Ben Lowes-Smith talks to the Teesside artist about how the spirit of collaboration has resulted in some of her best work yet
Welcome to the halfway point of the year – quite how that’s happened already, I’m not sure. June signals the official start of festival season, and as the weather heats up who wouldn’t want to be in a field surrounded by like-minded music lovers? Spare a thought for our region’s independent venues, who occasionally get bypassed in favour of mega line-ups on outdoor stages, and whose tireless support of touring artists as well as a local scene can often be overlooked during the summer months. As always, we make it our business to shine a light on interesting shows in indie venues, so have a good hunt through this month’s Previews section to find your next favourite thing. Also this month, a plethora of local and national theatre shows make their way to the region; check out interviews within our pages to hear stories and experiences from an array of viewpoints, and expand your horizons. For my part, June will mostly be spent beavering away at my desk as always, with a little space to breathe between freelance projects I’ll be knuckling down to an absolutely terrifying book commission and trying to spin a few other plates at the same time. You never know, I may just make it to a sunny field too!
Editor
Claire Dupree
info@narcmedia.com
Assistant Editor
Steve Spithray
Editorial Assistants
Isabel Johnson / Mack Sproates
Website
David Saunders narcmagazineonline@gmail.com
Creative
El Roboto
Advertising
Claire Dupree info@narcmedia.com
Cover Image
Amelia Read
Live Photography
Jason Hayles / Amelia Read / Victoria Wai
Contributors
Neil Ainger / Phoenix Atkinson / Jacob Easton / Lee Fisher / Nat Greener / Michaela Hall / Lee Hammond / Robert Nichols / Ben Lowes-Smith / Michael O’Neill / Ikenna Offor / Kai Palmer / Adam Paxton / Niamh Poppleton / Ben Robinson / Damian Robinson / Laura Rosierse / David Saunders / Joe Sharples / Victoria Wai / Luke Waller / Robin Webb / Ali Welford / Maria Winter / Cameron Wright / Matt Young
PREVIEWS
4 HIGHLIGHTS
Some of the best events in June, plus what’s online at narcmagazine.com
6 PREVIEWS
Live shows from Smote, Wax-Tree-Cast, Father John Misty, Martha Wainwright, Tim Minchin, Foxing, Ani DiFranco, Caleb Nichols, KOU, Miki Berenyi Trio, Kahil El'Zabar Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Brigitte Call Me Baby and more; arty goodness courtesy of Great Northern Contemporary Arts Fair at Northumbria Uni, Dust of the Unwritten at The Zoo, Voices of Pride at Vane, Delaine Le Bas at Newcastle Contemporary Art, and Jed Buttress at Neuro Gallery; there’s comedy from Rhys Darby at Tyne Theatre & Opera House, Elf Lyons at The Stand and Little Robot Comedy at Salt Market Social; theatre including Hard at Laurels, Remythed at Live and much more!
INTERVIEWS
Reports of live shows from Komparrison, Pigs x7, Matilda Mann, Axine M, Greentea Peng, Andy Bell, Alabaster DePlume, Michael Cera Palin, Mekons and more
Reviews of singles and EPs from local artists including Aaron Dinning, Goodnight Kid, Swindled, Caitlin Morrow, Sunset Cobra, OCHISIA, Marginal Gains, Orton, Brindle’s Manse, Reali-T, King Of The Sea and Offski
Reviews of new releases from Little Simz, Patrick Wolf, Me Lost Me, The Bug Club, BC Camplight, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Lower Slaughter, WITCH, The Sick Man Of Europe and more
Alternative comedy writer and performer Shevek Fodor waxes lyrical about their favourite tracks
PREVIEWS
JUNE’S DIVERSIONS INCLUDE THEATRICAL DELIGHTS, RADICAL THINKERS, SAPPHIC POP CULTURE, JOYOUS COMEDIC CELEBRATIONS AND MUCH MORE
MUSIC
FRI 13
BETTY BOO
STAGE WED 4
HUMAN | CANDLELIGHT
Backlit by an intimate world of candlelight, Human | Candlelight sees a close-up performance of Eliot Smith’s award-winning dance choreography, performed by Yamit Salazar and paired with a breathtaking original score by Adam Johnson. Raising vital funds to support the growth of the Eliot Smith Dance Company, it’s not one to miss. Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle www.eliotsmithdance.com
STAGE
THUR 5
HOMEBAKE
Homebake is a new community night for cooking up theatrical delights, where the audience is the special ingredient! Giving theatre makers and performers a space to try out works in progress in a professional environment, this night will be an opportunity to get involved and help shape exciting new writing.
Is there a synth pop meets ska funk fusion hole in your life? Then it’s a good job that Penguins Per Second & The Upside have collaborated on a one-of-a-kind new EP, taking you across the exotic shores of Gateshead to the farthest reaches of outer space. Support from Character Actors. The Globe, Newcastle www.theglobenewcastle.bar
EVENTS
SAT 7
EWAN BROWN ANARCHIST BOOK FAIR
The Ewan Brown Anarchist Book Fair is back for more DIY thrills, punky stalls, live music, art, workshops, radical thinkers and more; thriving with community and resistance, this event is always a lovely way to come together for a day of learning, sharing, solidarity and hope for a better future.
The Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle www.newcastlebookfair.org.uk
MUSIC
FRI 13
JALI BAKARY KONTE
Another Friday 13th offering - but the only thing spooky about this is how good it’s set to be. Jali Bakary Konte, grandson and son of legendary kora players Alhaji Bai and Dembo Konte, brings his own take on classic West African kora music to Newcastle. Support comes from the acclaimed Canadian folk songwriter Dana Sipos. Cobalt Studios, Newcastle www.jalibakarykonteh.co.uk
Platinum-selling, award winning singer-songwriter and rapper Betty Boo heads to KU for a huge celebration of her music, paired with the special edition re-release of her albums Boomania and GRRR! Considered a 90s legend and a hip-hop trailblazer, catch her in Stockton now in case she scuttles off on another 30 year hiatus… KU, Stockton www.officialbettyboo.com
EVENTS
SAT 14
LEZ POP
Just in time for pride month, Star & Shadow Cinema brings us a beautiful celebration of all things regarding lesbian and sapphic pop culture. Multimedia doesn’t even cut it - we’re talking music, film, TV, games, books and even more incredible queer media to bask in. Everyone is welcome, given you’re an adult!
The Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle www.starandshadow.org.uk
Dana Sipos
Image by Samantha Castro
Image by Sandro Hyams
JUNE HIGHLIGHTS
EVENTS
SAT 14 & SUN 15
HEXHAM PRIDE
Bringing much needed queer joy, celebrations and community into the heart of Hexham, this year’s Hexham Pride features two days of fantastic LGBTQIA+ music and speakers, with a line-up including Gender Envy, Gem Andrews & Nicky Rushton, Maddie Morris, Jade Mia Broadhead, PJ Taylor, Rose Juliette, Alice Skye and more.
Hexham Bandstand www.facebook.com/pridehexham
MUSIC
FRI 20 DUBINSKI
There are some incredible sibling bands kicking about, and Dubinskifour brothers - are very much included in those ranks. They release their new album What Is Your Definition Of Happiness, which they describe as being influenced by Paul Simon, LCD Soundsystem and our very own Maxïmo Park. Support comes from Bugman.
The Engine Room, North Shields www.dubinskimusic.com
MUSIC
SUN 22 JUN
ALOGTE OHO & HIS SOUNDS OF JOY
Pure sunshine vibes in music form, beloved Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy are the number one Frafra gospel artists to explode onto the Bolgatanga music scene in Northern Ghana, and we are incredibly lucky to have them in Newcastle on what will be an amazing, feel good evening. Cobalt Studios, Newcastle www.alogteohoandhissoundsofjoy. bandcamp.com
MUSIC
FRI 27
KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS
Kid Creole is finally retiring - he swears - and this means that we get to witness the magical Creolian Bye Bye Birdy tour. Kid Creole and the Coconuts are an American pop band inspired by the big band era, mixing influences left, right and centre for some truly exciting results. Catch them before they fly back over the pond for good!
The Fire Station, Sunderland www.kidcreoleandthecoconuts.com
EVENTS
SAT 28
UNCANNY CARNIVAL
Here ye, here ye! The Uncanny Carnival is coming to town. Led by local comedian and king of mischief Seymour Mace, this brash and joyous celebration of all things silly is an event for anyone who’s ever felt othered. With music, markets, a costume competition and more. City Stadium, Newcastle www.thenewbridgeproject.com
STAGE
SUN 29
BEST FOOT FORWARD
Presented by Tin Arts, Best Foot Forward is a show which encompasses a bold, bright and striking programme of dance works and routines. Created and performed exclusively by North East artists who have a learning disability or who are autistic, it’s bound to be an incredibly special sight to see. Gala Theatre, Durham www.galadurham.co.uk
NARC. E-ZINE
Our reinvigorated E-ZINE will host all kinds of multimedia delights – keep an eye on our website ad social media for some special updates…
NARC. TV
Check out live performances and chat from North East bands and musicians on our magazine-style programmes
+ ALSO THIS MONTH…
INTERVIEW: MOTHERFOLK
We chat to writer and artistic director of BRASH Theatre Company, Bethan Kitchen, as she launches her new business MotherFolk, which offers a gathering place for mothering folk and their stories
INTERVIEW: MUNRO
We catch up with the Teesside-based indie promoter Adam Gallagher to chat about his upcoming all-ages/all-day festival, MUNRO, taking place on Saturday 7th June
KEEP UP WITH WHAT’S GOING ON VIA
Image by Gary Schwindt
ART & LIT
MOTHERFOLK @ VARIOUS VENUES
Words: Mack Sproates
From the creative behind the immense BRASH Theatre Company, writer and doula Bethan Kitchen launches her newest creative endeavour, MotherFolk. This bold new business creates spaces for Mothering Folk to help find “nourishment, power and community” through creativity and open conversations.
From writing circles to retreats, MotherFolk offers a non-judgemental outlet for people by helping them to express their experiences and unpick unrealistic expectations and feelings of shame; connect and share stories; reclaim and feel empowered by their birthing narratives. Community is such a powerful tool for knowledge and can inform folks in so many different ways enabling them to advocate for their health and well being. What makes Bethan's work so special is the feeling of genuine care, kindness and openness to listen. In MotherFolk, I love the emphasis on the language around birthing people – it's so rare that organisations have inclusive
language and here it’s clear that it is for anyone who self identifies with mothering or motherhood, regardless of gender, whether you have been a birthing person or not, or whatever point in your journey you are. MotherFolk is a refreshing, essential space for healing, and will make a powerful impact on the community. Check out the website for more info including the weekly writing circles across Heaton, Whitley Bay and Ouseburn, as well as creative retreats throughout the year. www.motherfolk.org.uk
MUSIC THE ALEXIA GARDNER QUINTET @ SUNDERLAND MINSTER
Words: Neil Ainger
Following a year-long residency at the stunning Seventeen Nineteen (formerly the Holy Trinity Church) in Sunderland's East End, The Black Cat Jazz Club is moving to another grand and beautiful city venue - Sunderland Minster. The relaunch is hitting the ground running on Friday 20th June, bringing British-Jamaican vocalist Alexia Gardner to
arguably the most beautiful and intimate venue in the city, backed by an accomplished band of North East players including Harry Keeble on tenor saxophone, Alan Law on piano, Jude Murphy on bass and Abbie Finn on drums.
Alexia Gardner has lived and performed all over the world over the last 25 years; across Asia, in Switzerland, in New York City and beyond. Over the course of her career she has released five vocal jazz records, received two Grammy nominations and has even sung the South African national anthem to Nelson Mandela. She has now relocated once more, this time to Northumberland, and audiences can expect seasoned and precision reinterpretations of standards and classics. Her fifth and most recent album, entitled Feeling The Love, Songs Of My Mother, Songs Of My Father, was a record comprising songs that formed the backdrop of her childhood and is a tribute to her parents. You can guarantee that these songs will be performed with not only a maturity and authority, but with a lot of love and care.
www.alexiagardnercd.com
Bethan Kitchen, MotherFolk
EVENTS GREAT NORTHERN CONTEMPORARY CRAFT & ART FAIR @ NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY
Words: Laura Rosierse
Over 100 independent arts and crafts creatives will showcase their work at Newcastle’s Great Northern Contemporary Craft & Art Fair at Northumbria University from Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd June. The first event of its kind in the region will take place in the heart of the city and will display a range of art, sculpture, textiles, jewellery, furniture, ceramics and much more. Its Manchesterbased organisers finally bring this wonderful concept to the North East to help independent crafters showcase and sell their products. For one weekend only, Northumbria University’s Sport Central will be transformed for a three-day celebration of luxury, high-end arts and crafts.
Visitors to the fair will be able to browse, interact, and buy unique pieces directly from its makers while also having the opportunity to try their hand at crafting some creations of their own. Locally crafted furniture, demonstrations of endangered handloom weaving skills, and contemporary designs will all be on display or for sale at the event that should have something for everyone. The event promises to highlight the region’s best and most original arts and crafts creators, but also showcasing international crafts, which
should ensure the Great Northern Contemporary Craft & Art Fair will widen horizons, while inspiring and bringing together craft lovers from throughout the North East. www.greatnorthernevents.co.uk
MUSIC
TIM MINCHIN @ O2 CITY HALL
Words: Cameron Wright
Somewhere between his Perrier award winning stand up shows, his myriad of films and his run of phenomenal broadway shows, it became undeniable that Tim Minchin is one of our world's great talents, and will be bringing his two decade long career of dazzling songs to the O2 City Hall on Tuesday 24th June and Wednesday 25th June. His early standup showed the act punctuate routines with his spellbinding penchant for piano and his uncanny penmanship, toeing between witty routines and poignant compositions. From here, his verbose talent was leant to award winning musicals such as Matilda and Groundhog Day, as well as being the centrepiece behind his fantastic TV show Upright. His 2020 album Apart Together was a sprawling escapade through a plethora of genres, blending the theatrics of Elton John with the introspection of Randy Newman, while injecting both with a dose of Minchin’s singular vision. With July bringing us his new album, Minchin is back on tour with Songs The World Will Never Hear; acting as a twenty year anniversary of his breakout show Darkside, doubling as a synopsis of everything that has happened since. Plucking songs from
his formative years as well as an array of newer tracks, this tour is a perfect introduction, or celebration of one of our generation's greatest creative minds. www.timminchin.com
STAGE
HARD @ LAURELS
Words: Joe Sharples
Alison Stanley’s smash hit show, Hard, heads to Laurels Theatre in Whitley Bay between Tuesday 17th and Friday 27th June. Written, produced, and featuring Alison, it’s a wonderfully written tale exploring the realities of the sex industry through the eyes of Zee: a sex worker, chat girl, and general dogsbody. It’s also a story brilliantly aligned with Laurels’ aims of creating bold work, and telling stories from marginalised groups, especially from lower socio-economic voices, so it’s the perfect setting to see this story told. Alison has previously had a hit with her play Life of Reilly, inspired by real-life experiences of autism, and she has experience on screen, stage, and musical theatre. Hard is intended to be funny yet serious, and, when it sold out six days at Cluny 2 in Ouseburn, it was met with laughter, emotion, and all round rave reviews. It offers a moving insight into the sex industry, whilst remaining grounded in humour and elements of relatability; such as a father in need of care, and a phone which won’t stop ringing. Make sure you catch this fresh, perceptive hilarious play. www.laurelswhitley.co.uk
Great Northern Contemporary Craft & Art Fair: Senyucraft, handwoven mat
MUSIC GRACE ELIZABETH HARVEY @ CLAYPATH DELI
Words: Laura Rosierse
Liverpool based singer songwriter and cellist Grace Elizabeth Harvey returns to the place she studied on Monday 9th June - as part of her Other Faith tour, she’ll be performing at Durham’s Claypath Deli, celebrating the release of her debut EP. After a successful sold out collaborative effort between herself, local musician Hels Pattison and Ezra Briggs, Grace recently performed at Newcastle’s The Lost Wanderer and is now returning to the place she spent many years within for a special intimate show.
Other Faith is the debut EP in which you’ll be able to find a collection of soaring and haunting folk pop songs driven by her stunning and angelic voice. As she wanders through musical soundscapes, she shares stories and odes to things that have inspired her along the way. With her music she intends to captivate through questioning what lies just beneath our experience. Live, she’ll be accompanied by double bass and violin, supported by Matthew Dodd to make for a wonderful musical evening at Durham’s Claypath Deli. Having established herself in the Liverpool and Manchester music scenes, Grace will be embarking on her first UK tour this spring to accompany this first major release.
www.graceelizabethharvey.co.uk
MUSIC SUNDERLAND YEAR OF MUSIC @ VARIOUS VENUES
Words: Claire Dupree
Sunderland’s celebration of its musical connections continues this month with a showcase of music across the city, headed up by a couple of big-name local (ish) stars. The Sunderland Year of Music is a year-long celebration of their Music City status which will see over 500 events celebrating the city’s music scene, kicking off on Saturday 21st June with a host of performances topped off by a headline show at The Fire Station from Adele Sandé, aka Emile Sandé, who was born in the city. It’ll mark the first performance under her real name for the soulful songwriter, who is expected to perform new material alongside improvisations and revitalised classics from her impressive back catalogue. Also on the day, venues including Independent, Live Lounge, Pop Recs Ltd., The Peacock, The Dun Cow, Arts Centre Washington, Mexico 70 and more will open their doors for an impressive range of live music shows, many of which will be free or ‘pay what you feel’.
Later in the week, Wednesday 25th June will see another returning musical icon perform at The Fire Station; Alex Kapranos from spiky indie heroes Franz Ferdinand spent several years in the city before moving to Scotland, and the band’s reputation for exciting live shows will ensure yet another memorable performance to celebrate the city’s musical heritage.
www.musiccity.uk
STAGE BITING POINT @ SEAFIELD HOUSE CAR PARK
Words: Ben Robinson
Biting Point is a bold outdoor production that pushes the boundaries of what theatre and performance art are. Biting Point tells the story of two people who spend their working days stuck in traffic - that is, until an accident on the Humber Bridge roundabout turns their lives upside down forever. The play is being performed outdoors at the Seafield House car park in Redcar on Saturday 21st-Sunday 22nd June, where audiences will wear headphones to enhance the theatrical experience and blur the line between watching a piece of theatre and being actively involved in it.
The production, whilst focused on the central story, also examines the pressures of modern day life, the unspoken frustrations, hidden anger, and moments when we struggle to know what comes next. This is a piece of theatre which experiments in new waysthough only ever enhancing the experience, of course. The writer, Sid Sagar, manages to capture the essence of the play beautifully.
“Audiences will be in the thick of the action. They will be witnesses, observers, participants and bystanders. They will be confronted with challenging questions and complicated characters. Their connection with the performers will be immediate.” So, for a brilliant piece of new theatre like no other, this is a must see!
www.middlechildtheatre.co.uk/biting-point
Grace Elizabeth Harvey
MUSIC MIKI BERENYI TRIO @ CLUNY 2
Words: Ben Lowes-Smith
Miki Berenyi is best known for her era-defining work in Lush, a band who provided a refreshing counterblast to the boorish and laddish guitar band culture of the time, and since recording genre defining
records like Spooky, Berenyi has gone on to write a candid, visceral and critically acclaimed memoir Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success.
Now Berenyi is writing in a trio with KJ McKilliop - of similarly adored indie rocker group Moose - and eclectic solo artist Oliver Cherer. After years of percolation, their debut album Tripla was released on Bella Union in April, and will be complemented by a UK tour, in a way that Berenyi describes as “beautifully DIY”. The shoegaze dynamic one would expect from these musicians is present, but
dashes of unexpected colour have been added with modern and melodic electronic touches, resulting in an immersive and engaging listening experience. It’s a glistening, gleaming sound exploring the ecstasy in melancholy; confronting the traumas of modern life in a stoic and defiant manner. Much to our delight, the Miki Berenyi Trio bring their wonderful new record to Cluny 2 on Saturday 1st June, and it’s a must see for fans of socially conscious, imaginative, alternative rock. www.mikiberenyitrio.bandcamp.com
Live tunes in June
Wednesday 4 June
Cat Power Sings Dylan ‘66
Wednesday 4 June
BBC Introducing from The Glasshouse: Melanie Baker
Sunday 8 June
Flook
Celebrating 30 years in 2025
Saturday 21 June
Altern-8
35 Year Anniversary Tour plus DJ Nex, Tokyo Acid Cru and DJ Mudfoot Blaps
Tuesday 24 June
Ani DiFranco
Wednesday 25 June
Father John Misty plus Loren Kramar
Friday 27 June
New Worlds
Bill Murray, Jan Vogler and Friends
Vanessa Perez and Mira Wang
Check out all our gigs: theglasshouseicm.org/whats-on
Image by Abbey Raymonde
MUSIC KOU @ THE LUBBER FIEND
Words: Nat Greener
French-German duo KOU return to The Lubber Fiend, Newcastle on Wednesday 18th June, with their shapeshifting blend of experimental composition, dada-pop, and jazz-not-jazz atmosphere. Apolline Schöser and Thomas Coquelet conjure strange beauty from lush
ALBRECHT DURER
ASTER GUINNESS
KINGA KIELCZYŃSKA
REBECCA PARKIN
guitar pluckings, smoky piano loops, and ghostly vocal textures, their live sets a heady swirl of detuned lullabies, ambient murmurs, and glitching nostalgia. It’s intimate and immersive; like an oddball group of friends you might meet by chance and end up weirding-out with for days, as the minds behind this deliciously odd music allow you to stay for a while in their strange subcultural world. Their debut LP hints at 70s Italian art pop, 90s freak-folk, and post-everything tape hiss but live, it becomes something else entirely. They’re joined by audiovisual duo Gaute Granli
JAKE STEWART {1800-GIRLS}
LUCY WRIGHT & more...
family of things
& Gabriela Gonzalez, layering warped electronics and performative visuals into something that pulses, stutters and glows in real time. Opening the night is Newcastle’s own Mothlight, a rising experimentalist sculpting tones from steel strings, magnetic fields, and hacked children's toys, a mesmerising blend of DIY noise and industrial lullabies. Expect AV disorientation, off-kilter grooves, with a serious edge. This is one of those shows you stumble into and leave changed. www.thelubberfiend.com
MUSIC
CALEB NICHOLS @ THE CUMBERLAND ARMS
Words: Ben Lowes-Smith
A midsummers evening at the Cumberland Arms presents the opportunity to spend an evening in the company of a legend of the LGBTQI+ community, poet and songwriter Caleb Nichols, on Saturday 21st June. His work creates a bridge between the world of music, poetry and community driven creativity. Having had more than twenty years of active creative practice, Nichols is presently the poet laureate of San Luis Ospibo, California, where he owns a bookstore, SLO Book Bike, which has become a centre of radical ideas, and queer artistic expression. Musically, his melodic and melancholic song writing is reminiscent of Elliot Smith, Brendan Benson and Sufjan Stevens, with 2022’s Ramon, released on Kill Rock Stars, the most recent showcase of his considerable melodic and lyrical mastery. Beautifully selected support
comes from Yeavering Bells, a band born from the ashes of Canyons, who make perfectly astute Americana and indie-pop which speaks to a sense of beauty and longing, speaking to the sensibilities of the likes of The Sundays and Veronica Falls. Completing the bill is local fuzz-pop legends Baker Island, fresh from releasing their new extended play Stone Age Riot. Baker Island make chaotic indie pop in cryptic, heartbroken mould of Los Campesinos and Pavement. www.calebnicholsis.gay
MUSIC WAX-TREE-CAST @ THE GLOBE
Words: Laura Rosierse Fascinating indie pop duo Wax-Tree-Cast finally make their return to the North East for what will undoubtedly be an unforgettable night of vibrant guitar driven pop rock songs at The Globe on Saturday 21st June. When the matching all-pink outfit enters the stage, they
have been known to turn venues upside down with their eclectic energy and soaring tracks - The Globe won’t know what hit it! Driven by haunting vocals and classic indie pop songwriting, Wax-Tree-Cast’s latest releases have been championed by BBC 6 Music, Radio X, festivals such as Kendal Calling and Liverpool Sound City; and artists such as Johnny Marr, Tim Burgess, and Tom A. Smith; who they have supported among many others. Formed in 2020 by vocalist and bassist Oolagh Hogdson and songwriter Blair Murray, Wax-Tree-Cast have caused a stir in their sleepy West Yorkshire hometown and they’re now slowly making their way across the country. They’ll be playing in all of the UK’s nooks and crannies to headline stages and to support Razorlight, IOTA, and Everyone Says Hi. With iconic live shows and indie anthems such as Argue Like I Love You, Straitjacket, and Fizzed Up, make sure you catch this irresistible band; there’s no doubt you’ll leave as a fan!
www.wax-tree-cast.bandcamp.com
Caleb Nichols
MUSIC
ANI DIFRANCO @ THE GLASSHOUSE
Words: Ben Lowes-Smith American-Canadian folk pop legend Ani DiFranco lands at the Glasshouse on Tuesday 24th June, astonishingly, in support of her 23rd studio album Unprecedented Sh!t and, consistent with her awe-inspiring canon, it’s a poignant and articulate commentary on the current tumultuous global landscape. Having previously encompassed genres as far reaching as funk, pop, hip-hop and soul over her 35 year career, Unprecidented Sh!t represents another departure in style following. DiFranco also supports many social and political movements by performing benefit concerts, appearing on benefit albums and speaking at rallies and something that is often audible in her the singer-songwriter’s music. DiFranco has backed grassroots cultural and political organizations supporting causes including abortion rights and LGBT visibility. Recorded with BJ Burton, who has worked with Charli XCX and Bon Iver, Unprecedented Sh!t is a shimmering, modern pop record, with
beautiful concessions to experimentalism and genre-fluidity. Naturally, DiFranco’s feminism remains intact across the beautifully expansive eleven songs on the record. The tour for the new record will also, happily coincide with a re-release of DiFranco’s seminal album Little Plastic Castle, so her appearance should be a career-spanning tour de force, and an unmissable spectacle for anyone who DiFranco’s music has already touched and stunning introduction to those lucky enough to be discovering it for the first time.
www.anidifranco.com
MUSIC
MURA
MASA @ THE GEORGIAN THEATRE
Words: Michael O’Neill
A fantastic initiative from a brilliant artist, Mura Masa is hosting a series of events entitled LOCAL, in partnership with Relentless. Stockton’s glorious Georgian Theatre is the first stop in a series of shows touring three UK towns, showcasing under-sung talent from
sometimes overlooked places, with the aim of shining a spotlight on local artists, venues, communities and stories.
The line-up for Stockton’s stop on Friday 13th June is curated by local DJ/electronic artist Boo, a brilliantly singular artist who has recently been selected as a Tees Valley Artist of the Year after a wealth of hard graft that has seen her mix sets for NTS, Boiler Room and BBC Music Introducing whilst regularly curating some marvelous showcases of talent with her Ghetec parties, which she hosts all across the UK. This LOCAL showcase will see a headlining set from the aforementioned Mura Masa, who saw plenty of acclaim with last year’s fifth LP Curve 1, and carved out a unique career that boasts a plethora of releases and accolades, collaborating with the likes of A$AP Rocky, Charli XCX and Shygirl and remixed a solid who’s-who of 21st century musical royalty. Boo will also demonstrate her brilliantly singular talents, alongside support from the dynamic talents of house producer Alousea, Cousin Dan and DJ and label head Rees.
www.facebook.com/muramasamusic
Ani DiFranco by Danny Clinch
ART & LIT
VOICES OF PRIDE @ VANE ART GALLERY
Words: Mack Sproates
Queer art is more important now than ever, and Voices of Pride, an exhibition celebrating a diverse range of queer artists with spectacular practices, will be a must see when it runs at Vane Art Gallery from Wednesday 11th June-Saturday 5th July.
Marking the beginning of Pride Month, this fantastic exhibition spotlights incredible LGBTQIA+ artists in the region, all exploring queerness through their own unique lens. The outstanding line-up includes Chris Fleming (also known as IDa4 and drag artist Latrine Lurka), who uses bold stencil art exploring identity, activism and visibility; Will Hughes, who conceptualises aspiration, queerness and glamour using casting, layering and bejewelling techniques, weaving of personal narratives with pop culture references; Meg McWilliam creates bold, maximalist and satirical collages inspired by girlhood, class and identity, empowered by the strength of the queer community and challenging expectations; Davey Powell uses textiles and quilted work inspired by the visual spectacle of the fairground, exploring identity and heritage shaped by his upbringing in the traveller community; and Bethany Stead, a multidisciplinary artist who draws upon allegory, iconography, feminism and more, using visual storytelling that disrupts fragile socio-politics.
Voices of Pride is an incredible feat of important and defiant queer work, and will undoubtedly be a joyful, insightful and thought provoking exhibition. www.vane.org.uk
MUSIC COAST FEST @ PERCY PARK RFC
Words: Michael O’Neill
Returning for its third instalment, Coast Fest is back again with another varied and glorious line-up of diverse musical talent (with over 150 artists in total!) spanning a broad range of genres and eras, all performed in spectacular fashion on the grounds of North Shields’ rugby club Percy Park from Friday 27th-Sunday 29th June.
Friday sees headline turns from DJ Laidback Luke (stopping by North Shields in the midst of his massive Code Red World Tour) and rapper Window Kid. Saturday is a more six-string-slinging affair with cult icons Glasvegas topping the bill alongside local stalwart Liam Fender and a legends’ slot turn from Dodgy frontman Nigel Clark. Sunday is a more local affair with The Lindisfarne Story Band taking top billing, with the legends’ slot occupied by Inspiral Carpets frontman Tom Hingley, who’ll be dusting off the classic songbook of the Mancunian indie legends. Alongside these headliners, there will be a broad array of upcoming local and national talent. Friday sees support from the likes of Evander Sounds, Felix Leiter, Ellie Scougall, Chop, NE-O and Scrannabis. Saturday’s offerings include Bear Park, Sophie Gordon, Patrick Gosling, Conor Michael and Charlotte Forman. Sunday also sees support from Keiran Bowe, Idle Hands, Hels Pattison, Strays, Snakes With Tits, Leonie Jakobi and Ruby Wilson. All in all, it’s a staggeringly broad line-up with an incredible variety of phenomenal talent, and all under one roof to boot!
www.facebook.com/coastfestivalne
STAGE REMYTHED @ LIVE THEATRE
Words: Steve Spithray Remythed takes the myths and legends from the backgrounds of its performers and reshapes, reforms, and retells them in a way never seen before. From Sheherazade to Anansi by way of Lady Godiva, Remythed is a show full of insight, dreams and wisdom that'll leave you joyful, tearful and perhaps even questioning everything you have ever been told. Remythed aims to impart a joyful reimagination of what queer history could look like and takes place at Live Theatre in Newcastle on Tuesday 24th-Wednesday 25th June. Remythed began life at VAULT Festival in London 2023 where it won Show of the Week and is the debut show of artistic directors Roann Hassani McCloskey (Who Murdered My Cat, Hakawatis) and Joel Samuels (Cutting the Tightrope, Sugar Coat, Fever Pitch, Holby City). Remythed features and was developed by Joel and Roann with Ishmael Kirby (Moll and the Future Kings, Bridges Y Puentes, Grills), Lucy Roslyn (Orlando, Pennyroyal) and Emile Clarke (Crimes on Centre Court, The Little Mermaid, Scarlet Pimpernel). Revered by the likes of The Guardian, Remythed is full of poise, careful choreography and captivating storytelling where gender norms are wilfully subverted and magically reworked into delightful physical theatre. www.live.org.uk
Voices of Pride: Will Hughes, CameThroughDrippin
MUSIC JUMPIN’ HOT COUNTRY CANTINA @ THE
BARN, EASINGTON
Words: Lee Fisher
Now a fixture of the North East festival scene, and especially essential since the sad demise of SummerTyne Americana, the Jumpin’ Hot Country Cantina is a wonderful thing. Taking
place on a small but lovely site in Country Durham on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th June, the two-day festival is a distillation of the Jumpin’ Hot aesthetic: essentially, assorted flavours of roots and Americana. Weekend tickets are an absurdly cheap £55 – that’ll barely get you into a Stone Roses covers band gig in the city – and this year’s line-up is one of the best yet. Heading up the bill are the Tyneside viper jazz phenomenon House Of The Black Gardenia, a nine-piece outfit drenched in sazerac, swing and perhaps something a little illicit too.
Wayward Jane are a transatlantic string band mixing up trad arrangements and their own originals, while John Miller, appearing solo this time out, is a country stalwart, and Nottingham’s Most Ugly Child are proper heartbreak/barroom country, fronted by the marvellous Daniel and Stevie. There’s also The Niche Family, Annie Dresser, Errant Moose, Taylor & Littlefield, Mr Saturday Night, Lost Lot, Tom Blackwell and the annual appearance from Side Café Orkestar. www.jumpinhotclub.com
Friday 18 July / 6pm–9pm
Wayward Jane
MUSIC BRIGITTE CALLS ME BABY @ THE COMMON ROOM
Words: Joe Sharples
With their unique band name (taken from the French model Brigitte Bardot), lavish romanticism and distinctive noir aesthetic, Brigitte Calls Me Baby’s crafted sound takes on a time machine quality, transporting you through mid-century pop, energetic post-punk and early-millennium indie rock.
Frontman Wes Leavins has cited a variety of influences and inspirations from his childhood: from listening to hip-hop on FM radio; new wave records played by his parents; the late nineties and the early-noughties indie rock; and earlier-era icons such as Roy Orbison, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, thanks to his grandparents. Strong vocals are the common factor, and this can be heard in abundance through Leavins’ contribution to the band’s sound.
Having previously opened for the likes of The Strokes and The Last Dinner Party, the Chicago-heralding five-piece are currently on tour with Morrissey, which is apt given Leavins’ vocals contribute to a very Smiths feeling sound, whilst his croon adds a wonderfully wistful and nostalgic feel, akin to the trio of Orbison, Sinatra and Presley. No doubt it’s a sound that’ll resonate well in the hallowed surrounds of Newcastle’s Common Room on Monday 2nd June. www.brigittecallsmebaby.com
ART & LIT DUST OF THE UNWRITTEN @ THE ZOO
Words: Isabel Johnson
Commencing Friday 5th June and, lucky for us, sticking around until Thursday 26th June, is The Zoo’s much awaited June exhibition, Dust of the Unwritten, with work by Hassnain Awais and curated by Faiza Faiq Gelani. The brand new Middlesbrough art gallery aims to be a friendly space for contemporary art to shine, and having just opened in April this year it’s a must visit space, with this exhibition perhaps offering us the perfect taster of The Zoo’s unique ethos.
Dust of the Unwritten is a pensive, contemplative offering from Lahore-based Awais and was created with the intention of building sanctuary and quiet in viewers’ minds. In this digital, disposable age, Awais is eager to bring our focus back to the dust of what once was, and the architecture of memory, all through tactile, textural prints. Ever curious about the life of material, Dust of the Unwritten sees Awais use a range of often unconventional mediums - old letters, stamps, envelopes - and repurposes these things into deeply personal yet widely resonant artworks. If this sounds like your cup of tea, do get yourself down to see this thought provoking, carefully curated exhibition. www.instagram.com/thezoo_boro
MUSIC MUNRO FESTIVAL @ THE GEORGIAN THEATRE/THE GREEN ROOM
Words: Kai Palmer
MUNRO festival returns to Teesside on Saturday 7th June, once again impressively boasting a jam-packed line-up without a single clash between artists, so festival goers can do away with wasting precious energy on planning who to see and when. Headliners this year are Hartlepool-born Michael Gallagher, Merseyside indie rockers The Kairos, Yorkshire singer songwriter Ellur and Welsh indie singer, Megan Wyn, who last appeared at the festival in 2022.
The all day festival is jam-packed, with 10 more artists playing throughout the Saturday spectacle, including M60, Cavello, Diago and Hannah Robinson. With such a diverse line-up of regional, national and international artists, MUNRO is sure to keep Stockton on its toes as each musician brings their own flare to the stage.
Making the day extra special is the festival’s location, Stockton’s much-loved Georgian Theatre and Green Room, and if previous events are anything to go by the festival organisers clearly have a flair for picking feisty up and coming artists; this year’s incredible line-up shows they’re ready to do it again. www.facebook.com/munrofestival
Brigitte Calls Me Baby
MUSIC NEW WORLDS: BILL MURRAY & FRIENDS @ THE GLASSHOUSE
Words: Mack Sproates
I'm going to be honest and say that my jaw DROPPED when I saw that Bill Murray (I repeat - actual Bill Murray!) is coming to The Glasshouse on Friday 27th June. Have my manifestations of seeing one of my favourite
comedy legends live finally come true? Do we all remember the iconic Bill Murray exhibition at The Baltic in 2015? I have no idea why our City has such Murray energy, but what a vibe it is! Bringing us some of the best comedy characters and greatest movies of all time (lots of which have shaped many of our childhoods), it is clear that joy radiates from a huge number of the projects he has chosen to pursue.
This adventure sees Bill entering the world of music alongside a collective of incredible classical musicians: Jan Volger, Vanessa Perez and Mira Wang. Celebrating the bridges
between literature and music, Bill will recite poetry and literature from the works of Hemingway, Twain, Whitman and more, set to a classical soundtrack by the orchestra. Bill's kind, warm and raw voice, doubled with his wit and charisma, will undoubtedly make this a fun, special and unforgettable evening. Don’t miss the chance to see this wonderful comedy legend live alongside staggeringly talented musicians with New Worlds Bill Murray and Friends at The Glasshouse on Friday 27th June.
www.newworldsmusic.com
Mr Drayton’s Rock Docs @ Arts Centre Washington
Join Mr Drayton as he hosts two evenings of celluloid marvels with his customary nonsense and barely credible facts about what you’re about to experience. To gild the lily there will be an easy access quiz following the screening with many lamentable prizes. This summer he brings you the age old Brit Pop Catfight – Blur Vs Oasis.
Blur: To The End Wednesday 18 June, 7pm, Pay as you Feel
ART & LIT
CROSSING THE TEES @ VARIOUS VENUES
Words: Claire Dupree
Libraries in Teesside once again throw open their doors for a celebration of the written word, as literary festival Crossing The Tees returns from Thursday 12th-Saturday 28th June.
Authors taking part include best-selling author Mike Gayle, who introduces his new novel Hope Street (Redcar Library, 13th June); YA author Ravena Guron talks about her twisty murder mysteries (Darlington Library, 14th June); crime writers Jo Furniss and David Fennell join forces to introduce their new novels (Darlington Library, 19th June); Lizzie Tiffin chats about the wayward wives, mad mothers and scandalous sisters in her book Bad Girls of Ancient Greece (Seaton Carew Community Hub, 20th June); and Steve Nicholls documents his journey along the length of the River Tees in his book, Steel River (Stockton Central Library, 25th June); plus there’s readings and chat from writers including Jess Kidd (Acklam Community Hub & Library, 13th June), Sarah Brooks (Norton Library, 21st June), MJ Robotham and Emma Flint (Acklam Community Hub & Library, 21st June).
Other highlights of the programme include Hark! The Sound of Stories event which showcases music from a new album inspired by the Stockton and Darlington Railway by Sam Slatcher, with poetry from Lizzie Lovejoy and Carmen Marcus (Darlington Library, 20th June); poetry gurus Born Lippy present a poetry slam in which twelve poets go head to head in a war of words (Stockton Central Library, 18th June); and in The Haunted Generation, local treasure Bob Fischer spins tall tales, jumbled memories and urban folklore in his look at the weirder side of growing up in the 70s and 80s (Community Hub Central, Hartlepool, 14th June).
As always, learning and participation is a big part of the event, with budding scribes able to dig deeper into their craft thanks to a variety of workshops which explore story development and structure, zine making, art poetry and more. www.crossingthetees.org
MUSIC FATHER JOHN MISTY @
THE GLASSHOUSE
Words: Cameron Wright
It has been twenty years since Josh Tillman, after leaving Fleet Foxes and debuting his
stage persona, gifted us the Father John Misty album, I Love You Honeybear. In the two decades that followed, we have received a series of romantic, desperate, hopeless and hopeful albums from the equally cynical and philanthropic lyricist. From swooping, orchestral retellings of desolate oblivion to tender love letters, Father John Misty has a catalogue that is always imbued with a confidence and swagger as he moves himself from one musical chapter to the next. With his 2024 album Mahashmashana, Misty is more sardonic than ever, with the songs adopting an almost cosmic groove, as he floats across the woes of humanity in an almost omnipresent state.
And the live show is a true performance. In the tradition of Bowie, or Brel, Misty embodies his characters and paints worlds, with himself the ever charming narrator. The first time I caught the artist at The Glasshouse, he began convulsing on the ground, rolling and wailing the lyrics to Ideal Husband. More recently, he donned a pair of shades, conjuring up the arcane, detached showmanship that songs like Funny Girl elicit… Father John Misty comes to The Glasshouse, Gateshead on Wednesday 25th June promising a cinematic experience that nobody should miss. www.fatherjohnmisty.com
Father John Misty by Bradley J. Calder
MUSIC FICKLE FRIENDS @ INDEPENDENT
Words: Laura Rosierse Anthemic indie pop outfit Fickle Friends make their return to the North East as part of their intimate tour with Music Venue Trust supported by Jack Daniels. Sunderland’s Independent won’t know what hit it on Friday
20th June, when the high-energy stadium ready outfit enters the stage to bring their fast paced hits old and new to their eager fanbase who’ve been deprived of Fickle Friends for years. The band started releasing in 2014 and have made their return with the first few new releases since 2022 in this year’s singles Happier and Swoon! Formed in Brighton in 2013, Fickle Friends broke into the UK Top 10 with their debut album You Are Someone Else, and made a name for themselves with their sharp songwriting and rhythmic grooves. With their indie approach and ever evolving sound;
from synth-driven, to a more organic and band-led instrumental indie style; they’ve gained a reputation that is hard to beat even after years of having been absent. With renewed energy and new material up their sleeves, Fickle Friends are back pushing forward and capturing the highs and lows of modern life with soaring vocals, thumping rhythms and colourful, vibrant soundscapes that will have Independent shaking at its core! www.instagram.com/ficklefriends
MUSIC RAZ & AFLA @ COBALT STUDIOS
Words: Michael O’Neill
Performing at Newcastle’s Cobalt Studios on Friday 20th June, headliners Raz Olsher & Afla Sackey are a duo whose music represents a harmonious union of African influences with electronic music, full of soul, vibrant energy and captivating rhythms. Originally from Tel Aviv, Raz (owner of Fossil Studios) is an award-winning, chart topping, multi-platinum producer. His repertoire includes a broad range of solo electronic music productions, alongside composing and production credits for a plethora of other artists including Basement Jaxx, Sam Lee and Lamar. Afla’s background as a session musician has included work with artists such as Ginger Baker, Sun Ra, Oren Marshall, Osibisa, Ibibio Sound Machine and Tony Allen, as well as collaborations with Sadler’s Wells and the Royal Festival Hall. 2022 debut LP The Cycle received a wealth of critical acclaim from the likes of Gilles Peterson and Lauren Laverne, and saw plays on Radio 1Xtra and Radio6Music.
Support comes from Kema Kay, a local artist who initially honed his craft for rap, singing and songwriting in a local youth project where he spent most of his time as a teen. He’s gone on to perform at the biggest venues around Newcastle, and branched out into the screen and stage with a turn in the acclaimed Ken Loach film I, Daniel Blake. Fresh from a 108-date run of the stage adaptation of the film, Kema is back home working on a brand new album, and he’ll be showcasing some choice cuts from it at Cobalt. www.razandafla.bandcamp.com
MUSIC TULPA @ THE CUMBERLAND ARMS
Words: Michael O’Neill
Although they’ve always regularly supplied our soundwaves with constant washes of glorious noise, it would still be remiss of me to not big up the almighty Leeds’ current status as a potent hotbed of sonic splendour. The recent acclaim and success of outfits such as the Mercury-prize bagging English Teacher and #1 bagging Yard Act has made it clear that the iconic Northern powerhouse remains a brilliant incubator for musical talent, and our DIY circuit has remained no stranger to a broad variety of marvelous talent from just down the road!
Noisy and melodic quartet Tulpa are a brilliant testament to this, with a gloriously unique sound that melds guitar, violin and keys atop of intricately layered vocals to craft a sound that is both viscerally abrasive and wonderfully melodic. 2024’s Dismantler is a six-track testament to the versatility of their sound, offering a kaleidoscopic tour through a broad array of alternative sound.
The band perform at Newcastle’s Cumberland Arms on Sunday 29th June, with support coming from local trio E’Spaniel. Their 2018 LP Entra Solo exhibits a similarly refined approach to pristine golden indie melody, with a wonderfully wonky blend of jangle-pop and synth splendour. Another glorious offering at the iconic Cumberland Arms! www.tulparockband.bandcamp.com
ART & LIT
DELAINE LE BAS @ NEWCASTLE CONTEMPORARY ART
Words: Ben Robinson
Delaine Le Bas brings her new exhibition to Newcastle Contemporary Art from Saturday 31st May-Saturday 2nd August. +Fabricating My Own Myth – Red Threads & Silver Needles continues the artist’s journey in discovering her own identity through her exploration of linguistics, mythology and Gypsy Roma Traveller narratives, all whilst using the power of textiles, language and storytelling. With the exhibition spanning across two enormous spaces of Newcastle Contemporary Art, Le Bas creates an immersive living art space which is a feast for all the senses. The pieces focus on fabrics and stitching, the name being a clever play on the medium of fabric and textile which Le Bas has used. Public participation also plays a key role in the exhibition, with visitors to the gallery encouraged to add their own stitches to the fabric which is so beautifully displayed. By doing this and allowing the gallery space to be used for musical performances, the exhibition aims to blur the line between art and audience, an idea which intrigues Le Bas. Perhaps the most striking element of this exhibition is the messaging behind each piece of work, demonstrating to the audience that Le Bas is an artist who can evoke emotions, and still create pieces of art which could intrigue anyone.
www.delainelebas.com
Raz & Afla
MUSIC
THE LOVELY EGGS @ POP RECS
Words: Nat Greener
The uncompromisingly brilliant The Lovely Eggs bring their joyful punk mayhem to Pop Recs in Sunderland on Saturday 14th June. Holly and David, the fierce northern duo behind the madness, have long since been
cult icons of the DIY underground, known for their raucous live shows, surreal lyrics, and a ‘no rules’ ethos that has taken them from SXSW and Shonen Knife tours to recording with Gruff Rhys. Armed with one guitar, one drum kit, and a Big Muff pedal, their stripped-down garage psych racket is full of wit, rage, and weirdo joy. With records like This Is Our Nowhere and Wildlife, they’ve long celebrated life outside the mainstream by providing a clutch of gleefully noisy anthems for the outsider in all of us.
Support comes from lo-fi North East
songwriting legend Nev Clay, whose wry lyricism and understated delivery are cult favourites in their own right. Also on the bill is fuzz-heavy noisemakers Super Burner who have been making a name for themselves by channelling motorik grooves and smouldering distortion. An unmissable night of grassroots grit, DIY ethos, and genuine oddball brilliance, with Pop Recs providing the perfect home for this off-kilter celebration of creative freedom. www.thelovelyeggs.co.uk
Thursday 24 July, 7.30pm
Image by Darren Andrews
ART & LIT
ZAC WEINBERG, JOANNA MANOUSIS & ANTHONY AMOAKAATTAH
@ NATIONAL GLASS CENTRE
Words: Jacob Easton
At the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, experience the unique works of three talented artists, Zac Weinberg, Joanna Manousis, and Anthony Amoako-Attah. Opening at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland on Saturday 28th June and running until January 2026 is a unique triple-bill of North East based cultural artists.
Originally from America, Sunderland-based Weinberg’s pieces explore the interplay between form and function, inviting viewers to reflect on the boundaries of glass as a material. The artist also received a QEST scholarship in 2024 to support his work. Fellow QEST scholar, Manousis creates delicate, evocative sculptures that convey a quiet sense of fragility and beauty. Her one of a kind objects and installations call attention to the beauty of nature and our collective conscious, while blurring distinctions between fine and decorative art. Meanwhile, Amoakao-Attah’s fabrics weave together themes of personal, tribal and cultural identity through commodification, globalization and migration, blending traditional Ghanaian symbols with contemporary techniques. Built on the site of former Thompson and Sons shipyard, the Glass Centre is less than half a mile from where English glassmaking began. A unique structure, the building features 3250 square metres of clear glass. It is also the first
Arts Lottery Funded building. The exhibition promises a thoughtful exploration of glass as both a medium and a narrative tool, showcasing diverse perspectives and approaches in the art world. www.sunderlandculture.org.uk
MUSIC
FOXING @ THE CLUNY
Words: Cameron Wright Foxing have always balanced the violent surges of noise rock with the tender inanities of low-fi indie. There’s a duality that makes the band tirelessly endearing. Foxing harnesses a harmony between the dissonant opposites that captured the hearts and ears of fans for a decade now, and you can catch them for yourself at The Cluny on Friday 13th June. Their self-titled latest edition to the catalogue, walks a similar path, albeit to a far more ambitious extent. Foxing, as an album, is a force of nature; building up from tiny, trembling beginnings. It feels close, fragile and weak. The opening track, Secret History shows a whimpering vocal creaking out over next to no instrumentation, almost drowning in its own emotion. By the end you are engulfed in an explosion of adrenaline that has enveloped the track, with bellowing vocals tearing up over thundering drums and bonfire of white noise. In another world, the hooks and choruses across this release would top the charts, had they not been buried under the incredible violence and immediacy of the album. The self titled release feels important, as if they have mastered every artistic expression they’ve been honing for years. Coming to The Cluny on Friday 13th June, this gig promises to be unparalleled and utterly exciting. www.foxingtheband.com
COMEDY
LITTLE
ROBOT COMEDY
@ SALT MARKET SOCIAL
Words: Laura Rosierse
The end of June is looking hilarious with a brand new comedy showcase at North Shields’ Salt Market Social courtesy of comedy promoters Little Robot. Bringing together those that have already swayed TV audiences, as well as local heroes and up-and-coming newbies with Daliso Chaponda, as seen on Have I Got News For You, The Royal Variety Performance and Britain’s Got Talent to name just one. The comedian, writer, creator, and BBC favourite will be bringing his prize-winning comedy to the coastal town after having toured the UK multiple times. He’ll be joined by multi-award winning comedian Tom Taylor, who brings smart yet silly comedy and boasts an impressive stock of quirky and very funny, musical one-liners.
Huddersfield’s Eddy Midgley, who’s quickly gained recognition for his sharp writing and captivating stage presence will also be cracking the boards. He’s won many a prize and is known for his cheeky delivery and relatable storytelling. Last but not least is a comedian who should be known to many already, Si Beckwith, who’s sharp and effortlessly funny. With such a fantastic line-up of comedians, it’s only laughs guaranteed with Little Robot Comedy on Friday 27th June at North Shields’ Salt Market Social.
www.littlerobotncl.com
Foxing
COMEDY
LACHLAN WERNER: WONDERTWUNK @ THE WITHAM
Words: Isabel Johnson
What’s better than a stellar Edinburgh Fringe comedy show? A stellar Edinburgh Fringe comedy show previewed a little closer to home, that’s what. Hand selected by
Taskmaster’s Mark Watson as part of his Fresh For the Fringe series (in which his favourite performers get to tour their shows prior to the Edinburgh Fringe premiere), Lachlan Werner’s WonderTwunk show comes to The Witham in Barnard Castle on Friday 27th June, and it’s not one to be missed. The award winning ventriloquist, clown and character comedian is renowned for his bizarre and extraordinary ideas, and this show follows his sellout horror debut, Voices Of Evil. A critically acclaimed wonder of a show derived from one of British comedy’s most
fascinating vessels and we can expect the exact same thing with WonderTwunk, though perhaps even better, and even funnier yet. Described as an odyssey about masculinity, the show follows Werner’s character - the world’s strongest boy - and sees him enter a circus ring of stunts, sea lions, minimal lip movement and all things completely and utterly bonkers. Multi-disciplinary, multi genre madness - and you get to see it all, pre ‘proper’ premiere, for a tenner! www.facebook.com/lachlanwerner
COMEDY ELF LYONS @ THE STAND
Words: Ben Robinson
In what has been described as the first ever comedy show performed entirely by a horse, Elf Lyons brings her new comedy show to The Stand in Newcastle on Sunday 8th June. Yes, you read that correctly. This is the story of Treacle, a comedy horse with surprisingly sharp wit!
Lyons has always been in a different category when it comes to comedy, and this show proves exactly why. Known for her surreal and daring work, Lyons has pushed the comedy boundaries once again to bring you a show that is as funny as it is bizarre. Combining physical theatre, clownery and pure wit, Treacle (the horse) takes centre stage in a performance that must be seen to be believed. The show, whilst a comedy piece, is as thought provoking as it is funny. It asks all the big questions about where the line between
childhood and adulthood is, and whether adults will ever be able to retain that whimsy they once had. Whether you’re an animal lover, or a comedy fanatic, this show promises to twist the brain and leave you laughing the entire time. www.elflyons.com
MUSIC
PAUL SMITH @ THE GEORGIAN THEATRE
Words: Steve Spithray
While Paul Smith is best known as the frontman of Newcastle-based art-rock group Maxïmo Park, he has also released three acclaimed solo albums and collaborated with the likes of folk singer Rachel Unthank on 2023’s Unthank | Smith project, and Field Music’s Peter Brewis amongst others. Maxïmo Park’s eighth album, Stream Of Life, was released last September to their customary critical acclaim and the band also recently headlined Stockton Calling. Smith’s
increasingly uncommon solo concerts are known for their conversational intimacy and their mix of grunge-inspired power pop, combined with fingerpicked melancholy and The Georgian Theatre in Stockton are delighted to have him back on Sunday 15th June.
This will be a rare opportunity to see him play alone, and hear his songs at their most stripped back; while also focusing heavily on his solo material such as Our Lady Of Lourdes from 2010’s Margins album and Your Orbit and Critical Mass from 2018’s Diagrams. The tracks showcase the singer’s high-brow and archly witty lyricism, along with his unique ability to craft a melody which has seen his parent band carve out their own very fertile indie pop furrow. So don’t miss your chance to see this rare delight from a local art-rock legend.
www.paulsmith-music.co.uk
Elf Lyons
MUSIC MARTHA WAINWRIGHT @ THE FIRE STATION
Words: Cameron Wright
With Loudon Wainwright III as a father and Rufus Wainwright as a brother, Martha Wainwright has been very open about the struggles she faced leading up to her debut in 2005. Many questioned whether she’d be able to escape their looming shadows or if after the success of Bloody Mother Fucking Arsehole –the blistering hit about her infamous father – she would just be riding the coattails of the track’s success.
It’s clear talent runs deep in this family though; as soon as her debut album dropped 20 years ago, Martha Wainwright became undeniably a magnificent artist in her own right. The songs were honest, acerbic, angry and human. One minute lashing out, the next flinching in fear. Opening a capella, you are sucked into Wainwright’s world instantly, drifting from the stroppy to the idyllic, lilting from rage to regret. Celebrating the album that launched a career, defined a lifetime and shook the 00s, 20 years later Martha Wainwright is back on the road paying tribute to the milestone album. With a voice cracking with the same emotional intensity as it did on record, Wainwright's show at The Fire Station in Sunderland on Tuesday 3rd June isn’t one to miss. www.marthawainwright.com
COMEDY
RHYS DARBY @ TYNE THEATRE & OPERA HOUSE
Words: Cameron Wright
It feels reductive to summarise the career of a talent like Rhys Darby to one role however when that role is one comedies most singular, unique and utterly hilarious characters, it feels justifiable. Because Murray Hewitt, the bumbling agent in legendary New Zealand music comedy Flight Of The Conchords, is the genius creation of the iconic Darby. Having now gone on to act in Yes Man, Jumanji and What We Do In The Shadows, Darby is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated exports. With his sharp comic wit he has made a career out of zany characters, off the wall improvisation and an insatiable penchant for mischief. And his stand-up is no different. The comedy is affable, confident and confusing. It’s true New Zealand, with a tinge of Hollywood swagger. It’s candid, it’s uncontrolled and it’s absolutely hysterical. And, this most recent tour, The Legend Returns, shows the kiwi hero coming to terms with his age in a very modern world, battling the fast moving world.
Rhys Darby’s The Legend Returns comes to Newcastle’s Tyne Theatre & Opera House on Friday 27th June and this is not one to miss for fans of mischievous improv. www.rhysdarby.com
ART & LIT QUEER PLEASURE ARCHIVE @ HELIX ARTS
Words: Laura Rosierse
Queer Pleasure Archive is an exciting and much needed discovery and celebration of queer joy organised by Sarah Li. The exhibition is a new, socially engaged art project and DIY archive by the Newcastle-based artist which was born out of a lack of positive and joyful representation of queer people in archives and collections. As part of the exhibition visitors can enjoy new archive pieces that were created by members from the Drag King, Genderchaos and Alternative Drag Collective documenting pleasurable activities. Previewing on Saturday 14th June at Helix Arts in North Shields the exhibition then runs from Monday 16th June to Friday 27th June.
A performance of the DGA Collective will take place on the preview night, including portraits by Emma Bentley-Fox of some of the co-authors involved in the project and artwork responses to the archival pieces and activities by Sarah Li. This project has been funded by Helix Arts, the Newcastle Arts Team, Arts Council England, and the Ouseburn Trust and will be showcasing the presence of the queer community within the North East. Sarah Li is a musician, composer and artist from Liverpool based in Newcastle and has made an impression on the North East art scene through musical projects SMLM, Bitchfinder General, Woven Ensemble, and the aforementioned DGA Collective. www.helixarts.com
Martha Wainwright
MUSIC
SMOTE @ THE CLUNY
Words: Lee Fisher
Smote now take many forms – sometimes it’s the solo project of Newcastle’s Daniel Foggin; other times it’s a four-piece with a reputation for absolutely crushing live shows; recently, at Roadburn Festival, the Smote big band added Adam from Pigsx7, John from Gnod, Ian from Lankum and Lisa from Flowers Must Die to the line-up for a performance that by all accounts laid waste to Tilburg. Last year’s excellent fourth album A Grand Stream (on Rocket Recordings, a perfect home) got some incredible reviews and Foggin and co are clearly on a creative high right now. Occupying a space somewhere in the Venn Diagram between noise rock, deep psych, pure drone something more eldritch and folky, Smote are a fearsome live proposition, and their show on Saturday 14th June at The Cluny is not to be missed if you like your music to be the aural
equivalent of a black hole (but in a good way…).
But because the Wandering Oak crew always have your best interests at heart, they’ve added Aussie-born/UK-based artist Penelope Trappes to the bill, a really simpatico pairing with Smote. With her recent album A Requiem, Trappes has moved further into a droney, folky, ritualistic soundworld and it’s beautiful, immersive stuff. www.smote.bandcamp.com
MUSIC
TERROR @ DIGITAL
Words: Joe Sharples
Despite almost 20 years of non stop music making, releasing and touring, American hardcore punk band Terror are finally making their Newcastle debut, when they play Digital on Monday 16th June. Having set a gold standard for hardcore punk in the last 20 years,
remaining at the forefront of the scene throughout the entirety of that duration, there’s no doubt that Terror are a must see for any self respecting fans of punk music.
Terror are renowned for their consistent high energy, passion, and eruptive live performances, and are led by seasoned performer Scott Vogel (also of Buried Alive, Bad Blood, Slugfest, Despair and World Be Free), a stalwart of the hardcore scene. He is a textbook ‘tough guy’ frontman, and, with bucketfuls of banter, vigour and onstage antics, he will be sure to make Terror’s trip up North worth their time and yours.
As their only Northern date in the UK this year, with support from special guests Jivebomb, it’s set to be an explosive headline set from one of the most influential and determined hardcore punk bands of the 21st century, and you definitely shouldn’t miss it.
www.linktr.ee/terrorhardcore
Smote
STAGE SUNNY SIDE @ DANCE CITY
Words: Ben Robinson
Coming to Newcastle on Wednesday 18th June is Sunny Side: a raw, deeply relevant, and powerful exploration of what it means to be a young man in Britain today. Touring nationally in partnership with Andy’s Man
Club, this new production is informed by the real voices of over 750 young people from across the UK. Their hopes, fears, frustrations, and resilience are woven into every moving moment on stage.
Blending contemporary dance, theatre, and spoken word, Sunny Side is both a celebration and a call to action for chance, striving to spread the message of connection, understanding, and hope. The result is a visually striking performance that centres around the character of K as he attempts to navigate feeling without a purpose. Set in a
small Northern town, the performance refuses to shy away from the complex web of masculinity, mental health, and growing up in a world that doesn’t listen.
Presented at Dance City in Newcastle, this show is not just a performance, but a powerful, necessary, and long overdue piece which will make you think. Through movement, poetry, and more, Sunny Side allows for the discussion around men's mental health to be burst wide open. www.dancecity.co.uk
“gorgeouslywrittenandpacked withhauntingimagery”
Thursday12June 7.30pmdoors,£20.50
gosforthcivictheatre.co.uk
Image by Elly Welford
ART & LIT
JED BUTTRESS @ NEURO GALLERY
Words: Jacob Easton
“Myth does not deny things,” Barthes once said, “its function is to talk about them.” The enigmatic artist Jed Buttress arrives at the Neuro Gallery in Newcastle from Thursday 29th May-Thursday 19th June to explore the above, with a performance piece weaving together narrative, folklore and personal history into a mind melting mix. Taking inspiration from Roland Barthes and the surrealist creations of Ed and Nancy Kienholz, Buttress crafts sculptures that are eerie and provoking, playing in the gap between what we know to be science, and what we call pseudo-science or myth.
For those not already in the know Barthes was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician whose ideas explored a diverse range of fields and influenced the development of multiple schools of theory, including structuralism, anthropology, literary theory, and poststructuralism; while Buttress is part sculptor, part detective, part inventor, he uses found and fabricated materials to explore the monsters under the bed. His work straddles installation, performance, and storytelling, raising questions about what we believe and why.
Is it paranormal investigation, or a theatrical excavation of our cultural anxieties? Either way, it promises to be a wild ride into the unconscious. So don’t forget your tin hats—whether you’re a parapsychologist or a sceptic, expect the unexpected, and prepare to be spooked or delighted. www.jedbuttress.com
MUSIC KAHIL EL’ZABAR’S
ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE @ COBALT STUDIOS
Words: Joe Sharples
Kahil El’Zabar is a visionary jazz percussionist who has been exploring the ties between African and American music for 50 years, having worked with jazz legends including Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Pharoah Sanders and Cannonball Adderley. He joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the 1970s, and by 1975 was its chairman; the AACM strives to progress jazz music, and enable it to reach all corners of our modern musical world.
Kahil El’Zabar plays Newcastle’s Cobalt Studios on Saturday 7th June with his band
The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (EHE): trumpeter Corey Wilkes, tenor saxophonist Kevin Nabors, cellist Ishmael Ali and El’Zabar himself on drums, hand percussion, Kalimba, and vocalisations.
El’Zabar has always favoured the unconventional, and since his arrival on the jazz scene has consistently traded the ‘traditional’ ensemble format, for groups comprising mainly percussion, horns and reeds. Particularly in its early days, the EHE was considered an unusual format - even by the open and progressive standards of the AACM. However, the distinctive sound created lends itself to an Afro-centric style.
Support comes from Leeds-based cosmic jazz ensemble Amon Ra Collective whose propulsive and energetic sound fuses jazz, rock, Afrobeat, drum and bass and funk. www.kahilelzabaris.com
MUSIC QUEER PUNKRAISER @ THE GLOBE
Words: Nat Greener
Newcastle's underground punk and queer scenes collide at The Globe, Newcastle on Saturday 28th June for a wild, loud and no-holds-barred night in support of the Ouseburn Trust. Queer Punkraiser brings together a genre-splintering line-up of five boundary pushing acts: Newcastle fuzz-punks Swamp Raat return with their raw, distorted energy and mosh-heavy riffage, while Leeds’ Draags fuse dance-punk with noisy, experimental textures and unabashed queer identity. Local DIY duo Gaydar pack some snarling hooks and shout-along chants, all drenched in humour and defiance, while Gloucestershire's Nostalgia Bias offer up some emo indie melancholia with a weighty emotional punch. North East electronica outfit Pynk Opayk round out the night with their hazy psychedelic textures and offbeat synth magic. It’s a rallying cry for community, chaos, and catharsis, and all in aid of one of the city’s most cherished grassroots charities. Expect sweat, glitter, feedback and unity in equal measure. Queer Punkraiser is more than a gig, it’s a statement. Every penny raised goes directly to the Ouseburn Trust, supporting the preservation and development of the Valley’s cultural and environmental assets. So, grab your mates, lace up your boots, and come scream, stomp, and celebrate. www.theglobenewcastle.bar
Artwork by Jed Buttress
INTERVIEWS
JODIE NICHOLSON
BEN LOWES-SMITH TALKS TO THE TEESSIDE ARTIST ABOUT HOW THE SPIRIT OF COLLABORATION HAS RESULTED IN SOME OF HER BEST WORK YET IMAGE BY AMELIA READ
Jodie Nicholson has produced some of the most melancholically beautiful music in the region – and perhaps nationally – in the last few years. Her debut album, 2019’s Golden Hour, is a wonderful collection of brooding chamber pop, and last year’s Safe Hands saw her gain more national and international acclaim, with her textured, intricate songwriting occupying a similar space to Julia Holter and The National. Not content with resting on her laurels, Nicholson’s new extended play, We Can Talk, adds to her increasingly enviable body of work. Consistent
with much of her writing, We Can Talk is a collaborative affair, leaning into some of the key aspects of Nicholson’s MO.
“Between releases I tend to line up a few writing sessions with other artists/songwriters, it’s kind of my go-to if I’m in a wave of wanting to write, but don’t necessarily know what to write about or everything I’m writing feels a bit mediocre. I think it’s healthy to lean into co-writing every once in a while, especially as a solo artist, but also, when you’re wearing the producer hat on your own releases too, sometimes it’s nice to share the writing process
MUSIC
with someone so that whole foundational part of creating new music isn’t solely resting on your own shoulders – I’ve learned that the hard way!”
Nicholson tells me that collaboration has become the ethos for the whole EP. Not just in the songwriting itself, but with a whole cast of musicians bringing their personalities to the songs with their parts including Joe Ramsey for bass on Sleep On It and Francesca Knowles for drums across all but We Can Talk, as well as leaning on people who love the visual side of releasing music like Melanie Baker, who Jodie describes as “an incredible artist in her own right and a visionary when it comes to capturing the music visually”.
The four songs on the EP are graceful and beautiful; Sleep On It is a gospel-tinged slow-burner, Nicholson’s remarkable voice pushed front and centre, supported by gorgeous, bubbling vocal harmonies and a languid piano part, culminating in cacophonous climax. Sunday utilises intricate percussion and another soaring vocal performance to speak to a pronounced sense of longing; Easy is a more cheerful folk pop number which skips along to intricate arpeggiated guitars; while closer We Can Talk, which features The Early Purple, produces a glorious vocal harmony between the two singers which elevates the song.
Jodie talks me through the genesis of the song: “I reached out
IT’S NICE TO SHARE THE WRITING PROCESS WITH SOMEONE SO THAT WHOLE FOUNDATIONAL PART OF CREATING NEW MUSIC ISN’T SOLELY RESTING ON YOUR OWN SHOULDERS
over Instagram and asked if Matt would be open to writing together – we’d never met before or even spoken before, and we ended up spending an afternoon at Summer Studios going through loads of ideas – there were over 30! Matt had been writing that week and choosing one to experiment with. It was Matt’s first co-write session, and there’s never any pressure for what’s written to actually ‘go’ anywhere, it’s just nice to write for the sake of writing and if anything comes out of it that someone wants to release, that’s a bonus. There was a piano in the room and we essentially jammed for the most part, looping round the two sections that became the song’s structure. We then set a mic up and took it in turns – literally, one of us would stay in the room and record some vocal ideas whilst the other person would walk around Glasshouse for a few minutes, and then we swapped over. I’d never done that before and it was really nice to have your own space with the track for a minute or two. We ended up using my vocal and I invited Matt into the studio to add his vocals – they instantly lifted the track and gave the lyrics/narrative more context.”
It's this spirit of spontaneity and play which colours the spirit of the record. For Jodie, the process of collaboration wasn’t quite as straightforward as with The Early Purple: “Sunday was written with Ben from Old Sea Brigade over Zoom and a seven-hour time difference (Ben was in Nashville at the time). I remember we actually started out with a completely different idea, it soaked up probably over half of the session and for some reason we were getting stuck or something didn’t feel quite right, so we started something new and wrote Sunday from start to finish. Weirdly, it seemed to fall out of us quite quickly. I made a demo after the call ended, sent it to Ben, and that demo lived in a Soundcloud playlist for two years before revisiting more seriously at the back-end of last year.”
Nicholson describes the songs as outsiders in the sense that at the time they were written: “They either sonically didn’t sit quite right alongside other songs/projects I’d written/was working on, or I didn’t fully know what to do with them to take them forward. I’d been sat on Sunday and Sleep On It since 2022 and, with both of them, I loved the songs as a foundation, but didn’t know what direction to take either of them production-wise –I’m a big believer in timing and things happening for a reason, and with these two tracks in particular, I think they needed me to go through self-producing a full album’s worth of material [Safe Hands] to experiment, to learn and to give me time to become a better producer so I could eventually serve these songs in the best way I could.”
Irrespective of the different methods taken to arrive at the destination, We Can Talk is a terrific body of work which stands alongside Nicholson’s best material.
Jodie Nicholson releases We Can Talk on 27th June. www.jodienicholsonmusic.com
SONIC ARTS WEEK
IF YOU LIKE…
SOUND INSTALLATIONS
Throughout the week, Middlesbrough will come alive with sound as some of the most inventive and boundary-pushing artists fill the town with audio-visual excitement. Be among the first to experience the UK premiere of WETRIP, an immersive fusion of abstract sound and visuals from the visionary Daisy Dickinson & Simon Fisher Turner. Dickinson, known for her mesmerising work with Samaural Kerridge and Snapped Ankles, pairs up with Turner - an acclaimed composer and actor renowned for his unforgettable scores for Derek Jarman’s films, including Caravaggio and Blue.
Meanwhile, dancer-turned-sonic innovator Ashling McCann invites audiences to step into her Sonic Playground, an interactive sound installation set in an empty retail unit at Hillstreet Shopping Centre. Expect unexpected noises, playful experimentation, and a space where movement and sound collide in electrifying ways.
And Joe Browning has been commissioned to take over an ultrasonic speaker installation in the heart of Hillstreet Shopping Centre. Passersby can stand or sit beneath it to activate the sound, immersing themselves in a unique sonic landscape that blends the ambient noise of the space with the aquatic world of the Tees Valley.
ROAMING FUN
If you don’t want to go to the installations, then no worries, they’ll come to you. Encounter roaming noisemakers who will be ready to surprise you with surreal street performances or mobile sound experiments. Performers you might see
EVENTS
WORDS: DAVID SAUNDERS
From Friday 27th June to Saturday 5th July, the team behind Middlesbrough Art Week and The Auxiliary Project Space (with support from Arts Council England, Tees Valley Combined Authority and Middlesbrough Council) are bringing the noise as Sonic Arts Week returns. Expect experimental sound installations, street interventions, evening gigs, family workshops, and plenty more sonic surprises.
Whether you're local, curious, or just passing through, Sonic Arts Week invites everyone to follow the sound, get inspired, and immerse themselves in something unforgettable. www.sonicartsweek.com
wowing unsuspecting passersby are; ‘junkophilic, electro tin can playing, robo dancing ex freelance binmen’ The Junkoactive Wasteman & The Tin Can Twins; apocalyptic audio creators The Doom Orchestra; sound artist and instrument designer Ed Devane and upcycling noisemakers Noisy Toys.
FAMILY FUN
Summat For The Bairns invites families to dive into hands-on creativity with a series of free sound workshops. From DIY instrument building to craft zones and microphone mayhem, these sessions are specially designed for young people and their grown-ups to explore, create, and have fun together.
INDUSTRIAL COAST
And a sound art-based festival in Middlesbrough wouldn’t be complete without an event or three from Teesside’s finest experimental/alternative sound purveyors, Industrial Coast. They present a series of ticketed, pay as you feel gigs at The Auxiliary and Disgraceland, with performances from ‘ heavy/mutant techno/electronica’ artist JK Flesh (as well as special guest Andrew Nolan and support from Proper Fucked and Chump Wrecker); percussive African and Haitian Vodou music inspired electronic artist Cut Hands (with support from Autumns, Jo Montgomerie and gerg); and Andy Swan’s Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse and Cabaret Voltaire inspired project Tactical Pagan.
Doom Orchestra
The Junkoactive Wasteman & The Tin Can Twins
Noisy Toys
RUTH LYON
STEVE SPITHRAY TALKS TO THE NEWCASTLE SINGER ABOUT HER BOOKISH AND METICULOUSLY CRAFTED EXPERIMENTAL DEBUT ALBUM
As a writer of non-fiction, I was intrigued to find out more about Ruth Lyon’s relationship with words and books. Indeed, the lead single from the Newcastle indie folk singer’s debut album, Poems & Non-Fiction, is an allegorical homage, simply called Books. “I have a pile of books by the bed,” she sings before admitting, “I admire the fonts and the colours, I will not read them.”
It is difficult not to become immersed in the clarity of the metaphor while the music itself (and throughout a wonderfully experimental album within the modern folk genre) is beautifully realised, albeit on a very complex structural level.
“My relationship with books is difficult. I find reading a really tiring thing but I love books. I love to dip in and out of them but I like poetry as a more visceral experience and a more accessible way of engaging with the written word,” Ruth told me. “I write a lot of poetry [but] I do a lot of travelling, I love swimming in the sea, I love gardening, and I like birds and nature, so I’m always influenced by lots of different things. A bit like a magpie I gather all these bits together and come up with a rhythm and some kind of melody to see what kind of poetry works with it. It’s quite a chaotic process.”
The album is produced by John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding). “John is the most patient man in the world and he never says no! There are a lot of strange sounds on the album that was John letting me try things out but he is also very good
I WANTED TO LEAVE ENOUGH HOLES FOR PEOPLE TO WEAVE IN THEIR OWN STORIES OR EMOTIONS AND CONNECT WITH THE BITS THAT SPEAK TO THEM
at editing my chaos. He’s like my musical interpreter. I use songwriting and composing as a way of expressing myself in a way that I can’t with talking. I love talking but sometimes the talking becomes too much like a big buzzy noise, whereas with a vehicle like a song I can condense the energy down.” Poems & Non-Fiction has been described as shimmering between abstract and naked truth, while Ruth has previously talked about the tension between truth and imagination. I’d never heard this put so eloquently and it is clearly something that feeds into the snapshot concept and underlying themes of the record. I wondered if Ruth found it easy to creatively reimagine her own life experiences for the purpose of the songs? “I originally recorded the album in 2023 but it took me a year to process and see how much of myself I wanted to put in. It is abstract but it is honest and authentic. I use abstract language because I want to leave a bit of space for interpretation from the listener. You don’t need to know me, my life or my life experiences and you don’t need to be my friend. What I hope is people get to know a bit of me. I wanted to leave enough holes for people to weave in their own stories or emotions and connect with the bits that speak to them. Something will speak to the listener, I hope, but it might not be every single line. I connect more with music that is personal and abstract and makes me feel something, so I want to do that for other people…”
Ruth Lyon releases her album Poems & Non Fiction via Pink Lane Records on 13th June. She performs at Reflex Records, Newcastle on Wednesday 18th June. www.ruthlyonmusic.com
Image by Sel Maclean
ANNA BARKER
ISABEL JOHNSON CHATS TO NOVELIST, POET AND ALL ROUND INCREDIBLE STORYTELLER ANNA BARKER ABOUT HER NEW PROJECT AND ACCOMPANYING THEATRE SHOW
How do you sum up grief in 62 pages? I’m really not sure, but Anna Barker manages to pull it off effortlessly in her brand new poetry collection Book of Crow. It’s a gritty, gorgeously gruesome deep dive into the thought processes of Anna’s character Rachel who channels the loss of her mother into a physical form, Crow.
“I can trace Book of Crow back to childhood, listening to crows and how their calls to each other sounded like words but they had forgotten how to talk.” Anna told me. “The night before I started writing the book, I had a migraine - nothing new - but this one took my voice away. It turned out to be a hemiplegic migraine. So, the following morning, I woke up and I had the voice of Crow. I don’t mean I was suddenly cawing, I had his voice in my head, complete, as though the migraine and losing my voice had somehow downloaded his directly into my head.” Anna even met a crow while writing the collection: Hamlet, whom Anna’s neighbour rescued. “The audacity of him, the mischief, the intense curiosity and unapologetic selfcenteredness of this beautiful creature... I think we might have shared a bag of crisps. He informed Crow in the book immensely.”
Book of Crow is not just about crows, though - delightfully multifaceted, it takes you on a grand tour of fascinating subject matter. Nature’s brutality, the fact that crows are actually much more than an overused trope, grief’s reign of terror over the human condition. “I was interested in how you live with grief… it’s like living with an unruly housemate, one that’s prone to fuck with you repeatedly and at the same time bring back the most beautiful, painful memories of those you’ve lost.”
I WAS INTERESTED IN HOW YOU LIVE WITH GRIEF…
Anna was grieving as she wrote the book, but it’s from another perspective entirely she continued. “I lost my father just three weeks after my daughter was born. Death and birth were almost simultaneous. I had this tiny life in my arms but I also was walking around and trying to function in the aftermath of a huge bereavement. To write about it from my own perspective would’ve been too painful, so I invented Rachel as a way to get into ‘dialogue’ with grief itself.” And what a touching dialogue it is.
This is Anna’s debut poetry collection, having only published novels previously. Feeling as though she couldn’t capture Crow in longform, she endeavoured to try something shorter and was shocked that the answer was poetry; she hadn’t liked it at all in school. It was only once Anna had explored new modern female poets that she began to realise how “gut-punchingly powerful and accessible poetry can be.”
The poetry showcased in Book of Crow will be made even more accessible thanks to Arts Council England, New Writing North and Live Theatre and has been developed into a stage piece, directed by Jack McNamara with acting from Natalie Ann Jamieson and specially composed music from The Shining Levels. “I wanted people who don’t ‘do poetry’ to experience it in a completely different way - as story, as acting, as music. It’ll be a bit of an emotional rollercoaster!”
Next on the cards for Anna is a joint biographical memoir with her mother, the novelist, Pat Barker, and it’s bound to be incredible if Book of Crow is anything to go by.
Anna Barker’s poetry collection Book of Crow is out now, and it comes to life on stage on Tuesday 17th June at Live Theatre, Newcastle. www.indigodreamspublishing.com/anna-barker
Image by Paul Crowther
BREADCRUMBS
CAMERON WRIGHT CHATS TO THE NORTH SHIELDS BAND ABOUT THE INSPIRED LYRICISM AND DYNAMIC SOUNDSCAPES ON THEIR NEW ALBUM
The sound of Breadcrumbs grabs you quickly, the music ebbs and flows, building from its rhythmic origins to something explosive and impassioned. It’s detached and distant but it’s punchy and powerful. The North Tyneside band’s self-titled release is extremely conscious, aware and smart. You can see the wry confidence and twinkle in the eye of songwriter Andy Bell as the anger and discontent is punctuated by a silliness and deft daftness. It toes the line beautifully and the sardonic poetry is covered in mounting guitars and a thundering rhythm section. The four friends that make up Breadcrumbs came to form the band after performing for one night at guitarist Dave Burton’s wedding. Collectively having played in The Lavender Faction and Kosmonaut, the jumbled line-up was rich with Northern musical experience.
Picking up their instruments to perform a series of wedding covers had been a long-standing tradition in the friendship group, however this time it steamrollered into something special.
Andy confesses that their latest release was written pretty organically. “This album just sort of came to be. I’d sit down with maybe a line or an idea, sketch out a demo, and slowly the lads would add a section here and a section there and suddenly it would be a song.”
“There wasn’t a rule book this time, which is a nice way to write,” confesses Dave, “we weren’t trying to redesign the wheel or do anything too crazy, but we did feel that we could make any choice we wanted. We like fiddling with expectations, changing it up and toying with where people expect the song to go.”
The idea that each song was written without a cohesive narrative across the album feels in direct contrast with the end result, as the record plays as a seamless listen, with the tracks in conversation with each other, building and retaliating against the previous. There is a journey and energy throughout the
MUSIC
WE LIKE FIDDLING WITH EXPECTATIONS, CHANGING IT UP AND TOYING WITH WHERE PEOPLE EXPECT THE SONG TO GO
record that feels meticulously crafted and mapped out. “We are a guitar band, and we want to sound like a guitar band, but we’ve never wanted to yield to a specific sound,” says Dave, elaborating: “People are often saying we sound like XYZ, and it’s always some obscure post-punk band that I've never heard of! We like playing around with weirder elements. We often get compared to Wire and it’s hard to deny that’s a big influence, those punchy sharp tracks that stick with you.”
Despite the growing guitars and often thundering rhythms, when I listened to the candid lyricism of Breadcrumbs, I am often reminded of one of my favourite bands, The Silver Jews, particularly on Breadcrumbs’ track DCDS, where it’s hard not to see a similar knack for phrasing imbedded in Andy.
With the album coming up and a launch party at North Shields’ Engine Rooms on the horizon, the band are giddy to keep working. “You need a bit of silliness in the mix. We’re a mix of men in their 50s and 60s – if it’s all doom, gloom and anger nobody would be having a good time. It’s often the daft moments that lead to something genuinely interesting. We just want to have a good time.”
Armed with inspired lyrics, dynamic soundtracks and a palpable excitement, a good time is always inevitable with Breadcrumbs.
Breadcrumbs launch The Breadcrumbs at The Engine Room, North Shields on Friday 27th June www.linktr.ee/breadcrumbstheband
THE GLASSHOUSE ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE
CLAIRE DUPREE MEETS THE THREE MUSICIANS WHO HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY DIGITAL INNOVATION AS PART OF THE GLASSHOUSE’S ANNUAL ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE PROGRAMME
The Glasshouse’s Artists In Residence programme seeks to encourage and support musicians to spend time on their craft, often with surprising and thrilling results. Their 2024-2025 cohort look to digital technology to develop their ambitions, although the artists taking part are no strangers to innovation. Electro-folk artist Frankie Archer’s music manipulates samples, synths and Northumbrian fiddle and voice to create a beguiling amalgamation of ancient melodies and modern technology. As part of the residency – which has been supported by Newcastle University’s music department, international arts commissioner Mediale and Advance Media Production (AMP) – artists were given access to a host of creative digital technology and support, which for Frankie was a vital way to learn new skills. Her project looks at how people can create music using their bodies to change sounds: “I wanted to do something different from the usual performer/audience split, where the audience is there in quite a passive way. There's such a barrier when it's like that and the energy and creativity can be quite one-way, so bringing everyone in the room into the music making, and in such a physical way, will let people experience a gig in a totally new way.”
The technological support elements of the residency have
helped Frankie to further enhance her live show. “I'm always thinking around the edges of how tech is designed to work, and seeing if I can bend the rules and use it in a weird way. That normally leads to some odd but really cool and memorable bits in my live gigs, and sounds that just wouldn't exist otherwise. So the residency has let me go wild with this!”
Frankie’s show on Thursday 12th June will be a fully interactive experience for the audience. “I've deconstructed some of my songs so that certain parts will be controlled by people in the room, they'll change sounds through movement and touch.”
Multidisciplinary artist Natalie Sharp’s practice also includes immersive and sensory elements, and the residency has enabled the development of her ongoing project Spume, which explores the intersection between the human body, sound and the ocean environment. “Spume seeks to create a multisensory experience that allows the audience to physically feel the presence of the sea through tactile sound technologies, ambisonics and immersive projections.” Natalie explains, commenting that collaboration with partners at Newcastle University has been a key element of the project. “This included experimenting with immersive sound technologies, such as spatialised audio and transducers, which enhance the audience’s connection with the
ako by Emma Ford
THIS YEAR’S COHORT LOOK TO DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY TO DEVELOP THEIR AMBITIONS, ALTHOUGH THE ARTISTS TAKING PART ARE NO STRANGERS TO INNOVATION
oceanic themes in my work. Their input has pushed me to consider how digital tools can not only enhance the storytelling aspect but also open new avenues for audience engagement.”
Natalie has explored concepts around horizontalism and deep listening to enable audiences to challenge conventional interactions with sound and music in a wonderfully interactive performance. The audience are invited to to experience the work in a horizontal, embodied state: “The horizontal, body-based engagement in Spume encourages audiences to attune to their bodies and the surrounding sonic environment in a more reflective, meditative way. This horizontal mode allows for a more intimate connection with the music, enabling audiences to not only hear but physically feel the oceanic soundscapes, allowing the sound to resonate directly within their bodies.”
Natalie’s performance explores themes of ecological interconnectedness and the fragility of the body in the ocean. “The performance will combine real-time sound manipulation, rest and projections, creating a dynamic and evolving environment that responds to both the performer’s movements and the audience’s presence.”
Natalie’s experiences as part of the residency has deeply influenced her creative process, and she plans to tour the performance internationally in the future. “The project now feels more aligned with my commitment to creating healing spaces where the body can relax and listen deeply. I want to further explore the potential of sound as a tool for healing, particularly for audiences who may not always feel represented in traditional performance settings.”
The evolution of technology and both its help and hindrance to
modern society is a theme that preoccupies the work of electronic musician, producer and performer Simeon Soden. Under his ako guise, Simeon employs creative coding, modified games consoles and analogue video equipment to create experimental sounds, and the collaboration with residency partners enabled him to expand the sense of scale and ambition in his work. “Over the course of the residency I wrote and produced my next album and AV work. The album, titled All Watched Over by Algorithms of Loving Grace, is a concept album exploring our growing relationship with AI and its potential to enhance or disrupt human experience.”
The album will be available at ako’s performance on Wednesday 25th June (it gets an official release in physical format on 27th June, and will be available digitally via US label Business Casual the week prior). “Thematically, the album reflects on both utopian and dystopian visions of AI, its role in warfare, effects on economies, notions of progress, and the existential questions raised by new and disruptive technologies.”
Having worked on the album since September, Simeon acknowledges the gift of time as well as the financial support that the residency has provided, enabling him to produce an ambitious body of work that will enhance his future practice. “The performance is going to be my most ambitious yet –expect VHS visuals, projections and a CRT TV wall creating an immersive audiovisual experience. I will be performing the new album in full plus a few of my old tracks too.” www.theglasshouseicm.org/artist-development
L-R: Natalie Sharp, Frankie Archer by Rob Irish
OLIVIA HANNAH
DAVID SAUNDERS CHATS WITH THE COUNTY DURHAM ALT. INDIE OUTFIT ABOUT HOW LIFE WITHIN AN EXCOLLIERY SHAPED THEIR DEBUT ALBUM
EVEN IN HEARTBREAK WE CAN FIND OURSELVES IN UNCONTROLLABLE LAUGHTER WITH OUR FRIENDS. THOSE ARE THE STORIES AND THE MOMENTS WE’RE TRYING TO TELL HERE
Damian Robinson talks to the Newcastle-based scriptwriter about her play which uniquely explores survival through dark humour, soulful storytelling and karaoke
Taking a unique approach to storytelling, Olivia Hannah’s Shit Life Crisis blends a multitude of components in its search to bring heart, soul and humour into topics not usually discussed in polite society, let alone on stage.
“The main aim with the show was to think about how we could start a conversation about cancer, not just the tale of what it must be like to receive a diagnosis, but also to explore other parts of cancer, like how it effects relationships and what it feels like to survive it.”
Promoted as a ‘dark comedy sing-along karaoke theatre show’ (“don’t worry, you don’t have to sing if you don’t want to and no one will be forced!” Olivia assures) Shit Life Crisis is produced by Silent Uproar, a Northern-based theatre company creating experiences for an alternative theatre crowd whilst covering daring and challenging topics.
“The topic of cancer is far from funny,” continues Olivia, “but what we were working on was a way to tell a real, emotional story; and as we know, most of our lives, whether we’re in a good moment or a not so good one, are mixed with contrasting
emotions so even in heartbreak we can find ourselves in uncontrollable laughter with our friends. Those are the stories and the moments we’re trying to tell here.”
Focused on two friends and their journey through and after having cancer, Shit Life Crisis explores parts of the journey seldom mentioned. “A close relative had cancer and she was explaining to me some of her realities of living with cancer, in some cases that meant not hearing from certain friends any more, in other cases it meant trying to deal with the challenges of long stretches of brain fog and feeling like you’re in a completely different body if you’re lucky enough to survive. The challenges I’m trying to explore are the ideas of ‘what does it mean to still not feel well even when others are saying you’ve recovered’ and ‘what would it feel like if you felt like you were in a brand new body’.”
Telling the story through emotional tales, dark humour and karaoke (“I can’t tell you which songs will be sung, but I can tell you that they’re well known and most people should be able to sing along if they’d like to,” she confirms), the show is heading out on a three week, four venue tour of the UK, stopping at Newcastle’s Alphabetti Theatre from Thursday 5th-Saturday 7th June. “I’m both nervous and excited at the moment, I can’t wait to get the show on the road, and to help share the story with others. The ideas of identity crisis and friendship, as well as exploring the topic of what it means to show up for someone, are becoming more and more important. These are ideas well worth exploring.” www.instagram.com/oh_livia_h
ME LOST ME MUSIC
ALI WELFORD TALKS TO JAYNE DENT ABOUT HER RICHLY IMMERSIVE NEW ALBUM
They say experience breeds confidence. There are ‘fledgling’ debuts, and ‘difficult’ second and third albums – but thereafter it seems musicians are expected to have nailed their craft to a tee. It’s an assumption which weighed heavily on Jayne Dent during the creation of This Material Moment; the Newcastle-based artist’s fourth full-length as Me Lost Me, and by some stretch her most challenging endeavour to date.
“The last album [2023’s RPG] did quite well, but then there’s always that pressure to go one better,” she observes, admitting the project was almost binned entirely. “I didn’t write this one to sell or achieve specific things. There’s a lot more of myself in this album than the others, and because of that I felt quite protective of it. I’m becoming more vulnerable with each record, but here I wasn’t sure I wanted to put something so personal out for scrutiny.”
Fortunately, Jayne’s conviction – and wise words from engineer Sam Grant (“When I told him I thought I hated it, he said ‘This is good, you’re just too close to it!’”) saw This Material Moment blossom into Me Lost Me’s richest, most immersive, and quite possibly strongest work to date. Quite the achievement for an artist whose electrifying electronic, folk and voice experiments had already produced some of the finest sounds the North East has heard in many a year.
“Now that I’m four albums in, I’m trying to avoid simply cramming in everything I do. Instead I’m focusing on specific elements or things I’ve written and picking them apart. I approached this one like an exhibition space for ideas – the way I was writing became the concept, as opposed to the subject
matter.”
Much of that inspiration was sourced in 2022, when Jayne travelled to the French Pyrenees to partake in a week of workshops with internationally acclaimed musicians/composers Julia Holter and Tashi Wada.
“It was a really beautiful reset. We did a lot of exercises to break out of our normal writing habits. Julia’s workshops were about using words as a more malleable material, and playing with them like you would with a melody. I’d often select random words from texts and use them as stimulus. It was less about writing a narrative and more about writing evocatively, with meaning and with feeling.”
Tashi’s sessions, meanwhile, focused on alternate tunings – an influence heard vividly throughout This Material Moment, not least on the eerie, meticulously layered single Compromise! “He thought it was a shame we’re reduced to just 12 notes – think of the depth of expression you could achieve by exploring between them! We’re so used to hearing those notes that introducing a bit of microtonality can really change the atmosphere – it makes things tense and uncomfortable. I really leant into that with this album.”
Conversely, This Material Moment also houses A Painting of the Wind, perhaps the most conventional – and certainly among the most beautiful – pieces to enter the Me Lost Me repertoire. “I initially felt self-conscious as it was a bit ‘songy.’ I tried to make it more glitchy and experimental but eventually decided that if I’d written a piano ballad, then fine! I’m getting a lot better at giving songs what they need, rather than trying to force them in a particular direction. It felt quite freeing to have done it here.”
This Material Moment is released on Friday 27th June. The album is launched with a full-band show at Live Theatre, Newcastle on Friday 18th July, and with a solo instore at Reflex Records on release day.
www.melostme.com
Image by Amelia Read
JACK AARON GREENSMITH
I GUESS THE SUNLIGHT IN THE DARK MEANING, TO ME, IS ABOUT FINDING HOPE IN THE SADDEST OF TIMES
DAVID SAUNDERS CATCHES UP WITH THE GUISBOROUGH SINGER-SONGWRITER ABOUT HIS NEW ALBUM, SUNLIGHT IN THE DARK, WHICH REFLECTS ON LIFE’S EVER-CHANGING EMOTIONS
For Guisborough singer-songwriter Jack Aaron Greensmith, music is a reflection of life’s ever-changing emotions - love, loss, hope, and self-discovery. With the release of his second album, Sunlight In The Dark, Jack expands on the sounds of his previous album while staying true to his acoustic roots. "I personally feel in myself that this is a stronger album than my first, A Never Ending Sea, as I feel I have found my own sound that I'm currently happy with," he says. The nine-song collection, recorded at home with a Zoom R8 8-track recorder, maintains an intimate approach while hinting at larger possibilities. "I wanted a bigger sound but with the use of only acoustics again that could potentially be expanded on with a band if the opportunity ever came up live."
His songwriting process spans two years, weaving together ideas that eventually took shape into what he calls "lovely songs." More than just narratives, Jack wanted these tracks to be "painting pictures, describing a scene," as well as embracing abstract themes. "I didn't want anything to sound too directmaybe even a little bit abstract: themes of happiness, love, hope… I guess the sunlight in the dark meaning, to me, is about finding hope in the saddest of times, letting the light in from the dark, catching the little drops of inspiration and making your dreams come true."
The album’s themes are deeply personal, drawing from both past insecurities and newfound confidence. Songs like Flawed tap into feelings of doubt. "It’s a reflection to me personally of when I was younger and not feeling like I was good enough for
anyone… feelings of doubt and insecurity, which I feel a lot of people go through until they realise they are worth so much more." Meanwhile, My Candlelight serves as a beacon of hope. "A little flicker of hope in the darkest of times… You should never let that go out."
Sonically, Jack’s vocal style and guitar work have notes of modern lo-fi acoustic indie combined with more traditional folk stylings, which combine with the warm, roomy ambience of the production for an engaging listen that naturally draws focus to the lyrical depth of each song.
Greensmith is influenced by the likes of Bon Iver, Nick Drake and Elliot Smith; however, much closer to home, it’s his family that has been important in shaping his music. "I've been playing guitar since I was 14 years old, since my gran took me to my first ever guitar lessons… She was a big fan of Bob Dylan and my grandad liked Johnny Cash, so I guess I had some good influences there from the start." He goes on to add, “My lovely wife Emily Louise Greensmith has been a big inspiration on this album and has always been there for me.”
Looking ahead, I ask Jack if there is a style of music he’d love to explore next? “I think I'm currently going to stick with an acoustic-based sound but expand possibly with string sounds such as a keyboard or a piano or something. I'm not too sure. I'm just going to see where it takes me”.
Sunlight In The Dark is released on Sunday 1st June. www.linktr.ee/barberjack2695
GOING BACK BROCKENS
MACK SPROATES CHATS WITH THE IMPECCABLE PAIR BEHIND THE INVISIBLE MONUMENTS AND LIVING HERITAGE FEATURED IN A NEW, MAJOR MULTI-SITE EXHIBITION EXPLORING THE EXTRAORDINARY POST-STRIKE LANDSCAPES OF COUNTY DURHAM
“Any kind of making work about a particular region is inherently political. And I want to avoid rustic porn or poverty porn. There’s a lot of rural landscape, a lot of sea, a lot of sky. There’s an element of it being… what it is.”
When tackling a project as momentous as Going Back Brockens, there could be no-one better than award winning artist and lecturer, Narbi Price. This major multi-site exhibition sees Narbi capturing post-strike landscapes of County Durham in 40 new paintings, marking 40 years since the end of the miners’ strikes.
Woven into the exhibition is an immersive soundscape curated by Mark Hudson, a celebrated writer, journalist and author of Coming Back Brockens (1994), in which Mark interviewed folks who had lived through the strikes. Narbi cited this as the seeds of inspiration for the exhibition. “The thing that really chimed with me was that it was an unpolished view of working-class experience that resonated with my own upbringing.”
It soon became evident that the two needed to join forces. “It turned out that Mark has this incredible archive of raw material that has never been heard by anyone apart from him,” notes Narbi. “There's some quite electrifying stuff and it needs to have some further life.” Mark adds.
The art is unparalleled; Narbi’s eye for capturing such detailed scenery in paint is extraordinary. On creating the 40 new paintings, Narbi explained: “I wanted to do something that could be remotely representative of that range of different types
IT'S AS SIMPLE AS SOUND AND IMAGE, BUT IT'S ALSO INCREDIBLY NUANCED AND EMOTIVE TO HAVE THOSE TWO THINGS TOGETHER
of landscape. I find myself deliberately choosing things I might find challenging to paint.” He continued with a fascinating observation. “The layout of the towns and villages is shaped by mining. There's a rhythm to the streets that services a pit. The whole landscape is hunkered around a void. That changes how people move through space and that’s something that we all react to, whether we do it so consciously or not.”
This is exactly why the work is so pertinent; it’s these landscapes that still shape the lives of the folks living there, which is important to honour. “We're living in a time when there's been a massive discussion about monuments. Why can't we celebrate the people of Horden?” Mark added, offering an interesting revelation. “The manners of speech that emerged from that time are still around, and that in a way is monumental. It's part of the living past that's still going on. Things that deserve to be preserved, or treasured, even though they don’t exist in physical objects. It should be applied even notionally to the spoken rhetoric of East Durham.”
This superb pair have created something truly special; an evocative, honest and genuine representation of working-class experience and landscapes; not glittered up or rose tinted.
Going Back Brockens provides a chance for people to hear echoes of the past, whilst exploring what it means to still exist in these spaces today. Narbi summarised: “It's as simple as sound and image, but it's also incredibly nuanced and emotive to have those two things together.”
Going Back Brockens opens on Friday 13th June at The Warehouse in Newgate Centre, Bishop Auckland, and will then be open from 12pm-3pm every Thursday, Friday and Saturday until Saturday 5th July. It will also feature at the 139th Durham Miners’ Gala on Saturday 12th July and at Horden’s 125th anniversary celebrations on Friday 22 August. www.nomorenowt.org/big-projects/going-back-brockens
(L-R) Narbi Price and Mark Hudson in front of St Mary's church in Horden, one of the venues hosting part of the exhibition
CAFÉ MAGRANA MUSIC
LAURA ROSIERSE SPEAKS TO JOE WHITEHILL ABOUT HIS PROLIFIC DIY SOLO PROJECT AHEAD OF THE RELEASE OF HIS FIFTH ALBUM, DISPATCHES
IT’S MORE POLISHED COMPARED TO EVERYTHING ELSE I’VE WRITTEN, IT’S MORE MATURE AND LISTENABLE
County Durham-based musician Joe Whitehill has already been creating genre-hopping albums for years in his bedroom and returns to the DIY scene in June with a fresh cut (his fifth so far), Dispatches. Café Magrana is the moniker of this musical project, inspired by a restaurant in Mallorca, which features a healthy dose of alternative, anti-folk and indie tunes all notable for their double-tracked vocals, quick lyrics, and a noticeable lack of drums.
“It’s a bit more alternative than indie, it’s not alternative enough to be punk, and it’s got a lot of anti-folk. I’m inspired by, of course, The Beatles, Dylan, Daniel Johnston, Martha [and] all the indie bands my dad made me listen to from the age of three upwards. My dad has imparted all of his taste and knowledge on me. We went to gigs a lot with my mum as well.” Self-taught, self-inspired and self-motivated, Joe exists to create and every day consists of him playing and working out ideas. “I fiddle about on guitar for hours every day and that helps me find ideas that I like. I'll sing five different melodies and five different sets of lyrics and write it down and keep it going like that. I will play something, see what it sounds like and add words onto it.” Surprisingly, Joe has never collaborated with anyone else and takes his inspiration from all of life’s wonderful distractions.
“Sometimes I’ve heard a phrase that needs to be a lyric, or sometimes I want to write a political song, other times the weather is a great inspiration.”
While Dispatches touches upon many themes it is most of all a slice of Joe’s life. “This album is really a collection of songs that sum up 2024 for me. There are a lot of themes that run through it, there’s a lot of sonic similarities”. He speaks passionately and openly about the process of creating the album, which he says he has done “properly” this time. “Which means I can sit and listen to the tracks and appreciate them a little more. It’s more polished compared to everything else I’ve written, it’s more mature and listenable. I’m proud of making it more approachable.” Joe admits he has been pleasantly surprised by the album’s reception so far and hopes to use that response as a stepping stone confident that his persistence is starting to pay off, and he’s got his sights set on loftier goals. “Maybe the next album will be recorded in a studio with band members. I hope I will get a few gigs on the back of it and get some more people interested in what I’m writing. I’d love to play an outdoor, open air festival on a proper stage. Breaking into Newcastle would be a fantastic step up. And to hear one of my songs on the radio would be amazing…”
Speaking to a musician that is eager to write and create out of necessity, and not for social media jingles, is refreshing. It’s clear that Joe has a love for telling stories through his music and Dispatches proves he’s more than worth listening to.
Café Magrana release Dispatches on 20th June. www.cafemagrana.bandcamp.com
AUDREY COOK
PHOENIX ATKINSON TALKS TO THE TEESSIDE THEATRE MAKER ABOUT THEIR WORK BEING PREMIERED AS PART OF THE TRANS PERFORMANCE NOW FESTIVAL
Live Theatre is a hotbed of new creative talents, and the upcoming Trans Performance Now festival will be a key point for the local theatrical scene in celebrating trans-led UK theatre. The free to attend festival will bring work-in-progress shows to the fore, with representatives from Queer Arts North along with theatre producers and managers on hand to provide support. The showcase will feature work from a variety of UK talent including Emma Frankland, Ivor MacAskill, Rosana Cade, Tabby Lamb, Bea Webster, Kate O’Donnell, Patti Boo Rae, Laurie Ward, Charli Cowgill and our very own Mack Sproates. One of the key shows taking place is Payton, by Teesside-based non-binary theatre maker Audrey Cook. “Payton is a Twilight Zone/Amicus Horror-inspired story following a young trans man uncovering the mystery of a supernatural, blood sucking force in his town.” Cook explains. “When he meets a group of underground beings, he questions his place in the world, and discovers some hidden desires that he had been suppressing in order to survive.”
Cook describes it as “my ‘pull yourself out of your comfort zone and try everything you’ve never tried before’ show,” and you can tell that it is a labour of love, having been in the works since the pandemic. The theatre maker’s previous work includes fearless humour and social commentary, including last year’s Bus Stop Goths and theatrical cabaret Ricky The Itch, and taking part in an event like Trans Performance Now will help Cook to develop their ambitions. “If people are buying what I’m selling, and want to talk logistics to put my gothic, sinister, sexy visuals on stage,
IT’S A REALLY LIBERATING CREATIVE EXERCISE TO MAKE A SHOW DRIPPING WITH EXCESS, TO LAY IT ALL BARE, AND THINK ABOUT THE PRACTICALITIES LATER
I’d be over the moon to work with a venue to make that happen. It’s a really liberating creative exercise to make a show dripping with excess, to lay it all bare, and think about the practicalities later.”
The festival will be a key event for trans creatives, and Cook says: “I think when there is such sparse platforming for trans work, the festival will be a brilliant culmination of the potential and brilliance of trans-led creation.”
Cook explains their own appetite for performance comes from a place of transformation: “It’s very rooted in my trans joy and my favourite avenue for liberation – I think that’s true for a lot of trans performers.” Getting an opportunity to explore their performative and written work, and being able to take risks, can pay huge dividends. “When we want to ground our work in the queer art movement we want to swing big, and we need trust in our ideas and our potential to make that work. We don’t often take the most conventional path to create, and that can scare the people with the power to programme and invest. So trust is huge.”
As the Trans Performance Now festival is an R&D-focused event, Payton will still be a work-in-progress, and Cook has described this as a positive. “The perk of writing a script for the R&D is that it has no real limitation at this stage. I’m just telling a story.”
Cook hopes there’s more to come from initiatives like Trans Performance Now. “We need platforms for trans creatives to make work that excites them. I’m also a huge advocate for more funding for cabaret. Cabaret is an artform with so much history, creativity and safety for queer people! I think it’s the perfect playground for queer artists to make liberated work that liberates its audience.”
Trans Performance Now takes place at Live Theatre, Newcastle from Friday 27th-Sunday 29th June. www.linktr.ee/piginthecity
LISTINGS
THE BEST OF THE REST… EVEN MORE ALTERNATIVE MUSIC, THEATRE, COMEDY, ART AND FILM TAKING PLACE THROUGHOUT THE NORTH EAST THIS MONTH
SUNDAY 1 JUNE
LADIES OF LAUGHTER
A night of comedy from Noreen Khan, Annette Fagon, Louise Young and Shazia Mirza // The Stand, Newcastle
MIKI BERENYI TRIO
Wandering Oak presents Miki Berenyi trip, a newly minted sound with a fresh line up with profound vocals, melancholic guitars mixed with electronica. With support from dream pop outfit Nano Kino // The Cluny, Newcastle
THE SPY IN BLACK
Darkness and foreboding dominate this World War l spy story. Confused loyalties build to a bitter climax as it signals the end of an era // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
TURIN BRAKES
Celebrating the release of their 10th studio album, Spacehopper, cult band Turin Brakes will be stopping by Newcastle for an exclusive in store intimate performance // Reflex, Newcastle
NOWT SPECIAL: ALL CATS ARE BEAUTIFUL
Taking place in former Cat Cafe Mog On The Tyne, Nowt Special is back with a brand new feline inspired exhibition plus merch stalls, workshops and live art // Mog On The Tyne, Newcastle
TUESDAY 3 JUNE
FIRST PICTURE
This documentary tells the story of a Palestinian child born in one of the Israeli occupations prisons // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
WEDNESDAY
4 JUNE
IN THE FRAME Community networking event for folks interested in film, including a talk from Teesside Screenwriter and Director Mark A.C. Brown. // Northern School of Art, Hartlepool
FEATURED // Melanie Baker
BBC Introducing presents Melanie Baker, bringing her trademark mix of fierce emotion and lyrical poetry to the stage // The Glasshouse, Gateshead
THURSDAY 5 JUNE
AL’S PALS
A pawsome comedy fundraiser in aid of Second Chance Dog Rescue with host Al Stevenson // The Stand, Newcastle DECLARATION
A new exhibition exploring writings and recycled paper artworks mapping the journey towards becoming a signatory with Culture Declares Emergency, featuring work from poet Kristen Luckins and paper artist Ellie Clewlow. Opening on World Environment Day and running until 14th June, you can experience live-folding origami of the installation // ARC, Stockton
ENEMY OF THE STATE
A lawyer becomes targeted by the NSA when he receives evidence of a political assassination. Is it an indictment or a celebration of state surveillance? // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
FRIDAY 6 JUNE
HOUSE FOLK
House Folk presents a fantastic line up of some of the finest folk musicians including Mr Saturday Night, Staithe and Eddie Doyle // The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle WESTENRA
Captivating and atmospheric goth band Westenra will be joined by Sunderland’s own Black Rain for a night of goth punk fun // Black Bull, Gateshead
SATURDAY 7 JUNE
FEATURED // David Hall Photography Exhibition
Showcasing the works of one of Newcastle’s most iconic music photographers (aka Nostalgia Kid), the preview includes live music from Perfect Chicken, The Slugs and No Teeth // Zerox, Newcastle
DISCOVER FESTIVAL
Newcastle University invites you to Spark Your Curiosity, a free, one day festival of interactive and inspiring family fun, where you can immersive yourself in wonder and exploration // Newcastle University
FEATURED // Hi, I’m Charlie
Twisting Ducks Theatre Company presents a new play written and performed by artists with learning disabilities and autistic artists, exploring themes of identity, perception and what it means to feel seen // Theatre Royal, Newcastle
SLATE LABEL
The Bunker presents a night of up and coming talent from the region including South Shields rock band Slate Label, The Embers and Sonic Void // The Bunker, Sunderland
SUNDAY 8 JUNE
THE SHOUT
Greater than the frightening power of exorcism. More mystifying than any omen of reincarnation. The soul-shattering experience of... The Shout! // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
MONDAY 9 JUNE
LAUGH OUT PROUD
Showcasing queer comedy, this fundraiser night will celebrate the funniest and fiercest LGBTQIA+ talent in the North East // The Stand, Newcastle
TWINNIE
Twinnie will be bringing a signature mix of country, pop and sass with support from Bonner Black // The Cluny, Newcastle
TUESDAY 10 JUNE
KULVERT BOOKS LAUNCH
North East-based poetry press Kulvert Books presents an event to celebrate the release of two collections of work: Aerogramme by Koef Nielsen and Late Studies & Sketches by Tony Towle, featuring live music // Bridge Hotel, Newcastle
THURSDAY 12 JUNE
DAN SMALLEY
Smalley expresses a fresh take on country music that knows tradition, inspired by the greats of the genre and infused with the swampy sounds of his roots alongside gospel and R&B // The Forum, Darlington
HAVISHAM
A play exploring the psyche of Miss Havisham from Great Expectations, performed by award-winning actress Heather Alexander // Gosforth Civic Theatre
TANK GIRL
Tank Girl, a survivor of dystopian Earth, rides a war tank, battling a mega-corporation that tyrannically controls the planet’s scarce water supply // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
FRIDAY 13 JUNE
SHANNON PEARL
Witch pop pioneer Shannon Pearl will be weaving spells into songs on this fab line-up alongside Solstice and Conor Michael // The Bunker, Sunderland
SATURDAY 14 JUNE
KATHERINE RYAN
Beloved comedian Katherine Ryan is on tour to help you gain a true masterclass in how to enter your Battleaxe era // Sunderland Empire
NEWCASTLE CARD SHOW
Let your inner nerd shine at Newcastle Card Show, an event for trading card collectors to celebrate their hobbies. Meet other collectors, check out stall holders or even trade your own cards from Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic: The Gathering and more. Running 14th and 15th June // Discovery Museum, Newcastle
SUNDAY 15 JUNE
HOLLY JOHNSON
Music legend Holly Johnson celebrates the 40th anniversary of the iconic Frankie Goes To Hollywood album Welcome To The Pleasure Dome // O2 Academy, Newcastle
NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT
A fusion of light and dark, the wonder of astronomy, light from the past interlaid with the darkness of Chile’s fascist past // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
TUESDAY 17 JUNE
HARAMBEE PASADIA
Strength In Unity is an empowering benefit concert of music, community and support hosted by the brilliant Harambee Pasadia and featuring Ladies of Midnight Blue, Sushi Sound and La Sonora Boreal // Newcastle University
WEDNESDAY 18 JUNE
MR DRAYTON’S ROCK DOCS - BLUR: TO THE END
A documentary screening which follows the reunion of Blur // Arts Centre Washington
THURSDAY 19 JUNE
THE LOVE WITCH
A witch longing for romance brews potent love potions that conjure obsession and death. A technicolour horror dissecting romantic ideals and gender roles // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
THE SONGWRITING CIRCLE
A night for up and coming original music // The Engine Room, North Shields
FRIDAY 20 JUNE
C DUNCAN
Spellbinding Scottish musician // The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle
DOGSFLESH
Melodic metal tracks as part of the band’s new album tour // The Georgian Theatre, Stockton
LEAVING IT BETTER
Over the course of a year, a group met on farms in Teesdale to have conversations about the work and campaigns they’re involved in // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
OLD TIME SAILORS
A fully immersive adventure where sea shanties meet a plethora of music genres // Anarchy Brew Co, Newcastle
SATURDAY 21 JUNE
BOWES MUSEUM LECTURE
The Curator Series: The Struggles of Women Artists in the 19th Century with a talk by Eleanor Thirlway. Gain valuable insight into the life of artist and collector Joséphine Bowes who was navigating exclusion from the art world // Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle
CARRYING DAVID
An incredible story written by Ed Waugh about the love of two local brothers. David McCrory, who was terminally ill and the driving force behind Glenn McCrory becoming the first world champion boxer in the region in 1989. Running between 21st-22nd June // Theatre Royal, Newcastle
DEMAIN, LA VALLÉE / TOMORROW, THE VALLEY
Confronted by the reality of climate change, the population of the Arac Valley come together to devise strategies to change the way they live // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
SUNDAY 22 JUNE
THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT
Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the Australian desert to perform their unique style of cabaret! // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
FEATURED // Queer Exchange
This market will be a colourful celebration of queer creativity in the North East with food, music and crafts // One Strawberry Lane, Newcastle
MONDAY 23 JUNE
THE LINE WE CROSSED
The Line We Crossed is a British story of dissent told from the frontlines from the perspective of the climate activists // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
WANT MORE?
WEDNESDAY 25 JUNE
OUTDOOR FILM NIGHTS: JAWS
The Grove presents a screening of the shark-tastic beach town horror classic // The Grove, Newcastle
THURSDAY 26 JUNE
PSYCHO BEACH PARTY
Chicklet, a 16-year-old tomboy, longs to join Malibu’s surf crowd - but there’s a catch. Her personality is split into more pieces than a pepperoni pizza! // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
FRIDAY 27 JUNE
POLEVAULTER
Noisy and intense electronic noise punk, with support from Holy Braille, Lenz and Gaydar // The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle
SILLY BILLIES
Resident Silly Billies Jack and Sam are up to their usual comedy antics, alongside stand-up poet Donald Jenkins // Prohibition Bar, Newcastle
STUDY FOR A PAINTING
A fresh interpretation of 21st century painting from 12 artists. Runs until 26th July // Hatton Gallery, Newcastle
THE STIM CAFE
A new, friendly inclusive social event for neurodivergent folks who want connect and build community through workshops and fun activities // One Strawberry Lane, Newcastle
SATURDAY 28 JUNE
THE STAND KIDS COMEDY CLUB
Hosted by Newcastle comedy faves Elaine Robertson and Lee Kyle, this will be a daytime of hilarious chaotic fun for all the family // The Stand, Newcastle
PREEMPTIVE LISTENING WITH Q&A
A documentary screening and Q&A with Aura Satz about her film which explores sirens and alarms in a new way // Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle
SUNDAY 29 JUNE
AND THEN WE DANCED
In a coming-of-age story set in conservative Tbilisi, Merab forms a rivalry with a rebellious fellow dancer // Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle
REVIEWS
KOMPARRISON, END CREDITS, CARDIAC @ THE GEORGIAN THEATRE, STOCKTON (26.04.25)
Words: Steve Spithray
When Komparrison announced they were literally splitting - one going travelling, one getting married, one in another increasingly successful band - it was only right we got the chance to say farewell. The supports for the occasion are expertly pooled from Teesside’s simmering primordial soup of talent. Cardiac may well be here to snatch the headliner’s torch at only their second ever gig with a medley of originals and covers including future hit Timebomb; while psychedelic indie rockers End Credits’ guitar-heavy improvisation due to some technical issues is an unscheduled joy.
Arriving on stage to John Farnham’s You’re The Voice for some ritualistic Jaegers is quite the entrance for Komparrison, and two songs in dual-vocalist Elise’s banter is already tearful. Elsewhere, there are genuine, touching and emotional exchanges between all five members of the band throughout tonight’s set. It doesn’t matter that the sound isn’t great, or that drinks may have been taken throughout the day because What You See Is What You Get has the Georgian Theatre in full-on party mode. Having opened the set with farewell single Jane they end by going back to their duo roots with a visibly emotional Elise and Kaitlyn ripping through a rousing acoustic McDonald’s Drive Thru. So, don’t be sad that it’s over, be happy that it happened and why not buy a ticket for that next Cardiac gig?
AXINE M, BRIDGET FERILL & ÁSLAUG MAGNÚSDÓTTIR, TOI GUY @ THE STAR & SHADOW CINEMA, NEWCASTLE (29.04.25)
Words: Ben Lowes-Smith
There is a fascinating thread running through all of the acts tonight in the sense that, in one way or another, they assimilate pre- and post-pop music influences together seamlessly, while skirting over the second half of the 20th century, owing as much to Baroque as Burial. Toi Guy opens with a deceptively visceral set: which marries the plaintive, the haunting and the immediate beautifully. Accompanied by violin and electronics, it’s a compelling and urgent piece. Crucially though, there is also a pronounced sense of play here, reflected in the aesthetic choices made by Guy in a sonic and otherwise capacity. Bridge Ferill (on harp
by Victoria Wai
and electronics) and Áslaug Magnúsdóttir (on clarinet) produce an intricate melancholic set where traditional folk compositions collide beautifully with hyperpop aesthetics. The audience’s expectations are deconstructed as conventional folk compositions are fractured and manipulated by the duo, with the electronics providing glorious counter melodies and counter textures in a landscape sitting between noise and neoclassical. Axine M treads a more contemporary furrow, but with vocal styling that speaks to songs of devotion, resulting in a euphoric set as celebratory as it is otherworldly. Amidst the clattering discord of Axine M’s music lies a deeply melancholic heart
THE POGUES, STICK IN THE WHEEL @ O2 CITY HALL, NEWCASTLE (08.05.25)
Words: Lee Fisher
Faced with a cheerfully rowdy crowd who probably don’t know their work, Stick In The Wheel wisely came out swinging – mostly dispensing with their slower material and leaning into the stomping, rhythmic energy of songs like Villon Song, A Thousand Pokes and Over Again, with drummer Emma Holbrook really pounding it out, Ian displaying a hitherto concealed guitar hero and Nicola positively prowling the stage. Wonderful stuff.
The last couple of times I saw the Pogues – with or without Shane – it was a tired, almost sad affair and I thought twice about coming tonight but the list of guest artists – Daragh and John from Lankum, Lisa O’Neill, John Frances Flynn, Stick In The Wheel, Iona Zajac and Nadine Shah – made me curious, and it turned out to be one of the most powerful gigs I’ve been to in a while. Running through the whole of Rum, Sodomy & The Lash and the Poguetry In Motion EP (their greatest release), the core Pogues – Jem, Spider and James – were reinvigorated and jubilant, and as one guest after another brought something special to such golden material, it was emotionally charged and utterly celebratory. O’Neill’s take on Rainy Night In Soho broke me, Zajac, Shah and O’Neill bringing some Shangri Las to London Girl was a delight and seeing the full line-up (18 people all in, including a brass section) closing with Sally MacLennane will stay with me for a long time. Glorious.
Komparrison
ANDY BELL @ THE GLASSHOUSE, GATESHEAD (08.05.25)
Words: Victoria Wai
It was a night to re-live my older siblings’ record collection, and Andy Bell more than delivered. Perhaps better known to some as the singer of 80s duo Erasure, the veteran artist is currently touring his latest solo album, Ten Crowns, which has been highly praised due to its celebration of queer joy and resilience.
The all-seated crowd didn’t stay static for long, as the first bars of opening track Breaking Thru The Instellar filled the room and everyone was on their feet. The hits came thick and fast, with Erasure’s big hits of Blue Savannah and Sometimes quickly following. The set comprised of a great mix of Bell’s solo work along with Erasure hits intertwining throughout.
Pop country act Steele Fountain made up Bell’s tour support, and Hailey Steele returned for a brilliant duet with Bell, while also performing an homage to Erasure’s ballad Breathe with bandmate Jerry Fuentes. Another surprise was Bell himself covering the classic Xanadu; it seemed everyone in the crowd had a song to relate to.
Rounding off this most electrifying night of synth pop, Bell spoilt us with a ‘letter’ to his fans, with Thank You from his latest album sandwiched between the classics Oh L’Amour and A Little Respect, taking us out into the glorious night and reaffirming that Andy Bell is one of music’s true treasures.
FUTURE COLLABORATIONS @ POP RECS LTD., SUNDERLAND (26.04.25)
Words: Neil Ainger
Playing the festival out after a long day, Warm Digits and their infectious and energetic brand of indietronica and krautrock still had Pop Recs bouncing. They are, simply, a fantastic live band. They followed a sublime set of atmospheric avant-folk from the spectacular Me Lost Me as well as the up-and-coming Old Man. Absolutely no offence intended therefore to any of those acts, or to indie rock quartet Camel Island from South Shields who delivered a sprightly and vibrant performance, or to the melancholic tones of singer-songwriter Samuel Frame whose short set was packed full of emotion and passion. But the real magic of Future Collaborations festival is provided by the members of AutismAble, based in South Shields, and their music tuition service
aimed at empowering people with autism and learning difficulties and helping them to fulfil their potential.
The real stars of the festival are the young people exhibiting the courage and the bravery to take the stage and perform, and the bands formed via the programme, as well as those seizing the opportunities the festival provides to gain hands-on experience in the events and music industry arena, from stage management to sound and lighting, to ticket sales, to road crew support. Future Collaborations festival is an inclusive, warm and positive environment as well as a thoroughly enjoyable bill of talent run to a very high standard. Everyone involved, from top to bottom, deserves to feel very proud of what they have created.
GNOD, WHITE HILLS, CHEAP LUNCH @ THE STAR & SHADOW CINEMA, NEWCASTLE (04.05.25)
Words: Lee Fisher
A reborn Cheap Lunch hit the stage like they have something to prove with a track that sounds like a black metal Hawkwind and proceed to gallop through a set of bludgeoning noise rock, with splashes of space rock whoosh, dubbed up drums and some fine zoned-out passages set against the generally belligerent momentum. The oppressive vibe is shattered by an admission that one song is about not being able to buy weed in Bensham (and by the name Cheap Lunch, like Party Cannon for the Roadburn crowd). They sup from the same barrel of toxic waste as Smote, but there’s some Cramps/Butthole Surfers wonky garage rumble in there too.
I bloody love Gnod, have done for years. The industrial noise Gnod, the pastoral chanting Gnod, the full-tilt psych rock Gnod. In the 15+ years since they first collaborated with White Hills, they’ve been all those things and more. Meanwhile, White Hills have made lots of albums that sound like White Hills. And that’s the problem: tonight felt like a retrograde move for half the people on the stage (notwithstanding the keyboard player from Radar Men From The Moon). While everything chugged along quite pleasingly, and there were a few minutes here and there where things really took off, it mostly felt overfamiliar and tired, a succession of well-worn riffs. It felt played out, worn out, dropped out. Gnod are better than this.
Andy Bell by Victoria Wai
PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS, SMOTE @ THE STAR & SHADOW CINEMA, NEWCASTLE (26.04.25)
Words: Lee Fisher
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Smote and they were on immense, brooding form. It was almost punishingly loud (there was a stampede to the jar of ear plugs on the bar as they started) and the whole set was a brown acid hellscape of throbbing pulses (like a malevolent Set The Controls) and abrasive walls of sound. The drums throughout were especially impressive, rolling tribal tattoos, and one track’s rhythm somehow sounded like Front 242’s Headhunter. Minimal flute too… The anticipation for this hometown show, the middle one of a three-night stand, was palpable, and as Pigsx7 came on to For Those About To Rock it was clearly going to be special. Starting with the sinewy riffs of The Wyrm – surely the highlight of Death Hilarious? –was a strong move and it sounded absolutely ferocious. Everyone seemed to be at the peak of their powers and it might be the best I’ve seen them, with riffs for days, everything honed and maximalist. Matt was in full WWF emcee mode, bringing us wrestling stats, a headbanging contest and some thoughts on the Venga Boys and Download and managing to be one of the most charismatic, watchable frontmen around. Pigsx7 at full tilt is about as thrilling as it gets and they left it all out there on the stage. They exited to Venga Boys’ We Like To Party because of course they did.
GREENTEA PENG @ BOILER SHOP, NEWCASTLE (30.04.25)
Words: Joe Sharples
Filling Newcastle’s Boiler Shop with their soulful, global grooves, the Seng Seng family (Greentea Peng’s incredible band) majestically introduce themselves to the already boogieing crowd, before Greentea Peng herself steps centre stage. If the temperature wasn’t already high enough (having been one of the hottest days of the year), it would only keep rising over the next 90+ minutes, as Greentea Peng and the Seng Seng family blistered through an eclectic mix of songs and genres. Greentea Peng has a remarkable live voice, and one which stayed strong throughout her entire set, despite navigating R’n’B, soul, hip-hop,
jazz and rock, and alongside the crowd, not staying still for even a second.
Infectious energy radiated from all five members of the Seng Seng family, alongside clearly excellent musicianship and a rock-solid togetherness, with racing guitar solos, rich layered percussion, thumping drumming, driving basslines and funky synths/electronica. Tracks like Dingaling demonstrated the connection between Greentea Peng and her band, and fan favourites such as Stuck In The Middle were perfectly delivered. An unexpected cover of Kelis’ Milkshake was also a crowd-pleaser, delivered with a sumptuous Seng Seng flair. Rounding off the evening was I AM (Reborn), from her recently released TELL DEM IT’S SUNNY, and it was absolutely electric. Towards the rockier end of Greentea Peng’s discography, it provided a fittingly raucous finale, and a diverse end to an eclectic evening.
MEKONS, TOMMY ARCH @ THE CLUNY, NEWCASTLE (12.05.25)
Words: Lee Fisher
A late arrival meant missing most of Tommy Arch’s set but the couple of songs I saw were impressive. The erstwhile Holy Moly & The Crackers drummer has a strong, soulful, rootsy voice and was backed by two Tea Pad Orchestra alumni - some warm and fluid bass from Ted Harbot and fine mandolin and harmonica from Moanin’ Tom Cronin. I wish I’d seen more.
A Mekons gig is like a gathering of the faithful, a rally for the drunk but undefeated. A beautiful thing. Mekons were a man down (Lu Edmonds was off on PiL duties) and the magnificent Sally Timms, a powerful mix of imperious and wryly amused, was unwell but battled on for most of the set. The whole thing was excellent of course, and a beefy mix meant they sounded epic. We got a song from their first gig almost fifty years ago – Lonely & Wet – and a trio from the recent, wonderful Horror album. And of course, a selection from a long career’s worth of absolute classics, from Abernant to Where Were You (with honorary Mekon Mitch jumping in on vocals). There’s probably no better double-whammy than Curse Of The Mekons and Hard To Be Human and no greater comment on the chimera of rock ’n’ roll than Memphis, Egypt (‘I'm born inside the belly of rock n' roll’). Mekons must never be allowed to stop.
Pigs x7 by Amelia Read
PUP, ILLUMINATI HOTTIES, GOO @ NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ UNION (12.05.25)
Words: Adam Paxton
It is rare an uncompromising band in a genre considered to be dead (punk) from across the pond are able to attract such a rabid following as PUP did in Newcastle. But such a crowd showed up in droves, and seemingly every one of them came to expend every ounce of raw passion they had over the course of PUP’s headline set. Non-stop, exhausting, high-paced mosh-inducing punk ensued for the duration, with the band - and the crowd - barely stopping for breath. Goo opened excellently, getting the crowd engaged early. Illuminati Hotties followed, with brilliant frontwoman Sarad Tudzin twinning her band's excellent, catchy riffs with a charismatic stage presence and fun dialogue.
When PUP emerged, all hell broke loose. PUP aren’t much for patter with the audience - they simply induced a non-stop recipe for moshing. Even towards the end of the set, the entire crowd sweating and exhausted, they never stopped with the intensity, forcing every last drop of energy out of the group of faithful who seemed to know every word. The vocals were excellent, drums heavy and energetic and the guitar infectious. A fantastic, flawless punk show.
MICHAEL CERA PALIN @ ZEROX, NEWCASTLE (03.05.25)
Words: Maria Winter
Atlanta’s emo punk trio Michael Cera Palin brought their cathartic chaos to Newcastle’s Zerox, delivering a set that was equal parts vulnerability and volume.
Touring in support of their long-awaited debut album We Could Be Brave, the trio reaffirmed why they’ve become cult favourites on the DIY scene. The diverse guitar playing stood out to me, combining melodic emotive fretwork with punchy heavy rock riffs on tracks like Feast Or Famine and Murder Hornet Fursona. This, paired with Elliott Brabant’s lyrical delivery laced with disarming honesty, proves how the band aren’t afraid to dig into the messy corners of politics, mental health and
the human connection.
Their songwriting hits hard but never feels heavy-handed – offering moments when watching live that provoke thought just as much as they invite you to scream along in solidarity.
Michael Cera Palin might lean into the melodrama, but they never overdo it. What they deliver live is genuine: punchy emo punk with no frills and plenty of feels. If you’re into shouting about your existential dread with a room full of strangers, this was your night.
NATI @ THE CLUNY, NEWCASTLE (30.04.25)
Words: Damian Robinson
Taking the lead from her recent sophomore EP Golden, rising Scottish songstress Nati bounds on stage at The Cluny clearly full of confidence and optimism, presumably driven by a desire to show off her new sound and stage show. Playing as part of a three-piece, the show’s focus is placed squarely on Nati’s charismatic lead vocals, which are positioned central in the mix and supported by warm synths and guitar-laden indie pop. A recent ‘change’ in Nati’s sound, supported by songwriting sessions with writing team INK, is reflected in tonight’s stage show, and whilst the sound is not too removed from her older singles, the show and Golden tour are clearly about stepping away from her previous acoustic folk sound/focus whilst moving towards a poppier, electronic, sound combined with a bouncier, more upbeat, performance.
Maintaining her strong vocals across her new sound, Nati delivers well on her live and sonic reinvention, with recent single Golden and 2023’s Older standing out thanks to their pop hooks, “oh oh oh” refrains, and considerably dedicated performance. All elements combine well to showcase both the singer and the songs, and lead to considerable crowd interaction and sing-along moments. An interesting creative re-birth from Nati is reflected well tonight in how she brings that energy and desire to life whilst ensuring her best asset – her vocals – remain the focus.
PUP by Jason Hayles
MATILDA MANN @ THE CLUNY, NEWCASTLE (28.04.25)
Words: Joe Sharples
Matilda Mann has had a phenomenal few months; she released her debut album, Roxwell, at the end of February, and was named BBC Radio 1’s future artist in the same month. The result was a surge in demand and multiple venue upgrades on her UK and Europe tourincluding here in Newcastle (just down the corridor, from Cluny 2 to Cluny 1).
Mann is a wonderful songwriter, and her indie pop ballads have the sold-out crowd hooked from the very first chord. Supported by her bandmates, she comes out to the rocking Autopilot, setting the energy high before settling into a couple of more acoustic tracks. This is where Matilda Mann truly shines; through tracks such as Tell Me That I’m Wrong and Japan, she proves that she doesn’t need loud backings – her voice, guitar and beautifully written songs are strong enough. Although, the fuller, band-backed songs are also fantastic, further demonstrating Mann’s versatility and excellent songwriting ability. It's clear that Matilda Mann shows no signs of slowing down now she has a full-length album under her belt. The unreleased Imagine That Now is also a particular highlight. A slide guitar feature gave the track a very natural feeling blues vibe, and Mann’s emulation of a trumpet solo was a nice, if slightly experimental, addition. An excellent evening of beautiful songs, I get the feeling Matilda Mann is only just getting started.
PATRICK WOLF, RHUMBA CLUB @ THE GLASSHOUSE, GATESHEAD (10.05.25)
Words: Ben Lowes-Smith Rhumba Club present a very tasteful take on electronic pop that at once seems at home with and alien to this bill. Hand-picked by Patrick Wolf personally, who took solace in Rhumba Club’s music while running, the set of jittery dance pop, delivered with an endearing sincerity, is a delight.
Patrick Wolf seems to confound expectations tonight by playing a two-hour, career-spanning set which is nothing short of remarkable.
Opening with Ghost Song from Wind In The Wires (a record which turns twenty this year, the songs still sounding as fresh as a daisy), Wolf takes us on a transportive journey through his incredibly enviable catalogue, and unlocks the ecstasy in melancholy. Songs from forthcoming album get an airing, including the heartbreaking The Last Of England, and every new song equals the soaring heights of his most loved songs. The most rapturous responses of the evening come for songs from The Magic Position, where his pop sensibilities are leaned into most, but with this relatively reduced ensemble, Wolf manages to create a rich, textured and ultimately incredibly beautiful rendition of his songs. It’s a truly remarkable achievement.
I hadn’t heard Lucy Gooch before but came away really impressed. Her music ticks some familiar boxes – Victorialand-era Cocteau Twins, Never For Ever-era Kate Bush, even our own Me Lost Me – but there’s often something ominous lurking beneath the drifty watercolour sounds: unsettling pulses, looming pads, sustained drones. At one point it sounded like prime This Mortal Coil after William Basinski got to it. She has a remarkable voice too. Excellent stuff.
Few current artists seem to inspire as much disdain as Alabaster DePlume, roundly denounced as a whimsical chancer and worse. And I can see it, almost. In the wrong mood, his ‘hello trees, hello sky, here we all are in the moment, YAY’ schtick could seem whimsical and grating. And yet – and I say this as a bitter old man – he properly gets me in the feels. Gus practices a kind of radical sincerity, and when he says “thank you for living, you’re doing very well”, he means it and we appreciate it. The set starts with Thank You My Pain and runs through much of his recent album, including the incredible That Was My Garden. His sax sound (a mix Mulatu Astatke’s sax player, Didier Malherbe and something vaguely klezmer) is a lovely, wavering thing, and his current band is killer, especially the reliably formidable Ruth Goller who brings a post-punk gnarliness to it all. Just embrace it.
Matilda Mann by Victoria Wai
TRACKS
(PLEASE TRY TO GET IN TOUCH 8-6 WEEKS AHEAD OF THE MONTH OF RELEASE)
ORTON HOLD TIGHT
Words: Isabel Johnson
The North East’s rap scene is a hugely exciting space at the moment, and one of the people making it so is Orton, who releases his new track Hold Tight this month. Rhythmic and raw, Hold Tight explores life’s pushes and pulls, chock-full of hard-hitting, crystal clear lines about overcoming hardship and persevering even when facing challenges and working-class tensions.
Hailing from Kelloe on the outskirts of Durham City, Orton is a natural storyteller and someone with a great talent for crafting rhymes you can relate to and empathise with; Hold Tight is an excellent example of this. It’s gritty, and it’s emotional, but it’s also awe-inspiring and uplifting, and represents some incredible work from one of the region’s most exciting rap artists.
Released: 20.06.25
www.linktr.ee/orton_music
GOODNIGHT KID HOUSE (WITH A BALCONY)
Words: Niamh Poppleton
Alt. emo rock band Goodnight Kid's House (With A Balcony) is an outstanding debut that describes the precarious boundary between emotional transparency and the tenacity of survival. The track itself is honest and emotionally vulnerable through raw, rapid and desperate instrumentation. Drawing inspiration from 2000s alt., pop-punk and Midwestern emo, the poignant and emotionally-charged lyrics describe the human proclivity towards stalling the inevitable. In silvery, pleading vocals, lead singer Fryer paints a beautiful yet painful picture of seeking safety in an individual, even as the relationship collapses under the weight of its irreparable mistakes. An exceptional release, Goodnight Kid’s music is perfect for those looking for an amalgamation between the instrumental composition of Green Day and the lyrical honesty of Paramore.
Released: 29.05.25
www.instagram.com/thegoodnightkid
REALI-T FEAT. REMI AYILARA NIGHT AND DAY
Words: Michaela Hall
Rap has a special ability to present the most authentic and real of stories, and none more than this one. If you haven’t yet heard of Reali-T it’s certain you won’t forget him after listening to his new track, Night And Day. The track speaks about something we all fear – grief. It explores the experience of him losing his mother – Remi Ayilara who features posthumously on the track. Not only is it strikingly raw, you can feel the authenticity a mile off, and it’s clear how much of the artist and his every emotion would have gone into the making of this track.
It’s courageous, touching, terrifying and beautiful, and it’s a must listen –Reali-T will no doubt gain a massive amount of respect and following from this.
Released: 06.06.25
www.instagram.com/mrrealit
CAITLIN MORROW BABEUSTUPID
Words: Laura Rosierse
Funky alternative pop artist Caitlin Morrow brings a refreshing and new anthem in the form of her new song Babeustupid. With sharp vocals and a thumping rhythm leading us through its forest of sounds, the single offers a pleasant sound while poking fun at the joys of an unrewarding romantic relationship.
It’s the debut single from the Darlington-based singer-songwriter, whose sharp vocals and a catchy pop soundscape has created an easy listening experience. She’s announcing her tongue-in-cheek lyrical style, and will be introducing her band at The Forum in Darlington on the night of the release, promising an energetic night full of delightful, bubbly harmonies and funky musical compositions.
Think of a song about nature – are you thinking of a folky, soft and gentle track? Think again! North East-based four-piece Brindle’s Manse are here to give you an alternative experience with their newly released single Snakes Crawl.
The song follows the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in Florida, a darker topic that may usually be avoided. The lyrics are cleverly written to allow either a literal or metaphorical experience while the tone of the music is edgy – it’s pop rock with an attitude and it lends itself perfectly to exploring such a controversial topic. It’s one of those tracks that has clear genre influences but manages to stand on its own in a very unique way so that you can’t help but listen again.
Released: 01.06.25
www.brindlesmanse.bandcamp.com
AARON DINNING SEASONS
Words: Niamh Poppleton
The second single from Aaron Dinning’s sophomore EP discusses the ephemeral nature of love; Seasons is an indie break-up pop track that deftly fuses sadness with summer, perfect for fans of Olivia Rodrigo. Throughout the track, melancholic vulnerability seeps into the layers of Dinning's warm and expressive vocals. Through skillfully penned lyrics and drawn-out riffs, the track describes the emotional turbulence of patching up the cracks and losing pieces of yourself for love. Cleverly accompanied by softened vocals, its denouement reflects on a painful yet necessary realisation: love shouldn’t come at your expense. Bringing closure to a tumultuous relationship: Seasons beautifully portrays a messy break-up, rooted in the understanding that “people are in your life for a reason or a season”.
Released: 06.06.25 www.linktr.ee/aarondinning
SWINDLED WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS
Words: Laura Rosierse
Sunderland-based rising pop outfit Swindled are bringing the party to us with the release of their brand new indie anthem Withdrawal Symptoms. Through a thumping and synth-driven soundscape and soaring vocals, the band capture an effervescent energy with this track, which is sure to hit hardest when performed live. The single is an ode to love, expressed in metaphors, and taken from the band’s EP, representing the group’s effortless style in an uplifting, energising and charismatic track which serves as is the perfect introduction to this new and fast rising pop group.
Released: 06.06.25
www.linktr.ee/swindledofficial
SUNSET COBRA
FUTURE'S PAST
Words: Mack Sproates
Future’s Past is a class new track by metal rockers Sunset Cobra. We hit the ground running with loud, bright guitars, crashing drums and rocking bouncy rhythms, plus some impressive, raw punky vocals which have some really nice turns melodically, reminding me of Against Me!
The lyrics are instantly catchy, with a gorgeous chorus that’ll be irresistible at a live show. The thing that stuck out to me the most was just how joyous this track felt; some of the guitars reminded me of Feeder, which brings in this really warm, fun, feel-good vibe, with a sweet solo that slices through towards the end, with some ace effects. Definitely worth a listen for those wanting some good hope punk vibes.
Released: 06.06.25
www.sunsetcobra.bandcamp.com
OCHISIA REMAINS OF YESTERDAY
Words: Mack Sproates
OCHISIA are a pop punk/post-hardcore band of super talented young musicians from Newcastle, who present their new single, Remains of Yesterday. All instruments are bursting with energy; frantic wild drums, big chunky chords complemented with powerful bass, spliced with a sick punchy guitar riff injected throughout. The vocals are super fun, juxtaposing melancholic melodies with screamo moments that wouldn’t go amiss at a noughties emo night.
You can hear this track live at the launch of OCHISIA’s EP In Your Absence, which will be celebrated with a live show at The Cluny on Friday 15th August. If you grew up listening to the likes of Black Veil Brides or Funeral For A Friend you’re going to love them.
Released: 20.06.25
www.linktr.ee/ochisiaband
MARGINAL GAINS PENSION POT
Words: Isabel Johnson
Kicking off with what sounds like an actual gut punch - which isn’t dissimilar to the way I’d describe this song, actually - is the brand new song from Marginal Gains, Pension Pot, produced by Chris McManus at Blank Studios in Newcastle. It’s a dynamic punk rollercoaster, loop-the-looping around some deliciously clever social commentary lyrics, extremely expressive vocals and unflinchingly well-delivered instrumentation. The quartet - comprising Daniel Dover, Charlotte Harrison, Ashleigh Walker and Roberta Harrison - formed in 2023, and they have been blowing people away ever since. The push and pull of their songs, particularly this one, makes for a unique, unapologetic level of dynamism. Never apologising, but asking the inconsiderate systems of the world to do so instead.
Released 06.06.25
www.marginalgains.bandcamp.com
OFFSKI THE HOLE
Words: Steve Spithray
Music writers have been trying to instigate a grunge revival ever since getting sick of Britpop way back in ‘97. Well, praise the lord because Middlesbrough’s Offski have finally arrived to appease them. But that might be doing Offski a huge disservice as The Hole subtly builds from a quiet/loud homage to Smashing Pumpkins to a crunching tribute to Soundgarden. However, what is impressive here is how The Hole manages to bounce around all over the place structurally without compromise on both coherence and quality to create both a monolithic and atmospheric world of riffs, underpinned by some squalling solos and raw emotion before quietly crawling back into the hole from whence it came. Could this be, gulp, post-grunge?
Released: 07.06.25
www.instagram.com/weareoffski
KING OF THE SEA
ALL DESIRE IS A DESIRE FOR LIVING
Words: Steve Spithray
Newcastle’s Trev Gibb channels his best Antony And The Johnsons meets Flaming Lips inner being on King Of The Sea’s All Desire Is A Desire For Living. It’s an introspective and hopeful ambient pop track with a moving message of community built upon an oddly distorted organ (or heavily effected guitar?). The underlying theme of inclusivity couldn’t be more topical or movingly delivered with the final payoff, “the enemy is not love, the enemy is nothing” - the most cordial call to arms I’ve heard in forever. I want a better world too, Trev, I really do. May I also signpost readers to the B-side, Passing Place, a gorgeous slice of melodic folk rock from one of the North East’s most inventive and eclectic musicians.
Released: 02.06.25
www.linktr.ee/kingoftheseamusic
ALBUMS
/ 5
LITTLE SIMZ LOTUS (AWAL)
Words: Ikenna Offor
On Lotus, Little Simz doesn’t just open up, she offers a hard won blueprint for survival. After a near-breakdown and consequent crisis of confidence, the Islington-born rapper returns with her sixth studio album, a radically sincere emotional excavation that’s as stylistically fearless as it is soul-baring - an astoundingly personal reckoning with despair, self-doubt and the glimmering possibility of renewal. Following both the grandeur of Sometimes I Might Be Introvert and meditative defiance of NO THANK YOU, Lotus strips things down - not in sound, but in intention. Here, clarity is the definitive throughline, connecting the dots between divergent tonalities. Whether she’s snarling on Flood or tenderly unravelling on Blue, Simz stays piercingly direct, unspooling vignettes in an arresting contralto that always cuts through without overwhelming - the result is raw, theatrical and immediate. Much of Lotus plays like journal pages set to rhythm. Lonely captures her contemplating burnout and diffidence. “Maybe I’ll do more acting and less rapping,” she muses, sounding adrift. Elsewhere, on Peace, she lets the silence around her reflections breathe, the minimal production acting as a soothing salve. Free, originally conceived as a poem, is disarmingly evocative. Simz has never sounded more vulnerable, or freer, for that matter.
But Lotus isn’t all introspection. Young giddily taps into Simz’s zanier sensibilities, while Blood stages a stirring two-hander with guest Wretch 32. These moments of levity and experimentation speak to her evolving sense of self, less burdened, more candid. The sonic palette is just as expansive. With producer Miles Clinton James, she weaves vivid soundscapes that flit from punk-edged funk on ‘Thief’ to breezy samba on Only. The instrumentation is always alive (lush horns, ghostly strings, loose jazz grooves) and in constant service of Simz’s voice, which remains her sharpest instrument.
With Lotus, Simz lets go of genre, ego, and even expectation, offering no bravado, only truth. What emerges is a portrait of an artist relearning how to believe in herself, echoing the central metaphor of beauty blooming from the murk. The journey is messy, exquisite, and deeply human. Turn up, she reminds herself, and us, and the music will follow.
Released: 06.06.25
www.littlesimz.com
ALSO OUT THIS MONTH
Haress – Skylarks (Wrong Speed Records, 20.06) // Yungblud – Idols (20.06) // Lucy Gooch - Desert Window (Fire Records, 06.06) // Brighde Chaimbeul – Sunwise (tak:til / Glitterbeat, 27.06) // DRIFT - DRIFT ISLAND (Animal63, 06.06) // Hot Milk - Corporation P.O.P (Music For Nations, 27.06) // YASS - Feel Safe (06.06) // Finn WolfhardHappy Birthday (AWAL, 06.06) // S*x Beat – Crack (This Charming Man Records, 06.06) // The K's - Pretty on the Internet (27.06) // Tropical F*ck Storm - Fairyland Codex (Fire Records, 20.06) // Cosey Fanni Tutti - 2t2 (Conspiracy International, 13.06) // Steve Queralt – Swallow (Sonic Cathedral, 13.06) // Lowswimmer - Godspeed, Fantasy (06.06) // Hotline TNT - Raspberry Moon (Third Man Records, 20.06) // GoGo Penguin - Necessary Fictions (XXIM/Sony, 20.06) // Loyle Carner - hopefully ! (Island EMI, 20.06) // Sister Sadie - All Will Be Well (Mountain Home Music Company, 27.06) // Frankie & The Witch Fingers - Trash Classic (The Reverberation Appreciation Society/Greenway Records, 06.06) // The Young Gods - Appear Disappear (Two Gentlemen, 13.06)
4 / 5
WATER MACHINE GOD PARK (FATCAT RECORDS)
Words: Matt Young
Glasgow’s Water Machine crashes onto the scene with God Park, a glorious debut that sounds like a post-punk petting zoo run by art school dropouts on a sugar high. These canny Scots churn pop culture detritus into golden sludge. One minute you’re bopping to Tiffany, a gooey love letter to Orange Juice’s Rickenbacker sparkle, and the next you’re being throttled by Junction, which feels like Rage Against the Machine got lost in a karaoke bar. God Park is sweet, it’s scrappy and it’s got cowbell. Songs cartwheel through genres as they take inspiration from Glasgow’s indie past, ransacking it with glee. Toss in some Tropicalia, punk screech and dog metaphors, and it’s an album stitched together out of pure, deranged delight.
Released: 20.06.25
www.watermachine.bandcamp.com
4.5 / 5
PATRICK WOLF CRYING THE NECK (APPORT/VIRGIN MUSIC)
Words: Ben Lowes-Smith
The cultural landscape has changed considerably in the almost 15 years since Patrick Wolf’s last studio full length, and on Crying the Neck he contextualises his unique sound into a contemporary context. Wolf has always had a fantastic ability to assimilate traditional folk vocabulary with more electronic components - a sonic thread through the new record.
Thematically, it’s a collection of intensely personal songs detailing addiction and the loss of his mother (most explicitly on On your Side) while also looking outwards and making the political personal - most effectively on the staggeringly beautiful, Derek Jarman-inspired The Last Of England. Crying the Neck is a remarkable collection of songs which may be Wolf’s best stand-alone work to date. Released: 13.06.25 www.patrickwolf.com
Image by Eddie Whelan
U.S. GIRLS
SCRATCH IT (4AD)
Words: Ben Lowes-Smith
Meg Remy has been responsible for some of the best alt. pop music of the last decade or so but sadly Scratch It doesn’t quite reach those heights. Imagination and scope aren’t missing here but what is here feels disjointed, scrappy and rushed. Like James Said takes a Blondie-ish approach that Remy has utilised well with some vamped sounding lyrics and an uncertain vocal melody, while Firefly On The Fourth Of July catapults Remy’s idiosyncrasies into slightly irritating, hammy territory. It’s certainly not all bad, baffling first choice of single Bookends sits at almost 12 minutes and is an expansive, country rock inflected opus but ultimately Scratch It feels like it could have benefited from some more discipline and refinement.
Released: 20.06.25 www.yousgirls.com
GEORGE HOUSTON
TODC (SELF-RELEASE)
Words: Kai Palmer
George Houston has delivered a bold fourth album, TODC (The Original Death Card), maintaining a vintage sound to channel heartbreak anthems of the 60s whilst pushing queer representation and progressive takes on life. Through brave and angered lyrics, Houston’s alluring vocals are reminiscent of Leonard Cohen’s (Litmus Test) with the traditional, romantic pop of Frank Sinatra (Juliet, Big Footed Mama) and the soul of Dionne Warwick (Hey Arnold). Having grown up queer in rural Ireland, George is now revelling in the freedom of calling out repressive systems, like criticising religious hypocrisy on Jesus Freaks and Drag Queen. Production is effective without being overbearing, like on Lilith, where powerful drums and reverb guitars create a thriller feel to echo its darker themes.
Released: 13.06.25 www.linktr.ee/georgehouston
FRANKIE COSMOS
DIFFERENT TALKING (SUB POP)
Words: Laura Rosierse
Different Talking brings together soft and shimmering indie rock influences and sways like the wind on a summer’s day. NYC-based four-piece Frankie Cosmos know how to set the tone and have created an elaborate and well produced collection of songs on their fifth studio album. Seventeen tracks of hazy alternative anthems. Pressed Flower, Porcelain and Wonderland to name a few.
Frankie Cosmos throw fragments, memories and places together and translate them into their signature musical vibe. It’s an album brimming with soft confidence, hazy guitar riffs and subtly thumping drums but most of all stunning vocals. This sturdy, worldly indie rock record is about ageing and the passing of time yet feels suitably timeless.
Released: 27.06.25
www.frankiecosmosband.com
UNIVERSITY
MCCARTNEY, IT’LL BE OK (TRANSGRESSIVE)
Words: Robin Webb
Despite this being the Crewe four piece’s debut album they are already hitting all the right buttons and with dials turned up to 11. Along the way they also manage to break several musical moulds combining raucous punk, thrash; a certain Zappa-esque Beefheartedness combined with shoegaze melodies that are imbued with humour and reckless abandon. Songs like the big opener Massive Twenty One Pilots Tattoo shine like a grandiose beacon drawing you into their delectably noisy honey trap. Referring to McCartney, It’ll Be Okay as their White Album moment, having only had an EP and a cassingle out previously takes some chutzpah but I’ll forgive them ‘cos this is glorious, firmly ticking all the right boxes. Released: 20.6.25 www.abandcalleduniversity.bandcamp.com
THE BUG CLUB
VERY HUMAN FEATURES (SUB POP)
Words: Lee Hammond
Another instalment in The Bug Club’s increasingly prolific career, Very Human Features continues to finesse their signature sound. Full Grown Man, Twirling In The Middle and stand out track Beep Boop Computers foster a fuzzy garage rock sound that fans will have become accustomed to. However, it’s tracks like Jealous Boy and Appropriate Emotions that set Very Human Features apart, these more subdued songs bring a different feel to the record. There is a more deliberate, heartfelt tone which is emphasised through Muck (Very Human Features), as the band examines the ups and downs of the human condition. At times this feels like a very different take on The Bug Club’s sound yet it is no less exciting or endearing.
Released: 13.06.25
www.thebugclub.bandcamp.com
THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE
S/T (THE LEAF LABEL)
Words: Luke Waller
Much like their EP, Moderate Air Quality, released this February, The Sick Man of Europe’s eponymous debut album throbs with synth-saturated angst. Situated somewhere near the confluence of Bauhaus and Neu!, this album provides a mechanical, monochrome illustration of disaffection with modernity, taking the moods of the 1980s recession post-punk and applying them to today.
The album’s tone is established from the offset with its leading single Obsolete, which concerns the ‘illusion of progression’ and feeling left behind by modernisation devoid of humanity. Similar themes are explored throughout, notably on the melancholic Profane Not Profound. Whilst consistent in its atmospheric monotony, the Sick Man of Europe is perhaps overly successful at producing this effect, yet nevertheless represents a compelling musical manifesto.
Released: 20.06.25
www.thesickmanofeurope.bandcamp.com
4 / 5
WITCH
SOGOLO (PARTISAN RECORDS)
Words: Ikenna Offor
WITCH (We Intend To Cause Havoc) aren’t chasing nostalgia on Sogolo. They’re twisting it into something stranger, slicker, more defiant. Led once more by Emmanuel ‘Jagari’ Chanda, the Zamrock pioneers treat the past more like a raw material than a memory - jagged guitars meet ritual grooves; ambient synths swirl like mist over a scorched landscape. Where 2023’s Zango reintroduced the legend, Sogolo (meaning future, and the band takes that literally) reframes it. On Kamusale and Queenless King, Chanda peacocks with gusto, his zesty croon swathed in fuzzy funk. Elsewhere, Dancer On A Trip unfurls with a looseness that’s more organic than fluky. WITCH haven’t mellowed with age. If anything, they’ve sharpened their edges. Havoc isn’t a threat, it’s the point.
Released: 14.06.25 www.w-i-t-c-h.bandcamp.com
LOWER SLAUGHTER DEEP LIVING (HUMAN WORTH)
Words: Lee Fisher
Lower Slaughter have had a fitful ‘career’, with this third album coming almost a decade after their debut and featuring another new line-up. But they now seem to have assumed their ideal form, with former bassist Barney moving to vocals (and lyrics) like he was born to do it. Lower Slaughter have always had a knack for full tilt riffs, equal parts noise rock rumble and garage slash, and Deep Living is full of them. From the tumbling drums of opener Year Of The Ox, the rhythm section are killing it throughout and Barney’s vocals are urgent and anxious, sometimes riding the riffs, other times intoning his alarming thoughts lower in the mix. This iteration of Lower Slaughter is bigger, bolder and frankly a bit scary.
SALLY ANNE MORGAN SECOND CIRCLE THE HORIZON (THRILL JOCKEY)
Words: Lee Fisher
You’re lying in the shade by a sun-dappled pool on an Appalachian hillside, watching dragonflies dart across the surface of the cool clear water. The air Is as still as your heart. You’re at peace. And that’s just the opening track on Morgan’s remarkable third album, a richly textured immersion in nature and life cycles and the mountain country she’s from. Few records capture a sense of place this vividly, with fiddles and banjos foregrounded (Morgan has served in both House & Land and Black Twig Pickers so she’s a helluva musician). Sparingly used piano, bass and synths add depth but it’s those old sounds that dominate, the tunes flowing like streams or hanging in the air like an eagle. Inhale it deeply.
Released: 20.06.25
www.sallyannemorgan.bandcamp.com
BC CAMPLIGHT A SOBER CONVERSATION (BELLA UNION)
Words: Robert Nichols
A sinister entry point into the latest album by American songwriter Brian Christinzio, The Tent, and the preamble to a horrendous act of abuse that stole away childhood innocence and obviously cast a shadow over both the life and work of the Manchester-based songwriter. So brave in confronting and sharing. But in typical fashion BC Camplight cannot resist also sharing upbeat, optimistic outbursts. He has cleaned up his act following counselling and knocked the booze on the head and this sober conversation with us is his first output on the other side. And it is wonderful, important, and both lyrically and musically golden. Keyboard and vocal driven, mostly all his own playing. Prog, bar room, choral, overstated but intimate and focused. A statement of brilliance. Released: 27.06.25 www.bc-camplight.bandcamp.com
BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW SOFT NEW MAGIC DREAM (RAD CULT)
Words: Robin Webb
Imagine you discover an old cassette, all dusty and sticky with pink bon-bon powder and you’re close to describing the blurry neon dream pop of Black Moth Super Rainbow. The effects are maxed out squelchy, liquid and electric with customary hip hop rhythms, barely discernible samples and a healthy overdose of scratching with Tastebud being a fine example. Laid back and heavy lidded blissed out synths on Demon’s Glue ooze into your psyche forming an ocean of syrup for you to wallow and ultimately submit to in the follow up track the aptly monikered The Dripping Royalty. The US veterans have been doing this for years and it works for them, so expect distorted vocoders, overclocked keys and a bathtub of sugar!
Released: 06.06.25
www.blackmothsuperrainbow.bandcamp.com
ME LOST ME THIS MATERIAL MOMENT (UPSET THE RHYTHM)
Words: Neil Ainger
Some artists are able to express raw emotion so legitimately that they forgo any and all tropes or restrictions of a genre and find themselves turning it on its head or even existing entirely outside of it.
Enter Newcastle-based artist Jayne Dent, otherwise known as Me Lost Me, whose brand of folk music is not so easily defined by conventional labels but rather has to be spliced and dissected in order to be stuffed into several ill-fitting boxes. Her beguiling live vocals have never been captured so accurately and committed to record so authentically as they have on her latest LP This Material Moment, a gentle yet intense storm of avant-garde electronics and an old, traditional folk sensibility.
Released: 27.06.25 www.melostme.com
MIXTAPE
WORDS: SHEVEK FODOR
Hello! I’m Shevek Fodor, an alternative comedy writer, performer and multifarious creative sort of person based in Newcastle. It’s been very fun and cool to put this Mixtape together! If you like my weirdo hope-punk vibe then you’ll probably enjoy the work of Mr Funbles… Mr Funbles’ Sunday Portal is an anarchic variety night that I co-produce, providing a queer- and neurodivergentfriendly platform for performers that are exploring the silly and absurd; there is also an increasingly odd curation of online content that you can find on Mr Funbles’ social media channels. Mr Funbles themself is not a fan of the internet but seems to have popped up there and is attracting a lot of amusing material. www.linktr.ee/mrfunbles @soundslikeshevek
THUMPASAURUS
EXISTENTIAL DREAD
Go and watch the music video. It. Is. Wild. And features two of my comedic inspirations, Natalie Palamides and Zach Zucker. Experiencing Zach Zucker’s Stamptown pushed me to want to create an anarchic alternative comedy variety show locally to me, while Natalie Palamides’ incredible theatrical antics affirm what is possible and valid to pursue within the realms of comedy. Also, I find it very very cathartic to blast this song when I’m feeling bleh.
JAMATAR
SPACE SOUNDS
I love instrumental, atmospheric, electronic, sci-fi-y soundscapes/music that transport me to other dimensions. JAMATAR’s discography is awesome, and this track in particular really energises me, I love writing to it.
RAHIM REDCAR
DOESN'T MATTER (VOLEUR DE SOLEIL)
This track by Rahim Redcar (formerly Christine and the Queens) is another queer-infused bop that comforts my existential angst.
AKWAEKE
LIGHT FANTASTIC
I originally knew of AKWAEKE as an author – their books Pet and Bitter are
potent, pertinent reads to galvanise radical hope for tangible, intersectional revolutionary change. Their debut EP exudes this energy, reflective of their practice centering queer, indigenous Black realities and radical possibilities.
MICHELLE BRASIER (FEAT. TIM LANCASTER) RED FLAG
These are two of the loveliest people on the planet that I’m lucky to have seen live three times so far (and they’re coming back to the Edinburgh Fringe this year). This track is from the soundtrack of their show Reform. All of Michelle Brasier’s work is absolutely hilarious, lifeaffirming and melodically gorgeous.
NOSO
HONEY UNDERSTAND
My friend Emma introduced me to NoSo, and I immediately impulse-bought their album. It’s very special being able to vibe along not just with the lush sound of their music, but also songs that reflect on and express transmasc experience. The lyrics of this song really resonate with me.
GRACE PETRIE BLACK TIE
Best experienced in a room full of queer people belting it together, a queer folk anthem for the ages.
VULFMON DISCO SNAILS
The number of people who have sent me the Instagram reel of this is very silly, especially considering that I was already aware of it (I love Vulfpeck, thanks to my brother; particularly Cory Wong who should really feature on this Mixtape but at least I’m shouting him out here). It makes me very chuffed that I’m known as a snail person; this track featured heavily in our first Mr Funbles’ shows (and probably will continue to do so).
SAMMY RAE AND THE FRIENDS KICK IT TO ME
Queer found-family, face the apocalypse with defiant, determined joy and community, eclectic party vibes.
JUDE PERL I HAVE A FACE
I listen to Jude Perl’s entire discography on a loop almost constantly; I discovered them thanks to my niche interest in Melbourne-based comedy that originates out of and around Stupid Old Studios, and my life has been infinitely better ever since. This is a feel-good song when you need a pick-me-up, but please go and listen to everything she’s created. Their lyrical turn of phrase tickles my brain, they’re adept in pretty much any genre, and their view of the world speaks to my soul. One of my absolute dreams is to be able to get to Melbourne to see her live.
THE KANE GANGAIDED & ABETTED BY FIELD MUSIC
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
FRIDAY 1 AUGUST, 6PM
THE FUTUREHEADS
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
SATURDAY 2 AUGUST, 5PM
ELLES
BAILEY + KEZIA GILL
SUNDAY 3 AUGUST, 4PM
TOM A SMITH
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
FRIDAY 15 AUGUST, 6PM
FEROCIOUS DOG
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS RISKEE & RIDICULE + DEAD WET THINGS
