email: [email protected] website: nightshift.oxfordmusic.net Free every month. NIGHTSHIFT Issue 170 September Oxford’s Music Magazine 2009 Richard Walters The troubled troubadour unleashes his inner animal and finds true love at last

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THE RIVER RAT PACK brings its touring boatload of bands to Oxfordshire again this month with NEWNEWSS three gigs in the county over the NEWNEWSS th th weekend of 5 -6 September. The Nightshift: PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU tour, supported by the Phone: 01865 372255 email: [email protected] Strummerville Charity, showcases Online: nightshift.oxfordmusic.net up and coming acoustic acts from around the UK, launching from Camden Lock and finishing off in THE ORGANISERS OF TRUCK FESTIVAL host a special one-day Oxford with an all-day gig at the Isis EVENT next month to celebrate Cowley Road. Farmhouse in Iffley Lock. Last OX4 takes place on Saturday 10th October at venues along Cowley year’s bill included Mumford and Road, including the 02 Academy, the Bullingdon, East Oxford Sons, Golden Silvers and Jay Jay Community Centre, Baby Simple, Trees Lounge, Café Tarifa, Café Pistolet; this year’s bill features Six Milano, the Brickworks and the Restore Garden Café. Bands already Nation State, Wild Wolves and THE FAMOUS MONDAY confirmed include hotly-tipped electro-pop outfit The Big Pink, Beans On Toast, as well as a cast of BLUES celebrates its silver improvisational hardcore collective Action Beat and experimental hip local acts at each stop-off. jubilee this month with a special hop outfit Dälek. Among the local acts playing are Jonquil, This Town The first local River Rat Pack gig is party gig featuring The Honeyboy Needs Guns, Stornoway, Baby Gravy, Dusty & The Dreaming an afternoon picnic at the Abbey Hickling Band at the Bullingdon Spires, The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band, Witches, Dial F For Grounds in Abingdon from 2pm on on Saturday 19th September. Frankenstein, Medicine and Ute. Catweazle Club and the Oxford Folk the Saturday, followed by an The blues club was set up by Festival will also be hosting acoustic music sessions. evening gig at the Stocks Bar at the Philip Guy-Davis back in 1984, As well as live music, OX4 will feature slam poetry with Hammer & Crown & Thistle. The Isis originally at the Red Lion pub in Tongue, while there will be opportunities throughout the afternoon to Farmhouse event runs from 2pm Gloucester Green, which then make a music video, design an album sleeve for The Magic Numbers, through to 11pm. All the gigs are became The Brewhouse, where the record a single in a mobile recording studio, write a film script and make free, with donations to the charity weekly free blues nights flourished fanzines. More acts and attractions are still to be added. welcomed. Other acts playing before the pub was shut down for Tickets for the festival are on sale now, priced £15, from the Academy include Smoky Angle Shades, rebranding. The Famous Monday as well as Videosyncratic and Oxfam on Cowley Road or online at Tristan & The Troubadours, Blues briefly relocated to www.thisistruck.com. 14-18 year olds can buy tickets at a discount £12. Treetop Flyers, Nat Jenkins, The Jongleurs before moving to its Agitator and Lonely Joe Parker. For current home at the Bully. As well more details on the tour, visit as the party gig, The Famous UNDER THE OAK FESTIVAL www.theriverratpack.com. has been cancelled. The one-day Monday Blues runs its regular weekly shows throughout live music event was due to take THE O2 ACADEMY’S place in North Aston on Saturday September, with gigs by Australia’s ALTERNATIVE FRESHERS FAIR th 5th September, featuring sets from Harper Band on the 7 , takes place on Wednesday 23rd Roadhouse on the 14th, American Jonquil, Baby Gravy, This Town September from 11am – 4pm, Needs Guns, The Joe Allen Band bluesman Sherman Robertson on featuring assorted local venues and the 21st and British blues-rock and more, but promoters called the promoters amongst other local festival off due to poor ticket sales. favourites The Hamsters on the businesses. The fair is open to 28th. Visit www.famous everyone. WINCHELL RIOTS host a mondayblues.co.uk for more details. monthly residency at the Cellar AS EVER, DON’T FORGET TO from October, featuring the band TUNE INTO BBC OXFORD themselves as well as a selection of INTRODUCING every Saturday AN INTERACTIVE local music their favourite local and out of night between 6-7pm at 95.2fm. directory is online on the town bands. The first gig is on The dedicated local music show Nightshift forum at th th Thursday 8 October, and then 7 features the best new Oxford nightshift.oxfordmusic.net. The MAPS headline this year’s th November and 5 December. releases, interviews, demos and gig directory features contact details Audioscope festival on Saturday Winchell Riots have just finished a guide. The show is available to for local bands, studios, venues, 17th October. Audioscope, which recording session at the Manic listen to online all week at promoters, web designers, record has raised over £17,000 for Street Preachers’ studio in Cardiff bbc.co.uk/oxford. labels and more and is free to join. homeless charity Shelter since 2001 with producer Greg Haver. Visit takes place all day at the Jericho www.myspace.com/ Tavern. As well as the Mercury thewinchellriots for Prize-nominated headliners, the more details on the event features The Longcut, gigs. Remember Remember, Bronnt Industries Kapital, Talons, Ute, PETER HOOK will Cats & Cats & Cats and Bitches, be signing copies of with more acts to be announced. his new book, ‘The Tickets, priced £12, are on sale now Hacienda: How Not from wegottickets.com, with all To Run A Club’, at profits going to Shelter. Audioscope Borders on Magdalen also release a limited-edition album Street on Wednesday featuring acts that have played the 7th October from 6pm. festival over the years. Clinic, Four The Joy Division and Tet, Maps, Michael Rother, Dieter New Order bassist Moebius, Blood Red Shoes and recounts the story of Piano Magic are among the acts Manchester’s iconic contributing tracks. The album is venue and the available from iTunes. Visit Manchester music www.audioscope.co.uk for more scene of the times. details. a quiet word with Richard Walters THE ROAD TO POP FAME there. The only thing I really regret and fortune can be long and arduous, is not recording it sooner.” if it ever gets there at all, and Richard Walters has been walking that road RICHARD’S STARK, SOUL- for many a long year, with plenty of bearing style of mostly acoustic pop obstacles along his way. Now, though, comes with a double helping of the prize may well be within sight. melancholy, but it’s a beautiful, bleak, This month Richard releases his romantic sadness he brings, rather debut album, ‘The Animal’, well over than the whining self-pity of too a decade after we first championed many singer-songwriters. Still, if the teenage troubadour who would someone only knew him through his grow up to be possibly the finest male music and lyrics, they might assume singer Oxford has ever produced. he was a fragile creature. How close to the truth is that? RICHARD WALTERS BEGAN “I have my moments. It’s fair to say his singing career at 15 in local band that the period in which the album Polysoul in the late-90s (along with was written was pretty up and down future members of Witches) and later for me personally. I lost myself for a Theremin, but for the most part his while: too much drinking, too many has been a solo journey, his voice the late nights, too little thought for a lot focus. And what a voice. Pure, limpid of other things and other people. So and able to convey the extremes of of course the songs are confessional emotion with singular clarity. and personal to some extent, but Unsurprisingly he’s regularly been they’re personal to me then. It’s like compared to Jeff Buckley and Thom reading diary entries aloud two years Yorke – both acknowledged after the event – you can look at influences – but as ‘The Animal’ things with hindsight and reason.” amply demonstrates, Richard is a That said, the sleeve to ‘The stunning vocal talent in his own right, Animal’ is uncharacteristically a singer who towers above the aggressive – a cartoonishly grotesque teeming morass of bleeding heart picture of Richard chewing through a buskers that make up the majority of plate of electrical wires as if it were the singer-songwriter fraternity. spaghetti. Even the title suggests When Richard Walters sings of something beyond the delicate sorrow, regret or loneliness, you sit in emotional excavation within. rapt awe at how something so simple “I love the front cover. We did so can sound so extraordinary, so vast many portraits, trying to find the and so effortlessly intense. right image. I saw that photo and it instantly stuck, and I think it stands A SEEMINGLY PERMANENT on its own as a great picture. I don’t fixture on the Oxford gig scene since Richard has moved to Paris to be with where I convinced myself that I must believe in the idea that the album those early years, Richard has had his his girlfriend, regularly returning be cursed; there was a ridiculously cover for a set of sad songs has to brushes with musical success along the home to Oxford to perform, but now unlikely run of bad luck at one point. necessarily explain and reflect that... way – a publishing deal with Warner happy to be immersed in a new city But my lack of focus was the real the idea was that if Leonard Cohen Chappell Music; a spell being looked and culture that has provided an extra holdup, I was working on other can eat a banana on the cover of `I’m after by Radiohead and Supergrass’ boost to his creativity. projects and bands and kind of buried Your Man’, then I can eat a plateful Courtyard Management; working with this album for a while. In an ideal of wires on my album cover. We Suede’s Bernard Butler and The ‘THE ANIMAL’ IS OUT THIS world there would have been no gap discussed the title of the record, and Cranberries’ Noel Hogan (in his month. It’s a concise, 32-minute, between ‘Pilotlights’ and this record, when `The Animal’ was suggested I Monoband project); having his song ten-song showcase of the shining but circumstances got in the way.” just laughed it off, but the more I ‘All At Sea’ used prominently in an vocal, musical and lyrical talent How would you describe the album to thought about it, the more episode of CSI: Miami, which led to a we’ve been smitten by all these years, anyone unfamiliar with your music? appropriate it seemed. It was such a flurry of interest from American an album awash with a yearning, “I don’t know, slow and swelling I perfect juxtaposition to the music. record labels, plus gigs across the dreamlike sadness and an ephemeral guess, but that doesn’t sound very I’m not trying to throw people off, States, Scandinavia and Hong Kong. form of pop that feels like it would appealing does it? I think most or confuse anyone about what to On the flipside, 2004 saw Richard turn to dust if you so much as touched people hear slow and assume boring. expect from the record, it just felt diagnosed with epilepsy after he it. It’s an acoustic record in most parts, right to have every element – the suffered a fit on the eve of a series of It feels like you’ve been building up but I think the production pushes it title, the cover, the songs – be as showcase gigs for major labels in Los to this album for a long time. somewhere unexpected: we really strong as each other.” Angeles that effectively put his “It’s been forever, and that’s mostly tried to make something sonically The title track goes places where few musical career on hold. my fault. I kind of went through a arresting, without distracting from other songwriters would dare to tread; Since that major setback, he’s crisis of confidence musically, an the core, the songs themselves.” it deals with the horrors of domestic gradually built his career up again, inability to make up my mind about Is it everything you hoped it would violence from the point of view of releasing a series of singles and EPs things. I could have made an album be? the abuser – dangerous territory for on small indie labels, and recently five years ago but I wouldn’t have “I think it is; like you said it’s been a even the finest lyricists and here signing to London-based label Kartel, been happy with it. I needed to get all long time coming, so it almost feels providing an emotional jolt to the who are putting out his debut album. the indecision and anxiety out of my like a weight off my shoulders to listener. What inspired the song? To add to the positive outlook, system. I did have a few moments have the debut album finally out “There was a Travis song on a similar subject, and I saw the singer and I’m left with a lot more time to discussing the lyrics in an interview let my brain tick over and think and it struck me how weak it seemed, about music. I do have days when I how that song didn’t really seem to really pine for Oxford, people, push home just how fucking hideous places, my friends and family, but I’m domestic violence actually is. So, I only a few hours away under the just wrote words that made me flinch, ocean.” as cruel as I could be. I’m writing from the point of view of the abuser, WITH BOTH HIS PERSONAL but I’m not emphasizing with him. life and music career seemingly I’m just trying to work out why.” moving in the right direction, how does Richard feel about what ELSEWHERE, RICHARD HAS happened in the States when it last covered Daniel Johnston’s ‘True looked like things might take off? Love Will Find You In The End’ to “At the time, and for some time September stunning effect. Johnston, a cult after, I beat myself up about that; I American songwriter, famously felt like I’d wilted in the pressure of beloved of Kurt Cobain amongst the situation and lost out. Being Every Monday others, has a long history of mental invited to LA to meet and play for illness, and yet writes beautifully Capitol, American and Reprise was a THE FAMOUS MONDAY NIGHT BLUES poetic songs. Does Richard identify huge deal to me at the time; it felt The best in UK, European and US blues. 8-12. himself with Johnston to any extent? like I was on the cusp of something. 7th HARPER BAND (Australia) “I think Daniel Johnston has written That’s what everyone hopes for when 14th ROADHOUSE (UK) some beautiful, simple pop songs, they start making music, that kind of (Saturday 19th 25th ANNIVERSARY PARTY with THE stuff that could easily stand up next opportunity... and to have it to any number of classics... but the disappear in one day was horrible. But HONEYBOY HICKLING BAND) presentation and performance always it didn’t change anything or turn me 21st SHERMAN ROBERTSON (USA) seems to put people off. I find him off music, it just stalled things for a 28th THE HAMSTERS (UK) fascinating and incredibly brave, and while. There’s no point in thinking in that respect he’s influenced me a about what could have been, it’s just great deal in the way I think about something interesting that happened Every Tuesday my own music and life in music. As to me five years ago.” THE OXFORD JAZZ CLUB tacky as it sounds, I suppose the song Where do you go from here? Many Free live jazz plus DJs playing r’n’b, funk and soul until 2am does have relevance to me personally, of the songs on the album will be 1st THE HUGH TURNER BAND as I’m sure it does to lots of people; familiar to local fans; have you th that’s what makes it such a good song started writing the next album yet? 8 ROGUE DOLLS th nd th I guess, people see themselves in it.” “There are songs on the album that 15 / 22 / 29 THE HOWARD PEACOCK QUINTET people will know, and those are songs IT’S NOW OVER TWO YEARS that I thought needed an opportunity Wednesdays since we last featured Richard on the to be heard by more people... they 16th THE COMPUTERS / TURBOWOLF / PHANTOM front cover of Nightshift and much got picked for the album over newer has changed in his life, notably his songs for that reason. I’ve written THEORY / THE SCARLETTS. £6 adv recent relocation to Paris. the songs that will be the next album “I’ve been in Paris for just over a and I just keep on adding to that pile. Thursdays year now. I met somebody and ended I hope that I can start recording in 3rd MOSHKA presents THE FOLLYS / AGENTS OF JANE up spending all my free time over the new year or soon after. Now that there. A few things changed in I’ve closed the gap, I like the idea of / SAM POPE & ELISE Oxford, and I found myself in the keeping the empty spaces between 10th THE LOW ANTHEM / GOLDHEART ASSEMBLY position of having no real ties, and it new music relatively small.” 17th BIG NIGHT OUT £3. In aid of Children In Need. felt like a good time for an adventure. Any chance it’ll be a happy album? 24th MOSHKA presents DRUNKENSTEIN / I’ve never really strayed too far from “Ha! It’s sounding like it could be. THE WOOKIES / SECRET RIVALS / MATT KILFORD home before, Oxford has always been Certainly less personal, less about my base, so the idea of going to a new things that have happened to me and city and a new country honestly more about what I see around me. I Every Friday seemed like an impossibly big change do have a tendency to write songs BACKROOM BOOGIE at the time, but it worked. that can be taken as sad, but I think Funk, soul and R&B. 10.30pm-2.30am; £4. “Paris is an amazing city, I’m that’s just where my singing voice incredibly happy there, I never feels right... I don’t hear something considered myself a big city person sad myself. I’d feel like a fake if I Friday Early Shows before, but Paris seems to have the started writing with a forced 26th MELTING POT presents BANDS TBC right balance of bustle and green.” positivity, but I’m sure it’ll come of Includes entry to Backroom Boogie afterwards How different is it to living in its own accord There will obviously Oxford? How, if at all, has it affected come a time where I have nothing to the way you write, and do you miss complain or worry about, and it’s Saturdays Oxford at all? probably not too far off.” 5th SIMPLE (electro-house club night) 10-3am “Its a bigger place, the sirens never 12th TBC seem to stop and everyone speaks A HAPPY, CONTENTED th th French. Apart from that I think Paris Richard Walters? The very idea seems 19 FAMOUS MONDAY BLUES 25 ANNIVERSARY and Oxford are incredibly similar anathema, but now, having found true PARTY with THE HONEYBOY HICKLING BAND cities - they both feel like living love, and with his music set to get its 26th TBC museums. You’re surrounded by these overdue reward, here’s hoping this is a beautiful historical places and you story with a happy ending. Sundays kind of start taking it for granted. th The main change in terms of writing ‘The Animal’ is released on 21st 6 THE BULLINGDON COMEDY CLUB with JASON COOK has been the lack of distractions. My September on Kartel. Visit / support / compere SILKY. 8-11pm; £7.50 / £6.50 French is pretty dreadful, so I never www.myspace.com/richardwalters to concessions read newspapers or watch television, hear tracks from the album. RELEASED sponsored by RICHARD WALTERS PISTOL KIXX ‘The Animal’ ‘Live’ (Kartel) (Own Label) The tigerish sleeve artwork and album title seem When Pistol Kixx played the Oxford Punt back like a deliberate attempt to sabotage any second- in May a few people questioned whether we’d guessing what’s in store for the listener on picked them as a joke, pointing to the bandannas Richard Walters’ debut album. Some kind of and leathers and the classic-bordering-on-cliché crazed Hot Chip-meets-Aphex Twin electro- rock riffs they kicked out with wild abandon. Such freakout, surely? people, of course, miss the point that within the Instead, as we well know, having championed the band lies a punk rock spirit that far cooler, more man since his first tentative forays into pop at 15 career-minded bands will never ever possess. Of years old, the musical world of Walters is one course they look like a cartoon impression of haunted by loneliness, regret and disappointment. Hell’s own house band. So does Lemmy. So did Here is music that sounds like it was nurtured on The Ramones. Of course they’ve nicked most of trees made from icicles, airy and cold, crystal their riffs wholesale from The New York Dolls clear and fragile enough to shatter or evaporate if tale of domestic violence executed with a gentle and The Stooges. So did Motley Crue and Hanoi it’s exposed to the elements for too long. If grace that only accentuates the horror within. On Rocks. That’s all part of the fun. you’re looking for the party, you’ve come to the ‘Red Brick’ he looks into his own epilepsy. At Because let’s not deny that Pistol Kixx are fun. wrong house. But hang about, this isn’t some every turn there’s a distinct absence of self-pity, And if rock’n’roll is about anything else, we must human wreck sitting on the stairs full of self-pity. just honesty. have missed that particular meeting. It is possibly the best album by an Oxford act The music on ‘The Animal’ is stark and minimal, So, anyway, here is the band’s debut release, an you’ll hear all year. often barely there at all, just simple piano, cello, eight-track live mini-album. Within its half-hour Richard Walters’ is possessed of a stunning voice, acoustic guitar or accordion lines, but such is the you get dirty old whisky-fuelled bar-blues, a delicate falsetto that’s as fine as spider’s silk and strength of Richard’s voice, and the way it is growling, speed-punk, needless guitar solos, lyrics just as strong and flexible. Listen to him weave multi-layered or harmonised, that nothing more is that reference strip clubs, drag queens, syringes, his vocal magic over the pristine, ethereal required. Amid the musical pearls here, the booze and ladies’ more intimate parts and a raw snowdrift of ‘We have Your Head’, or his greatest treasure is ‘All At Sea’, Richard sounding recreation of the band’s live energy. No free gorgeous, heartstring-wrenching cover of Daniel emotionally crushed, the song akin to a moonlit bandanna with every copy, sadly, but perhaps they Johnston’s ‘True Love Will Find You In The ocean panorama. can do a limited edition version later on. It’s End’, polishing and sharpening the original’s And like the ocean, you can sit and lose yourself sleazy and unrefined, the whole thing sounds like rough diamond charm to perfection. in ‘The Animal”s subtly shifting textures for it could have been made any time over the past Richard’s lyrical subject matter does tend toward hours at a time. A genuinely beautiful album from 40 years and makes no pretence to offer anything the lovelorn and lost, but there’s so much more to a genuinely unique talent. other than cheap thrills. And for that, Pistol him than that. The album’s title track is a brutal Dale Kattack Kixx, we salute you. Dale Kattack THE GULLIVERS HREÐA NINE STONE COWBOY ‘Legerdemain’ ‘Minnows’ (Own label) (Ingue) ‘Solar-Powered Sex Toy’ Legerdemain means sleight of hand, and since they Even as Oxford becomes more awash with (iTunes) expanded to become a four-piece The Gullivers instrumental bands, the better ones simply strive Hey, we haven’t heard a Speak’n’Spell toy used on have displayed a far more subtle touch than their harder and continue to stand out, bands like a pop song for bloody ages – maybe not since early indie-punk offerings. It’s now far more From Light To Sound and Hreda, who seem to OMD’s ‘Genetic Engineering’. Course, they didn’t difficult to pinpoint where the band are coming have been quietly going about becoming every have Cubase and stuff back then. And sex toys, if from, as guitars twinkle gently like faraway stars, local musician’s favourite other band lately, as they had batteries at all, probably used ones that barely raising themselves beyond a gentle sleepwalk well as picking up the critical plaudits both here were bigger than the appliance itself. Strange idea a over which Mark Byrne’s vocals meander dreamily, and on DrownedinSound. solar-powered sex toy, given it’s more than likely like a Beanie Baby Robert Smith, while Sophie This 7” vinyl release on Bristol’s Ingue going to be operating in a place where the sun most McGrath adds icily ethereal back-up. Songs like Records displays the three-piece’s ability to mix certainly don’t shine, but when Mark Cope sings ‘Milieus’ come on like a lo-fi indie take on Sigur and shift moods with consumate ease, from the “I’m a solar-powered sex toy / I’m what makes Ros, lost in a snow drift rather than belting it out pensive opening passage that allows a little you smile”, you can’t help but wonder if there isn’t from the top of a glacier, while ‘Letters’ feels like playful light in, all busy fretplay and dinky some insane wisdom at work here. If the recent something cute found hibernating in the depths of subtlety, before adopting a more Candyskins’ showing at Truck proved anything it’s John Peel’s record collection. The whole EP confrontational stance, all staccato riffs and that Mr Cope is well acquainted with a decent pop somnambulates with resolute lack of haste, and more resolute beats breaking up the languorous tune, and he’s at it again here, whistling, wobbly while The Gullivers maybe don’t have the drifting. They’re like a heavier, more riff-based electronics and heroically lachrymose vocals and consummate grace of a band like AC Marias, whom Explosions In The Sky at times, steeped in all. Again he manages to make something they occasionally resemble, they do have a delicacy post- and occasionally math-rock, but fleet ostensibly downbeat sound like a summer anthem. of touch that lends each song with a childish sense footed enough to avoid the lazy pitfalls of both More power to his elbow, or whatever else he’s of wonder that’s impossible not to love. genres. planning on charging up. Dale Kattack Ian Chesterton Dale Kattack

VIDEOSYNCRATIC, 101 COWLEY ROAD, OXFORD, OX4 1HU. Tel: 01865 792220. LOCAL CDs - GIG TICKETS - COMICS - GRAPHIC NOVELS - T-SHIRTS - POSTERS - TOYS - DVD RENTAL Introducing….

Nightshift’s monthly guide to the best local bands bubbling under The Gullivers Who are they? The Gullivers are Mark Byrne (vocals/guitar), Andrew Grillo (bass/keyboard), Sophie McGrath (keyboard/vocals) and Emma Ramsey (drums). Originally a three-piece indie-punk band formed in Bicester by Mark and Andrew while still at school. Initially indebted to The Libertines, they played at the Punt in 2007 and recorded a series of demos before expanding their line-up and changing musical tack, shifting into a dreamier, more ethereal pop world, showcased on last year’s debut EP, ‘Ambulance’. More recently the quartet supported Broken Records at the O2 Academy and self-release a new four- track EP, ‘Legerdemain’, this month. support slot with The Young Knives.” What do they sound like? Their favourite other Oxfordshire act is: Sweetly ethereal, contemplative and dreamy in mood, tending towards the “We Aeronauts. They haven’t played for quite a while in Oxford without us lighter side of gothy new wave, The Gullivers’ sound rests on the interplay at the front singing along, which is proof enough of how good they are.” between Mark’s shimmering, spangly guitar and the dual vocals of Mark and If they could only keep one album in the world, it would be: Sophie: his plaintive, boyish Robert Smith yelp up against her more “‘Takk...’ by Sigur Ros, because it’s amazingly beautiful, if lacking the ephemeral croon. Nightshift reviews have drawn comparisons to The Cure underground cool of some of the earlier stuff, and still reveals more of itself and Life Without Buildings’ sense of playful whimsy. with each listen.” What inspires them? When is their next gig and what can newcomers expect? “Oxford, geography, words, pictures, delayed guitars, frustration, a “The launch night for our new EP, at The Wheatsheaf on Friday 18th competitive nature, bands with female singers, male singers, or no singers, bad September. Expect boy/girl vocals, BIG guitars, awkward banter and quite a bit weather, the constant battle to `out-pretentious’ one another.” of nervous energy with subsequent release.” Career highlight so far: Their favourite and least favourite things about Oxford music are: “Probably our last ‘Ambulance’ EP launch night with We Aeronauts and The “Favourite: great bands, a genuine sense of community and great, supportive Dacoits. We weren’t expecting anything like the response we got. All our venues run by great supportive people... the ones that are left anyway. Least friends came – they always do but there seemed to be a really great word of favourite: the disappearing venues is the only constant negative. Bring back mouth turn out and helped give us a real lift around time of release and it went the Port!” on to overachieve in terms of press for something that was recorded fairly You might love them if you love: cheaply and was out-of-date, as it was recorded as a three piece.” The Cure, Life Without Buildings, Leaves. And the lowlight: Hear them here: “The most annoying thing was losing our old drummer right before a www.myspace.com/thegullivers

Whatever happened to… those heroes together on previous projects, including the band Tin Tin Tin, before forming Aquabats. ‘Magiko’, which went on to sell over 3,500 copies, earned the trio a front cover feature in local music mag Curfew in 1993, as well as a five-page spread in Sound On Sound Magazine in December 1995. AQUABATSAQUABATS In 1994 they became the first band to hire the Oxford Playhouse, for a sold- out live performance of the first album. They went on to perform at HMP WHO? Wellingborough and have their music used on BBC’s The Holiday Formed in 1993, Aquabats were an experimental band exploring the Programme. The band never officially split. As Tim explained, “We never possibilities of acoustic instruments played in unusual environments and with had a rehearsal, everything was improvised so we can reform just by being in different treatments, as well as the sounds of nature, from bird song to the same room together and making a noise. But the last ten years have thunderstorms. Between them, Tim Turan, Sue Smith and Phil Freizinger been a bit quiet.” played everything from flute, drums and gongs, to hardboiled egg slicers, WHY? Burma bells, a trifle bowl and jaw harp. They also experimented with vocal Because no-one else sounded like Aquabats, or probably ever will. How many techniques. In short, they were perhaps the most unusual band to come out bands would go to the trouble of recording a giant gong being struck and of Oxford, eschewing all the normal trappings of rock bands in favour of plunged into a lake in Wookey Hole, while recording it on a microphone ever-more adventurous recording techniques over their two albums wrapped in a giant condom? Or risk life and limb (literally) to record a (‘Magiko’ in 1993; ‘Sequoia’ in 1999, both on their own label) and live lightning bolt striking a hillside? They proved you could do absolutely performances – from prisons to theatres. anything with sound. WHAT? WHERE? Aquabats are a band that is All three Aquabats are still very impossible to categorise. Their much active in local music. Tim runs inspiration was a desire to explore Turan Audio, mastering everyone sound itself, while their choice and from local favourites to use of ‘instruments’ put them Scandinavian death metal bands to beyond normal genres. You might The Osmonds and beyond, while also call them world music, since theirs drumming with The Relationships, was the sound of the world, its wife Blue Kite and Easy Tiger. Phil and and the kitchen sink. They were Sue play together in The Mighty recording pioneers, being the first Redox (which previously featured Oxford band ever to record live Tim) and run the excellent monthly straight to CD, courtesy of their Klub Kakofanney club night. friend, the late Michael Gurzon, a HOW? legend in digital recording and Both ‘Magiko’ and ‘Sequoia’ are mathematics. available to buy from WHEN? Videosynbcratic on Cowley Road, or Tim, Sue and Phil had worked from the band’s members. gig guide

TUESDAY 1 st are music and dance workshops, and a beer and JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – Free weekly live SEPTEMBER steam festival. Visit www.bunkfest.co.uk. Continues jazz. Tonight’s guests are The Hugh Turner Band. through Saturday and Sunday. BACKROOM BOOGIE: The Bullingdon – nd club night with DJ Kydro, MC Chunky, MC Deepo, Classic funk, disco and r’n’b every week. WEDNESDAY 2 MC Phlex, Synamatix, Kid Fury and more. SKYLARKIN’: The Cellar – Monthly ska, soul, THE BLACK HATS + TREV WILLIAMS: The reggae and rock’n’roll club night with host Count Turf Tavern – Moddish new wave rocking from THURSDAY 3rd Skylarkin, tonight featuring a live set from Black Hats, plus emotive acoustic pop from Trev THE FOLLYS + AGENTS OF JANE + SAM Reading’s epic, soulful roots reggae clan Jewels & Williams. Jacuzzis, recent tour support to The Wailers, plus WORDPLAY: The Cellar – Hip hop and dubstep POPE & ELISE: The Bullingdon – Raucous 70s- styled rocking from The Follys at tonight’s Moshka tunes from DJ Wrongtom. GET DOWN: The Brickworks – Latin, funk and Wednesday 9th club. JEFFREY LEWIS & THE JUNKYARD + JACK more every week. EMILÍANA TORRINI: LEWIS & FISHERMEN 3 + RETRO SPANKEES: VEDA PARK: The Duke of Monmouth, The Cellar – Welcome return to town for New Abingdon Road York’s winsome wit, tragi-comic songsmith and O2 Academy th While she’s laden down with awards in her comic book artist, following his superb showing at SATURDAY 5 native Iceland, where she also holds the record the X a while back. Then he was plugging his ‘12 MR SHAODOW + BABY GRAVY + DESERT for the longest time spent at number 1, Crass Songs’ album, a sublime anti-folk reworking of STORM: O2 Academy – Last month’s Nightshift the anarcho-punk band’s catalogue. Now he’s on the Emilíana Torrini might not seem like a major cover star plays his first Academy headline show, road in support of his most accomplished album to pop success story around the world. Until of the local rapper mixing up the quickfire delivery of date, ‘Em Are I’, a more cohesive bunch of songs course you remember she performed ‘Gollum’s old-skool Brit rappers like Blade with the more that finds his inimitable lovelorn humour Song’ at the end of Lord Of The Rings: The showy pizzazz of Lethal Bizzle. Electro-punk undiminished. Hopefully he’ll do his animated Twin Towers’ and co-wrote ‘Slow’ for Kylie scrappers Baby Gravy support, and will doubtless be rhyming history of Chinese communism again, a with long-term recording partner and producer inviting Mr Shaodow onstage for a run-through of skit that proves the man has more wit and Dan Carey (who has also worked with Hot Chip their collaboration ‘Don’t Touch Me’. Rockin’ and intelligence than most folk singers combined. and Franz Ferdinand). That said, she tends to rumblin’ stoner metal monsters Desert Storm open THE FAMILY MACHINE + INLIGHT + HELLA seem more of a cult favourite and critics’ the show. CHOLLA + ALPHABET BACKWARDS choice than mainstream star, ten years after THE NOMINEES: The Wheatsheaf ACOUSTIC: The Jericho Tavern – First 22-20s + DUSTY & THE DREAMING SPIRES: her first foray into the UK’s consciousness with hometown show of the year for The Family The Jericho Tavern – The return of the blues ‘Love In The Time Of Science’ and its breezy Machine, back with their classic combination of rock-cum-skiffle punkers, akin to a cross between accompanying hit single, ‘Unemployed In The sweet, jaunty countrified indie-rock and wry, White Stripes and Hendrix at times, and featuring Summertime’. Perhaps she’s still considered a lovelorn lyricism. Support comes from slick epic Supergrass guitarist Charly Coombes, back together little too quirky, her soft, warm style of folk- stadium-pop types InLight and an acoustic set from again after splitting earlier in the decade. Previous pop leaning leftward into Björk and Joanna electro-folksters Alphabet Backwards. Newsom territory at times as she strays into CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford quirky electronica, atmospheric rock and Community Centre – Oxford’s haunting lullabies by turns. Her latest album, longest-running open mic club offers its ‘Me And Armini’, is awash with the cutesy- weekly dose of singers, musicians, poets, quirky singing and musical style she’s become storytellers and performance artists. known for, from the dreamy reggae lope of its OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half title track to the madly infectious recent single, Moon ‘Jungle Drum’, while she continues to maintain a playfully sexy onstage persona. Tonight’s gig th will doubtless be played out to a packed and FRIDAY 4 loyal crowd, but in a world of bland, stage KLUB KAKOFANNEY with THE school-manufactured female singers, Torrini’s MEDICINE + VICARS OF TWIDDLY style might have to stay just off centre stage + THE ROUNDHEELS + FERGUS for a while yet. BROWN: The Wheatsheaf – Klub Kak unfurls the tie-dyed dayglo carpet again to welcome a suitably mixed bag of acts to its monthly session, tonight including sets from classic surf rockers Vicars Of Twiddly and trad folkies The Roundheels. EMPIRE SAFARI + SOIREE FOR THE BUSKERS + SIXTY WATT BAYONETS: The Jericho Tavern BUNKFEST: Wallingford – First day of the annual Wallingford music festival, running across various venues around the town, including boats and trains. The music tends towards the folk and blues side of thing, with sets from Baka Beyond, Rory McLeod, Elephant Talk, Seize The Day, Warblefly and many more. Aside from the live music there to that they’d supported Oasis, and more recently headliners they’ll make for a superb evening of attracted renewed interest after being featured in classic rootsy pop pleasure. Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla film. Brothers Robin and NICE PETER + LES CLOCHARDS + PETE THE Joe Bennett continue their journey into Band and TEMP: The Wheatsheaf – Hysterical acoustic Byrds-style country rocking with Dusty and co. rock’n’roll and improvised comedy from LA’s Nice SIX NATION STATE + SMOKY ANGLE Peter, taking a pop at everything from Weezer to SHADES + MATT JENKINS + BEANS ON Sarah Palin along the way. Francophile café pop TOAST + WILD WOLVES + CIARA HAIDAR + from Les Clochards and observational acoustic pop THE AGITATORS + CHEKER: The Stocks Bar, from Pete The Temp in support. Crown & Thistle, Abingdon – The River Rat HARRY ANGEL + THE ELRICS + SECRET Pack tour moors in Abingdon on its way to Oxford, RIVALS: The Cellar – Darkly atmospheric indie with an acoustic live music party in the Abbey noise from Harry Angel, ranging from gothic grunge grounds in the afternoon, followed by this showcase fizz-pop to more brooding Chameleons-inspired gig at the Stocks afterwards. material. Promising guitar pop from The Elrics, BUNKFEST: Wallingford where the Stones meet Placebo. SIMPLE: The Bullingdon – Electro-house. REVOLVER: Fat Lil’s, Witney TRANSFORMATION / TRASHY / ROOM 101: CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford Community O2 Academy – Weekly three clubs in one night Centre with indie and electro at Transformation; glam and OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon th 80s at Trashy plus alt.rock, hardcore and metal at Friday 11 Room 101. FRIDAY 11th OKKERVIL RIVER: REGGAE REGGAE SATURDAY: James Street OKKERVIL RIVER + DAWN HANDES: O2 Tavern – Reggae, dub and rocksteady session. Academy – Enter the private madness of Will O2 Academy THE PETE FRYER BAND: The Seacourt Arms Sheff – see main preview Rock music is awash with tortured souls, of DIRTY EARTH BAND: Fat Lil’s, Witney FREAKISHLY LONG MIRRORS + CIRCUS course. But few are as lyrically engaging as CAT + MINOR COLES: The Wheatsheaf – th Okkervil River’s Will Sheff, a man who, SUNDAY 6 Alternately epic and contemplative indie rock from listening to his band, seems to have been RIVER RAT PACK TOUR: Isis Farmhouse, FLM, plus grungy pop from Cork’s Circus Cat. driven half mad by the sorrow that surrounds Iffley Lock (2pm) – The touring showcase DEAD JERICHOS + THE SCARLETTS: The him. Or at least the subjects of his songs. boatshow moors at Iffley lock for an all-day live Chester Arms – Jam-inspired mod-punk from Songs which come packaged together music event, featuring sets from up and coming acts newcomers Dead Jerichos, plus raucous ska-punk thematically in strange, uncomfortable like Smoky Angle Shades, Six Nation State, Wild from The Scarletts. concept albums, like the wanderlust-examining Wolves, Tristan & The Troubadours, Treetop BOOTLED ZEPPELIN + THE JOHNNY BERRY breakthrough piece ‘Black Sheep Boy’ back in Flyers, Beans on Toast and a host of acoustic acts. BAND: Kidlington FC – Tribute to Led Zep. 2005, or the more recent ‘The Stage Names’ The whole event is free, with support from the BACKROOM BOOGIE: The Bullingdon and ‘The Stand Ins’ albums, that deal with Strummerville Charity. BOSSAPHONIK: The Cellar – Jazz dance club celebrity, art, music and love with typically BUNKFEST: Wallingford night with live band to be announced, plus a mix of bleak insight. Okkervil River, named after a JAILHOUSE ROCK: Malmaison – The hotel jazz dance, afrobeat, Latin, Balkan, nu-jazz and story by Russian novelist Tatyana Tolstaya, kicks off its new fortnightly acoustic music night. world breaks from residents Gil Karpos and Dan formed in Austin, Texas back in the late-90s Ofer. and have expanded to a six-piece over the MONDAY 7th GET DOWN: The Brickworks years. While Sheff in the centrepiece of the THE HARPER BAND: The Bullingdon – An band, they’re musical ambitious and th unusual Aussie take on rootsy blues, rock and soul SATURDAY 12 expansive, from powerful bass or piano leads, tonight from The Harper Band at the Famous THE HALCYONS: The Wheatsheaf – Bubbly to soulful use of horns or lap steel. There are Monday Blues. Singer, harpist and didgeridoo player electro dance-pop and torch songs from the local comparisons to be drawn to The Hold Steady Harper draws on traditional Aboriginal music as well rockers. and even Arcade Fire at times, though as the old blues greats. THUNDERCLAP NEWMAN BAND + ANTON Okkervil are darker and more stripped-down BARBEAU: The Jericho Tavern – The 60s one- than either. Sheff’s agitated over-singing TUESDAY 8th hit-wonders head back on the road, bearing little forces home his sense of personal madness, resemblance to the band that hit number 1 with but even as he’s deconstructing the whole idea JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – With funk, blues of pop music on the band’s latest album, he’s and jazz from live guests The Rogue Dolls. flower-power protest song ‘Something In The Air’. Even jazz pianist Mr Thunderclap Newman himself simultaneously creating great pop music. INTRUSION: The Cellar – Goth, industrial, is long gone, although the psychedelic pop train darkwave and 80s club night. keeps on a runnin’. Californian-Oxonian singer- JACK GOLDSTEIN + JAMES FORDE + BEN songwriter Anton Barbeau supports, with his modern FOSTER: Café Tarifa – Acoustic night, including a take on Robyn Hitchcock and Syd Barrett. solo set from Gunnbunny frontman Jack. TRANSFORMATION / TRASHY / ROOM 101: th O2 Academy WEDNESDAY 9 REGGAE REGGAE SATURDAY: James Street EMILIANA TORRINI: O2 Academy – Quirky Tavern electro-acoustic folk-pop from the Icelandic-Italian DEFT LEPPARD: Fat Lil’s, Witney songstress – see main preview ANTON BARBEAU: The Magic Café, ACOUSTIC LOUNGE: Fat Lil’s, Witney Magdalen Street (1pm) – Early show for the THURSDAY 10th psychedelic folk-pop minstrel, ahead of his support THE LOW ANTHEM + GOLDHEART set to Thunderclap Newman later in the evening ASSEMBLY: The Bullingdon – Already being CORN DOLLY REUNION: The Cellar – called The New Fleet Foxes – with whom they share Reconvened local blues-rock favourites Steamroller a record label, Bella Union – Rhode Island’s Low kick out the Hendrix and Cream-inspired riffs again. Anthem are probably closer to Tom Waits, at least NAMELESS + THE DEAD JERICHOS: when they’re in gruff, celebratory Americana mode, Fitzharris Arms, Abingdon – Covers from while elsewhere they’re almost hymnally solemn Nameless, plus newcomers Dead Jerichos. and ethereal, drawing on bluegrass, country, folk and THE FOLLYS: The Crown, Faringdon gutter level rock on new album ‘Oh My God Charlie Darwin’. Harmony-heavy London beardies SUNDAY 13th Goldheart Assembly have been similarly encumbered TREV WILLIAMS: The Living Room – Solo set by Fleet Foxes comparisons, but together with the from the Follys frontman. THURSDAY 17th to town after his excellent show back in March, the veteran of the 1976 100 Club punk festival MR FOGG + BRAINDEAD COLLECTIVE + retaining his cult figure cool after all these years. TARIK BESHIR: Ultimate Picture Palace – EMPTY VESSELS + BLACK CIRCLES: The Some serious musical experimentation in order Folly Bridge Inn – Heavyweight 70s-style blues tonight as glitchy leftfield electro chap Mr Fogg rock from Empty Vessels. crafts gently spacious pure pop from an unlikely LITTLEWORTH ACOUSTIC MUSIC mix of loops and samples. Braindead Collective, FESTIVAL: Cricketers Arms, Littleworth – meanwhile, who feature assorted members of Blues Rumour play the lunchtime slot, with Tom Guillemots, Keyboard Choir and The Joe Allen Lynch in the evening. Band, are a freakoid electro-jazz barrel of mayhem, TRANSFORMATION / TRASHY / ROOM sounding a bit like we imagine White Noise might 101: O2 Academy have done, had they formed in an avant garde New REGGAE SATURDAY: James Street Tavern th Orleans jazz bar. Completing an impressive bill is Saturday 19 EVOLUTION: Fat Lil’s, Witney - Rock Brickwork Lizards frontman Tarik Beshir, going covers. FUCK BUTTONS / solo with his oud for a leftfield exploration of traditional Egyptian music. th ZUN ZUN EGUI: THE BIG NIGHT OUT: The Bullingdon – Live SUNDAY 20 music from Richard Brotherton, plus DJ sets from LITTLEWORTH ACOUSTIC MUSIC The Cellar Natty Mark, Artwell and Garvin Dan, in aid of FESTIVAL: Cricketers Arms, Littleworth – There seem to be a lot of great bands around Children In Need. More acoustic music, with a lunchtime set from these days with the f-word in their name, EMPTY VESSELS + SEROTONIN + DIRTY Blue Fox, plus open mic session. which means there’s even more fun to be had ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS: The Cellar – Big Hair JAILHOUSE ROCK: Malmaison at the expense of prudes, all of whom should local bands night. SILVANITO: The Jericho Tavern – Spaghetti be locked in a dark basement with Fuck CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford western-flavoured rocking. Buttons playing at top volume. As much as Community Centre any band, the Bristolian duo of Andrew Hung OPEN THE SKIES + LAVONYSS + IN th and Benjamin John Power are taking noise OCEANS: Fat Lil’s, Witney Saturday 26 music into sweeter territory. Last time we OPEN MIC SESSION: The Half Moon encountered them, down at the Cellar, they NME RADAR TOUR: were a brutal, confrontational wall of FRIDAY 18th O2 Academy electronic noise. To a greater extent they still THE GULLIVERS: The Wheatsheaf – Launch Another NME tipped-for-the-top package tour are, but last year’s ‘Street Horrrsing’ debut gig for The Gullivers’ new EP, with the band carving heads off round the country, tonight being the album showcased the other side of their a cute niche for themselves with their ethereally first night, hoping to emulate the last one, armoury – a sparkling ambience crafted from gothic spangle-pop. which brought La Roux to a wider national iridescent synths and psychedelic drones, JOSH RITTER: O2 Academy – Warm-hearted audience. As ever with these things, it’s which offer some light amid the tribal country rocking in the vein of Bob Dylan and Bruce something of a mixed bag, with the genuinely rhythms and screaming. The album was Springsteen from the Idaho songsmith, displaying promising propped up – or propping up – stuff produced by Mogwai’s John Cummins and deft lyricism and musical ambition as he prepares to some record label is desperately trying to foist Fuck Buttons have supported Mogwai across follow-up his acclaimed 2007 album, ‘The Historic on the music-buying public. In the former the UK and USA, picking up a cult following Conquests Of Josh Ritter’. category are London’s Golden Silvers and across-the-board critical acclaim at every MEAN POPPA LEAN + FLOORS & WALLS + (pictured), an eclectic outfit who somehow step. They’re hypnotic and cathartic, but also WE’RE NOT MEXICANS + LOUISE SMOOTH manage to meld Beach Boys-style harmonies, oddly melodic and, band moniker allowing, & THE JAZZ BRIGADE: Chinnor Pavilion – there’s nothing to say the future won’t bring a Brighton’s Chili Peppers and Funkadelic-flavoured doo wop and glam-rock with LCD Soundsystem far wider audience. Support at tonight’s funk-rockers Mean Poppa Lean hit the Pavilion, and Blur’s more electro-tinged outings on their Vacuous Pop show are fellow Bristolians Zun alongside tourmates Floors and Walls and local XL-released ‘True Romance’ album. Similarly Zun Egui, with a rhythmically-charged take on supports. promising is Wales’ Marina & The Talking Heads-style Africanised post-punk. LITTLEWORTH ACOUSTIC MUSIC Diamonds, wobbly synth-pop with an Another reliably challenging night from FESTIVAL: Cricketers Arms, Littleworth – occasional orchestral flourish topped by the arguably Oxford’s best independent promoters. Kicking off a weekend of acoustic music, today sort of OTT siren vocals you’d expect to find featuring The Ryes’ Paul Canning. in the middle of an old Kate Bush or Hazel O’Connor record. Further down the bill the th FALL OF AN EMPIRE + FAR OUTLAW: Thirst MONDAY 14 Lodge – Live electro bands night. tautologically-monikered Local Natives sound ROADHOUSE: The Bullingdon – The London BLONDIED: Fat Lil’s, Witney - Blondie like a major label’s desperate attempt to leap blues-rock veterans return, kicking out classic 60s- tribute. on the Fleet Foxes / Band Of Horses inspired rock, leaning towards The Stones and BACKROOM BOOGIE: The Bullingdon bandwagon, while Boston’s Yes Giantess are Creedence Clearwater Revival. FRESH OUT THE BOX: The Cellar – House and possessed of a few nice big electro-pop choruses breaks club night. but tend too much towards a cheesier MGMT. TUESDAY 15th GET DOWN: The Brickworks On the night, though, expectations can be overturned and careers made. The true test of JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – Keyboard-led the tour’s success, however, will be in how jazz from The Howard Peacock Quintet. th SATURDAY 19 many of these names you remember a year THE HONEYBOY HICKLING BAND: The from now. WEDNESDAY 16th Bullingdon – The Famous Monday Blues THE COMPUTERS + TURBOWOLF + celebrates 25 years of bringing the UK’s and world’s PHANTOM THEORY + THE SCARLETTS: The best touring blues acts to town with a special party. Bullingdon – After supporting Ghost Of A Playing live is renowned blues and r’n’b harpist Thousand in July Exeter’s Computers head out on a Honeyboy Hickling, who’s previous played with Bo headline tour, mixing Black Flag’s screaming Diddley and Steve Marriot as well as touring as part hardcore with high-wired classic rock’n’roll. of Nine Below Zero. In-house sound engineer Tony Adrenalised synth-core from Turbowolf, plus local ‘Reservoir Cats’ Jezzard will be taking over DJ duties support from riffs’n’beats monsters Phantom for the night. Theory and ska-punkers The Scarletts. FUCK BUTTONS + ZUN ZUN EGUI: The PHAT SESSIONS: The Cellar – Open jam Cellar – Synths! Screaming! Noise! What’s not to session with in-house band Four Phat Fingers, love? – see main preview playing everything from funk and hip hop to rock, VIC GODARD & THE SUBWAY SECT: The dubstep and reggae. Wheatsheaf – Original punk hero Godard returns MONDAY 21st FRIDAY 25th THE PETE FRYER BAND: The Royal Standard, SHERMAN ROBERTSON: The Bullingdon – LIVEWIRE + LIMEHOUSE LIZZY: O2 Headington HQ: The Cellar – Drum&bass with live sets from Texan guitarist returns to the famous Monday Blues Academy – Double dose of classic heavy rock Metalheadz’ Commix and Data. club, with over 40 years of gigging experience under tributes tonight with AC/DC from Livewire and a his belt, having played with Bobby Bland and Junior Thin Lizzy tribute from Limehouse. th Parker in the 60s before he joined zydeco king TOM McRAE: O2 Academy – Chelmsford’s SUNDAY 27 Clifton Chenier in the 70s. Since then he’s played master of mirth McRae continues to plumb the HOCKEY + DEASTO + LITTLE COMETS: O2 with Paul Simon (on his classic ‘Gracelands’ album), depths of sorrow and melancholy in rather splendid Academy – Portland, Oregon’s scruffy vegan three- before going solo. He’s an energetic showman, often style and with a featherlight vocal touch that piece return to town with their updated 70s soul- likened to Albert Collins, and a soulful singer, while leavens his tales of gloom and lost love. rock sound bridging the gap between Strokes and his guitar playing adds a rock edge to traditional CUT UP BOYS: O2 Academy – The LCD Soundsystem. blues, zydeco and r’n’b. Bournemouth-based mash-up duo bring their mix BIG NIGHT OUT: Malmaison (5pm) – Acoustic madness to the Academy, fusing everything from music from Nikki Loy, in aid of Children in Need. TUESDAY 22nd Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden to Dr Dre ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC SESSION: Red Lion, THE MISSION DISTRICT: O2 Academy – The and The Prodigy to Timbaland and Faithless with Kidlington their own beats and vocals. Montreal-based quintet, named after an area of San BLUES JAM: Fat Lil’s, Witney (3pm) EMPTY VESSELS: The Wheatsheaf – Bluesy Francisco, head off on a European tour, coming on hard rocking. like A-Ha going emo. MONDAY 28th UNGDOMSKULEN + BITCHES + RISE EAST, JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – With The STRIKE WEST: The Jericho Tavern – Proggy, THE HAMSTERS: The Bullingdon – The British Howard Peacock Quintet. blues-rock veterans return to Oxford with their JACK HARRIS + TAMARA PARSONS-BAKER convoluted alt.rocking from Norway’s geek-freak act Ungdomskulen, tackling such weighty issues as Hendrix and ZZ Top-inspired show. + JAMIE FOLEY + STEVE & BRIAN: Café masturbation, public erections and mythical beasts INME + SYMPHONY CULT + ZEROSCRAP: Tarifa – Acoustic night. by way of an intriguing mix of Zappa, Shellac, Can, O2 Academy – Melodic grunge-rock with an epic scope from the long-serving but still fresh-faced rd Fugazi and Liars. Nasty-minded industrial noise from WEDNESDAY 23 Bitches in support, plus mathsy post-rock Essex four-piece, coming in somewhere between GENUINE FREAKSHOW + UTE: The newcomers Rise East, Strike West. Nirvana and Muse. Wheatsheaf – Breathless, squiggly alt.rock in a MELTING POT: The Bullingdon th Radiohead vein from Genuine Freakshow, with QUEENS OF HEARTS CLUB: Isis Farmhouse, TUESDAY 29 support from local newcomers Ute, promising great Iffley Lock – Live music, dance, cabaret and ZERO 7: O2 Academy – Plastic soul, cod-funk things with their lachrymose rootsy pop. comedy with live sets from Zen Hussies, Inflatable and downtempo MOR jazz from the London outfit. AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR + Buddha and Simon Davies. JAZZ CLUB: The Bullingdon – With regulars HREDA + NITKOWSKI + IVY’S ITCH: The QUEEN’S ENGLISH + JASH: Fat Lil’s, Witney The Howard Peacock Quintet. Cellar – Back in town after their impressive – Hip hop, jazz, rap and r’n’b from the London showing at Truck Festival, ASIWYFA mix up Don newcomers, with chilled beats and electronica from WEDNESDAY 30th Cabellero’s tricksiness with Pelican’s heaviosity and Bristolian DJ and producer Jash in support. MUMFORD & SONS: The Bullingdon – come out sounding like Explosions In the Sky with BACKROOM BOOGIE: The Bullingdon Rootsy, leftfield bluegrass and folk from Mumford & huge metal balls. Support comes from local post- BASSMENTALITY: The Cellar – Club night with Sons, likened to a ‘hillbilly Coldplay’. rock trio Hreda, fidgety instrumental rockers a live set from local reggae favourites Mackating. MOUNTAIN PARADE + KING OF CATS: The Nitkowski and hardcore merchants Ivy’s Itch. IONIX + MISTAKEN RETRIBUTION + IN Wheatsheaf – Cute, expansive folkies The ACOUSTIC LOUNGE: Fat Lil’s, Witney OCEANS: The Net, Abingdon – Heavyweight Mountain Parade attempt a time travel bridge under-18s gig. th between Fairport Convention and The Pastels, with THURSDAY 24 surprisingly sweet results. th TINCHY STRYDER: O2 Academy – The SATURDAY 26 PHAT SESSIONS: The Cellar diminutive grime hitmaker celebrates an NME RADAR TOUR: O2 Academy – The latest astonishingly successful year that’s brought him a NME-sponsored package tour – see main preview string of hit singles, including the chart-topping GAPPY TOOTH INDUSTRIES with collaboration with N-Dubz (‘Number 1’) and heads DIAL F FOR FRANKENSTEIN + DOG off on tour to plug his second album, ‘Catch 22’, a PARTY + SCHNAUSER: The somewhat patchy follow-up to his superior debut, Wheatsheaf – Strong, eclectic mixed which earned him a MOBO Best Newcomer bill at tonight’s monthly GTI club with nomination. Still, hits is hits and the fella has highly promising local youngsters Dial F enough pop hooks to hang an elephant on. offering a subtly complex racket that THEORY OF A DEADMAN: O2 Academy – mixes Dive Dive’s sharp-elbowed Canada’s nominally grunge-tinged anthemic rockers precision punk with Radiohead’s more plug their third album, ‘Scars and Souvenirs’, rockist moments. Meanwhile, sounding unpleasantly like the bastard offspring of Sacramento’s Anton Barbeau brings his Nickleback and Stiltskin. new acid-tinged psychedelic pop band DRUNKENSTEIN + THE WOOKIES + SECRET Dog Party along. Surprise treat of the RIVALS + MATT KILFORD: The Bullingdon – night, though, might be Armenia-via- Moshka club night with creepy goth-funk rockers Bristol three-piece Schnauser, with their Drunkenstein headlining, plus Reading’s Wookies, authentically 60s-sounding psych-rock local noise-pop types Secret Rivals and epic acoustic wig-out. pop troubadour Matt Kilford. WE AERONAUTS + LEFT WITH BIG NIGHT OUT: Café Tarifa – Children In PICTURES + BROADCAST 2000 + Need benefit with live music from Jessie Grace, plus THE FOX AND THE BRAMBLE: The DJ sets from Natty Mark and more. Jericho Tavern – Buoyant, feelgood NOTORIOUS HI-FI KILLERS + SPIRAL 25: folk-pop with an epic scope from We The Cellar – Psychedelic garage-rocking in the Aeronauts, with support from London’s style of Spacemen 3 and The Red Crayola from promising new acoustic ensemble Left Notorious Hi-Fi Killers, plus slo-mo narcotic groove With Pictures and sweet-natured rocking from Spiral 25. alt.folkies Broadcast 2000. CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford TRANSFORMATION / TRASHY / Community Centre ROOM 101: O2 Academy THE LONGINSIDERS + BLACK HATS + REGGAE REGGAE SATURDAY: GOOD THINGS HAPPEN IN BAD TOWNS: James Street Tavern Fat Lil’s, Witney Sponsored LIVE by TRUCKTRUCK 1212 Wintersleep SATURDAY The drug sniffer dog and increasingly The name is misleading: instead of prominent security contingent hint Crass-style punk protest and an that Truck lives in the big scary world incitement to civil disobedience, they of proper music festivals these days, indulge us with perfect pop-folk but as ever it’s the little things that tunes, all delivered with a smile and a remind you of its rural Oxfordshire spring in their step. Quirky time roots and bijou charm, and not just the changes and occasional mariachi spice multitude of thunder flies that seem to add a distinct edge to their tunes, and get everywhere, from your pint to if there are mentions of social down the back of your t-shirt. The upheaval mentioned in the words, main stage might be a few steps up the we’re too lost in the infectious smile evolutionary ladder from the old of singer Tamara Schlesinger to care flatbed truck but the Rotary Club about such things. burger stall and the rustic fug of the barn never change. We’re a tad In the Village Pub tent, BBC Radio concerned, though, that the barn walls Oxford battle of the bands winners we’ve spent so many years leaning THE SCHOLARS are showing why against are now plastered with notices they managed to beat stiff stating, “Warning: Asbestos”. Thanks competition to earn their slot, for the advance warning. kicking out a big old noise, all chiming keyboards and a three-guitar FANFARLO ride the crest of Arcade sounds like too. Fredrick turns up It’s barely past midday, we’ve only spangle that reminds us of Fire’s orchestral pop wave – again shortly after with THEM just arrived and yet in the Beathive Stellarstarr*, while the singer adds a swooping tremolo vocals that dart SQUIRRELS, playing double bass tent there’s a full-on rave going on. hefty dose of drama with his rich across the high-low register like a and screaming. It still sounds like a DJ JAY B, described in the delivery. ferret on speed: it’s decent close- bunch of drunks randomly invading programme as Steventon’s king of Initially we’re expecting little from harmony pop layered with the stage, although this time they’ve drum&bass, is on the decks and a DETROIT SOCIAL CLUB as they xylophones, strings and woodwind. picked up a violin. sizeable contingent have started the crank out a grizzly old Oasis-style And so begins Saturday afternoon’s party early: admirable behaviour, bluster, but since we’re sitting series of record-breaking efforts to On the main stage we await while most festivals goers are still comfortably, we hang about and even cram as many extraneous band HJALTALIN with blind excitement. sitting idly around the main field, though the hairy frontman looks like members onto the main stage as As an Icelandic band we’ve already enjoying a rare day of sunshine. he needs a good punch the music possible. saved the adjectives cold, glacial, THEIR HEARTS WERE FULL OF improves hugely until they’re mining emotive and soaring for their set. SPRING are doing their best to rouse a far deeper groove and come up And talking of cramming, it’s time to That’s what bands from Iceland are people, peeking out from an smelling of pure rock and roll gold, go walkabout and try and cram as all about, isn’t it? So when their set is elaborately-dressed stage, though somewhere between Kasabian and much in from across the five main full of quietly brooding pop numbers, they’re a gentle introduction to the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. stages as possible, from DUSTY & shot through with lounge jazz chops weekend’s music, their cutesy pop THE DREAMING SPIRES, who turn it firmly knocks all expectations into takes in the likes of Camera Obscura Total and utter best surprise treat of out to be the latest incarnation of a cocked hat. Fronted by a man who and the knowing humour of The the day comes courtesy of New Goldrush, just with a few minor line- looks like Jimmy Saville - if Sir Jim Divine Comedy. No songs about Zealand’s DISASTERADIO, a up changes, and making their had assembled a South American cricket here but a good deal to tug at chubby, cheesy Atari-sampling laptop traditional The-Band-meets-The- jungle death cult – they’re a strangely the heartstrings; really, who couldn’t pop chap in the Beathive, belying his Byrds alt.country hazy pop presence fascinating bunch. By the end of the love a band that adorns their mic novelty feel with solid dance beats felt. set they’ve even managed to allude to stands with flowers and the severed and cool electro moves, a gabba mash What the f... moment of the day Hawkwind’s ‘Silver Machine’ and riff limbs of dolls? up of Gary Numan and Hot Chip. comes from FREDRICK STANLEY on a dub bassline without sounding There must be some kind of stage WHITE BELT YELLOW TAG, STARR, who looks like Wild Billy indulgent in the slightest. dressing fever going on because over meanwhile, are taking advantage of Childish and is thrashing away at a WINTERSLEEP make us wish that in the market tent – at the far end of the fact the barn’s PA seems to be ukulele in the Village Pub tent they were from Oxford and not the Truck site, past a stall selling stuck on Spinal Tap One-Louder alongside a stand-up drummer and a Canada. It would be great to claim military clothing, including gas setting, as their surprisingly effective key-tar-toting chap, who together them as our own, as you rather fancy masks: at a music festival? Why? droning indie takes on a savage mask, look like a bunch of drunks who have that Sunday afternoon (which is Surely the portaloos aren’t that bad? like a sonic playing out of Revenge randomly wandered onstage and given over to Oxford bands this – 6 DAY RIOT have covered Of The Nerds, totally wimpy guitar decided to play whatever first came year) would have suited them far everything in little flowers in order to pop made ear-shreddingly violent by to hand. Which is exactly what their better than their slot today. stamp their authority on the stage. sheer volume alone. odd Steve Reich-does-Jonquil racket Occasionally they’re brutish and Broken Records A Place To Bury Strangers

Detroit Social Club Ash

simplistic; recalling early REM, but these songs euphoric and depressive psychedelia to abrasive crescendos, with great aplomb, with violins and where they really get you is when within the stroke of a beat. driven by Tim’s versatile drumming piano occasionally taking the lead their songs slowly build to a crescendo and Mark’s brilliantly simple guitar before the drums roll in and the band that always hits the mark. They’d be Most astonishing set of the day is A mantra – not unlike Sterling combine to create something that best appreciated here in the dreamlike PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS, Morrison at times. Musicians wander borders on the anthemic if not state that can only come after a solid for sheer ear-threatening brutality if off stage, rejoin the throng and Damo hymnal. Comparisons to Arcade day of drinking cider and avoiding the nothing else. Listening to New York’s simply stands in the middle and Fire, even Big Country, will be plague sniffer dog. If we were lying in a heap self-crowned loudest band is like being repeats unintelligible phrases, is the band for ever, but in in this field on Sunday and scoured from the inside: wall upon joined by the Truck monster, jumps performance terms and in vocalist Wintersleep came on, we’d swear mighty wall of hissing, fizzing guitar off stage, returns and ends in utter Jamie Sutherland, you could do a lot they played the set of the weekend. noise, feedback, cascading drums and triumph. worse than look to Springsteen for a Such as it is, they’re impressive but doomladen vocals, with every second ASH can’t follow that, can they? better comparison. It’s rare to hear suffer from their placing on the bill. of every song sounding like the Seventeen years young, Saturday’s an unbridled roar of approval You don’t want to be dreaming at six apocalyptic climax of the set. This is main stage headliners offer pure emanating from the Market Tent, o’clock at night. what a jet engine would sound like if punk-pop nostalgia. Even those of us but tonight Broken Records tear the was screaming for its mother whilst who never really got it, can’t help but roof off. A simply stunning set. Bizarrely, the greatest adulation all being tortured. And it’s fucking nod along when ‘Girl From Mars’ hits And later, in this same tent, this weekend is saved for a giant furry fantastic. Just as you think, amid the those same breakdowns it did back in year’s Truck hidden treasure is monster, Truck’s mascot, who is disorientating blizzard of smoke and the day, while set closer ‘Burn Baby revealed: the Non-Classical Stage, mobbed as he wanders round the site, strobes, that it can’t get any more Burn’ reaches its reassuring tendrils tucked away while the rest of the gangs of otherwise too-cool-for- punishing, they shift into a higher over a packed field, but in between festival dances into the early hours. school kids queuing up for photo key and every remaining person in the illusion disintegrates, leaving With a rapid turnover of short sets, opportunities. We vow to get the barn visibly flinches. Magnificent. seventeen years worth of stretched- the quality is variable, but the peaks ourselves a big furry suit pronto. It back catalogue to be sung – barely – are some of the highlights of the certainly dispenses with the need for And so, even after that, onto the by a man who should never have been whole weekend. THE ELYSIAN witty chat-up lines. performance of the day. Krautrock put in charge of a flying-V. QUARTET’s improvised set might We’re rather taken too with the cool legend DAMO SUZUKI is no crash and burn where their designer ear protectors all the stranger to Oxford, with his Thankfully the market tent offers a performance earlier with Damo toddlers are wearing – green for boys; improvised performances, but tonight more fitting climax to the day, with soared, but their version of Gabriel pink for girls. Once, kids would be he’s joined by no less than fifteen BROKEN RECORDS, who freely Prokofiev’s ‘String Quartet No.2’ is shoved up chimneys or under looms local musicians, most of whom have admit they had misgivings about intricate and stunningly moving. And to earn their keep. These days never met before, never mind played playing so far away from the main anyone who saw cellist LAURA they’re not even allowed to go deaf together, including both Loz Colbert arena. They seem genuinely touched MOODY’s solo set would have from rock and roll. Bloody nanny and Tim Turan on drums, as well as that anyone even bothered to walk all wandered around for the rest of the state. Mark Gardener on guitar and Robin that way to see them. The relocation night seeing stars: Unbelievably Into the barn again for WE WERE and Joe Bennett on whatever comes of the Market Tent this year ensures powerful stuff, cramming in the PROMISED JETPACKS, who might to happen. Oh, and The Elysian that those who really wants to catch idiosyncratic virtuosity of Joanna look dour but whose songs positively String Quartet. It could be a recipe for a band have to make an effort. Newsom with the feral howl of PJ soar. Adam Thomson’s vocals are calamity, but as Damo dispenses with Broken Records are well worth the Harvey. shot through with an aggression that debate as to who should start with his effort tonight as they make a bid for masks the fragility lurking at the crazed incantation, the hour-long set performance of the day. Their Words: Dale Kattack, Sam centre of their songs. Thoroughly takes incredibly coherent shape, earnest folk-infused rock sounds huge Shepherd, Liz Dodd, Start Fowkes. atmospheric they manage to make rising and falling, from spacious tonight. The orchestration is handled Photos: Sam Shepherd TRUCKTRUCK 1212 The Joy Formidable SUNDAY Sunday’s main stage bill is a South California and had an audience celebration of Oxford music past and member state that the party she was present, with the emphasis on bands singing about “sounds like the worst who sum up Oxford music’s success party ever – I’m glad I wasn’t there.” over the past few years, plus the odd Affable, clever and clearly a master surprise inclusion. of the political song, it seems a Given it’s celebratory nature there’s shame to leave. But leave we must as appropriate irony in THE we head to the Barn to find what RELATIONSHIPS’ set, dedicated as delights Calories have for us. it is – and not for the first time today We’re pretty sure CALORIES should – to the memory of Dungeon Studios’ be pretty amazing. There are definite Rich Haines who passed away only a hints of Bob Mould’s Sugar to their week before; the man whose tireless splenetic pop-punk. It’s aggressive work getting the best out of hopeful and zips along in a speed-fuelled fury local bands for almost three decades is but they do remember to add some as much a part of our story as today’s semblance of a tune to everything, headliners, Supergrass. From the stage and yet here in the barn, the acoustics to the bar, many toasts are raised to are hobbling the band of all their Rich through a day which finds a host subtlety. Sometimes playing at a of veteran faces appearing, or simply volume that causes people’s ears to looking on from the crowd. pack their cases and fuck off on What to say about The Relationships holiday is not always to your themselves that we haven’t said so advantage. In the case of Calories, it’s many times before? Consummate stripped them of all the elements that classic 60s-styled pop that sees would, on another day make them California as an extension of Home interesting. Counties suburbia. A very civilised start to a typical, slightly cloudy Despite vowing to avoid our more Sunday. Falling like rain on barbecues, familiar local heroes this weekend, we indeed. can’t not catch ALPHABET Somewhat less genteel are TALONS BACKWARDS on the main stage, over in the barn. Purely instrumental despite having seen them so many lonesome cowboy singer-songwriters small hoe-down breaks out down the they might be, but that only tells you times now we’re in danger of being whose names we can’t be bothered to front. half the story. They mix post-rock, accused of being stalkers. Their jot down, never mind remember; no THE LONG INSIDERS, in their thundering power metal and trembling blissfully summery songs find wonder it’s almost impossible to get previous guise of The Four Storeys, string passages and the resulting themselves in their perfect setting into the barn to see AND SO I would once have fitted a similar cacophony is nothing short of here at Truck. The inspired chorus to WATCH YOU FROM AFAR, who niche, but these days brothers Nick awesome. There are a few math-rock ‘80s Pop Video’ has half the field have one of the worst names on the and Simon Kenny, along with local dalliances here and there, but Talons singing along, which only confirms its entire bill – like some wretched sequel drumming stalwart Dan Goddard are are more about tumultuous explosions pop genius. Altogether now: “Nah to I Know What You Did Last joined by singer Sarah and have of noise and controlled aggression nah nah nah naaaaahhhh!” Summer – but really they’re fabulous, galloped into the surf by way of than expressing Pi to the 50th decimal At first glance a Senegalese kora with Don Cabellero’s sense of several spaghetti western themes. At point on a fretboard. They’re the player might not seem an obvious precision and timing coupled with the their best they’re like Nick Cave re- closest thing we’ve heard to early 65 choice for a stage dedicated to Oxford delightful crunchiness that comes imagining Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Days Of Static in many a year, and music, but JALI FILY CISSOKHO along with Pelican’s greatest, granite- Sinatra, while even the loungier, they’re a fine way to kick-start has been based in the county these heavy riffs. They’re like Explosions cruise liner cabaret of their lesser Sunday, even if they make us spill our past few years, making quite a name In The Sky if they had HUGE songs is elegantly wasted, like an tea in excitement. for himself. His solo set might be METAL BALLS. imaginary wedding band in a mellow enough for this bucolic From one Smalltown America label Tarantino movie. The Market Tent is home to the afternoon setting, but it don’t half band to one of its founders, Jetplane whims of ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris sound like someone tuning up a banjo Landing’s ANDREW FERRIS. A Realising how difficult it’s going to be today, a man who is practically for an hour. We wander off to go and charming and engaging man to be to get into the barn to catch Hot unrecognisable now the beard has see Candyskins’ NICK COPE doing sure, and his heartwarming praise for Rats, we arrive a whole hour early, disappeared. That voice, on the other a special kiddies’ show in the playbus, the indie ethic of Truck brings a tear and endure most of SKYLARKIN’s hand, still conjures up images of return via a not very funny adult to the eye, but his solo set is sadly almost supernaturally characterless sensible jumpers and The Old Grey Punch and Judy show in the village like someone covering Beck if they’d indie rock, so generic we can’t think Whistle Test, so all is not lost. pub tent and find Jali still ambling only been played ‘Midnight Vultures’ of a single thing to describe it beyond Austin Texas’ Eliza Gilkyson through his set, although by now he’s down a crackly phone line for five a scribbled “lobotomised Duke Spirit”. charms us with delicate but cutting hit a more jaunty mood and we spy a minutes. HOT RATS are, of course, Danny country-folk songs that are charged fellow Nightshift scribe frugging Goffey and Gaz Coombes’ covers with humour and political comment. enthusiastically down the front with THE EPSTEIN are another Truck band side-project, normally involving She’s got the kind of voice that could unabashed ebullience. And you institution it’s impossible to avoid, producer Nigel Godrich, but today it’s lull you to sleep in a matter of thought we were all spitefully cynical and they at least offer a more just the pair of them, and if the minutes, but thankfully she’s also in barflies who only listen to old Joy widescreen version of the cowboy absence of their bass player has possession of a keen wit, and more Division bootlegs, didn’t you? theme, moving it down to the Tex- unnerved them, a succession of than capable of holding your Mex border, attracting the first mass technical problems doesn’t help attention. Describing the Anti-George Sunday afternoon does seem to crowd in front of the main stage matters. In the end, if it weren’t for Bush song ‘The Party’s Over’, she involve trudging around the site today and inviting festival host Joe the fact they’re Gaz’n’Dan from explains that she once played it in catching bits and pieces of assorted Bennett onstage to play fiddle as a Supergrass, they could be any half- all photos: Sam Shepherd Supergrass Pulled Apart By The Candyskins Horses

The Long Insiders

cocked pub band, hacking lumps out rarely they come around. “It’s been Back to the present for a while and man fronting a hardcore band. Now of The Doors and Roxy Music, a busy year for The Candyskins,” PULLED APART BY HORSES he’s an angry young man with an collapsing halfway through the jokes Nick Cope, looking have a lot of work to do to live up to acoustic guitar. But unlike most Pistols’ ‘EMI’ and performing the increasingly rakish (and increasingly their stunning previous visits to town. acoustic singer-songwriters, he’s single worst version of ‘Fight For like Jarvis Cocker in his new specs), And yet for them maintaining a level remembered that choruses are Your Right To Party’ ever, before “Two rehearsals and a trip to the of energy and showmanship that puts important, so although he’s venting redeeming themselves only slightly pub”. But they play like they’ve 99% of other guitar bands to shame his political spleen at times, he with spirited takes on ‘Mirror In The never been apart. From the seems effortless, and the closest we’ll always has a hook that ensures the Bathroom’ and ‘Love Cats’. Don’t Ramones-simple thrash-pop of `24 come to a 2009 reincarnation of audience stays with him. give up the day job, lads, and keep the Hours’ to a glorious singalong Nation Of Ulysses. Repetitive beats indulgence to the rehearsal room. `Monday Morning’ and an emotional and furiously hammered notes collide Finally, back outside where the Having wasted so much time (not to `Car Crash’, they’re as close to a with violent riffs as the band build threatened rain has started to fall in mention missing Dive Dive), we’re perfect guitar pop band as you’ll get, songs up to unsustainable heights politely earnest fashion and recompensed with interest by THE and you just know that with a decent before bringing them crashing down SUPERGRASS play Truck for the JOY FORMIDABLE, who more run of luck first time round it might into chaotic outpourings of vented first time, but seemingly well aware of than live up to their name: fizzing have been them instead of Blur spleen. The band are frantic, the festival’s stature and in particular grunge-goth-pop songs played with an regrouping for Glastonbury this frequently climbing the PA, jumping today’s local significance. It can’t intensity that borders on terrifying. summer. into the audience, or performing rain on their parade today. Supergrass Singer-guitarist Ritzy may be tiny and They’re philosophical about luck handstands mid-song without missing are a rare band in that they adapt to her voice may well be gloriously though, declaring themselves lucky a beat. If there’s a better live band in suit whatever venue they perform in. delicate, but battling against to have worked with Rich Haines so Britain, we’ll be at the front of the So tonight they’re in full-on stadium hammering drum patterns that often over the years and dedicating queue for their next show. rock mode, from the glam-blast of wouldn’t be out of place in a thrash ‘Feed It’ to him. Their entire set is a On the way over to catch Frank ‘Diamond Hoo Ha Man’, through the metal band, she more than holds her triumph, and to celebrate The Turner’s not-so-secret set in the grunged-up rumble of ‘Richard III’ to own. Beautiful chiming guitars give Candyskins is to celebrate Oxford village pub tent – where he’s billed as an inevitable, rapturously-received way to waves of fizzing distortion and itself. Funk Ranterr – we amuse ourselves ‘Caught By The Fuzz’. The bluesy furious wig-outs, and at the heart of it After which, we fear STARS OF with DETACHMENTS, an almost intermissions occasionally bring the all are epic choruses that simmer with TRUCK & FIELD is bound to be a hilariously self-conscious early-80s atmosphere down, but a quickfire take a sultry fire and an almost religious huge comedown, being a mostly new wave pastiche, complete with on ‘Sunday Morning’ shows what sincerity. Watching Ritzy thrash her acoustic collaboration between the button-down black shirts and tight, Hots Rats’ set might have been and guitar within an inch of its life has a Goldrush people and Mark Gardener, high-waisters trousers and a singer they’re one of the few bands who can strangely cathartic quality, but it’s not and tending too much towards the who is absolutely convinced he’s Ian bring the whole of Truck Festival just about looking cool, she’s in Bob Dylan scheme of things, but Curtis, but who sound rather more together for one last mass sing-along. possession of some killer licks too. then they play ‘Dreams Burn Down’ like one-hit-wonder The Motors than Truck, then, is like a microcosm of and end up inviting Loz Colbert on they’d probably care to believe. Oxford music itself: small, proudly For veterans of the local music scene, stage for a finale of ‘Vapour Trail’ Having come a long way since he independent and able to punch well there is nothing more exciting than a and it ends up being an almost fronted Million Dead, FRANK above its weight. Now ain’t that CANDYSKINS reunion, however perfect slice of local pop nostalgia. TURNER is no longer an angry young something worth celebrating? melted down and modelled into something new. Like man’s primeval fear of being eaten alive recast as a terror of machinery. After which, Japan’s difficult-to- spell, even more-difficult-to- pronounce Nisennenmondai could

Photo: Johnny Moto have been a disappointment, and after a ten-minute intro that’s nothing more than a simple, low- volume guitar loop repeated to the point that even the strange dancing lady gives up gyrating dreamily and starts to wonder when, if ever, things will start to happen, it looks like all the anticipation is for nothing. But suddenly there’s the thump of a drum, a minute later another and almost imperceptibly the trio take their almost brutal minimalism out on the road, making Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ sound like a loose blues jam by comparison. They’re like quantum geometry made into music, bassist NISENNENMONDAI / ELAPSE-O / Yuri Zaikawa and guitarist Masako Takada a picture of studious intensity, FROM LIGHT TO SOUND while Sayaka Himeno is all flailing limbs and flying ponytail behind the The Wheatsheaf drumkit. There are odd moments There won’t be many occasions post-rock generation. They’re less with fluid ease, Elapse-O are full of halfway through where it threatens to where From Light To Sound are the effective when they crank it up or hissing, metallic malevolence, all go a bit Tangerine Dream but the most melodic and accessible band on the guitars get too flowery, but with tremulous drones, punishing, tetchy, nagging, abrasively trebly the bill, but tonight is one of them. tracks like ‘Compliance’ they find relentless rhythms and machine trance-rock forever drags you back in Their instrumental soundscapes a hypnotic meeting point between beats, the offspring of Cabaret and three tracks and forty-five move along with imperious grace, Mogwai and Cluster and they’re Voltaire’s pioneering electro- minutes later, you realise the time notably set opener ‘Heart & easily one of the most impressive primitivism, Throbbing Gristle’s had flown by. A triumph of precision Electricity’, which sounds like Gary new bands in town. oppressive industrial doom and Liars’ engineering. Numan’s ‘Complex’ rewired for the While From Light To Sound glide wayward psychedelia, all modernised, Dale Kattack THAT FUCKING TANK / MONSTER KILLED BY LASER / IVY’S ITCH The Wheatsheaf Since we last saw Ivy’s Itch they’ve changed, perhaps in the way a red giant changes into a white dwarf. Everything is heavier, denser and more oppressive. Gone are the spacious goth passages, replaced by mismatched metal pummelling topped with orc tantrum vocal tirades. The sound is fascinatingly oppressive, akin to Babes In Toyland folded intricately in on themselves like an autist’s bus ticket. It’s a brilliant set, made even more intriguing by the degree to which Eliza’s outfit and mannerisms remind us of Morwenna Banks as the five year old on Absolutely. Aside from a slightly messy synth noodle intro, which sounds as though two kittens had got loose in Klaus Schulze’s studio, Yorkshire’s Monster Killed By Laser produce a proggy breed of contemporary instrumental rock that often sounds enticingly like ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ reinterpreted by Mudhoney. At times they can become overly introspective, and spend too much energy focussed on miniature twiddles like some post-Slint version of Sky, but in general they produce an impressively well-structured take on wordless post-rock. Having heard Leeds’ That Fucking Tank on record, we’d dismissed them as one more guitar and drums act littering the byways and culs-de-sac of hipster rock. Seeing them live is a different matter altogether. Their music is dirt simple, primarily just straightforward rhythms and two or three note motifs, but they perform it with such energy, tension and elasticity that they could spearhead a Bungee Rock movement. It’s sets like this that remind us why we spend so much time in dark cellars and drizzly paddocks, as a great performance holds pleasures no recording can possibly capture. Perhaps not the greatest band in the world, but one of those lovely gigs that justifies all the night buses, tinnitus and bad plastic pints we endure in the search for exciting music. David Murphy

‘Gunpoint’, have been sidelined in search of a THE JOE ALLEN more traditional band vibe. This transitional phase for The Joe Allen Band has something BAND / AIRTIST of the “will it, won’t it” of soufflé making The Jacqueline du Pre about it: the ingredients are perfect, the heat is on, it’s just a question how far they will rise. Building Paul Carrera In terms of cyclical breathing I really doubt there is a better act than Airtist, certainly not without the present danger of a collapsed NATALIE IMBRUGLIA lung. On paper it’s just Markus Meurer on didgeridoo, Aron Szilagyi on Jew’s harp and O2 Academy Döme as beatbox-vox, but live they Natalie Imbruglia is back and gigging! She’s organically recreate the overwhelming force spent the four years since her last studio of a computer-driven trance club. So realistic album hanging out with celebrity chums, is the biodynamic rave that on record it doing a bit of acting and crafting her new works against them, for it’s live that the real album, ‘Come To Life’. Its release was shock and awe is generated. Aron twangs like delayed to include tracks she wrote with Chris he’s going to rip his face off, Markus goes to Martin, who joked that he gave her “the best a breathing zone that chemically can’t be Coldplay song of all time”. One of these good for you, and the relentlessly complex collaborations stands out: the first single, and percussive nature of Döme snaps the ‘Want’, a track definitely written to be audience out of their seats and into the aisles, remixed, with its rather un-Coldplay-like (and dancing til the assembly hall staidness of the un-Natalie-like) repetitive bassline and vocal JDP looks like a class reunion at Cream. hooks. Simply breathtaking. Some of the new tracks aired tonight are so After successful recent festival appearances like ‘Torn’ that they make it seem drab, which The Joe Allen Band are, at last, cementing is a shame for ‘Torn’. Natalie seems to have their reputation as a potent and compelling more fun with the older, rockier stuff like force. Initial fears that adding the percussion ‘Wishing I Was There’, anyway. ‘My God’ of Chrissie Sheaf and the bass of Phil Oakley sounds like a Melanie C track, but Natalie would upset the vital partnership of Joe’s carries these tracks off better than Mel would voice and the incredible riffs of violinist – she’s more natural and less pretentious and Angharad Jenkins seem allayed, and new forced. Her versatile voice has a surprising rollicking song, ‘For You My Love’, shows musical theatre quality live, and she can that a buoyant degree of levity can be added actually sustain a note. to the signature epic ballads with which the More divergence from ‘Torn’ comes in the original duo made their name. form of ‘Cameo’, with its scuzzy synths Old tracks too, like the heartbreaking (possibly the work of the album’s main ‘Locked In A Cross’, are revamped to fit in producer, Ben Hillier, who did the most recent with the solid feel that is alerting the labels to two Depeche Mode albums), and the Feist- their across the board appeal. They are still esque ‘Wild About It’; the latter is plodding, ROCK-POP-DANCE-GOLDEN OLDIES-INDIE- at their most unique and demanding in songs but the top hat and poses Natalie adopts to like ‘Watered Down’, that go to the mat with sing it certainly please the crowd. In all, a SOUL-TECHNO-HIP-HOP-JAZZ-LATIN-REGGAE- a fist of despair, but although they play the great voice but a mixed bag; she deserves an DRUM&BASS-GARAGE—R&B-DISCO-1950s- similar ‘Chase’ tonight, that song, and overall higher quality of material, really. 2000s. Brand new back catalogue CDs £4 - £7 another more experimental duo song Kirsten Etheridge DEMOSDEMOS Sponsored by Demo of the Month wins a free half day’s recording at Keynote. Call 01189 599944 to claim your prize and get special deals for local bands!

predictably indulgent guitar soloing. They do DEMO OF grunge it all up for the final number, ‘Believe’, which chugs along a bit too politely THE MONTH but recaptures some of that initial spikiness. ADRENOCHROME FULANGCHANGANDI A band named after an old Sisters Of Mercy No, we don’t know how you’re supposed to song are unlikely to be a cuddly kitten- pronounce it either; it’s upset our spellchecker flavoured barrel of laughs, and so and we doubt you’d even be able to spell it Adrenochrome prove to be, weighing in with a correctly to find them on the internet, but meaty electronic rhythm that’s quickly joined Fulangchangandi manage to impress to a by a wave of squelching synths and a razor- degree with a brand of glowering, slightly off- ravaged rasp of a voice that’s 90% venom, kilter, mostly instrumental rocking that’s 10% hot charcoal. They’re jittery and most parts Mogwai but occasionally hits God aggressive, harking back to the 80s industrial Machine levels of heaviosity. ‘Bottletop techno of bands like Front 242 and Skinny Against a Brick’ finds the band providing the Puppy, battering it all into shape with a Fear backdrop to some almost indecipherable Factory-shaped mallet and doubtless narrative, possibly about a night down the rehearsing under a huge banner with the word pub, which only detracts from the crescendos Relentless scrawled on it in lamb’s blood. and spangled star-gazing. Really, if you want ‘Praise The Innocent’ sets the bleak scene poetry and noise, check out Youthmovies’ before ‘Unnameable Returns’ kicks in with its joint EPs with Adam Gnade. Their best harsh, hissing drum machine rhythm, a seven- moments come in the purely instrumental minute epic that features an incongruous and, passages, showing a band who aren’t exactly initially at least, unnecessary melodic change original, but carry it off with some style and of direction that’s dangerously close to power, and when they do try to sing, on metalcore cliché, but perhaps offers a glimpse ‘Emergency’, simply spoil the effect. of light and variety amid the otherwise bleak, bastard brutality of it all. There’s a feeling Adrenochrome are too single-minded in their THE AFFECTORS 876084 approach and things can feel a bit laborious as The Affectors feature two former-members of they thunder, growl and squawk through yet local 80s indie hopefuls The Quiet Men, so we another oppressive industrial dirge, but that’s guess they’re no whippersnappers, but also their strength, plundering Prong on sometimes it’s older musicians, untethered by ‘Perfect Storm’ and Nine Inch Nails’ factory desires to be cool, that come up with the most rhythms on ‘Let Go’ and all in all making for interesting sounds. And so, for the most part, pleasingly uncomfortable listening. Play them it turns out to be here. From the dark, at your pets. ambient electro minimalism of ‘The Experiment’, through the Kraftwerk-meets- John Foxx snowbound soundscape of ‘Objected’ they mix 70s synth noises with SHATTERED breakbeats and make a virtue of their linear, not overly adventurous approach, building up DREAMS a gently hypnotic, glacial mood. Sadly this is Reading through self-confessed ‘pop-punk’ punctured by what follows, ‘Next’ introducing band Shattered Dreams’ short list of influences an acoustic guitar over the hissing electronic fills us with a terrible sense of dread: Green beats but merely wandering aimlessly through Day, Blink 182, Paramore… we just know dull hippy ambient musak, while ‘Why’, with we’re in for some risible old sub-All American its indistinct middle-eastern vocal chants is Rejects tud. Against all odds, it’s nothing of equally ponderous, and it’s left to ‘Sad Eyed’ the sort, mainly due to singer Steph Branch’s to restore order with its squelchy electro- husky voice, sort of a cross between Hazel acoustic wander through a dreamy acid haze. O’Connor and a punked-up teenage Bonnie Tyler. Splattered untidily over some spiky garage rock on demo opener ‘Get Out Of My MOUNTAIN PARADE Way’ it makes a for a cracker of a lightweight We like any band that describes themselves as punk number, with a naïve old fashioned feel ramshackle, since it saves us the effort of to it, from a time before Victory Records and having to do so. It also suggests a self-effacing their ilk sucked every last vestige of life out nature, which is a boon in this winsome of the genre. After that they get a bit dull and variety of folksy pop. Mountain Parade boast pub rocking, plodding when they should canter six members but you’d be hard pressed to and with some painfully prosaic rhyming notice more than two at any time, and a song (though matching “druggies and alkies” with like ‘Awesome Wonder’ makes you think “house keys” might be borderline genius) and they’re trying just a bit too hard to be cute, but then they hit you with a lullaby-soft convention, is a pleasantly winsome slice of shanty like ‘The Squid & The Whale’, which is starry indie jangle and means we’ll hold off quite lovely and not a million miles away from chucking those bottles of sticky fruit squash Emmy the Great. At every turn they manage for now. to keep their songs short and rather sweet, ukulele and squeezebox adding to the rough, pastoral nature of the music, like something SOCRATES from a Jeffrey Lewis waking dream, and ‘Apple Trees’ is a charmingly lo-fi bucolic croon that JOHNSON sounds exactly like we imagine Fairport Ah, joy unbounded, some more of that Convention might have sounded like had Sandy acoustic strumming and moaning you know Denny grown up listening to The Pastels, we’re so fond of. Hell, you must think we’re several years after her untimely demise. If you fond of it else why keep sending it in? In the know what we mean. hope we’ll change our minds or something? That we’ll fling our sequinned pants in the air with unbridled glee and sing from Carfax UTE Tower, “Hurrah! More self-pitying donkey THE COURTYARD STUDIO Ute are currently getting plenty of folks, dung in a bucket!”? Dream on, people. including a fair number of Nightshift scribes, Socrates Johnson is the work of two people, PROTOOLS HD2, MTA 980 CONSOLE 32/24/ excited, although excited doesn’t seem an called Ed and Jude, but mostly it’s just Ed 24, OTARI MTR90 MK2 24 TRACK TAPE appropriate word to use in the context of moaning lots, though we’re never quite sure MACHINE, 2 TRACKING ROOMS, SUPERB their mournful form of acoustic folk-pop. what about. And usually in that vaguely CONTROL ROOM WITH GOOD SELECTION ‘Stitch Up’ might, at a stretch, be described as conversational style that suggests he’s going OF MICS & OUTBOARD GEAR, + MIDI playfully melancholy, but the emphasis is very to impart some toe-curlingly wry nugget of FACILITIES (INC LOGIC AUDIO, AKAI much on the melancholy. But for all that, it’s wit at any moment, like shit folk singers in S1000, OLD SKOOL ROLAND ETC.) very well executed and Ollie Thomas has a provincial pubs through the ages, but it never great voice, soft but gravelly, that dominates comes. He just keeps on moaning. Until the Residential facilities included. but never subsumes the politely subdued music. whole thing becomes soporifically dull and you www.courtyardrecordingstudio.com Vocally and lyrically he keeps his cards close feel like clambering back up Carfax Tower just PHONE PIPPA FOR DETAILS to his chest and rarely expresses any great so you can throw yourself off. There’s a ON 01235 845800 emotion, but in doing so he maintains an vague, misjudged attempt to sound like Johnny earthy attraction, while the music can be Cash on the final track here, `Wild Wind’, but rootsy and buoyant as well as sombre, it’s too little too late and the whole demo is bordering on funereal, as on ‘Lost Voice’, that bit like the musical equivalent of downing an touches on old Appalachian folk music. entire bucket of Amitriptyline with a litre Elsewhere the choral flourish on ‘Panic Float’ bottle of gin: slow, rather hazy, slightly injects a sudden spark of life into the depressing and ultimately ending in an moodiness, while ‘Airborne’ switches on a unremarkable death. sixpence from bucolic dirge to fervent zydeco, and while the songs themselves might be rather slender, there’s more than enough evidence that this new band have brighter THE DEMO things ahead of them. DUMPER SOIREE FOR THE SMALL MACHINE BUSKERS We regularly ponder what some bands Yeah, we feel sorry for buskers too actually hear when they listen back to their sometimes. All that huffing and puffing and demos. We worry about their state of mind if having to learn four different Bob Dylan they deem what they’re hearing fit to songs, only for pedestrians to absent mindedly present to their friends, family and members kick your cap full of coins across the street as of the general public, never mind seasoned they bustle out of Next, or urchins chucking cynics like us. Small Machine are nothing half-drunk bottles of Fruit Shoot at you. Not more, nothing less than indistinct indie rock that bagpipe player, though – seriously, does thrash that’s just a mush of clattering drums, he only know ‘Scotland The Brave’? Make a vaguely fuzzy guitars and a nondescript vocal fucking effort, laddie. Ah, sorry, Soiree For mumble that makes J Mascis sound like The Buskers. Sorry. Hmm, anyway, sorry Henry Rollins in a particularly bad mood. might be an apt description for this effort. It This demo doesn’t contain one single starts off reasonably, if lacking in character, a memorable moment. All that effort and it’s rudimentary pub pop jangle, a bit of guitar like listening to a marketing executive’s spangle to make it look pretty and it hobbles absent-minded tea break doodle of what a along, if not merrily, then without offending third-rate indie band might sound like heard anyone, but then it’s like someone pressed a through a tinny radio, a thick fog and a mild mute button accidentally and everything’s lost hangover all rolled into one. They’re so non- in a dull grey gruel of inconsequentiality. descript they could strip naked and parade Maybe because it’s a live recording – never a down Cornmarket Street with a giant neon good idea to include for review. That said, sign proclaiming “We Are The Anti-Christ” ‘The Visionaries’, while lacking the strength and no fucker would take the blindest bit of to punch its way out of a poodle fanciers’ notice. Poor wee lambs.

Send demos for review to: Nightshift, PO Box 312, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1ZU. Or email MySpace link to [email protected], clearly marked Demo for review. IMPORTANT: no review without a contact address and phone number. No more than four tracks on a demo. If you can’t handle criticism, please don’t send us your demo.