In 2005 Seth Lakeman was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for his sophomore LP Kitty Jay. The following year, Freedom Fields was released, outselling its predecessor. 2021 marks 15 years since Freedom Fields’ release, […]
His last solo LP, Everyday Robots, took Damon Albarn back to Leytonstone in East London to reflect upon his childhood memories there. The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows is by far a […]
Rag’n’Bone Man was one of the first artists’ to return to the live stage as the lockdown restrictions started to ease where an emotional Rory, aka Rag’n’Bone Man, wowed the 300 capacity Jazz Café. When […]
The beginning of Decades: Joy Division + New Order started 45 years ago on 4th June 1976. The venue is the Lesser Free Trade Hall, and the bands playing are the Buzzcocks and the Sex […]
Just three days before Richard Ashcroft’s 50th birthday XS Noize announced that he would release a new LP of his acoustic hits. With The Verve’s Urban Hymns just one year away from its 25th anniversary, […]
It’s hard to believe that this year will mark 20 years since the 2001 Sainsbury’s Christmas advert featuring Chef Jamie Oliver where he goes Christmas shopping with his Nan. Of all the people he buys […]
Whilst the duo have played together for two decades, this festival marked the first live gig the duo had performed together in seven years. Spiers & Boden are best known for being part of the […]
For many of Wendy James’ fans who followed her since her Transvision Vamp days back in the 1980s and early 1990s, 2021 will likely fill them with emotion as this year marks the 30th anniversary […]
It’s very rare to find two Norwegian schoolchildren who began their musical adventures through the forum of rap to go on to form a guitar music folk duo whose debut album title Quiet Is the […]
In March, XS Noize’s Lee Campbell caught up with The Levellers frontman to discuss many things, including the success of the Levellers 2020 LP Peace, being requested by Neil Young personally to support him, and […]
The Shakespeare’s Globe theatre is so old and famous that the two original buildings (1599 and 1654) featured on postage stamps in 1995. Slightly younger is Damon Albarn, aged 53, whose 1994 LP Parklife was depicted […]
Despite this Wigan four-piece only being around since 2018, they are living proof that despite the pandemic bands need the opportunity to perform live to develop and build up their fan base. Prior to playing […]
Conceived in 2017 following Donald Trump’s election victory, this Durham, North Carolina punk trio (who are all Muslims) formed as singer QADR says to express their “experiences that make you wake up and push back […]
In 2005, a largely unknown Danish band Mew swept the international scene with their fourth album And the Glass Handed Kites. This band’s breakthrough was unique because this effort departed from their previously more accessible […]
Twenty-nine years ago, the Manic Street Preachers released their debut LP, Generation Terrorists. Now they release their 14th: The Ultra Vivid Lament. What has changed? What is different about this new offering? In discussing this […]
When Villagers recorded their previous LP The Art of Pretending to Swim, frontman Conor O’Brien reflected on his addiction to constantly checking his mobile phone, extortionate rising house prices and being influenced by Ada Lovelace, […]
In light of Covid, which shut down live music, there has been much discussion about how to bring the live act, venue and gig-goers together without either of them being physically together. Melody VR has […]
In a creative foreword, Keith Knight shows a teacher educating her pupils about Billie Holiday and how her life is an opportunity to value “the contributions of blacks, Jews, women….” Her biggest hit, “Strange Fruit, […]
What do you get when musicians from two different pop-tinted indie bands, Steve Bays (Hot Hot Heat) and Erik Janson (Wildling), get together with a member of a pop band? Jeremy Ruzumna (Fitz and The […]
Affectionately known as Pearl, this outsider who was bullied and abused for being different was able to rise above the cultural barriers of her hometown and period she lived in to become an international star […]