Magazine project by Adam Chapman

Plus: news, reviews, and we trawl the internet so you don’t have to

>Bandwidth>> The north-east music bible. December 2008. Issue one. Two pounds.

North East Hip Hop No, really!

Classic Albums: The Wedding Present

Camera Obscura make their return

Cheap Antiques and Latino Casino

Futureheads The

“We might not even make a fourth album!”

bandwidth.co.uk

This is >Bandwidth>> Hello, and welcome to the first issue of >Bandwidth>>

Thanks for taking the time (and the money. There’s a recession on, we know) to pick up a copy of a magazine that we hope will become your bible for all that is important in music in the north east and beyond. This is a magazine for what we believe to be a missed market: the true music fan, who appreciates music of all genres and all eras. The people who don’t just “buy what they’re told to buy.” Passionate but never pretentious. This is >Bandwidth>>.

Contents: 4: This Just In: The latest news from the >Bandwidth>> wires. 6: Blog: Whatever Happened to My Rock and Roll? Because 8: No Future for You? We chatted to the Futureheads’ bassist Jaff before they blew the Sage into the middle of next week. 11: In A Class of Their Own A bit crack with the Vaudeville Classwho’s drummer is the coolest man in rock and roll. Maybe. 12: Live in Your Living Room: Small venues. Great. FACT. 15: That’s Spot On: A look at the program revolutionising the way we scrounge music on the net. 17: From the Hip to the Hop from the Tees to the Tweed: Rap in the region. 20: Aye Pod? No Pod!: Don’t want an iPod? Have a gander at this. 24: slashdotslashdotslashdotcom We trawl through MySpace to bring you the best unsigned bands from the north and beyond, because we’re nice like that. 26: Summer Lovin’: Our essential festival guide 28: Fading out of Obscura-ty: Traceyann Campbell talks to us in a noisy corridor 31: Talk is Cheap: Durham’s Cheap Antiques 34: No Capital Gains for Jam: One-time Durham lad James Andrews tell us of music in That There London

>Bandwidth>> Lyrics of the Month Written, designed and edited by Adam Chapman. Made in Sunderland. ^ - The Cloisters, Sunderland, SR2 7BD @ - bandwidthmagazine@publisher.com ( - 0191 510 8440 Thanks: the Bunker (and Manifesto magazine), Degrees North, Mike Carter, themusicmagazine.co.uk

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“Every gimmick hungry yob / digging gold from rock and roll / grabs the mic to tell us / that he’ll die before he’s sold / but I believe in this / and it’s been tested by research / that he who fucks nuns / will later join the Church.” From Death or Glory by the Clash, from the album London Calling (1979).

36: On the Record: This month’s album reviews 44: Caught Live: This month’s live reviews 50: It’s Big Up North: Want to get drunk and watch music in the sunshine? Of course you do. 52: Classic Forgotten Albums: George Best by the Wedding Present: Because you don’t need telling again that OK Computer was canny good.

bandwidth.co.uk

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AWONI In Charity Gig Return

We Are the Mods, and We’re Coming to Sunderland

The finest thing to ever come out of Seaham regroup to raise cancer research money after guitarist’s family tragedy.

Details and tickets can be found at www.sunder-

Cult mod movie Quadrophenia will be taking to the stage at Sunderland Empire in July, as its theatrical adaptation hits the city. Based on the 1979 film by the Who (named after their sixth studio album), the seminal storyline follows the story of scooter-loving Jimmy (Eastenders’ Phil Daniels), who makes a Bank Holiday weekend trip to Brighton and becomes involved in Mods versus Rockers riots on the city’s seafront. The show will be at the Empire between July 7 and 11, with ticket prices starting from £10.50. Quadrophenia features a score by the Who’s guitarist Pete Townshend, who also co-wrote the original film.

>>>>>>the >thebandwidth>>

newsticker>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>Graham Coxon will be in the north east for an intimate gig at the Cluny on May 18th. We’ll be looking forward to this one, given that the former Blur man’s ‘English dates’ with John McCusker’s Under One Sky folk supergroup apparently didn’t include their appearance in Gateshead. Last we looked, we weren’t Scottish. >>>>>> >>>>>> 2ManyDJs will be getting the newly-named O2 Newcastle Academy rocking with their blend of throw-it-againstthe-wall-and-see-what-sticks Belgian mentalism on June 7th. >>>>>> After their recent barnstorming support set for Howling Bells and Future of the Left (see page 48), the Joy Formidable return in a headline slot at the Academy on June 1st. >>>>>> As if the idea of a standing area in the Sage wasn’t mad enough to start with, June 9th will see the Hall One stage being graced by hip-hop luminaries De La Soul. Eye Know you’ll love it. See what we did there? Eh? Eh? >>>>>> >>>>>> We’re not ashamed to admit we love Girls Aloud, and we’re not also not ashamed to admit we’ll be hoping to bag ourselves tickets for their two shows at the Metro Radio Arena on June 5th and 6th. >>>>>>

Field Music going ‘on hiatus’. PJ and Duncan being barred from the Grove. Sting getting a record contract. All horrible moments in the history of north-eastern music, but nothing to compare with the news in 2006 that the famously volatile A Woman of No Importance had decided to call it a day, citing the old ‘artistic differences’ cliche for their premature split, which came before they’d achieved even an iota of the success that many, ourselves included, felt they deserved.

both parents to cancer, his father losing a battle with kidney cancer in April 2008. Writing on their now pretty much defunct MySpace site, Matthew said: “Whilst I can’t fathom what it must be like for other people, or even those who are struggling in the fight against cancer everyday, I believe I can help in other ways by raising money for the research and for the care of those who need it.”

However, this was tinged with sadness for the band, as it emerged that the gigs would form part of the Three Night Stand series of gigs (the other evening taking place in Hartlepool), with north-eastern acts like the Futureheads and our favourite saxophone post-rockers B>E>A>K raising money for cancer research. AWONI themselves reformed after covocalist and guitarist Matthew Weaver lost

The Chairman Returns Legendary DJ Andrew Weatherall will be back in Sunderland for May’s Ward 10. Taking place on the May 22 Bank Holiday Monday, the cult house night will again be held at Independent. The nomadic event, which has been running since 2001, has previously been held at Pure, Substance and the Bonded Warehouse. Weatherall, nicknamed The Chairman, previously appeared at the club to help celebrate Ward 10’s birthday in November last year.

For >bandwidth>>, the affirmation that they were Something Very Special Indeed came at Independent, Sunderland, when in support of Arcade Fire violinist Owen Pallett, in his Final Fantasy guise, they pretty much took him off the stage with the help of a few half-filled glasses of water as a makeshift glockenspiel. Imagine our happiness then, when it was announced that the band, who hail from the East Durham town of Seaham, would play two gigs, one at Independent and another at the Cluny in Newcastle, in March this year.

landempire.org.uk or by calling 0870 602 1130

His previous work includes producing albums by the likes of Primal Scream and Beth Orton, remixing Bjork and My Bloody Valentine, and holding residencies at clubs including London’s Fabric and Mondo in Madrid. Doors are at 11pm.Entry is £8 before 12 and £10 after. More details can be found at www.myspace.com/independent_venue or on www.independentsunderland.co.uk

AWONI in full swing

Money raised from the gigs went to St. Clare’s Hospital, a small unit for the terminal ill in Jarrow, where Matthew’s dad passed away, as well as Macmillan Cancer Nurses and The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. Matt continues to perform as part of new group Sunday School Adventure Club, and former bandmate Marc can be seen with Dot to Dots and solo-project Indoor Fireworks. The past brilliance of A Woman of No Importance can be heard at: myspace.com/awoni or by searching their name on last.fm.

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Take Me Out on Tour... Franz Ferdinand have announced details of a new UK tour, which will take place in autumn this year. The band, who released new album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand on January 27, will play nine dates across the country, and will be in the north east for a gig at Newcastle’s O2 Academy on October 15. Vocalist Alex Kapranos spent his early childhood in Sunderland and South Shields, which is his mother’s home town. Details of support acts are yet to be announced. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday (April 24) via www.seetickets.com

The North-South Divide: What’s Hot and What’s Not in the >bandwidth>> Office this Month

This Just In

bandwidth.co.uk

NORTH >> The Hold Steady’s new live album, A Positive Rage. Like Springsteen pitching up in your local, downing 12 pints and then grabbing a guitar. And then shagging every lass in sight. >> The Wire, finally on BBC2. Watch it, watch it now. >> The Juan MacLean, proving DFA isn’t all about James Murphy with the stupendous The Future Will Come. >> Los Campesinos! being used to advertise E4’s The Inbetweeners. Our fave teen indie-popsters on our favourite crass teen comedy. Nice. >> Spotify allowing us to finally hunt down Johhny Foreigner’s early 21C floorfiller, You Are the Generation that Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve. Think the video for Soulwax’s NY Excuse, with lovable scousers and even more funk. >> Summer’s nearly here! See you all on the Quayside for Evolution Festival.

SOUTH

<< The Killers covering Bright Eyes’ Four Winds. Look, lads, we’re quite fond of your 80s pomp-pop, but leave the theology to the big lads, eh? << Professional-cockernee charv, Lady Sovereign, currently glottal-stopping all over a sample of the Cure’s classic Close to Me on her woeful new single. << The Leeds/Reading line-ups. Yes, we get to see Radiohead oop north, but we’ll have to put up with 70,000 drunkards singing Sex on Fire. Again. Bugger. << Not getting Glastonbury tickets. Again. Bugger. << Bob Dylan’s stinky outdoor toilet causing uproar with his neighbours. Actually, on second thoughts, this story is hilarious.

bandwidth.co.uk

Blogs> Whatever Happened to

My Rock and Roll?

For some bizarre reason known only to the show’s producers (and blatantly not even known to Jeremy Paxman), the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme Newsnight chose to interview Dizzee Rascal following the election of Barack Obama to the White House. There was some tenuous link to hip-hop, and how the rap establishment had been instrumental in Obama’s historic win, and you probably can’t argue with that. It did get me thinking though: Whatever Happened to My Rock and Roll?

British music appears to be full of diet-Libertines dross, bands who think they’re saying something important and sticking it to the man, but in reality merely continuing to pick up major label pay cheques and sing about nothing at all. The greatest musicians have long spoken for the disenfranchised and the jaded, from John Lennon and Bob Dylan to Public Enemy and Arcade Fire. Rock music in particular should be a simmering bastion of political dissent. Rock music should be rocking against racism one day, and then swearing loudly on live telly the next.

I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but the grungy trio’s lament was a worthy one, and in times like these, we truly need rebellion and inspiration. The Kanye Wests and Dizzee Rascals of this world are all well and good, but where are this generation’s Sex Pistols? Innovative new music and fashion always comes from times of depression: rock and roll, punk, electro and hiphop all emerged from moments of sheer crapness, and it should be obvious to most people now that we’re on the edge of Something Very Shit Indeed.

Above left: Dizzee Rascal. He speaks for the people. Above: The Feeling. They don’t.

You know the line in Fight Club about how our generation has no great war, no great depression? That our Great War is a spiritual war, and our Great Depression is our lives? Pretty soon we could see how much shit hits the fan when we experience our Great War and our Great Depression at the same time, with religious nutjobs trying to outdo each other in the Rank Stupidity and Death to Innocent Civilians stakes. Anyway, I digress. What annoys me is that something somewhere is clearly going quite tits up, but on my radio is some berk telling me that she’s so lovely, she’s so lovely, she’s just so fucking lovely.

However, British music is generally a lethargic mess of indifference that only gets its collective arse in gear when those involved can make money from a cause they, in all honesty, know nothing about. Moody teenagers find solace in rebellion. Where’s the rebellion in the homogenized NME twatrock that they’re force fed now? Once they had the Clash or Nirvana. Now they have the Kooks.

And we certainly can’t rely on Luke Pritchard to point out that the only way ID cards will save us from terrorism is if they’re nine feet by seven feet and made out of Kevlar (so we can hide behind them the next time some nutjob sets fire to his shoes on a 747). When this generation shows our grandchildren the popular music of our day, what will they think? Will they be inspired by a Lennon or Stummer type figure, or be too busy scratching the microchip that’s implanted in their face because we were a generation that didn’t care, and looked to Reverend and the Makers for social commentary? More opinion and wanton ranting at bandwidth.com

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bandwidth.co.uk

“We might not even make a

fourth album...”

No Future

for You?

2008 was a year of vindicationfor the Futureheads. Going it alone after an acrimonious split from their record label, they proved their doubters wrong with a stunning return to form on third album This is Not the World. Imagine our surprise then, when bassist Jaff tells us a fourth record may not be in the reckoning... Ever since Thom Yorke and co. decided to self-release their In Rainbows album through the internet, allowing fans to pay whatever they wished to download it, the phrase ‘doing a Radiohead’ has made it into the vocabulary of lazy music hacks everywhere. By the end of this year, “doing a Futurehead” could well have joined it, with the Sunderland four-piece perusing a variety of options for their next release.

to allow them to focus on ill-fated grime acts like the Mitchell Brothers and Kano at the request of the Streets’ Mike Skinner), a time when Jaff admits they thought the band’s days were over. However, rather than disappear with their collective tails between their legs, the Futureheads regrouped and decided to self-release their last album, This is Not the World, which proved to be “definitely the right thing to do”. The record, closer in styling to their more dynamic debut, proved to be a massive success and a vindication of their self-belief.

‘Heads bassist Jaff spoke to >bandwidth>> before their final northern show of 2008 to discuss the band’s plans for the year ahead, and told us about some possible ideas for their forthcoming fourth record… “We might not even make a fourth album,” he says, dropping a momentary bombshell, before continuing: “We might release three or four EPs of about five tracks, then collect them all together in a box set or something, to make it more collectable and a little less generic.”

When pushed to name a highlight of 2008, Jaff cannot pick merely a single moment from a year that saw the Futureheads back in mainstream conciousness and appearing at almost every major UK festival.

The Futureheads, including Jaff, second from left

There is understandable thinking behind this: “People just download specific tracks these days,” he says, pointing to the changing direction of the music industry and of music fans themselves. He stresses that he still loves the album as a format though (tipping fellow Sunderland acts, and former Field Music cohorts, The Week that Was and School of Language as his favourites of 2008), and the band will have plenty of time to decide exactly how to release their next one: “We were originally going to try to get the record out in May, but that’s just not going to happen. We don’t need to rush it, there’s just no point. It’s not like we’re on our second album any more. It’s the fourth album, we’ve been together nearly nine years, it’s now a case of ‘take your time, get it right.’” Indeed, there is even less pressure on the band, given both the successful reception of third album This is Not the World, and their continuing commitment to going it alone, without a record label. Following disappointing sales of the underrated News & Tributes album, the band were dropped from label 679 (allegedly

forward to Christmas having just performed a mammoth “32 gigs in 44 days” which “started in Scandinavia, then the Czech Republic, Poland and all around Europe, then a full UK and Ireland tour!”

“Just getting the record out was such an achievement,” he says, “And then for people to get into it, and for us to get the chance to make another album would be the highlights I suppose.”

Perhaps understandably, the Futureheads were looking forward to some time away from one another, returning to their families and Wearside roots for the Christmas break.

Lowlights were few and far between, Jaff brushing aside less glamorous moments such as “playing to 60 or 70 people in eastern Europe”, saying “that’s punk rock, isn’t it? You take the rough with the smooth.”

“We love each other but we need time apart. You fight with your girlfriend when you live with her, so when there’s nine lads on a bus…” he laughs, before continuing: “To be honest, there’s been some pretty tough moments when it’s your fourth week in freezing cold places and you start falling out.”

“We were originally going to try to get the [new] record out in May, but that’s just not going to happen. There’s no point...”

“I’d play one night at Independent. I’d play two nights at Independent. I’d play the Ivy House!”

That standout track Beginning of the Twist even outsold their ubiquitous indie-dancefloor-filler Hounds of Love. “We sold twice as many copies of ‘Twist’ as we did of Hounds of Love. It was a much bigger hit, it did something like 40 or 50,000 sales and that’s just amazing for us,” he says, mentioning though that it also sold more copies than the album itself, another indication of the decline of the LP format in the digital era.

Jaff will regroup with Ross Millard and the Hyde brothers early this year to start the hard work again, with acoustic sets planned in the UAE, although he jokes: “That’s more for a holiday really, to play new material, do whatever we want to do.”

After the release of the record in May of last year, the typically hard-working band embarked on various tours throughout the UK and the rest of the world. When we meet Jaff, he’s looking

>>> >>>

The band will also be writing and rehearsing new material once they return to Britain, and the grateful Jaff is seemingly amazed that people still pay “to see the same songs,” with the band’s last tour being their fourth of

This is Not the World. The night we meet Jaff, they perform to a packed out Gateshead Sage, playing in front of the venue’s first ever standing area with an anthological set from across their entire career, including live favourite Piece of Crap and the majority of the third record. “It’s amazing to think we’ve sold 1800 tickets tonight,” he points out. It’s the first time the Futureheads have played a fully electric set at the Sage, but Jaff isn’t nervous about their debut gig in the notoriously unforgiving Hall One. “We don’t get nervous,” he insists, but then jokes they did get nervous when they thought they had only sold a few hundred tickets, again expressing his wonderment that fans are still flocking to see them. Jaff is also keen to return to Sunderland for more gigs, after the success of their last appearances in the city, playing two nights at Independent nightclub in November 2007. He stresses the importance of for the Futureheads to develop new material before they even think about heading out on the road again: “We just need to play new stuff!” Jaff though appears equally keen to appear anywhere else in Sunderland sometime soon. Apparently, he’d even consider an offer to play at a pub that was of our favourite watering holes during our hazy student days. He says: “I’d play another two nights at Independent. I’d play one night at Independent. I’d play the Ivy House!”

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In a Class of Their Own... Coming together with a shared love of blues, good times, and, once upon a time at least, each other, the Vaudeville Class are bringing something a little bit different to the Sunderland unsigned scene...

The Vaudeville Class came together with one clear aim: “to do something different.” Joint vocalists Laura Lee Stevenson and Paul Daly, who were once engaged, decided it was time to form a band after attending a mutual friend’s gig and realising they could “do better.” Bassist Laura says: “This is going to sound really pretentious, but we were really sick of indie. Indie wasn’t indie any more.” Paul, the band’s guitarist agrees: “We wanted to do something that indie kids would like, punk kids would like, even metal kids would like. We’ve gone down really well at some metal nights actually.” After forming their band, named after the travelling sideshows of entertainers in the American Wild West, their next problem was finding a drummer, and went through several, Spinal Tap style, before finally finding Karl Rouleau. Ironically, Karl had almost joined the band once before, only for somebody else to accept the job just before him. “I think we always wanted Karl, really,” Paul muses in tribute. Laura had given up her job in journalism to pursue her dream of music full time. “I’ve always wanted to be on stage,” she says, maintaining she has no regrets about leaving a career she originally began in order to “write about music.”

Their stage shows are a visceral thrill, combining presence with a finely-honed image which makes the most of Laura’s burlesque glamour, Paul’s 125 year-old antique top hat, and the showmanship of the eccentric Karl, who borders on the beatific as he smashes his way through their explosive live sets. “We always wanted the drummer to be an equal part of the band, rather than stuck away at the back,” adds Paul, from Easington, Co. Durham, with Laura insisting coyly that “we’re nothing in real life like we are on stage.” That appears true, as the band seem laid back and amiable as they tell of their early plans for Exorcist themed gigs and guerrilla gigs in the campsites of Leeds Festival, occasionally disappearing on a tangent of banter about Paul knocking himself out on a toilet roll holder, or stopping for Karl to complement Laura’s arse. “I’ve been in a lot of bands and stood behind lots of them, but hers is the best. Although Paul has been wearing especially tight jeans tonight!” Although they may be different in real life to how they appear on stage, one constant remains: the love of a bloody good time.

Top: Paul Bottom: Laura Karl appears to not have been at this photoshoot. We presume he was off somewhere being utterly mental instead.

The three came together with a shared love of music, good times, and the dirty blues. “It’s about having a good time, about meeting new people,” enthuses Karl, and the others agree.

>>>

Their influences range from Kings of Leon and Laura’s favourites the White Stripes, to American country and blues.

The Vaudeville Class can be found at myspace.com/thevaudevilleclass and touring regularly around various venues of the north east and beyond. They were off to London not long after we met them, so good look to ‘em.

bandwidth.co.uk

LIVE! in Your Living Room With the region hosting some of the biggest gigs in its musical history this summer, it’s easy to forget some of the brilliant, passionate smaller venues we have on our doorstep. Always fond of an intimate gig and strong foreign ale, >bandwidth>> found out more.. The Cluny

36 Lime Street, Ouseburn, Newcastle www.theheadofsteam.com 0191 230 4474 Metro: Manors

The Cumberland Arms

Ouseburn, Byker www.thecumberlandarms.co.uk 0191 265 6151 Metro: Byker

US-Japan alt-rockers Deerhoof here, as well as favourite sons of Sunderland, the Futureheads and the Week that Was, and the Bank Holiday Monday on 22nd May will see the legendary Andrew Weatherall back in town to play the nomadic Ward 10 night.

One of the north east’s premier gastropubs, the Cluny is part bar, part venue and part eaterie, serving up top quality and reasonably priced nosh as well as intimate gigs from a variety of high-calibre artists.

Good points> Excellent atomsphere, and surprisingly good acoustics given the awfully low ceilings.

We’ve enjoyed quality recent sets from the likes of Future of the Left and Grammatics, with hotly-tipped Scot-rockers Broken Records and tweed-pop act the Young Knives coming up soon.

who’s anyone on the regional scene.

Good points> Tiny venue, part of the Ouseburn pub crawl, and a variety of imported lagers and local real ales on draught, includng >Bandwidth>>’s favourite tipple, Budvar.

2-3 Exchange Place, Middlesbrough www.tenfeettall.co.uk Metro: n/a

Bad points< It’s hard to get to if you don’t know where you’re headed, and this out-of-the-way location makes for later

Albert’s, as it is more commonly known, is a staple of the Boro indie scene, and has been bringing sweaty gigs and messy clubnights such as Sumo to Teesside for years.

One of the most relaxing venues in the area, with a truly traditional atmosphere, unsurprising given that it dates back to the 1850s. Gigs take place in the upstairs room, reached by a narrow, rickity staircase, but the trek is worth it. It can be no bigger than most people’s dining rooms, and as such it truly feels like you’re having a personal, private set performed just for you. That’s especially true when it’s the likes of Electrelane ripping your eardrums to shreds.

Bad points< The quality live acts appear to be drying up somewhat, although the venue is still a launchpad for everyone

Uncle Albert’s

>>>

Add to this the fact that Hall Two can be changed to standing, (and you can take your beer in!) and there’s now a small standing area in Hall One, and the Sage is now not only a stunning venue for classical, opera at their ilk, but also rock and roll, and, even more interestingly, hip-hop, after it was announced that old skool trailblazers De la Soul will perform there in June. Possibly the best gig >bandwidth>> has ever seen was folk siren Joanna Newsom in Hall One, supported by the Northern Sinfonia, performing her seminal Ys album in its entirity.

Good points> A truly welcoming pub and a truly intimate venue. A cracking selection of ales and lagers, and genuinely inclusive, a fact underlined by their website pointing out which of their beers are suitable for vegetarians.

Coming soon they have Stephen Fretwell, Grammatics and Rolo Tomassi, but our excitement is cranked up to 11 for the arrival of Titus Andronicus on May 27. See our review at the back of this issue to find out exactly why this is the best thing to happen in Middlesbrough since some people thought the cast of Auf Wiedershen Pet were really nicking the Transporter Bridge. Good points> Titus Andronicus! Bad points< We know smoggies (we’re allowed to call them that now, yeah?) are always irked when the rest of the region spends so much time telling them that they’re merely a small town in Yorkshire, but the reality is that for anyone outside of Teesside, getting to a gig in Boro is an utter nightmare. Anyone fancy sharing a taxi back from TA?

The Sage Gateshead. A small venue. No, really. Read on to find out why it’s one of our favourites.

Bad points< It’s in the middle of nowhere, to be frank, although as they say themselves: “It’s a big hill, but it’s worth it!”

curfews than at the Sage et al, so don’t be surprised to find the gig finishing long after the last Metro.

The Sage Gateshead

Gateshead www.thesagegateshead.org 0191 443 4666 Metro: Gateshead

Independent

36 Holmeside, Sunderland www.independentsunderland.co.uk Metro: Sunderland Central

We know that strictly speaking, the Sage isn’t a small venue. Far from it: it’s bloody massive, with three seperate performance areas.

Without doubt Sunderland’s best (only?) nightclub and live music venue (and drinking den, as the club’s flyers so proudly proclaim), Independent is home to the city’s coolest clubnights, and is the spiritual home of its musical fraternity. We’ve seen the likes of Arcade Fire’s violinist Final Fantasy and

>>> >>>

What makes it akin to watching a band in your living room though is the simply stunning acoustics, some of the finest in Europe, tweaked to the point whereno matter where you sit or stand, you’re treated to note-perfect sound.

And coming out of the standing area’s very first gig (The Futureheads in December), quite drunk and very sweaty, to be confronted by dozens of suited, booted and confused attendees of the classical peformance next door, underlined just why the eclectic and inspirational Sage is a venue for the whole area to be proud of. Good points> The new standing area in Hall One, the general ambience of the place, and the fact that your gig ticket entitles you to free travel both to and from Gateshead Metro station on the night itself. Bad points< It can feel a bit, well, posh for certain gigs (at his 2006 performance there, Morrissey noted that the crowd were more restrained than he is used to in these parts), and you can’t take drinks into Hall One.

bandwidth.co.uk

That’s

On...

The internet has been both a blessing and a curse for the music industry. On one hand, the ability to publish your recordings to the entire world using just a computer and a social networking account of one type or other has truly brought music production to the masses: punk has never been more punk. It’s allowed us to discover bands we may never otherwise have even heard of or even given the time of day if we had to first, shock, horror, set foot outside and go to a record store (remember them?) where we would have to PAY to listen to them.

Once installed, the selection of music at your fingertips is simply awesome. It’s like what you imagine Valhalla’s pub jukeboxes to resemble. As well as an impressive array of rarities, the sheer depth of what is available from more experienced artists is phenomenal. We checked on the Fall and Bob Dylan, both famously productive acts, and were simply overwhelmed by what was on offer. And it’s all free, with your music simply peppered with the occasional advert: like Metro Radio, but good (you can subscribe to the service for £9.99 per month to remove these ads).

On the other hand, the ease with which copyrighted material can be shared across the web has been the bane of many major record labels (that’s the multibillion dollar multinational conglomerate record labels. Not that we’re taking sides, mind) and recording artists (that’s the multimillionaire recording artists. Again, we’re not taking sides. Honest).

Spotify works by streaming, so there are no pesky download times for those of us still on rather steam-driven connections, and helpfully stores much of the music into your computer’s cache to make it even more readily accessibly should you choose to listen again (the amount of memory you give up to Spotfy is alterable in its intuitive menu). The program also works with last.fm and MSN Messenger’s ‘I’m Listening To:’ feature. We also like how much of its design has been simply lifted from Apple’s iTunes, the famously litigious corporation no doubt ecstatic at the current development of a Spotify app for their iPhone, one which would surely reduce iTune’s profitability.

If only there was some way of hearing new music and classic tracks across the internet, without pesky legislation, ethical dilemma or mammoth subscription fees… There is? Step forward, Spotify… The free-to-download program allows instant access to a vast catalogue of music, new and old, and is currently used by over a million people worldwide. Users in the UK do not need an invitation of a subscription, merely a quick click of a download button.

Spotify isn’t perfect, of course. On your first use, you don’t mind the occasional adverts from ‘Roberta from Spotify’ (like ‘Tom from MySpace,’ but more condescending), but by the time you suddenly have your first listen to an eagerlyawaited album interrupted by commercials about safe sex and ensuring you defrost your freezer (not at the same time), you may start pining for those days of our sadly departed independent record stores.

Meanwhile, over on last.fm...

What is it?

bands alike.

Last.fm is the ingenious website that is part social-networking platform and part musical guru.

However, the site’s brilliance is taken into orbit with the use of the ‘scrobbler’ download, a track counting device that works with your iTunes or MP3 player (and now Spotify!) to work out what you’ve been listening to.

Users can become friends with each other based on the similarities of their music tastes, read suggested blogs and listen to a huge library of tracks, from their favourite artists and unknown

The information is then sent back to the last.fm servers, who use the the details to recommend music they think you may like! When clicking on another user’s porfile, it also uses these details to automatically work out a music compatiability rating for you both: anything from ‘awful’ to ‘super!’ The system also creates charts for users allowing them to see what they have

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been listening to over the past week, month, three months or even the last year, with options available for albums, artists and individual tracks. And although we’ve been busy over the past three months preparting for launch, we’ve still been blaring tunes from the office PC systems. Ask you can see on the chart on the left, taken directly from last.fm, the top slots are occupied by the National, and our Album of 2008 winners Titus Andronicus. The producers of this issue’s Great Forgotten Album also sneak in (see page 52) What’s more amazing though is that Polly Scattergood is already in there: we only found her on Spotify a fortnight ago!

From the Hip to the Hop, from the Tees to the Tweed When you think of hip-hop, you don’t necessarily think of the north-east. It’s easy to conform to stereotype, particularly when there is a lot of truth in said stereotype. You’re not going to be thinking of the rolling fields of Durham or the Northumbrian coastline when you can think of South Central Los Angeles, the New York Bronx, or, dare we say it, South London, are you?

together for six years, and self-released their debut album in 2006. They are now putting the finishing touches to follow-up D-Day, which features gloriously northern lines such as “Yer not a proper rapper / your style’s a bag of hammers / that I’m dropping on yer napper” and “Look around man, yer tit / These people aren’t impressed, mate.” It’s a common theme of northern music, whatever the genre, that it often foregoes the pretension that so often comes with being a recording artist of one type or other (witness the Futureheads playing darts at the aforementioned Ivy House for proof), and there’s a welcome stoicism evident in the rhymes of Dialect to banish any cliches of guns, bitches and bling, andperfectly underscore their amiability, and their roots in working class Shields estates. We wish them the very best of luck, as they appear to deserve it.

However, north-east hip-hop does exist. Really. It’s easy to imagine it isn’t, of course, but how many of us really knew the region was a hotbed of indie as recently as five years ago, before the Futureheads and Maximo Park (and several others) grabbed the north-east, kicking and screaming, to the national muso consciousness? Ever eclectic, and conscious there’s a few too many skinny white kids with guitars in this month’s issue, >bandwidth>> decided to find out more. Brrap. Dialect in a stairwll. We don’t know why, either.

We started with the likeable Absorb, who we interview over the page. His grimey stuff is the north-east’s answer to Dizzee Rascal and, erm, all of those other much-hyped grime acts (remember the Mitchell Brothers? Seriously, what was THAT all about?). He confirmed our suspicions that the north-east did indeed have a hip-hop scene that was, if not quite thriving, at least existing, and a close-knit one it was too (much like every single person in Sunderland who has ever created music counts the Ivy House as their favourite watering hole). We then recieved a tip-off from a musical mate of ours, though one who is possible the whitest person we know. We weren’t sure how seriously do take him when he pointed us in the direction of South Shields’ Dialect ensemble, but when we finally got round to checking them out we were pretty much blown away. Rapping proudly in sand-dancing accents, they have been

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Another drawback to the burgeoning scene is the fact that most of the region’s radio stations are safe, middle of the road tosh that are usually ran from some head office in the south. This means it’s more likely for northern acts to get airplay on independent or BBC stations in the rest of the UK than it is up here.

Fortunately, some community based stations are more committed to envelope-pushing tunes than their commercial counterparts. Rob Davies, presenter of Utopia FM’s hip-hop show, told us: “The hip hop club scene is quite large. Lovedough is a clubnight which is run across the UK in several cities, and has its Newcastle residency at Tup Tup Palace. It attracts some big artists, as Kanye West went there following his gig at the Arena (scene of his attack on a camera man), The Game went there for an afterparty, and on 4th May Xzibit (Pimp My Ride USA) is performing there. “In Sunderland, there is a battle rap night that takes place once a month at Independent, the Glass Spider also has a hip hop night on Sundays, and has attracted DJs from BBC Radio 1Xtra.” Hopefully, this is only the beginning as the region strives to prove itself as a musical hotbed yet again.

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Absorb talks to >Bandwidth>> Bandwidth: Do you feel there is much of a hip-hop scene in the north-east? Absorb: There’s been quite a healthy hip-hop scene in the north-east for a number of years now. From my experience, Newcastle is the hub of where you can find a lot of activity but places like Middlesbrough and Sunderland also have small scenes. There are a handful of regular organised nights in Newcastle where local MCs can take part in open-mics, watch local acts perform as well as take opportunities to support well-known touring artists. A local support act is always good as their music has a chance to reach an audience who may have only come along to see the headline act, but for them to get a flavour of what’s also happening locally is great. >B: Do you feel it’s harder to get noticed by A&R men and the national press up here?

scene of some sort; some bigger than others. Hip-hop groups and artists from this part of the country have as much to give as any other scene which isn’t based in London. Stig, a rapper from Newcastle decided to move to London to pursue his music and he’s doing really well. Ultimately, networking is the key. At the end of the day, we’re all in A&R (whether we realise it or not); we know what we like, what’s good and what’s not. Websites like Myspace, Facebook, Bebo and the ever growing Twitter are great tools to help the D.I.Y. label/artist succeed, no matter where you are in the world. >B: Do you think the north-east scene has much in common with London based hip-hop? What do you think the differences and similarities are?

A: I’m in a funk band A: I think to some degree called Soul Technique and yes because hip-hop (and in Newcastle any form of rap for that especially, it can be difmatter) allows artists to ficult to get gigs because rebel, vent their frustrations there’s a large indie band and talk about their lives for presence. Sometimes it example in a way in which can be good if you’re their audience can underdoing what everyone’s stand and relate to it. Local listening to and getting accent and slang [in the gigs because venues can’t north-east] is get enough of it, but that obviously different to that just means you’re in direct which you’d hear on any competition with everyone London based hip-hop else. Sometimes standing tracks but sometimes that’s out, being focused and how followings begin. maybe most important of Those around you instantly all, being patient, can pay pick up on local sayings and Yes, we think he looks a little bit mental as well. He’s thoroughly good crack though. dividends. It really depends even local points of interest on what people [not necesor street names because what sarily labels] are looking for. I believe that if your music isn’t what’s rappers are talking about is [happening] right on their audience’s currently “in” and what people are listening to, you can still progress doorstep. The problem with that, is that it’s appeal can sometimes if your music is good enough, no matter what genre. With labels of become too contained in one area so that anyone who’s not from all sizes downsizing or disappearing this part of the world won’t be able to understand the local slang altogether, the focus isn’t necessarily on the labels anymore. Artists and why those street names or points of interest are relevant to like Sway built their own fan bases by doing everything in-house and them. Exactly the same can be said about London based hip-hop. acting like a label would but doing everything themselves. Still, the reason why artists do rap music remains the same; because Just because we’re not in London shouldn’t mean that our chances they have something to say – and everyone can relate to that. of success are drastically reduced. There’s so much competition in London that being away from that can actually help. I’m also working Absorb can be found at absorbonline.com with a producer called Sequel under the name ABSORB VS SEQUEL doing grime and electro music. We’re finding that because guitarFind out more about Dialect (and listen to the tremendous Put it based music is quite prominent in Newcastle, we’ve acknowledged Down) at myspace.com/disalecthiphop that we wouldn’t get noticed on a national level by continuing in this area so we’re beginning to look into promoting our music in other Utopia FM returns to the airwaves of Sunderland in September 2009. cities such as Leeds and Manchester, where our music would be better received. Sometimes, as well as knowing what’s “in”, it’s about knowing your market and where you’re likely to be successful. In terms of hip-hop, most if not every large town or city will have a

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Aye Pod?

NO Pod.

It seems like the world and his wife own iPods these days. Not a single Metro, plane or bus journey can go by without a dozen or so sightings of those ubiquitous white earphones. But what for those of us that don’t want to send another few hundred quid in Steve Jobs’ direction? >Bandwidth>> risked pushy electronics salesmen and reams of techno jargon to bring you the best of the rest. Sony Walkman Memory: up to 32GB Price: up to £279

Creative Zen and Zen V Plus Memory: up to 16GB Price: Up to £169

Sony probably have more reason than most to be irked at Apple’s supremacy. They invented the portable music player way back in 1978 after their chairman Akio Morita tasked an engineer with creating a device that would let him listen to his favourite operas on his regular transpacific flights. The Sony device went on to be so popular that ‘Walkman’ became shorthand for personal stereos as a whole, much in the way that the older generation may be heard to ask: “What’s the difference between an iPod and an MP3 player?

Creative have long been one of Apple’s main competitors, and the Zen V Plus is their latest offering. Although it does have a much smaller capacity than the higher-end iPods, this means it’s a lot more compact and lightweight, and more suited to the gym or anywhere else where weight is at a premium than the cumbersome iPod Classic.

Although we weren’t big fans of the purple monstrosity of four years ago, that arrived amid huge fanfares and was designed to challenge the iPod head on, their current vast range includes some rather natty offerings. Our personal favourite is the 32GB X1060 touch-screen device, with makes use of a high-resolution OLED screen and superb noise cancelling technology, so you don’t have to deafen yourself just to be able to hear it on the Metro. The OLED technology that makes up the screen is expected to make the old ‘plasma vs. LCD’ argument utterly redundant once it’s feasible to use it at large-screen sizes. The colours, from black right through to white, are simply stunning, even more so than on the pretty damn amazing iPod.

iriver E100 Memory: Up to 16GB Price: £180 Once the ugly duckling of the MP3 pond, iRiver’s stylish new E100 has remedied those problems of the past. Like Creative’s Zen V Plus, the iriver also boasts a line-in socket and an FM radio, plus the ability to timer record from the radio (so you can even RECORD Chris Moyles with this one!), as well as e-book facilities.

new iPod Touch range apart from the Classics and Nanos that it’s at least worth a mention. Video playback has been a standard feature of MP3 (which, ergo, are now technically MP4 players) for years, but even being the early-adopting cool kids that we are, we’ve never actually bothered to watch a film or TV programme on an iPod or any other device. It always seemed like too much effort for too little reward, with tiny, murky screens and shoddy battery life. That was, at least, until the launch of the Touch, with its widescreen video playback, which made for the most enjoyable portable viewing experience since managing to watch Grandstand on one of those handheld tellies after 45 minutes of standing on all your mam’s furniture and waving the aerial frantically at the ceiling. Its Wi-fi access is also amazing, with full Youtube functionality and Google Maps and Google Earth as standard (combined they give satnav capability almost to TomTom standards), as well as a miniature version of Apple’s Safari browser to put the whole of the web at your fingertips. The novelty of being able to find the pub you’re sitting in using GPS will wear off in, ooh, seconds, but there’s certainly something to be said for being able to carry last.fm around with you.

It’s simple, sleek design has hardly changed over the last few years, but hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The V Plus model also comes with a handy built-in FM radio, in case you desperately need to check a score line (we wouldn’t bother if we were you, and for once we can comfortably aim this at fans of all of the region’s so-called Big Three), or for some reason need to listen to Chris Moyles.

Archos 7 Internet Media Tablet Memory : up to 160GB Price: up to £349 Yeah, so it’s closest to a housebrick that we have here, but what the Archos lacks in portability or style it more than makes up for in functionality. Now with internet access and touch-screen use to go alongside it’s well established media player (which lets you, with the right adaptors, record directly from TV, like having Sky+ in your pocket), the Archos range is as close to being a real alternative to the iPod as it ever has been.

The V Plus also has a line-in socket, so you can record directly to the player without the need for a PC (we can’t imagine Apple ever adding such a pirate’s dream to their kit), and it comes with a microphone for recording voice notes (so you can convince yourself that it’s OK to blow your student load on one, because you’ll be using it to record lectures, yeah?).

The Walkman can also be used with some pretty nifty Bluetooth headphones, as illustrated below.

Decent earphones!

Apple iPod Touch Size: Up to 32GB Price: Up to £280

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No matter what you plump for, it’s worth thinking about upgrading the bogstandard earphones included by the manufacturers to a better pair from the likes of Sennheiser or Bose. It may initially seem mad to pay upwards of 30 quid for a pair of earphones, but once you’ve tried it, you’ll never go back. In comparison, using Apple’s standard pair is like listening with your head down the bog.

Yes, yes, we know it’s an iPod, but there’s so much to set the

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>SLASHDOTDASHDOT SLASHDOTCOM>> >>> with the twitching neurosis of mid-90s Radiohead, delivered with a confidence, expertise and lyrical depth beyond Swift’s comparitively negligible age. Johnny shares his name with the bloke who wrote Gulliver’s Travels, and we expect similar globe-trotting escapades from the youngster.

Of course, nowadays it’s full of bairns and paedophiles, but it is still a treasure trove of unsigned musical goodness. With the latter in mind, >bandwidth>> risked becoming a social (networking) outcast, and logged back on to discover what’s what...

The Colt 45s myspace.com/thecolt45smusic

First up, we’ve three bands from this region that we hope the internet will be bringing to a wider audience... On the next few pages also be looking at newcomer Spotify, already beloved of musos and tightarses (and tightarsed musos) everywhere, and hunting out some of the best bootleg footage doing the Youtube rounds.

The Chevrolites myspace.com/thechevrolites

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Monotonix myspace.com/monotonix

it does, and the Hackney duo have recently released second EP Two Sticks and Six Strings. The passion evident on their MySpace is impressive: lyrically-focussed pop-punk singalongs that make us want to jump around like eejits.

Our first act from outside the north east comes from a little further afield than you might expect. Balls-to-the-wall rockers Monotonix are the most explosive thing to come out of Tel Aviv, since, well, [insert tactless joke about centuries of Middle East conflict here].

Our monthly, tenuously-titled, look at the world of music on the world wide web. We don’t even like Fatboy Slim... Since the cool kids and Nathan Barley-likes moved on to Twitter to cyberstalk Stephen Fry and, erm, Russell Brand, and the world and his wife took over Facebook and harangued you with inane requests to discover what type of sandwich or pirate you are, it’s been easy to forget about dear ol’ Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace, where this whole Web 2.0 malarky pretty much began.

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Currently on a world-wide tour to promote their Body Language EP (out through Drag City), they’re scheduled to appear all over western Europe, Scandinavia and the United States in the next few months, so don’t expect to see them at the Middlesbrough Empire for quite a while yet. However, if what we’ve heard about them is anything to go by, it may be worth a trip to Stockholm just to check them out. The band choose to perform in the middle of the floor, among the crowd, rather than bother with a stage, and have been known to set themselves, and their equipment on fire.

Involved in pretty much everything music in Durham has to offer, from labels to nights at the legendary Fish Tank venue, the Colt 45s’ female-fronted electro-clash inevitably evokes Blondie, but also ballsier, more modern New Wave punk from the likes of Le Tigre and You Say Party! We Say Die!

At one of their last gigs on British soil, at Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, the band decided gigging on the floor wasn’t enough, so they took their crowd outside. Something resembling a riot ensued, and a non-too-impressed Lothian police force were forced to turn up to quell the disorder.

There’s also enough original sass and attitude here to prevent the 45s being lost beneath the waves of post-Klaxons pretenders.

However, the bloke behind the Black Tape club where the carnage took place was nonplussed by this run in with the law. Andrew Chadwick told us: “It was the best night we’ve put on by a million miles.”

Now partly based in Leeds, the Colt 45s are one of our favourites from a clutch of young bands that seem to be fixtures at the likes of the White Room and the Dog and Parrot.

With their pretension-free rock-and-roll fun, akin to gypsy-punks Gogol Bordello before the joke wore thin (which took about three seconds), Monotonix are ones to watch.

Ross Clark and the Scarfs Go Missing myspace.com/electricpolyester Essentially Frightened Rabbit’s mate Ross Clark and his backing band, these Scottish folk-rockers tick all the right boxes on their influences list, citing illustrious nu-folk artists like Ryan Adams and Regina Spektor, and whilst they may not be hitting those heights quite yet, they’re more than a decent distraction. The amiable Clark treads a furrow well-worn by compatriots like FRabbit, the Twilight Sad and Malcolm Middleton, but it’s one they all do so well. Maybe there’s something in our shared northern British stolidity, but their bitter songs of blurry nights and one night stands resonate particularly well from the Tweed to the Tees.

Half-Teesside, half-Newcastle four-piece the Chevrolites are first up, flying the flag for the north-east with their blend of Arctic Monkeys infused indie-rock. Draped in northernisms about ‘Northumberland Street in the morning’ and stoic putdowns like ‘you said you were there / were you fuck’, the band flit between social commentary and potty-mouthed swearing just like they flit up and down the A19, but we can’t help but think that the production on this here MySpace doesn’t really do them justice. When >bandwidth>> was first introduced to the lads at the Cluny (our favourite place, see page) they packed a punch that is lacking here. That raw energy is stil very much evident though, and the hard-working Chevrolites are well worth catching at one of their gigs around the region.

The Warms myspace.com/thewarms The Warms is actually the stage name of just one lad from Durham, Jonathan Swift, in much the same way as Mike Skinner alone makes up the Streets. Thankfully though there’s no such Mockney ‘rap’ here, as instead the Warms serve up a far more palatable brand of accessible shoegaze that is reminiscent of the tender moments of 13-era Blur meeting >>>

Ross Clark (right). Their scarves have gone missing.

Squares myspace.com/squaresmusic

Monotonix: Quite clearly off their collective rocker, but brilliant all the same >

Squares’ self-released album Love, Hate and Public Transport was mainly written aboard the X34 bus from Squares’ hometown of South Shields to Newcastle, and at 37 minutes has a similar running length.

Apologies, I Have None myspace.com/apologiesihavenone

We know what we’d prefer if given the choice between best part of 40 minutes stuck with pastie-munchers blaring ‘choons’ from tinny mobiles on the backseat, or the same time spent listening to Squares’ harmonious jangle-pop, which sounds like the Beach Boys if the ‘beach’ in question was in South Tyneside rather than SoCal.

As we go to press, acoustic punk two-piece Apologies, I Have None are touring western Europe, but come July 24th they’ll be in Bishop Auckland for the Full Throttle! festival, and you could do worse than pop down and have a look. We’re not entirely sure how ‘acoustic punk’ works either, but >>>

Seen live, Squares are an even lovelier proposition, as frontman Daniel becomes Shields’ answer to Michael Stipe, even when battering away the drunken insults of a dancing moron like the last time we saw them at the White Room.

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Hot Knives myspace.com/hotknivesuk From the start of the first track on this profile, it’s clear what we’re in for, and it’s rather good indeed. With marching, Arcade Fire style rhythm sections, a multiinstrumental zeal and angry snarl reminiscant of Hope of the States at their best, and a few beefy synths for good measure, Hot Knives are a Manchester-based band that were only formed on February 24th of this year. In less than two months they have written and experly crafted these four tracks, which already sound like they could form an ominous, industrual Soundtrack to the End of the World. Excellent stuff.

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Summer Lovin’ : The >Bandwidth>> Festival Guide takes place on Saturday 5 and Sunday 5 July, being headlined by Basement Jaxx and Kanye West respectively. Ineresting, tempting stuff, until you notice that the two days have both been given a tenuous dance or hip-hop theme, with the odd strange departure. Basement Jaxx are joined by quality dance acts like Digitalism and Filthy Dukes, as well as Dizzee Rascal and Canadarian rockers Metric. However, the Sunday blesses us with dirge like Flo-Ride, Tynchy Strider and N-Dubz, and we’re telling you now, it’ll be bloody awful. The Sunday is rescued slightly by appearances from the Noisettes and Q-Tip from the legendary Tribe Called Quest.

Heading to a festival this year? >Bandwidth>> checked out what you can expect. The perennially disappointing British summer is almost upon us, and this means different things for lots of people. Some people see it as a chance to travel the world, others merely to vomit in a different part of Europe. For hundreds of thousands of us though, summer is about tents and mud and rock and roll. It’s the ‘festival season’, and it seems like there’s now a bewildering amount of three-day extravaganzas of music and alcohol available to choose from. To help you wade through the evergrowing number of fests, >bandwidth>> brings you this guide to the summer’s main events, from hardened stalwarts to cocky young upstarts. Wellies are recommended, hallucinogenic drugs optional. We begin with Michael Eavis’s world-renowned

Glastonbury,

the king of all British festivals. Taking place on Eavis’ Worthy Farm over three days in June, probably the most eclectic of UK festivals is a mammoth mix of music, politics and druids. There’s far more to Glastonbury than most other festivals, from Glasto: ‘kin huge. And muddy. hippies to super-strong cider, and everybody is welcome, from toddlers to grannies to people who actually think they’re a witch. People genuinely spend a weekend at Glasto without seeing a single set, as there’s so much else here to entertain even the most cynical of festival-goers. Headlining this year are ‘The Boss’ Bruce Springsteen, the legendary Neil Young and reformed Britpoppers Blur, with Echo and the Bunnymen, Fleet Foxes, Franz Ferdinand and Doves also already confirmed. The full line-up will not be announced until a month before the festival takes place (which this year is between Wednesday June 24 and Sunday June 28). The Leeds and Reading festivals, now fortunately no longer in the iron grip of Carling (The Peroni Weekend has a ring to it. We can but dream) takes place on August bank holiday weekend over two camp sites. Always popular with north-eastern folk, you can expect to see an often comical mix of out and out rock (or RAWK, or something) fans, mixing with new-comer indie types, as well as lots of Tyne-Wear bickering, and a whole host of carnage on the final night. Easy to get to and now with an off-chance of a decent pint, doing Leeds at least once is a

must for musical northerners. This year sees alt-rock behemoths Radiohead performing in perhaps the biggest coup ever for the festival, as well as Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Prodigy (and Kings of Leon, if you must put yourself through an hour of tossers waiting for Sex on Fire).

T in the Park, near Dundee, is like the Scottish cousin of

However, if you fancy trying a little further afield for your festival kicks, the current continental favourite is undoubtedly

Benicassim, which begins on July 16. It means a quite ex-

pensive flight to Valencia, Spain, but it also means that you get all the benefits of a normal beach holiday, mixed with the atmosphere of a festival. Spend all day lazing around the pool or at the beach, and once the sun goes down, rather than sticking to a tacky Spanish dancefloor and listening to cheesy Europop, you can watch acts as diverse as Franz Ferdinand, Paul Weller, Calexico or headliners Oasis, just like the lucky beggars below. You can’t ask for much more.

the Reading and Leeds festivals, with often similar line-ups and atmospheres. It’s sponsored by Tennant’s Lager, which was once described to us as ‘the Scottish Carling’, but don’t let that put you off, as it’s actually approaching drinakable. T in the Park is also roughly twinned with

Oxegen festival

in Ireland, which sports an almost identical line-up. This year it has perhaps the strongest line-up of the more commercial festivals, as alongside the usual fodder like Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kings of Leon (again), it’s also playing host to rare appearances from the likes of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and TV on the Radio. An especially strong dance arena will be bringing 2ManyDJs, Tiga, Boyz Noize and Simian Mobile Disco north of the border (as well as local hero Mr. Scruff).

N-Dubz: ‘Stars’ of Wireless. Just look at the bloody clip of them though.

Latitude festival in Suffolk is another one of the new kids

on the block, having begun as recently as 2006, but already it seems to be rivalling Glastonbury for all-out loveliness. It’s surprising to think that a festival so relaxed is curated by Festival Republic, the people behind the often boorish Leeds and Reading festivals. Slightly further leftfield than the other big weekends, this July it will see alternative favourites such Regina Spektor and Spiritualized higher up the bill than might be expected, whilst the comedy stage will feature Ed Byrne and Marcus Brigstocke.

Later in this issue, >bandwidth>> will also be checking our what outdoor debauchery is on your very doorstep this year. See page ?? for details. We’ll be reporting from all of the UK’s major festivals, provided we can scrounge our way in like the jammy sods we are, at bandwidth.co.uk

V Festival is often derided as the festival for the middle

classes who don’t want to slum it in the mud with the rest of us, but it’s still going strong and entering its thirteenth year. And when you consider it came about after an idea from Jarvis Cocker, its musical credentials are certainly stronger than a lot of others. At just two days, it’s the shortest of the festivals here, and takes place at two sites in Chelmsford and Staffordshire, making it a bit harder for north-east based fans to get to. Once more though, V appears to be a bit festival-by-numbers, with the only interesting aspect so far being the Specials’ first confirmed appearance since their reformation.

It could easily be argued though that the truly middle class festival is Wireless festival, what with it taking place in Hyde Park in the middle of London, so people don’t even have to bother camping like the rest of us scruffs. As always, this year’s line up borders on the frankly bizarre, with the festival, which

Ed Byrne: funnier than N-Dubz’s hats

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“We’re getting a bit long in the

tooth to be pushed around.”

Fading Out of Obscura-ty? At >Bandwidth>>, we’re fans of the Specials. What we’re not fans of though is having to interview the likes of Traceyann Campbell in a corridor because they’re setting up a day early and their roadies have taken over Newcastle Academy. A day early! With their last release, Let’s Get Out of this Country, Camera Obscura finally began to emerge from the shadows of fellow Glaswegians Belle and Sebastian; their perfectly-pitched tweepop, with just the right amount of heartbreak, was a perfect accompaniment to summer 2005.

coy and standoffish façade giving way to a more amiable and passionate nature.

She hints that she way have preferred a longer tour, but says: “The album’s just been released. We’ll do this one and see what happens. This was no more We’re playing evident than on the all the major title track, a typicities” admitting cally Obscura lament that bands do which asked: “I’ve worry about perdrowned my sorrows forming material / I’ve slept around / If that a crowd is not in body / At least unfamiliar with. in mind / So what We meet just does the city have to a day after the offer me / I just can’t release of the see.” new album, and she says: “We When we meet are concerned pint-sized vocalist about that. We Tracyanne Campbell were in Paris ahead of their gig at last week, and the O2 Academy 2 in did a London Newcastle, the band show and one are about to embark in New York on a six-date UK tour and done a few in support of sumptushows and [the ous new record My new album] Maudlin Career, an went down realbum that could ally well, but I well see them begin do think I might Camera Obscura, including Traceyanne, centre to crack the mainhave liked a few stream (although weeks maybe Campbell later jokes before getting into it. sarcastically about how the lead single from the album, French Navy, “didn’t chart”). “We’re looking forward to playing all of these UK cities now though. I think we’ve only played once in Newcastle.” “We’re doing a British tour but it’s really small. It’ll be over before you know it, but we’ve played South by Southwest and At that solitary Tyneside gig, Campbell helpfully kept the crowd we’ve done a few shows, so that was kind of like being on tour.” up to date with happenings in the evening’s episode of Coronation Street, and the trial of Tracy Barlow.

“We’re looking forward to playing all of these UK cities now though...” Stuck in a corridor after the Specials rolling into town scuppered their management’s ideas for us to meet in the main venue, Campbell appeared as she does on stage: an initially

Since Let’s Get Out of this Country, the band have remained busy. She says: “We toured that record quite intensively. It wasn’t a case of releasing it and then sitting on your arse. We went all over the world whenever it was released there and then started writing new material. This record was written last May, then it was a case of finding a new record label.”

“We don’t have the pressure that maybe other bands do to get their record out...” They eventually signed to the legendary 4AD, one time home of Pixies and the Cocteau Twins, and now also fellow Scottish white hopes, Broken Records. “So far it’s great, and the record will be coming out all over the world” she says, enthusing that: “It’s nice to be on a British record label for the first time.” The band have previously been signed to America’s Merge and Elefant of Spain. The new label afforded the band the time needed to get the new LP right, although Campbell admits “we’re a bit long in the tooth to be pushed around,” given that they formed back in 1996. “We don’t have the pressure that maybe some new bands to do get their record out. I think we’re as productive as we need to be.”

She laughs: “that was a long time ago,” before adding a slight lament that the night’s gig will take place in the same venue as their last Newcastle show, suggesting a desire to play as many locations as possible. She adds: “I guess you’re not always in control of it though.”

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The new album was again produced by Sweden’s Jari Haapalainen, who also worked on Let’s Get Out of this Country. After its recording, they announced saxophonist

“It’s nice to be on a British record label for the first time...” Nigel Baillie would no longer be a fulltime member of the band after his wife gave birth to their first child. He will be performing at all of the band’s upcoming shows on this tour though, and Campbell accepts that “he has new priorities now. He’s going to work with us as much as he can, but he might not always be able to record with us. When he can, he’s first choice.” The sounds of Camera Obscura are often a perfect accompaniment to the summer months, with this new album just as the last, being released just in time for the festival season. Although Campbell says that there are no plans as yet for the band to play many festivals, she seems keen to so, and admits that record labels choose release dates to suit such things. “Record labels work in certain ways. People will buy music more at certain times of the year. There is thought that goes into it, but it’s never something that the band would choose. You don’t want to release something at Christmas, as nobody will buy it, or play a gig in certain cities in summer when all of the students have gone home.” Whoever was behind it, we can be thankful that Campbell and co. are back to soundtrack the British summertime.

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Talk is Cheap Durham’s Cheap Antiques have long been one of our favourite young bands on the regional scene. We talked to bassist Scott Walker to find out a bit more of their crack...

From Cheap Antiques’ very first gig, it was easy to see they were in for an interesting ride.

was playing all of these rhythms that were just mind-blowing and me and [Marc] were amazed.”

Despite a large percentage of the crowd being kicked out before they’d even took to the stage, those remaining still managed to jump around madly enough to break the floor they were standing on, meaning the venue could hold no more gigs for months afterwards! One of the Tiques’ (as they are fondly known) founding members, bassist Scott Walker, smiles as he explains: “We’d just turned 18 at the time, so a lot of our mates who were there weren’t old enough to drink. We told the venue this and they said it would be OK, but then after everybody had paid to get in, they came around and threw out anybody who wasn’t over age” We’re not going to name the venue for legal reasons, cos we’re scared and that. It’s in Durham though. And it’s called the Market Vaults these days… Walker continues: “It was mad. One of the lads supporting us was on stage and saw his girlfriend being manhandled down the stairs, so he had to run off to see what was going on. We thought about calling the gig off because there was only about a quarter of the people left afterwards, but they all wanted us to play on. It was one of our best gigs ever, even though it was the first. We ended up playing four encores, and by the final one everyone was so drunk that a few of them joined us on stage. One of my mates started doing backing vocals and another took over on drums. I’ve no idea where our actual drummer had got to!” Although nothing quite as riotous has happened at the band’s gigs since, there’s a common them of audience enjoyment and copious amounts of alcohol. Walker makes up the band with vocalist and guitarist Marc Bird, whom he founded the band with, and drummer Claire Yeowart. He admits that “we rarely play a gig sober. Sometimes this is good, because it adds to our banter with the audience, but sometimes we can be absolutely shocking, or at least we think we are.” County Durham pair Walker, of Witton Gilbert, and Bird, of Wolsingham, met through mutual friends, and formed the band in 2004. They then needed a drummer, and went through several before settling on Yeowart, who hails from Gilesgate in Durham City. “The first time we saw her play we knew she’d be perfect. She

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Left to right:: Marc Bird, Scott Walker, Claire Yeowart Walker and Bird had initially began playing sets filled largely with covers, but it wasn’t long before they began writing their own songs. Bird is usually responsible for lyrics, before Walker and Yeowart add their rhythms sections. “We all pitch in though, and we’ll tell each other if we think an idea is crap” he says, although he

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Talk is Cheap... admits “the first song we wrote was about kids being on smack round where we live. Now that I look back on it, it was fucking awful.”

gigs, although Walker admits that playing in Shoreditch

Throughout their time together, there have also been several other peripheral members of the band, some successful and others not so.

He goes on: “It’s just as pretentious as people make it out to be. Well, there and Hoxton is. It was a lot different to our first gigs to pissed-up 16 year olds at college parties round Durham. It just kept reminding me of Nathan Barley.”

The bands influences are varied, which helps add to the eclecticism of their music.“I originally got into music because I was listening to a lot of indie, back when ‘indie’ meant stuff like the Futureheads and the Libertines before all the smack. I listen to a lot more alternative and acoustic stuff now though, like Andrew Bird and Titus Andronicus. Sometimes I think Marc hasn’t listened to anything made after 1980, he listens to a lot of Squeeze and David Bowie and things like that, and Claire is probably into heavier stuff than us two. We all add something different though, and I think that helps.”

“It was nice knowing that people all over the world could have been listening to us.” So far their music has taken them to London for various

was “a bit weird.”

They have also gained national radio exposure, having been played on Steve Lamacq’s Monday night Radio One show (may it rest in peace) and BBC 6Music. They also bizarrely gained airtime on the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), which is beamed to British troops around the globe, from Northern Ireland and Germany to Iraq and Afghanistan. Walker says: “I’ve no idea how we ended up on BFBS, but it was nice knowing that people all over the world could have been listening to us.” It’s only a matter of time before worldwide audiences are a common event for the Durham trio. Cheap Antiques will be at O’Neill’s on Claypath in Durham on Sunday May 3. You can check them out at myspace.com/cheapantiques

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“Everyone down here just wants to listen to whatever is cool.”

No capital gains for Jam

Anyone who ever wants to make it at anything will probably pack up at some point and head off after their fame and/or fortune in the bright lights of That There London. However, that’s not always how it works out, as adopted Durham lad Latino Casino told us...

The sarcastic phrase “the grass is always greener on the other side,” is one that surprisingly rang true for James Andrews. When the Brighton-born singer left his adopted hometown of Spennymoor to attend London Metropolitan university, he expected the capital to really help kick start his musical career, in which he performs under the pseudonym of Latino Casino. The bright lights of London didn’t deliver everything he anticipated though, and he now admits that in many respects the music scene down there pales in comparison to that up north. He says: “I thought it’d be easier here, but the thing is that a lot of people down here just follow what’s ‘cool.’” Referring to his acoustic style and its being at loggerheads with the prevalence of electroloving scenester types in London, he laments: “Everyone just want to dance.” Andrews, nicknamed Jam, still gets gigs, but this usually means “playing to an empty room.” He says: “The only people that watch are the people who are also playing.

“I need to channel all of my passion into one thing. You can’t just go in half-arsed.” “I’m not gigging that much, but I did quite a lot this year. The problem is there’s too few promoters down here compared to in the north east,” he adds, in another surprise.

He has also suffered from a heavy workload at uni, where he is about to complete his third and final year on a Bachelor’s degree in Film. “I’ve been too busy making a film lately” he says, “but I’m still always writing. It’s weird though, I’ve been so busy and had so much to do that I begin to feel guilty about recording or performing music. I know that’s wrong, but that’s the way it’s been. I’m going to hit it hard in the summer.” His love of film has still allowed for a crossover with his music though, and he has recently completed a score for another film at university, although not a classical one, as he laughs: “no, I can’t understand any of that.”

Melodies appear to the easiest part of writing music for Andrews, who does not have a particular method when it comes to creating new ideas. “Sometimes it just comes naturally to you, and it’s just been something you’ve been thinking about” he tells us, although like most musicians he admits that “sometime it is a lot harder.”

He has also began thinking about film as a career rather than music, expressing a keen interest in post-production, and, ever passionate, he admits that he may soon have to make his mind up as to which one to choose.

Nor does he have a particular influence: “I don’t like to namedrop, and I couldn’t really name one or even a few. Somethings come in, some things go out. It’s a mixture of everything I listen to really, lots of completely different things and no one individual.”

“I don’t like to name-drop. I couldn’t just name one [influence] or even a few..”

“I need to channel all of my passion into one thing. You can’t just go in half-arsed.” Despite these drawbacks, Andrews has still spent a lot of his time in the capital meeting and networking with other musicians. He is shortly to begin recording his third album, the follow up to online success Daybreak Express and is hoping to get some other musicians on board to “add a bit of percussion or keyboards” to his generally acoustic style.

t’s the lyrics that he claims to find more difficult, something which is undoubtedly a problem for a singer whose intensely passionate and allegorical writing is one of the stronger points of his music. “Lyrics are harder. I keep going back and adding bits and changing things. Lyrics I find difficult.”

He says: “I think I have the melodies there, it just needs a push. Drums or keys might add that. I want to get two or three people in, and then after that we’ll see what happens.”

Although the upcoming album is technically his third, Andrews uniquely always views his last record as his first, as he looks to “rip it up and start again.”

“I’ve done two albums and three EPs, but I try to accept that the last thing was the start. I always look for something original, and try to find another angle. I don’t think I’m quite there yet.” Andrews is set to return to the north-east after leaving university in the summer, and could yet decide the region is a better place than the capital to pursue his burgeoning career and nurture his blossoming talent. “I’ll come back up and see friends and the family and then see what happens. I think I may move back down here, but I’m not too bothered so long as I have a roof over my head.”

“I’ve done two albums and three EPs, but I try to accept that the last thing was the start. I always look for something original, and try to find another angle. I don’t think I’m quite there yet.” He will be playing at the Dog and Parrot in Newcastle on July 11. Metro: Central Station. We’ll be there, although we doubt he’ll have taken any of our songwriting tips on board. Mainly as we can’t write songs. And he certainly can. We can’t write magazines either mind, but that’s never stopped us.

“

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On the Record

Label: Illegal Arts (CD/Download) Wham City (Vinyl)

This month, we’ve got new releases from superstar DJ Girl Talk, NY folk doyenne Marnie Stern, that Pete(r) Doherty bloke, and more.

Label: EMI

six>10 Ah, Pete Doherty. Remember him? Before he began single-handedly providing lazy hacks with enough heroin-soaked copy to fill a million Sunday supplements, some, my adolescent self included, saw him as some sort of voice of a generation. Were it not for the single line: “there are fewer more distressing sights than that of an Englishman in a baseball cap” my turbulent love affair with music would never have began, and I wouldn’t be sitting here now writing this, as my musical knowledge would be akin to that of people who listen to Absolute Radio. We all know, however, that it didn’t stay like that for long. Doherty fell from grace, becoming a smack-addled tabloid caricature who we could barely recall even writing a tune. His vanity vehicle sideproject Babyshambles have also apparently disappeared without trace, and now we are presented with this debut solo album from the former Libertine. We can surely be forgiven for not expecting too much. There’s only so many chances one man can be given.

Hip-hop is dead. The Superstar DJ is dead. Or at least, you’d think so.

However, when the album opens we’re on familiar territory: Arcadia. The mythical land that provides a metaphor for a perfect England has long been a staple for Doherty’s lyricism, from the good (the aptly named The Good Old Days) to the bad (Fuck Forever) and this pleasant jaunt is somewhere in the middle of the two, neither excellent nor abhorrent. It sets the tone for most of the album.

DJs thankfully appear not be releasing albums any more, the superclubs are degenerated to tools to sell half-arsed compilations, and Ibeefa is just too bloody expensive for your average Weekend Millionaire. And looking at the genre as a whole, hip-hop is a stagnant mess of egos, tired beats and prison sentences, occasionally lifted above the level of dross by few-and-far between albums from the likes of the Def Jux stable, or are-they-hip-hop-or-not releases from Santogold, M.I.A. and their ilk. That M.I.A. often isn’t accepted truly into the rap canon could merely be an indication of her renowned eclecticism, or a sad indictment of a genre digging its heels and refusing to evolve.

Last of the English Roses begins like a sea-shanty of the Libertines of yore, a playful Doherty sounding at ease with himself once again, even if the chorus does grate slightly (we couldn’t really have expected anything akin to Jeff Buckley’s similarly titled record though, could we?). 1939 Returning begins with a sample of some wartime seaside music (Doherty the concept of the island nation go hand in hand once more), reminiscent of the Smiths’ Take Me Back to Dear Ol’ Blighty, before he once more paints pictures of a not too green or pleasant land, filled with urchins tasked with facing down fascism.

“Is it really hip-hop?” is also a question that could be aimed at of Girl Talk’s fourth outing Feed the Animals, the Pittsburgh DJ again throwing together an album consisting mainly of hundreds of samples, with the odd bit of original orchestration (there is yet to be a definite number on exactly how many samples are included, but its well into the hundreds. An incomplete list can be found on Wikipedia, and after only one listen you’ll have spotted something yet to be included).

His songwriting takes a turn for the worse though on A Little Death Around the Eyes, where we can only assume that his subject’s boyfriend is only actually named ‘Dave’ so that it rhymes with ‘brave.’ In real life, we expect him to be called Trevor or some such. By the time Salome comes round, the album is sadly degenerating into one where the majority of the tracks tread a well-worn furrow, that of lo-fi English heartache, and one which Doherty himself probably did best on France, a secret track on the Libertines’ second and final record.

A new man perhaps?

Through the Looking Glass includes the most soul-bearing line on the album, with Doherty noting that ‘lotions and potions just add to my fame.’ It’s possibly the first time where his past springs to mind.

As well as the slight name change, gone too are the majority of the raucous, sweaty pieces of punk-tinged indie he was exalated for in the days of the Libertines, as Doherty now goes fully troubadour with an album of mainly acoustic, folkish tracks.

Finally Doherty has made an LP where sentiments such as these are few and fair between. Far too often on his previous, sparse work post-Up the Bracket, people have picked through his lyrics for tenuous, tedious allegories about ‘horse’ or ‘brown’ or ‘Joss Ackland’s spunky backpack’ or some such.

Gone too though, is the smack. And the crack. And the God knows what else that he was on, as Doherty is now appearing coherent (or as coherent as Doherty gets), and, we were pleased to note in his recent interview with the Observer, a rather clean and presentable chap (or, again, as clean and

Although Grace/Wastelands is by no means an excellent piece of music, at least it is finally a piece of music.

However, perhaps he has finally turned over a new leaf? For a start, he’s now recording under the name of, wait for it... Peter!

Short reviews for lazy people! And lazy writers!

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presentable a chap as Doherty gets).

Peter Doherty Grace/Wastelands

Bytes

Girl Talk Feed the Animals

What blurs the line over the pigeon-holing though is Feed the Animals’ eclectic variety of samples. Underneath various rapped verses from otherwise tedious artists, we’re smacked in the face with myriad other rips. If these samples do defy the album’s hip-hop credentials, then we’re not sure exactly at which point it loses ghetto credibility. Is it the inclusion of M.I.A.? We’re not sure where to categorise her, admittedly, but it’s more likely to be the skinny-white-boy indie rock of the likes of Radiohead, Blur and Yo La Tengo that moves the album out of the Hummers and onto suburban coffee-tables.

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music generally reserved for pre-pubescent girls and middle-aged Tesco shoppers (who should really know better): Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, Pink et al. Yet more likely to dissatisfy hip-hop purists is the amount of sheer cheese, including Dexys’ Come on Eileen. No, seriously. What’s amazing though is that on the whole, this works, and it works excellently. There’s so much to take from this LP. Gain indie points from spotting the Unicorns and Of Montreal, or sit in amazement as a Kraftwerk and Velvet Underground backdrop makes Low by Flo Rida not only listenable, but enjoyable. Wonder why the bloody hell you’re listening to Journey, or why nobody has used My Sherona as a hip-hop beat before. Wear out your rewind button trying to spot Rod Stewart, or hope nobody you know thinks you’re actually listening to Vanilla Ice. Or just stick it on, switch your brain off and dance your arse off. Critics wondered whether previous release Night Ripper would date poorly, with many of its samples very much of its time, but the sheer range of the tracks involved means that each listen reveals something intriguing and new, even if you’d rather not still have to listen to Fatman Scoop. Whilst Girl Talk has once more sliced up the ringtone charts and thrown them into his musical blender with the inclusion of the likes of the ubiquitous Soulja Boy, Rihanna, and everyone’s favourite sample Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, again there are enough stone cold classics torn apart to keep the record almost timeless, whether from bona-fide hip-hop greats (ODB, Missy Elliott, Public Enemy) or the likes of the Cure and the Beach Boys. Whether Feed the Animals is accepted as a hip-hop record is unclear, but to deny it would be to suggest that rap is completely averse to any innovation or inspiration. To accept it would suggest there is still life in the genre, and that Girl Talk may well be the Superstar DJ to save it.

Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications Bloody hell, he’s only gone and made a glam-rock album! The REAL icon of Britpop is back with his second solo album, and it’s a belter, full of trashy guitars and his usual jaded worldview. eight/10 Polly Scattergood - Polly Scattergood What do you get if you went to school with Katie Melua and the Kooks’ Luke Pritchard? You’d probably get a bloody big superiority complex, but Scattergood (her real name, honest) deserves to have one, creating a stunning pop album which is like Kate Bush meeting a British version of Regina Spektor. eight/10 The Mountain Goats and John Vanderslice - Moon Colony Bloodbath Quite lovely, this new EP from the US folk stalwarts, teaming up with the analogue-loving Vanderslice. Beautiful narratives and some of the most sootthing vocals you’ll hear from a rock band with testicles. eight/10 The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Fancy a bit of sumptuous indie-pop that’s like Isobel Campbell joining My Bloody Valentine? Who wouldn’t. Think the Pastels and you’re half way there on a record that doesn’t so much grow on you as infect you and never let go. nine/10 Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor What’s that? He’s gone and thrown some Arabic rhythms in alongside his usual juxtrapostion of electo and classical, and yet still kept his pop sensibility? Nice one. And to think, people would rather listen to Jack Penate... seven/10

Even more likely still, it’s the amount of

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Marnie Stern This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That Label: Kill Rock Stars

nine>10 That title. Seriously. What’s that all about? I for one, have no idea. I probably should, given I’m writing about it, but I could barely be bothered to read it (nor type it) in all of its pronoun-infested glory in the first place, let alone research its origins. What it does hint at though, at least, is the kooky, experimental nature of the non-conformist Marnie Stern, whose second album is a work of boundless rock and roll invention. The opening track, Prime, is a perfect indication of this quirky styling: an iambic spoken word beginning followed by two minutes of bloody brilliant noise. Jazz and classical influences can be heard throughout the LP, alongside ideas from eastern Europe and the eastern hemisphere, but the

Titus Andronicus The Airing of Grievances Label: XL

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In recent years, the state of New Jersey has most well known for stiff-collared Ivy League indie, like Vampire Weekend’s whiteboy afrobeat. Times may be changing though, as Titus Andronicus are here to blow away such stiff-lipped suburban tedium in a way New York’s nerdier cousin hasn’t seen since the last time Tony Soprano was especially pissed off.

eclecticism of the inspiration never becomes too obvious or tedious, meaning the record maintains its essential raw punky soul (with Roads eerily evocative of Stiff Little Fingers). When she calls “I’m like a raging animation”, it’s a perfect synopsis of the passionate yet playful nature of her output. Each of the expertly presented instruments used to create her cacophony scream out the fact that the people involved are having a lot of fun, and it’s very hard not to be carried along with them. Stern’s finger-tapping guitar-work has won many admirers, but credit too must go to her drummer, who creates wanton melodies of sheer joy. The disjointed nature of tracks such as Steely and Simon Says works particularly well, which is a rarity. Vault begins as a piece of perfect girl-band pop and morphs into a brooding work, sporting something resembling bagpipes (next month we’ll be brining you Sugababes with accordions). She claims love won’t last forever, but the song might, and while that might be much of a muchness, extending this record beyond its 12 sharp works of accord would never be a bad thing. In a world of often identikit female singer-songwriters, Marnie Stern is a joy to behold. New York should have a new favourite daughter. other in dreams every night” with a multi-instrumental ending worthy of alt-rock canonisation. There’s a variety of influences here, from the Seinfeld-inspired album title to the Clash, with Joset of Nazarath’s Blues coming across largely as a half-speed Bankrobber, the almost non-existant production typical of the punk ethos and apparent throughout. Fifties big-band drums mark the intro to Arms Against Atrophy, with it’s Arcade Fire rhythm guitars and snarled chorus that “we’re taking it lying down” and a tongue-in-cheek roar that “I’m going to San Francisco, and I forgot to wear some flowers in my hair,” a bark that splits the track into two, as a sudden key change launches it into the latter half.

Upon Viewing Brueshel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is an early contender for the weirdest song title of the year, with more agitated vocals and a Springsteen guitar riff, and the self-titled sixth track includes the best quasi-homicidal refrain since Malcolm Middleton’s You’re Gonna Die Alone, chanting “your life You could be forgiven though for expecting Titus Andronicus to is over” after an ode to writer’s block that claims “I’ll write my file alongside a plethora of other pompous dullards, what with masterpiece some other day.” No Future is more melancholic their name taken from a lesser-known Shakespeare tragedy, and after the energy of the proceeding tracks, but still has all of the track titles with nods to Hunter S Thompson and Albert Camus, distorted guitars and meaty basslines that are evident but the band forego pretension in favour of playfulness, the throughout, before more hints of Bankrobber (faster this time) opening track beginning with a wistful lament before a yell of and Arcade Fire marching drums take us into No Future Part Two, “Fuck you!” heralds the crashing guitars and the song blasts off in which closes with an ominous spoken-word sample reminiscent a completely different direction. This is essentially the Arcade Fire of the Manic Street Preachers’ Holy Bible LP. making a punk record, and it’s bloody brilliant. The Airing of Grievances closes with (Manics favourite) Albert That opener, Fear and Loating in Mahwah, NJ is a bravado-filled Camus, with its hushed, Bright Eyes evoking intro and a main sideswipe typical of much of the album, crying “we betray each body of more typically rigorous brilliance that claims “we don’t

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Maximo Park Quicken the Heart Label: Warp

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Quasi-northern five-piece Maximo Park didn’t suffer from the old cliché of difficult second album syndrome, so much as the “second album that everybody appeared to love at first but then decided they thought was a bit crap” syndrome that is becoming so apparent in the quick-fix iPod era. It’s a syndrome that took massive, and largely undeserved, chunks out of the credibility of two of Maximo Park’s fellow standard-bearers from the post-punk revival of 2004/5. Those heady days saw the emergence of a wealth of British talent (and Razorlight) in a whirlwind of slimcut suits and adroit, angular pop, but the Futureheads and Franz Ferdinand both saw a plummet in fortunes upon the release of their follow-up records. Come their third albums, the former flicked two fingers to the critics and self-released a polished LP that captured almost all of the frenetic brilliance of their debut, whilst the latter jumped into bed with Apple and failed to see the indie iceberg fast approaching. With Quicken the Heart, Maximo Park have landed somewhere slap bang in the middle of these contemporaries.

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sardonic wit that made the Wedding Present such a joy.

Tilly and the Wall O

The highlight of the record comes at track three, with lead single The Kids are Sick Again, where Smith, a self-confessed loner, details the isolation and tedium of the school summer holidays with a conviction like rarely before. “I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again,” he snarls, in a rollercoaster of a song.

Label: Moshi Moshi

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The title of Let’s Get Clinical evokes the wretched slice of Blue Stilton that was Olivia Newton John’s 80s disco smash Physical, and sadly the lyrics in this newer effort are little better, as Smith intones “I’d like to map your body out, piece by piece,” a line that suggests he’s been rifling through Serge Gainsbourg’s bins.

Tilly and the Wall’s twee-as-owt indie credentials couldn’t be much stronger. Bezzies with Conor Oberst, tourmates with Rilo Kiley and Of Montreal, and signed to uber-cool label Moshi Moshi. And they’ve got a tapdancer instead of a drummer, appear on Sesame Street and sing songs about rainbows. Or at least they did.

In Another World has Smith yet again proving his ear for a tune though, with the chorus’s brilliant token northernism in the line: “you’ll still end up on a revolving dancefloor in the middle of the river.” If there’s one thing rock and roll is lacking these days, it’s surely references to the Tuxedo Princess, the ‘jewel’ of the Tyne.

This third album sees the Omaha band branching out from their summery indie-pop comfort zone, and producing a glossier, fuller sounding record which misses a little less than it hits. Opener Tall Tall Glass is reminiscent of the Tilly of yore, all saccharine vocals and acoustic hooks, a love-song to our favourite genre. We’ve all been there: “When there wasn’t anywhere for me to go, oh, I stumbled into deep love with you, rock and roll.” Anyone who’s ever found solace in alternative music, be it In Untero or In the Airplane Over the Sea, or indeed Tilly’s previous albums, will understand this sweet, light ode, the sentiment of which seems to pre-empt the sudden change of direction that follows on track two.

Roller Disco Dreams is one of the low points of the record, sounding like they had half an idea for a track and couldn’t really be bothered to finish it, its one interesting moment coming midway with something resembling a chorus before it degenerates back to being a disjointed mess of jaded vocals and intrusive drums. You could then be forgiven for not noticing the track had ended and the following, Tanned, had started, such is their similarity. The easiest way to separate them is to note Smith straining to hit the higher notes in the latter, before it teeters to a forgettable conclusion.

Pot Kettle Black is Tilly as loud as we’ve ever heard them: they’ve actually plugged in their guitars, and the rhythm section goes all out, giving the track a stomping driving force you simply can’t get with tap shoes. The infectious, dual vocal chorus is

Jumbler gets things back on track, a subtle bassline working perfectly with glockenspiel, tap dancing and call-and-response vocals. Chandelier Lake is the sort of typically lush sound we’ve come to expect out of American alt-pop on canonised labels like Moshi and Saddle Creek, if a little too forgettable. Falling Without Knowing has an unusually speedy-yet-ethereal quality, another departure for the band, and an absolute treat. Blood Flowers has a glam feel to it, and tells you not “go fucking around in the garden”: older fans will remember Tilly regularly quashing their butter-wouldn’t-melt image via the popular method of swearing (a method we’re very fucking fond of). Tilly’s older albums typically closed on epic, folky efforts. This time out we instead get a Blondie-meets-Girls Aloud number with a handy “fuck you” ending and an “I don’t give a fuck, if I’m cool or not” mantra. Sweary, indeed, although you have to think that this newer, angrier Tilly and the Wall may be one that is squarely aiming to break out of the doldrums of college radio and support slots and become, well, cool. O is an interesting departure for them; certainly more rock than their earlier work, with a swagger that suggests they could at some point cast off their cardigans in favour of leather jackets and truly “stumble into deep love” with rock and roll.

reminiscent of Le Tigre at their party-rock best.

Los Campesinos Hold On Now, Youngster Label: Matador

nine>10 A long time ago in a galaxy not all that far away, ‘pop’ wasn’t a dirty word. From the halcyon days of the sixties, through the days of convention-smashing, globe-straddling superstars of the eighties, pop once merely meant ‘popular.’ Even Britpop did exactly what it said on the tin; it was quintessentially British, it was popular, and it was occasionally fucking fantastic.

Its opener, Wraithlike may well be the most exuberant offering they have committed to record since A We do wish he’d take that bloody hat off, mind. Certain Trigger’s standout Graffiti, a paean to indie-rock’s Questing, Not Coasting female fraternity without the Adrian Mole desperation of the initially suggests it may be as unmemorable as the previous predecessor’s overrated Girls Who Play Guitars, with a bridge two, but then launches into something pilfered straight from the Queens of the Stone Age. resembling the pomp of the Killers at their best, on Lou Reed duet Tranquilize. Closing track I Haven’t See Her in Ages recreates the heartbreak of Going Missing, or of the Wedding Present’s nearSpikier guitars return to the fore on Overland, West of Suez in namesake Have You Seen Her Lately, vocalist Paul Smith’s a track that is likeable if little else. To suggest that is a handy maturing lyrics suggesting that he could be this generation’s metaphor for the record as a whole may be a touch harsh, for David Gedge if only he didn’t take himself quite so seriously. there is certainly more than enough evidence here to suggest The pair share a similar knack for chronicling unrequited we should still be interested in what Maximo Park have to suburban lust, but Smith too often allows his lyricism to veer offer. However, it is hard to think that, like so many others, toward the overworked and overwrought, foregoing the they didn’t peak in those hazy summer days of four years ago.

It’s tap to the fore on Cacophony though, but the song doesn’t deliver the noisy kitchen-sink antics that the title suggests, as it becomes a bit much of a muchness, the introduction of sax falling flat. The whole of I Found You falls flat as well, although again there’s more electric guitar than long-term Tilly fans will be used to.

Pop music wasn’t always pre-packaged shite, arranged and stylised on the conveyor belt of Idiots Texting Votes and the gravy-train of Cowell et al. And nor need it be. Hold on Now Youngster… is pop music. Bloody brilliant pop music. Los Campesinos’ hype-soaked debut long-player takes its lead from the underground alt-pop of the eighties, the band holding up Beat Happening’s Calvin Johnson as a messianic figure for the excluded and the poetic, the twee and the sugary-sweet, a subculture where mix-tapes still form a fundamental part of any burgeoning relationship, and a firm grounding in English literature is positively encouraged: “just don’t read Jane Eyre.”

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deliberate doe-eyed charm juxtaposed against references ill-befitting its exuberance; obscure Oxford post-rockers Meanwhile, Back in Communist Russia, the aforementioned Eyre and Johnson’s K Records label all get mentions, teamed with selfdepreciating honesty and anxiety, like “If there’s one thing I can never confess / it’s that I can’t dance a single step,” and “I KNOW he took you to the beach.” Thankfully, there’s enough humour and self-awareness here to avoid such often trivial relationship issues plunging into the territory usually reserved for pseudoangst emo shtick, and the too-clever-for-its-own-good standalone single International Tweexcore Underground has been left out. All of the early favourites survive however, so we can be reminded just how good You! Me! Dancing! and Death to Los Campesinos! were, whilst being treated to a glut of equally well-crafted new tracks, which follow in the singles’ formula of massive choruses and knowing lyrics. Pedantry it may be, but you have to admire the educated swipe that is “it’s bad enough you ever used the word as an adjective” and agree that “four sweaty boys with guitars tell me nothing about my life”, whilst 2007, The Year Punk Rock Broke (My Heart) tells us that Los Cam are so quaintly eighties that they still use their Walkmans, apparently. Many people will love this album for many different reasons. It may speak to your dainty, fretful side. It may be the deft intellectualism, and the literate lyricism. Or it might just be the tunes. No matter the reason, Hold on Now Youngster is an album that knows its audience, but grows beyond it and becomes the first great pop album of the year.

Its an album that is equal parts innocent and intelligent, a

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The Enemy Music for the People Label: Stiff Records

two>10 The Enemy recently told the NME that they saw the recession coming. We can just see Barack and co. falling over themselves to beg for their help, can’t you? Thing is though, we can’t help think that part of the Enemy is praying for the type of recession that would make the Great Depression look like a party at Iggy Pop’s. Because, on debut record We’ll Live and Die in These Towns, and again on Music for the People, the Enemy revel in working class grime, finding some form of perverse pleasure in places everyone else wants to get out of. Out are the dreams of escapism that so defined the Britpop years, and in is a baffling obsession with the working class lifestyle, one which lacks the charm that allows the Arctic Monkeys to pepper their proletaran paeans with references to, ooh, Smirnoff Ice, Greggs or whatever plebian buzzword is en vogue that week. We get the impression that the more people that were trapped in the Enemy’s world, the more they’d love it, and the more they’d present their depressing dirges to recession revelry as some type of zeitgeist defining opus. They claim this to be music for the people. We’re people. It certainly ain’t for us. On an artistic front, the Great Depression gave us The Grapes of Wrath and To Kill a Mockingbird. The four-day weeks and economic downturns of the 1970s gave us punk, and with it the Clash and some of the most important music of all time. As a result of this more contemproary financial turmoil, Music for the People cannot even be mentioned in the same breath as these. In fact, it’s fair to say that the Enemy are about as palatable as another byproduct of the Great Depression: the Nazis. The record begins with Elephant Song, which is reminiscant of the overblown, coke-addled toss that Oasis came up with in their Be Here Now era, with two full minutes of feedback and distortion before the song actually bothers to begin. It’s immediately noticable that they finally appear to have given up on ripping off the Jam, but sadly are instead now mimicking the self-important pomp of their fellow Midlands dullards Kasabian (they’re on the way back as well. What joy.)

No Time for Tears begins in an interestingly tender manner, but then degenerates into some bizarre faux-gospel mess, and 51st State decides to tell us that ‘democracy has failed’ and ‘governments will fall’ (don’t laugh at the back there. These lads foresaw the recession, so you better dig out your jackboots). This appears to be the Enemy now aping the Clash, most noticably Rock the Casbah, but this smacks of, as Joe Strummer put it in Death or Glory: “a gimmick hungry yob digging gold from rock and roll.” Sing When You’re in Love comes across like the Twang did, a bunch of supposed ‘lads’ coming across as a right bunch of mawkish muppets, although despite the quick diversion into romance they still manage to squeeze in cliches by the bucketload (see what we did there?), about “concrete jungles” and “broken hearts and broken homes.” If the Feeling drank in WMCs, this is what they would sound like, and if wasn’t for the fact we could see iTunes telling us otherwise, when we heard Last Goodbye we could have sworn it was Robbie Williams covering a bad Badly Drawn Boy song. Nation of Checkout Girls gets the clichemeter soaring again, and the punmeter hits levels usually only achieved by the people that write headlines on the Sun, with more of the grating social commentary in crayon that made their first album such a, erm, treat. The next track, Be Somebody, begins with a pair of couplets of such lunacy that by this point you have to start wondering if they’re actually being serious: “There’s no such thing as a free meal, and there’s no future in British steel.” When they follow that up with “and nobody ever gives you anything for free, unless you start sleeping with the BBC.” you have to start wondering if they actually do write the headlines on the Sun. Don’t Break the Red Tape begins wanting to be Led Zep, before the vocals kick in and Joe Strummer again begins to spin in his grave at somebody so callously ripping off London Calling with such a godawful play on words. The mainly acoustic Keep Losing is the first passable song on the record, and it’s just a shame for the Enemy (and anyone forced to listen to the thing), that it comes in at track nine, and even then is just merely passable. Silver Spoon is another rant at those more privileged that begins “I’ve never had a silver spoon to help me orchestrate this tune.” Presumably the Enemy feel that had they been born better off, they wouldn’t spit such a mess of bile and cliche, and could have devloped an ear for a tune. They obviously don’t realise that most of the bands they so shamelessly ape were far, far, worse off than them. And infinitely better.

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Caught LIVE... Frightened Rabbit Castle Keep, Newcastle nine>10 The lads from Frightened Rabbit are nothing if not prolific. This is the third time TMM has seen the lads live on Tyneside in the last six months although. After the sweaty performance at the End and the beautiful gig at the region’s landmark Sage venue, Frabbit were back in the area for a set that promised to be the most interesting yet. Touring their new Liver! Lung! FR! live album with an acoustic tour, tonight’s gig took place at Newcastle’s Castle Keep venue. I am loathe to say ‘venue’ though, as the Castle Keep is exactly that: a castle. For understandable reasons of health and safety in the tiny castle, all steep stairs and lack of toilets, tonight’s crowd is kept to perhaps under a hundred excited, and subsequently completely enthralled, fans, who are first treated to a stunning, candle-lit support set from acoustic troubadour Richard Dawson.

Red Light Company Cluny, Newcastle five>10

It probably irked the deluded Grammatics then that they were blown off stage by the other two acts on show tonight. There are a few unwritten rules about being a performing artist.

“Scott Hutchinson is as amiable as ever, telling us how much the band love Newcastle... and appearing as bemused and excited as us that tonight is taking place in a castle. A bloody castle!”

Not so much as commandments, in fact.

Bottom of the bill, Teessides’ Chevrolites originally annoy us when we think they’re attempting to add a pretend Yorkshite accent to their Arctics aping songs, then we realise they’re from the Boro and let them off, and they storm through a solid set.

The first is Thou Shalt Always Watch Your Headliners. The second is Thou Shalt Never, Ever, EVER Slag Off Your Headliners and/or Support.

taking place in a castle. A bloody castle!

Tonight, hotly-tipped Grammatics break the second of these rules.

As usual, Hutchinson shreds his vocal chords, managing to get typically, if unfathomably, sweaty, in the cold confines of the 12th century castle. Just as on the new LP, they are joined at regular intervals by the endearingly cocksure Ross Clark, before finishing with a mini wood section for Poke.

Arriving at the Cluny in support of Red Light Company, they perform a bloated, self-important set that ends with their bassist looking out across a crowd that have been quite restrained all night. “Are you all looking forward to Red Light Company?” he smirks.

Hutchinson also tells us happily that tonight is made even more special by it being brother Grant’s debut on keyboards in Newcastle on Keep Yourself Warm, although it’s unclear whether merely he tells us this to add pressure and wind him up in typical sibling style. Grant indeed succumbs to this pressure, causing Scott, and the audience, to break down in mutual, well-received laughter. This cock-up illustrates adeptly both their affable nature, and their usual tightness, in that anything even slightly below utter perfection is a rarity for Falkirk’s finest.

After a barely noticable response, he smugly adds: “Well you should be, you paid to see them.”

The Long Blondes Independent, Sunderland five>10 There seems to have been a concerted effort amongst the fine females of tonight’s Independent crowd to dress up in their best faux-vintage, in honour of Long Blondes frontwoman Kate Jackson and her column-inch filling fashion sense. A shame for them, then, that she’s dressed down for the evening, eschewing the 60s frills and heels for pair of jeans and t-shirt, an 80s flavour that’s mirrored in much of tonight’s output.

The early curfew (I’m unsure of the kicking out times for castles) We are then moved mean the band play upstairs to an ever-soa short set, storming slightly bigger room, through most of The where the obvious Midnight Organ Fight, We’re somewhere at the back. We’re a lot more impressed than we look... lack of stage fails to but little else. Hardstop the band captiworking as ever, they vating the audience cheerfully rectify this from the get go, the sound appearing surprisingly good as it by inviting us all to see a few more songs at a free gig at their drifts towards the high ceilings. old haunt the End. Singer Scott Hutchinson is as amiable as ever, telling us how much the band love Newcastle (and for once we believe him), and appearing as bemused and excited as us that tonight is

This couldn’t not add a sour taste to a set that was already largely tedious, with the band blantantly believing their own hype. If they were as good as they think they are, they’d be Radiohead. Except even more pretentious.

And a shame for the rest of us that much of said output lacks the immediate charm and instant hooks of the band’s debut LP Someone to Drive You Home. The follow-up record, Couples, has been produced by the enfant terrible of Hoxton and poster-boy of the nu-rave masses, Erol Alkan. Quite why he is so deified, I’m not so sure, and on this evidence his ground-breaking knobtwiddling serves only to turn the Long Blondes into something of a Blondie tribute act. And not even a particularly good Blondie tribute act, as the Organ have had that accolade sewn up for a good few years.

Frightened Rabbit cannot come recommended highly enough, and they’ll probably be back next week...

Whilst there have always been hints of Blondie in their previous

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Headliners Red Light Company are more a vehicle for Richard Freneux, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the Darkness’s Justin Hawkins, and formed the multinational band essentially to perform tracks that he had written himself. Their debut album Fine Fascination is a distracting enough slice of pop-rock, with welcome namedrops of Broken Social Scene, sounding like a more accessible version of Kings of Leon when they were good. Frenneux stomps and sweats his way through the night, but he sadly somewhat lacking in charm, his eyes constantly fixated on the back of the room. However, what they lack in character, they make up for in tunes, and on this evidence you certainly couldn’t say that for Grammatics. work, and any indie band with a leading lady as glamorous as Jackson will inevitably be compared to Debbie Harry et al, the glacial tones of the newer tracks leave much of tonight’s crowd cold. Of the new material, Here Comes the Serious Bit is closer to the knowing retro-pop of the debut, and it’s the warmest received of the Couples tracks. Opener and lead single, Century, also works, one of the tracks where the electro-sensibilities seem to click, and Jackson’s voice takes on a previously unheard, if typically lusty, quality. It’s not all bad though, and when Dorian Cox swaps keyboard for guitar three songs in for Lust in the Movies, things are momentarily kicked up a notch. Jackson appears in her element (nobody in music can conjure up such sex appeal with a simple left hand on their left hip), and the once lacklustre rhythm section appears to have at least woken up since we last saw them. Independent’s slipshod roof, as usual, hinders the acoustics. There’s also a welcome outing for early demo Autonomy Boy, but the track welcomed with the night’s most fervour is undoubtedly Giddy Stratospheres, the pop gem of a last single from the first record, which unfathomably sank without trace. There’s no encore, the last song received with rapturous applause, but with a distinct feeling that a lot was missing from tonight, namely the favourites from Someone to Drive You Home, and something special from Couples. Those who have followed the Long Blondes since the scratchy early demos will hope tonight was a blip, that the new material are growers, and that Cox’s worldly lyrics have remained, an impossibility to judge here tonight. Otherwise, you would have to worry they’ve taken an ill-advised changed of direction and lurched after a bandwagon that has already ran out of stream.

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Howling Bells, Future of the Left and the Joy Formidable Cluny, Newcastle eight>10

Opening with the synth loops of The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade, the band lull some of the audience into a false sense of security with it’s poppier elements, before launching through much of debut album A Balloon Called Moaning with all of its glorious, hook-laden noise intact. Next, Welsh punks Future of the Left crank things up another notch, their off-the-wall riot-rock not received as well as it should be, a fact not lost on frontman Andy Falkous, whp suggests the crowd are worried by the presence of myriad television cameras for the gig’s Channel Four broadcast.

In times when it seems like anybody with more than seven ‘friends’ on Myspace is afforded a headlining UK tour, it’s becoming more and more of a rarity to come across a gig where you’re at least interested in the support acts.

Nevertheless, the set is excellent, featuring the mainstays of 2007’s Curses album as well as new single The Hope that House Built, with exuberant bassist Kelson Mathias ending their performance on the gantry reserved for the aforementioned cameras, a good 15 yards from his position on stage.

Imagine our happiness then, when the looming shadow of corporatism for once worked for the forces of good, and the nice people at Jack Daniels provided us with three of our favourite bands, the Joy Formidable, Future of the Left and Howling Bells, on the same bill, at one of our favourite venues, the Cluny.

The quieter elements of the crowd were most likely there for the headliners, Australian indie-rockers Howling Bells, who released their second album Radio Wars to mixed reviews in February.

First up are dreamy noisepop trio the Joy Formidable, an undoubted one to watch in 2009. Boyfriend and girlfriend combo Ritzy Bryan and Rhydian Dafydd channel their intimacy, a la the White Stripes and the Kills, in between Bryan smashing her guitar around the place like a woman possessed, her face a glazed, glacial expression somewhere near Joe Strummer’s mixture of sardonicism and fervour.

After the critical acclaim lauded upon their self-titled debut, it’s hard not to see the follow-up as a step backwards. That appears underscored tonight by the fact that the standout tracks in an admittedly polished set are the favourites from the first record. Easy-on-the-eye vocalist Juanita Stein is her usual likeable self and the band are as confident as ever, but it’s all a little too Radio Two, especially after the breakneck balls-to-the-wall offerings of the previous two acts. Overall though, tonight was a brilliant evening, which was at the very least enjoyable from start to finish.

Photos: from top to bottom: Howling Bells, the Joy Formidable, Future of the Left

The Week that Was Campus, Sunderland eight>10

Despite the disappointingly small crowd in a rather large venue, tonight’s gig seems very homely. A far from capacity crowd should seem lost in a venue as cavernous as this, but The Week that Was provide enough charismatic crack and impeccable musicianship to make us all feel a little warm inside. It seems like most of Sunderland’s indie fraternity had turned up to this homecoming show, with the Futureheads’ Jaff providing us with a pre-gig chuckle at

his lanky frame chatting to the not-verytall-at-all Week that Was frontman Peter Brewis. The Field Music man’s side-project comprises of many more mackem musicians than are on display tonight, a myriad of talent who turned the eponymous debut into multi-instrumental, nostalgic joy, but most of them are still in attendence. Indeed, it turns out I have spent the night standing next to one, a fact that only becomes apparent when she takes the stage to provide sumptuous backing vocals on Come Home. Playing that debut record in order works wonderfully, partly because it’s an album that flows so well to begin with (it is, after all, a concept album about the relation-

ship between a serial killer and the media), the music only slowing so they can talk to friends in the crowd, politely mock whoever decided to leave the cricket on the massiave screen beside the stage, or flit between instruments. Or get new drum sticks, after managing to smash them to bits inside the first song, Learn to Learn. The Week that Was may be a local band, but they’re ‘local’ only in the strictest sense of the word. They should be huge: sophisticated pop music like this deserves a bigger audience.

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Big Up North

There are few finer ways to spend a Bank Holiday Monday supping a few cold ones on the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides while watching a host of quality bands for next to nothing. Evolution festival (in its many guises) is now a north east institution, and this year’s festival is bigger than ever. The second Bank Holiday weekend in May (Sunday May 26 and Monday 25).

The north east is sadly lacking in festivals to match up to those on the previous pages, but this summer is shaping up to be a big one for our outdoor gigging... The Stadium of Light is playing host to some huge events, and our two favourite free-fests are back with a bang... Apologies in advance to our Tyneside readers, but the Stadium of Light is our favourite place in the world, and it’s fair to say that Newcastle Arena, well, isn’t. With the exceptions of a few forages into cockrock for Gateshead International Stadium (hosts to Bon Jovi), Durham County cricket club’s Riverside stadium being a venue for Sir Elton John’s ego, and David Bowie endearing himself to Wearside with his “Hello Newcastle” greeting at the old Roker Park, the north east has often been a desert when it comes to stadium gigs. The building of what is essentially a cattle shed in Newcastle didn’t really help things all that much. More often a venue for Disney on Ice or Sir John Hall’s ill-advised Sporting Club, even after its erection the region often failed to attract the truly big names. And the two modern, magnificent football stadiums in Tyne and Wear were rendered impotent by planning permission laws that banned the hosting of stadium gigs within the vicinity of the Arena. Fortunately, that decade long bylaw is now defunct, and the Stadium of Light and St. James’ Park are now free, to paraphrase their upcoming headliners, do “whatever they choose.” Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn, and his backers in the

>>> Evolution Unsigned will take place on Friday May 22 at the Art Works Galleries, the Star and Shadow Cinema, the Round, the Tyne, Retreat, and the Tanners, all within easy walking distance of each other along the Ouseburn valley (Metro: Byker or Manors).

Now in its tenth year, Middlesbrough Music Live is a festival that ripens with age Already confirmed are scouse sax-rockers the Zutons and Troyskyist troubadour Frank Turner (he of Million Dead fame), plus hotly tipped grime MC, Mr Shortie (named as one of Radio One’s ones to watch in 2009).

Drumaville consortium, spotted an opportunity to raise both the club’s profile, and a handy bit of extra cash.

We’re also quite excited at seeing Future of the Left (again) and the return of the Sunshine Underground will be showcasing new material from their sophomore record.

And that means that Britpop superstars Oasis will be pitching up in Sheepfolds on their latest arena tour, in a massive coup for the club and the city. Sterling support will come from Midlands bands Kasabian and the Enemy, as well as the upcoming Twisted Wheel, with the gig taking place on Wednesday June 10.

Would the Zutons have a record contract without Abi Harding’s legs? We couldn’t possibly comment...

Tickets are now sold out, but corporate tickets are still available from the club directly at safc.com, with prices starting at a surprisingly reasonable 65 quid. Oasis fan Nicholas Coombs said: “It was really hard to get a ticket because the phonelines were so busy, but that’s no surprise. I can’t wait for it.” Quinn said: ““We are thrilled to be welcoming Oasis to Sunderland. It’s a fantastic coup for the club and will be a great boost for the City. I know that Noel and Liam Gallagher are big football fans so hopefully they’ll enjoy their first visit to the Stadium of Light.”

Taking place over two days for the first time in its four year history, the event will host a plethora of of live music at the usual Baltic Quays and Spillers Wharf stages (sadly still so far apart that you could be forgiven for thinking you were at a concrete Glasto). A measly nine quid per day will get you in to see acts like Monday headliner Dizzee Rascal as well as the likes of Imelda May, Ladyhawke and Nouvelle Vague. The Sunday’s dance stage will be headlined by German technocrats Boyz Noize and their ear-bursting industrial dance. Tickets are still available from evolutionfestival.co.uk. See you there. We just hope the whole north-east isn’t in mourning at Sunderland and Newcastle being relegated the day before… This year will also see a showcase of cream of the the region’s unsigned talent, brought to you by promoters Generator and our mates/rivals at Narc magazine. It’s all free and takes place at six venues in one night, and will feature, among others, Richard Dawson, Jeans Goes POP! and Ever Since the Lake Caught Fire. The night will be topped off with a performance from the Week that Was, in their last show before the Brewis brothers reconvene to record the third Field Music album (yay!). >>>

The Stadium of Light will also be playing host to almost-credible boyband Take That on June 6. We just hope that the pitch doesn’t get too churned up. It would play havoc with our free-flowing football… (!)

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There’s also the usual healthy mix of unsigned acts from the north east and beyond. Some of last year’s unsigned artists have gone on to much bigger things, such as >Bandwidth>> faves the Joy Formidable and Chester-le-Street’s the Chapman Family (not related to our editor, no matter how many people claim so). With over a hundred acts playing across 10 stages spread over the Boro town centre, the event on Sunday June 7 promises to be special. The only problem is that’s it’s so cutting edge that the majority of these acts have still not been confirmed, despite there being less than a month (at time of going to press) until it all kicks off. Phil Saunders, from the event’s organisers, Teesside music gurus Ten Feet Tall, told us: “It all comes together very late because the bands we put on are mostly new breaking artists.” The stages this year will be around the town hall and central town square, as well as at Uncle Albert’s, the Central, the Pacific Bar and the Empire. More details about the event, and news about the line-up as it emerges, can be found at tenfeettall.co.uk

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Classic Forgotten Albums.

Part One in a Regular Series

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Oh, why do you / Catch my eye / And then turn away? George Best by the Wedding Present. Released October 1987 on Reception Records. An album every bit as iconic as its coverstar. It would have been easy to have been disillusioned with indie in 1987. The Smiths have just split up, the Fall are liable to self-combust at any moment and despite the best efforts of the Red Wedge movement, Maggie is still in Number 10. And everyone appeared to still be wearing eye shadow and listening to songs about people dancing on sand. There was no need to worry though, because 1987 was also the year that the Wedding Present released their debut album, George Best, named after the maverick footballing legend and in every way deserving of his approval. Formed in Leeds from the ashes of the Lost Pandas when singer David Gedge split from drummer girlfriend Janet Rigby, the Wedding Present began their career in 1985, their early, self-released singles immediately championed by the late, legendary John Peel. The Weddoes, as they were lovingly known, were part of the so-called ‘C86’ indie-pop scene that brought the world the likes of Teenage Fanclub and Beat Happening, a scene named after a free cassette given away with the NME in 1986 which featured many pioneering acts. The name of the giveaway itself was a play on the C60 and C90 tape formats used by fans who would painstakingly create mixtapes of their favourite artists to share and swap, in the days when creating personal compilations took a real-time labour of love rather than a few minutes spent swearing at iTunes. Either directly or indirectly, this more innocent era has influenced twee scene darlings from Belle and Sebastian to Los Campesinos! By 1987, the band were ready to release their debut record, a record that was again to be self-released on own label Reception Records, and, ultimately, was self-produced, after disagreements with Coldplay knob-twiddler Chris Allison meant the entire thing was remixed before its launch. George Best, still the Weddoes’ best-selling album, achieved huge critical acclaim and became an underground favourite, and it’s easy to see why. The tone of the album is set from the very beginning of opener Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft

(from which the above line is taken), with its snarling, fast-paced guitars and dryly comedic lyrics about Gedge seeing a former partner moving on to a new relationship, such as the gloriously sarcastic Yorkshire drawl: “Can I keep that book of yours / and maybe that one too? / Oh, sure, I’ll bring them round tomorrow / If that will do.” Love, lust, break-ups and the subsequent bitter resentment are common themes for Gedge, his often sparse lyricism painting pictures and creating characters that defy its comparitive lack of wordiness. On My Favourite Dress, he gushes “I saw it all in a drunken kiss / a stranger’s hand on my favourite dress”, and his stoic comedy and dark observations are at their best on Give My Love to Kevin: Where did you go last night? Oh, what’s that new place like? Okay, I won’t ask anymore questions and then you cannot tell me lies Well, they always need good men They’re crying out for them It’s not the sort of job I’d do myself, but then I’m not him Oh, he buys you pretty things And what does your mother think? I just can’t bear to imagine you sharing a bed with him

These world-weary laments are all the while backed up by wiry, Gang of Four guitars. And those guitars are never more breakneck than on Getting Nowhere Fast, originally recorded by little known Leeds band Girls at Our Best, with Gedge spitting: “you’re looking forward and you’re not looking back / you’ve lost the warranty, you’ll never get your money back.” With the immediacy of the music and the depth of the writing, George Best still sounds as fresh today as it did 20 years ago. Many ardent Wedding Present fans argue that the darker, more brooding Seamonsters (RCA, 1991) is the band’s superior work, but we’re convinced that George Best is as vital a soundtrack to the 80s as Meat is Murder and Blue Monday.

Next month in >bandwidth>> : We speak to The Week That Was > Behind the scenes at the Evolution Festival > And Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is the Classic Forgotten Album

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