[email protected] @NightshiftMag NightshiftMag nightshiftmag.co.uk Free every month NIGHTSHIFT Issue 270 January Oxford’s Music Magazine 2018 BRICKWORK

“There’s definitely an appetite in Oxford for bands that are outside the norm” photo: Geoff Russell Hayward MBE at RHimageart photo: Geoff Russell Hayward LIZARDS Oxford’s exotic musical travellers talk longing, hangings and Sultans’ wedding parties. Also in this issue: Introducing MOTHER plus All your Oxford music news, previews, reviews and gigs for the month ahead 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

folk weekend – the longest running festival in YOUNG WOMEN’S MUSIC PROJECT Oxfordshire – takes place from the 24th-27th geared up for the campaign to keep the August 2018 at Thame Showground. Other acts project alive in 2018 by filming a video for confirmed so far include Martin Joseph; Peter a new song at the start of December. The Knight & ; ; Wildwood long-running project, led by musician Zahra Kin, and Faustus. Tickets are on sale now at Tehrani, is under threat as its current home, www.towerseyfestival.com. Fusion Arts, behind East Oxford Community Centre, is due to be demolished as part of IF NOT NOW, WHEN? Returns in 2018. The redevelopment of the area. YWMP works with one-day festival of new indie and DIY music over 60 young women and girls as well as takes place at East Oxford Community Centre and partnering various organisations and charities Fusion Arts on Saturday 15th September. Tickets, helping empower young women through priced £15 until the 31st January and £20 thereafter, music. A series of fundraising campaigns are are on sale now from Wegottickets.com. This planned. In the meantime you can get yourself year’s inaugural event featured over 30 acts across a 2018 YWMP calendar, on sale from The Old three rooms, including a headline set from Gallops. Fire Station or at www.ywmp.org.uk.

THE SAD SONG CO. release their A SILENT FILM have announced they have fourth next month. `Worth’ is split. The featured on the cover of Nightshift released on the 9th February, the follow- three times from their formation in 2005 from the up to 2016’s acclaimed `In Amber’. ashes of punk band Shouting Myke. Originally a The Sad Song Co. is the solo project four-piece, in recent times they operated as a duo of Oxford multi-instrumentalist Nigel of singer and keyboard player Robert Stevenson Powell, previously of Unbelievable and drummer Spencer Walker. They released Truth and Dive Dive and currently three , including 2008 debut `The City drummer in Frank Turner’s Sleeping That Sleeps’, and 2015’s eponymous finale, Souls band. He will undertake a solo UK enjoying considerable success in the States, where tour to accompany the release, including they toured regularly and where Rob has lived a hometown show at Modern Art in recent years. In a statement on their website Oxford on Saturday 17th February. in early December they told fans that following Talking about the new record Nigel the birth of Spencer’s first child, “We realised said, “The album strips things down and we were enjoying our new life experiences and gets to the heart of the songs. The new weren’t ready to come back to the band. We know songs especially have many layers and this will be a great disappointment to many of you it’s educational to peel them back and but we want you to know that this is coming from find what’s driving it all underneath. a natural, positive place for both of us.” It’s also terrifying! I play hundreds Robert will be undertaking a final solo acoustic of gigs every year as a drummer – tour of the States in February and March, playing confident in my abilities – but put A Silent Film songs. me up front and it’s far more nerve- To read the full message, visit racking.” www.asilentfilm.com Fans can pre-order the album at www. thesadsongco.com and get a download SLATE HEARTS have also decided to call it of new single `What You Make Of It’. a day. The trio announced their split in the wake of recent EP `Honey Roasted Henry’, AS EVER, don’t forget to tune into simply stating on their Facebook page that their BBC Oxford Introducing every show on the 28th December would be their last, Saturday night between 8-9pm on but telling Nightshift, “We’ve just run out of 95.2fm. The dedicated local music steam to be honest. We gave this band all we had show plays the best Oxford releases and we don’t want to carry it on half arsed and and demos as well as featuring have it end up feeling like a chore.” interviews and sessions with local acts. `I’m Not There’ from the recent EP was The show is available to stream or number 10 in Nightshift’s end of year Top 25 download as a podcast at for 2017, while the band’s incendiary set at bbc.co.uk/oxford. Common People in May last year, on Nightshift’s Uncommon Stage, was a lesson in OXFORD GIGBOT provides a ferocity. Damn shame – they’ll be missed. regular local gig listing update on Twitter (@oxgigbot), bringing you THE PROCLAIMERS, RICHARD new gigs as soon as they go live. They THOMPSON AND THE SHARON SHANNON also provide a free weekly listings BAND are the first headline acts to be announced email. Just contact for next year’s . The annual [email protected] to join. A Quiet Word With oud historically is the predecessor of at Towersey one year and that was Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band nightmare organising shows or are the Renaissance lute. It is a fretless fairly riotous; drunkards always in the way they bringing a modern you flexible on how many of you six double string acoustic instrument. make the funniest hecklers! I can’t interpretation to traditional music you need at any given time? In its fretlessness and short neck lies think of a show where people from beyond British folk sounds. Tom: “We always try to make its versatility. If you are technically haven’t got us eventually, but it’s Tom: “Unfortunately I’ve not seen sure we can all make the gigs; that BRICKWORK LIZARDS competent you can probably play nice watching facial expressions The Balkan Wanderers so I need put usually involves booking them pretty so many different types of music on change from puzzled to ecstatic.” them on the 2018 must-see list, but far in advance. Inevitably there is the it, from oriental, Middle Eastern, I have performed with the Rabbits occasional gig where we maybe a East African to , rock and The new album’s title a few times and the Lizards have person down.” blues.” `Haneen’ translates as a feeling shared the stage with them as well How do you adjust the band’s sound Having set out on their unusual of nostalgic yearning; are The and we all feel an affinity with them; and dynamics from festival shows to journey together, The Brickwork Brickwork Lizards nostalgic people? it’s the type of music we all enjoy.” intimate club shows? Lizards quickly found Oxford’s Tarik: “It essentially means Malachy: “ They’re two of the Tarik: “Choosing the right blend of music scene open and welcoming. `longing’. I guess the underlying city’s best bands, who both know songs first as a platform and then Tarik: “The sheer diversity in the theme in the album – between how to give a crowd a great time, so looking at modifying something here music scene here certainly helps and original material we’d written, we’re in good company. There’s a or there to suit, in the arrangements drives any band aspiring to stand out and re-arranged and re-imagined lot of fun and inspiration to be had or the dynamic.” to try something different.” covers – is paying homage to out of trad music, especially when Spencer: “We’re lucky in that Louisa: “There’s also a huge great traditions, some completely the songs and traditions aren’t well our songs lend themselves well to appetite and support for local artists disappeared, like the Ottoman known. Audiences love hearing stripped down, unplugged and/or to thrive, especially if they’re Zeybek and Mandira, and some that something they haven’t heard before. full electric band arrangements, and pushing musical boundaries and hardly get written these days, the When the Lizards rehearse and all points in-between, so we can offering something a bit different.” slow ballad like album closer `Old arrange music, it’s all very open, either play up or down to suit the Spencer: “Oxford bands have been Fashioned Song’.” and the ideas just keep coming. So venue and audience. With eight of us pushing musical boundaries since the If you could bring anything back to often what starts as something a in the band, we fill any stage, large early 90s and some of them helped life what would it be? bit unusual, like deciding to try our or small!” to put Oxford on the musical map of Tarik: “78rpm Shellac records. hand at a Renaissance gallows dirge the world. I remember when Oxford There is a music dynamic in those or a Peruvian protest song, quickly Like The Original was Radio 1 Sound City in 1997 and Rabbit Foot Spasm Band and The there was an amazing buzz around Balkan Wanderers, The Brickwork the town. It was a milestone year for “The Sultan’s sons and daughters were Lizards are adept at getting a crowd some of the better known Oxford all married on the same night and Egypt moving but also like those other bands who were going stratospheric bands they tell stories in their songs at that time. To a certain extent, that was in festive mode for four weeks before and make pertinent points about buzz has remained to this day and the world around them. Is it more

Geoff Russell Hayward MBE at RHimageart Geoff Russell Hayward there’s definitely an appetite here for and four weeks after. The biggest stars were important to make people think or “It wasn’t us!” protests resolved to make the band the entity were joined by Louisa, as well as appearances with Brickwork Lizards bands that are outside the norm.” all vying to outdo each other in an eight make them dance, and how hard is it Brickwork Lizards bass player we know now. The band that this Dan Glazebrook on percussion. over that time, and continue to do so. to make them do both at once? Malachy O’Neill when Nightshift month release their second full album, Bruce Douglass joined on bass Phew. So now you’re up to date and Outside the norm is week music extravaganza.” Tarik: “It’s definitely a delicate asks which member of the band first `Haneen’, a collection of modernized and percussion a year or so ready to meet the band… where all of the best bands exist, balance, but we always write and coined the term `Turkabilly’, which traditional songs alongside their later. There was a brief spell in 2008 but it can make it hard for them to things, especially when played on a mutates into something unexpected perform songs with the aim being has long been used to describe their own material and an album that can where the band also included guest Brickwork Lizards find the right audience at times, with gramophone, that simply doesn’t exist and occasionally a bit special.” both, not one or the other.” exotic fusion sound. “At least there’s transport you out of chilly January appearances from the ‘Lizettes’ as came into being when Tarik moved many venues, scenes and crowds in remastered and digitised versions. Steve: “For me it’s all about getting no one in the band who’ll admit to Oxford into the far warmer bars and backing singers, namely Susanna from Egypt to Oxford in 2004. wanting genre rules adhered to. How You just have to listen to Ella Having been together people dancing; when have you it,” he continues, “it was a journalist palaces of North Africa. Starling from Inflatable Buddha and “I moved here when I secured a job hard have The Lizards found it to fit Fitzgerald’s voice on a 78rpm and for thirteen years, and undergoing ever not had a good time dancing? a few years ago who came up with The Goggenheim’s Grace Exley. as a structural engineer. A chance into different scenes like that with you’ll immediately understand why.” a constant evolution in terms of Watching people dance while we Turkabilly but we all blush slightly A staple on the local gig 2008 also saw Dan moving away meeting with Tom a few months such an eclectic sound? You’re given a time machine and the personnel, we wonder how much play gives me energy and makes when we hear it. I guess it feels a bit and festival scene over the years, and Andrew Mack joining on drums. later led to me playing at his open Tom: “It’s surprising how well we chance to go back to one gig – who The Brickwork Lizards’ sound has me smile; it makes me feel we are like false advertising. It’s true that renowned for their exotic, energetic Garry left the band - eventually mic night at the Turf Tavern; we do fit into different scenes; we have would it be and where and when? changed in that time and how close getting it right. If our music makes Ottoman and are a shows, The Brickwork Lizards are being temporarily replaced by got talking and had one of those played on folk nights, evenings; Tarik: “1878, Cairo. The wedding of is it to Tarik and Tom’s original people think then that’s great but for couple of the strands that feed into currently an eight-piece band but Johnny Hinks on guitar before he in bromantic moments when we no ones asked for a refund yet!” the Sultan’s sons and daughters: they vision for the band. me it’s all about the dancing.” what we do, but Turkabilly doesn’t their history is worth retelling to get turn was usurped by Spencer. realised we were both huge fans of Tarik: “We do have enough were all married on the same night Tom: “Our original vision has Dancing or not, both the band’s say much about the other influences you up to speed. There have been Up until this time, Steve Preston The Ink Spots, so much so that we versatility in our repertoire that we and so Egypt was in festive mode for changed in that it’s even more genre albums have had songs about that make up the Lizards sound. The fourteen Lizards over the years; had made the odd guest appearance decided to start meeting up regularly can always put something together four weeks before and four weeks expansive and the arrangements are hanging on them; is that something other stuff is just as much a part of the only three remaining from the on trumpet, but eventually gave in and listen to and learn to play Ink that fits the occasion, but without after. The biggest stars of Egyptian much more intricate and complex, that plays on their thoughts a lot? it: the rap, swing jazz, other Middle original line-up are singer and oud to the pressure and joined the band Spots songs. losing our identity.” and Ottoman court music were thanks to our gifted band members; Tom: “Ha ha ha, that’s a coincidence Eastern traditions, vaudeville, player Tarik Beshir; rapper Tom for good, playing both trumpet and “They have such great lyrics, great What have been the most present and vying to outdo each the Middle Eastern elements, the but you’re not the first to notice that psych-rock, and so on… so it might O’Hawk and cellist Louisa Lyne. On keyboard. As Bruce moved onto music performed exquisitely, and welcoming and open crowds you’ve other in an eight week daily music rap and the love of pre-war jazz still grim connection.” sound snappy, but it doesn’t really fit top of this, and to cut a long story percussion to support Andrew’s don’t even get me started on lead played to? Any shows where people extravaganza.” shines through.” the bill.” short, they’ve had three guitarists; drums, Ian Wilde joined as bass singer Bill Kenny: possibly the just haven’t got it? Spencer: “I’ve been lucky enough Have you taken on ideas or The Brickwork Lizards three bassists; three violinists; three guitarist and occasional rhythm most underrated r’n’b vocalist in Tom: “At most gigs the crowds have to be at some amazing gigs over the influences you never envisaged launch `Haneen’ with a show on th Reductive the term percussionists, and one keyboardist/ guitar. And when Ian left in 2014, 20th Century American music. Such lapped it up; Bill Frizzell’s Dance years but for me it would be when previously, or ever tried anything the 5 January at the Bullingdon. might be, but Turkabilly has become trumpeter. The current (and Malachy O’Neill arrived with his calm, well crafted music by a bunch fest was a cracker. There’s been the Jimi Hendrix burst onto the scene that didn’t work out? The show will be a celebration a convenient tag to attach to a band “hopefully final,” according to Louisa) double bass. of guys who knew exactly what they odd private gig where people were a at The Bag O’Nails club in Tarik: “Yes, certainly. Like when of everything the collective have whose sweep of influences is so line up is: Tarik, Tom and Louisa Since they now had the beginning were doing and played always to bit surprised at first but we soon got in 1966 and all of the greats of the we started doing somewhat complex achieved so far in their thirteen wide, you’d struggle to sum them up plus Malachy; Spencer Williams of a string section with the cello and their strengths. I think music today them on their feet.” time like Clapton, Townshend, Page, instrumentals on odd beats – perhaps years and will hopefully be the without recourse to a short essay. It’s (guitar); Steve Preston (keyboard and double bass, introducing violin was lost some of the strong melody Spencer: “Festival audiences have Beck etc. were blown away.” a few years ago that might have not perfect introduction to them for probably fair to say that Brickwork trumpet); Andrew Mack (drums); an obvious next step, so in 2015 lines and string arrangements that always reacted to use really well: been something we would look at. any newcomers (“expect the Lizards exist in a genre of one, so Jules Smith (violin/viola), and Sophie Frankford came on board. reinforced the choruses and propped too many to mention but one or two The mix of Arabic and As for experiments that didn’t work, unexpectable,” says Tom). They’re whatever anyone chooses to describe Sophie Frankford (violin/viola). Then this year, as Sophie spends a the hooks.” stick in the memory, most notably Middle Eastern music with swing and we are our own harshest critics and a band with some serious history them as, that’s their sound. Possibly. Brickwork Lizards started in mid- year in Cairo, Jules Smith has joined the first time we played at a rainy elements of hip hop – particularly so we can have something like three under their belt and steeped in even Theirs really is a world of music: 2005 with Tarik, Tom (previously and will stay once Sophie comes Tarik’s oud is a big part Cornbury when the sun came out at with Tom’s vocals – has earned or four song ideas in a month, but greater musical history, but also one a globe-spanning hotchpotch of rapper with local hip hop collective back on viola. of Brickwork Lizards’ sound, but the start of our set and there was a Brickwork Lizards a unique place in only one would make it through.” with an exciting future ahead of traditions and fusions from various Big Speakers) and guitarist Garry It’s also worth mentioning Giles not an instrument commonly seen in deluge just after we finished – just Oxford’s music scene, although they With eight of you in the band, and them. Another great square peg in a points in time that, over the thirteen Curran. A couple of months on, in Lewin (violin) and Charlie Fothergill the UK. in time for our friends, The Epstein. share certain ideas with local acts a fair few of you in other bands round hole type of band that Oxford year lifetime of the band have time for the band’s first gig, they (clarinet), who have made guest Tarik: “I started playing at 14. The We played the late-night party slot like The Balkan Wanderers and The at the same time, is it a logistical does so well. Sponsored by are plenty of moments of quality but all of them unresolved and seemingly masked in an BEIßPONY emotionless psychedelia as he works beneath `Beasts & Loners’ the surface to understand how to best use his undoubted talents. (Self released) RELEASED It starts out promisingly with the all too short Beißpony’s initial contact with Nightshift queries `Lesser Light’, a shimmering, ascending whether we ever review experimental music, BRICKWORK HUNNY JINKS instrumental, manifest to opening curtains which suggests they’ve never picked up a copy LIZARDS `Farewell Zombie onto a winter wonderland or equally a hot, of the mag before, but it also opens up a debate glittering seascape. It’s this powerful but as to what constitutes “experimental” music. ‘Haneen’ Emperor’ simple airiness you spend the rest of the album Beißpony ae Oxford based multi- searching for among his heavily immersed instrumentalist Laura Theiss, who also plays (Lazima Records) (Self released) in local indie/electro band Robot Swans, and For thirteen years The Brickwork Lizards A regular busking figure on Cornmarket with 40 vocals, typically on `The Weight of Summer’ and `Optimistic Kids’, which makes me feel based Stephanie Müller. `Beasts & have been combining 1930s swing and Middle years playing experience under his belt, Johnny Loners’ is their second album together and Eastern music with forays into rap and beyond. Hinkes might be nearing retirement age but I’m listening to a slowed down `End Times’ by Eels with my head under water in the bath. while it certainly tends to drift, wander or Their music has a built-in charm, but also a here’s his debut studio album, a dozen of his simply lurch into some strange old musical tension arising from the sharp contrast between own compositions contrasting with the covers `We’ll Go Down’ adds a fragrance of Japanese NATHAN ALLSWORTH rhythms to the mix without extending this corners, at its heart it’s a pretty sweet, almost oud player and vocalist Tariq Bashir’s flowing he’s better known for. cutesy, pop record. baritone and rapper Tom O’Hawk’s deep voice Given Hinkes is also a veteran guitar tutor good idea, just as the fresh oxygen of Abi `All Is Worth’ Williams’ vocals on `Right On’ ends as merely Take opener `Lord of the Wings’ for example and staccato delivery. it’s unsurprising that his instrumentation is (Self released) which is twee, lo-fi jangle pop of the kind The All these features are present on this their technically spot-on, meticulous, but technique an invitation card for a DJ or producer to All Is Worth is the musical project of Marine Girls, Talulah Gosh et al pioneered, second album which comes six years after only gets you so far as a writer and too often sample it into a banging dancefloor filler. Abingdonian Nathan Allsworth, ex of the There are elements of synthesized majesty albeit with more emphasis on getting laid and their debut,`Zaman’. Having now expanded an unexpected musical twist at the end. It is `Farewell Zombie Emperor’ simply lapses into much lamented Grudle Bay and Club Soda in `Sun Spots’ but overall this is like being in mention of “Mr Winkie”. Willies and all things their line-up, on some numbers they sound followed by an Algerian song about exile. There age-old clichés or sinks into lethargy. amongst others, but surfacing again in 2016 a hypnogogic reverie: interesting, confusing, toilet become a recurring theme throughout the more like a little big band than a group, as on are several engaging 30s-influenced songs of Nominally rooted in the 60s blues-rock with `NYC’, a very competent, atmospheric momentarily exciting, but like all ephemera, 14 tracks here, including the album’s best line, the impressively arranged, lively instrumental love unrequited, love lost and deep regret. The revival, Hinkes at least tries to keep things track on the All Will Be Well Records however beautiful, when it’s over you’re not at “Sometimes they dream of the sea while they’re ‘Hijaz Mandira’, when super tight brass kicks final track, ‘Old Fashioned Song’, delightfully fresh with stop offs at , funk and compilation `Vol 2’. all sure what actually just happened. flushing the toilet.” Or how about “I like farting in over a superb . re-creates the world of listening to a crooner even Parisian swing, with varying degrees of Here on his first solo ten track collection there Paul Carrera / You like smart things / Like reading and stuff” The artwork on the CD itself shows a well and a band (The Brickwork Lizards themselves, success. He’s at his best when playing it heavier on the excellently titled `Never Seen a Movie dressed lizard playing an oud and some of the of course) on late night FM radio. as on the Cream-influenced `Whiskey Preacher That Doesn’t Star Bruce Willis’. bold musical choices and the juxtapositions While ‘Haneen’ means a feeling of nostalgic Man’, but he seems content to let his guitar go Bewarethisboy do solemn storytelling and Such silliness adds to a sense of playfulness of musical styles have a whiff of the surreal yearning, this is a musically uplifting album a-wandering, as on the languid instrumental TIECE contemplation well (as on previous single that keeps everything buoyant throughout the about them. ‘Toro Mata’ combines a Tom in which the band creates not one but several `The Babes in the Fountain’ and the album’s `WMN’ `Tommy & Jack’, about the boys who fought album, and if the pair slip into self-conscious O’Hawk rap, and a choral version of a famous worlds. The playing and arranging is high closing title track. Any enjoyment of these and died in the world wars), and b-side `The quirkiness occasionally, as on `Rumble’, or Afro-Peruvian song about a deadly bull sung quality and there are new musical discoveries probably depends on whether you like your (Inner Peace) Burden’ here brings that out best, a near- `More Excuse Than Escape’, which sounds like The hiss and crackle that pervades Tiece’s new over a catchy Middle Eastern-cum-Latin riff. to be made with every repeat listen. Most of with a bit of fire in its belly. desolate tale of a life pressed down and broken Moldy Peaches decided to record a new album solo EP is appropriate, sounding like an old ‘The Hanging Song’, a lover’s lament from all it confirms that Brickwork Lizards are right Hinkes’ attempts at levity also tend to fall by longing for a lost love, Sue Mallett’s using empty wine bottles while stood on the th th vinyl rarity dug from a crate having remained the 16 or 17 Century, the tune of which was up there with the most creative bands the local flat, like the cloying ode to beating addiction, plangent fiddle hanging over the song like a deck of an old clipper ship, there’s something unlistened to since the 1960s. Appropriate since used for Broadsides sold at public executions, scene has produced. `Clean’ (“I’m as clean as a washing machine / wraith waiting to take the subject of the song to pleasingly oddball about `Throw a Dog a Bone’ Tiece – perhaps better known round these parts is beautifully minimalist and hypnotic with Colin May But I still miss the smelly green”). Worst of all her final destination – one she finally reaches at (“You are a cat person / And I’ve always been as part of Rhymeskeemz’s P45 band – has the are the slightly cringy attempts at something the literal and metaphorical death. your dog / I just want to follow you home”), cracked, smoky soul voice of Etta James or approaching funk and reggae (it’s hard to Great stuff – Happy New Year, everyone. We’ll while `My Abstraction Capability Equals Zero’ Irma Thomas: a voice that sounds like it’s been remains late-80s Depeche Mode and his solemn tell if they’re intentional to be honest) on all die in the end. could almost be Billie Holiday displaced into lived in, betrayed and abandoned more than vocal delivery regularly captures some of Dave `Premonition of Love’. Dale Kattack a stark post-punk band inspired by Chopin and once. `2 Sugars’ is a stoned wander through Gahan’s sullen portent. At his best he digs `Lovers in Paris’ is a nice diversion from Satie who eventually decide to be Le Tigre. tripped-out minimalist electronica that lingers deep into the early industrial sounds that bled the endless Clapton-esque guitar noodling Everything is restless and keen to go wherever in the background allowing Tiece’s voice all the into synth-pop and goth, particularly on album elsewhere, with its accordion lead but even it currently isn’t – be it abstract jazz or atonal room it needs. GRUB highlight `Motherland’ whose title alone betrays this moment of Gallic-flavoured romance industrial noise – but simultaneously content to If a couple of the songs here sound unfinished, its `Floodland’-era Sisters of Mercy influence, sounds like a Peter Sarstedt pastiche. ‘Grub One Out’ cosy up to sweet old-fashioned ideas of indie it’s that voice that stands out each and every while hints of Suicide, DAF and even Fad Elsewhere we get some jaunty, good-time pop. It’s less experimental music, more pop time, a tumbledown cousin to Martina Topley (Self released) Gadget cast their shadow over tracks like `In rhythm’n’blues and even some lightweight Grub are a three-piece Oxford band that take music that sounds like it’s been experimented Bird’s subterranean jazz diva: a voice that Godless Places’. prog, but rarely if ever do we hear anything their lead from the AmRep/Sub Pop end of on, possibly by mischievous, tipsy elves. The sounds like it could carry all the hurt of the It might be personal taste but I keep hoping that emotionally resonates. It’s comfortable American ; from rock’n’roll-ish punk result can be messy at times but it’s more often world on its shoulders while maintaining Emery will go deeper and darker with each and technically proficient but without that vital in the vein of The Stooges and Hellacopters, than not entertaining and you can’t help but perfect deportment. track but he punctuates the album with lighter fire in its soul. and from the earnest, slobby emotions of admire their stitching. Dale Kattack pieces like `Love Is A Lesson’, where he almost Dale Kattack grunge pioneers Mudhoney. In their blurb, they Victoria Waterfield turns to lightweight pop crooning in the style position themselves as “a reaction against the of Neil Hannon, and the disappointing album swathes of current bands who take themselves closer `White Doors’, which is ponderous to BEWARETHISBOY way too seriously”, that raises bristling fears the point of being inconsequential. Then again, of ‘comedy music’. Those fears aren’t realised, PAUL EMERY `This Is My Space’, a simple, almost plaintive `Be Here Next Year’ as in fact ‘Grub One Out’ is for the most part a -led ballad, is elegant and one of the (Self released) satisfyingly down-the-line set of slacker punk `Dilute Yourself’ album’s best moments. A festive-sounding single from local politico- songs; melodic guitar tunes played through (Self released) Fair play to him for trying to inject some folkies Bewarethisboy, the song dancing a lazy filter, decent riffs and solid wah-wah “Behold the fatted calf / Stripped down for humanity into machine-led music which can through the tinsel with an air of regret hanging wail action hiding behind a sheen of blank spare parts” intones Paul Emery ominously lapse into stentorian sterility in the wrong around it as the band contemplate friends generation nihilistic ennui. It’s a reliable, solid at the start of `Dilute Yourself’’s opening hands, and overall `Dilute Yourself’ finds an present and absent (“Allow yourself a wistful slice of simple pleasure, that could perhaps title track over a bed of doomladen industrial enjoyable middle ground between industrial/ smile, for those you know you won’t see for a benefit from some added depth and grunt in electronic rumbles, grinds and clunks, setting a ebm steeliness and contemplative synth-pop, while / Raise a glass and make a cheer for those terms of its recording, but that also sounds like scene that doesn’t quite unfold as we hoped. but deeper, darker and doomier is always a of us who will be here next year”) with the sort a band simply having a bit of a lark, paying Following on from his last release under good place to go in these circumstances. of bitter-tinged jollity that made `Fairytale of sluggish respect to the music they love. the name Metal Horses, Emery’s touchstone Ian Chesterton New York’ such a relatable anthem. Simon Minter taking on Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Fats package brings three minor titans of the middle Waller et al. period of that decade to town together. Enduring OPEN MIC NIGHT: The Royal Blenheim soul-pop duo Go West enjoyed their commercial peak with singles like `We Close Our Eyes’, `Call TUESDAY 16th Me’ and `The King of Wishful Thinking’ over 30 OUTTA PEAK + ONE STATE DRIVE + TORRE years ago, but have never split up. Nik Kershaw VALLEY: The Wheatsheaf – Metalcore and pop- was the most successful of the three, going multiple GIG GUIDE punk from Sheffield’s Outta Peak out on tour, with platinum with albums like `The Riddle’ and hits support from local pop-punkers One State Drive and singles `I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’, st SPARK’S SIDE OF THE MOON: The James Torquay’s crew Torre Valley. `Wouldn’t It Be Good’ and `Don Quixote’, but while MONDAY 1 Street Tavern – Weekly open mic session. his star status fell post-Live Aid, he continued to find New year, same shit. 4x4: The Cellar – Tech-house, bassline and jump up club night. musical success as a , including Chesney JANUARY th Hawkes’ `The One & Only’ and collaborations with nd WEDNESDAY 10 CZEZLAW: The Jericho Tavern – Traditional TUESDAY 2 HELIOS: The Bullingdon – Album launch show TIN MEN & THE TELEPHONE: Brookes Polish folk, waltzes and stories. Elton John and Gary Barlow. Cutting Crew are from this month’s Nightshift cover stars – see main University (5pm) SPARK’S SIDE OF THE MOON: The James probably best known for their hit `I Just Died in Your rd th WEDNESDAY 3 interview feature SHOTGUN SIX: The Jericho Tavern – Dark Street Tavern Arms’, but since it went to Number 1 around the Sunday 28 RASCAL presents DENSE & PIKA: The psychedelic and blues in the vein of world, it’s served them well. It’s a like a little bit of THURSDAY 4th Bullingdon – Laser-lit underground techno and The Doors, The Sonics and Hendrix from the local th Rewind Festival just landed in the centre of Oxford. THIS IS THE KIT: melodic house from the duo beloved of Scuba, Sven WEDNESDAY 17 SPHINX: The Cellar – Ruskin College art degree CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford Community rockers. BLOODSTOCK – METAL TO THE MASSES: Vath and Blawan. fundraiser with Sphinx alongside DJs from Disco Ma O2 Academy Centre – Oxford’s longest running open club night The Wheatsheaf – Second local heat to win a slot BOSSAPHONIK: The Cellar – Dancefloor Latin, Non Troppo and more, playing techno and disco. Centred on Bristol-born and bred, Paris- keeps on going into another new year, showcasing th at this summer’s Bloodstock Festival. MSRY, The Afrobeat, global grooves, Balkan beats and nu-jazz THURSDAY 11 TWISTED STATE OF MIND + URSUS + resident singer and multi-instrumentalist local singers, musicians, poets, storytellers and more Motive and King Bolster go head to head. club night, hosted by Dan Ofer, joined for tonight’s TIN MEN & THE TELEPHONE: Brookes WORRY + DREAMEATER: Fat Lil’s, Witney Kate Stables, This Is The Kit are one of those every Thursday. NEW WAVE: The Cellar – Hip hop club night celebration of world jazz-dance by DJ Badger. University (8pm) – OxRox rock and metal night with exuberant acts beloved of critics and tastemakers but ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Jude the Obscure – playing underground tunes from the US and UK. KLUB KAKOFANNEY with STORYTELLER ECHO4FOUR + ROCK SOLID + SWORDS OF heavyweight TSOM and more. stubbornly beloved of a cult cognoscenti Weekly open mic night. + THE SHAPES + FRANKLIN’S TOWER + THOUGHT: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Black Sabbath- CATWEAZLE: East Oxford Community Centre rather than enjoying huge commercial success. BLUES JAM: The Catherine Wheel, Sandford – th HIRAETH: The Wheatsheaf – A new year but influenced groove metal from Echo4Four at tonight’s THURSDAY 18 ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Jude the Obscure More fool the masses, as Stables and chums Open blues jam. Klub Kakofanney remains a comforting constant in OxRox show, with support from Witney teen rockers GO WEST + NIK KERSHAW + CUTTING BLUES JAM: The Catherine Wheel, Sandford (and what chums: John Parish and The th Rock Solid, and Woking’s grunge and punk crew CREW: The New Theatre – The latest 80s revival National’s Aaron Desson have played with and th our gigging lives, heading into their 27 year with a FRIDAY 5 characteristically eclectic mix of sounds, including Swords of Thought. th produced the band, while Francois & the Atlas BRICKWORK LIZARDS + FLIGHTS OF CATWEAZLE: East Oxford Community Centre FRIDAY 19 Mountains and Rozi Plain have also joined funk, reggae and pop fusion outfit Storyteller; th PROMETHEAN REIGN + NOMOS + ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Jude the Obscure Saturday 27 Stables’ ranks on a regular basis) continue to effervescently melancholy r’n’b stars The Shapes REPERCUSSIONS OF YESTERDAY: The BLUES JAM: The Catherine Wheel, Sandford release charmingly inventive albums that mix th and Grateful Dead tribute Franklin’s Tower. Wheatsheaf – Blackened death metal from local Monday 15 SOCIAL : Tap Social, Botley – AK/DK: The up ramshackle rootsiness with vivid imagery, stars Promethean Reign, keeping it dark, brutal and Fortnightly jam session. a feeling of otherness and an often gothic th occasionally theatrical in the vein of Emperor et al. THE CRIBS: SATURDAY 6 Jericho Tavern soulfulness. 2012’s `Wriggles & Restless’ If the key to getting your audience into your SOUL SESSIONS: The Cellar – Disco, funk and BLOODSTOCK – METAL TO THE MASSES: th should have at least been shortlisted for the FRIDAY 12 music is to look like you’re enjoying playing soul classics. O2 Academy The Wheatsheaf – First of this year’s local heats Mercury Prize, and if 2017’s `Moonshine Once dubbed “the biggest cult band in the RESTRUCTURE + DJs FRED UGLY, HARRY it, then AK/DK are onto a winner. Few acts LAST CALL: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Rock, metal, to win a slot at this summer’s Bloodstock Festival. Freeze’, released on Rough Trade, quietly world” The Cribs’ story is one of survival but OLIVER + MAX O’NEILL: The Wheatsheaf look like they’re having as much fun as the punk and indie covers. Sets tonight from Rats Eat Rats, Fall of a Tyrant and becoming a natural home for indie folksters, also one of maintaining a reputation over a – Free show from the local yob-hop, electro-punk Brighton-based duo. Ed and Gee have a Bring the Onslaught. gets overlooked, voices should be raised and length of time that few acts ever last. Formed duo, jointly celebrating their birthday and the release habit of filling each and every stage with a th CENTRIFUGE COLLECTIVE: The Bullingdon SATURDAY 20 sternly worded letters penned. Rioting might in Wakefield by twins Gary and Ryan Jarvis of their new single `Antisocial Media’, coming in whole clutter of technology, both ancient and – Drum&bass club night. ELYSIAN DIVIDE! + THE FINAL CLAUSE be taking it a bit far for a band as gently warm and their brother Ross, The Cribs must have partway between The Streets and Sleaford Mods. modern, then going at it hammer and tongs DEEP COVER: The Cellar – Bass and grime club OF TACTICUS + CRIMSON TUSK: The and airy as This Is The Kit, although Sables been nominated for Best Live Act more times GROOVE: The Bullingdon on twin drum kits, smiling like loons all the night with Bristol’s Sir Hiss and Lucy alongside Wheatsheaf – Metal and at tonight’s delves into the darker corners of human nature than almost any band over the past decade DEFTONES UK + K-LACURA: Fat Lil’s, while. Which is why they’re fast earning a Oxford residents Jawside and Shryke. Abolition 2018 fundraising show. on her new album. If TITK regularly get and a half, a reflection of their dedication to Witney – Tribute to the Californian metal titans, reputation as one of the best live bands on the RICHARD WALTERS + RALEGH LONG + lumped in as a folk band, and Kate regularly energetic performance and the spirit of rock th with support from local thrashcore heavyweights UK underground scene. Their debut album SUNDAY 7 ROSIE CALDECOTT: Fusion Arts – Angel- leads the line on banjo, they’re much, much and roll. Along the way they’ve also won the K-Lacura. `Synths + Drums + Noise + Space’ – a pretty FRANKLIN’S TOWER + MARK ATHERTON voiced troubadour Richard Walters returns to Oxford more, tiptoeing from breezy psychedelia Q magazine Spirit of Independence Award accurate description of what they’re about & FRIENDS + BEARD OF DESTINY + TONY for a rare hometown show, hosted by Divine Schism, into the sort of oddball songs Robert Wyatt and NME’s Outstanding Contribution Award. th – was a frenetic DIY journey into Suicide- AND SAL: Donnington Community Centre (6pm) SATURDAY 13 the singer currently recording his new album. conjures. What they indisputably should be is From their early days supporting Bobby Conn THE SURFING MAGAZINES: The Jericho inspired electro-pop, lo-fi and extremely – Free evening of unplugged live music, including MUSICAL MEDICINE featuring MAGNIER: much, much more famous. visceral. Its follow-up, `Patterns/Harmonics’, on tour and working with Edwyn Collins Grateful Dead tribute Franklin’s Tower and Delta Tavern – Garage rock and surf-pop from the sort-of The Bullingdon – Funk, soul, disco and house club. ups the ante with the introduction of vocals, and Bernard Butler in the studio, they’ve blues crew Beard of Destiny. supergroup, made up of one half of Slow Club and THE PETE FRYER BAND: The Britannia, album, `The Water of Leith’ – featuring contributions but that raw, sometimes brutal edge remains, stayed true to their brash, garage-rock roots OPEN MIC NIGHT: Harcourt Arms – Weekly two thirds of The Wave Pictures, taking inspiration Headington from Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis among others the band’s songs mostly a clamour of digital – taking inspiration from and The open mic session. from The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan and 60s – his eclectic range weaving in strands of jazz, blues and analogue synth lines and propulsive beats. Replacements along the way – and maintained THE PETE FRYER BAND: The Tree, Iffley (4- surf-rock bands. st and downbeat pop and drawing comparisons with an enviable run of Top 10 albums, including MACCA: The New Theatre – A cast of West End At times it’s reminiscent of Maryland’s Trans SUNDAY 21 6.30pm) – First of doubtless many gigs this year from STEAMROLLER & FRIENDS: The Cellar – Van Morrison. 2017’s Steve Albini-produced `24-7 Rock Star stars led by Emanuele Angeletti celebrate the songs Am, who they’ve supported, while at others it the veteran local blues rocker and band with over 50 Fundraising show for children’s charity ROSY, re- SPARK’S SIDE OF THE MOON: The James Shit’. Johnny Marr came and went but the of Paul McCartney and The Beatles. sounds like a moshpit punch-up between Holy years gigging experience under his belt. arranged from December, with local r’n’b veterans Street Tavern core trio has stuck together, which reflects the DR FEELGOOD: The Bullingdon – Disco, Fuck and Battles, while their gnarly electro Steamroller and a cast of chums, including bluesman loyalty of their fanbase. Tonight’s gig is their afrobeat and house club night. primitivism occasionally recalls long-lost th Krissy Matthews, and Sunfly. th first visit to Oxford since headlining Truck MONDAY 8 U2 BABY: Fat Lil’s, Witney – It’s Baby Bono! Californian synthesists Sewer Zombies. It’s a WEDNESDAY 24 OPEN MIC NIGHT: Harcourt Arms Festival in 2014 and is Oxford’s first big name TIN MEN & THE TELEPHONE: Brookes patched-up mash-up of first wave electronica BLOODSTOCK – METAL TO THE MASSES: THE MIGHTY REDOX: The Tree, Iffley show of 2018. When Neil Young sang “Hey University (5pm) – Kicking off a four-day residency th and and it’s just bloody fantastic. The Wheatsheaf – Third of this month’s local heats SUNDAY 14 (4-6.30pm) – Swamp blues, funk, ska, pop and hey, my my, rock and roll will never die,” he in conjunction with Oxford Contemporary Music, Just look at AK/DK onstage and you know to win a slot at this summer’s Bloodstock Festival. Amsterdam-based pianist Tony Roe and his band KLUB KAKOFANNEY: The Wheatsheaf (3.30- psychedelia from the veteran local party starters. Cranking it out in a music war are Resolve, Force of probably wasn’t thinking of The Cribs, but it’s 7pm) – Free Sunday afternoon session hosted by they know this. Soon everyone will know. a line that sums them up well enough. present an interactive, multi-media show that takes Mortality and Orpheus Oblivion. in jazz, hip hop, modern classical, improv, tape loops Klub Kak, today with sets from Puppet Mechanic, nd BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE: The Cellar – Mark Atherton & Friends, Asterox, Jesters and MONDAY 22 and more for a concert that’s part gig, part game BULLY WEE BAND: Folk Club – 80s hits, new wave, disco, glam and synth-pop club. Glenda Huish. show, part gadgetry-based mischief. Traditional acoustic folk from the reformed folk OPEN MIC NIGHT: Harcourt Arms OPEN MIC NIGHT: The Royal Blenheim veterans. THURSDAY 25th OPEN MIC NIGHT: The Royal Blenheim th THE NIGHT CAFÉ: The Bullingdon – TUESDAY 9th MONDAY 15 Exuberantly funky indie jangle from Liverpool’s fast- TIN MEN & THE TELEPHONE: Brookes THE CRIBS: O2 Academy – Raucous fight pop rd rising youngsters, back in town after recent supports from the enduring indie heroes – see main preview TUESDAY 23 University (5pm) BLUE ROSE CODE: The Cellar – Rich, soulful to The Wombats and Blaenavon. OXFORD CLASSIC JAZZ: The Harcourt Arms INTRUSION: The Cellar – Monthly goth, roots music from Edinburgh-via-London songsmith GOODNESS: The Cellar – House and techno club – Classic jazz and ragtime from the local ensemble, industrial, ebm and darkwave club night. Ross Wilson, out on tour to promote his fourth night. SATURDAY 27th TUESDAY 30th TWO ICONS DUB: O2 Academy – A cast of THE AMERICANS: The Bullingdon – Rootsy acts pays dub tribute to reggae icons Bob Marley Americana and blue collar rock and soul from the and Dennis Brown, with sets from Ras Keith; Zaia; LA stars on tour – see main preview TOKA; Jamatone; Garvin Dan; Dan-I; Tony Dread, LEECHES + SAN.MARIO + LYRA + SAD and Jack Paul. LOVE: The Cellar – We Broke Free tour, LOW ISLAND: The Cellar – Homecoming show bringing a selection of Bournemouth’s new talents from last month’s Nightshift cover stars, the fast- out on tour. rising electro-pop quartet, with over two million BE GOOD + HUX: The Jericho Tavern – Spotify streams under their belt in under a year, Featherlight funky electro-indie and r’n’b from Be beefing up their woozy synth-psych sound live, Good. Tuesday 30th with harder beats and gnarlier synths, for a ravey atmosphere. Catch them before they go stratospheric. WEDNESDAY 31st THE AMERICANS: GAPPY TOOTH INDUSTRIES with FLAMINGODS + MELT DUNES: The Cellar FREEMANTLE + RAT THE MAGNIFICENT – The world in song from the Bahrain-Brit band – The Bullingdon + EARINADE: The Wheatsheaf – The first see main preview The first of two consecutive nights of prime Gappy Tooth Industries of 2018 continues the theme ORANGE: The Bullingdon – A quality Americana to kickstart the year of providing an eclectic line-up, tonight’s show return to Oxfordshire for North Carolina duo courtesy of Empty Room Promotions tonight, featuring local psychedelic and dreampop Mandolin Orange, following their gig in Witney in with an Oxford debut from The Americans. outfit Freemantle alongside London’s alt.rock and 2015, Emily Frantz and Andrew Marlin’s blend of The Los Angeles trio – Patrick Ferris, Jake post-hardcore outfit Rat the Magnificent, inspired by rootsy Americana, bluegrass and gospel inspired Faulkner and Zac Sokolow – have been The Jesus Lizard and Slint. Post-punk, power-pop, by Gram Parsons, Neil Young and Townes Van making quite the name for themselves in electro-rock and caustic whimsy from Earinade to Zandt. They’re over in the UK to tour fifth album recent times, particularly for their recurring open the show. `Blindfaller with tonight’s show hosted by Empty part in American Epic, the documentary series AK/DK: The Jericho Tavern – Synthesizers! And Room Promotions’. produced by Jack White, T-Bone Burnett drums! And more Synthesizers! And more drums! – and Robert Redford, exploring the roots and see main preview resurgence of American music traditions from SASASAS: O2 Academy – Underground the 1920s and 30s. They’ve also played on drum&bass club night with DJ Phantasy, Macky Wednesday 31st The Late Show with Letterman, toured with Gee, Stormin MC, Harry Shotta, Shabba D & MC Grammy and Oscar winner Ryan Bingham, Skibadee, back in town after their set at Truck FLAMINGODS / played with and Lucinda Williams Festival in July. and even found themselves playing the first CANUTE’S PLASTIC ARMY + RACHEL MELT DUNES: dance at Reese Witherspoon’s wedding. Like RUSCOMBE-KING + BECKI REED: The JD McPherson, American Aquarium and Harcourt Arms – Quirky folk and pop from acoustic The Cellar Richmond Fontaine, The Americans take the duo Canute’s Plastic Army, led by the soaring vocals Easy to get a bit carried away when you start earthy folk traditions of the rural West and mix of former Teddy White Band member Anish Noble- writing about Flamingods. Partly because they them with blue collar rock’n’roll passion and Harrison. sound like they got a bit carried away when swagger; it’s unreconstructed stuff but full of DAY OF THE DEADBEATS 5: Isis Farmhouse – they made their music. Their music being a soul and great songwriting – new album `I’ll Country-soul/r’n’b crew The Deadbeat Apostles host mix of the ancient and modern and a whole Be Yours’ featured in Truck Store’s end of year their monthly free party, tonight joined by Ragged world of sounds: a musical journey from Americana Top 10, and they know their stuff Charms and more. Turkey to Thailand via Tasmania. Formed on that count. Time to leave the post-Christmas MUSED: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Tribute to the as a bedroom project in Bahrain by Kamal blues behind and hit the road with a better kind renowned Radiohead tribute band. Rasool, he recruited a bunch of fellow musical of blues. DAMN GOOD REASON: The Brewery Tap, travellers, but they rarely existed in the same Abingdon – covers. space at the same time. When he relocated to CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford Community London (and was later deported), Flamingods Centre th recorded their albums via soundfiles and ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Jude the Obscure SUNDAY 28 Skype. They draw on influences from Middle BLUES JAM: The Catherine Wheel, Sandford THIS IS THE KIT: O2 Academy – Banjos and and Far Eastern traditions, North African SOCIAL JAM BAND: Tap Social, Botley blood in Kate Stables’ sweetly strange folk-pop rhythms, Western pop and all manner of folk, world – see main preview jazz, dance and psychedelic sources, their LACH: The Cellar – New York singer-songwriter FRIDAY 26th extended songs a mix of mosaics, drones, Lach brings his Dylan-esque antifolk and beat poetry samples, melody and atonality. They’ve been SKYLARKIN SOUNDSYSTEM with to town, having previously supported Neil Halstead HEMPOLICS: The Cellar – A first glimpse of called tribal folkadelica and Aboriginal prog on tour. at various times and variously compared to summer on the horizon with the first Skylarkin’ party OPEN MIC NIGHT: Harcourt Arms of 2018. Tonight’s guests are smoky reggae/soul/hip Goat, Avalanches and Ash Ra Tempel. They’re BLUES JAM: Fat Lil’s, Witney (3pm) – Monthly certainly different – esoteric, otherworldly hop stars on the rise Hempolics, touring their debut open blues jam. album, `Kiss Cuddle & Torture Volume 1’, featuring and brilliantly international in their flavours as well, with their strange dress, a treat as vocal contributions from Maxi Jazz and Paulo Nutini, th as well as lead performances from singers Nubiya MONDAY 29 much for the eyes as the ears. They’re back in and Dan Collier. Count Skylarkin is selector-in-chief PETE FIJ & TERRY BICKERS: The Oxford after their showing at Ritual Union in on the decks alongside Emma Jardine. Bullingdon – Late-night reflection, alt.country October and before that as support to Comet Is MR SCRUFF: The Bullingdon – A typically and minor key acoustic introspection from former Coming, and are joined by south coast psych- marathon set from Manchester’s tea-drinking master labelmates Fij and Bickers, rockers Melt Dunes for what will indisputably of eclecticism and quirky mixology Andy Carthy; his leaving behind the indie sounds of their previous be the most exotic gig of the month. last studio album, `Friendly Bacteria’, was a bass- bands (Adorable, Polak, and heavy blend of deep house, electro-funk, afrobeat, Levitation) to take elegant inspiration from the soul, hip hop and dubstep, though he’s happy to delve likes of Richard Hawley, Johnny Cash, Scott into whatever else takes his fancy, while retaining a Walker and Lou Reed. sense of fun about his sets. SWARB: Nettlebed Folk Club – Tribute tour VOODOO VEGAS + FLOWERPOT + to the late folk fiddle legend, who died in 2016. SILVERVOID: The Wheatsheaf – Heavy , Canada’s Jason Wilson Band and rocking in the vein of Guns’n’Roses, Alter Bridge John Kirkpatrick and Simon Swarbrick play the and Bon Jovi from Voodoo Vegas at tonight’s former-Fairport man’s songs from across his OxRox show. extensive career, with a few guests along the way. F.U.D: Prince of Wales, Shippon – Rock covers. OPEN MIC NIGHT: The Royal Blenheim GAELYNN LEA / HALFWAY TO SEVENTY FIVE LIVELIVE WAITRESS FOR THE BEES CHRISTMAS JAMBOREE St Barnabas The Isis Farmhouse On a bitterly cold night at the start of December, it already Fancy some “rockin’ blues from instrumentalism, and there’s plenty feels a lot like Christmas: inside one of Oxford’s most the USA”? How about a bit of of that on display tonight, with the ornate churches the aroma of mulled wine and homemade “foot stompin’ roots”? Okay, we’ll two lead singers making fine use of mince pies permeates the air; the stage is decked with fairy throw in a smidgeon of “swinging a banjo and a guitar. As their lights and tonight’s gig hosts Irregular Folks and OCM are Christmas jazz” for good measure – set comes to an end, some audience wandering around the room handing out free sherry. Gaelynn Lea photo: Ian Wallman and a hog roast. members seem to be genuinely Not just a gig, tonight is an event – one involving two of the Halfway to Seventy Five’s good ol’ considering getting up on stage and most inventive string players around. Minnesota’s Gaelynn Americana charm might not seem joining in. Lea plays her violin like a cello, the result of Osteogenesis like the most seasonal of vibes, Headlining the night is JAKE Imperfecta. Her technique means she’s hitting the low but there’s a strange charm in the LA BOTZ, a folky blues singer notes first, bringing out her instrument’s sombre side and combination of mulled wine, hot from Nashville. “Oxford’s a pretty exacerbating the intensity of songs like `Some Day We’ll food, and good company happening place,” he says without Linger in the Sun’ and set highlight `The First Three Feet’, that its Christmas Jamboree provides. apparent irony, before launching delicately elaborate, deeply soulful music that mixes bluegrass The Isis benefits as a venue from into a set that’s pleasantly varied, with classical music, guitarist Dave Mehling adding a grunge cold, dark nights almost as much touching on Robert Cray-ish edge to the sound. It’s Gaelynn’s voice that’s the star of the as it does from hot summer days: contemporary blues, Dylan-esque show though: limpid and pure, almost operatic but full of AL RYAN’S SWINGTET is an ballads and a long skit about a sacred passion and quirks, like a mix of Eartha Kitt and Joanna appropriate opener for the evening, comb. There’s a lot of fiddling about Newsom at times. She breaks the spell on the distracting with a middle-of-the-road take on the with levels early on, which honestly dirge `Breathe! You Are Alive!’, which sounds like a dippy Great American Songbook that’s the does get a bit distracting – but as a mindfulness speech, at least until it resolves into a droning musical equivalent of cheap mulled headliner la Botz largely delivers, duel between violin and guitar. And this being Christmas she wine. They’re affable enough. and his mythologizing paean to closes with `In The Bleak Midwinter’, perfect for the weather We move out to the barn for THE Howlin’ Wolf is more endearing than outside and a perfect vehicle for her singular talent. KNIGHTS OF MENTIS, who it is awkward. Better still though is Canadian singer and viola player have dressed for the occasion in By this time the drink has been Emma Hooper, who goes under the name Waitress For flatcaps, scarves and Fair Isles. This flowing for many, many hours, and the Bees and whose songs about insects and dinosaurs are is the “foot stompin’ roots”, and la Botz leaves the stage to riotous full of scientific fact, childlike glee and deep, dark pathos. the band delivers as advertised: it’s applause and some rather confused Songs are introduced by short, sweet lessons in natural all good fun in the major key, with chanting. The festivities continue history before the bugs are infused with human spirit and plenty of eye-watering dancing from into the night; but slowly the crowd existentialism and tragedy unfold. Stick insects lose their certain members of the audience. dwindles, as ever-so-slightly swaying identity among their clone sisters; ants are brainwashed then There’s at least nine people on stage figures pick their way through the killed by mushroom spores and fruit flies are born, breed and at any one time, with more than benches and disappear down the die within three days. Hooper loops her viola and various enough energy to raise the barn dark, narrow towpath. We’re left vocal ticks, singing the songs in a high-pitched, playful roof (figuratively speaking). The wishing we brought a torch. voice, culminating in a euphoric hymn to cicadas, rising into Knights are known for their multi- Tom White summer skies after years spent living underground. She has an almost magical gift for turning what are essentially grim horror stories into something genuinely fun – and funny, while taking her music into equally unpredictable places. Her TOUCH MY SECRET entire set – including an obscure Huron Christmas carol – is The Cellar mesmerising and educational and we come away knowing Unlike books and covers you can tell he’s powerful and wild enough to a little more about the natural world and feeling a whole lot a lot about a band from their name. make that unimportant. Bassist Chloe warmer inside. After all, how could a band called and singer/guitarist Anne have the Dale Kattack The Fall be anything but supremely tiniest fingers in rock, not that they wonderful and frightening? How stop moving long enough to enable could a band called My Chemical a sober judgement, breathless guitar of this year,” announces Lucy Leave’s Mike Smith LUCY LEAVE / SELF HELP / MANU LOUIS / Romance be anything but a runs and deft bass lines compliment after playing of `Chant//Fresh Crepes’; “before hopeless embarrassment? And so the machine gun drumming that was Nightshift’s ninth favourite song of last BEARD OF DESTINY to tonight: how could a band called perfectly. Metal is always better year, so you can see the trajectory we’re on,” he Touch My Secret be anything but a at high speed, obvious exceptions The Wheatsheaf deadpans. Truth is Lucy Leave are very much on young Japanese glam metal band? like Black Sabbath acknowledged, duo Beard of Destiny are at half fetish; a Mighty Boosh skit on ebm; a failed disco an upward trajectory. And a downward one. And That description may be less than though this is more tuneful pop-metal strength for tonight’s Gappy Tooth Industries star having a breakdown and accidentally making a leftward one. They’re a band who probably forensically accurate but it’s closer than nihilistic speed-metal. ‘Liar’ and show, so it’s just Graham Barlow playing acoustic the best music of his career, and a holiday camp struggle to second guess themselves, their set – a one-man blues machine as he puts himself in kids entertainer who’s thought “fuck it, these brats coming on like a minibusload of tunes taken for a than the J-Punk tag that they’ve come ‘Revenge’ (they don’t waste words) song. Despite this he’s far more fun than 90% of need some Krautrock in their lives.” Sometimes trip to a hall of magic mirrors and returned home to be landed with. Less than two are catchy and engaging, the kind solo acoustic performers we’ve seen lately, mixing it’s silly, often it’s camp, but mostly it’s inspired in their distorted state. `40 Years’ is as close as years old and one album into their of songs Japanese bands do so well: up growly Mississippi blues with daft humour, and highly entertaining. they get to a straight musical line – a pummelling career the three-piece are very fast, no European boozy headbanging playing `Ace of Spades’ Robert Johnson style one Self Help are also a (wo)man down tonight, which Bo Diddley/Modern Lovers jam-out, but the likes very precise and tight, and generally anthems here. minute, singing about cats eating budgies the next steals some of the detail from their barrelling pop- of `Beauty of the World’ and `Speak Danish to Me’ loads of fun. It’s the last night of the tour and and culminating in a clap-along number titled `The punk that’s ferocious yet merry, the songs bold and are as fractured, cracked, bent out of shape and Normally reviewers have to guess Anne thanks us for all our support, Ghost of Larry Grayson Perry’. fresh and executed with a rough-edged naivety. inventive as you’d hope from a band who tend to the size of a crowd but here it’s easy which just makes us feel worse and Berlin’s Manu Louis is alone onstage too, dressed They’re being tipped as one of the new local bands sound like Deerhoof, Soft Machine, The , to report that seventeen people greet we shout ourselves hoarse, mired like an extra from Miami Vice and accompanied most-likely-to, and while we don’t want to burden The Slits and all at the same time. A them, not that the band show any in collective guilt for our indolent, by an array of electronic gadgetry from which them with the weight of expectation, they have the band perfectly suited to Gappy Tooth Industries’ signs of disappointment. Launching stay-at-home city. But the brave he conjures a slightly manic set of highly raucous vibe of early about them and, square pegs, round holes and what the hell ethos. into the opening number it seems seventeen, and a few more by the kitsch electro-pop that variuously sounds like a crucially, the tunes to back it up. Welcome to your They’re a band on their very own trajectory; the Louis’ drumming is aided by some end, enjoy a fun night and possibly Generation Game take on DAF; a Latino cruise new favourite band. rest of us can simply try and keep track. kind of triggered added beats, witness a new star ascending. ship crooner with an abstract industrial electronica “That was Nightshift’s fourteenth favourite song Dale Kattack particularly on the kick drum, but Art Lagun PETER KNIGHT’S GIGSPANNER THE MARK LANEGAN BAND Nettlebed Folk Club O2 Academy The convention is that people who head off in the direction of classical When you think of the people whose from most recent album `Gargoyle’ play folk music on the violin are said music; there are echoes of `The Lark voices are suited to playing God, too find him digging deep down into to be playing the fiddle. But to talk of Ascending’, and passages which Morgan Freeman doubtless tops most the dirt while ranging through the Peter Knight in this way just doesn’t would not be out of place at a free lists, but Mark Lanegan would make a firmament, the glorious `Beehive’ seem right. Rather he is a violinist jazz session. great deity: possessed of a Stentorian simultaneously earthy and warm but who brings a prodigious technique, While the band’s great strength soulfulness that could seduce or as immovable and determined as many musical influences and a fertile is their instrumental playing, with disembowel at fifty paces, it’s a an Easter Island statue. Lanegan’s musical imagination to the party Flack and Trochet providing a totally lived-in, ageless growl that’s both band are an impressive force, tearing whenever he plays a folk tune. sympathetic foundation for Knight’s benevolent and vengeful. through the set with bass-heavy, pile- Knight has had a very long career virtuosity and sublime creativity, Lanegan really is a lived-in character, driving intent, singer Shelley Brien a as part of band Steeleye Knight and his colleagues’ soft one who’s somehow survived over great foil to Lanegan on those tracks Span but also several side projects as vocals are surprisingly affecting, three decades of music making at its she sings alongside him. well, including excursions into jazz especially when it comes to doing darkest corner and the lifestyle that Now 53 and having lived the life, and even prog rock. Since leaving weary resignation. This quiet vocal follows it, from the fury of Screaming so to speak, while barely standing Knight, who recently style makes a ballad about the post- Trees, through more collaborations still for a moment along the way turned seventy and shows no sign of Napoleonic economic depression than even he can probably remember, Lanegan’s health maybe isn’t as slowing down, has been putting his (and austerity now?), ‘Hard Times from Queens of the Stone-Age and good as it could be. He’s walking energy into Gigspanner, his trio with For Old England’, and about a wife Isobel Campbell to The Twilight with a stick tonight and when he Roger Flack on guitar and now with who leaves her husband and child for Singers and Greg Dulli and onto Tim closes his set with two songs in Sasha Trochet on djembe and hand a stranger (it ends badly, of course), Simeon and Soulsavers. Many and the encore - `One Way Street’ and percussion. particularly evocative. varied his projects have been but at `Bombed’ – we’ve barely had seventy They have become known for With the instrumental ‘Sharp Goes the heart of each is his distinctive minutes. Given the breadth and mesmerizing playing and for Walkabout’, the trio make you feel the baritone: weather-beaten, scuffed and depth of his back catalogue, that’s stretching the folk tradition by fusing aboriginal heritage and the heat of the scarred and soaked in bourbon. a disappointment. But then seventy it with touches of folk-rock and Australian Outback, while with the His most recent solo albums have minutes in the company of a man jazz and other influences, including tune ‘King Of The Fairies’ the fairy seen him bringing the influence of whose voice sounds like it’s rising up elements drawn from world music, king seems to be playing jazz violin British post-punk and synth-pop to from some unknowable depth, armed and their recently released fourth inspired by Stephane Grappelli mixed bear on gothic blues, which reaches with a whole world of hurt and hope album has garnered rave reviews. in with a Cuban beat. It’s impressive its zenith on tonight’s second track, and love and hate and hard liquor, is Tonight they begin with what Knight playing and totally beguiling, and on `Gavedigger’s Song’, a murderous seventy minutes to savour. Anyway, calls “a sort of version” of the well the evidence of this gig Peter Knight rumble with a devilish sense of he’s surely got a fair few years left known ‘She Moved Through The and his Gigspanner colleagues look romance about it (“To the stars my in him, hasn’t he. What with being Fair’. It’s “a sort of” because while it like they will be a force for good in love / To the sea / To the wheels my immortal and all that. starts with the tune and finishes with the folk world and perhaps beyond for love / Til they roll over me”). Tracks Dale Kattack the tune about eight minutes later, in years to come. between there are flourishes which Colin May PROTECTION SPELLS / SLONK / WAYNE McARTHUR & THE KATE STAPLEY UNIVERSAL PLAYERS The Library We’ve seen metallers destroy a is not scared of wilder dynamics The Wheatsheaf lager crate in minutes, and Gnawa than your average solo strummer. We have been fortunate in our although his style is largely roots musicians take turns onstage to Moments in the set recall Jeffrey manifold ventures into the world rock, his output is varied, having sip strong, sweet tea, but we can’t Lewis or anti-folk originator Lach, of reggae to have met some truly worked with a large number of recall ever seeing a line-up where but in `I’m Pursuing A Career lovely people: Mad Professor, Earl producers as well as on his own. every performer is getting squiffy Outside Of Conveyancing’ Slonk Gateshead, DJ Derek and Askala He covers the major reggae styles Selassie: a true Princess of Positivity. of steppers, one drop and roots and on rosé. And if we have, it was most resembles the melancholic rage However roots singer Wayne culture. At the same time, Wayne has probably not on one of the coldest of Hamell On Trial. It’s an enjoyable McArthur takes it to another level had a long and productive relationship nights of the year. First to take time set, though by the end the industrial- entirely. His diminutive stature belies with Oxford, having recorded with between pink slurps to sing a few strength nanny goat vibrato and a massive heart: arms outstretched, Spider and Jonas from Dubwiser. songs is Bristol’s Kate Stapley, predictable distortion pedal stomps friendly fingers spread and with a Last time Nightshift caught Ras last seen in Oxford as part of fuzzy do start to grate. broad smile, it seems he wants to McArthur was at the tribute to David pop act Spring Break. An acoustic This duo’s called Protection Spells, embrace the crowd with his message Norland at the Bullingdon when performance reveals the lyricism in but they’re not really witches, right? of universal upliftment and the love Earl 16 was also guesting. Another her songs, where long lines swirl like Right? Because from the outset, their of Jah. But is The Wheatsheaf – Oxfordian in support onstage tonight smoke around jazz-tinged chords. spooky, woozily gaseous half-songs sweaty rockpit that it is – quite ready is percussionist Hugo Makepeace, Stand-out piece `Laburnum’ has the do seem like esoteric rituals (eye of for this? I think so, because it’s Klub from resting local reggae favourites cracked bombast of Jeff Buckley, newt, and ton of reverb). No sooner Kakofanney on a cold Friday night Makating (as well as Desta*Nation and at other times the calmer wisdom has the arcane mood of “respecting and so a characteristically eclectic sound system and Jamatone). The of Joni Mitchell takes over. With the darkness of the woods” been line up. Wheatsheaf is not usually associated approximately half the lyrics about set, than one of the members swaps To the sounds of Easy Star All with reggae, but Chief Kakofannist empty houses, and no fewer than two guitar for drums, and despite a Stars the Universal Players – who Phil Freizinger tells me he’s asked songs about dementia, this should be strange jerky Thunderbirds style, are mainly the talented daughters of many local instigators lots of times, an unremittingly bleak set, but it’s actually plays crisp and sparsely Wayne – set up. Between heartfelt but to no avail. Given the punchy quietly life affirming. funky rhythms. Alright, if they’re calls for love and unity, social sound of the mix and the positive Fellow Bristolian Slonk has a not witches, can we at least decide justice and a deeper engagement vibes, let’s hope that changes- louder, more aggressive style – or whether this London band are a with reality, McArthur plays largely because you can never have too perhaps it’s just evidence of an extra micro-Devo, a pocket Cocteaus or from his last LP `Roots Criteria’, much reggae in Oxford, especially 30 minutes on the Mateus. He has a Toytown Lynch soundtrack? Oh, plus others which showcase both the in the darkest, coldest months of the a slack, yet melodic voice, as if the who cares, just enjoy it. Can we breadth and depth of his output. year. young Dylan had been in thrall to J interest you in some rosé? Wayne McArthur is most prolific; Leo Bowder Mascis rather than W Guthrie, and David Murphy HARCOURT ARMS INTRODUCING.... Nightshift’s monthly guide to the best local music bubbling under Saturday January 27th MOTHER Who are they? Canute's Indie rockers Mother are Josh Alden (guitar/vocals); Sam Alden (drums); Danny Fisher (guitar), and Everton Barbato (bass). Danny and Josh met four years ago. Josh was forming a band back then and got Danny onboard while Everton was introduced by a friend. A year later, that band broke up. Danny and Josh started a new project and asked Everton to get involved. Josh’s Plastic cousin Sam played drums and had three weeks left of uni and was dying to get back behind the kit. Under their old name Temper Cartel 2017 saw them supporting The Bluetones, The Strypes, and Willie J Healey, as well as playing at Ritual Union Festival. The newly renamed band have recorded with Ride’s Mark Gardener. Their `Crusade’ EP was released in 2017 and a Army new five-song EP, `Remnants Of A Wasted Dream’ is released in February. strong solo material and performs with an Oxfordshire Super Group with Ash What do they sound like? Cooke of Be Good, Willie J Healey and Mike Monaghan.” Plus Support from Airy indie guitar pop meets its grungier cousin on new single `Petrichor’, If they could only keep one album in the world, it would be: an alternately fidgety and elegant track that mixes up classic 60s pop with “Radiohead’s `In Rainbows’: it’s got everything that you’d want in an album.” Rachel Ruscombe-King and Noughties NYC rock. When is their next local gig and what can newcomers expect? What inspires them? “The Cellar on Thursday 1st February. We’ll be launching our EP. Expect a Becki Reed “Other artists on the scene that are doing things in interesting ways; we loud, high energy, slightly theatrical performance designed to take you with always have a keen eye on how people are releasing music and we all have an us. We give everything in our live shows, it’s one of those things where the interest in going to gigs, watching acts develop and performances grow.” more people put into it with us the more we all get from it.” Monday January 15th Career highlight so far: Their favourite and least favourite things about Oxford music are: “Supporting Willie J Healey at the O2 in December; his band is amazing, so “We love the community that surrounds the scene and its heritage but having oxford classic jazz it was a real treat to play the same stage and watch them work. We already some of the biggest and best bands in the world come from your home town had tickets to the show because it didn’t even enter our minds that we would is both a blessing and a curse. It seems to overshadow everything. When an be support for it.” act gets to a certain point on the circuit it always feels like people are waiting, Open Mic Every Sunday And the lowlight: ready to pounce on `what’s the next big band to break out of Oxford?’. It feels “Sitting in traffic for three hours driving to play at the New Cross Inn in front quite pressured but it makes us work harder.” live music at the heart of jericho of the four other bands that were playing that night and the bartender. We left You might love them if you love: Cranham Terrace Jericho Oxford ox2 6dg so disheartened but you just have to regroup and keep pushing back.” The Strokes; Spring King; Muse; Temples; Radiohead; Foo Fighters. Their favourite other Oxfordshire act is: Hear them here: 01865 556669 “Chris Barker, who also plays guitar for Willie J Healey. He’s got really New single `Petrichor’ is on Spotify; the video is on Youtube.

DR SHOTOVER: Honest Sonsie Face THIS MONTH IN OXFORD T H E W H E A T S H E A F Ah, there you are, wee man. You’ll have had your tea, but pull up a pew ALL OUR YESTERDAYS MUSIC HISTORY th and buy us all a Loch Peatie, why don’t you? Slàinte! Yes, in case you Friday 5 January – KLUB KAKOFANNEY hadn’t noticed, Scots Month has rolled around again here at the East 20 YEARS AGO 10 YEARS AGO 5 YEARS AGO Indies Club. Eh? I said, SCOTS MONTH… Bedingfield, I say BEDINGFIELD, The Samurai Seven, The Secret, The “There are no proper stars left,” proclaimed Joe The two masked figures peering android-like from THE SHAPES + FRANKLIN’S TOWER 7:45pm STORYTELLER The Massed Pipes of the Black Watch ft. Kenneth Animalhouse, The Full Monty, Lab-4 and Swarbrick, singer with Borderville, who graced the cover of January 2013’s Nightshift were Andy Saturday 6th January – METAL TO THE MASSES will ye no’ turn down McKellar? I can barely hear myself ROAR, man. Ah, that’s better. As I Medal were among the acts tipped for bigger, Nightshift’s front cover in January 2008, before Hill and Dan Clear, together known as Death of RATS EAT RATS + FALL OF THE TYRANT was saying, it’s been decided that, in tribute to the late, great, much- better, brighter futures in January 1998’s declaring that “there is not a shred of glamour Hi-Fi, making their debut on the cover and talking lamented STORNOWAY (who ceased trading in March 2017), all Oxford Nightshift, and for a while many of them proved in any famous British musician currently being about their debut album, `Anthropocene’, featuring acts will revert to Caledonian names in January 2018, from Hogmanay us right yet again, Lab-4 and The Secret leading a hyped by the press. Punk has left us a damaging a host of guest MC turns, including Dizzy Dustin, BRING THE ONSLAUGHT 7:45pm new wave of techno music out of Oxford that won legacy – what was at the time a necessary spring Mark Deez and Copywrite, alongside local rappers th through to Burns Nicht. The move is of course heartily endorsed by the Tuesday 16 January – PALADIN PROMOTIONS giant rooms full of fans at clubs like Escape From clean, a definition of rock music as protest and Half Decent, Asher Dust and N-Zyme, which McMafia who actually run the Oxford Music Scene – you know who you Samsara, while The Animalhouse, featuring pure energy, has become a reductive, fascistic Nightshift acclaimed as “the best hip hop album to are, you wee Teuchters. So, FOALS have – as it were – led the charge, OUTTA PEAK ONE STATE DRIVE + TORRE VALLEY 7:45pm Mark Gardener and Loz Colbert from Ride ideology clung to by journalists terrified of come out of Oxford.” “We bonded over wobbly, Wednesday 17th January - METAL TO THE MASSES opting to be SHETLAND PONIES… RIDE were toying with changing alongside Supergrass producer Sam Williams, got not seeming cool enough.” Always one of our low-budget BBC sci-fi, said Andy, “although there their name to EAST KILBRIDE, and another famous Oxford act were themselves a deal with BMG. Medal, taken under favourite interviewees, Joe set out his ideas for was nearly a beef as I was a ZX Spectrum fan and MSRY + THE MOTIVE + KING BOLSTER 7:45pm considering PETERHEAD. But, in shock news akin to a Scottish World the wing of Radiohead and Supergrass’ Courtyard the band who were to blossom into one of the he was firmly in the Oric 1 camp.” Friday 19th January – JAM CITY Cup win, the two bands are joining forces to form a supergroup, to be Management, signed to Polydor. The Sammies, most musically and lyrically ambitious acts in Introducing act this month were hip hop duo Flooded known collectively as RADIO CLYDE. Look out also for THE MOTHERWELL meanwhile were embarking on a journey that Oxford before they split. Hallways, whose lo-fi stoner rap looked like making PROMETHEAN REIGN NOMOS + R.O.Y 7:45pm DRAMAS, IRN-ADE, LUCY LEVEN, and of course OOR WULLIE J. HEALEY. would earn them half a dozen Peel Sessions, Oxford’s big guns were gearing up for action, them an overdue local hip hop breakthrough act, but Saturday 20th January – ABOLITION 2018 And now, more whusky, I say! Here’s tae us… wha’s like us… damn few, a deal with Fierce Panda and a fanatical local with Radiohead releasing `Jigsaw Falling Into we’ve not heard from them lately. and they’re a’ deid! following over the next few years. Place’ as the first single from their groundbreaking Among a slender legion of acts coming to town Next month: RUNRIG and Panic Making their own bid for stardom were Arthur `In Rainbows, while Supergrass released a were JD McPherson, Tall Ships and Cerebral ELYSIAN DIVIDE Turner’s Lovechild, who released their debut limited edition 7” single, `Diamond Hoo Ha Man’ Bore, but mostly everyone stayed at home, waiting THE FINAL CLAUSE OF TACITUS + CRIMSON TUSK 7:45pm single `Son of the Human Cannonball’ on Shifty ahead of their `Diamond Hoo Ha’ album. Foals, for spring. Down in the demos Mustard & the th Wednesday 24 January - METAL TO THE MASSES Disco. And who could forget The Kangaroo meanwhile, announced their biggest hometown Monocle went head to head with Masiro for Project, whose `How Things Look’ EP was also show to date with a gig at the Academy in March, top spot, while down the bottom we found “self RESOLVE + FORCE OF MORTALITY out this month. Us for starters. and tracklisting for `Antidotes’. proclaimed Christian songwriter” Martin Ash A typically quiet January gig calendar featured Elsewhere this month, Mary’s Garden released “expecting lots of gratuitous swearing and religion ORPHEUS OBLIVION 7:45pm visits to town from Catatonia, just about to their debut album, `Mind Control’; former Rock bashing in the ritual placing of the Demo Dumper” Friday 26th January – OXROX become stadium huge, at The Zodiac, as were Of Travolta founder Phill Honey’s Boywithatoy and we didn’t want to disappoint him in his absolute Liverpudlian electro hooligans Earl Brutus and project were Demo of the Month, while GTA, the certainty and, whaddya know, his music was “a VOODOO VEGAS FLOWERPOT + SILVERVOID folk hero Martin Simpson. Local names in the rap duo featuring Chima Anya, were down in the shrill, worryingly jaunty piano and fiddle-led pit of Saturday 27th January – GAPPY TOOTH INDUSTRIES gig guide included Suriki; Plastiscene; Crackout; Dumper, sounding like “being stuck on the last of musical slurry that might be a French & Saunders Glue; Maniacal and Dolly, the last of which bus out of town on a Saturday night in front of attempt to parody Steeleye Span”. We were, then, to FREEMANTLE RAT THE MAGNIFICENT + EARINADE 7:45pm ‘Whit like, Oxford…? We’re The Sensational Alex Candyskins Band… and featured a young Julia Heslop on vocals, later to two juvenile wannabe rap stars whose tolerance of paraphrase The Wicker Man, able to confer upon Mr The Wheatsheaf 129 High Street, Oxford OX1 4DF / www.facebook.com/wheatsheaf.oxford we’re BACK!’ front Little Fish and latterly Candy Says. alcohol extends to two cans of cheap cider.” Ash a rare honour – a martyr’s review. Argentinean singer called Paul LeRocq (or it’s for the best we didn’t get to comment Pablo Sciepura, depending on which name on such a concept. Whatever, no music at we’re supposed to believe in the email). all is still better than this next one. First up he looks like Enrique Iglesias DEMOS trying to look like Chad Kroeger, which is Sponsored by Demo of the Month wins a free half day several shades of horrible before we even THE DEMO at Soundworks studio in Oxford, get to the music. Music which can only courtesy of Umair Chaudhry. Visit have come from the bottom of the barrel www.umairchaudhry.co.uk/nightshift after every terrible 80s band in DUMPER the world gave up scraping and headed we’re getting into the swing of things home to polish their Spandex trousers and QUALMS If your lyrics are terrible it’s probably best we get another intermission, some cod- perms. It starts with an overblown guitar DEMO OF not to make a video with them splashed philosophical ramble that neither offers solo and then turns into what we can only all over the screen. Cos horrible bastards any great wisdom nor adds anything to the describe at Ugly Kid Joe trying to cover like us will laugh at them and pick holes THE MONTH music. At his best Milver is an adept MC Falco’s `Rock Me Amadeus’ in the style in them and use them as a weapon against with a confident, unbroken flow and, on of Bon Jovi. It’s somehow cheesier than you. Not that you’d need a weapon of any demo highlight `Contraddict’, something a Christmas Stilton wheel but without an SPRUNG FROM great substance to defeat Qualms by the to say, particularly about hypocrisy, ounce of fun about it, just an overbearing sound of this insipid trawl through spaced- CAGES over a sharp, jazz/funk backing. But on sense of worthiness, like a humourless out wimp-pop balladeering. But let’s The offspring of top footballers and `Floatation Device’ he speeds through six hippie uncle who turns up to the festive focus on those lyrics for now, shall we. managers generally find it hard to follow and half minutes of rhymes without pause feast but complains the cracker jokes are “I’m breathing clouds under red lights,” in their footsteps and the same is true of or variety and no amount of flow can hold offensive to elves and thinks all the kids’ simpers the opening line over footage of musicians. For all of the great privileges your attention that long without some hook toys should be handcrafted from Fairtrade some starry nebula and wafty sky stuff that his parentage brought him, Julian Lennon’s to hang onto. Moments of promise from a sticks. It’s a fucking abomination of a song might be considered too mawkish for an genuine talents are often overlooked or new MC on the scene, but perhaps more and should be killed with fire before it inspirational Facebook meme. Sounds like dismissed purely because of his dad’s attention to arrangements, so what he’s can ruin 2018 before it’s even begun. Paul the opening to a particularly far-fetched legendary status. Locally Burt Cope has saying doesn’t just get lost in the rush. LeRocq? Paul the Cock, more like. sidestepped his ex-Candyskin dad’s legacy Year 8 sci-fi story, albeit uttered by an to become a renowned bassline out of breath seven stone weakling after producer and DJ, and here we have Alfie HENRY SOOTHILL PRTN3 trying to cart two heavy shopping bags up Macintyre making his first foray into Like a recidivist schoolboy, young Soothill With a name that sounds like one of a flight of stairs. Sorry, carry on. “They’re music making, aged just 15, and following here keeps coming back for more critical R2D2’s even more irritating mates, it way too high, but then so am I.” If they’re TURAN AUDIO.co.uk more closely in his father’s footsteps with punishment, despite repeated attempts should come as no surprise that Prtn3 too high, how can you be breathing them, Professional, independent audio mastering some straight-down-the-line . to put him on the musical straight and make synthy si-fi music. Like Mr Cock- young fella? Oh, it’s because you’re off your narrow. Although, we do sometimes knob or whatever he was called back fucking tits and it’s just a metaphor, right? Alfie’s dad of course being legendary Mastered in the studio last month; Jericho Tavern and Point promoter and wonder who’s the hunter and who’s the then, there’s a hefty cheese element at You bloody rebel (incidentally, we may use Apple approved mastering Arthur Turner’s Lovechild? and Earinade hunted in Henry’s case, since what with work here, but it comes with at least a hint this admission as evidence in court should WIDE OPEN SKIES, STOLBY, frontman Mac. He’s definitely inherited him being formerly of Balloon Ascents/ of a sense of fun, notably the doubtless you start getting shirty with us for this dad’s attitude: four tracks here clocking Neverlnd, and also currently a member ironically titled `Thunder in Paradise’, review). “The ceiling tries, it’s hypnotising.” THEE CREEPFREAKS, JOHN KNOWLES, The ceiling tries what? Tries suffocating in at just nine minutes, the band’s tender of Catgod, he’s more than capable of which sounds like a malfunctioning take TIMON SINGH, KEVIN JENKINS, YOUNG year’s barely apparent as they hurtle full making excellent music, which makes on a mid-80s American cop series theme. you before you can bore it rigid with any throttle through `28’, like The Ramones us wonder if he’s just teasing us with Or possibly a glitched Nintendo NES more of your insufferable dreamy-eyed WOMENS MUSIC PROJECT. and Motorhead seeing who can get to the this. Left to his solo devices, he becomes game soundtrack. It’s all a bit formless and miserying? “As I wait for you.” Aw, he’s just end of a song first with fewest distractions sonic torturer-in-chief, and not in a fun might well be the sound of a Casio home a lovestruck Romeo, waiting for his belle or 01865 716466 [email protected] along the way. Further in there’s blitzkrieg industrial hardcore kind of way. recording system left on autoplay, but after beau. We’re almost starting to warm to him sullenness, the occasional moment of More in the slow and steady drip, drip, those last couple of shitshows, and what’s now. “To come and fight me.” Eh? What? awkwardness – musically and lyrically – drip Chinese water torture manner. Here still to come, we’re prepared to let it pass Punch-up? A puny, out-of-breath wuss like COURTYARD and plenty of cranked-up belligerence. The he sounds like Eeyore from Winnie the this time. you? Do us a favour. “You’re breathing loud high point is `Pitch Invader’, a yobbish Pooh given freedom of a recording studio under a lace tie.” Okay, the hallucinogens RECORDING STUDIO approximation of The Fall’s earliest and a couple of Elliot Smith albums and a have kicked in royally now, that doesn’t 2 Tracking Rooms. Superb Control Room with: even make sense. Nor does “A hurricane NEVE 5106 32 Channel Console. ProTools HD3 outings taken to Adam & the Ant’s first scratched copy of Eno’s `Another Green BAMBINO MTR 90 2” 24 Track Tape Machine. Vintage EMT Plate Reverb rehearsal and told to stand in the middle World’ for inspiration. So everything’s While we occasionally (alright then, often) dressed in bombshell disguise.” We can’t Loads of Brilliant Outboard Gear and misbehave. They’re young and raw a relentlessly downbeat slog through sit around being all smug and up ourselves be arsed to repeat any more lines. You don’t Loads of Great Mics, Vintage and Modern and, like teenage footballers, haven’t had stumbling electronic beats, airy guitar and laughing at musicians’ astonishing lack want to have to see any more of them. We’ll Old School Akai/Roland Synth Modules of self awareness, sometimes they surprise just enjoy the fluffy floaty film of clouds Upright Piano, Fender Rhodes, Amps and great vibes. all that enthusiasm and flair coached out of spangle and mournful vocals which sound Residential recording studio in Sutton Courtenay. us by being fully conscious of their own and mountains and sunsets and the sound of them yet. 15 years old and the things they like they’ve been recorded on an old tape www.courtyardrecordingstudio.co.uk could teach the rest of this month’s demo which has then been stretched to shift the shortcomings. So, we click on Bambino’s organic, low-fat, sugar-free yoghurt dying In-house producer: Ian Davenport www.ian-davenport.co.uk pile… pitch down for extra clinically depressed Bandcamp link and… nothing. It doesn’t inside the ghost of one of Sam Smith’s Email: [email protected] donkey value. Deep down inside we get exist. Refine the link and all that exists is discarded daydreams. Oh go on, then, one Phone: Kate on 01235 845800 the feeling that in some radically reworked something from 2012. Between sending it more for you: “She walks across the sun / form all this could be a decent listen. But in for review and us taking a break from And everyone feels safe inside her eclipse.” MILVER closer to the surface is an increasing sense self medicating with Vanilla Absolut long Do you see, dear reader: it’s almost like What is it about so many rappers they of dread that existence itself is pointless enough to give it a quick once over, they’ve poetry. Cue extended soft rock guitar solo. feel compelled to stick a bunch of skits and everything good in the world will one chickened out wanting our opinion and Cue “Fuck off and never come back.” No, between tracks? 90% of them are either day die and become dust. And just in time deleted everything. Maybe it was brilliant that isn’t one of the lines in the song. That’s pointless or simply cringeworthy, and all for Christmas too. Might as well have and we’ll never know. Maybe it sounded us being kind. The alternative involved of them distract from the music. Milver another slab of cake and open that second like an even less thrilling James Arthur and chisels, pliers and no anaesthetic. Rehearsal and Recording studios here falls into that clichéd pitfall from bottle of port, then. Four state of the art rehearsal rooms the off, so by the time he gets going, on Send demos for review to: Nightshift, PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU, or email links to and a professional recording studio. `Judge Me’, he’s already got our backs [email protected], clearly marked Demos. IMPORTANT: no review without a up. So it takes a us a minute or two to PAUL LeROCQ contact phone number. If you can’t handle criticism, please don’t send us your demo. We make For bookings call Jamie on 07917685935 warm to his funky hip hop, which, lyrical That feeling of possibly being the butt of no pretence to being fair, objective or open-minded and reserve the right to use juvenile insults Glasshouse studios, Cumnor, Oxford • glasshousestudios.org clichés aside, is up and at ‘em enough some elaborate joke builds exponentially while almost completely ignoring your music should we feel like it. Your Facebook friends are to warrant attention. And then just as with this offering, somehow from an welcome to get all huffy on your behalf, but we’ll laugh at them too. facebook.com/o2academyoxford twitter.com/o2academyoxford instagram.com/o2academyoxford youtube.com/o2academytv

Thu 21st Dec • £23 adv Sat 24th Feb • £12 adv Fri 30th Mar • £15 adv Slade KING 810 Super Hans + Kassettika Sat 3rd Mar • £20 adv • 6pm Sun 8th Apr • £20 adv Thu 21st Dec • £9 adv The Blockheads 3 Generations of Ska Brixtons + Restructure + Chasing Daylight + TMA + Lost Darren Mon 16th Apr • £20 adv Little Comets Fri 22nd Dec • £17.50 adv Dreadzone SATURDAY Thu 19th Apr • £16.50 adv + Greg Dread (DJ Set) 3RD MARCH The White Buffalo 2018 Sun 31st Dec • £14 adv • 9.30pm Switch NYE 2017 O2 ACADEMY2 Feat. My Nu Leng OXFORD & Redlight THE BLOCKHEADS Mon 15th Jan • £20 adv Tues 6th Feb • £20 adv The Cribs Rejjie Snow THURSDAY 19th APRIL 2018 Sat 27th Jan • £5 adv • 9.00pm Wed 7th Mar • £17.50 ad • 6.30pm O2 ACADEMY OXFORD Paul Draper Two Icons Dub: Thu 26th Apr • £14 adv Celebrating The Lives Fri 9th March • £16 adv • 6.30pm Will Heard of Bob Marley Space and Dennis Brown + The Shapes Fri 27th Apr • £28.50 adv • 6.30pm + Ras keith + ZAIA + TOKA + Jamatone + Candidates Heather Small - + More The voice of M People Sat 10th Mar • £20 adv • 6.00pm Sat 27th Jan • £10 adv • 10pm Sleeper Sat 28th Apr • £15 adv • 6.30pm SASASAS - UK Foo Fighers - Banging Up Another Lvl Mon 12th Mar • £12 adv On the Ceiling Tour Fickle Friends Sun 28th Jan • £16 adv Thu 3rd May • £16.50 adv This Is The Kit Fri 16th March • £20 adv • 6.30pm Lower Than Atlantis + Seamus Fogarty + Emma Gatrill Alabama 3 Fri 4th May • £25 adv • 6.30pm Fri 2nd Feb • £30 adv • 6.30pm Wilko Johnson Natalie Imbruglia + Hugh Cornwell Band

Sat 3rd Feb • £13.50 adv • 6.30pm Mon 7th May • £21 adv The Sherlocks FRIDAY 16TH MARCH 2018 The Bluetones Sat 10th Feb • £12 adv • 6.30pm O2 ACADEMY Cash - A Tribute To OXFORD The Man in Black + Tony Goff & the Broken Colours Fri 16th March • £14 adv • 6.30pm + Andy Robbins The Amy Winehouse MONDAY 7TH MAY Experience Sun 11th Feb • SOLD OUT O2 ACADEMY2 Jorja Smith ...A.K.A Lioness OXFORD + Mahalia Sat 17th March • £15 adv • 6.30pm Ferocious Dog Fri 15th Jun • £16.50 adv • 6.30pm Mon 12th Feb • £22 adv Nick Heyward Newton Faulkner Sun 18th Mar • £13 adv The AC/DC Experience Sat 22nd Sep • £15 adv • 6.30pm Thu 15th Feb • £17.50 adv Dressed To kill - A Tribute Tue 20th Mar • £13 adv To KISS + Emma McGrath Rae Morris Sat 6th Oct • £13 adv • 6.30pm Sat 17th Feb • £22.50 adv • 6.30pm Sat 24th Mar • £20 adv • 6.30pm The Smyths - Unite and Dr John Cooper Clarke Turin Brakes Take Over Tour 2018 o2academyoxford.co.uk 190 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1UE • Doors 7pm unless stated Venue box offi ce opening hours: Mon-Sat 12pm-4pm ticketmaster.co.uk ticketmaster.co.uk.co.uk • wegottickets.com • seetickets.com • gigantic.com