MUSIC

Time to celebrate the indies

Independent Venue Week (IVW) is a beast of a weeklong bash, celebrating independent music and arts venues, and the dedicated folks who run and work in them.

Given the problems of the past few years, this seven-day session is needed more than ever, and across the UK more than 200 venues take part.

Here in the shoe town, The Black Prince is ready to party hard with five gigs happening under the IVW banner.

Brummie boys Overpass are up first (Feb 1) and if the past is an indication of what’s to come, 2023 will rock for this lot, who have already enjoyed support slots with The Snuts and The Twang.

At home, their fanbase is such that they’ve sold-out the 02 Institute2, and they’ve roared on the festival circuit, too – Isle of Wight, Truck and Y-Not? have all welcomed them.

Support will come from Sunderland son Tom A. Smith, a fella who played his first proper gig aged eight, had played Glasto before he was in secondary school and who Tim Burgess handpicked to play his stage at Kendal Calling.

In the same week that David Bowie passed away, Bowie’s widow Iman shared Tom’s cover of Lazarus, and Morrissey played Tom’s cover of Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want as his walk on music during a recent tour of the US.

Oh yeah, and Nile Rogers and The Coral have shared footage of this fella at his craft.

High praise doesn’t quite cut it. It’s staggering, right?

“It’s never normal,” Tom says, “Every single time it happens it’s surreal. Music is always what I wanted to do. I just fell in love with it. I asked for guitar lessons when I was four. It’s all I’ve ever known.”

County-based alternative trio Clearcut complete the bill.

A co-headliner is on the cards for night two (Feb 2) with Lizzie Esau and George

O’Hanlon bumping heads in the best sense.

Lizzie issued four singles in 2022, and the last one, Stay on the Phone explores the vulnerability of walking home late at night. She wants more conversations about why women are having to live with layers of safety measures in order to go about their general business. She is bang on the money.

Speaking about the release, Lizzie said: “I’d obviously felt that helpless fear before, but it wasn’t something that was immediately obvious to write about because it’s so ingrained in everyday life. After the murder of Sarah Everard and activist speeches I heard during my studies, the subdued thoughts in my brain tumbled out and I bluntly wrote exactly what I was thinking.”

An EP is set for due this spring, but first go catch the live drift.

Dorking deliverer George takes influence from music aces Dylan, Buckley and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, while show opener Viddy will cut loose hypnotising bass lines and suave guitar, with a sprinkling of electronica and tender vocals which compress into little mellow pop pieces.

Delights lived up to their name the last time they came through these parts, and they are back due to popular demand (Feb 3).

The Manchester music makers have been called ‘kaleidoscopic guitar janglers who are heading for the stratosphere’!

A debut elpee Cool Sports was issued last year and they’ve bent more than a few ears through Spotify; more than 2,000,000 streams and counting is damn impressive.

Indie rockers Pavilion, a new musical meeting with members from here in the ShoeTown and Londinium, will also play for you. Lite Sleeper opens this bill.

What did you just say? You’re desperate for a session of excelsior modernist pop music? We thought so. Luckily, Pale Blue Eyes (Feb 4) are ready to serve it up for you, as heard on their debut album Souvenirs. In times that are pretty bleak, this trio makes music pulsing with exhilaration.

Sticking a musical finger up to the negativity.

Support comes from Tvål – featuring two former members of Thee Telepaths - who put electronic psychedelia on the menu while warming you up nicely for the rest of the night.

NME reckons the sextet Opus Kink (Feb 5) plays ‘Horn-filled filth-funk, where punk and jazz combine in grimy circumstances.’

Sounds good in print and should sound amazing when put through the PA.

Local risers Bloody/Bath and Eddz will also play for you – get in early for the full roar.

Overpass (top) and Opus Kink form part of an impressive bill at IVW From the top: Tom A. Smith, Delights, George O’Hanlon, Pale Blue Eyes and Lizzie Esau - all featuring at at The Black Prince during Independent Venue Week

Large Plants spring up in the ‘fampton

After a bustling week of IVW shows, you might think that promoter Phil Moore would kick back, put his feet up and decompress. But you’d be wrong – there are other gigs in the diary for the month, starting with Eater on February 11.

Andy Blade has rebranded his crew which now features a group of young glam gunslingers, giving the band a distinctly 21st century slant.

In October, Eater played with J Mascis’ Dinosaur Jr and there are US shows, a single and an album on the horizon this new year.

Jamie Perrett is up in support. Some of you will remember Jamie for his time as the original guitarist in Babyshambles, but he’s a solo artist and producer in his own right, and a fella who has rock ‘n’ roll coursing through his heart, mind, body and soul.

A couple of weeks later – on February 25 – Large Plants will visit.

Jack Sharp is the mastermind behind this band, and a man who formerly plied his trade with psych-folkers Wolf People.

‘An end of the world doom-folk party imbued with the rich vein of bucolic sorrow that Sharp’s vocal never fails to convey,’ is the spiel.

Go tappety-tap to those listening platforms, or rock up to YouTube and meet your favourite new band. Their cover of

Eater are on the bill at The Black Prince on February 11

Her name is Vega

Can we show a little appreciation for songwriting force Suzanne Vega, who plays the Derngate on February 15? Tickets are rarer than hen’s teeth, but small surprise, she is a masterclass in making music that connects.

We last saw Suzanne in the early noughties over in Milton Keynes, and she was sublime. An artist in the truest sense of the word, known for those radio familiars Luka, Marlene on the Wall and Tom’s Diner (we visited there once) but with a body of work almost four decades long, and with no room for average.

And to think, back in the day her demo tape was pushed aside by every major record label.

> Try for returns for the Derngate date at royalandderngate.co.uk

Sharp new compilation is on the way

Last spring we shared details of the upcoming compilation, Glass: Remade/Remodelled, a celebration of 40 years of the razor-sharp Glass Records label.

Venus Fly Trap features on the 20 track release, with their cover of the Religious Overdose song, Control Addicts. For frontman Alex, it wasn’t that much of a stretch though – he was the singer with Religious Overdose back in the day.

“It seems I have come full circle as far as releasing material on the label,” Alex said, “We have done various releases on Glass, including the Venus Fly Trap album Icon, a compilation of all the bands I have been involved in, and Mercurial, and other reissues on CD and download.”

> Remade/Remodelled is now set to ship towards the end of February – go get yours through glassmodern.bandcamp.com

Large Plants (top) and Fountain are at The Black Prince in February

Madge’s La Isla Bonita is a dream, but they’ve a good crop of their own stuff to get stuck into on their debut album, The Carrier. Haunting, eerie tracks that take root in your crevices!

Support comes from Fountain.

Billy readies album number two

Northampton’s lauded singer-songwriter Billy Lockett releases his second album, Abington Grove on February 17. Pick up next month’s Pulse Magazine for our feature with the man behind the music.

Sarpa spring into action

We’ve shared the details about the bumper crop of Independent Venue Week shows set to cause a commotion at The Black Prince in February, but local leaders Sarpa Salpa are playing their part too – with a tour of some of their favourite regional gig haunts as part of IVW week.

The five-date jaunt is a co-headline with Low Girl and follows on from the single release, She Never Lies, which has kickstarted their 2023 campaign.

“She Never Lies was one of the first songs we wrote together as a band,” said guitarist George Neath, “We wrote it a long time ago, back when we still rehearsed at Marcus’ (vocalist) parents house!

“It’s become somewhat of a live favourite and it felt like the perfect time to re-visit it in a studio setting and give the track the full single treatment it deserves. We’re so proud of how it turned out and think it’s some of our best work to date!”

Sarpa Salpa and Low Girl will play:

Sarpa Salpa are set to celebrate Independent Venue Week with a tour of their favourite regional venues

The Portland Arms, Cambridge – February 2 Club 85, Hitchin – February 3 Icebreaker Festival, Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth – February 4 The Horn, St Albans – February 5 Sarpa Salpa will also play a London show, at the Lexington, on February 28, and will announce a hometown date later in the spring.

> Tickets for all shows are on sale through seetickets.com

Kula Shaker

Incredible though it might seem, it’s been more than 25 years since Crispian and co. delivered their debut album, K, but it was the lockdown that saw Kula Shaker call time on their most recent hiatus and reconvene.

“Obviously, it was a weird time for everyone, but it brought us together,” Crispian said, “I think the whole experience reinforced our love of music and our beliefs in why we started playing as a band in the first place...it was kind of a reawakening.”

Song ideas floated at a time when Crispian was teaching his kids ukulele, and so that is how many of these tracks began life. When the kids moved on to guitars so too did the songs that would feature on their conceptual, doublealbum, 1st Congregational Church Of Eternal Love (and free hugs).

“Without a shadow of doubt, watching my kids play noisy rock and roll brought me back to life, and I fell in love with guitar playing all over again,” Crispian said.

It’s a warm, retro expansive release with a wry smile, led by the character, Reverend John Smallwood. It’s anything but run of the mill!

“One of my favourite rock & roll quotes is from Eric Burdon of The Animals,” Crispian adds, “He said, ‘You don’t play rock and roll - you preach it.’ You have to play this sort of music as if your very life depended on it, otherwise go home.”

Catch Kula Shaker at the Roadmender on February 1.

Sheffield sons Reverend & The Makers play the venue on February 3, which will finally give fans their live fill – it’s been four years since the band last toured. They’ve good reason to jump in the bus though – the release of their seventh album, Heatwave In The Cold North is nigh.

Last summer a single by the same name was issued, and Jon ‘Rev’ McClure said it was akin to the feeling of “lazing around on a sunny day with your lover getting stoned. Imagine if Barry White lived in Sheffield and you’re getting there.”

That might have been just about feasible for the brain in the heatwave of 2022. In Northampton, in February? We’re not quite there...

This is the second date on their UK tour which will wind up with a two-night special playing

Welcome to the Church of noise

in front of the home crowd at the Sheffield 02 Academy. Support on the jaunt comes from Ramona Flowers.

Tickets to see Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls on February 6 are all gone, which is hardly a surprise, but if classic rock’s your thing, Letz Zep return on the 10th of the month, and word has it these fellas are more than a little bit good. But don’t take our word for it - this lot have been given the thumbs up by the real Page and Plant.

If the thought of bingo fused with smash hits from the 90s and noughties is getting you excited, you’ll need to grab a ticket for Bingo Loco (Feb 11) which will also deliver confetti showers, dance offs and lip sync battles...

There’s more tribute stuff from The Doors Alive (Feb 17) and The Floyd Effect (Feb 18) followed by the ‘thinking person’s pop group’ Blow Monkeys, who are responsible for 80s deliveries like Digging Your Scene and It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way.

The sophisti-band brings its Journey To You tour to the ‘mender on February 24, followed a day later by Hybrid Minds, but that’s another sell-out. You snooze, you lose.

> For shows where tickets are available visit theroadmender.com