour, with support from Banbury’s producer Benjamin Stanford, whose adherence to annual showcase of Oxford’s best new music – Dillinger-inspired metalcore crew I Cried Wolf. live performance techniques – using live looping see main Punt pullout for details SATURDAY 16th SUPER SQUARECLOUD: The Bullingdon – and effects pedals as well as singing – has earned THE SHAPES + INDICA BLUES + WOOD FESTIVAL: Braziers Park – Bee- Clever, complex, angular and decidedly oddball him word of mouth cult status. CASSELS + WARDENS: The Purple Turtle themed festival funnage from the pre-eminent pop from Swindon’s Super Squarecloud, out BRYAN FERRY: The New Theatre – on tour to promote debut album `Soupeater’, th th THE BALKAN WANDERERS + eco-fest – see main preview rd Friday 15 – Sunday 17 Flamboyant king of glam rock, turned smooth RHYMESKEEMZ & BUNGLE + THE GREASY SLICKS + MONKFISH + drawing admiring comparisons to Deerhoof, Saturday 23 WOOD FESTIVAL: lounge crooner and father to the awful Otis PEERLESS PIRATES + ZAIA: The Cellar COSMOSIS: The Cellar – Mountain-sized Micachu and Heavenly for their playfully crazed returns to town to promote last year’s `Avomore’ GHOSTS IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS + blues riffage, classic rock and funk from mix of twee-pop, electronica, tropical fun and, EX-EASTER ISLAND album, recorded with Ronnie Spector, Nile CAMERON A.G. + LITTLE BROTHER ELI London’s rising stars Greasy Slicks, the band oh yes, meowing. Braziers Park Rodgers, Johnny Marr and Flea, and whose title BEDROCK: The Bullingdon – Skeletor’s HEAD / LEE RILEY: Just as Truck was the modestly- + MAIIANS: The Wheatsheaf taking classic influences like Led Zep, Peter gives you a serious clue that it follows on from MY CROOKED TEETH + KATY JACKSON Green’s Fleetwood Mac, BB King and John Lee monthly rock and metal club night, playing proportioned godfather of small festivals classic Roxy Music album `Avalon’, featuring classics and new releases from across the genre. The Cellar across the land, its younger sibling WOOD + DESPICABLE ZEE + ADAM BARNES: Hooker and giving them a grunge-conscious kick Experimental music can sometimes be an Ferry’s trademark blend of classic covers and Turl Street Kitchen up the rump. Darkly gothic country rocking in CELTIC FIDDLE FESTIVAL: The pioneered eco-friendly boutique weekenders original songs. Cornerstone, Didcot – Ireland’s Kevin Burke, impenetrable trawl and often isn’t even that long before green credentials became de WHITE BEAM + WATER PAGEANT the vein of Lee Hazlewood and Thin White Rope experimental, but Liverpool’s Ex-Easter THE BLUES BROTHERS SHOW: The + ESTHER JOY LANE + RAINBOW from Monkfish, plus Cajun-spiced space-rock Brittany’s Christian Lemaitre and Quebec’s rigeur. Brothers Robin and Joe Bennett Island Head genuinely seem to determined Bullingdon – Live classics from the cult r’n’b RESERVOIR: The White Rabbit from Cosmosis. André Brunet celebrate the global reach of celtic responded to the devastating floods of 2007 to do something new and innovative with musical. WILLIE J HEALEY: The Library – The local JACK GARRAT + BILLIE BLACK: O2 fiddle music. with a festival based on environmentally- rock’s most familiar instrument, the electric VAGUEWORLD + STORYTELLER + singer-songwriter launches his new EP with a Academy – Bass-heavy balladtronica from BREAKER 1-9: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Truckin’ friendly principles, from renewable energy guitar. Whether performing as a massed RUSSIAN COWBOYS + THE AUREATE free gig at The Library. hotly-tipped producer and singer Jack Garratt, greats. sources and organic food to compostable ensemble of guitars and percussion, or as ACT + THE HAZE: The Cellar – It’s All who’s worked with Rick Rubin and signed to JAMES BELL + TROUBLESHORT & toilets and eco workshops and activities. So a stripped-down trio, they explore group About the Music local bands showcase with th TURNIPSEED: The Swan, Ascott-under- music stages, discos and cinema onsite are THURSDAY 14 punk-pop crew Vagueworld, jazz, ska and grunge nd Wychwood – Wychwood Folk Club hosts local interplay, rhythm and repetition through run on solar and cycle power and used chip types Storyteller, funk-pop people Russian THE COOLING PEARLS + THE Friday 22 singer and guitarist James Bell, part of the Half the use of guitars played with mallets, fat, while your food won’t come in a nasty Cowboys, and prog rockers The Aureate Act. FAMILY MACHINE + MAYBUG + TRUE Moon Allstars folk collective. adding assorted effects and additional polystyrene tray. It’s still very much about THE LONDON BULGARIAN CHOIR ADVENTURES: Modern Art Oxford – Divine VIC GODARD & bridges etc. to alter the sounds that emerge. Schism continue their MAO residency with local the music though and this year’s headliners + VOICES UNLIMIITED: St. Barnabas SUBWAY SECT: SUNDAY 17th A series of `Mallet Guitars’ albums has are a strong bunch, particularly Mali’s Church, Jericho – Traditional Bulgarian alt.folksters The Cooling Pearls, mixing a rich, taken that central idea into different romantic Orcadian folk sound with the dark WOOD FESTIVAL: Braziers Park – Final day SONGHOY BLUES, whose debut album, voices choir playing in aid of Hope & Homes The Wheatsheaf of the eco-fest – see main preview musical territories, from hypnotic drone to `Music In Exile’, on Transgressive, is one For Children, with support from English vocal contemplation of Joy Division. They’re joined A night for veterans of the original punk organic ambient music and onto Krautrock, of the best albums to come out of Africa in ensemble Voices Unlimited. by local indie veterans The Family Machine, wars to savour as one of the movement’s Brian Eno, Philip Glass and in particular delicate Bristolian acoustic-popster Maybug and th recent years. The group have toured with EXTRA CURRICULAR: The Cellar – House, greatest if less celebrated prime movers MONDAY 18 Steve Reich being the touchstones of Norfolk folksters True Adventures. VIRGIL & THE ACCELERATORS + Damon Albarn and collaborated with Yeah garage, and bass club night with Cropper, Remi returns to town. Vic Godard was the their polyrhythmic meditations. As far as TORN LIKE COLOURS + GET LOOSE HELL’S GAZELLES: The Bullingdon – Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner after being forced and Djenga. original wave of punk’s overlooked hero, contemporary experimentalism goes, it’s + CHRIS GILLETT: The Bell, Bicester – Hard rocking, riff-heavy blues-rock and classic to flee their homeland by Islamic extremists. BREEZE: Fat Lil’s, Witney possessed of a more poetic leaning than extremely inclusive. Local dronemeister Grungy pub rocking and girl band balladry from rock’n’roll from the young band discovered by They’re joined by restless, inventive THE PETE FRYER BAND: The Red Lion, most of his contemporaries; he played the Lee Riley, meanwhile adds his own local rockers Torn Like Colours at tonight’s Otis Grand when Virgil was only 12 years old folksters TUNNG, and London’s delicate Eynsham 1976 100 Club festival with The Clash, The exploration of guitar music’s darkest Strummerroom promotions, plus blues rocking and subsequently mentored by Joe Bonamassa 60s-flavoured indie folk and Americana NIKKI LOY: The Ashton Club, Bicester – Pistols and The Banshees, but Subway Sect borders, lurking in the shadows between from Get Loose. as well as touring with Joanne Shaw-Taylor. crew TREETOP FLYERS atop a bill that First of a handful of shows around the county’s THE PETE FRYER BAND: The Wheatsheaf manager Bernie Rhodes sacked the entire Inspired by the likes of Led Zep, ZZ Top and soothing ambience and a sense of dread, also features SPIRO, CC SMUGGLERS, less travelled gig venues for Nikki this month, – Free gig in the downstairs bar from the veteran band on the eve of their debut album, which Alvin Lee, theirs is a frenetic but cleverly with often disorientating volume one of his DUOTONE, DREAMING SPIRES; the singer playing piano ballads and jazzy soul local bluesman. was subsequently lost to the world, and a textured take on classic sounds. Support from chief musical weapons. JALI FILY CISSOKHO, TAMARA stompers in the vein of Paloma Faith. SUPERMARKET: The Cellar – Pop, disco, lack of recorded material meant they never High Wycombe’s teenage heavy rockers Hell’s PARSONS-BAKER, GILL SANDELL & UK garage and 90s house club night. got their dues. Godard subsequently formed Gazelles. th CHRIS TT, THOMAS TRUAX, JOHN SUNDAY 10th a new band around himself, exploring WEDNESDAY 20 CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford CHRIS AND KELLIE WHILE: Nettlebed DECOVO + PUPPET MECHANIC + THE JOSEPH BRILL and BRICKWORK THURSTON MOORE: O2 Academy – That Community Centre rock’n’roll, rockabilly and Ratpack chic Folk Club – The veteran folk singer and former- LIZARDS. Loads more besides, from there Sonic Yoof fretmeister brings his solo long before it became fashionable to do AUGUST LIST + RAYZO: The Wheatsheaf OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon Albion Band frontwoman reunites with daughter – Indie-funk and grungy riffage between campfire sing-alongs to junk craft and talks, album to the Oxford stage – see main preview ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Jude the Obscure so, and, increasingly disillusoned, retired Kellie for an intimate show at Nettlebed’s plus this year’s festival has been designated GRANDMA’S HANDS + COSMOSIS + from music to become a postie in the 1980s. Foals and Biffy Clyro from Decovo, alongside BLUES JAM: Ampleforth Arms, Risinghurst famous folk club. indie-Americana types Puppet Mechanic and the Year of the Bee, so don your finest THE BOATERS BOX + MATT SEWELL Reissues of those rare early Subway Sect SOFAR SOUNDS: Combibo Coffee, backwoods porch folk from the excellent August yellow and black striped jumper and buzz & JULES MOSS + THE JESTERS: The recording, though, reignitied interested in a th Gloucester Green – Secret gigs in unusual List. off down to Braziers. Wheatsheaf (3pm) – Klub Kakofanney host FRIDAY 15 man who was musically well ahead of his WOOD FESTIVAL: Braziers Park – Opening venues from Sofar Sounds. Instead of the venue BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE: The Cellar an afternoon of free live music in the Sheaf’s time and Godard came out of retirement day of the annual eco-friendly festival, with being secret this month, it’s the line-up they’re SPARKY’S JAM NIGHT: The James Street th downstairs bar. to play in bands alongside Mark Perry and SATURDAY 9 Tunng, Songhoy Blues and Treetop Flyers hiding from us. Join their mailing list to find out Tavern – Open mic and jam night. Paul Cook before returning to re-record UNDERSMILE + EARTHMASS + D headlining, plus the usual array of live music, more. MONDAY 11th those old lost songs and is now a prolific GWALIA: The Wheatsheaf – Undersmile play workshops, discos, cinema and more – see main st their first, and possibly last, Oxford gig this year, FAIRPORT CONVENTION: Nettlebed Folk songwriter as well as an enduring cult hero th THURSDAY 21 preview TUESDAY 19 JP HARRIS & THE TOUGH CHOICES: following the release of their second album, Club – The Godfathers of English folk-rock whose influence is better appreciated than NOVANA: O2 Academy – Yes, we have no JAZZ CLUB with GUITAR SUMMIT: The The Bullingdon – Honky tonk ballads, barroom `Anhedonia’, whose meaning – the inability return to the intimate setting of Nettlebed’s ever. vanas. Bullingdon – Jazz guitar fun at tonight’s weekly anthems and old time country from Nashville’s to experience happiness – is a neat reflection historic folk club. PEERLESS PIRATES + THE SECATEURS jazz club. fantastically beardy JP Harris, the much-travelled of the Witney quartet’s monolithic doom THE TEDDY WHITE BAND: The Jericho + THE MILITARY ACADEMY + 31 ROCKSOC: The Wheatsheaf – University troubadour bringing back the classic roots side onslaught, taking the downtuned, tectonic noise Tavern – Upbeat Louisiana-style r’n’b and HOURS: The Wheatsheaf – Rollicking indie rock society night with live bands. of country on acclaimed new album `Home Is of Earth, Swans and Codeine and giving them boogie at tonight’s Famous Monday Blues. and rockabilly fun from seafaring local stars CHILI & THE WHALE KILLERS + Where The Hurt Is’, and playing as part of the a haunted dollhouse makeover. The album was Peerless Pirates, taking The Smiths on a high SVAVA: Art Jericho – Tigmus host Icelandic- build-up to this year’s Halfway to 75 Americana a doom masterpiece without question and live th TUESDAY 12 seas adventure, with much grog to fuel the fun. Austrian upbeat power-pop outfit Chili & festival in July. Undersmile are one of the most uncompromising JAZZ CLUB with BIG COLOURS: The Scuzzy garage rock, post-punk and indie rocking the Whalekillers, out on tour to promote new AS IT IS + THIS WILD LIFE + SEAWAY + bands on the planet and you should worship Bullingdon – The Bully’s free weekly jazz club support from Secateurs. mini-album `A Dot in the Sky’. Atmospheric BOSTON MANOR: O2 Academy – Whiny, them. Support tonight comes from Essex doom/ hosts local 16-strong jazz big band Big Colours. THE PORTRAITS: The Cornerstone, Didcot dreampop support from Sweden’s Svava. wimpy, laughingly self-described pop-punk sludge terrorisers Earthmass with their creeping INTRUSION: The Cellar – Goth, industrial and – The folk duo return to the Cornerstone after OPEN MIC SESSION: James Street Tavern slurry from Brighton’s As It Is, out on tour to inflict debut album `Never Happy Ever After’ toured with Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden on our children. Support from the ironically- and Monster Magnet and released three albums NIGHTSHIFT presents named This Wild Life, California’s acoustic on Creation before singing to Geffen and OXFORD PUNT 2015 rockers who are the musical equivalent of a splitting in 1999. Having reformed in 2008, they mug of weak, milky tea round at Bring Me The now feature former Supergrass bassist Mick Horizon’s house. Crazy times in the moshpit Quinn in their ranks, and in the wake of Ride’s tonight, people. rapturously-received reunion, it’s a good chance HODGEPODGE: The Cellar – Beatbox, loops to reacquaint yourself with another of Oxford’s and sax club night with Mr Woodnote & Lil formative acts. Rhys featuring Eva Lazarus. VIC GODARD & SUBWAY SECT + LES CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford CLOCHARDS: The Wheatsheaf – Cult punk Community Centre hero and postie Vic keeps the magic alive – see Friday 29th Oxford Punt OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon main preview ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Jude the Obscure BLOODY KNUCKLES: The Bullingdon – TINARIWEN: BLUES JAM: Ampleforth Arms, Risinghurst Classic house club night. FREEFALL: Fat Lil’s, Witney Oxford Town Hall FRIDAY 22nd Plenty of rock bands might think they’re SWERVEDRIVER: O2 Academy – One of SATURDAY 23rd hard, but they’d fall to the floor weeping Oxford’s original breakout bands return to town EX EASTER ISLAND HEAD: The Cellar – like babies if they had to face the hardships for the first time since 2009, promoting their first Hitting guitars with mallets with surprisingly Mali’s Tinariwen have gone through to get album in 17 years, following a tour of the States. pleasant results – see main preview to their current level of global recognition. From their origins as Stooges and MC5-inspired DEATH OF HI-FI + HALF DECENT + They are a collective – not really a band – 2015 garage rockers Shake Appeal, the band remain TIGER MENDOZA + KID KIN: The Jericho born out of the nomadic Tuareg people’s local heroes, guitarists Adam Franklin and Tavern – Quality line-up of local hip hop and battle for independence and come from the Jimmy Hartridge, along with bassist Adie Vines, electronica at tonight’s Strummerroom Project deserts that are ruled by rebel warlords. formed the band back in the 1980 and were show. Witney’s DOHF bring a sci-fi sensibility They’re tough old cookies for sure. Their th signed to Creation after Ride’s Mark Gardener to hard-edged hip hop, sultry trip hop and old music, by contrast, is a warm, psychedelic presented Alan McGee with a demo of `Son of skool rave. Machine gun rap delivery from Half mix of ancient desert roots music and Wednesday 13 May Mustang Ford’, a collision of Sonic Youth and Decent; industrial hip hop and atmospheric western blues and rock, with nods to Dinosaur Jr with nascent shoegazing noise. They techno from Tiger Mendoza, plus volume-heavy Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Santana and King shoegaze and electro ambience from Kid Kin. Tubby. Having attracted attention from the BLOODSTOCK MUSIC TO THE MASSES outside world with their appearances at the Twenty acts - five venues - one night th Thursday 28 SEMI-FINAL II: The Bullingdon – Second Mali desert festival, they released their debut semi-final to win a slot at Bloodstock Festival. album proper, `Radio Tisdas Sessions’, DE LA SOUL: EXTRA CURRICULAR: The Cellar in 2001 and played at WOMAD Festival. WAM: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Ska punk covers. Over the years the collective’s music has The year’s best showcase of new Oxford music O2 Academy NIKKI LOY: The Elm Tree, Witney leaned further and further into classic Back in the late-1980s, as hip hop was British and American blues, until 2009’s taking the sounds of the street onto the th `Imidi: Companions’, where they returned to global stage, led by the firebrand Public SUNDAY 24 their roots, all spaced-out grooves, drones, Enemy, De La Soul introduced an element OZRIC TENTACLES: O2 Academy – First THE PURPLE TURTLE THE WHEATSHEAF THE WHITE RABBIT chants and ululations that capture the eerie of playful rebellion into proceedings by visit to town for many years from the long- atmosphere of their homeland. Given the The Tony Jezzard Stage 8pm GHOSTS IN THE 8.30 WHITE BEAM insisting on spreading good vibes and standing instrumental space-rockers, still led by guitarist Ed Wynne, who formed at Stonehenge nebulous state of the group, what you see on bringing the party at every opportunity. the night dictates what you here, although 7pm THE SHAPES PHOTOGRAPHS 9.30 WATER PAGEANT As rapper David Jude Jolicoeur so wisely Free Festival in 1983 and have gone on to sell over a million albums worldwide despite never with founder Ibrahim Ag Alhabib (who 8pm 9pm 10.30 states, “It don’t mean shit if you don’t made his first guitar out of a tin can, a stick INDICA BLUES CAMERON A.G. ESTHER JOY party,” and it’s a message they kept to having a record contract. Influenced by Gong, Steve Hillage and Hawkwind originally, they’ve and bicycle brake wire) present, they’ll 9pm CASSELS 9.45 LITTLE BROTHER ELI LANE since their massive world wide hit debut hopefully be at their psychedelic best. album `Three Feet High & Rising’, earning taken in elements of trance, psychedelia, dub and eastern traditional music along the way, 10pm WARDENS 10.30 MAIANS 11.30 RAINBOW themselves the tag of daisy age rappers. becoming possibly the quintessential festival Nine albums in, including their new `And UNLIMITED: The Bullingdon – Trad jazz, band. `Technicians of the Sacred’, their 29th RESERVOIR The Anonymous Nobody’, the party keeps bop and swing from veteran clarinettist Alvin album, is out now. on going, Jolicoeur alongside Kelvin Mercer Roy and his Reeds Unlimited at tonight’s weekly CANTALOUPE + MODEL VILLAGE + THE CELLAR Turl Street Kitchen and DJ Vincent Mason, remaining a tight jazz club. ALNEGATOR: The Wheatsheaf – Upbeat unit, one that isn’t afraid to goof around on OPEN MIC SESSION: James Street Tavern 7.30 BALKAN WANDERERS 8pm MY CROOKED The Oxford Punt runs from 7pm instrumental electronica from Nottingham’s stage and have an actual laugh. Add to that through to midnight, starting at the Cantaloupe, drawing on Krautrock, kosmiche, th 8.15 RHYMESKEEMZ & TEETH their eclectic approach to sampling – from disco and Afropop for their lively sound. Indie- WEDNESDAY 27 Purple Turtle and finishing at the Funkadelic to Liberace – and a cheery pop- folk support from Cambridge’s Model Village. SLAID CLEAVES: The Bullingdon – Good BUNGLE 9pm KATY JACKSON White Rabbit. Entry to each venue friendly take on jazzy hip hop and it’s easy DESMOND CHANCER & THE LONG natured country-folk from the Texan songsmith is £5, except Turl Street Kitchen and to see how they stood out against more MEMORIES + CLARK WISEMAN + at tonight’s Empty Room show, the veteran 9.15 PEERLESS PIRATES 10pm DESPICABLE ZEE White Rabbit, which are free. political golden age protagonists, and why SEAN BROOKES: The Jam Factory – Gutter singer over in the UK to tour `Still Fighting they became such a huge global success. blues and jazz in the style of Tom Waits from the War’, his twelfth album in a 20 year career, 10.15 ZAIA 11pm ADAM BARNES Cos who’s gonna say no to a party? Desmond Chancer. inspired by country and folk greats like Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash as well th as Bruce Springsteen. MONDAY 25 INDIANA: O2 Academy – Wispy, minimalist, ALL-VENUE PUNT PASSES ON SALE NOW JAMES ARTHUR: O2 Academy – The 2012 slightly trippy electro-pop from Nottingham’s Only 100 available. £8 (+ booking fee) from Truck Store X-Factor winner continues to stretch his fifteen Lauren Henson, out on tour to promote her minutes to breaking point. recent Top 20 debut album, `No Romeo’, DELLO GRANT + STEAMROLLER: The following last year’s hit single, `Solo Dancing’, Jericho Tavern – Famous Monday Blues show. inspired by Joanna Newsom and Gary Numan, while leaning towards Portishead and Lykke Li TUESDAY 26th at times. JAZZ CLUB with ALVIN ROY & REEDS DOUBLE EXPERIENCE + SINFICTION Nightshiftmag.co.uk The Oxford Punt 2015 - who, what and where THE PURPLE TURTLE THE CELLAR TURL STREET KITCHEN (The Tony Jezzard Stage) The Cellar was Oxford’s chief contribution to this year’s Independent Venue Week, and Intimacy is the order of the day at Turl Street Kitchen, The Punt’s quieter with good reason – the subterranean gig room celebrated 40 years of live music last year venue but home to a whole sackful of soul in the form of four solo artists of The Purple Turtle is where we traditionally kick off Punt and the spirit of rock and roll is so ingrained into the building’s brickwork that it will very different styles, if very similar high quality. MY CROOKED TEETH proceedings, and where traditionally everything falls apart and remain for all eternity. The Cellar has built its reputation on its eclectic, open approach is the solo work of Jack Olchawski, who may be more familiar as the needs gluing back together at the last minute before rocking to music, and so it’s appropriate tonight it hosts a genre-mashing bill that kicks off frontman with cinematic country-rockers ToLiesel, but in this guise he offers off on its crazy musical journey through the night. It’s also the with some dancefloor-busting Eastern European folk in the form ofTHE BALKAN a more intricate and idiosyncratic take on those rootsy sounds, songs that Tony Jezzard stage. Why? Tony Jezzard was a legendary local WANDERERS, whose trad sounds come spiked with punk, ska and indie influences, to sound charmingly heartbroken. Possibly the youngest performer at this year’s sound engineer and guitarist as well as a mentor to local young make damn sure your dancing shoes will be smokin’ by the end of their set. And after Punt is Banbury’s only-just-18-years-old KATY JACKSON, a girl and a musicians. Tony did the sound for us at pretty much every that we’re off into the world of classic hip hop in the company of RHYMESKEEMZ & guitar, but so much more, possessed of a rather wonderful voice that sounds Punt since it started in 1997. Sadly he passed away in 2013, BUNGLE, the rapper/producer duo’s slick, sharp, stripped-down style having its roots like it’s lived through many more than those tender years but pure as a freshly and we wanted to remember his presence at the Punt. Tony in hip hop’s golden age as well as the best of the UK underground, all wrapped up with plucked pearl. Another familiar face playing in an unfamiliar set-up is Zahra was a huge fan of volume abuse; he played loud and liked a sense of fun that’s infectious. Fun being something PEERLESS PIRATES were born Tehrani, who brings her DESPICABLE ZEE project to the live arena for others to do the same, so in his honour we’ve gathered some to spread. If The Smiths had got the girl, and the grog, and been pirates, and starred in the first time ever. The one-time Baby Gravy drummer, and Young Women’s of the noisiest bands on this year’s Punt. We’ve also got THE spaghetti westerns then they might have sounded like Peerless Pirates. And really, if Music Project co-ordinator has long been at the forefront of Oxford’s SHAPES, the band Tony was playing with right up to the end, that isn’t your idea of fun, you probably died of scurvy sometime in the 18th Century. hip hop scene and with Despicable Zee, Zahra mixes electronics and live and they will doubtless be a worthy tribute in their own right as Still, if you’ve stowed away on Peerless Pirates’ galleon maybe you’ll wash up on some instrumentation into a trippy, atmospheric soundscape that brings in samples they open the Punt with a lively blend of 60s-flavoured r’n’b, sunkissed tropical beach where ZAIA are hosting an all-night reggae party, which isn’t and maybe even some guest live vocals to create the dark, edgy ambience soulful rock and new wave pop that’s seen them compared to far off what the expansive local troupe are doing tonight, taking this particular leg of the of urban twilight. ADAM BARNES is a man with a heart full of soul, the Van Morrison, Squeeze and Elvis Costello. Ratcheting up the Punt into the wee small hours on the back of some seriously laidback party grooves and a singer / guitarist’s simple, sombre songs reflective and plaintive and often volume immediately after will be INDICA BLUES, half of whole lotta soul. Don’t say we don’t treat you proper right on Punt night. utterly beautiful, managing to balance melancholy with an uplifting feel in the fall-out from the demise of the mighty Caravan of Whores. The Balkan Wanderers – 7.30; Rhymeskeemz & Bungle – 8.15; Peerless Pirates – 9.15; the vein of Ray LaMontagne and Bon Iver. Adam is also possessed of almost You want riffs as big as mountains? They got riffs as big as Zaia – 10.15 certainly the finest beard on this year’s Punt, and that’s up against some stiff mountains. Fans of Led Zep, Sabbath, Electric Wizard and competition given that our friend Spike Holifield is doing the sound at the Blue Cheer will find much good cheer here. Less monolithic Turl Street Kitchen tonight. but no less noisy are fast-rising teen duo CASSELS, trying My Crooked Teeth – 8pm; Katy Jackson – 9pm; Despicable Zee – 10pm; to undo all the harm David Cameron, Rebekah Brooks and Adam Barnes – 11pm Jeremy Clarkson have done to the reputation of Chipping Norton in recent times. Taking the spirit of Joy Division for a bruising ride down Drenge and Slaves’ militant post-punk, they’re modern malcontents with a message, and they’re gonna spread it at top volume. Musical bruises too courtesy of 5 WARDENS, a band to whom the word solid could easily be 4 applied. That’s not solid as in safe pub rock solid, but solid as in if you drove a bus into them the bus would collapse like an 12 undercooked soufflé on impact. Queens of the Stone-Age with the niceties filleted and replaced by iron girders. Yes they are. The Shapes – 7pm; Indica Blues – 8pm; Cassels – 9pm; 3 Wardens – 10pm

THE WHITE RABBIT The White Rabbit has been part of the Punt for just two years but we can’t 1 - The Purple Turtle 4 - Turl Street Kitchen imagine ending the night anywhere else these days. Its intimate gig space perfect for creating a great atmosphere as the party reaches its peak. With 2 - The Cellar 5 - The White Rabbit assorted local musician types involved in the running of it, this family-owned 3 - The Wheatsheaf pub is as welcoming as you can hope for. A good place to see WHITE BEAM then, fronted as they are by something of a Punt veteran in Jeremy Leggett who by our calculations is celebrating his Punt hat-trick tonight. His place is well earned, though, as White Beam, his new band, kick some life THE WHEATSHEAF back into the beast that is indie rock, harking back to 80s alt.rock acts like The Wheatsheaf is, alongside the Cellar, one of the two mighty pillars that hold up the roof of the The Chameleons and Comsat Angels at times – harmonies, reverb and plenty Oxford music scene, and something of a second home to many Nightshift scribes who can often be of shimmering guitars; indie rock as God intended it. WATER PAGEANT found draped or slumped over one of its many sticky surfaces, and we’ll probably come back to describe themselves as the offspring of Kate Bush and Tom Waits and boast haunt the place when we die. Maybe we’ll come back as GHOSTS IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS a Christchurch chorister in their ranks, which should be enough to pique any in that case, though the wailing of the undead would doubtless be drowned out by the noise storm music lover’s interest, and the trio’s rich, warm mix of folk and chamber pop of this particular band whose shoegazey fuzzstorm comes by way of jarring post-rock that’s invited doesn’t disappoint. In fact you might love them so much you’ll want to have comparisons to the mighty Godspeed You! Black Emperor already for their debut single, `Our offspring with the band by the end of their set. Now that’d be a Punt love story Memories Are Here To Haunt You’. Haunted by memories being something CAMERON A.G. to recount in years to come. And in years to come you can tell people you almost certainly is if his delicately desolate acoustic songs are anything to go by. Once a tub-thumping saw ESTHER JOY LANE here tonight before she was famous. Very much sticksman for rock beasts like Warhen and The Delta Frequency, now he carves out monuments to a newcomer on the local scene, Esther has already found herself handpicked melancholy that exist wraith-like between Thom Yorke and Jonsi from Sigur Ros. And mighty pretty to play alongside Stornoway at Independent Venue Week, her bass-heavy all that sadness is. Earthier by far are LITTLE BROTHER ELI, a band who once found themselves electro/r’n’b drawing admiring comparisons to Grimes, Jessie Ware and even in Nightshift’s Demo Dumper but dusted themselves down and got good. Better than good. These boys Sade and winning some serious fans in the BBC Introducing office. And, have got the blues, and dirt under their fingernails, like White Denim living in a Mississippi shack finally, rounding off the Punt for another year are RAINBOW RESERVOIR, and hosting whisky parties for Jack White. You should join them for a dram or five. By which time a band centred around American ex-pat singer Angela Space who emit the sort you should be in a fit state to dance the rest of the evening away to MAIIANS, though a few Tequila of feelgood vibes every party should end on, punchy cheerleader pop-punk Sunrises or a very fat spliff might be more in order as the double drummer-propelled electro-groovers and quirky anti-folk that finds a pleasingly uneasy meeting point between Ben take a turn off Kraftwerk’s Autobahn and along a winding Ibiza coastal road with Holy Fuck blasting Folds, Moldy Peaches and Le Tigre. As you wander off into the night, you will out of the stereo. Where this trip takes you is anyone’s guess, but believe us, you won’t want to come have a smile as wide as Frideswide Square, guaranteed. back down. White Beam – 8.30; Water Pageant – 9.30; Esther Joy Lane – 10.30; Ghosts in the Photographs – 8pm; Cameron A.G. – 9pm; Little Brother Eil – 9.45; Maiians – 10.30 Rainbow Reservoir – 11.30. Hello and welcome to this year’s Oxford Punt. bit more about the fantastic work both institutions carry out. This is the bit where we try to explain what it’s all about to those of you what We are also able to remember a very good friend of The Punt, and Oxford music haven’t been to a Punt before. If you have, and we know some of you have been in general. The Purple Turtle is, once again, The Tony Jezzard Stage. Tony did coming back for years and even look forward to it, then please skip this bit: you’ll the sound for us at the Punt pretty much every year from its beginnings and he only start getting a sense of déjà vu, when what you should be getting is a nice, cold liked a bit of volume, did Tony, so in his memory we’re putting some of the very pint of something dangerous from the bar before you poddle off round town having loudest acts on at the Turtle in the hope Tony can hear them up there as we raise a the time of your life. We’ll have two large gins and two pints of cider, ice in the glass to his memory. cider, since you’re asking. The best way to get the most out of the Punt is to get yourself an all-venue Punt For those of you less familiar with the concept, the Oxford Punt started off in 1997 Pass. There are only 100 of these available and they’re a mere £8 (plus a quid or as a way of showcasing the best up and coming unsigned acts in Oxfordshire in so booking fee), which is a bargain when you consider just how many acts you one night. Because we know it’s hard sometimes to keep up with everything. Just could potentially see. You can get one from Truck Store on Cowley Road, or looking at the gig guide every month can make you feel dizzy – so much to see, so Blackwell’s Music on Broad Street. Support local independent businesses while little time. So we have the Punt, so you don’t have to turn up at half seven every you’re about it. time you go to a gig in the hope of catching the next big thing in town, unless your If you don’t get a pass, don’t worry, you can pay on the door at any of the name is Leon Stiles, in which case that’s exactly the kind of thing you enjoy doing. venues. It’s only a fiver each, while Turl Street Kitchen and The White Rabbit are We won’t go over the list of great Oxford bands who have cut their teeth at the Punt free. This here handy pullout guide can be your friend for the evening, guiding over the past 18 years again, suffice to say it’s where reputations can be made, and you through the myriad musical styles on offer. Please don’t buy your Punt guide there have been some spectacular shows from those nascent stars. a pint though – we know from experience it can’t take its drink. This year’s Punt will not only showcase what’s fun and brilliant about new Oxford Think that’s all. Let’s be off shall we – lots of music to hear, stuff to discover music, it will also benefit a couple of excellent local causes: all profits will be split and new favourite bands to love. Plus there’s already a queue for the bar and all equally between Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital in Haddenham, and the Oxford this enthusing is making us thirsty. Have a fantastic Punt, may all your musical Sexual Abuse & Rape Crisis Centre, and we hope you will endeavour to learn a dreams come true.

11pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm

Purple Turtle The Indica Cassels Wardens The Tony Jezzard Stage Shapes Blues

Rhyme- Cellar Balkan skeemz & Peerless Zaia Wanderers Bungle Pirates Ghosts Little in the Cameron Maiians Wheatsheaf Brother Eli Photographs A.G.

Turl St Kitchen My Crooked Katy Despicable Adam Teeth Jackson Zee Barnes

White Rabbit White Water Esther Joy Rainbow Beam Pageant Lane Reservoir Magazine andmay notbereproduced withoutpermission. tions. Emaillistings [email protected]. All listingsare copyright Nightshift Nightshift listings are free. Deadline forinclusionisthe20thof eachmonth-noexcep Carterton NIKKI LOY: The Cotswold Arms, Double Experience. vaguely NicklebackveinfromOttowa’s Wheatsheaf –Hoary, heavyrockingina + FLUORITEPIPELINE: The taking in West African hi-life,funkand is theUK’s chiefambassadorfor Afrobeat, Bossaphonik’s tenthbirthdaybash.Sosimi for DeleSosimiafterhisappearanceat night, tonightfeaturingareturnvisit beats, worldgroovesandnujazzclub The Bullingdon–Latinjazz,Balkan SOSIMI AFROBEATORCHESTRA: BOSSAPHONIK presents THE DELE Tom Pettyand Alex Chiltonalongthe way. favourable comparisonstoRayDavies, punk andhiphopattimes,earning mixing upblues,country, rock’n’roll, for hisunwillingnesstoplayitsafe,while praise rathermorethancommercialsuccess Williams sincegoing solo,earningcritical Richman, Warren ZevonandLucinda master havingplayedalongsideJonathan tonight’s EmptyRoomshow, the Telecaster Green OnRedfrontmanChuckProphetat town forcult Americana heroandformer- EXPRESS: The Bullingdon– A returnto CHUCK PROPHET & THE MISSION Risinghurst JAM: AmpleforthArms, BLUES Obscure ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Judethe OPEN MICSESSION: The HalfMoon Community Centre CATWEAZLE CLUB:EastOxford favourites. melancholic alt.countryfromthelocal Fat Lil’s, Witney – Alternately epicand THE EPSTEIN+PAUL McLURE: Replacements, andHuskerDuattimes. like Firehose, The Descendants, The the Monthers,lookingbackto80sbands Tenth Listen,recentNightshiftDemoof tonight intheformoflocalskate-punks free gignightcontinuestobringthenoise, The Library– The Library’s monthly SMASH DISCOwith TENTH LISTEN: party vibes–seemainpreview Age hiphopheroescontinuetobringthe DE LA SOUL:O2 Academy –TheDaisy inviting themtoopenfor The Raconteurs. fan, havingproducedthebandaswell American rootsmusic.Jack White isabig for breathingnewlifeintotraditional revivalist LaFarge, who’s drawnacclaim and countryfromStLouisstringband swing, earlyjazz,ragtimeblues,bluegrass POKEY LA FARGE: O2 Academy –Hot album, `FourBerryJam’. local electricbluesmanMattEdward’s new The HavenClubhoststhelaunchpartyfor MATT EDWARDS: The Bullingdon– THURSDAY 28 FRIDAY 29 th th Open bluesjam. BLUES JAM:FatLil’s, Witney (3pm)– Festival. building uptothissummer’s Cropredy from thegodfathersofEnglishfolk-rock, Cornerstone, Didcot–Intimateshow FAIRPORTCONVENTION: The Street Tavern THE MIGHTY REDOX: The James Maczewa plusresidents. – Techno, houseandgroovewithKamil EXTRA CURRICULAR: The Cellar Workshop. Detroit technoandtheRadiophonic drawing inspirationfrom Art ofNoise, ambient electronicprojectSpectra, members ofSwindlestock,plusone-man side projectJEEP, thebandalsofeaturing against Ant Kellyfrom The Shapes’ new angular grungeandhardcorenoiseup and match,tonightpittingSugarDarling’s monthly musicsessionscontinuestomix – GTI’sSPECTRA: TheWheatsheaf with SUGARDARLING+JEEP + GAPPY TOOTHINDUSTRIES MacKeeman andhisoutfit roots musicfromCanadianfiddler Memorial Hall,Uffington–Old-time RHYTHM BOYS: Thomas Hughes GORDIE MacKEEMAN&HIS Kenny JonesaswellPP Arnold. having previouslybeenjoinedonstageby the groundsof Abingdon UtdFC,theband launching anewvenuefor Abingdon on Abingdon – Tribute to The SmallFaces, SMALL FAKERS: The Northcourt, Other DramasandKieran Alexis. Peerless Pirates,plus The SkaMysers, The guests, includinglocalpiratepopheroes It’s All About theMusichostOspreyand Corridor –Swashbucklingsoireewith OSPREY’S PIRATE SOIREE: The at thisyear’s OxfordPunt. singer-songwriter, freshfromhisshowing Didcot –Soulfulheartbreakfromthelocal ADAM BARNES: The Cornerstone, plus classicmetalfromlocals13Burning. up between The Ramonesand Airbourne, sounding likeJoanJettcheerleadingabust- kicking outtheold-schoolriffage and birthday partygig,Scotland’s Amorettes Wheatsheaf –ClassicrockingatOxRox’s SERTRALINE+ TOADSTOOL: The THE AMORETTES +13BURNING main preview Mali’s nomadicpsych-rockersreturn–see TINARIWEN: Oxford Town Hall– where epicfour-hour setsarethenorm. and freshfromtheirHackneyresidency band, signedtothehip WahWah45s label legendary FelaKutibeforeleadinghisown Dele playedforsevenyearswiththe jazz, tocreatearichlypolyrhythmicmusic. SATURDAY 30 SUNDAY 31 st th http://www.thegreasyslicks.co.uk/

Oxford Frewin Court The Cellar Bar from Monkfish With support roll. based rock and Stonking blues £ 6 .00

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photo: Pat Loughnane at fever pitch fromthemoment could theynot? Anticipation was about Oxfordmusic forever;how age in1989,changing everything in thevenuewheretheycameof came toanabrupthaltin1996 going torelaunchacareerthat Ofcoursethebandwerealways home. back. Ridereallyhavecome proclamation ofjoy;Rideare overflows intoasingleecstatic of emotionfromthepackedhouse sings “I’mgoinghome”. A well tune `OX4’ whenMarkGardener in theband’s saunteringsignature chiming finale,butatthatpoint Blind’ kicksbackintoitsglorious, cacophonous breakdownof`Drive magical momentwhenthecrazed, of acentury–norevenforthat first timeonthisstageinaquarter when Ridearriveonstage–their and rawexcitement,comesnot night awashwithpride,nostalgia The biggestcheertonight,ona O2 Academy RIDE LIVE ferocious rockenergy thathad moment, anonward rushof this mission,Ride’s Motorhead coda `Tarantula’, breakswith point fromtheirdisappointing Nite Crash’,asingularhigh `Going Blank Again’, only`Black first twoalbums,`Nowhere’ and Ride’s classicearlyEPsand almost exclusivelydrawnfrom Tonight’s setis,aspromised, `Chelsea Girl’ 90minuteslater. coated cherryblossomshimmerof sense oflonging,totheshrapnel- withitssoaring of `PolarBear’, triumph fromtheopeningnotes but thisisnothingshortof the riskofbeingadisappointment, at the end. Reunions alwaysrun the crowddissolvesintonight as awarmbuzzofexhilaration the showunfolds,untilitmanifests anticipation thatbarelysubsidesas them aboutthisinvite-onlygig, April Fools’ Dayemailtelling members received an fanclub amid ablizzard ofstrobe lights Blind’ isasunbeambulldozer of gloriousnoise, while`Drive icicle notesand wave upon last 25yearswithitscascadeof of themostinfluentialsongs the for shoegazeanddreampop,one increasingly feelslikegroundzero debt toMyBloody Valentine with itsscouring,pitch-bending magic. `DreamsBurnDown’, set crammedwithmemoriesand `Chrome Waves’, twinpeaksofa alongside thesci-filovestoryof `Paralysed’ astatelylament,sat Bell’s solemn,almosthymnal to thrillalloveragain– Andy and halfforgotten, returning away, songsthatarebothfamiliar of 25yearsagohasnevergone but otherwise,it’s liketheRide the nervy, wiredenergy onstage experience hastemperedsomeof they oncewere,andmaturity The fringesarelessfloppy than started tofadebythatpoint.

Dale Kattack Once again,watch themrise. Ridearehome; Ride areback. embrace. melody lockedinpassionate harmony, sheernoiseandpure limits,” chantMarkand Andy in skywards. “We knowthere’s no the yearsandbloombillow bristle onceagainasRiderollback hairs onthebackofyourneck squall of`Seagull’ thatmakesthe Insteadit’s theheady tumbleand like intheolddays. 20-minute versionof`Nowhere’ close thesetwithanexcoriating minor gripewehaveistheydon’t but it’s araremishit,and theonly feels slightlystiltedandawkward, psychedelia. `Time ofHer Time’ in thedelicatemelodiesandgiddy Beatles andStoneRosesevident spangle, theband’s lovefor The Daydream’ arealljangleand `Twisterella’ and`Likea feedback. Bycontrast and photo: Marc West Marc photo: photo:Jack-Lewis Harvey Charlidoesn’t carewhatshe lookslikeon stage. Herdancing isenergetic, Bow Wow Wow influence. track familiar, while`BreakingUp’ and`Bodyof MyOwn’ display adistinct at them twenty years ago will find the Shampoo vs Republica vibe of the title the wayofapunkierpopsound,and thosewhohadthissortofthingthrown `Sucker’ isapparentlyanattempttogivegirlsasenseofempowermentby of LondonandManchester–and, indeed,theO2 Academy isn’t full. how manypeoplewouldturnuptonight asshedoesn’t usuallyplayoutside Ora, andsongson YA filmadaptation soundtracks,shesaysdidn’t know despite fourtoptenhitstodate,collaborations withIggy Azalea andRita withthis,herfirstfulltour.the UKreleaseofherthird(`Sucker’) However, work onitwiththenowubiquitous Ariel Rechtshaid,andisaccompanying signed in2010,delayedhersecondalbum(`True Romance’)until2013to Charlotte Aitchison startedworkonher(unreleased)firstalbumat14,was O2 Academy CHARLI XCX the wallsdownstairsandaguitarsolodeafens struggling withsoundlevelsasthebassshakes energetic andoccasionallydiscordantindierock, four-piece PunchDrunkMonkeyClubareplaying conviction andadmirabledisregard. Youthful Kakoffanney night,throwingshapeswith few rowsimmersed,asisusualforaKlub The roomispackedtonight,withthefront made theKlub’s reputationoverthelast20 years. crowd, thesortofunfussyfriendlytouchthat’s and passingalarge bowlofDoritosaroundthe birthday andshecanbeseeninflatingballoons Tonight isKlubKakofanneyco-founderSue’s The Wheatsheaf PUNCH DRUNKMONKEY CLUB FUZZY LOGICBABY / VIENNA DITTO / LIVE back a few balloons as she harmonises with back afewballoonsassheharmoniseswith member ofthecrowd.SingerHatty Taylor taps accomplished solosittingatopthedancing shoulders intherabbleandplaysasporadically ist NigelFirthhasfoundafriendlypairof samples. Guitaristandgenerallyeverything- multi-tasking, guitarfacesandheavilylayered Vienna Dittoproducetheirusualhighcalibreof Admitting tohavebeendrinkingsince2pm, succinct thantheirname. punch, each track catchy, exuberant and a lot more Besides lackinginsubtletytheirsetpacksagood passersby ontheoppositesideofHighStreet. Kirsten Etheridge Clap’, I’llstillbe onboard. too, andifshekeeps churningoutbangerslike`SuperLove’ and `Boom and soundasthey growup.Butshe’s quiteinspiringforthe olderaudience parents!” in`BreaktheRules’ –andshe’lldevelop andreinventherimage acknowledges whenshetriestoget everyoneclappingwith“Comeon,you Icanseewhysomanyyoungkids likeCharli–somethingshecheekily `Everybody GetUp’,orthat`SoOver You’ soundsaLetLoosecover. teenage offspring ofNewKidsOn The Block’s `Hanging Tough’ andFive’s suppose anyoneheretonightcares that`Hanging Around’ isthestroppy `True Romance’ (`NuclearSeasons’ and`You (HaHaHa)’),andIdon’t which makesaninterestingcontrastwithsomeoftheodderofferings from Gaga-style disingenuity. Itfeelslikethenewerstuff isdeliberatelyanthemic, aggressive even,butshealwayslookslikeshe’s havingfun;there’s noLady Celina Macdonald brilliant mixofmusic. end ofthismonth’s typicallymessy, loudand last balloonisburstunderfoot,signallingthe insulted. As thebandwindupproceedings the to workoutwhetherheshouldbeflatteredor he says,pointingatDanielKingwhoistrying London: “Ourbassist’s gotmorehandsome,” they’ve changedsincethebandreturnedfrom Frontman DarwoodGracepointsouthowmuch bright guitars,trumpetandmischievouslyrics. is amusicalandphysicalrushofenergy with and anythingelseyoucanmoveto. Their act Baby’s bubblingfusionofpunk,ska,reggae of keysmakewayforheadlinerFuzzyLogic Then theircrunchingbeatsandhauntingswirl outs andmovingcityscapes. usual evocativeprojectionsofcowboyshoot- dislocated electronicvoicesinfrontoftheir The Bullingdon LARKIN POE/JESSMORGAN while threevocalistsprovidethefamiliar backing trackprovidingthebasicrhythm, perfectly forthistour:Songsstartwitha and fortunatelyhe’s recreatedthatvibe of apartythanconventionalconcert vocals. His 70sgigswerealwaysmore reminding, andcontributingoccasional groove tight,notthattheyneedmuch gig justwanderingaroundkeepingthe piece band,Clintonspendsmostofthe Presidingoverafineandtighteleven- numbers fromhislongcareer. Funkadelic, playingthebest-known Now 73hestilltoursasParliament always lacedwithhisinfectiousgroove. guitar solosoverhornsandpercussion, heavy onsurrealismandlong,screeching rock, funkandotherdiverseelements, his psychedelicsidetookover, combining the dancefloorbutFunkadelicwaswhere name. Parliamentweremorefunkaimedat industry withmorethanonedealtohis chance ofbeingrippedoff bythemusic the mostsuccessful,believinghestoodless bands, FunkadelicandParliamentbeing then inthe70shecreatedanumberof 60s foundhimasastaff writerforMotown, doo wopinNewJerseywithfriends;the George Clinton. Inthe50shewassinging musical figuresdeservethelabelbetterthan Legend isawordmuchover-used butfew O2 Academy FUNKADELIC GEORGE CLINTON &PARLIAMENT should have asmuchfun astheydo,and determined tonight thattheentireBully be ambassadors for thisethos,clearly against. 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th June shapes, keyboardist Eddie doesn’t stop smiling, and singing drummer Spider, the band’s powerhouse, INDICA BLUES / BROMIDE THE SELECTER LIVE keeps up a funky barrage. The set is business-like / MOOGIEMAN & THE O2 Academy and up-tempo, including `Eye Popper’ from their After more than thirty years it feels `Subculture’ album, and it holds `Dancehall’ EP and `A Ton on U Boombox’, the MASOCHISTS time to reconnect with The up really well against the older standout track from their last studio album, before Selecter and see what I’ve been tunes. When things are slowed photo: Leo Bowder they close with Marley’s `Soul Rebel’. The Wheatsheaf missing since their early-80s down, it’s done with purpose and The Upsetters take to the stage for an instrumental Tonight’s show is, as usual for a for days. `Wheels’ in particular heyday. the title track from second album `Satta Massagana’, before the diminutive Mr Gappy Tooth Industries line-up, fizzes with aggression, Simon As part of the Two Tone `Celebrate The Bullet’ sounds as Perry wanders on, bedecked in badges, patches an eclectic mix, but there seems to Berridge’s vocal hooks, delivered movement they ignited my sinister as the inner city can. The and assorted Rasta paraphernalia. This is not Lee’s be a theme of evolution that links with a curious mix of resignation interest in music for the first time. personally political `My England’ first visit to Oxford, nor this reviewer’s first time tonight’s bands. and anger, giving it a peculiar However, I lost track of them after and `London Burning’ extol all in his company, and he is greeted as the venerable Moogieman And The Masochists dichotomy. the first album, and didn’t hear the love and troubles of a multi- dub royalty he has long become. Tonight’s set open the bill with a kind of anti-folk After the ramshackle and the spiky, their second album until many racial society with great fervour, is a mix of old classics (`Zion Blood’), some set that can best be described as Indica Blues take the next step and years later. They only lasted two the former in particular should be material from his last album `Lee Scratch Perry ramshackle. There’s an inspired wit buff any sharp edges from their low- years in reality, until Pauline required listening with Black on Back on the Controls’ (`Rastafari on Wall St’), underpinning Moogieman’s songs slung, blues-inspired stoner sludge. Black put a new version of the indestructibly confident form. and a lot of material from his days with Marley as he croons paeans to ice cream Once they hit their stride, they’ve Selecter together in 1991, which `On My Radio’ and `Missing (`Jah Live’, `Exodus’ and `Sun is Shining’). His vans, specific types of camera, and got the sound of a high performance has operated on and off since. Words’ sound as wonderful as incredible band is a well-honed dub machine, considers the emotional damage executive car, purring with a low Some of the legacy Black has left ever, the former greeted like a and he is in a mischievous mood tonight. His of a relationship breakup on a rumble, disappearing towards a on women in music can be seen homecoming hero. An oddly microphone has a mirror attached, making it psychopath (surprisingly, breaking vanishing point that only their in tonight’s hand-picked support chosen cover of `Because The hard to make out his face when he is singing (or up is easy to do). It’s all delivered internal cosmic navigation system band, all girl trio The Tuts. This is Night’ doesn’t quite work, but no croaking random rhymes semi-tunefully before in a deadpan voice, floating on a knows. Their riffs are delivered with the band the Libertines could have matter as a version of `Train To Rasta rapping). He makes anti-royalist comments LEE SCRATCH PERRY / DUBWISER / ZAIA wonky sea of folk-pop and feels as precision and conviction, hitting been; they have some fantastic Skaville’ is swiftly along to rescue during `Crazy Baldheads’, and talks about a girl if it could fall apart at any moment. hard constantly and they serve as tunes and rock really hard. things and provide opportunity for O2 Academy at the front getting a “cocky for her fanny.” He’s Somehow it’s glorious. a launch point for their deviations The Selecter hit the ground a good skank. Zaia’s sunny soulful roots reggae and the easy, roots veterans Dubwiser have well over twenty back on the wine too; his son Noel occasionally Bromide’s spiky punk-pop is into psych-prog territory. Dispensing running, from the moment The encore isn’t full of the cheery demeanour of singer Amy McKown sets years on the local scene (they’re still mere ventures out to refresh his glass as well as deftly similarly literate but considerably with humour and pop-nous, because Pauline and `Gaps’ Hendrickson more obvious choices, but the the mood for tonight’s evening of reggae. Tracks striplings compared to headliner Perry with close catching an empty tossed at the curtain. His band tighter. A fusion of Husker Du, The such things are mere frivolities, arrive on stage, `The Avenger’ atmosphere and crowd are on such like `Zaia Sound’ and `Zoo’, with their sparkling to sixty years in music). Singer/percussionist/ wait patiently each time he goes off on a tangent Replacements and Elvis Costello, Indica Blues are a well-oiled dream and `Fuck Art, Let’s Dance’ a high by this point, the tunes are a brass flourishes and cavernous basslines, go down trombonist Jonas may no longer sport the ankle between `songs’. Not for nothing is he known as their set is stuffed full of hooks machine providing a smooth ride to warming things up for `Three delight. All told, after a thoroughly well with the early arrivals. bothering dreadlocks of yesteryear, but he still has The Upsetter. But yet, as he approaches his 80th and melodies that are impossible the other side. Minute Hero’, which sounds as enjoyable gig, I’m left wondering While Zaia have been around for less than two the presence and charisma that make him and the year, legendary status still intact and still making to ignore, or get out of your head Sam Shepherd fresh now as it did 35 years ago. why I’d neglected the Selecter for years, quickly developing from an instrumental band a force to be reckoned with. They are clearly great music, Lee Perry is hard not to love. There’s new stuff aplenty, as the so long. dub outfit to something more streamlined, Oxford enjoying it; while Tads throws bass warrior Leo Bowder band are promoting their new Russell Barker GIRL POWER / HIGH FIGHTER / SUNNATA The Wheatsheaf Even among dedicated stoner- repetitive in the wrong kind of way, groove merchants there can be a each song a clone of the last, the disappointing tendency to let songs set blurring into a mulch of metal run their course over a too-brief cliché, a dirty, scuzzy makeover of four minutes when the nodding Lita Ford’s 80s rocking. throng in front of you just wants Girl Power, by contrast, aren’t that repetitive riffage to keep prepared to let anyone, least of rolling forever. So it’s to Sunnata’s all themselves, get comfortable. AUGUSTINES – SAINT RAYMOND – DON BROCO – PETER HOOK AND THE LIGHT credit that for the most part tonight Theirs is a high-tensile hardcore (JOY DIVISION AND NEW ORDER HITS SET) they simply lock into a simple, of a particularly virulent vintage. DARWIN DEEZ – FAT WHITE FAMILY – PULLED APART BY HORSES – GHOSTPOET brutal groove and go for it until Hardcore, in fact, from an age when abstract concepts like time fade into the term didn’t just mean going at it SLAVES – LUCY ROSE – RAE MORRIS – EAGULLS – THE WYTCHES – RALEIGH RITCHIE meaningless. What the Warsaw- full pelt without a thought to clever based band are doing is nothing ideas of what really constitutes JAWS – SUNSET SONS – BO NINGEN – HONEYBLOOD – BABY GODZILLA – SPRING KING particularly original – big meaty menace. Oh sure they can do rocket- NOTHING BUT THIEVES – TELLISON – BEASTS – BRAWLERS – BLAENAVON stoner riffs and vocal incantations fuelled Discharge punk blitzkrieg. They do it a lot in fact, but they DEMOB HAPPY – TALONS – WAYLAYERS harking back to Sabbath via Electric Wizard – but as riff piles upon riff know when to stop or veer off at BLOODY KNEES – WOAHNOWS – DELTA SLEEP – FREEZE THE ATLANTIC – THE ACADEMIC piles upon riff, the music’s rich an angle, the belligerent harmonies from hell replaced by yapping ALLUSONDRUGS – SOLEMN SUN – KING PLEASURE & THE BISCUIT BOYS – POLEDO – ODC DRUMLINE texture begins to envelope you until they finish on a squall of jet engine gibberish or short staccato bursts of NEW FOR 2015! TRUCK X SWITCH – THE BARN – 11PM TILL LATE noise that reminds us of A Place To vitriol as the guitar and bass replicate Bury Strangers. There’s little light or the sound of metal into flesh, much SHY FX – MY NU LENG – GOTSOME – SWITCH DJS shade, but, like time, when you’ve like Shellac at times. They’re militant but occasionally moody AND MANY MORE TO COME! got that groove, nothing else matters. Hamburg’s High Fighter promise to too – Minor Threat and the odd continue this simple, sludgy assault, Motorhead moment slashed across FOR TICKETS AND MORE INFO HEAD TO the chest by sinewy straight-edge WWW.TRUCKFESTIVAL.COM a jagged, almost punky edge giving TICKETS £79.50 #TRUCK2015 their rolling riffs an extra sense post-hardcore as everything tumbles of energy, while singer Mona across the line in a tangle of elbows Miluski’s rasping, bluesy voice is as and sheet metal guitar noise. Grrr, raw as Death By Crimpers’ Karen and, indeed, grrr. Nolan. But soon they’ve become Dale Kattack DR SHOTOVER Larges it T H E W H E A T S H E A F Hello my vertically-challenged pals. Why don’t you pull up some tiny Friday 1st May – KLUB KAKOFANNEY INTRODUCING.... pews and buy me some very large drinks. You’ll probably all have to Nightshift’s monthly guide to the best local music bubbling under EMPTY VESSELS NON STOP TANGO + BEAVER FUEL + FEMINISM 8pm/£5 shout at the same time to attract the bar-steward’s attention, mind, Saturday 2nd May – BURIED IN SMOKE such is the hubbub here in the East Indies Club bar. BEDINGFIELD, I say BEDINGFIELD – some service please for my titchy friends. Turn The WHISKYDICK MOTHER CORONA + INDICA BLUES 8pm/£5 Wednesday 6th May – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC Hugest Hits of Meat Loaf down on the jukebox, there’s a good chap – my new companions only have piping voices, and they will apparently cassels SWEET PINK A MORAL COMPASS + WARDENS + ALIAS 8pm/£6 Who are they? th be getting a few rounds in today. Seven, to be precise, including this Friday 8 May Cassels are a two-piece noise-pop band from Chipping Norton formed by one. What’s that, Happy? No, no Carling for me, old boy. In the words brothers Jim (vocals, guitar) and Loz (drums, vocals) Beck. They started INVISIBLE VEGAS 8pm/£5 of the Great Man, I would do anything for booze, but I won’t do THAT. Saturday 9th May – BURIED IN SMOKE playing together aged 12 and 8 respectively (they’re now 21 and 17). After Make mine a pint of Bitter Old Bastard with some horseradish sauce various school band incarnations the pair played their first gig together in a UNDERSMILE EARTHMASS + D.GWALIA 8pm/£5 on the side. Ah, much obliged, Doc [glugg, glugg]… Say what, Sneezy? pub in Acton in 2013, continuing to gig in the capital before releasing their th Wednesday 13 May Got some ‘Snow White’, have you? Aha, good news, let us repair to debut single, `Seasick’, on Tip Top Records, and a follow-up, `We Wander THE OXFORD PUNT my office aka cubicle no 3 in the Ladies toilet. [Five minutes later]… In The Night’, on Grebo. At the end of 2014 the brothers began playing in MAIIANS + LITTLE BROTHER ELI + CAMERON AG + GHOSTS IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS 7:45pm/£5 Yes [snif] I know exactly what you mean, we are both just so f***ing Oxford and were invited by Colin Greenwood to play the Independent Venue Friday 15th May – MD PROMOTIONS brilliant, funny and interesting aren’t we? [snif] – But now let’s talk more Week show at the Jericho Tavern in January. The band are set to release a new about me me [snif] me me ME… Speak up, Bashful? Ah yes, time for the EP on Idiot King and this month play The Oxford Punt at The Purple Turtle. the band before us had overrun. And then our cab home didn’t arrive. We PEERLESS PIRATES SECATEURS + THE MILITARY ARCADE 8pm/£5 Saturday 16th May – BLACK BULLET LIVE ahem lowdown on the local music scene, the view from ground level, What do they sound like? always use that as a yardstick for when things are going a bit shit.” as it were. I hear you have a new band, Grumpy. Doom metal featuring Stripped down and pissed off for starters. `We Wander…’ in particular is a Their favourite other Oxfordshire act is: RED SEAS FIRE I CRIED WOLF + DEATH REMAINS 8pm/£7 elephantine gnarly, stuttering slice of prime punk-inspired ire, not a million miles from “Foals. Not really a massive influence but they were a big deal for us when Wednesday 20th May – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC riffs, fronted very early Joy Division, while their tumbling, riotous racket could stand we were still at school and getting into music.” If they could only keep one album in the world, it would be: DECOVO PUPPET MECHANIC + AUGUST LIST + RAYZO 8pm/£6 by a small shoulder to shoulder with Drenge on the rock and roll barricades. Friday 22nd May – VAGABUNDO PRESENTS but perfectly- What inspires them? “Impossible question, but I’m going to say ‘Marquee Moon’ by Television, formed “Most recently it’s been the troubling things which have been going on with because I remember telling someone once that that was my favourite album.” VIC GODARD & SUBWAY SECT the country and society. The latest two songs I’ve written are sort of pseudo- When is their next local gig and what can newcomers expect? LES CLOCHARDS + FISHWIFE’S BROADSIDE 8pm comedian with th Sunday 24th May – BURN THE JUKEBOX PRESENTS an acerbic political rage-filled ramblings about the ongoing privatisation of the NHS and We’re playing The The Punt on 13 May, which should be really fun. People should expect to see two skinny chaps sweating a lot.” line in gallows the desensitising nature the media, and more specifically social media, has CANTALOUPE MODEL VILLAGE + ALNEGATOR 8pm/£5 had on our reactions to atrocities occurring around the globe. It amazes me Their favourite and least favourite things about Oxford music are: Wednesday 27th May – MD PROMOTIONS humour. What’s how so many new bands don’t seem to be writing about anything.” “Favourite would be the amount of influential and amazing bands that the name of DOUBLE EXPERIENCE SINFICTION + FLUORITE + PIPELINE 8pm/£5 Career highlight so far: Oxford has spawned. For such a small city it’s mad really. Least favourite is th this mythic Friday 29 May – OXROX PRESENTS “Being picked by Colin Greenwood to play that show at The Jericho – bit that there doesn’t seem to be masses going on music-wise in Oxford at the combo? Ah, of a head fuck, that. And also supporting Eagulls and Bad Breeding, again at moment.” THE AMORETTES 13 BURNING + SERTRALINE + TOADSTOOL 8pm should have Saturday 30th May – GAPPY TOOTH INDUSTRIES The Jericho, was ace as they’re two of our favourite bands at the moment. You might love them if you love: guessed… And the lowlight: Drenge; Joy Division; Iceage; Slaves; Queens of the Stone-Age; The Wytches. Shotover: ‘What are you four little f***ers up to? Come SUGAR DARLING JEEP + SPECTRA 8pm/£4.50 Next month: “Playing for just my mate and the sound guy at The Rhythm Factory in Hear them here: The Wheatsheaf 129 High Street, Oxford OX1 4DF / www.facebook.com/wheatsheaf.oxford and join the others… oh and Dopey – PUT THAT OUT!’ SEVENDWARF London was dire. We also had our set cut short so only played two songs as soundcloud.com/cassels-official

THIS MONTH IN OXFORD ALL OUR YESTERDAYS MUSIC HISTORY 20 YEARS AGO The Young Knives’, and I imagine it’s funny to 5 YEARS AGO It’s not often a city the size of Oxford can boast people in Oxford too who see us as part of the Fifteen years to the month they released their it’s produced a world-conquering album, but furniture,” said Henry Dartnoll, in his band’s front debut album, Supergrass announced they were in May 1995 we saw the second such release page interview with Nightshift back in May 2005. splitting up, citing “a 17-year-itch.” A final UK in three months as Supergrass followed up Having topped Nightshift’s end of year Top 20 tour was announced. Radiohead’s epoch-making `The Bends’ with twice already, The Young Knives were already huge But while one great local band passed into memory, their debut `I Should Coco’. Produced by Sam local favourites but now they were getting some others were stepping up to take their place, with Williams and released on Parlophone – the same serious attention from further afar, including coolest Foals gracing the cover of May 2005’s Nightshift, for label as Radiohead – Gaz, Mickey and Danny’s label of the moment back then, Transgressive, who the third time in fact as they prepared to play a sold- exuberant, punk-infused flurry of simple guitar pop released the trio’s `Junkie Music Make My Heart out hometown show at the O2. Yannis spoke on the was perfectly timed for a summer when Britpop- Beat Faster’ EP this month. They were being touted line from Bourges in central France, where the band fuelled optimism was at its peak, the trio’s blend alongside Franz Ferdinand and The Futureheads were in the processing of conquering the globe with of youthful effervescence on the album’s big hit, as part of a new wave of great British bands, but second album `Total Life Forever’. He talked about `Alright’, backed up by Buzzcocks’-style buzzsaw a life of glamour was yet to catch up with then, the new album but also a lot about Oxford and the guitar and The Kinks’ romantic slice-of-lice apparently: “The most revolting things so far this friends Foals had here, including Jonquil who were storytelling. It proved infectious and irresistible, year are watching House crack on to some 18-year- supporting them on tour. “It’s only natural to support hitting the number 1 spot in the album charts and olds and having to sleep in the same bed as his feet those who have shown us the same love,” he said, going on to sell over a million copies worldwide. It on tour,” claimed Henry, about their travels around before praising the recently split Youthmovies: “We spawned five singles, including the classic `Caught the UK. “House also stabbed the singer from The wouldn’t exist without Youthmovies; they’ve been By the Fuzz’ and `Mansize Rooster’, as well as Noisettes in the eye with a guitar string when she an inspiration to us and many other bands in Oxford `Lenny’ and `Lose It’. While it caught the wave went to kiss him. Our van is beyond roadworthiness, over the years.” Stornoway too were continuing to sow the seeds of of Britpop just right, it’s proved to be an enduring the suspension doesn’t work anymore. We played success, announcing three acoustic shows at the A1 album, with Arctic Moneys in particular crediting in a big old hotel in Leeds last week. The promoter Pool Hall in east Oxford as part of the campaign to Supergrass as a primary influence. Meanwhile, took us to the top of the building and told us about promote debut album `Beachcomber’s Windowsill’. another wave of local bands was rising, led by The how people had heard funny noises and seen This month’s Introducing band were newcomers Mystics (fronted by Sam Williams), Thurman children at the windows. Then he showed us the Spring Offensive, a local band who had definitely and Wonderland, attracting small armies of record unused rooms with no lights, and then he left us. benefitted from Youthmovies’ influence and who company A&R scouts to town, back in a time when Shortly afterwards the knocking started and I shit would go on to become one of the leading lights of there were such things as A&R scouts. And record myself.” So, you see kids, being in a rock and roll band is all drugs, groupies and limousines. the Oxford scene before their split last year. companies. Gig-wise, Hurts, Darwin Deez and Everything Coming to town this month were The Go! Team, Yourcodenameismilo and Million Dead at the Everything came to town as part of the NME Radar 10 YEARS AGO Zodiac, with Futureheads and Super Furry tour at the O2, while grunge monsters Dinosaur Jr “It’s funny to see us being called `hot new band Animals up at Brookes. and punk legends The Slits were also at the venue. BERNIE HANAWAY DAVID TUDOR Talking of all things proggy, you know And of course, just what we need right that clichéd image of 1970s prog rock now is another maudlin solo acoustic you always get of Rick Wakeman wearing singer-songwriter to raise the roof and DEMOS a mediaeval cape? Well he’s a pathetic fill that dancefloor. We’re starting to get Sponsored by Demo of the Month wins a free half day amateur compared to Bernie Hanaway here, an inkling that this month might just be at Soundworks studio in Oxford, cour- who’s dressed in a suit of armour on his National Keening Month, such is the level tesy of Umair Chaudhry. Visit Soundcloud profile. We’d bow down before of castrato-level whining going on. We also www.umairchaudhry.co.uk/nightshift him and declare him a true warrior hero of get an inkling we’ve reviewed David Tudor rock and roll if he hadn’t opened his mouth before, since at least one song here is oddly they cruise in with some purpose, we’ll and started singing. We say singing, but familiar, and not because he sings “I want DEMO OF give them that, a neat, driving guitar line what we really mean is a slightly pathetic my MTV” over and over again during it. sounding like some soon to be soaring quavering keening noise that could be a Like a mousy little ghost, `Party House’ 01865 240250 shoegazey noisemakers, but as soon as badly injured dog trying to impersonate has returned to haunt us, too timid to jump THE MONTH the voice comes in, like weak, milky tea Neil Young in the most half hearted fashion out from the wardrobe rattling its chains when you ordered a bottle of finest Shiraz, possible. If Bernie wields a broadsword and screaming like a banshee, preferring MONKFISH we’re reminded of the sort of wafty indie with the conviction he sings, he’ll be sliced to whisper its refrain endlessly down the It says a lot about the quality of this incompetents that used to blight the first on down the middle before battle has even back of your neck until you go insane with month’s demo pile that top of the heap by the bill slots at Sarah Records showcases commenced, his steaming heap of innards the creepiness of it all and throw yourself a head, shoulders and dusty stovepipe hat back in the day. The singer bleats like a doubtless possessed of more melody and in front of whichever fast-moving vehicle is a bunch of old goths who split up about man-boy whose hard knock lessons in life excitement than his songs. Musically this is first along. “You remain at the pardy ten years ago before reforming last year to have amounted to little more than finding a is a wafty, whimsical prog of the most house,” squeaks David. Which is obviously carry on exactly where they left off, without small scratch on his Field Mice flexi disc, pastoral kind, Marillion re-imagined different to a party house, since we can’t a single concession to the march of time. and not being able to get a girlfriend, but by for the new Teletubbies remake. It’s all imagine any fucker’s having fun here. We And this in a week where the sun has shone god he’s going to make sure you know how wispy synth curlicues, barely-there beats decide to blame absolutely everything this and blossom has cascaded prettily from much he’s suffered. If we had to sum this up and for-the-sake-of-it guitar solos and a month on the existence of James Bay. What the trees that Nightshift’s hovel-like office in a word it’d be non-committal, though we creeping sense of the world slowly fading we’d give for some banging techno right looks out onto. Exactly where Monkfish left aren’t entirely sure that counts as a single into entropy. And it all seems to go on for now. off all them years ago was making sparse, word, which kind of leaves us floundering absolutely fucking ever. He does, however, doomy country-tinged music inspired by in a sea of indecision much like this demo. manage to rhyme “Can’t get a decent Lee Hazlewood and Thin White Rope (one Someone called George Bones should really chicken pie” with “There’s a distant look in THE DEMO of the most underrated bands ever – FACT). be the types of chap who’d be mayor of one her eye,” so maybe on some strange level TURAN AUDIO.co.uk Monkfish even used to cover `Some Velvet of those benighted frontier towns we were the guy’s a genius. But if it’s a choice of DUMPER Professional, independent CD mastering Morning’, Hazlewood’s classic opus that just talking about. If these guys turned up him or Lemmy next to us in the trenches, Artists mastered in the studio last month include; Thin White Rope themselves covered in the saloon the locals would be using their we’re with the Motorhead man all the way. THE GREAT WESTERN TEARS, THE FUTURE RAYS, back in the late-80s. Age hasn’t mellowed guts to restring their banjos before the night LEO STEEL Despite going under a name that sounds THERAPY?, BARBARA DICKSON, THE MONTGOMERYS, them much, nor cheered them up at all; was out. like a fictional lower league centre half, Leo SYRENNE, LOREDO, PLAY DEAD, SHERYL CROW, BRUCE they still mope about like lost stragglers SOLA FIDE Staying with the battlefield imagery – Steel seems to be an actual band, with actual SPRINGSTEEN, SIGH, TERRY LEE, SALVATION BILL, from a Fields of the Nephilim convention, we’re in that kind of mood now, the sun noisy electric guitars and actual nasty effects HUNCK, DUBWISER DANCEHALL, HEN-JENNY, MARK but they manage to evoke the husky ÒKINA SPRINGER, THE LUKA STATE, VALERYAN, BIG COUNTRY, And it almost happens again – great intro, has metaphorically set good and proper pedals to make them sound like someone lawlessness of frontier saloons, or the sort BOB MARLEY, CYPRESS HILL, GARY MOORE, RAMONES, on Nightshift’s day – this ain’t so far off who might have shared the stage with Deep of benighted outpost towns you get in films then someone starts singing and what we’d TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS, HAWKWIND. the dying sighs and groans of a peasant Purple back in the early 1970s. Which at soundtracked by Nick Cave and Warren hoped for fails to emerge. There’s also conscript who’s just had his extremities least makes a noisy change from the last Ellis. Kevin Riddle has a marvellously the whiff of bongos about Òkina, which 01865 716466 [email protected] hacked off by some giant lump of a bloke few demos. We’re starting to feel positively gruff, dusky voice that makes him sound is something that tends to happen as soon armed with a halberd. Sola Fide is the solo liberated, right up to the point about like he’s brushed his teeth with whisky as the weather turns. That and students work of a bloke called Peter Jones and seven seconds in to their opening song, every morning for the last 20 years, and playing Bob Marley’s `Legend’ at top his one and only song is a lovelorn ballad `Ljubljana’, which sounds like a toddler’s the spaghetti western rockabilly rumble of volume while hoping the smell of skunk COURTYARD called ` Reach Out And Touch Someone’, made-up word for lady bits, when we realise tracks like the charmingly-titled `Cadaver’ will have washed out of their clothes before they head home for the summer holidays. which probably isn’t the sort advice you’d it’s actually irredeemably awful, rock music RECORDING STUDIO has a primitive energy about it that nothing 2 Tracking Rooms. Superb Control Room with: give out to people on crowded public that’s failed utterly to evolve in 40 years else in this bunch of offerings comes close So, yes, anyway, Òkina – neat violin drone NEVE 5106 32 Channel Console. ProTools HD3 transport, not unless you want a repeat other than to accidentally overhear a Skunk MTR 90 2” 24 Track Tape Machine. Vintage EMT Plate Reverb to. `Landlocked’ even sounds a bit like intro, gets us thinking about John Cale and stuff, but when it breaks into song it’s a of that extremity hacking we mentioned Anansie song on Classic Rock FM once and Loads of Brilliant Outboard Gear `Spirit In The Sky’ given a particularly Loads of Great Mics, Vintage and Modern slightly timid, tip-toeing folky skitter that a second ago. Anyway, here’s the deal, thought an alien had landed in the radio. morose make-over by a supergroup formed Old School Akai/Roland Synth Modules Peter’s got lady trouble (“Take my life, my And then they play a song called `Funk by Willie Nelson, Nick Cave and Andrew eventually resolves as some kind of ambient Upright Piano, Fender Rhodes, Amps and great vibes. love and put it on the tracks”). He’s also got Revolution’, which for the most fleeting of Eldritch. Two listens through and we’ve Mark Knopfler workout. Further in, on Residential recording studio in Sutton Courtenay. an acoustic guitar and a Beginner’s Guide moments might have fallen off the back of developed a craving for some chewing `Too Far Up’, some wyrdy wobbly violin www.courtyardrecordingstudio.co.uk To Nick Drake songbook and there ain’t an old Faith No More album, but is really In-house producer: Ian Davenport www.ian-davenport.co.uk tobacco and a spot of grave robbing. and guitar interplay promises something no stopping him. Out it all comes, all that a pub rock Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute Email: [email protected] Sod spring and sod summer right up the a bit more psychedelic than the hushed, raw emotion, blended into a watery slurry with any semblance of subtlety hacked Phone: Richard or Kate on 01235 845800 backside, the best parties always take place reflective folk-pop that peeps out of the of misery and barely decipherable moaning off with that blessed halberd that seems in the darkest dead of night. speakers. Not unpleasant really, just lacking a bit in the sort of vim or invention we’d that reaches a peak of wailing intensity to be hanging around. Leo Steel describe initially hoped for, instead opting for an by way of what is undoubtedly someone themselves, without even a hint of irony, as almost proggy journey through the local with severe anal itching. And we can only “sexy rock”. We’ll leave it up to you, dear THE GEORGE meadow, pausing regularly to smell the deduce that however bad a time he’s having reader to ponder our thoughts on just how flowers, or inhale whatever herbal relaxant of it, Peter’s determined that someone else hot and horny they are. You had one job, BONES it’s chosen to accompany this gentle wee is going to suffer even more than him. And Leo Steel – to bring the rock and rescue us stroll. Said relaxant does seem to have today, that someone is Nightshift. Cheers from self-pitying mimsies. One job and you REVOLUTION played havoc with the band’s ability to Peter, we appreciate the gesture. fucked it up. With a name like that, they just gotta stick to a set course mind, and we’re pretty be goths too, right? Ah, if only. If they certain they currently have as much idea Send demos for review to: Nightshift, PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU, or email links to were goths they wouldn’t be so fey and of exactly what they want to be as we do. [email protected], clearly marked Demos. IMPORTANT: no review without ineffectual and we wouldn’t have to crush Time, hopefully, will bring them some kind a contact address and phone number; no more than four tracks on a demo please. If you them like dying blossom petals under of cohesion. Until then, who wants to order can’t handle criticism, please don’t send us your demo. And don’t fucking whine about your the mighty boot of musical tyranny. Oh, a pizza? review on Twitter either, else we’ll print a screenshot and make you look like a prize tit. thevenuecollective PRESENTS

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